With the appearance of the ghost ancestor, an endless tide of akasha souls appeared throughout Witherdew Major. The akasha ghosts outside of the major’s palace, including the origin divine, immediately fell to a prone position and cowered on the ground.
Though Xuanyuan Xiaoyue and the little fox were jointly suppressing the major with the Xuanyuan Sword and Scroll of Shepherding Immortals, they were unable to erase fear of the ghost ancestor from the akasha ghosts. After all, this was the head mastermind behind the deaths of countless worlds and realms, and it’d resided in the chaos for countless aeons.
Xuanyuan Xiaoyue wasn’t the strongest kind of realm monster there was, and the ghost ancestor was afraid of only a boundless horde of realm monsters. She was here by herself!
The akasha souls stirred into action under the ghost ancestor’s command, walking out of a state of nothingness as scarlet beings. They looked like eerie human babies, but were more than ten times bigger than actual infants.
……
“Kill!” Gaze cold, the little fox roared her command.
Three dao palaces and a hundred thousand fortress ships lit up at the same time. Light from a variety of combat arts and treasures blasted squarely at the ghost ancestor and enormous infant akasha souls.
The great battle was joined once again.
Frosty killing intent crackling in the air, Xuanyuan Xiaoyue brought out her Embittered Ocean Orb and charged at the ghost ancestor. Snarling in response, the ghost ancestor dove at Xuanyuan Xiaoyue. No matter how the eldest princess of the human race had turned into a realm monster, it would kill this last realm monster that existed!
……
Rumble—
An enormous door of light slowly swung open in the void, releasing strange ripples through the air. Numerous scarlet babies were flung backward from the force.
“You akasha ghosts already know the existence of hell, so I won’t hide it any longer.” Lu Yun’s voice slowly traveled out from the abyss over the threshold. “You will have a chance at life if you enter hell through the Gates of the Abyss. Otherwise… die here.”
Despite that, the akasha ghosts didn’t immediately walk through the doors. They were born of the ghost ancestor and it possessed a natural deterrence by being physically present on the scene. Normally ruthless and bloodthirsty, they didn’t quite know what to do.
Rumble—
A second explosion traveled from the air as a pair of doors made of milky-white light opened above the Gates of the Abyss, also releasing enormous ripples that swept back the akasha souls charging at it.
“You can come to my heavenly palace if you don’t wish to enter his netherworld kingdom,” Qing Yu’s voice echoed slowly. “It’s gotten too crowded in hell, but there are no residents in my palace yet. You can be my heavenly soldiers if you join me.”
Having taken complete shape, the heavenly palace offset the kingdom of hell. One was in charge of the heavens and the other in charge of the earth. With battle raging at peak fury, Lu Yun and Qing Yu displayed their domains at the same time.
“The heavenly palace?!” shrieked the ghost ancestor while locked in combat with Xuanyuan Xiaoyue. “How is it possible that the heavenly palace and kingdom of hell exist?! They’re just things of legend, they’re not actually real!”
Though the ghost ancestor knew that Lu Yun was the master of hell, that place was just something derived from the hell of human dao in its eyes. It wasn’t a real kingdom of the dead. But the heavenly palace and kingdom of hell both manifesting at the same time threw it into utter disarray and panic.
It was also quite confused. How had something of myths and legends manifested in this realm? Did they even have a chance of destroying this place anymore?
Legend spoke of the first great world within the chaos possessing the heavenly palace and kingdom of hell. It was also the continuous growth of this world that almost entirely occupied the chaos and annihilated the chaos creatures. Its ultimate treasures were the heavenly palace and kingdom of hell!
The sudden arrival of their myths imparted a grave sense of danger to the ghost ancestor.
Bam!
Caught off guard, Xuanyuan Xiaoyue sent it tumbling head over heels with the Embittered Ocean Orb.
It no longer wanted to fight. It wanted to leave and bring word of what it’d saw to the chaos creatures. Though it wasn’t a chaos creature itself, it’d long considered itself one. The chaos creatures had saved its life, and though it was the ancestor of all ghosts, it understood the meaning of gratitude.
However, Xuanyuan Xiaoyue retained her core essence of humanity despite becoming a realm monster. The combination of human strength and realm monster power gave her strength that neither species possessed. She could deploy the Embittered Ocean Orb to its fullest power as she was in the chaos realm!
……
“We are willing to serve the heavenly palace!” Before the akasha ghosts could respond, the hidden masters of the Purple, Crimson, and Green Firmaments walked out from the void and bowed their heads to Qing Yu.
They were the last descendants of Taiyi’s celestial court. They’d created the three Firmaments to quietly stand guard over this realm and the world of immortals. They’d never left and would turn into yin gods upon their deaths, joining the Green Firmament to continue protecting the land.
“Very well.” Qing Yu nodded. “You three will be heavenly kings of my palace from now on, and you will be the fourth if you are willing to join.”
She was looking at the origin divine. Akasha ghosts were unique ghosts in that their resentment was stronger than any other ghostly entity, but they retained their original sentience. They could even communicate with the immortal dao and become part of it, everywhere and anywhere.
If it wasn’t for Qing Yu ruling over the immortal dao, they would’ve left Witherdew Major through it a long time ago. After all, their great daos were still part of the immortal dao.
Of course, this batch were great emperors of this realm to begin with. There were true akasha ghosts elsewhere in the chaos, created by the ghost ancestor. Only a few of those big akasha ghosts had traveled to this realm and they’d all died in previous encounters.
The origin divine had still been the origin divine when it arrived in the realm. It’d visited Pangu’s tomb with another big akasha ghost—one to absorb the fortunes of the Exalted divines, the other to occupy Pangu’s body.
When the big akasha ghost failed, the ghost ancestor turned the origin divine into an akasha ghost as well and sent it into the immortal dao to possess the Dao Tree.
“I, I agree!” Finally making up its mind, the origin divine fell to the ground and bowed down to Qing Yu, then led the tide of akasha ghosts in the gates of the heavenly palace.
As they passed through, a heavenly book of blank pages appeared over the gates, flaring with a milky-white radiance that enveloped the akasha ghosts. With that, the heavenly palace forcefully pulled them back from the abyss of death!
Howling with rage, the ghost ancestor broke through Xuanyuan Xiaoyue’s containment and charged at Qing Yu and the heavenly palace.
Boom!
A huge golden seal smashed toward it with the force of a towering mountain.
