Perfect World: The First King of the Immortal Ancient Era

Waves from the compressed formation spread through heaven and earth, faintly revealing a vast, hidden formation in the distant void.

"Hmm..."

Lin Yue seemed to notice it too. He unleashed another divine punch, shattering the formation, and a small island gradually emerged.

This was an island warped by a supreme being's formation. Compared with the other islands, each as vast as a great world, it was indeed much smaller.

As Lin Yue stepped onto the island, he frowned at the towering mountains, one after another, left broken by lightning. What being had undergone a tribulation here, causing lightning to descend even in the Boundary Sea, where the laws of the Dao did not manifest?

As Lin Yue ventured farther through the ruined mountains, an enormous valley came into view.

At the center of the valley stood a shattered Heaven-Piercing Ancient Tree, looking utterly out of place.

Lightning still flickered from time to time over the pitch-black, heaven-piercing stump. He could sense no vitality whatsoever, yet a single branch had sprouted amid that endless deathly silence and endless destructive divine thunder.

Golden-green divine light flowed from it from time to time.

"Willow Deity?"

Lin Yue cried out in surprise. That supreme being was the first to come to mind. He had never expected to encounter this Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit in the Boundary Sea.

"No, this isn't the true body. It's the remnant left behind after rebirth through nirvana! And it may date back to a distant age."

Lin Yue approached the Heaven-Piercing Ancient Tree. The green branch seemed to sense someone's arrival and immediately fell still.

Lin Yue extended his hand, and a drop of blood radiating golden light flew out. Like a world containing boundless vital essence, it landed on the branch. The quiet branch began to stir with joy. After all, his precious blood contained not only the Phoenix Clan's immortal blood and the Heavenly Horned Ant Clan's divine blood, but also the Golden Crow's vital essence. Its life force was immense.

Then several more green branches sprouted from the blackened ancient tree.

At the same time, a willow leaf radiating golden-green light drifted out and landed in Lin Yue's hand.

He sensed an unseen guidance within it, as though it could lead him back to his homeland.

Chapter 74: A Desperate War

The Nine Heavens.

Beginning at the dawn of the Immortal Ancient Era, this war had raged for hundreds of thousands of years, spanning almost the entire era.

At the borders of Great Red Heaven, the smoke of war rose everywhere, filling heaven and earth. It had never ceased since the beginning. Every stretch of territory in this great world had fallen, and the cultivators of the Nine Heavens struggled at its final frontier. Even the world barrier seemed to be shattering beneath the endless attacks, which had already begun to reach the next Ancient World.

Even another great world, Boundless Heaven, had been engulfed by the flames of war. Many families were once again gathering forces to resist the Foreign Realm's armies.

Nearly tens of thousands of years had passed since the Foreign Realm launched its final all-out assault. Abysses scarred this scorched land, and bones lay piled everywhere. Group after group of prodigies, group after group of Immortal Dao beings, lay buried here.

Countless primordial stars had fallen from the heavens onto the scorched earth. Almost all the last and strongest beings of the Nine Heavens had been buried here. Even though everyone had fought with all their might, they could not reverse their defeat.

The earth was blood-red, and bloody mist obscured the sky. Some stars that had yet to fall absorbed endless blood and turned crimson, hanging over Great Red Heaven like blood-red moons, a terrifying sight. Staring at them too long could even induce hallucinations and leave one lost. After all, they had been stained with the blood of supreme beings.

After a queen from the Immortal Domain died in battle in Great Red Heaven, the Immortal Domain had completely abandoned this place-even the Nine Heavens themselves. Some of those sent to oversee the war had never lifted a hand to help the Nine Heavens. Many had even carried off ancient artifacts left behind there. They were truly more hateful than the Foreign Realm, and even dressed it up with the claim that these things must not fall into the Foreign Realm's hands.

After Lin Yue fled Great Red Heaven with the small wooden box in his arms, he drew the Kings after him.

Although many powerful enemies appeared afterward, at least some Immortal Dao beings had survived.

Boom...

The terrifying energy weakened the void's ability to recover in the Nine Heavens, whose Dao laws had already begun to suffer damage. In some places, wounds left by a king's strike remained unhealed for a long time, spilling out chaotic energy.

Deep in the heavens, in a region almost belonging to another world, kings were still fighting within this Great Red Heaven where stars had grown scarce.

On one side stood an Immortal King from the Foreign Realm, his heaven-piercing Dharma Form suppressing the entire cosmos. On the other was a young man whose hair shone with golden light. Strangely, the young man had no king-level primordial spirit. He was fighting an Immortal King with nothing but his invincible flesh and divine strength surpassing that of ordinary kings.

Elsewhere, a blonde woman with a striking figure and battered armor was also battling another Immortal King from the Foreign Realm. She crushed heaven-piercing sword light with her bare hands, displaying even greater might.

Boom...

Immortal, indestructible divine marks coiled around the young man's invincible fist, granting him enough power to contend with a king's immortal might.

"Hmph! Is that old ant already dead? They dared send a brat like you to fight me? Aren't they afraid of having their entire clan exterminated?"

As his opponent's halberd pierced the void toward him again, the king did not forget to mock him. After all, failing for so long to subdue a being who possessed only a king-level body was embarrassing for a king. Even knowing how extraordinary his opponent's flesh was, this remained a profanation of a king's dignity.

"Hmph! You're nothing but a shameless wretch. How dare you speak of courage!"

Divine power surged through the young man's body. Blood-red energy mingled with the divine marks of the Indestructible Scripture, spreading over him and into the void, twisting the laws of heaven and earth. Red light blazed unrestrained in his eyes, making him look like a demon king.

Berserk Transformation, the Heavenly Horned Ant Clan's supreme secret art, granted him the mighty power to break past his limits. His divine strength almost formed a domain of its own, resisting the Immortal King's domain.

"Arrogant fool! Today, I'll tear your clan out by the roots. Heaven-Slaying Halberd-die!"

"Perhaps I'll be the one to slaughter you! Dao-Destroying Divine Fist-kill!"

Wrapped in Indestructible Divine Runes, his invincible fist slammed straight into his opponent's halberd.

Although he possessed only half of the Indestructible Scripture, Yan's talent truly made him the greatest in the Heavenly Horned Ant Clan's history. He had already developed his own insights into the scripture. Wherever his divine fist passed, the void began to collapse. With the laws of the Nine Heavens damaged, they could no longer imprint these secret arts, and divine abilities could not manifest.

Yet none of this could conceal the collision of their extreme Dao divine power. These were the ripples of a clash between the highest-level cultivators currently in this world.

A single strike from the young man sent the Immortal King flying backward. One could imagine how terrifying his strength was. He was even beginning to rival the old Heavenly Horned Ant of those days.

"Damn it. What a nuisance!"

Immortal King Yan Wang spoke, then attacked again, sweeping his halberd in broad, forceful strokes.

The young man likewise stepped forward to meet the Immortal King.

This young man and woman were Yan and Yu, the Heavenly Horned Ant Clan's younger brother and elder sister from back then. They had fought their way through the chaotic battles in Great Red Heaven, even fighting their way out of it at one point. When they slew their enemies and returned to Great Red Heaven, they discovered that Lin Yue had vanished without a trace.

As the faith of the Nine Heavens was on the verge of collapse, the two stepped forward and took up the battle standard. Through ten thousand years of bloody warfare, they transformed again and again. Their bodies had now almost reached full maturity, and the divine strength of adult Heavenly Horned Ants could nearly contend with kings.

Whatever else might be said, the two had risen in response to the Fortune of the Nine Heavens Realm. Their progress was astonishing, a way for the Nine Heavens to save themselves in their final blaze of light.

Under their leadership, the Nine Heavens once again displayed tenacious resistance. After the small wooden box was lost and large numbers of Immortal Dao beings from the Nine Heavens fell, the Foreign Realm's Immortal Kings had nearly withdrawn from the battlefield. Then they discovered that these two had risen, and acted once more to exterminate the clan's last two members.

To buy time for the remnants of the Nine Heavens' forces to retreat, the two had no choice but to confront the Immortal Kings head-on.

Deep in the void, the two sides could be called evenly matched. This battle had dragged on for several years.

Faced with an unparalleled prodigy like Yan, who had developed a body capable of fighting kings in merely tens of thousands of years, Immortal King Yan Wang could not suppress him for the time being. But an Immortal King had time to spare, and he was slowly wearing Yan down.

As time passed, Yan and Yu began to fall behind.

The two were in terrible condition. They had almost never stopped using the Heavenly Horned Ant Clan's Berserk Transformation. Though they were not facing three kings as the old Heavenly Horned Ant had, a prolonged battle still put them at a serious disadvantage, especially since they had almost no time to undergo further transformations.

Just as Yan sent Immortal King Yan Wang flying with another punch, his flesh instinctively shuddered. A streak of azure sword light came straight at him from behind, without any warning.

Whoosh...

The sword light sliced straight through Yan's defenses, seeking to pin him through the forehead, but he managed to evade it in the end. Even so, a dreadful chill gripped both his heart and flesh, and blood dripped from his brow.

It was hard to imagine that this newcomer's attack could cut through the Heavenly Horned Ant Clan's invincible flesh. Its might surpassed even Yan Wang's.

After a ripple appeared in the void behind Yan, another Immortal King from the Foreign Realm descended. He was an ordinary-looking man, without the slightest kingly aura anywhere about him, as plain and unadorned as the sword light he had unleashed. Yet no one dared dismiss such an attack.

Immortal King Gu Xiu. Yan knew this Immortal King of the Foreign Realm very well, because the old Heavenly Horned Ant had been defeated only after this man's sword light pinned his primordial spirit.

"This clan again! Can they never be cut down, never be killed off?"

Yan remained composed. He did not let his immense blood feud with the man provoke him. He had truly become a worthy leader.

"You damned cur, come and die!"

A crimson sun shot over from the other side of the heavens, hurtling toward Gu Xiu like a heavenly star plunging to earth.

A fiery-tempered woman like Yu knew nothing of restraint. The moment she recognized that familiar aura and realized that the man before her was her clan's greatest enemy, had she already lost all reason?

She unleashed her divine strength, driving back the Immortal King fighting her, and charged straight toward Gu Xiu.

She swung her divine fist, intent on obliterating him.

If not for this man, how could her mother have died, and how could her father have come so close to destruction?

"Hmph!"

With a cold snort, Gu Xiu unleashed a slash that cut through everything.

Clang...!

The pulses of that simple, ancient sword energy shook heaven and earth's yin and yang into chaos. It was unlike those invincible powers of slaughter.

This was the Soul-Shaking Sword Strike, meant to breach defenses and kill an opponent directly through supreme vibrational force.

"Yu!"

Yan roared, but he could not stop her. All he could do was ignore the halberd and the other sword light coming from behind and join her in attacking Gu Xiu.

Chapter 75: The King of the Nine Heavens

Boom...

The sword light that severed everything shattered and cracked their Indestructible Divine Runes. The gulf between them was simply too vast.

This was a supreme king, no ordinary king. He displayed power that crushed everything outright. It was a disparity that inspired despair. No matter how formidable the two were, they could not defy heaven.

Although the two unleashed their utmost power, their divine fists could not disperse the sword light from that casual strike. And without the protection of the Indestructible Divine Runes, the attacks of Immortal King Yan Wang and the other Sword Dao king struck their bodies directly as well.

Their flesh, which had yet to undergo its transformation, still could not withstand such attacks and split open at once. The two were struck down from the heavens like meteors. The Heavenly Horned Ant Clan's blood of the extremity of strength shone with brilliant golden light as it fell to the earth like stars.

"Truly remarkable. Given a little more time, you might well have surpassed your father. What a pity. The final glory of the Nine Heavens must also pass into extinction."

Gu Xiu spoke without mocking the opponents he had struck down. They were not kings, yet they had resisted to such an extent; still, he was sparing with his praise.

The three immortals' heaven-piercing Dharma Forms stretched across the sky as they looked down at the scorched earth where Yan and Yu had fallen.

"Yes, it's time to end this. We've wasted far too much time. This world has been harder to destroy than every Ancient World before it. It displayed strength and potential it should never have possessed. Even we suffered grievous losses because of it, and we'll need a long time to recover."

The Foreign Realm's three kings spoke as they watched the siblings lying on the scorched earth, also acknowledging the tenacity of the Nine Heavens.

"Hmph! Had they joined our realm like Gu, why would it have come to this? Stubborn fools. They bring destruction upon themselves."

"Quick! Go save the Heavenly Horned Ants!"

"Wait for me! You must wait for me, my lord!"

Scattered surviving soldiers still cried out across Great Red Heaven's battlefield. They had been retreating, but now they turned and ran back, desperately rushing toward Yan and Yu. They wanted to cry, but they had no tears left. Having witnessed too much parting in death and too much despair, they now fought mostly through sheer force of will.

After Lin Yue fled Great Red Heaven under the encirclement of the kings, these two had not only inherited the Heavenly Horned Ant Clan's mighty reputation, but had also become leaders, guiding them in their resistance against the Foreign Realm. Now a host of kings had once again moved to destroy the pillars of their faith.

"Damn them! My lord, you must hold on until I get there!"

Someone roared, rushing toward them regardless of the Foreign Realm cultivators' attacks.

"Heh heh heh... Where do you think you're going? We can't let you disturb our kings!"

"Come, come, your leaders are over here! Don't run! Hahahaha...!"

Unlike those of the Nine Heavens, the people of the Foreign Realm wore smug expressions.

"Damn you! All of you, die!"

Some even detonated their battered bodies to hold back the Foreign Realm's cultivators. Everyone unleashed the last of their strength, desperate to claw back a little time.

They were utterly desperate. They could not let that final glimmer of hope shatter. Great Red Heaven, the largest territory of the Nine Heavens, had fallen completely. War had spread to every Ancient World, and even Boundless Heaven had not escaped.

Most despairing of all, ever since all the Ancient Worlds fell, their allies in the Immortal Domain seemed to have stopped sending troops to help.

Recently, rumors had even begun spreading throughout the Nine Heavens that the Immortal Domain had abandoned them completely. It intended to close the passage and gates between the two realms, severing all contact with the Nine Heavens. They did not want the flames of war to reach their own homeland.

Some were bewildered, some furious, some despairing. Weren't the two realms allies? For centuries and millennia, they had lived together in harmony, treating the others as their own compatriots! Why had the other side chosen to do this at such a critical moment? It truly chilled their hearts!

But a small number had long prepared themselves for this. They had long known that many of the Immortal Domain's haughty kings could not be trusted and would never care whether the Nine Heavens lived or died. Some were even plundering the heaven-defying ancient seeds still remaining in the worlds of the Nine Heavens.

Thus, they could rely only on themselves. Even at the cost of their lives, they had to rescue the Heavenly Horned Ant siblings. These two were the Nine Heavens' last hope.

They had thought that once they withdrew safely, the siblings would no longer need to fight the Immortal Kings. Sadly, everything was too late. The Foreign Realm's Immortal Kings had once again cast aside all shame, using despicable means to ambush and surround the leaders of the Nine Heavens.

"Cough... cough..."

On the scorched earth, the two slowly rose, glaring up at the heavens.

Yan and Yu could no longer maintain the Heavenly Horned Ant Clan's Berserk Transformation. Their bodies were covered in cracks, golden light flowing from the fissures in their precious flesh. In this age, ten thousand years of bloody warfare had brought them astonishing progress. Sadly, even together, they could not withstand a single strike from a supreme king.

"It's all my fault, all my fault! Yan! But I hate him so much!"

Yu could barely stand. Tears streamed down her face as she blamed herself. Her moment of impulsiveness had caused Yan to be struck down alongside her. Only now, grievously wounded, did she realize how reckless she had been.

"Heh... cough... You really are something. You're supposed to be the older sister, but you always need me to look after you!"

Yan spoke while coughing up blood, yet he showed no worry at all. Instead, the smile never faded from his face as he teased his elder sister for always needing her younger brother to take care of her.