While the Duotian Divine Emperor with angelic wings rushed straight at Huang Tian to detonate his divine source, the other two Duotian Divine Emperors fled rapidly into the distance. The two bodies collided and merged into one.
Countless supreme inscriptions poured from the Great Shang Divine Seal, forming a barrier before him.
Boom!
The annihilating light from the divine-source explosion shattered Moyan Star into ten pieces that shot away in ten different directions.
They became ten blazing suns.
Ten suns suddenly hung above Xinghuan Heaven.
Duotian Divine Emperor had avoided the very heart of the destructive force. Relying on the Great Shang Divine Seal to shield him, he was hurled countless li away. Vast expanses of flesh on his divine body were ruined, leaving him tattered, bones exposed.
Whoosh!
The Great Shang Divine Seal shrank to the size of a palm and fell into his charred hand. He threw his head back and laughed, the sound shaking the heavens. “Huang Tian, no matter how brilliant you are, in the end you merely pave the way for this emperor. All your profound truths will belong to me, including Yu Baiwei.”
Light blazed from the ruined divine body as new flesh grew.
In moments, Duotian Divine Emperor was restored, his features stern and resolute, his frame majestic. Clad in a dragon-scale purple-cloud robe and wearing a white-jade divine crown, he looked every inch an unrivalled sovereign descended to the mortal world.
Now he was the victor, triumphant and proud.
No matter how grievous his wounds, he would return to Xinghuan Heaven in the posture of a conqueror, so that the gods of both Heaven Court and Hell Realm might see true imperial majesty.
At the core of the divine-source explosion, space had collapsed, rules lay in chaos, colours swirled in five-hued primordial chaos. Golden Buddhist light mingled with grey death energy, white life energy, the starlight of truth, and yellow stone qi.
It was as though a great hole had been torn in the universe.
With his own eyes he had seen both of Huang Tian’s bodies shatter into dust and divine qi amid the divine-power storm.
Everything was settled!
Duotian Divine Emperor sent the Great Shang Divine Seal flying into the mass of five-coloured chaotic light and roared, “Collect!”
This was the perfect moment to harvest the profound truths of life and death.
Yet the instant the seal entered, it vanished like a stone dropped into the sea. All connection was severed.
“Not good!”
Realising something was wrong, Duotian Divine Emperor immediately executed divine spirit steps and fled backward.
At the same time he manifested his divine realm world and formed divine techniques with both hands.
As he circulated his divine qi, the five-coloured chaotic mass began to spin, forming vortex currents in the starry void that dragged at the retreating Duotian Divine Emperor.
The area covered by the five-coloured chaos expanded ever wider. Even divine spirit steps could not carry him beyond it.
From the centre of that chaotic mass, Duotian Divine Emperor sensed Huang Tian’s aura reappear. Though faint, Huang Tian was clearly still alive.
“No! Impossible! After such overwhelming destructive force, how can you still live?” Unable to accept this outcome, ruthless coldness filled his eyes. Instead of retreating further, he charged straight toward the heart of the five-coloured chaos.
Even if Huang Tian still lived, he must be gravely wounded.
If he did not kill him today, when would another chance come?
Sss! Sss!
At the centre of the five-coloured chaos, life energy and death energy intertwined, rising like a pillar of qi before rapidly contracting into a ten-thousand-zhang tall, awe-inspiring demon god.
This demon god’s entire body was petrified, resembling a statue.
The Great Shang Divine Seal that Duotian Divine Emperor had just struck out with was now imprisoned beneath his feet in a sea of life and death.
“Duotian, had all three of your divine bodies self-destructed together, this lord might truly have fallen. Yet in the end you feared death, you dared not die. Instead, you have allowed my Divine Dao of Life and Death to advance another step, evolving from separation of life and death into the realm between life and death.”
Huang Tian’s voice exploded like world-shaking heavenly thunder in Duotian Divine Emperor’s ears.
Duotian Divine Emperor’s expression changed drastically. He realised he had fallen into a trap.
Huang Tian showed not the slightest trace of weakness; he was clearly even stronger than before!
Without daring to linger a moment longer, Duotian Divine Emperor slashed open space with a wave of his hand. Divine flames blazed around him as he transformed into a shuttle of fiery light and plunged into the pitch-black, hollow void.
He sought to escape through the void.
“Where do you think you are going?” Huang Tian’s roar resounded.
Tidal waves of divine life light and divine death light surged into the void, enveloping Duotian Divine Emperor’s divine body and giving him no chance to break free.
Huang Tian followed the twin tides of light and vanished from cosmic space.
When space finally stabilised, only five-coloured chaotic currents remained surging through this vast star region. The residual divine-power fluctuations left by the battle between great gods rendered the place lethally dangerous.
Lightning capable of slaying lower gods streaked for thousands of li, refusing to dissipate.
Divine fire that could refine false gods to death formed clouds of flame hundreds of li long, scattered across the entire region.
…
This expanse of stars had become a forbidden zone.
For at least a thousand years, the residual divine power of great gods would not fully disperse.
At the very centre of the former five-coloured chaotic mass, a sphere of golden Buddhist light now hovered.
Within that light sat a young man of striking beauty, his features seemingly sculpted by the hand of heaven itself. Long hair drifted around him, Sanskrit characters floated about his body.
Surrounding the Buddhist light was an immense canopy woven from boundless life energy and death energy, inside which countless rules of life and death flowed.
Suddenly, a circle of light flickering between brightness and darkness appeared around him.
It was a circle formed by life rules and death rules circulating according to a certain heavenly law. This circle perfectly overlapped with the Taiji circle.
Zhang Ruochen abruptly opened his eyes and stood. His hands shifted through different gestures.
Whoosh!
Life energy and death energy from across heaven and earth rushed toward the circle of life-and-death like rivers pouring into the sea.
The circle grew ever larger, expanding outward like waves of light.
When Zhang Ruochen felt his spiritual power and divine soul on the verge of losing control of it, he spoke a single word: “Close!”
The circle rapidly contracted, shrinking until it finally entered his body and settled within his mysterious embryo.
Life energy and death energy naturally followed it inside.
Zhang Ruochen had not only condensed a divine soul; his physical body had reached an unprecedented level of strength, life energy vast as rivers and seas. His gaze sharpened as he surveyed his surroundings, sensing that all life and death in the world now lay within a single thought.
“Today, I, Zhang Ruochen, return. The rules of the world shall change because of me. I shall embark upon a completely new path of divine cultivation. The realm I have reached today I name Taiji. Taiji emerges from Wuji and gives birth to all unknowns in the world.”
In the unseen depths, the heavenly dao seemed to respond.
The celestial river that encircled Heaven Court, fully one hundred and eight thousand li wide, eternally turbulent and majestic, suddenly grew still. Its waters ceased to flow.
Bian Zhuang, Heaven Court’s foremost war god who guarded the celestial river, sensed it instantly. Within his divine palace he snapped his eyes open. In the next moment he stood above the river, his cape fluttering, staring out across the star-filled cosmos.
No enemy could still the celestial river.
Only the heavenly dao itself could.
Was this an omen?
Unlike the celestial river, the ocean outside the Temple of Truth surged with hundred-zhang waves, thunderous as roaring gods.
“Still!”
The Lord of the Temple of Truth stood atop the temple, his divine power blanketing the entire Truth Domain, forcibly suppressing the storm upon the Sea of Truth.
“Greetings, Temple Lord.”
Below the temple, disciples of the Temple of Truth and cultivators from every realm of Heaven Court knelt in reverence.
Many cultivators were terrified, unsure why the Sea of Truth had suddenly raged and even alarmed the Temple Lord.
Just as the Temple Lord prepared to calm the crowd, the direction of the ancient relic known as the God-Sealing Platform rang with heaven-shaking bell tolls.
Dong! Dong! Dong…
Seventy-two tolls in succession.
Each more resonant than the last.
When the final toll sounded, it echoed not only throughout Heaven Court but faintly reached every great world and ancient civilisation.
“Is the heavenly bell sealing a god? No, the God-Sealing Platform was destroyed long ago, and the heavenly bell shattered with it. Are these tolls coming from the distant past? Or from some unknowable future?”
The Lord of the Temple of Truth flew toward the ruins of the God-Sealing Platform and vanished into the clouds.
On Wujin Plaza beneath Mount Destiny, a thunderous collapse sounded.
The Gate of Destiny, constructed from tens of thousands of stellar cores and standing for countless ages, crumbled into rubble, startling every god upon the sacred mountain.
This was an ill omen!
Its impact surpassed even the occasion when the River of Fate had flowed backward and flooded the temple.
…
Throughout Heaven Court and Hell Realm, anomalous signs appeared in many places, shaking the worlds and unsettling the gods.
No one could divine what had occurred.
Inside the Wumian Villa of Xinghuan Heaven, the Drunkard, who had been scolding two large white geese, suddenly brightened. He looked up at the sky and chuckled. “Interesting. He actually succeeded! That old bald donkey from Sumeru is still the craftiest. He lagged behind at the start, yet now he seems to be overtaking everyone.”
Scratching his messy hair, a cunning glint appeared in the Drunkard’s eyes as he laughed to himself.
He knew full well that, to face the coming Quantity Tribulation, many ancient beings were secretly cultivating successors, hoping to forge supreme existences that would surpass all of history.
Over the past three hundred thousand years, behind dazzling geniuses such as Xuanyi, Blood Absolute, Huang Tian, Hua Ying Qingchan, Yan Wushen, Bai Qing’er, Que, Yin Yuanchen, and many others, there had always stood the shadows of Cosmos-level powers.
Standing some distance away, Yu Rumor could not share his amusement. She said anxiously, “Duotian Divine Emperor has been driven into a hopeless situation. He will surely detonate another divine source. I must go and help him.”
With a slash of her finger, space tore open. She stepped into the void.
The Drunkard rolled his eyes and snorted. “His Divine Dao of Life and Death has already reached the realm between life and death. One more step and he attains neither birth nor death. How could he die so easily? Even a divine venerable would find killing him extremely difficult now. What are you worrying about? …Oh? So they have finally come.”
The Drunkard’s expression hardened as he looked toward a certain point in the starry sky.
Far beyond the boundless star region, a pair of colossal divine eyes appeared. Each pupil seemed large enough to contain an entire starry expanse, capable of peering to the ends of the earth and the remotest borders of the universe.
Zhang Ruochen and all the gods above Xinghuan Heaven beheld those eyes suspended in the cosmic depths. An infinite demonic allure emanated from them, threatening to devour divine souls and sending chills down every spine.
