Chapter 323: The Great Jing Immortal Dynasty (Part 11)
Lan Batian released his aura without restraint, drawing the attention of other prodigies on the Path to Heaven.
"It's Lan Batian of the Blue Light Immortal Clan… The final battle has not yet begun. Who would dare provoke him?"
A terrifying figure appeared, his entire body covered in black-gold metal that radiated an aura capable of annihilating myriad daos. He gazed toward the distant horizon where a fearsome presence surged.
As the ninth-ranked genius on the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain Pride List, he did not underestimate the tenth-ranked Lan Batian. He knew the Blue Light Immortal Clan was far more complicated than it appeared. Lan Batian's final form would give even him a headache.
Yet before the final battle had officially started, someone had already stirred up trouble with that difficult fatty.
"A good show is about to begin. How interesting. It seems a new variable has appeared on this Path to Heaven," said another voice from a space filled with golden light. A golden figure clapped its hands. The figure had no fixed shape—or rather, shape held no meaning for a being of its level.
It was Sal Chengdao of the Golden Heavenly God Clan, ranked third on the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain Pride List.
The moment his applause ended, the surrounding rules and order twisted like flowing lines. In an instant, Sal Chengdao's golden light was sliced apart by black-and-white particles.
"Has Lan Fatty's battle piqued your interest enough to start the final battle early?"
Before Sal Chengdao appeared a humanoid silhouette. Its face was pitch black, with only a single bright circular light point resembling an eye that led to an unknown realm. Silvery-white hair hung around the silhouette, and everything in its vicinity shifted and changed. It was the number one on the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain Pride List—the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Lord!
Because of Su Chen's interference, the final battle had arrived ahead of schedule.
Facing Lan Batian in his final evolved form, Su Chen had to admit that such immortal clan beings were overwhelmingly superior to ordinary humans. Even with the billions of years of accumulation from the place of immortality, only two or three individuals could match this Blue Light Immortal Clan genius in talent and combat strength.
And this being was merely the top genius of the Blue Light Immortal Clan in the past million years. How long was the true history of an immortal clan? On the Heavenly Gang Pride List, it only ranked tenth!
Su Chen destroyed one of Lan Batian's arms. Countless chains of wisdom shot out from the wheel behind his head and pierced through the creature. As Lan Batian screamed in agony, Su Chen analyzed the cultivation path of the Blue Light Immortal Clan behind him.
However, the moment he tried to fully convert Lan Batian, the being's body dissolved into nothingness.
Completely dissecting the cultivation path of an immortal clan was no easy task. Su Chen felt a twinge of regret. A being like this could have contributed more to the Great Wisdom Divine Cult than thousands upon thousands of human geniuses. Unfortunately, with a True Immortal standing behind the clan, he could not push too far. Attracting the early attention of a True Immortal would not be a good thing.
"What is that?"
Su Chen suddenly raised his head. He sensed an aura of absolute blackness and darkness—the likes of which he had never encountered in all his lifetimes combined. It swept through countless universes. The terrifying existence's aura approached that of an Emperor-level being in less than a million years.
Boom!
With an aura that silenced the myriad heavens, Su Chen felt the presences of powerful experts vanishing one after another. They were slain and devoured by the terrifying being, becoming nourishment for its body.
"That aura… is heading straight toward me!"
Su Chen sensed the pitch-black, all-encompassing darkness approaching him. The aura was so profound that it even tainted his Wheel of Supreme Wisdom with traces of darkness, dimming its light.
The moment the thought arose in Su Chen's mind, a faceless being appeared before him—nothing but infinite darkness. This darkness was unlike any other. It carried a perverse, reality-inverting will… a mad will known as the Great Freedom Dao.
In a single instant, Su Chen's figure was sent flying backward. Countless spaces turned to ash along with him.
In the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty, Su Chen, who had been comprehending the thoughts of his believers across the myriad realms, suddenly opened his eyes. The strand of divine sense he had left inside Nan Hongsang had been severely wounded!
As the thought formed, a stream of consciousness returned to his mind.
"The Great Freedom Heaven…"
Su Chen now possessed all the memories of what had happened on the Path to Heaven. The strand of divine sense he had left in Nan Hongsang had been obliterated in an instant!
Yet Su Chen was not angry. A gleam of excitement flickered in his eyes. He had caught the scent of a kindred spirit.
The Wheel of Wisdom behind his head transformed into countless streams of light. In that very moment, new changes swept across the Path to Heaven.
The Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Lord, who had been preparing to leave, extended pitch-black tentacles of absolute darkness, intending to devour the heavily injured and dimmed strand of Su Chen's will and merge it with himself.
Just as the darkness was about to touch Su Chen, his body suddenly changed. He vanished from before the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Lord, leaving behind only a rotating wheel of light.
This scene caused the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Lord to tilt his head in confusion.
In the next instant, the rotating wheel erupted with blazing radiance, directly disintegrating the pitch-black tentacle into nothingness.
Before the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Lord, the golden wheel transformed once more. It became a golden human silhouette without facial features, radiating supreme divinity. Golden veins pulsed across its body, resembling the ultimate "Heaven" itself.
The Great Wisdom Heaven.
The collision of the two auras annihilated countless spaces.
Outside the Path to Heaven, several indescribable figures gathered around a massive glass sphere. The scene inside the sphere showed endless universes connected by a winding path leading toward its final destination.
What those indescribable figures were observing within the sphere was precisely the clash between Su Chen and the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Lord.
"What is his origin…? Why can this immortal not deduce it? Could he be some old monster who sealed his own memories and reincarnated for mere amusement?"
"That Dao has never been seen in the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain, yet it can contend evenly with the little fellow who has comprehended the Great Freedom Heaven."
"In just a million years, two beings who have reached the level of ‘embodying Heaven with their body' have appeared. Normally, producing even one such being in an entire epoch is already a miracle. Two in a single epoch… this has never happened since time immemorial."
"This is a good thing. The Great Dark Tribulation is approaching. One more ally means one more helper."
"The 108th epoch is almost here… The Land of Darkness will invade once more. Even we, who are undying and indestructible, will face the danger of annihilation."
"..."
Chapter 324: The Great Jing Immortal Dynasty (Part 12)
On the Ancient Monument of the Path to Heaven, shrouded in endless chaos, countless names were densely engraved. Each name represented a prodigy participating in the trial.
Many powerful elders from various forces gathered around it. Every time a name vanished, a faction would mourn the loss. At the forefront stood the most dazzling figures, each possessing the strength to look down upon the ages.
They came from immortal lands.
Once every million years, the Battle of the Path to Heaven took place. The higher a prodigy ranked on the list, the greater the blessings their backing force would receive from the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain, bringing immense benefits to their entire immortal land.
The elders from each immortal land maintained calm expressions. They held absolute confidence in their own successors. As they watched countless names disappear from the lower ranks, they simply kept their proud and indifferent demeanors.
"Humans? What race is that?"
A towering figure looked on with some surprise as a golden light steadily climbed the Ancient Monument of the Path to Heaven.
At first, no one paid the golden light any attention. But its ascent was shockingly fast. In a short time, it had surged straight into eleventh place.
It could no longer be ignored.
The human race was unfamiliar. In the eyes of the many immortal lands of the Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain, it had never been heard of.
Yet that brief moment of attention soon turned into astonishment.
On the Ancient Monument, the eight names ranked at the very front suddenly vanished all at once. Only one remained.
The Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Lord.
The Ancient Monument trembled violently. A black pillar of light shot skyward, tearing open a fissure in the boundless void. Through the rift flowed the long river of time, revealing countless peerless figures that stood apart from past and present.
"Those are… Immortal Monarch imprints?"
"The Heavenly Gang Immortal List! That is the Heavenly Gang Immortal List! It records the most brilliant prodigies of our Heavenly Gang Immortal Domain. Their imprints remain on the list, granting them a chance at immortality in the future!"
"In an entire epoch, it is rare for even one person to leave their name on the Heavenly Gang Immortal List. The ancient Immortal Monarchs all relied on it to etch their legacies."
"A new name has appeared… that is…"
"The Great Freedom Heaven!"
"..."
On the monument that spanned past and present, amid countless dazzling figures, a silhouette like eternal night—formless, traceless, without sensation or interest—slowly condensed and deeply imprinted itself at the end of the river of time.
Even the lofty immortal lands were moved in this moment.
"It's him… that being born from the supreme, pitch-black darkness. He has actually reached the level of ‘Heaven'!"
To instantly kill eight supreme prodigies was already a despair-inducing display of power. Now he had earned a place on the Heavenly Gang Immortal List and gained a chance at true immortality.
This scene was both expected and unexpected.
"Perhaps we will witness the birth of an Immortal Monarch in this era," an ancient existence said with great excitement.
To witness the rise of a legendary Immortal Monarch, even if only as observers, was a stroke of fortune.
While everyone's attention remained fixed on the Heavenly Gang Immortal List, no one noticed new movement on the Ancient Monument of the Path to Heaven.
The name in tenth place, Lan Batian, had disappeared and been replaced by one belonging to the human race.
Boom!
Just as the fissure to the Heavenly Gang Immortal List was about to close and fade away once more, the Ancient Monument shook with another massive disturbance.
"What is happening?"
The crowd turned toward the monument in confusion.
The new commotion came from an unfamiliar name and race.
"Human race… Lord of Supreme Wisdom?"
The unfamiliar name glowed with holy light.
"What exactly is going on?"
"The Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Lord's name has dropped to second place on the Ancient Monument!"
The elders from the major immortal land forces could scarcely believe their eyes.
They were not surprised that the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Lord had triggered the Heavenly Gang Immortal List. After all, he was a being born from supreme, pitch-black darkness.
But the Lord of Supreme Wisdom?
No one had ever heard this name before. And it came from the human race—a race they had never heard of either. It belonged to neither the immortal lands nor the supreme races.
Yet it had suddenly burst into everyone's view.
The imprint left by the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Lord on the Heavenly Gang Immortal List was scattered by that holy figure. Endless wisdom evolved into truths, and countless truths coalesced into form. Without fixed shape, witnessed in a single thought, it became eternal.
....
Chapter 324: The Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty (Part 12)
In the depths of the Heavenly Palace in the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty, chaos surged.
A towering figure, godlike and demonic, stood upon the ninth heaven.
In an instant, laws trembled and chains of order shattered.
"What exactly is happening?"
A rare flicker of emotion appeared in Heavenly Martial Emperor's eyes. It was a feeling he had not experienced in countless years. Not even when he had fought that supreme existence from the Barbarian Wolf Heavenly Domain on the brink of life and death had he shown such emotion.
A vast will descended upon the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty.
"Nan Hongsang of the human race's Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty has ranked 100th on the Ancient Monument of the Path to Heaven. She is granted one million years of immortal dao blessings."
A majestic, supreme voice rang out in the minds of countless beings across the entire Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty. It was impossible to defy.
"What is the Ancient Monument of the Path to Heaven?"
"Nan Hongsang? Isn't she the greatest female war god of our Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty?"
"One million years of immortal dao blessings? Wait—my cultivation is breaking through!"
"..."
Throughout the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty, massive surges of primal qi, law fragments, and dao order erupted everywhere. All living beings clearly felt their cultivation rising rapidly.
The people of the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty might not have understood what the Ancient Monument of the Path to Heaven was, nor what one million years of immortal dao fortune truly meant. But Heavenly Martial Emperor understood perfectly.
A colossal wave of fortune poured into the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty. With this protection, not even immortals could act freely within its borders.
"Top one hundred on the Ancient Monument of the Path to Heaven… Even at my peak, I never achieved such glory," Heavenly Martial Emperor said with visible joy.
This was a heaven-sent gift. With one million years of immortal dao fortune blessing the entire dynasty, they might even stand shoulder to shoulder with those supreme races. The Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty would reach new heights under his rule!
"The little girl from the Nan Clan is truly a blessing to our Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty."
...
Outside the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty, many forces had grown wary after the dynasty destroyed the Barbarian Wolf Heavenly Domain and Heavenly Martial Emperor proved his dao as an Emperor Lord. They had secretly allied with an ancient race.
"What is that?"
Powerful experts from the surrounding forces looked up and saw the region of the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty enveloped in a mysterious aura that inspired instinctive awe and fear.
"That is… how is this possible?"
"Immortal dao fortune from the Ancient Monument of the Path to Heaven? You fools! You actually dared to move against a heaven-favored race!"
The experts from that ancient race instantly changed color.