The Three Gates Descend

Jingtian and Ji Tian were one. The Human Gate had only ever possessed seven Great Sages! Ji Tian had claimed he severed Jingtian from himself long ago. How long ago had that been? He had claimed he split off Jingtian after being frightened. What had frightened him so deeply? Who in existence could terrify a Great Sage of the Human Gate? At this moment, even the Heavenly Gate and the Earth Gate underwent a slight change in expression, turning solemn. Having merged with Jingtian, Ji Tian's aura reached the peak of thirty-nine Daos, verging on forty Daos. He was unmistakably powerful. Had Su Yu not intercepted and slain the Prison King, who had unified the Daos and absorbed the Seven Emotions and Six Desires, Ji Tian might well have schemed her to death! Su Yu looked at Ji Tian and drew a sharp breath. "I thought you merely intended to devour Jingtian. To think Jingtian was you all along! You truly know how to divide yourself—one moment into Zhou Ji, next into Wan Mingze, then into Jingtian... You practically shatter into pieces every day!" He sucked in another breath and continued, "You bastard, were you originally planning to feed Jingtian to the Prison King, too? Then you'd pull a bait-and-switch and supplant her directly, wouldn't you? After all, Jingtian was you. You would have fed half of yourself to Prison!" If the Prison King had required it at the end, would Ji Tian have offered Jingtian up for her to swallow? Once she did, she would have been doomed! When that time came, who would truly command her realm was anyone's guess. Su Yu stared at Ji Tian once more. Ji Tian let out a soft sigh, quickly regaining his smile. "Never mind. It's all in the past. Old classmate, you truly dealt me a miserable hand. Otherwise, I would already possess the strength of forty Daos or more, and the Heavenly and Earth Gates wouldn't necessarily rival me! Scheme upon scheme, and in the end, it still paled before your reckless brute force. I spent countless years arranging everything with utmost caution, only to reap nothing while you made off with all the spoils!" Regret! Helplessness! Su Yu was completely unhinged. At this juncture, Ji Tian was no longer hysterical. Having reabsorbed Jingtian, he was far more composed. The Heavenly and Earth Gates looked toward him without speaking. Everyone harbored their own schemes. In this so-called alliance, the most foolish had been the Human Ancestor and the Prison King. No, that wasn't entirely true either—the Human Ancestor's plans had also been shattered by Su Yu. Otherwise, the Human Ancestor would have stood a chance at reaching forty Daos. Every one of these figures had nursed their own private calculations. Had all gone smoothly, both the Human Ancestor and Ji Tian would have become forty-Dao sovereigns. Su Yu felt a touch of pity for them. Sighing with mock sympathy, he said, "My apologies, old classmate. But you still have a chance. If you eat your Second Grandpa, you'll instantly surge past forty Daos!" Beside him, Wan Tiansheng chuckled, looking at Ji Tian with a slight nod. "Mingze, if you can turn back from the abyss, your Second Grandpa is willing to grant your wish. If I do not enter hell, who will? It is nothing more than a mortal vessel. If you wish to eat, then eat!" With a sentimental sigh, he added, "If this foul mortal skin of mine can bring back a prodigal son, your Second Grandpa would be more than content!" Ji Tian smiled. "Then why doesn't Second Grandpa come over right now to deliver me?" Wan Tiansheng smiled warmly. "Very well!" With that, he stepped forward toward Ji Tian. Ji Tian's expression twitched slightly. *I was only bantering—are you actually coming over?* Ji Tian snapped his gaze toward Su Yu. Su Yu merely shrugged. "Why look at me? Your Second Grandpa can't bear to let you go and wants to feed the demon with his own body. If you want to eat him, go right ahead!" Ji Tian's face darkened, and he vanished on the spot, reappearing near the Heavenly and Earth Gates. Wan Tiansheng wore a look of profound grief. "Mingze, you still chose the path of a demon! Turn back, the shore is behind you!" "..." Ji Tian forced a laugh. "Second Grandpa, I'm a bit frightened. Let's forget it for now. Why not wait a little longer?" Watching this display made everyone else's hair stand on end. Literally stand on end! How did it feel like not a single one of these people was normal? Every last one was unhinged! Qiong and his companions exchanged bewildered glances. They finally realized that compared to this lot, they were remarkably sane and completely normal. At that moment, the Human Sovereign looked toward the faint silhouette of the Human Gate and sent a voice transmission: "Su Yu, there are still quite a few super-grades within the Human Gate! Once it descends, that could spell serious trouble!" Su Yu said nothing, staring into the depths of the River of Time where the Human Gate loomed. It was a colossal portal, currently coalescing rapidly toward the myriad realms, but it still felt as if it required more time. Su Yu suddenly smiled, glanced at the others, then at Ji Tian, and finally at the Heavenly and Earth Gates. He transmitted his voice, "For this Human Gate to descend, it looks like it will take several hours. Isn't that taking a bit too long?" The minds of several experts twitched. What was this lunatic scheming now? "Why don't we slay Shi to expedite the Human Gate's arrival? Once Shi dies, the Human Gate will undoubtedly descend immediately, saving us the delay!" With a smile on his face, Su Yu transmitted, "Shi is hardly a benevolent soul. We can't have him reaping the benefits after we exhaust ourselves fighting to the finish! As for his Dao power, each party can take a share and carve him up." They all turned to stare at Su Yu. This guy truly wished to butcher every living soul! Shi had only just returned and was cowering at the distant periphery, too terrified even to approach, yet Su Yu still refused to spare him. A ruthless man through and through! He wouldn't be satisfied until every last person was dead. The rogue cultivators and ancient beasts were now all but extinct. If Shi died as well, then across the eras of the Heavenly and Earth Gates, scarcely any living soul would remain aside from the two gate masters themselves. Seeing that the Heavenly and Earth Gates remained silent, Su Yu chuckled and transmitted to Ji Tian, "Old classmate, if they won't make a move, then you and I will go slay him together. Half and half. Once Shi is dead, his Great Dao splits down the middle—half for you, half for me. You might even have a shot at breaching forty Daos, and I can test my own limits. What do you say?" Ji Tian smiled radiantly. "Splendid!" The Heavenly Gate's eyes flickered, glancing toward Ji Tian. Ji Tian paid him no mind, keeping his eyes on Su Yu with a lingering smile. Su Yu sighed. "Don't smile at me. Those who smile at me never meet a good end! People who smile all the time tend to have rotten hearts. Wouldn't you agree, old classmate?" "Fair point!" Ji Tian nodded. The next instant, both withdrew their smiles. Exchanging a single glance, both vanished simultaneously from where they stood. The onlookers gasped in shock. Were these two truly teaming up to slaughter someone? Just to make the Human Gate descend faster? Evidently, both Ji Tian and Su Yu seemed eager for the Human Gate to descend ahead of time. This development visibly unsettled the Heavenly and Earth Gates. Damn it all, none of this aligned with their expectations! At the very least, they had assumed Su Yu would wish to obstruct the Human Gate's arrival, not crave its hasty descent! Seeing the pair join forces to hunt Shi, the two gate masters fell silent, neither stepping in nor attempting to stop them. Shi stood at thirty-six Daos, his allegiance ambiguous. He had chosen to flee earlier! Since that was the case, if those two wanted to slay him... they might as well observe. What was more, they suspected Su Yu and Ji Tian might exchange blows in the process, providing an opportunity to gauge their depth. ... Far away, Shi had only just returned, his heart still gripped by terror. He had fled all the way to the edge of Chaos, only to be forced back. Had he stayed, he felt he would have burned to death, entirely swallowed by death qi. It was terrifying! It meant that without sufficient yang qi, he could not depart the myriad realms at all! At this moment, Shi was pondering: if he possessed sufficient yang qi, could he flee? What should he do then? Should he find a way to slay an expert, or cull a large number of weaklings to extract yang qi, and then flee? To tell the truth, he was terrified. This gathering of figures was composed entirely of impossibly powerful, insidious monsters, every one harboring their own hidden agendas. In the past, he had believed that descending with the strength of thirty-six Daos would allow him to sweep aside everything in his path! Yet now, with Kong fallen and the rest annihilated, even apex beings like Zhou and the Prison King cut down, Shi knew that in this arena, he was nothing more than cannon fodder! He understood nothing! He had no idea what the descent of the Human Gate signified, nor what Su Yu and the others were plotting. He was completely in the dark. Therefore, all Shi desired was to flee this slaughterhouse, this wretched hellhole. The myriad realms... they had once imagined it as a hunting ground where they could kill upon emerging, extracting Great Daos, harmonizing yin and yang, boosting their cultivation, and reigning supreme... The dream had been magnificent, but reality was ruthlessly cruel. Shi had been watching Su Yu and his companions from afar, utterly shocked when Jingtian and Ji Tian merged. Watching the standoff, his heart trembled with dread. Yet in the very next instant, when he sensed Ji Tian and Su Yu vanish without warning, his expression warped in horror! *Where did they go?* *Not good!* A terrifying thought struck him. Shi instantly transformed into a colossal boulder, tearing through the void in a desperate bid to escape! Right then, laughter rang out: "Su Yu, wisdom and civilization define the realm of Ji. When facing you, I have suffered setback after setback, but dealing with a mere thirty-six-Dao cultivator shouldn't be difficult!" Ji Tian materialized in a flash, waving his hand to summon tens of millions of tiny swords. Looking closely, those swords were actually divine characters—tens of millions of them. Imprisonment! Wan Mingze had once excelled above all in the Dao of Imprisonment, locking his targets before carving them up piece by piece. Even Su Yu had once fallen to him, unable to endure that perverse method. Ji Tian was every bit as perverse! These tens of millions of divine character swords formed a gargantuan seal—a seal laid down by an apex expert of thirty-nine Daos. Coalescing into a single blade, it plunged directly into the boulder! Shi roared in sheer terror, despair, and fury, "What are you doing?! I have no part in your war... Must the two of you drive me to absolute ruin?!" Two peak thirty-nine-Dao masters! He couldn't even match one, let alone both. Neither paid him any heed. Su Yu's civilization chronicle manifested, floating before his hand as he chuckled, "A myriad Daos may span the skies, but none compare to a single tome in hand—for within books lie all manner of arts!" The civilization chronicle soared aloft, immediately enveloping Shi! First came the seal of myriad tiny swords, followed by the surrounding embrace of the civilization chronicle. Trapped in the center, Shi roared madly. The gargantuan stone, radiating chaotic qi, slammed furiously against its surroundings. Countless tiny swords shattered; page after page of the book disintegrated! A thirty-six-Dao combatant staking everything in a desperate struggle still possessed considerable might. Ji Tian chuckled softly. "That so-called civilization chronicle of yours merely scratches the surface! It purports to hold myriad arts, but how many Daos have you truly mastered, Su Yu? The land, the state, the cosmic expanse—that is where true myriad arts reside!" With a wave of his hand, heaven and earth inverted, and time itself seemed to flow backward! The shattered pages and fractured tiny swords were restored in an instant. Shi's terror deepened as he roared in outrage, "You're using me as a test subject?!" He finally realized that these two were using him as an anvil to spar and test their arts! Su Yu nodded slightly. "There are perks to being ancient after all. You truly aren't weak! I'm not nearly as old as you, so my comprehension of the Dao still falls a bit short..." Su Yu laughed, showing no hesitation in openly admitting that his grasp of the Dao was less profound. The next instant, Su Yu sat cross-legged, beaming warmly as acupuncture points flared across his body: "A single mortal's wisdom has its limits, but the collective wisdom of many knows none! I hold the unified hearts of all, master of all manner of arts and Daos—nothing lies beyond my grasp!" In a flash, within his apertures, cultivator after cultivator merged their Great Daos! The Martial Emperor and the Great Zhou King took the lead together, governing the myriad Daos. Two primary Daos erupted with a thunderous roar! One Dao enforced silence! "Silence!" A commanding shout of silence reverberated through heaven and earth, issuing from the mouth of the Great Zhou King. The furiously thrashing Shi suddenly froze, incapable of producing the slightest sound. "Only martial might!" Another thunderous roar rang out. The myriad pages coalesced into a colossal fist, striking the giant boulder so hard it fractured! Ji Tian looked at them and smiled. "Unity of hearts? A petty trick, nothing more!" The tens of millions of tiny swords instantly forged themselves into a single colossal greatsword! A single slash descended upon Shi. Shi attempted to dodge, but could not evade it. Yet that was not the strange part—the slash seemed weightless. When it struck Shi's stony body, it left not a scratch! Shi froze, then surged with wild delight! *Unscathed?* *Is Ji Tian merely all bark and no bite?* Su Yu, however, took a look and drew a slight breath. "Impressive, old classmate. What trick is this sword?" Ji Tian laughed. "You rally the hearts of men; I cultivate the future! The future is unpredictable, yet it can also be foreseen..." Shi was still drowning in doubt when suddenly, just as he tried to break away, the spot that had seemed entirely unharmed detonated with a deafening bang! A massive fracture tore through the giant boulder! Su Yu mused with appreciation, "Not bad at all—a Sword of the Future! Unfelt in the present, but the moment the target relaxes, it strikes with lethal finality! Still, it lacks practicality." "How so?" Ji Tian smiled. "Every living creature behaves the same way: if you try to kill them in the present, they remain vigilant, erupting in defensive resistance. But if a blade strikes from the future, manifesting at an undetermined moment, they will inevitably let their guard down. How is that impractical?" "Because in the present, I would have already killed you. No matter how powerful your future sword is, it becomes entirely useless!" Su Yu chuckled. "Am I right?" "That does make sense!" Meanwhile, Shi was overwhelmed with fright and fury, howling in mad outrage, "You bastards, what do you actually want?!" *May you die a thousand deaths!* These two fiends had been treating him like a sparring dummy from the very start! Su Yu said with a grin, "Let's wrap this up quickly. I'll quiet him down, and you can show me more of your Future Sword. It's quite intriguing..." Ji Tian chuckled. "If you want to see it, show me some real skill! You've been preparing and holding back until now—do you truly possess no real capability?" Su Yu raised an eyebrow. "Is what I've shown still not enough?" "Naturally not!" Ji Tian said placidly, "In my eyes, if this is all... you fall far short!" "Surely not?" Su Yu laughed. Ji Tian replied calmly, "You fall very short. If this is all Su Yu amounts to... what does being thirty-nine Daos even matter?" "Look at you, looking down on me!" Su Yu sighed. "Very well, let's run an experiment. I haven't tried this before and was worried I wouldn't pull it off when the time came. Might as well test it now. Old classmate, watch closely and give me some pointers afterward!" "Deal!" The two bantered as though they were truly affectionate classmates joining hands against a common foe. In that instant, the civilization chronicle withdrew. It morphed into a long saber. That alone was not enough—the Human Lord Seal then fused into its hilt. Nor was that the end of it! Myriad Great Daos manifested from within his body. The Great Zhou King and the others took command of individual Daos, forming points of radiant light. These points instantly converged, gradually tracing out a divine character battle technique in the void... no, a Great Dao battle technique! The hallmark technique of the Multiple Divine Characters Department! Fusing characters to outline a battle technique! At this moment, Su Yu used his acupuncture points as the foundation and the Great Daos as divine characters, gradually outlining the form of a blade—or perhaps a brush! The Brush Dao? Ji Tian was briefly stunned. It wasn't the Brush Dao—it was Su Yu's divine character battle technique! As Dao after Dao flowed into it, the aura radiating from the blade swelled to a terrifying degree! Su Yu's voice rang out once more: "This is my first attempt, so it might not be flawless. Keep your eyes peeled, old classmate. I've always lacked a sure-kill finishing move, which gave me endless headaches. After much thought, I realized the battle techniques of the Multiple Divine Characters Department still pack the most explosive punch... If Daos can merge into acupuncture points, and divine characters are essentially Daos, why can't Great Daos be forged into a battle technique?" Ji Tian nodded. "Master one art, master all arts! The theory holds true. Seeing your balanced Daos and well-distributed aperture strength, it seems you conceived this long ago. However... fusing them must be arduous..." "Not at all!" With a light laugh, the long saber solidified. Su Yu gripped the hilt. In that instant, dozens of wills converged, and Su Yu's own will seemed to harmonize with them. Within a blink, he appeared to become an entirely different person! Ji Tian's expression shifted, and he blurted out, "Manor Head Xia!" Su Yu was still Su Yu in physical form, but his countenance was chillingly austere, coated in sheer detachment. He glanced at Ji Tian without a word, then locked onto Shi, let out a cold snort, and brought the saber down! This slash carried bottomless slaughter qi! The brutal killing intent forged from countless years of military warfare! In the Human Realm, the undisputed master of slaughter had always been Xia Longwu. The Great Xia Manor had warred for centuries, and within mere decades, Xia Longwu had carved out the title of Blood Butcher! At this moment, Su Yu's own consciousness seemed to yield, allowing Xia Longwu to take the helm of this strike! The slash descended. Its aura was not necessarily the absolute strongest, but its intent to kill was concentrated to an extreme! Shi roared in abject terror and outrage, slamming frantically against the surrounding tiny swords that sealed him in! *Boom!* The strike landed! Forged from the confluence of Su Yu's myriad Daos, this Great Dao battle blade possessed unfathomable might. Vaguely, it even cast an ominous sense of threat over the distant Heavenly and Earth Gates. *Buzz!* A keen hum rang out as the saber's edge turned incomparably sharp. The Dao of Sharpness detonated, followed by the seamless chain reaction of every supporting Dao! "No—!" *Bang!* With a deafening crash, the giant stone was cleaved cleanly in two! The colossal Chaos Stone split apart, its countless strands of will and Dao scattering. Yet Ji Tian merely frowned. "Not quite clean..." Su Yu's voice followed shortly after: "Indeed, the coordination is still lacking!" Su Yu sounded slightly disappointed. "A single slash ought to have severed it flawlessly in two, obliterating the will on the spot! Sharpness, armor penetration, and spatial severance should spearhead the assault; vibration, sealing, detonation, and force concentration should form the pivot; and essence locking and devouring should conclude the blow... Yet the harmony fell short. Great Zhou King, you all need to work harder. The coordination was clumsy!" Su Yu himself also chimed in with his critique: "As for Manor Head Xia, the strike was swift and brimming with slaughter intent... but flawed! It was fierce, yet lacked guile and deceit! The Great Zhou King should have coordinated in tandem, supporting with breath concealment, forbearance, and silence. Under such concealment, the enemy wouldn't sense a thing, dying instantly without ever noticing the blow!" "Still... for a first try, acceptable!" Su Yu concluded his review. Right then, with a thunderous boom, the colossal stone severed completely into two halves. A Great Dao resembling a towering mountain hung suspended between heaven and earth. Atop the Dao, Shi's will lingered, clinging to life. Consumed by boundless terror and despair, he wailed shrilly, "Either kill me, or—" "Another strike! Mind the coordination!" At that very second, another slash fell. This time, the killing intent was virtually undetectable! Its speed was swifter and sharper still! *Buzz!* The blade dropped. The void shattered, the Great Dao cracked open, and the lingering will was instantly locked and devoured. Shi's voice trembled with sheer despair: "You..." Right at that moment, Ji Tian struck. The tens of millions of tiny swords fused into a single blade, slashing down! A heartbeat later—*shhhk!*—the Great Dao severed cleanly into two pieces! Ji Tian reached out and snatched one half! A thirty-six-Dao Great Dao, sliced in two by his single blade! One could see just how terrifying this man was. Su Yu swept his saber across, claiming the other half. Shi's final, helpless howl echoed between heaven and earth: "You are the true demons... You are all demons... devils!" The foremost stone of creation, the Chaos Stone, an apex thirty-six-Dao existence, had been played to death by these two. Reduced to a test dummy for their sparring. Before long, they had cut him down completely! To die like this, he would have preferred perishing in the endless void. Regret was utterly useless now! Su Yu and Ji Tian looked at each other, smiled, and unleashed their auras. The next instant, the Dao of Silence and the Dao of Imprisonment erupted. Shi's voice cut off abruptly! Sealed, suppressed! Not a sliver of sound was permitted to leak out, simply because the two found him noisy! Clutching his half of the Great Dao, Ji Tian chuckled, "Shi's Dao is rather mediocre. I actually prefer my Second Grandpa's Dao. Why don't you trade with me, Su Yu? Shi is a thirty-six-Dao cultivator, after all—far stronger than my Second Grandpa!" Su Yu chuckled. "Sure, provided you trade your own Dao for it!" "Then forget it!" The two conversed merrily, but right at that moment, with Shi's demise, the entire River of Time began to shudder violently! The boundless river was being rapidly compressed! At this juncture, both the Heavenly Gate and the Earth Gate fully manifested their portal forms! Three towering gates materialized across the expanse of the world! An aura of annihilation shook heaven and earth. The myriad realms trembled convulsively! The firmament cracked, the earth fractured, and with a tremendous roar, the Sea of Stars plummeted from the heavens, its boundless waters flooding the world as passage after passage between the realms shattered into dust! The All-Heavens Battlefield could no longer maintain its shape. Every structure upon the battlefield crumbled to rubble. The myriad realms sealed shut in an instant. Like the end of a cosmic tide, colossal waves swept across the world, turning the All-Heavens Battlefield into a vast ocean while sealing off every realm passage. Every rule of the Great Dao across the All-Heavens Battlefield shattered completely! In that instant, aside from the sealed myriad realms, every cultivator hidden anywhere across the All-Heavens Battlefield was crushed to pulp by the colossal pressure! Wails of agony erupted across the battlefield. There were rogue cultivators, ancient beasts, and members of the myriad races! Some had lingered on the battlefield hoping to scavenge scraps of benefit. But now, with the descent of the Human Gate, the sealing of the realm passages, and the collapse of the Sea of Stars, the entire battlefield was reduced to an absolute purgatory! Except for Su Yu and his cohort, every last straggler perished! The ocean was dyed crimson. There had actually been many cultivators hiding across the battlefield. There were always daring souls hoping to reap rewards amid the chaos. After all, so many had died; Su Yu had slaughtered countless experts, leaving some Great Daos unharvested. Absorbing those Daos to bolster oneself was a temptation many realm cultivators could not resist. In the end, they were all ground into dust! At that moment, the Heavenly Gate produced a violent tremor, a blinding sun blazing above its arch! A stretch of the river was being squeezed between the Heavenly Gate and the Human Gate! Meanwhile, the Earth Gate seemed to shoulder the river's immense weight, roaring as it propped up the middle of the river! The Three Gates converged, compressing the river, unifying the myriad realms! Indeed, unifying the myriad realms! At this moment, the heavens and myriad realms compressed rapidly. The boundaries of minor realms shattered, merging them into adjacent realms! The River of Time grew shorter and shorter! The Lord of Dead Spirits and his peers paled, looking toward Su Yu. The Human Sovereign's face grew grave as he transmitted, "The Three Gates appear to be compressing the river. Should we stop them? Also, should we take this chance to join forces and kill Ji Tian?" The Heavenly and Earth Gates had actually stepped away to compress the river! Su Yu glanced over and shook his head, speaking aloud: "Seniors of the Heavenly and Earth Gates are hardly fools. If we strike now, the power of the entire River of Time will collapse upon whoever makes a move. Whoever acts must bear the weight of the entire river... We cannot withstand that!" The Heavenly Gate's voice drifted over, carrying a faint smile: "Su Yu, your vision is sharp indeed!" He openly validated Su Yu's deduction. This was another calculated trap. Whoever made a move now would have to bear the full force of the river, along with the crushing pressure of the Three Gates. With the Three Gates at their peak, even if Su Yu and the Lord of Dead Spirits attacked together, they would be crushed to pieces! As for Ji Tian, he vanished in an instant, reappearing with a slight smile at the far end of the river. He did not attack either. Instead, he strode along the compressed river toward the Human Gate, murmuring with emotion, "The Human Gate... has descended! Su Yu, wait for me a moment!" His voice held a light chuckle: "All three gates are revealed. The eras of Heaven and Earth are extinguished, and the Human Gate... should be extinguished as well!" Su Yu's expression shifted. At that moment, a colossal gateway loomed before everyone's eyes—sacred, majestic, and terrifyingly powerful! Yet Ji Tian ignored all that, vanishing straight into the gateway. The next second, waves of shrill, agonizing shrieks drifted out from within the portal. The Human Sovereign and his companions turned pale! Muffled grunts sounded from the Heavenly Gate and Earth Gate as well. The Earth Gate rasped coldly, "What a Ji Tian!" Qiong, still absorbing Dao power, asked in bewilderment, "Did he go inside to slaughter them?" "Yes!" The Lord of Dead Spirits nodded slightly, his expression growing heavy. "Not merely slaughter. This Ji Tian possesses immense ambition. He intends to devour the era of the Human Gate, consuming every cultivator within..." Qiong gasped. "That ruthless? Holy shit, do you bastards make a habit of wiping out entire eras on a whim...?" Su Yu was like this, and so was Ji Tian! Yet Su Yu murmured softly, "The era of the Human Gate... What era of the Human Gate could there ever be?!" Everyone froze! Wan Tiansheng also said softly, "The Human Gate never had an era! The Human Gate possesses only the gate itself. Every being within it is merely a manifestation of origin will. All the origin that ever flowed out of the myriad realms entered the Human Gate! Within it, there is only one person—or one gate. All the Great Sages, all the creatures of the Human Gate, were formed from the accumulation of that flowing origin!" The Lord of Dead Spirits understood now, his tone solemn: "All origin of the myriad realms that flowed toward the future entered the Human Gate, coalescing into the Great Sages of the Human Gate! They are essentially spirits of the Dao! In that case, Ji Tian... is the Human Gate itself? Or rather, an amalgamation born from the origin of the myriad realms?" Su Yu nodded. "He should be an amalgamation born from the origin of the myriad realms! The Earth Gate ought to know this. Back when the Lord of Time opened the heavens, could he not know whether living creatures existed within the Human Gate?" The Earth Gate's cold voice rang out: "I knew nothing of the sort! I truly believed people inhabited it. Only now do I realize that back then, only the Human Gate was sealed!" Ji Tian was formed from the flowing origin of the myriad realms! That was what made him terrifying! And now, he had stepped inside the Human Gate, absorbing all the remaining origin power. Qiong said anxiously, "Why isn't anyone stopping him?" "We cannot!" Wan Tiansheng suddenly spoke up. "The Human Gate bars us. He is origin and can flow inside; we cannot! The Three Gates are compressing the river. Forcing our way through right now would mean enduring the backlash of all three gates. Whoever enters will die!" They could only watch helplessly! Qiong grew increasingly panicked. "Then once he devours that origin, what realm will he reach?" "Forty Daos, or perhaps even stronger..." Su Yu looked toward the Human Gate, listening to the shrill, miserable screams echoing from within. He let out a light laugh. "Fortunately, we dealt with the Prison King ahead of time. Otherwise, today would have been truly disastrous. The strongest Daos of the Seven Emotions and Six Desires are almost entirely in our hands... Though Manor Head Wan will likely become his next target!" "You can still laugh?" Qiong was frantic on Su Yu's behalf! How could he possibly still laugh? Once Ji Tian succeeded, he would command at least forty Daos! Moreover, the Heavenly Gate and Earth Gate seemed to be growing stronger as well, both advancing toward forty Daos. Qiong himself was rapidly absorbing all available power, currently at thirty-nine Daos, but forty Daos remained uncertain. He, Su Yu, and the Lord of Dead Spirits were all at thirty-nine Daos right now. The Human Sovereign and the rest stood at thirty-six Daos. Though they had the advantage in numbers, three opposing apex experts were about to reach forty Daos. Was Su Yu not worried in the slightest? "Worrying achieves nothing!" Su Yu shook his head. "They have schemed for countless years, awaiting this very moment. If they weren't certain of success, do you think they wouldn't have fought with their lives earlier? They've been holding out for right now!" "Then..." They still had to try something! As they spoke, Lan Tian vanished! Wan Tiansheng chuckled softly and vanished as well. One merged into the River of Time, while the other flowed toward the Human Gate. The Heavenly Gate's cold voice resounded: "Su Yu, if you expect them to wrest the river from us... aren't you being far too naive!" The intentions of those two were plain to see! One sought to seize the River of Time, while the other sought to seize the Human Gate. Yet would beings who had prepared across countless eras lose to those two? Impossible! Right then, the Lord of Dead Spirits suddenly looked toward Su Yu, his eyes filled with fierce resolve: "I want to try!" Su Yu's expression changed! The Lord of Dead Spirits said in a deep voice, "I want to try!" After a split second of hesitation, Su Yu gave a slight nod. "Dead Spirit Realm!" With a low roar, death qi swept across heaven and earth, plunging the world into utter darkness. As death qi roiled, the realm dissolved into a single Dead Spirit Dao. The Lord of Dead Spirits roared, instantly fusing himself into that Great Dao of Death! The Dao soared into the sky, plunging directly into the River of Time! "Long ago, I drew death qi from the river to forge the Dead Spirit Realm. Today, the Dead Spirit Realm returns to the river... I, too, wish to see who can truly command the River of Time!" The Dead Spirit Dao had originally been extracted from the river. The Lord of Dead Spirits had harbored the ambition to devour the River of Time for an eternity. At this moment, he refused to wait any longer, refused to hold back. He chose to return to the river, becoming part of it once more, merging within to swallow the River of Time whole! *Boom!* The entire river erupted into violent upheaval. Both the Heavenly Gate and the Earth Gate cursed in fury! This madman! The Lord of Dead Spirits was an utter madman! Knowing full well how perilous it was, he had chosen to plunge his entire realm into the River of Time! Su Yu merely let out a soft sigh. He said nothing. This was the Lord of Dead Spirits' own choice. That supreme pioneer who had forged heaven and earth had never once abandoned his dream. To swallow the River of Time, to stand before the Lord of Time, and to test who reigned supreme! Perhaps it was merely a fantasy, yet he had pursued it, persevering through countless ages. That was his faith! Thus, a moment ago, Su Yu had not stopped him. Nor could he have stopped him! A man of terrifying talent and aptitude, yet utterly unswayed by anything else. The Lord of Dead Spirits had persevered through endless years for no other reason than to contest supremacy against the Lord of Time! Today, with the river compressed, he naturally would not abandon the dream of a lifetime. Even though Su Yu had offered to help him, he was no longer willing to wait!