Fei Nation was one of the civilised great nations among Xing Huan Tian’s hundred thousand kingdoms. It had a population of several billion, countless cultivators, flourishing martial arts, and a majestic capital guarded by a Saint King powerhouse.
Yet this mighty nation crumbled before a mere squad of the Heavenly Court’s saint army.
Every city fell; the city-protecting arrays were seized.
The capital’s walls collapsed. Inside the resplendent golden palaces lay corpses strewn everywhere, blood painting the floors.
A Neverwither great saint of the Heavenly Court sat upon a nine-dragon golden throne, his saintly might vast and unrivalled. With his power alone he suppressed a hundred thousand cultivators in the capital.
The ruler of Fei Nation, the empress, princes, princesses, ministers, and generals all knelt trembling in the hall—some weeping, some collapsed in despair.
The Saint King national preceptor who had guarded the capital was nailed to the palace wall by a saint spear, saint blood flowing in rivulets.
Scenes like this unfolded across every kingdom.
A single hundred-man squad could effortlessly destroy a nation, suppress a hundred cities, and hold the lives of hundreds of millions in their palm.
The Neverwither great saint gazed toward the horizon. Seeing the dazzling flame pillar dim and the heavens return to darkness, he let out a long breath. “The gods of your Xing Huan Tian are about to be completely exterminated!”
Those words rang like a death knell.
Despair and terror spread through the hall.
Without the protection of gods, they would be even more insignificant before these invading saint armies from beyond—less than slaves. Their lives hung on the invaders’ whim.
In one kingdom, a high priest prostrated himself before a beautiful divine statue. “O gods! Save your people! Open your eyes and behold this land. Foreign tribes invade, heaven and earth collapse—this is the calamity of our entire civilisation!”
Bang!
The statue was cleaved in two by a sword. The high priest’s body was split in half.
Centred on the Goddess City, every kingdom had become scorched earth. Hearts trembled in fear.
Saint-level battles erupted ceaselessly. Even the stray fireball from such a fight could annihilate an entire town. Hundreds or thousands were reduced to ash in an instant; lives were more fragile than ants.
Within a million li of the Goddess City, every kingdom had been destroyed in the divine war. Mountains and rivers lay shattered; vast crimson wastelands stretched endlessly, divine flames burning without cease.
The rules of heaven and earth had been thrown into chaos; scarcely any trace of life remained.
The flame pillar carried the old corpse ghost back into the depths of the earth.
The evil divine corpses were trapped inside a purple-flame divine vine by the Mandala Flower God. The vines spread densely across ten thousand li, flowing with strands of divine fire impervious to the death qi.
Only now did the Heavenly Court gods finally relax. They gathered once more beneath the Goddess City, each radiating divine light, their divine-realm worlds manifesting above their heads.
The Nine-Headed Dragon God’s half-body absorbed the divine qi of heaven and earth, expelling the death qi within. Vitality slowly returned; flesh gradually regrew.
Moments later, nine dragon roars shook the clouds.
The Nine-Headed Dragon God was restored, divine flames blazing, aura ferocious, yet he could not conceal his inner frailty. The wounds he had suffered would take tens of thousands of years to fully heal.
He looked at the shattered land and at Zhang Ruochen lying amid the ashes. The lingering fear in his heart gradually turned to towering rage and irreconcilable hatred.
“Damned thing!”
The Nine-Headed Dragon God struck with a palm across the distance. Dragon qi and divine fire condensed and descended toward the weakened Zhang Ruochen.
Swish!
Zhang Ruochen’s body vanished; the palm struck only empty air.
The Third Elder of Array Annihilation Palace returned from the open sea, majestic and sacred. With a swing of his staff he severed the array inscriptions that had concealed Zhang Ruochen. Instantly, Zhang Ruochen reappeared in mid-air, plummeting downward.
“Yu Rumor, you can barely save yourself—yet you still try to save others?”
Boom!
The Third Elder’s staff struck the ground. A divine array spread across the earth and crashed against the Goddess City’s protective arrays, producing terrifying shockwaves.
The city arrays shuddered violently, light flickering unstably.
Yu Rumor was already gravely wounded. She spat a mouthful of blood, her delicate frame trembling. Yet in the next instant she stood straight once more like an immortal monument. She mobilised her powerful spiritual force, attempting to pull the falling Zhang Ruochen back into the city.
Boom!
A thunderous explosion rang from the sky.
Chi Xingtian burst out of the Famous Sword God’s sword-daoworld, charging toward the ground to save Zhang Ruochen.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Jia Tianxia unfurled the Asura Hell Diagram. A hell-world of white bones manifested, dragging Chi Xingtian inside. Both vanished from the sky.
The scroll was half-real, half-illusory. Explosions rang continuously from within—battle raging fiercely.
A sinister laugh sounded.
The Lord of the Soul Realm struck, repelling Yu Rumor’s spiritual force. Then he produced a cloth sack and released hundreds of billions of wronged souls. Like ants devouring an elephant, they attacked the city-protecting arrays from every direction.
Under the assault of the Heavenly Court gods, the city arrays quickly became riddled with holes, on the verge of collapse.
Zhang Ruochen crashed onto the ash-covered ground. Pain wracked his entire body. Much of his flesh was charred; white bone showed on his arms. Yet his spiritual will remained unbroken, and the power of the Buddha relic did not fade. Golden light flickered around him.
“Master, let me out. I have already reached the divine realm. I can take responsibility for my own life and death,” Ji Fanxin’s voice rang out.
The Mandala Flower God stood upon a leaf of the purple-flame divine vine, suppressing the evil corpses. She gazed at the blood-soaked woman atop the ruined wall, the man lying in a pool of blood, and the radiant figures of the gods.
“You have indeed become a god,” she said, “but I am your master. How could I let you go to your death?”
Chi Yao and Mu Lingxi’s voices also rose, but the Mandala Flower God suppressed them. In this situation, this was all she could do.
Boom!
Xuan Yi pointed a finger. The finger force was mighty, light blinding. It pierced the void and shattered the already crumbling city arrays.
Before the finger-light arrived, Yu Rumor fell from the city wall.
Under the divine pressure of the gods, she struggled to prop up her frail body. With a smile that was both mocking and bitter she said, “What sin did the Rebel God Clan commit that you must exterminate us completely? What sin did the beings of Xing Huan Tian commit that your armies must slaughter countless innocents?”
All ancient gods who knew the events of a hundred thousand years ago fell silent.
It was the newer gods born after the Middle Ages who, unaware of the truth, leapt forward. “The Rebel God Clan violated the laws and ethics of heaven, plotting the greatest treason. Everyone has the right to kill them!”
Yu Rumor gave a scornful laugh. “Without the Rebel God Clan’s ‘treason,’ you would all have perished in the Kalpa of Quantity long ago. As for the so-called laws and ethics of heaven—what is heaven’s law? Back then, the Great Elder carried the Rebel God Stele across all realms. How many gods left their mark upon it…”
Xuan Yi’s voice overpowered Yu Rumor’s, cutting her off. “You have lived long enough to understand that in great affairs of the world, profit comes first. Only children speak of right and wrong. At our level, we speak only of gain and loss. What the Rebel God Clan did three hundred thousand or a hundred thousand years ago no longer matters! Kill her. End this quickly and seize control of all arrays in Xing Huan Tian.”
Xuan Yi turned to leave, intending to return to the open sea.
Yet the instant he turned, an unprecedented terror seized his heart—as though the heavens themselves had opened their eyes. He looked up at the sky but saw nothing.
Yet the feeling that made even an assassin like him shudder grew clearer.
The Nine-Headed Dragon God strode before Zhang Ruochen, eyes vicious. Never had he suffered such a loss. “Boy, only by devouring your flesh and blood can this god’s wounds heal swiftly.”
Sss! Sss!
A change occurred.
The divine qi of heaven and earth condensed into rivers, flowing from all directions into Zhang Ruochen’s body.
A colossal vortex of divine qi formed with Zhang Ruochen at its centre.
Even with the Nine-Headed Dragon God’s cultivation, he was forced back. His eyes widened in shock as Zhang Ruochen slowly floated upward within the vortex. His wounds healed at visible speed—bone regrew flesh, aura growing ever stronger.
Xuan Yi turned his head, eyes narrowing to slits, divine light flashing.
“Who? Who is healing him?”
Flame dragon scales grew on the Nine-Headed Dragon God’s arm. His five fingers became claws wrapped in countless rule divine patterns. He struck toward the vortex.
Bang!
The divine qi counterattacked. Space shuddered violently. The Nine-Headed Dragon God was hurled backward. His dragon claws—harder than supreme saint artefacts—shattered in scales, blood flowing freely.
Every Heavenly Court god present felt their hearts clench. They looked around warily.
The Third Elder of Array Annihilation Palace, who had been advancing on Yu Rumor, sensed mortal danger and retreated rapidly, his face grave.
Yu Rumor was equally astonished. She stared at Zhang Ruochen inside the vortex for a long moment, then looked toward the outer sky. Vaguely she sensed a profound divine power beyond her comprehension flowing from distant space, pouring endlessly into his body.
Within the vortex, Zhang Ruochen’s divine might now suppressed every god present. Storm clouds gathered above his head; his eyes shone like twin divine stars, brilliant and containing boundless divine profundity.
“Zhang Ruochen is this seat’s divine envoy, acting on this seat’s behalf in the world. How dare mere ants touch him? Today, this seat bestows divine power upon my envoy and manifests this seat’s divine might.”
A peerless beauty in red robes and white hair materialised in the starry sky where Xing Huan Tian lay. Her figure was merely an illusory projection of the upper body, yet it towered larger than the entire great world of Xing Huan Tian. Stars orbited her like jewels upon her form, twinkling beautifully.
Her long white hair flowed like rivers of stars. The continent of Xing Huan Tian was like a misty plate before her; the gods upon it mere food on the plate or crickets fighting for amusement.
Miraculously, all of Zhang Ruochen’s wounds healed. He descended from the sky and punched downward. A heavenly river automatically formed around him, roaring like rushing water.
Boom!
The punch landed on the Nine-Headed Dragon God. His human form was blasted back into a dragon. The dragon body shattered in four places; blood spraying a thousand li. The earth was pierced clean through, revealing voids of darkness.
Zhang Ruochen stood atop one trembling dragon head, tall and majestic. He swept his gaze across the Heavenly Court gods. “Tian Lao does not meddle in worldly affairs. I am her divine envoy. She has granted me divine power to act in the world on her behalf. Any who disagree—step forward!”
…
At the edge of the Abyss of Darkness in the distant starry sky.
The Five Pure Sect stood behind the red-robed, white-haired Tian Lao. Gazing at the winding Yellow Springs Star River and feeling the aura of this legendary woman, he understood profoundly in this moment that reaching the Immeasurable Realm was not the end of cultivation—higher mountains and farther heavens still lay ahead.
Every god throughout the universe felt Tian Lao’s divine might. The entire cosmos seemed to boil like bronze cauldron set ablaze by her emergence.
