The tables had now completely turned.
These Cultivators who once followed Wuu Ziqing, along with the Demon Beasts that swarmed the mountains and plains—and even Wuu Ziqing himself—had all fallen under the lash of the Beastkeeping Commissioner!
"The great age is about to collapse, and the void is coming..."
The Beastkeeping Commissioner lowered his head, his oily green, vertical pupils gazing down upon the collapsing world. His tone carried a hint of despairing familiarity. "This scene of heaven and earth extinguishing, of all things returning to nothingness... I personally experienced it once before during the great calamity."
"It’s merely happening again, another thousand or ten thousand years to wait."
He looked toward the Stone Palace altar, now almost within reach, a primal hunger for life glinting in his eyes.
"But before the darkness descends... I will use this ’Beastkeeping’ authority to command enough living beings and gather enough vessels! Only then, during the next silent slumber of extinction, will I have enough of a foundation of Spirituality left for myself!"
His voice suddenly rose, piercing through the storm:
"Go! Kill everything in sight! Sacrifice their Qi, blood, Spirituality, and even that last shred of faith to me!"
An utterly inhuman roar erupted from Wuu Ziqing’s throat. He slapped the great tiger he rode, leading the hundred-plus Human and Animal Cultivators and hundreds of Demon Beasts in a frenzied charge toward the last sliver of pure land at the Underground Palace entrance.
’They’re insane... They’ve all gone insane!’
Xia Xing watched in terror as the monsters surged forward like a tide. Faced with an authority powerful enough to suppress the very Earth Veins, the courage of the remaining examinees to even raise their Dharma Artifacts was rapidly draining away.
That was the power of the Foundation Establishment Level, an absolute dominion that stood above Qi Cultivation!
On the blood-red wasteland at the Lingma Mountain Foot, just as the army of humans and beasts led by Wuu Ziqing was about to break through the final stone barricade, the wind—which had been howling violently from the world’s collapse—fell bizarrely silent for a moment.
An aura even colder and deader than the void’s chaotic currents swept in like a tide from the other side of the horizon.
"...The night is deep."
A voice as cold as scraping metal pierced through the cacophony of bestial roars and desperate cries, landing clearly in everyone’s ears.
Hiding behind a pile of rocks, Xia Xing shuddered violently. He instinctively looked back and saw a ghastly white flame slowly emerge from the encroaching cyan mist behind him.
As the light drew nearer, the Black Iron Divine Statue—the Night Patrol God—towering three zhang tall, advanced step by step, lantern in hand, treading upon withered bones.
The Black Iron Mace in its hand dragged along the ground, carving deep, earth-shaking gouges.
According to its Divine Soul’s logic, this entire realm was its patrol ground.
And in its twisted obsession, the hundreds upon thousands of Demon Beasts and Cultivators gathered before it, reeking of chaos, were all Evil Demons who had violated the night’s curfew and had to be purged.
"Patrol the night... Exorcise evil!"
Without another word, the moment the Night Patrol God saw the surging tide of beasts, its form erupted with explosive force.
Its massive Black Iron Divine Body streaked through the gravity-distorted air like a bolt of black lightning. The Hard Mace in its hand, imbued with immense Divine Power, came crashing down on the vanguard of the beast horde!
A dozen or so Qi Cultivation Perfection Level Demon Beasts at the forefront didn’t even have a chance to react before they were pulverized into a shower of Blood Mud by that single strike.
The Divine Dao Decree contained within that mace strike instantly purged all the Evil Qi within a ten-zhang radius, creating an absolute, vacuum-like Death Realm.
The Beastkeeping Commissioner, hovering mid-air, let out a furious shriek. He never expected to run into another madman of the same rank just as he was about to harvest this fertile pasture.
"Where did this piece of scrap iron come from? How dare you ruin my plans!"
The Beastkeeping Commissioner flicked his Bone Whip, and a surge of dark green Divine Power instantly poured into the beast horde below.
Empowered by his authority, the startled Demon Beasts’ eyes turned crimson. They turned back without fear of death and began to frantically tear at the Black Iron Divine Statue.
A bestial roar also came from Wuu Ziqing’s throat. With his two fingers pressed together, he controlled the hundred-plus Human and Animal Cultivators, commanding them to unleash their Magical Treasures in an overwhelming barrage against the Night Patrol God.
Thus, two Foundation Establishment Level Ancient Gods clashed head-on before the central, isolated island of this collapsing world!
For a moment, black astral winds and dark green divine light intertwined in mid-air. The shockwaves from each collision pulverized the already shattered ruins into dust.
’They’re fighting... They’re actually fighting!’
’That True God who arrived later seems to disapprove of this kind of behavior?’
Xia Xing, whose face had been ashen with despair, now had a spark of life burst forth in his eyes.
Thanks to the Night Patrol God’s indiscriminate slaughter, the human-and-beast army, which had seemed destined for victory, was forcefully cut off.
Most of the Demon Beasts, drawn by the Iron Mace, swarmed the divine statue, trying to overwhelm it with sheer numbers. But the Night Patrol God was like a tiger among sheep; every swing of its mace raised a fresh cloud of blood mist.
For the Loose Cultivators and small groups who had been waiting for death, this was a heaven-sent miracle.
"Run! Run to the sides!"
"Now’s our chance! Their Divine Authorities are clashing, they can’t spare any attention for us!"
The desperate examinees began to flee the center of the battlefield frantically.
Although the world outside was still collapsing and blades of void-wind still howled, hiding in the stable caves of Lingma Mountain was clearly the only way to survive, compared to being directly obliterated by the two Ancient Gods.
Xia Xing dragged his exhausted companion, stumbling and staggering around the battlefield.
He glanced back one last time at the chaotic core of the conflict.
Amidst the rain of blood, he saw the ghastly white light of the lantern in the Black Iron Divine Statue’s hand flicker. Every swing of its Hard Mace brought a slaughter in the name of order. Meanwhile, the Beastkeeping Commissioner frantically whipped his long lash, driving ever more living beings to fill that bottomless pit.
In this shattered world, they were locked in a primal war of attrition.
And at the very center of this storm, the Stone Palace’s Underground Palace—its doors shut tight, its aura as stable as a mountain—had become the only stationary totem in everyone’s eyes.
"Two of them... those are two Foundation Establishment True Gods."
Xia Xing muttered to himself, unable to imagine how a group of Qi Cultivation Cultivators could possibly survive in the middle of such a terrifying battle.

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