444: Chapter 444 Summoning Heroic Spirits from Past Dynasties?

In the Core Divine Domain of the Heavenly Temple, the massive altar floating in the center of Chaos erupted with a pillar of golden light that pierced the sky.

The ten-thousand-zhang-tall phantom of the Ancient Divine Venerable twisted violently within the pillar of light.

His pupil-less eyes stared fixedly at Xu Chen, who stood upon the ruins of the Divine Gate.

As the manifestation of this Universe's Laws, the Divine Venerable had keenly sensed the power of creation and destruction within Xu Chen's body—a power that transcended the current era—during their brief clash of Auras just now.

In a head-on collision, his Incarnation, which was restricted by the rules of the Heavenly Dao, might not necessarily come out on top.

Since that was the case, he could only utilize the accumulated foundation of the entire era to bridge this gap in strength.

“The one who steals creation shall suffer the punishment of ten thousand tribulations.”

The Divine Venerable's raspy, hollow divine voice rang out once more, but this time, it carried a sense of desperate determination, as if burning his bridges.

“With my Origin, I awaken the Lords of the Heavens slumbering within the long River of Time!”

“Return and act as Protectors for the Heavenly Dao!”

Along with this divine incantation,

the Ancient Divine Venerable actually forcibly severed a portion of his own Heavenly Dao Origin, turning it into a sky full of golden nectar that rained down across all directions of the divine domain.

The rivers of time that had been flowing peacefully around the temple seemed to be violently stirred by a pair of invisible giant hands, beginning to flow backward and boil frantically.

“Crack... Crack...”

Sounds of bone-chilling fracturing echoed throughout every corner of the divine domain.

Space was forcibly torn open into massive black holes.

Surges of ancient, weathered, and even heavily decayed terrifying Emperor's Might gushed out from those black holes like a tidal wave.

A figure stepped out from a black hole.

It was a burly man clad in tattered star-patterned armor, holding a broken Gentian Bright Silver Spear. Though his eyes were tightly shut and he possessed not a shred of life, the Aura radiating from his body clearly marked him as a top-tier Great Emperor who had once ruled over an era.

Then came the second, the third...

An old man in Daoist robes holding a Taiji Bagua Map; a cold and elegant female cultivator with nine blood-colored Flying Swords on her back; a pure-blooded Black Tortoise as massive as a mountain...

These Lords of the Heavens, who had once been brilliant and suppressed their respective eras, had been ruthlessly harvested of their “Dao Fruits” by the Heavenly Temple when their lives neared their end or when they attempted to resist the Heavenly Dao. Their Divine Souls and remnants were refined into mindless Puppets.

Now, under the summons of the Ancient Divine Venerable,

this army of heroic spirits of past Great Emperors, enslaved for endless ages, rose like an army of the undead from Hell, densely packing the sky above the entire central divine domain.

There were so many that they numbered in the thousands!

The combined terrifying pressure of thousands of Great Emperor-level combatants, even if they only retained fifty to sixty percent of their peak power, was enough to make any expert of the current age feel despair and suffocation.

Even the Myriad Realms Allied Army following behind Xu Chen, who had taken the heaven-avoiding pills, couldn't help but tighten their grip on their weapons as their breathing grew heavy upon seeing this sky full of ancient Emperor phantoms.

The old monsters who had just surrendered turned pale with fright.

Among those heroic spirits, they saw the founding Ancestral Masters they once looked up to, and even the arch-enemies they had lost to in the past.

“So this is the foundation of the Heavenly Temple...”

Shen Xi stood on the Dragon Carriage beside Xu Chen, a hint of complexity flashing in her dark-gold eyes as she watched the army of heroic spirits that blotted out the sun.

She was once an enforcer, but now she stood on the opposing side.

Facing this kind of human-wave tactic that could overwhelm any living being, even with her blind confidence in Xu Chen's strength, she couldn't help but feel a trace of worry at this moment.

“Husband.”

Shen Xi reached out her slender hand and gently tugged at Xu Chen's sleeve.

On the other side, Li Cangyue narrowed her crimson eyes, low growls escaping her throat. If not for the concern over the Demon Fetus in her womb, this Forbidden Taboo Demon Emperor would likely have charged directly into the crowd of heroic spirits to start a massacre.

“What's the panic?”

Feeling the slight chill of Shen Xi's palm, Xu Chen didn't show the slightest bit of tension as if facing a great enemy; instead, he let out a light chuckle.

He turned his hand over to grasp Shen Xi's soft, boneless hand and gave it a reassuring pat in his palm.

“Stay obediently on the Dragon Carriage; just treat it as watching a free fireworks show.”

Xu Chen released Shen Xi's hand and, carrying the zhu xian sword embryo that radiated a purple-gold divine light, stepped forward slowly.

He, one man with one sword, stood alone against the thousands of heroic spirits of past Great Emperors who filled the sky and radiated terrifying Emperor's Might.

“This is your so-called Heavenly Dao foundation?”

Xu Chen looked up, his gaze passing over the crowd of lifeless Puppets to look at the Ancient Divine Venerable atop the altar, who was feigning composure. The mockery at the corner of Xu Chen's mouth was undisguised.

“You picked up a pile of dead man's bones, refined them into this neither-human-nor-ghost appearance, and thought you could crush this Emperor with numbers?”

“Arrogance!”

The Ancient Divine Venerable gave a cold shout and swung his massive arm forward.

“Slay this villain and uphold the Heavenly Laws!”

As the Divine Venerable's command was issued, the thousands of previously silent heroic spirits of past Great Emperors opened their eyes in unison.

There were no whites in their eyes, only hollow, pure-gold Heavenly Dao runes.

“Rumble—!”

Thousands of different Laws of the Great Dao intertwined and collided above the divine domain.

Stars shattered, Bagua reversed, Sword Qi crisscrossed, and giant beasts roared.

This group of Puppets who had lost their self-awareness were like a colorful but deadly ocean of energy, pouring down toward the speck-like Xu Chen below with an Aura that could destroy everything.

Xu Chen looked at the first few heroic spirits charging at him and suddenly chuckled.

That smile carried an undisguised contempt and a hunger for prey.

He casually stabbed the zhu xian sword embryo into the white jade brick beside him and slowly spread his arms.

“In the face of absolute power, no matter how many dead people you drag out, they are nothing more than a buffet dinner delivered to this Emperor's door!”

The purple-gold divine light in Xu Chen's eyes completely transformed into an abyssal pure black at this moment. The terrifying Aura of a Great Emperor at the absolute critical point finally erupted without any reservation.