Heaven Slaying Blade

Rumble! Rumble!

The newly formed divine essence suddenly collapsed directly within Chu Mo's sea of divine consciousness!

Shattered into countless fragments!

Each fragment carried with it the force of world-ending destruction. Each fragment roared madly in fury!

It was as though they were screaming, as though they were in disbelief that someone in this world would dare reject the will of the gods! That someone actually did so!

Countless fragments of the divine essence merged into Chu Mo's sea of divine consciousness, impossible to completely eliminate.

But the beheading path still frantically slashed at those divine fragments!

Chu Mo was heavily injured, yet strangely enough, not only was his cultivation realm unaffected, it actually advanced!

How bizarre!

Without having the time to think further, Chu Mo pointed the Heaven Slaying Blade at Patriarch Jiu Lie.

"Fate?"

Chu Mo's voice was ice-cold to the extreme: "Your fate… is death!"

With that, he swung his blade.

Patriarch Jiu Lie, already possessing divine power, couldn't have dreamt that Chu Mo had shattered his own divine essence. Even less could he have imagined that Chu Mo would still make a move against him.

So, he was completely unprepared!

Nor could he prepare!

He thought there was no need to prepare!

He had become a god!

He was immortal, indestructible!

He had transcended the Three Realms and escaped the Five Elements!

How could he die?

And then, he died.

His head was split open by Chu Mo's blade. The razor-sharp edge of the Heaven Slaying Blade landed squarely on Jiu Lie's divine essence. With a single strike, the divine essence was cleaved in two and immediately shattered. Jiu Lie's head was blown apart into a bloody mess.

His body was also split in half by Chu Mo's blade.

Body destroyed, path extinguished, divine form annihilated!

Who knows if Jiu Lie was the first god to perish on this ancient battlefield, but Chu Mo's strike... was truly world-shaking.

When the Monkey and the others arrived on the scene, they caught sight of this exact moment.

Everyone was stunned, even though they had already condensed their divine essence and become true gods!

Yet, Chu Mo's ferocity still frightened them.

The Monkey murmured in shock, "The world calls me a rambunctious ape—fearless of heaven and earth, with nothing and no one to dread. But truth be told... I do have fears. This kid… he's the one who's truly fearless!"

The six Great Saints arrived a bit later, but they too were thunderstruck.

Sky Patriarch's mouth twitched violently. Suddenly, he exclaimed, "Daoist Chu Mo… You've stirred up great trouble. You… You are no longer listed on the Investiture of the Gods!"

"No, he was already off the Investiture of the Gods before slaying a god," Luo Lan murmured softly, her gaze toward Chu Mo filled with disbelief.

She couldn't understand why this had happened, but she could guess that it was most likely because Chu Mo had refused the divine essence!

Otherwise, why would Chu Mo alone be the exception on the entire Investiture of the Gods? There was no reason for the Investiture to exclude Chu Mo!

Qianqiu speculated, "Could it be that Daoist Chu Mo violated the cosmic laws by attacking a god?"

Qing Gu shook his head: "He must have refused it himself."

The rotund Xuanxuan remained silent, observing Chu Mo with furrowed brows, his internal thoughts in turmoil. He didn't believe that the exclusion was due to Chu Mo attacking a god, leading to disqualification from godhood. Instead, he leaned toward Qing Gu's theory—that Chu Mo himself had rejected it!

But why would he refuse?

On the golden list spanning the ancient battlefield, only forty-eight names remained.

Both Jiu Lie and Chu Mo's names vanished entirely from it.

At that moment, Chu Mo suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood with a loud "wa" sound, yet his aura surged noticeably again.

His cultivation level had vaulted from early ancestral realm to mid-ancestral realm!

This scene stunned the onlookers once more.

Then something even stranger occurred!

The two halves of Jiu Lie's divine essence, split apart by Chu Mo's blade, flew toward Chu Mo.

Those two halves seemed to emit Jiu Lie's frenzied roar: "I am a god… you dare slay me?"

Chu Mo remained expressionless as he raised his blade once more.

The two halves of divine essence were instantly slashed into four pieces.

Then, Chu Mo unleashed thousands upon thousands of strikes!

Though visually it appeared to be just a single strike, everyone present—now gods themselves—could see clearly. Chu Mo had, in that moment, swung his blade tens of thousands of times, pulverizing Jiu Lie's divine essence into innumerable fragments!

A vast aura erupted from Chu Mo's body, an aura brimming with uncontained destruction. It didn't obliterate life but rather annihilated cultivation!

The new gods, including the Monkey, couldn't help but retreat far away, looking at Chu Mo with faces full of shock.

Under the power of that aura, Jiu Lie's shattered divine essence instantly dissipated entirely… to the last fragment.

Then, Chu Mo's cultivation level rose once more. Though the increase wasn't as significant as the previous advancement, his aura surged notably once again.

"What… what is going on?"

"This is too astonishing!"

"Does slaying gods… allow one to plunder their divine essence?"

The crowd exchanged glances, unconsciously keeping a safe distance from each other.

If this were true, it would be utterly terrifying!

To be fair, the Cultivation Realm had always had instances of killing others to seize their dao fruits. But these were exceedingly rare. A living being's dao fruit, cultivated over an entire lifetime, was not so easily stolen.

Moreover, even ancestral realm giants would face enormous karmic repercussions for forcibly plundering another's dao fruit!

Yet Chu Mo's changes were observed by all.

Even Chu Mo himself felt bewildered. He didn't sense that he had plundered Jiu Lie's dao fruit; no trace of Jiu Lie's karma lingered on him.

Jiu Lie had perished utterly—there was nothing left, not even a shred of his path or divine form.

Looking at the Monkey and the other six Great Saints, Chu Mo saw only concern and worry in their eyes. From the others, however, he saw a mix of complicated emotions, including the caution emanating from Sky Patriarch and the other five giants.

Just then, the golden list hanging high above the heavens suddenly trembled, followed by an overwhelming force descending upon the battlefield.

Sky Patriarch and the others, the Monkey and his companions, even all the other surviving beings on the ancient battlefield, were swept into the true golden list.

The Monkey shouted at Chu Mo: "Brother… Take care!"

Brother!

Yes, at this moment, the Monkey finally considered Chu Mo his true brother.

The Monkey was deeply concerned about Chu Mo's future.

But time was pressing, leaving no chance for further questions.

The overwhelming force seemed to deliberately avoid Chu Mo. After absorbing all forty-eight beings into the golden list, the list instantly vanished without a trace!

The seal on this ancient battlefield was completely broken at that moment.

Chu Mo stood at the very core of its depths.

Here, besides him, there was only Jiu Lie's bifurcated divine corpse, radiating an incomparably fierce killing intent. This intent, if touched, would gravely injure even giants!

For it was the authentic killing intent of a god!

But this killing intent posed no threat to Chu Mo. It seemed almost akin to the power descending from the golden list earlier—intentionally bypassing him.

As if he didn't exist!

Thus, Chu Mo stood firmly amidst it all.

At that moment, a weak voice emerged from the Divine Mirror of the Heavens: "Well done!"

After delivering this comment, the Divine Mirror of the Heavens fell directly into slumber. Chu Mo could sense that it had significantly overexerted itself this time, to the point that even the Divine Mirror's inner world had been affected. Fortunately, it could still function properly.

Just then, a portal suddenly appeared before Chu Mo.

The portal was composed of two ancient bluestone doors, weathered by untold eras. The doors bore carvings that had eroded and blurred over time. These carvings were incredibly simplistic, even crude, appearing almost as though they had been etched by a child. To any observer, these doors would seem devoid of any aura of the Great Dao.

Yet Chu Mo felt a deep pang in his heart, fixating intently on the twin bluestone doors. From them, he sensed pure sincerity, fervent passion, and a sovereign authority that acknowledged no equal!

The creator of these bluestone doors must have been a peerless figure of unmatched greatness!

Chu Mo's heart was profoundly shaken.

Truly shaken.

At this moment, the two bluestone doors opened noiselessly, releasing a wave of ancient energy that instantly enveloped him.

Inside lay a field of Chaos where nothing could be seen.

Chu Mo hesitated for a moment, then gripped the Heaven Slaying Blade and strode forward.

Upon entering, he found himself still engulfed in a realm of Chaos, devoid of anything tangible.

Looking back, he realized the twin bluestone doors had vanished, as if they had never existed.

Chu Mo took a deep breath; he would adapt to what lay ahead. If he were to let fear sway him, he wouldn't have been worthy of entering the ancient battlefield in the first place.

With determination, he set off into the unknown depths.

This journey lasted years…

...…

The Tunnel World.

A boundless domain of mystery and wonder.

It was inhabited by legions of mighty and terrifying cultivators, with even the ordinary adults among them capable of unleashing world-destroying power.

However, this power could only manifest fully in worlds outside the Tunnel World.

Within the Tunnel World itself, even ancestral realm cultivators found themselves bound by its law—a law strong enough to leave any newcomer bewildered!

In their native universe and void, they could traverse tens of billions of miles in a single step, fold the void at will, and reign as absolute masters!

But here, these feats were impossible!

An ancestral giant managing a stride of mere millions of miles was already considered exceptional.

Toppling entire domains with a single palm strike? Out of the question.

The mountains and rivers of this world, according to its ancient inhabitants, were incredibly "real!"

Every mountain here was fortified by divine energy. Even an ancestral realm cultivator would struggle to crush one with a single blow.

Hence, battles in the Tunnel World inflicted minimal destruction upon the land.

Unlike other universes, where a Great Saint cultivator could sink entire continents, here such a figure would have to exert themselves to shatter a single boulder!

This doesn't make the Tunnel World a low-tier realm. On the contrary, its level of existence is far beyond anything ordinary beings could imagine!

Because it demands such laws.

Without them, the world would have long since collapsed!