The Strongest Battle Since the Emperor Dao Era
The world had never been simply black and white. Most holy lands and imperial dynasties with long histories were closely connected to the death grounds and forbidden zones.
Over the long ages, the Three Thousand Worlds' most powerful lineages had reached an unspoken understanding with the death grounds and forbidden zones.
As long as they did not go too far, as his eldest brother Fu You had, their actions were almost tacitly permitted.
Full-scale war usually erupted between the two sides in only two circumstances: when a new emperor or a fully developed Sacred Body or Divine Body was born in the Three Thousand Worlds.
A supreme expert whose vitality and blood had reached their peak, who bore the fortune of heaven and earth and commanded the submission of all Daos, was an irresistible temptation to the weakened, decaying emperors in the forbidden zones and death grounds.
If they could devour such an expert, they would most likely be able to live another lifetime.
The rats hiding in dark corners longed most for the light.
The other circumstance was when an emperor's body in a forbidden zone or death ground was about to fall into complete decay and extinction, and required vast quantities of blood food to prolong its life.
The Three Thousand Worlds, the Emperor Realm.
The Great Luo Dynasty.
The Heavenly Luo Forbidden Land.
"This junior, Luo Qing, requests an audience with the patriarchs!" Luo Qing, the current King of Great Luo and a powerful Divine Fire Realm cultivator, called out as he entered the forbidden land.
A powerful presence surged into the sky, jolting several Venerable Realm patriarchs awake.
"What is it?" A voice rang out like a great bronze bell.
"The Spirit-Subduing Heavenly Jade has manifested its power. Word has come from the Indestructible Forbidden Zone," Luo Qing said slowly and solemnly.
"Someone from the forbidden zone is entering the world?!" The Venerable Realm patriarchs were horrified, stunned by the news.
"Go to the deepest reaches and wake the Fifth Patriarch!"
"Ask the elder to take charge!"
The venerables spoke in a rush, their breaths unsteady.
In the deepest reaches of the Heavenly Luo Forbidden Land stood three enormous bronze coffins.
The Fifth Patriarch of the Great Luo Dynasty awoke from his slumber. He was a saint, immensely powerful.
But he was far too old. His hair was white from root to tip, and his entire body reeked of decay and extinction. His skin clung to his flesh like withered leaves, and his vitality and blood had weakened to the utmost, as though he might pass into eternal silence the next moment.
Yet as this dying saint awoke, heaven and earth bowed, and the stars hanging high beyond the sky began to tremble. He seemed to be the master of this small world: with one thought, heaven and earth bent; with another, the stars yielded.
"Someone from the forbidden zone is coming." Fu Yangping's pupils contracted slightly as he awoke, and he looked toward the other two coffins.
A trace of sorrow welled up in his heart. Even saints could not escape the passage of ages or withstand the blade of time.
Had he not been awakened, he feared that in another ten thousand years, even he would have decayed and perished in his sleep.
A transcendent, saintly presence surged across the vast sky. Vitality began to return to Fu Yangping's body, and his appearance changed before their eyes.
A few breaths later, he had taken the form of an immensely dignified middle-aged Daoist.
The Indestructible Forbidden Zone, the teleportation tower.
The tower had eighteen floors, representing the eighteen major powers that depended on the Imperishable Forbidden Land.
Of the eighteen teleportation arrays, fifteen were dark and three were lit.
"Only eighty thousand years have passed, and there are three fewer again." Fu Yuan sighed.
The years passed unnoticed in the forbidden zone. During a single slumber, who knew how many holy lands had declined, or how many dynasties had risen and fallen?
Even imperial dynasties and lineages that had produced emperors might not be able to preserve themselves against the tide of the times.
"Let's go, Uncle Lin," Fu Yuan said softly.
The Great Luo Small World.
White runes shone as the enormous teleportation array activated.
"They're here!" said Fu Yangping, who was in the Great Sage Realm.
The two men stared intently at the teleportation array, waiting for the honored guest from the Indestructible Forbidden Zone to arrive.
White light flickered, revealing a youth in snow-white Daoist robes.
His robes fluttered around his tall, straight figure, and he exuded a noble, graceful bearing. Imposing and handsome, with sharply defined features, he seemed like a young immortal descended to the mortal world with every gesture.
"Lord Yuan!" Fu Yangping's voice trembled at the sight of the newcomer, and he was overcome with excitement.
A Great Saint actually dropped to his knees, tears gathering in his eyes.
The King of Great Luo behind him did not understand what made the newcomer so formidable, but seeing even the Fifth Patriarch act this way, he hurriedly knelt as well.
"Brother Yang Ping, we haven't seen each other in eighty thousand years, and your bearing is more splendid than ever." Fu Yuan stepped forward and helped him up.
In the middle of the last epoch, the Blood Ancient Era, his second brother Fu Xu had entered the world and displayed the makings of an invincible expert. He had defeated holy sons and emperor's sons one after another, taking eighteen followers in succession.
All eighteen followers were supreme heavenly prodigies. Sixteen had risen from humble beginnings; only Ji Yang, ranked seventh, and Liuyun, ranked twelfth, came from matchless great clans.
Fu Xu's methods were unparalleled, and he was proud at heart. He regarded the world's heavenly prodigies as beneath notice, confident that he could subdue them all.
Of the Indestructible Heavenly Venerable's three sons, Fu Xu was the most gifted. Whether emperor's sons of his own generation or ancient freaks awakened from slumber, he had easily suppressed them all, sweeping through his era to attain the throne of an emperor.
But his ambition was too great, and he held everything beneath his notice. The moment he became a great emperor, he began plotting against the Heavenly Dao, intending to transform himself into heaven, surpass all the ancient sages and emperors, and forge a supreme path.
It was an exceptionally dangerous path. Failure would mean eternal damnation; most likely, his Dao would merge with heaven and earth, and he would lose his self-awareness, attaining an alternative form of eternal life.
At the time, even his father, the Indestructible Heavenly Venerable, had awakened from slumber. His eldest brother Fu You had also dragged his broken emperor's body forth, sublimated his battle prowess, revived his Great Emperor Weapon, and walked out of the Indestructible Forbidden Zone to intimidate and block the emperors of the forbidden zones and death grounds.
In the strongest battle since the Emperor Dao Era, the Indestructible Heavenly Venerable alone held back four great emperors. The Imperishable Heavenly Wheel drank its fill of emperor blood, and the Wheel-Turning Method from the Imperishable Heavenly Scripture shone in full splendor, turning all the arts in the world and forcibly suppressing the four ancient emperors.
Transforming oneself into heaven was far too difficult. The Heavenly Dao's consciousness from across the Three Thousand Worlds converged in one place, and the emperor of the present age clashed with the Heavenly Dao at their utmost. In ten years, Fu Xu took control of one-ninth of the Heavenly Dao, his consciousness encompassing hundreds of worlds.
The emperors in the forbidden zones and death grounds went mad. They were awakened one after another, and the old monsters of the Mythic Era and ancient relics of the Emperor Dao Era all sublimated themselves to fight, heedless of their weakened, decaying bodies.
The old undying beings of the Primordial Era and the emperors of the Chaotic Ancient and Blood Ancient Eras began to awaken one by one. Even if it meant becoming enemies of the Indestructible Heavenly Venerable and making an enemy of the Indestructible Forbidden Zone, they would not allow anyone to truly take that step.
After the Immortal Dao Era, heaven and earth were broken, the laws of the Great Dao were incomplete, the immortal source had dispersed, and the Qi of the primordial beginning was no more. There were no immortals in all the world.
Immortals lived for ages untold, but emperors in the same realm as immortals had finite lifespans. Emperors of the Mythic Epoch lived for three million years, those of the Emperor Dao Epoch for one and a half million, and from the Blood Ancient Era onward, emperors lived for less than five hundred thousand years.
It was clear that heaven and earth were growing ever more damaged, and the laws of the Great Dao ever more incomplete.
If Fu Xu truly succeeded in transforming himself into heaven, he could achieve an alternative form of eternal life.
With a Heavenly Dao that possessed its own consciousness and emotions, no one would ever again be able to repeat the Heavenly Emperor's feat of holding open the heavenly canopy and creating a supreme age in which three emperors and four venerables contended for supremacy in the same generation.
The present world would decline to the utmost, swiftly entering an age of Dao's sorrow, an era without emperors.
More frightening still, once Fu Xu had complete control of the Heavenly Dao, the forbidden zones and death grounds would no longer be able to stand apart from the world. They would become connected to the present world, and these regions, which were like bugs, would lose their special nature.
The decaying, declining emperors would swiftly die, their Daos returning to heaven and earth and their souls scattering to the eight directions.
How domineering the Indestructible Heavenly Venerable was! Even when faced with more than ten great emperors, he refused to yield an inch, displaying unmatched dominance.
He sublimated himself to the utmost, ignoring the passage of ages. His might bore down on heaven and earth as he fully returned to his peak, his figure reflected across the Three Thousand Worlds.
The foremost ruthless figure since the Immortal Ancient Era, the Indestructible Heavenly Venerable blazed with ferocious might!