At the crest of the firmament, within that pitch-black fissure, three massive "eyeballs" had already taken shape.
They were the manifestations of the Heavenly Dao's will in this realm. As purple-gold lightning surged within the clouds, three streaks of will—carrying an unquestionable aura that could obliterate all life—followed the ley lines of the laws and locked onto Cang Yaochen within the Tomb of Gods.
Cang Yaochen looked up, his fingertips still stained with the divine blood he had dabbed onto Jiang Li's forehead. He watched the three streaks of World-Extinguishing Thunder howling downward, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward in self-mockery.
"BOOM!!!"
The first bolt of lightning struck Cang Yaochen's spine head-on. His back exploded instantly; divine blood splattered into Jiang Li's eyes, adding several degrees of horror to her already unconscious form.
Cang Yaochen followed the direction of the lightning and grabbed backward, unexpectedly seizing the lingering remnants of the bolt that had yet to dissipate. At this moment, his face appeared utterly terrifying amidst the reflection of the lightning.
"Ten thousand years ago, I was the one who mended this heaven. Ten thousand years later, you wish to use the heaven I mended to crush my head?"
He let out a mad laugh. His right hand exerted violent force, surging upward against the trajectory of the lightning!
Thousands of miles away, within the secret chambers of the Sacred Grounds, the three ancestors—Xuanjizi, Leiji, and Qingyun—snapped their eyes open, their faces filled with horror. Within the vision of those three wills, the originally ant-like Cang Yaochen had now transformed into a hundred-zhang-tall demonic shadow, following the connection path of the Heavenly Dao to directly invade the senses of the three Sacred Ground ancestors.
"What does he want to do? Is he mad! He is reversing the Heavenly Dao!"
Before they could withdraw their wills, they felt an irresistible brute force pulling their original souls through the Heavenly Dao connection, dragging them toward the Fallen God Valley.
"To think you could punish me—you seek death."
Cang Yaochen's voice crossed through space. In the next second, the space at the bottom of the Fallen God Valley underwent a distorted folding.
"THUD! THUD! THUD!" Three massive dharma bodies were forcibly dragged out of the void by Cang Yaochen, slamming heavily into the piles of bone ash surrounding the altar. They were not true bodies, but "Life-Fate Projections" condensed from their original souls; if they were shattered here, their main bodies far away in the Middle Province would instantly become cripples.
"Cang Yaochen, you dare destroy the laws and forcibly descend our origins!" Xuanjizi spat out a mouthful of blood, his originally immortal-like face now covered in terror.
Cang Yaochen dragged his blood-drenched body, walking toward them step by step. His movements were slow, yet terrifying.
"Destroying the laws?" He stopped before Xuanjizi, his double pupils looking down from a height. "If not for me, where would the laws come from?"
He reached out abruptly, clutching Xuanjizi's crown. There was no exchange of spells; his five fingers exerted force, his nails embedding into the other's scalp. Leiji and Qingyun tried to resist, but were pinned down by the ten thousand demonic hands behind Cang Yaochen.
[System Notification] Asura Godhood awakening at 50%. Warning! Warning! Warning! Awakening speed is too fast; the host cannot carry two Godhoods and will explode!
"CRACK."
It was the sound of skull bones squeezing and shattering against each other.
"Stop! Cang Yaochen!" Leiji Zen-Master shrieked. Cang Yaochen didn't even turn his head; his right hand swung backward violently, and the originally clutched Xuanjizi was hurled directly at Leiji.
The two soul-dharma manifestations let out a muffled thud. Capitalizing on this instant, Cang Yaochen lunged forward, his hands directly piercing through Leiji Zen-Master's chest. He used his fingers to lightly hook the other's spine.
He turned his head, wiped the foul blood from his face, and looked at the last remaining one—Ancestor Qingyun. This ancestor, who had lived for a thousand years, was now trembling all over.
"Your turn."
Cang Yaochen carried the two nearly collapsed souls and walked toward Ancestor Qingyun. Just as he was about to reach out and finish him, Cang Yaochen suddenly glimpsed Jiang Li huddled in the corner. She had woken up at some unknown point; her hair had turned gray due to the restrictive prison Cang Yaochen had set, and her entire being seemed to have lost its vitality, her eyes vacant.
Cang Yaochen glanced at Jiang Li, then turned and stomped his foot onto Ancestor Qingyun's face, grinding him ruthlessly into the bone ash. With a burst of ferocity, his right hand pierced directly through Qingyun's dantian, forcibly tearing out the original Nascent Soul.
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Amidst the shrill screams of the three ancestors, Cang Yaochen used the secret method of Divine-Blood Fortification to forcibly crush the soul fragments of these three, transforming them into three pitch-black "Soul-Fixing Pillars" anchored around the altar.
Upon this wasteland, right before the eyes of the Heavenly Dao, he intended to build a monument for the fallen gods.
The Eye of Heavenly Dao roared in fury within the thunderclouds, but because the laws had been forcibly locked within the valley by Cang Yaochen, it was unable to descend a second lightning tribulation for a time.
Cang Yaochen walked exhaustedly toward Jiang Li. His blood-stained hands gently cradled Jiang Li's face.
"They all say Buddha loves the world and Buddha redeems all living beings. But Li'er, tell me... is it worth it? Is this world worth it?"
He whispered in her ear, carrying a dense scent of blood. He let out a sigh and made a grasping motion toward the void in Jiang Li's direction.
"Deep Abyssal Mirror, Open the Heavens!"
The phantom of the mirror that had been behind Jiang Li, sensing its master's weakness, suddenly expanded its surface before disappearing into Jiang Li's body.
Simultaneously, Cang Yaochen's flesh began a terrifying Godhood fission at this moment. The right side of his face grew black divine patterns, while the left side still retained that compassionate face of a Buddha...