Peach Mountain split open.
The last two golden chains were still pinned through Yao Ji's shoulder blades.
Yang Jian knelt before her, gripping the chains with both hands, his palms scorched black by the Heavenly Emperor's lightning runes.
But he did not let go.
"Mother."
His voice was low and hoarse.
"Your son will get you out."
Yao Ji stared at him in a daze.
Sunlight streamed through the split mountain overhead, falling across the boy's bloodstained shoulders and back.
In her memories, her Jian'er was still the child who would hide behind her and call for his mother.
Now, he had cleaved Peach Mountain open and stood before her.
"Jian'er..."
Yao Ji raised her hand, her fingertips trembling fiercely.
She wanted to touch his face, but the chains pulled her off balance.
The warmth in Yang Jian's eyes sank away in an instant.
These two chains pierced his mother's immortal body.
All these years, they had ground away at her primordial spirit inch by inch, trapping her day after day within this sunless mountain.
"The Heavenly Court."
Yang Jian tightened his fingers.
"I'll remember this debt."
Yu Ding Zhenren stood nearby, his expression shifting slightly.
"Yang Jian, be careful!"
"These last two chains are linked to the Heavenly Emperor's Edict. They'll injure your divine soul."
His words had barely fallen.
The golden lightning runes on the chains erupted.
Boom!
Lightning surged through Yang Jian's palms into his meridians, charging straight toward his divine soul.
Yao Ji's face went deathly pale.
"Jian'er, let go!"
Yang Jian did not move.
Fifty divine elephant particles vibrated within him at once.
Deep within his dantian, the Hell Furnace roared open.
Dark-gold divine fire surged back up his meridians, swallowing that lightning rune of the Heavenly Emperor in a single gulp.
The lightning entered the furnace.
It became a wisp of pure essence.
The aura around Yang Jian grew a little more substantial.
Yu Ding Zhenren's pupils contracted slightly.
What kind of refining technique was this?
It could even devour the lightning runes left behind by the Heavenly Emperor's Edict?
Watching the dark-gold flames rise from Yang Jian's palms, he reached a clear conclusion for the first time.
The master behind this child was no ordinary mighty figure of the Primordial World.
Crack!
Yang Jian forcibly tore the first golden chain apart.
The mountain's interior shook violently.
The remaining Sealing retaliated wildly. Golden runes lit up along the rock walls, as though trying to shackle Yao Ji once more.
Yang Jian raised his head, his gaze icy.
"Get lost."
That single command fell.
All fifty divine elephant particles vibrated in unison.
The newly lit runes shattered inch by inch beneath the pressure of his blood vitality.
Crack!
The second chain snapped.
The restraints on Yao Ji dissipated completely.
The immortal power that had lain dormant within her for years finally began to flow again.
It was faint, but undeniably there.
Yang Jian reached out to support her.
"Mother, the chains are broken."
Yao Ji looked at his hands, covered in bloody marks, and could no longer hold back her tears.
"Jian'er, you've suffered so much."
As those words fell.
Yang Jian's heart, stretched taut to its limit, finally trembled violently.
He lowered his head, his voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible.
"Your son came too late."
Yao Ji shook her head.
She raised her hand and gently stroked Yang Jian's face.
"As long as you're alive, your mother is already happy."
Yang Jian's throat tightened.
His father was dead.
His younger sister had fled for her life all along the way.
His mother had been imprisoned beneath Peach Mountain.
He had once thought the Heavenly Court stood beyond his reach, that he could only watch helplessly as everything was taken from him.
But now, he had his master.
He had the Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Force.
He had the strength to shatter the Heavenly Court's shackles.
He helped Yao Ji to her feet, the last trace of tears in his eyes giving way to cold resolve.
"Mother, your son will take you home."
Yao Ji was about to speak when her expression suddenly changed.
She abruptly turned toward the opening in the mountain.
"Jian'er, we can't take the mountain path."
Yang Jian lifted his gaze.
High above the nine heavens, thunder suddenly erupted.
It was no ordinary thunder.
It was war drums.
One beat followed another, pressing down until every tree on Peach Mountain bowed low.
The sky outside the mountain was covered in layer upon layer of gleaming golden armor.
The Thunder Department's war banners bore down over the sea of clouds.
The Dipper Department's starlight sealed off every direction.
Farther away, the Heavenly River Navy formed silver battle formations, warship after warship stretching across the heavens.
Heavenly might descended.
Loose stones within Peach Mountain's fissure hung suspended in midair, then crumbled into powder inch by inch.
Yu Ding Zhenren's expression darkened.
"They came so quickly."
Yao Ji seized Yang Jian's wrist, her voice urgent.
"The Thunder Department commands slaughter, the Dipper Department seals the stellar positions, and the Heavenly River Navy excels at trapping formations."
"Haotian intends to seal Peach Mountain completely this time."
"Jian'er, avoid their cutting edge for now."
Yang Jian did not answer.
He supported Yao Ji as they walked out of the mountain's interior.
Sunlight fell upon him.
The boy raised his head and looked at the densely packed Heavenly Soldiers and Generals among the clouds.
Those gleaming suits of armor had once driven him into flight.
Those war banners had once pursued him and Xiao Chan.
Those immortals and gods seated high among the clouds had once trampled his family to pieces.
Now, they had come again.
Yang Jian slowly released Yao Ji's hand.
Yu Ding Zhenren frowned.
"Yang Jian, what are you going to do?"
Yang Jian took a step forward.
Boom!
All fifty divine elephant particles vibrated at once.
Deep fissures spread across the ground from beneath his feet.
He did not turn back, only speaking softly to Yao Ji:
"Mother, stand behind me."
Watching his back, Yao Ji felt her chest tighten.
"Jian'er..."
Yang Jian raised his head.
Above the clouds, the Thunder Department's war drums abruptly stopped.
A divine general clad in purple-gold lightning armor stepped out before the formation, his Thunder Whip wreathed in electricity, his gaze falling like a blade.
"Yang Jian!"
"You cleaved Peach Mountain without authorization, destroyed the Heavenly Emperor's Edict, and rescued an immortal condemned by the Heavenly Court."
"Do you acknowledge your crime?"
Yang Jian smiled.
It was a cold smile.
"Crime?"
He stepped into the air, his figure slowly rising.
"My mother was chained by you in Peach Mountain and suffered for years."
"My father died because of the Heavenly Court."
"My sister and I were hunted by heavenly soldiers."
"And now you ask whether I acknowledge my crime?"
The Thunder Department's divine general's gaze sharpened.
"Insolence!"
Thousands upon thousands of heavenly soldiers raised their halberds in unison.
Boom!
The battle formation's immortal light joined into a vast expanse and bore down on Yang Jian.
Yao Ji's face turned pale.
Jade Purity Immortal Light stirred within Yu Ding Zhenren's sleeve. He was already prepared to intervene.
But Yang Jian merely raised his right fist.
Fifty divine elephant particles roared.
The Hell Furnace's dark-gold divine fire flashed through his eyes.
"Whoever stops me from taking my mother away today."
"Will stay on Peach Mountain."
Guanjiangkou.
Inside the ruined temple.
The instant Yang Jian tore apart the final chain of the edict, Gu Changqing slowly opened his eyes atop the altar.
A system notification thundered through his sea of consciousness.
[Ding!] [Detected that disciple Yang Jian has completed a special destiny milestone: cleaving the mountain to rescue his mother!] [Host's transmission of the Dao has rewritten Yang Jian's predetermined fate. The karmic course of the Investiture of the Gods has undergone a drastic shift!] [This return has triggered the maximum ten-thousandfold critical multiplier!] [Congratulations, Host! You have obtained: ten million years of cultivation!] [Congratulations, Host! You have obtained: Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Force · true meaning of laws!] [Congratulations, Host! You have obtained: insights into advancing the Hell Furnace. It can now refine faint traces of the power of laws!] [Congratulations, Host! You have obtained: one drop of the Primordial Dragon-Elephant Ancestor's blood essence!] [Congratulations, Host! You have obtained: a remnant trace of the Heavenly Emperor's providence (minute amount, karmic connections concealed)!] [Congratulations, Host! You have obtained: a remnant trace of the Chan Sect's providence (minute amount, karmic connections concealed)!]
Boom!
The instant the power of the return descended, the Divine Realm within the ruined temple expanded outward.
The dark-gold patterns on the statue's surface lit up layer by layer.
The threshold of the True Immortal realm, which he had long been unable to breach, finally gave way.
Early-stage True Immortal.
Mid-stage True Immortal.
Late-stage True Immortal.
Perfected True Immortal.
In the next breath.
Golden Immortal!
Gu Changqing's divine soul fully solidified.
The statue that had stood motionless upon the altar was now dark gold from head to toe, divine radiance flowing across its surface.
That drop of the Primordial Dragon-Elephant Ancestor's blood essence merged into the divine embryo.
The statue itself transformed once more.
Mid-grade Acquired Spiritual Treasure.
High-grade Acquired Spiritual Treasure.
Supreme Acquired Spiritual Treasure.
Only when it touched the threshold of an Innate Spiritual Treasure did the transformation slowly cease.
Gu Changqing felt the power within him, his expression as calm as ever.
Golden Immortal.
A divine embryo at the level of a Supreme Acquired Spiritual Treasure.
And the true meaning of laws of the Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Force.
On the chessboard of the Primordial World, I finally have a layer of skin to shield me.
Yet he did not let his guard down in the slightest.
The Saints are still above the Nine Heavens.
Hongjun is still united with the Heavenly Dao.
The Investiture of the Gods Tribulation has only just bared its fangs.
It's still too early to overturn the board.
Following the Master-Disciple Karma, Gu Changqing looked toward Peach Mountain.
There, the Thunder Department, the Dipper Department, and the Heavenly River Navy had already massed at its borders.
Yang Jian stood before the split-open Peach Mountain, shielding Yao Ji behind him.
The corners of Gu Changqing's lips lifted slightly.
"Yang Jian."
"Let your master see how many more divine elephant particles you can light up this time."
Above Peach Mountain.
Beneath the Thunder Department's main banner, the divine general clad in purple-gold thunder armor slowly raised his Thunder Whip.
Countless bolts of lightning instantly locked onto Yang Jian.
"By the Heavenly Emperor's Edict."
"Suppress Yang Jian!"
The Thunder Whip descended.
The Nine Heavens Thunder Sea came crashing down upon Peach Mountain!