Chapter 942: Looking Forward to the Future

The sound of a shattering Divine Persona echoed from the mind of a sinister-looking God of the Spirit Race. That mid-ranking God was the first to fall dead.

Shattering sounds rang out through the Ruin Realm in a cacophony after. All the Outer Gods in the Ruin Realm—except for Ying Yue, Han Yi, and Mu Duo—perished one after another.

Not even Yan Lie, Cang Feng, Mu Ya, Ah Man, and Sha Jia were spared. The once-mighty Outer Gods were as fragile as paper in the Ruin Realm.

Most of them had spent years clawing toward endless enlightenment and through brutal wars.

They could have been content with their eternal life, reigning over vast starry regions and basking in the worship of billions.

Instead, they marched relentlessly onward, seeking higher realms and a glimpse of more dazzling vistas, only to meet a tragic end.

"This..." The Moon God glanced over her shoulder, her bright eyes filled with shock.

Yan Lie had died just like that, his Divine Persona shattered without so much as a symbolic struggle.

Cang Feng and Mu Ya, the two most capable high-ranking Gods under the Sovereign of Wisdom, had also perished.

The Ruin Realm was littered with corpses.

Ying Yue had never participated in the epoch-shaking battles of the past, nor had she experienced the brutal wars over the bizarre mist. This was the most Outer Gods she had ever seen fall at once.

"Pang Jian!" Han Yi stared blankly at the figure hovering in the sky of the Ruin Realm, at a complete loss.

The Ruin Realm had left the bizarre mist and floated within the desolate starry region.

This meant she could see through the transparent boundary walls of the Ruin Realm, taking in the howling stars, the scattered remains, and shattered divine platforms.

Ying Yue had not been lying! Pang Jian had indeed slaughtered the Outer Gods in the starry region, wielding the power of the stars to unleash mass devastation.

***

Divine consciousness, insights into the Heavenly Daos, blood essence, divine power...

The deaths of the Outer Gods brought about subtle changes in the Ruin Realm as their bodies and possessions were meticulously dismantled.

All their accumulations over their lifetimes were transformed into nourishment for the realm's growth.

The Heavenly Daos comprehended over tens of thousands of years by Outer Gods like Yan Lie, Ah Man, and Sha Jia, as well as their divine power and divine consciousness, were all his to harvest and absorb.

If he wanted, he could directly infuse the profound truths of the Heavenly Dao into the inhabitants of the Ruin Realm.

His will blanketed the Ruin Realm, allowing him to witness the insects, birds, and newborn creatures teeming within.

As long as these creatures existed within this realm, he could instill the divine power, soul essence, and the profound truth of the Heavenly Daos of the fallen Outer Gods into them, triggering a transformative evolution.

He was the creator, the origin, and the very foundation of the Heavenly Daos in the Ruin Realm!

I am the master of this realm! I will reign supreme over all within my domain!

***

Across countless starry regions in the vast starry skies, anguished cries erupted from within magnificent temples built atop various worlds.

"Our God has fallen!"

"Our Faith!"

Billions upon billions wept in mourning.

They could no longer sense the presence of their worshiped Gods. The statues crafted from wood, stone, and consecrated earth—artifacts once used to commune with their Gods—had lost all traces of their previous aura, only exuding the stillness of death.

This could only mean one thing: Their Gods had perished.

A wave of fear and helpless confusion swept across the starry skies. The foreign races were thrown into chaos. Without their Gods, they had no sense of direction and no way to understand what had transpired.

News of the Outer Gods' deaths in the Primordial Chaos Starry Region and the Ruin Realm spread like wildfire.

Dread seized those that remained, fearing that the Sovereign of Space, Tian Yu, would summon them to join the battle.

"How could the campaign of two Sovereigns collapse so swiftly?"

"Who could they possibly have encountered?"

"Who can challenge both of them while they wield the Hall of Gods?"

The surviving Outer Gods exchanged speculations through secret channels.

***

On a star inhabited by the Nether Demon Race, spire-shaped halls cast long shadows over a world steeped in despair.

Many members of the Nether Demon Race had gathered in the vast square, gazing up at a strikingly handsome man.

A black-gold divine sword rested across his knees as he hovered cross-legged in the air, his expression composed.

"Abyssal Demon!"

"Lord Abyssal Demon!"

"Abyssal Demon, you've finally returned!"

Many elders of the Nether Demon Race, weak with age, collapsed to their knees in tears, sobbing with reverence.

The tragedy befalling the Demon Races had already spread across the Demon Realms.

The Demon Gods from the Nether Demon Race had fallen one after another after being imprisoned in the Hall of Gods.

Wails of grief echoed throughout the Demon Realms.

Through various channels, they had learned that their Demon Gods had supported a human youth from the Abyss, thereby angering the Sovereign of Wisdom and Sovereign Luo.

As punishment, those two Sovereigns had used the might of the Hall of Gods to suppress the Demon Gods. Before long, Demon Gods were dying en masse. Statues of them within the halls cracked and shattered.

The mighty Nether Demon Race lived in fear and despair, convinced the Demon Races had no future. They were fated to become the lowest of all races, or worse, faced total annihilation.

In these dire times, a figure recorded in the annals of the Nether Demon Race had returned, appearing in their ancestral land, no less, and as a high-ranking Demon God!

"The grand event has started. This time, our Demon Races made a different choice from the others. We placed our bet on a human named Pang Jian," the Abyssal Demon announced, gesturing for the crowd to quiet down.

The members of the Nether Demon Race did not heed his gesture. On the contrary, the outcry only intensified.

"He Motian was a fool!"

"What were those Lords thinking? Aligning with a human from the Abyss is equivalent to opposing the four Sovereigns!"

"Has anyone born in the bizarre mist ever met a good end? Lord He Motian, also born in the bizarre mist, never dared to defy the Sovereigns, but even he's stuck in the Hall of Gods now!"

"Isn't standing with the human race the same as dragging our Demon Races into total annihilation with them?"

"He Motian was never a pureblood. He likely harbored ulterior motives to sink our entire race with him!"

The elders of the Nether Demon Race, grief-stricken and furious, launched accusation after accusation against He Motian, and by extension, the other Great Demon Gods as well.

"No matter how you look at it, siding with the human race from the Abyss was an irrational decision."

"It was a reckless move, one that betrayed all the Demon Races!"

It's too soon to declare defeat," the Abyssal Demon reasoned, maintaining his solemn and dignified air. "We may not lose. The Demon Races won't fall so easily."

Unfortunately, the situation was far too dire for his persuasion. Too many Demon Gods had already fallen. His eloquent words fell on deaf ears.

The Nether Demon Race, the Demon Scale Race, the Dark Demon Race, and the Horned Demon Race, all branches of the greater Demon Races, believed the Great Demon Gods had gone mad.

By siding with the human race, they had dragged all the Demon Races toward destruction.

Suddenly, a Nether Demon Race warrior, tasked with intelligence gathering, burst in from a nearby hall.

"Chieftain! I just received news. The Gods who followed the two Sovereigns in the campaign against the bizarre mist are dying in droves!" he shouted. "Dozens of Gods are already dead!"

The chief of the Nether Demon Race was shaken to his core. "Dozens?! What kind of battle could cause the deaths of so many Gods?"

"Yan Lie, Cang Feng, and Mu Ya have all fallen too!" the warrior cried, voice cracking from disbelief.

"What?!" All the members of the Nether Demon Race were in utter shock.

Yan Lie, Cang Feng, and Mu Ya were no less renowned than He Motian or Luan Ji. They were high-ranking Gods, each with the backing of a Sovereign.

Few had the power to slay them. Fewer still would dare.

It was Pang Jian!

The name instinctively leaped into Abyssal Demon's mind.

Only Pang Jian could have triggered a chain of deaths on such a scale. The instant his name came to mind, the connection between them was reestablished.

The Abyssal Demon sensed two formidable auras coming from Pang Jian.

They're in the same starry region! What overwhelming soul fluctuations!

In his perception, Pang Jian was like two immense magnetic fields, surrounded by layered seas of laws—an unfathomable colossus where energies and principles intertwined.

The only beings he had ever sensed such terrifying auras were Sovereigns.

Two scenes projected directly into his sea of consciousness, offering him vivid glimpses of the upheaval unfolding in the Primordial Chaos Starry Region and the Ruin Realm.

Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul hurled stars across the skies. The mutilated remains of Outer Gods littered the starry region.

In the Ruin Realm, the bodies and shattered Divine Personas of high-ranking Gods like Yan Lie, Cang Feng, and Mu Ya were suspended lifelessly in the air, their corpses drifting as grim monuments.

The Abyssal Demon gasped, his heart pounding.

It's just as I thought!

He took a deep breath and declared with conviction, "Pang Jian has slain every last God who marched against the bizarre mist! All the fallen Gods perished by his hand!"

The members of the Nether Demon Race on the ancestral star were all struck dumb. The once-noisy square fell deathly silent.

"If this battle ends in the human race's victory, then we, the Demon Races, will witness a golden age unlike any before! This battle could mark the new era of prosperity for the human race and the Demon Races!"