Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 167 Demigod
On the icy plains, the broken remains of the gods, like ruins and broken pillars, lay across the sky and the earth, as if a wound had been cleaved open between heaven and earth, still bleeding.

After a silence as still as the beginning of creation, a sudden change occurred.

The wind and snow moved against the current, and ice chips rolled up from the ground to the sky, as if the gravity of the entire space had been overturned; the sunlight began to dissipate into a red waterfall of blood, breaking and pouring down from the edge of the sky, as if some ancient order was collapsing.

Deep within the ice plains, the towering glacier sank inch by inch, and the azure spiritual energy seemed to be forcibly drawn away, merging into the divine remains that were "reconstructing".

The remains of a god struggled to rise from their shattered state.

It has lost its head, but its torso still contains divinity.

Countless tiny soul threads emerged from the gaps in the bones, like a sinister hand reaching out from the depths of the underworld, pulling at the lingering resentment and obsession between heaven and earth in the air.

The ground cracked, the snowfields churned, the four poles roared like out-of-control wheels, and the entire ice field was like an ancient god about to awaken, wailing in despair.

Chu Ning knelt on one knee in the snow, his chest heaving violently. The Snow-Breaking Blade lay across his knees, still warm, its golden patterns unfurled, and its lightning still swirling around it.

His blood was burning, his soul was trembling, and his wounds were like cracked rocks, yet he still stared intently at the remains of the god.

He looked up and saw the incantation mark on the palm of the Monkey King; he heard it.

No, it was "perceived".

The sacrificed souls shrieked, struggled, and cursed those who used them as stepping stones deep within the cursed seal.

Those sounds had no physical form, yet they pierced the depths of one's consciousness like sharp blades.

"So what if you become a god?" Chu Ning's voice was low and hoarse, yet it was like a cold blade piercing through the snow.

The tone was devoid of anger or fear; instead, it carried an almost desolate indifference.

"That's just a hell that seals you in."

He stood in the wind and snow, like a solitary figure under the blood-red setting sun.

Above the sky, the soul bones of the divine remains resonated slowly, a low and ominous resonance that seemed to mock or question.

He has no words, yet he responds to the contempt of mortals with his very existence.

Chu Ning lowered his head, and a mouthful of dark blood gushed from his throat, falling onto the snow and instantly staining it red.

"Don't go anymore!" Dong'er rushed over and hugged his arm, which was already covered with scars.

Her face was covered in a mixture of blood and tears, and her fingertips trembled as if she were grasping at the last thread of life that refused to snap.

“You’ve already saved everyone… that’s enough…” she choked, her voice scattering like broken feathers in the wind, “Don’t go and die anymore… Qingli is back, we… we can…”

Chu Ning did not answer immediately, but just looked at her quietly. There was softness in her eyes, but also an unfathomable calmness.

“But if the evil spirits in this world are not eliminated…” His voice was soft, but it was like thunder piercing the heart, “Even if Qingli comes back, she will eventually die in endless troubles.”

Dong'er burst into tears, clinging to him tightly, refusing to let him take another step forward. He simply pulled away gently, lowered his head and lingered on her hair for a moment, as if saying goodbye.

He turned to look at the trembling remains of the god, which were collapsing and being rebuilt.

Blood flames swirled within the cracks of bones, and the light of the soul flickered like a ghostly lamp. But deeper within, an ancient and cruel being was awakening—not the glory of the gods, but a monster that existed between the fallen gods and the rebels.

He could sense that the thing was trying step by step to "transform into the Dao," using the body of the Ape Lord to reconstruct a completely new "divinity."

It was as if war drums were booming in my chest.

Chu Ning slowly straightened up, every bone in his body seemed to be groaning and every vein in his blood seemed to be burning, as if the next step would completely destroy him.

But he didn't back down.

He was not chosen by the gods, he had no immortal bones, no bloodline of ancient gods, and no clan emblem or inscription protecting him.

He was never favored by Heaven, and even the word "fate" was never truly on his side.

But he was holding a knife.

That was broken snow, that was thunder and blood, that was the obsession that led them step by step from the mortal realm to the horizon.

He looked up at the divine remains that were tearing the sky apart, and watched as the wind and snow of the four poles turned into a torrential downpour of blood. His pupils gradually lit up with lightning, as if igniting some kind of "light" beyond destiny.

Deep within his consciousness, thunder roared; it was not a divine decree, but his own voice, a cry for help:

“I am not the chosen one, I do not have divine blood…”

He took a deep breath, his blood surging and lightning coursing through his body. His scarred figure stood in the wind and snow, like a sword that was about to break.

"But if we don't stop it today, there will never be peace tomorrow."

He gazed at the sky, at the depths that transcend fate, his eyes cold and hard as iron.

“I am just a mortal,” he said, “and I don’t understand what the Way of Heaven is.”

"But whoever prevents me from living, I will make him die."

With almost the last ounce of strength left, Chu Ning drew his sword and charged toward Yuan Hou.

Enveloped in wind and snow, lightning danced across the blade, his steps heavy yet unwavering.

At that moment, the remains of the god suddenly trembled.

In that instant, it was as if the world's heart had suddenly stopped.

An indescribable, heavy wave erupted from the broken bone cavity of the divine remains, as if an ancient god, who had been slumbering for a thousand years, had suddenly awakened from a dark nightmare.

A sudden gloom descended upon the world, the swirling snow stopped, and space itself seemed to freeze for three breaths.

Then came that voice:

"May your soul be your coffin, so that you may never be reborn!"

The voice of the Ape Lord emanated from deep within the body of the divine remains, but it no longer sounded human; instead, it was like the tolling of a hellish bell, the wailing of ten thousand bones.

The incantation was so deep it was almost inaudible, yet it seemed to echo deep within the very bones and blood of every inch of heaven and earth, striking the mountains, the ice, and the soul.

The wind and snow reversed, and the sky changed color.

In an instant, the sky darkened.

That is the forbidden incantation of the "Demigod's Coffin Seal".

It is neither magic nor supernatural power, but a black curse that has long been written into the primordial laws of heaven and earth—an ancient seal that uses souls as bricks and the dead as stones to build the tower of the gods.

It can only be awakened when all souls are devoured and all thoughts converge.

"boom--!"

Deep within the bones, rings of dark red soul flames, like surging fire serpents, rolled out along every crack in the divine remains.

From the flames emerged human faces, pale, pained, and distorted like broken masks: there were children, old people, beggars, and nobles; some had eyes filled with grief and indignation, while others cursed through their teeth—they had once lived in some corner of the world, had names, and had attachments, but now they were being annihilated as fuel in this black flame.

They are not the dead, but the sacrificed.

It's not a memory, it's a price to pay.

The Ape Lord's divine flames surged, and soul patterns frantically emerged from his bones and blood. He roared to the sky, his throat hoarse like a wild beast sharpening a broken blade:
"Godhood... the gods you speak of are nothing but chains."

Amidst the excruciating pain of flesh being torn apart, a memory sealed away for a century quietly resurfaces.

That was the first time he saw "God".

A blood-red altar hangs high atop the barren peak of the demon mountain, its crimson flames scorching the sky.

That day, he was only seven years old. He was bound to a bronze pillar, his entire clan knelt down, his father and brothers died, and his mother cut out her heart and committed suicide.

The "human god" draped in divine robes stood in the sky, looking down on all living beings, cold and silent. With a wave of his hand, he sent down a ray of divine light, which sealed his entire clan of one hundred people as "monsters" and burned them to ashes.

He remembered that night, he cried until his voice was hoarse, but no one answered even a simple "why".

He was dragged off the altar and thrown into the northern snowfields like a stray dog. With broken bones and shattered muscles, he lay in the blood-soaked snow and did not die overnight.

That night, he bit off a tooth and wrote his first vow in blood:

“One day, I will climb your high platform and smash your idols one by one.”

From then on, he no longer believed in fate or God, but only in his own two hands.

He had been a mercenary before being picked up by the Blood Refining Hall and becoming the "Bone Refining Ape General" under Chi Tong. He never sought credit, never complained of hardship, and in every battle, he was always at the forefront. Divine Remains Formation, Broken Edge in Secret Realm, Soul-Tearing in Spirit Sea—he was the first to tread any path that others dared not tread.

He has no complaints.

Until one day, he finally realized: they had never treated him as a brother.

"You use my bones to forge towers, my soul to offer sacrifices, my body to bear the weight of formations... Do you think I am livestock?"

Ape Lord looked down at his own skeletal body, now burned to a crimson gold, and grinned coldly:

“Give me chains, and I will forge them into blades.”

“You have humiliated me, so I will refine it into a ‘divine curse’.”

He slowly raised his skeletal hand, the blood-stained character "Coffin" on his palm gleaming with divine flames like a blazing sun. He gritted his teeth and hammered the cursed seal fiercely into his soul core.

"I offer my broken body as a sacrifice—"

"May your soul be your coffin, so that you may never be reborn!"

This is not a vow, but a curse, a curse, the only "faith" he forged during a century of arduous practice.

A burst of blood mist erupted, causing all living things in heaven and earth to tremble.

He wasn't without fear.

Rather than becoming a pawn of humanity once again, he would rather burn himself out than remain the one wielding the pieces.

The remnants of the divine remains struggled in agony, and countless wails of the dead echoed from the flames. The red child's soul cried out in the fire:

"You will die... You will be devoured and turned into the 'Abyss of Souls'!"

The Monkey King heard this.

But he did not waver.

He looked up at the sky he had shattered and uttered a chilling whisper:

"So-called gods are nothing but a group of self-proclaimed noble prisoners... Today, I will burn these shackles to ashes."

"If it is to become a god, I can bear all the sins in this body."

The ice field beneath his feet suddenly cracked, and the entire world seemed to collapse and recombine from beneath his cursed seal.

At this moment, the world seemed to be filled with the resentment of wronged souls, and the air was filled with the bitter taste of blood and fire, as if we had sunk into a nightmare world cursed by countless souls.

Chu Ning stopped abruptly, his pupils constricting, almost kneeling from the sudden "soul pressure".

He watched as the Ape Lord slowly emerged from the belly of the divine skeleton, like some kind of monster hatching from the depths of hell.

That demigod's body, wreathed in bone and fire, had completely fused with the divine remains in his left shoulder, sternum, and spine. Crimson gold soul flames leaped from the gaps in his bones, as if the will of an ancient god from beyond the heavens had been injected into his body, burning, reconstructing, and regenerating.

His other side of his body still retained the outline of a human, but due to the infiltration of divine patterns, it appeared both demonic and monster-like.

"Did you see it?" Yuan Hou looked up at the sky and murmured softly, as if responding to some ancient and vast celestial language.

Then, he turned to look at Chu Ning, grinning, a smile that was chillingly cold.

"This is my divine path. It is built upon the foundation of ten thousand souls, with the remains of gods as its bones, the river of blood as its guide, and the soul incantation as its contract."

"This is not becoming a god."

Chu Ning murmured, the Broken Snow Blade resonating in his hand.

"This is like sealing yourself...into hell."

The Monkey King's smile grew even more sinister, and before he could speak, a punch had already landed.

"boom!!"

The sky seemed to split open, and thunder roared. Before that punch even landed, the ground had already collapsed a thousand feet deep.

The entire demigod body crashed down like a thunderbolt, his fists intertwined with soul flames, like the booming of heavenly drums.

Chu Ning was almost instantly pressed into the snow, but he suddenly drew his sword.

"First move - Tide-Severing Edge!"

The flashes of blades were like a tidal wave, splitting the ground three feet deep.

The diagonal slash, imbued with the most compressed "human killing intent," erupted inch by inch from his spine, tearing through the air along the Broken Snow Blade.

Ape Lord simply raised his hand—Divine Bone Supporting the Shield.

"Oh!"

The clash of blade and bone echoed across the three-thousand-foot-high snowfield.

Chu Ning flew a hundred feet, and when he landed, his left arm was almost numb and the blade trembled slightly, but Yuan Hou did not even falter in his steps.

"Second move - Bone-Splitting Arc!"

Before his soul could settle, Chu Ning leaped forward forcefully, his body arcing as he unleashed a counter-slash from behind Ape Marquis.

The blade's edge tore through the air, creating a series of intersecting blood arcs, precisely slashing towards the shoulder blade where the divine bones had merged.

"Crack——!"

Ape Lord paused slightly, and the soul fire on his right shoulder trembled.

But in that instant, he turned and struck with his elbow, the blow as powerful as a mountain.

Chu Ning sidestepped to block, but his entire body was like a broken sail crashing into a mountain, and he was blasted back thirty feet, his knees leaving two bloody gashes on the ground, blood gushing out.

—The power of a demigod lies not in physical strength, but in “overwhelming reversal of the rules.”

"You can't kill me." Ape Lord approached step by step, three divine arrays appearing beneath his feet. Soul shadows wailed from within his footprints, only to be instantly devoured into bone flames.

"Then let's try this last move."

Chu Ning wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, her eyes showing no sign of wavering.

He raised his snow-cutting knife high.

—"Third Form: Annihilation of the World!"

The sky and earth changed color, and the glaciers murmured.

In that instant, the intent of the blade was not fierce, but it was so quiet that it was unsettling.

It was as if the entire universe was cleaved in two by a single blade amidst a moment of silence.

The snow and wind stopped.

Time seemed to slow down for a moment.

Then, a slanted arc of light flashed at the end of the icy plain.

"boom!"

The Ape Lord's figure was forcibly slashed diagonally in mid-air, his soul fire poured out, and a ball of blood-red soul light exploded from his left divine bone.

This was the first time he had been forcibly repelled by Chu Ning.

Ape Lord knelt on the ground, his bones remodeling, and stared coldly at the figure in front of him who couldn't even stand steadily.

"You actually... had another move up your sleeve."

Chu Ning was breathing heavily, his face ashen.

His entire body was nearly disintegrating, his blood and qi were depleted, his dantian had collapsed by three-tenths, and cracks appeared on the Broken Snow Blade.

"I have no divine power."

"No bloodline, no thunder."

He slowly walked back to the battle circle, his eyes as cold as iron and as cold as snow.

"But I have a knife, humanity, and..."

"The reason I want to kill you."

At this moment, he was no longer an ordinary person.

He is a "man" who dares to slay a god.

The wind and snow rose again, and the world seemed to be about to fall like a curtain.

Chu Ning's silhouette resembled a lighthouse about to go out, standing alone on the shattered ice plain.

He had just unleashed the "Silent Annihilation" technique when his soul was on the verge of collapse, his consciousness was exhausted, and his internal organs felt like they were burning.

The ice beneath his feet crumbled inch by inch, the blade no longer trembled, only a sliver of cold light remained, stubbornly held between his finger bones.

He faced Yuan Hou directly, blood staining the corners of his lips, his breath so weak it seemed as if he would be blown away by the wind at any moment.

But Yuanhou slowly straightened up.

He was clad in armor of divine bones and soul flames, half of his body transformed into the form of divine remains, with soul fire entwined around his bones and his veins roaring.

Although the "Annihilation of the World" attack forced him to take a half step back, it did not shake his core of divinity.

"Is this your limit?"

Ape Lord grinned, his voice filled with undisguised contempt.

His footsteps caused the ground to rumble and collapse, and divine power surged forth like waves.

In that instant, the space around Chu Ning was compressed, and he heard the cracking sound of bones breaking. His left arm was almost dislocated, and blood oozed from between his fingers, the corner of his eye, and his nose. His face was as pale as death in the snow.

He tried to grip the knife—but the knife was trembling.

He tried to stand firm—but his leg bones were cracking.

The Ape Lord approached step by step, his divine might pressing down like mountains and seas.

“Mortals are mortals after all. Your sword can cut off the head of a god, but it cannot cut off this new destiny.”

“You are very strong.” He said coldly, “stronger than an ordinary person.”

"But the path to godhood does not allow mortals to pass through."

Before he finished speaking, Yuan Hou raised his palm and swept it horizontally, as if the heavens were about to be shattered.

The air exploded, the space collapsed, and Chu Ning didn't even have time to react. His chest was dented and his flesh was torn apart.

"puff--!"

He was sent flying backward, crashing violently into the ice wall several meters away, his body embedded deep within it, resembling a portrait about to burn out.

The Snow-Breaking Blade flew out of his hand and plunged into the snow a hundred feet away.

The knife trembled silently, as if it were wailing.

"Chu Ning!!" Dong'er's scream pierced the snow. She rushed towards the broken walls and ruins like a madwoman and helped Chu Ning up.

A fierce wind tore through the heavens and earth, and blood-red clouds surged like a tide. The demigod ape strode over the remains of gods, each step seemingly burying the rules of the old era.

Chu Ning knelt in the snow, his soul cracking like a spider web, his dantian filled with reversed thunderous energy, and his sea of ​​consciousness felt as if he had fallen into a hell of thunder and fire, his consciousness on the verge of collapse.

Blood kept flowing from his palms.

"You... are finished!" Ape Lord's mocking laughter boomed amidst the deafening roar of heaven and earth. "The Primordial Chaos is dead, the Seal is unclaimed, the Old Heavenly Dao is shattered, what can you use to stop me?"

Chu Ning did not respond. His throat felt metallic and salty, his body felt like scorching steel being repeatedly hammered, and the cracks in his soul were tearing apart little by little, almost burning out completely.

Just as he was about to sink into the abyss of consciousness, a faint light shone from her chest.

It is—the Ice Soul of the New Moon.

The ice crystal that had once been formed from Qing Li's natal divine soul now shimmered with a faint blue light in Dong'er's arms, like a tear of moonlight falling from the snow.

"Chu Ning." A familiar yet distant voice whispered from within the ice.

Chu Ning's consciousness trembled violently, as if he heard a familiar sigh within his shattered soul.

Qingli.

A snow-white phantom slowly emerged amidst the ashes of the collapsing heaven and earth.

Her long hair cascaded down her back, her white robes were like frost, and though her spirit and image were faint, she exuded a gentle tranquility.

She looked down at Chu Ning, who was on the verge of collapse, her eyes filled with no pity, only determination.

“The seal is not divine power,” she whispered.

"It is... that part of your heart that you are unwilling to let go of."

Chu Ning slightly opened her eyes, her gaze like a flame rekindled within shattered ice crystals: "But I... can't even move a single finger..."

Qingli's spirit smiled gently, as if a tear of snow had slid down her cheek: "You can't do it, but she... is still by your side."

"She trusts you more than you trust yourself."

The next moment, Dong'er threw herself into Chu Ning's arms, her face already covered in tears.

In her hand, the light of the Ice Soul surged, as if Qing Li's remnant soul was being compressed with all its might, preparing for the final "guidance".

"Chu Ning!" Dong'er cried and shook him. "You can't fall down!"

She suddenly lowered her head, bit her palm until it bled, and pressed the Ice Soul directly against Chu Ning's chest. "I'll use my life to exchange for this one act of 'faith' from you!" Her voice choked with emotion, yet as resolute as frost. "You're not fighting for gods, you're fighting for us! For Qing Li, and for me—"

The icy blue light spread along Chu Ning's bloodline, merging into the surging thunderous energy within his body.

The world suddenly fell silent.

Ape Lord frowned: "...Hmm?"

He saw it.

The figure torn apart in the snow was slowly rising, lightning and icy blue light merging within him like a star waterfall, and a brand new aura was rising from Chu Ning's body.

"The power of human faith."

"...Believe in yourself, and believe in the soul that never bows down."

That is the true meaning of the lock.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ice plain, as the Ape Lord fully unleashed the power of the divine remains, countless "Void Puppets" surged out from the spiritual rifts, like a swarm of bone insects and ants, gnawing at the earth and sweeping towards the scattered survivors in the far north.

"Ah!!" someone screamed, a child cried, and an injured person struggled helplessly.

Dong'er heard it.

She looked back and saw that the people who had no way to escape were driven to the brink of despair, and the divine sense of the Ape Lord had already designated this area of ​​the sky as a "blood sacrifice altar".

Qingli's voice echoed in her mind once more: "The power of the Ice Soul... though it cannot make one a god, it can protect people."

Dong'er glanced at Chu Ning, then turned and stood up.

"Are you going?" Qingli's soul asked.

“He wants to slay a god.” She took a deep breath, blood seeping from her palms. “Then I will protect people.”

She tore off her tattered sleeve, bit it into a bandage to bind her wrist, and raised her other hand high, her palm already bleeding profusely.

"With my blood as the catalyst, I summon the final divinity of Ice Soul—"

"Freeze this realm—protect humanity."

The next instant, the Crescent Moon Ice Soul bloomed in the air like a wheel.

Snowflakes rolled back, stretching for miles, and a crystal-blue semi-circular shield, centered on Dong'er, instantly expanded, enveloping all the survivors.

"Click——!!"

The snowfield was sealed off, and all the Void Puppets were frozen by the blue light the moment they crashed into the barrier, turning into ice sculptures.

With her blood surging, Dong'er almost fainted, but she gritted her teeth and held on, refusing to take a single step back.

She knelt on the ground, looking at Chu Ning not far away, and murmured softly:
"Chu Ning, I will guard this place—you go... and slay that false god."

As Chu Ning watched Ape Marquis display his boundless power, a sudden chill rose in his heart. It wasn't fear of the enemy, but an intuitive resistance to the essence of this "Soul of the Coffin"—it was neither a god nor a human, but an "existence" abandoned by all rules.

His flesh and blood are resentment.

His source of soul is death.

And the Monkey King is imprisoning his soul here for eternity.

His skin began to crack.

The Ape Lord's bone flames scorched his body like magma, his skin cracked inch by inch, his blood flowed backward, and his veins throbbed wildly like venomous snakes, bearing the price of this "demigod contract".

"Does it hurt?" he asked himself, his voice low and hoarse, as if he were talking to his deepest fears.

His eyes gleamed with an indomitable light.

"How can this little pain compare to the coldness of being abandoned by God, forgotten by people, and mocked by fate?"

He clenched his teeth, as if biting all his resentment and anger into his blood.

"If Heaven will not allow me to become a god, then let me create my own Heaven."

The next instant, he roared and fiercely embedded the deep crimson "Soul Lock"—the core spiritual contract forged by sacrificing all spirits with blood and burning bones with curses—into his own heart and bones!
"How can one prove God's divine status without going mad?"

The divine remains trembled violently.

Between the bones, Ape Lord's body gradually twisted and mutated. On one side was a demigod's body, scorched by bone flames and reconstructed from divine remains, while on the other side remained a remnant of Ape Lord's original humanoid outline.

The two forms intertwine and resonate, with the soul flame and divinity becoming one, impacting the bottom line of the laws of heaven and earth.

He walked out of the remains of the god step by step, the ice beneath his feet cracking inch by inch, as if the earth's veins were trembling.

He looked up and smiled.

It was the laughter of someone who survived death and betrayal.

Within his eye sockets, two balls of soul fire churned and burned like twin stars in fury:

“Chi Tong offered his soul to me, and Hunyuan Shangshi broke the shackles for me—they all thought they were becoming gods, but I… am the one who truly writes the destiny of gods.”

His voice grew softer and softer, yet it seemed to whisper in the ears of every dead person.

With one step, the heavens and earth resounded like the eternal tolling of a divine bell.

The shattered remains of the god behind him poured into his body like a tidal wave crashing down.

Bone joints stitched together, soul flames consumed the body, every inch of flesh was reshaped in the tearing, divinity awakened from the broken bones, and the boundary between the life soul and the divine soul was completely annihilated at this moment.

His skin cracked like porcelain, his bones were reforged, his soul flames swirled, and his curse marks were branded like branding.

Every wound is a sacrifice; every wisp of soul fire is a declaration.

His back stood as straight as a monument, and his steps were like the slow tolling of a heavenly bell, as if he were treading on the obsessions and last wishes of countless cultivators to ascend to the summit of that divine throne.

"Now that the divine body has returned to oneness—it is my destiny to write this book."

He murmured, his voice deep and resonant, like the echoes of an abyss, or the low chanting of a god from an ancient battlefield.

That was not a declaration, but a judgment.

A new mandate of heaven was promulgated.

The next moment, he suddenly looked up, his fist piercing the sky.

"--boom!!!"

This punch did not knock down any enemy, nor did it shatter any wreckage.

It fell into nothingness, yet shattered the very core of the world.

Above the sky, there was a "boundary" that was originally formless and intangible, only perceptible to the soul, and beyond the reach of martial arts practitioners.

Now, under that punch, the thin mirror, frozen for eternity, has quietly developed its first crack.

At first, it was just a single line, like a spider web.

Immediately afterwards, the stars trembled, and the four spiritual veins of the four poles collapsed.

The sky changes color, the dome collapses, and all things change.

The crack, like a divine pattern, spread inch by inch in all directions.

Throughout the Great Zhou Heavenly Domain, martial artists from thousands of kingdoms and sects were shaken, and those in seclusion coughed up blood, their Qi Seas churning.

Those who were martial artists of the fifth rank or above all looked up.

They saw a glimmer of light within the crack in the sky, illuminating the "divine path" they could never reach in their lifetime.

"The Heavenly Gate... the Heavenly Gate has cracked..."

"Someone has broken the 'Heavenly Law'!"

"who is it?!"

"Who broke through these divine shackles for us?!"

The crack in the Heavenly Gate is not just a visual tear, but also a disruption and rewriting of the underlying rules of the entire martial arts cultivation system.

The tides in the dantian flowed backward, and the power of ascension reverberated. The "Stage of Divine Transcendence," which had been suppressed by the Heavenly Dao for hundreds of years, was rekindled at this moment.

The Ape Lord stood with his head raised, laughing wildly, his soul fire like a banner and his divine flames like a pennant.

He neither looks up to the masses nor listens to the terror of the world.

He stared only at the crack in the sky, whispering each word clearly:
"I, Ape Lord, do not do this for the common people, but only for myself, to reclaim everything that has been taken from me!"

"If Heaven does not tolerate me, then I will destroy Heaven."

"If the people do not believe in me, I will make them kneel and look up to me!"

He roared, his blood-red flames engulfing the sky:
"If Heaven wants to destroy us, let it destroy us."

"If the world is going to be in chaos, then let it be utterly chaotic!"

"I came to create the world—for myself!"

After that punch, the crack in the boundary wall was like a chasm cleaving down, tearing an unavoidable gap in the remaining order after the Heavenly Gate was closed.

Beneath the blood-red sky, the wind and snow raged erratically, and the ice plains cracked as if a boat were breaking through the sea.

But what's even more terrifying is that it's not under Chu Ning's feet, but in the myriad realms hundreds of thousands of miles away.

……

The moment the Heavenly Gate shattered, the entire world trembled silently.

It was neither a roar nor thunder, but a tremor that came from the depths of heaven and earth.

Danjing Village, Southern Xinjiang

This small village, surrounded by mountains on three sides, is usually populated by a few acres of medicinal herb fields, mostly by the elderly and children. But at the very moment the "boundary lock broke," the 600-year-old mulberry tree at the village entrance suddenly burst into golden light.

"Mother! The tree... is talking!"

A dirty child squatted under the roots of a mulberry tree and cried out in surprise. Suddenly, a crimson light, unlike anything he had ever seen before, shone in his eyes, as if an unseen hand had forcefully "lit up" some kind of bloodline for him from the heavens and earth.

And the branches of the old mulberry tree began to slowly twist, the bark revealing incantation-like patterns, emitting a faint murmur:

"...The boundary is broken, the sky is cracked...My root connects to the divine wilderness..."

The child's grandfather was the only person in the village who had seen a martial artist outside the mountains back then. With trembling hands, he took out a long-sealed animal bone wooden slip from the woodshed. The moment he touched the slip, he shuddered violently.

—White hair curls backward, wrinkles fade away.

In just three breaths, he transformed from an octogenarian into a middle-aged man in his thirties. Spiritual energy spontaneously arose in his dantian, his five senses were greatly enhanced, and even his long-cracked leg bones began to repair themselves.

"The heavens have changed my fate... has the heavens opened their eyes?" he murmured, tears welling in his eyes, unaware that this gift of spirit was either a blessing or a calamity.

……

At the summit of Wanshan Mountain, bells and chimes ring out without being struck.

On an ancient stone tower, the white-haired Taoist suddenly opened his eyes, and the Taoist diagram in his sleeve cracked in three places, with the divine runes reversing.

"The Heavenly Gate is cracking?" he murmured, gazing at the faint golden-white lightning pattern in the far north.

"Who... is trying to pry open this gate to heaven?"

Hundreds of top-tier experts simultaneously felt their primordial spirits tremble and looked up.

Many of them had personally experienced the trauma of their past lives when they "broken the path to ascension," and now that pain was suddenly throbbing violently.

"The Heavenly Gate...can it really open again?"

The martial arts world is now in turmoil.

From the tenth grade to the first grade, the Qi sensation was turbulent, the dantian was in excruciating pain, and the sea of ​​consciousness was in turmoil.

Countless martial artists felt as if they were standing on the edge of an abyss, unsure whether they would die in the next instant or embark on the mad path of ascension.

……

At the place where all demons paid homage, the Demon Emperor Qingfeng was listening to the snow with his eyes closed when he suddenly heard thunder rumbling in the sky. He abruptly opened his eyes, and a spiritual mark appeared between his brows.

He stood up and looked up at the sky. The crack extended all the way to the dome of the demon realm, where the shadow of a divine dragon faintly appeared.

"It's the aura of God..."

"How is this possible! Gods can be made in this world?!"

Amidst the wind and thunder, an old, demonic figure responded in a low voice:
“It’s Ape Lord. It’s him.”

In an instant, the demon realm was shaken—the pawn they had thought they had abandoned had now shattered the Heavenly Dao.

……

In the depths of the underworld, the sacrificial river flows backward, and the dead return in their dreams.

The "Soul Bell" on the altar trembled on its own in the stillness of the air. A white-robed soul-wrenching figure looked up at the Abyss of Heaven, a mysterious smile playing on his lips.

"So that's how it is... The destiny suppressed by the old soul has finally cracked."

"He actually managed to hit the 'core layer'..."

……

In a distorted, almost nonexistent realm, a pitch-black silhouette opened its eyes; it was the "Boundary Patrol Envoy's" outpost.

They do not belong to the Three Realms and Five Domains; they are "arbitrators" existing between existence and annihilation.

One of them stared at the crack in the Heavenly Dao and whispered:

"The initial break has appeared in the Five Planets Domain Boundary Lock, the Judgment Heaven Domain level has risen, and the 'Boundary Patrol Envoy' will be automatically dispatched to intervene within five days."

Another person slowly unfurled the scroll, pointing to the figure of the Ape Marquis:
"Tianjin Star, location complete... marked as 'potential world-destroying level existence', needs to be reported to the Starfield Emperor."

……

The heavens and earth trembled, and divinity was shaken.

But amidst this turmoil, only one person remained standing in the chaotic snow.

Chu Ning.

He seemed to no longer hear the heavenly drums in the sky or the sounds of collapse on the ground; he could only hear the thunder rumbling in his own heart.

He looked up at the expanding crater in the sky.

"He smashed more than just the Heavenly Gate."

"It is the last shred of reverence in the hearts of all martial artists."

His fingertips trembled slightly; the lightning marks on the Broken Snow Blade flowed like lifeblood, marks left by Hunyuan, telling him—

You are the one who can guide us through this crack.

Deep within the icy plains, the remaining golden tree suddenly trembled, as if awakened from a distant era.

The branches rustled without wind, the golden leaves seemed to weep and lament, and as they swayed, an ancient bell seemed to ring out from the depths of the void, like the last whisper of the heavens since time immemorial.

Immediately afterwards, the world lost its color.

"boom!"

A deafening roar shook the world, like a boundary marker collapsing or a heavenly drum shattering. The entire golden tree crumbled instantly, its millions of golden roots twitching and struggling as if unwilling to fall, yet still being forcibly torn apart by the power of the divine fist.

In the instant the divine radiance faded, golden leaves fell like tears raining down from the heavens, each one reflecting the phantom of the old order, burning to ashes in mid-air.

The remnants of Master Hunyuan's consciousness were extinguished the instant the golden tree collapsed. The "Guardian Seal" he had engraved between heaven and earth turned into a wisp of ash in that instant and was scattered by the wind.

This is not just the collapse of a tree.

It signifies the end of the duty of the gatekeepers of Heaven, and the final bell tolling for the balance of the old world.

From this day forward, this world will be in chaos.

Ape Lord stood before the remains of the Golden Tree, his fist raised high, his eyes indifferent, and the soul flames that no longer belonged to him churning in his eye sockets.

He looked up at the gradually shattering sky, and a sinister smile suddenly appeared on his lips.

"You think I'm going to ascend to heaven?"

he whispered.

“I am here to shatter your judgment.”

"The Heavenly Dao? The Divine Gate? They are nothing but chains used by the ancient gods to imprison us."

“I, Ape Lord, am a slave, a scourge, and a straw dog of a false god in this life.”

"But today, I will use your divine bodies, your boundary locks, and your sacrificial rituals to break through your heavenly gates!"

As he uttered his last word, the crack suddenly exploded, and countless streams of spiritual energy surged back from the crevice, like an aura from the depths of the underworld, pressing down on the entire world as if it were facing its final calamity.

Despite this overwhelming pressure, Chu Ning still stood with his sword in hand, his soul and blood trembling, his flesh and blood on the verge of collapse, yet his eyes blazed with lightning as he stared intently at the demigod figure standing tall in the sky.

"I am the new god." Ape Lord raised his head, his voice like a fierce thunderclap from the heavens, "This world has no master, so I will take over—with the body of a demigod, I will destroy the lives of all living beings!"

At this moment, Chu Ning was merely a thin figure in the snow, almost swallowed up by the divine light.

He knelt on one knee, the gleam of the broken snow blade still lingering in his hand, his body covered in cracks and bloodstains, yet he still resembled an unextinguished thunderclap.

He looked up at the figure that was swallowing up destiny.

Suddenly, the earth and sky shook.

A barely perceptible "tremor," not belonging to the ape-lord, came from the other pole.

An ancient "oath" awakens at this moment; a more serene "cause and effect" quietly emerges in the aftershocks of the dissipation of chaos.

Chu Ning felt a faint heat rising in his chest, and the blade of the Broken Snow Blade trembled slightly.

Immediately afterwards, a beam of light rose from his palm.

That was the final "lock" that Master Hunyuan bestowed upon him before his death.

Golden runes appeared on his skin like branding irons, and ripples resembling Dao patterns spread around him, subtle yet firm, tearing open a barely visible gap under the divine might.

Chu Ning pressed her lips together, using the Broken Snow Blade in her hand to support herself as she struggled to sit up.

Pain surged through my body like a raging torrent.

His blood was almost boiling, and his soul shattered as if pricked by needles.

But there was still light in his eyes.

"Ten days."

He slowly uttered the number, his throat feeling as if it had been scorched by lightning:

"If no one stops him, in ten days—this world will be completely rewritten."

The moment Ape Marquis shattered the Heavenly Gate, Chu Ning's sea of ​​consciousness trembled violently.

It wasn't a mental sting, but a tearing apart that was deeper than death.

"what--!"

He roared with his head thrown back, his voice hoarse and filled with an almost instinctive resistance.

His right pupil suddenly turned white, and lightning burst out from the center of the pupil, instantly covering the entire white of his eye, as if the lightning veins in his body were completely out of control.

The veins on his forehead bulged, like several winding snake shadows climbing his face, and lightning patterns appeared, as if a seal had been forcibly broken.

His entire being was like a torch ignited from within, with lightning bursting forth from his limbs and bones, colliding with the remaining spiritual energy in the snow, splashing up layers of spiritual flames and wind marks.

His hand gripped the blade of the Broken Snow tightly, his knuckles already white, his palm dripping with blood, and beads of blood rolling down the blade, forming a series of scarlet marks on the golden pattern of the blade.

But he seemed completely oblivious.

Pain engulfed all his senses. His soul felt as if it were being peeled away layer by layer by flames, and some unnamed "being" seemed to be breaking free from its restraints deep within his sea of ​​consciousness, trying to forcefully emerge.

The world seemed to be covered by a layer of chaos; there was no wind, no light, and no sound.

He felt as if he were in a dark, ancient well, with heaven and earth as his coffin, and his consciousness as a meteor falling into the abyss.

"Chu Ning..."

An ancient, deep voice, yet seemingly never to have left, rose slowly from the deepest part of the sea of ​​consciousness. It was not a sound, but rather a response from consciousness to consciousness.

Chu Ning's mind trembled violently, and his soul was dragged by a tremendous suction force, suddenly falling into a thunderous world woven from soul blood, ghostly fire, and ancient incantations.

At the very bottom of that sea of ​​souls, a dark vortex slowly, quietly, and silently cracked open.

The vortex was neither light nor shadow, but rather a "nothingness of existence" that devoured all definitions and forms. Within it, a barely perceptible "pupil light" could be faintly seen, like a divine eye opening in the night.

Chu Ning's consciousness was drawn slowly toward that dark mass.

He vaguely remembered that this wasn't the first time he had sensed this aura.

He had dreamt of it many times—in desperate situations, when there was nowhere to go, and when he collapsed after struggling... Chu Ning knew it was there, but it never responded to him.

That is the Devouring Abyss.

(End of this chapter)