Chapter 1221: 阵念 Swallows the Clouds

Li Ping stood quietly, feeling the vast ocean beneath his feet and its indomitable will.

In the face of an existential crisis, any being would struggle with all its might.

Li Ping also sensed the ocean's fervent desire for survival.

However, its survival instinct, from the perspective of the Xuanhuang Realm, was a blatant "evil thought."

Li Ping, who considered himself the embodiment of the Xuanhuang Celestial Dao, naturally could not side with the Congyun Ocean.

"Since you are here, submit properly."

"There's no need for further futile struggles."

In a single thought, his spiritual consciousness enveloped the entire Congyun Ocean.

The scenes on the tens of thousands of scattered islands, and even the countless creatures living in the seawater, instantly appeared in Li Ping's mind.

Li Ping was silent for a moment.

"This is a necessary sacrifice."

A flicker of determination crossed his eyes. Streaks of golden light emerged from his body and then dispersed throughout the Congyun Ocean.

This power, close to the essence of primal energy, was undetectable by anyone in the Congyun Ocean, where even the highest-ranking cultivators were only at the Soul Transformation stage.

In just a few breaths, the golden light spread throughout all regions of the Congyun Ocean, piercing deep into the water, down to the seabed.

Beneath the Congyun Ocean, intense, unknown tremors began.

From the sky, one could see the entire surface of the ocean seemingly forming a giant net.

It enveloped this vast, vibrant blue ocean.

Suddenly, dark clouds gathered in the sky.

The previously calm sea surface was abruptly churned by tumultuous waves.

The waves were even more violent than during previous storms.

Some islands were capsized unexpectedly, while the spiritual islands with cultivators stationed on them were also in precarious danger amidst the fierce wind and rain.

The cultivators of the Congyun Ocean watched the anomalies in heaven and earth with confusion and uncertainty.

Some cultivators with keen spiritual senses faintly felt a great disaster approaching. Their expressions immediately changed, and they disregarded everything else, fleeing the area directly through the teleportation array on Myriad Immortals Island.

Their escape caught the attention of a considerable number of people. A small portion of cultivators chose to follow them.

However, the vast majority of people scorned these "jumpy, timid" escapees.

They felt perfectly safe hiding on Myriad Immortals Island, observing the drastic changes occurring in the Congyun Ocean.

Li Ping paid no attention to the fleeing cultivators, nor did he care about those who stayed to observe.

His target, from beginning to end, was solely the remnants of the Congyun Ocean's will.

The golden giant net, invisible to ordinary cultivators, had already sealed off the Congyun Ocean.

The essence of primal energy accumulated and transformed within it, and a grand formation was about to reveal its true power.

The Congyun Ocean's consciousness clearly felt the increasingly tight constriction of the golden net, and the waves it stirred grew even more violent.

However, in Li Ping's view, it was merely impotent rage.

"How does one obliterate a world's consciousness?"

Li Ping pondered this question as he constructed the formation.

"I refine myriad gods from myriad beings."

He quickly recalled this peerless and formidable formation.

"A formation capable of holding back even True Immortals should pose no significant problem against a remnant world consciousness."

"Impact it with countless disordered thoughts..."

As Li Ping deployed the formation, various strange images began to appear inexplicably in the sky above the Congyun Ocean.

They were distorted, despairing faces.

They howled, waving their arms.

They seemed to be crying for help, or perhaps they were just instinctively wailing in agony.

More and more eerie faces appeared on the celestial canopy.

They were densely packed, almost filling every corner of the sky.

Gradually, all other sounds faded from the ears of the beings within the Congyun Ocean, replaced only by the wailing of the human faces.

"Ah!"

Those with unstable wills were affected by these demonic faces and quickly became similarly desperate and insane.

Those who could barely hold on soon fell into an endless, terrifying nightmare.

They vaguely seemed to see a black sun rising in the sky and the entire world on the verge of destruction—a scene of immense horror.

They truly experienced this unimaginable catastrophe together with the despairing demonic faces in the sky.

The teleportation array on Myriad Immortals Island remained open.

However, all cultivators who saw the myriad faces in the sky lost the ability to control their own thoughts.

Regardless of their cultivation level, from minor Qi Refinement cultivators to Soul Transformation island masters, all of them were affected.

Although their minds were filled with boundless despair, they couldn't even conjure the thought of escaping.

It should be noted that Li Ping's formation was not targeting these cultivators.

They were merely caught in the periphery and already reached this state. One can only imagine the cruel scene the Congyun Ocean's consciousness was facing.

A remnant world consciousness, equivalent to merely one province, was utterly incapable of resisting it.

Amidst the continuous wailing of billions of demonic faces, Li Ping sensed that the will of the Congyun Ocean was dissipating.

The towering waves were slowly subsiding.

It seemed as if everything would pass, and the storm would clear.

But Li Ping knew that from then on, the Congyun Ocean would never be the same again.

The process of obliterating the Congyun Ocean's consciousness lasted an entire day.

During this time, all cultivators who entered the Congyun Ocean's range were affected and fell into terrifying illusions.

However, no large number of beings perished simultaneously, so the Myriad Immortals Alliance had not yet had time to react.

The dark clouds in the sky dispersed, and the Congyun Ocean became crystal clear.

It was eerily quiet.

Li Ping sensed the scattered will of the Congyun Ocean throughout heaven and earth.

The golden giant net slowly retracted, bringing back the shattered remnants of the world's consciousness, which had been torn into countless pieces, into his body.

"Ugh..."

As Li Ping absorbed the Congyun's consciousness, countless images continuously flashed in his mind.

Even though he was accustomed to constantly monitoring every event within the Sacred Dynasty of Daqi, the total amount of information from the two was not on the same level at all.

The vast ocean was not solely inhabited by humans.

Beneath the calm surface, billions upon billions of living beings thrived.

From Li Ping's subjective perspective, he certainly wouldn't have paid much attention to creatures lacking even intelligence.

But at this moment, he was passively absorbing it.

In the concept of the world's will, these fish were fundamentally no different from human cultivators.

Li Ping endured the intense pain in his sea of consciousness and accepted all this information.

As if he had consumed a powerful tonic, his spiritual essence swelled like a balloon.

Li Ping's spiritual essence was already robust among cultivators.

However, during this rapid growth, cracks inevitably appeared in it.

An ordinary cultivator encountering this situation would only despairingly await the complete scattering of their soul.

But Li Ping was different.

Possessing the "Heavenly Emperor's Qi Canon," he not only used the billions of citizens of the Sacred Dynasty of Daqi as an anchor point, but he also had the transcendent essence of primal energy within him.

Golden energy surged, repairing the wounds in his spiritual essence.

At the same time, it acted as an enhancer for the expansion of his spiritual essence.

After the initial dangerous phase passed, Li Ping gradually adapted.