Chapter 1522 - One Year Battle

Liu Wuxie stepped into the Heavenly Deity Monument and lowered himself onto the Dao Comprehension Stone. The instant he sat, a star lit above his head, and a vast starry sky unfurled before his eyes.

In that moment, he felt like a lone raft drifting across an endless ocean. His divine sense stretched farther and farther until it brushed the peak of the cosmos; others could only sense the laws of heaven and earth from the Dao Comprehension Stone, yet Liu Wuxie sank straight into the universe itself.

"The immortal path stretches without an end, and eternity is the essence of all things," Liu Wuxie murmured to himself.

Even as the reincarnation of an Immortal Emperor, he finally understood how brutal it was for an ordinary person to become an immortal. The moment he spoke, the Heavenly Deity Monument trembled lightly, and a stream of pure eternal law drilled into his body.

The instant he entered, his soul sea churned as a sphere of light surfaced within it. He had no idea what that sealed memory contained.

The light sphere flashed into existence and vanished just as fast, sinking into the depths of his soul sea until nothing remained. When Liu Wuxie reached for it, it had already vanished.

"Could it be that I have another past life?" Liu Wuxie asked, opening his eyes in a daze.

He didn't know what the Heavenly Deity Monument had sealed away, and he could only remain in this eternal world. The profundity of eternity surged through him like a tide, steadily deepening his comprehension of eternity.

With the Dao Comprehension Stone beneath him, his insights accelerated even further. His cultivation stayed at the second-level Earth Immortal Realm, yet his comprehension transformed violently. He gained new enlightenment about immortals, mortals, demons, abyssal devils, and many more, and his consciousness finally became whole; something his previous life had lacked.

That was why his cultivation had stalled when he had reached the level of an Immortal Emperor, unable to take another step. Yet after reincarnation, his life and heavenly dao became more complete, and that completion alone counted as a harvest.

Three days later, the Azure Profound Gate delivered the remaining eight million astral crystals. Over the past few days, rumors had spread everywhere that the Azure Profound Gate had fallen out with the Grand Unity Sect, which supposedly wanted to monopolize the chant.

Those rumors, however, came from the Heavenly Dao Society, whose only goal was to drive a wedge between the Azure Profound Gate and the Grand Unity Sect.

......

After Zhuang Qiao left Vermilion Star, he vanished without a trace. No one knew where he went, as if the world had swallowed him whole, and his disappearance only fed the 'confirmation' that the Azure Profound Gate wanted to monopolize the chant for themselves.

The Grand Unity Sect sent an envoy to the Azure Profound Gate to question Huo Demin, but Huo Demin responded with a fierce attitude and even suspected that the Grand Unity Sect had captured Zhuang Qiao.

On an unnamed planet, Zhuang Qiao looked utterly tattered.

"Who are you people, and why are you hunting me?" Zhuang Qiao demanded. After he had left Vermilion Bird, a group of mysterious figures had pursued him, and he had no time to notify the Azure Profound Gate.

Every one of them carried terrifying cultivation, and one among them had even reached the Quasi-Immortal Realm.

"Hand over the chant," one of the men said. Their laws blurred their faces until no features remained clear.

"You dumbass, I won't tell you anything," Zhuang Qiao replied. By now, he understood it wasn't a chant at all, only a line Liu Wuxie had used to fool him; even if he tried to explain, no one would believe him anyway.

"Since you refuse to say, don't blame us for being ruthless," the Quasi-Immortal said as he released his aura. With Zhuang Qiao already exhausted, he instantly became easy prey.

After they captured Zhuang Qiao, they began forcibly ransacking his soul sea. A dignified expert at the Heaven Gaze Realm fell to an ending like this.

They ignored Zhuang Qiao's screams and searched his soul by force. They ruined his soul sea, and even if he survived, he would end up mentally impaired.

"Any clues?" the companions asked, turning to the Quasi-Immortal.

"You dumbass, I won't tell you anything," the Quasi-Immortal replied. No one had expected a Quasi-Immortal to start cursing.

That answer instantly darkened the nearby elderly man's expression, and he wondered whether the deputy pavilion master planned to keep the chant for himself.

"That's the chant. We were all fooled by Liu Wuxie," the Quasi-Immortal said with a bitter smile. They had prided themselves on being clever their whole lives, yet they had muddled things for a single moment.

When they heard it really was the chant, the elderly men nearby could only wear wry smiles. They had lived for countless years, yet Liu Wuxie had played them like fools, and worst of all, none of them dared to speak of it, because that would tell the whole world they had hunted Zhuang Qiao.

"What do we do about him?" an elderly man asked, pointing at Zhuang Qiao.

"Get rid of him. Make sure to leave no traces behind," the Quasi-Immortal replied, and just like that, Zhuang Qiao died.

No clues leaked, yet everyone in the Azure Profound Gate erupted in fury when Zhuang Qiao's soul tablet shattered not long after. That shattering meant Zhuang Qiao had died, but they didn't even know who had killed him, and with his death, the trail to the chant was cut off completely.

In the past few days, countless cultivators had made their way to the Blood Purgatory Summit. Only two days remained before Liu Wuxie's battle with the divine son.

The Blood Purgatory Summit didn't sit within Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain at all; it lay on a crimson planet near the Blood Fiend Battlefield, rumored to imprison countless heretics and fiends.

Volcanoes spewed magma across the enormous planet, making it resemble a living hell. This was the Blood Purgatory Summit, a doomsday with nowhere to land.

Cultivators came to watch and hovered in the surrounding sky, blotting out the heavens as they formed a seal over the entire Blood Purgatory Summit. The magma on the ground roared even harder, likely crushed by the immense pressure from above.

The human race, the demon race, the abyssal devils, the undead clan, the faceless clan, the ghost clan, the giant race, the elven race, and the oceanic clan—countless races gathered to watch the fight.

After Myriad Race, so many races had not assembled in one place even once. And it all had begun when Liu Wuxie and the Divine Son had made their one-year pact.

Now that a full year had passed, all humans knew Liu Wuxie had reached the Earth Immortal Realm, but no one knew how far the Divine Son's cultivation had climbed.

Various sects flew their warships in. Hua Feiyu personally led the Heavenly Dragon Sect's convoy with a few elders as they appeared above the Blood Purgatory Summit, and the Grand Unity Sect arrived the same way; it had been a million years since the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain had looked this lively.

Countless experts swarmed in, unwilling to miss such a grand event.

Liu Wuxie stood as a prodigy of the human race, and his achievements had spread across the world. In the past year, he had not only opened the interstellar teleportation array, but he had also founded the Heavenly Dao Society.

The Divine Son carried a lofty status, with countless members of the divine race standing behind him.

......

Back in the Heavenly Dao Society, Liu Wuxie opened his eyes. After such a long seclusion, he had reaped a bountiful harvest.

When he rose, a faint layer of immortal runes shimmered around him like the laws of the great dao, making him seem reborn. His gaze sank so deep that a single look from him felt like it could drag others into the abyss.

As he walked out of the Heavenly Deity Monument, everyone in the Heavenly Dao Society waited in the main hall, fully prepared.

"Wuxie!" Countless people approached him, worry etched across their faces as if he were walking into a life-and-death battle.

"You all will stay in the Heavenly Dao Society. No one is allowed to come," Liu Wuxie ordered. He wanted to avoid any distraction because this was going to be the toughest fight of his lifetime, and he had to devote everything to it.

Tears slid down Xu Lingxue's face. After exchanging their memories, she had learned how much Liu Wuxie had done for them in secret, yet they could do nothing to help, and that helplessness tasted bitter.

Even if she had reached the Heaven Gaze Realm and stood at the pinnacle of the astral domain, their opponents would only grow stronger from here. Their enemy no longer stood as a single opponent, but as a horde of behemoths, and everyone understood how terrifying a sect with a legacy of over a million years could be.

"No one is allowed to cry," Liu Wuxie said, and everyone forced their tears back.

Tears still brimmed in every eye, and even Mu Tianli turned his head away. This was a life-and-death battle, and no one knew who would live or die.

"Wuxie is right. We can't burden him," Mu Tianli said. He drew a deep breath, steadied everyone, and offered Liu Wuxie their strongest support.

Several elders at the pinnacle of the Heaven Gaze Realm from the Heavenly Dragon Sect had already stationed themselves outside the Heavenly Dao Society to escort Liu Wuxie to the Blood Purgatory Summit.

Liu Wuxie transformed into a streaking meteor and vanished above the Heavenly Dao Society. Yet strangely, he brought only Achiel with him, leaving Xiao Rou and Fiery behind inside the Heavenly Dao Society.

The Heavenly Dao Society was expanding too quickly and lacked support, so they stayed behind to help.

They crossed the vast universe as only one day remained until the appointed duel.

A large number of blood fiends appeared in mid-air. The Blood Purgatory Summit lay near the Blood Fiend Battlefield, so their presence came as no surprise.

A warship drifted slowly toward the Blood Purgatory Summit.

"The divine race has come!" someone exclaimed, and the cry rippled through the crowd as the warship took the shape of a tree branch with tens of thousands of members of the divine race standing atop it.

Each one radiated a powerful aura, while the Divine Son stood at the very top, his sharp gaze seeming able to pierce through spacetime.

The crowd parted instinctively for the divine race, and their warship stopped ten meters away from the Blood Purgatory Summit. None of the humans wanted to stand too close to the divine race, their nemesis.

Dozens of divine race powerhouses stood behind the Divine Son, each at the Quasi-Immortal Realm. That line-up left everyone dumbfounded. It had been a million years since the divine race had last appeared in public, and their return shook heaven and earth the moment they showed themselves.

A divine race powerhouse exchanged a few words with the Divine Son, then the Divine Son's body flashed as he landed on the Blood Purgatory Summit. As the duel drew closer, he closed his eyes, sensed the scorching heat around him, and entered a mysterious state.

"The Heaven Gaze Realm! The Divine Son is in the Heaven Gaze Realm!" An uproar erupted through the crowd. No one had expected the Divine Son to climb from the Primal Origin Realm to the Heaven Gaze Realm in just one year, and they couldn't help wondering what he had experienced.

In Divine Thunder Valley, only the Divine Son knew what he had endured day after day—hell layered upon hell.

A heavy shadow fell over everyone in the Heavenly Dragon Sect. Even if the Divine Son only stood at the lower levels of the Heaven Gaze Realm, he still had enough power to dominate the masses, because no one believed an Earth Immortal Realm could defeat a Heaven Gaze Realm.

With his title as the Divine Son on top of that, he carried the ability to fight above his cultivation, and no one believed Liu Wuxie would have a chance to win this duel.

"Liu Wuxie is dead for sure. The Divine Son is at the second-level Heaven Gaze Realm, and their divine energy suppresses the human race's true essence. Liu Wuxie has no chance," various members of different sects muttered among themselves, yet most still hoped Liu Wuxie would win, because he represented the human race.

Only the other races remained indifferent to who lived or died. On the Grand Unity Sect's side, however, faint smiles flickered across their faces.

When the Divine Alchemy Sect had returned after the auction, several sects had jointly suppressed it, leaving it severely weakened. They had sent only a few elders to watch the fight.

Suddenly, Liu Wuxie ripped through the air like a thunderbolt and descended onto the Blood Purgatory Summit.