Primordial Era: A brick knocks Hongyun unconscious, and he seizes the throne at the start.

In front of the main peak of Buzhou Mountain.

The two streaks of light formed by Gonggong and Zhurong, one blue and one red, trailing long tails of burning primordial energy, crashed into the primordial backbone that supported the sky and the earth like two meteorites.

"Stop them—!!!"

Zhu Jiuyin's eyes were bloodshot. Despite his serious injuries, he forcibly activated the laws of time, trying to reduce the flow of time in the area where the two were located to almost a standstill.

But it's too late.

Gonggong and Zhurong, whose inner demons had completely erupted, were now burning with the full essence of the peak Ancestral Witches. With the added blessing of the "Heavenly Demon Heart Bell" buried by Lu Chen, their speed and power had exceeded the limits that the laws of time could interfere with!

"boom--!!!!"

Two streaks of light crashed solidly into the mountainside of the main peak of Buzhou Mountain.

In that instant, the entire primordial world heard—a tooth-grinding, earth-shattering roar, as if the very bones of heaven and earth were breaking.

"Click...click click..."

The main peak of Buzhou Mountain, the giant pillar that has supported the primordial sky since the beginning of time, is covered with dense cracks.

The cracks spread like a spider web, starting from the mountainside, extending upwards to the mountaintop, and downwards into the depths of the earth.

The sky is starting to fall.

High above, the part of the sky that was originally supported by Mount Buzhou lost its support and began to slowly sink. Chaotic currents poured down from the crack, annihilating everything in their path.

"No...no!!!" Dijiang struggled to get up from the stretcher, looking at this scene with despair in his eyes.

The Wu tribe may be defeated, may perish, but Mount Buzhou... cannot fall!

This is the spine of the father god Pangu, a symbol of the primordial world!

But it was all too late.

Gonggong and Zhurong were annihilated in the collision, their forms and spirits transformed into the purest essence of water and fire, merging into the fractured part of Buzhou Mountain. And this towering divine mountain, finally unable to withstand the pressure, began to slowly tilt and collapse!

"The sky is falling! The sky is falling—!!!"

The two races of witches and demons on the battlefield, no matter how fierce their battle had been before, were now stunned by this world-ending scene.

On the demon side, Di Jun also struggled to his feet, looking at the sinking sky, a madness and... a trace of greed flashing in his eyes.

"Taiyi!" He gripped his younger brother's shoulders tightly. "A chance! This is our last chance!"

Taiyi looked bewildered: "What opportunity?"

"The sky has collapsed, it needs to be mended!" Di Jun's eyes were bloodshot. "Whoever can mend the sky will gain immeasurable merit, and may even... have the chance to become a saint!"

"But we..."

"We have the remnants of the Zhou Tian Star Array!" Di Jun gritted his teeth. "Although most of the 365 main stars are destroyed, their stellar essence remains! We can detonate all the stellar essence, transforming it into 'stellar essence,' and combine it with our demon race's secret techniques to forcibly mend the heavens!"

Taiyi's pupils constricted sharply: "Detonate the stellar origin? Then the Zhou Tian Star Array will be completely destroyed! The demon race will also lose its greatest reliance!"

"Rely on?" Di Jun laughed bitterly. "Look at us now. What's left of the demon race? All ten demon saints are dead, ninety percent of their demon soldiers have been wiped out, and even I am critically injured and on the verge of death. Even if we keep the great formation, what good will it do?"

He stared at Taiyi, saying each word carefully, "This is our last chance. Detonating the stars to mend the heavens and gain merit might preserve a sliver of fortune for the demon race. Otherwise... if the witch race perishes, we won't fare much better!"

Taiyi fell silent.

He looked around—on the battlefield, the demon race lay dead everywhere, with fewer than ten million demon soldiers remaining, all wounded. While the witch race had also suffered heavy losses, seven ancestral witches remained (Gonggong and Zhurong were dead, and Tianwu had fallen), and dozens of great witches still existed.

If the fighting continues, the demon race will surely be defeated.

"Alright!" Taiichi gritted his teeth. "Brother, I'll listen to you!"

The two brothers exchanged a glance, then simultaneously burned their last bit of essence and flew towards the ruins of the Zhou Tian Star Array.

"Demons, heed my command!" Di Jun's voice echoed across the battlefield. "All surviving demon generals, channel your magic power into the core of the great formation! Today, we offer the stars as sacrifices to mend the heavens and prolong our lives!"

Although the remaining high-ranking members of the demon race were puzzled, Di Jun's prestige remained, and they all complied.

All 365 array points (although most of them were damaged) simultaneously lit up with dim starlight.

Di Jun and Tai Yi stood at the core of the array, their hands forming a seal, and began to frantically draw out the essence of the stars!

"All celestial bodies, heed my command—Explode!"

"boom--!!!"

One after another, the star projections exploded, transforming into pure star essence, which surged towards Di Jun Tai Yi like a waterfall!

The two forcibly compressed and refined this essence, preparing to turn it into materials for mending the sky.

But at that moment—

"Di Jun and Tai Yi, you're courting death!"

Zhu Jiuyin's voice rang out.

Although this Time Ancestral Witch was severely injured, he had already discerned Di Jun's intentions. He would never allow the demon race to turn the tide!

"Time freezes!" Zhu Jiuyin burned his last bit of power, forcibly freezing time around Di Jun Taiyi!

In that instantaneous pause, the refining of the star essence was interrupted, and it began to go out of control!

"Pfft!" Di Jun and Tai Yi both coughed up blood.

But they were already in a bind—once they started extracting the essence of the stars, they couldn't stop, or it would backfire on them!

"I'll risk it all!" A ruthless glint flashed in Di Jun's eyes. He stopped compressing and refining the essence and instead injected all the rampaging star essence into his own body!

"Brother, you—!" Taiyi exclaimed in surprise.

"Taiyi, remember this!" Dijun's veins bulged, his skin began to crack, and golden demonic blood seeped out. "Live on, and leave a seed for the demon race!"

Before he finished speaking, his body swelled up like a balloon, his aura surged wildly, and he briefly broke through the limit of the Quasi-Saint peak, touching... the threshold of Saint!

But this was just a fleeting moment of glory after all the burning.

"Dijiang! Zhujiuyin! And that rat lurking in the shadows—Lu Chen!" Dijun roared to the sky, "Today, I, the Emperor, will drag you all down with me!"

He transformed into a golden streak of light and rushed toward the broken part of Buzhou Mountain—not to mend the sky, but to... detonate the stellar essence within his body, enough to destroy half of the primordial world!

He's going to self-destruct and drag everyone down with him!

"Not good!" Zhu Jiuyin's expression changed drastically. He tried to stop it, but it was too late.

Di Jun's speed was too fast. He was burning everything and was now infinitely close to becoming a saint, even if it was only for a moment.

Lu Chen's scalp tingled – he hadn't expected Di Jun to be so crazy!

"Retreat! Retreat quickly!" He activated his full brick-遁 (brick-遁 is a type of martial arts technique) and tried to escape the battlefield.

But Taiichi stopped him.

"Lu Chen..." Taiyi's god-slaying spear wound on his chest completely shattered, his aura weakened, but his eyes remained unusually calm. "My demon race has been defeated, but my brother... cannot have died in vain."

He raised his hand, and the replica of the Chaos Bell flew into the air, its body beginning to crack.

"This bell, though not the original, is still the culmination of my demon race's efforts." Taiyi looked at him. "I'll give it to you, as a memento for my demon race."

Lu Chen was taken aback.

"What are the conditions?" he asked.

Taiyi grinned, revealing a bleak smile: "If you ever become a saint... I hope you can take care of the remnants of the demon race and prevent them from being... wiped out."

After saying that, he turned around and rushed towards Di Jun.

"Brother, wait for me."

Taiyi hugged Dijun, who had swelled to his limit. The two looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

Then--

"BOOM—!!!!"

At the point where Buzhou Mountain fractured, a sphere of light, millions of times brighter than the sun, shone forth!

The sphere of light expanded and spread, annihilating space and disrupting time wherever it passed, reducing everything to nothingness!

The aftershocks of the self-destruction swept across the entire battlefield, and countless lich soldiers were reduced to ashes before they could even scream.

Zhu Jiuyin and the other Ancestral Witches fought desperately, but were still blasted thousands of miles away and were seriously injured and on the verge of death.

Even Lu Chen, who was hiding in the distance, was blown away by the aftershocks and crashed through seven mountain peaks before coming to a stop.

When he coughed up blood and got up, the battlefield had changed.

The main peak of Buzhou Mountain completely broke apart, with the upper half tilting and crashing into the earth, while the lower half was also covered with cracks.

The gap in the sky widened, and chaotic air currents poured down like a waterfall.

At the center of Di Jun Tai Yi's self-destruction, only a bottomless crater remained, with the terrifying aura of a stellar rampage still lingering in the crater, as well as... two wisps of golden crow remnants so faint they were almost completely dissipated.

The two demon emperors have fallen.

The Lich Wars ended in such a tragic manner.

Lu Chen stood amidst the ruins, gazing at the devastated battlefield, speechless for a long time.

He had planned a lot, but he hadn't anticipated... that Di Jun and Tai Yi would choose this ending.

"This Venerable One..." Hunyuanzi floated over, hesitant to speak.

Lu Chen waved his hand and walked to the edge of the giant pit.

At the bottom of the pit, two wisps of golden crow remnants were slowly dissipating.

He remained silent for a moment, then took out two jade bottles and put the remnant soul inside.

"I will keep my promise to you," he said softly.

Then he turned around and looked at the "spoils of war" scattered throughout the battlefield.

The corpses of the Ancestral Witches, the remains of the Demon Saints, the shattered spiritual treasures, and the stellar essence remaining after Emperor Jun and Taiyi's self-destruction...

This time, they really struck it rich.

But Lu Chen felt no joy.

He shouldered the Qiankun Diagram and began collecting it silently.

The great calamity has ended.

But the great suffering of the primordial era had only just begun.