The Void Heaven had transformed into a raging tidal surge tearing through a mighty river.
Countless waves churned and roared, forming a vast white ribbon that stretched across the horizon, thundering forward with unstoppable momentum.
Rules turned tidal!
Dense, blade-sharp laws of the heavens converged into a catastrophic flood, sweeping everything in its path.
To any living being that did not belong in the Void Heaven, this moment brought a soul-chilling sense of apocalyptic doom.
Compared to the earlier onslaught where rules fell like scattered knives, this tidal wave of laws was infinitely more terrifying. Even experts at the Body Integration and Tribulation Transcendence realms could previously weave through the Void Heaven under the suppression of those rules.
But now, the rules ignored all restraint.
It was as if the ancient emperor’s weapon, the Supreme Furnace, had compressed them like a coiled spring—and the harder it had been pressed, the more ferocious the rebound.
Pfft! Pfft!
Agonized screams echoed through every corner of the Void Heaven.
Invaders from the upper realms had their bodies shredded by the terrifying tidal surge of rules.
Compared to the merciless erasure of the River of Time, the annihilation wrought by raw laws was far crueler. Flesh dissolved inch by inch, as though sliced by ten thousand blades. Divine souls were pierced by invisible spikes and violently torn apart.
Even mighty cultivators who had long transcended pain let out desperate, guttural wails that clawed at the soul.
Outside Pingyang Heaven.
The holy lords of the Blood Fiend Heaven, Yuan Magnet Heaven, and the various high-martial sacred grounds of Pingyang Heaven trembled uncontrollably.
What unfolded before them was nothing short of doomsday.
Life seemed utterly worthless.
One brilliant flower of existence after another withered and died.
The Void Heaven had become a slaughterhouse.
Its victims were the noble beings of the upper realms—though a few unfortunate cultivators from the lower three heavens were also painfully erased by the rules.
“Whoever said the Blood-Clothed One’s emergence was like a killing god reborn clearly never saw this Five Phoenixes Holy Lord… That kid’s the real butcher who kills without blinking!”
One shaking holy lord finally spoke.
Countless gazes converged on the black-haired youth hovering in the air, his hair wild, robes flapping, silver wings gleaming at his back.
The cold, ruthless youth—he was the true architect of this massacre.
No one had expected that although the blood-clothed Gu Mangran had indeed appeared, the greatest carnage was not his doing.
The Divine Son had lost an arm. Demonic qi gnawed relentlessly at the stump, his face drenched in blood, his body ice-cold.
He had nearly been obliterated.
If not for his special physique, Lu’s first punch would have erased more than just an arm—it would have erased him completely.
Five Phoenixes Holy Lord…
Just how strong was he?!
Terror filled the Divine Son’s eyes.
“Break!” he roared.
Terrifying energy exploded from his body as he tried to tear apart the “Suppressor” character formation.
“That damned Situ Gui!”
Fury and despair twisted his features.
If not for the formation that traitor Situ Gui had offered, Lu would never have had a way to block his teleportation.
Yet now, that very formation had become his prison!
Blood blurred his vision as he glared venomously at Situ Gui.
All he saw was Situ Gui’s body crumbling inch by inch under the rules, screaming as he vanished into nothingness.
The Divine Son’s heart lurched.
“No—I don’t want to die!”
Panic finally overtook him.
The Void Heaven, graveyard of supreme beings throughout the ages, ignited an uncontrollable terror deep within his soul.
But he was no formation master.
He could not break the array.
Demon Lord Lu hovered calmly in the Void Heaven, his metallic wings beating gently.
Without the support of the three Immortal Constellation experts, the Supreme Furnace began to plummet.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Beneath the void, a massive rift seemed to tear open, hungry to swallow the imperial weapon whole.
Demonic qi swirling around him, Demon Lord Lu watched in silence.
His gaze lingered on the horrifying tear in the Void Heaven, a rare gravity surfacing in the depths of his eyes.
There might be something truly terrifying hidden beyond the Void Heaven.
The emaciated, blood-clothed general Gu Mangran hovered nearby, showing no interest in the ancient emperor’s weapon.
Though it was a treasure of immeasurable value across all Nine Heavens, neither Lu nor Gu Mangran harbored the slightest desire to claim it.
Boom!
Just as the Supreme Furnace was about to vanish into the abyss—
A terrifying imperial aura suddenly erupted.
The furnace shot skyward.
The figure who had lost half his body to the rules coughed up blood, looking utterly wretched.
He summoned the imperial furnace and dove inside, letting it shield his ruined half.
Endless waves of rules crashed against the furnace walls like relentless tides on a mighty river.
A deep, resonant hum rang out.
“He survives even that? Can an imperial weapon really protect him?”
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Lu frowned.
“He won’t die,” Gu Mangran replied, his magnetic voice carrying a hint of dry amusement despite his skeletal frame. “A proud Divine Son of his clan? Death doesn’t come that easily.”
“Old Qi died. Why shouldn’t he?”
Lu’s gaze was indifferent.
The next instant, his metallic wings shuddered.
His figure blurred into countless afterimages, thousands of Lus blooming in the void like deadly flowers.
He reappeared before the Divine Son cowering inside the imperial furnace.
“If the rules can’t kill you, then I’ll beat you to death myself.”
Demon Lord Lu’s voice was ice.
One punch thundered out.
Primordial spirit force, chaos force, and terrifying dao intent erupted simultaneously.
The fist smashed into the imperial furnace once more.
Dong!
A fearsome clash of dao and principle exploded outward.
The Phoenix Plume Swords disassembled into nine blades, spinning protectively before him.
Lu shifted hundreds of zhang sideways through the void.
Even a dormant imperial weapon would not tolerate such humiliation—it struck back.
And the Divine Son hiding inside suffered the worst.
The shockwave of intertwined dao and principle nearly pulverized his flesh.
He was reduced to a bloody pulp.
“Lu—Ping—an!”
The Divine Son howled his true name in rage and despair.
Lu’s expression remained cold.
Under the protection of the Phoenix Plume Swords, he crossed the distance again and again, hammering the ancient furnace with punch after punch.
Even as the backlash battered his own body, the Divine Son endured far worse.
Gu Mangran’s skeletal jaw dropped slightly.
This kid… ruthless.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The Divine Son was a wreck, teetering on the edge of madness.
The imperial weapon that was supposed to be his ultimate lifeline had become a death knell.
Lu had turned his greatest protection into an instrument of torture.
Whoosh—
The tidal rules surged again and again, each wave more ferocious than the last, scouring the Void Heaven clean.
The screams gradually faded into absolute silence—the same silence that had reigned since the ancient wars.
Dong!
A resonant toll echoed.
A lone, defiant figure stood against the towering waves, a tiny silhouette smashing fist after fist against an unyielding cliff that pierced the heavens.
Inside the furnace, the Divine Son was losing consciousness.
From afar, Gu Mangran watched with a half-smile.
Finally, as Lu delivered yet another devastating blow—
The imperial weapon unleashed a terrifying burst of power, as though partially awakening—or as if a supreme expert from afar had roused it.
A blood-colored robe fluttered.
The skeletal, crimson figure of Gu Mangran appeared behind Lu in an instant.
With a casual flick of his finger, he sent a sleeve corner whipping downward like a thunderclap from a clear sky.
A blade of light descended from the heavens.
The erupting might of the imperial weapon was instantly suppressed.
“Keep hammering,” Gu Mangran said lazily, his magnetic voice carrying a domineering edge. “If you kill him, I’ll take the blame.”
Overbearing protection.
Demon Lord Lu glanced at the blood-clothed general hovering nearby.
The next moment, his silver wings fully disassembled, blades floating freely around him.
Black robes billowing, Lu raised a hand, turned his head slightly, and pointed at the imperial furnace.
Shrrriiiek—
Countless silver blades shrieked through the void, clanging against the furnace in a storm of metal.
Though they left not a scratch on the weapon itself…
Every impact made the Divine Son’s eyes roll back as he vomited thick gouts of blood.
Lu slowly closed his fist.
The hilt of the Phoenix Plume Sword fell into his grasp. The remaining eight blades stacked neatly atop it.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The reassembled sword pointed straight at the imperial furnace.
Then he swung.
The stroke was like splashing ink across rice paper—an enormous crescent of black-red flame erupted, curving like a phoenix feather in flight.
This slash carried everything: every drop of primordial spirit force, every wisp of chaos force, and the full might of his destructive dao intent.
Even three or five Immortal Constellation experts would have been torn apart by such a strike.
Clang!
The sword light streaked across the sky like a rainbow and crashed into the furnace.
A terrifying vibration rippled across its surface, spreading in faint, almost imperceptible waves.
The Divine Son inside was instantly reduced to a puddle of meat.
He… had suffered too much.
“Insolence!!”
A furious roar shook the heavens.
Beyond Pingyang Heaven, thunder rolled and an overwhelming aura forced countless beings to their knees.
A storm of divine sense surged forth.
Like a suicidal lone wolf, a terrifying figure charged straight into the Void Heaven.
“To repeatedly profane an imperial weapon—where is the dignity of an ancient emperor?!”
The words boomed like thunder.
A colossal palm woven entirely of immortal qi slammed down onto the barrier formed by the “Suppressor” character.
The barrier shattered; the formation vanished.
The palm continued downward, plunging into the Void Heaven.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The tidal rules boiled once more.
Countless strands of law wove together into a monstrous beast head that lunged and bit at the gigantic hand.
Lu frowned. The palm descending into the Void Heaven gave him a suffocating sense of invincible might.
A supreme expert!
Far beyond the Immortal Constellation realm!
Was this the one controlling the imperial weapon?
Yet faced with that palm, the blood-clothed Gu Mangran merely smiled—as if he had expected everything.
Terrifying power exploded from his emaciated frame.
With a flick of his blood-stained sleeve, he tore off a corner of fabric.
He pinched the scrap and flicked it outward.
The cloth spun wildly, unleashing a sky-blotting blade aura that filled the entire Void Heaven!
Rumble!
The blade qi roared like a dragon bursting from shallow waters, instantly dominating the heavens.
Pfft!
A single slash severed three fingers from the immortal-qi-woven hand.
The three fallen fingers were sucked into Gu Mangran’s blood-red sleeve as though swallowed by a hidden universe.
Beyond Pingyang Heaven, a furious roar shook the void.
“Well done, Gu Mangran! Shame your strength is less than a tenth of what it once was!”
“All the divine medicines of the lower three heavens will be claimed by my Yun Clan—you’ll never recover with them!”
“The day the ancient emperor’s weapon emerges from the Void Heaven is the day I personally take your head!”
Gu Mangran sneered.
“Too scared to enter the Void Heaven and face me yourself, so you send a junior instead?”
“Spineless rats like you—I slaughter like chickens.”
Roar!
The massive arm surged with power, yet half of it was bitten off by the beast of rules.
The remaining half transformed back into a hand and seized the imperial furnace.
It could have dragged the furnace straight out of the Void Heaven.
But its owner caught sight of the demon-qi-shrouded Lu who had pounded the Divine Son into paste—and murderous intent flared.
Abandoning the furnace, the arm pointed straight at Lu.
Demon Lord Lu’s face was expressionless, cold as ice.
The Phoenix Plume Sword took the lead, silver blades forming a protective Bagua array before him.
Yet the terrifying attack never landed.
Because directly above Lu’s head, a massive rift tore open the void.
Beyond Pingyang Heaven.
The Great Venerable of the Little Thunder Sound Buddha Realm trembled violently and fell to his knees, shaking like a sieve, as though remembering something unspeakably horrifying.
Inside the Void Heaven.
Even the skeletal Gu Mangran shuddered.
Lu looked up, eyes wide with shock as he stared at the rift.
Was this… the greatest secret of the Void Heaven?
Yet he could see nothing beyond the tear—only the gaping wound in space itself.
The arm that had been about to strike froze like a startled bird, then yanked back in terror.
It snatched the furnace, dragged it out of the Void Heaven, and fled as though its life depended on it—vanishing without a trace.
It was the behavior of something frightened to its core.
When Lu turned back, the rift had already healed completely, as if it had never existed.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The silver blades reassembled beneath him, forming the Thousand Bladed Chair.
Lu sat down slowly.
The raging demonic qi calmed. His black robes faded into pure white.
“What was that rift…?”
He narrowed his eyes.
The beast of rules dissolved, returning the Void Heaven to silence and hiding once more.
Every corpse, every trace of blood—everything had been scrubbed clean.
And it was that absolute cleanliness that sent chills down the spine.
Beyond Pingyang Heaven.
Countless figures stood frozen, speechless.
No one had imagined that a grand invasion from the upper realms would end like this.
The usually jovial Joyful Venerable wore only terror on his chubby face.
Staring at the white-clothed youth calmly hovering in the Void Heaven, uncontrollable fear surged through him.
Saint Lord Tuoba and Saint Lord Qingling felt their mouths turn dry.
During the earlier bloodbath, two seventh-grade sacred ground leaders like them hadn’t even qualified to intervene.
Yet Lu had survived.
The Five Phoenixes stood unharmed.
“With the Five Phoenixes intact and Holy Lord Lu’s temperament… the lower three heavens are in for hell.”
Saint Lord Tuoba muttered.
Pingyang Heaven, bordering the Void Heaven, would suffer badly.
But the Blood Fiend Heaven and Yuan Magnet Heaven, who had led the grand army against the Five Phoenixes, would suffer far worse.
On the blood-colored battlefield.
The cultivators of the Five Phoenixes stared dazedly at the now-spotless Void Heaven. All the floating corpses had vanished; everything felt surreal.
Lu Jiulian was surrounded by blooming blue lotuses, his expression serene as he let out a long breath.
Zhu Long sat quietly atop the red dragon’s back and closed her eyes once more.
Even they couldn’t help but exhale in relief.
The war… was over.
The Five Phoenixes… had won!
The giant whale floated silently. Immortal islands rose and fell amid cascading origin qi waterfalls, thundering down in glorious torrents.
The white jade towers of the capital shimmered faintly in the mist.
A streak of red light and a streak of white light shot into the immortal island.
The white light dispersed.
The youth sat upon his chair, leaning against the railing, listening to the wind.
Yet to every person of the Five Phoenixes, that not-so-broad back had held up the entire sky for them!
The giant whale hovered above the blood-colored battlefield.
Everyone blinked—
And suddenly found Lu seated upon the Thousand Bladed Chair right before them, wheels rolling slowly over blood-soaked ground, facing the crowd.
His white robes were spotless.
His gaze swept gently across every single person of the Five Phoenixes.
He smiled.
“We won…”
“Time to celebrate.”
The soft words drifted through the air, ringing in every ear. On the blood-colored battlefield, the murderous wind stilled. It was as if sunlight had broken through thick clouds, spilling warm rays that melted the cold frost and snow.
