The Escaping Ancient Prince

Gu Changge withdrew his gaze from the myriad beings below and turned to Xuanyangzi and the five Ancestors, who were still somewhat dazed.

In a calm voice, he said, “Ancestor, Senior Brother, now that everything here is settled, let’s return.”

Only then did Xuanyangzi and the five Ancestors snap back to their senses. “Yes. Let’s go back!”

Not far away, Xing Tian'ao had watched the entire exchange.

His gaze lingered on Xuanyangzi and the others, sensing the natural, unmistakable closeness between them and the Honored Master.

He sighed inwardly. “So these are the people of the sect where the Honored Master resides…”

As his thoughts churned, Gu Changge’s calm voice sounded beside him. “You’re coming with us.”

Xing Tian'ao’s body trembled. He immediately banished every stray thought and replied respectfully, “Yes, Honored Master!”

Almost as soon as Gu Changge vanished, a gentle voice transmission reached the souls of Xiao Ruobai, Ling Xi, and the others, who stood ready below in the Southern Region:

“Take care of what’s in your hands, then return to the sect.”

Before the words had fully faded, his figure had quietly disappeared into the void, as if he had never been there at all.

“Yes, Master!”

A flash of light gleamed in Xiao Ruobai’s eyes. Their master had returned!

The others bowed and acknowledged the order.

The void beyond the heavens fell utterly silent once more.

Yet below, in the Xuanhuang Great World, the cheers of those who had survived the calamity—and their hopes for the future—burned like an undying flame, heralding the dawn of a new age.

At the Starwatch Tower of the Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion,

Master Tianji stood with his white beard and hair.

“Is it over?” His voice was rough with disbelief, tinged with bewilderment.

“More than twenty Ancient Sovereigns, and a dark upheaval that had been brewing for countless ages—completely put to rest in so short a time, without even the slightest ripple lasting…”

He recalled the terrifying surge he had sensed earlier, one that had nearly torn apart the fate river of the entire Xuanhuang Great World.

Then came the boundless power that healed every wound and dispelled every shadow.

Master Tianji felt as though everything he had learned in his life, everything he knew of fate and divination, had been overturned in an instant.

What unsettled him most was that this calamity, seemingly powerful enough to destroy the world, had caused almost unbelievably little damage in the end.

The Sovereigns had emerged, intent on devouring all life. Several Great Emperors and that mysterious force had stopped them in turn.

Even the forbidden life zones, entrenched for countless ages and regarded as tumors upon the world, had all been erased, their remains turned into fertile ground for a new era of fortune.

How could this be called merely putting down a rebellion? It was nothing less than the creation and reforging of the world!

His cloudy gaze turned toward the Central Region. That was where Daozang Academy stood, and where the aura of the new Emperor had first erupted.

“Senior Xing Tian'ao really did succeed. In this age, he emerged from Nirvana and became an Emperor.”

Master Tianji murmured, his voice filled with conflicting emotions.

The rise of this legendary Quasi-Emperor should have been a world-shaking event, one destined to shape the course of fortune for ages to come.

Yet amid the upheavals of this day, it seemed almost… ordinary.

“And then there’s…” His brows drew together deeply, as though they might knot into a single line.

“That mysterious force that appeared out of nowhere. More than a dozen Extreme Dao Imperial Weapons brought out at once, and not just one but several beings of unfathomable aura at the Great Emperor level, standing against more than ten Ancient Sovereigns…”

He tried to divine the truth, but on the star compass, every trace concerning that faction seemed to have been completely obscured by some higher power. There was even a faint backlash, stabbing pain through his soul.

Master Tianji felt a wave of helplessness rise within him.

“Just who are you people? That instant of eruption and deathly silence beyond the Southern Region... what earth-shattering secret does it conceal?”

“I can’t see through it. I can’t calculate it... Forget it. I’m done calculating.”

Master Tianji suddenly swept his sleeve, throwing the divination marks across the star compass into utter chaos. His aged face flushed red.

“I’ve spent my whole life peering into the mysteries of heaven, and I’ve never seen anything this absurd! For an entire year, I haven’t been able to divine so much as a single hair!”

Still grumbling and cursing, he kicked open the doors of the Stargazing Platform and strode away without looking back.

Meanwhile, at the Jade Pool Sacred Land, atop the peak of its mist-shrouded forbidden grounds—

The Sacred Lord, Ji Qingyi, had recovered much of her injuries. She gazed toward the Southern Region in silence for a long time.

That supreme force which had calmed heaven and earth and swept away the forbidden zone; that familiar yet boundless aura, so vast that it made even her soul tremble ever so slightly...

After a long while, a near-inaudible murmur escaped her lips, carrying shock, realization, and indescribably tangled emotions before dissolving into the wind.

“Benefactor... is this the true power of you and those under your command?”

The aftershocks of that shock reached far beyond this.

At the Great Thunderclap Temple in the Western Desert, Ancient Buddha Huixin sat withered upon his lotus throne as his Buddhist radiance flickered several times.

Within the Great Zhou Dynasty of the Central Region, every imperial ancestor emerged, fervently discussing the new order of the world.

The ancestors of the major sacred lands faced one another in silence, their eyes unable to conceal their astonishment and awe.

The Great Xuanhuang World gradually began to function once more. Survivors cleared away rubble and rebuilt their homes, while sects and factions counted their losses and comforted their disciples.

Peace quietly returned, yet it could not diminish the lingering shock left by the catastrophe. The rise of that mysterious faction and Xing Tian'ao’s ascension to Emperorhood were like two massive bombs, their impact continuing to spread across heaven and earth.

Xing Tian'ao’s ascension had finally given Xuanhuang a reigning Great Emperor, a pillar capable of safeguarding the world.

As for that mysterious faction, no one knew its origins or the depth of its foundation.

Only a bone-deep awe remained in the heart of every person who knew of it. Countless theories emerged, yet none could ever be proven.

Deep within the mountains of the Southern Region—

Several figures with weakened auras were desperately trying to conceal every trace of their presence. They transformed into nearly imperceptible streaks of light and fled for their lives in different directions, away from the battlefield.

They were the Ancient Emperor’s offspring who had appeared earlier!

“The Father Emperor’s aura... it has completely vanished!”

The Golden Crow Ancient Prince’s voice trembled. All his former arrogance and tyranny had disappeared, leaving only boundless fear and despair.

He could clearly sense that the sliver of primordial bloodline resonance linking him to his father had, moments ago, snapped and been extinguished completely.

He did not dare dwell on what that meant.

“Run! We have to run! This place has become a land of certain death!”

The Son of the Sacred Light Tiger Emperor spared no cost in activating a spatial secret treasure.

Yet every movement they made had been seen clearly by Lao Huang!

“Hmph. A few little loaches think they can slip away right under this old bull’s nose?”

A deep, mocking snort seemed to explode directly within the souls of the ancient imperial princes.

The next instant, a gigantic phantom of a bull’s hoof, covered in azure fur and seemingly vast enough to encompass heaven and earth, appeared.

Ignoring all distance across space, it abruptly manifested before each of their escape routes and stamped down lightly.

“Pfft!”

The void froze; the laws of reality were shackled.

Before the ancient imperial princes could even cry out, they were forcibly knocked from their fleeing streaks of light by that irresistible force.

Blood sprayed from their mouths, their demonic bodies split apart, and like flies swatted from the air, they tumbled from the void and rolled into a miserable heap.