Strolling through the vast starry sky, Zhang Huan's white hair cascaded down inadvertently, his face having grown weathered at some unknown point.
The people of the world only knew the Demonic Emperor, yet they knew nothing of the man himself—he was too distant, and though they praised the great emperor's mighty name, they had not heard news of him for over ten thousand years.
No one discussed the Great Accomplishment Hegemon Body anymore; that initial battle against Zhang Huan had been peerless through the ages, and the entire universe had been immersed in a wave of fervent momentum.
Very few people were still able to know of it now, as it had become a part of ancient history.
Through thirty thousand vast years, the mortal world had changed.
He arrived in Kunlun; this immortal- Dao embryo was finally about to be completed.
Nourished by the resources of the entire universe for thirty thousand years, borrowing the opportunity of the immortal-nurturing land, a peerless immortal sword took shape and was about to descend into the world.
Shortly after, the Underworld army mobilized, all spirits retreating, and attacked the Demonic Court directly.
The auras of supreme beings awakened; they were going to strike while Zhang Huan was at his weakest.
Yet Zhang Huan had long guarded against this move.
He arrived at an uninhabited place of starry sky, quietly waiting for the supreme beings to deliver themselves to his door.
The twilight of your years has arrived, Zhang Huan; the Underworld shall be your burial ground.
A gloomy and piercing voice swept across the endless void, and the mere residual might alone caused countless living beings to tremble.
The Undead Mysterious Bird had long since achieved the Dao via the alternative method, bringing an imperial formation with venom in his eyes.
He hated Zhang Huan for cutting off his path and for once cleaving half of his origin, nearly causing him to die.
The great universe roared, tens of millions of rosy glows descending, and tens of millions of strands of divine radiance shining brilliantly.
The Heaven-Piercing Nether Treasure and a figure emitted rolling, boundless pressure, lingering with chaos qi, tearing through the universe, and emerging from the Underworld to shock all directions.
An immortal artifact about to be conceived, plus the legendary Bronze Palace.
To obtain two immortal artifacts in a single day, my fortunate affinity is truly not shallow.
Amidst chaotic divine light, a figure laughed, full of joy.
It resembled a human form, its whole body lingering with immortal light, and a breath of chaotic qi spewed from within its body, landing in the center of the imperial formation alongside the Nether Treasure.
Zhang Huan stared intently at it, recognizing its true form.
This chaos monster had never become a true emperor; it was a monster created by the emperors of the Underworld through the evolution of chaos.
It merged with the Heaven-Piercing Nether Treasure, its strength equally unfathomable, equivalent to a supreme being, and capable of fighting a great emperor.
Back when Zhang Huan was undergoing his Great Emperor Tribulation, it was the one that stirred up the curse and triggered the chaos killing intent, nearly causing Zhang Huan to fall for it before he shattered it with the Bronze Immortal Palace.
"If it's only you speaking, that's not enough to kill me. Go back and call some more people."
Zhang Huan said indifferently.
"Hehe, what a big tone.
Could it be you've mistaken yourself for the Imperial Venerable, wanting to copy his feat of fighting several supreme beings alone?"
The chaos monster chuckled lightly; the Imperial Venerable's battle achievements were indeed dazzling, but how many great emperors could achieve such a feat?
Facing the old age of a previous-era great emperor, in its view, it alone with one artifact could reap him.
The Nether Treasure hummed softly, moving to control the formation as the immortal light contained endless killing intent. The monster walked out of the Nether Treasure, a fragmented chaos evolving around its body. The eyes it used to gaze back were greedy and sinister, resembling a wild beast.
With a single step outward, it possessed world-conquering divine might, enshrouding the heavens, its blood and Qi tyrannical over the cosmos, frightening the living beings between heaven and earth.
Some powerful cultivators wore tragic expressions, believing that turmoil was about to arrive, that the dark era recorded in ancient history was coming, and that even the great emperor was in grave danger.
The supreme beings dared to oppose a Great Emperor of the current era, surely having made preparations in secret and believing they had certainty before daring to emerge at the cost of damaging their own auras.
Zhang Huan stood within the imperial formation and chuckled lightly, looking down on the Underworld's actions like a mortal looking down upon ants and worms.
"I really am being looked down upon."
Suddenly he sighed again, somewhat disappointed; a mere supreme being was not worth such high regard from him.
The monster draped in chaos evolved the mechanism of world creation, seemingly forming a complete great universe. All Daos were stirred, smashing down toward Zhang Huan.
The Nether Treasure also coordinated with it to drop arrays of immortal-Dao divine patterns.
Zhang Huan let out a cold snort, spitting out true words from his mouth. His gaze was blazing, and the moment he made a move, he held nothing back, adopting thunderous methods.
Intercepting the Dao of heaven and earth, severing chaos, and chopping the origin—everything outside the body could be intercepted and put to his own use.
The great universe dissipated into a ball of chaos qi before it even drew near, and Zhang Huan traced it back to its source, beating it back to its original form.
His whole body was covered by Great Dao Laws, intercepting the power of myriad laws. Powerful and profound, even the immortal-Dao divine patterns could not invade, burning away to nothingness.
Looking toward the chaos monster, Zhang Huan targeted it first, unleashing a forbidden technique to strip away its cultivation base.
Then he severed its chaos divine abilities.
For a moment, it panicked like a mortal. The Nether Treasure guarded before it, protecting it from harm, claiming that this was merely a short-term weakening and it would recover after a while.
As long as it held on, its cultivation base would naturally return.
Yet Zhang Huan would not give it a chance to catch its breath. Even possessing an immortal artifact could not protect it; with a flick of his finger, it contained the imperial-Dao supreme principles of thirty thousand years.
Condensing the Heaven-Severing Dao, defiling magic treasures, fusing false immortal power, and the All-Encompassing Secret all within a single stance—even if an ancient emperor arrived in person, he could not catch this peerless forbidden killing art.
The Nether Treasure vibrated so hard a crack burst upon its rim. It was an immortal artifact, enduring myriad tribulations and remaining immortal, even tougher than immortal gold, yet now it was cracked with a single finger flick.
The deity inside was so shocked it stood dumbfounded. How could this be? It was too terrifying. Only then did it react that what Zhang Huan had said earlier was truly not a joke; he genuinely wanted to kill several venerables by himself.
Following that, a large palm descended, and the chaos monster was beaten into a puddle of mud, dying in an instant!
Everything happened too fast. Zhang Huan looked down disdainfully upon the Mysterious Bird, who at this moment no longer dared to deal with Zhang Huan, fleeing like a stray dog.
The Azure Gold Cauldron suppressed downward. Zhang Huan didn't even deign to make a move personally; the imperial artifact, wreathed in laws and able to borrow the Heavenly Dao's emperor power, suppressed and killed the Mysterious Bird tens of millions of miles away.
"How can you be so strong!"
The Nether Treasure found it hard to believe. Logic dictated that although a great emperor was strong, there was ultimately a limit; how could he easily beat a royal-Dao figure to death like this?
The chaos monster was already dead, and it fled back to the Underworld in a panic.
"To provide me with research material during my remaining time, you have no choice."
Zhang Huan said coldly. With a booming sound, myriad Daos rang out like bells, and the entire universe rippled with his aura, vast and surging like the endless and inexhaustible.
This was the first time he had unleashed his full strength, and the imperial formation disintegrated under this aura.
Striking out several blazing rays of light, his palm, crystal-clear like jade, chopped toward the Nether Treasure.
The void vibrated as if heaven and earth were being created, tearing apart the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands. Imperial Dao Laws surged, and all things annihilated within the light.
False immortal power bloomed into clusters of Great Dao immortal flowers, and by the time the light and heat dissipated into silence, the Nether Treasure was already bound within the palm of his hand.
Brilliant light rain scattered across the heavens and earth, and before it even faded, only Zhang Huan's aura remained alone on the battlefield.
"A couple of big cats and small kittens, and even this dares to be called a killing tribulation?!"
Zhang Huan was somewhat disappointed; he had ended this turmoil in an utterly crushing manner.
The next moment, he looked toward the other end of the universe, where supreme Dao auras rose once more from the endless distance.
The Divine Race Divine Son emerged from the divine origin to lend assistance, attacking and resisting the supreme beings!
He had gone from being graceful and handsome to decrepit with old age, yet he was still as fearless as when he was young, coming with the Spirit Treasure Four Swords and the Killing Formation Diagram.
On the Hegemon Body Ancestral Star, the Great Accomplishment Hegemon Body flew out from a purple-qi cavern. Though divine sense advised him otherwise, he left without the slightest hesitation.
Just as the great emperor had said, the stronger one's ability, the greater the responsibility one carried.
He finally knew what the Hegemon Body lacked.
Changing the future of the Hegemon Body began from this moment on. He wanted to become the first Great Accomplishment Hegemon Body to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Saint Body, protecting all living beings, opening up a revolution unprecedented in ancient times, and planting a seed of protection in the hearts of later generations of Hegemon Bodies and even more people.
This world should not be like the restricted-area supreme beings devouring all living beings, where everyone swung their blades toward the weaker ones; besides self-interest, a greater cause ought to exist.
He was currently practicing this belief.
Leaving everything he had learned in his life on the Hegemon Star, he broke away from it and walked away without looking back.
Inside the purple-qi cavern, there was the sigh of a Great Accomplishment Hegemon Body.
Two auras approached rapidly, and when they arrived, what they saw was Zhang Huan holding the Nether Treasure in his hand.
"You were a step late."
Zhang Huan smiled lightly; he had already finished collecting the heads.
The two people before him stared at each other in blank astonishment, stunned on the spot for a moment.
They had both harbored the determination to fight to the death, yet before even reaching the battlefield, they only saw Zhang Huan standing independently apart from the world, holding the immortal-Dao Nether Treasure.
There were heart-palpitating imperial Dao Laws on the battlefield, their traces not yet completely dissipated. The Divine Son avoided them from afar, his spiritual sense warning him, as the residual aura alone made even quasi-ninth-rank powerhouses feel danger.
On one side were also broken bones and fragments, containing terrifying energy, dazzling and brilliant. The blood staining them lingered with chaos qi, and imperial Dao Laws emanated outward, concealing endless divine power.
They came from an unfamiliar royal-Dao figure, and just looking at them made the two feel uneasy, their breathing growing heavy as if the owner of the bones and blood had not yet died, still possessing world-conquering divine might and suppressing all ages invincible.
That unfamiliar royal-Dao figure had been killed just like that, dying a sudden death on the spot, perishing like an ant, meeting a miserable end without even kicking up a splash.
Were royal-Dao figures so easy to kill? For a moment, an illusion arose within them.
"The great emperor is powerful and invincible through the ages; he should be called the Heavenly Emperor!"
The Divine Son reacted first, shouting with fanatical eyes and raised arms.
Only now did he understand that the great emperor had stood at a higher level from beginning to end, far beyond what he could fathom.
Even if the Mysterious Bird became an emperor, it was nothing more than another royal-Dao corpse. Thinking of what the great emperor had said to him back then, the Divine Son felt even greater admiration.
"What Heavenly Emperor? I have not yet reached the step you imagine, merely stronger than most emperors by just a little bit."
Zhang Huan smiled and shook his head.
As for a Heavenly Emperor, aside from possessing formidable strength, it required establishing even greater achievements before being called Heavenly Emperor by the people of the world.
Having merely destroyed a supreme being, he did not yet have the face to call himself Heavenly Emperor; the major restricted areas of the current era still existed after all.
Zhang Huan and the two had not met for over ten thousand years, and on this day they spoke of many things.
"I have deduced the heavenly secrets; in a later generation, a path that can truly lead to immortality will open.
The reason the ancient supreme beings of the restricted areas would rather self-sever their own path than pass away is entirely related to it.
They are all waiting to stake everything when the Path to Immortality opens, seeking the chance of immortality."
Brilliant colors flashed continuously in the eyes of the two. No wonder supreme beings lay dormant in the restricted areas; now that they knew the truth, it was related to the immortal path of later generations.
A path that could truly lead to immortality—it was probably the greatest fortune since world creation.
Even emperors had to contend for it, and there were no one knew how many supreme beings in the seven restricted areas, all waiting for that single path.
"How astonishing, involving immortals. No wonder the ancient emperors and sovereigns refused to give up, all transforming themselves into restricted areas."
Immortality!
How many people's obsession.
There were countless people in ancient history who had pursued traces of immortals.
Regrettably, from ancient times to the present, the existence of immortals had never been verified; longevity and immortality were illusory, and it was unknown whether it was a realm or another form of life.
No one had ever truly become an immortal, and even the Ancient Great Emperors were merely powerful cultivators.
They possessed heaven-reaching and earth-shattering abilities, yet they still had lifespans.
Only certain texts left behind related legends, saying that in an uncountably distant past that could no longer be examined, a certain person truly became an immortal.
He punched through the immortal path, entered the Immortal Domain, became a true immortal, and existed forever without decaying.
Unfortunately, the texts only contained fragmented records. Later generations mostly deduced that this person had become an immortal, suffering from a lack of evidence. Whether he truly became an immortal could not be genuinely confirmed and could not be taken seriously.
Yet what Zhang Huan said at this moment seemed to verify this record; the immortal path truly existed, and even Ancient Great Emperors were driven crazy by it, waiting at all costs.
They would rather fall from the imperial throne and suffer torment between half-life and half-death just to see the immortal path and make a dash through it.
"Even ants cling to life, let alone supreme beings."
The Divine Son muttered, somewhat understanding the thoughts of these supreme beings.
For longevity, they would do anything; wasn't the dark turmoil a living example?
The Hegemon Body snorted coldly, holding no favorable impression of these supreme beings.
"What I want to say is precisely related to this."
As Zhang Huan spoke, he cleaned the battlefield, wiping away all royal-Dao laws, collecting chaos blood, extracting flesh-and-blood essence, and refining them into great medicine for the mortal world.
"When the Path to Immortality appears, supreme beings will definitely emerge to fight for immortal fate. They have waited too long and will not give up this only chance.
Yet how difficult is it to become an immortal? The Immortal Domain is not easy to enter, and even if they truly break into the Immortal Domain, some supreme beings are bound to fail.
Those who achieve immortality are only two or three, and the excess supreme beings are doomed to fail. After waiting for eternity only to welcome such an ending, what they might do is truly hard to say."
At the very least, several sublimation supreme beings who failed to break through the immortal path would see Great Emperors of the current era forced to avoid their razor-sharp edge.
Some might fall into utter despair, dragging the entire universe down with them regardless of everything; others might harbor lingering unwillingness, launching the dark turmoil to devour all living beings.
That would be the darkest era in history, far surpassing all past dark turmoils.
The Path to Immortality would become the greatest disaster of ancient times, potentially destroying the entire universe.
Taking precautions before it rained, Zhang Huan began making preparations in this lifetime.
He asked the Hegemon Body whether he was willing to sacrifice himself to prevent this great disaster. The Hegemon Body agreed immediately, without the slightest hesitation.
The greatest disaster of ancient times—he deeply realized the severity in Zhang Huan's words.
He had not yet consumed the Immortal Medicine, and hereafter he would self-seal in the Demonic Court. When he awoke in the future and consumed the Immortal Medicine to return to his peak, he would be able to prevent the turmoil of one or two supreme beings.
"As for me, forget it. I have already consumed the Immortal Medicine, and I don't have much lifespan left anyway. I don't plan to self-seal either, as I have more urgent matters to do."
The Divine Son laughed magnanimously, like an old man whose days were numbered.
His own family had a stock of the Ancient Life Tree and he had already consumed an Immortal Medicine once, making it difficult for it to take effect again.
Back in his youth, the Hegemon Body had also coveted this Ancient Life Tree, but unfortunately the Divine Son guarded it tightly, and the Hegemon Body never obtained it even after reaching great accomplishment.
Now it was just right for him to use it in later generations to extend his lifespan and restore his peak blood and Qi.
The two left one after the other. The Hegemon Body went to the Demonic Court, and Zhang Huan would soon personally refine immortal origin with emperor power to seal his qi-flow loss.
As for the Divine Son, after leaving, he excitedly pulled out an ancient scroll, upon which was the Divine Emperor Biography, compiled halfway.
Slaying a supreme being was a merit without measure; it should be recorded in the history books!
He wiped the table of contents and changed Divine Emperor to Heavenly Emperor.
Then, thinking of what the great emperor had just said, he changed Divine Emperor back, adding parentheses afterward to write down an alternative title.
The great emperor was unwilling to be called Heavenly Emperor, so he would take a step back: the moniker would be Divine Emperor, also called Heavenly Emperor!
In his heart, the name of Heavenly Emperor was well-deserved; the Divine Emperor possessed a grand capacity!
For the rest of his life, he would dedicate himself to writing a biography, recording the peerless legend of the Divine Emperor of the current era, spreading it far and wide so that people of later generations could all gaze upon one or two parts of the Divine Emperor's epic spirit.
"How unfortunate the people of later generations are, unable to witness the ancient divine might of the Divine Emperor with their own eyes."
The Divine Son tutted, expressing his regret to later generations.
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