Chapter 581: Absolute Dominion, The Hope of Heavenly King Zhenwu (II)

Under the night sky, a river hundreds of meters wide surged through the mountains, its waters pitch-black and exuding a foul, decaying aura. Barren land stretched for a kilometer along its banks; not a single blade of grass grew.

The river used to be brimming with vitality, nurturing countless mutated aquatic beasts. However, a fierce battle between two heavenly-king-level powerhouses had contaminated it with toxic laws.

Beneath the toxic and demonic-qi-filled river, a shadow tens of meters long moved swiftly and silently. In no time, it crossed hundreds of kilometers, reaching a point where the riverbed formed a black waterfall that dropped into a thousand-meter abyss.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Explosions erupted along the riverbank as five people radiating Eighth Heavenly Realm auras and one emitting a middle-stage Ninth Heavenly Realm aura burst from the river. Black water trailed behind them as they landed on the shore.

Leading them was a ten-meter-tall True Purgatory Demon. The other five, though humanoid and covered in black scales, had fishtails for lower bodies and wielded tridents.

"You're too slow. I've been waiting for over ten minutes,” someone coldly said, breaking the silence.

"Human!"

The True Purgatory Demon and the Darkfish Race elites instantly put up their guard. They unleashed their terrifying auras, shaking the earth around them.

From the shadow of a distant mountainside, darkness dissipated and revealed Chen Chu, who was clad in black-and-red battle armor. He seemed to have no presence at all. He was visible yet somehow impossible to sense—an eerie contradiction.

Gradually, the effects of the Hidden Divinity power faded, allowing Chen Chu’s beginning-stage Ninth Heavenly Realm aura to radiate. The demon sneered malevolently upon sensing it.

"You’re just at the beginning stage of the Ninth Demonic Mark? You're courting death! Do you not know Purgatory Clan members in the same level are invincible?"

"Is that so? Let’s see if you can withstand an attack from me, then."

Boom!

Entwined with purple-gold light, the halberd cleaved through the air, instantly shattering the ground within a thousand-meter radius. The attack ruptured the riverbed, sending torrents of black water spraying in all directions.

Amid the violent shockwaves, Chen Chu soared into the air.

As Chen Chu followed the central command system's directives, obliterating invading alien squads and elite Purgatory Clan teams with overwhelming force, Heavenly King Zhenwu sat cross-legged in a spatial rift high above Abyssal City.

Behind him loomed the True Martial Divine Stele. It was tens of thousands of meters tall and exuded a pressure that seemed to suppress all time and space.

Before him hovered a massive map projection, a straight line dividing it equally into red and white zones.

At the center of the line, red and black light clusters tangled together, marking the fiercest battles.

Further behind the red zone, blue, white, and purple spots flashed intermittently among the mountains and rivers, representing artillery, missile, and airfield positions.

Along the dotted boundary, red and black dots moved sporadically. The red dots represented elite human squads infiltrating enemy territory to locate auxiliary units and guide crystalline hydrogen bombs for annihilation strikes. The black dots marked Purgatory Clan elites invading human territories, but they were rapidly vanishing.

Above the map appeared Waling’s projection—a silver-haired, red-eyed AI resembling a sixteen-year-old girl. She had a hint of human-like astonishment on her face.

[Major General Chen is incredibly powerful. Though he still hasn’t unleashed power beyond the Ninth Heavenly Realm, the Ninth Demonic Mark demons can’t withstand even just one of his attacks.]

Standing at the peak of transcendence, Ninth Heavenly Realm cultivators had reforged bodies and mastery over domains. Under normal circumstances, even those at its beginning stage could survive a few moves or escape against a late-stage opponent.

The True Purgatory Demons, in particular, were infamous for their secret arts that made them formidable adversaries, such as amplification, acceleration, stealth, and innate abilities.

Nevertheless, none of it mattered against Chen Chu at the beginning stage of the Ninth Heavenly Realm. He annihilated beginning-stage, middle-stage, and even late-stage demons in a single blow.

Heavenly King Zhenwu calmly replied, "I’ve reviewed his records. His true power isn’t in surpassing major realms but in his unparalleled dominance at the same level.

"After breaking through the Fourth Heavenly Realm, he transformed. The divine might of the Dragon Elephant Tyrant Body made him overwhelmingly dominant and unshakable.

"No matter how gifted or monstrous a cultivator in the same realm may be, they cannot withstand a single strike from him.”

"His supremacy at the same level has been honed to the point of resembling a principle. The same can still be said even though he has reached the Ninth Heavenly Realm,” Zhenwu added, a glimmer of anticipation in his eyes.

"I’m most eager for the day he breaks through to the king level. If this dominance carries over, it will mark the beginning of our race’s counteroffensive."

Zhenwu watched as Purgatory Clan elite squads—once a scourge in past wars—vanished one by one.

The Federation’s special operation teams were now tasked only with tracking and stalling the enemy while Chen Chu swiftly eradicated their targets. Hence, they only suffered minimal casualties. Their orders were straightforward: stall and track the enemy without risking their lives excessively.

As the battle between the two sides grew increasingly intense, dozens of kings and demon kings fought above the frontlines, which spanned 10,000 to 20,000 kilometers. Power of laws swirled around them, and demonic qi churned violently.

Both sides unleashed their energies to disrupt the surrounding environment, preventing their opponents from detecting or observing their activities.

As a result, the Federation had no way of knowing the status of their deployed squads, and the Purgatory Demon Kings couldn’t ascertain the survival of their infiltrating teams. The two factions remained in silent anticipation, awaiting the outbreak of a true cataclysmic battle.

...

Over 2,000 kilometers behind the Purgatory Clan's frontline, hundreds of volcanoes erupted, the molten lava they spewed converging into a vast sea of fire.

Black smoke billowed endlessly, shrouding the sky and casting an apocalyptic red glow over the land.

In the middle of the molten ocean, over 10,000 colossal figures stood like sentinels, each tens or even hundreds of meters tall. With flames blazing all over them, they resembled creatures forged from magma.

At the center of these Lava Giants rose a massive altar that was over a kilometer in diameter. It burned with flames that reached thousands of meters into the sky.

Endless streams of magma flowed toward and compressed into the altar. Gradually, a fiery magma sphere emerged above it. It was over a kilometer wide, and it glowed gold and red.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

"For the glory of the True Purgatory Demons!"

Atop the altar, an over-100-meter-tall Lava Giant with Ninth Heavenly Realm aura roared incantations in an eerie language. The Lava Giants below joined the chant in unison.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

One volcano after another trembled as searing magma surged upward. The entire altar radiated an intense, blinding light.

"Exterminate humanity!"

Boom!

With a deafening explosion, the altar erupted in dazzling crimson brilliance. A red beam of light enveloped the magma sphere and shot skyward, vanishing into the horizon.

Above the clouds, rumbling shockwaves made the atmosphere tremble as the magma sphere—akin to a miniature star—traversed over 2,000 kilometers. Carrying apocalyptic force, it arrived above the left flank of the main battlefield.

"Caution! Doomsday Magma incoming!"

"Intercept it!"

"No, evacuate immediately! The outer shell is reinforced with the Kara Clan's barrier of will! Not even Ninth Heavenly Realm experts can break that! "

The kilometer-wide magma sphere, resembling a doomsday meteor, descended at supersonic speed. The instant it hit the ground, a blinding light engulfed the land.

Boom!

The earth quaked as waves of molten lava exploded outward, unleashing destructive shockwaves that engulfed everything within a 10-kilometer radius. Thousands of unmanned mechs were instantly annihilated.

Many elite Federation warriors piloting mechs were blown away and destroyed. Mountains crumbled, and the impact zone transformed into a burning sea of magma—a raging inferno of annihilation.

However, not even such devastation could stop the war from escalating.

Back at the volcanic region, the Lava Giants roared furiously. After the altar’s eruption, they began channeling the sea of magma to forge another Doomsday Magma.

Twenty kilometers away, at the edge of an erupting volcano, four people appeared. They had their auras concealed, their distorted surroundings instead mimicking the environment of the volcano.

Observing the formation of the second Doomsday Magma, Xia Zuo exchanged glances with the other three and gave a subtle nod.

Right after, they all deployed a small signal relay device into the boiling volcano.

[

Beep... beep...

Signal connection established. Network synchronized. Calculating coordinates...]

[Coordinates calculated. Sending...]

[Attention! A crystalline, six-megaton hydrogen bomb has been launched. Estimated time to impact: 25 minutes. Maintain coordinate guidance...]

Over a thousand kilometers away, Alexis stood amid the shattered ground, surrounded by a few mutilated corpses.

Looking at the Federation genius whose skull it had crushed, Alexis sneered coldly, its eyes filled with ruthless disdain. "This is humanity's so-called genius? So weak."