Chapter 1422: The Heavenly Being Above Dao Merging

In a shard of divine soul memory, Jiang Ding saw a scene.

The location was right here, in the Ancient Divine Hall, the Ancient Divine Dao sect's Ancient Divine Hall. A dwarf elder with grey-white hair sat at the center of the great hall, strands of hair hanging down, tangled together, long uncared for.

"Wrong, wrong again…"

The Ancient Divine Ancestor muttered to himself.

Hiss hiss~

Hiss hiss hiss~

While he was lost in thought, one after another pitch-black divine soul serpents crept from the palm of the severed arm from another realm, traveling along the Heavenly Dao rules, born as bodies that reflected the rules themselves.

These divine soul serpents burrowed into the Ancient Divine Ancestor's divine soul, gnawing and chewing bit by bit.

Deep within the Ancient Divine Ancestor's divine soul, snake eggs accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years hatched one after another, piercing his divine soul, devouring his body and flesh, swallowing him whole little by little.

This outcome was already destined the moment that Void Refinement cultivator chanced upon the severed arm back then.

Slowly, bit by bit, the Ancient Divine Ancestor was devoured clean—not a single hair, not a fragment of bone remained. Even his Daoist robe was torn apart and chewed piece by piece.

Hiss hiss!

"Son of the Ancient Divine…"

"Great rise…"

Among these swarming divine soul serpents, the sturdiest one, far larger than the rest, hissed and roared.

The hissing sounds, seemingly chaotic, conveyed many clear intentions—an exquisitely crafted language—prompting the surrounding divine soul serpents to hiss in response.

They were expressing their joy.

Hundreds of thousands of years of scheming had finally succeeded. The race had finally used a human race's inherited prodigy as a mother body to hatch once more, and had grown even stronger.

Suddenly!

"Hiss hiss…"

"Ah! No…"

That one divine soul rule serpent, as massive as a star, revealed a look of agony, roared toward the heavens. A ring of divine soul serpents around it fled in panic, not knowing what had happened.

That divine soul rule serpent as massive as a star kept hissing, roaring, struggling, rolling about on the ground.

Puh!

At a certain moment, one of this divine soul rule serpent's huge vertical pupils shattered, and a newborn pupil emerged, carrying a human-like lively air—a certain lively air extremely familiar to these divine soul serpents.

"Shi Zhu…"

"You're not dead yet… impossible…"

The surrounding divine soul serpents panicked into a frenzy, each fleeing on its own.

"Human ants…"

Before they could escape, the pupil of that divine soul rule serpent returned to normal, carrying a sinister, terrifying air: "They're nothing but some reincarnating remnant souls. Come quickly and help me…"

The surrounding divine soul serpents paused mid-step.

"Hehehehe…"

"Maggots born from the arm of the Ancient Divine, and you dare call yourselves Sons of the Ancient Divine?"

"You really thought this old man hadn't noticed you?"

The next moment, this divine soul rule serpent's gaze returned to that lively quality.

"Come help me!"

"…Hehehehe… This old man has prepared too much for this day. The lifespans of living beings are too short, and only those born from the arm of the Ancient Divine make the best vessels for reincarnation…"

"Kill him!"

"…The only pity is that you creatures are too rigid, your divine souls are flawed, not like true living beings…"

"…"

Two voices alternated—one sinister and eerie, the other seizing the nest in reverse, constantly switching, making one's heart grow cold.

The surrounding divine soul serpents hesitated for a long time.

In the end, under the forceful command of their leader, they all pounced, coiling around that star-massive divine soul rule serpent in rings, completing the seal.

Yet even so, from time to time, the aura of the Ancient Divine Ancestor would appear within that divine soul rule serpent.

The two entangled ceaselessly, devouring each other, seizing each other's bodies.

This situation continued for a very, very long time—through the third-generation Ancient Divine Dao Lord and the fourth-generation Ancient Divine Dao Lord. After over a hundred thousand years of fierce battle, the leader of the divine soul rule serpents finally gained the upper hand, beginning to digest the Ancient Divine Ancestor bit by bit and extending its tendrils toward the fourth-generation Ancient Divine Dao Lord.

After countless struggles, especially as the Ancient Divine Ancestor's awakenings grew rapidly fewer, the fourth generation Ancient Divine Dao Lord was defeated. He fled with the sect's Hidden Heaven Pavilion, but on the way was bitten in one gulp by the divine soul rule serpent in the endless night, devoured completely. Only a wisp of remnant soul and his power escaped the Ancient Divine Dao sect's mountain gate.

A violent change occurred within that divine soul rule serpent—a black mist was born, covering the entire Ancient Divine Dao sect's mountain gate, the center of the Ancient Divine Domain surrounded by three Zhong Senior Qian Shi Gao Jie.

The next several hundred thousand years were utterly uneventful.

This wisp of remnant soul—or rather, the descendant bred by that divine soul rule serpent within the remnant soul of the Ancient Divine Dao's fourth generation Lord—had been waiting all along for his father to appear and rescue him from the Hidden Heaven Pavilion.

Yet hundreds of thousands of years passed, and nothing happened.

This wisp of remnant soul fell into slumber, until today, when it was startled awake by an outside living being.

……

Jiang Ding gently closed his eyes, digesting the information he had obtained.

In his heart, he could not calm down for a long time.

"Finally,"

"The thing we feared most has still happened. Fate did not favor us, and we were not lucky."

Jiang Ding raised his head, looking into the distance—the direction of the Ancient Divine Dao's former mountain gate: "An existence above Dao Merging, no

?? even surpassing the strength of an ordinary Heavenly Being—a being formed from the fusion of that Son of the Ancient Divine and the Ancient Divine Ancestor."

"Hundreds of thousands of years have passed—has their devouring and entanglement reached a victor?"

"Once either side determines a victor, when the winner opens their eyes, the entire Ancient God Domain will welcome its true master."

"All the factions that contended in the meantime, the heroes and champions, the sacrifices and battles worthy of song—all of it will become a joke."

"It's like a few colonies of ants, during the period when the courtyard's master sleeps late, arrogantly proclaiming themselves the masters of the courtyard and fighting over ownership of the yard—utterly laughable."

The moment Jiang Ding thought of this, his heart turned somewhat cold and dispirited.

The Nine Great Immortal Sects of the Nine Spirit Domain, the Nine Great Immortal Sects of the Ancient God Domain, the Demon God Sect, the Myriad Races Alliance—these powers that styled themselves overlords of realms, what were they contending for?

In that instant, the heavens seemed to collapse.

No ray of hope shone down; the world sank into a stretch of pitch-black darkness.

An unknown length of time passed.

Clang!

Accompanying a clear ring of a sword, all the tangled thoughts were smoothed away; the sword-heart became like a mirror's surface.

"Far too pessimistic."

"Even a being like the Ancient God Ancestor rose from weakness; he was not born powerful. So what do I have to despair over?"

Jiang Ding thought calmly.

"Now, since it's confirmed that a being above He Dao exists in the Ancient God Domain, that's all for the better."

"No more needless worries and gains."

"If it has already awakened, then I and the Immortal Sect walk into annihilation."

"If it has not awakened, entangled by certain matters, then the contest between the Ancient God Ancestor and the Son of the Ancient God has not yet been fully decided."

"Then, this is the chance for the Immortal Sect and for me!"

"Then,"

Killing intent surfaced in Jiang Ding's eyes: "The contest over the Ancient God Domain must be accelerated! Accelerated, accelerated, and accelerated again!"

Clang!

In that instant, the avatar that was together with the Dao Sons of the Badaxian Sect—An Tuzi and others—drew its sword, fully unleashing the radiance of the Materialist Sun Sword Soul, fully revealing the strength approaching that of the Dao Sons of the upper-realm Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong.

In the Immortal Sect's General Staff's Operation Plan No. 1132, a situation like this carries a probability of over ninety percent of causing the great powers of the Baweixian Sect to lose their reason, violate the pact, and launch an attack on the Immortal Sect, falling from the outset into a tremendous strategic disadvantage.

This is the shadow from their childhood, the shadow Zou Zou Xiyuan cast upon them—a shadow that lasted for tens of thousands of years and ran through their entire lives.

If one does not consider the being above He Dao, from beginning to end, the Badaxian Sect has always been the Immortal Sect's foremost enemy!