A Deal, Foreseeing Endless Bloodshed and Slaughter
A Deal, Foreseeing Endless Bloodshed and Slaughter
The black-clad man was handsome in appearance, tall in stature, his hair draped loosely, and the vertical eye between his brows carried a soul-seizing pressure.
“Only managed to stall them for a while, huh?”
The black-clad man murmured to himself upon hearing this.
His name was Qing Luo, and he was indeed the biological son of the Lord of Hell, bearing the Source of a Primal Godly Spirit within his body.
In terms of origins, Qing Luo’s birthright stood absolutely above countless Cultivators and living beings.
Even the children of True Daoists fell far short of him.
In the ancient mythological era, Primal Godly Spirits represented beings born possessing a complete divine rule.
Born as gods, with magic power that could topple the heavens.
Qing Luo originally did not belong to this era, but many years ago he had accidentally broken out of the sealed Divine Source, and had been silently cultivating in seclusion within Neraka ever since.
Regarding Qing Luo’s existence, only a mere handful of people in Neraka knew of it, and the Third Palace Lord happened to be one of them.
This time, Neraka suffered a great calamity; of the Ten Palaces only one remained, still desperately clinging to life at death’s door, on the verge of collapse and disintegration.
The Third Palace Lord had already fallen into despair, planning to surrender like the Palace Lords of the other palaces.
But at the very last moment, he suddenly thought of Qing Luo.
This biological son of the Lord of Hell—he should know whether the Lord of Hell was alive or dead.
For all these years, aside from that mysterious Fourth Palace Lord Yan Luo, almost no one had ever seen the true face of the Lord of Hell.
Even the Third Palace Lord, who had existed for an extremely long time, was no exception.
Therefore, he even doubted whether the Lord of Hell still existed in this world—had he passed away in ascension, or was he in secluded cultivation?
When the Third Palace Lord asked Qing Luo about this matter, Qing Luo actually did not know either.
He only said that he could sense his father’s aura.
But as for where exactly the Lord of Hell was, Qing Luo was actually unclear as well.
So this time, when Neraka faced this great calamity, Qing Luo thought to give it a try, to see if he could contact that being.
But this process of contact was extremely complicated and required a very long time, because the Lord of Hell’s aura was not here.
In Qing Luo’s perception, it was an eternal and illusory spatial dimension.
It was endlessly far from the Beyond, as if separated by the River of Time itself.
But the armies of the various Daoist traditions and powers of the Beyond had already slaughtered their way right up to their doorstep.
The only way was to stall them as much as possible.
In the end, even if they could only summon a single dharma body of the Lord of Hell, it could suppress and kill everything.
A true Primal Godly Spirit, once detached from this world, would no longer be bound by the rules of heaven and earth of this realm.
Even a True Daoist before such a being would be nothing more than a slightly larger ant.
“How much longer do you need?”
The Third Palace Lord fell silent for another moment before asking, while swallowing quite a few Heavenly Herbs and longevity fruits to restore his aura.
At the extreme level of a True Daoist, ordinary Heavenly Herbs could hardly help him anymore.
Now, activating and offering up the Palm of True World was an enormous consumption, requiring his life Source to sustain it.
Even he could not be certain how much longer he could hold on.
Qing Luo’s expression was complicated as he said, “I don’t know. I’ve already ignited the Sacrificial Scripture my father left behind. If he can still sense this realm, he should be able to see it. It’s my incompetence... I couldn’t protect the foundation my father left behind.”
Toward the end, he too was in great pain. He had originally thought that after breaking out of the Divine Source, he could look down upon all ages, disdain eternity, and sweeping across the current world would pose no problem at all.
Who knew a Gu Changge would appear, single-handedly nearly annihilating the entirety of Neraka.
Qing Luo knew full well the origins and strength of the Fourth Palace Lord.
And now even the Fourth Palace Lord’s life and death were unknown—most likely he had fallen victim to Gu Changge’s poisonous hand.
How could he possibly be Gu Changge’s match?
“Then I’ll keep stalling. I hope the Lord of Hell, that old senior, hasn’t abandoned us yet.”
The Third Palace Lord sighed and glanced at the ancient Platform deep within the palace hall.
Within it, divine light shone brilliantly; ancient and resplendent Grand Runes flickered one after another, seemingly communicating with an unknown world.
After speaking, he prepared to turn and leave, to continue activating the Palm of True World.
But at that very instant, both the Third Palace Lord and Qing Luo simultaneously sensed something, their expressions changing, a bone-chilling cold washing over them.
In the unseen dark, it was as if a gaze was watching their every move.
The two involuntarily looked toward the palace entrance in unison—a man in dark robes, wearing an expression of keen interest, was slowly walking in.
At that moment, the Third Palace Lord’s entire body trembled; it felt as if the top of his skull had been lifted off.
Endless cold water poured down upon him, leaving him terrified and petrified.
He had never imagined that Gu Changge could follow them all the way here without either of them noticing.
One had to know, this place was covered with Restriction patterns personally laid down by the Lord of Hell back then.
Even a True Daoist would not dare set foot here lightly; even with someone leading the way, it was easy to trigger the Restrictions and be discovered by those within.
“So the Lord of Hell isn’t in this world after all.”
Gu Changge paid no mind to the terrified expressions of shock and fury on the Third Palace Lord and Qing Luo, shaking his head with slight regret.
Naturally, he had heard their conversation.
He simply had not shown himself until now.
“When did you follow us here?!”
The Third Palace Lord stared at Gu Changge with utmost wariness, shouting sternly.
Gu Changge glanced at him without saying much, instead turning to look at Qing Luo.
“The son of the Lord of Hell? So this is the aura of a pure-blooded godly spirit?” he said with a smile.
In Qing Luo’s eyes, his gaze was like that of someone sizing up prey—casual and unhurried, not taking him seriously in the slightest.
As a genuine Primal Godly Spirit, when had Qing Luo ever suffered such humiliation? His face darkened.
But considering the enormous gap in strength between them,
he forced himself to calm down and said coldly, “Gu Changge, since you’ve already followed us here, I’ll speak plainly. My father is indeed not in the Beyond right now.”
“But I can guarantee you this: my father is still alive in this world. His aura has never faded. If you dare kill me, or destroy Neraka, sooner or later my father will come for you.”
“A genuine Primal Godly Spirit, free from the constraints of heaven and earth’s rules—what step he has reached by now, absolutely no one knows.”
That was why Qing Luo had the confidence to say such words to Gu Changge.
“You’re being far too cautious. I have not the slightest interest in the current you.”
Hearing this, Gu Changge merely shook his head with a smile, his face showing neither anger nor any change.
“What do you mean?” Qing Luo remained wary, frowning as he asked.
“It means you’re too weak right now. Whether I kill you or not makes no difference to me.”
Gu Changge still smiled faintly, as if merely stating a simple fact.
A flash of anger crossed Qing Luo’s face. Being looked down upon by Gu Changge once again filled his heart with fury.
However, on this point, Gu Changge was not wrong.
He was currently only at the mid-stage of the True Daoist level, and had yet to stand at the very peak of the Beyond.
With Gu Changge’s strength—enough to suppress and kill the Fourth Palace Lord—crushing him to death would indeed be as easy as crushing an ant.
“Then why did you destroy my Neraka? What exactly is your goal?”
Qing Luo asked with an extremely ugly expression.
In his view, there had been no enmity whatsoever between Gu Changge and Neraka.
Yet out of nowhere, Gu Changge schemed against Neraka, even exposing Neraka’s hidden world, bringing down this calamity of slaughter upon them.
“Because we stood in his way.”
The Third Palace Lord, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke, his tone full of bitterness and helplessness.
Anyone with eyes could see it now.
Gu Changge was the master behind the Nephrite Breeze Pavilion. Since he intended to prop up the Nephrite Breeze Pavilion,
then Neraka and Pagoda were thorns in his eye, splinters in his flesh, that had to be removed.
Neraka had done nothing wrong. If there was any fault, it was that they stood in Gu Changge’s way.
“You are quite the smart one.”
Gu Changge glanced at the Third Palace Lord with some approval.
“Then what do you want now? Since killing me or not makes no difference, why show yourself here?”
Qing Luo asked coldly.
Gu Changge walked into the palace hall on his own, gazing toward the Platform at its deepest point, and said with interest,
“So this is the Sacrificial Scripture you use to contact the Lord of Hell? It seems he must have found the way to the Celestial Domain and vanished from this world.”
On this question, neither the Third Palace Lord nor Qing Luo was very clear either.
If it truly was the legendary Celestial Domain, then why had the Lord of Hell not left behind a single word, instead seeming as if he had suddenly passed away in meditation?
“Forget it. Asking you two was clearly a waste of breath.”
Gu Changge shook his head with some loss of interest.
He had not expected the two of them to know anything about the Celestial Domain anyway.
“I can spare your lives, but from now on you must act according to my instructions.”
“In other words, we’re making a deal.”
Ignoring the astonished expressions on Qing Luo’s and the Third Palace Lord’s faces, Gu Changge smiled once more and spoke.
Next, upon hearing Gu Changge’s words, both Qing Luo and the Third Palace Lord suddenly widened their eyes, their faces filled with dense horror and disbelief.
“The Palm of True World is no simple small world. It contains divine willpower. Without the corresponding cultivation and rules to control it, one will instead suffer its backlash.”
The Third Palace Lord’s voice trembled slightly. He had only controlled the Palm of True World for a short while, and already felt his own Source falling into a state of depletion and loss.
But what Gu Changge planned was far grander.
Although he did not explicitly state what he intended to do with the Palm of True World, the Third Palace Lord already foresaw endless bloodshed and slaughter.
“You really intend to do this?”
Qing Luo sucked in a sharp breath of cold air, undisguised dread in the depths of his eyes.
Gu Changge smiled faintly, paying no heed to their terror.
“Of course. By rights, I shouldn’t be this ruthless, but so many people in the Beyond want to move against me.”
“How could I not do something in return?”
Toward the end, Gu Changge’s gaze grew deep and distant, as if piercing through this place in an instant, falling upon the various heavens of the Beyond.
These past days, the movements of the various Daoist traditions and powers of the Beyond had not escaped his eyes.
# 701 The Traditions Lose Everything, The Final Battle Concludes
The last palace of Neraka was finally breached. The cries of slaughter shook the heavens here, the great battle’s shockwaves spreading far and wide.
All stretches of the starry sky boiled over. Experts stood thick as a forest, charging and clashing back and forth, laws falling like rain without end.
Even Sacred Emperor Realm beings would quickly be drowned in such a battle; the legends of the mighty were easily shattered in such a grand war.
For heroes stood shoulder to shoulder, and there were no weaklings among them. They came from the greatest and strongest races; only Quasi-Emperors could stand firm without being annihilated by the aftershocks.
All of Neraka’s assassins roared, fighting with every means at their disposal, even perishing together with their foes.
But the armies of the various Daoist traditions were simply too numerous, stretching on without end, slaughtering their way down from the Ancient Battleships.
This world was truly too vast. Even with the Palm of True World constantly merging with and disrupting the rules of heaven and earth, it could not change the final outcome.
In how many years had there never been a battle of such scale?
Even the Immortal Wars between certain traditions had never been this tragic.
Human lives were cheaper than grass; swathes of experts fell, blood dyeing heaven and earth red.
It was an apocalyptic scene. Everyone had gone mad.
Even True Daoists killed until their eyes turned red, refusing to stop until their opponents were slain.
Yet at that moment, endless Sacrificial Scriptures ignited between heaven and earth, erupting with boundless radiance and crimson clouds that pierced the firmament, as if hooking together all the rules of existence.
This energy was vast as a misty sea, endless and without boundary, sweeping out in an instant from the deepest depths of Neraka.
All Cultivators and living beings could not help but tremble, their souls seized with terror.
Could it be that the Lord of Hell had revived?
Many True Daoists in the midst of slaughter sensed something wrong at the first moment; even the light of their souls flickered.
Their expressions changed drastically, incomparably grave, staring fixedly at the deepest reaches of Neraka.
There, mist surged like Chaos Energy that had shrouded the place for hundreds of millions of years, suddenly erupting outward.
A world-suppressing aura filled the universe and the Eight Wastelands, tearing apart the starry skies in all directions, as an incomparably blurry figure slowly emerged.
Within its palm, endless crimson light interwove.
It was an ancient Divine Empire, blooming with hundreds of millions of rays of brilliance—who knew how many tens of millions of times more resplendent than when it had been in the Third Palace Lord’s hands—like a scorching, blinding sun.
Terrifying laws permeated the air. Everyone trembled, about to kneel in unison beneath this aura.
“Is this... the Lord of Hell emerging into the world? No, this aura is wrong—we are absolutely no match for him!”
“The changes in this world’s rules of heaven and earth are growing greater. I’m afraid soon we won’t even be able to escape!”
The True Daoists from all sides could not help but show fear and unease on their faces.
They had never imagined that in the deepest part of Neraka’s final palace, that most mysterious Lord of Hell would truly be hidden.
Seeing this scene, all of Neraka’s experts could not help but cheer, their faces filled with excitement.
All despair and dejection were swept away, as if they had been granted new life.
“Is this really the Lord of Hell?”
However, in the shadows, quite a few people harbored doubts.
If the Lord of Hell was still around, how could he have watched with his own eyes as Neraka reached this state before finally choosing to act?
“Why has Young Master disappeared? Wasn’t he very interested in that mysterious Lord of Hell?”
It was Bai Lian’er, who had come along to this place, who noticed that Gu Changge’s figure was missing from the Ancient Battleship.
Ah Da, who normally followed Gu Changge like a shadow, now stood there instead like a dark iron tower.
This made her suspect the true identity of this Lord of Hell.
Because of the Lord of Hell’s appearance, everyone on the battlefield fell into a brief daze.
But soon, everyone plunged back into the slaughter and war once more.
Boom—rumble—!
The heavens shook, the stars trembled, the entire world was collapsing, supreme divine might blossomed, and endless auspicious colors surged.
Neraka’s bronze bell, which contained a Remnant Immortal divinity, was reviving, pressing down at the edge of the firmament,
cascading down endless radiance and Chaos Energy.
Every strand of radiance was incomparably heavy, containing power surpassing the True Daoist level.
Everyone retreated and avoided it; anything blocking its path could only die.
Under the pressure of such power, even Quasi-Emperors could only explode, turning into bloody mud, utterly unable to withstand a single blow.
Wherever the Remnant Immortal Artifact pointed, there was no longer any enemy that could last a single exchange.
Ancient Battleships collapsed and disintegrated one after another; the many True Daoists standing atop them could not withstand this aura, blood seeping from the corners of their mouths.
“The Remnant Immortal Artifact is being controlled by someone—it’s not reviving on its own like before!”
“The cultivation of the one behind the Remnant Immortal Artifact is definitely no ordinary True Daoist. It might really be the Lord of Hell!”
A female True Daoist from Purple Cloud Valley, her expression grave, turned to look back at this world’s spatial barrier.
She felt the situation growing worse and worse.
If the Lord of Hell had not appeared, she would still have had a chance to lead everyone away unscathed.
But now, even the spatial barrier had sealed shut, a vast and supreme power permeating that place.
The True Daoists of the other traditions were also deeply unsettled.
Rumor had it that the Lord of Hell was one of the longest-living existences in the Beyond.
Just how terrifying his methods were, no one could say.
In truth, part of the reason they had shown themselves here was that the traditions behind them wanted to test whether the Lord of Hell was alive or dead.
“Kill!”
But at this moment, because of the Lord of Hell’s appearance,
everyone in Neraka fought as if injected with chicken blood, fearless of death, even fiercer than before.
At the horizon’s edge, that figure standing within the thick mist was cold and emotionless. It raised its great hand and slowly pushed forward.
At this moment, the entire world seemed to become a thing within its palm. Between heaven and earth, an invisible giant hand seemed to emerge, likewise pressing down toward the endless army ahead.
It was a terrifying power that could not be matched, vast and boundless—mountains crumbled, the earth split, chaos surged.
Even True Daoists felt themselves as tiny as ants at this moment, unable to resist.
But they reacted quickly, understanding that this was the will of this heaven and earth at work.
Since the Lord of Hell controlled a Divine Empire and had merged that Divine Empire with this world,
then he was absolutely the master of this world; his will was the will of this heaven and earth.
All who opposed the Lord of Hell were defying this heaven and earth, and would suffer the suppression of the world’s will.
The already battered and broken heavens trembled even more violently.
All the True Daoists, their expressions solemn, flew forward, their Principles of Dao blazing like boiling oceans,
joining forces to resist this power.
Seeing this, the remaining True Daoists of Neraka also threw themselves forward, clashing and slaughtering together with them.
An unimaginable great battle erupted here. Great stars shattered one after another into dust; Ancient Battleships exploded, rapidly collapsing and disintegrating.
The Divine Empire merged with this world; all the rules of heaven and earth fell under the Lord of Hell’s control. He was like the one and only god of this realm, cold and merciless, standing at the edge of heaven and earth, pushing across everything.
His great hand was boundless, like a continent smashing down; all who defied him crumbled.
Blood rain flooded the skies; corpses piled into mountains. Tragic scenes were everywhere, enough to frighten ordinary Cultivators out of their wits.
This great battle to annihilate Neraka lasted a full several days. Toward the end, the True Daoists of the various races also reached the point of their lamps running out of oil, forced to bring out the trump cards they had carried with them.
Fortunately, they discovered that the terrifying figure of the Lord of Hell did not truly exist—it seemed to be only a manifestation.
The energy it contained was rapidly dissipating. As long as they could hold out to the very end, they could leave this place alive.
During this time, they tried to contact the traditions behind them, only to discover in despair that the world barrier was as solid as if forged from Immortal Divine Gold.
News that they were trapped in a desperate situation simply could not be transmitted out, nor could it be known by the outside world.
In other words, even if they could bury all of Neraka’s people, in the end they could only remain buried here alongside Neraka.
This outcome was unacceptable to them.
“Aaaahhh... I’m not reconciled! Why did it have to end like this?!”
A True Daoist roared, utterly unreconciled, unable to hold on any longer, at the point where his lamp had burned out of oil.
His body finally collapsed, transforming into a sky-filling mist of blood, like a rain of blood sweeping across the entire universe—a horrifying sight.
In the distance, other True Daoists also cried out in utter despair, exploding one after another,
failing to last until the final moment.
The once mighty and boundless army now had little left; in the sky above, only a sparse few Ancient Battleships remained floating, and even those were utterly battered and broken.
This battle finally came to an end. Neraka was almost entirely uprooted.
But all the powers and traditions that had come to besiege it suffered devastating losses, nearly annihilated to the last.
Nothing remained—it could truly be called a total loss of everything invested.
This news would undoubtedly shake the entire Beyond.