Chapter Seventy-Two: The Ferocious Beast Clan (Part Two)

Rumble!
Billions of miles of blood-red fiendish clouds suddenly churned, rising and falling like tides of a blood sea. Thunder of blood exploded in the sky, echoing across the land of the Western Wilds.
The moment a crystal-clear pillar of blood-red light soared to the heavens, the endless fiendish clouds above the Western Desert shifted, transforming into a blood god beast a million fathoms tall.
This blood god beast, resembling Pangu, was a primordial embodiment of the Dao. Its blood hair fell in thick sheets, tens of thousands of feet long; its eyes blazed like twin suns; blood-red scales armored its body, and its blood-drenched hands spanned hundreds of thousands of feet. Forty wings, each stretching for tens of thousands of feet, unfurled from its back. Standing atop the clouds, it exuded a presence like the mightiest fiendish beast between heaven and earth, emanating an invincible aura capable of suppressing the world and sweeping through the primeval wilderness.
“Fierce!”
With a sky-shaking roar, the blood god beast threw back its head and howled, the fiendish clouds swirling around it surging outward like a tidal wave, filling the sky of the Western Wilds.
“Fierce! Fierce! Fierce!”
The army of billions of fiend beasts, upon hearing the blood god beast’s roar, seemed to receive some unspoken command. Each raised its head and roared in fury.
Yet despite the deafening fury of billions, the army did not descend into chaos. Their cries were disciplined, as if they were a well-trained legion, or the thunderous tsunami of a blood ocean shaking the heavens and earth.

Hall of the Gods.
Nanluo sat high upon the Throne of the Myriad Gods, the twelve other divine lords arrayed in neat order on either side below, their ranks clearly distinguished.
The primeval stone tiles of the Hall of the Gods glowed with seven-colored divine light at Nanluo’s command, projecting the vision of the Western Wilds.
The assembled gods watched the image of the roaring army of fiend beasts, each frowning slightly, clearly shaken by the might and discipline of these fiends.
A single roar, and billions of beasts obeyed!
When had such a supreme being arisen among the fiend beasts?
When had their armies become so disciplined and terrifying?

“Your Majesty, who is this blood god beast?”
Lord Miaoyan, turning to Nanluo, asked with respect.
The title “Your Majesty” was once reserved only for the God Emperor.
Yet as patriarch of the divine race, Nanluo stood above all other divine lords, and so, to honor the hierarchy, the gods called him “Your Majesty.”
In their eyes, Nanluo had already reached the realm of High God Lord, destined by fate to eventually ascend as God Emperor. Calling him Emperor a little early was no great offense.
Indeed, Nanluo was now a High God Lord!
His speed of cultivation could be called unprecedented in the history of the primeval world.
No one could say if there would be another like him, but there certainly had never been one before.
When Nanluo crossed the Gate of Heavenly Dimension at Buzhou Mountain and became a God Lord, his power rivaled a Middle God Lord, though his cultivation was only of the Lower God Lord rank.
However, after founding the divine race and basking in its endless fortune, he swiftly broke through to Middle God Lord, skipping over a million years of bitter cultivation.
Even then, his heaven-defying speed did not slow.
The primordial treasure, the Hall of the Gods, was once the core of the Gate of Heavenly Dimension—a grand formation connecting countless laws of the heavens and earth, forming a barrier severing heaven and earth.
Through endless ages, the Hall absorbed boundless power from these laws.
Now, with the Gate of Heavenly Dimension shattered and Nanluo as master of the Hall, he alone absorbed the majority of this power.
Bathed in the endless might of the laws, Nanluo advanced once more, becoming a High God Lord, now rivaling such supreme beings as the Ancestral Dragon and Phoenix Mother!

Nanluo gazed at the blood god beast upon the vision, recalling the information he had seen within the Gate of Heavenly Dimension. He spoke coldly: “Fiend Emperor, Fierce Slayer of Heaven!”
The Gate of Heavenly Dimension not only barred God Kings from becoming God Lords, but also collected the information of countless God Lord–level beings.
The Fiend Emperor, Fierce Slayer of Heaven, had once challenged the Gate and become a Fiend Lord, and so his information had been gathered as well.
As the core of the Gate, the Hall of the Gods preserved these priceless records.
Now, as its master, Nanluo naturally learned all these secrets.
Truly, the Gate of Heavenly Dimension—this grand formation centered on the Hall of the Gods—was an exquisite design.
Its existence had hindered the rapid rise of all races, giving the upstart divine race a chance to catch up.
And if any wished to break the gate, they had to protect the divine race until Nanluo, their patriarch, seized the Hall and shattered the gate himself.
With the Hall in their hands, would Nanluo and the divine race still fear the older, stronger races suffocating them in their infancy?

“Fiend Emperor, Fierce Slayer of Heaven?!”
The twelve divine lords turned their astonished gazes to the vision of the blood god beast, exclaiming in disbelief.
Fiend Emperor—the emperor of the fiend race!
At last, the gods understood why Nanluo had urged them to observe the fiend beasts so carefully.
With the birth of a Fiend Emperor, the fiends would shed their ignorance, awaken wisdom, and become a race of intellect.
Given their overwhelming numbers, once the fiends gained sentience, it would spell an unprecedented catastrophe for all other races of the primordial world!

The blood god beast, a million fathoms tall, its blood-red eyes blazing like suns, swept its gaze across the world, looking upon the billions kneeling at its feet. It stretched forth its colossal hands like blood-drenched clouds covering the land, signaling the army to quiet.
“Fierce!”
Its roar grew softer, until it was barely audible.
The army, having awakened wisdom, immediately understood the command and fell silent.
From the greatest fiend lords to the lowest fiend soldiers, all gazed upon the blood god beast with reverence.
All fiend beasts knew that the Fiend Emperor’s true form was this invincible blood god beast.
Every creature that met its gaze felt their eyes flush crimson, their bodies fill with blood, their bearing grow even more formidable and murderous, as if they had devoured the blood essence of a million beings, exultant and unable to contain themselves.

“Heaven and earth are heartless, regarding all things as mere straw dogs.”
The blood god beast’s eyes swept all realms, coldly glancing at every hidden watcher, then let out this profound truth in a thunderous roar.
At these words, all the myriad races of the primordial world shuddered in their souls and fell silent.

Dragon Palace.
“Well said! Such wisdom!”
The Ancestral Dragon watched the blood god beast in the Dragon Mirror, eyes blazing gold, and clapped his hands in praise.

Hall of the Gods.
The assembled gods were similarly stirred, faces solemn and deep in thought.
“What a phrase—heaven and earth are heartless, regarding all as straw dogs. What a Fiend Emperor, Fierce Slayer of Heaven!”
Nanluo, too, was shaken by this profound truth, and voiced his admiration.

In truth, Nanluo was even more astonished that this timeless axiom, passed down through generations, had originated with Fierce Slayer of Heaven.
It made sense; fiend beasts, despised by heaven and earth, denied wisdom and driven only to slaughter, were doomed to extinction.
Heaven and earth are heartless, regarding all as straw dogs.
In the eyes of heaven, the fiends were naught but straw dogs!

On Jade Capital Mountain, an elder in purple and another in blue played chess.
“What grand ambition. What a pity,”
murmured the blue-robed elder, his dark eyes briefly lighting with a strange gleam as he heard Fierce Slayer’s words.
For an instant, the entire mountain was swept with blue and became a world of azure.
But as quickly as it appeared, the blue faded, and the mountain returned to its original state, shrouded in violet mist.
“Alas, the fiend beasts are doomed. Fierce Slayer of Heaven will surely die.”
The purple-robed elder opened his dark eyes, calmly finishing the words his companion left unsaid.
“Hongjun, my friend, the piece you’ve placed on the board seems a bit too powerful,”
the blue-robed elder said with a faint smile, gesturing toward the towering blood god beast.
“He is but a half-emperor. Besides, he cannot leave the Western Wilds. There is no need for concern, Yangmei,”
replied the purple-robed elder, utterly untroubled by the prospect of Fierce Slayer escaping his control.

“Though we fiend beasts were born of heaven and earth, we are despised by it. Though strong, we are denied wisdom. Though able to dominate the world, we are slaughtered by all other races!”
The blood god beast glared at the heavens, its blood-red eyes wide, suppressing boundless rage as it spoke each word with force.
As the billions in the fiend beast army listened to these furious words, their newly awakened minds seethed with fury; they panted, striving to contain their wrath.
“I, Fierce Slayer of Heaven, refuse to submit!”
The blood god beast bellowed in defiance, its form ablaze with fiendish fire, like a god or demon of flame.
“Refuse! Refuse! Refuse!”
The army of billions responded with a chorus of wrath, their cries swelling ever louder, as if to shatter heaven and earth and burn all things, venting the rage in their hearts.
“To save the fiend beasts of the primordial world, to break free from extinction, today I, Fierce Slayer of Heaven, hereby found the fiend beast tribe and proclaim myself Fiend Emperor.
If heaven blocks my way, I will destroy heaven.
If earth stops me, I will destroy earth.
If all beings oppose me, I will destroy all beings!”
The blood god beast, a million fathoms tall, its eyes blazing like suns, opened its maw and silenced the army’s roar, pointing skyward, earthward, and at all beings as it proclaimed its founding declaration.
“Fiend beasts are invincible!”
The blood god beast spread its arms, glared up at the firmament, and let out its mightiest roar.
“Fiend beasts are invincible! Fiend beasts are invincible! Fiend beasts are invincible!”
From the Western Desert to the farthest reaches of the Western Wilds, fiends by the billions howled to the heavens, venting their boundless fury.
The Western Wilds boiled with chaos; the fiend beast race had gone mad!