Chapter 321: The Great Jing Immortal Dynasty (Part 9)
Time passed unnoticed in cultivation.
Su Chen's Great Wisdom Divine Cult remained unnoticed. All attention in the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty was drawn to a single piece of news: the Barbarian Wolf Heavenly Domain had finally been destroyed.
It was welcome news. In the past, the Barbarian Wolf Heavenly Domain had invaded the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty, exterminating several provinces and countless lives. Today, they had washed away that humiliation with blood and regained their pride.
The ruler of the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty, Heavenly Martial Emperor, had used the fortune gained from destroying the Barbarian Wolf Heavenly Domain to break through to the Emperor Lord realm.
It had been far too long since a new Emperor Lord had appeared in the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty. He was a true invincible expert, and all the orthodoxies within the dynasty submitted to him.
After annihilating the Barbarian Wolf Heavenly Domain, Heavenly Martial Emperor led the Great Jing army back to the dynasty at last.
....
After three hundred years, Su Chen finally met his father in this life—Heavenly Martial Emperor.
The man's eyes were like galaxies, boundless and radiant. Even seated casually, he seemed to stand above the Great Dao itself, with chaotic qi swirling around him and sweeping through endless universes.
Heavenly Martial Emperor swept his gaze indifferently over the assembled ministers. His bearing was supreme, suppressing everything beneath the heavens. Even though Su Chen was his son, he was still no more than grass in the emperor's eyes.
Su Chen inwardly evaluated him as an extremely arrogant existence. To reach the Emperor Lord realm after cultivating for only eighty million years made him a top genius among the countless beings of the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain.
Su Chen's life did not change with his father's return. He continued living as a small, unnoticed figure, quietly observing the open and hidden struggles around him.
Nan Hongsang had not returned with Heavenly Martial Emperor. She had sent Su Chen a letter filled with the techniques and divine abilities she had acquired over the years, along with a vast amount of cultivation resources that completely filled a storage ring.
To obtain even better techniques, she had gone to participate in the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain's Pride Battle. It gathered supreme geniuses from countless immortal lands and was jointly organized by many of them. The rewards included incredibly valuable inheritances.
"Little Chenzi, I will definitely obtain a longevity opportunity for you… When I return, prepare a hundred, a thousand… or even eternal Worry-Free Pastries for me, okay?"
Su Chen smiled bitterly. "This silly girl…"
She still thought his ability to cultivate was nothing more than that.
While Nan Hongsang headed to the Heavenly Gang Pride Battle, Su Chen looked at the storage ring packed full of Worry-Free Pastries.
"These might last a hundred or a thousand years, but not for eternity."
He decided he should learn the recipe for Worry-Free Pastries. It might prove useful in a future life.
When the Absolute Heaven Consort heard of his intention, she laughed cheerfully and began teaching him how to make them. These days passed peacefully and leisurely.
...
Nan Hongsang realized just how many geniuses existed in this world. Beings of different races, civilizations, and immortal lands—trillions upon trillions of them—had gathered together.
"Ant… you can't escape!"
A heaven-shaking roar echoed across the vast star realm. The shockwave sent Nan Hongsang vomiting blood, her face deathly pale.
She could not understand how she had been discovered despite being so cautious. Her pursuer was a terrifying genius ranked in the top one thousand on the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain Pride List. He had become an Emperor after surviving ten tribulations, created his own supreme heavenly art, and possessed transcendent combat strength far beyond hers.
"I can't die here…" she thought.
In her mind appeared the image of a graceful young man.
After the destruction of the Barbarian Wolf Heavenly Domain, Nan Hongsang had not returned to the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty. The Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain's Pride Battle, held once every hundred thousand years, had begun. Selected geniuses were transported to the Path to Heaven. High rankings would grant entry into immortal lands, heaven-defying pills that could change one's fate, opportunities to reverse life and death, and the inheritances of supreme True Immortals.
Considering what her father had said—that even if Su Chen could cultivate, he would not go far on the path—she wanted to help change his fate.
Ten thousand years was too long.
Nan Hongsang had set out without hesitation to participate in the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain's Pride Battle. She defeated countless geniuses along the way.
Not long ago, during a fierce battle over a Heaven and Earth Divine Pill—one capable of altering any being's innate fate and opening endless possibilities—she had secretly made her move and seized it. Despite her extreme caution, she was still discovered by a powerful expert and pursued relentlessly.
The terrifying shockwaves felt like an entire universe bearing down on her. They sent Nan Hongsang flying, smashing through billions of stars. Even her indestructible Great Emperor body suffered devastating injuries. The gap in strength was simply too vast.
"A mere ant who has cultivated for less than three hundred years dares to steal from me!"
Silver starlight filled the sky. Nan Hongsang struggled to open her eyes. Her Dao was nearly extinguished.
The silver being radiated divinity, with a halo of light rotating behind its head. Its body was encased in hard armor, and six wings forged from chaotic divine crystals extended from its back. This was a lifeform from a supreme race. It strode slowly through the starry sky, each ripple beneath its feet shattering countless celestial bodies. It was powerful enough to easily destroy an entire universe.
It slowly raised a mechanical arm. Ripples gathered in its palm, forming a devastating blast.
Genius? It had killed countless such prodigies over hundreds of thousands of years. It had no interest in wasting words and simply carried out its standard extermination protocol.
The terrifying attack engulfed the powerless Nan Hongsang.
"Humans remain as weak and pathetic as ever. Not even worth collecting data from," the supreme-race being said with utter contempt.
In its understanding, a race that had never produced a True Immortal—and did not even possess Emperor Lord-level beings—was considered lowly in the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain. For such a race to produce a single genius who had made the Heavenly Gang Pride List was already exhausting their entire fortune. Even then, they did not even qualify to look up at it.
Yet in the smoke and dust of destruction, new information flickered across the silver mechanical being's left-eye display, causing it a slight surprise.
"Life signs have not returned to zero. It's still alive?"
"A human's body is frail. If it didn't die, I'll just finish it with another strike."
The silver being attacked again. A force of heavenly punishment far more terrifying than the previous one descended toward the motionless coordinates. The entire universe shattered and vanished into nothingness in an instant.
It looked again in surprise. The figure it had deemed dead was beginning to move. In a flash, it disappeared, then reappeared with each step covering vast distances, steadily closing the gap.
Warning signals flashed red across the silver being's display, but it paid them no mind. It even felt like laughing.
"Interesting data… This is something new. If I capture you alive and dissect you, it might help me advance further."
It reached out once more. A massive cage formed from the heavens and earth, attempting to trap the constantly shifting figure. It wanted to capture this sudden anomaly alive—perhaps a being related to the supreme Dao of Space.
"?"
The silver being focused its gaze. The cage it had created could restrain even seven- or eight-tribulation Rulers, yet it had no effect on that figure.
It raised its hand again.
Only to find that the figure had already arrived right in front of it.
A young man with a refined appearance stood there, cradling the familiar human woman in his arms.
The silver being stared in shock at the data appearing in its eyes.
"Race: ???
Age: ???
Strength: ???"
This was the first time it had encountered such a situation!
Chapter 322: The Great Jing Immortal Dynasty (Part 10)
Unknown… unknown… everything was unknown!
The silver being even suspected its combat instruments had malfunctioned. But how could the pinnacle creation of a supreme civilization fail?
In an instant, the unknown existence stood before it. It instinctively raised its hand to resist, but its entire arm trembled violently in the face of that terrifying presence—until it shattered apart.
"You… what exactly are you?"
For the first time, the silver being felt fear. Yet this primal emotion had long been stripped from its programming.
The human-like being offered no reply. This silence ignited a raging fury.
"Analyze… analyze… I refuse to believe you have no weaknesses!"
Endless streams of data flashed across its ocular core.
With a loud bang, the overwhelming flood of information caused both its eyes to explode. Its body began to swell uncontrollably. A massive explosion turned the surrounding heavens and earth into a sea of fire.
The terrifying shockwave was completely reflected by an invisible barrier of light. The surging qi waves did not even stir the hem of Su Chen's robe.
In the vast starry sky, Su Chen looked down at the severely injured Nan Hongsang and sighed helplessly in his heart. Fortunately, he had left a strand of divine sense on her years ago. It had activated automatically when she faced mortal danger.
Countless runes manifested around Su Chen, enveloping Nan Hongsang. Waves of boundless vitality poured into her body, rapidly healing her wounds.
"So this is the Path to Heaven? An interesting place."
He turned Nan Hongsang into a stream of light and gently placed her inside the space he had opened behind his Wheel of Wisdom.
After grasping the nature of this world, a spark of interest appeared in Su Chen's eyes.
The Heavenly Gang List… three thousand immortal lands…
Just how vast was this realm? It contained supreme races and even legends of immortal clans that had once birthed True Immortals. The Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty was nothing more than a negligible speck in this boundless world.
The accumulations of the Void Cosmic Sea over billions of years seemed tiny compared to the endless Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain.
The mechanical lifeform he had just destroyed came from an extremely advanced civilization. Though it had never produced a True Immortal, its collective power could replicate most aptitudes in the world and supported more than one Emperor Lord. Even their ultimate creation, forged by the entire civilization, had only ranked 935th on the Heavenly Gang Pride List.
Su Chen's figure slowly faded away.
In just a hundred years, rumors of a mysterious, peerless ruthless expert began to spread across the Path to Heaven. Countless powerful geniuses had been effortlessly defeated by him as he rapidly climbed to the top.
Some guessed he came from a reclusive immortal clan. Others believed he was the descendant of a True Immortal, possessing unmatched talent. There were even whispers that he was an ancient True Immortal reincarnated, walking a different path to immortality in this life.
Yet no one knew the true identity of that peerless ruthless expert.
Above a sea of universes, a massive gray-blue hand swept aside countless cosmic domains. The dust stirred by its casual movement could easily annihilate an entire world.
The terrifying creature's head was a glowing blue orb.
"Who are you?" The blue orb lifted, emitting radiant blue light.
Standing atop the cosmic sea was a human figure in snow-white robes that radiated holy light. He appeared and disappeared faintly in the boundless void, a massive Wheel of Wisdom opened behind his head like a savior of the world.
It was Su Chen.
After his strand of aura incarnation arrived on the Path to Heaven to rescue Nan Hongsang, he had not left. Instead, he began challenging various prodigies along the Path, experiencing the techniques from different immortal lands. The so-called True Immortal laws were dazzling but far from invincible, which left Su Chen somewhat disappointed.
The terrifying being that had parted the cosmic sea belonged to a true immortal clan—the Blue Light Immortal Clan, which possessed the legacy of True Immortals. It was said that newborns of the Blue Light Immortal Clan contained enough terrifying energy to easily destroy an ordinary universe. The powerful existence before him was the number one genius of the Blue Light Immortal Clan in the past million years, ranked tenth on the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain Pride List.
Lan Batian looked at Su Chen with some confusion. This was not any lifeform he recognized. It was so insignificant that a single breath from him could annihilate countless such beings. Yet this figure had appeared directly before him.
Was he seeking death?
Su Chen looked down at the terrifying creature that had emerged from the cosmic sea. In less than a million years, it had reached the fifteen-tribulation realm and entered the immortal domain. This never-before-seen horror had piqued Su Chen's interest in studying it.
Along the way, he had slain many supreme geniuses from supreme external races, but none could compare to the being before him.
"Ant, that look in your eyes… You have offended me!"
Lan Batian discovered that this speck of dust-like being actually dared to scrutinize him. This was an unforgivable sin!
The light orb on Lan Batian's head shone with blue radiance, flashing at a frequency countless times faster than before, signaling his raging fury.
Faced with Lan Batian's anger, the Wheel of Wisdom behind Su Chen rotated. Innate power of wisdom enveloped his entire body. With a casual flick of his finger—using a suppressing technique from a terrifying race—he shattered the universe Lan Batian had hurled at him and then tapped the massive creature directly. Its body was too enormous to dodge. The entire form was flipped over.
Su Chen watched the fallen Lan Batian and narrowed his eyes. Another divine blade manifested in the Wheel of Wisdom behind him, radiating an aura capable of exterminating all realms. If he wished, he could even manifest the blade's true master. The terrifying qi surged, ready to annihilate Lan Batian.
Blade qi swept across three thousand realms.
Lan Batian was not destroyed by the strike. Blue light spread across his body, causing him to shrink rapidly until he was roughly the same size as Su Chen. His small frame glowed with a cold, nether blue light. Visible eyes and a mouth appeared on his head as he glared ferociously at Su Chen.
"I never expected to underestimate you. It has been far too long since I encountered a being capable of forcing me to reveal this form…"
"I hope you can entertain me. If you do, I might consider sparing your life and making you a vassal of my Blue Light Immortal Clan!"
Though Lan Batian had shrunk, his aura was far more terrifying than in his giant form. Every inch of his small body contained the power to easily destroy a world.
A deep blue pillar of light, carrying unparalleled might, rose across the cosmic sea.