Chapter 133: Severance

Just as the Wolf Demon was on the verge of successfully absorbing the massive heart, an anomaly occurred.

The colossal heart, which had previously fallen completely silent, suddenly shuddered violently. A powerful force of destruction erupted from within, detonating in a final, desperate act of self-destruction.

The resulting shockwave was overwhelming, causing the entire pocket dimension to tremble. The very earth fractured, proving fragile against such immense power. After all, this was the dying explosion of a Demon God’s heart, equivalent to a sixth-tier powerhouse. Had it not been contained within a pocket dimension, with the Wolf Demon bearing the brunt of the impact, the devastation would likely have reached half of the Northern Region.

"Damn it!" A roar of fury and a muffled curse echoed from amidst the debris.

The Wolf Demon looked wretched. The scales that had just finished regrowing were blown away, and his once-sturdy frame was now a mass of mangled flesh. His aura had weakened significantly, indicating that he had suffered greatly from the blast.

"Fortunately, most of the essence was recovered. These injuries will heal in time," he thought to himself. Yet, a sudden sense of inexplicable crisis washed over him.

He whipped his head around, his gaze piercing the direction behind him. There, a powerful aura was steadily rising.

In the sky, a magnificent sun began to ascend, wreathed in sparks of divine power. It descended with unstoppable momentum, crashing down in an instant. Caught off guard, the Wolf Demon was sent flying, his already battered body sustaining further damage.

In the next moment, magic power surged toward him from the surroundings. His flesh began to squirm, attempting to knit itself back together, but traces of scorching divine energy lingered in his wounds, firmly suppressing his magic and hindering his recovery.

"Who goes there!" The Wolf Demon looked up, his eyes sharp and filled with brutality.

There, a handsome youth shrouded in natural radiance gradually manifested, watching him intently.

"A pity. Had it not been for that shockwave exposing my aura, I could have waited for a more opportune moment to strike," Chen Ming thought as he observed the Wolf Demon.

He did not pause or respond. Seeing that his initial strike had landed, he pressed the attack, unleashing a flurry of divine arts to clash with his opponent.

Two vast domains collided. The Wolf Demon was flung back once more, while Chen Ming retreated a few steps, preparing to advance again. However, the Wolf Demon had begun to recover his senses.

"Roar!"

He let out a low, guttural snarl. Around him, magic power began to coalesce. It seemed as though the entire pocket dimension was obeying his command, turning against Chen Ming. This space had been formed by the descent of the Demon God's heart; now that it had been consumed by the Wolf Demon, the latter—sharing the consciousness born from the Demon God's remains—could naturally command the dimension.

With a thought, the massive magical energy condensed into a potent force, striking toward Chen Ming.

"As expected, he is even weaker than before," Chen Ming sensed, noting that the Wolf Demon’s aura had dwindled to its limit. After enduring the self-destruction and then Chen Ming's full-force blow, he was a shadow of his former self.

Chen Ming smiled slightly. He no longer suppressed his own power, letting it erupt in full. If one were to observe from the void, they would see a colossal, dissonant domain emerging within the dark, profound space. It was a domain of vibrant life and unyielding order, bearing down with crushing force.

The incoming magical assault was intercepted and isolated by this domain. Where the two powers met, the very earth began to dissolve into nothingness, a terrifying sight.

"This!" The Wolf Demon stared at Chen Ming in shock, unable to believe his eyes. For reasons unknown, the scene reminded him of an event from a millennium ago.

It was during the world's first great demonic calamity. A massive surge of magic had spawned a terrifying horde, destroying the world's established order. Just as destruction seemed certain, a brilliant knight had risen from the ruins, growing from obscurity to reach a terrifying peak, eventually suppressing him.

"No! Impossible! This time, my body is nearly complete. Once I recover, even if the Child of the Plane returns, he will not be able to suppress me again!" The Demon Wolf roared in madness.

A peak-level destructive source-energy exploded around him, interwoven with the vast laws of another world, surging forward to crush Chen Ming. Bathed in demonic blood, he looked monstrous, an embodiment of a unique, peak-level power that would shatter the mind of any mortal who dared to glance at him.

"He has already achieved fifty percent of that Demon God's essence," Chen Ming thought amidst the gale. His vast natural power began to undulate, evolving with his will.

He unleashed another massive divine art, glowing with the mysteries of natural law. It evolved in the void, colliding once more with the Demon God. A thunderous roar followed, and the ground beneath Chen Ming’s feet split apart, crumbling under the impact.

Simultaneously, a sound of shattering echoed through the space. Something was breaking under the strain of the clash.

"This pocket dimension cannot hold," Chen Ming concluded. The space had been formed by the long-term influence of the Demon God's heart; it was never truly stable or complete, lacking even much life. With its master destroyed and the remains consumed, it had lost its foundation. After the repeated shocks, its collapse was inevitable.

However, amidst the violent impact, the Demon God before him vanished, leaving only a lingering trace of his aura.

"Trying to run?"

Chen Ming pursued the trail without hesitation. He knew that if he failed to finish the job now, the Demon God would hide away, becoming nearly impossible to deal with once his injuries healed.

After a moment, however, he sensed something amiss. The rate at which the laws of the surrounding world were dissolving seemed to be accelerating. A sharp, clear sound of space shattering reached him, and Chen Ming’s expression shifted.

The magic power surrounding the area was in a state of chaotic eruption. The space, once independent of the world, was being manipulated into a total collapse. Before Chen Ming could react, a massive vortex erupted before him, a profound void filled with countless spatial fragments exploding outward.

A wave of force washed over the area, obliterating all traces. Chen Ming only had time to expand his divine domain and radiance to buffer the impact before his vision turned black, and all sensory input vanished.

"He manipulated this space to annihilate itself."

When the shockwave passed, Chen Ming reignited his divine light. He looked at the unrecognizable landscape, his expression grim. The earth was riddled with holes, and dense spatial energy mixed with demonic power swirled about, confusing all traces of the Demon God’s presence.

The explosion of the pocket dimension had wiped away the residual aura, leaving Chen Ming unable to track him physically, forced to rely on faint, distant intuitions. Furthermore, with the explosion and the Demon God’s escape, countless red, brutal eyes from across this demonic land turned toward the site.

These were the demonic lifeforms that had been bred on this cursed ground for countless years.

"Is it because my aura has leaked out?" Chen Ming wondered.

With the pocket dimension gone, his divine power of nature was no longer masked. It shone like a beacon in the darkness, drawing the attention of every nearby creature of the abyss.

The ground began to tremble as countless demonic beasts emerged, rushing toward him in a frenzy. Among them were third-tier beasts, charging forward as if he were their natural enemy, ignoring his immense power in their mindless bloodlust.

Chen Ming found himself in a sea of monsters. From the sky, he appeared as a star of power, weaving through the demonic tide, his radiance purifying countless beasts with every movement. However, his progress was stalled by the endless, fearless horde.

Finally, as he channeled his divine power to its limit, his true form manifested—majestic as the World Tree itself. With his natural domain fully expanded, he suppressed the surrounding beasts.

But it was too late. Amidst the carnage, Chen Ming looked toward the distant horizon, and the last, faint connection to the Demon God was severed completely.