Chapter 4136: Clan Annihilation Art
Biluo Pass had completely merged with the Realm of Life and Death, emitting divine light of life and death, dyeing heaven and earth in black and white.
The pass itself was the entrance to the realm.
Beyond black and white, there was only the gray of the Gray Sea, representing transcendence beyond life and death, while simultaneously wielding control over both.
The living beings on every planet had all turned to ash within the sacrificial pits.
Only outside the majestic pass did war banners still flutter, with eight war cities belonging to the Eight Divisions Followers guarding it in a circle.
These eight war cities were as massive as planets, spanning thousands of miles, forged from divine-refined materials, giving a sense of weight, antiquity, and indestructibility.
Green Deer Divine King, Rotten Stone God, and San Yingtian, along with countless Eight Divisions Followers, stood atop the eight cities, manipulating formations and runic patterns to resist the attacks from the Gray Sea.
In some war cities, armies of white bones gathered, forming a sea of bone.
In others, a large number of divine realm stone beasts were assembled, each unleashing its divine realm world. Though the war cities were small, they carried hundreds of major worlds within folded space, demonstrating that each city possessed terrifying combat power.
Two Heavenly Lids floated in the sky to the left and right of Biluo Pass, like two ancestral divine eyes, occasionally firing beams of death light containing nether flames, blocking the enemy.
The Realm of Life and Death had not yet been fully refined successfully, lacking a World Spirit.
If they let...
Years of scheming would all come to nothing.
If the Nether Ancestor could not obtain healing nourishment from the universe, then they themselves would become that nourishment.
Green Deer Divine King, with a human body and deer head, stood on the city wall occupied by the Shura clan, peering into the depths of the Gray Sea. There, space trembled, waves surged sky-high, and various forces—golden light, clear radiance, heavenly punishment, curses—were all violently raging.
Facing Hao Tian at his peak state, Er Jun Tian was ultimately no match, having fallen into a disadvantage. His Ten Thousand Star Burning Gold Armor was damaged, and wounds appeared on his body.
Being able to withstand Hao Tian, who was in the "Xuan Huang Zhen Lei Ting" state while wearing the Heavenly Punishment Divine Armor, for so long in direct confrontation was already an extraordinary feat for Er Jun Tian.
In Green Deer Divine King's view, in the current universe, below the Ancestor level, only "Gandharva," "Heavenly Mother" wearing the Houtu wedding dress, and the deeply hidden "Lady Shiji" possessed such combat power.
All three were at the peak of the Half-Ancestor realm.
Gandharva and Lady Shiji were veterans among veterans, having reached the peak Half-Ancestor realm for many years with deep accumulated foundations.
Lady Shiji even wielded two supreme heavy artifacts, the "Darkness Cauldron" and the "Demon Shrine," making her virtually unmatched below the Ancestor level.
Zhang Ruochen had been killed by her schemes.
Fengdu Dadi, who had refined the Huangquan Great Emperor's Ancestor Realm and controlled the Huangquan Seal and Ancestor Divine Source, might have reached this level.
As for the three Half-Ancestors of the Destiny Temple, each possessed extraordinary trump cards, having obtained relics gifted by Zhang Ruochen before his death, such as the Nether River, Wuwo Lamp, Victory Crown, Demon Ancestor Ridge, Tianji Brush, Sword Source Divine Tree, Sundial... and so on, enough to cross minor realms. However, their breakthrough time was relatively short, and they lacked Fengdu Dadi's record of fighting multiple opponents at the same level, so they absolutely could not reach Er Jun Tian's level.
If the three Half-Ancestors joined forces, they could sweep through all enemies below the Ancestor level. As for the even more powerful Destiny Twelve Phase Divine Formation, even an Ancestor would have to be cautious.
Qishier Pin Lian had extremely strong combat power at the same realm, and having refined the Ancestor Mark of the Nine-Headed Stone Man and the Eternal Divine Soul of the Darkness Venerable, if she broke through to the peak Half-Ancestor realm, she would definitely be able to contend with Er Jun Tian.
As for Can Deng of the Sword Realm and Yunshen Daozhu, one was mysterious and unfathomable, the other in seclusion year-round, so Green Deer Divine King found it hard to assess them.
As for Wen Tianjun, he was first severely injured by an Ancestor, delaying his cultivation.
At the same time, he had deficiencies in war weapons and esoteric meaning. Unless he had the ability to successfully refine the Seventy-Two Layer Tower, or seize the Dragon Nest of the Heavenly Dragon Realm and inherit the power the Witch Ancestor had sent to this era, he could achieve a qualitative leap in combat power.
This was an era of numerous experts, dragons soaring and phoenixes dancing, with countless opportunities. Green Deer Divine King very much did not want it to end this way under the Nether Ancestor.
After the Minor Calamity, the universe would become desolate, becoming the Nether Ancestor's one-man show. What could he, Green Deer Divine King, still accomplish?
He could only wait for death.
Either die in the future Great Calamity, or become a Half-Ancestor medicinal ingredient when the Nether Ancestor bore the calamity.
There was only a very slim chance of following the Nether Ancestor, surviving the Great Calamity under his protection, and living into the next era after the universe restarted.
Facing the Great Calamity, the Nether Ancestor himself was not confident, so how could he protect the cultivators under his command?
What Green Deer Divine King wanted was to reach the Ancestor realm himself and resist the Great Calamity on his own.
However, the Nether Ancestor's true body was about to arrive, and the aftershocks of the Ancestor-level battle had already reached the Gray Sea. Even if Green Deer Divine King was bold, he dared not slack off at Biluo Pass and could only fight with full force.
"Excellent!"
Green Deer Divine King gazed into the distance across the Gray Sea, catching sight of the figures of the Twenty-Four Heavens between the black-and-white of life and death and the gray mist, unable to help shouting this out.
The "Twenty-Four Heavens Diagram," also rumored to be the "Twenty Heavens Diagram," was created back then by...
When the diagram was completed, all the pigments of the entire Saint Realm flew away to ink it, turning the sky into a riot of colors.
On the sea surface, battle intent condensed into clouds.
Ni Shen Tianzun, Hao Tian, Sixth Patriarch...
Within the bodies of each of the Twenty-Four Heavens' figures, countless formation patterns flowed, with unknown divine sources embedded within, their momentum vast and majestic.
This diagram was painted by the Spiritual Power Ancestor...
Of course, combat power could be painted, but spirit and essence could not, and it was even harder to paint the soul.
The Twenty-Four Heavens who campaigned in the Void Exhaust Sea burned themselves, borrowing the power of the Ancient Desolate Witch Ancestor, to be able to attack the Nether Ancestor, whose body had been shattered into a mere mass of nether light.
At that time, whether the Nether Ancestor even had Ancestor-level combat power was unknown.
Otherwise, he would not have immediately gone into hiding after the battle.
After all, the dismembered Darkness Venerable's combat power had fallen below the Ancestor level.
The "Twenty-Four Heavens Diagram" was...
Once used, it represented burning one's boats, the most dangerous moment.
"Rumble!"
All Twenty-Four Heavens were casting spells, unleashing various divine abilities simultaneously, engulfing the eight war cities guarding Biluo Pass.
Some of the Heavens had their bodies burning like blazing suns, crashing like meteors into the weaker war cities, their divine sources exploding within, destroying one defensive divine formation after another.
Some war cities, lacking an Indestructible Infinite cultivator to guard them, had their walls shattered by terrifying energy, and large numbers of cultivators within turned to ash.
Below Biluo Pass.
"Is this the peak of Half-Ancestor? If the Empress were here, could she match this?"
Soul Mother sensed something was wrong. Hao Tian and...
Green Deer Divine King was duplicitous and ambitious. Soul Mother had already seen this at Qing Mountain, so she did not trust him at all, worried he might deliberately let them through.
"It seems I have to grind away the spiritual consciousness of you two and refine you into the living souls and dead souls of the Realm of Life and Death ahead of time."
Soul Mother's gaze fell on Cihang Zunzhe and Bore. She had originally planned to wait for the Nether Ancestor to arrive and have him do it personally, but now it was clear she could not wait any longer.
Cihang Zunzhe was said to be the ten-thousandth reincarnation of Buddha Jiaye, inheriting ten thousand lifetimes of merit and knowledge.
If the ten thousand lifetimes of merit and knowledge awakened and were fully integrated, it would be enough to support her breakthrough to Buddha, or even Ancestor.
At present, although Cihang Zunzhe had profound cultivation, she clearly lacked the foundation, having not fully merged the ten thousand lifetimes of merit and knowledge, only at the middle stage of Indestructible Infinite.
Not daring to underestimate Cihang Zunzhe, Soul Mother cautiously took out the Ghost Seal.
Seeing the Ghost Seal, Cihang Zunzhe finally knew why this Nether Envoy had been wearing a purple gauze hat to hide her identity—it was her.
If this news spread to the outside world, how many cultivators would be shocked and enraged?
Soul Mother already regarded her as a dead person, so naturally she did not care about revealing her identity in front of her.
"Chi chi!"
From the Ghost Seal in her palm, strands of blue ghost fire surged out, enveloping Cihang Zunzhe.
This ghost fire was extremely special, only refining spiritual consciousness without harming the divine soul or physical body.
Soul Mother released rule divine patterns and divine qi in the surrounding space, staring intently at Cihang Zunzhe to prevent any unexpected changes.
Cihang Zunzhe was sealed, her body unable to move, forced to let the ghost fire enter her body and into her sea of consciousness.
The gap in cultivation with Soul Mother was too great; she could not resist!
"Amitabha!"
Fan Chen lay on the ground a few zhang away, trapped by the Nether Luo Heavenly Net. After reciting the Buddha's name, he closed his eyes, unable to bear watching further.
For a Half-Ancestor to grind away the spiritual consciousness of a middle-stage Indestructible Infinite cultivator was absolutely effortless.
The Tianhuang campaign had reached this point, and it could be described as tragic. The situation was now beyond anyone's ability to change, and all current resistance was like a deathbed struggle.
"Dang!"
Suddenly, an extremely loud bell sound rang out in Fan Chen's mind, coming from an unknown source.
Fan Chen only felt a burning sensation at his brow, as if a flame had been ignited there.
Not far away, within the pass, inside the Realm of Life and Death, the death vortex spun at an extremely high speed, stirring up terrifying hurricanes, black and white, vast and indistinct.
At the center of the vortex, the Lamp of Life and Death flickered with light.
The bell sound came from the realm wall of the Realm of Life and Death, a response triggered by Cihang Zunzhe's will to survive at the moment of life and death colliding with it, an echo left by Buddha Jiaye countless eons ago.
Ancient golden Buddhist characters appeared on the realm wall of the Realm of Life and Death, containing Ancestor-level mysteries.
The Buddhist characters spun, transforming into Buddha heads.
"What is this?"
Soul Mother was slightly surprised, not expecting such a change to suddenly occur in the Realm of Life and Death.
Of course, she would not know that the Realm of Life and Death was the head of Buddha Jiaye.
After the Saha World and the Ultimate Bliss World merged with the Realm of Life and Death, the realm wall had been changing.
"Hua!"
Like a chain reaction, Cihang Zunzhe's body erupted with golden Buddhist light, accompanied by dense Sanskrit sounds, as if thousands of monks were chanting scriptures.
The Buddhist light and Sanskrit sounds broke through the seal's suppression, condensing into a Buddhist ring suspended behind Cihang Zunzhe's head.
Ten thousand figures of various forms appeared within the Buddhist ring, representing the ten thousand lifetimes Cihang Zunzhe had experienced. At the very center of the Buddhist ring sat Buddha Jiaye.
All the ghost fire was dispelled.
Soul Mother narrowed her eyes, immediately mobilizing divine qi and rules to form a white bone ghost claw, striking at Cihang Zunzhe to disperse the Buddhist light and figures on her body.
The Half-Ancestor's cultivation erupted, incomparable, pressing down the Buddhist light on Cihang Zunzhe, making it increasingly dim.
"So what if you have ten thousand lifetimes of merit? Even if you become a Buddha, facing a Half-Ancestor, you still cannot turn the tide."
Soul Mother exerted force with her five fingers, and the white bone ghost claw contracted accordingly, pressing Cihang Zunzhe's physical body to crack, countless fissures appearing on her skin. As more and more blood flowed, it soaked her Buddhist robe red.
The Buddhist ring behind her head trembled continuously, hanging by a thread.
Soul Mother still had spare energy, looking at Bore beside her, mobilizing a wisp of ghost fire from the Ghost Seal to fly over.
First, refine Bore into a dead soul of the Realm of Life and Death.
Just as the ghost fire was about to land on Bore...
"Bang!"
Soul Mother was violently struck by a suddenly emerging force, unable to stabilize her form, flying backward, then falling toward the Realm of Life and Death.
Soul Mother was full of astonishment, looking at the increasingly distant monk Fan Chen.
Fan Chen's body was covered in net-like blood marks. Because of his angry charge just now, the Nether Luo Heavenly Net had contracted further, already entering his body.
His pupils turned golden, his gaze firm, ignoring the pain of his physical body.
"Even the Nether Luo Heavenly Net can't suppress him? What background does this monk have?" This thought flashed through Soul Mother's mind. In the moment before being swept into the death vortex, she mobilized the Half-Ancestor rule divine patterns and divine qi in space, condensing them into chains, pulling Fan Chen, Cihang Zunzhe, and Bore together into the vortex.
Even if she died, she would help the Nether Ancestor complete the life-and-death calamity targeting the entire universe.
Since the Realm of Life and Death had no World Spirit, she would become the World Spirit.
Soul Mother had once been the World Spirit of the Soul Realm, with a great world as her body.
As the four were swept into the vortex, its rotation speed accelerated.
The light of life and death surging from Biluo Pass became even more powerful.
Even Hao Tian and...
A backup plan left by Buddha Jiaye?
"The Nether Envoy has fallen into the Realm of Life and Death together with Cihang Zunzhe, Bore, and Fan Chen!"
The news spread to the six war cities, shocking many gods of the Eight Divisions Followers, unable to believe that a Half-Ancestor-level Nether Envoy could be brought down by three prisoners.
The reason there were six war cities was that the Ghost Clan war city and the Kinnara Corpse Clan war city had already been reduced to ruins under the attack of the Twenty-Four Heavens Diagram, with both clans annihilated, all becoming sacrifices for the life-and-death calamity.
Green Deer Divine King, San Yingtian, and Rotten Stone God reacted quickly, filling the gaps, not giving...
"What exactly is happening? Why is Ancestor-level Buddhist light appearing in the Heavenly Lids and the Realm of Life and Death?"
Green Deer Divine King demanded of San Yingtian.
How could San Yingtian know the ultimate secret of the Realm of Life and Death?
From ancient times to the present, the only Buddhas to reach the Ancestor level were Buddha Jiaye and Ksitigarbha King. Ksitigarbha King obviously could not appear in the Realm of Life and Death. So, there was only one answer left!
"Perhaps it's Cihang Zunzhe... After all, she is the ten-thousandth reincarnation of Buddha Jiaye..." San Yingtian murmured.
This was always an uncertain variable!
San Yingtian rushed out of the war city, intending to enter Biluo Pass to investigate. Suddenly, his head split with pain, and his sea of consciousness ignited.
A lotus flower slowly rose in his sea of consciousness.
No matter how San Yingtian resisted, it was futile. Gradually, a lotus mark appeared on his brow.
"Hua!"
All the gray mist of the entire Gray Sea flowed continuously into his body. The life energy, souls, blood energy, and other forces absorbed from the universe also entered his body.
The Nether Ancestor's...
His pupils turned gray, his entire being becoming extremely cold, like a supreme being transcending all things in the world, cutting off all emotions and desires, devoid of any feeling.
Clearly, the change in the Realm of Life and Death had attracted the attention of the Nether Ancestor's true body, who used San Yingtian to project a strongest avatar.
All hidden dangers must be eliminated in the initial stage.
San Yingtian's long hair turned gray, dancing in the wind. He raised his right hand above his head.
"Rumble!"
The entire Gray Sea boiled.
Countless gray mists condensed in his palm into a gray curse sword.
At this moment...
"Shua!"
A gray sword light slashed from within the pass.
Where the sword light passed, the Gray Sea raised huge waves, and the figures of the Heavens on the sea surface all exploded, unable to withstand even a moment.
"Pfft!"
At the cut where his upper and lower body separated, curse power invaded.
Deep in the Gray Sea, Hao Tian, who was fiercely battling Er Jun Tian, had just cut off one of Er Jun Tian's arms when his back turned ice-cold, his body as if frozen.
All the gray mist in the surrounding space flowed like numerous streams, converging at his back.
"Hua!"
The gray-eyed San Yingtian's body materialized out of thin air, the tip of the curse sword in his hand at Hao Tian's back.
Although the Heavenly Punishment Divine Light erupting from the Heavenly Punishment Divine Armor grew increasingly dazzling, the sword tip still slowly pierced in.
The Heavenly Punishment Divine Armor was about to be broken!
This scene stunned even the armless Er Jun Tian opposite.
The terrifying aura on San Yingtian's body was too intimidating.
"Puchi!"
The gray curse sword pierced through Hao Tian's back, emerging from his chest.
Hao Tian's body trembled violently, a hoarse sound coming from his throat. His raised head had its pupils gradually eroded by gray curse power, the black area shrinking.
There was no blood on the sword tip.
All the blood was absorbed by the blood-drinking curse on the blade.
The entire Gray Sea fell silent in that instant.
At the same time, the starry sky outside Wangchuan turned blood red.
Gandharva's body was crushed to pieces by an Ancestor's footprint, turning into blood mist, dyeing billions of miles of star domain red.
She had chased Ksitigarbha King into the space channel formed by the Nether Sea. Unable to engage the Nether Ancestor's true body directly, she could help Ksitigarbha King hold back Meng Huang'e.
But the Nether Ancestor's cultivation realm was unimaginably high. Even with several projections split off, and Ksitigarbha King burning Ancestor divine blood, they still retreated step by step.
She wanted to share the pressure for Ksitigarbha King, not wanting their first meeting after over a million years to be a farewell.
But the Nether Ancestor merely stepped across space, crushing her physical body and expelling her from the space channel.
Strands of spiritual power thoughts fell into the starry sky outside Wangchuan. Slowly, Gandharva recondensed her aged body.
Even more aged, even her hair could not be preserved, becoming sparse.
Gandharva gazed at the blood-red star sea, as if she could see through space, witnessing Ksitigarbha King and the Nether Ancestor in combat. This battle seemed truly like an egg striking a stone, with no chance of victory.
How could the Nether Ancestor, who had achieved eternal life in the River of Time, be resisted by them?
But how could she resign herself to fate?
Gandharva's face was pale, but her eyes grew redder and redder. She shouted, "Meng Naihe!"
Meng Naihe, who had been knocked into the Santu River by Tan Tuo Dizang, had blood holes all over his body from punches, as tattered as a sieve.
When he crawled out of the Santu River, he heard Gandharva's voice, their eyes meeting.
Whether it was the blood connection between relatives or just this collision of gazes, Meng Naihe understood what she wanted to do!
"Is there no other choice? Perhaps..." Meng Naihe said.
"What nonsense are you talking about? The life-and-death calamity has already begun, and Tianhuang is the first to bear the brunt. It's death either way. Since death is certain, why can't the Meng family choose their own way to die? I'm not asking for your consent; I'm telling you to cooperate. If the ancestors blame us, I'll take the responsibility!"
"Clan annihilation with heaven's end, all thoughts forge war soul."
Gandharva formed hand seals, and then her soul and body ignited, even the blood-stained starry sky burning along with her.
Meng Naihe closed his eyes in pain, gritting his teeth, his inner struggle beyond words. Opening his eyes again, he roared almost madly, "Fine! Then use the Clan Annihilation Art!"
He knew that Ksitigarbha King's battle with the Nether Ancestor must be going badly, the situation far more dangerous than he imagined, otherwise how could Gandharva make such a decision?
This was a desperate decision!
Gandharva's decisiveness did not mean she was not in pain.
The Clan Annihilation Art was the Meng family's last offensive technique, very similar to the Death Clan's "Death God Sacrifice," but more radical.
Once the technique was cast, all Meng clan members would have their bodies and souls burn, paying the greatest price of total clan annihilation to fight the enemy to the death. Even against the heavens, they would perish together.
Throughout the Tianhuang universe, Meng family descendants scattered across the starry sky all heard Gandharva and Meng Naihe's voices in their minds: "Clan annihilation with heaven's end, all thoughts forge war soul."
Wanliu Realm was the convergence point of countless tributaries of the Santu River, forming a secret realm that was the Meng family's ancestral land.
The cursed Meng Family Third Master was the strongest left to guard the Meng family, having reached the Indestructible Infinite level, but now his body was withered and thin.
Standing atop the divine mountain, he looked toward Wangchuan, his expression between a smile and a cry, hoarsely saying, "Since it is Father and Master's will, the Meng clan members naturally obey."
Those who had reached a certain cultivation level could refuse the Clan Annihilation Art. But if the entire clan was destroyed, what meaning was there in living alone? Naturally, they would live and die with the clan.
Unknown to anyone, the reason Meng Family Third Master's cultivation far surpassed his two elder brothers was that, in his youth, he had coincidentally entered the Gray Sea and secretly taken Gandharva as his teacher.
Although Gandharva seemed to hate the men of the Meng family deeply because of the Meng family head's decision back then, she was not as extreme and radical as Kong Fannin. She still remembered the bloodline and familial ties.
At least she thought highly of Meng Family Third Master, believing he could be trained as the next family head of the Meng family.
Of course, that no longer mattered now.
As the Clan Annihilation Art was cast, billions of Meng clan members turned to ash in the flames, and a blood-red war soul condensed in the starry sky.
The outside world knew nothing of what was happening in Tianhuang, and even Half-Ancestors could sense nothing.
All heavenly secrets and auras were cut off.
In this calm, Xuanyuan Second returned to the Realm of Life and Death Star. Just as his feet landed on the Tianhuang Ferry, a stunning figure walked toward him.