At the deepest reaches of the Realm Sea, in that land of eternal darkness even time itself could not touch, three figures whose majesty and terror defied description had already descended before the faintly flickering dark core of Emperor Cang.
The dark matter lingering around them was so dense it seemed almost tangible. Laws wailed and reformed beneath their feet; merely by existing, they caused the surrounding void of the Realm Sea to collapse unceasingly, returning to nothingness.
They were none other than the other three dark Quasi-Immortal Emperors—the World-Extinguishing Elder, Emperor Yu, and Emperor Hong!
Their icy gazes swept across the shattered fragments of Emperor Cang’s imperial body and the sole remaining core. At once, the air was suffused with a mixture of mockery, indifference, and a hint of “as expected.”
“Heh.”
Emperor Yu was the first to let out a soft scoff. His entire body was shrouded in a hazy gray light, and behind him, the vague phantoms of broken wings rose and fell. His voice carried a metallic sharpness and indifference.
“Cang, to think you were wounded to such a state by a newly risen junior. Truly… you have brought shame upon us ancients.”
Emperor Hong’s aura was even more tyrannical and scorching, like a dark star burning with flames of destruction. He gave a cold snort, his voice like a great bell, shaking even the dark origin into turbulent surges.
“Twenty thousand years! Not only did you fail to take him down, you had your imperial body destroyed, leaving only a remnant soul! Cang, has your ‘Dao of Eternal Silence’ lost its edge?”
Facing the merciless ridicule of his two peers, Emperor Cang’s remaining core flickered violently, sending out mental fluctuations filled with extreme humiliation and rage. Yet he was so weak that he could not form any effective retort.
It was at this moment that the World-Extinguishing Elder, who had remained silent all this time, whose aura was the most ancient and obscure, as though bearing the weight of countless ages, finally spoke.
His voice was hoarse and slow, yet it carried an authority capable of settling heaven and earth, causing Emperor Yu and Emperor Hong’s mockery to recede somewhat.
“Enough.”
The World-Extinguishing Elder’s gaze was like an abyss as it swept over Emperor Cang’s core.
“That wretch’s Dao of Nirvana does indeed possess its unique aspects. It targets our very origin and cannot be underestimated.”
Then his tone shifted, pointing out the crux.
“Though Cang was defeated, his existence concerns the completeness of the ‘Great Sacrifice’ ritual. Only with the four emperors honored together can we draw forth the power of the source to the greatest extent, ensuring that the Great Sacrifice proceeds without mishap and buries this era completely. If even one is missing, the ritual’s might will be sharply diminished, and variables may arise.”
Once these words were spoken, although Emperor Yu and Emperor Hong still showed disdain, much of the contempt in their eyes had withdrawn.
They could mock Emperor Cang’s incompetence, but they could not ignore the “Dark Great Sacrifice,” a paramount matter concerning their ultimate goal and the root of their power.
The difference between four emperors being present and three emperors presiding over it was as vast as heaven and earth.
“Hmph. You got off lightly.”
Emperor Yu said coldly.
Emperor Hong said nothing more, only that the dark flames burning around him surged slightly, revealing the displeasure within his heart.
The World-Extinguishing Elder no longer paid attention to them. He slowly raised one withered palm, like the bark of an ancient tree. In his palm, dark matter converged, ultimately condensing into a pill the size of a longan, pitch-black throughout, yet with countless fine blood-colored patterns flowing across its surface.
The instant this pill appeared, the surrounding light seemed to be devoured completely. Even the laws emitted groans as though unable to bear the weight. An ominous and destructive aura, so dense it could not be dispersed, spread outward; yet within it was also contained a majestic vitality and dark origin that nearly defied and seized creation itself!
“This is the Myriad Tribulations Reincarnation Pill, refined by gathering the calamity qi of the destruction of myriad worlds and fusing it with endless dark origin. Consume it, and it can help you reconstruct your imperial body and recondense your origin.”
The World-Extinguishing Elder’s tone was flat, as though he were speaking of some trivial matter.
“But the resentments and calamity power of myriad destroyed worlds contained within it must also be endured and worn away by you yourself. Whether this is fortune or disaster will depend on your own fate.”
With that, he flicked his finger. The Myriad Tribulations Reincarnation Pill, which radiated an ominous aura, transformed into a streak of black light and sank into Emperor Cang’s remaining core.
“Buzz—!”
In an instant, Emperor Cang’s core erupted with unprecedented black light, like a black hole ignited in a single moment!
Countless shrill wails, venomous curses, and illusory shadows of destructive calamity qi emerged from within his core and struggled. They were the most malicious imprints left behind when the living beings of myriad worlds were annihilated, and now they had all become sustenance for reconstructing his imperial body!
At the same time, Emperor Yu and Emperor Hong also acted.
The phantoms of broken wings behind Emperor Yu scattered sheets of gray light, like divine chains of order, helping Emperor Cang stabilize the structure of his core and sort through the violent dark energy.
Emperor Hong, meanwhile, drew forth blazing dark fire to incinerate those excessively violent calamity resentments, aiding him in refining the pill’s medicinal power.
For the smooth progress of the Dark Great Sacrifice, the three dark Quasi-Immortal Emperors were actually joining forces to help Emperor Cang recover!
It could be foreseen that once Emperor Cang successfully digested this Myriad Tribulations Reincarnation Pill, not only would his imperial body be restored, his strength might even rise through misfortune, drawing new power from destruction and becoming even more powerful and strange!
On the other side, relying on the subtle disturbance emitted by the Ancient Hall of Guidance, as well as the chaotic energy brought about by the Nameless Quasi-Immortal Emperor’s own death-defying eruption, Lu Xuan had indeed disrupted the perceptions of the World-Extinguishing Elder and the other three emperors for an extremely brief period of time.
Although they had sensed that the Nameless Quasi-Immortal Emperor was condensing power, under the misdirection of the “same-origin” fluctuations from the Ancient Hall of Guidance, and with their priority being to save Emperor Cang, they had not immediately exerted their full strength to intercept him.
When the World-Extinguishing Elder, Emperor Yu, and Emperor Hong had helped Emperor Cang stabilize his core and once again turned their gazes toward the place where the Nameless Quasi-Immortal Emperor had originally been, all that remained there was a gradually subsiding aftermath of nirvana, as well as a rapidly dissipating spatial ripple.
“He ran?” Emperor Yu’s brows furrowed slightly.
“A spent arrow at the end of its flight, merely clinging to life,” Emperor Hong said disdainfully.
The World-Extinguishing Elder’s profound gaze, however, seemed to pierce through layers of space, sweeping over the region where Lu Xuan had previously activated the ancient hall, then turning toward the direction in which Nameless had fled. On that face, as still as an ancient well, there appeared for the first time an almost imperceptible trace of… amusement.
“An interesting ant… capable of slightly disturbing the heavenly secrets.”
He did not expose it, only committing this sliver of abnormality to memory.
“No matter. Once Cang recovers and the Great Sacrifice begins, everything… shall return to darkness.”
For the time being, the Realm Sea sank into the most oppressive deathly silence before the arrival of the storm.
On the side of darkness, the gap in strength revealed by Emperor Cang’s defeat was being rapidly made up, and might even become stronger than before.
As for the spark of resistance, though it had fortunately escaped the danger of immediate annihilation, it also knew well that the true ultimate darkness was slowly descending in a manner never seen before.
Hundreds of thousands of years passed in the blink of an eye.
The Realm Sea had no years, but for those existences standing at the peak of the Great Dao, the passage of time was still clearly discernible.
Hundreds of thousands of springs and autumns quietly passed amid the waves of the Realm Sea.
During this period, the myriad heavens and worlds seemed to have fallen into a strange balance and an oppressive tranquility.
No major movements came from the dark source, but the four terrifying imperial auras entrenched in the deepest reaches of the Realm Sea were like sharp swords hanging above the heads of all living beings, constantly reminding them that the ultimate threat had not gone far.
The core of the Sun Star, within a secret realm suffused with chaotic qi, Lu Xuan slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze was as profound as the universe, as though countless worlds were being born and destroyed within it. The chaotic Dao laws flowing around him had become ever more harmonious and flawless; with every lift of his hand and step of his feet, he drew the myriad Daos of the heavens into resonance with him.
After hundreds of thousands of years of bitter cultivation, his comprehension of the “Chaotic War Immortal Dao” and the “Method of Severing the Three Corpses” had reached a state of transformation. His own realm had long since stabilized at the absolute peak of a supreme giant, and he had even faintly touched that indescribable barrier lying between king and emperor.
He could feel that the gate leading to the domain of the Quasi-Immortal Emperor was right before him, and the scenery beyond the gate seemed within reach.
He could clearly “see” that even vaster ocean of the Great Dao, and sense that true mighty power transcending eras and standing above karma.
But it was precisely this final thread!
No matter how he attacked it, no matter how he tempered himself with chaotic Dao fire, no matter how he reflected his original heart with the method of the three corpses, that seemingly thin barrier was incomparably tough. He was never able to truly pierce through it and step inside.
It was as though he lacked some crucial key, or perhaps needed an opportunity sufficient to shake his entire Dao path.
“Quasi-Immortal Emperor… above transcendence, what exactly is needed?” Lu Xuan’s brows were tightly furrowed. Feeling the boundless power within his body that still seemed to lack a final trace of completion, his heart was filled with urgency and a barely perceptible trace of agitation.
He had also walked out his own Dao and laws, but he still could not step over the threshold of emperorhood.
He knew that there was not much time left.
The suffocating pressure from the source of darkness had never truly dissipated.
At the same time, in a hidden remnant world somewhere in the Realm Sea, a place even dark emperors would find difficult to discover—that was the final core fragment of an ancient great world long since destroyed, wrapped in layer upon layer of nirvana Dao laws and turbulent flows of spacetime.
The Nameless Quasi-Immortal Emperor sat cross-legged in the void, grayish nirvana qi coiling around him. Compared to the state on the verge of shattering that he had been in hundreds of thousands of years ago, his aura had already stabilized and solidified far more.
Most of the cracks on that green robe had healed. Though it still appeared ancient and worn, it no longer seemed in danger of disintegrating.
His face remained indistinct, but that tragic and resolute intent had become even more restrained, like a dormant volcano storing up destructive power.
Thanks to the environment of this special place and the characteristics of his own Nirvana Great Dao, his speed of recovery far surpassed the ordinary.
But to return to his peak, he still needed time. He needed to thoroughly wear away the last of the dark imperial laws that had corroded his Dao, and fully digest the insights from his battle with Emperor Cang, as well as from narrowly surviving death at the very end.
He could likewise sense the four abyss-like imperial auras in the depths of the Realm Sea, and could even faintly perceive an increasingly dense ominousness and deathly silence spreading through the level of the Realm Sea’s laws. He knew that darkness’s ultimate ritual was likely already brewing.
What had to come had come at last.
At a certain point in time, in the deepest reaches of the Realm Sea, four dark imperial auras suddenly erupted together, like four pillars propping up the heavens, stirring the laws of the entire Realm Sea!
With the World-Extinguishing Elder at the head, Emperor Yu and Emperor Hong stood separately on either side, while Emperor Cang, who had just used the Myriad Tribulations Reincarnation Pill to reconstruct his imperial body and whose aura had become even more profound and strange than before, also appeared once again. The four great dark Quasi-Immortal Emperors had gathered!
They spoke no words, only simultaneously drew upon their own dark origins and communicated with the dark source in the unseen.
In an instant, the phantom of a dark altar whose vastness defied description emerged from the depths of the Realm Sea and slowly solidified.
Upon the altar were engraved countless twisted, wailing ancient runes, radiating a terrifying aura that devoured all light and hope.
“Sacrifice—!”
The World-Extinguishing Elder’s hoarse and vast Dao voice resounded throughout the Realm Sea, like the proclamation of final judgment.
The Dark Great Sacrifice had begun!
The altar emitted endless suction, not targeting matter, but “existence” itself—the origins, Dao fruits, and souls of living beings!
One after another, invisible sacrificial pillars of light formed from dark laws spread and swept wildly in all directions with the depths of the Realm Sea as their center!
Wherever the pillars of light passed, whether it was a broken ancient world or a drifting immortal island, whether it was an Immortal King in secluded cultivation or a giant dominating a region, as long as they were swept by the sacrificial light, they would instantly emit shrill, miserable screams.
Their entire cultivation, origin, and divine souls were forcibly extracted and stripped away, transforming into torrents of purest energy that, like hundreds of rivers returning to the sea, were devoured by that dark altar!
This was an indiscriminate massacre against all living beings of the Realm Sea, lasting a thousand years!
It was a bloody sacrifice conducted by the dark camp for some ultimate purpose!
“No—!”
“Darkness is eternal!!”
“Save me…”
Countless Immortal Kings and giants struggled, roared, and wailed in despair. Their divine abilities and magical treasures seemed so pale and powerless before this sacrificial force originating from the essence of Quasi-Immortal Emperors.
The Realm Sea turned into a true purgatory, with blood and darkness becoming its main theme.
A thousand-year blood sacrifice left the Realm Sea withered.
That sorrow and deathly silence spreading through the ages finally stirred a dormant emperor.
Within the hidden remnant world, the Nameless Quasi-Immortal Emperor abruptly opened his eyes.
There was no longer any confusion or fatigue in his eyes, only an icy coldness and resolve that would not melt through ten thousand ages.
He could sense countless living beings perishing amid wails, and the “vitality” of the Realm Sea being rapidly drained dry.
If this Great Sacrifice were allowed to continue, not only would the Realm Sea sink completely, the myriad heavens and worlds would eventually be unable to escape its poisonous reach.
He could not wait any longer.
“Buzz—!”
Nirvana Dao resonance soared into the sky, instantly breaking through the seal of the hidden remnant world!
A gray figure tore through endless void, charging fiercely toward the depths of the Realm Sea, toward that dark altar, toward those four dark emperors standing at the pinnacle of destruction!
“All of you… deserve no forgiveness!”
Nameless’s Dao voice resounded, carrying boundless grief, rage, and killing intent. He directly manifested his ultimate dharma form, circulating the Nirvana Heavenly Art to its limit. Behind him, the phantom of the Xuanhuang Great World emerged once again. But this time, within that phantom, it seemed to have fused with the resentment and unwillingness of countless dead souls from this thousand-year blood sacrifice, causing his nirvana Dao laws to carry a sharp and chilling edge of judgment and vengeance!
He actually intended to use his strength alone to fight the four great dark Quasi-Immortal Emperors and interrupt this bloody Great Sacrifice!
“Hmph! Clinging to life, yet you still dare come court death again?”
Emperor Cang was the first to react. New hatred and old grudges surged in his heart, and his reconstructed dark imperial body erupted with towering black light as he went forward to meet him.
Emperor Yu and Emperor Hong also sneered and acted at the same time. Gray wings sliced through spacetime, and dark imperial fire burned all things to extinction. Together with Emperor Cang, they formed a pincer, surrounding the Nameless Quasi-Immortal Emperor at the center.
The World-Extinguishing Elder still stood at the core of the altar, presiding over the Great Sacrifice, but his profound gaze had already locked onto Nameless, as though he were looking at an insect about to be crushed.
“Rumble—!”
A battle even more tragic and despairing than the one hundreds of thousands of years ago erupted in an instant!