Divine Kingdom

"Thank you all for stepping forward so righteously." Having slain the last Demon Venerable, Yaoguang turned around and cupped his hands to the gathered Dao Lords. Even though these Dao Lords hadn't truly provided him much help. Yet, just as Dao Lord Juntian had said, Yaoguang had been busy purging the God race at the time; had those Demon Venerables truly been allowed to scatter in all directions, even he would have been powerless to stop them all. And had those Demon Venerables dispersed, they would have posed a lurking threat to the Nine Cauldrons Sect's rule over the demonic domain... Though Yaoguang already intended to relocate the Nine Cauldrons Sect to the Fuyao Realm, that did not mean he would completely abandon the Gate of the Immortal Realm here on Beihai Star. Now that the Demon Venerables of the Five Demon Sects were virtually wiped out, the Nine Cauldrons Sect's growth across this land could finally be deemed safe and stable. "Dao Sovereign Yaoguang is too polite; we hardly did anything of consequence." "Haha, slaying these Demon Venerables was entirely Dao Sovereign Yaoguang's doing—we dare not claim any credit." "The Five Demon Sects have wrought immense harm upon our Beihai Star. Now that Dao Sovereign Yaoguang has taken the lead to excise this malignant tumor, it is we who should be thanking Dao Sovereign Yaoguang, thanking Dao Sovereign Yaoguang for ridding our Ten Immortal Sects of this great scourge." The Dao Lords chimed in one after another. The atmosphere was thoroughly friendly and harmonious. Yaoguang conversed with them for a moment. After making sure they were familiar faces in his eyes, the Dao Lords tactfully took their leave, one by one. The God Domain had yet to be breached. Clearly, Dao Sovereign Yaoguang's labors were not over yet. While they could theoretically offer assistance, Yaoguang hadn't asked, so it was improper for them to volunteer uninvited, lest unwanted misunderstandings arise. ... "The God race is finished." At this moment, God Venerable Wanwu, who oversaw the God race, was struggling to control the Immortal Divine Kingdom to resist the sword light of the Human Emperor Sword unleashed by Dao Lord Penglai with the power of the Ocean of Origin. Reinforced by the power of the other God Venerables' divine kingdoms, the Immortal Divine Kingdom unleashed a might surpassing even peak semi-immortal artifacts like the Golden Book of the Grand Dao. Judging by the current situation, keeping Dao Lord Penglai at bay was no difficult task. Yet this God Venerable, who cultivated the Grand Dao of Illusion, understood all too well that Dao Lord Penglai was not the terrifying one—the terrifying one was Dao Sovereign Yaoguang, whose presence towered over Beihai and dominated the starry expanse. Once that Dao Sovereign–level existence freed up his hands, he could easily crush him along with the Immortal Divine Kingdom that the God race relied upon for its heritage in a single stroke. In fact... Even if Dao Sovereign Yaoguang did not intervene, with only him remaining, the God race was destined to rapidly decline. Once in decline, lacking replenishment from enough believers, the other divine kingdoms would also wither. Without the energy supplied by those divine kingdoms, the energy inside the Immortal Divine Kingdom would eventually run dry. At that point, Dao Lord Penglai would inevitably cleave it apart. That process was merely a matter of time. Seeing the fluctuations of battle in the starry sky beyond Beihai Star gradually subside, and no longer feeling the Dao resonances of falling Dao Lords, God Venerable Wanwu realized that all was lost. Pouring all his strength into the Immortal Divine Kingdom, he swiftly turned and arrived in its deepest recesses. Here stood a great hall, surrounded by numerous members of the God race in the form of "holy spirits." They were prostrating themselves and worshipping ceaselessly around the hall, seemingly conducting some sacrificial rite. Deep within the hall stood a statue. The statue seemed alive, capable of communicating. Any Dao Lord with some knowledge of Beihai Star's history would instantly recognize upon seeing it that the statue depicted none other than the master of the Immortal Divine Kingdom. And likewise, the oldest existence in the history of the God race—the Primordial Ancestor God! Unlike other Dao Sovereigns who severed virtually all ties with their sects after departing, the Primordial Ancestor God had left behind this statue when he left. This statue required the God race of their Life lineage to constantly worship and temper it in order to preserve its divine nature. According to the ancestral instruction left by the Ancestor God along with the statue, if an extraordinarily brilliant Spacetime Dao Sovereign ever appeared in this lower starry realm one day, shattering this statue would alert the Primordial Ancestor God. At that time, this Ancestor God would descend into the lower realm. This was a piece of information passed down since antiquity through the Life God Race. By now, the information seemed to have become somewhat distorted over time. For instance, what was a Spacetime Dao Sovereign? They understood Dao Sovereigns, but "spacetime"... Among the three thousand Grand Daos, there seemed to be no such thing as a Grand Dao of Spacetime. Although later generations had been unable to interpret it perfectly, they vaguely conjectured that it likely referred to a Dao Sovereign of the Dao of Time. Yet it could also be interpreted as a Dao Sovereign of the Dao of the Void. Now, while Yaoguang's existence did not match the term "Spacetime Dao Sovereign," he was undeniably a Void Dao Sovereign. With such an exceptionally brilliant Void Dao Sovereign having emerged... Informing the Primordial Ancestor God by smashing the statue and bidding the Ancestor God descend would seemingly still count as abiding by the ancestral instruction. Besides, the Immortal Divine Kingdom was on the verge of being breached. Once the Immortal Divine Kingdom fell, everything inside would fall into Yaoguang's hands, the legacy of the God race on Beihai Star would be obliterated from that moment on, and this secret might well be buried in the dust of history. Rather than allowing that, it was better to let it shine with some last radiance and warmth in its final moments. If it could induce the Primordial Ancestor God to descend, restoring the power of the God race's Ancestor God to suppress this Void Dao Sovereign Yaoguang, that would be ideal. With these thoughts in mind, the God Venerable stepped before the statue and struck boldly. Under the concussive burst of divine power, the statue shattered instantly. After it shattered, the God Venerable stared fixedly at the fragments, straining to see what would happen next. Would a divine thought descend from the heavens for him to sense, or would an incarnation come down outright to resolve the crisis facing the God race with overwhelming, peerless might? Yet in the end... Nothing happened. The statue lay shattered across the floor, and nothing occurred. It was as though what he had just destroyed was not the statue of the Ancestor God that the God race regarded as their life-saving straw, but merely an ordinary, meaningless handicraft. For a moment, the God Venerable swayed, his vision spinning. No! It wasn't an illusion! He snapped his head up, only to find that Yaoguang had appeared outside the perimeter of the Immortal Divine Kingdom at some unknown point, channeling the Great Void Art in an attempt to tear the Immortal Divine Kingdom apart. That violent shaking earlier had been the tremor caused by his tearing at the Immortal Divine Kingdom. Under this shaking, the believers within the divine kingdom were thrown into panic. Their status was far too low to ever access high-level information. Consequently, even though the God race's God Venerables had nearly all perished, they remained immersed in the sweet dream of the God race's absolute supremacy, believing that united from top to bottom as one, the God race was the foremost power on Beihai Star. Wherever the light of the divine kingdom shone, every person and faction had to give way. The divine kingdoms of the various God Venerables were also regarded as the safest places on Beihai Star, a fact in which they took immense pride. Even now, as Yaoguang stood outside the Immortal Divine Kingdom tearing it apart with the Great Void Art, they still had no idea what was truly happening, assuming only that some minor flaw had arisen in the Immortal Divine Kingdom's operation. Yet the God Kings, God Monarchs, and God Emperors whom they held in high esteem, beings who commanded immense authority, had long since plunged into profound despair. If not for the fact that they had no way to flee or surrender, they would have run away as fast as possible or surrendered completely long ago. "Yaoguang!" God Venerable Wanwu let out a low roar. "Do you truly think my God race's Immortal Divine Kingdom possesses only this much wonder!? Today, I will let you witness the true might of the Immortal Divine Kingdom!" He flung his hands wide. "Burn! I shall burn all the holy spirits and all the believers within this divine kingdom, unleashing the sacrificial might of ten trillion souls to strike one final blow against you...!" In the next instant, boundless radiance emerged from every corner of the Immortal Divine Kingdom. A closer look revealed that countless holy spirits and believers were spontaneously combusting without fire. As these holy spirits and believers burned, a dense life force was incinerated from each of them, intermingled with soul force steeped in agony and fanatical fervor. At this moment, the life force and soul force formed a flawless harmony, bringing forth a hint of the characteristics of a composite immortal art. At this sight, not only did Dao Lord Penglai's expression shift, but even Yaoguang's countenance changed. "An advanced immortal art!" Amidst Dao Lord Penglai's cry of alarm, Yaoguang unhesitatingly connected with the power of Dao Lord Shaohua. The power of time flowed forth. Along with it, the power of the Grand Dao of Time within the Grand Dao Pagoda was also mobilized. Under the amplification of this time power, the Great Void Art, which originally required nearly a full breath to cast, formed almost instantaneously and struck down toward the Immortal Divine Kingdom. Although the Immortal Divine Kingdom withstood the Great Void Art's tearing at the kingdom's barriers, the power penetrated the barrier of the Immortal Divine Kingdom and surged into its depths, causing vast swathes of holy spirits and believers within the divine kingdom to disintegrate and perish. Not only that! Having struck with this single Great Void Art, Yaoguang unleashed a second, a third, and a fourth Great Void Art in even quicker succession! The entire process poured down like a torrent of arts, one after another. Although several consecutive Great Void Arts still failed to shatter the Immortal Divine Kingdom directly, the sheer might of void annihilation penetrated through the realm of existing space into the interior of the Immortal Divine Kingdom, turning countless holy spirits and believers into ash. The speed of annihilation was so fast that it outstripped even the pace at which God Venerable Wanwu could gather the composite immortal art. In an instant, the composite immortal art that had barely begun to take form rapidly collapsed, completely losing its chance to be unleashed. "No! No! No!" Witnessing this, God Venerable Wanwu let out a desperate cry, frantically trying to gather more life force and soul force. Yet the Immortal Divine Kingdom was not some top-tier immortal artifact after all. Under the stewardship of only a single Dao Lord, it finally proved unable to sustain several Great Void Arts from Yaoguang, cracking and bursting apart before his composite immortal art was even halfway formed. Once the Immortal Divine Kingdom collapsed, God Venerable Wanwu, who had hidden within, lost every shred of protection and was struck squarely by an ensuing Great Void Art, instantly turning into dust. "Magnificent!" Witnessing this, Dao Lord Penglai praised from the bottom of her heart. Yaoguang's strength at this moment already far surpassed her own. Yet recalling that Yaoguang was someone just like her, while such an achievement was praiseworthy, it was not something to be overly shocked by. "From this day forth, the demon immortals are slain, the God race is extinguished, and the demonic path is scattered. The human cultivators of Beihai Star shall once more usher in an era of boundless prosperity."