Chapter 425 Opening: Thunderstrike (First Update Late at Night, 7000 Words)

The vast northwestern coastline of Qingqiu Continent is dotted with hundreds of pristine beaches. The seawater here is clear, the temperature is pleasant, and the sun shines year-round, making it one of Qingqiu's most beloved tourist destinations in the past. Even residents from other worlds and domains under the Central Divine Court were willing to travel great distances to relax and vacation here.

But that was all in the past... Now, amidst the howling gales and torrential rain, inextinguishable demonic flames illuminate the night sky, and bone and blood fill this land.

On the corpse-strewn battlefield, surrounded by countless Qingqiu human remains and the corpses of Jiuli giants, Su Zhou, having returned to his human form, raised his head, gazing at the distant sky, and slowly stepped forward.

Azure-purple spiritual power seared burning footprints beneath his feet, and spiritual fire spread, igniting a blazing radiance.

Among the many corpses, crimson blood mixed with rainwater converged into rivers, crisscrossing the battlefield. When the spiritual fire radiance intersected with the blood rivers, scarlet true qi was vaporized by the high temperature, resembling clouds and mist, like a demonic realm.

Blood mist swirled and rose, and numerous pitch-black evil souls floated in mid-air. Like small boats drawn to a whirlpool, they drifted and automatically approached Su Zhou, then merged into his body.

At this moment, Su Zhou paid no attention to these bizarre phenomena, which made him look like a villain. He simply gazed at the clouds in the distance, torn apart by the aftershocks of the previous battle, and the stars and moon above the clouds, his mind racing.

All the Tianmo (demonic celestial) clusters from the direction of Lianyi Sea had just been slain by him, and it would take a long time for the Tianmo army further away to arrive.

Compared to those insignificant cannon fodder, Su Zhou sensed a stronger foe.

"An enemy at the Dixian (earthly immortal) realm..."

Muttering to himself, Su Zhou's tone contained little fear.

The Tianmo had been eroding Qingqiu for millennia. Whether it was exploiting the blood and bone of the Qingqiu people or hoarding spiritual power for their own use, it would be strange if all those secret methods couldn't produce a Dixian. He had already considered this when he learned the enemy's true nature was Tianmo.

Moreover, after the long battle, the power within Su Zhou's body was eager to try, about to break through that layer of barrier.

Renxian (human immortal) and Dixian, commanders and overlords, the gap between them was not as large as imagined.

The difference between them was the distinction between 'having walked one's own path' and not having walked it, the difference between 'mortal greater than immortal' and 'immortal greater than mortal.' This was vastly different from Tianxian (celestial immortal) who 'reached the end of the road and began to derive their own,' 'pure immortal,' a decisive distinction.

Su Zhou believed that as long as a Renxian at the peak had a powerful trump card, that is, a powerful magic treasure, then there was no need to fear a Dixian who had not reached the end of their path.

Therefore, the youth was now contemplating other, more important, more grand things.

"Has the erosion of the Great Existence on this universe reached this stage?"

Su Zhou murmured to himself, his expression solemn.

Since meeting Yala in 2014, Su Zhou had known that if he did not take action, and other Great Existences did not break through the seal, then there would be only fifteen and a half years before the Great Seal was broken, this universe was completely destroyed, and even other universes would collapse in a chain reaction.

Now, three years had passed since then, but Su Zhou had also gone through the Divine Tree World, the Samsara World, and the Divine Dragon World, and the time for the Great Seal to be broken had been delayed to twenty-seven years.

However, the awakening of the Harbinger, and the changes it caused, also stirred up a reaction from the Great Seal... Now Su Zhou didn't know exactly what kind of damage it had suffered, but there was no doubt that the Harbinger's actions would definitely make the Great Seal more fragile.

Even if the destruction of the world was postponed by himself, the influence of those Great Existences would continue to spread throughout the universe, and become increasingly intense.

Just like now, facing this Great Existence that the Descending Spirit Society called the [Fate Pusher], the dependents it created had swept through a planet.

Even if he defeated this 'fiend' on Qingqiu Star, and completely destroyed it, it would only mean that the threat around Earth had been eliminated... But what if they were on other planets? In other arms of the Milky Way, other galaxies, outside other galaxy clusters, choosing the races they wanted to influence and erode?

At that time, would he be able to run out of the Milky Way, step on hyperspace channels, and hunt down these Great Existence dependents throughout the observable universe?

He, Su Zhou, wasn't a cosmic policeman!

"It has finally come, I had already anticipated this day."

Closing his eyes, although the future might not be optimistic, at least now, facing the imminent Dixian Tianmo, Su Zhou felt no fear in his heart.

After all, he had plenty of trump cards.

Opening his eyes again, a beam of divine light shone in Su Zhou's eyes, piercing through the clouds. His gaze swept across the heavens and earth. Neither the rising blood mist nor the gloomy clouds could stop him. The powerful spiritual radiation was like a humanoid spiritual radar, and even the aftershocks spread across dozens of miles around!

Wherever Su Zhou's gaze swept, whether it was the fish in the deep sea or the seabirds flying in the clouds, they trembled. They felt a cold divine thought lock onto them, as if dissecting their entire bodies—instantly, countless fish fled in fear into the deep sea, and the birds froze in mid-air, plummeting to the sea surface like stones.

Soon, as the divine thought spread, Su Zhou locked onto the ice-blue meteor that was speeding from a thousand miles away!

It was a lump of indifferent ice, a stubborn stone with no emotional fluctuations. It was hard, large, unyielding, and unchanging. When this cold meteorite flew by, the heavens and earth seemed to be frozen. Whether it was the clouds or the seawater, they were completely dominated and immobile as if they were frozen at the moment it passed, until the next moment when they regained their freedom and began to flow and churn again.

And at this moment, this ice-blue stubborn stone also seemed to sense Su Zhou's gaze. Without any hesitation, its will also pierced through the air, engaging in the most direct collision with Su Zhou!

Buzz! Like the metallic hum after swords clashed, both sides' wills retreated immediately after the confrontation.

But even so, Su Zhou sensed the partial essence of the other party.

That was thorough dominance, absolute without any accident.

[Fate] [Foundation Stone] [Gear] [Command] and [Domination]... Too many elements, as if like a sea composed of machines and gears, churning up what seemed like vast waves, but in reality was a cold, dead tide.

And all these elements, eventually turned into a mighty 'torrent'.

Its name was... [Destiny].

Then, a contemptuous voice rang out.

"What a disgusting, genuinely loathsome fellow."

In the distance, light was already shining. The ice-blue divine light was tearing through the atmosphere, bringing with it a hurricane, and sweeping towards here at a speed sufficient to break through the gravity of a star.

There was no movement or sound because the sound was far slower than it. There were no unusual omens because it would arrive first, before the omens appeared.

Boom!

On the land of the northwest coast, a roar vibrated!

At this moment, under Su Zhou's feet, thousands of Lan seeds condensed, transforming into a rocket-like structure. His body was surrounded by a white shockwave shield, like a layer of white, solid armor. Azure-purple flames and lightning shuttled through it, releasing incomparably bright light while also forming complex and magnificent spiritual patterns.

At the eyes of the armor, burning-like sparks flickered, and the next moment, he stepped forward, the ground beneath his feet constantly collapsing, and the shattered patterns spread in all directions.

Amidst the ear-piercing shriek of rocket propulsion and shock waves, an azure-purple star soared into the sky. Behind him, corpses were burned to ashes, blood rivers were vaporized into mist, the corpses of giant Jiuli were directly destroyed, and the mountains piled up by countless Tianmo were melted into scorched, greasy oil like melting cream mountains—the starlight sped away, leaving behind a magma lake that appeared instantly on the ground, and pillars of smoke flickering with lightning rising up.

If at this time, someone in the distant high sky, in outer space orbit, looked down at the planet, then he would be able to see that on the edge of the Lianyi Sea in the northwest of Qingqiu Continent, an ice-blue star was diving downward, and an azure-purple star was rising upward.

Without any words or probes, without any communication or observation.

The otherworldly visitor clad in white Lan armor, and the Nine-Tailed Sky Fox King, two meteors collided in the silent ten-thousand-meter-high sky at a relative speed of over sixty kilometers per second.

Gazes crossed, the cold ice-blue light and the azure-purple dragon eyes met—then, it was an attack!

In an instant, time seemed to freeze. Apart from the other's face, the eyes of both sides could see nothing else. Everything was stopping, slowing down, and the only thing that remained unchanged was the iron fist that both sides simultaneously raised and swung with all their might!

Boom!!!

At the instant the two fists collided, the atmosphere between them ionized, and the pure power collision even ignited cracking arcs. Pure plasma was born in the ever-shrinking distance between the fists—and the next moment, the two fists collided together.

Instantly, with Su Zhou and this Tianmo King as the center, the air was like the ocean, suddenly stirring up visible tsunami-like waves. That was the phenomenon formed by the air being compressed and propelled by excessively vast power, transforming into shock waves.

Immediately afterward, spiritual light erupted. Two streams of spiritual power, sufficient to topple mountains and destroy cities, erupted and spread in all directions after colliding, stirring up gusts of wind and tornadoes!

Pfft! The Lan armor shattered, and the flesh and blood on Su Zhou's right arm were shattered and fell off on the spot due to the violent collision, leaving only fragmented hand bones full of cracks—while the Nine-Tailed Tianmo's arm was largely intact, only the entire right fist was completely shattered, and both flesh and blood and bones were turned into ashes and dissipated.

In an instant, the two sides immediately retreated tens of kilometers each. This distance was actually a face-to-face confrontation only a few steps apart for transcendents of their level, and they could launch an attack again at any time.

Huff, huff—the white shock wave surged again, reshaping the Lan armor, and amidst the raging wind, it could be seen that flesh and blood were wriggling on the arm.

Soon, the flesh and blood of Su Zhou's right hand regenerated completely, as if returning to its original state.

But Su Zhou's gaze was still solemn, because on the shattered right fist of the Tianmo in the distance, there was also spiritual power gathering, and it was re-condensing into a complete palm, even more easily and freely than his regeneration.

The Primal Corruptor, the Primal Tianmo on Qingqiu Star, the great fiend belonging to 'Destiny', the master of the Six Paths Illusion, the Nine-Tailed Sky Fox King—

This monster held overwhelming power!

"Is this a Dixian?"

Locking firmly on the opponent's figure, Su Zhou's heart was extremely solemn at this time—in the trial punch just now, he seemed to have not suffered any loss, but in fact, at the moment he felt the opponent's vast and inconceivable spiritual power, he took the initiative to give up the defense of his right arm, and instead used all his spiritual power to attack the opponent, allowing his arm to be shattered by the opponent.

But even so, this blow that abandoned defense did not completely break through the Tianmo's defense, but only destroyed one of the opponent's fists.

As for why he didn't use his true form to fight, the answer was simple. The giant beast body was fine against equally large monsters and huge armies, but it was useless against transcendents of this level who were stronger than him but had normal physiques. It would only be easily targeted and destroyed by the opponent's weaknesses. It was better to use it as a raw material reserve for self-repair.

"It's the Dao of Spirit! This guy, used the Dao of Spirit to achieve Dixian!"

Confirming this at the first moment of probing, Su Zhou began to quickly think about the next countermeasures in his mind.

At the same time, the Tianmo in the distance also made the next action steps after collecting relevant information about Su Zhou.

[——Lock, decompose, destroy——]

[Execute obliteration against 'Chaos Devotee']

Clack, clack, clack.

A rumbling sound came from the sky, and the low sound of gears turning came.

Behind the Primal Tianmo, six incomparably huge gears emerged from the void. They rotated and meshed with each other, turning in the sky, forming a huge, regular, and unshakable cycle.

In the eyes of the Sky Fox, it seemed that there were also gears turning, and blue ice flames were ignited between the meshing of the cogs, and his skin instantly became translucent, like some kind of exquisite glass.

[Six Paths True Method - Pratyekabuddha Deva Path]

Instantly, an ice-blue magic domain spread, and within the scope of the magic domain, the sea mist suddenly boiled, and a sacred and long musical sound suddenly rang out between heaven and earth.

The air stirred up a storm, making a sacred hymn-like harmony, the sea surged into huge waves, as if beating the rhythm, and lightning began to generate in the dim clouds, as if striking a giant drum.

In this instant, all the natural forces between heaven and earth began to converge towards the Nine-Tailed Tianmo. On the black nine tails, each long tail seemed to have transformed into a colossal force of some kind of natural phenomenon, storm, tsunami, thunderstorm, tornado, and—

But Su Zhou didn't care about this.

Battles required probing. After all, without real comparison, who knew how to fight and what to plan? Early reconnaissance was to reduce the time of probing.

And now, after judging the enemy's specific power, his action was only a very simple one.

"Consider yourself unlucky, I'm not a Squirrel Party—you can't keep the ultimate move until the end."

Swiping his hands across the atmosphere to both sides, opening his personal space, Su Zhou took out a jade box with his left hand, and held the Miedu (Nirvana Crossing) Blade tightly with his right hand.

He gripped the jade box tightly, which was vibrating frantically, the contents of which were about to burst out, and then he flexed his muscles and exerted force, directly crushing it—Su Zhou held that surging and powerful divine power tightly in his palm, and then pressed it on the divine knife in his hand.

In this instant, it seemed that a trace of Senran (grim) frost-like sword light flickered, and then the aura suddenly soared!

Su Zhou solemnly held the Miedu Blade tightly with both hands, and between the flashing spiritual light, it could be seen that a cloud-patterned colorful, Nine-Glory divine sword covered the blade—that illusory long sword was simple and grand, and just witnessing it, one could feel the mandate of heaven manifesting, and the royal way being grand.

Its sword body was like frost and snow, and the blade flowed with unbelievably bright scarlet divine light, and the brilliant patterns spread at the sword ridge, forming two simple characters.

Chixiao (Scarlet Firmament).

Chixiao Sword Qi!

——Our majestic race, named Han. The Chixiao Divine Sword was the last divine weapon forged by mortals on the eve of the spiritual energy cut-off in the era when immortals and gods had all gone, used to guard the country, protect the race, pacify chaos, and stabilize peace!

For thousands of years, the wishes of all the descendants of Shenzhou had been gathered in this sword, and it equally protected everyone, and was never used because of anyone's selfish desires... Only when one of the descendants of the land was caught in a great disaster and could not get rid of suffering on their own, would it glow with sword light, and wipe out all evil and disobedience!

Just like this time, it was the power of the Chixiao Sword that guided Su Zhou and others to Qingqiu, and detected the atrocities of the Destiny Tianmo!

Now, although what Su Zhou was holding tightly in his hand was only a trace of sword qi from the divine weapon that had the power of immortals and gods, even so, this sword qi attached to the Miedu Blade still contained infinite power.

Even on the Miedu Blade, the power of the ten thousand people belonging to the Divine Tree World, because of killing the Demon Emperor, destroying the Demon Dynasty, and creating the 'Celestial Justice Alliance', also began to resonate with the wish power on this trace of Chixiao Sword Qi, transforming into the shouts of ten thousand people.

The mountain-like roar lingered in his ears. Solemnly holding up the divine knife, Su Zhou placed it in the center of his eyes, in front of his azure-purple dragon eyes, was the boiling sea, and the roaring fierce wind. The lightning that crisscrossed the sea and sky had already been fused into a thunder sword by the Nine-Tailed Tianmo's hands, and the power of the entire world was condensed under the control of the 'Pratyekabuddha Deva Path'.

But there were too many forces that could overcome the power of heaven and earth.

The power of mankind was one of them.

Clang, sword qi and knife light sounded at this moment. The solemn Su Zhou poured all his power into the sword and knife in his hand, and aimed the blade at the location of the Nine-Tailed Tianmo.

He swung it down violently.

In the next instant, above the ten-thousand-meter-high sky, the vast power like a sea was swept into the blade, and returned to the edge... Immediately afterward, a dazzling cold light that illuminated hundreds of miles around shone through the heavens and the earth!

A huge blade of light that suddenly erupted like a Milky Way, carried the wishes and spiritual power of ten thousand people shouting in unison, and slashed straight down at the center of the Deva Path!

Crack!

Everything was torn apart, and the sound of shattering like glass rang out. The Tianmo's Deva Path shattered on the spot—the clouds were cut open by a strange force, revealing the starry sky behind them. The spiritual energy wandering in nature retreated, the sea wailed and rolled back, and the thunder light trembled and extinguished, as if fearing the arrival of destruction.

Only this dazzling sword light was left between heaven and earth. It shone between heaven and earth, like a dividing line that divided the world and defined heaven and earth. The clouds and the sea were separated by it. It could be seen that a huge crack in the sea extended for dozens of miles, and the sea was separated left and right, turning into a stagnant waterfall.

But in the next instant, Su Zhou did not stop attacking. Between a burst of suddenly lit up light circles, the huge Zhuzhou Dragon reappeared in the world. He did not hesitate at all, and directly condensed all the power in his dragon body, and then transformed it into a breath, and bombarded the place where the Primal Tianmo he had locked on before!

Rumble rumble!!!

Instantly, another light surged, turning into a surging torrent and swept past—the terrifying shock wave swept through the lightning and flames, passing through the vacuum that had been cut out when the Chixiao Sword Qi was slashed out, and bombarded a certain place in the darkness with the most condensed and lossless posture.

It seemed to be blocked by something for a moment, but soon, under the mighty torrent of energy, this beam of breath was not blocked for too long. The dragon's breath went straight into the sea, thousands of meters deep into the sea, illuminating the incomparably deep seabed. This scene did not last long, and a violent explosion broke out in the depths of the seabed, bringing with it huge waves.

For a time, it was as if the world had just begun. Huge bubbles like boiling soup surged in the tumbling ocean, and azure sky thunder crisscrossed between the clouds and mist—tornadoes, huge waves, and hot fierce winds filled the eyes. The full-strength strike of a divine weapon and a divine dragon, if bombarded on the earth, would be a peerless and powerful strike that could horizontally cut mountains and turn hills into plains, enough to cause permanent terrain changes. Even at sea, it would be enough to create a huge tsunami that would submerge the northwestern part of the Qingqiu coast.

But even so, Su Zhou did not relax at all—returning to human form, he began to frantically absorb the spiritual energy in the surrounding world as soon as possible, restoring the spiritual energy in his body at a speed that would be enough to make other commander-level cultivators dumbfounded.

This was not a wrong choice.

Because, as Su Zhou thought, just as he was rapidly restoring his spiritual power, pieces of starlight-like ice-blue debris slowly surged from the tumbling ocean around the Lianyi Sea, gradually reassembling into fragile human figures.

One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand... Countless fragments of spiritual light, condensed into hundreds of thousands of fragile Tianmo human figures, and then began to condense and integrate like fireflies.

Soon, as the light and shadow flickered, a Tianmo phantom with the strength of the early stage of the commander level, but with the spiritual power in its body rapidly increasing, appeared dozens of miles away.

Su Zhou coldly stared at the Tianmo figure that was slowly re-condensing its power, but compared to before, it had weakened to the point of being unrecognizable, and a big stone in his heart was somewhat relieved.

——The Tianmo are immortal. He had expected this.

But at least the Dixian position had been temporarily knocked down by him.

Slicing a Dixian with one sword? If it was a normal low-level Dixian, facing the Chixiao Sword Qi, and his powerful Destruction Breath, then it would definitely be completely beaten to the point where there would be no scum left—but Su Zhou knew that the Tianmo's main body in this world was not these 'corrupted bodies' composed of spiritual power or the corpses of Qingqiu people.

Their main body was the 'Six Paths Illusion' located in the Soul Suppressing Towers, or rather, the 'Tianmo Matrices'!

That was the true main body of the Tianmo, and what was used for combat was just an 'incarnation'.

Su Zhou didn't know what the Nine-Tailed Sky Fox figure from just now was, but the other party did indeed have a powerful Dixian position, and it was still the 'Dao of Spirit'.

The Dao of Nature, was to infinitely improve one's soul through some method, the Dao of Life, was to infinitely strengthen one's body, and the Dao of Law, was to make the art of magic and technique divine, close to the Dao.

Then, the meaning represented by the Dao of Spirit, was to infinitely strengthen one's spiritual power reserve through some method, and could also use it freely like other immortals, without any slowness or stagnation.

The Tianmo's Dao of Spirit, was to improve their spiritual power reserve almost without limit by overlapping a huge number of Tianmo souls, and coordinating their condensation—the Dixian-level Tianmo before had condensed at least ten million Tianmo souls, and every move it made had the power to destroy the world. The spiritual power reserve started at least several hundred to nearly a thousand Great Zhou, and even Su Zhou was far behind.

And now, even if the Tianmo Matrix in the distance was constantly condensing and transferring Tianmo souls to this place, what could be temporarily used now was just a commander-level Renxian incarnation of hundreds of thousands of souls.

This was much easier to fight—a million times simpler than dealing with a Dixian.

Of course, if the other party was some third-rate cultivator, a village immortal, then Su Zhou felt that he might not be able to fight across levels, but after confirming that the other party was an agent of the Great Existence, the youth would not have any conceited thoughts—in a normal battle, he would not be able to fight at all. This Dixian Tianmo could just spray water, and could spray out a sea to crush him to death.

And just now, although it seemed that he had not completely eliminated the other party with that attack, in fact, Su Zhou had already obtained a lot of information about the other party's essence from the fragments of the Nine-Tailed Tianmo at the moment he used the Chixiao Sword Qi to shatter it.

The Tianmo Cluster—a pure information life, constantly fulfilling its mission based on some kind of command or code of conduct, the most orderly life form.

It and the Zerg, the Geta-style Ai, the cluster life form, the emperor of an autocratic empire, the final product tyrant, and any kind of existence related to 'Six Paths of Reincarnation', 'Fate Prophecy', and 'Heavenly Dao Destiny' in myths and legends, were all the life models most favored by [Destiny].

If this Tianmo Cluster on Qingqiu Star, really enveloped the entire Qingqiu Star in its Six Paths Illusion, then it would be equivalent to making the most grand sacrifice to [Destiny], which could attract His blessing to descend, and 'ascend to demonhood' on the spot, becoming a truly meaningful 'God-Chosen Great Demon'!

This was not a fun thing, and Su Zhou would not allow it to happen.

The thinking was long, but in reality it was just a few breaths.

Drawing out the divine knife again, Su Zhou, who had recovered 80% of his spiritual power, stared at the Nine-Tailed Tianmo incarnation in the distance, which had just recovered to the middle stage of the commander level, and showed a ferocious smile.

Using one of his trump cards to bury the strongest Dixian incarnation that the Tianmo Cluster had condensed for a long time could not be said to be a loss, but only a reasonable tactic.

At least now, the other party and he were on the same starting line, or even lower.

And in the distance, the Tianmo incarnation, which had re-condensed into a basic human form, once again assumed a fighting posture, and the six path gears behind him also reappeared from the void.

The initial exchange had gone through the first round.

The battle had only just begun.

I had a bit of writer's block today, but it's okay, I'll finish writing it all later!

Don't be silly and wait for the update, I beg you, get up in the morning and read it, it will definitely be mostly finished by then.