At that moment, Jiang Ping felt as though he were watching a disaster blockbuster like "2012" or "Collision of Heaven and Earth." The entire Primordial World had fallen into a world-ending crisis.
Volcano after volcano erupted in succession, destabilizing the crust. The land began to split apart piece by piece, while the waters of the endless ocean surged madly into the fissures like water dragons churning the clouds and rain, widening the cracks in the earth and driving the fragments of land farther and farther apart.
Seawater swept across every corner of the land, and countless creatures were swallowed by towering waves in an instant. The Human King and the Ant Queen gathered their forces to resist this Heaven and Earth Cataclysm together.
Before such world-shaking power, even their great strength was useless. The five surviving Divine Guards rushed to the Ant Queen's location at the first time.
The countless armies behind them were engulfed by the rushing seawater. For a time, countless lives were lost or wounded, and cries of grief filled the land.
The gravely injured Human King, his face pale, directed the Human Race's evacuation. Yet this catastrophe had come far too suddenly, far too quickly!
Tens of Millions of people and soldiers died within half an hour, including many outstanding Transcendents.
"Human King, leave now! If you don't go, you won't be able to leave either!" a Human Race warrior urged.
Human King Qi, pale-faced, suppressed the land. If he left now, the earth would instantly collapse and break apart. No one here would be able to escape.
The Human King solemnly handed the Spear of Destiny to the warrior. "Take good care of the artifact of inheritance. Lead the clansmen away at once!"
Others still wanted to persuade him, but the Human King had already made up his mind. What's more, how could the situation allow them to hesitate now?
Every minute, hundreds of thousands of living beings perished.
On this day, Ninth Generation Human King Qi used his severely wounded body to suppress the land for two hours, buying precious time for the Human Race's retreat. Finally, he became an immortal monument, swallowed by scorching magma and sinking deep into the earth.
Jiang Ping could see that this final Human King was no weaker than any previous king. Even in death, he still stood tall in the center of the land, refusing to lower his proud spine.
A crimson ocean of magma, drifting fragments of land, countless creatures fleeing for their lives—amid it all, that upright figure was especially striking. Jiang Ping was overwhelmed with emotion. He knew he might never forget this sight.
The Creation Diary updated its records once again. At the end of the Middle Ancient Era of the Primordial Calendar, the Myriad Races went to war, the Divine Tree was sacrificed, the Supercontinent collapsed, Heaven and Earth shattered, and the world broke apart, no longer As One.
The Human Kings ended with the ninth generation. The Devouring Ants, long dwelling underground, suffered devastating losses and would never regain their former glory.
The Myriad Races withered away. The surviving creatures were scattered across every corner of the world, surrounded by endless oceans and unable to communicate with one another. Civilization regressed, and the world entered a new chapter.
"Snap!"
Jiang Ping abruptly shut the Creation Diary and closed his eyes, savoring the splendor of this era. Without question, the Middle Ancient Era had been incomparably glorious. His gains had far exceeded the total of all previous eras: the Longevity Potion, the three supreme Cultivation Methods, and the energy feedback that had yet to be settled.
Though not much time had passed today, Jiang Ping felt as if he had witnessed the grandeur and turbulence of an entire era. He could not help closing his eyes in thought.
Gradually, he fell asleep. In his dream, he saw Wuma again as he had been in his youth. Back then, Wuma had just received his Divine Revelation and had been full of high spirits. In his old age, he had always wanted to see Jiang Ping one last time, but Jiang Ping had never appeared.
At the time, Jiang Ping had believed that Wuma, the first Human King, despite being a great ruler of his generation, had wanted to ask him about the path to immortality in the final stage of his life.
This time, in his dream, Jiang Ping learned that Wuma had merely wanted to properly thank him and ask whether he had completed the task Jiang Ping had given him back then.
Looking at the phantom before him, Jiang Ping knew it was only a dream, yet he still nodded with a smile.
"You exceeded my expectations. I merely gave you a seed. Making it sprout and grow into a towering tree was your achievement. Without you, there would have been no Human Race that later became the overlords of the land."
Hearing Jiang Ping's answer, Wuma's phantom seemed to be freed of a burden. Satisfied, he turned into countless lights and dissipated into the darkness.
Afterward, Jiang Ping also saw Lian Shan and other kings of the Myriad Races. Most of them had been the strongest figures of the Middle Ancient Era, or supreme sages in other fields. They had all left a weighty mark upon history and were the essence of that era.
Jiang Ping watched for a long time and waited for a long time, but in the end, he did not see the Little Fellow he had been waiting for.
Thinking of her several times of rebirth in the past, Jiang Ping fell into thought.
At the crow of the rooster, the world turned white.
As the sun rose and shone upon all things, Jiang Ping awoke feeling utterly refreshed, as though his body possessed inexhaustible energy. He extended a finger and pinched the air.
"Boom!"
An airburst immediately rang out. After absorbing the cataclysmic energy from the end of the Middle Ancient Era, Jiang Ping evolved once more. He could not help but smile. "This feedback is far richer than before. It seems not only did many creatures die this time, but their quality was also high."
This was only the feedback from an Epochal Cataclysm. If an entire world entered its twilight years, just how great a surprise could a World-Ending Cataclysm bring him?
Filled with hope for the future, Jiang Ping did not even bother eating. He hurriedly checked the Primordial World's current state first.
He did not know until he looked, but the sight shocked him. The Primordial World's land had been divided by the oceans. After the Supercontinent's collapse, the world was no longer As One. Chunks of continental fragments drifted like small islands across the endless sea.
Powerful races had been separated. The Human Race's greatest advantage had vanished, and civilization began to regress. Many people had been left behind on different continents, never to cross paths again for the rest of their lives.
The former overlords of the land, the glory of ruling the Supercontinent, the nine-hundred-meter Creation God Statue, the Human King who had been lord of the Myriad Races, and all manner of unimaginable alchemical firearms could only be remembered through distant mural histories.
When history became stories, stories became legends, and legends became myths.
Nearly everyone believed the Supercontinent was merely a myth and legend. The Creation God was even more so—nothing but an ancient human fantasy.
The kings who had once dominated the world had long vanished into the passage of time!
Even the artifact of inheritance—the Spear of Destiny—had disappeared during the great migration back then. How could modern humans believe in that distant history?
Jiang Ping narrowed his eyes and began using the Creation God's authority to survey the entire world.
In an instant, every corner of Heaven and Earth appeared before Jiang Ping's eyes. Streams of Data flowed into his mind. If not for the Creation Diary's assistance, the immense amount of information could have made his head explode in that brief instant.
Jiang Ping saw the Spear of Destiny lying quietly within a sunken ship on the ocean floor. It appeared to have been lost in the chaos back then.
The Spear of Destiny's material was actually quite ordinary. It had merely been a spear Jiang Ping casually created. Yet it contained a trace of divine creation authority, making it indestructible and imperishable through countless calamities.
"Has the Spear of Destiny completed its historical mission?"
Gazing at the spear in the depths of the endless ocean, Jiang Ping did not interfere or make it reappear in the world and shine once more.
Perhaps disappearing forever into the river of history was also a beautiful ending.
"Hm? Queen Bersha has actually still not died of old age?" Jiang Ping turned his gaze toward the Tablet of Truth and discovered an astonishing scene.
The Ant Queen was covered in wounds. Her body was aged and decayed, exuding the aura of death. Her cloudy compound eyes stared blankly at the stone tablet before her.
Several more years passed in this research. As usual, the Ant Queen achieved no results. She had survived the cataclysm at the end of the Middle Ancient Era, but she still could not escape time.
She had tried every method of extending her lifespan. She had even found and recreated the formula for the Longevity Potion, which the Human Race had long lost. Yet after living for so many years, she could feel death only one step away!
"What a pity!" Unwillingness flashed through the Ant Queen's eyes, then she mocked herself. "Perhaps I am now the longest-lived creature in the world."
After the cataclysm's impact, the Devouring Ants had also been split into countless groups. In addition, Queen Bersha had grown ever older, and the Ant Race she had once suppressed erupted into rebellion. One by one, Ant Queens appeared across the fragments of the continents.
As time passed, Bersa had long lost her ability to reproduce. Even the Ant Queens did not know that this most ancient ancestor was still alive. Yet Queen Bersha was unwilling to die of old age in the passage of time, so she continued to struggle.
She closed her eyes once more and fell asleep, preserving the last faint spark of life.
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