“Is that so? What does it matter that you have hidden reserves — you are all still going to die!” Ye Fan countered without flinching.
“Ha ha ha…” The Holy Slayer of the Human World — though his hair was in wild disarray and the white of his bones showed through — still let out cold and sinister laughter. Frigid air radiated outward. “You do not know what is good for you!”
In the distance, Saint-level might surged. Several elder Saints appeared. Silent, they fixed their gaze on the ancient white-bone palace halls.
“Everyone can die. There is no need for anyone to remain alive.” An imposing voice rang out from the bone halls, and a killing obsession like a vast ocean swept forward.
This was without question an existence that had crawled out from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood — killing year after year, day after day, moment after moment, before growing to this point.
An elderly figure walked over without a sound — skin and bones, his hair long since fallen out, eyes sunken deep, body shrunken and dry, barely retaining the features of a living being.
Saint King realm!
This was a terrifying existence that had attained the Dao through killing, reaching the Saint King realm. No one had anticipated that such an ancient assassin would reemerge.
He belonged to the Human World. He had emerged just a few days prior, having slept within a divine source for over a hundred thousand years, and had survived into this age.
A cold wind stirred. Beside him appeared another black-robed figure — gaunt and withered. Though not a Saint King, this too was a Holy Slayer.
The two ancient Divine Dynasties had been fortunate. In a hidden location, they had by chance unearthed a portion of preserved hidden reserves. Now they were stationed here, making this place as solid as iron.
Behind them, several more ferocious auras appeared — three ancient clan ancestor kings, who had joined hands with the ancient assassin Divine Dynasties.
It was completely beyond anyone’s expectations. This was originally the deepest stronghold of the ancient Divine Dynasties — how had three ancient clansmen come to be here?
The Black Emperor was surprised, for it noticed that between the bone buildings, a ceremonial altar flickered with faint light. The three ancestor kings had been summoned.
The assassin Divine Dynasties had secretly been in contact with certain ancient clans. The three seemed to be visiting here for the first time, their eyes flickering with thought as they looked around, sizing everything up.
Ye Fan showed no fear. “Do you think that with two Holy Slayers reemerging, plus three ancestor kings, you can escape annihilation? Think about who has come today to besiege you!”
“Hey, who is the prey? We will find out soon enough.” The Holy Slayer of the Human World spoke, writhing and screaming within the heavenly tribulation.
Ye Fan, Ji Zi, and the Holy Prince moved together, carrying the two “tribulation-stricken” figures forward with them, clashing against the several newly appeared ancient Saints.
“Kill!”
A glacial surge of energy emanated. The opposing Holy Slayer King gave a low shout. An ice-cold, bone-piercing chill suffused the primordial chaos immortal soil.
At the same time, ten thousand beams of divine light erupted from the bone halls behind him, cutting off the path of the advancing group.
“What came before was merely a prelude. Let all the ancient great formations of old that can grind all things to nothing fully awaken!” A piercing voice rang out.
Boom!
A surging, sky-filling wave of energy poured forward in this direction — beams of light beyond counting.
Ye Fan, the Holy Ape, and Ji Zi, contending against the heavenly tribulation, also felt a wave of trembling dread. The killing calamity was boundless. If not for the descent of the lightning sea, they would have been the first to bear the brunt.
This was an immense ancient formation. The entire dried-up primordial chaos immortal soil was carved full of formation runes, encircling everyone within — no retreat, no escape.
Whoosh!
The Holy Slayer King suddenly vanished, launching a terrifying assassination, rushing toward the distant Saints.
The ancient Divine Dynasties sought to seal off this place and eliminate everyone in one sweep — slaughter all the Saints who had come.
A violent tremor rang out. The Holy Slayer King and the old master of the Extraordinary Scholar’s Manor clashed in a single strike. The assassination failed — but it cast a shadow of gloom over the hearts of everyone from the Holy Lands.
The two Divine Dynasties were utterly without fear!
“Ancient divine will — fully awaken! Shatter all intruders! Destroy all life!” A Holy Slayer commanded.
The formation’s aura grew more terrifying still. The dried-up primordial chaos immortal soil was once the closed-cultivation site of ancient deities, and it harbored the broken remnants of terrifying formation arrays.
This place instantly erupted with ten thousand zhang of light. All was chaos. Vital essence enclosed everyone within, intent on refining them all.
“Killing formation — break for me!” The Black Emperor roared.
“All of you will die!” The Holy Slayer King said with cold viciousness, running the formation, attempting to cleave open the heavenly tribulation and rescue the two trapped within.
“Once you enter, there is no way out — come in with them!” Ye Fan said quietly, and charged forward with the Holy Prince and Ji Zi.
“Kill!”
Within the dried-up primordial chaos divine soil, divine patterns surfaced. The ancient formation — even incomplete — was still extraordinarily powerful, grinding in all directions, completely inescapable without sacred artifact protection.
The Divine Maiden Furnace rose and fell, sheltering Li Tian, Dongfang Ye, Yan Yixi and the others beneath it.
The people of the various Holy Lands also changed color, fending off the assassins’ attacks while raising barriers of light, each resisting on their own.
Beside the Holy Maiden of the Purple Palace, an elderly woman appeared — a Saint, evidently a hidden reserve of that Holy Land — and protected the two of them.
Above Jiang Yifei’s head yet another terrifying divine furnace appeared, rising and falling, emanating a strand of utmost Dao-level divine might — a replica of an emperor’s weapon!
“All of you, begone from this world!”
Within the killing light of the ancient formation, the people of the two Divine Dynasties spoke without mercy. Together with three ancestor kings moving freely through the ancient formation they knew well, they launched an act of absolute extermination.
The Black Emperor howled with fury. Its formation array power was immense, but the remaining platforms were few. Protecting the people of Heaven’s Village posed no problem — but destroying this place presented enormous difficulty.
“Ha ha ha…” Within the heavenly tribulation, the Holy Slayer of the Human World had been shattered several times over, but reconstituted each time, and still laughed savagely without pause.
“Destroy everything!” The white-bone figure screamed as well, the divine flame in its skull undimmed.
“We’ll extinguish you two first!” Ji Zi said.
Within the lightning sea, the Holy Slayer acted as though deranged. “Let me show you what it means that the Divine Dynasty must never be provoked. We had originally intended to lie low — but you pursued us without end. Now you have become the prey. You will all be hunted down.”
Ye Fan sneered, a cold smile at the corner of his mouth. He shouted toward the distance: “Senior of the Ji Family — what are you waiting for?”
As the two Divine Dynasties and the three ancestor kings rampaged — relying on the ancient formation arrays to strike fiercely — a vast and mighty wave arose from the distance. The aura of an ancient great emperor filled the air.
An ancient mirror rose into the sky. Ten thousand strands of great Dao silk descended from it, its radiance penetrating through all of antiquity and the present, its power unrivaled beneath the heavens!
A blazing beam of light shone outward from that mirror’s surface. Ancient formation arrays collapsed. The primordial chaos divine soil cracked and fissured, slowly breaking apart.
It was an aura that stole the breath. Even Saints trembled!
“The Void Mirror — so the ancient great emperor’s weapon truly was brought along. This is a great killing calamity indeed.” Someone cried out. The assassins were thrown into panic.
At this very moment, the mysterious ancient formation arrays preserved within this primordial chaos divine soil were being steadily obliterated, struck down one by one.
The Saint of the Ji Family showed no mercy. Above his head, the Void Emperor Mirror turned. The blinding light beam it emitted could break through all things, shining toward the Holy Slayer King.
Flash!
It must be said — this Holy Slayer King was terrifying to the extreme. He actually dodged it in the space between one instant and the next.
Splatter!
Blood radiance burst outward. Beside him, an ancient clan ancestor king let out a single cry before being transformed by the mirror’s light into a mist of blood — no bones remaining. He died on the spot.
Everyone was horrified. An ancient Saint had been killed in an instant!
What kind of terrifying power was this? It was utterly chilling to contemplate!
That ancient mirror was simple and lustrous. The divine radiance it shed could eliminate all living beings. No one could resist it by force.
This was an ancient great emperor’s weapon. In the hands of a Saint, it had awakened — cleaving open creation, shattering the cosmos, penetrating the past, present, and future simultaneously, with nothing it could not accomplish. Saints became pools of pus and blood in a single breath.
Hum!
The ancient Void Mirror turned again, shining upon that group of figures once more. The people of the two Divine Dynasties trembled — unable to move. Even the Holy Slayer King could only retreat.
Another flash of blood radiance, and the second Saint-level ancestor king was torn apart by the mirror’s light, dissolving into streams of blood energy that scattered through heaven and earth.
“Fellow Daoists, now is the time to appear — seize the emperor’s weapon! The opportunity is right before your eyes!” The Holy Slayer engaged in combat with Qi Luo called out urgently.
The ceremonial altar within the ancient halls flickered with radiance. Seven or eight silhouettes appeared — all ancestor kings. The foremost among them had blood energy that eclipsed the sun and moon, with Dao cultivation that dominated everyone present.
All living things trembled. Many nearly fell to their knees, unable to bear the flood-like pressure of his aura.
“The Great Saint Qianlun… it is the ancient great saint of Ten Thousand Dragon’s Nest!”
“He comes bearing an ancient emperor’s weapon!”
People cried out in shock. Their faces drained of all color. Every person sensed that something had gone terribly wrong, and all began to tremble.
“I told you — who is the prey is only revealed at the end. All of this was forced upon us by you!” The Holy Slayer of Hell spoke sinisterly.
Clearly they had been in contact with the ancient clans all along — they had simply not revealed this location. Today, pushed to the very edge, they had opened all restraints entirely.
This was an extremely serious development. The ancient Divine Dynasties and the ancient royal clan of Ten Thousand Dragon’s Nest joining hands — just thinking about it was enough to make one’s scalp crawl.
The hearts of everyone from the Holy Lands sank.
In the original plan, with Saints stationed in reserve, eliminating the Divine Dynasties should have presented no problem. But now their hidden reserves had been exposed — and they had been making their own calculations all along.
“We were not afraid you would not come — only afraid you would not appear. You took one of our ancient emperor’s weapons. Now repay us with an emperor’s weapon!” The Great Saint Qianlun of Ten Thousand Dragon’s Nest said with frigid indifference, sweeping his gaze over everyone — Saints included.
People’s expressions turned ugly. The ancient great emperor’s weapon could not be wielded recklessly. Who could have foreseen that even as it struck down ancestor kings, a catastrophe of this magnitude would emerge?
Everyone’s heart was heavy. With Gai Jiuyou gone — departed deep into the star domain — even Qianlun might not have dared appear like this.
The Holy Slayer King let out a gruesome, sinister laugh, like a blunt blade scraping against bone. “Who is the prey? You are all going to die!”
Ye Fan, Ji Zi, and the others held this man in extreme contempt. Their faces darkened. The Holy Prince let out a cold laugh. “You celebrate too soon.”
“The one you intended to summon most likely cannot come. Today I will spare your life to be delivered to Mount Sumeru. The others — kill them all.” The Holy Slayer of Hell spoke with total confidence.
“Uncle, I ask for your help!” The Holy Prince called out.
But there was no response. The primordial chaos immortal soil cracked. Starlight from the cosmos outside spilled in — yet there was no sign of the Battle-Victorious Buddha.
Everyone’s expressions changed yet again. A battle meant to destroy the ancient Divine Dynasties had drawn in this many people and forces, entangled in a web of stunning complexity.
The Great Saint Qianlun nodded. “Holy Prince — your uncle cannot come. An extremely old senior figure may go to seek a conversation with him. I mean no harm to you personally. I will escort you back to Mount Sumeru myself. But all the others must die.”
Before him, a purple true dragon materialized. Every segment of its body was a purple bell, shimmering with a dreamlike radiance. This was the weapon whose name had shaken ten thousand ages — the Ten Thousand Dragon Bell!
Ancient emperor aura suffused everything, blotting out the sky, devastating every heart present. It had not yet fully awakened, and already it caused everyone to go limp where they stood.
“I grant you death!” The Great Saint Qianlun said, ice-cold and emotionless, sweeping his gaze over all — every Saint included.
“Fellow Daoist, you overestimate yourself rather too much.” At this moment, Wei Yi stepped forward. A terrifying power that shook the ages and dazzled the present radiated from every part of his being.
His white hair was disheveled, his body withered and broken — yet right now, every pore in his body emanated wisps of Dao essence, like a deity manifesting, with a power that chilled the soul rising skyward in a torrent, as if an eternal divine furnace had been reawakened.
He took the Void Mirror in hand and suspended it above his head, its light capable of illuminating all of antiquity, the present, and the future.
A Great Saint!
This elder who had shown neither mountain nor water was an existence at the Great Saint level!
Everyone was stunned — and then it all made sense. After all, he had been one of the Celestial Pivot Three Heroes of his time. He had attained the Dao in an age when it should have been most impossible to do so. Naturally his achievement was something beyond the reach of creation’s own workings. After all this time — how could he possibly be ordinary?
“This…” Both the ancient clans and the ancient Divine Dynasties were shaken.
“There is nothing left to say. First — kill those two!” Ye Fan fixed his gaze on the Holy Slayer within the lightning tribulation and the white-bone figure.
The Holy Prince and Ji Zi nodded. The tribulation was boundless. The Holy Slayer’s state was wretched beyond description — on the verge of perishing. And so too was the white-bone figure, the divine flame within its skull nearly extinguished.
Both of these Saints had believed rescue would come — that they would be able to turn the tables and slay Ye Fan and the others. They had not foreseen that when all trump cards were laid bare, their opponents had not fallen behind. They too had produced a Great Saint.