Chapter 959: The Fearsome Colossal Beast, the Invincible Dragon Emperor (I)

That Primordial Ancestor is truly terrifying!

Chen Chu wore a grave expression once he had distanced himself from the vast, dark demonic domain blotting out the sky.

Though things appeared calm on the surface between the human supremes and the demon gods, there had been subtle clashes in the shadows during those three days of standoff, including ones involving Chen Chu himself.

However, his true target had been the world-consuming demonic qi, which differed from the usual qi wielded by demon gods like Deorus. It possessed the special trait of demonizing all things, from the laws of heaven and earth to all living beings. Everything was contaminated and assimilated into that Primordial Ancestor’s essence.

Such tyrannical power far surpassed the principles mastered by ancient beings. Even the Destructive Dragon Emperor, whose full explosive might allowed it to rival a true spirit, stood no chance against the Primordial Ancestor.

After all, the Dragon Emperor had only broken through its limits thanks to its immense foundation. It could barely match a beginning-stage true-spirit-level colossal beast, and the gap between ancient titans and true spirits was even greater than the gulf between heavenly kings and supreme powerhouses.

The principle power of an ancient titan originated from within, from its own evolving inner world, which still needed continuous cultivation and refinement. True spirits, in contrast, had already merged with their respective principles. The principles they commanded were acknowledged by the mythical world. They could reshape the very foundational principles of a region and suppress everything within it. Within a zone governed by such principle power, a true spirit held absolute authority and unmatched strength.

The Primordial Ancestor's power expanded alongside its Purgatory empires. It drew forth vast torrents of demonic qi, contaminating heaven and earth across billions of kilometers. Such terror couldn’t be overstated.

Although Chen Chu had never directly clashed with the Primordial Ancestor, he estimated that its cultivation was at least at the late stage of the true spirit level. That referred only to its realm. No one could be sure how powerful it truly was in combat.

This ancient demon had lived for countless millennia, during which it had refined its secret arts, divine abilities, and forged weapons to unimaginable heights. Any being capable of surviving to such a level would possess both immense battle experience and peerless wisdom.

Chen Chu believed that, for the Dragon Emperor to challenge this ancient demon head-on, it would need to reach at least the late stage of the ancient titan level. To claim victory, it would have to break through to the peak of the ancient titan level or even become a true spirit.

Therefore, before the war began, Chen Chu’s goal had merely been to eliminate half of the demon gods. Annihilating all eight was nearly impossible. These demon gods were powerful and cunning. If they truly focused on escaping, not even Qian Tian and the others working together could stop them.

Of course, if Chen Chu hadn’t previously burned away the Little Purple Dragon’s Creation Origin, and if that origin could have sustained the Dragon Emperor for a full three days, its Endbringer Form could have lasted around two hours.

With that amount of time, even if the eight demon gods scattered and fled, Chen Chu would still have had the confidence to kill most of them and destroy all living forces within the two empires.

He had indeed considered this possibility, but ultimately chose to abandon it. A true-spirit-level colossal beast that could only exist for ten minutes was entirely different from one that could endure for two to three hours. The threat they posed to the Purgatory Clan was in two different leagues.

To counter the former, the Purgatory empires only needed to dispatch a great demon god and pair it with two late-stage demon-god-level empire rulers. That would be enough to face the beast directly.

As long as they were careful not to be severely wounded during the beast’s outburst, they only had to stall for ten or so minutes. Once Chen Chu’s power waned, a mere middle-stage heavenly king could easily kill him.

So although the fall of four demon gods in this battle would greatly shake the Purgatory Clan, it still wouldn’t force them to awaken that ancient Primordial Ancestor. However, if all eight demon gods fell, and both empires were destroyed, then the immense pressure of survival meant that someone would certainly offer sacrifices to awaken the Primordial Ancestor.

At that point, unless Chen Chu and the Dragon Emperor underwent divine transformation and fully fused to step into the true spirit level, humanity would have no hope of resisting. Their end would be total annihilation.

There was another issue to consider. After summoning the Dragon Emperor using the secret art of Space-Time Summoning, what would happen once Chen Chu fused with the colossal beast?

That fusion would undoubtedly be led by the higher realm of the beast’s body. At the same time, Chen Chu, the carrier of the Space-Time Altar, would disappear. If so, would the colossal beast, summoned through reversed space-time, also vanish? Would it be pulled back into the Chaotic Region?

By the time the divine-transformed beast crossed the Chaotic Region and returned from such a vast distance to the battlefield, humanity would have likely already perished at the hands of the awakening Primordial Ancestor.

Thus, the outcome of this battle had been just right for humanity. More than half of the elite infernal legions from both empires had been slain. The demon kings and great demon kings suffered heavy losses, and one demon god fell on each main front. Two more who arrived as reinforcements were also slain.

The power displayed had served as a deterrent, yet it didn’t drive the Purgatory Demon Clan into a frenzy. Two great demon gods, four late-stage empire rulers, more than a dozen demon-god-level combatants, and numerous pinnacle great demon kings still formed a force stronger than that of the human race. If they now gathered their remaining power and prepared thoroughly, they could still wage a decisive war to wipe humanity from existence.

However, gathering all of their strength would take some time, since the three great empires on Tyretis’s side were still trapped within the Dark-Red World. This time gap was extremely important to both the Human Federation and to Chen Chu. Before the next decisive battle erupted, either he or the Dragon Emperor had to grow strong enough to directly clash with, or even slay, the Primordial Ancestor.

Of course, despite all the planning Chen Chu had done before the battle, there were still some miscalculations. The Purple Dragon had exhausted its Creation Origin to maintain the Dragon Emperor’s temporal loophole, yet in the end, he had only managed to condense a single time mark.

According to Chen Chu’s estimations, condensing one time mark should have cost ten times as much energy at the heavenly king level as it would at the peak of the mythical level. Three days should have been enough to condense three time marks, boosting his combat strength with three middle-stage demon-god-level combatants.

Who would have thought that after reaching the middle stage of the heavenly king level, condensing a single time mark would cost over fifty times more? Even Chen Chu found it problematic. If he were to rely on the Temporal Reincarnation divine ability to capture the power of time on its own, it would take him ten full years just to condense a single mark. That was how absurd it was.

Of course, this duration felt slow to Chen Chu, but for other heavenly kings or great demon kings, it was already unbelievably fast. Ten years on the Blue Planet was equivalent to just over three years in the mythical world. For a great demon king, this was nothing. A single period of slumber or secluded cultivation would pass in the blink of an eye. With just twenty or so years of seclusion, they could condense nine clones with combat strength of the same realm, an utterly heaven-defying feat.

Aside from this miscalculation with the time mark, there was another surprise: The demon gods had launched a joint, all-out killing strike on him at the very start of the battle, with no hesitation.

Among the eight demon gods, Deorus, Belitir, and Stephenel all possessed late-stage ancient-titan-level strength. Added to that was Sigitiko, who had reached the peak of the ancient titan level, along with three middle-stage ancient demon gods. Two forbidden weapons and three alien racial weapons were detonated simultaneously.

Such a combined strike would leave even the Celestial King severely wounded or near death. For Chen Chu, a mere middle-stage heavenly king, the situation had been unimaginably dangerous.

Even in his fully explosive state, Chen Chu's combat strength only ranked among the best at the middle stage of the ancient titan level. Under normal conditions, he had only just stepped into the beginning stage of the demon god level. That included his defense.

Even now, recalling the moment, Chen Chu still felt a measure of relief. Although the Insightful Eye had sensed intense malice from the demon gods and a vague premonition of danger, it couldn't predict exactly what would happen. Out of caution, Chen Chu had secretly swapped places with his temporal true form.

To avoid exposure, he had for the first time drawn upon the power of the planar world, expanding its influence across a hundred kilometers. Not even Qian Tian and the others had noticed it.

If he had faced such an attack himself, with all his divine abilities, laws, abilities, and skills sealed, then even if he had survived, he would have been severely wounded. His divine soul could have been shattered by the peak-level might of a demon god’s strike, and his soul essence critically damaged.

Even if the Purple Dragon still had some Creation Origin left, it wouldn’t have been able to heal such an injury. After all, it was still too weak; it had only just reached the mythical level, and the power of creation it wielded was still at the law level. The consequences would have been cultivation stagnation or even a massive drop in strength.

Chen Chu sighed lightly. "As expected, one must never underestimate anyone, especially those who’ve reached the demon god level."

***

While Chen Chu was reflecting on the gains and losses of this battle, an ancient-titan-level clash was breaking out in the Chaotic Region.

Beneath the dim azure sky, a colossal python over 1,500 meters long let out a thunderous roar as it battled a giant ape over 7,000 meters tall. The ape's entire body was covered in white scales and fur, and it dominated the fight with terrifying ferocity.

This ancient Rampage Ape had crimson arms and legs, and radiated a crimson glow that enveloped an area a thousand kilometers wide. Every move it made carried the power to crush space and time.

In front of this enormous Zhu Yan-like[1] colossal beast, the long and slender Midgard Serpent appeared almost thin and frail. Each time it clashed head-on, it was sent flying, smashing through the void and causing the land to collapse.

The Midgard Serpent let out another furious roar as it was sent flying again. A brilliant gray-white light erupted from its body, and all things around it, including space itself, began to turn to stone in the radiance. Even the crimson domain surrounding the Zhu Yan began to transform into solid gray rock and crack.

From a distance, it looked as if a satellite over a thousand kilometers in diameter had emerged from the shattered void. The invisible principle power radiating from it distorted everything around it. The rocky satellite suddenly trembled. Cracks spread across its surface, and crimson light, brimming with an endless murderous aura, seeped out from the fissures.

Boom!

The rocky satellite exploded. The Rampage Ape roared toward the sky, its body surging with crimson light that shot upward like a peerless savage beast summoned from ancient times.

Just as this enraged Zhu Yan was about to seize the wretched gray python and tear it apart, the heavens abruptly darkened. From the sky above, a massive gray world appeared, like a continental plate spanning ten to twenty thousand kilometers.

Coiled around the continent was the phantom of a colossal python over a hundred thousand kilometers long. Its enormous head drooped slightly, and its vertical gray pupils, vast as the sun and moon, stared coldly downward.

Boom!

The python coiled around the world opened its maw wide in fury. In that instant, heaven and earth quaked. The entire world fell into darkness as a devouring power enveloped the ancient Zhu Yan. The crimson principle domain surrounding it trembled and was gradually drowned in darkness by the world-devouring force.

Bathed in the crimson glow, the Zhu Yan sensed danger and let out a furious roar. Its eyes turned blood-red, and a terrifying force began to awaken within its body. The origin of murderous aura, representing war and calamity, erupted from deep within it, dying its scales and fur a vivid blood-like crimson. The mighty force resonated with a certain law of heaven and earth. Behind it, a blood-colored phantom of a Rampage Ape tens of thousands of meters tall took shape.

Boom!

The moment the blood-red phantom appeared, an even more savage murderous aura surged into the sky. The phantom rapidly expanded under the blinding crimson light, and its arms, wrapped in blood-colored radiance, reached into the dark void above.

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Roar!

With a savage howl, the blood-colored violent ape erupted in power. Its arms emitted an intense red glow as they tore through the sky-darkening void.

Boom!

The heavens shook, and darkness shattered. As the clash of powerful principle-based divine abilities collided, space collapsed across a span of ten thousand kilometers, the ground ruptured, and a cataclysmic shockwave swept out across tens of thousands of kilometers.

Careful!

Run!

More than ten thousand kilometers away, the Single-Horned Kunpeng and Qiongqi, which had been trailing the Midgard Serpent, let out terrified roars. Their power erupted, forming law domains that extended around their bodies.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Both peak mythical-level colossal beasts were thrown skyward by the apocalyptic shockwave. Their external law domains shook violently and rapidly shrank. No one knew how far they flew. When the furious spatial tide finally subsided, the Kunpeng barely managed to flap its wings and halt its momentum.

Looking up, it saw that the gray colossal python circling the world had half of its maw shattered. Its aura was weakened, clearly suffering backlash from the collapse of its own divine abilities.

Below the python, endless dark red light illuminated heaven and earth, resembling a crimson sun, and the towering blood-red Rampage Ape stood in the center. It was surrounded by a murderous aura, exuding unmatched ferocity.

The blood-colored ape’s arms and shoulders were riddled with wounds. Fresh blood flowed from the gashes, merging with the surrounding crimson tide and causing the light to shine even more intensely. Its aura grew more violent by the second.

Even the Kunpeng could see that the Midgard Serpent was at a disadvantage. It was no match for that Rampage Ape. Moreover, from the ape’s red eyes—filled with endless murderous aura—the Kunpeng saw pure killing intent and brutality. This ape was not one of them. It was not a kindred beast.

1. The Zhu Yan was a creature described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Its appearance would herald great chaos and unrest befalling the world. ☜