From a loser to an immortal sage

Chapter 541 The Broken Master-Disciple Contract

The instant the bronze mirror shattered, time seemed to be stretched into an infinitely long thread.

Each of those flying shards reflected my distorted, incredulous face.

Then, a figure, a figure I thought was buried deep in my memory, a figure corroded by countless nights of nightmares, emerged from nothingness, so real it was suffocating.

He was still wearing that unchanging black robe, and the half of his face visible under the hood had even colder, more hard features than he remembered.

Time seemed to have left no trace on him, leaving only an increasingly profound, abyss-like stillness.

"You've finally come, my little apprentice." His voice pierced through the tremors of space, settling calmly into my ears, yet it was like a poisoned steel needle, stabbing deeply into my long-healed wound. "This time, can you still trust me as you did before?"

trust?

I almost burst out laughing.

A metallic sweetness surged in my throat, which I forced down, letting the metallic taste spread across my tongue.

I looked down at the antique ring on the ring finger of my left hand.

It was once proof of my supreme glory as his only disciple, and a symbol of the "trust" I naively believed in.

ridiculous.

“That was no longer trust,” my voice was dry and hoarse, but carried a cold, bone-chilling resolve, “it was the shackles you used to bind me with a death pact.”

The moment I finished speaking, the chaotic power within me surged into my left hand.

The indestructible ring, said to be able to withstand a blow from an Immortal Emperor, let out a mournful cry between my fingers, and then with a "poof," it turned into the finest dust, slipping softly from between my fingers.

The shackles are broken; there are no more constraints.

I slowly raised my right hand, and in my palm, a hazy, chaotic power that seemed capable of devouring everything began to swirl and surge.

My long hair moved without wind, each strand imbued with that domineering aura.

His aura suddenly surged at this moment, breaking through the original suppression of the laws of this cave.

He looked at the strength in my palm, and for the first time, a complex and unfathomable emotion flashed in his eyes—perhaps approval, or perhaps… wariness.

“Whatever happened between you and her,” a calm and firm voice rang out beside me. Wen Chen took a step forward and stood next to me.

The longsword in his hand was already drawn, its blade like a pool of autumn water, reflecting the distorted light around it, its cold gleam chilling. "Today, you will not be facing just her alone."

His sword intent soared to the heavens, and he held nothing back.

That pure and sharp sword intent swept across the area like a surging tide, forcing the black-robed man to shift some of his attention away from me and truly begin to take us seriously.

"This place is about to collapse, we must finish this quickly!" The anxious voice of the ethereal immortal came from behind. His figure was already somewhat illusory, clearly indicating that maintaining this shattering space had taken a great deal of effort from him.

Before she finished speaking, Zi Ling had already quickly set up a complex magic array not far away, and she precisely embedded several teleportation talismans that shimmered with silver light into the array's core.

That's our escape route, and also the source of our confidence to take a gamble here.

The man in black robes, my former master—Xuanji—finally let out a cold laugh.

The laughter was filled with condescending mockery, as if looking at a group of ants struggling desperately but destined to fail.

"You think breaking a death pact seal can change your fate?" His gaze locked onto me again, a look that chilled me to the bone. "Naive. You're just another pawn."

another?

These two words are like a poisonous thorn, piercing my heart with excruciating pain.

In his eyes, am I not even unique, but merely a replacement for some failed product?

Before I could think it through, he had already made his move.

With a casual wave of his hand, countless jet-black chains appeared out of thin air in the collapsing void around us.

The chains were covered with eerie runes and exuded a dense aura of death. They seemed to have a life of their own, making a piercing "clattering" sound as they attacked my limbs and bones from all directions.

Chains again! This kind of restraint I've had enough of!

At this moment, both old and new grudges completely ignited my rationality.

I didn't dodge or retreat; instead, I charged headlong into the endless, intertwined chains.

"I am no longer a pawn in your game!" I roared, my voice echoing through the air. "I am the master of my own destiny!"

The chaotic power in my palm instantly condensed into an invisible blade, drawing gray trails as I swung my arm.

Those chains, imbued with the laws of death, reacted as if ice and snow met the blazing sun the moment they touched the Blade of Chaos. The runes on them dimmed instantly, and the chains groaned in despair, unable to bear the weight. Then, with a clang, I cleaved them in two!

In the blink of an eye, I broke through the chains, like a shooting star piercing the sky, carrying a devastating force, and struck his chest with a palm.

Xuanji didn't take the attack head-on; instead, he darted backward like a ghost, easily avoiding my sharp edge.

“The power of chaos… truly domineering.” He praised softly, but his tone was devoid of warmth. “It’s just a pity that this power was the path I led you down. All your struggles were within my calculations.”

He clasped his hands together in front of his chest, and a force completely opposite to mine, a cold, lifeless force that seemed capable of robbing all life, burst forth from his body.

It was pure death energy; wherever it passed, even distorted light was swallowed up, and the speed of spatial collapse was slowed down, as if time itself withered in the face of this power.

My chaotic power is the origin of all things, violent and disorderly.

His deathly aura is the end of all things, quiescent yet orderly.

Two completely opposite primordial forces collided violently in this confined space.

There was no earth-shattering roar, only a chilling annihilation.

Everything between us—air, light, laws—vanished into nothingness in the clash of the two forces, forming an absolute vacuum.

Just then, a dazzling sword light, like a cascading Milky Way, tore apart the energy confrontation between us and pierced straight at Xuanji's face.

It's Wen Chen!

He seized this fleeting opportunity and launched a powerful attack.

"The light of fireflies." Xuan Ji didn't even look. He flicked his left finger, and a wisp of death energy, as solid as a substance, accurately struck the tip of Wen Chen's sword.

"Zheng!"

With a crisp sound, Wen Chen's longsword trembled violently. The bright light on the sword quickly dimmed, and a layer of gray-black death energy, like a maggot clinging to a bone, rapidly spread upwards along the sword.

Wen Chen's face turned pale, and he groaned, forced to abandon his sword and retreat to prevent that strange power from invading his body.

With just a single finger, he forced Wen Chen, who was going all out, to retreat!

Is this his true strength?

The master who patiently taught me and demonstrated every detail of the spell was a terrifying being hidden beneath his gentle exterior.

"Do you see this, my little disciple? This is the companion you chose. Before me, they are utterly vulnerable." Xuanji's words were like the sharpest blade, trying to cut through my defenses. "Without me, you are nothing. Your power, your glory, your very existence are all bestowed upon you by me. And now, you want to use what I gave you to rebel against me?"

"What you gave me was poison wrapped in honey!" I retorted sharply, suppressing the shock in my heart, and regrouping my chaotic power. "You never intended to teach me; you were merely... cultivating a perfect vessel!"

I don't know why I said the word "container." It was like an answer buried deep in my subconscious that was stimulated by his words and finally came to light.

Sure enough, Xuanji's gaze froze for a moment.

It's now!

Instead of trying to crush his death aura with the power of chaos, I compressed that violent power to the limit, forming a constantly rotating gray singularity in my palm.

That is the ultimate chaos, the origin of destruction.

"Return to the Origin of Chaos!"

I used all my strength to push this tiny singularity toward him.

This time, a solemn expression finally appeared on Xuanji's face.

He extended both hands simultaneously, his ten fingers flying across the screen. A vast aura of death intertwined before him, forming a massive black shield upon which an ancient character for "death" faintly appeared.

The world fell silent the instant the singularity made contact with the shield.

All the sounds, all the light, all the sensations seemed to be swallowed up by that tiny dot.

I saw the shield of death energy twist and dent violently, the character "death" on it flashing madly, yet it still could not stop the erosion of the singularity.

"You... you actually managed to comprehend this level..." Xuanji's voice carried a hint of shock for the first time, "You're not her! Who are you?"

She? It's "her" again!

My mind was shaken by those words.

In that instant of distraction, I felt the chaotic power within my body begin to spiral out of control.

The force of extreme compression is already teetering on the brink of collapse.

"puff!"

I suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, the blood containing chaotic power splashed into the air, and actually burned tiny holes in the space.

Xuanji seized the opportunity. Instead of retaliating, he used the force of the chaotic singularity to transform his entire body into a wisp of black smoke, merging into the increasingly dense darkness around him.

"The game has only just begun, my... little apprentice." His last words seemed to come from all directions, carrying a hint of eerie laughter. "Watch closely, see what kind of monster you will unleash when you break the cage with your own hands."

He... ran away?

No, that's not right!

I forced myself to stand up and looked up.

The chaotic singularity I had pushed out began to expand rapidly and spiral out of control after losing its target.

The immense death energy that Xuanji left behind, having lost its master's control, transformed into the purest source of death and dissipated in all directions.

This space, already on the verge of collapse, could no longer withstand these two out-of-control, highest-level forces.

"No! Run!" the ethereal immortal cried out in anguish, his figure already fading into almost invisible.

Zi Ling had already activated the teleportation array, and a silver light enveloped us.

However, at the very last moment before the teleportation was complete, I was horrified to see that the bronze mirror fragments that had been blasted away at the start of the battle and were now suspended in the air seemed to be drawn by some kind of fatal attraction.

My out-of-control chaotic power and the death energy left behind by Xuanji, these two completely opposite yet fundamental forces, did not annihilate each other as before. Instead, with those ancient bronze mirror fragments as the core, they began to attract, swirl, and intertwine with each other, forming a huge and slow vortex.

On one side of the vortex was chaos representing "birth" and "beginning," and on the other side was annihilation representing "death" and "end." Under the pull of those fragments, they began to show a strange trend of merging.

The light from the teleportation completely engulfed my vision, but an unprecedented chill surged within me.

What exactly did we... unlock?