Chapter 674: Destiny's Blessing

Li Zhaotian smiled.

"Having you in the Abyss is the greatest fortune of the human race," he said, raising his hand and sending a sword strike toward the flaming fragmented land.

His Tempest Fiend Sword radiated a dazzling brilliance. A colossal whirlpool of sword light took the form of a well and descended on the Forbidden Land of the Fire God.

The divine sword hummed, its reverberations echoing across the Fifth World.

Li Zhaotian's insights into his Dao of Sword resounded within this hum, manifesting as wind, flowers, snow, moonlight, the changing seasons, and the cycles of life and death.

Sword intent permeated the fragmented land, warping the Fire God's set laws. It sliced, tore, and unraveled them, causing the flames on the fragmented land to extinguish.

All the suffering of the mortal world and the struggles of living were woven into the storm of sword light.

This sword intent is a prison that encompasses all beings under the heavens.

I, too, am in that prison, never yearning for the splendor in the starry skies, willing to remain in the Abyss to shield the human race.

Li Zhaotian's Dao roared to life within the storm of sword light.

The well-shaped storm of sword light exploded across the Forbidden Land of the Fire God with deafening force, carving through the land, splitting mountains, and rending the earth.

Ah Man let out a furious roar as he was forced to retreat from the crumbling terrain.

The still-injured Sha Jia stood on Ah Man's broad shoulder with her silver spear in hand. She gritted her teeth and downed another healing elixir before stirring the mysteries of her bloodline in her heart.

Blinding light burst forth, wrapping around her and the towering Ah Man.

The radiance surging from Sha Jia neutralized the sword light heading for Ah Man, causing it to fizzle out in mid-air like ghostly lightning.

Ah Man and Sha Jia were saved, but the Forbidden Land of the Fire God still ultimately collapsed, crumbling into rubble that rained down like falling meteors.

Zhu Ji had shaken Yan Lie's divine domain with sheer power alone, leaving the Fire God reeling. Li Zhaotian then swiftly followed up with a sword strike mighty enough to cleave apart the Fire God's fragmented land.

Meanwhile, Gui Mu summoned the Pool of Reincarnation, gathering profound yin energy and wandering souls from the Fifth World to wield in battle.

Lie Yang, in turn, summoned the Primordial Sun Diagram, only to find himself suppressed as Zhu Ji siphoned off his solar flames, tipping the balance in Gui Mu's favor.

Though skilled in concealment, Jing Sha failed to ambush Gui Mu while Lie Yang and Gui Mu were locked in combat.

During this, Li Yuanli, Jiang Fan, Su Wanrou, Wanderer Tian Du, and Yin Ji all stood at the ready, watching like tigers stalking prey.

My Lord, where are you? Why haven't you revealed yourself yet?

Sha Jia wondered uneasily.

The number of Rank Ten powerhouses had never matched that of the True Gods.

Their collective combat prowess had only fallen further with the deaths of Chi Feng, Wu Bi, Jiu Luo, and Li Bai, not to mention Qi Xu trapped in the Sixth World.

From the beginning, their confidence in this war had stemmed from Yan Lie and the Sovereign.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Ji was powerful enough to even restrain Yan Lie. This realization was hard for the foreign race powerhouses to accept, and more than ever before, they pinned their hopes on the Sovereign.

If Luo Hongyan did not appear soon, this war would end in their defeat.

Sha Jia, Ah Man, Jing Sha, and Lie Yang all found their gazes drifting toward the darkness below as they silently prayed for Luo Hongyan to appear.

Li Zhaotian did not rush a follow-up after destroying the fiery fragmented land. Instead, he too narrowed his eyes and peered into the darkness, wary of Luo Hongyan making an appearance.

The Sovereign was an existence above even Zi Mo and He Motian. Once her divinity fully awakened, she would have overwhelming power, regardless of whether she was in her true body.

Though she was still in the darkness below, everyone present knew that this battle would not escape her notice.

If Pang Jian could return from the depths of the Sixth World, she undoubtedly could as well.

Zhu Ji was already using murky energy to steadily wear down Yan Lie's divine domain. The more murky energy was depleted, the better it was for the human race. Thus, neither Li Zhaotian nor the other True Gods were in any rush to act.

***

Li Yuqing left Thunder God Mountain with Lei Ying to explore the Thunder Abyss.

Pang Jian had no qualms about letting her go, as the three Fey Gods had yet to press him to leave the Thunder God Mountain.

The Outer Gods lying in wait in the bizarre mist outside the Thunder Abyss likely were not ready for their ambush yet.

For now, neither side had torn off the mask of civility.

Li Yuqing would be safe with Lei Ying by her side.

In the second layer of the Thunder Abyss, Li Yuqing spotted a crumbling old temple at the overgrown edge of a fragmented land.

The second layer held six complete continents, and she had already visited two of these with Lei Ying as her guide, allowing her to meet many members of the Thunder Race and see the clear signs of the Fey Race's growing influence.

Li Yuqing came to a stop as the dilapidated temple caught her eye.

"There's nothing worth seeing there," Lei Ying said casually, noticing her interest. "In the past, some beings used to worship a Dragonfly God.

"That God likely perished in some battle among the Outer Gods, resulting in its followers eventually losing faith when they received no response from it.

"The fragmented land was neglected, and the temple crumbled with time."

Li Yuqing gave a soft hum in response when a vision suddenly surged through her mind.

In the vision, she saw herself standing inside the ruins of that temple, beside a wooden statue of the Dragonfly God that had since split into three broken pieces. Her hand reached toward a stone pearl clutched in the wooden statue's mouth.

This was something that would happen soon. This was her future.

She rarely, if ever, glimpsed her own future, especially not without consciously invoking the power of fate or unleashing her fate-related techniques.

Something else had stirred the vision. A hidden force lingering within the temple, nestled in the mouth of the wooden statue of the Dragonfly God.

That stone pearl!

Li Yuqing gracefully descended toward the fragmented land and stepped into the crumbling temple. There, she saw it: the wooden statue of a green dragonfly, broken into three pieces, with a grayish-white stone pearl in its mouth.

Without hesitation, she pressed her hand to the stone pearl, turning her vision into reality.

She poured her power and understanding of the Dao of Fate into the stone pearl. Her entire journey, including every insight she had gained and every moment she had spent alone in the Abyss studying its mysteries, flowed into the stone pearl in a series of images.

Within the stone pearl, Li Yuqing beheld a majestic hall, its towering structure seemingly constructed from some bizarre Stones of Fate.

The hall exuded a profound aura, hovering in the starry expanse under the illumination of shimmering starlight.

It did not rest upon the surface of any celestial body, existing independently, suspended in the depths of the starry skies.

All living beings beyond the Abyss knew of this hall's existence. All longed to behold it, but few were ever graced with the chance.

As Li Yuqing took in the magnificent sight, a voice came to her.

The voice seemed impartial to all living things, bearing neither hatred nor bias for any race or species. It was simply indifferent to all.

Who are you?

asked the voice.

Li Yuqing.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Where are you?

In the Thunder Abyss.

Can you sense fate?

I was born with the ability to.

Good.

Rivers of radiant light flowed from within the mysterious hall, each inscribed with the knowledge of fate, etched with secret arts and divine techniques. These inscriptions streamed into the stone pearl, as if the distance between the hall and the Thunder Abyss did not exist.

The voice asked nothing of Li Yuqing. There were no inquiries about her race or her past, nor demands for favors or loyalty.

He simply gave without expecting anything in return.

He gave her profound truths related to the Dao of Fate and even his fate energy, calling it a gift.

To one who walks the same path,

he said,

you may behold my Dao and receive my grace.

It was an incredible stroke of fortune for him to stumble across another cultivator walking the same path.

Race or history did not matter to him. He simply longed to meet another like himself.

More than anything, he yearned to see another being, also born with an innate connection to fate, continue down the same path with steadier steps.

There were far too few fellow cultivators on the Dao of Fate, and he felt alone.

***

In the small, weather-worn temple deep in the Thunder Abyss, tears streamed down Li Yuqing's face.

She did not even know why she was crying.

All she had done was touch the stone pearl, and some mysterious existence beyond the Abyss had responded with overwhelming grace and generosity.

Fate-related techniques and fate energy flowed into her. Even the pearl itself became a fate-attribute divine artifact.

The other party had unhesitatingly granted her everything they had to give after only a few simple questions to confirm her connection to fate.

There were no questions about her race or past, nor any burden of obligation on her shoulders.

This unreserved kindness and selfless love stirred her heart and brought her to tears.

Before this, she had always harbored deep hatred toward all Outer Gods.

The teachings she received since childhood instilled in her the belief that every Outer God bore malice toward the human race and sought their annihilation.

All her life, she had viewed the Outer Gods as enemies, vowing to one day ascend into the starry skies and slaughter them.

The notion that the Outer Gods were sworn nemeses of the human race was rooted deep in her soul.

However, this interaction caused that belief to change.

This unknown divine being had shown no prejudice against the human race. He bore neither hatred nor favoritism toward any race, only acceptance toward all living things.

Though she was human, she received a tremendous gift from that being—an overwhelming flood of knowledge tied to fate, and an immeasurable surge of fate energy that now coursed through her body.

The gifted knowledge and fate energy would allow her to undergo a drastic growth in a short time.

During this period of turmoil for the human race, she had looked on as Pang Jian ascended to godhood through Fortune and then forged a Divine Persona through Corruption.

Deep down, she felt a sense of defeat. She feared she could no longer keep up with him and would only fall further and further behind.

The power of fate she wielded was extraordinary, and her future held limitless possibilities, but the chaos sweeping through the Abyss moved too quickly.

There was simply not enough time.

She feared the balance of power in the Abyss would be overturned, and the human race wiped out before she could ever ascend to godhood.

For her to stumble across such fortune in the Thunder Abyss was something she could have never imagined.

At that moment, her destiny was rewritten. Her path to godhood was no longer distant. The starry skies beyond the Abyss were suddenly within reach.