Chapter 2512: Heavenly Venerable
Zhang Ruochen had heard rumors about the Yama Clan Patriarch, the Life God Venerable, and the Auspicious God Venerable from Luo Sha. At the time, he had simply regarded them as internal conflicts within the Hell Realm and hadn’t thought much of it.
However, when he connected this to the Great Calamity of the Saint Realm and the era where the myriad realms and all heavens were nearly destroyed, the upheaval in the Hell Realm seemed highly suspicious.
As far as he knew, although the Hell Realm had been rejected by the Saint Realm in the past due to differing ideologies and could only reside in the Yellow Spring Star River, some races within the Hell Realm still maintained good relations with cultivators from certain major worlds. They were not entirely hostile.
With such a massive event shaking the entire universe and leaving everyone fearful, wasn’t the Hell Realm afraid at all? The first thing they thought of was to wage war against the Heavenly Court.
Yan Huangtu had once said that the Twenty Heavens might actually be the “Twenty-Four Heavens,” with the other four coming from the Hell Realm.
In other words, three hundred thousand years ago, it was likely the Twenty-Four Heavens who undertook that great endeavor.
If the destruction of the Saint Realm was a disaster caused by what they did back then, wouldn’t the Hell Realm fear retaliation?
Why hadn’t the Hell Realm been retaliated against?
The more Zhang Ruochen thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. But after all, too much time had passed, and there were no clues left. Relying only on scattered legends to speculate would yield unreliable results no matter what conclusion he reached.
He continued listening to Granny Haitang’s account.
“Since ancient times, the Kunlun Realm has been the strongest realm, enduring for eons without perishing. Back then, the third Confucian Ancestor of the Confucian path was one of the Twenty Heavens who participated in that great event three hundred thousand years ago. Even the Ten Calamities Wen Tianjun was once his student.”
Hearing this secret history, Zhang Ruochen felt a surge of pride. A faint smile broke through his suppressed mood as he said, “All martial arts under heaven originate from the three paths, and the nine schools and hundred lineages spread everywhere. As one of the three paths of the Kunlun Realm, the Confucian path must have produced figures of the Heavenly Venerable level.”
Granny Haitang said, “Before the third Confucian Ancestor, about ten eons ago, your Zhang family’s ancestor, the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable, was also one of the Twenty Heavens of that era—and moreover, the Heavenly Venerable.”
“Heavenly Venerable?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
Granny Haitang said, “The recognized number one among the Twenty Heavens can be called the Heavenly Venerable. In each era, there can be twenty heavens, but only one Heavenly Venerable.”
Zhang Ruochen swallowed a mouthful of saliva. He had never imagined that his Zhang family ancestor was so terrifying. No wonder a single jade pendant he left behind could block a possession attempt by a god-level being like Xiu Chen Heavenly God.
Heavenly Venerable—revered by all heavens.
Thinking of his current self, Zhang Ruochen couldn’t help but feel like an unworthy descendant.
If the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable still had a remnant divine thought in the world and saw how far the Zhang family had fallen, he would probably be unable to keep his coffin lid down!
Although Granny Haitang had never met the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable, she had heard countless legends about him. In the ancient era when he lived, the Kunlun Realm was incredibly glorious, with many major worlds looking up to it as their leader.
She continued, “In every era, the Kunlun Realm almost always occupied a seat among the Twenty Heavens. I’m telling you this to let you know that even by the late Middle Ages, the Kunlun Realm was still very powerful, with deep foundations and various realm-protecting measures left by historical heavenly-level figures. If it weren’t for traitors and the dark forces within the Heavenly Court plotting against it, the Kunlun Realm might not have fallen to such a miserable state.”
“The Ten Calamities Wen Tianjun, Biluozi, Xumi Saint Monk, the Dragon Lord… many gods of the Kunlun Realm had their movements leaked in that divine war, were schemed against, and were ambushed or attacked. The vast majority fell, with only a very few managing to escape.”
Zhang Ruochen was already aware of the traitors and the dark forces, having heard about them from the Moon God.
Granny Haitang’s understanding of the dark forces’ methods was clearly not very detailed; she only saw the most superficial aspects.
Granny Haitang said, “This divine war between the Heavenly Court and the Hell Realm lasted a full thousand years. It began in the Kunlun Realm and ended there, concluding with Xumi Saint Monk’s nirvana. Both sides signed a ceasefire agreement. The Middle Ages had ended.”
A cosmic-level battle would inevitably be protracted. It wouldn’t be a matter of rushing in and finishing in a few days.
The heavenly-level figures in the Kunlun Realm’s history had left countless defensive and offensive measures in the starry sky outside the realm, along with innumerable spatial traps and formation fortresses.
If the Hell Realm truly dared to roll over it in one wave, even if they could destroy the Kunlun Realm, they would suffer devastating losses.
Who could afford that price?
The war of ten thousand realms lasting only a thousand years was already short. Wars between mortal nations often dragged on for decades. (The Song-Mongol War and the Ming-Qing War both lasted decades.)
“Ceasefire agreement? Why sign a ceasefire agreement?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
Granny Haitang said, “Because both the Heavenly Court and the Hell Realm suffered heavy losses in this war, with more than half of their gods falling. Over a thousand mortal realms under the Heavenly Court were destroyed. The Hell Realm’s Yellow Spring Star River was broken apart, tens of billions of planets with cultivator populations were destroyed, and over ten quadrillion living beings and undead in the Hell Realm perished.”
Zhang Ruochen found it hard to imagine how brutal that divine war had been.
Every year, at least one major world in the Heavenly Court was destroyed.
Every year, millions of planets in the Hell Realm fell.
What a blood feud this must have created!
“After a thousand years of war, all realms of the Heavenly Court suffered heavy losses, and war-weariness ran high. Because there were many worlds and factions, internal conflicts in the Heavenly Court intensified. Forced by circumstances, the Heavenly Palace had to propose a truce to the Hell Realm.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “And the Hell Realm just agreed?”
Granny Haitang said, “Many races in the Hell Realm worship death and glorify war and slaughter. But everything has a limit. Even the undead can die, and they fear true death.”
She continued, “In the battle that besieged Xumi Saint Monk, the Hell Realm lost many gods, and internal conflicts erupted so severely that even the Destiny Temple and the Darkness Temple couldn’t suppress them. If they had stubbornly continued fighting, the Hell Realm might have broken into civil war.”
“The Destiny Temple and the Darkness Temple had no choice but to sign the agreement with the Heavenly Court.”
“Because the Heavenly Court was the first to propose a truce, and the Hell Realm was still stronger, with a large number of gods wanting to continue fighting, the Heavenly Court was at a disadvantage when signing the ceasefire agreement.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “But the war didn’t end. The Heavenly Court and the Hell Realm still fight on the Merit Battlefield. The Hell Realm hasn’t given up on its goal of exterminating all living beings in the world.”
Granny Haitang said, “When Xumi Saint Monk entered nirvana, he used his last divine power to protect the Kunlun Realm. From then on, the Kunlun Realm was almost completely cut off from both the Heavenly Court and the Hell Realm. So, what I know about the ceasefire agreement comes from records I read in ancient texts after I went to the Heavenly Court. Only the powerful who lived through that period truly know what happened.”
“But over the past hundred thousand years, large-scale divine wars between the Heavenly Court and the Hell Realm have been rare. Even on the Merit Battlefield, only cultivators below the Great Saint realm are allowed to fight within the realm, with efforts always made to prevent conflicts from escalating to the divine level.”
…
The overall structure and historical timeline of the book are complex to sort out, so this chapter is a bit short, only two thousand words. Too tired—let’s continue tomorrow!