Images Across Worlds, the Prelude to a Shock That Shook the Heavens

Canglan Realm, high above the clouds.

The sky had been clear for thousands of miles, but at that moment, the sunlight over the entire world dimmed without warning.

No clouds had covered it. Rather, it was as though all the world's light was being forcibly drawn out and gathered by some supreme power in the deepest reaches of the universe.

Hummm!

A mysterious resonance beyond description exploded deep within the soul of every living being in Canglan Realm!

It was not only Primeval Holy Land. Hidden Ancient Era clans, the demon realms entrenched on the far northern ice plains, and even the supreme masters of the Devil Dao at the bottom of the abyss were all jolted awake by that immense pressure from beyond the nine heavens.

"What's happening?! Why are the Laws of heaven and earth trembling so violently?!"

On Primeval Main Peak, Ji Changkong, who had just announced Lin Qiye's appointment as First Holy Son, snapped his head up in horror.

Beside him, Heavenly Sword Guest and Perfected One Ten Thousand Laws had gone deathly pale. The Dao principles they had spent millennia cultivating felt as fragile as candles in the wind before the pressure descending upon them.

But something even more terrifying was yet to come.

At almost the same time that Canglan Realm's sky changed—

In the Ziwei Star Domain, billions of stellar miles from Canglan Realm.

Across dozens of enormous cultivation planets, countless ancient sect leaders and old monsters of the Tribulation Transcendence Stage emerged from seclusion and stared at the sky in terror.

In the Heavenly Demon Great Realm.

Deep within the Nine Netherworlds, several Demon Emperors who had slept for countless epochs opened blood-red eyes larger than planets and roared uneasily.

In the Primordial Demon Realm.

A demon tree reaching the heavens thrashed wildly, while myriad demons lay prostrate on the ground, trembling.

Fueled by the supreme power of twenty thousand Karma Points spent by the system, a vast phenomenon spanning the boundaries of space and covering the surrounding Three Great Star Domains and dozens of great thousand worlds slowly unfolded in the void!

"Wh-what is that?!"

Under the stunned, terrified gazes of billions of living beings, the entire starry sky seemed to be split across by an invisible giant axe!

A rift billions of miles long spread through the depths of the universe. Behind it, a colossal ancient mirror, formed entirely from pure Chaos Qi and engraved around its rim with endless mythic runes, faintly appeared.

The mirror was unimaginably vast. Even a magnificent cultivation planet seemed no larger than a speck of dust before it!

Dark-gold characters condensed from the Laws of the Great Dao slowly surfaced on the mirror.

The script belonged to no world's language, yet any intelligent being understood its meaning the moment they saw it:

—[Myriad Heavens Mythic Rankings, Part One: The Thirty-Six Generals of the Ancient Heavenly Court and the Cataclysm of Gods and Demons].

"Myriad Heavens... Mythic Rankings?!"

In the Ziwei Star Domain, a sect leader at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage who had lived for over ten thousand years cried out. His Dao heart nearly shattered:

"What grade of supreme treasure is this?! It can project into the resonance of the Great Dao across dozens of star domains at once! Could some supreme being beyond the Immortals be projecting this across the heavens?!"

"Ancient Heavenly Court?! What kind of force was this 'Heavenly Court'? I've cultivated for ten thousand years, yet I've never heard its name in any ancient text!" In the Heavenly Demon Great Realm, an ancient Demon Emperor let out a deafening roar, though he could not hide the fear in his voice.

Within Canglan Realm, Ji Changkong trembled violently.

He stared at the enormous mirror blotting out the sky, his eyes blazing.

"Heavenly Court! The Heavenly Court again! And this... this projection is meant for all the myriad worlds!"

"Elder Su Chen didn't lie to me! Holy Son Lin Qiye was right too! That fallen Heavenly Court didn't belong only to our Canglan Realm. It once ruled over all the heavens!"

"Today... the supreme power behind this will reveal to the entire universe the cruel truth buried for a hundred thousand years!"

In the void, the mirror's surface rippled violently like water.

The first scene gradually came into focus.

It was no gentle account of history, but an apocalyptic catastrophe that could drive any god or demon to despair!

An immeasurable expanse of stars filled the image.

Dozens of primordial continents, each ten thousand times larger than Canglan Realm, floated amid endless immortal light. Above the nine heavens, hundreds of palaces forged entirely from Immortal Gold stood among the clouds. Countless Immortals and divine beasts, radiating power enough to destroy heaven and earth, moved through the immortal mist.

This was the Heavenly Court at the height of the Ancient Era!

"Heavens... the spiritual energy on those continents is so dense it's formed oceans of liquid?!"

"Look at the soldiers guarding those palaces! Every one of them gives off an aura no weaker than the Dao-Slaying experts here!"

"They use Dao-Slaying experts as gate guards?! Just how terrifying was the Heavenly Court?!"

Across the myriad worlds, countless powerful cultivators stared at the scene, their minds blank. Everything they had believed all their lives had been overturned.

To them, Dao-Slaying experts and old monsters at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage stood above all others and could dominate entire regions. Yet in the Ancient Heavenly Court, they were nothing more than the lowliest foot soldiers!

Before the mighty cultivators of the heavens could recover from that suffocating shock, the scene changed!

In the deepest reaches of the universe, the once flawless principles of the Great Dao began to rot and decay. An indescribable black tide, laden with endless darkness and eerie power, surged toward the Heavenly Court like a raging wind of destruction!

Where the tide passed, stars were annihilated and the Great Dao collapsed.

"Enemy attack!"

A desperate cry rang through the stars.

The next instant, thirty-six vast pillars of divine light burst from the Heavenly Court and pierced the heavens!

They were thirty-six peerless divine generals clad in heavy Immortal Armor, their power pushed to the absolute limit! Each radiated pressure far beyond the realm of Great Emperors. With a mere gesture, they could shatter a galaxy!

"The Thirty-Six Generals of the Heavenly Court stand here! You foul abominations dare attack our Southern Heavenly Gate?!"

A divine general wielding a Xuanhua Great Axe roared at the sky. With one swing, he tore through a million miles of space and hacked countless black demonic shadows to pieces!

Another divine general, clad in scarlet Immortal Armor, strode forth through flames. Divine fire in his palm became an endless primordial sea of fire, forcibly burning away great swaths of darkness!

Brutal!

Utterly brutal!

The scene showed a true battle to the death between gods and demons. Divine blood spilled across the stars, each drop crushing an enormous planet beneath it. Fragments of broken immortal weapons fell toward the myriad worlds like a meteor shower.

The billions of living beings watching, regardless of their cultivation, shuddered as though they were caught in the battle themselves.

The Tribulation Transcendence Stage monsters and Primordial Demon Emperors who usually feared nothing seemed as insignificant as specks of dust in a storm before this catastrophe!

"Beings beyond Great Emperors... and there are dozens of them?!"

"What are they fighting?! What is that pitch-black darkness?!"

"Can't even a Heavenly Court this powerful hold it back?!"

Despair and fear spread like a plague through the Three Great Star Domains and dozens of great thousand worlds.

Above Primeval Holy Land.

Lin Qiye stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on the thirty-six divine generals fighting bloody battles in the image.

Suddenly, his eyes froze.

In a corner of the image, amid the rubble where gods and Buddhas lay bleeding, he spotted an all-too-familiar figure—

The man wore a pale yellow robe and held a Three-Point Double-Edged Blade. His Heavenly Eye was wide open as he fought three black overlords as vast as galaxies all alone!

Though his divine armor had shattered and golden divine blood ran from the corner of his mouth, the god still stood proudly above the nine heavens, laughing with thunderous abandon.

"I am Yang Jian, Erlang Manifesting Sage True Lord! Even if I die and my Dao is destroyed today, I will never let you take a single step into the mortal world!"

At the sight, the Eight-Nine Profound Art within Lin Qiye surged wildly, and the Golden Mark deep within his forehead erupted with dazzling light that shot into the sky!

"True Lord Erlang..."

Lin Qiye clenched his fists, his eyes red. The shock and fighting spirit within him reached their peak!

Beside him, Ji Changkong and Heavenly Sword Guest looked from the change in Lin Qiye to the peerless god in the image. Their minds reeled!

"It's... it's true!"

Trembling with excitement, Ji Changkong pointed at Yang Jian in the image and roared at all the sect's elders:

"Do you see him?! That's Erlang Manifesting Sage True Lord! The supreme god whose legacy our First Holy Son Lin Qiye has inherited!"

"Holy Son Lin Qiye... truly is the chosen representative of the Heavenly Court's war god!"

At those words, the hundreds of thousands of disciples of Primeval Holy Land erupted into boundless fervor!

Until now, a sliver of doubt had remained about Lin Qiye's claim to have inherited divine karmic ties. But the mythic rankings spanning the heavens had laid irrefutable proof before the entire universe!

Primeval Holy Land had a chosen representative bearing a true god's legacy!

Across the myriad worlds, countless ancient observers also sensed, through some mysterious resonance of the Great Dao, a trace of divine power from the same source as True Lord Erlang leaking from Primeval Holy Land in Canglan Realm!

"Canglan Realm... someone in that broken world has awakened the legacy of the god in this image?!"

"Investigate! Spare no cost! Find that heir!"

"These Myriad Heavens Mythic Rankings must be a legacy left by the Ancient Heavenly Court. Canglan Realm... is about to become the center of a storm across the heavens!"

The old monsters of the major star domains went mad. Divine-sense messages flashed back and forth across galaxies, while countless vast fleets and ancient warships weighed anchor and set course for Canglan Realm!

The order of the myriad worlds had been thrown into chaos by the fire of myth Su Chen had kindled!

Inside the Library Pavilion.

Su Chen sat quietly before a wooden desk. At his ear, the system's dazzling notifications erupted like a violent storm:

[Ding!] [Myriad Worlds Projection Mirror] successfully projected across the Three Great Star Domains and Thirty-Seven Great Thousand Worlds! The concepts of the "Ancient Heavenly Court," the "Thirty-Six Generals," and "Erlang Manifesting Sage True Lord" have caused a devastating shock to understanding across the heavens!

[Mythic awareness skyrocketing!] Awareness of "Desolate Ancient Heavenly Court" in Canglan Realm: 25% → 60%! Awareness in the Ziwei Star Domain: 15%! Awareness in the Heavenly Demon Great Realm: 12%! ...

[Karma Points surging!] Karma Points gained from the myriad worlds: +120,000! Contribution from the shock of Tribulation Transcendence Stage old monsters: +45,000! Contribution from the terror of Primordial Demon Emperors: +38,000!

[Congratulations, host. Current available Karma Points: 211,900!]

"Two hundred and eleven thousand Karma Points."

Su Chen gently set down his teacup. Deep within his warm eyes glimmered the absolute detachment and composure of one who looked down upon the heavens.

This scheme had finally grown from "shocking one world" into "stirring all the heavens."

With more than two hundred thousand points to spend, he could not only obtain more truly terrifying mythic guises, but could even begin preparing to manifest, in reality, the structure that would shake the myriad worlds—the real Southern Heavenly Gate!

"Come on, then. Let's make this show even livelier."

Su Chen smiled faintly and closed his eyes. On the system panel, he entered the next concept that would shake the heavens—

[Netherworld · Six Paths of Reincarnation].