Chapter 77 Stalemate

"It should be some Prodigies."

Gu Heng's lips curled. "They're even bringing Dao Protectors at the Immortal Emperor and Demon Emperor levels."

The Old Dragon King's body stiffened, a flash of astonishment crossing his golden eyes.

He sniffed, catching the scent of Chaos drifting from the rift, and a name flashed through his mind.

"Mas... Master,"

The Old Dragon King swallowed hard and muttered, "You don't mean that Place of Origin that kid Chong Batian mentioned before, do you?"

Gu Heng turned his head, his expression a bit strange.

"It couldn't be such a coincidence, could it?"

Before throwing Chong Batian into the heaven-reaching tower, that bear had wailed about the Myriad Races Geniuses gathering at the Place of Origin to seek a great Opportunity.

Who would have thought that this group of Upper Realm Prodigies, instead of heading for the core of the Place of Origin, would find a leaking rift and plunge into this Lower Realm?

The Old Dragon King's expression also became strange.

Watching the shadows inside the rift grow clearer, he asked doubtfully, "Is this... a lucky accident?"

"They've come at a good time."

Gu Heng didn't panic; instead, he began to look forward to it.

If it were just him causing trouble in the Lower Realm, those old monsters from the Divine Court and the Demon God Realm would still be wary of the realm's Law and wouldn't dare to descend in large numbers.

Now,

the most core Bloodlines of the myriad races and the precious darlings of every faction have all squeezed in.

This is a nest of bait.

Seeing the light in Gu Heng's eyes, the Old Dragon King's scalp tingled. He was all too familiar with that look; whenever it appeared, someone was bound to suffer terrible luck.

"Then... Master,"

The Old Dragon King pointed at the sky. "Regarding the heaven-reaching tower..."

"The heaven-reaching tower?"

Gu Heng did not open his eyes.

His Divine Soul followed that half-broken thread of Karma and reached into the Void Realm.

...

The Upper Realm.

At the junction of the Demon Realm and the Immortal Realm, the ruins of Chiyan City were gone, leaving only nothingness.

Above the abyss,

heaven and earth were torn in half.

The sky on the left was deep red.

A million-foot-tall six-winged demonic shadow stood within the blood-red hue.

This was the Demon God Emperor's true body.

Every wing of Di Shitian was covered in destructive demonic runes, and his breath turned into black lightning.

Gravity became unbalanced, causing countless mountain ranges to float up before being crushed into powder by the demonic might.

The sky on the right was dark purple.

A red string lay across the boundary between the blood-red and dark purple.

Jiang Wanyin stepped barefoot into the Void Realm, the silver bells on her ankles making no sound.

There were no strange phenomena around her, yet the dark purple firmament withstood the pressure of Di Shitian's true body.

At the junction of red and purple, space had already shattered. Time stood still, and all things returned to Chaos.

Two forces exceeding the Emperor Realm were at a stalemate here.

In the Lower Realm,

by the God-Falling Abyss,

Gu Heng closed his eyes, sensing this collision capable of obliterating an Immortal Emperor.

"His true body has descended, and even the Imperial Teacher is being held back..."

The corners of Gu Heng's mouth turned up.

The supreme combat forces of the Divine Court and the Demon Realm were restraining each other, leaving twelve Immortal Emperors and Devil Emperors caught in the middle.

"A fine Opportunity."

Gu Heng did not hesitate.

Instead of cutting the connection, he pushed his Middle Stage Immortal Venerable Divine Soul power to the limit and pierced into that locked space-time.

He communicated with the heaven-reaching tower once more.

Right under the noses of Jiang Wanyin and Di Shitian, he intended to forcibly pull this supreme treasure into the Lower Realm.

"As long as the heaven-reaching tower smashes down just as this group of Myriad Races Geniuses descends..."

Gu Heng already had a script in mind.

Once those red-eyed Immortal Emperors and Devil Emperors of the Upper Realm discover that the aura of the heaven-reaching tower has appeared in the Lower Realm where the Myriad Races Geniuses are gathered, they will surely go mad.

When that time comes, regardless of realm barriers or Law restrictions, they will stop at nothing to slaughter their way down.

"When the time comes, the Immortal Emperors, Devil Emperors, and the like will all be gathered in one pot, and I'll catch them all in one fell swoop."

In the Upper Realm, above the abyss where space-time stood still.

Di Shitian's eyes, like blood moons, stared at Jiang Wanyin in front of him.

"Jiang Wanyin."

The Demon God Emperor's voice caused the Laws for thousands of miles around to instantly collapse. "By hindering me like this, you won't be able to get the heaven-reaching tower either."

Jiang Wanyin's eyelids drooped slightly. "So what if I get it or not? But if you, Di Shitian, want to take it, I naturally cannot let you have your way."

Her tone was somewhat arrogant.

Di Shitian snorted, a flash of tyranny appearing in his blood-moon-like eyes.

He stopped wasting words with Jiang Wanyin, his gaze falling upon the nine Human Race Immortal Emperors.

Jiang Wanyin noticed his movement and curled her lips.

Her eyes shifted, glancing at the Divine Envoy kneeling to the side.

With just one look.

The Divine Envoy trembled all over and immediately reacted.

"Go! Stop the Demon Race!"

The Divine Envoy roared, pointing at the three Devil Emperors opposite him. "Nine Great Immortal Emperors, charge! If anyone dares to retreat even half a step, I shall report it to the Empress and have their entire clan executed!"

The Thunder Emperor, Star Immortal Emperor, and the others turned pale.

Before these two supreme existences of the Transcendence Realm, these Immortal Emperors were like marionettes.

But with the Imperial Teacher's decree before them, they had no choice.

"Kill!"

The Thunder Emperor gritted his teeth, and the Zixiao Divine Thunder erupted once more.

He burned a drop of Emperor Blood, transforming into a thunderous Vicious Beast and lunging toward the Demon Race camp.

The other eight Immortal Emperors also unleashed their Origin Laws.

The power of nine Daos tore open a bloody path within the gap between the two transcendent pressures.

Watching the Human Race Immortal Emperors lunging forward, Di Shitian sneered.

"Ants."

He didn't even look down, uttering only a single word: "Go."

The three Devil Emperors below were stunned upon hearing this word.

The soul fire in the White Bone Demon Emperor's eye sockets flickered.

Go?

They had only recently reached a cooperation with these Immortal Emperors, and the warmth of their oaths hadn't even dissipated yet. Were they going to turn on each other now?

The Red-Eyed Demon Emperor was also full of astonishment.

But this hesitation lasted less than half a breath.

They knew that breaking an oath would at most lead to a backlash from the Law, but if they didn't obey the Demon God Emperor's command now, they would be the ones to die, their Divine Souls completely annihilated.

Between interests and their lives, these old monsters who had lived for millions of years could still distinguish which was more important.

"Kill all these hypocrites!"

The White Bone Demon Emperor shrieked as billions of skeletons crawled out of the Void Realm, forming a sea of bones to meet the Thunder Emperor.

The Red-Eyed Demon Emperor transformed into a blood mist, entangling the sword-wielding Immortal Emperor.

Rumble!

The Immortal-demon boundary had completely turned into a meat grinder.

The twelve Emperor Realm experts abandoned all probing, every strike aimed at mutual destruction.

Vast areas of space were erased, and Chaos currents poured in.

At the same moment.

The same scene appeared again in the deeper, more hidden depths of the Void Realm.

Gu Heng's will merged as one with the core of the heaven-reaching tower.

The mustard seed that had been suspended in the space-time interlayer erupted with golden light. A larger and more stable cross-realm passage opened beneath it.

"Presumptuous!"

Di Shitian sensed the unusual movement within the space-time seal.

A look of rage appeared on his face.

In this world, someone actually dared to steal space-time coordinates twice in a row right under his nose.

Di Shitian raised an arm as thick as a mountain range, and a finger entwined with black flames crossed through space, pointing toward the Void Realm where the heaven-reaching tower was located.

This finger,

was intended to obliterate that patch of Void Realm along with the heaven-reaching tower.

At the very moment the Law was about to crush the Void Realm.

Jiang Wanyin moved.

She took a step forward.

The silver bell on the red string around her ankle let out a crisp chime.

The pressure melted away silently, like lingering snow meeting the blazing sun.

"Jiang Wanyin!"

The blood-red firmament around Di Shitian boiled violently, and his angry voice caused the twelve Immortal Emperors fighting below to all cough up blood.

Jiang Wanyin stood in the Void Realm, letting the collapsing spatial fragments slide past her.

She looked at the furious Di Shitian and snorted.

"Di Shitian, as the Demon God Emperor, isn't it a bit unseemly to compete with a group of Lower Realm juniors for a Magic Treasure?"

Di Shitian laughed out of extreme anger.

"Good! Very good!"

His true body took a step forward.

Crack—

The firmament around Jiang Wanyin was instantly covered in cracks.

A pressure like a Small World bloomed from beneath Di Shitian's feet; it was a Demon God Emperor Domain composed of slaughter and destruction.

"Then let me see if your cultivation has made any progress after these several epochs, Jiang Wanyin!"

The two supreme existences of the Transcendence Realm finally abandoned all probing and collided completely.

At the moment they exchanged blows.

The mustard seed carrying the heaven-reaching tower followed the passage, turning into a stream of light that escaped into the Void Realm and vanished.

Di Shitian and Jiang Wanyin clashed, fighting within a Small World created by a mere thought.

However, even so, their pressure still affected the outside world.

The nine Immortal Emperors and three Devil Emperors, who were in a life-and-death struggle, were blown away by the shockwave.

The Thunder Emperor smashed into an asteroid belt, coughing up three mouthfuls of golden Emperor Blood, the Zixiao Divine Thunder on his body dimming.

He propped up half his body and looked in the direction of the White Bone Demon Emperor.

The White Bone Demon Emperor was in even worse shape, his bone body covered in cracks and the soul fire in his eye sockets as weak as a candle flame.

Both sides tacitly stopped fighting.

Not only because they were heavily injured by the aftershocks of the supreme battle, but also because they both sensed the changes in the spatial interlayer.

The aura of the heaven-reaching tower was completely gone.

"It's gone..."

The Star Immortal Emperor wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and said hoarsely, "That kid took the tower away while the Imperial Teacher and the Demon God Emperor were fighting."

No one spoke.

The twelve Emperor Realm experts standing at the pinnacle of the Three Thousand Realms had not only shock in their eyes but also a sense of humiliation from being toyed with.

The White Bone Demon Emperor stared at the spatial residue left behind before the heaven-reaching tower vanished.

Within that residue was a very faint aura of a Lower Realm's Law.

He didn't hesitate, thrusting his bone claws into his own chest and crushing a piece of his Origin Demonic Bone.

"Send word to Demon Emperor City!"

The White Bone Demon Emperor's roar followed the fluctuations of the shattered demonic bone, crossing through space and entering the depths of the Demon God Realm.

"Notify the remaining Devil Emperors to all end their seclusion! I have already locked onto the direction in which that supreme treasure fled. Come immediately and follow me to the Lower Realm!"

Hearing the White Bone Demon Emperor's roar, the Thunder Emperor's eye twitched.

"Lord Divine Envoy!"

The Thunder Emperor turned to the Divine Envoy. "The Demon Race is going to gather all the Devil Emperors in their realm to descend and seize the tower. Are we just going to stand here and watch?"

The Divine Envoy gripped the imperial teachers token tightly, gritting his teeth, his eyes bloodshot.

"Chase them!"

"At all costs! Even if we have to turn that Lower Realm wasteland into a sieve, we must get the heaven-reaching tower back!"

The Emperor Realm experts of both the Immortal and demon sides, after a brief ceasefire, simultaneously followed that trace of residual spatial fluctuation to track down the heaven-reaching tower.

...

At the same time,

in the Lower Realm.

Central State, God-Falling Abyss.

Gu Heng stood at the edge of the abyss, looking up at the expanding dark yellow rift in the sky.

Those Chaos currents were squeezing into this world.

Faint roars of strange beasts and the booming of breaking air could be heard from behind the rift.

"It's about time."

Gu Heng gave a light chuckle and extended his hand, palm upward, then suddenly clenched his fingers toward the high firmament.

Boom—

The land of Central State suddenly sank.

The sky of Central State for billions of miles around was shrouded in a layer of black shadow.

Like the arrival of an eternal night.

Within the various Immortal cities and ancestral lands of the great families in Central State.

Cultivators looked up in horror. The Magic Treasures in their hands lost their luster, and the spiritual energy in their bodies solidified.

"What's happening? Why has the sky turned black!"

"I can't circulate my spiritual energy! What kind of Formation is this?"

Panic spread.

Just as everyone thought the end of the world had arrived.

High up in the firmament,

a speck of golden light lit up in the center of that darkness.

Then.

The golden light exploded.

A phantom of a giant tower of immeasurable size tore through the darkness, burning with Chaotic Primordial Qi, falling toward the Central State land like a golden meteorite trailing a tail of flame!

The Laws of the Lower Realm were wailing.

The Central State Cultivators looked at the giant tower that occupied their entire field of vision, their legs failing them as they knelt on the ground in droves.

"Which existence is it..."

A living fossil Old Ancestor from an old Central State family knelt in the mud, tears streaming down his face as he trembled all over. "Such a terrifying might... Is it that Immortal Senior who descended not long ago? What... what supreme Divine Ability has he displayed now?"

The giant tower fell with a world-destroying pressure.

At the moment the bottom of the tower was about to touch the highest mountain range in Central State.

The golden light suddenly contracted.

The hundred-million-foot-tall giant tower rapidly shrank in mid-air. One hundred thousand feet, a thousand feet, ten feet...

By the God-Falling Abyss.

Gu Heng was still extending his hand.

The golden light turned into a shooting star, landing above his palm.

The light dissipated.

A small glazed tower hung quietly in his hand, its body vibrating and emitting a hum.

"After going in a circle..."

Gu Heng sighed softly, a look of emotion in his eyes. "It's finally back."

He looked down at this supreme treasure that had almost triggered an all-out war in the Upper Realm, knowing full well in his heart.

If it hadn't been for the Place of Origin rift being torn open today and the Myriad Races Geniuses descending with Immortal Emperor-level guards.

He wouldn't have come up with this scheme and risked completely exposing the Lower Realm to forcibly pull the heaven-reaching tower back.

"Since you all like the Lower Realm so much..."

Gu Heng tucked the heaven-reaching tower into his sleeve and turned to look at the fully opened rift high in the sky.

"Then I'll use you Prodigies as bait and see how many of those Immortal Emperors and Devil Emperors from above I can fish down."

Crack—

As Gu Heng put away the heaven-reaching tower, the darkness in the Central State sky receded like a tide.

At the moment light was restored.

The dark yellow rift above the God-Falling Abyss suddenly expanded tenfold.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Sonic booms exploded across the horizon.

Dozens of auras descended over Central State.

Among these auras, the weakest was at the Peak of the True Immortal realm.

In the center of the auras,

there were several imperial pressures that paralyzed the Laws of this world.

Immortal Emperor. Demon Emperor. Monster Emperor.

The Chaos currents dissipated.

Li Tianqiong stood with his hands behind his back, his battle robe flapping in the wind.

He looked down from above at the barren land below, sensing the thin Spiritual Qi around him, and a cold sneer curled his lips.

"Hahaha!"

Bolstered by his Immortal King cultivation, Li Tianqiong's voice resounded throughout all of Central State like heavenly thunder.

"Original Realm! Is this the legendary lost Original Realm?"

He spread his arms as the Myriad Races Geniuses and various Emperors behind him appeared one after another.

"Tremble, you Lower Realm ants!"

"I, Li Tianqiong, have arrived!"