Chapter 916: Ancient Dragon Emperor, The Faeries (II)

Sweeping his gaze over the attribute page and the changes from the breakthrough, even Chen Chu couldn't help but take a deep breath. A trace of astonishment and awe flashed through his eyes.

The heavenly-tier bloodline strength needed no further elaboration. It had simply further reinforced the Destructive Dragon Emperor’s draconic pressure and original bloodline-stimulating ability, evolving into a form of divine bestowal. It could now directly grant bloodline evolution to all lifeforms below the emperor level. For ancient-titan-level colossal beasts, this boost alone had staggering implications.

Each ancient titan possessed two to three top-level innate abilities, with bloodline grades reaching the advanced or even peak king level, just one step away from entering the emperor class.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

However, that final step was incredibly difficult and had blocked the path for countless ancient beasts. It was the very reason many peak-stage ancient titans failed their breakthroughs and ultimately turned to stone.

Now, the Dragon Emperor’s bloodline ability could directly allow those one-step-away king-level beasts to cross the threshold in life stage and ascend to the emperor level. Naturally, such an upgrade would consume a tremendous amount of energy from the Dragon Emperor, but to it, that was inconsequential.

Previously, Chen Chu had been thinking about how to get the Azure-White Colossal Dragon, the Time Dragon, and the Midgard Serpent to follow it on its expedition. After all, they were all dragon kings. Joining forces to subdue two or three ancient-level empires was one thing, but asking them to follow the Dragon Emperor into a full-scale war between civilizations, with no reason or benefit, was a different matter altogether.

That battlefield would involve dozens of ancient-titan-level combatants, and possibly even encounters with the true-spirit-level Purgatory Primordial Ancestor.

Not to mention, the Purgatory Clan and Dragon Palace were separated by billions of kilometers, with countless deadly forbidden zones between them. The two sides couldn’t have been more disconnected; there had never been any conflict of interest.

Yet now, this bloodline ability resolved that problem entirely. With bloodline evolution as an incentive, asking those ancient titans to join the coming war between civilizations became viable. Even if there was a risk of death, they wouldn’t refuse.

Beyond the bloodline, the principle condensed during this breakthrough was even more formidable, its level now at the supreme level. Just like laws could be strong or weak, there were also differences in the strength of principles.

There were ordinary principles condensed from high-level laws like earth, water, or fire. Even those provided around a tenfold enhancement to all innate abilities. That didn’t sound like much at first, but when added to ultimate techniques that already exploded with ten to several dozen times their original might, it became a massively exponential multiplier.

This was exactly why ancient titans could level landscapes over tens of thousands of kilometers. Such absurd amplification from principle power wasn’t something titan-level beasts could ever withstand.

More powerful principles required one supreme law and two high-level laws as their foundation. These provided up to a twentyfold boost to all innate ultimate abilities, which was why the strong always grew stronger. Even among ancient titans, demon gods, supreme human powerhouses, and divine kings, there were still massive disparities in power.

Of course, a principle’s level could improve over time as one grew stronger. As they comprehended and merged with more compatible laws, the principle itself would become more refined and complete, eventually turning an ordinary fire principle into something comparable to the supreme level.

One could also refine entire worlds to reforge a principle, or forge world-level weapons to enhance the principle's might. Even entities like Tyretis had gone so far as to condense a True Abyssal Demon God Form. Once one reached the ancient titan level, combat power hinged on many factors: weapons, divine abilities, principle level, comprehension, and so on.

The Dragon Emperor had only just broken through to the ancient titan level, yet the principle it had condensed was already at the supreme level. For most ancient titans with exceptional talent, this was the endpoint of their cultivation path regarding principles. For the Dragon Emperor, however, this was only the beginning. As its power increased, its bloodline evolved, and its principles refined, it would grow even stronger.

This included the supreme-level principle condensed by Chen Chu himself, which was no less terrifying. Though it was still in an embryonic form, it already provided a fifteenfold enhancement at the foundational level. Once he broke through to the ancient titan level, it would likely rival the Dragon Emperor’s Chaotic End principle.

Suppressing the tremor in his heart, Chen Chu shifted his gaze to the list of abilities below. All of the laws that had fused into the Dragon Emperor’s principle hadn’t disappeared. They still existed, forming the basis of the “world” that was its body.

With this breakthrough, all of those abilities had grown significantly stronger. However, what made ancient titans truly terrifying was their fusion trait. Previously, before reaching the ancient stage, those innate abilities could only be activated one at a time. Now, under the amplification of principle power, they could be freely fused.

The Chaotic Tyrant Body, Vajra Immortality, and Chaotic Force Field on its flanks, when stacked under the supreme principle’s boost, would make the Dragon Emperor’s body unimaginably formidable. Its strength would rise to absurd levels, its defenses would become nearly unbreakable, and once its speed abilities were added...

If it entered its gigantified form on top of that, gaining even further amplification, then in close combat, the Dragon Emperor would be absolutely invincible, even capable of going head-to-head with a true spirit.

On the energy side, abilities like the Endbringer Sun, Electromagnetic Tyrant, and Omni-Corrosion could also be combined. Under a fortyfold boost from its principle, they would form an unimaginably terrifying domain of death.

Ordinary ancient titans wouldn’t even be able to approach before being dissolved into nothingness by the destructive power radiating for tens of thousands of kilometers. Those beneath the ancient titan level might as well not exist at all; the Dragon Emperor could simply unfold its destructive domain and obliterate the very foundational principles of an entire world, causing that world to collapse. That was the origin of its title, Endbringer.

It could be said that only after breaking through to the ancient titan level did the Dragon Emperor’s ten divine transformation abilities fully display their overwhelming advantage. This was the true dominion a heavenly tier lifeform was meant to wield.

***

As Chen Chu synchronized his consciousness and immersed himself in the changes brought by the Dragon Emperor’s breakthrough...

In a distant location over a hundred million kilometers away from the human region, a cluster of floating cities was soaring through the skies, advancing in the direction of the human domain.

Even the smallest of these cities had a diameter exceeding a hundred kilometers. Shrouded in a blue energy dome, their architecture resembled ancient human styles, only far larger in scale, steeped in classical elegance.

Within these floating cities, a humanoid alien race walked to and fro. The males of this alien race averaged around two meters in height, the females somewhat shorter. Most of them wore robes reminiscent of silk in white, blue, or azure tones, bearing an air of ancient refinement.

Their greatest difference from humans lay in their ears: the males bore silvery metallic feathered wings in place of ears, exuding majesty and grace, while the females had a pair of small white feathered wings, which lent them a light, ethereal aura that was graceful and strikingly beautiful.

Atop the largest floating city, spanning over a thousand kilometers, stood a titanic observatory that reached ten thousand meters into the sky, surrounded by rotating azure halos and radiating sacred brilliance.

At the summit of this observatory, Heavenly King Youming stood beside a middle-aged man clad in golden robes, both gazing down at the horizon with calm expressions.

Suddenly, the refined-looking man sighed. "Our race has stood tall for tens of thousands of years, yet I never imagined we’d face the destruction of our homeland and be forced to flee to distant realms."

Youming also sighed. "Such is the cruelty of the vast world. Whether your race or mine, we are but ordinary players. In a world where countless powerful beings and civilizations coexist, weakness is the original sin. Even if you hadn’t encountered the Purgatory Clan, you would have run into some other mighty race. Annihilation would have come eventually.

“That’s why we must unite and gather our strength to face threats from all directions together. It’s not just about addressing the current crisis with the Purgatory Clan. We also need to share and integrate the power systems of all our peoples to grow even stronger. At present, aside from your noble race, we have already formed alliances with the Alliance of Gods and the Heavenly Feathered Race. With the combined might of our four factions, and given the unique battlefield terrain we occupy, even if all eight Purgatory Empires joined forces, we could still face them head-on."

Youming’s tone brimmed with confidence, and his powerful presence lifted the spirits of the middle-aged man beside him.

When the humans had dispatched envoys to reach out to the Heavenly Feathered Race, they hadn’t overlooked the Faeries, another civilization that had fought the Purgatory Clan for thousands of years. This civilization was farther away, and by the time Heavenly King Xuanwu returned with the Heavenly Feathered Race’s envoys, he had only just arrived.

Worse still, the Faeries’ situation was far more dire than that of the Heavenly Feathered Race, teetering on the brink of extinction. They were already preparing to abandon their ancestral lands and dive deeper into the mythical world. However, the surrounding environment was treacherous beyond belief; there were deadly forbidden zones in all directions, where even heavenly kings and supreme powerhouses could fall.

It was practically a death trap, and it was why Youming’s journey had taken so long. Had he not skirted along the edge of the Purgatory Empire, he would have likely perished on the way.

At first, the Faeries had been astonished by his arrival. However, upon learning of the outer world and discovering that two other civilizations were already at war with the Purgatory Clan, their spirits had been greatly lifted, especially after hearing that the humans and the Heavenly Feathered Race had already formed an alliance.

Of course, at that time, Youming himself had no idea that the humans had officially allied with the Heavenly Feathered Race and had already dispatched an expeditionary force and returned. None of that mattered. His priority was persuasion. As long as they could be pulled in, it was a win. After all, they had nowhere else to turn.

Thanks to Youming’s skillful persuasion, the desperate Faerie Race decisively abandoned their ancestral homeland, leaving behind part of their strength to cover the retreat. The rest, led by several Faerie kings, detonated their racial foundation weapons to temporarily forge a passage, traversing several forbidden zones in order to escape.

However, since they were unfamiliar with the route, their progress was slow. They had to rely on Youming’s moonstone to locate the direction of the human domain.