242: An era without saints?! (Forty-one)

Gu Yun's brow furrowed slightly.

His body flickered, leaving behind an afterimage.

When he reappeared, he was already on the Peak of a mountain hundreds of miles away.

He looked down.

The territories of the Chi Clan and the Bone Clan, once relatively peaceful, had now turned into a purgatory.

Flames devoured the houses, and thick smoke billowed.

Thousands of well-equipped, fierce-looking warriors were brandishing slaughtering knives, carrying out a brutal massacre of the women, children, and elderly of the two clans.

Those warriors came from different tribes; some wore golden feathered armor, and others had black long snakes wrapped around their arms.

They were the upper-tier tribes of this Small World: the Jinwu Department and the Xuanshe Department.

In their eyes, the members of the Chi Clan and the Bone Clan were not their own kind.

They were livestock.

An elder of the Bone Clan was pierced by a spear and pinned to the ground. Before dying, he still desperately shielded the child beneath him.

A mother from the Chi Clan, in order to buy her child a chance to escape, bit down hard on the enemy's arm with her teeth, and was ultimately decapitated by a single slash.

Gu Yun's eyes turned cold.

For thirty years, although these two clans feared him, they had always offered ample tributes without fail.

He had tacitly accepted this Karma.

Then this land was his place of refuge.

"Seeking death."

Gu Yun's voice was very soft.

He took a step, and his figure vanished from the mountain Peak.

The next moment, he appeared right in the center of the battlefield.

A warrior from the Jinwu Department was raising his saber, preparing to strike a crying child.

The blade stopped mid-air.

The cruel smile on the warrior's face froze.

He realized with horror that he couldn't move.

Gu Yun joined his fingers like a sword and casually slashed.

Pfft.

The head of that Jinwu Department warrior flew off.

"There's still a fish that slipped through the net! Kill him!"

Several experts of the God Realm attacked simultaneously; various attacks and the power of Law intertwined, sealing all of Gu Yun's retreat paths.

Gu Yun merely raised his eyes.

Heart Sword.

Formless and intangible Sword Intent spread out from him like ripples.

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft!

A series of muffled explosions sounded.

The bodies of the God Realm experts who charged forward first silently turned into blood mist mid-air.

Gu Yun walked leisurely through the midst of the vast army.

Every step he took, dozens of allied warriors turned into dust.

"Form the array!"

The dozen or so Divine Emperors of the allied forces finally realized they had kicked an iron plate.

Boom!

The pressure from many Divine Emperor Realm experts converged into a massive net, covering Gu Yun from above.

Gu Yun stopped his steps.

His cultivation base at the Heavenly God Realm Peak, coupled with the nascent form of the Great Dao, gave him battle power infinitely close to that of a Venerable.

But it was not enough.

"It seems I still need to use something else."

Gu Yun raised his hand.

A small, ancient bronze bell, the size of a palm, appeared in his palm.

A quasi-saint weapon, the huntian bell.

The bell did not ring yet.

A terrifying Saintly Might burst forth centered on Gu Yun, its power seeming to transcend this world.

Crack.

The massive net of Law, deployed jointly by several Divine Emperors, instantly shattered.

Pfft!

Among the allied forces, all the leaders of the God King and Divine Emperor levels were struck heavily.

They simultaneously spat out a mouthful of blood, and their bodies involuntarily knelt down... Gu Yun put away the ancient bell and glanced over the few leaders prostrating on the ground.

"I'll spare your lives; you are still useful."

He walked toward the surviving members of the Chi Clan and the Bone Clan.

The Clan Chiefs of the Chi Clan and the Bone Clan, two Divine Emperor level experts, looked at Gu Yun as if he were a deity.

Leading their remaining clansmen, they all knelt down together, weeping bitterly.

"Thank you, Divine Venerable, for saving our lives!"

Gu Yun ignored their thanks and kowtows.

He looked at the captured allied leaders, who were trembling with fear, and asked coldly.

"Speak."

"Why did you launch a war of extermination."

"It... it was for the Boundary Breaking Altar."

"This world... is a cage. All eighteen of our tribes are descendants of beings trapped here."

"The Boundary Breaking Altar is the only way to leave this realm, but activating it requires a massive amount of life sacrifice."

Speaking of this, he glanced at the survivors of the Chi Clan and the Bone Clan, a venomous look flashing in his eyes.

"We... we just wanted to sacrifice all the lower-tier tribes to pave a path of escape for ourselves..."

Hearing this, the Clan Chiefs of the Chi Clan and the Bone Clan were overwhelmed with grief and indignation.

Gu Yun was expressionless.

The Law of the jungle is simply the common sense of the world.

What he cared about more was another matter.

"Where does the altar lead?"

Hearing this question, the face of the Jinwu Department leader was filled with terror.

"It... it is the Land of Heavenly Punishment!"

"The other side is the Land of Heavenly Punishment!"

The Chi Clan Chief, standing nearby, also added tremblingly.

"Divine Venerable, you may not know, but about ten years ago, an incomprehensible upheaval occurred there."

"That upheaval even affected our Small World; the Laws of the entire world began to become unstable, potentially collapsing at any moment."

"That is why they are desperate to leave!"

Gu Yun's brow furrowed even deeper.

The Land of Heavenly Punishment?

Could it be the Heavenly Dao Ruins?

Ten years ago... the scene shifts back to ten years ago.

The deepest part of the Heavenly Dao Ruins.

This place was a land of Chaos.

A seven-colored heart, seemingly condensed from the Origin of the Universe, was slowly beating.

Every beat caused the Laws of the entire Heavenly Dao Ruins to resonate with it.

This was the Heart of the Heavenly Dao, the core of the Heavenly Dao Ruins.

Suddenly.

A streak of azure Sword Light penetrated space and Restriction, piercing the center of the Heart of the Heavenly Dao.

A stern-faced youth carrying an ancient sword appeared.

He was Ye Chen.

Ye Chen did not hesitate at all; he reached out and probed into the beating heart.

From it, he retrieved an item.

It was a seed.

The moment the seed was taken out, the Heart of the Heavenly Dao let out a mournful cry.

Immediately afterward, the residual Heavenly Dao consciousness fully awakened, becoming tyrannical, chaotic, and insane, filled with the will to destroy.

It began indiscriminately devouring all living beings and energy within the Ruins.

The Heavenly Dao Ruins thus became a true death zone... Due to the massive upheaval in the Heavenly Dao Ruins, the incomplete Heavenly Dao completely shielded itself from the outside world.

Outside, even the Divine Soul life lamp representing Gu Yun in the Gu Family dimmed because of this.

Therefore, everyone in the Gu Family had to accept the fact that Gu Yun had long since died in the Heavenly Dao Ruins.

The War of Immortality intensified... "Where is the altar?"

Gu Yun's voice was devoid of emotion.

"Take me there."

Under the threat of death, the allied leader dared not disobey and led Gu Yun to the altar.

The altar was built from unknown black megaliths, covered in blood-red runes, exuding an ominous aura.

"Divine Venerable, this is the Boundary Breaking Altar."

"The offerings must be thrown into the central blood pool, and their lives and Divine Souls are needed to forcibly tear open a spatial rift."

Gu Yun nodded.

He looked at the captives, his eyes calm.

"Your sacrifice is very valuable."

"No! Don't!"

"We were wrong! Spare us!"

Pleas for mercy and curses rang out in unison.

Gu Yun turned a deaf ear.

He merely waved his hand.

"Throw them in."

The warriors of the Chi Clan and the Bone Clan, suppressing their fear and excitement, pushed their former high-and-mighty enemies one by one into the blood pool.

Boom!

The altar was activated.

The soaring blood light dyed the sky red.

A violent spatial fluctuation rapidly spread out, centered on the altar.

Above the altar, a pitch-black rift was forcibly torn open by the bloody power.

On the other side of the rift was chaotic spatial turbulence filled with destructive aura.

That was an extremely unstable path home.

Gu Yun did not hesitate.

He spoke to the Clan Chiefs of the Chi and Bone Clans.

"Take your clansmen and follow me."

He took the first step, entering the pitch-black rift.