Chapter 4183: The Ancestor Hidden
The fist force was domineering, causing the fist path rules—one of the seventy-two supreme sacred paths in the universe—to vibrate and leap with activity. The energy storm was sensed by many deities watching Eternal Heaven.
The universe was like a mirror-like lake, shattered by a single stone.
This punch did not just break the divine gate of the God Realm; it shattered the ancestral might of Archduke Murong.
Chi Yao had, in a sense, stepped on a spiritual power ancestor to establish her own supreme imperial authority, proving to all cultivators under heaven that after Emperor Dust’s death, she could hold up the Sword Realm.
The Sword Realm’s empress was her, and its female emperor was also her.
“Emperor Dust cuts the divine rope, Yao Emperor breaks the divine gate. They are conveying their spiritual will to all cultivators. Can the God Realm truly tolerate this? Next, the winds and waves will surely rise again.”
Guye Jing was deeply worried, glancing at Luo Sha not far away.
She noticed, however, that this Rakshasa clan female emperor, though her gaze was fixed on the center of the energy storm in Lihentian, was spreading her slender five fingers and gesturing in the void, as if trying to grasp something.
Strange words came from her seductive red lips: “So white and big. I might never get a chance to touch them again. A pity, truly a pity…”
Guye Jing had no idea that, upon seeing Chi Yao’s majestic demeanor, Luo Sha’s mind recalled that morning in the Seven Star Divine Palace when she had awakened.
In that state, Chi Yao was delicate and tender, her skin as if it could be pinched to water.
Luo Sha’s heart had stirred, and she couldn’t help but kiss her.
Especially the two dazzling white mounds in her memory—truly large, with beautiful curves and eye-catching crimson. Luo Sha had wanted to touch them then but failed.
Guye Jing frowned, feeling that Luo Sha’s mindset was far too optimistic. The great upheaval in the universe seemed irrelevant to her, as if she were still lost in her own world at a time like this. She said, “Female Emperor, do you truly believe Emperor Dust is still alive?”
Luo Sha withdrew her hand, playing with the strands of hair hanging over her chest with her fingertips, her mind gradually focusing. “Hard to say! If the rumors are true—that back then, Brother Dust’s personality change and self-detonation were deliberate, a way to escape the chess game of the Immortal—then why would he reveal himself so easily?”
“To reveal himself, his cultivation would at least need to reach a level where the Immortal cannot harm him.”
“The two swords failed to cut the Radiant Heaven Divine Rope, clearly showing that Brother Dust’s cultivation hasn’t reached that height.”
“He spent so long laying his plans, made such great sacrifices, and barely escaped the chess game. Revealing himself now is highly unreasonable.”
Guye Jing said, “But the heavenly secrets, aura, and dao methods all match. Could even Archduke Murong, a spiritual power ancestor, fail to distinguish truth from falsehood?”
Luo Sha said, “That’s because everyone thinks Brother Dust revealing himself now is very reasonable. If he doesn’t show up, the entire universe will have only the God Realm’s voice. Deities will follow, sentient beings will blindly obey, and the power of all living things will be seized by the God Realm!”
“With that psychological expectation, when it becomes reality, no one will doubt it.”
“Qishier Pin Lian forced Brother Dust to reveal himself by killing. The Immortal used the momentum of the world—the great trend forcing you to show yourself. Would you reveal yourself or not?”
Guye Jing said, “If that’s the case, doesn’t it prove Emperor Dust has truly fallen? I would rather hope that one was the real Emperor Dust.”
“True or false, who can say?”
Luo Sha sighed softly, “No one can outmaneuver the Immortal in laying plans. If that dead man is still alive and wants to defeat the Immortal, he must first find a way to muddy the waters, making the Immortal err amidst truth and falsehood. Only errors create opportunities. So, he would never hide completely but choose to hide in plain sight.”
Standing nearby, Xia Yu heard this and raised an eyebrow slightly, unable to help but admire Luo Sha’s intelligence.
“A pity the Nether Ancestor is dead! If He were still alive, the universe would be bipolar, with Immortals scheming against and restraining each other. The waters would be murkier, and Brother Dust’s chances greater.”
Luo Sha suddenly asked, “Do you think the Nether Ancestor has truly fallen?”
“If the Nether Ancestor hadn’t died, why would the God Realm’s Immortal have emerged?” Xia Yu said.
“Perhaps the Nether Ancestor thought the same.”
After saying this, Luo Sha laughed herself.
Even she felt it sounded like a joke.
Guye Jing exclaimed in shock, “Yu Huang… you… you’re burning…”
“Whoosh!”
Luo Sha teleported beside Xia Yu, activating the Imperial Talisman to seal off the external world.
Then, she used spiritual power techniques to help Xia Yu extinguish the unknown flames on her body.
She feared it was a curse from outside, trying to kill Xia Yu.
“It’s the burial shroud—the burial shroud is burning.”
Xia Yu tried to remove the burial shroud, but it was too late.
The flames grew fiercer, burning flesh and penetrating bone.
The piercing pain felt as if it would incinerate even her soul into green smoke.
“It’s the blood of the Ancestor Hidden burning.”
Luo Sha’s face changed in alarm, and she immediately retreated, not daring to touch the flames on Xia Yu.
The burial shroud, representing the legacy of the corpse burier of White Cang Star, was the burial shroud of the Ancestor Hidden.
On the burial shroud were traces of the Ancestor Hidden’s ancient blood.
For some unknown reason, this ancient blood seemed stimulated, suddenly becoming highly active, turning into flames that burned the burial shroud to ashes.
Xia Yu’s body blazed like a torch, crackling as it burned.
Even though she was skilled in the path of fire and had cultivated divine flames, she could not withstand it.
Luo Sha saw Xia Yu’s divine soul trying to escape, but it couldn’t break through the flames. Each attempt failed.
Strands of divine soul were incinerated into green smoke.
“Such powerful flames—the physical body can’t be saved!”
Luo Sha mobilized all her spiritual power, merging it into the Imperial Talisman.
The Imperial Talisman erupted with starlike radiance, charging into the flames and crashing into Xia Yu’s body, trying to bring out her divine sea, consciousness sea, and divine soul.
If these three could be preserved, the physical body could be remolded.
But as soon as the Imperial Talisman entered Xia Yu’s consciousness sea, it too caught fire.
Part of her memories were burned away.
The life-and-death mark left by Zhang Ruochen, along with the memory of their meeting, was incinerated at that moment.
Luo Sha knew well that some top-tier powerhouse had set up measures in Xia Yu’s consciousness sea to prevent anyone from soul-searching and uncovering unknown great secrets.
Given Xia Yu’s considerable cultivation, who could have set up such measures in her consciousness sea?
In the brief moment of Luo Sha’s contemplation, a battle scroll unfolded from Xia Yu’s divine sea, releasing a haoran (righteous) aura that absorbed all the flames burning her body.
It was the “Haoran Fentian Tu” (Righteous Blazing Heaven Diagram) that Zhang Ruochen had given Xia Yu.
“It’s the power of the Fourth Confucian Ancestor.”
The Imperial Talisman, carrying Luo Sha’s spiritual power thoughts, silently flew out of Xia Yu’s body.
With the battle scroll’s appearance, even the ancestral blood flames had to submit.
Inside Xia Yu’s charred, coal-like body, blood still flowed, not yet dried up. Her vitality gradually revived, and flesh and skin grew back on her bones.
Moments later.
Her physical form reappeared, her body snow-white like jade, her long hair black as a waterfall.
Luo Sha untied her purple-red outer robe and draped it over Xia Yu’s completely exposed body, her eyes always carrying a scrutinizing look. “That battle scroll—did the Fourth Confucian Ancestor give it to you?”
A trace of confusion appeared in Xia Yu’s eyes. With a thought, she summoned the “Haoran Fentian Tu” from her divine sea and held it in her hand.
She had no idea where the scroll had come from.
Luo Sha smiled, “Forget it, asking is useless. Your memories of that scroll have already burned away.”
“Does the Female Emperor suspect I’ve secretly defected to the God Realm?” Xia Yu’s eyes held a hint of coldness.
Luo Sha said, “I trust the judgment of Brother Dust, Patriarch Xue Jue, and the corpse burier. They wouldn’t misjudge a person. Perhaps this is just the God Realm’s scheme to sow discord.”
Guye Jing found it hard to believe that Luo Sha could still smile after such a major incident.
And how could she trust Xia Yu so easily?
Without even investigating?
After the Undying War God, Patriarch Xue Jue, and the Ice Emperor went into seclusion, Xia Yu held significant sway in the Undying Blood Clan. If she secretly sided with the God Realm, the consequences would be dire.
Even if trust existed, precautions were necessary.
At the very least, she should be placed under house arrest.
If not for the burial shroud burning at a critical moment of life and death, who would have thought Xia Yu’s divine sea still hid a battle scroll from the Fourth Confucian Ancestor?
Even if Xia Yu had lost her memories now, she must have known before that the scroll belonged to the Fourth Confucian Ancestor.
She must have secretly contacted the Fourth Confucian Ancestor.
If she hadn’t defected, why hide the scroll in her divine sea?
In Luo Sha’s mind, several hazy threads converged into a clear logical line.
What she thought of was not the Fourth Confucian Ancestor.
But the mysterious daoist she had met once in the Bone Clan.
That mysterious daoist had traveled with Xuanyuan Second.
Xuanyuan Second called him a clan elder of the Xuanyuan family, but later, Xuanyuan Second and the Black-and-White Daoist attacked the Bone God Temple, destroyed the main altar of the Hell Realm, ambushed the Divine Martial Envoy “Wuxing,” and even provoked Archduke Murong and Jiuding.
Luo Sha had speculated afterward that the backer of Xuanyuan Second and the Black-and-White Daoist was likely that mysterious daoist.
In the past year, too many major events had occurred.
All arrows pointed at Xuanyuan Second and the Black-and-White Daoist.
Everyone thought their backer was the Dark Lord or the Hongmeng Black Dragon. But Luo Sha disagreed, because before Xuanyuan Second attacked the God Realm, he had just returned from the Earth Desolate Universe.
As for the Black-and-White Daoist, before declaring war on the God Realm, he was still being bullied by the Ghost Lord.
Thus, it seemed that after being bullied by the Ghost Lord, something happened that strengthened his resolve to confront the God Realm. Coincidentally, Xuanyuan Second and the mysterious daoist were nearby at the time.
So, Luo Sha had reason to believe that the mysterious daoist was not the Dark Lord or the Hongmeng Black Dragon, but the Life-and-Death Daoist who had returned from the Earth Desolate Universe.
At that time, the Life-and-Death Daoist had likely met Xia Yu and given her the Fourth Confucian Ancestor’s “Haoran Fentian Tu.”
Only this was the most reasonable explanation.
But it introduced two more inconsistencies.
First, why would the Life-and-Death Daoist secretly meet Xia Yu?
Second, the Life-and-Death Daoist could have simply erased Xia Yu’s memories. Why go to such trouble to preserve them? Why leave the “Haoran Fentian Tu” to protect her?
This style of action didn’t seem like an ancestor.
To put it nicely, it was cherishing beauty. To put it bluntly, it was lacking decisiveness…
It was too much like someone’s way of doing things.
“Seeing Xia Yu wearing the burial shroud, he couldn’t bear it, so he met her in secret and gave her the ‘Haoran Fentian Tu’ to make up for his guilt. This kind of self-righteous, soft-hearted behavior among top-tier powerhouses—it seems only he would do it.”
Thinking this, Luo Sha’s lips curled up, and she smiled, “I’m about to catch you red-handed again.”
“So the Ancestor Hidden has indeed emerged!”
Guye Jing’s voice rang out.
The three women’s gazes all turned toward Eternal Heaven.
The Ancestor Hidden stepped out from the collapsed gate of the God Realm. Though a corpse, he appeared no older than thirty, possessing both the masculine dominance of Patriarch Xue Jue and the noble coldness of the Ice Emperor.
His pupils were like amber, crystal clear, radiating an unparalleled captivating charm.
His entire skin was white as fine jade.
This whiteness was more of a sickly pallor.
After leaving the God Realm, he trod on the void, step by step arriving beneath the Seventy-Two Layer Tower, entering the Black Sea.
His eyes closed, breathing naturally.
Instantly, wisps of blood qi from the Black Sea and the Hongmeng Black Dragon’s skeleton surged toward his body.
On his back, there was originally only a pair of blood wings flowing with golden ancestral patterns. But now, the blood wings unfolded layer by layer, supporting one blood wing space after another.
Moments later, thirty-one pairs of ancestral blood wings appeared on his back.
“Boom!”
Blood-colored divine light burst from his body, triggering many chain reactions in the universe.
The burning of Xia Yu’s burial shroud was one of them.
…
Shang Tian narrowed his eyes. “Even the corpse of the Ancestor Hidden was dug up by the God Realm.”
With the corpses of the Ancestral Dragon and the Buddha Ancestor Kasyapa already unearthed, Zhang Ruochen was not surprised by the Ancestor Hidden’s appearance. He said, “Isn’t the Ancestor Hidden himself a corpse? What state is he in now?”
Legend had it that the Houtu Empress buried one of the Nine Great Witch Ancestors, “Huangtian Dadi,” then scattered her own cultivation, turning into a patch of White Cang Blood Soil, and was buried together with “Huangtian Dadi,” hoping to revive her beloved.
Countless ages later, Huangtian Dadi came back to life.
But he was no longer human—he became a blood-sucking, humanoid creature.
This was the first Undying Blood Clan in the universe.
Huangtian Dadi became the past, and as the Undying Blood Clan, he was known as the Ancestor Hidden, famous through the ages.
Shang Tian had heard this legend and said, “The Ancestor Hidden is of the Undying Blood Clan, not the Corpse Clan. He is a living being, not an undead. The Houtu Empress sacrificed her immortal cultivation to give him a second life. But the one beneath the Seventy-Two Layer Tower is thick with corpse qi.”
“Can the Heavenly Venerable discern his cultivation level? Is he another new ancestral-level spirit cultivated by the God Realm?”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Not yet, but his cultivation is extremely strong. Once he absorbs the blood qi of the Hongmeng Black Dragon and the White Cang Star matter, the situation will be hard to predict.”
The White Cang Star had been refined into the Hongmeng Black Dragon’s body.
The White Cang Blood Soil within the White Cang Star was clearly of great use to the Ancestor Hidden’s corpse.
“Could he break through to the ancestral realm a third time?” Shang Tian’s mood was heavy.
Zhang Ruochen’s mood was heavier than Shang Tian’s, because the emergence of the Ancestor Hidden’s corpse, aiming to chongji (assault/break through) the ancestral realm, would surely take the pair of blood wings left behind back then.
Those blood wings, wrapped in the Houtu wedding robe, contained the most vigorous ancestral blood qi and ancestral dao methods.
Patriarch Xue Jue’s situation had suddenly become extremely dangerous.
When that time came, could Zhang Ruochen stand by and do nothing?
“Is this aimed at me?”
Zhang Ruochen muttered to himself, feeling that with the Ancestor Hidden’s appearance, an invisible sword in the darkness was already pressed against his heart. As long as he didn’t move, the sword posed no threat.
But once he moved, it might mean death. (End of chapter)