It was no illusion born of the Xuanhuang cultivators' panicked minds—the sky had truly collapsed!
After a fleeting silence, a colossal, grand sound never heard before tore through the world like explosive thunder.
"Aaaah!" Countless cultivators blacked out as if struck squarely over the skull by a heavy club, nearly losing consciousness on the spot.
A persistent ringing hummed in their ears, refusing to fade even after half a day.
It was a trembling originating from the divine soul itself; sealing one's five senses did nothing to quell it.
Looking up toward the heavens, every cultivator without exception realized that the sky now felt almost within arm's reach.
Moreover, the concentration of spiritual energy across the mortal realm had plummeted noticeably in that very moment.
As a portion of the world's power was siphoned away, the howling wind and rain of Xuanhuang weakened considerably.
The vast majority of cultivators across the world had no idea what caused such a horrific anomaly.
Only the few standing at the very pinnacle of power in the Xuanhuang Realm understood what lay behind these portents.
Within a peculiar dimension, five statues whose faces could not be discerned stood in a circle.
Their heads bowed, gazing down at the center.
There floated a luminous cloud cluster representing Xuanhuang in its present state.
Every change in the Xuanhuang Realm since the war erupted was reflected within that cloud in meticulous detail.
At this moment, as heaven crumbled and earth cracked, the Xuanhuang cloud squirmed slowly, shrinking by nearly an entire ring.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. They've really spared no expense this time," a woman's voice, tinged with a rather frivolous tone, suddenly piped up.
"Are we just going to watch? This is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity, you know..." One of the statues sprang to life instantly, revealing her true form.
Her hair was soft as silk, cascading past her waist.
A slender, form-fitting white robe tightly wrapped around her voluptuous figure, yet for some reason left her fair, shapely thighs exposed.
With a languid, sultry gaze, she raised a slender finger to her lips and addressed the other four statues.
"And what if we don't just watch? Do you expect us to help that 'Holy Emperor' of unknown origin?" a cold, indifferent voice came from the statue garbed in Daoist robes.
"I listened to the Holy Emperor preaching his new method and felt enlightened. He could be called my teacher. If possible, I would truly like to lend a hand. What a pity..." The scholar-like statue came to life as well, gazing up beyond Xuanhuang's sky and sighing softly.
"The dispute over Xuanhuang's orthodoxy is completely irrelevant to us. Chuanfa harbors wild ambitions, and this Holy Emperor of unknown background is likely no saint either. The Xuanhuang Realm, and even this entire star sea, is no place to linger indefinitely. Everyone, our future hope still lies with Wuyou. Preserving balance with the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and ensuring the stability of the Xuanhuang Realm while waiting for the final outcome—that is what we ought to do. Meddling in this dispute is hardly a wise course of action," one of the statues whose face remained perpetually veiled spoke in a deep, solemn voice.
"Besides... it is impossible for Chuanfa to lose," the statue added.
The gazes of the four statues converged on Heavenly Venerable Wuyou, who still appeared sound asleep.
Senior Sister Zhao sighed with a touch of melancholy. "Ah, I wanted to take this chance to tease those folks from the Alliance. They're all fresh faces after all—much more thrilling."
The scholar, the Daoist, and the obscured statue all feigned deafness.
"Tying one's body to Heaven and Earth truly has far too great a defect. With the Xuanhuang Realm drawing out power to assist, I have grown so much weaker as well." Senior Sister Zhao covered her delicate lips with her hand, letting out a yawn, and murmured lazily,
"I'm going back to rest. Call me if anything happens."
Before her voice fully faded, Senior Sister Zhao's stone statue lapsed back into silence.
The scholar statue gave a low chuckle. "She still couldn't resist going to join the fun."
"A thousand men have a thousand faces, but Zhao Ruoxi has far more than ten thousand. Being somewhat fractured in mind and unable to control herself is only natural," the Daoist statue remarked unsparingly. "Let her be. Dying won't come so easily for her."
After Senior Sister Zhao departed, the obscured statue suddenly came alive.
He took the form of a solemn, middle-aged cultivator with a square face.
"The Carefree Paradise, through all these years of development, has already spread to the borders of the star sea and begun permeating the High Wall."
"Now is the most critical juncture."
"No matter the final outcome of this sudden clash, it holds only benefits for us. At the very least, casualties will be immense... Afterward, it will provide another massive replenishment of carefree power. Perhaps Wuyou can seize this to break through the constraints of the High Wall in a single stroke," the square-faced cultivator said in a heavy voice.
"After all, the High Wall's suppression against a consciousness space like the Carefree Paradise is far weaker than against physical force."
As the square-faced cultivator spoke, a peculiar atmosphere began flowing through the area.
Yet Wuyou, upon whom the five Heavenly Venerables pinned their hopes of escape, remained peacefully submerged in slumber. Only his eyebrows twitched from time to time, revealing the potentially turbulent currents within his heart.
After a brief silence, the Daoist statue spoke: "Beyond the High Wall... is no peaceful paradise either. One can tell just from how the group who escaped back then wanted nothing more than to flee back inside. What a pity the High Wall is so difficult to leap across—whether from inside or outside."
"Even if this plan succeeds and we manage to escape beyond the High Wall by leaning on the dream power of the Carefree Paradise, without the foundational laws of the Xuanhuang Realm, our strength will plummet drastically. At the Dao Integration realm, moving even a single step beyond the High Wall will likely prove exceedingly difficult."
The square-faced cultivator replied deeply, "Even if perils arise, what we lose will only be our dream bodies. It will not cause fundamental harm to our true bodies. If the world beyond the High Wall truly is a paradise, we can cultivate from then on using our dream bodies, gradually transferring the power of our true selves."
"Once our dream bodies fully coalesce into reality and their strength surpasses our true selves, we can swap between them and achieve a complete escape like a cicada sloughing its shell!"
Listening to their conversation, the scholar statue nodded slightly. "It is indeed the soundest method we can conceive of at present. Were it not for Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa's terrifying strength, coupled with his obsessive grip on this one patch of Xuanhuang territory, we wouldn't have to be forced into such misery."
The Daoist statue said, "In that case, let each of us add another handful of fuel to the fire. The thicker the carefree power, the better. So long as the Xuanhuang Realm is not endangered, no matter how many die, it makes no difference."
...
While they were conversing, a great wind seemed to sweep in from beyond the Xuanhuang Realm.
The Xuanhuang cloud cluster at the center of the five statues shook visibly by a slight margin.
A flicker of shock flashed through the eyes of the three Longevity Heavenly Venerables.
"For Chuanfa to be this overbearing is understandable. He has lived for so many years, after all."
"Yet this Holy Emperor who burst out of nowhere is actually this terrifying as well? Even with the Xuanhuang Realm's backing, it shouldn't reach such an extent, should it?"
The three Heavenly Venerables exchanged glances, uncertain and bewildered.
Meanwhile, Heavenly Venerable Wuyou slept all the more soundly.
...
"Embody..."
"Xuanhuang Heaven!"
A boundless, immense power suddenly surged into his body, and the Holy Emperor roared.
Colors of purple, gold, and Xuanhuang converged, and the Holy Emperor's figure vanished beneath Chuanfa's giant palm.
In his place unfolded an endless expanse of Xuanhuang's heaven and earth.
The Xuanhuang Realm was but a single world.
Though stitched and merged with numerous other remnant cultivation worlds, it still had its limits.
Yet at this moment, the Xuanhuang Heaven suppressed beneath Chuanfa's giant palm was infinite and boundless, stretching far beyond any perceptible horizon.
The sky was lofty and the earth vast; scenes within shifted constantly.
Seas turned to mulberry fields, and stars shifted in their courses.
With the passage of time, the distance between heaven and earth steadily grew.
It was as if an invisible giant stood between the soil and the firmament, ceaselessly lifting the sky upward.
"Xuanhuang shifts and changes; Heaven and Earth know no bounds!"
"Xuanhuang of antiquity, Xuanhuang of the present, Xuanhuang of the future!"
"Gather!"
The Holy Emperor's voice resounded across the phantom of Xuanhuang.
As heaven and earth expanded, it grew increasingly clarion.
Past, present, and future.
The Xuanhuang Realms of infinite space-time merged into one at this very instant.
Countless phantoms overlapped layer upon layer, as if dragged forcibly from the river of time, forming an unprecedented, eternally colossal space-time.
The giant descending palm of Chuanfa was propped up by the boundless canopy of heaven. Trembling violently, it could advance no further.
The expansion of the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm knew no end.
At a speed even faster than when it shrank, under the repelling pressure of boundless Xuanhuang radiance, Chuanfa's giant palm instantly snapped back to the size of a normal human hand.
The distorted dimensions of space returned to normal.
Chuanfa withdrew his hand and looked at the circular black scorch mark in the center of his palm, a trace of gravity flashing in his eyes.
Even as light and shadows drifted across his form, with the principles of Dao Annihilation and Dao Genesis continuously playing out, he could not heal this black mark.
Opposite Chuanfa, the phantom of the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm illuminated this pitch-black, dead star sea, as if a supreme immortal realm—existing in the past, present, and eternity—had truly been born into the world.
Chuanfa pulled his gaze away from the wound on his hand and turned toward the vast spectacle ahead.
Towering mountains stood erect, fertile lands stretched for hundreds of millions of li, and bizarre sights and spiritual wonders were too numerous to count.
It mirrored the legendary Immortal Realm.
Gazing upon the Xuanhuang Realm before him, Chuanfa momentarily lost himself in thought.
A burst of starlight detonated in the sky of the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm.
Clad in a robe of starlight, crowned with the Jade Diadem of the Nine Heavens, and treading upon the long river of time, the Holy Emperor walked out slowly from the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm.
It was like walking out of a painting into reality.
Illusion and reality twisted and intertwined at this moment, confounding the senses and giving rise to an intensely jarring contradiction.
"This is..."
"The Law of Time?" Chuanfa's voice carried surprise and disbelief.
Yet a moment later, he shook his head slightly, rejecting his earlier guess.
The black scar on his palm had not only failed to improve with the passage of time, but was growing increasingly severe, even showing signs of spreading elsewhere.
For his Supreme body, this was simply unthinkable.
Chuanfa could faintly sense that what was constantly gnawing away at his palm was not a force tied to time, but rather...
An established fact.
Regardless of the passage of ages or the birth and death of the star sea, this wound would remain unchanged.
Having stepped out from the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm, the Holy Emperor offered Chuanfa no respite.
"Resplendent holy spirits, be my comrades, become my halberds and spears!"
Amid the echoes of the Holy Emperor's voice, phantom figures clad in identical starlight robes emerged from the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm.
Their faces were obscured, and the techniques they unleashed differed drastically from the Holy Emperor's.
Yet without exception, every one of them regarded Chuanfa as a sworn enemy.
Without a word of explanation, they engaged in battle on the spot.
Some fought with fists and kicks, some wielded talismans, and some commanded flying swords.
Their Dao arts and divine abilities were all ethereal manifestations. At a glance, they seemed entirely unremarkable, lacking any extraordinary might.
Yet even without landing solid physical blows on Chuanfa, they still inflicted real injuries.
Every wound mirrored the round black mark on his palm.
And before this boundless, seemingly ever-expanding Eternal Xuanhuang Realm, Chuanfa's own might appeared suppressed.
Confronted by these endless, untiring illusory avatars, Chuanfa could only scramble to parry.
Even if he obliterated them in an instant, even greater numbers of illusory avatars would promptly fly forth from the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm.
Worse still, before dying, each avatar invariably managed to leave a sliver of damage on Chuanfa.
Even if only a sliver, every wound was an unhealable, fatal injury!
Gradually, more and more black scars marred Chuanfa's form.
Against the sinister black mist, Chuanfa's benevolent face took on a ferocious cast.
Yet in such dire straits, Chuanfa remained unperturbed.
He was pondering the underlying nature of this illusory Xuanhuang Realm.
Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa's comprehension was beyond question.
His ability to pioneer the heaven-defying path of 'defying the principles of Heaven and Earth to achieve longevity' was testament enough to his epoch-illuminating talent.
Moments ago, having been struck by the Holy Emperor's 'Dao Annihilation, Dao Genesis,' he had instantly comprehended it and used it in a counterattack—further proof of his terrifying insight.
He even had an inkling of the residual True Immortal power diffusing through the star sea and the true nature of the High Wall.
Yet this alone...
This Eternal Xuanhuang Realm suspended between illusion and reality was something he could neither fathom nor guess.
Also standing at the Supreme realm, Chuanfa naturally knew that the limits of this power could never fabricate such a vast Xuanhuang Realm out of thin air.
Otherwise, he would not have needed to painstakingly stitch and patch worlds together.
Yet the oppressive might of the world phantom before him felt undeniably real.
The imprints of Xuanhuang's past cultivators felt undeniably real.
The wounds inflicted upon his body were equally real.
Just what was this...?
A sharp glint crossed Chuanfa's deep eyes. He seemed on the verge of finding the answer.
Yet a beam of sword light sheared off his tall crown, interrupting his train of thought.
Pressed relentlessly by the Holy Emperor's lethal strikes, his physical condition was no longer sufficient to support continued observation and contemplation.
Chuanfa felt a tinge of regret.
He had a premonition that if he could master this great divine ability of the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm, it would be of immense benefit to Xuanhuang's future revival, escaping the Immortal Ruins, and crossing the High Wall.
Unfortunately, his opponent clearly had no intention of indulging him.
"Fellow Daoist, your talent is truly unique across the past ten thousand years."
"Yet if you wish to kill me..."
"You are still lacking."
Chuanfa's expression turned grave.
A chilling, murderous aura that had never surfaced since the battle began welled in his eyes.
"To die beneath this technique, you may rest without regrets."
Riddled with wounds, Chuanfa spoke placidly.
A spatial rift suddenly tore open before the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm.
Boom!
A massive arm, seemingly formed from countless fused worlds, lunged violently from the rift.
Bang! Bang!
Without hesitation, the arm of worlds smashed straight into the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm.
The star river quivered violently in response.
After all, the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm was not yet truly eternal.
Yet the world arm summoned by Chuanfa consisted of genuine worlds—albeit world fragments filled with the stench of death and ruin.
Beneath the crude battering of countless world fragments, the phantom of the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm flickered in and out of view.
Meanwhile, the attacks of those illusory avatars were virtually harmless against worlds that were already long extinct.
Even the residual True Immortal power clinging to those world fragments began transferring onto the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm through their collisions.
Patches of calamity-bearing blackness emerged across the skies and lands of the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm.
Boom!
Another arm made entirely of world fragments appeared at another corner of the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm, charging headlong toward the Holy Emperor standing tall within.
Wherever it passed, the illusory realm shattered with a deafening crash, exposing the stark, dark void behind it.
"Corpses of worlds..."
Gazing at the overlapping imagery of countless shattered worlds drawing closer, observing the debris and exposed bones scattered across their surfaces, the Holy Emperor could not help but picture the scene when ancient calamities descended—worlds breaking apart, cultivators reduced to ash amid shrieks of agony and despair.
"So many..."
The Holy Emperor's heart stirred.
Seeing the sweeping arm of world fragments about to crush him, a sliver of light manifested before him.
"Dust to dust, earth to earth."
The light illuminated the Holy Emperor's compassionate countenance as he chanted softly.
The instant the light touched those world fragments, they evaporated into nothingness like melting snow.
The ferocious arm that swept forward not only failed to injure the Holy Emperor in the slightest, but nearly a hundred of its constituent world fragments were dissolved on the spot.
A gap split wide open down the middle of the arm.
"What?!"
This time, Chuanfa was genuinely stunned.
Looking at the damaged world arm, he hastily willed it back, staring intently at the Holy Emperor enveloped in protective radiance.
"What is that light...?"
Yet another incomprehensible phenomenon had appeared before him.
Chuanfa narrowed his eyes, refraining from reckless action as he reevaluated his opponent's true identity.
The Holy Emperor also seized this chance to catch his breath.
Executing killer moves in rapid succession had cost him dearly, even with the Xuanhuang Realm's remote assistance.
The Eternal Xuanhuang Realm was built upon the principle he had comprehended—'When the real is taken for false, the false also becomes real.' By layering together Xuanhuang's figures from antiquity to the present, alongside countless geniuses deduced to appear in the future, it formed a grand world that was both illusory and real.
In the Holy Emperor's deductions, if one were powerful enough, this Eternal Xuanhuang Realm could be summoned into being directly from nothingness.
At present, however, he clearly had not reached such a height.
Even the Xuanhuang holy spirits he summoned possessed no tangible substance.
Only the momentary attacks they unleashed—or the final strike delivered before their destruction—were endowed with the property of 'reality,' enabling them to harm Chuanfa.
Real damage.
Hence, Chuanfa could not heal it through conventional means.
Perhaps only by turning those 'real' injuries back into nothingness could the scars on his body disappear.
Though he had dealt Chuanfa considerable harm, the Holy Emperor was hardly in a good state either.
Transitioning from illusion to reality consumed energy far beyond his expectations.
In a brief span, the power dispatched by the Xuanhuang Realm had been utterly depleted.
This was the fundamental reason why the Eternal Xuanhuang Realm had suddenly turned so fragile when struck by the world-fragment arm.
The support the Xuanhuang Realm could provide had reached its absolute limit.
What carried the Holy Emperor through the crisis was another treasure from the fishing pond.
Like Maobao, it had come with very little supplementary information when fished up, resembling nothing more than a plain white ring.
Yet this unassuming object had filled Maobao with distinct annoyance and distaste.
Because the Holy Emperor brought it along, Maobao had refused to accompany him.
Given that Maobao possessed no combat utility anyway, the Holy Emperor had ultimately chosen to bring the white ring.
Events proved his choice correct.
The white ring had effectively saved his life.
Its name was unknown, yet beneath its shining light, any dead matter would be dismantled into pure energy.
Living beings, however, were entirely unaffected.
Objects imbued with a cultivator's divine sense would still be dissolved, yet without causing the slightest harm to the divine sense itself.
It seemed somewhat useless at first glance, but in truth was terrifyingly potent.
The moment that sweeping arm of worlds brushed against the white light, it was disassembled into pure energy, replenishing the Holy Emperor's depleted reserves.
At this point, the battle had reached a stalemate.
Though Chuanfa's foundation was far deeper, the Holy Emperor made up the gap with his extraordinary encounters.
Both stood at the Supreme realm, having reached the ceiling of this star sea; determining life and death between them was no simple matter.
Otherwise, it would be an insult to the word 'Supreme.'
"Fellow Daoist, might you lend me that object in your hand to examine?"
During the lull in the fierce battle, Chuanfa posed a request that sounded utterly absurd.
"I merely wish to verify certain things. I shall return it once I have examined it," Chuanfa said in all earnestness.
The Holy Emperor fell silent.
After a long while, he raised his hand and tossed the white ring forward.
Chuanfa nodded in acknowledgment, caught the white ring with an easy gesture, and scrutinized it closely.
His brows slowly arched before he let out a soft sigh: "What a pity."
True to his word, he returned the white ring intact to the Holy Emperor without attempting any sneak attacks during the exchange.
"If my guess is correct, this item hails from beyond the High Wall."
"I had hoped it might dissolve the High Wall, but it seems I was overthinking..." Chuanfa chuckled self-deprecatingly.
Then, with a solemn expression, Chuanfa looked at the Holy Emperor and asked for the first time, "Where exactly do you come from, Fellow Daoist? Could you hail from beyond the High Wall?"
It was hardly surprising that Chuanfa would ask such a question.
From his perspective, the sudden emergence of a Supreme-realm cultivator boasting so many unfathomable divine abilities was far too suspicious.
The Holy Emperor shook his head plainly, denying Chuanfa's conjecture.
"I am the Destined Holy Emperor of Great Qi."
"An Avatar of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao."
"I have come to prop up the grand edifice on the brink of collapse, stem the raging torrent in its surging course, and restore Xuanhuang's orthodoxy!" the Holy Emperor declared with utmost gravity.
Chuanfa, however, keenly caught the scent of conspiracy.
"An Avatar of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao..."
"If the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao were as formidable as you, how could it have fallen to such a wretched state?"
"Pardon my bluntness, but the Xuanhuang Realm alone could never have nurtured a figure like you," Chuanfa asserted, his eyes glinting with certainty.
Hearing this, the Holy Emperor lapsed into silence.
"Our clash today is likely orchestrated from the shadows by someone with vile intentions."
"I urge you to think carefully and not fall into another's trap," Chuanfa continued.
"Whoever fostered a figure such as yourself must possess formidable strength, yet they have chosen to lurk behind the scenes all along..."
A vicious glint flickered in Chuanfa's eyes. "Their schemes run deep."
"Why don't we join hands and ferret this person out first? What say you?" Chuanfa suggested.
Hearing Chuanfa's proposal, the Holy Emperor truly began to consider it in earnest.
Though his conviction to save the Xuanhuang Realm had never wavered, as his strength grew, doubts regarding his true origins had multiplied.
Particularly after confirming that his bloodline was a blend of three lineages, the confusion in his heart had peaked.
He had merely suppressed it through sheer willpower until now.
Yet here, persuaded by Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa, the once-quelled suspicions flared up anew.
Chuanfa pressed on: "I truly understand your sentiments."
"Look, had I not spent all these years laboriously patching the Xuanhuang Realm together, this last pure land in the Pitch-Black Star Sea would have plunged into the Immortal Ruins long ago."
With a wave of Chuanfa's hand, countless images appeared before the Holy Emperor.
They depicted Chuanfa speeding through the void, carrying world fragments that still harbored a faint breath of life upon his back.
Even though the Holy Emperor already knew of Chuanfa's deeds toward the Xuanhuang Realm, witnessing the scene of Chuanfa trudging alone through the icy star sea with resolute eyes stirred something within him.
"Though you and I favor different paths, in the final analysis, we both act for that world," Chuanfa said, pointing toward the distant Xuanhuang Realm.
"The one behind the curtain, however, may not share our purpose," Chuanfa's tone turned chillingly cold.
"A fight between us will inevitably leave one of us wounded. While we battle, that mastermind could easily carry out sinister deeds within the Xuanhuang Realm."
"Can you truly rest easy leaving such a person lurking in the Xuanhuang Realm after your demise?"
"I, for one, certainly cannot," Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa said, his voice brimming with murderous intent.
The Holy Emperor's expression darkened as well.
He felt that Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa's words carried weight.
By borrowing the white ring to inspect it and returning it untouched, Chuanfa had already proven his integrity.
Meanwhile, the despicable character of the manipulator pulling the strings had long been plain to see.
A duel to the finish with Chuanfa could take place at any time.
Yet if he and Chuanfa ended up mutually ruined...
That hidden mastermind might truly achieve their desires.
Noticing the shift in the Holy Emperor's demeanor, Chuanfa nodded slightly.
He then inquired about how everything had begun.
"Devoid of memory, descending abruptly into the world."
"A faint connection, an interrelated bloodline..."
As the Holy Emperor recounted the details, subtle changes crossed Chuanfa's expression.
Unwittingly, the atmosphere between them softened from murderous tension into gradual harmony.
"To drag this mastermind into the light is neither entirely difficult nor entirely easy."
"Since bloodlines are linked, I possess a secret technique capable of sensing all blood-related individuals within a certain range. However, this plotter is deeply scheming; he is likely long gone from the Xuanhuang Realm," Chuanfa said.
Chapter 1297