Primordial Era: Refusing Hongjun's path to sainthood, I attained the Dao of Hunyuan.

Chapter 125 Heavenly Punishment

Styx's killings unleashed all the resentment and rage he had been harboring.

Among them, the "gods of slaughter" refer to innate deities, such as Di Jun, Tai Yi, and other powerful beings. They do not belong to any particular race.

As for killing immortals, "immortals" refers to those who have cultivated to the point of immortality. There is also killing demons and witches, and these two races now include almost all the races in the prehistoric world.

The word "murder" has two meanings. One refers to the human race. Nuwa created humans and became a saint, but he created the Asura race but could not. Naturally, Styx harbored resentment in his heart.

The second refers to all living beings, encompassing all other creatures except for the witch and demon races.

As we can see, these killings actually demonstrate a progressive relationship. First, there are witches and demons, then immortals, then gods, and finally humans.

Above humans lies the sage. The reason for killing sages is that when sages attained enlightenment, they seized most of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Sages are the greatest thieves in this world, and killing cultivators can return the spiritual energy they absorbed.

Then killing a saint is equivalent to killing hundreds of millions of living beings.

As for killing Heaven and killing Earth, these two can actually be combined. Killing Heaven and Earth can also be called killing the Way of Heaven.

All the saints were ordained by the Heavenly Dao. The Heavenly Dao made them saints, so the Heavenly Dao is the root of everything, and therefore the Heavenly Dao should also be killed.

After killing all kinds of beings—heaven, earth, people, gods, immortals, demons, witches, and saints—one can naturally attain enlightenment.

However, it added the element of killing oneself.

Upon hearing this, Styx laughed heartily and said, "What is meant by killing oneself? To kill oneself is to kill one's own flesh and blood. Since all living beings are thieves who steal from the heavens, then naturally I will be no exception."

As he spoke, Styx suddenly summoned his Yuan Tu Sword and A Bi Sword, and then the two sword lights slashed down at the top of his head.

Upon seeing this, the many Asuras were both shocked and frightened, thinking that their ancestor had gone mad.

However, the next moment, a burst of bloody light appeared on the top of the Styx River, and another Styx River emerged from the bloody light.

At the same time, Styx's aura surged, and he broke through from the mid-stage Quasi-Saint to the late-stage Quasi-Saint.

Following Zhen Yuanzi and Laozi, another person in the primordial world has severed three corpses.

However, like Lao Tzu, the Styx River did not follow the orthodox method of severing the three corpses, but instead forged its own path.

Lao Tzu severed the corpse by forgetting emotions, while he severed the corpse by killing.

Now that Styx has severed his three corpses, he has not yet used them to combine and kill the Dao. Therefore, he still has a long way to go before he can attain enlightenment.

In fact, in the eyes of Xuanhuang and the other sages, Styx's chances of attaining enlightenment in this lifetime are probably slim.

After all, it's about killing a saint! Which saint would let the Styx kill them? Without becoming a saint, one is just an ant, and how can an ant kill a saint?

However, if Styx wants to prove his Dao and become a Primordial Chaos, he needs to kill everything except heaven and earth.

Killing witches, demons, immortals, gods, humans, and saints—all six are indispensable.

If nothing unexpected happens, Styx will definitely be stuck at the last step: killing a Saint, since he doesn't have the ability to do so.

At least, he couldn't kill a saint on his own, based solely on his own strength.

Even if this saint were to lie there and let the Styx cut him down, the Styx would have a hard time cutting him down, let alone a saint who would be so foolish.

Therefore, although Styx also severed all three of his corpses, he ended up in a dead end, facing a dead-end road.

There was nowhere to advance, and nowhere to retreat.

Regardless of the circumstances, Styx ultimately severed his three corpses, greatly increasing his strength and becoming the new number one person below the sages in the prehistoric world.

After severing the three corpses, Styx shouted to the heavens and established the Asura Cult, using the Twelve-Petaled Karmic Fire Red Lotus to suppress the Asura Cult's fortune.

However, it wouldn't have mattered if the religion hadn't been established, but once it was, the Styx River would have suffered.

He never expected that establishing a religion would not only fail to bring him merit from the Heavenly Dao, but would instead bring him calamity and punishment.

The entire sky above the Netherworld Blood Sea was covered by endless thunderclouds, and streaks of purple divine lightning fell like rain.

The commotion in the sea of ​​blood immediately attracted the attention of powerful beings from all sides of the world, but all of them were filled with doubt and uncertainty.

What did that Styx do to deserve such divine punishment?

In the past, when I listened to the Dao at Zixiao Palace, the Dao Ancestor Hongjun said that one must not defy the great trend of the Heavenly Dao, otherwise heavenly punishment would descend.

Now the Styx has attracted divine punishment. Does this mean that the Styx has defied the will of Heaven?

At this moment, Styx had no time to care about the speculations and onlookers. He was both shocked and furious. The heavenly punishment that descended had at least explained the reason to him.

It wasn't for any other reason than that his Asura religion doctrine included a clause about killing the Heavenly Path.

Therefore, although the Heavenly Way also includes the Way of Killing, it still has to bring down calamity and punishment upon the Styx River.

Instead of accumulating merit, they attracted divine punishment.

Seeing the Purple Heaven Divine Lightning falling like rain, Styx didn't have time to think. He immediately sent all the Asuras out of the Blood Sea and then activated the entire Netherworld Blood Sea, transforming it into a large array.

The Netherworld Blood Sea Formation.

The entire formation resembled a giant blood cocoon, radiating an endless aura of ferocity.

However, faced with divine punishment, the great formation did not retaliate at all, but was only passively beaten.

After all, when faced with divine punishment, aside from saints, everyone else can only passively endure it.

Despite severing the three corpses, Styx was no exception and silently endured divine punishment.

And so, the rolling purple lightning, seemingly endless, mixed with heavenly fire, continued for forty-nine days.

After forty-nine days, the heavenly punishment dissipated, revealing the scene within. The entire Netherworld Blood Sea appeared to have dried up.

Only some thick, dark red bloodstains remained, not yet completely dried, scattered in puddles on the seabed of the Netherworld Blood Sea.

Is Styx dead?

The powerful beings from all sides sent their divine senses toward the Netherworld Blood Sea, searching for the aura of the Styx River, while the Asura clan cried out to the heavens and earth, shouting for the Styx Ancestor, and searching in all directions.

And so, a long time passed, just when everyone truly believed that Styx had perished under divine punishment.

Suddenly, thin streams of blood energy burst forth from various parts of the Netherworld Blood Sea, then gathered together again.

But it finally materialized into the form of the Styx River.

Styx did not die, but his strength was greatly diminished. Ninety-nine percent of his cultivation and magical power were destroyed by the heavenly punishment.

However, because he had already refined the Blood Sea with his true spirit and created this immortal body, he would not die as long as the Blood Sea did not completely dry up.

That's why the Styx came back to life.

The Asuras were overjoyed to see the River Styx.

However, a few powerful figures from all sides harbored malicious intentions and wanted to take this opportunity to attack the Styx.

But since the Styx dared to appear openly, how could it not be on guard?

A golden wheel of merit, though far inferior to that of the saints, still appeared behind Styx's head.

The appearance of this Golden Wheel of Merit immediately dispelled any thoughts of taking advantage of the chaos or kicking someone when they were down.

One by one, the divine thoughts retreated.

Styx breathed a sigh of relief, though he still felt a lingering fear in his heart; he had actually felt like he was about to die.

However, at the last moment, he seemed to vaguely hear a sigh, and then the divine punishment stopped.

That's what allowed him to escape death and avoid complete annihilation.

Otherwise, if the divine punishment continues, his true spirit, which has already merged into the sea of ​​blood, will inevitably be destroyed.

(End of this chapter)