The Sword Comes Forth, Wind and Rain Wash Away the Dust

Annie and Dragon-Qilin were both startled. Annie thought Quinn Shepherd was about to commit suicide and was about to intervene, but Dragon-Qilin quickly stopped her, saying, "Cult Master just found a way out—why would he kill himself? Don't be ridiculous!"

Annie was cowed by his scolding and didn’t dare talk back.

Quinn Shepherd slashed his sword in calamity, cutting into his own Heaven Palace—razing Lingxiao, sweeping Jade Capital, flattening Heavenly Halls, shattering Jade Terraces and Jade Sea, and crushing South Heaven Gate.

In the collapsing ruins of the Heaven Palace, all the sword light converged into a torrent, streaming down from the shattered South Heaven Gate along the Celestial River, shredding it on the way and heading straight for the World-Bridge Tree!

The sword light shredded the World-Bridge Tree, and the Celestial River swirling around it was also torn apart, reduced to pure Celestial River power, unable to take shape.

Above the broken Celestial River power, the pure energy left behind by the destroyed Heaven Palace surged like a vast ocean, crushing the starry sky, swallowing the sun and moon, and pressing down on the Six Directions continent!

Quinn’s Spirit Embryo suddenly grabbed the sword light, and before the overwhelming destructive energy arrived, the sword pierced into Youdu, breaking through the demonic Five Luminaries, Six Directions, Seven Stars, Heaven-Man, Profound Capital Treasuries, and finally stabbing through the Celestial River Treasury!

Outside, Annie and Dragon-Qilin could only see Quinn Shepherd’s cultivation realm plummeting—he was just in the Life-and-Death Realm, but in the next instant, he dropped to the Heaven-Man Realm!

They blinked, and Quinn dropped into the Seven Stars Realm, then the Six Directions Realm, then the Five Luminaries Realm!

Their hearts pounded—finally, Quinn’s realm fell all the way to the bottom, turning him into a mere Spirit Embryo Realm martial artist!

In the Spirit Embryo Realm, you’re not even considered a true divine arts practitioner—only able to use basic battle techniques, unable to cast divine arts.

Quinn actually fell straight into the Spirit Embryo Realm—his cultivation was almost completely abolished!

Annie trembled, asking, "Fat Dragon, what is the young master doing?"

Dragon-Qilin was completely bewildered, not knowing how to answer.

Suddenly, immense yuanqi erupted from Quinn’s eyes, ears, mouth, and nose like steam. Inside his flesh, only the Spirit Embryo Treasury remained—every other Divine Treasury was utterly destroyed, and the Spirit Embryo Treasury couldn’t possibly contain such vast yuanqi.

His body couldn’t withstand it and could only expel the energy outward.

If he could expel it in time, that would be fortunate—but if not, Quinn would be blown apart by his own energy!

They watched as Quinn’s body suddenly ballooned, swelling up like he was being inflated—soon he was fatter and rounder than Annie herself.

Not only that—Quinn’s skin and pores were stretched wide open, with countless pores spraying dense yuanqi and making a hissing sound.

However, Quinn rapidly activated Heavenly Demon Creation Art, trying to seal all his pores, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose—locking his yuanqi and essence inside so none of his energy could escape.

He just kept getting bigger and fatter, until before Dragon-Qilin and Annie, he’d become a mountain-sized behemoth.

Now, his yuanqi was completely out of control!

The Dragon-Sparrow pecked at Dragon-Qilin’s forehead like a woodpecker, making a rapid tapping sound. Soon, Annie’s beak pierced his scales and drew blood.

Dragon-Qilin barely felt the pain—he just stared dumbly, mouth agape, at Quinn, who was still swelling up.

Quinn’s size now dwarfed even Dragon-Qilin’s full form—even as the world’s greatest master of creation arts, his body couldn’t possibly withstand this!

"Stop pecking!"

Dragon-Qilin suddenly felt pain and cried, "Annie, you’re pecking my skull!"

Annie stared in terror at Quinn, who was still growing larger. She stuffed her own wing into her beak—after all, she was a Dragon-Sparrow, her beak lined with sharp little dragon teeth.

Annie’s teeth clicked together, making a rapid tapping sound as she neatly trimmed the feathers off the edge of her wing.

She raised her other wing—more rapid tapping—snipping off another layer of feathers.

Annie wrapped both wings around Dragon-Qilin’s ears. Dragon-Qilin panicked and pressed his big ears flat against his body, but Annie was so strong she lifted his ears and brought them to her mouth.

Dragon-Qilin endured the pain and didn’t cry out.

Inside Quinn, the Spirit Embryo Treasury.

At this moment, the pure energies released by the destroyed Heaven Palace and Divine Treasuries—all god-yuan and devil-yuan—were forced into the Spirit Embryo Treasury, surging like a vortex to drown his Spirit Embryo.

Originally, Quinn’s cultivation was only at the Celestial River Realm—equivalent to a Divine Bridge Realm master. Yet his yuanqi was so profound it rivaled gods and even approached true gods.

Recently, Quinn’s cultivation kept leaking away and his realm dropped because he’d lost his soul and Primordial Spirit—but he was still extraordinary.

With the Divine Treasuries and Heaven Palace destroyed, all that energy pressed into the Spirit Embryo Treasury, swelling it until its walls burst again and again—each time forming a new wall, only to burst once more.

His Spirit Embryo kept breaking apart under the onslaught of energy, but thanks to his Threefold Undying Mind, it recovered again and again.

The sword-light in his Spirit Embryo’s hand never faded, helping him withstand the surge of runaway yuanqi.

Anyone else’s Spirit Embryo would have shattered long ago—only Quinn could survive such a terrifying ordeal. Even so, he couldn’t last much longer.