Chapter 641: The Divine Transformation that Shook the World (II)

Beneath Chen Chu stretched an endless dark void. Half of the once-massive floating continent, spanning hundreds of kilometers, had been destroyed by the devastating aftershock of the clash.

On the other side, only a few dozen war puppets remained, standing motionless amid a region shrouded in black mist.

Seeing this scene unfold, Xiao Tianyi suppressed his shock and spoke slowly in a booming voice.

"At ten, I was introduced to cultivation theory. At sixteen, I formally began to cultivate, and within three months, I perfected my own path. One month, one realm—within a year, I had reached the Ninth Heavenly Realm.

"I once believed that achieving the mythical level in just one year and three months made my talent unparalleled, and that I was the one chosen by the fate of the Blue Planet. But today, after encountering you, I realize that I may have been wrong. You are the true chosen one of this era.

"Despite only being at the late stage of the Ninth Heavenly Realm, you wield power rivaling the peak of the mythical level and can even summon a projection of such a mighty colossal beast. Even I wasn’t this strong back then."

Chen Chu replied indifferently. "If you once thought yourself to be the chosen of the Blue Planet, then why did you betray humanity?"

Xiao Tianyi's voice grew heavy. "I have never betrayed humanity. Back then, I merely severed a part of myself to create the Purgatory True Demon body. But they feared that I would be corrupted by the will of purgatory. They refused to acknowledge my path and cast me out.

"Chen Chu, have you not realized? The Blue Planet is far too small. Compared to the endless mythical world, humanity is weak and insignificant. Forget the eternal beings who gaze down from the heavens. Even a single Purgatory True Demon Clan is strong enough to drive us into despair.

"If the Purgatory Clan wasn't entangled with two other powerful civilizations, humanity would have been annihilated long ago. So when I realized that their path could not save the Blue Planet, I chose another. As long as I can break through my limits, I alone will be enough to suppress everything."

Xiao Tianyi’s words made Chen Chu narrow his eyes slightly.

Severing part of himself to create a Purgatory True Demon body... Did that mean that, besides Zuo Jing and this Zuo Sheng, there's also "Zuo Mo"

[1]

as his third avatar?

Or perhaps, Zuo Jing, Zuo Sheng, and even Zuo Mo, who had joined the Purgatory Clan, were not avatars at all—but rather, all part of Xiao Tianyi’s true form. Did he manifest Sanqing

[2]

in one breath?

Of course, this was only Xiao Tianyi’s version of the story. What truly happened back then was known only to those involved. Regardless, he was now a traitor. That status was sealed the moment he attacked Chen Chu.

Everything he was saying now was just a stalling tactic. After all, the drawback of summoning secret arts was that the stronger the summoned existence, the greater the energy cost.

These thoughts flashed through Chen Chu’s mind in an instant. Then, his lips curled into a slight smirk. Standing atop the summoning altar, he looked coldly at Xiao Tianyi.

If the true form of the Dragon Emperor had been summoned, Chen Chu wouldn’t have been able to sustain it for long. But a projection at thirty percent power? This would definitely last long enough to crush this opponent.

Besides, this time, he hadn’t summoned the Dragon Emperor’s projection just to kill Xiao Tianyi’s avatar. Suddenly, Chen Chu spread his six arms wide.

"Divine Transformation—merge!"

Boom!

Deep within Chen Chu's body, a surge of soul energy erupted, resonating with the Dragon Emperor above him. In an instant, both radiated a dazzling white light.

Roar!

Bathed in divine radiance, the black-and-red colossal beast howled towards the heavens, shaking the world. Then, its massive form pounced toward the hundred-meter-tall Chen Chu.

Boom!

In that instant, an indescribable, overwhelming aura exploded outward, shaking the ruins.

In the sky, white lightning streaks suddenly appeared, illuminating half of the world and leaving everyone staring stunned. The overwhelming aura forced the alien races onto their knees, their hearts pounding with fear.

"Damn it, I can't kneel! I must not kneel!" Ji Wuji panicked as the pressure from the aura pushed down on him. He tried to force himself on his back instead, resisting the urge to kneel.

Thud!

Ji Wuji lay sprawled on the ground, a smile appearing on his face because he managed to not kneel.

Ji Wuji wasn't the only one who resisted. Li Hao, Xia Zuo, Chen Shuang—every genius, every freak, who refused to kneel—reacted the same way. Just as they were about to kneel, they flipped themselves over. Some landed on their backs, while others dove face-first into the dirt.

Those floating mid-air had it easier. They simply lost control and drifted, powerless.

Only Hong Zhen, who unleashed a terrifying fist will, An Fuqing, who was protected by four divine swords formed from sword will, and the three-eyed youth whose Insightful Eye shone between his brows, didn't succumb to the pressure.

The three of them sat cross-legged, struggling against the primal instinct of submission and fear, their expressions filled with shock. This was too terrifying—just the aura alone was this overwhelming, even from thousands or tens of thousands of kilometers away.

Even Xiao Tianyi, who was directly facing Chen Chu’s divine transformation form, was visibly shaken. For a brief moment, his mind wavered, forcing him out of his Heavenly Dao state.

"Impossible! How can you still grow stronger?" His voice trembled. "What kind of secret art—what kind of divine ability is this?!"

Sensing the distant aura growing even more intense, Xiao Tianyi couldn’t shake the thought—The world had completely lost its mind.

A late-stage Ninth Heavenly Realm cultivator summoning a colossal beast projection comparable to a beginning stage Heavenly King was already shocking enough. However, Xiao Tianyi was confident that by relying on the World Force and the explosive power of burning his origin, he could not only withstand Chen Chu but even wear him down completely.

But he hadn't expected this monster to have another way to boost his power. It was as if his trump cards were endless, each more shocking than the last.

Sensing the growingly terrifying aura in the distance, Xiao Tianyi's eyes sharpened. He could not allow Chen Chu to complete his breakthrough. If he did, not only would his dream of refining this world and stepping into the realm of Heavenly King crumble, but he might not make it out alive.

Boom!

A powerful aura erupted from Xiao Tianyi, sweeping across heaven and earth. His voice, imbued with an unquestionable authority like a Cursed Speech, thundered through the world.

“War—descend.”

Boom!

The void surrounding the ruins collapsed. As the world shattered, a terrifying force descended, merging with the war puppets surrounding Xiao Tianyi.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Enhanced by the World Force, the war puppets expanded drastically in size. Even the weakest among them expanded to nearly two thousand meters tall, while the largest reached close to three thousand.

In an instant, all thirty-seven war puppets radiated energy fluctuations at the peak of the Ninth Heavenly Realm. Even the fourteen puppets at the mythical beginning stage surged toward the peak of the mythical level.

The sheer scale of this enhancement was terrifying, and the price was the large-scale collapse of the world.

When these fifty-one war puppets, whose power had been temporarily amplified more than tenfold, formed the Supreme Divine Demon Formation, an endless tide of black mist erupted, engulfing the void.

The black mist surged like a tidal wave, consuming everything in its path. Fourteen colossal banners, now towering at ten thousand meters, snapped and roared in the wind. The swirling darkness was so vast that even Xiao Tianyi himself was engulfed within it.

The cold, eerie black mist merged with Xiao Tianyi, who radiated a sacred golden light. In an instant, the entire world dimmed, leaving only a towering figure—over three thousand meters tall—emerging from the darkness.

Above the endless darkness, Xiao Tianyi stood bathed in an ethereal azure glow, his presence radiating boundless light. He held up his palm, aiming at Chen Chu, and uttered a solemn incantation.

"I am the Lord of Holy Light and Warring Darkness. I shall reign over all things in this world—

Suppress!

"

Boom!

A terrifying power descended, its overwhelming force radiating an endless white light, compressing and materializing the space within a dozen kilometers.

Crack! Crack!

Under the divine power, the materialized space around Chen Chu continuously shrank, down to ten kilometers, then eight...

As the person who had refined a large portion of this world fragment's origin, Xiao Tianyi reigned as its absolute ruler. With a single thought, he could manipulate the power of the heavens and earth, suppressing all within. Even space itself bent to his will, shifting and twisting as the world changed at his command.

The cost, however, was an accelerated consumption of World Force, causing the world to crumble at an even faster rate.

Originally, all Xiao Tianyi needed was to complete the final step—find the Heart of the World within this world fragment, merge with it, and then restore the shattered crystal wall. Once accomplished, he could wield the World Force in battle without tearing the realm apart.

However, all of this had been disrupted by Chen Chu’s arrival.

Thinking of this, Xiao Tianyi's gaze grew even colder, and the power in his hands intensified. With sheer force, he compressed Chen Chu’s space from thirteen kilometers down to only a single kilometer.

Just as the space was about to be fully sealed, the white light suddenly vanished. In its place stood a figure—human in form yet adorned with dragon horns and tail—his entire body radiating a brilliant white glow.

Chen Chu had undergone a divine transformation by merging with the Dragon Emperor. He instantly went from the late stage of the Ninth Heavenly Realm to a beginning stage Heavenly King.

Despite both being beginning stage Heavenly Kings, the terrifying energy surging from Chen Chu made even Xiao Tianyi feel an overwhelming pressure unlike anything he had ever experienced.

Chen Chu, who could only stay at eighty-meters tall within the one-kilometer space, swung his halberd.

Bang!

The space that trapped him instantly shattered, leaving behind a vast, chaotic dark region that spanned over ten kilometers.

Amid the raging spatial storm, a towering figure over a thousand meters tall emerged, his body blazing with a blinding white glow. In his grasp, a black-and-gold halberd encircled by white light, radiated an aura of sheer terror.

In his divine transformation form, Chen Chu wasted no time. In a flash, he traversed dozens of kilometers and appeared directly before Xiao Tianyi.

At a speed that surpassed the limits of conscious perception, Chen Chu's halberd swept forward. In an instant everything in its path collapsed into nothingness, forming an ever-expanding black block of destruction.

"No! I am the ruler of this world!" Xiao Tianyi let out a deafening roar as he thrust his restored golden battle spear forward. Black mist, comparable to high-level laws, intertwined with Holy Light Law, surged along the spear's surface.

Under the enhancement of World Force, the five-thousand-meter-long golden spear shot through space with enough destructive force to pierce through the world.

Bang!

Yet, the moment it got close to Chen Chu, the spear shattered beneath the halberd wrapped in white radiance. Then, immediately after, half of Xiao Tianyi's true form was obliterated.

Boom!

A cataclysmic explosion followed, tearing apart the sky. Half the sky was devoured by darkness, leaving behind a chaotic region of destruction, where nothing existed—only raging, howling energy consuming everything.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

The moment half of Xiao Tianyi's true form was shattered in half by the halberd, the fourteen mythical peak-level war puppets let out furious roars. Wielding black war banners, they surged forward, engulfing the sky in endless black smoke, bearing down on Chen Chu like an unstoppable tide.

Bolstered by the Supreme Divine Demon Formation, their strike carried unimaginable destructive power. The Demonic Spirit energy entwined within the attack had a soul-eroding ability, potent enough to gravely wound even a beginning stage Heavenly King.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

However, the moment the towering ten-thousand-meter war banners crossed within a thousand meters of Chen Chu, they shattered instantly, disintegrating under the sheer force of his high-level laws, which blazed as a blinding white radiance.

Still, the war puppets' interference bought Xiao Tianyi precious time. Now hundreds of kilometers away, his half-shattered body transformed into golden light, swiftly reforming into a complete figure once more.

"You think you can stop me?"

A deep, resonant voice rumbled through the void. In that instant, Chen Chu became a streak of lightning, slicing through the war formation in a flash. In the blink of an eye, he had already arrived right in the midst of the dozens of war puppets.

1. The "Mo" in "Zuo Mo" means "demon." It seems that Chen Chu coined this name by combining "Zuo" as a thematic element from the names of the two other avatars with "Mo" to signify the True Demon Body, representing this third avatar. ☜

2. Sanqing refers to three supreme deities that reside in three different realms: Yuqing, Shangqing, and Taiqing. Each of them represents different aspects of the Dao–the fundamental principle of the universe. This is similar in concept to Zuo Jing, Zuo Sheng, and Zuo Mo. ☜