Chapter 2942: Acting in the World's Affairs
The Fei Kingdom, one of the ten thousand civilized nations on Xinghuantian, boasted a population of billions, with countless cultivators, a thriving martial path, and a magnificent capital guarded by a Saint King realm powerhouse at its core.
Yet, against a single squad of the Heavenly Court's sacred army, even such a powerful kingdom proved utterly vulnerable.
All cities within the kingdom fell, and the city-protecting grand formations were seized.
The capital's city walls crumbled, and within the once-splendid palace, corpses lay strewn everywhere, blood pooling like paintings.
An Undying Great Saint from the Heavenly Court army sat on a nine-dragon golden throne, his saintly might overwhelming and unparalleled, single-handedly suppressing the hundred thousand cultivators in the capital.
The Fei Kingdom's monarch, queen, princes, princesses, ministers, and generals all knelt trembling in the hall—some weeping, others collapsed in despair.
The Saint King realm national master, who guarded the capital, was nailed to the palace wall by a saintly spear, his sacred blood flowing steadily.
Such scenes played out across every nation.
A hundred-man squad could easily annihilate a kingdom, suppress a hundred cities, and control the lives of hundreds of millions.
That Undying Great Saint gazed at the horizon, watching the brilliant pillar of divine light dim as heaven and earth returned to darkness. He let out a long sigh of relief and said, "The gods of your Xinghuantian are about to be wiped out!"
These words struck like a death knell.
Despair and terror spread through the hall.
Without the protection of their gods, they would become even more insignificant before these foreign saintly armies, reduced to less than slaves. Their lives hung by a thread, dependent on the invaders' whims.
In one kingdom, a high priest knelt prostrate before a beautiful divine statue, kowtowing: "O gods! Save your people! Open your eyes and look upon this land—foreign invaders, the sky falling, the earth cracking—this is the calamity of an entire civilization!"
"Boom!"
The statue was shattered by a sword strike, and the high priest was cleaved in two.
Centered on the Divine Maiden City, every nation was scorched earth, hearts filled with dread.
Saint-level battles erupted without cease. Even a single stray fireball from a divine war could destroy a town, reducing hundreds or thousands to ash in an instant—lives more fragile than ants.
Within a million miles around the Divine Maiden City, all nations were destroyed in the divine war. Mountains and rivers shattered, barren lands stretched endlessly, and divine flames burned without rest.
The rules of heaven and earth were thrown into chaos, with barely a trace of life remaining.
The pillar of flame, carrying the old corpse demon, sank back into the depths of the earth.
Those evil divine corpses were trapped by the divine abilities unleashed by the Mandala Flower God within a purple fire divine vine. The vines, dense and sprawling across ten thousand miles, wove with strands of divine flame, impervious to deathly qi.
The Heavenly Court gods finally steadied their minds, regathering beneath the Divine Maiden City. Each radiated divine light, with visions of divine realm worlds manifesting above their heads.
The nine-headed dragon god's half-crippled body absorbed the divine qi of heaven and earth, expelling the deathly qi within, rekindling vitality as his flesh slowly regenerated.
Moments later, nine dragon roars shook the clouds and sky.
The nine-headed dragon god restored to his original form, his body blazing with divine flames and exuding fierce momentum, though he could not hide his inner weakness. It would take tens of thousands of years of recuperation to return to his peak.
He looked at the shattered land and Zhang Ruochen lying in the ashes of calamity, his lingering fear gradually giving way to blazing fury and unquenchable hatred.
"Damnable wretch!"
The nine-headed dragon god struck out with a palm from afar, dragon qi and divine flame coalescing, aimed at the weakened Zhang Ruochen.
"Whoosh!"
Zhang Ruochen's body vanished, and the strike hit nothing.
Zhenmie Third Elder returned from overseas, majestic and divine, swinging his staff to sever the array inscriptions enveloping Zhang Ruochen. Instantly, Zhang Ruochen reappeared in midair, plummeting rapidly downward.
"Yuyao, you can barely save yourself, and you still want to rescue others?"
"Boom!"
Zhenmie Third Elder struck the ground with his staff, and a divine formation spread across the earth, colliding with the Divine Maiden City's protective grand formation, unleashing a terrifying shockwave.
The protective formation shook violently, its light flickering unsteadily.
Yuyao, already grievously wounded, spat out a mouthful of blood, her delicate frame trembling. Yet, in the next moment, she stood straight as an immortal monument, channeling her formidable spiritual power to retrieve Zhang Ruochen as he fell toward the ground.
"Boom!"
A thunderous roar echoed from the sky.
Chi Xingtian shattered the Sword Dao Divine Realm World of the Famous Sword God, charging toward the ground to rescue Zhang Ruochen.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Jia Tianxia unfurled the *Shura Hell Realm Scroll*, conjuring a bone-white hell world, dragging Chi Xingtian inside, and both vanished into the sky once more.
The scroll hovered half-real, half-illusory, with rumbling sounds erupting from within as the fierce battle raged.
A sinister laugh rang out.
The Soul Realm Lord struck, repelling Yuyao's spiritual power. Then, he produced a cloth bag, releasing trillions of vengeful spirits. Like ants devouring an elephant, they attacked the protective formation from all directions.
Under the assault of the Heavenly Court gods, the protective formation quickly became riddled with holes, teetering on the brink of collapse.
Zhang Ruochen crashed into the black ash-covered ground, his body wracked with pain, many parts charred, white bone exposed on his arms. Yet, his spiritual will remained unbroken, and the power of the Buddha Emperor Relic lingered, golden light flickering intermittently.
"Master, release me. I have stepped into the divine realm and can take responsibility for my own life and death." Ji Fanxin's voice rang out.
The Mandala Flower God stood on a leaf of the purple fire divine vine, suppressing the evil divine corpses. She gazed into the distance at the blood-soaked woman standing atop a broken wall, the man lying in a pool of blood, and the radiant figures of the gods.
She said, "You have indeed become a god, but I am your master. How could I let you go to your death?"
Chi Yao and Mu Lingxi's voices rose, but the Mandala Flower God suppressed them. In this situation, this was all she could do.
"Boom!"
Xuan Yi pointed a finger, the force fierce and blinding, piercing through the void and shattering the already broken protective formation.
Before the finger's light even reached, Yuyao fell from the city wall.
Under the oppressive might of the gods, she struggled to support her frail body, a bitter smile on her lips: "What crime did the Inverse God Clan commit? Why must you exterminate them to the last? And what fault do the beings of Xinghuantian bear? In this great army's invasion, how many innocents have died?"
The ancient gods who knew the secrets of a hundred thousand years ago remained silent.
But some new gods born after the Middle Ages, ignorant of the truth, stepped forward and said, "The Inverse God Clan violated the natural order of heaven and committed heinous acts. Anyone has the right to kill them."
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Yuyao sneered mockingly: "Without the Inverse God Clan's great rebellion, you all would have perished in the Calamity of Quantities long ago. This so-called natural order—what is it? Back then, the Grand Elder carried the God-Defying Stele across all realms. How many gods left their inscriptions on it..."
Xuan Yi's voice drowned out Yuyao's, cutting her off: "You've lived so long; you should understand that in great matters, profit comes first. Children talk about right and wrong; people at our level only discuss gains and losses. What the Inverse God Clan did thirty thousand years ago, or a hundred thousand years ago, no longer matters. Kill her, finish this quickly, and take control of all formations on Xinghuantian."
Xuan Yi turned to leave, intending to rush back overseas.
But as he turned, a unprecedented, terrifying premonition struck him—as if heaven itself had opened its eyes. He looked up at the sky but saw nothing.
Yet that sensation, enough to make even an assassin like him shudder, grew ever clearer.
The nine-headed dragon god approached Zhang Ruochen, his eyes ferocious. He had never suffered such a loss before. "Boy, only by devouring your flesh and blood can I quickly recover from my injuries."
"Hiss!"
A change occurred.
The divine qi of heaven and earth condensed into rivers, converging from all directions into Zhang Ruochen's body.
A massive vortex of divine qi formed around Zhang Ruochen.
Even the nine-headed dragon god, with his cultivation, was forced back, staring in shock as Zhang Ruochen slowly floated up within the vortex. His wounds healed rapidly, white bone regrew flesh, and his aura grew increasingly powerful.
Xuan Yi glanced sideways, his eyes narrowing into slits, sharp light gleaming.
"Who? Who is healing him?"
The nine-headed dragon god's arm grew fiery dragon scales, his five fingers forming claws wrapped in countless rule divine patterns, striking at the divine qi vortex.
"Boom!"
The divine qi retaliated, the space trembling violently. The nine-headed dragon god was sent flying, his dragon claws—harder than most monarch sacred artifacts—shattered, scales broken, blood flowing freely.
The Heavenly Court gods present all tensed, warily scanning their surroundings.
Zhenmie Third Elder, who had been walking toward Yuyao, sensed the danger and quickly retreated, his face tense and grim to the extreme.
Yuyao was also astonished, staring at Zhang Ruochen in the vortex for a long moment before looking up at the sky. She faintly sensed an unfathomable, mysterious divine power transmitting from distant space, continuously pouring into Zhang Ruochen's body.
Within the vortex, Zhang Ruochen's divine might suppressed all the gods present. Above his head, winds and clouds surged, and his eyes shone like two divine stars, radiant and filled with infinite divine essence.
"Zhang Ruochen is my divine envoy, acting in my stead across heaven and earth. How dare any of you touch him? Today, I grant my envoy divine power to manifest my divine might."
A stunning figure in red robes with white hair manifested in the starry sky above Xinghuantian. The figure was but a phantom of light, only half a body visible, yet it was larger than the great world of Xinghuantian itself. Stars adorned her like pearls, flickering beautifully.
Her long hair flowed like white rivers of stars, and the continent of Xinghuantian before her was like a plate shrouded in light mist, with the gods as food upon it or crickets amusing themselves.
Zhang Ruochen's injuries miraculously healed. He flew down from midair and threw a punch, a celestial river automatically forming around him, roaring with rushing water.
"Boom!"
The punch struck the nine-headed dragon god, who was in human form, sending him back to his dragon form. His dragon body shattered into pieces, blood splashing across a thousand miles, the earth pierced through, revealing a pitch-black void space hole.
Zhang Ruochen stood atop a trembling dragon head, his posture tall and imposing, his eyes sweeping over the Heavenly Court gods. "The Heavenly Mother does not concern herself with worldly affairs. I am her divine envoy, and she has granted me divine power to act in her stead in the world's affairs. If any of you disagree, step forward!"
...
In the distant starry sky, at the edge of the Abyss of Darkness.
Wuqingzong stood behind the red-robed, white-haired Heavenly Mother, gazing at the winding Yellow Spring Star River. He felt the might of this legendary woman and, at that moment, deeply realized that reaching the Infinite Realm was not the end of cultivation—there were still higher mountains and farther skies ahead.
Gods across the universe all sensed the Heavenly Mother's divine might. The entire heaven and earth, stirred by her emergence, boiled like a copper furnace.