Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Battle Draws to a Close

The pitch-black sky suddenly burst into endless violet and fiery lights, appearing both alluring and perilous. Purple serpents of lightning danced wildly across the heavens, while raging flames devoured the earth. Bitter winds howled through the skies, mountains crashed against the ground...

The Nether Serpent Slaughter Formation, on the verge of collapse, seemed like the very advent of doomsday, bent on annihilating all.

"Boom!" "Bang!"...

A tumult of chaotic, deafening sounds echoed between heaven and earth.

After Elder Nine led the great army of Nether Serpents out of the formation, he immediately charged toward the encampment of his clan, which stood beside the territory of the Qilin.

"Run!" Elder Nine, spotting Elder Eleven from afar, shouted through divine transmission, his voice brimming with fury.

"Run?" Elder Eleven frowned, failing to grasp Elder Nine's meaning. Yet the next second, realization dawned.

A wave of spiritual power, boundless and unstoppable, suddenly surged from the shattered formation, sweeping toward all the gathered races.

The various clans stared in dumbstruck horror as the rampaging tide of energy surged toward them.

At the very forefront stood Elder Nine and his army of Nether Serpents.

The furious, all-encompassing spiritual tide quickly overtook them. With a single sweep, it effortlessly engulfed several Nether Serpent God-Kings.

Those mighty God-Kings, faced with this spiritual deluge, could not muster the slightest resistance.

Panic seized every clan. They mounted their treasures, transformed into divine lights, and fled backward at top speed.

No matter how the formation crumbled, no matter the apocalyptic spectacle or the terror of the energy tide, none of it could disturb the two figures locked in confrontation.

"The Nether Serpent Slaughter Formation is destroyed," Nanluo said impassively, gazing at the sky blazing with lightning and earth aflame.

Heidi glanced around and sighed. "Even the keenest calculation is no match for fate. I thought I could ensnare you, but instead, I lost even the formation itself."

"It’s time to end this!" Heidi's eyes grew profound as he looked at Nanluo, a suggestive smile playing on his lips. "Are you ready?"

"Hmm?" Nanluo, catching the implication in his words, asked calmly, "You know?"

"Of course." Heidi smiled faintly. "My Xuanming Black Serpent Clan also boasts a Primordial Deity. Naturally, I’m aware of it."

"The Will of Pangu, is it not?" Heidi fixed Nanluo with a clear, enigmatic gaze, weighing every word.

At his words, Nanluo's eyes narrowed, his gaze complex as he looked at Heidi, silently marveling at how impenetrable his opponent had become.

"Since you know, why not stop me?" Nanluo suddenly sneered. "Or do you think you can?"

The Waterborne Clarion Spear in Nanluo's hand had transformed into a mighty battle-axe, fashioned after the legendary Axe of Creation.

The battle skill Nanluo was about to unleash was none other than the fabled Three Strikes of Pangu.

With three swings, Pangu had cleaved the heavens, birthing the primordial world. These three blows were revered as the Opening Heavens Triformity.

The Primordial Deities, born at the dawn of creation, had witnessed these strikes and preserved their legacy.

Within the wilds, battle skills were ranked by power: God-Emperor Arts, God-Lord Arts, God-King Arts, Sovereign Arts, and True God Arts.

Today, God-Emperor Arts were hidden from the world; the strongest arts in use were those of the God-Lords.

Yet, the Three Strikes of Pangu was an incomplete technique of the immortal order.

Immortal—what a noble, invincible, and remote word.

Pangu had once fallen just a step short of immortality, only to perish along the way.

Even incomplete, a technique of this level far outstripped the God-Emperor Arts.

Most battle skills depended on the user's own strength. To use a skill beyond one's station spelled certain death.

But the Three Strikes of Pangu, as a fragment of an immortal technique, was a supreme art that could grow with its wielder.

This technique allowed any user to leap a full realm in power, striking down opponents far stronger than themselves.

Most infuriating of all, this matchless art was known only to a select few Primordial Deities, unable to be passed down to outsiders.

From this, one could see why Heidi harbored such resentment toward the Primordial Deities, and why the sentient races hunted them so relentlessly.

The Primordial Deities were, indeed, the most favored, noble, and mighty beings in all the wilds.

Facing the murderous encirclement of Heidi and the God-Kings, Nanluo determined to wield the Three Strikes of Pangu, risking everything in a single blow.

Yet, when Nanluo unleashed the technique, he was shocked to find the blue-glowing axe beyond his control.

The axe had been seized by an omnipresent, sacred, and almighty will: the Will of Pangu.

Fortunately, the Will of Pangu had only been drawn by the technique, unconsciously assisting Nanluo in wielding the blue axe, without malice. Otherwise, Nanluo would have perished in an instant.

With this help, Nanluo perceived the mysteries of heaven and earth, the truths of the laws, with unprecedented clarity.

For a moment, he willingly surrendered control of the axe, letting the Will of Pangu guide it, utterly entranced by the wonders of the cosmos.

Had the formation not collapsed, had Elder Seven not sought his own doom, Nanluo might never have awakened from the profundity of the world’s mysteries.

Unconsciously, the Will of Pangu drew upon the blue axe to absorb vast quantities of spiritual energy, leading at last to the stand-off between the blue moon and the black sun.

How could Heidi fail to sense so holy and great a presence?

Yet, the Will of Pangu that Nanluo summoned far surpassed anything Heidi had imagined.

"I never dreamed of defying the great Will of Pangu," Heidi said calmly, his gaze fixed on Nanluo.

Then, an enigmatic smile curled his lips. "I simply wanted to see how strong you, a Primordial Deity, truly are. And perhaps to introduce you to the denizens of the wilds."

Nanluo’s expression darkened. His divine sense swept the distant, astonished races. Damn it! He’d been played by Heidi.

For a Primordial Deity like Nanluo, the gravest taboo was being exposed before reaching God-Lord status, condemned thereafter to a life on the run.

Though the clans barely escaped the devouring spiritual tide, they paid dearly—many of their strongest had fallen.

Such losses only heightened their curiosity; they would not let the secrets of the formation slip away.

As they looked back at the shattered formation, their fright barely abated, they were once again struck with terror.

"What am I seeing?" the strongest among them blinked in disbelief. "A Primordial Deity! And Elder Heidi of the Xuanming Black Serpents!"

"Well! I underestimated you!" Nanluo praised Heidi with an impassive face, then his expression turned cold as frost. "Then die!"

With a graceful arc, the blue-glowing axe in Nanluo's hand swung at Heidi.

The blue moon suspended in the sky moved in tandem with the axe, cleaving down toward Heidi.

Heidi, his face calm, revealed his true form—a mighty nether serpent—coiling upward to meet the black sun, merging with his Blackwater Serpent Spear, pushing the black sun toward the blue moon.

The blue moon crashed into the black sun.

"Bang!"

In an instant, sun and moon lost all brilliance, mountains crumbled, rivers reversed course, life was extinguished, space itself warped...

A roar split the heavens—a sound ancient, noble, imperious, and invincible.

The blue moon blazed brighter than ever; the black sun faded to near nothingness.

All the distant clans, still watching, heard this sacred sound and, unable to resist, fell trembling to their knees, worshipping the resplendent blue moon above.

"Bang!"

The black sun, shaped by Heidi, was instantly obliterated by the blue moon’s augmented might, shattering into countless motes of black light that slowly faded into nothingness.