The Depths of Jiuzhou, Transcendence Emerges

Wang Hao lay in the ruins.

Completely motionless.

His chest did not rise or fall.

His heart had stopped beating.

His qi sea was silent.

Even the Transcendent Dao he had just condensed seemed to have suffered a devastating blow, severing all contact with the outside world.

The New Emperor Sword flew over in a panic.

The silver-haired youth knelt beside Wang Hao and poked him in the face.

“Master.”

“Are you really dead?”

Wang Hao did not answer.

The sorrow on the silver-haired youth’s face grew deeper and deeper.

A moment later,

it quietly reached for the Great Xia Mountains and Rivers Register at Wang Hao’s waist.

Smack!

A hand suddenly seized its wrist.

The New Emperor Sword froze from head to toe.

Wang Hao’s eyes remained closed.

But his voice echoed in the silver-haired youth’s mind through soul transmission.

“What are you trying to do?”

The silver-haired youth said solemnly,

“I want to safeguard my master’s inheritance.”

“I’m not dead yet.”

“I knew my master was blessed by fortune.”

“Then why were you reaching for the Mountains and Rivers Register?”

“I was afraid it would get lost.”

“The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda is inside the register too.”

“I was going to safeguard that as well.”

Wang Hao slowly released its wrist.

“Touch my things again.”

“And I’ll melt you down and cast you into a chamber pot.”

The New Emperor Sword immediately withdrew its hand.

“Rest assured, Master.”

“I didn’t see a thing.”

Wang Hao gave no further response.

He was using a wisp of origin power from the Transcendent Dao to maintain a state of feigned death.

That palm strike from True Immortal Xuanming had been terrifying.

The shield formed from the will of the countless people had canceled out the first lethal blow.

The Transcendent Dao had then dispersed most of the remaining force.

Even so,

Wang Hao’s physical body had still been almost completely destroyed.

His organs had shifted out of place.

Seventy percent of his bones were broken.

His soul had also suffered severe injuries.

If he had still been at the second level of the Martial God realm,

that single palm would have been enough to annihilate both body and soul.

But the Transcendent realm was different from the Martial God realm.

The life origin of a transcendent being was no longer completely dependent on the physical body and soul.

As long as his own Dao had not been utterly erased,

he could remain alive.

Of course,

being alive was one thing.

Being in pain was another.

Wang Hao currently felt as though someone had crushed him from head to toe three times, then pieced him back together.

His chest was especially bad.

The immortal power left behind by True Immortal Xuanming was continuously eating away at his flesh and blood.

Every wave of corrosion felt like billions of steel needles stabbing into his soul.

Wang Hao endured the agony.

Without making a sound.

There was no helping it.

That thing outside was simply too powerful.

If he dared to play dead now,

Xuanming would certainly not mind striking him again.

He had barely survived the first palm.

A second one was out of the question.

A gentleman’s revenge could wait ten years.

An emperor’s revenge—

usually began with keeping an account.

Wang Hao had already decided.

Once he returned, he would immediately have the Ministry of Revenue create a file for True Immortal Xuanming.

The charges would include, but not be limited to: illegal entry, destruction of national territory, attempted murder, malicious destruction of public facilities, harboring fugitives from the Dark Immortal Sect, and refusal to assume guarantor liability.

As for whether he could collect on any of it—

that could be dealt with later.

For now, he would simply add the interest.

Wang Hao reined in all distracting thoughts.

Through a wisp of fluctuation from the Transcendent Dao, he observed the outside world.

Above the Nine Provinces,

the rift in the sky filled with immortal light had already expanded to a million li.

True Immortal Xuanming was still seated cross-legged within the shattered immortal domain.

The shadow behind him was drawing closer and closer.

Yet in the eyes of the people of the Nine Provinces,

the truly terrifying existence was still that immortal.

With a single palm, he had crushed the tenth realm of martial cultivation.

That had already surpassed everyone’s understanding.

Outside the Dark Ancestral Court,

the Taiyin Old Matriarch stared fixedly toward the direction in which Wang Hao had fallen.

“Is he dead?”

The Yellow Springs Ancestor’s expression was grim.

“There’s no sign of life.”

“Even my divine sense cannot detect the slightest sign of life.”

The powerhouse of Sword Ruins trembled faintly.

No emotion could be seen on his face.

Yet the long sword at his side let out a low, mournful cry.

Wang Hao had only just broken through to the Tenth Realm of martial arts in the Nine Provinces.

And now, he had failed to withstand even a single palm strike from a True Immortal.

The end of martial arts.

Could it truly be nothing more than a speck of dust beneath an immortal’s feet?

The White Bone Old Monster gritted his teeth.

“How about this?”

“We go and snatch the body back?”

The Yellow Springs Ancestor looked at him.

“You go?”

The White Bone Old Monster thought seriously for a moment.

“We can send the sword.”

“The sword is faster.”

The New Emperor Sword abruptly turned around.

“Old Bones.”

“Do you think that now that my master is dead, there’s no one left who can deal with you?”

The White Bone Old Monster put on a sorrowful expression.

“I only wanted you to show your loyalty one last time.”

“You’re a bizarre artifact. You can’t even die.”

“At worst, you’ll just break.”

The New Emperor Sword flew into a rage.

“You’re the one who’ll break!”

“Your whole family will break!”

Just as the two of them were arguing—

in the direction of the Eastern Sea,

an aged voice resounded throughout Heaven and Earth.

“Xuanming.”

“You’ve finally crawled out of the Immortal Grave.”

Boom!

The boundless sea suddenly exploded.

A colossal tortoise, so enormous that it defied description, slowly rose from the deepest reaches of the Eastern Sea, carrying an ancient bronze city upon its back.

Its shell was covered in the scars of blades and swords.

Each mark stretched for hundreds of miles.

Some of the wounds even still contained ancient immortal flames.

The giant tortoise raised its head.

Its two eyes were like the sun and the moon.

The aura emanating from its body had already surpassed that of a Martial God.

A deep-blue Great Dao rose from the Eastern Sea and pierced the firmament.

“The Eastern Sea’s Return to Ruin.”

“The Heaven-Bearing Old Man.”

Within the various sacred grounds of the Nine Provinces,

ancient beings recognized the giant tortoise’s identity.

“He’s still alive!”

“It is said that in the previous era, the Heaven-Bearing Old Man carried all the living beings of the Eastern Sea on his back and escaped the world-ending flood!”

“He isn’t at the peak of the Martial God Realm!”

“He is a Transcendent!”

Wang Hao lay amid the ruins, his heart stirring faintly.

As expected, there were other Transcendents in the Nine Provinces.

It was just that—

these people had never revealed their true realms.

Perhaps they feared that Heaven and Earth would not tolerate them.

Or perhaps they were hiding from something else.

True Immortal Xuanming looked toward the Heaven-Bearing Old Man.

“When the Immortal Gate opened back then,

you refused to follow this immortal.”

“And yet, you still haven’t died.”

The Heaven-Bearing Old Man snorted coldly.

His voice was like a tsunami.

“If even you haven’t died,

why should this old man die?”

Xuanming spoke indifferently:

“This immortal crossed through the Immortal Gate.”

“I have already attained eternal life.”

“You remain trapped in the mortal world. Your lifespan will eventually come to an end.”

The Heaven-Bearing Old Man raised one enormous claw that blotted out the sky and the sun.

“Eternal life?”

“If you truly attained eternal life, why are you hiding in that graveyard, afraid to come out?”

“That thing inside you…”

“It’s almost beyond your ability to suppress, isn’t it?”

The world suddenly fell silent.

A cold glint flashed through True Immortal Xuanming’s eyes.

Boom!

In the direction of the Western Wasteland,

billions of miles of yellow sand surged into the sky.

A towering figure clad in a decaying imperial robe emerged from the deepest part of the forbidden zone.

An emperor’s crown rested upon his head.

His face had long since withered away.

Nine black spears were thrust through his chest.

Each spear was wrapped in a curse powerful enough to annihilate a Martial God.

Yet he remained alive.

With every step he took,

the entire Western Wasteland trembled.

A white road paved from countless bones stretched toward the Dark Ancestral Court.

“The Western Wasteland’s Corpse Dynasty.”

“Ancient Emperor Wuming.”

Ancient Emperor Wuming raised his head.

Two clusters of white flame burned within his hollow eye sockets.

“Heaven-Bearer.”

“You’re still as talkative as ever.”

The Heaven-Bearing Old Man sneered.

“You’re a corpse yourself. What right do you have to lecture me?”

The Ancient Emperor Wuming lowered his head and glanced at his own rotting hands.

“At least I can still walk.”

“All you can do is crawl.”

A murderous glint flared in the Heaven-Bearing Old Man’s eyes.

“I’m a tortoise!”

“Not some crawling vermin!”

“Is there really a difference?”

“You want to fight?”

“Let’s kill the immortal first.”

“Then we can fight.”

The two Transcendent beings, who had survived for who knew how many years, reached an agreement in just a few words.

The next moment—

In the direction of Central State,

a bell rang.

Dong!

The first peal.

All seventy-two holy grounds in Central State trembled at once.

Dong!

The second peal.

The power of faith accumulated over tens of thousands of years within the ancestral temples of every holy ground shot into the sky.

Dong!

The third peal.

A golden divine mountain suspended in the void slowly materialized.

At the summit of the mountain,

an old man in hempen robes sat in silence.

There was no Great Dao behind him.

No strange phenomenon, either.

Only an ancient bell covered in cracks.

“The First Leader of the Holy Alliance.”

“The Bell Ringer!”

The Taiyin Old Matriarch drew a sharp breath.

“Wasn’t the Holy Alliance of Central State only founded thirty thousand years ago?”

The Yellow Springs Ancestor’s voice was hoarse.

“It was.”

“He has also been sitting there for thirty thousand years.”

The old man in hempen robes opened his eyes.

His gaze swept across the Dark Ancestral Court.

When he saw Wang Hao at the end of the ravine stretching ten thousand li, a trace of pity appeared in his eyes.

“What a pity.”

“It took the human world so long to produce a new Transcendent being.”

“And yet he was born into the wrong era.”

In the ruins,

Wang Hao heard those words and felt a little offended.

You’re the one who’s dead.

Your whole family is dead.

But he still remained motionless.

The dead couldn’t argue back.

The old man in hempen robes raised his head and looked toward Xuanming.

“Immortals should not enter the human world.”

“Go back.”

True Immortal Xuanming replied calmly,

“Three ants.”

“And you dare order this immortal around?”

The moment his words fell,

the Demonic Mountain in the Southern Region suddenly split apart.

Scarlet moonlight illuminated the Nine Provinces.

A barefoot woman stepped out of a sea of blood.

She wore red robes.

Her features were breathtakingly seductive.

A tiny bronze bell was tied around her pale ankle.

With every step she took,

the little bell gave a soft ring.

Jingle.

Wherever the sound passed,

the darkest desires in countless living beings’ hearts were stirred at once.

Some threw their heads back and laughed.

Some clutched their heads and sobbed.

Others drew their blades and struck at the companions beside them.

The woman in red looked toward Xuanming, the corners of her lips curving upward.

“What about the other four?”

The mountains of the Demon Sect erupted into complete turmoil.

“The First Ancestor of the Blood-Desire Palace!”

“The Red Dust Demon Lord!”

“Greetings, First Ancestor!”

Countless demonic cultivators fell to their knees.

The Red Dust Demon Lord did not even spare them a glance.

She extended the tip of her scarlet tongue and lightly traced it across the corner of her lips.

“An immortal’s blood.”

“This lord has never tasted it before.”

True Immortal Xuanming’s gaze was cold and indifferent.

“A Transcendent of the demonic path.”

“You forged your path from the desires of all living beings.”

“What a pity.”

“Your Dao is filthy.”

The Red Dust Demon Lord laughed until her body trembled.

“Filthy?”

“When men are lying in bed, they never say that.”

The Bell Ringer’s brows furrowed slightly.

The Ancient Emperor Wuming remained expressionless.

The Heaven-Bearing Old Man, however, burst into hearty laughter.

“Little girl.”

“This old man likes you!”

The Red Dust Demon Lord cast a glance at the giant tortoise.

“Old tortoise.”

“You’re too big.”

“This lord doesn’t like you.”

The Heaven-Bearing Old Man’s laughter abruptly stopped.

Wang Hao lay amid the ruins, barely managing not to laugh aloud.

Fortunately,

he had received professional training.

He usually didn’t laugh.

Unless something was truly hilarious.

But the next moment,

Wang Hao could no longer laugh.

Because throughout the Nine Provinces, even more auras surpassing the Martial God realm were beginning to awaken.

The frozen wastes of the Northern Frontier.

An ice coffin sealed in frost for countless ages burst from the earth.

Lying within was a white-robed swordsman who had lost his eyes.

He did not emerge from the coffin.

He merely raised two fingers.

And a streak of sword qi pierced from north to south.

“The Northern Frontier.”

“The Sword-Burier.”

The Heavenly Abyss of the southeast.

A black altar rose from the ground.

Upon it stood nine utterly identical old men.

The nine shared a single Great Dao.

“The Nine-Lives Sacred Ground.”

“Venerable Nine Lifetimes.”

In the northwest of Great Xia.

From a barren mountain regarded by every dynasty throughout history as a place of ill omen, a ragged woodcutter emerged.

A rusted woodcutter’s blade rested across his shoulder.

A gourd of wine hung at his waist.

With every step,

he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

“Great Zhou Remnant.”

“The Dragon-Slayer.”

Beneath the Central Plains.

A hand covered in golden scales burst from the earth.

Then,

a being bound by ninety-nine chains slowly crawled out of the abyss.

It was neither human

nor demon.

Its head was like a dragon.

Its body resembled an ape.

Two pairs of tattered wings grew from its back.

“The Primordial God Tribe.”

“Cangxu.”

Nine Transcendents in all.

They came from the righteous path, the demon sects, the demon races, the ancient dynasties, and the primordial races.

Some were sworn enemies.

Some had fought bloody wars against one another for ten thousand years.

And the sects of others were still locked in battle to this very day.

But at this moment,

all nine turned their eyes toward the shattered Immortal Domain.

Toward True Immortal Xuanming.

They knew.

Xuanming had not come to save the Dark Immortal Sect.

He had come to devour the Dao of the Transcendents of the Nine Provinces.

If he were allowed to descend,

the entire Nine Provinces would become his blood feast.