The Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven was shrouded in dark clouds...
For all newcomers with hopes of advancing, the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven, which covered the Three Heavens, was far too overbearing.
If anyone wanted to cultivate in the Red Heaven Realm, everything would belong to the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven, leaving no possibility of becoming an emperor.
Although, due to the God Emperor's fall, the Fourth Heaven of Becoming an Emperor that had covered the Red Heaven Realm had dispersed, the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven alone, which completely covered the Three Heavens and turned them into its own possession, had made it impossible for anyone in the world to become an emperor.
Only when bearing the destiny of the entire human race could one make a wish. In an era when two emperors existed, the ultimate victor had to be determined.
In an era without an emperor, one at least had to be like Shui Wuge—ruling the Red Heaven Realm, with power covering the Three Heavens, and becoming an emperor in whom destiny converged in actuality.
Shui Wuge had constantly pondered how to eliminate the negative influence of the Heavenly Stems Universe. In the end, she had concluded that the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven had to be completely annihilated.
As long as her control was strong enough, she could gather all the power of the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven and make it collide and annihilate. When that happened, the Three Heavens would be swept clean!
Everything was annihilated, as though not even a trace remained.
Nearby, Qing Kong, her entire body chilled with fear, could not utter a word. She stood at the edge of the Great Explosion, and beyond that one step lay nothingness!
"They're all dead..."
The Invincible Expert of the Qing Clan was trembling with fear. He took a step back, though his terror was naturally not caused by a lack of strength.
It was because of the God Empress!
Why had the God Empress trusted Qing Liu Sheng so completely, directly handing the future of the Red Heaven Realm over to their Qing Clan?
Who exactly was Qing Liu Sheng?
"Yes, they're all dead."
Yun Ye let out a sigh. He still had not managed to stop Shui Wuge.
He had experienced this scene many times, but in genuine spacetime, he still held on to a sliver of hope. He could not help speaking up to stop her, hoping that Shui Wuge would survive.
Yet when he saw how resolute Wuge was, he could not utter a single word. He could only watch as Shui Wuge displayed her final glory.
Upon the earth, all phenomena ceased. Only the afterglow remained radiant.
There was no Holy Anthem, nor were there any phenomena of a fall.
It was simply that everyone who raised their heads could see that the starry sky covering the heavens had vanished without anyone noticing.
"God Empress!"
Countless hearts trembled. They felt a sudden stab of pain and, incredulous, murmured the title they cared about beyond measure.
"Clatter, clatter..."
The Self Three Heavens collapsed. Across the land of the Red Heaven Realm, whether they were Venerables, True Persons, or great powers, the Self Three Heavens they controlled evaporated along with the annihilation of the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven. Their realms began to plummet, and the Heavenly Longevity Rule descended at once.
"It's the Great Destruction! Her Majesty the God Empress completely exhausted the power of the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven. The Self Profound Heaven, Azure Heaven, and Red Heaven have all lost contact!"
Zhan Meng stretched out his hand and discovered that something ambiguous had appeared within him as he was being erased by the Heavenly Longevity Rule.
He had served as a divine official for thousands of years. Now that his realm had fallen to the Dharma Realm, he was naturally going to die. The Heavenly Longevity Rule did not care about his contributions to humanity.
"Her Majesty... has fallen."
Rou Zhao considered herself steadfast, yet tears still spilled from her eyes.
What a cruel reality this was!
Although she had lost the authority granted by the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven, she had not lost the control she had cultivated for so many years. The same was true of her physique. Her body, which had already sublimated into a body of order, did not vanish with the collapse of the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven. The God Empress had severed their connection with the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven and granted them all its power.
Because of this power, Rou Zhao could clearly see that the dimensions of the Three Heavens had become utterly empty. All their power had contracted into a single point and vanished without a trace.
"To prevent it from affecting the Red Heaven again... The God Emperor once calculated that after the owner of the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven fell, it would take tens of thousands of years to eliminate its influence."
"Thus, he forged the Saint Path Nine Weapons, using nine pinnacle weapons to suppress the tens of thousands of years without an emperor, avoiding interference from True Immortals."
"And the God Empress, who knew all of this, simply gave up on becoming an emperor, so that after her death she would not once again become a dark cloud shrouding the Red Heaven! Now she has even purged the influence of the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven from the Three Heavens, completely opening the path of the Great Dao!"
"God Empress, oh God Empress, with you having existed, how could this realm have feared a lack of peace?"
Many Venerables sighed.
Countless streams of white light descended as the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven displayed its final, magnificent power.
Shui Wuge had arranged everything. At the cost of disintegrating, fragments of the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven activated a technique of time, completely restoring the cultivators' Self Three Heavens.
White light enveloped every cultivator. Their bodies and consciousness were shrouded in the technique of time, forcibly restoring the Self Three Heavens and bringing all their power back to life.
All these phenomena told the people upon the earth one thing.
The God Empress had fallen!
The Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven had become a thing of the past!
Looking at the unruffled sky, Tian Xiaoxiao could not help opening her divine eyes. She pierced through the Three Heavens and gazed toward the Outer Universe. "Is everything over?"
The Outer Universe had turned into a dead zone!
Although the power of the Heavenly Stems Grotto-heaven's destruction had been completely offset, its terrifying destructive force had still formed permanent "scars." The Outer Universe had become a Super Forbidden Ground. From the Red Heaven Realm outward, there was nothing but utterly destroyed, lawless chaos. Only an emperor could survive entering it.
Tian Xiaoxiao took only one glance before both her eyes cracked and God Blood flowed out. She had no choice but to close them.
Her Slaughter Rule power had already been taken by Yun Ye, and her body had fallen back to the True Person level. She truly could not see the astonishing sight of the Outer Universe.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The sound of a heartbeat suddenly resounded throughout the Red Heaven. An aura of violence and killing intent was sensed by every cultivator with each beat. They sensed it purely through the sound of the heartbeat, showing just how furious the person at its source truly was!
"Caw!"
With a long cry, a golden phoenix seemed to break through the egg of time and emerge from the void. He was covered in wounds, with Dao injuries running deep enough to expose bone everywhere. He was almost beyond recovery. These were precisely the wounds left behind by the collision of opposites, carrying Rule power that surpassed even the divine phoenix himself.
The Myriad Daos Returning as One!
Every wound was draining his origin, guiding him toward the Myriad Daos Returning as One of chaos. For Qing Liu Sheng, this was a source of power, but for the divine phoenix, who cultivated only phoenix fire, it was a curse of death that could not be escaped. Even if he survived, he could only linger on his last breath!
"Time Lords..."
The divine phoenix looked at his golden feathers, which resembled those of the ancient Ancestor Phoenix. It seemed he had undergone a sublimation.
But he knew that this was merely a fleeting illusion, the result of all the power of the Time Lords being poured into him.
In the end, they were all destined to die. Unless a Supreme detonated himself, there was no possibility of escape.
But who among the Supremes would be willing to do that?
There really was one.
The species of the Time Lords was rational, after all. He knew that the divine phoenix and the Great Thousand Python would never sacrifice themselves for others. If he did nothing, everything would be buried and no hope would remain. Thus, he had decisively detonated himself, making only one pact with the divine phoenix: that he would be resurrected in the future.
Whether the pact could be fulfilled or not, it was at least better than waiting for death. He had no cause for resentment.
"Mm, what will happen next, I wonder..."
On the Ninety-Nine Heavens, the divine little fish of time plunged headfirst downward and sank into boundless slumber.
Its true body had died, yet power still remained. The God Empress truly had been powerful. Within the range affected by the Great Destruction, both the past and the future had been slain.
However, the Great Destruction had begun at the edge of the Red Heaven Realm and ended beyond the Nine Provinces. The past and future within the Nine Provinces had not been affected.
Its true body had died, its power had fallen to rock bottom, and the spiritual energy of the Ninety-Nine Heavens was gradually vanishing because of the Era of Dharma Decline. Most likely, it would sleep forever. Yet it was also possible that a true age of abundant spiritual energy would appear in later generations, replenishing its power and reviving it.
It still retained the slimmest possibility.
Actually, I don't like tragedies either. I promised a dark world, but in the end the protagonist simply bulldozed through it—so simple it was ridiculous, practically a case of hanging out a sheep's head and selling dog meat...
And in the end, it still became the cliché grand reunion ending. I just love the idea that good people get good rewards. I really can't write tragic stories!
Before you continue