Chapter 4240: At All Costs
“Swish! Swish!”
Dense sacred artifact war weapons converged into murderous, glowing rivers in the sky above the God Realm, surging rapidly, beating the God Realm’s cultivators into a rout.
Some turned into blood mist, others into energy particles.
This was a cosmic-level war—kill or be killed.
“Boom!”
Empress Luo Sha rode a hundred-beast war chariot, charging at the forefront of the Rakshasa clan’s army.
Hundreds of divine beasts ran ahead of the chariot, some radiating golden light for ten thousand zhang, others blazing with crimson flames for a thousand li. Amid the roars of beasts and the thunderous noise, dust flew high, leveling mountains and ancient city passes.
“Swish! Swish!”
From the Shura clan’s army, twenty-four divine temples flew out to clear the path, destroying the God Realm’s formation towers and altars one by one.
The God Realm’s Ancestor had never looked down on the cultivators of the lower cosmic forces. In fact, he had always feared them setting aside their differences and uniting to attack, which was why he had used many divisive tactics.
Now, with myriad realms and clans, both living and dead, charging together into the God Realm, no longer restraining or fighting each other, the God Realm naturally had to defend with all its might, preventing them from storming the Heavenly Beginning Without End Divine Mountain.
At the same time, once the formation towers and altars across the God Realm were destroyed, the rules of heaven and earth would be thrown into chaos, disrupting the countless eons of preparations by the Time-Space Human Ancestor.
His advantages of timing and terrain in the God Realm would be completely lost.
By plowing the courts, sweeping the alleys, leveling the mountains, and severing the rules of heaven and earth, the God Realm would no longer be the Time-Space Human Ancestor’s invincible ground.
…
Above the armies of the various Hell Realm clans, thousands of Divine Throne Planets flew.
Each Divine Throne Planet was a hundred times brighter than a star, containing boundless divine might, moving far faster than the ground forces.
This was an “Infinite Knight Legion” formed by Hell Realm’s God Kings and God Venerables, modeled after the God Realm’s Stellar Knight Legion, using Divine Throne Planets as mounts and formation inscription runes and Ancestor rules to build a unified legion field.
Lady Shiji’s Divine Planet was at the very front of the Infinite Knight Legion.
Lady Shiji stood atop the clouds of the divine planet, dressed in feathered robes and rainbow silks, ribbons fluttering, like a heavenly maiden from a painting. Above her head floated a Finite Ancestor Mark, bounded yet boundless, covering all the Divine Throne Planets.
The billions of Stone Clan cultivators on Lady Shiji’s planet had all mentally prepared to return to dust.
All stones under heaven are formed from accumulated dust.
Returning to dust is not death. As long as the universe still exists and matter is indestructible, sooner or later, the dust will recondense into stone, and they will be reborn.
“On the River of Time, Imperial Dust is being intercepted by multiple Ancestors, and it will be difficult for him to return to the past. The situation is very critical. We must charge to the Heavenly Beginning Without End Divine Mountain at the fastest speed to help him divert some of the God Realm’s power. Everyone must be mentally prepared to fight an Ancestor!” Lady Shiji said.
As an Ancestor herself, Lady Shiji could see the Sword Realm star domain at a glance, see the past, and discern the situation on the River of Time.
“If we’re not going to fight an Ancestor, why bother forming the Infinite Knight Legion? With our strength, dealing with Sovereign Murong is more than enough,” Gong Xuanzang, a radical within the legion, said with intense battle intent.
As a conservative, Blood Absolute Patriarch thought Gong Xuanzang was too cautious and said disdainfully, “Just Murong? A mere remnant corpse seizing a body—what’s the point of picking the softest target? Yan Wushen dares to challenge the Human Ancestor; we at least need to fight the Eternal True Ruler!”
Lady Shiji frowned, feeling that these Infinite Realm cultivators from Hell Realm were too radical and had no idea of an Ancestor’s power.
Just because the girl could heavily wound Sovereign Murong with one strike, and Imperial Dust could defy the half-Ancestor and strike back, did they really think Sovereign Murong was so easily dealt with?
After refining a large amount of Calamity Force, Sovereign Murong’s combat power on the God Realm’s home ground was absolutely greater than that of King Kṣitigarbha back then.
King Kṣitigarbha, in his life-burning state, could hold off the Nether Ancestor for half a day.
Lady Shiji believed that if Sovereign Murong entered a death-defying state, disregarding everything, his combat power would not be much weaker than Corpse Yan and King Kṣitigarbha back then.
After being heavily wounded by the Seventy-Two Layer Tower, her losses were immense, and Lady Shiji could barely maintain her Ancestor realm, which was why she had formed the Infinite Knight Legion. She needed to borrow the cultivation of these Hell Realm Heavenly Venerables, God Kings, and God Venerables to enhance her own combat power.
Ming Bone had awakened part of his previous life’s memories and understood Ancestor-level combat power: “You’re too arrogant. If we face an Ancestor, having even one-tenth of our cultivators survive would already be a blessing from heaven and earth.”
“You’re boosting the enemy’s morale and destroying our own prestige. It’s not like we haven’t fought an Ancestor before!” Undying War God said.
Ming Bone said, “The ones you fought together—A Fuya and Yin—were only Ancestor corpses, a full eight million li away from a true Ancestor.”
Within the legion, only Shi Tian remained calm.
He had never held any hope for this battle from the start, setting out with a mindset of certain death and certain loss. But Lady Shiji was still alive, and Ji Fanxin, suspected to be the Nether Ancestor, had actually joined forces with Zhang Ruochen!
The three words “Zhang Ruochen” were indeed the key to uniting all cultivators in the universe, like raising a banner.
But the six words “Nether Ancestor” and “Ninety-Seventh Level” boosted morale more than any inspiring speech. This was the prestige accumulated over countless eons. Whether she was good or evil, at least everyone absolutely recognized her strength.
“Ahead are the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains!” Shi Tian said.
The Shura clan’s Star Pillar Realm was already vast enough to accommodate one of the ten Hell clans.
But the mountains before them, layer upon layer, dark and towering to the extreme, each peak not much shorter than the Shura Star Pillar Realm.
The material was too heavy, warping space.
Only by piling all the stars in the Yellow Spring Star River together could it compare.
This sight stunned even God Kings and God Venerables, making them suspect it was an illusion by a Spiritual Power Ancestor.
Such mountains could not exist in the universe.
“Have you noticed? The Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains keep rising—could they be alive?” Ming Bone exclaimed.
Lady Shiji’s pupils flashed with Ancestor light, and she said, “All the matter that the God Realm absorbs from the lower cosmic universe settles in the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains, including the Sword Realm star domain devoured by the Sacrificial Calamity Light. How could these mountains not rise?”
“Unimaginable—if the lower cosmic universe were completely sacrificed, how towering would these mountains become?”
Blood Absolute Patriarch let out a deep snort, his blood surging violently with a thunderous roar, and he hurled the Blood Dragon War Halberd.
“Roar!”
The Blood Dragon War Halberd let out a heaven-shaking dragon roar, condensing a blood-red dragon shadow hundreds of thousands of li long. But as soon as it flew into the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains, it was blocked by the Ancestor formation light rising from the peaks.
These formation lights were like a mist, not particularly dazzling.
With a “bang,” the Blood Dragon War Halberd was torn apart by the formation light, turning into scrap metal.
“What’s going on? The Blood Dragon War Halberd is no ordinary weapon—it can wound a half-Ancestor—how was it destroyed just like that?”
Gasps of cold air echoed through the Infinite Knight Legion.
They had been talking about challenging the Eternal True Ruler, but the reality was that even breaking the formation of the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains was no easy task.
Each of them was an old monster from the universe, not ignorant. The formation light that had just risen was definitely not the work of an ordinary Spiritual Power Ancestor.
It was most likely the arrangement of the most terrifying Immortal in the God Realm.
Blood Absolute Patriarch was stunned for a moment, looked at his empty hands, and pointed to a corner of the mountain range: “Don’t be fooled. Look, that divine mountain was destroyed by Hao Tian’s Xuan Yuan Halberd, collapsing into a wasteland spanning a billion li. We just need to form a battle formation and strike together, and we can break through the Time-Space Human Ancestor’s Ancestor formation and charge up…”
“Ahem!”
Ming Bone coughed, interrupting Blood Absolute Patriarch, and said, “Hao Tian’s situation seems very bad. How about we go help him first?”
In the distance, amid the ruined divine mountain wasteland.
The Heavenly Punishment Divine Light on Hao Tian fiercely clashed with the Chaos Jade Light on White Jade Divine Sovereign, the destructive energy turning into surging waves like a sea of death, with no cultivator daring to approach.
The Heavenly Punishment Divine Army gathered around Hao Tian was composed of elites from the Heavenly Court universe’s deities, vast in number, who had been preparing for countless eons to fight an Ancestor.
But this battle was too brutal!
With every clash, at least dozens of deities exploded.
Hao Tian, bearing the brunt of White Jade Divine Sovereign’s strongest attacks, had his Heavenly Punishment Divine Armor in tatters, his chest nearly pierced through, and Ancestor blood pooling at his feet.
White Jade Divine Sovereign’s combat power was comparable to that of the weakened Nether Ancestor when she fought King Kṣitigarbha in the Heavenly Desolate Universe back then.
At this moment, Hao Tian could finally understand the despair King Kṣitigarbha felt then. At least he had the Heavenly Punishment Divine Army, the Heavenly Punishment World, and the Heavenly Punishment Profound Meaning. King Kṣitigarbha could only burn himself to push his combat power to its peak for half a day.
In that half-day, King Kṣitigarbha had the ability to self-detonate his divine source to intimidate the Nether Ancestor.
Truly burning the last sunset!
“So this is the descendant of Hei Qi? He has some of his ancestor’s style, but his cultivation realm is far too lacking—merely entering the Finite Finite Realm. Without the Heavenly Punishment Divine Army’s empowerment, you would have lost long ago!”
White Jade Divine Sovereign had lived for an extremely long time, his cultivation realm second only to the Immortal, and he looked down on all cultivators as juniors, with a condescending attitude.
Even those who had broken through to the Ancestor realm only just qualified to speak with him.
He had little respect for those like Hao Tian who had broken through to the Ancestor realm in the post-Entropy Yao era, considering them products of their time, incomparable to Ancestors of other eras.
His high regard for Heavenly Mother was entirely because she had comprehended Empress Houtu’s Infinite Path.
It was more a respect for the Infinite Path.
Nourished by the Heavenly Punishment Divine Light, the damaged Heavenly Punishment Divine Armor quickly repaired itself. Hao Tian’s battle intent, far from being extinguished by White Jade Divine Sovereign’s terrifying cultivation, burned even brighter. He let out a deep roar: “You are a half-Immortal, so let me ask: in the long river of time, has any Ancestor ever self-detonated their divine source to kill you?”
White Jade Divine Sovereign’s eyes narrowed. Why this question again?
In the Jade Emperor Realm, Heavenly Mother had already asked once.
Were there so many Ancestors in this world who didn’t value their lives?
As the number one Ancestor who valued his life above all, he couldn’t understand.
But this threat made him finally start to take Hao Tian seriously.
“Half the deities of the Heavenly Court universe are in this divine army. I don’t believe you would self-detonate your Ancestor divine source!” White Jade Divine Sovereign said.
Hao Tian glanced at the Infinite Knight Legion rushing toward them and said, “No need for your help. The Heavenly Court universe will fight to the death to hold back White Jade Divine Sovereign. You must break through the Ancestor formation, charge onto the High Mountain Wilderness, and destroy the main altar.”
Hao Tian understood better than anyone why they were fighting this battle.
The outcome on this wasteland didn’t matter at all.
Even his own life, Xuan Yuan Tai Hao, and all the Heavenly Punishment Divine Army’s lives didn’t matter.
What mattered was that White Jade Divine Sovereign must be pinned down here, unable to return to the High Mountain Wilderness or go to the River of Time to surround Zhang Ruochen.
What mattered was that the main altar on the High Mountain Wilderness and the main altar on the Wuding Divine Sea must be destroyed.
This was a battle racing against time, and for it, they could pay any price.
“Sizzle!”
In the previous battle, the Ancestor blood Hao Tian had spilled on the wasteland began to burn, the blazing flames igniting all the Heavenly Punishment Divine Army like torches.
The army’s soul condensed, and the Heavenly Punishment Divine Light far surpassed before.
“Burn divine blood, boost combat power! These half a day will decide everything for the future. Even if we must die, we will hold out until after half a day!”
Hao Tian, like King Kṣitigarbha back then, burned his lifespan, blood, and soul, his combat power and aura rising step by step.
“Hold for half a day, bury our bones in the God Realm.”
“Burn divine blood, incinerate our bodies.”
“I will burn away my lifespan, gathering all the energy of my life into this half a day, to fight for a glimmer of light for the universe.”
“Swear to follow the Heavenly Venerable to the death!”
…
The Heavenly Court deities all roared and screamed, boosting their courage and boldness in the face of death in various ways.
“Boom!”
Hao Tian gathered the power of the divine army into himself, thrusting out the Xuan Yuan Halberd, clashing head-on with the Origin Eight Techniques unleashed by White Jade Divine Sovereign.
Unable to withstand the impact of this Ancestor-level attack, a wide rift tore open at the base of the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains, Ancestor divine power intertwining, piercing through the world barrier between the God Realm and the lower cosmic universe.
Hao Tian coughed blood as he advanced, his battle intent burning to its peak. He swung his arm, driving the Heavenly Punishment World to crash forward, even forcing White Jade Divine Sovereign back.
“Why must you do this? Even if you burn everything, you cannot harm me. Even if you keep me here for half a day, it means nothing.”
White Jade Divine Sovereign took a step back, opening a distance of a billion li, the entire heaven and earth within his two steps.
He handled it with ease.
He added, “The formation of the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains was personally set by the Human Ancestor. No one can break it. So this battlefield is already the God Realm’s invincible ground.”
“And Zhang Ruochen on the River of Time will face several Ancestors, including the Human Ancestor, with even less than half a chance of victory.”
Undying War God’s roar came from the horizon: “You say no, but we of Hell Realm will break it! If we can’t break it, we’ll fill it with our lives.”
The Infinite Knight Legion bypassed that wasteland and charged straight at the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains.
“Old Bone, you’ve misled us!”
Blood Absolute Patriarch glared at Ming Bone.
He shouldn’t have listened to this cowardly old man’s suggestion.
Now, they were probably being mocked by the Heavenly Court deities, who would surely think the Hell Realm’s God Kings and God Venerables were cowards, afraid to bite the hard bone.
When had Hell Realm ever lost so much face before the Heavenly Court deities?
Ming Bone hadn’t expected Hao Tian and the Heavenly Court deities to suddenly all start burning their divine blood and lifespan, each fearless of death, as if collectively mocking them for not daring to attack the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains.
Who could tolerate that?
“It’s not us who are misled, but Imperial Dust and the world,” Feng Chen Sword God said lightly.
Ming Bone was furious: “Earlier, when we decided to help the Heavenly Punishment Divine Army, no one objected. Now that the Heavenly Court deities look down on us, you all blame me! Fine, let’s fight then. What’s there to fear? At worst, we fill it with our lives. We must break through the Ancestor formation and level the High Mountain Wilderness.”
By the end, Ming Bone’s voice had risen to a high pitch, turning into a duck-like squawk.
The sight of the Blood Dragon War Halberd being instantly torn apart by the formation light had indeed scared many cultivators, making them afraid to face such a killing formation.
Thousands of Divine Throne Planets, at extreme speed, “crashed” toward the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains. Ninety million li, eighty million li… thirty million li, twenty million li… As they drew closer, the atmosphere grew more tense.
A God Venerable licked his lips and whispered, “The Infinite Realm cultivators of Hell Realm aren’t just us, are they? Where are the strong ones from the Destiny Temple and the Death Clan? Why don’t we see Feng Tian and Void Heaven?”
No one answered.
Entering within ten million li…
“Strike together, strongest attack!”
Lady Shiji unleashed an Ancestor divine ability, building a passage to the Void World, drawing endless Void Force to strike at the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains.
Void Force was the best means to dissolve formation inscription runes.
“Boom! Boom! Boom…”
Beneath the Finite Ancestor Mark, all the Infinite Realm cultivators of Hell Realm—some unleashing divine artifacts, others executing divine abilities—their attacks fell into the formation light one after another.
After a full quarter-hour, the formation light didn’t even dim.
The Void Force had no effect on the formation inscription runes either.
“This won’t work!” An Indestructible Infinite Realm existence had the thought of self-detonating his divine source.
Time was something they couldn’t afford to waste.
“Everyone, strike all your divine qi and rules into the Finite Ancestor Mark!”
Under Lady Shiji’s control, the Finite Ancestor Mark absorbed the power of the Infinite Knight Legion, its light brightening several times over.
It collided with the formation light curtain in the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains, causing the light curtain to sink.
The mountains shook, and Ancestor-level energy storms swept through them.
The Time-Space Human Ancestor had already gone to the River of Time.
Sovereign Murong, left behind, naturally couldn’t just watch the Finite Ancestor Mark continue its assault. If the formation were breached, facing the overwhelming tide of fearless cultivators would be a headache.
“Shiji, you really don’t know when to die. You dare attack the formation set by the Human Ancestor? Last time, you were lucky to escape with your life. This time, you won’t!”
Sovereign Murong abandoned his attack on Zhang Ruochen on the River of Time, flew out of the High Mountain Wilderness, his body turning into a seven-colored form like a seven-colored divine stone. He struck the void heavily with his divine staff.
“Boom!”
His ninety-fifth-level spiritual power erupted, activating the formation inscription runes in the divine mountains.
These formation inscription runes were set by the Time-Space Human Ancestor, profound to the extreme, able to mobilize the power of the God Realm and the main altar.
“Pfft!”
“Bang!”
…
As the formation inscription runes and formation light shot out like lightning, the Finite Ancestor Mark Lady Shiji had propped up was pierced through.
Behind her came the cries of one Infinite Realm cultivator after another.
Some had their bodies pierced, some exploded, some fell to the ground.
A large number of Divine Throne Planets were destroyed.
Half of Undying War God’s body was shattered, but instead of fearing, he laughed wildly: “Excellent! We’ve forced Sovereign Murong to deal with us personally, proving we have the strength to threaten the Human Ancestor’s formation.”
“Then keep attacking! Lady, unleash more Ancestor techniques!” Shi Tian said.
Not a single member of the Infinite Knight Legion retreated; they continued to go all out, attacking the formation of the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains.
It wasn’t that they weren’t afraid of death, but they knew they couldn’t retreat.
Racing against time, at all costs.
…
Earlier, Hao Tian had been able to destroy a divine mountain with one halberd strike because the Ancestor formation in the Heavenly Beginning Without End Mountains hadn’t been fully activated.
Before the formation was activated, Desolate Heaven, Black and White Daoist, Xuan Yuan Second, Chi Kunlun, Yin Yuan Chen, and others had already infiltrated along different routes.
Each of them was mentally prepared. If they could silently approach the main altar, they would immediately self-detonate their divine sources to destroy it.
But on the High Mountain Wilderness, an Ancestor was stationed. A single misstep could expose their aura and heavenly secrets.
An Ancestor could kill them too easily, so they had to act with extreme caution.
The divine mountains were too tall, and reaching the summit would take considerable time.
Yin Yuan Chen hid in the pupil of a God Realm deity, controlling this deity to ascend the mountain.
But he soon discovered that he couldn’t reach the top of the High Mountain Wilderness in a short time. The space here was too complex, and the Time-Space Human Ancestor had set up a maze.
With his cultivation realm, it would take years to reach the top.
Stopping halfway up the mountain, Yin Yuan Chen looked outside.
Hao Tian and the Heavenly Punishment Divine Army were burning their divine blood and lifespan, fighting to the death against White Jade Divine Sovereign.
In the sky, the Divine Throne Planets of the Infinite Knight Legion kept exploding, one after another, as Hell Realm God Kings and God Venerables who had lived for millions of years attacked wave after wave, only to fall one by one.
“The formation is hard to break from the outside, but from the inside… I should be able to find a weak point…”
Yin Yuan Chen’s eyes grew darker and darker as he mobilized the divine qi within him, surging toward his divine source.
He had made a decision in his heart.
All his life, he had been despised by everyone.
As an Eon-level genius of the Heavenly Court universe, not a single cultivator in the Heavenly Court thought highly of him.
In his youth, he had always lived in the shadow of Xuan Yi. To survive and grow stronger, Yin Yuan Chen had stopped at nothing. Many times, even he didn’t know if he was human or ghost.
Even after joining the Sword Realm, only a few—Wen Tianjun, Divine Princess Pi, Qing Yun—trusted him. Most cultivators still saw him as a sinister villain, unworthy of the stage.
He was no longer young. He thought he no longer craved being looked up to.
But the deities of the Heavenly Court and Hell Realm were right outside the mountains. The unwillingness and pride of his youth surged back. Yin Yuan Chen had to tell the world that he had indeed done many wrong things, but they were all for survival.
Survival was not wrong.
He still believed that to this day.
“Gentlemen below the mountain, after today, remember the name Yin Yuan Chen forever!”
After uttering this, Yin Yuan Chen burst out of that God Realm deity’s pupil and flew at top speed toward the nearest weak point in the formation.
His body grew brighter and brighter.
…
In the Santu River basin, there was a Yin-Yang Path.
The Yin Path led to the Void Exhaust Sea.
The Yang Path led to the Jade Emperor Realm.
Void Heaven, returning from the Void Exhaust Sea, had his cultivation further elevated, full of ambition to challenge an Ancestor, eager to rush to the God Realm, not wanting to miss this cosmic gathering of winds and clouds.
But before he could leave the Yin-Yang Path, Ji Fanxin’s voice sounded in his ear: “Take the Yang Path, go to the Jade Emperor Realm, and help Heavenly Mother break free.”
…
Here, I’ll explain a few points of confusion:
1. The Time-Space Human Ancestor’s spiritual power is at the 96th-level peak, and his martial cultivation is “Heavenly Beginning Self-Ending.” Spiritual power and martial cultivation are two different paths of practice.
2. White Jade Divine Sovereign is very strong, having lived for many billions of years. It’s just that he can’t suppress Heavenly Mother in a short time, not that he can’t defeat her. In fact, he can trap her without needing his true body to stay, which means at least a one-realm gap in cultivation. It’s like when the Second Confucian Ancestor trapped Zhang Ruochen, who had Heavenly Venerable-level cultivation, with a chess game for seven days. Of course, the gap between White Jade Divine Sovereign and Heavenly Mother isn’t that large.
3. Ah, I’m causing trouble for myself. These past two days, reading and replying to messages—no exaggeration—I’m really exhausted, dizzy, and there are too many messages. Let me say again, this is a feedback event for fans at the “Alliance Leader” level. Readers who aren’t Alliance Leaders, please spare me. Don’t send messages for now! It’s not that I don’t want to reply, but with thousands of messages, how can I? I’m really collapsing! This time… I miscalculated!
(Chapter End)