Across the patriarchs' battlefield, a blood moon hung in the sky.
Even in distant lands, when people looked up, they could vaguely make out the desolate, gorgeous crimson, accompanied by faint red glows scattering through woodlands, until mountains and rivers seemed tinged with blood.
How could ordinary people not tremble in terror upon seeing such a sight? Women and children shivered with dread.
The Western Border, situated at the world's edge, was abundantly endowed with resources, yet its Fire Springs lay half-concealed underground, requiring excavation to seep through; on ordinary days, utter darkness dominated the vast, open plains.
Today, however, the spectacle before their eyes completely upended everything they knew.
Mountains, rivers, and the earth were all submerged in bloody radiance. An oppressive gloom, as though doomsday itself were descending, filled the air, and in an instant, many children burst into frightened sobs.
On the main battlefield, a patriarch roared, "A mere hairy ape, riding a corpse that has lain stiff for who knows how many years, dares impersonate a so-called divinity?!"
His voice boomed like muffled thunder, carrying to territories hundreds of li away, refuting any claim that the entity was a genuine god.
"A divine corpse?!" While countless onlookers were shaken to the core by the patriarch's unfathomable cultivation, they also learned the true nature of the silhouette in the blood moon.
"Kill!"
Murderous intent surged through the night sky.
The blood moon hung high, radiating an extremely hazardous aura. That corpse undoubtedly possessed a storied background; otherwise, the demon camp would never have dispatched it first.
Traversing the expanse of the sky, it seemed to pour torrents of Earth Immortal blood from the heavens, illuminating the entire battlefield in brilliant, vivid crimson with a chilling, desolate splendor.
Immediately afterward, people felt as if mountains and seas were collapsing, the energy fluctuations turning unimaginably violent. A colossal pillar reaching into the heavens appeared in that region; it stood upright at first, then tilted down, wrapped in boundless characters.
It smashed violently toward the divine corpse.
It was as though a giant were swinging a great cudgel to smash through the night sky, intending to punch a gaping hole right through heaven and earth.
This was Yezhou's Heaven-Anchoring Divine Stake—a treasure whose deployment bore upon the fate of their entire people!
The patriarchs had minced no words, unleashing one right from the start. Belonging to the realm of taboo armaments, if all thirty-six were brought out at once, it could not be done without paying a dire price; the best choice was to sustain the war through war itself.
With a resounding bang, an earth-shaking clap of thunder erupted in the night sky. The thick, dark clouds blanketing the heavens shattered entirely, and blood-red light surged in all directions.
Those far away could not see clearly, but on neighboring battlefields, the hair of many stood on end as a chill swept through them, chilling them from head to toe.
The divine corpse still wore remnants of armor; it raised its bracer to block this peerless strike.
Was this truly the physical form of a divine being? Even after being dead for so many years and driven into battle by someone else, it still wielded such awe-inspiring might, enough to devour mountains and rivers.
Rumble!
Heaven fell and earth split. The night sky seemed to warp as yet another sky-propping pillar-like divine stake appeared and came crashing down, threatening to shred the entire veil of night to pieces.
From the demon camp, old fiends howled, their voices shaking heaven and earth as they clearly aided the fight; inexplicable streaks of light cut across the battlefield.
Yezhou's side blazed with splendor as well: spiritual consciousness power, heavenly light, and more surged forward like five-colored auspicious clouds.
The divine corpse roared as a weapon manifested in its grip.
Yet amid the dazzling shower of light, the spear in its hand—already cracked—snapped cleanly in two, struck directly by a third Heaven-Anchoring Divine Stake pressing down from above.
"Law of Heaven and Earth, swallow ten thousand li!" an old demon roared from the enemy camp. In an instant, billowing demonic qi roiled, and an enormous spectral figure merged as one with the divine corpse.
The divine corpse ballooned in response until it stood tall as a mountain, as if about to come back to life. In that breath, the celestial firmament above the patriarchs' battlefield turned entirely blood-red.
Beyond the mortal world, the unknown night sky shone brightly, crimson and gorgeous.
The divine corpse radiated light, its colossal body radiating a smothering pressure. It was so overwhelmingly massive that the bright crimson divine moon it bore aloft blanketed the entire battlefield.
With the eruption of demonic divine arts, it seemed as though an ancient Earth Immortal was being resurrected.
Yet, just as the divine corpse reached the pinnacle of radiance and its ferocious flames soared to the heavens, its silhouette suddenly froze, and the ever-expanding bloody light blurred.
A massive sky-propping pillar descended silently from the heavens, as if arriving from beyond the mortal realm, coming to rest against its skull before pressing downward in suppression.
With a squelch, even for a divine corpse, its skull was punctured by that mysterious fourth Heaven-Anchoring Divine Stake. Crisp sounds of cracking bone resonated across the battlefield from that mountain-tall physique.
It violently shook its head while demonic Dao rhymes coursed through its entire body, dense patterns knitting together to repair the skull and fling off the Heaven-Anchoring Divine Stake.
An old demon's expression changed drastically: "Not good! This divine corpse's skull had an old injury—its crown was fractured long ago, and they struck right at its weakness!"
"Four Symbols Formation, rise!" a patriarch on Yezhou's side bellowed.
They had activated four Heaven-Anchoring Divine Stakes in total, and all of them were now awakened. In an instant, a colossal Vermilion Bird spread its wings, feathers dazzlingly bright, carrying a sky full of flames that poured down as if from beyond all worlds.
Then, an immense Azure Dragon leaned out from the sky and swooped down, coiling around the divine corpse and locking it tight in an unbreakable grip.
A White Tiger, standing tall as a mountain, radiated dazzling slaughtering light that pierced heaven and earth. Pouncing forward with terrifying momentum capable of shattering grand rivers and mountains, it tore savagely into the divine corpse.
Next, the Xuanwu descended, as if bearing the boundless waters of the Northern Sea, and then seemed to draw down a cascade of the Heavenly River; amidst roaring thunder and boundless Dao rhymes, it surged down from high above to disperse the limitless demonic qi beneath the night.
Splat!
In the end, the divine corpse's previously fractured crown shattered completely. Fragments of skull exploded outward as a thick divine stake plunged into the interior of its head.
What was more, it stirred viciously within. The stake's surface was covered in mysterious writing—dense dragon seals and phoenix seal scripts—and the glyphs surged into the cranial cavity like celestial cataracts.
In the demon camp, numerous old fiends roared in fury.
Meanwhile, the younger demonic generations felt their fur stand on end. The scene felt so vivid it was as if they were experiencing it themselves—brains being stirred like egg yolks, a truly horrific sight.
Multiple old demon fiends cast divine arts, but in the end, they could change nothing.
The four thick divine stakes pierced different parts of the divine corpse, pinning its gigantic body in midair.
Then, the four divine stakes erupted with blinding light as a deluge of characters surfaced, threatening to burn the heavens, boil the seas, and sear clean through the night sky in an awe-inspiring display.
Impaled by the four colossal stakes and enveloped by world-shaking runes, the gigantic divine corpse detonated with a deafening boom, blown into four quarters and disintegrating on the spot.
Even from far-off lands, onlookers could vaguely make out the sight of a blood moon bursting apart beneath the vast, dusky night.
Red light splashed everywhere, like the crimson glow of dusk surging out in all directions. Soon, however, that endless, desolate bloody radiance faded swiftly, receding like a tidal wave.
After all, even the source had been destroyed. With the blood moon gone, how could its light continue to bathe heaven and earth?
In outlying regions, the wilderness outside many towns and villages fell back into inky blackness; only the patriarchs' battlefield remained as dazzling as day.
A hairy old ape charged out from the shattered divine corpse. Clad in gold armor, it howled continuously in rage—that was the sacred physical form of its ancestor, destroyed just like that!
At the same time, soul-light of the consciousnesses of other old demons surged beside it; they had assisted in the battle earlier and were now furious that the opening clash had failed to achieve the intended deterrence.
"Hairy ape, driving a corpse in an attempt to defy heaven—hand over your life!" The habitually terse Present Rulai uncharacteristically uttered such heavily murderous words.
By now, he had already reached out a colossal hand, blotting out the sky as it grabbed toward the old ape like a crushing mountain.
The sight stunned friend and foe alike.
The old ape roared and threw a punch, as if seeking to shatter heaven and earth, break through, and become a divine being. Exceedingly formidable and towering with spirit, it charged toward the Present Rulai amid a sky full of golden light.
The great battle of patriarchs erupted!
"Caw! Croak!"
Across the vast expanse of the sky, a terrifying crow cawed. Rising like a pitch-black sun, its sonic waves were utterly dread-inducing, assailing the spiritual plane and dampening Yezhou's morale.
Most crucially, it sought to erode the Present Rulai's spiritual field.
"Old crow, you dare attempt an ambush? Die!" On Yezhou's side, a voice rang out as a figure soared into the air.
Clad in crimson-gold armor, he possessed not only a crisp voice but the visage of a youth, his whole body erupting with divine chains of order resembling phoenix plumes.
Helian Chengyun held a great bow, aiming straight at the terrifying old crow demon at the peak of the Sixth Realm.
"Even someone like you dares draw a bow against me?!" That old crow was supremely arrogant. Vaulting through the void, its black feathers unleashed limitless dark light as it took the initiative to attack.
Helian Chengyun barked, "This old man's Sun-Shooting Immortal Arrow was forged specifically to slay Golden Crows! Even an old crow like you dares spout mad words? Come die!"
He suddenly released the bowstring. A streak of immortal light shot out—resembling not an arrow, but a thick bolt of heavenly thunder plowing across the entire night sky and distorting everything around it.
Only after the arrow had sped far into the distance did a sonic boom of thunder detonate in its wake.
In the night sky, explosions rang incessantly. The arrow entwined in immortal light clashed with the immense demonic power released by the old crow demon's wings, Dao rhymes churning as they devoured each other and promptly detonated.
Boom!
Some of the Sixth Realm old crow demon's feathers blew apart and drifted down, flecked with blood.
Though not severely wounded, its face was grim. Resembling a black sun suspended in the sky, it drove those blood-stained feathers like swarms of flying swords, slashing toward the crimson-armored youth standing in the night sky.
It hissed in a chilling voice, "The dark night gave us black wings; the Golden Crow is inked, its demonic power even more potent! What does your so-called Sun-Shooting Immortal Arrow count for? I shall see your arrows destroyed and you slain!"
In that flash of flint and spark, pitch-black plumage fired like darts while arrow light rent the heavens, both streaking toward their targets with rich Dao rhymes that seemed to perturb the stability of the void.
Rip!
Helian Chengyun's armor was pierced; black feathers lodged within it as faint red blood seeped through.
Yet his youthful face remained aloof and expressionless as he continuously drew his bow and shot arrow after arrow.
In the distance, a mist of blood erupted. One of the Sixth Realm peak old crow's wings almost completely blew apart, blasted by an arrow into a horrific, bloody hole.
Moreover, Helian Chengyun's rapid-fire arrows began arriving in a dense barrage.
"Kill!"
"Slay the demons, eradicate the fiends—the time is now!"
On the main battlefield, Yezhou's patriarchs and the powerhouses of the demon camp surged forward, instantly sparking the fiercest clash.
In the distance, ordinary people and cultivators alike felt their blood boil after recovering from their initial shock. This was the most terrifying war in four hundred and fifty years, and it had erupted today.
Someone shouted, "The patriarchs have made their move! We must open a second battlefield and rout the demon army head-on!"
The younger generation rubbed their palms and cracked their knuckles, itching for action with soaring, surging battle intent.
Yet such a high-level battle—a clash of the Sixth Realm—was destined to be brutal and bloody. The fierce fight had barely begun when powerhouses started disintegrating.
One patriarch cleaved his foe in half, but his own body was impaled by dozens of a demon sword immortal's demon swords, riddled with bloody holes.
Moments later, more than one Sixth Realm expert was blown apart multiple times across this battlefield, and demons kept collapsing into pieces as well.
Instantly, onlookers far away felt a chill down their spines. The core of the Plain of Divine Demise was virtually a meat grinder, where the gates of hell stood wide open in an incomparably tragic slaughter.
As time passed, patriarchs fell, and powerhouses of the demon race perished as well. Blood rained from the sky, dyeing even the clouds scattered to the horizon red.
Whether demon or human, every living being who witnessed this felt their hair stand on end. Those were Sixth Realm masters dying in outright combat during the fierce confrontation of two great camps.
Even the most radical youths now shivered violently. Such a bloody, brutal war was simply too horrific and soul-chilling.
If the battle raged on like this, there was no telling how many patriarch-level figures on both sides would wither away.
The people of Yezhou naturally thought back to the war four hundred and fifty years ago, when the patriarchs first went north to drive out the nomadic hunting civilization, then pushed west to confront the demon civilization, nearly fighting to the last of their Sixth Realm powerhouses.
"How can we just watch the patriarchs fight to the death? It's our turn to strike! Kill!" a grandmaster roared.
They skirted the main battlefield and advanced toward the demon army.
"True masters fear neither life nor death! Bathe in demon blood, break through to the next level, and win glory this very day!"
In the rear, a group of master-level elders bellowed, following from afar, bound to enter the fray eventually to slaughter the demon host.
From the demon camp, massive plumes of black mist and blood-red light surged into the sky; evidently, their grandmasters at the pinnacle of the Fifth Realm had mobilized as well.
"Exterminate the demons!" a grandmaster on Yezhou's side shouted. It served as a signal; instantly, multiple grandmasters joined forces to unleash several rare treasures, bombarding the opposing demon army.
Six implements could be seen, fluttering noisily like flags yet banners, aligning with the Six Harmonies to seal heaven and earth while blazing with limitless radiance.
Moreover, they expanded rapidly. The thick poles—or banner staffs—threatened to pierce heaven and earth as they plunged toward the demon ranks.
Should they strike true, they would undoubtedly inflict catastrophic casualties on the enemy.
A top grandmaster called out, "Everyone, pool your strength to refine the Human Sovereign Banner! Subduing the demons happens now!"
Instantly, grandmasters from all factions struck in unison, driving the six slaughtering treasures.
And they shouted, "Use the Human Sovereign Banner to crush and kill the demons!"
The grandmasters of the demon faction naturally could not permit this, raging with fury.
An old demon spat, "Pah! That's clearly the Demon-Refining Banner, yet you pretty it up as the Human Sovereign Banner! Utterly shameless!"
Another demon grandmaster yelled, "Fellows, join together to unleash the Creation Gourd and slaughter these upright ape-fiends of Dongyu!"
Evidently, it was tit for tat: if humans called them demons, they dubbed the people of Yezhou the "upright ape-fiend race."
A human grandmaster scoffed coldly, "Bullshit Creation Gourd! That's obviously a Blood Soul Gourd! Who knows how many souls of living beings you blood-sacrificed to nurture a gourd full of god-slaying sword light!"
The six Human Sovereign Banners rustled loudly, billowing in the night wind as they expanded at breakneck speed, eager to swallow the entire sprawling plain. They bore down upon the demon army, their cloth blotting out the sky as roiling blood light swept across the wilderness.
The demon grandmasters countered in kind: "The Creation Gourd has been nourished for centuries and emerges today! The first sword shatters mountains and streams; the second sword buries human immortals; the third sword cleaves the starry heavens; the fourth sword... damn you upright apes, you brought out another heavy treasure?!"
The Blood Soul Gourd erupted, spewing sword rays of truly dreadful power that clashed violently against the six grand banners, unleashing layered torrents of murderous light.
Meanwhile, Yezhou's grandmasters activated yet another formidable weapon of slaughter. A nine-story stone pagoda appeared, its surface carved with mountains, rivers, and all living things, emanating a profound Dao rhyme interwoven with subtle threads of order.
"Mountains and Rivers Health-Nourishing Pagoda, purify the world—suppress them!" a grandmaster on the human side shouted.
An old demon flared with rage and anxiety: "It's the Mountains and Rivers Demon-Refining Pagoda! Fuck your mother, break it for me!"
Clearly, such lethal treasures were renowned throughout history; at the very least, their forebears had witnessed it during the war four hundred and fifty years ago.
Some old monsters here had even experienced it in the flesh, intimately familiar with its bloody terror.
"Heavenly Demon Righteous Qi Hammer, strike!" Several old demons pooled their strength to summon a weapon of equal caliber. Instantly, a blood hammer surged across the void, trailed by billowing demonic qi like beacon smoke, scattering the night mist as it smashed toward the gigantic stone pagoda.
Dong!
A deafening boom reverberated between heaven and earth. Clouds churned, and bloody clouds illuminated every direction. Neither side's weapons were particularly sacred or peaceful—one side billowed with black fog, the other coiled with blood light—as they battered each other ceaselessly.
Soon, the grandmasters' battlefield reeked of blood in an astonishing scene. Heavy treasures and rare implements flew everywhere, colliding repeatedly in the night sky. In the blink of an eye, artifacts cracked, and lethal armaments crashed one after another to the ground.
All these prized treasures would require countless refinements and rare materials to repair in the future.
Only when the massive slaughtering armaments requiring multiple people to power dimmed and withdrew did the grandmasters of both sides crash into one another in melee.
Next, Yezhou's masters entered the field, hurling themselves toward the enemy lines. Master-level experts from the demon camp moved to intercept them immediately, and a bloody free-for-all ensued.
Bang! Bang!
Blood splattered through the night air, and bodies were torn apart. It was an exceptionally brutal battle. Cultivating to this level was never easy, yet as time wore on, masters constantly perished on the field, and demon experts died in comparable numbers.
With the higher-ups of Yezhou and the demon camp entering the fray, the war had reached an unimaginable pitch of savagery. Experiencing such a scene, even from afar, weighed on observers with a suffocating sense of dread.
"Roar!" A furious bellow shook the mountains and rivers.
From the northwest, deep within the night mist, a terrifying sun appeared, blindingly bright, speeding toward them and lighting up the vault of heaven.
"This old man has returned! Had I known there was such a life-and-death clash, why would I have traveled to far-flung lands? You demon whelps, I fought you four hundred and fifty years ago and sent your ancestors running scared! How dare you invade again today? You all deserve to be beaten to death!"
A burly, rugged old man flew in, plunging headlong into the patriarchs' battlefield.
"You old scoundrel Qingtian! It's a fluke you haven't died of old age yet—today we shall finish you off!" An old demon actually recognized him.
In the night sky, heavenly light surged like a blazing sun, blasting toward the Sixth Realm powerhouses of the demon camp.
"With you demon bastards still breathing, how could this old man bear to depart this world? I'll use your hands to temper my Sky-Upholding Body! As long as I survive this battle, my path-forging is assured!" Patriarch Qingtian of the Newborn path had returned, fighting with near frenzy the moment he entered the battlefield.
In the next breath, like Pangu cleaving heaven and earth, he swung a giant greataxe and tore across the battlefield, carving out fearsome arcs of axe-light in rapid succession. Instantly, blood sprayed as a demon powerhouse was severely crippled.
"Old fossil, you're so decrepit you should have been swept into history's garbage heap long ago! How dare you come out and stir up trouble? Today, this seat shall decapitate you!"
A rising star among the demons charged forward. He was exceedingly domineering, having stood in the Sixth Realm for nearly two hundred years; having made triumphant progress all the way to this era, his confidence was through the roof.
Qingtian laughed uproariously, unprovoked: "Splendid! I hope you can snap these old bones of mine! I desperately need a great enemy who can push me to the brink of death to help me break through!"
In a flash, a gory clash erupted between the two. A sun hung in the void and demonic qi soared into the sky as blood continually spurted out.
Splat!
In the end, that overconfident great demon died with wide-open eyes beneath Qingtian's giant axe, cleaved squarely in two. His demonic soul fled, only for the giant axe to release Sky-Upholding force that warped space, trapping him in place.
"Release him!" An old demon charged over, clashing with Patriarch Qingtian in the blink of an eye.
Patriarch Yuqing let out a resounding roar. Disregarding his wounds, he too fought like a madman, every inch of his flesh discharging heavenly light force as if burning away his entire spirit, energy, and life force.
Next, Patriarch Jiang Zhiyuan of the Yinyang Daoist Temple erupted in fury as well.
An old monster of the immortal path drew in a breath of night mist: "Hiss... The people of the Newborn path have gone mad! They're leaving themselves no way out—either they perish today, or they undergo nirvanic rebirth anew!"
"We too should bathe in divine blood to break through!" an old monster of the esoteric sect roared.
The patriarchs' battlefield grew even more terrifying and tragic; after this battle, who knew how many would remain standing?
Not just here on the main battlefield, but on the second battlefield opened by the grandmasters and the duel grounds of the masters, powerhouses continually fell.
Seeing this unfold, many young men and women felt their blood boil even as their eyes reddened with hot tears. Among the combatants were elders of their sects and their own kin.
"Gleaming halberds and armored steeds, blades reflecting blood-soaked robes! Anyone not afraid to die, follow me to slay the enemy!"
Among the youth, someone opened a new front, and a large group of experts surged out behind them.
In fact, the middle and lower ranks of the demon army mobilized simultaneously, hurtling toward Yezhou's side.
Horns blared, shaking the heavens. At this moment, every echelon of both camps launched an all-out charge.
On Yezhou's side, the younger generation roared as well. Gripping blades and spears, summoning spiritual weapons and rare treasures, they charged toward the demons across the grand plain.
"At a time like this, what should true heroes and real men fear? Renown and honor are won only in the saddle—kill!"
For this group of hot-blooded youths, their previous anxiety and initial dread had vanished completely. Seeing their elders fighting bloody battles, they caught the surging battle fervor and plunged into the fray.
Chapter 329