Chapter 4145: A New Era Awaits
The Fourth Confucian Ancestor sat beneath the Bluefall Pass, his back against the gate's stone pillar, his body curled into a tight ball. In the distance were thick gray mist and dust, with beams of destruction occasionally flashing through.
Hearing footsteps behind him, he looked up at the crowd emerging from the Life-Death Realm and let out a hoarse chuckle: "Didn't I tell you? With this old man here, no one can cross the Bluefall Pass."
The Fourth Confucian Ancestor's body was very transparent, like a human-shaped bubble, on the verge of shattering and disappearing at any moment.
But the smile on his face was exceptionally bright.
In this battle of wits against the Immortal, they, these ant-like cultivators, had won! The victory was brutal, but it was also exhilarating.
Who says the old and withered are like the setting sun, frail and easily bullied by children?
The setting sun burns out, shatters into pieces, and goes out with a blaze. Indeed, many of the older generation of cultivators had died, but a new generation of cultivators had risen, like tender green shoots sprouting from the ashes, carrying the hopes and visions of those who came before, continuing the journey forward.
The future is promising!
"Amitabha!"
Fanchen, Cihang Venerable, and Bore all bowed respectfully to the Fourth Confucian Ancestor.¹
If not for the Fourth Confucian Ancestor guarding the Bluefall Pass, vowing to never retreat, the Life-Death Realm behind them would have become their tomb of lost souls.
Zhang Ruochen walked step by step to the Fourth Confucian Ancestor's side, gazing ahead, his posture tall and proud, his bearing unyielding. "From now on, I'll take over here."
The Fourth Confucian Ancestor nodded, then closed his eyes, as if he had fallen asleep from exhaustion.²
The entire Gray Sea, having suffered an unimaginable impact earlier, was now half liquid and half gaseous. The gray mist was thicker, and many places in the space were fractured.
One must know that the Gray Sea was boundless and had existed since time immemorial.
Power below the Ancestor level could never have damaged it to such an extent.
The eight war cities of the Eight Divisions Followers were all reduced to ruins.
Planets serving as Divine Thrones floated like islands in the Gray Sea. One Divine Realm World after another was broken and desolate, silent and dead.
All living beings and undead had been reduced to nothingness. The Eight Divisions Followers were completely annihilated, down to the last clan, and even the gods had not survived.
It was a scene of utter extinction, evoking sighs of regret.
In this great battle, Heavenly Venerable-level and Half-Ancestor-level experts had fallen one by one. How could ordinary cultivators possibly survive?
This was a true great calamity. Although it had not spread to the Heavenly Court Universe or the Hell Realm, it had destroyed the Tianhuang Universe.
The Eight Divisions Followers, who had not yet emerged to sweep across the world, had turned to ashes in the calamity. Their era, which should have come, never arrived. They could not recreate the glory of "Wind and Thunder, Eighty Thousand Towers; Corpses and Ghosts, Forge the Nether City."
Outside the Bluefall Pass, the remnants of the calamity stretched for millions of miles. Huang Tian, Shang Tian, and Lanshi Shen crawled out one after another from the ruins beneath the battlefield. Their bodies were riddled with wounds that were difficult to heal, making them look like moving, tattered corpses.²
Their eyes were filled with fear as they peered into the sky beyond.
The Gray Sea had developed many cracks, and the outside world was now visible.
The Wangchuan River was destroyed!
That plain of bones, accumulated over countless eons, had been scattered by the earlier Ancestor-level energy storm, leaving nothing behind.
"It was the Ancestor's self-detonation of the Divine Source!"
Erjun Tian and Qinglu Divine King stood by the Gray Sea, their emotions unable to calm for a long time.
They had personally experienced such a terrifying moment.
Fortunately, the Bluefall Pass was far enough from the storm's center. Fortunately, the bone plain of the Wangchuan River and the Gray Sea had absorbed most of the impact.
Otherwise, even as Half-Ancestors, they would not have survived.
Lanshi Shen looked around but could not find a single surviving Stone Clan cultivator. His heart was in turmoil, and he muttered to himself, "How could Dizang Wang have detonated his Ancestor Divine Source in front of the Nether Ancestor? That was the Nether Ancestor, the all-powerful Nether Ancestor."
Qinglu Divine King frowned. "It seems we are no longer in the Tianhuang Universe... Why can't I sense the Nether Ancestor's true body?"
Zhang Ruochen reversed the flow of heavenly secrets and saw several scenes from the past. His heart was filled with unspeakable pain and heaviness.
Clan extinction technique, Ancestor's death. Meng Naihe, Gandharva.
To delay the Nether Ancestor, to stop the Minor Calamity, to buy time for the Gray Sea battlefield, they had paid with blood and tears.
"The Nether Ancestor is immortal and eternal. We have not lost, not yet." Erjun Tian could not accept this fact, his gaze fixed on the Bluefall Pass.
Inside the gate, the Death Divine Light and Life Divine Light in the Life-Death Realm had gone out.
Even the Life-Death Lamp had been taken by Saint Si Daoshi, who held it in his hand.
The Life-Death Calamity had ended.
Zhang Ruochen met Erjun Tian's gaze without flinching. "An Ancestor self-detonating their Divine Source is rare in history. The Nether Ancestor at his peak might have been able to withstand it. But the Nether Ancestor now is too weak. For him to dissipate into the world alongside Dizang Wang—isn't that only natural?"
As if to confirm Zhang Ruochen's words, the one-eighth portion of power belonging to the Nether Ancestor's Nether Soldier Scroll stopped contending with Hao Tian's blood energy and soul spirit. All its rules, order, and Ancestor Qi converged into a mass of Nether Light, flying toward the storm's center beyond the sky.
Hao Tian's blood energy and soul spirit, like two rivers, tried to pursue.
But the mass of Nether Light directly leaped through space and vanished without a trace.
Zhang Ruochen's eyes narrowed, and his aura surged. He waved his hand, sending the Life-Death Lamp flying out, attempting to cross space and leave that mass of Nether Light behind.
This doppelganger, containing one-eighth of the Nether Ancestor's power, was extremely valuable for research, allowing one to comprehend the deepest mysteries of the Nether Soldier Great Dao.
It also contained part of the Nether Ancestor's spiritual consciousness, making it even more valuable than the Nether Soldier Great Dao.
"Whoosh!"
The Heaven-Splitting Axe flew through the air, spinning like a windmill, and clashed with the Life-Death Lamp.
Space there trembled violently. At the same time, Erjun Tian's body ignited with blazing flames, turning a fiery gold. He struck out with a palm.
In an instant, he crossed space and appeared before Zhang Ruochen. His palm strike was fierce and powerful, carrying the peak Half-Ancestor's strength, seemingly intent on destroying the Bluefall Pass behind him and killing Cihang Venerable, Bore, and the others beneath the gate.
Zhang Ruochen remained calm, striking out with a palm that moved after Erjun Tian's but arrived first, colliding with his palm print.
"Boom!"
Erjun Tian flew back as fast as he had come, crashing all the way into the Gray Sea, stirring up large waves before gradually stabilizing.
Zhang Ruochen stood still, not retreating a single step.
In the space behind him, a massive black-and-white Life-Death Imprint floated, dispersing the impact of Erjun Tian's earlier palm strike.
At that moment, the air seemed to freeze.
Huang Tian and Shang Tian, who had been rushing toward the Bluefall Pass, both slowly stopped, their eyes filled with shock, unable to believe what they had just seen.
Peak Half-Ancestor Erjun Tian had been driven back by Saint Si Daoshi with a single palm strike, while Saint Si Daoshi remained completely unmoved. What level of combat power was this?
It felt like an illusion, too unreal.
Qinglu Divine King stared intently at the tall Daoist figure beneath the gate. The more he looked, the more familiar it seemed. His expression shifted uncertainly, and no one knew what he was thinking.
Erjun Tian was momentarily stunned, but as a peerless cultivator, he quickly steadied his mind. "Is this your true realm?"
In Erjun Tian's view, Saint Si Daoshi's physical body was abnormally powerful, which was already strange.
Moreover, his ability to end the Life-Death Calamity and stop the Death Vortex from spinning was not something an ordinary cultivator could achieve.
"Whoosh!"
The Heaven-Splitting Axe flew back into his hand. It was so heavy that it caused space to cave in. Erjun Tian's body surged with three distinct layers of energy, flowing around him and transforming into three lifelike fire dragons.
"Heaven-Splitting Six Styles: Mountain-Splitting."
He raised the axe with both hands, as if to split the heavens and cleave the earth.
Before the Heaven-Splitting Axe even descended, every cultivator on this land felt their skin burning, a sharp aura cutting at their souls, and all the heavenly and earthly rules in the Gray Sea were thrown into chaotic turmoil.
Zhang Ruochen did not underestimate a peak Half-Ancestor. He did not try to catch it with his bare hands.
The Abyssal Divine Sword appeared in his hand at some point, tracing a crescent arc from bottom to top, clashing with the descending Heaven-Splitting Axe.
"Bang!"
The powerful energy storm forced all cultivators back. How could Erjun Tian have imagined that his full-power strike would be so easily blocked?
"Is this all you've got? Peak Half-Ancestor is nothing more than this."
After saying this lightly, Zhang Ruochen exerted force in his arm, his bones and muscles rumbling like thunder.
The edge of the Abyssal Divine Sword dragged along the blade of the Heaven-Splitting Axe, the power increasing layer by layer, until it sent Erjun Tian flying backward.
Zhang Ruochen seemed to teleport through space, shifting his position to midair, and thrust his sword straight down.
Erjun Tian raised his axe to block.
He couldn't.
"Bang!"
The Heaven-Splitting Axe slammed into Erjun Tian's chest. He spat out a mouthful of blood and, axe and all, crashed into the gray ruins of the ground, sinking to an unknown depth.
Too strong, utterly unbeatable.
In just two moves, he had made a peak Half-Ancestor spit blood, unable to fight back.
Qinglu Divine King and Lanshi Shen didn't hesitate. They fled in two different directions, burning their indestructible matter to push their speed to the limit.
"Whoosh!"
A black-and-white Life-Death Imprint emerged from space, cutting off Lanshi Shen's escape route.
A flicker of helplessness and bitterness passed through Lanshi Shen's eyes, then turned into cold determination. He turned and flew toward the Bluefall Pass, letting out a long roar, intending to self-detonate his Divine Source and perish together with his enemy.
This was the last dignity of a Heavenly Venerable-level expert!
"Bang!"
The black-and-white Life-Death Imprint struck him. His already broken stone body turned to powder and vanished within the imprint.
Moments later, a forty-fifth mass of Dao Light was born within Zhang Ruochen's body.²
By absorbing the life fruits of the Eight Divisions Followers and the entire Tianhuang Universe, Zhang Ruochen had gained the knowledge and souls of countless beings. His understanding and insight into the Wuji Divine Dao had reached the peak Half-Ancestor level.
As long as he had enough energy to absorb, he could quickly condense more Dao Light.
At least for now, Zhang Ruochen felt no bottleneck.
With Zhang Ruochen's mastery of space, which was formless and invisible, how could Qinglu Divine King possibly escape?
Seeing Zhang Ruochen standing before him, Qinglu Divine King chose to stop and bowed deeply. "The Nether Ancestor is dead; a new era awaits. The three realms and myriad paths bow only to the Imperial Dust."
The destructive energy of an Ancestor's self-detonation of the Divine Source far surpassed the fluctuations of Zhang Ruochen's earlier "Reversal of Dao Techniques, Return to Nothingness."
In just half an hour, the shattered space had extended to one light-year away. This destruction speed was countless times faster than the speed of light.
It was easy to imagine that, in the near future, this place would become a desolate void similar to the Dark Great Triangle Star Domain, but even more vast and dangerous.
Heavenly Mother, Cankun Master, Lady Shiji, Wen Tianjun, Yama Tai Shang, and the Space Chaos Worm all fled with all their might, but they were still caught by the destruction storm one light-year away, all injured.
The weaker Yama Tai Shang's body exploded into a cloud of blood, scattered by the storm.
The Space Chaos Worm, pulled into Cankun Master's sleeve, suffered the least damage.
Everyone's speed gradually slowed.
Because the most dangerous moment had passed.
Heavenly Mother's face was even paler than her white hair. "If the Nether Ancestor is not dead, he must be at his weakest right now. Are we really just going to flee like this?"
"You want to go back?" The others present were all startled by her bold idea.
Wen Tianjun barely managed to keep his body intact. "It's probably not that simple! This is an Ancestor's self-detonation of the Divine Source. The destructive energy at the core won't dissipate for tens of millions of years. Right now, the energy is at its most violent. Even a Half-Ancestor approaching would likely be torn apart."
Cankun Master nodded. "That's right. At the core of an Ancestor's self-detonation of the Divine Source, all kinds of rules have changed. The past and future might even be mixed together. Approaching now is no different from experiencing the Ancestor's self-detonation all over again."
Even standing one light-year away, the energy was so violent that only a Half-Ancestor could withstand it.
Yama Tai Shang's spiritual power slowly gathered, forming a body. "This is an Ancestor's self-detonation of the Divine Source, unprecedented in history. Even if the Nether Ancestor is an Immortal, he should be dead!"
Heavenly Mother had a strange sensation, as if she heard the sound of flowing water.
"Rustle, rustle!"
In the chaotic and violent space around them, strands of Nether Light appeared like countless streams, gradually solidifying and flowing slowly.
These Nether Light streams filled the void with a diameter of one light-year, weaving among the crowd and extending further into the distance.
Wen Tianjun frowned deeply, watching the extending Nether Light streams connect with the branches of the Santu River in the Dihuang Universe.
"Can an Immortal truly be immortal and indestructible?"
Cankun Master let out a long sigh, his eyes peering toward the center of the destruction storm.
All the Nether Light streams and Santu River branches converged there.
Like a fetus about to be born, it was now gestating.
Heavenly Mother said, "It's the Nether River Great Dao that the Nether Ancestor separated earlier. The Nether River Great Dao had already extended throughout the Dihuang Universe, escaping the destruction storm of Dizang Wang's self-detonation. It seems this battle is not over yet."
"Whoosh!"
Heavenly Mother sent the Blood Fiend Bell flying toward the Nether Light center one light-year away.
But this divine artifact, carrying her peak Half-Ancestor power, sank like a stone into the sea, disappearing without a trace, as if it had turned into gas and dust.
Everyone's hearts sank.
Could the storm's core truly not be approached?
Were they really going to watch the Nether Ancestor be reborn?
"Let this humble monk go. You all go and save the living beings of the Dihuang Universe. This storm is of a destructive level." Cankun Master smiled faintly, taking out the Square Heaven Painting Halberd, having already made a certain decision in his heart.
"Let me go instead. This is the matter of our universe. What does it have to do with you, an outsider? I have the Houtu Wedding Gown to protect me..."
Heavenly Mother had just reached this point when, in the direction behind them, they saw a figure in the distance. She walked among the Santu River branches and Nether Light, quickly arriving not far from the group.
Everyone stared at Qishier Pin Lian, their eyes filled with vigilance.
Only Cankun Master looked at the Reason Karma Qin on her back.
"The Nether Ancestor's life is mine. No one can compete with me for it! Of course, if you want to seek death, follow me."
Qishier Pin Lian's voice was light. Leaving these words, she resolutely walked toward the center of the destruction storm.
"It's the Reason Karma Qin! How did the Reason Karma Qin fall into her hands?" Heavenly Mother was puzzled.
Yama Tai Shang pondered for a moment. "Could she be saying this deliberately, actually to stop us from completely killing the Nether Ancestor?"
"Let her go. If she could get the Reason Karma Qin from Kong Fannu's hands, she deserves our trust once." Cankun Master understood some inside information and chose to believe Nutian Shenzun.
"Nether Ancestor, I've come to kill you!"
Qishier Pin Lian walked step by step toward the center of the destruction storm, her steps firm, her body constantly pierced by unknown fragments.
And opposite her, the mass of Nether Light representing the Nether Ancestor's Nether Soldier Great Dao flew out of the Gray Sea and rushed toward the center of the destruction storm at top speed.
The two great Daos merged, and a bright wave of light spread outward. The Nether Ancestor's power recovered significantly.
"Who sent you?"
The Nether Ancestor's slightly weak voice came from the vast void.
"Sent by my past, by the former Withering Death Art curse, by a million years of resentment."
Qishier Pin Lian took down the Reason Karma Qin, holding it in both hands.
Ancestral Flame seeped out from the Ancestor Imprint, igniting her entire body. She transformed into a human torch, emitting polar daylight that illuminated the entire Dihuang Universe, clashing with the surging Nether Light.
The Nether Light was burned through, unable to stop her steps.
"Ancestral Flame, Polar Daylight; Orchid and Mugwort Burn Together. Nether Ancestor, today I will burn away your long-lived matter and eternal divine soul, along with this Reason Karma Qin, ending all karma from ancient times."
Upon reaching the center of the destruction storm, Qishier Pin Lian's body was already broken and tattered, partially revealing her original lotus form, barely held together by threads, with the power of space and time tightly binding her body.²
Ahead, the Nether Ancestor had only just begun to condense his chaotic and massive body.