Chapter 1081: It’s Hard To Let Go of the Obsession to Live

In the spot where the eastern Devilbirds’ dao altar had once stood, there was now pure pandemonium. To countless Devilbird cultivators, that dao altar was something of immense significance. And now it had collapsed as a huge branch snaked up, with a fruit on its end. All onlookers were shaken to the core.

That was especially true when... Grand Emperor Devilbird, who had been seated atop the dao altar, suddenly blurred away into nothing. As it turned out, he had been nothing but an illusory projection. And because of its Grand Emperor personhood, no one in the crowd had picked up on any clues otherwise. It was only when the dao altar collapsed and the aura of a dao fruit erupted into the open that people could see the truth.

An illusory tempest spun into being, and everyone in the area felt a sensation of extreme uneasiness, something instinctive that came from within their life force itself. One reason for the uneasiness was the dramatic turn of events. The other reason... was the sound of tolling bells that filled the Devilbird holy land.

It was an ancient sound that shook heaven and earth. They were bells of war. The collapse of the dao altar was apparently some sort of signal. At that moment, the humans and the Firemoon Darkheavens rose up from the Revered Ancient mainland and unleashed the full fury of war onto the two holy lands that floated above them.

In an instant, heaven and earth devolved into great chaos. As chaos reigned outside, disorder was also raging inside of the dao fruit.

As Netherflame howled from within the bone cauldron, a deafening rumbling sound echoed out, resulting in intense vibrations. Erniu, incarnated in countless worms, was hit by the force coming from the cauldron. One by one, the worms started exploding.

Inside the cauldron, Netherflame seemed to react to the might of the dao fruit, and once again reached a state of balance. Power began to rise explosively within him. The rumbling got so intense that it seemed like the lid of the cauldron was about to be blasted open. The cauldron lid vibrated, then cracks started to appear in it. Golden light shone out from within the cracks. Grand Emperor Netherflame was just about to break free.

At that critical moment, the world fragment that contained the empress surged with force.

Simultaneously, the remaining blue worms outside the cauldron madly absorbed the rest of the crystals Xu Qing had sent over. Then, they shouted, “I’m not afraid of you, bitch! Third life!”

The transparent sea below seethed. The boundless water was covered with huge waves as the entire sea turned into a whirlpool. An ancient aura then began to rise up from within the whirlpool.

Before, his body had exploded and dropped down into the water. But the reality was that Erniu had just been looking for pieces of his third-life body there. The downsides had been that he had very limited time, and also wasn’t actually strong enough at the moment. Because of that, he couldn’t quickly put all the pieces together.

But then Xu Qing gave him the last of the essence crystals.... Xu Qing was able to use that essence to craft an immortal body. But it was something equally precious to Erniu. It could nourish him and help him to release more of his sealing marks, and it enabled him to rapidly absorb memories from his third life. As he absorbed the essence, he gained the power to make the initial call to his third life.

An instant later, frigid flames erupted from the whirlpool of the transparent sea. Then, a huge black hand suddenly reached out from the whirlpool. It was not true and real. Rather, it was illusory. But it emanated an aura that was extremely ancient, and at the same time, pulsed with unparalleled ferocity.

It looked extremely gruish. It resembled a hand, except that the middle finger had a head on it. The ring and index fingers were bent like arms, while the pinky and thumb were like legs. In the palm was a gaping, blood-red mouth. What was more, the hand was actually covered with innumerable black hairs. It looked incredibly fierce, even horrendous.

This was a projection of Erniu’s third life. It was the very same megavillain that Grand Emperor Immortal Skill had refined. In response to Erniu’s summons, it rose up into the sky. In the blink of an eye, it reached the bone cauldron and made contact with it.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“Be refined!” Erniu howled.

The cauldron trembled, then went still. Then, before Erniu even had a chance to start preening, an intense force burst out from the interior of the cauldron. Deafening rumbling rocked the surroundings.

Erniu’s third-life projection blurred as if it might collapse. After all, this wasn’t truly his third life, but just a projection of it. Using it to suppress the power of the terrifying Netherflame wasn’t going to be easy.

Just when it looked like Erniu’s third-life projection was going to collapse.... Xu Qing finished fusing with all seven of his major worlds. Without any hesitation, he burst into motion. He appeared right next to Erniu’s third-life projection, his eyes gleaming. Extending his right hand, he pushed down onto the trembling bone cauldron.

Then he spoke in a booming voice. “Extreme metal. Extreme wood. Extreme water. Extreme fire. Extreme earth!”

Five of the seven worlds hovering behind him erupted, and it looked as if five crystal fragments suddenly let loose the power of the five elements, which crushed down onto the cauldron. Next, the remaining two worlds were unleashed. Extreme space. Extreme time!

A piercing cry echoed out from inside the cauldron. But then, Xu Qing and Erniu both reacted with surprise as a supremely terrifying force erupted from within the cauldron. It was a force that seemed capable of smashing through anything and everything. It was as if all obstacles were meaningless compared to it.

The lid of the cauldron blasted open, and Xu Qing and Erniu were sent tumbling backward. Then, Netherflame floated up inside as he prepared to emerge. No matter how strong the two of them were, it was insignificant compared to Netherflame.

Voice hoarse, he said, “All of you—”

But right then, the world fragment containing the empress exploded. It pulsed with the explosive aura of a god. It turned into a massive shockwave that swept through the world. At the same time, the empress stepped out, reaching the cauldron in an instant and shoving it down with great force.

Ripples and distortions spread. Peak Altar God power was released without any restraint.

Xu Qing and Erniu didn’t hesitate to shoot backward to get away from the field of battle. They knew that the forces which were about to be unleashed surpassed them by far.

The empress’ action caused Netherflame’s eyes to become bloodshot as he waved his hand in response, dispelling the attack power.

An instant later, a shocking, ancient planet appeared behind the empress. The planet’s mere presence caused wild winds to scream, and filled the area with a sky-obfuscating, land-enshrouding will.

Five figures were seated cross-legged on the surface of the planet. Those five figures were gods, as well as past emperors of humankind.

Eastglory. Sageheaven. Mirrorcloud. Dao Life. Dark War.

Thēy unleashed the full force of thēir god power into the ancient planet beneath.

Meanwhile, the shattered world fragment in the distance was no longer blurry. It was now possible to see how damaged it had become during the fighting. Also visible was the beheaded corpse of Netherflame’s clone.

Also present was Grand Emperor Devilbird, coughing up blood and badly injured. Devilbird looked at the empress, then at the surrounding world. His face was as pale as death.

This grotto-heaven is actually made from a manywonders smolderlife dao fruit! Manywonders smolderlife dao fruits are able to resurrect anything under the level of a True God. One such dao fruit can be used three times. However, it can only be used once in a lifetime by any given person.

Considering how withered the fruit looks, Netherflame must have already used it. It looks like after being used another time, it will disappear forever. So that’s how Netherflame managed to come back to life! And that’s also what the empress is here for!

Blood sprayed out of Devilbird’s mouth as he staggered backward. Meanwhile, the empress hovered above the bone cauldron, looking down at Netherflame. Netherflame’s body was currently fifty percent violet, thirty percent gold, and twenty percent green.

Shē couldn’t tell where the violet was coming from. But the gold was from a drop of water, and the green... came from a dao fruit. The empress’ gaze hardened. Shē had been holding back this entire time. Shē had not gone all out.

One reason was that hēr opponent had a spectacularly powerful cultivation base. The other reason was that shē knew shē would only have one chance to achieve hēr true objective here. And shē would not accept failure.

Her original plan had not accounted for the variables presented by Xu Qing and Erniu. Originally, Netherflame was supposed to try to possess Devilbird, whereupon shē would join forces with Devilbird to achieve hēr objective. Although Netherflame was strong, shē knew shē could handle him.

But things didn’t go according to plan. Xu Qing and Erniu did present new variables, and then circumstances shifted. Netherflame changed his mind, and instead of trying to possess Devilbird, had decided to cooperate with him. And he had decided to try to possess Xu Qing.

Therefore, the empress had just waited and watched for the opportunity to come. The empress didn’t believe the new variables to be negatives. Whether it was Erniu’s third life or Xu Qing’s strange fleshly body, they actually just made hēr more confident that hēr plan would succeed. That was why shē had just waited patiently.

It was only when Netherflame broke free and revealed the power of the manywonders smolderlife dao fruit... that the opportunity the empress had been waiting for finally arrived.

Shē actually wanted Netherflame to take this action. To reveal the dao fruit. Thus, the empress’ action just now was actually hēr unhesitatingly revealing the contingency measures she’d had in place the entire time.

Hēr contingency plan was humankind’s Planet Ancient Emperor. In terms of personhood, it was the most precious treasure humankind possessed. And with the blessing of the five human gods, the precious treasure was unleashing astonishing power. Rumbling sounds echoed out as Planet Ancient Emperor exerted crushing force.

Netherflame’s howl echoed back and forth. He wanted to break free, but before he could, the empress bit down on the tip of hēr tongue and spat out some god blood. Shē also unhesitatingly unleashed all the power of hēr god altar to prevent Netherflame from breaking free.

Next, a vortex appeared within Planet Ancient Emperor. The power of the planet, as well as the power of the five human emperors, along with the might of the empress’ god altar, caused Netherflame to be devoured by the planet!

Netherflame was sealed.

Having accomplished that, a gleam of human nature appeared in the empress’s eyes.

Shē had become she. For this entire time, hēr goal had not been to go all out to kill Netherflame. Nor had hēr goal been Netherflame’s soul. Shē had been waiting for hēr opponent to take out the dao fruit. And then, by means of Planet Ancient Emperor, shē would isolate him from the outside world. And that, in turn, would cut away his connection to the manywonders smolderlife dao fruit. At least temporarily, the dao fruit would have no karmic connections to anything.

In that way, shē would finally have the chance to reach her true goal.

“Grand Emperor...” she murmured. She waved her hand, and a majestic statue flew out from inside her body. It grew larger and larger above the surface of the sea. The sea water seethed. It was a statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage!

Xu Qing looked at it, his heart pounding with both anxiety and excitement. He could now guess what the empress was trying to do.

Ever since the empress reached godly ascension, hēr eyes had been calm and placid. Now, those eyes looked at the statue with longing like that of a child to a parent.

“Come back...” she said softly. She was attempting to resurrect Grand Emperor Swordsage!