Chapter 904: God-Slaying
This was a brilliant rain of light, scattering down rapidly, endless and infinite, golden radiance flickering, densely packed like countless runes, filling the thirteenth layer of the small world.
The big black dog fled without a trace, Duan De clutched his head and ran for his life, Ye Fan and the others also changed color and sprinted away at full speed. They knew what that was—absolutely terrifying.
In that moment, the golden rain in the sky blazed even brighter. They awakened, each one like a divine lamp, dazzling and resplendent, emitting a clanging sound—the noise of light points colliding, like the trembling of metal.
"Ah..."
Screams rang out. People scrambled and fled in all directions, everyone feeling a great calamity upon them. This kind of thing could pierce through divine power and devour essence, energy, and spirit.
Most people didn't recognize it, but a few living fossils cried out in terror, warning their own people: these were God-Slaying Insects, not to be touched—flee at once!
God-Slaying Insects—a terrifying name. Anyone who knew of them would pale at the mere mention.
"Ah..."
Screams arose on all sides. Protective true essence was utterly useless. The golden rain of light fell, covering human bodies, devouring the essence within their flesh and blood clean, not even sparing their primordial spirits.
People trembled. They summoned various magical artifacts to kill them, but the strange insects were ferocious and unstoppable. Each bug was as long as a finger, clad in golden armor, with a hard shell that even a Great Power found difficult to shatter.
"Don't use your physical body to charge them! This kind of thing can only be refined with cultivation and laws!" someone shouted.
But who dared to stop and calmly refine them now? Even if one could refine dozens, with this endless, infinite rain of light, how could they possibly handle it?
At this moment, everyone saw it: the five-colored iron essence treasure chest was like a beehive, covered in small holes, with even more God-Slaying Insects crawling out.
Moreover, it wasn't hard to notice that this chest contained spatial order chains, like a small world, far larger than imagined. Who knew how many strange insects there were?
A living fossil let out a roar. He was engulfed by the golden rain of light, and despite doing everything he could, he didn't escape his doom. His seven orifices were pierced through, and even his primordial spirit was devoured.
And this was just one scene. Countless people died miserably, turning into dust in the boundless golden rain of light. This was a terrifying demonic ground—every drop of light rain was a death warrant.
These bugs were each the size of a thumb, their bodies densely covered in tiny golden scales, shaped like small flood dragons, only without horns.
Ye Fan and the others could only flee as well. In this place, it wasn't easy to use legendary saint weapons, because the various sects had long agreed upon restrictions when entering. With so many people around, if word got out, it would cause big trouble later.
This wasn't Ye Fan's first encounter with these strange insects. Back then, with Duan De and Dongfang Ye in the Immortal Mansion World in the Central Province, they had run into them, but there were only a few dozen. Now, they filled the sky and covered the earth, everywhere. No one could withstand them—only mad flight.
Among the fleeing army, Hua Yunfei was the first to rush into the fourteenth layer of temple small worlds. He was the one who first sensed and discovered the God-Slaying Insects.
Ye Fan and his group were the second batch. Seeing that the stone gate wasn't far off, Duan De suddenly stopped and said, "These are legendary divine insects! Their value isn't less than an ancient scripture. If you cultivate them for a few thousand years, you might even birth a pure-blood God-Slaying Insect."
At that moment, Duan De's hands were too greedy. He made a decision that everyone else bitterly resented: he took out a divine object—a treasure-gathering basin—turned around, and collected the five-colored iron essence treasure chest.
"Fatty Duan, what are you doing?!"
"These divine insects have all left the nest. There are probably divine eggs in the chest, priceless beyond measure. To tame this kind of thing, you have to start from the eggs."
Pure-blood God-Slaying Insects—legend said they could even gnaw away at gods. Almost nothing could stop them; they could bite through anything and slay anything.
The golden strange insects before them were powerful, but they weren't true divine insects. Their ancestral blood was thin, and they were in a primitive state, far from comparable to their progenitors.
Legend had it that in ancient times, a sage successfully raised a few half-divine insects—not true ancestral insects—and together with them, he killed and dismembered an awakened Primordial King until he perished.
"Buzz"
The five-colored iron essence was collected. Duan De was so pleased his nose practically bubbled. Just this precious chest alone was enough to move a sage—it was a divine material on the same level as Great Luo Silver Essence. And the divine insect eggs inside were even more priceless. If he could truly raise pure-blood ancestral insects, he'd be nearly invincible.
They charged into the fourteenth layer of temple small worlds, but the crisis didn't disappear. The boundless rain of light all followed them, concentrating on Ye Fan and his group, abandoning everyone else.
"Fatty Duan, your hands are too greedy!"
"Damn it, grave robber, aren't you afraid your hands will rot?!"
A group of people all wanted to strangle him. He had actively attracted all the firepower. Earlier, the God-Slaying Insects were scattered, but now they all converged, turning into golden waterfalls cascading down.
With so many divine insects, who could withstand them? This was fatal—they were nearly drowning in them.
"What good people! They saved us like that."
"Who are those people? Are they holy monks from the Western Desert? Truly sacrificing themselves to enter hell to save us."
Ye Fan, Black Emperor, and the others heard the distant words and wanted to vomit blood, and even more, they wanted to flay Duan De alive. This bastard's hands were too itchy, bringing a great disaster upon them.
"Damn it, these bugs are too vengeful! Is it worth it, chasing us like this?" Duan De grimaced in pain. His butt, shoulders, and chest were all pierced through, blood flowing freely.
"It's your greedy hands. Throw away that chest quickly!" said the Old Blind Man. Even he was injured, covered in blood, the situation dire.
"How could I throw it away? This is comparable to a Great Emperor's scripture! Not long ago, I excavated an ancient text from a tomb with records about divine insects. If you raise them with a special method for ten thousand years, you can birth a true ancestral insect. I wouldn't trade it even for a Great Emperor's scripture!" Duan De hugged the chest, refusing to let go. As a result, his fingers were pierced through, and there were still God-Slaying Insects in the nest.
Qi Luo, who had been silent all along, said, "I think these insects indeed have immeasurable value. We may not live for ten thousand years, but we can raise them and leave them for our descendants. In the future, when our Heavenly Court rules the world, we'll have an additional supreme deterrent."
"Then let's use the legendary saint weapons," said Dongfang Ye, about to pull out his Wolf Fang Great Club.
"Let me handle it," Ye Fan said. He activated the nine-colored flames within the Primordial Qi Cauldron, burning the golden rain of light. Patches fell down, but there were too many of them. They stopped getting close and began to surround them instead.
Ye Fan urged, "Fatty Duan, hurry up and take out the divine eggs, then throw away the five-colored iron essence. Otherwise, with so many bugs, we can't kill them all."
Duan De was extremely reluctant. Five-colored iron essence was also a divine material, but he couldn't withstand the sheer number of God-Slaying Insects. He screamed like a pig being slaughtered, pulled out a pile of golden divine eggs, suffered more injuries, and reluctantly threw away the treasure chest.
By this time, they had already fled to the sixteenth layer of temple small worlds. Fatty Duan's hands looked like they'd been chewed by a dog, and he grimaced in pain.
Here, they finally shook off the God-Slaying Insects and breathed a sigh of relief. The whole group scolded him for his greedy hands.
"I thought this kind of thing had gone extinct, with only a few dozen left in the Immortal Mansion World. I never expected such a terrifying nest in the ancestral temple. The Feather Transformation Divine Dynasty back then was truly terrifying—they must have raised real pure-blood ancestral insects!"
They began to divide the spoils, afraid of mishaps in the ancestral temple. Each person took some of the crystalline divine eggs and carefully stored them away.
"Where are the Celestial Prince, Hua Yunfei, and Li Xiaoman?" They turned back, wanting to settle accounts with those three, but they were nowhere to be seen, having all escaped in the chaos.
"Since they've come in, we'll run into them sooner or later. Speaking of which, could they be after the Five-Colored Altar too?" Pang Bo asked, uncertain.
"Hurry up and go!" Everyone changed color.
This place was the ancestral temple of the Feather Transformation Divine Dynasty, the highest sacred ground. Not only were there the insights of ancient sages, but also all secret records, which could likely reveal the Feather Transformation scripture.
What Ye Fan worried about most was others getting there first, finding the various texts and engravings of the Five-Colored Altar in the temple. If they succeeded in crossing the star domain and brought the flames of war to Earth, it would be a disaster.
They broke through barriers one after another, carefully avoiding various troubles, and arrived at the twenty-first layer of the ancient temple. There were thirty-six layers in total, with countless ancient halls and small worlds beyond number.
"Something's not right," Duan De muttered. Earlier, he had prepared many materials, thinking they would encounter ghostly things upon entering, but everything they saw was living creatures.
They kept moving and soon reached the twenty-seventh layer, feeling more and more that something was off. It was a smooth path, with no danger at all.
When they stepped into the twenty-eighth layer of temple small worlds, the void silently split open. A golden divine sword came cleaving down, aimed straight at Ye Fan's brow. Heaven and earth shattered, the momentum was world-shaking, and it was incredibly fast.
A legendary saint weapon!
Someone couldn't hold back and used such a terrifying weapon to ambush. There was no fluctuation beforehand, almost evading everyone's spiritual senses.
"Boom"
The Hell Soul-Suppressing Tower rose up. It was white and crystalline, forged from the essence of five pieces of Dao bone left behind by five assassins who had sat down in death. Its power was boundless, and it blocked the golden divine sword on the spot.
At the same time, Qi Luo rose against the heavens, vanishing into the void, and pursued. A series of clanging sounds came from the distance.
Before long, he returned. Unlike last time, he didn't bring back a blood-drenched head—the enemy had escaped.
"That golden divine sword contained a sliver of a Killing Sage's primordial spirit!"
Everyone was startled. A sage didn't manifest, but sent a sliver of primordial spirit into a golden saint weapon, passing it to a king-level subordinate. This was still a fierce assassination.
They found Qi Luo increasingly unfathomable. He could probably become a sage at any moment. But this was a good thing, giving them more confidence.
Soon after, they advanced cautiously and reached the thirtieth layer of temple small worlds. They found some traces and, after serious discussion, unanimously believed that the four great divine dynasties and Yaoguang Holy Land had likely entered long before.
"Could the temple have been emptied by them?"
"No, they seem to have stopped here, not going deeper," Duan De said, taking out his divine mirror. It was obtained from an ancient tomb, polished from the forehead bone of a human Great Sage, capable of restoring some scenes.
Through the bone mirror, they could see some blurry figures lingering here for a long time before finally leaving.
"So, the real danger lies in the last six layers of the ancient temple. Even they didn't dare to act rashly, wanting to use the power of the world."
The stone gate leading to the thirty-first layer was tightly shut. Inside, it felt like there were primordial wild beasts, as if connected to the underworld, emitting faint, eerie auras.
"Something's not right." They pondered for a long time, then retreated far away. Using a divine hammer, they smashed open the stone gate and peered inside.
Ahead, it was pitch black. The sound of rain came through, as if it were a real, vast world. In the night rain, blurry figures were moving around.
"There are living things! What is that?!"
The inside was very strange. Even the Heavenly Eye Penetration was suppressed, as if order chains densely filled the void.
"Boom"
Rain poured down in torrents. Several blood-colored lightning bolts intertwined in the night sky, illuminating everything inside. They all changed color, stumbling backward, and quickly closed the stone gate.
"What is going on?!"
In the night rain illuminated by the blood-colored lightning, the road was muddy. They saw several squads of soldiers in ancient armor, holding black iron halberds and war spears, patrolling.
"Those are... the heavenly soldier armor of the Feather Transformation Divine Dynasty from over two hundred thousand years ago. They are the so-called heavenly soldiers!" Ji Ziyue said, her beautiful eyes flashing with disbelief. Before coming here, she had consulted various materials and scriptures in the Ji Family's scripture library and had seen this type of armor.
Everyone was stunned.
"Have you noticed? Everything we've seen since entering has been alive. Could it be that those soldiers are also..."
"Something's wrong, very wrong!" Duan De shook his head, pacing back and forth. "I found a strange record in an ancient great tomb, saying that the Feather Transformation Divine Dynasty ended its own rule back then, not because others destroyed them. They were secretly carrying out a heaven-defying great undertaking. Could it be true?!"