Chapter 2739: Ascension

Cang Tu Shen suddenly launched an attack as the bell chimed that moment.

What does this indicate?

After confirming his intent to fight, the highest god in the present world was actually so anxious, repeatedly urging him to come closer, to be faster. It seems it wasn't just about seizing a god, but also about changes. More likely, that battle on the mountain path had developed far beyond expectations.

The huge lightning hook spear was being dissolved by divine power, dripping onto the wolf's teeth as deep purple thunder slurry.

Originally, Jiang Zhenjun should have only engaged Shen Tu Hu for a while. He should have grasped this rare opportunity to make his way through the god temple square and fulfill his duty as quickly as possible. But he understood the principle that haste makes waste, cherishing the opportunity to still play a role, and thus proceeded cautiously step by step.

But Cang Tu Shen could not wait!

He Lian Zhao Tu had already gathered the power of the nation upon his body, pouring forth absolute peak power. Yet, he was inevitably rolled away by the wolf tongue corridor, flying towards that dark, throat-like opening.

Jade railing, gold wall, ancient god portraits.

Court pillars supported the sky, a high dome hung the sun and moon!

The ruined walls of the highest god mountain were not the god master's residence.

The true Cang Tu Shen Temple was actually inside the wolf's belly!

"Mother—"

He Lian Zhao Tu took a step forward, inevitably urgent, but then suddenly stopped. Golden-eyed dragon qi surged in all directions, strands of dragon qi floated from his lips, as if dragon whiskers were growing!

"Your Majesty!"

He said in a deep voice: "Your son arrived late to rescue the carriage!"

Within this majestic grand hall, as he stepped through the hall door, his first sight was the back of his mother, He Lian Shan Hai.

A set of sky-blue great shepherd dragon robes, like a heavenly curtain, hung quietly.

The Great Shepherd Female Emperor stood in the exact center of the Cang Tu Shen Temple, clearly the absolute center of this world. Merely one back figure, she resembled a mountain ridge, as if she supported this enormous Cang Tu Heaven Country!

There was no sense of usurpation; wherever she went, that was the king's soil.

King's power was before her boots!

Successive emperors of the He Lian clan all cultivated the sword of "Husband in Luxury". "Husband in Luxury" is the grassland language meaning "king's power". He Lian Zhao Tu also used this sword as his fundamental sword scripture. But flipping through historical books, only his own mother could truly cultivate "king's power supreme".

Even ancestor He Lian Qing Tong, or Lie Emperor He Lian Wen Hong, on this sword, had to be slightly inferior.

Because only his mother, He Lian Zhao Tu, truly accomplished the great feat of using king's power to suppress divine power, obtaining the true meaning of "supreme".

Only now could she step into the god temple as king's soil, confining Cang Tu Shen's divine might to this hall—even to that god seat.

But his mother, at this moment, was also like a stone sculpture, frozen there, just like the successive Great Shepherd Emperors on the mountain climbing stone steps.

Late?

Within the great hall, a decrepit voice rang out, like wind in a flickering candle, weakly swaying—

"Is that Zhao Tu... come?"

He Lian Zhao Tu walked forward, his gaze finally breaking through the back of the Great Shepherd Female Emperor, stepping out of the range of king's power, able to see that great god seat.

On the god seat was a decrepit god spirit.

God spirits do not age.

The present world's god spirits are even more eternal.

But the one sitting on the god seat at this moment was hunched in divine body, with deep wrinkles.

It had a human body, torso and limbs all clear. Just the top was a wolf's head, a circle of horse's mane below the neck, and behind it was a pair of folded-up dry, shriveled eagle feathers.

The eye sockets on the wolf's head were deeply sunken, with wrinkled eye bags, seeming to carry the burden of years already passed.

Those eyes were sky-blue, but very cloudy, like the opposite side of the line between life and death, filled with sand and dust.

This voice emanated from this venerable being.

Cang Tu Shen? Or... Tai Zu?

"Zhao Tu!" The god spirit shouted again.

Walking past He Lian Shan Hai's side, light and shadow flickered for a moment, making He Lian Zhao Tu's face alternately dim and bright.

But see him, born with a face like a true dragon!

At this time, with Deng Yong in hand, king's power added to his body, dragon qi surrounded him, and with every breath, winds and clouds surged.

Since ascending to the throne, his strength had been violently increasing every moment. But in this transcendent war situation, it was still tiny.

He knew his own insignificance, but still walked to the front of his own mother—

That was the figure he had looked up to since childhood, the goal he had strived for with his spiritual power all his life.

He would never forget when he was eleven years old, returning from worshiping the god on Qiong Lu Mountain, his legs numb, sitting on the bed.

As the empress mother, she personally brought a golden basin and washed his feet for the first time.

He would forever remember what his mother said that day— "I will never again let my own child bow his head before so-called 'god spirits'!"

Mother said this sentence without lifting her head.

Mother's warm hands made his numb feet feel again. The not-yet-grown-up him looked at the water in the golden basin, ripples spreading in circles.

He would never forget the immense sadness in his heart at that moment.

He wanted to say, "Son is not afraid of hardship, son is not tired, son is still young, bowing his head is nothing." He really wanted to say it was nothing!

But he wanted to say even more—

"Mother, you are too tired, but please rest for a moment, hand all of this over to me."

Twenty-plus years passed, and he never had the opportunity to say it.

Too slow. Too slow! Too weak!

Now he walked to his mother's front, he said: "Gu is He Lian Zhao Tu."

"Good... good child!" The weak voice on the god seat actually had several points of excitement: "It has reached the most important time— the descendants of the He Lian clan have arrived as scheduled!"

"The He Lian family never breaks its appointments." He Lian Zhao Tu said: "I indeed came because of an old appointment deep within my bloodline... and you?"

His eyes were filled with inquiry, waiting for the answer on the god seat.

"He Lian Qing Tong!"

"God name Cang Tu!"

That venerable god body above the god seat simultaneously emitted two kinds of voices.

One was decrepit and weak, yet had a brightness like flame.

One was grand and majestic, yet stained with a thick intent of decay.

The god body suddenly straightened up! Both hands grasped the armrests.

As if finally seizing a short moment of control, the decrepit weak voice said: "The one speaking with you now is your ancestor, the founder of the Great Shepherd Empire—"

"Yi Qi Na!" That grand majestic voice exploded again within the god body, interrupting the former speech.

The intensity of the struggle was truly clear.

Representing Cang Tu Shen's will, it roared: "You, this lowly Qing Tong child of the bloodline, were earliest only a sheep herding boy, a slave among slaves! All relied on this venerable's cultivation, only then did you have later. Everything you got with a slave's face and a maid's knees, yet you dare to boast of great achievements?!"

"Yi Qi Na" was indeed He Lian Qing Tong's original name, and he never obscured this point. Just like his experience as a human slave, substituting for others to herd sheep, it was clearly engraved in his life, allowing people to comment.

Everyone could mock him as Yi Qi Na, everyone could say their situation wouldn't be worse than a sheep herding slave, but no second person did what he once did!

At this moment, the voice of decay rose again within the god body, yet with a weak, cold laugh: "Even today you still live in your own fantasy, even today you still don't know— I chose you among so many god fires that initially shone on the grassland, not you choosing me."

"Indeed, you swallowed down the remnant chapter of the Eternal Heaven Country, chewed the fallen nutrients of the god myth era, but the myth era has already passed. Without my integration of your god path into the national system, without me building the ladder of the heaven country for you, without me nourishing you in the new era— what did you rely on to ascend to the highest god in the present world?"

"Without me, you are no different from the Original Heaven God who was tied with a dog chain before!"

"Gu Shi Yi gifted It a god crown, and still gained It as Daoyi God's protector. I sent you to ascend as a god, yet you still dare to view me as a slave."

"You are not only inferior to It in this respect! Both greedily devoured old traces, but It counted as a restart, while you are a deserter from the Eternal Heaven Country. It independently mastered the power of God Fall, while you only relied on the legacy of the Blue Heaven God Master, swallowing a pile of remnant thoughts of various gods. Without me expanding territory and opening frontiers, the entire country offering itself, you wouldn't even digest it thoroughly."

"Of course, you also bought me time. I could advance west of Ji Yan Qiu, hunt north of Ji Yu Su, and unify the grassland in the first step."

"Even if I were one step late, Tang Yu might not have chosen to go to the most chaotic Jing area to build a country."

"I admit your usefulness. But your usefulness is also limited to this. Your so-called eternity is only valuable during that segment of time!"

The decrepit voice said: "Without you, I could also support other god countries. Without me, you would be impossible to become a present world god spirit! What exactly is noble about you—wolf, eagle, horse?"

To become a present world god spirit, one must of course have world-class talent, the most outstanding ability, and a heart that far surpasses the ordinary. Cang Tu Shen would, of course, not be so incompetent.

To kill a path alone after the shattering of the Eternal Heaven Country, to give up the legacy of the gods of the Heaven Horse Plain, and to leap out of the shackles of the various sides of the Heaven Horse Plain, achieving the status of the first god in the present world. Even the Original Heaven God himself would not dare say he was stronger than Cang Tu Shen!

But just as It belittled He Lian Qing Tong as completely relying on kneeling and divine grace, both sides were merely using words to trample on each other.

Of course, it was not only for insult and venting anger, they were also truly erasing the value of the other, and furthermore, they also wanted to erase the history of the other— just as they had always been at war for so many years.

One side erased the other, while one side emphasized itself. The worship of believers and the respect of nationals were all the lines they respectively tied to the human world, emphasizing their own existence.

In this era of "ten thousand teachings merge, faith free," Cang Tu Shen's human world line was further weakened. Evidently, if He Lian Qing Tong could persist, he would have an advantage in the future.

But the last war occurred today.

At this moment, both were in one body, each issuing its voice, showing the ferocity of the war situation.

But it seems that Cang Tu Shen, being able to manifest outside and take action on the mountain peak, should still hold the upper hand.

Moreover, Tai Zu's voice was so weak, already like a remnant candle about to be extinguished...

"Sharp-tongued!" That majestic grand voice was hard to suppress in its anger: "You were not prostrate at my feet, kneeling and begging for divine grace at that time!"

"You also don't need to perform emotions anymore." The decrepit voice said: "Both you and I know that these words have no influence on you. You are cold-blooded and cruel, not even caring about the dignity of so-called god spirits. All things were never in your eyes, everything was just a stone staircase for you to ascend as a god. You only care about the final result."

The majestic grand voice indeed became indifferent: "Qing Tong child, for so many years, you have always been the most tenacious one I have seen. You can sleep in horse dung, you can also kneel down and lick the boots of your enemy. You experienced the most lowly life, and also enjoyed the most precious honor. But today, you should always resign yourself to fate."

"I gave you opportunities in the human world and in the heaven country, and you were not content in either. Greed is your sin."

"Must admit your courage to seize a god, your wisdom and courage allowed you to reach this step. Your descendants generation after generation have supported you, allowing you to linger in this venerable god body."

"But a thousand years is only a blink of an eye, you always don't understand the meaning of eternity."

That god body slowly lifted its right hand, palm flipped forward, as if wanting to overturn this heaven: "To me it's only a blink of an eye, and you have already consumed many segments of lives! Still want to persist in error?"

This highest temple, following this single flip of the hand, shook!

That power which surpassed all, seemed about to descend!

"Persist in error?" The decrepit voice sneered.

This single hand flipping heaven, the fingers slightly trembled! The momentum of flipping heaven therefore suddenly stopped.

"Do you know where the biggest difference between you and I is?"

He Lian Qing Tong's voice said: "You have been high above for too long, truly thinking yourself omnipotent, truly feeling that all are your creations, feeling that all people only deserve to prostrate at your feet, not remembering your days of hiding here and there, lingering on, not remembering your time as merely a human body. And I never forget the feeling of sheep not having enough grass to eat, me not having enough to eat, cutting pasture grass with hands full of blood marks."

"Cang Tu, this will also be the reason for your failure."

"I originally had nothing, not afraid to start from the beginning."

"Come again a thousand times, ten thousand times, no matter in the god country, in the immortal court, in any place, I can still climb to the top."

That decrepit weak voice, in an instant, became high-spirited, like an iron cavalry charging out, like thunder exploding: "You can? My—god?!"

The decrepit voice was so intense, an old dragon in a sickly state was still mighty.

That hand, which trembled about to flip heaven, suddenly waved down! He Lian Qing Tong, at this moment, suppressed Cang Tu Shen, fixing the god body, and the decrepit voice said: "He Lian Zhao Tu, my descendant, lift your sword and come forward, chop this god body, cut off the wolf head! I want to contend with It for another lifetime, starting from the remnant soul!!!"

Although it was a weak god body sitting on that seat, this wave of the hand still seemed like the "Shepherd Book" recorded, waving to decide the world, waving to whip ten thousand armies!

No shame in the spirit of founding the country!

He Lian Zhao Tu lifted Deng Yong in his hand and took a big step forward!

Slaughtering a god...

Slaughtering a god!

This last step of slaughtering a god would ultimately be completed by him.

The war with Cang Tu Shen started with the He Lian family and would also end with the He Lian family.

"You seek death—" The wolf head on the god seat instantly opened its bloody mouth, destructive breath condensed in the dark throat, then immediately dissipated! The voice suddenly changed from majestic to decrepit: "Quickly come!"

Majestic voice: "I want your god soul to be extinguished forever, your true spirit to not exist!"

Decrepit voice: "As long as you are like me, I fear nothing!"

He Lian Zhao Tu walked faster and faster, long boots stepping through the hall like fierce drum sounds. Splendid golden dragon qi rose behind him, like a monarch's long cloak!

Crossing the Dan steps, treading the jade stairs, rolling national power howled and gathered in the Deng Yong sword. Among the light and shadow, it floated and sank like ten thousand li of mountains and rivers.

Majestic voice: "The bloodline of the He Lian family ought to be cut off from the human world!"

Decrepit voice: "Zhao Tu, Zhao Tu, chop it!"

He Lian Zhao Tu chopped down with one sword—

He missed the wolf body with this sword, chopping heavily on the god seat!!!

Yu Yu, this whip, carries the meaning of "vibrating long strategies and governing the universe." "Long strategy" is also a long whip, its might can reach ten thousand li.

The born son, Zhao Tu, was given the Deng Yong sword upon reaching the crown. The born daughter, Yun Yun, was given the Yu Yu whip, entrusted to the peach and plum. From the beginning, the current emperor treated his two children as future emperors to cultivate, placing thick hopes on them.

Therefore, over the years, there was the "good country struggle" between the brother and sister. It only stopped suddenly today.

This third brother of Yun Yun, his true strength is only feared not to be less than that of the Penglai palm teacher. No wonder he could participate in the Di Zang war, stirring up waves in the sea of heaven!

Sending Yun Yun to the White Jade Capital wine house was indeed extremely safe.

He Lian Zhao Tu no longer had worries in the rear, only ambition in front. His five fingers loosened and then gradually closed again, gripping the Deng Yong sword tightly once more.

This sword of king's power, and that Yu Yu whip in Yun Yun's hand, were forged in the same furnace, both raised in the "Heaven Mirror" over the years. They were He Lian Shan Hai's own weapons.

The sword Deng Yong carries the meaning of "dragon rises and ascends to the throne, respectfully clear and revere the ancient, act as parents to the people, be the master of the world."

Even with Shen Tu Hu adding the Broad Hear Bell, Jiang Zhenjun could not be suppressed.

He heard the Broad Hear Bell ringing even more.

Zhao Tu gripped the sword, as if his kin were by his side, and courage was born within him.

The wolf tongue corridor was scarlet red, blood light like a sea flipping over, the scene before his eyes was vastly different—

Indeed, Cang Tu Shen suddenly launched a violent attack, swallowing him in one mouthful, but his heart was instead settled!

This was not the worst result; the "seizing god" war was still not over.

His Dao body also had a feeling of dissolving, an uncontrollable strange itch growing inside his bones.

But he stood firm like a mountain, holding in his hand the Deng Yong sword, the sword of king's power whose string his mother personally tied for him that year when he reached the crown. He merely quietly turned his golden eyes, patrolling in all directions, without the slightest alarm—

If Cang Tu Shen had already won, he would have become ash with one thought. Why would he use such complex means? Was he still unsatisfied with the level of play on the mountain peak of the highest god mountain, wanting to send him to an unknown place?

Precisely because the struggle was still in a stalemate, victory and defeat still two possibilities, only then could this venerable, the strongest god spirit in the present world, droop that proud wolf head, take a few more looks at the human world! Only then would his eyes see He Lian Zhao Tu, only then would he say a few more sentences of nonsense.

Read Red Heart Patrol Heaven.