Chapter 1181: The War of Peak Civilizations, Chen Chu’s Return

This sudden assault from the Chaotic Assassin ignited a clash that no one had foreseen. According to calculations by the powerhouses of the six peak civilizations, Chen Chu’s seclusion and breakthrough to the primordial level should have taken at least a decade or more.

Yet before he had even broken through, Chen Chu’s combat strength had already surpassed the limits of the primordial star level, nearly reaching that of the Second Primordial Heaven. Once he reached the primordial level, his true combat power could rival that of a Primordial Monarch. By then, even if Bakibelens was stronger, it could at most suppress him, but killing him would be nearly impossible.

Once the human true emperors reacted, one of them would immediately descend to deter the enemy from beyond the cosmos, forcing Bakibelens to retreat. After that, it would face the full pursuit of humanity.

Hence, their plan had been to wait until Chen Chu completed his breakthrough and left seclusion. At that moment, Bakibelens would feign weakness to lure him out of the chaotic cosmos, whereupon they would strike with thunderous force to annihilate him in one blow. Four primordial sovereigns and two primordial emperors joining in an ambush... Such a force could gravely wound even an emperor.

However, plans never kept up with changes. The task-bearing Bakibelens failed to follow the arrangement. As a result, Alquest and the others had no choice but to issue new orders, commanding their civilization’s powerhouses within the universe to attack and immediately descend upon the Chaotic Imperial City to force Chen Chu out. Even if they couldn’t kill him this time, they had to interrupt his breakthrough.

At the instant the command was given, a terrifying aura erupted from Sigmund of the Eternal Golden Divine Race. Endless golden flames surged outward, flooding the Sea of Chaos. "Everyone, join forces to seal space-time. Disrupt the chaotic principles. The humans must not have time to react. Strike!"

Boom!

Alquest let out a roar, and its obsidian true form, over a hundred thousand kilometers tall, appeared in the chaotic cosmos. Layers of skies unfolded from its body, covering tens of billions of kilometers. Yet before the remaining four alien powerhouses could act, a golden-red sun suddenly descended.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A sea of red flame erupted, incinerating everything. Even the chaotic currents that assimilated all matter blazed fiercely within the inferno, making it burn hotter still.

Before them appeared a crimson galaxy, over a hundred million kilometers wide, surrounded by nine blazing red rings that stretched for hundreds of billions of kilometers. The six alien powerhouses all tensed, their gazes hardening.

Alquest’s voice sank. "True Radiant Sky Emperor of the humans, why are you here instead of guarding Cangwu Imperial City?"

"What do you think? Naturally, I came to stop you from besieging one of our powerhouses." A cold and commanding voice echoed through the chaos. The vast crimson sun of flame twisted and condensed into a massive lotus platform of fire. At its blazing core stood the Radiant Emperor, robed in divine splendor, crowned with an imperial crown, and holding the sun aloft in one hand.

A primordial emperor’s pressure instantly spread outward. The surrounding space-time surged like tides, and the roaring chaotic shockwaves were pushed back, forming a vacuum of hundreds of billions of kilometers.

Although Alquest and Sigmund were both primordial emperors as well, their expressions grew heavier, for both had once been defeated by this human. Though their realms were equal, her strength belonged to an entirely different tier.

The Radiant Emperor hadn’t expected the alien races to attack the Chaotic Imperial City before Chen Chu even emerged from seclusion. Thus, she had no choice but to descend personally to prevent word from spreading that Chen Chu was absent from the chaos.

The barriers of the chaotic cosmos prevented those above the primordial monarch level from descending, greatly limiting the aliens’ strongest fighters. However, if they discovered that Chen Chu wasn’t within the Chaotic Imperial City, nor even in this layer of the chaotic cosmos, their strongest powerhouses would surely act immediately.

With these peak civilizations’ foundations, they could certainly find Chen Chu’s location if they ignored the cost. Among the forbidden arts once known across the Ancient Battlefield was the blood sacrifice, a taboo known to every civilization.

A blood sacrifice meant slaughtering an entire powerful civilization or race, using the fate of their lineage, the blood of their strongest, and the souls of countless lives as offerings to locate an enemy across distant space and time.

If Chen Chu’s true name and true form were locked through such a ritual, even the Radiant Emperor and the others wouldn’t be able to reach him in time. After all, even they didn’t know where Chen Chu was now.

Facing Sigmund, who stood within his golden world, the Radiant Emperor’s gaze turned cold as she calmly said, "Lord Sigmund, has your Golden Divine Race abandoned neutrality? Are you now set on interfering in the endless struggle between us and the Shadow War God Race?"

As she spoke, the Radiant Emperor’s gaze swept across the chaotic void, piercing through dimensions to fall on the four hidden alien powerhouses. "And the rest of you, are you here to ally with them in attacking us? Or are you simply passing by?"

She remained calm, not striking immediately. Her words deliberately excluded the four hidden aliens from open hostility, and even toward the already hostile Eternal Golden Divine Race, she refrained from declaring outright enmity.

Chen Chu’s talent was so extraordinary that the Radiant Emperor and the others believed it wouldn’t be long before humanity saw the rise of a second being at the Seventh Primordial Heaven. Time was on their side. As for the first such being, it was of course Heng, who had vanished countless years ago.

The Radiant Emperor’s words immediately caused the expressions of those aliens hidden deep within the dimensions to waver in hesitation.

Alquest of the Shadow War God Race sneered. "Radiant Emperor, can’t you see what’s happening today? It’s obvious that the six of our races have already formed an alliance, united to oppose your race. Since you humans appeared in the Ancient Battlefield, you’ve shattered the balance that had been maintained among all races for hundreds of thousands of years. Under your cruel and warlike nature, the Ancient Battlefield’s territories have been redrawn, and endless wars have erupted among the races, leaving them all gravely wounded. But once we drive you out of the Ancient Battlefield, out of this chaotic space-time, peace will return once more."

Just as Alquest finished speaking, an even more terrifying aura emerged faintly from the depths of the chaos. Everyone suddenly felt the world around them dim, as though they had fallen into a distorted, absurd void.

"The void!"

In an instant, the aliens’ expressions changed drastically, their eyes filled with dread. One figure shrouded in shadowy energy even coughed dryly. "Lord Alquest, please don’t speak nonsense. None of us ever said anything about alliances or cooperation. We do not represent our races in such matters. Our presence here is pure coincidence; we just happened to be passing by."

With one taking the lead, another aliens quickly followed, nodding repeatedly. "That’s right, we were only passing through, nothing more. We have no intention of opposing the humans."

"Lord Alquest, you must not speak recklessly."

Facing the potential threat of the True Void Emperor watching from the shadows, the four aliens immediately turned their backs on the War Gods, hastily distancing themselves from any supposed alliance.

With the Radiant Emperor’s appearance and the Void Emperor’s gaze upon them, the plan to ambush that human, Chu Batian, had already failed. Now that the Radiant Emperor had given them a chance to retreat, and their identities hadn’t been exposed, only a fool would choose to stay.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The reason why these alien civilizations feared the humans so deeply was because of the True Reincarnation Emperor and the Void Emperor. Among the nine peak civilizations of the Ancient Battlefield, each had a powerhouse who reached the Sixth Primordial Heaven. However, unlike the War Gods or the Golden Race, the humans possessed two.

Only one other civilization had reached such a height: the Heavenly Punishment Race. Yet unlike the ever-aggressive humans, this race remained secluded, managing only their own region. As long as they were left alone, they never stepped beyond their borders.

Thus, the humans had become the overlords of the Ancient Battlefield. That one extra Sixth-Primordial-Heaven being was enough to shift the balance among the peak civilizations. In opposition stood the War Gods and the Purple-Maned King Hou Clan, who together barely managed to hold them at bay.

"You all!" Watching the four aliens suddenly turn against it, Alquest’s eyes turned deathly cold.

Sigmund also calmly said, "True Radiant Sky Emperor, you misunderstood. Our Golden Divine Race, in the past or the future, has always been a friend of humanity. My appearance here today is pure coincidence. I simply happened to encounter Lord Alquest, and my hands grew itchy, so I thought to have a little spar. But before we could even exchange blows, you appeared, Your Excellency."

Sigmund’s words made Alquest’s gaze turn to ice. It stood silent in the void, its expression cold, as if too disdainful to speak further. The four alien powerhouses exchanged glances, their eyes flickering. In that instant, the vast Sea of Chaos fell into an eerie calm. The so-called anti-human alliance, barely formed because of Chen Chu, crumbled before it had even begun.

Then, from the Radiant Emperor, an icy killing intent spread through the chaos as her clear, commanding voice echoed. "Since this was all a misunderstanding, I shall not keep you as guests. Alquest, you dared to violate the rules and ambush a human below the primordial level. From this moment forth, our human civilization and the Shadow War God Race are at war. Whether in the Ancient Battlefield or the chaotic void, any meeting between our races shall end in death."

The Radiant Emperor’s voice transcended space-time, reverberating through every human territory. Instantly, across countless battlefronts where humans and the War Gods clashed, thunderous wars erupted in unison.

Boom!

The Radiant Emperor expanded, transforming into a towering figure ten million kilometers tall. In her hand, a blazing star condensed into a vast cosmos of fire, exuding a power that crushed the heavens and shook eternity.

"Don’t think that I'm afraid of you!" Alquest roared in fury. Around it, five layers of dark worlds unfolded, endless black flames converging into the enormous head of a colossal beast.

Roar!

A feral, violent bellow tore through the chaos. In an instant, a battle between primordial emperors erupted. The power shattered dimensions layer by layer, shaking space-time itself. Each exchange of blows spread across trillions of kilometers, each strike capable of destroying galaxies and reversing time.

The moment the two primordial emperors clashed, the five alien powerhouses, including Sigmund, retreated swiftly, standing far beyond the battlefield.

"How powerful... She’s grown much stronger over these years." Watching Alquest fall into disadvantage after only a few breaths, Sigmund’s expression grew grim.

The strength of the human powerhouses advanced ceaselessly with every moment. If they weren’t suppressed soon, before Heng even re-emerged, humanity would already have become the strongest race of the Ancient Battlefield.

Unfortunately, those fools can't see the threat that letting the humans rise will bring. They’ve been frightened off by a single sentence from the Radiant Emperor and caused the budding alliance to collapse instantly. Otherwise, I had been prepared to join forces with Alquest against her. Now, all plans would have to be remade. And that human, Chu Batian.

At the thought, Sigmund’s gaze pierced through the cosmic barriers, falling upon the Chaotic Imperial City within another layer of the universe. There, Bakibelens, revealing its true form, roared furiously. A thousand arms swung in unison, each hand forming seals as divine abilities erupted in a cataclysmic surge, unleashing a power so immense it shook the cosmos and nearly shattered the continent upon which the Chaotic City stood.

Yet no matter how fiercely Bakibelens unleashed its strength, it couldn’t destroy the grand array above the city. It was an array infused with the power of the Radiant Emperor’s spacetime origin.

Meanwhile, the three alien capital cities that had been flying to assist under prior orders had changed course. Except for the newly appointed War God guardian, the other two had already turned back toward their own territories, as if nothing had ever happened.

They're all mad. Completely insane.

Bakibelens roared, its eyes bloodshot as it glared at the trembling light curtain below, yet even after all its might, the barrier refused to break.

Adding to its frustration was the dreadful wave of power rippling from beyond the universe. After attacking for what felt like an eternity without success, Bakibelens began to falter. The thought of retreat crept into its mind.

It was obvious now that the humans had long been prepared. Otherwise, a primordial emperor would never have risked injury to split off a fragment of her own spacetime origin and bestow it upon a late-stage true-spirit-level cultivator, letting her freely channel and burn it.

That meant the primordial emperor had no intention of reclaiming that fragment, willingly sacrificing part of her own foundation to protect a younger powerhouse during breakthrough. Such unity and resolve to safeguard one of their own even at the cost of a supreme being’s origin sent a chill through Bakibelens’ heart.

It could already envision the coming days, being relentlessly hunted by human powerhouses. However, now wasn’t the time for regret.

Just as Bakibelens turned decisively to leave, a voice rang out urgently from afar. "Lord Bakibelens, my clan’s domain lord sent a message. One more Undying Fragment has been added! At any cost, destroy the Chaotic Imperial City and stop Chu Batian from breaking through to the primordial level!"

"Undying Fragment!" Bakibelens’ steps halted. Its eyes burned as it gazed into the distant starry sky, where a colossal black continent was rapidly approaching.

Nearly two million kilometers across, the fortress was composed of countless war citadels. Deep within its core, black flames surged violently, radiating an energy so intense that even Bakibelens felt threatened.

It was, in truth, an apocalyptic bomb, a weapon containing the condensed power of a primordial emperor.

"You’re all lunatics!" Bakibelens gasped, its expression twisted in shock. Yet even as it prepared to flee, it turned back toward the Chaotic City once more.

If the War Gods truly managed to breach the city’s defenses, it would strike immediately to destroy the imperial city, no matter the danger of a human primordial emperor lying in wait beyond. After all, the temptation of an Undying Fragment was far too great.

At that very moment, deep within the Chaotic City, space and time folded upon themselves. As blood-colored light spread through the void, a terrifying aura emerged.

After six years away, Chen Chu had returned.