Chapter 2139: Destructive

The starry sky was riddled with scars, and scarlet blood winds howled, carrying the roars of heroic souls that echoed in the ears of all living beings.

Facing the blood winds, the warriors of the various heavens supported one another as they made their way back, accompanied by blood and tears. This battle had been devastating, with countless ancient stars shattered and innumerable homes destroyed. Too many people stood in the starry sky, wandering aimlessly, gazing at their homelands turned to smoke and ashes, weeping bitterly.

For those whose home planets still existed, they all stepped forward to help, assisting these people back to their places. So many ancestors had fallen in battle; at the very least, they needed to leave a memory for the homeless.

Baptized by the flames of war, this stretch of starry sky gained a murderous aura, a kind that could only be forged on the battlefield. It was a deep-seated hatred toward the Honghuang Clan, no less intense than that for the Tianmo.

If the Honghuang Clan dared to provoke them again, the cultivators of the various heavens would rush to the battlefield without hesitation. With homes lost and mountains and rivers broken, and even the Tianmo repelled, why fear the Honghuang?

In the eastern part of the starry sky, Ye Chen suddenly stopped, quietly gazing up at the void, as if he could peer through the haze to the space black hole. Tianzhi was still inside, wasn't she? He had almost forgotten about her.

“How is it you're not moving?”

“Senior, is there anyone in the various heavens who can connect to the space black hole?” Ye Chen asked tentatively.

“There is, but they are in the midst of tribulation,” Yue Huang said softly.

Ye Chen gave a dry cough, feeling truly embarrassed. He had left Tianzhi in the black hole for safety, but now that the Tianmo were defeated, his Lunhui Yan was sealed, so he couldn't enter. If he couldn't get in, Tianzhi couldn't get out either. This situation was awkward indeed.

“In a few hundred years, you should be fine,” Ye Chen thought to himself, slowly turning around with Ji Ning Shuang on his back, gradually walking away. He would have to wait for his Lunhui Yan to be unsealed or for those in tribulation to pass through; otherwise, there was no way into that black hole, and staring at it would be pointless.

The imperial domain gate was summoned, and everyone stepped inside.

Only then did Ye Chen set Ji Ning Shuang down, placing her into the great cauldron. She had fought alone against thirty-two emperors and was severely injured. The hidden wounds from imperial Dao principles weren't something that could heal in a day or two. Having survived such tribulations himself, he knew all too well—a single moment of distraction could lead to being devoured. Fortunately, Ji Ning Shuang's foundation was deep enough to withstand the erosion of the principles.

Yue Huang, Tianjiu, and Donghuang Tai Xin were also badly wounded. Although the Residual Night Tianmo Emperor was dead, the killing intent lingered. Even as peak Zhundi, they couldn't afford to be careless and needed to eliminate it as soon as possible.

Ye Chen sat down in meditation to heal his wounds, the fresh blood overflowing from his mouth never ceasing.

Upon returning to Da Chu, what they saw were shattered mountains and rivers. The once picturesque northern Chu in their memories had been trampled into flat land by the Tianmo's iron hooves, stained with the blood of Da Chu's heroic souls.

Beneath the ruined walls of southern Chu, the cultivators of Da Chu were all there, clad in armor with blood-red capes fluttering as they roared toward the sky. It was they who had defended this beautiful land, though the battle had been fierce. At a glance, so many familiar faces were missing, all buried in the bloodshed.

Seeing Ye Chen and the others, the Da Chu cultivators hurried forward.

Ye Ling cried the hardest, throwing herself into Ye Chen's arms and sobbing like a child. In her eyes, her father was like the sky itself. When the Tianmo invaded Da Chu and her father wasn't there, she felt an unprecedented fear, worried that when he returned, Da Chu and Hengyue would be gone.

“Ling'er, don't be afraid.”

The women were already teary-eyed, having experienced the Tianmo invasion and realizing the preciousness of their bonds. Ye Chen's smile was warm and weary, tinged with guilt. When darkness enveloped Da Chu, he hadn't been by his family's side. As a husband and father, he should have been the one to hold up the sky for them.

The women wouldn't blame Ye Chen, nor could they. As the emperor of Da Chu, he had a greater mission. The entire various heavens were fighting desperately; no one could escape. This was the cruelty of war.

After the battle, the starry sky fell into an eerie silence, with only wisps of blood mist drifting about.

The beings of the myriad domains were all healing and recuperating. Even forces that had been enemies in the past no longer clashed, and for many years to come, there would be no more chaos. It was because they had fought side by side, united against a common enemy and for a shared homeland, battling the Tianmo with their blood.

Nine days later, on Wangxuan Star in the various heavens, a massive stone stele was erected, towering a thousand zhang high.

Every day, people came to carve names onto the stele—names of the heroic souls who had fallen. Because of this, Wangxuan Star was renamed Heroes' Tomb, solely to commemorate the dead.

The heroes' stele at the Various Heavens Gate also gained many new names.

In Da Chu, there was no reincarnation; death was final. Even among the heroic souls who fell in the first Tianmo invasion, too many had never returned home. Perhaps they were already gone, buried in the passage of time, unaware of their Da Chu homeland until death, or of their past lives.

In the morning, the warm sunlight bathed the earth, shining brightly.

The gates of southern Chu opened again, and crowds surged out like a tide, heading north to rebuild northern Chu.

Tianxuan Gate was not idle either; the Zhundi all emerged, gathering at the southern Chu city walls to repair the damaged formations and reinforce them with new arrays, striving to elevate their defenses and attacks to the peak.

On Jade Maiden Peak of Hengyue Sect, Ye Chen emerged from seclusion. It had taken him half a month to eradicate the killing intent within his body and fully heal his sacred body. Yet, his face remained pale, and blood occasionally seeped from his mouth. The strand of Tianmo origin inside him was still there, ready to backfire at any moment.

To this day, he still couldn't figure out where this Tianmo origin had come from, given that he had no Tianmo foundation.

“Daddy, hug me.” Little Ye Fan ran over and tugged at Ye Chen's robe.

Ye Chen smiled, bending down to pick him up, and glanced around. All the women were there, except for Ji Ning Shuang, who was likely still in seclusion. Having battled thirty-two emperors, her injuries were extremely severe.

Breakfast was warm and peaceful, a rare moment of ordinary life that touched the heart.

He should count himself lucky that Hengyue was still standing. Compared to those left homeless, he was fortunate indeed. Such was war—cruel enough to separate families, devastating enough to destroy homes.

After the meal, Ye Chen descended from Jade Maiden Peak and visited the other peaks. So many familiar faces were gone—elders and disciples alike. It wasn't just Hengyue Sect; all major forces had suffered the same.

Long Wu had returned, as had Qian Shang Yue, Liu Yi, and Xingyue Saintess. They had gone searching for their loved ones but ended up facing the Tianmo invasion. Unable to make it back to Da Chu in time, they fought the Tianmo across the starry sky, barely surviving nine deaths out of ten.

Chu Ling Yu and Hongchen Xue had also returned, their eyes full of tears from losing too many relatives.

Three days later, Ye Chen left Hengyue Sect and went to Tianxuan Gate.

Donghuang Tai Xin had also come out of seclusion, standing quietly in front of a palace. Before her stood a towering stone stele, hung with many jade slips—these were yuanshen jade slips.

Ye Chen walked over and gazed up quietly, knowing what these jade slips represented: they were left by those in tribulation before they departed.

At this sight, he was truly shocked. More than half of the jade slips had lost their glow, including those of Dan Zun, the First Shen Jiang, and Jiuhuang Shengzu.

In that instant, Ye Chen's heart ached. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed that so many in Da Chu had died in the tribulation. It was a destructive blow!

The reason so many had perished was due to the Tianmo invasion disrupting the tribulations of the various heavens. Too many in tribulation had fallen to the Tianmo's hands. All these factors made this tribulation bloody and merciless; once destroyed, they were truly scattered souls, never to return.

“Da Chu is like this; the major forces in the various heavens are probably the same,” Donghuang Tai Xin sighed. They had been extremely careful not to disturb the tribulations, yet human plans could not outwit fate. A great immortal-demon war had disrupted the entire tide of tribulations, leading to the fall of countless peak Zhundi.

Ye Chen said nothing, his expression grim. After one tribulation, the peak forces of the various heavens were already few, and this Tianmo invasion had dealt a destructive blow to their peak strength.

Compared to the various heavens, the Honghuang was far better off.

At least, in this Tianmo invasion, the Honghuang hadn't participated, suffering basically zero casualties. Any losses were from their own in tribulation. With this decline and growth, the various heavens' situation was even more perilous than before. If the Honghuang were determined to wage war now, the various heavens' forces absolutely couldn't hold them off.

“The troops will come, and we’ll block them; the flood will come, and we’ll use earth to dam it,” Donghuang Tai Xin said lightly, though Ye Chen could hear the icy killing intent beneath her calm words—it was unmistakable.

“Is there a way to cultivate quickly, to help me break through to Zhundi in the shortest time?” Ye Chen's words were also calm, but the calmer he was, the more frightening.

“There won't be, and there can't be,” Donghuang Tai Xin replied softly. “For a Great Saint advancing to Zhundi, external forces are useless. No matter how heaven-defying the pills or techniques, they can't compare to insights into the Dao. Without that nirvana opportunity, there won't be any fortuitous breakthrough.”

Ye Chen sighed; he had been too eager to summon Di Huang, which was why he was so desperate to advance to Zhundi.

In reality, his idea was laughable. Aside from the anomaly like Hongchen, even someone as brilliant as Jiu Xiao Zhenren, the youngest Zhundi in the various heavens, was over three thousand years old. Counting his past and present lives, plus the thousand years in the Six Paths of Reincarnation, Ye Chen was only a little over a thousand years old. He was still tens of thousands of miles from Zhundi realm; reaching it would take a very long time.

“Have you considered a possibility?” Donghuang Tai Xin spoke again, turning to look at Ye Chen. “If you merged with Hongchen and the Six Paths, could you summon the Emperor?”

“Di Huang Senior said that for him to be summoned, it must be through his own power; borrowing external forces is useless.”

“But those two aren't ordinary external forces,” Donghuang Tai Xin said leisurely. As the Kunlun Goddess, she knew very well about Ye Chen's relationship with Hongchen and the Six Paths—it involved the cycle of time and space. Regardless of Hongchen or the Six Paths, their origins were all from Ye Chen. In a certain sense, their power couldn't be considered true external forces.

“If there's another chance to merge with them, I'll give it a try,” Ye Chen stroked his chin. “But if that opportunity comes, there'd be no need to summon Di Huang Senior again.”

This statement made Donghuang Tai Xin's eyebrows twitch; she had no words to counter. What Ye Chen said was logical. Merging with Hongchen and the Six Paths would give him the power of a fully realized sacred body, capable of slaying emperors. Why fear the Honghuang Clan? He alone could trample them flat.

“Come, use your hand to remove the seal.” Ye Chen took out a jade slip.

This jade slip had been with him for some time; it was given to him by Di Huang through Qin Guang Wang years ago, to be opened only after reaching Great Saint. Calculating the time, it had been one hundred and seventy years.

Unfortunately, after becoming a Great Saint, one event after another had piled up, and he had only just remembered. What embarrassed him was that, with his cultivation, he couldn't break the seal on the jade slip. He suspected it contained shocking secrets; otherwise, Di Huang wouldn't have been so cautious, adding such formidable prohibitions to prevent outsiders from learning its contents.

“An imperial-level seal.” Donghuang Tai Xin murmured lightly, pointing a finger, but it didn't open. Helpless, she summoned the Xuanyuan Sword and infused it with ultimate divine power to finally break the seal on the jade slip.

With a crack, the jade slip shattered, and a beam of golden light shot out, merging into Ye Chen's brow.

Uh!

Ye Chen grunted and staggered, collapsing unconscious to the ground.

Donghuang Tai Xin frowned and hurriedly stepped forward to check, but a mysterious force repelled her, making even her expression change abruptly. That force belonged to the imperial Dao and was extremely terrifying.

In that instant, Di Huang and the Ming Emperor in the underworld both sharpened their gazes, staring intently at Ye Chen.

“Whether it's that person, we'll know at a glance,” the Ming Emperor pondered.

“So certain?” Di Huang asked indifferently.

“I believe her words,” the Ming Emperor took a deep breath.

“The 'her' you mean is...”

“Only an emperor is qualified to know.”