Chapter 1735: Protecting the Path of the Older Generation

The night in Dà Chǔ was peaceful and harmonious, with all sounds hushed.

The bright moonlight and sparkling stars draped the vast mountains and rivers in a splendid veil, like a fairyland.

However, this tranquility was shattered by a thunderous boom that echoed far and wide, startling many people who rose to gaze at the sky.

Xióng Èr stood there, his eyes full of doubt.

"Could it be from the Hóng Huāng great clans? Are they breaking the truce agreement?"

"There's a sense of heart palpitations." Xiè Yún leaned on his crutch, his face pale, with fresh blood still trickling from his mouth from his battle against the Hóng Huāng prince, whose wounds had yet to heal.

"What do you all think?" On Tiānxuán Mén, Dōnghuáng Tàiyī looked up at the void, her voice faint and ethereal, her delicate brows slightly furrowed.

"I can't trace the source of that boom." Chǔ Líng also gazed upward, pondering, "It seems to come from another domain."

"Even if there's a great battle, the commotion is excessively large!" Tiān Lǎo frowned, "It actually crossed dimensions to reach us."

"Can you calculate it?" Yán Huáng glanced at the person beside him, Rén Wáng.

"Something's odd." Rén Wáng held a Jiǔgōng Bāguà disk, one hand supporting it and the other performing calculations, his brows lightly knitted, "There's an extremely familiar aura, but I can't tell who it is."

"Strange things keep happening today." Dì Lǎo stroked his beard, "That child of the earth is still missing without a trace."

"The Hóng Huāng great clans are stirring again, and I can already smell the blood in the air." Zhàn Wáng snorted coldly, "Do they really think Dà Chǔ has no one to stand against them?"

Zhàn Wáng's words left the group of Zhǔn Dì silent, each with furrowed brows.

Ever since the great immortal-demon war ended and the Hóng Huāng great clans were unsealed, too many events had spiraled out of control, with war smoke filling the heavens.

The booming sound continued, and even with the cultivation of these Zhǔn Dì, they felt a sense of unease, as if an unknown catastrophe lurked in the shadows.

That boom originated from Líng Yù, the fluctuations from the battle between Dì Xū and Yè Chén, causing the entire Líng Yù to tremble and buzz.

Gazing afar, the ninth heaven was shrouded in dark clouds with lightning flashing and thunder roaring, turning it into a chaotic realm that no one dared to enter recklessly.

Apocalyptic visions covered the sky and earth, as if the end of days had come.

Yè Chén was covered in blood, and even his Bà Tǐ state could no longer sustain the strain.

Yet his attacks remained overwhelmingly dominant, like an eight desolations war god with sky-high battle intent, repeatedly overpowering Dì Xū.

He had slain great emperors twice before, so he feared no half-emperor.

Dì Xū's assaults were also terrifying, lacking divine abilities but capable of destroying heavens and earth.

It was another epic clash between a great emperor and a sacred body, with Dì Xū sending Yè Chén spattering blood time and again, only to be blasted apart by Yè Chén in return.

Truly a world-shaking conquest that made the Zhǔn Dì from all sides tremble with fear—if it were them, they couldn't withstand even one strike from Dì Xū.

"His presence makes me feel as if I'm seeing a young great emperor." Bái Zhǐ murmured softly, "Just like my master in the past."

"Sharing an era with him is truly awkward." Míng Jué sighed, the great emperor's disciple lowering his proud head.

"Yè Chén, you have to win." Chǔ Líng'ér gripped her jade hands tightly, her eyes filled with mist, not daring to look away for a moment, afraid that if she blinked, she might never see Yè Chén again—the pain of life and death separation was too much.

In a few instances, she even wished Yè Chén weren't such a peerless hero and hoped he were just an ordinary person, so the chaos of the world could be Rén Tǒng by others.

But he was a sacred body, an ancient sacred body on par with emperors, destined to fight for all living beings until he fell in the passage of time.

She didn't know when, but she had started feeling more timid, unable to bear even the slightest turmoil, and even more afraid of blood.

It wasn't that she had become cowardly, but that she was about to become a mother, with the child in her womb soon to be born into this chaotic world.

"Someone is falling!" As she was lost in thought, someone shouted, and everyone's eyes fixed on the sky.

It was a blood-drenched figure, no longer recognizable as human, its entire body of immortal light gradually dimming as it fell.

Indeed, it was Yè Chén, knocked down from the heavens for what must have been the umpteenth time.

After all, he wasn't a fully achieved sacred body, only possessing five Dì Qì and a small amount of Dì Huáng's fresh blood, without a solid foundation to support him.

The faces of those around turned deathly pale in an instant—Yè Chén had been defeated.

This defeat didn't mean the ancient sacred body was inferior to the Tiān Mó Dì Xū; it was simply because Yè Chén's realm was too low to defy the heavens in battle.

Tiān Mó Dì Xū descended, having struck Yè Chén from the sky, but his own body was also shattered, with dark emperor bones exposed.

"If not now, when?" A roar echoed as a figure shot into the heavens—it was Xiān Hé Lǎo Zǔ.

At the same time, Qīng Luán Lǎo Zǔ charged forward, determined to hold off Tiān Mó Dì Xū for Yè Chén and buy him precious time.

Not just them, many elderly Zhǔn Dì nearing the end of their lives burned their essence and lifespan to gain peak combat power. Regardless of life or death, this would be their final battle.

Though they knew it was a path of no return, a suicidal charge, none of the older generation hesitated. They had to fight for a bright and clear future for posterity, and even in death, they would die with no regrets.

Tiān Mó Dì Xū raised his hand, sending a palm strike that dominated the heavens and pressed down on the sky.

That palm was enormous, shrouding the heavens as it descended, collapsing the firmament and shattering space—a truly world-ending strike.

"Kill!" Xiān Hé Lǎo Zǔ roared, the first to charge upward, unleashing the most peak strike of his cultivation life.

"Kill!" One venerable old Zhǔn Dì after another soared into the clouds, each delivering their strongest blow in life.

Yet Dì Xū's palm was too powerful, carrying world-ending might, sending one Zhǔn Dì after another to their demise in the void, their bodies and dao extinguished.

"Kill!" More people rushed skyward, including many Dà Shèng level experts who self-destructed their bodies just to block that palm.

Blossoms of blood flowers bloomed magnificently, filling the vast heavens.

In their final moments, they all turned back for a glance at their own descendants.

They smiled wearily, their defying-heaven journey nearing its end, with too many hardships from the past, untold tales of trials.

In this death, they could face it without shame, nearing sublimation as they fell, their lives as cultivators buried in the glorious years.

"Old ancestor!" All the descendants wept, sobbing uncontrollably, for those who had devoted their lives to the family, yet couldn't even die in peace, fighting until the end just to secure light for the future.

On the ground, Yè Chén staggered to his feet, gazing at the blood-red sky, his eyes bloodshot, his pupils a deep crimson.

The scene now was eerily similar to that of three hundred years ago.

Back then, to protect him in his battle against the emperor, countless juniors and seniors had willingly shattered themselves for him.

Tonight, to give him time to recover, the older Zhǔn Dì were staking their lives in a heroic sacrifice.

"Power, who will give me power?" Yè Chén gritted his teeth until they cracked, his fists clenched until they bled, his heart roaring and raging.

He couldn't lose—if he did, no one in Líng Yù would survive.

And then the heavens would face catastrophe, with his family, brothers, and loved ones all perishing under the Tiān Mó's iron hooves.

In an instant, the five Dì Bīng trembled in unison, their emperor might reemerging.

Their union stirred the hidden power within Yè Chén's body.

Bā Yuán's sacred bone radiated divine light; Chén Zhàn's origin surged wildly; Dì Huáng's divine repository etched the great dao marks.

The most astonishing three great sacred bodies in the history of the heavens and myriad domains merged within Yè Chén, achieving perfect fusion for the first time.

A mysterious power wove together and was bestowed upon Yè Chén.

His wounds healed in an instant, and the dim light throughout his body burst forth with radiant divine glow, like a sun.

This domineering power gave him immense confidence—that he could battle a complete great emperor and remain invincible.

"Battle!" With a roar, he shot into the heavens like a divine rainbow, his golden fist clenched as he smashed toward Dì Xū's palm.

This punch fused a thousand secret techniques, the sacred body origin, and the power of reincarnation, evolving supreme dao at its core.

Dì Xū's palm was obliterated, and even he staggered back.

As the Zhǔn Dì fell one by one, Yè Chén charged into the void, his fist shattering half of Dì Xū's body, utterly dominant.