Chapter 3990: Ancestor Blood Wings and Houtu Wedding Gown
The aura of an Ancestor, like a stone dropped into a calm lake, caused the Heavenly and Earthly rules of the entire starry sky to tremble.
Stars flickered on and off, demonic qi roiled.
Deities closely monitoring the star domain where the Nether Prison was located were all alarmed. They activated their divine eyes one after another, gazing into the depths of the star sea, some in terror, others in worry.
...
Heavenly Court.
The ginseng fruit tree of the Five Elements Temple towered into the clouds, its lush branches and leaves covering the mountains.
The Temple Master stood beneath the tree, his face full of worry. "The calamity of the Ancestor has finally arrived!"
Zhen Yuan stood behind him, hands clasped within his sleeves. "I sensed the auras of Di Chen, Time Ice Silkworm, and the others. Both the Sword Realm and the Hell Realm have sent representatives to face this tribulation. To hold back the surging tide at its peak, to support the collapsing pillar—these are truly admirable, heaven-supporting, earth-standing figures!"
The Five Elements Temple Master said, "They intend to resolve the Ancestor calamity before it fully emerges. Their resolve, their courage, their daring are all worthy of admiration. But that is an Ancestor... This time, I fear they may not return."
Zhen Yuan said, "If they cannot return, then so be it! It is only regrettable that this disciple does not even have the qualifications to go."
"Zhang Ruochen has gone, Xu Fengjin has gone, Chan Bing has gone. The Heavenly Court must send someone. If it does not, the Heavenly Court will lose all faith. Go to the Sword Realm and find your uncle master. The Five Elements Temple is in your hands now!"
The Five Elements Temple Master's Daoist robe fluttered lightly as he flew out of the Heavenly Court, then tore through the void, heading straight for the star domain where the Nether Prison was located.
"We respectfully see off the Temple Master!"
Xiang Chunan and Qingsi Xue led the deities of the Truth Temple, bowing in unison towards the heavens, their eyes filled with reverence.
Xuan Yuan Lian walked out of the Space Divine Temple, standing on the towering jade steps. Dressed in male attire, he clasped his hands and bowed deeply.
The cultivators of the Space Divine Temple shouted in unison: "We respectfully see off the Temple Master!"
They respected the Temple Master, and also respected Zhang Ruochen, Void Heaven, and the others who fought for the survival of all living beings in the world.
The Heavenly Court was not without beings stronger than the Five Elements Temple Master, but some had to remain on guard, some dared not go, and some were unwilling to go.
...
Hell Realm, Yama Heaven Beyond Heaven.
Yan Huanyu and Meng Naihe walked together. The two old men set off with smiles on their faces, both remarking that they had been beaten to the punch by the young man Zhang Ruochen.
In Fengdu Ghost City, a Ghost Clan cultivator exclaimed in shock: "Even if the Great Emperor must remain to guard the Hell Realm, that number one tough guy of our Middle Three Clans will definitely go. Where are the warriors of the Middle Three Clans?"
As soon as the words were spoken, that Ghost Clan cultivator let out a miserable scream.
From that day on, the cultivators of Fengdu Ghost City never saw him again.
Dark Abyss Defense Line.
"Where are my saber and halberd? Bring them. Where is my armor? Put it on. Where is my mount? Lead it here. My battle intent is burning, my blood is boiling."
Xue Tu's tiger eyes blazed. He spread his arms wide, letting Yan Ting put on his armor.
From the dark clouds above the world, Hai Shang Youruo let out a cold shout: "With your level of cultivation, do you even have the qualifications to fight an Ancestor?"
"This emperor may be weak, but I dare to fight the nine heavens!" Xue Tu said.
Hai Shang Youruo said, "By the time you get there, the battle will be over! Lady Feng Tian's orders are for us to immediately head to the White Clothes Valley of Kongming Realm. Once the Ancestor calamity begins, anything can happen. We must not let the Dark Hand and the Nether River escape."
Xue Tu was surprised. "Master isn't going to the Nether Prison?"
"Go ask her yourself why."
Hai Shang Youruo couldn't be bothered to say more and went to the White Clothes Valley first.
"The Dark Anomaly and the Dark Hand are being dealt with by Yunshen Daozhu, Fengdu Dadi, and Candeng Dashi. What else could go wrong? Could it be... impossible..."
Xue Tu thought of someone, and his expression changed.
Yan Ting said, "Actually, the biggest hidden danger is still at the Nether Prison. As long as the Ancestor doesn't emerge, the White Clothes Valley will be safe. Otherwise, chaos will reign throughout the world!"
Xue Tu became serious. "Heavenly Mother and Senior Brother will stop all this. I firmly believe that. But if they fail, I suspect that Nutian Shenzun and Master will directly take the Nine Heavens Universe World and all of us cultivators as a second wave of blocking force to face the Ancestor."
"Let's go! Take all the cultivators of the Great Slaughter War God Temple and head to the White Clothes Valley!"
...
The Ancestor's demonic qi was thick, each wisp pressing down on the shoulders like a mountain range, lashing the body like a divine whip.
Zhang Ruochen entered the Nether Prison and arrived at the first prison realm, the "Nili Prison Realm."
Next came the Blade Mountain Prison Realm and the Boiling Sand Prison Realm.
The top three prison realms had all been breached. The realm spirits had been extinguished, losing all consciousness.
Suddenly, the space shook violently, sending up layers of spatial waves. Countless space rules flowed and shuttled within them, heading straight for Zhang Ruochen.
"Clatter!"
A boundless river, winding like a dragon, dense with rules, its aura vast and domineering, further collapsed the three prison realms.
It rushed towards Zhang Ruochen, and also towards the exit of the Nether Prison.
"Heavenly River!"
Zhang Ruochen's eyes narrowed. Sword intent converged, and the shadows of ten thousand swords rose behind him.
The Heavenly River was one hundred and eight thousand miles wide. It had been swept away by the Nether Sea and brought into the Nether Prison. It was the mother of Weak Water, wrapped in the Ancestor's demonic qi, smashing through the order in front of Zhang Ruochen with irresistible force.
Zhang Ruochen could not retreat and let it escape the Nether Prison, so he swung his sword.
The sword qi descended from above, burning fiercely.
"Boom!"
The Heavenly River was split in two by a single sword strike.
But cutting water with a sword only made it flow more.
The waves of the Heavenly River, layer upon layer, crashed against Zhang Ruochen's body. Even with the Five-Colored Glazed Canopy supporting him, he could not block it, and his body was forced back continuously.
His vision and divine sense were completely submerged by the waves.
Suddenly, from behind the overwhelming waves, a patch of bloody light surged forward.
"Not good! The Great Demon God's divine ability, Thousand Spirit Blood Fiend!"
Zhang Ruochen felt the Ancestor's pressure, felt a trembling from the depths of his soul, felt the despair of an ant looking up at the sky.
That divine ability, that power, was already terrifying enough to instantly crush him.
"Chaotian Que!"
While resisting the impact of the Heavenly River, Zhang Ruochen took a step back, retreating into the divine blood ocean spanning hundreds of thousands of miles, landing in the Qingxu Hall of Chaotian Que.
"Whoosh!"
As he raised his hands above his head.
The Heavenly and Earthly Chessboard, the Five-Colored Glazed Canopy, and the Desolate Moon flew out one after another.
The killing patterns, formations, and divine patterns within Chaotian Que and the divine blood ocean quickly lit up, blocking the incoming Thousand Spirit Blood Fiend.
"Rumble!"
The divine blood ocean boiled, and countless formations exploded.
Around Zhang Ruochen, tens of thousands of lightning bolts shuttled back and forth, the roar unceasing. Several cracks appeared on the walls of Qingxu Hall.
The divine blood ocean and Chaotian Que were sent flying backward by the impact, crashing heavily onto the southern plateau of the Nili Prison Realm. A plateau covering millions of square kilometers was flattened.
Zhang Ruochen spat divine blood from his mouth. His internal organs were damaged, and countless parts of his divine soul were ground away by the blood fiend.
He looked up again.
There, the clear outline of the Heavenly River appeared. It wrapped around a demonic-qi-rolling great world, extending outward like an arm.
The "Thousand Spirit Blood Fiend" just now had been struck from within that demonic great world.
Zhang Ruochen clearly saw dense Ancestor rules and Ancestor demonic qi flowing inside the great world. Deep within it, there seemed to be a terrifying aura capable of destroying the entire universe, chilling the heart and making one tremble.
Undoubtedly, the Ancestor calamity must be inside that demonic great world.
"The Great Demon God's Ancestor Realm? Why is there also the Heavenly Demon's Ancestor aura?"
Zhang Ruochen was certainly no stranger to the Heavenly Demon's Ancestor aura.
The Heavenly Demon Mountain in the Kunlun Realm was a corner of the Heavenly Demon's Ancestor Realm.
According to Yunshen Daozhu, the Heavenly Demon's Ancestor Realm was located within the Nether Prison.
This scene made Zhang Ruochen strongly suspect that the Ancestor Realms of the Great Demon God and the Heavenly Demon had merged.
"The Ancestor calamity must never be allowed to escape the Nether Prison."
Zhang Ruochen drove Chaotian Que to fly up, pursuing the demonic great world.
"Who told you to come?" Heavenly Mother's faint voice sounded.
Only then did Zhang Ruochen realize that Heavenly Mother, in her red clothes and white hair, had been standing all along on the ancient stone tablet not far from the Nether Prison's exit.
It was the realm tablet of the first prison realm, engraved with the blood-dripping words "Nili Prison Realm."
Heavenly Mother's white hair flowed like a waterfall, her red clothes dancing in the wind. She looked at the approaching demonic great world, her eyes always calm. "I intended to burn together with it here, but I couldn't bear to take you with me. Since you've ruined my plan, help me strike it back to the eighteenth prison realm."
"Whoosh!"
Heavenly Mother soared into the air, her pupils turning blood-red.
The imposing Witch Palace appeared behind her.
Zhang Ruochen felt that in the past fifty thousand years, Heavenly Mother's cultivation aura had risen by a large margin. Half-Ancestor rules covered the sky and earth, and the divine light of order was endless.
"Creation Wuji."
Zhang Ruochen stood to the lower right of Heavenly Mother, unleashing a divine ability he had created himself after reaching the peak of the Indestructible Infinite realm.
"Creation" referred to the Abyssal Ancient Sword.
A dharma image of light and shadow, no less imposing than the demonic great world, rose up. It swung the Abyssal Ancient Sword, as if splitting heaven and earth, slashing horizontally.
His only goal was to help Heavenly Mother block the Heavenly River.
The Heavenly River was like the arm of the demonic great world, capable of unleashing Half-Ancestor-level power. On the great river, the figure of the Mother of Weak Water appeared, her eyes filled with endless hatred.
"Rumble!"
The power of the Ancestor, the power of the Half-Ancestor, various killing patterns and formations filled the Nili Prison Realm.
Zhang Ruochen's dharma image of light and shadow shattered in an instant, and his body was severely wounded. But he did not retreat. Using Chaotian Que to protect his body, he continued forward, entangled with the Heavenly River, dueling with the Mother of Weak Water.
Heavenly Mother's situation was no better than Zhang Ruochen's.
Facing the Ancestor's power, her physical body had long been shattered, dripping with blood.
Clearly, this was not the first time in the past fifty thousand years she had experienced such a fierce battle. Heavenly Mother burned the Ancestor blood within her, forcibly raising her cultivation and battle power. "Hold on a little longer. Hao Tian and Lady Shiji will surely break through the Nether Sea and threaten it from another direction."
"But it hasn't even come out of the great world, and we're already unable to stop it. If its true body emerges, I'm afraid we won't be able to withstand a few of its strikes before being killed." Zhang Ruochen said.
Heavenly Mother said, "If it dares to come out with its true body, that will be the opportunity for me to burn together with it."
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
...
After several clashes.
The Heavenly River wrapped around Chaotian Que, pulling it towards the demonic great world.
Zhang Ruochen was inside Chaotian Que, continuously swinging his sword, but he could not cut through the Heavenly River to escape.
"That is the Ancestor Realm of the Great Demon God and the Heavenly Demon. Once you are dragged inside, no matter how high your cultivation, you will die."
As Heavenly Mother said this, she turned into a streak of light, chasing into the Heavenly River. She extended a palm that was hundreds of thousands of miles long, trying to rescue Chaotian Que.
Just then, the black clouds of the demonic great world parted, as if opening a gate to hell.
At that moment, Zhang Ruochen finally saw who the Ancestor calamity was.
It was a stone giant with nine heads, its body towering ten thousand miles tall. Its chest was like a cliff, its shoulders like divine peaks. A divine tree grew from the top of its head, and waterfalls flowed from its ears.
The nine heads were: a male head, a female head, a Buddha head, a snake head, a sheep head, a dharma seal head, a skull head, a ten-eyed head...
The ninth head was a stone head without any facial features.
"The Great Demon God... has lived out its ninth life... its Ancestor body has transformed into the Stone Clan..."
Zhang Ruochen hadn't expected his own words to become a prophecy. Suddenly, he let out a soft exclamation: "That is..."
A stone knife was embedded in the chest of the Great Demon God's massive stone body.
Part of the stone knife had already merged with its stone body.
Heavenly Mother wanted to retreat, but it was too late.
The nine-headed stone giant extended its arms, rushing out of the demonic great world. It struck out with a palm from the left and right, like swatting flies, aiming at Heavenly Mother.
From start to finish, its legs did not leave the demonic great world, but they had become very long, turning into two heavenly pillars that burst through the clouds of the great world.
At this moment, Heavenly Mother was not prepared to self-detonate her divine source. Facing these two Ancestor-level palm prints, she could only rely on the Witch Palace to block them.
"Boom!"
The stone palms from left and right struck the two ends of the Witch Palace.
The chaotic and violent impact force directly shook Heavenly Mother until blood flowed from her seven orifices, and her divine soul nearly turned to ashes.
"Roar!"
The nine-headed stone giant's third fist shot out, striking from between the two palms towards Heavenly Mother, who was suspended in front of the Witch Cauldron.
Heavenly Mother swayed, looking ahead, her eyes bleeding, her vision a blur of red.
"Whoosh!"
Just as this fist was about to hit her, a blood-red streak of light flew out from Chaotian Que.
The speed of the blood-red light was actually a hair faster than the nine-headed stone giant's fist.
"Boom!"
The stone fist struck the Witch Palace, sending it flying away, crashing into an unknown location.
Zhang Ruochen held Heavenly Mother, appearing in midair not far from the Nether Prison's exit. A pair of enormous blood wings grew from his back.
The blood wings were so red they were almost black, filled with Ancestor divine patterns and Ancestor order, containing unparalleled blood energy.
At this moment, the aura Zhang Ruochen emitted was like that of a true Ancestor.
Even the nine-headed stone giant stopped its attack. "A pair of Ancestor blood wings from Yin, still preserving complete Ancestor power. Where did you get them?"
Zhang Ruochen set Heavenly Mother down and handed a wedding gown to her. "This is the Houtu Wedding Gown, buried in that blood soil within Chaotian Que. Ancestor Yin was likely moved by Lady Houtu's feelings for Emperor Huangtian, so he cut off his own pair of blood wings and buried them beside the wedding gown."
Back then, Huangquan Dadi had entered the blood soil seeking these two treasures.
Unfortunately, with his cultivation at the time, he could not break the Ancestor-level means left by Ancestor Yin. It was nothing more than drawing water with a bamboo basket.
Of course, Zhang Ruochen could not break them either. It was only under the guidance of Yan Ying'er that he found the burial site of Ancestor Yin's wings. Later, using the Wuji Divine Dao, he retrieved the Houtu Wedding Gown and the Ancestor Blood Wings.
Zhang Ruochen roughly understood the cause and effect of the whole matter.
According to the strange tale told by A Fuya, Emperor Huangtian, one of the Nine Great Witch Ancestors, fell. He was buried by Lady Houtu, who was likely a Longevity Undying Being from the previous epoch.
Lady Houtu was utterly disheartened. Abandoning her immortality, she wore a wedding gown and was buried together with the Great Emperor.
Countless years passed. Aside from the wedding gown, her flesh and blood merged with the earth, turning into the White Pale Blood Soil.
After who knows how many more years, Ancestor Yin of the Undying Blood Clan crawled out from the White Pale Blood Soil. Born alongside him was Blood Shadow Divine Mother.
As Zhang Ruochen guessed, Ancestor Yin was likely moved by Lady Houtu's feelings for Emperor Huangtian, or perhaps he felt that he had come into this world because of Lady Houtu. So, at some point, he cut off his own pair of blood wings, burying them with the Houtu Wedding Gown in place of Emperor Huangtian, placing them inside Chaotian Que to prevent theft.
Thus came the legend that Ancestor Yin had buried himself in that blood soil within Chaotian Que, attracting later generations of heavens to bury themselves in the blood soil, seeking to live out a second life.
Lady Houtu had turned into the White Pale Blood Soil, but the wedding gown remained undestroyed, showing the effort she had poured into it.
It was this wedding gown that preserved the Ancestor power and blood energy within Ancestor Yin's blood wings.
Of course, all of this was merely Zhang Ruochen's speculation.
The Mother of Weak Water walked on the Heavenly River. "A pair of Ancestor blood wings cannot change your ant-like status. Before the power of an Ancestor, everything will turn to ashes."
"Is that so? If there are enough ants, they can also devour lions and tigers. If my heart knows no fear, what is an Ancestor?"
Zhang Ruochen took out the Golden Staff, his gaze sharp and fierce.
As his resounding words fell, Gai Mie, Di, and Chan Bing successively appeared at the entrance of the Nether Prison, each with an extraordinary aura.
(End of this chapter)