Chapter 420: The Final Resonance in the Darkness
The Great Ruins in the darkness were both tranquil and lively. Tranquil for those without the strength to hide within villages and ruins; lively for those with sufficient power, for whom the night in the Great Ruins was anything but ordinary.
Walking through the dark Great Ruins, one could witness all manner of bizarre and fantastical sights, encounter countless unfathomable and ghostly occurrences. If fortunate, one might even enter strange and wondrous worlds—though whether one would return alive was always uncertain.
That night, the Great Ruins were exceptionally enchanting. The blizzard had just ceased. Wherever light fell, one could see thick clumps of snow clinging to branches and leaves, a world draped in silver.
Suddenly, the sky became extraordinarily bright. Many creatures within the Great Ruins looked up, gazing at the heavens. The dark sky had suddenly gained many vivid colors.
These colors were not natural light, but the radiance of magnificent divine abilities erupting—clusters of brilliance illuminating the darkness.
The darkness seemed almost tangible. Though forced back by these lights, it surged forward again each time it retreated, filling the empty spaces.
The lights shifted and grew ever stranger. The creatures of the Great Ruins saw stars moving at tremendous speed across the sky, chasing one another, battling one another.
The movement of the stars above was peculiar. Ahead were eighteen stars; behind were two. The stars ahead fled, while the two behind pursued, harassing them.
Whenever those eighteen stars halted, preparing to encircle and destroy, the two stars would dart westward. When the eighteen did not pursue, the two would come back and harass again. When the eighteen gave chase, the two fled with all their might.
This repeated again and again. The eighteen stars were held back, unable to truly unleash their speed.
Beside a campfire within the ruins below, the Guardian Elder looked up at this scene, a sliver of hope rising in his heart. The purpose of Demon Ancestor and Master Lingjing in doing this was to hold back the gods of the Upper Firmament, avoiding direct confrontation. If they could keep this up, perhaps there was still a chance of survival.
Suddenly, one by one, the stars in the sky dimmed and vanished from the celestial canopy.
The Guardian Elder's heart sank. That was the gods of the Upper Firmament concealing their tracks, luring Demon Ancestor and Master Lingjing to come find them. If they took the bait, they would fall into an encirclement.
"Don't go..."
The Guardian Elder's heart tightened. He clutched his collar as if gripping his own heart, staring fixedly at the two moving stars in the sky.
"Don't approach, don't approach! Run—"
The two stars moved, seeming hesitant. Then, suddenly, they too dimmed, emitting not a single ray of light.
The sky fell into darkness once more. They had all concealed their tracks.
The Guardian Elder's eyelids twitched, his heart pounding harder and harder with each beat, tense beyond measure.
When all parties hide their tracks, groping and searching in the darkness, that is when it is most perilous. Demon Ancestor and Master Lingjing's patience could not possibly match their opponents'. The enemy could afford to wait, or to leave. But Demon Ancestor and Master Lingjing absolutely could not wait too long—they had to confirm whether the enemy had departed!
Finally, a single point of starlight flickered to life. Only one star shone.
The next moment, the sky erupted. All manner of bizarre divine abilities exploded at once, engulfing that star. Flying dragons and phoenixes, bell towers and cauldron pagodas—all manner of strange shapes, dazzling to behold.
The eruption of these divine powers added new splashes of color to the dark sky. The surrounding darkness was instantly driven away, revealing in the air the faint silhouettes of eighteen majestic gods and demons—their visages either sacred or ferocious, their limbs powerful, illuminated by the light of divine abilities, runic patterns shimmering across their forms.
Caught in the midst of their encirclement was Master Lingjing. Demon Ancestor was not among them.
"Master Lingjing is the bait!"
The Guardian Elder's heart shook violently. As bait, Master Lingjing was surely doomed. No one could survive an encirclement by eighteen gods and demons.
Master Lingjing's purpose was to sacrifice himself to draw out the eighteen deities of the Upper Firmament!
The eighteen deities were drawn out to give Demon Ancestor the chance to strike them by surprise!
Master Lingjing's strength was formidable—a figure who had dominated an era. He had even dared to contend with the Village Chief for the title of number one under heaven, though he lost and forfeited a finger.
However, when it came to the art of ambush, he was lacking.
The Teleportation Robe and Teleportation Banner of the Demon Sect were the true means of ambush. He drew out the eighteen deities, and Demon Ancestor would strike from the shadows—there was a chance to gravely wound them!
"Lingjing's Eight Arts!"
A stirring battle cry thundered through the air, shaking the soul: "From this moment, they fall silent forever!"
The Guardian Elder looked up and saw Master Lingjing's final moments. His Lingjing's Eight Arts were no less than the Village Chief's Sword Diagram, yet against the assault of eighteen deities, it was futile.
He simply unleashed his most prized techniques, like a painter splashing ink to display his talent, like a scholar pouring his all into writing an essay. He wanted to leave his mark upon this world, to leave his shadow behind.
At the same moment, a great banner unfurled. Demon Ancestor's figure appeared behind those gods and demons, delivering killing blows.
The banner swept, and his form seemed to appear beside every deity simultaneously, striking at all of them at once. In a single instant, he wounded over a dozen gods and demons.
Thunder roared across the sky. By the time the sound of erupting divine abilities reached the earth, countless attacks had already been exchanged. The ripples of divine power made the air alternately warm and bitingly cold. Gusts of hurricane-force wind blew down from above—snow melted in an instant, then froze again in the next.
Demon Ancestor's Teleportation Banner was shattered, destroyed in the terrifying fluctuations of divine power. But he still had the Teleportation Robe.
The Guardian Elder looked up. Rain of blood fell from the sky, sparse at first, then gradually heavier.
Of the twenty moving stars in the sky, one dimmed. That star swayed precariously, then in a violent collision, it was extinguished and plummeted from the heavens.
Master Lingjing was dead.
The Guardian Elder's heart sank. Only Demon Ancestor remained, still fighting. Even with his mastery of the Seven Chapters of Creation from the Great Nurturing Demon Scripture, he could not change the outcome of this battle.
Within the ruins, the Guardian Elder did not look up at the battle above. Instead, he stared blankly at the flames by the campfire, mechanically feeding wood into the blaze.
The flames grew higher, the fire grew larger, yet he felt none of it.
"Why is this winter so cold..."
He shivered, adding more wood without awareness: "What's wrong with this fire? No matter how I burn it, it's still cold. No matter how much wood I add, it's still cold..."
In the sky, another star dimmed. Then suddenly, it erupted once more—so brilliantly that it illuminated the heavens.
"Creation's divine beauty gathers, Yin and Yang cleave dusk from dawn!"
A cry that split the darkness rang out, so stirring and awe-inspiring.
Dong—
A melodious bell toll echoed through the air, its sound surging in all directions. Then the bell fell silent. Creation's divine beauty gathers—it had become a final resonance.
The light in the sky gradually faded. After the eruption came the slow encroachment of darkness.
At last, this star fell.
The Guardian Elder bowed his head and spoke no more.
He was waiting for dawn, to go collect the bodies of the two elders.
In the sky, the eighteen stars paused for a moment, then continued eastward on their own course.
The Great Ruins, Shenduan Mountain Range.
At the snowy peak, the mountain ridges were sharp as blades, covered in white snow. In the sky, a line of flood dragons was rapidly approaching.
The wind was strong, blowing the whiskers and manes of these flood dragons backward.
Beside Qin Mu, Si Yunxiang was using her Heart-Mirror to contact the Young Ancestor. The Holy Maiden of the Demon Sect was lost in thought, then suddenly spoke to Qin Mu out of nowhere: "The Ancestor said he's not coming back. He said you don't need to think of him."
Qin Mu was startled. Si Popo turned her head away, quietly wiping the corner of her eye.
"That old man left before us."
The Village Chief was stunned, then sighed: "He was always too impatient."
The Shenduan Mountain Range grew closer ahead. Gazing past it, one could see the Great Ruins shrouded in darkness.
There, streaks of starlight moved across the sky, drawing nearer.
"Mu'er, stop on the mountain!" the Village Chief suddenly said.
At Qin Mu's command, the flood dragons slowed their pace, relaxing their bodies. Their claws gripped the blade-like mountain ridges, coming to a halt. Their manes flew in the wind, their bodies sleek and powerful, shattering the Xuanji Crossbows mounted on the mountain as they landed.
The snow was white, the mountain black. The flood dragons, however, came in various colors—some white, some black, others red, sapphire blue, and more. Treasures of light radiated from their bodies, the natural runic patterns of the dragon race flowing and blazing with brilliance, tinting the snow with other hues.
"This battle will be fought here."
The Village Chief looked around and said: "What do you all think of this place?"
King Kun surveyed the surroundings and said: "It's fine. Just a bit cold."
Tu Xingfeng jumped down from the dragon's back, tightening his clothes, and muttered: "This cursed place is still so cold. The underground is much warmer. Qin Renhuang, if you ever visit our Earthline Clan's underground world, you'll be amazed. Our underground realm is covered in jade glass. The cavern ceiling is hung with thick crystal pillars—hexagonal ones, octagonal ones, clustered together like blooming flowers. The light of the magma fires makes it beautiful. There are also many plants growing in the magma, with excellent flavor. They taste like fiery wine—they burn the throat, but the aftertaste lingers long..."
"Stop it."
The Teng Snake on Xuan Shengwu's shoulder swallowed hard and said: "You've made me hungry just talking about it."
Tu Xingfeng looked up at the stars rapidly approaching, gripping his spiked warhammer, and murmured: "I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to return underground and have another bite. Our underground world also has Fireburst Fruits, fruits born of geomagnetic primordial power. The taste..."
The Village Chief looked at Qin Mu and said: "Mu'er, take these dragons and your little wife down the mountain. There's nothing for you here. Remember to come collect our bodies tomorrow."
Qin Mu nodded, summoned the flood dragons, and descended the mountain with Si Yunxiang, Hu Ling'er, and Yan Jingjing. In the sky, the stars grew closer and closer.
"Are we just going to watch them fight and die for Yankang?"
Si Yunxiang was unwilling: "Can't we do something? Is there really nothing we can do?"
"We can go to the Great Ruins!"
Qin Mu's eyes gleamed. He said: "We can go find the Sun Ship and the Moon Ship! The only problem now is this darkness blocking our path! But we still have one big bodyguard. Where is the Yongjiang Dragon King?"
"The Dragon King is here!"
At the foot of the Shenduan Mountain Range, the river waters churned. In the darkness, a giant dragon rose from the water, coiling above the river surface, lowering its massive head: "What does my lord command?"
—A blizzard struck Xuzhou. Zhai Zhu is currently on the high-speed rail from Xuzhou to Changsha for a VCR shoot. He's been trapped on the train by the blizzard for two full hours now. He took the opportunity to write this chapter and upload it for everyone. The train is two hours delayed and still shows no sign of moving. Please vote for monthly tickets—during the double ticket period, if you have votes, cast them now!