It was a dead end!
’A desperate situation...?’
From the depths of the Underground Palace, someone let out an incredibly dry whisper.
When the glow of the three apocalyptic Decrees pierced the barrier of light and met their eyes, the entire Underground Palace plunged into a deathly silence.
The panicked screams from before were gone, as were the roars of those fighting for their lives. All that remained was the bleak powerlessness of knowing the end had come.
It was a shudder from the very depths of their souls.
Before the Prison-Suppressing Evil Flood Dragon’s shockwave even arrived, the walls of the Underground Palace were already groaning under the strain. Countless Array Patterns shattered instantly. Large chunks of rock broke free from the ceiling, crashing down on the exhausted Cultivators, but no one moved to dodge.
Because it was useless.
Xia Xing slumped in a corner of the altar, his blood-caked eyes fixed on the figure standing at its center.
That Daoist Chu still stood ramrod straight, the Five-Colored Dao Charm swirling around him as he mounted a final resistance.
’At any other time, to witness a prodigy break through mid-battle and forge an Upper Grade Dao Foundation... that would be a story worth telling for a lifetime.’
Xia Xing smiled bitterly, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth and staining his robes. "But it’s a shame... our lives are ending right here."
Deep down, everyone knew the truth.
It wasn’t that Chu Bai wasn’t strong. On the contrary, he had already pushed himself to the absolute limit, even beyond what anyone thought possible.
He had piloted a Divine Body while still at the Qi Cultivation realm, single-handedly resisted three Divine Spirits, and even defied the heavens to force his breakthrough to Foundation Establishment in a situation of certain death.
Such skill, such audacity... in the last hundred years of Qingzhou’s history, there had likely never been another like him.
But... this was fate.
He wasn’t facing ordinary Demon Beasts or Cultivators of the same realm. He was facing three Foundation Establishment True Gods who wielded the authority of Heaven and Earth!
What made Divine Spirits divine was their command of Decrees and principles, powers far beyond the reach of Mortal Cultivators.
An ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator, encountering even one of them, would have to use all their trump cards just to escape with their life.
And yet Chu Bai, who had only just broken through, his Realm still unstable and with no Foundation Establishment Techniques to his name, had to face three frenzied, veteran Evil Gods all by himself.
This battle had been a mismatch from the very start.
"We dragged him down..."
A prodigy from a large County closed his eyes, his voice laced with bitterness. "If it weren’t for the two thousand of us weighing him down, with his Circulation Wheel Dao Foundation, he could have escaped as a streak of light the moment the Divine Body was shattered."
"Born at the wrong time..."
"We could see a path to survival, we could see the golden light of the Celestial Ladder... only to fall at the very last step."
A tide of despair washed over everyone.
They watched the descending Shattering Abyss Soul and Earth-Shaking Palm Seal, felt the pressure that threatened to rip their very souls apart, and gave up all resistance.
Some sobbed quietly, some closed their eyes to await death, while others used their last strength to grip the broken swords in their hands, wanting to preserve a shred of a Cultivator’s dignity in this final moment.
In that moment, time seemed to stretch on for an eternity.
It seemed every spark of hope was about to be snuffed out by the combined might of the three Divine Spirits.
At the center of the altar, though the Five-Colored Light Cocoon had vanished, the devouring vortex of Qi around Chu Bai hadn’t slowed in the slightest.
Facing the tripartite death trap, enough to drive all beings to despair, the All Heaven Star Wheel reflected in his eyes revealed a heart-stopping calm. He hadn’t wavered in the slightest.
’This attack seems like a final, killing blow, but its real purpose is to force me onto the defensive, to disrupt my foundation...’
Chu Bai saw it with perfect clarity.
If he were to stop channeling the Guiyuan Technique now and focus all his power on defense, he might block this one attack. But that would mean giving up on plundering the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Mechanism—his only hope of turning the tables.
If he was forced onto the defensive, in this Desolate Land where Spiritual Qi was growing ever scarcer, he could only wait for death.
’They want me to give up the offensive?’
’In your dreams!’
A wildly arrogant smirk spread across Chu Bai’s face as a low cry erupted from deep in his throat.
"Split!"
A brilliant Divine Light erupted from between his brows. In that instant, he forcefully tore a Split Soul from his Divine Thought—cultivated to Perfection through the Guardian Scripture.
Without a moment’s hesitation, the Split Soul dove into the Array Core beneath his feet, instantly taking control of the nearby Clay Soil, which had been scared witless.
"Lord Envoy?! What are you...?" the Land God exclaimed in shock.
"No more talk! Work with me! Push all of your Spiritual Power into the legs!"
Chu Bai’s Divine Thought roared.
At that very moment, Decrees from the Divine Spirits sealed off every direction, leaving no path to the heavens and no gate into the earth.
This cumbersome body of the Mountain God, despite its infinite strength, was a sitting duck on the ground. Without having learned any advanced Flying Escape Techniques, it was completely unable to fly like the Evil Flood Dragon.
The shockwave, the Palm Seal, and the spectral cry were about to land.
There was no way out.
’Since there’s no path on the ground...’
Chu Bai snapped his head up. His gaze shot past the murderous attacks filling the sky, locking onto the golden path of light that hung in midair, radiating the supreme majesty of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
’Then I’ll go to the heavens!’
At Chu Bai’s frenzied command, the Spiritual Power within the Divine Body, which had been defending its torso, reversed its flow. Like a river bursting its dam, it surged into the god’s battered legs.
In that instant, the Lingma Mountain God’s massive body dropped into a deep squat.
The ground cracked apart, sending countless shards of rock flying into the air.
He squatted, gathering power like a drawn bow, the tension building to its absolute peak.

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