508: Chapter 508: The birth of the sub-sage·Tai Yi’s defeat

The previous hesitation in their offensive was not due to the Demon Race's weakness, but because Jiang Chen was holding the line, making them wary and afraid to act rashly.

But once they were blinded by bloodlust and filled with killing intent, those hideous giant demons no longer held back—baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, they swarmed toward the human settlements surrounding the Ancestral Land.

Villages that could not evacuate were instantly turned into rivers of blood; the old, the young, the women, and children were all slaughtered without a single survivor.

Even with cultivators fighting to the death to form arrays and protect them, they ultimately could not ensure complete safety.

Casualties kept pouring in, and the cultivators gritted their teeth until they cracked, their eyes splitting with rage.

Mei Lingzi and Qing Zhuzi clenched their fists so tightly their knuckles turned white, eyes burning with fury: "These beasts are actually committing such atrocities against unarmed, defenseless mortals! To exterminate families and cut off lineages—it is not just hateful; it is intolerable to heaven and earth!"

"Hold the line! Hold it! We cannot let the Human Race bleed anymore!" A roar tore through the sky, and countless cultivators grabbed their weapons, charging forward with reckless abandon.

They had long since cast thoughts of life and death aside, with only one burning desire—to hold the Ancestral Land was to hold the roots of the Human Race!

Mei Lingzi and Qing Zhuzi did not hold back.

Recalling their master's words before they left—'To protect the humans is to protect the Dao'—the two of them unleashed their full power.

Sword light cascaded like a waterfall, and talisman fire raged across the plains, forcing the demon tide back inch by inch.

They sacrificed all their Dharma treasures, even igniting their life-bound spiritual weapons; this was no longer a time for holding back.

The Six Ancestors of the Human Race took the lead, standing firm at the most dangerous part of the front line, using their bodies as shields and their bones as walls.

The Ancestral Land must not be breached—it was where the soul of the Human Race was tied and its lineage preserved.

If this place fell, the Human Race would be like duckweed without roots, like wandering souls without spirits, and they would despise themselves.

Even if they were ground to dust, they would not regret it.

The other sanctuaries across the Great Desolation did not escape unscathed either.

The iron cavalry of the Demon Race swept through the four directions, slaughtering everyone they saw and burning every village they encountered, showing no mercy.

The earth was soaked in crimson, and the sky hung low, weeping in sorrow.

Resentment hung in the air like mist, and the entire Great Desolation was submerged in a sea of blood and the fire of hatred.

Zhenyuanzi struggled to hold on, forcefully weathering several rounds of frenzied attacks, but his spiritual power was eventually exhausted.

He suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, and the great array beneath his feet trembled violently, the light screen flickering, on the verge of shattering into pieces.

The hearts of the humans sank into the abyss, and the scent of death approached—yet no one blamed him.

Instead, they bowed their heads in solemn respect, waves of reverence rising.

A stranger, an immortal, had fought until he was drained dry for them; how could it not stir their hearts and gall?

Donghuang Taiyi sensed this moment and laughed wildly toward the sky: "Zhenyuanzi! You can't hold on anymore—hahaha! Open your eyes and look clearly: the Human Race you are risking your life to protect will be wiped out before your very eyes! Crushed to death! Hahahaha..."

Qingfeng and Mingyue supported the swaying Zhenyuanzi on either side, but he straightened his spine, his gaze as cold as black ice: "Donghuang Taiyi, do not be arrogant. Although I am exhausted, my last breath will still block your path. If you succeed today, you will surely suffer the backlash in the future."

"Backlash? I doubt you'll live to see that day!" Donghuang Taiyi sneered as he approached, "If we both die here today, it can be considered a conclusion to our old debts!"

The humans beneath the array were silent, grief weighing on their chests like lead.

They had fled for thousands of miles, only to end up in a dead end, and they had even dragged their savior down with them—regret gnawed at their hearts and lungs.

Had they known this would happen, they would rather have slit their own throats in the wilderness than bring disaster to Wuzhuang Temple!

"Great Immortal Zhenyuanzi's kindness is as great as a second birth! We have nothing to repay you with, only three kowtows!" The leader of the Human Race led the crowd to prostrate on the ground, their foreheads touching the earth, their voices filled with blood and tears, their sincerity piercing the heavens and shaking the world.

Just as Zhenyuanzi was about to wave his hand to refuse, the leader raised his head and bowed again: "If the Human Race survives this catastrophe today, from this day forth, we shall honor the Great Immortal as the Ancestor of Earth Immortals! As long as the Human Race's bloodline persists, we will never forget this and will never be negligent in our offerings!"

Zhenyuanzi's throat choked up, and bitterness welled within him.

But looking at those blood-stained, tear-streaked, yet incredibly sincere faces, a warm current suddenly surged in his heart—that such a simple and resilient race was to be slaughtered by the Demon Race, how unfair the heavens were!

"We are willing to honor Great Immortal Zhenyuanzi as the Ancestor of Earth Immortals! The Human Race will worship you for generations to come, as heaven and earth bear witness!" The crowd swore in unison, every word like a nail, driven into the void.

Before the words had even faded, the two ancient couplets in front of Wuzhuang Temple suddenly erupted with ten thousand feet of golden light, shooting straight into the nine heavens!

Where the light converged, a horizontal scroll appeared: Ancestor of Earth Immortals.

At the same time, a dragon's roar seemed to pierce the sky in the deep void, and a green-scaled divine dragon carrying a Dao fruit suffused with hongmeng purple qi suddenly sank into the depths of Zhenyuanzi's primordial spirit.

His exhausted spiritual power surged like a river, his broken meridians knit back together inch by inch, and a clear sword light slashed from his sea of consciousness—he had cut off the Three Corpses and attained the title of Ancestor of Earth Immortals!

He was stunned for a moment, then suddenly enlightened: it turned out that the couplet given by his senior years ago contained the mystery of the Great Dao; if he had feared disaster and avoided the world, refusing to save these mortals, this Dao fruit, this position of Ancestor, and this fortune protected by the three talents of Heaven, Earth, and Man would never have manifested.

Causes and effects are clear; there is never any luck involved.

Facing this sudden change, Donghuang Taiyi felt uneasy, but his intuition told him it was a disaster rather than a blessing, and his face suddenly turned as dark as iron.

He had thought he could wipe out Zhenyuanzi in one fell swoop, but who would have expected such a twist; he was frozen on the spot, at a loss.

Zhenyuanzi steadied his mind, suppressed his surging joy, and bowed deeply toward the northeast, his voice clear and solemn: "Thanks to the senior's guidance and rebirth, I will never forget such great kindness. This junior has achieved enlightenment."

Although the humans did not understand the details, they instinctively felt a vast warmth rising from the bottom of their hearts—it must be a good omen!

Everyone smiled, as if the boulder that had been pressing on their shoulders for ten thousand years had quietly fallen away.

Just as Zhenyuanzi ascended to the position of Ancestor of Earth Immortals, the image of him standing between heaven and earth appeared in the sea of consciousness of everyone with human blood; no matter what desperate situation they were in, as long as they had a thought and bowed sincerely, that pure and true gratitude surged like a river, reaching Zhenyuanzi's heart.

Jiang Chen naturally sensed this surging energy, a flash of light in his eyes, and a smile quietly spread—he hadn't misjudged the person.

If the war started again, Zhenyuanzi was no longer the same as before: the array was as solid as a rock, impregnable.

Under Donghuang Taiyi's fierce attack, he was instead shaken, his robes fluttering and hair disheveled, in a sorry state.

He gritted his teeth, killing intent churning in his eyes, cursing "damned" under his breath, but he could not even touch the corner of his opponent's clothes.

Several Sages far beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens opened their eyes almost simultaneously, their divine senses intersecting—Zhenyuanzi had actually used this tribulation to cut the Third Corpse!

This meant that as long as the Three Corpses merged into one, even without the hongmeng purple qi, he could step into the realm of a Sage, walking the path of transcending the Heavenly Dao and directly connecting to the Great Dao.

Their hearts were filled with mixed emotions: surprised and envious, sour and bitter.

How could an ordinary person encounter such an opportunity?

But they also knew deeply that while it is easy to cut the Three Corpses, merging them is as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Back then, Laozi had also been tempered a thousand times before he cut all Three Corpses, yet he was trapped at the merging stage for a full ten thousand years, until the merit of establishing his sect triggered the remaining grace of the creation of the world, only then succeeding—ultimately, he was half a step behind his teacher and could not be called perfect.

Now Zhenyuanzi had also stepped onto this path: with all Three Corpses manifested, he was invincible below the Sage level.

The title of "quasi-sage" was no longer worthy of him; only "Asaint" could describe his sharpness.

He only needed to wait for that moment of sudden enlightenment to achieve success; if he delayed in finding the opportunity, he would only be able to stop here for the rest of his life.

Even so, it still made countless powerful figures sigh and ache with envy.

And Zhenyuanzi stood alone at the heart of the array, but his heart was surging with indescribable loneliness and desolation—the old friends who had stood by his side in the past had all fallen under the butcher's knife of the Demon Race.

In this vast world, there was no one to drink to this victory or celebrate this honor with him.

How could he not be melancholy?

"Donghuang Taiyi, don't you think about turning the tables!" Zhenyuanzi looked up at his opponent, his voice as cold as frost, his gaze as sharp as a sword; an ordinary person would have their heart and gallbladder shattered by a single glance—unfortunately, Donghuang Taiyi was not an ordinary person, and he could not be killed.

"Hmph, don't be complacent too soon! I can't do anything to you now, but when my big brother arrives in person and the Great Array of the Heavenly Stars is fully activated, let's see how many breaths you can last? Even if your cultivation has soared, you are just fish on the chopping block! Hahahaha—wait to have your soul scattered!" Donghuang Taiyi laughed in anger, his tone grim, but his heart felt as blocked as a giant boulder: victory had been within his grasp, yet a complication had arisen, ruining the big picture.

"Heh... I shall wait. I'm just afraid your big brother won't come, and even if he does, he won't be able to break my array."

Zhenyuanzi's tone was calm, but every word was like a nail, hammered into people's hearts.

Hearing this, the humans felt relieved and silently guarded the array, even their breathing becoming light, for fear of disturbing this hard-won peace.

Outside the array, the demon soldiers looked at each other, at a loss—even Donghuang Taiyi had returned in defeat; how could they dare to come forward and throw their lives away?

They could only lower their heads and stand solemnly, waiting for orders.

"Useless things! Why haven't you gone to slaughter the rest of the humans? When my big brother arrives, I will personally crush this old thing!"

"As you command, Your Majesty Donghuang!"

The humans in the array heard this, their hearts feeling as if they had been hit by a heavy hammer, their fingertips trembling with anxiety, yet it was difficult even to move a step—if they could not even protect themselves, how could they talk about protecting their compatriots?

They had failed the teachings of the Sage Master and failed the true meaning of the four words "striving for self-improvement."

The Demon Race was still wantonly slaughtering the remaining humans, blood energy steaming and not dissipating, the roars of wronged souls rushing to the sky, tearing a dark red crack in the sky, and the wind and clouds suddenly rolling backward.

It was unknown who had gritted their teeth and made a vow in the face of death, but the Human Race Ancestral Land had its own spirituality and knew the hearts of the people best.

It was like an invisible thread, stringing together the wails and prayers of ten thousand clansmen; especially the Six Ancestors, who directly bore the final thoughts of their clansmen before they breathed their last—within them, there was pain, hatred, and the expectation that would burn through the darkness.

The Six Ancestors were covered in blood, their clothes tattered, their long hair disheveled on their shoulders, their eyes sweeping across the crimson view, the ground beneath their feet soaked with the hot blood of their clansmen, the scorched earth stretching for ten thousand miles in the distance... Anger surged like magma, almost bursting their chests.

With their minds connected, the Six Ancestors looked up at the sky together, their voices shaking the nine heavens: "Today, we, the Human Race, will forever remember the grace of Nüwa's creation, and for generations to come, we will never dare to forget!"

Then they led the humans of the Great Desolation, with their minds in sync and their bloodlines resonating, to kowtow three times to the firmament.

The moment the third kowtow landed, heaven and earth trembled violently, and Nüwa in the Nüwa Palace felt as if her heart had been hit by a heavy hammer, her eyes heating up—which parent could see their own child pushed to the brink of death and not even be able to reach out to protect them?

Since birth, she had never raised or cared for them, yet the child still remembered their mother's name... Even as a Sage, she felt a piercing pain.

"Today, we, the Human Race, are grateful for the kindness of the Sage Master Jiang Chen's thousand-year watch and his grace in enlightening our wisdom, engraving it in our hearts and bones, never to be forgotten!" Before the words had even faded, they prostrated again, three bows resounding like thunder on the ground.

Deep within the Wuji Grotto-Heaven, Jiang Chen stood with his eyes closed, his fingertips trembling slightly.

The burning, sincere intention of the Human Race pierced straight through his spirit.

His throat tightened, but he only slowly opened his eyes—the time had come.

The blood debt owed by the Demon Race would eventually be repaid with landslides and tsunamis.

His gaze was like a cold blade unsheathed, cold and silent.

"Today, we, the Human Race, are grateful for the kindness of the Human Sect Leader Laozi in establishing the sect and spreading the Dao, and for his grace in dispelling our confusion and enlightening our wisdom. For generations to come, we will never dare to forget!" They bowed again, their foreheads touching the yellow earth, their voices shaking the heavens.