Within the Infinite Delusion, a massive battle unfolded.
This battle was between the two sides of a single god. The Human Ancestor’s strength would be greatly diminished if he tried to fight against the Dream God outside of their body, but he could bring his full strength to bear if it were inside.
After all, here, he was Dream, and Dream was him.
As they fought, they both noticed that the techniques they used against each other were very similar.
Their fight stirred up quite a chaotic storm within the Dreamrealm, causing fierce waves and winds to lap against each other.
Lightning, fire, ash, and rain filled the sky. It seemed apparent that the two were using their skills in rapid succession.
Countless heavenly soldiers and generals seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Not all of them were illusory; some of them were actual Dream Spirits. However, the Human Ancestor also possessed the same ability. Their armies clashed against each other, like cells within the same body attacking each other.
The Human Ancestor seemed unperturbed by the sight, but the Lord of the Dreamrealm felt his heart ache when he saw countless Dream Spirits fall, never to rise again. He was the first to put a stop to this suicidal process.
“Stop summoning them! This is only between me and you!” he roared desperately.
The Human Ancestor, however, coldly ignored him.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm could only control dreams and not the Human Ancestor. Since that was the case, there was nothing for him to feel sorrowful over.
This was the difference between someone who held a vested interest in how much damage they sustained versus someone who did not.
As the orchestrator of this coup, all the Human Ancestor needed to consider was the best way to take control, not how much of a price he would have to pay to achieve his goals. The Lord of the Dreamrealm, on the other hand, needed to defeat the Human Ancestor and do it efficiently too — otherwise, he would lose all of the treasures that he had stored up throughout the ages.
The Human Ancestor completely ignored the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s request to minimize their damage. He was intent on carrying out an internecine war.
In fact, the Human Ancestor began carrying out his mutually destructive actions with renewed vigor.
He summoned even more Dream Spirits, who transformed into heavenly soldiers and then rushed at the Lord of the Dreamrealm.
“Bastard! BASTARD!!!”
Within the Infinite Delusion, the Lord of the Dreamrealm transformed into a creature with a massive maw. It then opened its gaping mouth wide and sucked all of the hostile Dream Spirits back into its body.
As it did so, however, an invisible explosion of energy burst forth from within the giant mouth, blasting the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s illusory mouth to smithereens.
“Bastard!” the Lord of the Dreamrealm cursed again, infuriated.
His contorted and enraged expression came into full view as he reached up towards the sky, hurling bolt after bolt of lightning at the Human Ancestor.
The Human Ancestor, however, remained perfectly calm.
“There’s no need to be so angry. You should know that I’ve been studying you quite thoroughly over the past few centuries. The only reason why I never tried to take over your body was because I was afraid that they would discover me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I lack that ability to do so.”
As he spoke, black streaks of fire began to surge into the sky above him, greeting the descending lightning.
These fierce torrents of flames swallowed up the streaks of lightning before continuing to shoot towards the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s main body, wrapping themselves around him like fiery ropes.
“What is this? What is going on?” the Lord of the Dreamrealm roared in confusion. To his shock, he found that he could not determine where these black flames had originated from.
“These are the feelings of hatred, grievance, and animosity that I gathered during my countless travels after I condensed them into physical form. Anyone who is struck by these Grudge Strands will immediately feel despair overwhelm their heart, quelling their desire to do battle,” the Human Ancestor emotionlessly replied.
These Grudge Strands were able to weaken one’s battle spirit. Under normal circumstances, their effects would be limited against a god, but within the Dreamrealm, consciousness power was everything. Weakening one’s battle spirit would greatly impact their strength and more importantly, their consciousness power.
After being bound by the Grudge Strands, the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s power steadily weakened.
He began to howl madly. “No, no! How could this be? This cannot be!”
Boom!
The Lord of the Dreamrealm reverted into a giant, towering tree.
This was his original form. His roots were like consciousness tendrils, and they wriggled ceaselessly in the air, absorbing all of the nearby consciousness energy.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm was unwilling to give up and was intent on fighting to the bitter end. His root system began to expand and grow outward as they quickly filled the entire realm.
“This is my world! No one is allowed to take it from me!” the Lord of the Dreamrealm thundered. The Grudge Strands clinging to his body suddenly shattered at that moment, causing the Human Ancestor to groan and stumble a few steps backwards.
Even though there wasn’t any outward sign of injury on the Human Ancestor, his aura visibly weakened for just a moment.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm was right. This world did belong to him, and it was also located inside of his body. As the absolute ruler of this world, the amount of consciousness power that he controlled was far greater than what the Human Ancestor had access to.
When the Lord of the Dreamrealm burst forth with his full strength, his power was enough to make anyone fall into despair.
Even so, at that moment, the Human Ancestor suddenly chuckled. “Have you finally revealed your main body? This is exactly what I was waiting for.”
The Lord of the Dreamrealm was stunned. “Do you have some trick up your sleeves that I don’t know about? Impossible.”
“No, it’s not!” the Human Ancestor’s might suddenly surged as a blinding white light filled the skies.
“Forbidden! Forbidden! How can you control that forbidden energy? This isn’t possible!” the Lord of the Dreamrealm exclaimed in shock.
Even without the Grudge Strands encircling him, despair began to surface in his heart.
Even though the Human Ancestor had once been an immortal, he should have lost his ability to cultivate immortal energy a long time ago.
How could he still summon and control immortal energy?
“I gave it to him,” Su Chen calmly interrupted.
“You gave it to him?” Dream was taken aback for a moment before he angrily roared, “I thought that we agreed that you wouldn’t interfere!”
“I didn’t. He asked me for it before the battle even began so as to supplement his strength and to use it to deal with you…… This is called making preparations, not interfering,” Su Chen nonchalantly replied.
This was the truth.
The Human Ancestor had asked Su Chen for a strand of immortal energy when he was still in Kun’s territory.
At that time, Su Chen hadn’t known why he wanted it.
But now he did.
He wanted to use it as a seed!
The Human Ancestor himself could no longer cultivate immortal energy, but immortal energy could devour divine energy and grow incessantly by doing so. Even though the Human Ancestor could not control the new immortal energy for his own use, that was alright. All he wanted was the ability to devour divine energy.
When the Lord of the Dreamrealm revealed his true body, that was the moment where he was both the strongest and also the weakest.
The Human Ancestor’s immortal energy surged wildly through the Dreamrealm, devouring all of the divine power within it.
Under normal circumstances, this process would take quite a while to occur.
But they were fighting within the Dreamrealm. Here, everything was illusory and indeed even fantastical.
A strand of real immortal energy possessed incredible power here. With the Human Ancestor’s support, this strand began to expand and grow at an almost uncontrollable rate.
The dazzling, multicolored Infinite Delusion was suddenly filled with a blinding white light that seemed to swallow up everything that it shined upon.
“No, no, no!” the Lord of the Dreamrealm howled in despair, but no matter how hard the tree waved its branches, it could not stop the wave of immortal energy from advancing.
Once the immortal energy reached the edges of the consciousness world, the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s roars and howls were suddenly cut short.
His Infinite Delusion had been completely filled with immortal energy. In other words, he had been defeated by the previously hidden side of himself and completely destroyed.
He was dead.
The white light began to fade, but the Dreamrealm was no longer filled with dazzlingly iridescent colors. Instead, it was gray, dark, and desolate.
The Human Ancestor let out a weary sigh.
“It’s over. It really is finally over.”
“Not quite yet. There are still five living gods out there,” Su Chen said.
“They don’t matter anymore. Now that this battle has concluded, their fates are already sealed,” the Human Ancestor replied.
“You are correct.”
Within the Origin Realm.
A massive battle with the gods was still unfolding.
The Mother Goddess, Moon Goddess, Barbarian God, Flaming Sword God, and Beast God were fighting desperately for their lives.
Their long-awaited return to the Origin Realm had finally arrived.
However, they had soon discovered to their dismay that the Origin Realm had changed significantly. The races that they had once exploited had now advanced to the point where they were able to put up a serious fight against them, the gods. The flying swords and relentless onslaught of immortal energy put an inordinate amount of pressure on them.
The Immortals would return!
That was the sole thought running through their heads.
That forbidden power which they had feared for so many years had finally gained the advantage over them today.
Even though their combined divine might filled the sky, and even though they were living up to their statuses as gods, the endless swarms of “Immortals” flying in their direction struck fear into their hearts.
The armies summoned by the Human Ancestor in the Dreamrealm might have been fake, but each of these soldiers was a bona fide warrior.
They walked on the clouds, wielded powerful weapons, unleashed immortal techniques, and spat out clouds.
The gods unleashed every technique at their disposal, turning the entire universe into a stage for them to perform on. Even the light from the sun and the moon and the stars seemed to pale in comparison to their might and glory.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
As wave after wave of blindingly bright white light washed over the gods, even the Moon Goddess’s light seemed to dim in intensity.
Suddenly, a fierce expression filled with killing intent appeared on her pale white face. “Ignorant humans! You dare to try and stop the advance of the gods with your measly bodies? Taste the rage of the gods!”
As she spoke, intense fluctuations rippled through the sky.
It was as if a pot had suddenly boiled over. Violent waves of roiling energy surged forth, causing the surroundings to heat up.
After all, moonlight was just reflected sunlight.
Most of the time, the moonlight felt cool and cold.
But when the Moon Goddess became angry, that moonlight would regain its former heat.
It felt as if the sun had suddenly descended onto the earth, causing it to quake under the might of the Moon Goddess’s fury. The heat was so intense that it felt as if the whole world was being baked alive.
Everyone on the battlefield felt the heat wave overcome them at the same time. It did not seem to be an external phenomenon, but rather, an internal one. Every single cell of their body was on fire, making it incredibly difficult for them to think of a way to defend themselves.
The white-hot light seemed to distort the spatial fabric of the battlefield, and even immortal energy seemed to be incapable of mollifying the high temperatures. The only thing that the cultivators could do was cling to their Heart Mirrors. However, they were still intensely uncomfortable.
Soldier after soldier cried out tragically as they reached their limit. When the heat overwhelmed them, they started plummeting from the sky. Even Li Wuyi, Jiang Jusheng, and the others were incapable of driving this attack back despite combining forces.
The true might of a god was indeed terrifying!
At that moment, however, a figure shot into the sky before transforming into a majestic dragon that spat out a searing lick of flames at the Moon Goddess.
It was the wielder of the Shining Dragon Bloodline, Gu Qingluo.
Fight fire with fire!
Gu Qingluo had concentrated all of her Origin Energy, immortal energy, willpower, and bloodline power into a single attack of true flames. Shockingly, as the flames soared through the sky, it sounded as if the air itself was groaning.
Suddenly, a crack appeared in the sky.
The heat on the battlefield also suddenly abated by several degrees.
At that moment, everyone recognized the golden opportunity that had presented itself, and they began to furiously attack the Moon Goddess.
Even if they were all burnt to death by the Moon Goddess, they would unleash all of their remaining power upon her before that happened!
Every single one of the soldiers held the same mentality, and they all circulated the energy in their bodies to their greatest extent.
Boom!!!
A wave of pure destruction surged forth from their combined efforts, crashing into the five remaining gods with an unprecedented momentum. Even the divine barrier that they conjured to defend themselves was smashed to smithereens in a single blow.
“AH!” the Moon Goddess cried out in pain as the wave of immortal energy overwhelmed her defenses, disturbing her concentration and affecting her quite a bit. For just a brief moment, the intense heat radiating from her lessened significantly.
The scorching inferno that had been burning them up had diminished!
“Charge!” The human soldiers began to rally when they realized that their attacks were able to push the gods’ attack back.
At that moment, a white light appeared before them.
That white light was coming from the massive white plumage that was unfolding before their very eyes.
They were arranged in intricate sheets that were layered upon each other as they swayed gently in the sky.
Divine Feathers!
These feathers were divine treasures that the Harpies had hoarded, fought over, and madly sought after.
More sheets of feathers continued to appear, effusing a warm white light that intoxicated the soldiers’ hearts. Suddenly, all of them transformed into hundreds of thousands of light arrows, shooting towards the army of cultivators.
Pu, pu, pu, pu!
Fountains of blood sprayed out everywhere.
Countless cultivators were struck by these feathers, causing them to fall from the sky.
The Mother Goddess had reverted to her original form. Her true form also appeared to be that of a tree, but there was a giant bird’s nest atop the tree. And in the middle of the nest, there was a white eagle.
Most people would assume that the Mother Goddess was the eagle.
What they didn’t know, however, was that the tree, the nest, and the eagle altogether made up the Mother Goddess.
The tree was the foundation, and it was responsible for absorbing divine power and supplying it to the rest of her body. The nest was for breeding and producing the Harpies, and the eagle took care of combat. Its attacks were exceptionally vicious.
The Mother Goddess had just used the eagle’s wings to unleash an attack.
Her divine feathers tore through everything in their path, immediately wiping out nearly ten thousand cultivators at once.
This was the power of a high-tier god.
The Mother Goddess and the Moon Goddess both possessed powerful unique techniques that could not be withstood through pure numbers.
“If it wasn’t for this damned forbidden energy, then I would be able to kill all of you by myself!” the Mother Goddess roared in anger.
Not only could immortal energy devour divine power, but it could also greatly weaken its influence. The storm of feather arrows was only able to kill around ten thousand cultivators. Although the remaining cultivators were badly startled by this sudden display of force, the Mother Goddess’ surprise and dismay over how little had died was even greater.
After all, she had just expended a few hundred divine feathers. That was equivalent to using up
a few hundred divine tools for a single strike. How could she not feel dismayed?
The Mother Goddess’s feathers were the source of her power. When she had all of her feathers at her disposal, she was at her strongest, and even the Lord of the Dreamrealm and the Moon Goddess would have to respect her strength. However, it was not easy to regrow these feathers, and she would always suffer extreme losses due to using them up during a bitter battle. Even if the gods won this battle, she would probably fall to a low-tier god in strength.
But what did any of that matter?
It would all be worth it as long as they could wipe out these detestable humans.
She prepared to unleash another barrage of divine feathers. This time, she was going to go all-out and kill a hundred thousand of them in one go!
At that moment, however, the Mother Goddess’s instincts took over. They were screaming at her to immediately withdraw all of her feathers and use them to protect herself.
But she was still too late.
An incisive bolt of consciousness power pierced into her consciousness. This level of attack was not something that her divine feathers could withstand.
“AH!” the Mother Goddess shrieked in sudden realization. “Dream, it was you!”
“Whew!” The Lord of the Dreamrealm let out a sigh as he calmly replied, “Dream has died. I am the Human Ancestor, and my name is…… Silence!”
As he spoke, he struck out once more at the Mother Goddess with all the might that his predecessor had once possessed.
The Mother Goddess continued trying to defend herself, but it was already too late. After the Human Ancestor’s surprise attack had struck true, she had become completely vulnerable to the rest of his attacks. Worse still, Su Chen chose to fly over at the same time and join forces with the Human Ancestor to defeat the Mother Goddess.
This alliance of an immortal and a god completely suppressed the Mother Goddess.
Even though the Moon Goddess and the Barbarian God wanted to intervene and save her, the Human Ancestor suddenly charged forwards and unleashed a relentless tidal wave of energy in their direction. He refused to let them pass without paying a significant price.
The Mother Goddess was thus forced to withstand Su Chen’s attacks on her own, and as such, she began to succumb to his overpowering might.
She cried out as she consumed all of the warriors inhabiting her divine kingdom for a final burst of energy, but her efforts were in vain.
Finally, once her last ounce of divine power was expended, the Mother Goddess fell.
Her death put the other gods in an even worse position.
Next, Su Chen and the Human Ancestor set their sights on the Moon Goddess.
The Moon Goddess trembled with rage as she glared at the Human Ancestor. “Good, very good! We have been searching for the traitor in our midst for all these years. I never expected that it was actually you! You did very well to successfully convince me to place my trust in you. Our loss was inevitable.”
As she spoke, she immolated her divine kingdom, killing herself on the spot.
With the Moon Goddess’s suicide, the remaining three gods had lost any hope of attaining victory.
The Barbarian God eventually fell in battle, leaving only the Flaming Sword God and the Beast God behind.
The Beast God was the weakest, and he was also the one with the least courage. When he realized that there was no hope of winning, he despondently yelled out, “I surrender, I surrender! Don’t kill me! I can become one of your slaves!”
A god surrendering to humans?
A once unimaginably powerful, untouchable, and universally feared god was actually bowing in surrender to the humans.
Everyone was extremely happy to see him groveling regardless of what the eventual outcome was.
Even so, Su Chen had no intention of accepting the Beast God’s desperate plea.
He shook his head. “Sorry, but I refuse.”
“Why?” the Beast God asked in confusion, “I am a god. You will become very strong if you take me in as a slave.”
Su Chen slowly shook his head. “Do you really think that it makes a difference to me whether or not I have a slave like you?”
The Beast God was taken aback by his reply.
It was true. Su Chen was now the sovereign of this realm, and the ruler of the entire human race as well. To him, having a god as a slave was not an important matter in the slightest.
“But…… I am a god……” the Beast God murmured in disbelief.
“That doesn’t matter,” Su Chen said as he shook his head, “More importantly, the human race does not need the gods.”
“Does not need the gods……” the Beast God muttered to himself as he began to tremble violently.
Suddenly, he defiantly cried out, “How could you not need us gods? You don’t understand anything at all. Faith is not something that just the gods need from humans; humans need it as well! Gods need faith, and you humans need something to believe in! The relationship is mutually beneficial!!!”
“That’s not what I think,” Su Chen coolly replied.
“Then what about him? What is he?” the Beast God howled, pointing at the Lord of the Dreamrealm.
Su Chen calmly replied, “He is both human and god…… He was the person who sowed the first seeds of hope and the only god who has the right to remain alive. The gods did not come from him, but they will come to an end through him.”
Upon hearing this, the Beast God truly fell into despair.
He angrily gazed at Su Chen and said, “No, the gods will not come to an end. If you want to destroy the gods, then you have to do it thoroughly. As long as one remains alive, the gods will not come to an end. Through him, he will be their beginning. One day, we will usher in a new era — one that belongs to the gods, and one where immortal energy does not exist.”
Su Chen coldly replied, “No one can see that far into the future. All I know is that the new era will belong to the Immortals!”
Following these words, the Beast God well and truly died.
The battle with the gods had finally come to an end. The human race had won a complete victory.
Cries of jubilation and triumph seemed to echo throughout the entire Primordial Continent.
The Boundless Sect’s might had seemingly reached the apex at this point.
The human race would become the grand unifiers of this realm.
Not long after the battle with the gods, Su Chen officially resigned from his position of Sect Master, allowing Ye Fenghan to take his place.
He had never been interested in leading a sect in the first place. Instead, all of his focus and drive was directed towards finding even higher cultivation realms.
Three hundred years after the battle with the gods, Su Chen discovered a realm above Deification, which allowed him to perceive the distinction between tangible and abstract phenomena. Through this, he reconciled the Origin Energy and the immortal energy systems into a single entity. This realm was henceforth known as the Hollowness realm.
Eight hundred years later, Su Chen reached an even higher level.
When he did so that time, lightning descended from the heavens to execute him.
Su Chen calmly withstood the trial. During this process, a portal to a foreign realm opened up, through which Su Chen strode through. He never returned.
Others later termed this realm as Tribulation-Crossing.
This was where the seven cultivation realms came from: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Pill, Nascent Soul, Deification, Hollowness, and Tribulation-Crossing.
As for what was after Tribulation-Crossing, no one knew, since Su Chen had left their world.
For three thousand years after Su Chen departed, the human race began to truly flourish. Every human could embark on the path of cultivation, and countless powerful sects rose and fell from prominence.
By this point in time, no one cared about or believed in the gods.
There was no need to restrict religion any longer as a result.
Only a few people knew that there was still a lone living god in this world.
On Heaven’s Column Mountain.
The Human Ancestor sat within a small, unassuming house that had been built on the peak.
In front of him sat Li Chongshan.
Ever since the Human Ancestor had emerged victorious in his struggle against Dream, he had chosen to seclude himself here. He knew that, even if he was the Human Ancestor, the human race did not need two leaders. More importantly, he now resided in the body of a god, and this world no longer needed any gods or him.
As such, he had chosen to live out the rest of his days in quiet, observing the transformation of the world around him.
He preferred this kind of slow life, anyways. After so many years of constant scheming, a simple life was the best reward.
Today, the Human Ancestor was enjoying his calm and leisurely life as usual when he suddenly felt his heart palpitate seemingly for no reason.
“Strange.” The Human Ancestor rubbed his chest tenderly.
This kind of sensation was extremely strange. It almost felt as if something had changed within him.
A moment later, however, the Human Ancestor chuckled and shook his head.
It was probably just his imagination.
He took another sip of tea before he began to doze off.
He only fell asleep for a single moment when his eyes suddenly opened wide and he bolted upright.
He lowered his head and glanced at his physical body as his features contorted savagely. “So I’m still alive……”
He stepped out of the small room and gazed off into the distance. A boundless wave of consciousness power surged forth, enveloping the entire world.
His heart trembled soon after. “Hollowness, Tribulation-Crossing…… Has the human cultivation system already reached this point? I understand…… I understand…… So we failed after all. Thankfully, we have a backup plan in place.”
He slowly returned to his room and sat down. With a faint gesture of his hand, a glowing object appeared. It was a staff.
A staff glowing with the mysterious energy of time.
The Scepter of Time.
Two projections appeared on the Scepter of Time.
These two projections were that of the Mother Goddess and the Moon Goddess. However, both were currently slumbering while enveloped within an egg-like shell.
After glancing at the two goddesses, he stowed away the Scepter of Time.
He somberly said, “The gods will not die. I am the sinner responsible for the fall of the gods, but I will also become the god’s sole hope of resurrection…… Just you wait, humans! Wait for our return!”
After saying this, he relaxed and fell asleep once more. The fierce expression disappeared from his face and was once again replaced by the Human Ancestor’s peaceful expression.
