Chapter 917: In Dire Straits

Unease swept through Zi Wu.

He left the spatial rift and slipped into another.

Like before, he attempted to communicate with Tian Yu or peer toward that mountain valley on the Voidstar, but to no avail.

All the spatial rifts that he and the other Gods of the Void Race opened in the Bewildering Dustlands seemed as though they were randomly formed.

"Lord Ling Xuan..." Zi Wu hesitated.

"What?" Ling Xuan asked distractedly, gaze never straying from Ling Yun.

He was already envisioning the unimaginable heights the Spirit Race would soar to with Ling Yun and Fu Ya working together.

The once-in-a-hundred-millennia grand event meant that the supreme wills of the starry skies and the bizarre mist would clash once again. It was also during such events that God Kings often emerged.

This time...it'll probably be Fu Ya, won't it?

Ling Xuan mused.

Of course, Sovereign Luo, the Sovereign of Space, and the Sovereign of Fate were also candidates. However, with Ling Yun's support, it seemed his admired Fu Ya still had the highest chance of becoming a God King.

With Fu Ya as a God King and Ling Yun as the next Sovereign, the Spirit Race would undoubtedly rise above all the rest.

The Spirit Race's eternal glory will be forged in this era!

Ling Xuan's heart raced with excitement, completely unaware of Zi Wu's growing unease.

"Our spatial rifts seem to be having some issues. I..." Zi Wu braced himself, volume decreasing with every word. "We may no longer be able to summon reinforcements."

Ling Xuan finally glanced over at Zi Wu in confusion. "An accident? Or sabotage?"

"Unclear." Zi Wu briefly mulled it over. "Accidents do happen, such as when we encounter spatial tideflows or large surges of lightning. Those can destabilize the spatial rifts. But the chance of that happening is low.

"If it's sabotage, I can't think of anyone in the starry skies who could tamper with our Void Race's spatial rifts."

Powerful Outer Gods skilled in spatial laws but not part of the Void Race flitted through Zi Wu's mind.

Despite racking his brain, he still could not figure out who would dare provoke them at this critical time.

After all, he was not acting on his own. This campaign to hunt down the True Gods from the Abyss had the full approval of the Sovereign of Space, the Sovereign of Wisdom, and Sovereign Luo.

In other words, Zi Wu stood as a representative of the three Sovereigns!

Nobody in the starry skies would dare stir up trouble in the Bewildering Dustlands and risk provoking all three Sovereigns.

"Don't worry." Ling Xuan waved his hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter if reinforcements arrive or not. Those True Gods of the human race will be wiped out regardless. It could just be an accident. There's no need to overthink it. We'll simply wait a little longer."

"You're right," Zi Wu agreed.

Ling Yun was terrifyingly powerful. The True Gods of the human race stood no chance with this monstrous presence at the helm. Even if another high-ranking being from the bizarre mist arrived, they still would not be able to turn the tide.

That World Tree was slowly withering as Ling Yun siphoned away all its life energy, and the older generation True Gods like Lin Baixiang were no match for Ling Yun even at their peak strength.

This was a battle with no suspense. There was no need for Zi Wu to trouble himself with needless concerns.

***

"Even the will of the bizarre mist paid respect to me in my previous life. What does your human race even amount to?" Ling Yun laughed coldly.

An ominous ancient tree bathed in endless crimson appeared in the blood-red world in his palm.

The Dao of Life he had extracted from the World Tree had been seamlessly integrated into his own Dao of Life. With a casual wave, he birthed a malevolent tree brimming with killing intent.

"Go."

The sinister tree materialized above the old True Gods. Its gnarly branches, wreathed in blinding blood-colored light, shot out like deadly lances.

Each branch was a weapon, sharp and filled with fleshy vitality. Screeching gales tore through the air as they flew.

Strands of Ling Yun's Dao of Life coiled around the branches like lightning, turning every branch into an extension of his will.

One branch pierced into Bai Hui's unfolding Ninefold Celestial Shift, exploding within it. The blast shattered the branch, giving rise to a blood-colored world that brimmed with twisted vitality and engulfing the radiant constellation where the archer stood poised.

Bai Hui of the Nine Tribes Sect was left injured and drenched in blood, his vitality completely drained by the blood-colored world.

The Ninefold Celestial Shift shattered. Bai Hui was obliterated with it.

A third True God had fallen.

"Surround and kill Ling Yun!" Xu Ling cried. His sea of sword light swept toward Ling Yun like a radiant curtain, and his illusory form reassembled into a Soul Blade, slashing forward.

"Do you really think the same trick will work again?" Ling Yun mocked, letting the Soul Blade charge straight into his sea of consciousness.

A vast domain of boundless vitality unfolded in Ling Yun's sea of consciousness, teeming with lives endlessly cycling through life and death.

Powerful life fluctuations radiated from a magnificent crystal palace, which stood tall in the skies like a majestic Sanctum of Godly and Demonic Genesis.

This structure was Ling Yun's Divine Persona!

Ling Yun's Divine Persona erupted with radiant brilliance. Each beam was interwoven with hundreds of truths of the Dao of Life, running rampant through his sea of consciousness and suppressing all invading forces.

"Refining your divine soul into a sword? Quite interesting." Ling Yun's lips curved into a smile as he pinched his fingers together.

The Bloodthirsty Sword, once sealed for years in the Sword Pavilion, appeared between Xu Ling's Soul Blade and Ling Yun's Divine Persona. Its sword soul had been corrupted, turning it into an extension of Ling Yun.

The Bloodthirsty Sword surged through Ling Yun's sea of consciousness like a streak of blood, crashing into Xu Ling's Soul Blade in a storm of sword-light.

Both the Soul Blade and the Bloodthirsty Sword shattered.

Ling Yun's Dao of Life gathered up every drop of the shattered Soul Blade, seizing many of Xu Ling's soul-based techniques in the process.

"You and I have never stood on the same level of existence."

The blood-colored world in Ling Yun's palm shone down upon the sea of sword light. He gently pressed his hand down, and blood-colored crystals plummeted downward.

An overwhelming surge of life energy exploded through the crystals, annihilating the sea of sword light that embodied the essence of Xu Ling's Dao of Sword.

Ling Yun had effortlessly slain even the legendary Sword God Xu Ling.

Two other branches transformed into blood-colored worlds, descending upon and obliterating Qin He and Gao Han, both in the Ascendant God Realm.

The few surviving True Gods of the human race fell one after another to Ling Yun. Fang Jiu, Lin Baixiang, and Huang Yin barely fended off the infiltration and corruption of the blood-colored worlds.

Ling Yun alone was more than enough to wipe out the True Gods. The pressure he brought was suffocating.

Poisons drifted out from Su Wanrou's flowing robe as she attempted to use her poisons, venoms, and toxins to disrupt Ling Yun's attacks.

Her attempts proved futile.

The differently colored toxins, each infused with Su Wanrou's insights into her Dao, were nothing against Ling Yun's divine power.

Left with no other option, she could only turn her hopes to Li Yuqing. "Girl of the Li Family! You can foresee the future. Do we still have one?"

"I can't see it. I can't see anything." Li Yuqing repeatedly shook her head, her ponytail swaying with each movement. Her grip on her sword hilt was so tight the veins on the back of her hand stood out. "I don't understand fate-related techniques well enough.

"I need a long time to recover after every time I try to peer into the future. I already did it once in the Darkcloud Realm. I can't see what lies ahead for us. Maybe...there is none."

Ling Yun's methods suppressed the True Gods so completely that they had no means of resistance at all.

Li Yuqing could not help but feel their future was nothing but bleak.

How in the world did Pang Jian defeat this monster in the Ruin Realm? s

he wondered.

"There's no hope for a comeback. The gap between us is too vast. It's not something that can be bridged overnight," Li Wang said bitterly, on the verge of giving up.

Zhu Ji, Li Zhaotian, and the others shared similar sentiments.

Ling Yun had even slain Transcendent Gods like Pei Lin and Xu Ling. The World Tree was fully suppressed, with many Outer Gods on the enemy's side still waiting to act. They simply could not envision any possible way to achieve victory.

Even dragging some of the Outer Gods down with them to preserve the reputation of the human race seemed impossible at this point.

Father...

Pang Ling called from within the withering World Tree, her eyes brimming with tears.

She had always held blind faith in Pang Jian, convinced that his arrival in the Bewildering Dustlands would drive Ling Yun back. Still, there was the issue of him finding his way over in the first place.

Many long-buried memories had resurfaced after she had merged with the old World Tree, giving her a much clearer understanding of the starry skies.

She racked her brain but still could not imagine how Pang Jian could make it to the Bewildering Dustlands in time.

It did not matter how powerful or capable Pang Jian was if he was not here to help.

Even the World God Pendant can't send Father here. He's still in the bizarre mist, and the teleportation array at Fragmented Divinity Mountain has already been destroyed. There really isn't a shred of hope left...

Pang Ling felt increasingly incomplete. The agony of having her life energy and Dao of Life stripped away was unbearable, but she could do nothing to stop it.

"This battle will be over very soon," Ling Xuan murmured.

He was already pondering how to deal with the Duke of Thunder once he joined the fight at the Abyss.