Immortal of the Ages

With a sharp, unmistakable snap, the piercing white light, its origins a mystery, struck with lethal precision. It burst through the Chaos Emperor Lotus and, in an explosive instant, obliterated the All Life Empress Gu and turned it to ash!

A guttural cry tore through the air.

Beneath the Chaos Emperor Lotus, Lu Fan's face contorted in agony. Clutching his head, he snapped open his bloodshot eyes to glare at the sudden apparition of the Divine Imperial Son.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! The Chaos Emperor Lotus trembled, and the freshly formed spiritual channels in the Stellar Spring of Life spiraled into chaos. With the death of the All Life Empress Gu, these connections were severed abruptly.

In the mortal realm, the pilgrim souls saw their visions of the blazing sun vanish. They grasped at thin air, their heads throbbing in pain as their spirits were violently yanked back into their bodies, leaving them dazed and confused.

From a distance, Yun Xiao and Divine Dawn witnessed the scene.

"This Divine Imperial Son isn't half bad, finding the critical point to break the system!" Yun Xiao remarked.

The incense offerings belonged to the imperial family, and Lu Fan had merely co-opted this system to devour the souls of all beings. The All Life Empress Gu was crucial as the catalyst.

The creature was inherently fragile; its destruction meant that without a new All Life Empress Gu, Lu Fan's diabolical scheme to harvest souls would be thwarted.

"Just one, nurtured by the Crown Prince himself within his lungs near his heart—dead now, and that’s the end of it..." Divine Dawn responded, realization dawning on her about the demise of this calamitous entity that had tormented countless beings.

Without the Empress Gu, the All Life Devouring Gus in the mortal realm would fall into disarray and eventually perish.

Lu Fan had received a figurative blow to the head from the Divine Imperial Son!

Upon the Stellar Spring of Life, the man in a tattered golden robe suddenly stood, his eyes bloodshot and fixated on the Divine Imperial Son.

"He killed the Empress Gu...!"

Empress Zhao and the other celestial maidens were startled out of their wits, their mouths agape and faces twisted as they screamed in horror.

Their illusions shattered in an instant, just like fleeting dreams, all punctured by the Divine Imperial Son.

"Where did this beast come from?!"

"You're doomed! Absolutely doomed!"

The eyes of hundreds of celestial maidens were consumed by hatred.

Meanwhile, the disheveled middle-aged man leapt into the air, confronting the Divine Imperial Son face to face!

Logically, even if an ancestor were summoned, they couldn't possibly find this place so quickly. He should have had time!

Lu Fan could never have anticipated that Yun Xiao's Buddha's Treasure Spirit would strip him of his control over the Chaos Emperor Lotus Soul Mark...

Being early might not beat being timely, and as fate would have it, he arrived just when the All Life Empress Gu was most vulnerable.

"You..." Lu Fan's face turned pitch black, his eyes one black and one gold, fists clenched as he snarled, "You've caused a great disaster, and it's too late for you to even wish for death."

"Heh." The Divine Imperial Son scoffed coldly, "A mere trash reincarnator dares to pose before the imperial lineage of my ancestors? Get on your way!"

With that, he swiftly hurled a white jade slip.

BOOM! The jade slip soared, transforming instantly into a massive white jade gate. The gate roared as it appeared directly above Lu Fan.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The movement of such a jade gate resembled the unyielding weight of endless mountains and earth.

"My lord!"

Empress Zhao and the other celestial maidens rushed forward, but before they could get close to the jade gate, they were blown away by the blast, unable to approach.

"Any worthless thing now thinks they can play the supreme emperor!" the Divine Imperial Son said contemptuously, and pressing his hand down, the jade gate erupted with a thunderous roar like a thousand mountains collapsing, crushing down on Lu Fan!

BOOM! Lu Fan's brow furrowed as he raised his hands to resist the jade gate, his expression suddenly changing.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! His arms, flesh, and bones burst under the pressure of the jade gate, blood gushing out as his arms exploded into dust under the immense force!

"YOU!" Lu Fan managed to utter just that word before his entire body was pulverized by the jade gate.

BUZZ! The mighty Chaos Sovereign was obliterated in an instant, his blood and dust spraying onto the faces of Empress Zhao and the others, making them look as though they were adorned with rouge and powder.

"KYAAAAAH!"

The celestial maidens screamed bloodily, their voices heart-wrenching, creating a scene of utter chaos.

The women had seen him as a man rivaling the cosmos itself, but now, in just an encounter, he was crushed to dust by his adversary.

At that moment, their hearts felt as if they were being shredded apart.

"Heh," the Divine Imperial Son sneered, shrugging nonchalantly. "A reborn hyena and a pack of ignorant bitches, you wouldn’t recognize the Fourth Dao Tribulation if it bit you."

With that, he reached out to retrieve the jade slip. But in that instant, his body broke out in sweat, and a crushing sense of suffocation overwhelmed him.

The Divine Imperial Son looked up sharply! Above him loomed the gigantic gold-and-black Chaos Emperor Lotus, pressing down upon his head just as the jade gate had done.

The Chaos Emperor Lotus swallowed the Divine Imperial Son whole.

"What?!" he exclaimed, feeling only a bit queasy at first, but then his expression drastically changed, mirroring the earlier despair of Lu Fan.

"Ah!" The Divine Imperial Son’s face contorted. Though visibly unharmed, his eyes wildly misplaced, his body trembling. The spinning Chaos Emperor Lotus sent streams of gold-and-black light, twisting like dragons and snakes, burrowing into his flesh.

"Twenty years I honed this body, and you've ruined it... you're not getting away either..."

The voice of the Chaos Emperor Lotus was thick with fury.

Inside the Chaos Emperor Lotus, the Divine Imperial Son looked as though he was drowning, his face deathly pale, his eyes brimming with terror.

"Get out!"

In a desperate moment, the aura behind the Divine Imperial Son burst into brilliant light again, and he released the jade slip, which reformed into the colossal gate covering him.

He wielded the jade gate with all his might, smashing his way out of the Chaos Emperor Lotus.

"Reincarnated mongrel, your doom is sealed!"

BOOM! The jade slip shot into the mist with incredible speed, like a sword vessel slicing through the air in a desperate escape, while the Chaos Emperor Lotus did not give chase.

"My lord..." Empress Zhao and the others, faces stricken with grief, gathered around the Chaos Emperor Lotus.

They stared at the tangible yet intangible Chaos Emperor Lotus, nearly weeping without tears.

"My lord, what has happened to you!"

"My lord..."

"Silence!" The Chaos Emperor Lotus growled low, clearly infuriated, its plans disrupted as if it had fallen from the heavenly palace to hell itself.

"Let's go!" He did not pursue the Divine Imperial Son but instead seized the moment to lead the group of women swiftly away from the Stellar Spring of Life.

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BOOM! The jade gate finally came to a halt.

"Ah..." The Divine Imperial Son, his face pale as paper, his eyes darting around in panic, gasped for air, suspended motionlessly in the vast void of the sky.

"Someone, come!" the Divine Imperial Son called out, his voice trembling and weak.

"Divine Imperial Son!"

Shortly after, three figures appeared beside him, one of them a white silhouette—Yun Xiao—hastily supporting the Divine Imperial Son.

"Divine Imperial Son, how are you?" Divine Dawn asked with concern.

"My spirit..." the Divine Imperial Son began but then seemed frozen, motionless. After a few moments, he gasped violently, his voice shaky, "Severely injured... befuddled..."

Having said that, he once again fell into a stupor. Bit by bit, he managed to complete his thoughts.

"My spirit is severely injured, continuously bewitched, quickly, take me back, need celestial pills for healing..."

Uttering that sentence took much of his strength.

"Truly remarkable strength, Divine Imperial Son, to instantly kill the All Life Empress Gu and crush that malevolent fiend's body," Yun Xiao praised.

"Enough talk! He still has his spirit, and after I recover, I'll make his life a living hell..." the Divine Imperial Son growled fiercely. No sooner had he spoken than his eyes twitched uncontrollably, and he again slipped into an unconscious state.

"Such divine might," Yun Xiao commented.

"Let's go!" The Divine Imperial Son snapped back to awareness, impatiently urging them on.

"Alright!" As Yun Xiao reached out to support him, his hand flashed with the Heaven Burial Sword Soul.

With a swift thrust, the sword cleaved swiftly and sharply, chopping off the Divine Imperial Son's head with a crisp snap.

"What?" The Divine Imperial Son's head, still held in his hand, looked bewilderedly at Yun Xiao and asked, "What are you doing, boy?"

With two more swift strikes, Yun Xiao sliced the still-talking head into four neat pieces.

"Beast! Wretch! How dare a lowly dog like y—" The spirit of the Divine Imperial Son emerged, riddled with holes and severely damaged by the Chaos Emperor Lotus, which was the only reason Yun Xiao had his chance.

"Goodbye." Yun Xiao smiled slightly, squeezing the spirit's head with his Buddha's Treasure Spirit, and in his bewilderment and confusion, he dispatched the Divine Imperial Son to his fate.

POOF! The spirit of the Divine Imperial Son dissolved into the cosmos, leaving behind only empty space.

"No Sword Soul, no Life Sigil."

After checking, Yun Xiao found nothing but an unopened Bag of Holding; there were no other gains. He could only toss the body to the War Princess to have her refine the blood.

"Hey!" Divine Dawn was about to heal the Divine Imperial Son as instructed when Yun Xiao abruptly beheaded him, startling her.

"What's up?" Yun Xiao turned back with a gentle smile and asked.

"What do you think?" Divine Dawn pouted.

"You want to know why I killed the Divine Imperial Son?" Yun Xiao's eyes showed a chilly resolve. "Simple! A grudge over a wife is a grudge that cannot coexist under the same sky. If I didn't avenge it, I'd be less than a man."

"When did he take your wife?" Divine Dawn asked incredulously.

"He hasn't yet, but even thinking about it is too much," Yun Xiao replied.

"..." Divine Dawn was speechless… She watched in shock as Yun Xiao digested the Divine Imperial Son.

"There's quite a bit in the Bag of Holding. Once the storm passes, we'll split it," Yun Xiao told Divine Dawn after he finished.

"I don't want it," Divine Dawn replied.

"Still thinking about your grand future?" Yun Xiao asked.

Divine Dawn gave him a disgruntled look. "Don't make me out to be so greedy. Who cares about some grand future? I'm just worried about what happens if someone else comes after him."

"You're good at acting, aren't you? What’s there to fear?" Yun Xiao said with a soft laugh. "Besides, you didn't kill anyone, and neither did I. If we're upright, we needn't fear a crooked shadow."

"Then who killed the Divine Imperial Son?" Divine Dawn asked, voice flat.

"Lu Fan did!"