Chapter 699: Willing to Help Elder Langtian Reach the Ancestor Realm!
Whoosh!
Lin Langtian's figure shot forward, and his palm slammed head‑on into the Demon Emperor's Hand.
Bang!
A heaven‑shaking crash erupted, as if the world itself had fractured from the impact. The Demon Emperor's Hand was driven back once more.
Cracks spread rapidly across the palm of condensed demonic qi before, with a final detonation, the gigantic hand exploded into fragments.
As the hand shattered, Lin Langtian swept his sleeve. Yuan‑Demon Power surged out, sealing the crack upon the dimensional barrier.
"An Ancestor's fluctuation… and a hint of my clan's aura as well. How strange. To think such a person would emerge in this little world…"
"Still, you're not yet on the Symbol Ancestor's level. With that interruption, the Ice Spirit girl has likely failed utterly."
"So in all these long centuries, you're the strongest this plane has produced?"
"Hehe. Two months from now, this Emperor will descend in person. That day will be the end of your world."
The voice rolled out from the sealed crack, utterly emotionless, echoing through the skies like a god's decree.
Silence fell across the land, every heart freezing under that distant presence.
Then, slowly, heads turned back toward the slender figure in green still standing in midair.
Hope flickered back into a thousand eyes.
His display just now had been seared into their minds.
He stood there like another Symbol Ancestor.
With him here, perhaps they still had a chance.
Countless gazes, blazing with mad fervor and desperate yearning, pinned themselves to Lin Langtian.
Some people could not help but kneel.
For them, in that moment, he was a god.
Up above, Lin Langtian looked first at the battered dimensional seal hanging in the void, then down at the sea of worshipers below.
A wry smile tugged at his lips.
Then a flash of white streaked across his face. His body trembled, and a mouthful of blood burst from his lips.
"So this is the Half‑Ancestor Realm," he murmured, wiping it away. "The gap to a true Ancestor really is like a chasm…"
With three Reincarnation Tribulations completed and Yuan‑Demon Power fully fused, his strength had soared into the Half‑Ancestor Realm.
But even so, he was still far beneath the Yimo Emperor and the Symbol Ancestor.
He sighed and glanced once more at the countless faces turned up to him.
Then his voice boomed through the Chaotic Demon Sea.
"Right now, I have not truly stepped into the Ancestor Realm," he said. "At most, you can call this the Half‑Ancestor Realm.
"And the distance from Half‑Ancestor to Ancestor is still vast."
The sea slowly quieted.
Confusion flickered across many faces.
Half‑Ancestor?
What did that even mean?
"With my current strength, I cannot defeat the Yimo Emperor," Lin Langtian continued. "When his true body fully descends in two months, I will not be able to stop him alone."
Color drained from a thousand cheeks.
Even Lin Langtian could not match the Yimo Emperor?
Instinctively, many eyes turned toward the towering ice sculpture at the center of the formation.
Just in time to see it melt.
Ying Huanhuan's ice‑blue eyes opened slowly.
Relief swept the onlookers—only to shatter a heartbeat later.
Her body shuddered.
She spat blood.
It was ice‑blue.
"…I also failed," she said softly, looking down at the gathered masses. Apology shimmered in her gaze, and a bitter smile touched her lips.
"What?! The Ice Master failed?!"
"Then there really is no hope left!"
"Damn that Yimo Emperor! If he hadn't interfered, she would have made it!"
Voices broke under the weight of terror and rage.
With her failure, the last fragile flame of hope guttered.
First Lin Langtian, then the Ice Master.
All their gods had fallen short.
"Is this… the end?" someone whispered.
The question passed from mouth to mouth.
The Ancient Masters wiped blood from their lips.
Lin Langtian's Half‑Ancestor breakthrough had surprised them, but Ying Huanhuan's failure hollowed them out.
Teacher himself had said she was the most likely to become an Ancestor.
Yet she had fallen here.
The weight of it pressed down over heaven and earth.
There was nothing crueller than glimpsing hope—only to find a wall waiting behind it.
Lin Langtian watched their despair, eyes narrowing slightly.
Then his voice struck like thunder, exploding in every ear.
"Everyone, hope… has not yet died!"
"There is still a path for the Tianxuan Continent!"
"But I will need your help—to step into the Ancestor Realm!"
His words slammed into the silence.
Shock flickered across the sky and sea.
"Elder Lin Langtian says there's still hope?"
"He wants us to help him become an Ancestor? How are we supposed to do that?"
"He's not the type to speak rashly. If he dares say it, maybe he really has a way."
"If there is a way, we must support him with everything we have."
"That's right. Elder Lin Langtian reached the Half‑Ancestor Realm alone. I'd trust him over anyone else."
Color returned to pale faces.
Hope, impossible and wild, stirred again.
Ying Huanhuan and the Ancient Masters stared at him in unfeigned shock.
He had a path to the Ancestor Realm?
They themselves were the Symbol Ancestor's disciples.
Even with all the resources he had left behind, all they had managed was a thirty‑percent chance for the Ice Master—and even that had failed.
Lin Langtian had been born in a minor dynasty, in a branch family.
Step by bloody step, he had climbed to this height on his own.
And now he spoke, in full view of the world, of becoming an Ancestor?
Bitterness flared for a breath.
Then it ebbed.
However they felt, the Symbol Ancestor's line was not made of small hearts.
If Lin Langtian could stand in the Emperor's way, then they would stand behind him.
The Master of Life and Death spat one last streak of red and lifted her head.
"Langtian," she called. "What is this hope you speak of?"
All around them, eyes locked on him, waiting.
Lin Langtian's lips pressed together.
He did not answer directly.
Instead, he asked, "Do you know what stands at the top of the Ancient Divine Item Ranking in our world?"
The question knocked the crowd off‑balance.
The Ancient Divine Item Ranking was famous across the continent.
Countless legends clung to the treasures on that list.
But the first name upon it…
No one knew.
The identity of that supreme divine item had never been revealed.
Ying Huanhuan and the Ancient Masters, however, stiffened.
They, at least, knew.
The Symbol Ancestor had told them.
But even he had never truly controlled it.
Was Lin Langtian thinking of… that?
"Elder Lin Langtian," a Reincarnation expert called out from the sea, "may we ask what this top‑ranked divine item is? Does it have some connection to your breakthrough?"
Every eye turned back to him again.
Lin Langtian smiled faintly.
"Very well," he said. "Then let me be frank.
"The first divine item of the Ancient Ranking was not made by any hand.
"It was born of heaven and earth itself, the purest essence of an entire plane.
"We call it… the Seed of the Dimension."
"A 'Seed of the Dimension' is, in essence, a Dimension Spirit," he went on. "The condensed core of the plane we live in now.
"It does not possess will of its own.
"But if someone could grasp it, they could wield the full power of this world with a single thought.
"Not every plane has a Seed.
"It takes chance and accumulation across countless ages for one to form.
"Only a small handful of dimensions ever birth such a thing.
"Ours is one of them.
"And with its power…"
His voice thickened with barely checked excitement.
"…I can break my shackles—and become a true Ancestor!"
He had finally spoken the heart of his plan aloud.
He and Ling Ying had hammered it out together.
Power.
He needed an ocean of it, the kind only a Supreme treasure could provide.
In the Great Thousand World, Ling Ying could have snapped her fingers and buried him in enough energy to attempt the Ancestor Realm a hundred times.
Even without her, he could have hunted down other methods.
But here, in a lower plane, the well was dry.
So he had set his sights on the Seed of the Dimension.
In another world, Mu Chen had used that exact power to climb to Heavenly Supreme.
For Lin Langtian, touching the Supreme Realm—this world's Ancestor Realm—would take only a fraction of the Seed's strength.
And once he held it, the path from Earthly to Heavenly Supreme would open wide before him.
"Seed of the Dimension…" Ying Huanhuan whispered, her face still pale.
She had, once, planned to reach Half‑Ancestor, then burn herself away to push Lin Dong to Ancestor.
She had never imagined that Lin Langtian would find the Seed—and seize that chance for himself.
If he succeeded… would she still need to die for Lin Dong's sake?
For a moment, confusion echoed in her eyes.
"Where is this Seed?" someone called, unable to hold back.
If this had been any other time, the crowd might have erupted into madness at the mere mention of such a treasure.
Now, facing the shadow of the Yimo Emperor, they had only one thought:
Let someone—anyone—use it.
Save the world.
"Does this dimension possess a spirit?" Lin Langtian asked instead of answering. "If every living being in this world prays together, from the depths of their hearts… then with that wish as a guide, I should be able to sense and locate the Seed."
A murmur rolled across the waves.
Now they understood why he needed them.
In years past, such a scheme would have been madness.
The hearts of men were too scattered, too selfish.
But with the Yimo Emperor knocking on their sky, things were different.
Almost every soul on the continent wanted the same thing now.
A savior.
Someone to stand where the Symbol Ancestor once had.
Lin Langtian watched their silence, jaw tightening slightly.
Of all the people who might attempt this, Ying Huanhuan had the most right.
But after what they had all just seen…
She had failed.
He had not.
Lin Dong could have stood here, too.
But under his own, unknowing guidance, that boy had fallen behind the tide.
"On any other day, I would never suggest this," Lin Langtian thought. "But now…"
Now, with the end drawing near, unity was not a dream.
It was their only choice.
He drew himself up and cupped his hands toward the sea of faces.
"If every living thing on this continent lends me their hearts," he said solemnly, "if you will offer your prayers to the Seed of the Dimension… then I will reach for the Ancestor Realm with everything I have."
"I will stand before the Yimo Emperor.
"And I will not fall."
For a heartbeat, nothing moved.
Then the Chaotic Demon Sea erupted.
Voices crashed together into a single, tidal roar.
"I am willing!"
"We will help Elder Langtian reach the Ancestor Realm!"
"Together—help Elder Langtian become an Ancestor!"
The shout spread like wildfire, echoing out over the waters and into the sky, as if the world itself had opened its lungs to answer him.
(END CHAPTER)
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