Upon Kun Peng’s words, the five Emperors were all startled.
Di Jun recalled what the Ancestor of Demons had once said in the starry sky: the power of Hunyuan, did the Wu clan truly possess the power of Hunyuan?
Though Di Jun was anxious, he was not one for direct confrontation.
Tai Yi suddenly pointed, and the sun hanging high in the Ninth Heaven trembled, splitting into a second sun!
It was a great sun formed by a Golden Crow; this was Tai Yi’s evil corpse guarding the Sun Star. Compared to the Heavenly Court, the Sun Star was the foundation of Di Jun and Tai Yi, so even if the Heavenly Court was in peril, the evil corpse would not leave the Sun Star even half a step.
Yet now, the evil corpse had left the Sun Star.
Instantly, the heavens and earth suffered a great drought, the waters of the five lakes and four seas evaporated, the earth cracked, and vegetation withered.
Tai Yi’s evil corpse was nothing compared to the ten newly born young Golden Crows later on, and this was the evil corpse of the Poisonous Sun!
Within the great sun, the Golden Crow spread its wings and cried out, emitting a majestic golden light. At this moment, even a Phoenix could not compare to its nobility!
The Golden Crow flew into the sky, transforming into a rainbow, and in the vibrating frequency of the Eastern Emperor Bell, merged into space-time, passing through the chest of Ju Mang, the Ancestor of Wood.
“Boom—”
With a terrifying tremor and roar, a radiant sun rose, and its fearsome solar true flames made it difficult even for Di Jiang to approach the center of the great sun.
All eleven Ancestor Witches were startled. The terrifying power within that magnificent, blazing sun had made the entire Primordial World tremble.
But what everyone failed to notice was that the Buzhou Mountain, which supported the heavens and earth, began to show a slight crack at its base as the heavens and earth shook!
And all of this should not have appeared so early. It was only because a Jianmu had appeared between heaven and earth, raising the heavens and pressing down the earth, making the weight of heaven and earth even heavier than the ancient Primordial World.
As the great battle between the Wu and Demon clans raged, various divine abilities and magical powers struck the Buzhou Mountain, further eroding its foundation.
Gonggong, seeing this, immediately sensed that Ju Mang’s aura had vanished. He roared, “Tai Yi! Die!”
A torrent of floodwaters surged towards the Ninth Heaven, rushing towards Tai Yi.
Houtu suddenly shouted, “Do not leave the formation! Gonggong, return to your position!”
In this moment of crisis, she could no longer concern herself with brotherly affection. She could only command Gonggong with the majesty of the Earth Ancestor Witch.
Gonggong, who was about to charge out, stopped instantly. The other enraged Ancestor Witches also snapped back to their senses and did not take a step further.
On the eastern side of Buzhou, Tai Yi’s evil corpse once again transformed into a rainbow and rapidly retreated.
Di Jiang roared, “Stay where you are!”
A rough, giant hand shot out from the void, instantly sealing a million miles of space. It grabbed the Golden Crow’s body, and with five fingers of force, intended to crush the Golden Crow!
The Golden Crow, bound within the giant palm, let out a miserable cry, unable to struggle.
At this moment, Tai Yi flashed and appeared before Di Jiang, unleashing a punch.
Di Jiang roared with laughter, “To spar with an Ancestor Witch in physical strength? Overestimating yourself!”
He met the punch with his own. Two fists collided, and the terrifying physical power annihilated three thousand miles of void.
Tai Yi was violently repelled three steps, each step shattering the void, yet Di Jiang also retreated a step.
Di Jiang was shocked. He hadn't expected Tai Yi’s physique to be so robust!
The demon race’s physique was inherently not weak, only inferior to the Wu clan, who specialized in body cultivation. However, tempered by the all-consuming solar divine fire, Tai Yi’s physique was no longer inferior to an Ancestor Witch.
The divine fire burning his body, even he had endured immeasurable pain. The endless suffering and tempering in the sea of stars had been exchanged for his supreme physique today!
Seeing Di Jiang retreat, Tai Yi advanced again, the Eastern Emperor Bell landing on the Ancestor Witch formation position where Di Jiang had retreated.
The void he had shattered with his three steps had broken the seal of the giant palm, and the Golden Crow cried out as it rapidly flew back and merged into Tai Yi’s body.
She Bi Shi did not engage Tai Yi. He parted the dust and smoke, and saw Ju Mang, with his body charred black, still standing on the Ancestor Witch formation, not taking a single step back.
She Bi Shi’s heart was filled with grief. He roared to the sky, “Tai Yi!”
He stamped his foot, and the mountains and rivers split. Nine massive Black Fiend Wu corpses swiftly and ferociously entangled Tai Yi, using fists, feet, mouths, and claws simultaneously, delivering tens of thousands of attacks every moment.
Tai Yi roared to the heavens, his imperial robe tearing. His body grew to a height of billions of feet. His bare torso revealed perfect, pale-gold muscles, his long hair flying wildly behind him. His world-class handsome face bore fearless, heaven-shattering battle intent. His fists clashed with Di Jiang, and his entire body burned with scorching solar divine fire, resisting the invasion of the nine fiendish corpses, each comparable to a Great Witch.
The Eastern Emperor Bell continuously vibrated with its majestic resonance, reaching the thirty-third heaven and descending to the ninth Netherworld, igniting the endless battle spirit of countless demon race members. Eastern Emperor Tai Yi, the God of War of the demon race, fought against heaven and earth. His every punch was overbearing, and his invincible aura amazed the entire world.
Eastern Emperor Tai Yi, the most dazzling existence of the entire era, the faith of countless demons. Under the heavens, all belonged to his light; above the heavens, all belonged to his sound. In the world, who else but him?
In the Lingxiao Treasure Hall of the Heavenly Court, the Demon Master exclaimed, “No wonder the Ancestor of Demons said he might be the foremost beneath a Saint. Such power and dominance truly live up to the name Eastern Emperor Tai Yi.”
In the Five Zhuang Temple, Zhen Yuanzi’s hand trembled. He erased Tai Yi’s name from the Shan Hai Jing. Too powerful and brutal, he could not afford to offend them.
On Kunlun Mountain, Tong Tian couldn't help but feel admiration. Just watching filled him with boundless valor. Such should be the conduct of our generation!
On the battlefield, Nuwa smiled. Tai Yi’s might was all-encompassing, while her Wa Huang’s was more about self-dominance, possessing less overbearingness and more sharpness. One was the ascendant Eastern Emperor, the other the peerless Wa Huang.
Di Jun felt no envy in his heart, only relief and glory. No matter how overbearing and invincible Tai Yi was, he was still his own brother, the person he trusted most.
Billions of demons across the land were all inspired by the Eastern Emperor’s might, their battle spirit soaring. The hearts of the demon race were unified, and even those great beings who had been hesitant began to fight seriously.
While the Buzhou battlefield raged with intensity, atop the Jianmu, Qing Ling’s primordial spirit manipulated the trillions of stars in the heavens, and countless branches differentiated from the Jianmu, guiding the stars to move the starry sky.
And just as the Eastern Emperor struck Ju Mang with that devastating blow, heaven and earth shook, and the layers of heaven became unstable. Qing Ling, taking advantage of this moment, connected the heavens and earth, much faster than originally planned.
The realm of half-step Hunyuan was a bottleneck for great beings throughout history. Even the Xuanwu and Baihu of the past, before becoming divine beasts, had not broken through.
Even the Qilin Ancestors, Hei and Bai Shuang Wang, were stuck at the thirtieth heaven. This level of realm was too difficult to break through.
Nuwa and Tai Yi could break through so quickly because they were blessed with the great destiny of heaven and earth. This was incomparable to Qing Ling, who accumulated minor destinies and mixed them into a great destiny.
Moreover, Tai Yi had exceptional talent, and Nuwa was a Saint. Neither of them was constrained by a fundamental Dao-forming object like Jianmu, so they had ample time to attempt breakthroughs during their long years in the inner sea of stars.
For Qing Ling to advance to half-step Hunyuan, even if it was a natural progression now, it would still require considerable time.
He could not personally go to the current Wu-Demon war.
But that did not mean he would do nothing.
The Five Emperors and the Master of the Heavenly Court were all fighting desperately for the demon race, while he hid aside. The hearts of the myriad demons and the destiny of the demon race that supported him would not permit this.
However, the time was not yet ripe.
Qing Ling cast aside distracting thoughts and completely immersed his mind again, constructing star formations and mobilizing the power of the starry sky.
Simultaneously, as the Jianmu was slowly moved by the鎮壓 (zhenya - suppressive) force of the starry sky, the Jianmu, which had been dormant for countless years, finally began to grow again!
Inch by inch, foot by foot, the top of the Jianmu rose along with Qing Ling. The roots of the Jianmu dug into the earth and continuously expanded in all directions, penetrating the entire Primordial Land.
The roots of the Jianmu crossed places they had never reached before.
The Jianmu expanded westward, extending for tens of thousands of miles and then tens of thousands more, constructing a vast root network deep within the earth. The roots and branches stretched endlessly, gradually reaching the Snake Clan territory in Luoling Mountain in the southwest of the Primordial World, which now corresponded to the Yi Demon Domain of the twenty-eight demon domains of the Heavenly Court, aligning with the Yi Huo She constellation in the south.
The Jianmu roots in the north reached deep into the earth of the Eastern Auxiliary God, probing the four feet of the Xuan Gui. The sleeping Xuan Gui’s eyelids did not move, as if it were in hibernation or a lifeless object.
In the east, the Jianmu roots crossed the vast Eastern Sea, passed the furthest point of the east, and reached the edge of the Eastern Boundless Land.
In the Boundless Land, the Azure Dragon, who had been imprisoned for over a hundred Yuan Hui, slowly opened its eyes. The dark, extreme land was separated from the Primordial World by only a layer of light, but this light barrier prevented him from taking even a single step.
Across the light barrier, the Jianmu roots and the Azure Dragon faced each other. The roots were like withered branches, and the Azure Dragon was like an aged person. He sighed.
Unexpectedly, this sigh caused the withered-like roots to sprout branches and grow again, transforming into a tree in an instant. This tree was full of branches and leaves, newly vibrant.
The Azure Dragon was stunned for a moment, then seemed to understand. A smile appeared on his handsome face, and he said, “You have a heart. From now on, this wood will be my companion.”
This branch tree then became the Companion Dragon Wood. A wood accompanying a prisoner, remembering the one in his heart.
In the distant future, someone would break off a branch of this wood. Because the wood had accompanied the dragon for a long time and was imbued with the breath of the ancestral dragon, it would descend when dragons encountered it, and was thus renamed the Dragon-Descending Wood.
The Jianmu extended south, its roots reaching beneath the Undying Volcano and connecting with the Wutong tree. The roots intertwined, no longer extending south, because any further south would lead to the primordial fire of the earth’s core.
The Jianmu roots reached the eastern extreme, also considered the southern extreme. The north was still obstructed by the bitter winter, and the west was a thousand miles of scorched earth, making it difficult to advance.
However, it had grasped more than half of the Primordial Land!
With every foot the Jianmu grew, the heavens rose half a foot, the earth sank half a foot, and the distance between heaven and earth widened by a foot. The weight borne by Buzhou Mountain increased by another part, Qing Ling’s merit in expanding heaven and earth grew larger, and the stability of Jianmu and the Primordial World deepened.
The Jianmu became the tallest in the Primordial World, towering above Buzhou Mountain, which had stopped at the twenty-eighth heaven, towering above the starry sky, and towering above all beings.
The Jianmu also became the lowest in the Primordial World, sinking below the Nine Netherworlds, probing beneath the underworld. The depth of Jianmu was the depth of the earth.
Qing Ling’s primordial spirit, tempered by countless stellar sea deductions and nourished by the stars, already comparable to a half-step Hunyuan, emerged from his physical body and merged bit by bit with the Jianmu, growing and developing with it. It transcended the shackles of the stars and entered the twenty-ninth heaven, and continued beyond.
The spiritual energy tides of heaven and earth surged like waves, converging into the sea, triggering celestial phenomena.
Nuwa and Tai Yi were not in the Primordial World when they broke through, so they did not cause celestial phenomena.
But now, in the blood-colored heaven and earth of the Wu-Demon war, Qing Ling caused celestial phenomena.