Chapter 1167: Heng, the Eternal Heng, and the Extinction of the Human Race Across the Heavens

Outside the imperial treasury made from black granite, a gale roared across the square. A massive blue dragon, hundreds of meters long, descended with a thunderous crash, its wings stirring up clouds of dust that forced the guarding soldiers to instinctively close their eyes.

Their leader immediately bent forward in salute, respectfully addressing the woman atop the dragon’s back. "Greetings, Princess Estelle."

However, before Estelle could respond, Chen Chu, who stood between the two women, took a single step forward. The blue dragon shrieked miserably as its enormous body crashed to the ground with a violent thud.

In that instant, Chen Chu had already appeared at the entrance of the treasury. The Primordial Genesis principle within him pulsed intensely, as if resonating with something inside. He could clearly feel a power awakening within the treasury, so terrifying that the entire world trembled beneath its stir.

Crack!

Before the horrified gazes of the guards and Estelle’s group, the grand treasury silently collapsed. Not only the building; everything within, from the Camor Empire’s countless treasures and resources to the very space itself, was annihilated, dissolving into nothingness.

At the center of that boundless void stood a broken black stele, more than thirty meters high and twenty meters wide, with clear cracks across its surface.

"That stele!" Estelle gasped in surprise.

Compared to five years ago, the once indestructible stele that had long lost its divine luster was now radiating multicolored brilliance. Ancient, archaic characters etched upon its surface lit up one after another.

A supreme power that transcended all principles spread outward. Time and space distorted under ripples like those on a vast lake, and the world itself became hazy and unreal. A magnificent, rainbow-hued river stretched across the heavens.

Boom!

The power of time swept across the world, warping all things. Under the seven-colored light, space and time interwove. Estelle, Amitya, the soldiers, even the entire city vanished from Chen Chu’s sight. Or rather, Chen Chu himself had been pulled into the depths of that colorful river that flowed above time and space.

Around him, time flowed backward at an astonishing speed, the reversal forming a radiant corridor of prismatic light. In the blink of an eye, ten thousand years passed, then a hundred thousand years passed. Such overwhelming temporal power, such mastery over time and space, shocked even Chen Chu.

Primordial sovereign! No, even a sovereign can’t reverse the flow of an entire Great Thousand World’s timeline for dozens of millennia. This power is beyond the Fourth, Fifth, or even Sixth Primordial Heaven. It's him!

Chen Chu took a deep breath, forcing down a surge of awe and excitement in his chest. After all, this was the first and greatest of the ancient emperors, the one who led humanity through rifts in space-time to conquer other worlds, the foremost of the seven ancient emperors, Heng. Even after entering the Ancient Battlefield and the mythical world, the ancient human race had dominated the heavens under his leadership.

He had once fought his way alone into the heart of a peak alien civilization known as the Purple-Maned King Hou, killing a primordial sovereign who also bore the name Heng.

With me, invincibility; before me, all beings kneel.

That was Chen Chu’s first impression after reading about Emperor Heng in the ancient records. As he solemnly gazed ahead, the reversed currents of time gradually calmed. Beneath his feet, the vast, multicolored river of fate roared on, surging across the entire world. Upon that river emerged a towering figure. It was a being a million kilometers tall, gradually coming into focus as though walking out from the depths of time itself.

A noble and boundless aura spread through the cosmos. At the sight of the middle-aged man with a solemn, ancient face, Chen Chu felt as if he was witnessing the embodiment of eternity, an existence unperishing across all ages, still standing when all heavens had long faded to dust.

Looking at the majestic figure across the radiant river, Chen Chu bowed respectfully. "Human Chen Chu. I pay my respect to the ancient emperor, Heng."

The man in white imperial robes, hands clasped behind his back, spoke slowly. His deep, resonant voice carried warmth, echoing endlessly along the river of fate, yet the words themselves were a shock to hear. "Chen Chu, you have finally arrived."

Chen Chu’s gaze grew thoughtful. "Sire, did you leave this stele here hundreds of thousands of years ago to wait for me?"

Primordial sovereigns truly commanded time and space, able to reverse time within certain bounds and even revive the fallen. However, such mastery was limited to the river of time within their divine regions or self-created worlds, not the boundless Sea of Chaos beyond.

That was what made a primordial sovereign far stronger than a monarch or any lower lifeform of the primordial path. This emperor before him, who had long since broken through to the Seventh Primordial Heaven and achieved an undying state, foreseeing his arrival in the past seemed perfectly plausible.

Emperor Heng nodded slowly. "Indeed. I have been waiting for you. Within this place, I left behind an opportunity great enough for you to ascend to the primordial level and even reach the Seventh Primordial Heaven."

"The opportunity to reach the Seventh Primordial Heaven." Chen Chu’s expression shifted sharply. Instead of joy, a storm surged in his heart.

If Heng had left this stele here hundreds of millennia ago, waiting for his arrival, then what about that emperor’s Inheritance at the end of the path to divinity on the Blue Planet? Had that too been deliberately left for him?

A sense of unease rippled through Chen Chu. It felt as if his fate had been arranged, every step observed, every struggle meaningless, his entire life unfolding beneath someone else’s light. The realization left a trace of resentment. His efforts, his battles, his growth, all rendered void.

Yes, the opportunity to reach the Seventh Primordial Heaven was immense. Given time, however, Chen Chu could have achieved it on his own. He could have crossed the Seventh, reached the Eighth, the Ninth, even reached the eternal level.

His voice cooled. "So, the embryonic principle you left at the end of the inheritance path on the Blue Planet’s Void Continent was intentionally prepared for me?"

Noting the change in Chen Chu’s tone, Emperor Heng smiled faintly, his voice still gentle. "Do not be concerned. I did not scheme against you. The inheritance of our race is but the choice of fate itself, a power beyond even me, who has stepped into eternity."

Chen Chu froze, his face twisting in shock. "...Wait, Sire, did you just say you already stepped into eternity? But didn’t the True Radiant Sky Emperor and the others say you left to break through the Seventh Primordial Heaven?"

"That was merely a trace of me that remained within this chaotic cosmos." Emperor Heng’s vast, resonant voice rolled across the river of fate. "My path is the Dao of Eternity. My true form has transcended the endless chaos, and my power exists everywhere. This Sea of Chaos, the universe you once inhabited, even the Emperor Heng who led humanity to its peak, were but projections of my will. The rise of humanity, its march toward the mythical and the eternal civilizations, were all fragments of my path, and not limited to this cosmos alone.

“Originally, the trajectory of my fate within this Sea of Chaos was to break through to the Seventh Primordial Heaven, return to the Ancient Battlefield, suppress all of the races, and lead humanity to its ultimate peak. However, at the moment I broke through, fate intertwined, and I saw you."

"Me?" Chen Chu was momentarily stunned.

Emperor Heng nodded. "Indeed. From the depths of the river of fate, I saw a day tens of thousands of years later in the mythical world’s timeline, when you appeared before my true form on the battlefield where I fought another eternal being. Thus my will descended, merging traces of my mark to deduce the past and future, and I saw that hundreds of thousands of years later in this world’s time, you and your colossal beast form would appear here.

"Yet your fate remains shrouded. I cannot see your past, nor your future. With your current late-stage true-spirit-level strength and a colossal beast body that has just broken into the primordial level, I do not understand how you could reach the eternal level in such a short span and intervene in my battle with another eternal being. That is why I came to this place where you would appear. This world was once the true form of an Abyssal Lord who stood at the semi-undying state, on the verge of breaking into the Seventh Primordial Heaven."

As Emperor Heng spoke, the river of fate quivered. A formless power spread out, replaying scenes from the past before Chen Chu’s eyes. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, a war involving Seventh-Primordial-Heaven beings had erupted here. The outcome was self-evident.

Faced with Emperor Heng, who had already surpassed the Seventh Primordial Heaven and whose eternal will had descended, that Abyssal Lord had no chance of victory. It was swiftly defeated and grievously wounded.

However, Heng did not kill it. Instead, he erased most of its will, severed its consciousness from its undying demonic body, and sealed it deep within the world. He also cut off part of his own undying true form and merged it with this world to eternally suppress the Abyssal Lord, ensuring that it would never break free even as it continued to grow and perfect its undying form.

The special principles of this world and the world origin gathered over hundreds of thousands of years came mostly from that source. A small portion was derived from the invading evil gods and powers of the supreme planes, but the majority stemmed from the divine soul will of the sealed Abyssal Lord.

The reason for all of this was simple. Heng wanted to help Chen Chu, including his colossal beast body, break through to the Seventh Primordial Heaven, and hasten his future path toward eternity so he could one day enter the battlefield between the two eternal beings.

Even so, Heng himself couldn’t comprehend how Chen Chu could have stepped into eternity in such a short time along the original trajectory of fate without any help. Even with his intervention, even if he helped Chen Chu accumulate enough power to become a pseudo-Seventh-Primordial-Heaven being, Heng couldn’t imagine how Chen Chu would truly ascend to eternity so soon after. Perhaps the fate he saw, the future that guided him to leave behind this trace, had deceived him, a deception born of fate itself.

Yet regardless of what the future held, Heng still left behind this opportunity. For one who had already stepped into eternity, leaving such a trace, a fragment of himself in another time and another chaotic cosmos, was of little consequence.

Of course, even if Chen Chu managed to use the vast world origin and the galactic-scale array covering this world to fuse with and devour the two undying true forms, it would still only allow him to become a pseudo-Seventh-Primordial-Heaven being.

By the time Heng finished speaking, Chen Chu’s heart was already in turmoil. He was overwhelmed by the immensity of the eternal level.

Countless timelines, countless worlds, omnipresence across creation... So this is the power of eternity.

It was a power unlike the colossal beasts of the mythical world, unlike the Chaotic Nightmare Lord whose battle had ended in mutual destruction. It was another path entirely. However, Chen Chu faintly sensed that eternity was not the ultimate end. If it were, why would eternal beings and eternal colossal beasts still fight one another, even to the death?

As that thought rippled through his heart, the figure standing at the other end of the river of fate smiled faintly. "Good luck, Chen Chu. I look forward to the day you stand before me. And remember, I am the origin of ‘human.’ If I fall to the two eternal beings I battle, the countless worlds of the heavens will be affected. All human existence across the infinite worlds will be erased. This is not a threat, only the truth. I hope you will give your all and reach the eternal level as soon as possible, for yourself, and for all that you wish to protect. I don’t know how much longer I can hold on..."

As that faintly wistful voice faded, the towering figure at the end of the river of fate slowly dissolved. A vast power of time erupted from the river’s depths.

Boom!

Chen Chu’s consciousness shook violently. Time around him surged forward at an unimaginable speed, countless visions flashing by, seas turning to dust, ages passing in an instant. When the flow finally stabilized, the radiant river that had covered the world was gone. Before him, Amitya and the others had reappeared, along with the guards. Everything looked exactly as it had been before Chen Chu’s descent into the past hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Only one thing had changed: The once-broken stele now stood whole and complete, a thousand meters tall, towering at the center of the shattered void. It was engraved with constellations and countless complex principle runes. Seven-colored light flowed across its surface, forming a vast and magnificent image of a starry river around it.

As they gazed at that glowing stele, every person felt an overwhelming desire, as though seizing it would grant them control over the world itself. Yet when their eyes fell on the black-haired youth standing quietly at the edge of the dark void, hands behind his back, their legs trembled uncontrollably, and none dared to move. Within that young man’s body, a terrifying power was awakening, a supreme force towering above billions of beings.

Only Amitya, bound to him by contract, felt the least pressure. She hesitated slightly. "Chu... what just happened?"

"Nothing much, just a brief conversation with a senior." Chen Chu turned back, his expression calm. Yet in his eyes, flickering with golden-white lightning, a terrifying majesty stirred.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Under Chen Chu’s gaze, everyone instinctively fell to their knees. Even the blue dragon that he had nearly crushed earlier was trembling, prostrating itself on the ground.

"Rise. We are all humans. Such formality is unnecessary." With that calm voice, Chen Chu turned and stepped into the dark void, appearing before the black stele. He raised his hand and pressed it against the surface.

The moment his palm touched the stele, the entire world shuddered violently. The countless galaxies orbiting the world shone with dazzling brilliance, and Chen Chu’s consciousness trembled. Following the web of intertwined principles around the stele, his awareness expanded infinitely, encompassing the entire Black World.

He saw the boundless, awe-inspiring origin of the world itself, as well as the true body of the Black World. It was a colossal undying form radiating eternal might. Within the depths of the darkness, he saw the undying demonic body of the Abyssal Lord, sealed for hundreds of thousands of years, emanating a monstrous, destructive power.