Chapter 195: The Time Is Ripe

Strange phenomena sprout throughout the Vast Wilderness World; to claim there is no hidden mystery would be to deny Zhou Yi's lingering doubts, and any being whose Spiritual Intelligence has just awakened finds it hard to be convinced.

All the great powers of the age know that if this upheaval is not a manifestation of the Dao Ancestor's saintly revelation, it must be the embodiment of the Heavenly Dao's will.

At this point, the fated clash between the Wu Clan and the Demon Race finally reaches a boiling point; the celestial board is already set, awaiting both sides to take the pieces and play.

Within this vast expanse, the ferocity of the Great Calamity forces all heavenly deities to keep their distance, and even a saint who has attained the Primordial Unity is unwilling to tread lightly.

Thinking back to the future Investiture of the Gods calamity, the saints entered the fray themselves, and their ultimate fates have long been recorded in the heavenly records.

Zhou Yi gazes at the sky's anomalies, having already plotted a foothold for the Human Race in his mind, waiting patiently for this grand celestial drama to unfold.

Ten blazing orbs hang high in the heavens, their dazzling light forcing the myriad spirits of the Vast Wilderness World to take notice, and thunderous roars echo from within the Hou Tu Ancestor Shaman's hall.

The Wu Clan youths forged from Pangu's pure blood have always been at odds with the forces of the Demon Court, like water and fire.

Ordinary beings may not recognize the secret of these ten celestial orbs, but the war generals under the Twelve Ancestral Witches know it all too well; it is the manifestation of the bloodline of the Demon Emperor Di Qun.

"The ragged offspring of Emperor Di Qun dares to trample the ancestral lands!" Xingtian brandishes his weapon and roars to the heavens, his battle intent solidifying. Before the Ancestor Shaman's command, the leader of the Sun‑chasing division has already shattered mountains and surged skyward, his bronze‑colored skin shimmering with Honghuang runes under the scorching sun.

Although the Three‑Clawed Crow Prince has not obtained the Demon Emperor's true transmission, can a lineage descended from the three‑clawed crow be considered ordinary?

Ten figures dart through the sea of clouds; the youngest still lingers at the threshold of true immortality, while the leader has already condensed a Great Luo Dao Fruit.

Sensing the surging qi‑blood power behind them, the princes are not alarmed but delighted, their feathered wings flaring and stirring up scorching heavenly flames.

"Even the petty scum of the Demon Court dare to act violently!" Kuafu's voice shakes the nine heavens, his serpentine muscles erupting with earth‑shaking might.

Confronted with the sun's blazing fire that incinerates the eight wildernesses, this Sun‑chasing Great Witch boldly challenges the heavens with his mortal body; where his palm wind passes, the sea of fire splits in two, revealing ten stunned golden silhouettes.

The Three‑Clawed Crow Prince swiftly flutters his plumage, his true fire turning into a sky‑caging prison. Kuafu, however, walks as if strolling in a courtyard, each step leaving behind phantom mountains and rivers, and his peach‑wood staff summons countless doctrines.

A cataclysmic duel with the Demon Emperor's bloodline erupts. The clash of two primordial Honghuang forces shakes the celestial constellations, causing them to shift.

Where the heavens tear, ten golden flames burst through the clouds; the Great Witch Kuafu, barefoot, shatters the mountain ranges, his massive dark‑iron palm unleashing a wind‑and‑thunder force.

The true fire of the sun whirls like a red serpent; each time it vanishes it falls from the nine heavens as a fiery waterfall, scorching the vast sea of clouds into a glazed crystal hue.

This giant forged from Pangu's pure blood walks as if shaking mountains, yet the Three‑Clawed Crow's rainbow‑forming art has reached its pinnacle, and ten streams of fire weave a celestial net of flame amid the clouds.

The battle resembles a mysterious turtle bearing a mountain while chasing drifting fireflies; the Three‑Clawed Crow princes move as nimble light traces through the clouds, each time Kuafu's massive palm approaches they turn into rainbows and flee.

A rain of fire meteors, laced with mocking cries, brands scorching marks upon the giant's serpentine flesh.

Were they ordinary cultivators, they would have fled by now, but the Wu Clan's bloodline bears a war spirit; Kuafu's bronze‑hued pupils flare with blood, and with his mortal body he shatters three spirit peaks, vowing to seize the heavens' fire seed in his palm.

A seven‑day, seven‑night chase reshapes the Honghuang terrain; Kuafu's skin, like dark armor, cracks open with magma‑like fissures, each wound erupting with sun fire.

When the towering body crashes down with a roar, a clear, mocking laugh echoes from the clouds: "So‑called Wu Clan, nothing but stubborn stone!"

Ten golden flames of the Three‑Clawed Crows hover in the air forming a formation, fire rain pours down like a deluge, turning the thousand‑mile fertile plains into a crimson crystal desert.

This fiery banquet ultimately breaches the Wu Clan's taboo. At the summit of Mount Buzhou, Yi Yi removes the mystic ice silkworm veil from his eyes, and the thunder‑shaking bow in his hand breathes Chaos.

The arrow god who once shot down the moon of the Nine‑dark Netherworld now turns his gaze toward the Sun's offspring ravaging the heavens. Dark‑iron arrowheads swirl with the aura of the Twelve Celestial Deities, and the instant the bowstring trembles, the spiritual energy of the entire Honghuang continent solidifies.

The Three‑Clawed Crows are still toying with the living amid the scorched earth, unaware of the murderous intent lurking deep within the clouds.

Yi Yi, barefoot, shatters the void; each step causes stars to flicker, and when he draws the bowstring for the ninth time, a mournful wail of a collapsing law reverberates through heaven and earth.

This calamity, which began as mockery, will ultimately reshape the Honghuang order with blood and fire.

The legend of the Wu Clan's war god Yi Yi reverberates across the Honghuang lands. This giant clad in dark armor not only possesses a physique that can shake mountains, but also wields the sun‑piercing divine archery technique.

When his close friend Kuafu perished from exhaustion while chasing the blazing sun, Yi Yi's sunset bow silently locked onto the heavens.

The ten golden flames of the Three‑Clawed Crows continue to spread fiery devastation indiscriminately, unaware that their names have already been marked in the book of life and death with vermilion ink.

At the instant the bowstring trembles, the arrow that pierces the sky locks onto its target; a crimson flame erupts in the sky, and the first Three‑Clawed Crow, like a falling fire meteor, crashes toward the foothills of Mount Buzhou.

Only then do the remaining Three‑Clawed Crows realize and beat their wings, the true sun fire bursting from their feathers burning the sea of clouds to a scarlet hue.

"Seventh brother!" the smallest Three‑Clawed Crow cries out mournfully, watching helplessly as eight dark‑iron arrows pierce the protective golden flames of his elder brothers.

These divine birds, capable of burning rivers and boiling seas, now tumble like paper kites whose strings have been cut.

When Yi Yi's ninth arrow pierces the wings of the eight princes, the void suddenly resounds with the booming of the Chaos Bell.

"You impudent brat!" Within the shattered rift, Demon Emperor Di Qun descends amid flaming waves, and the sound waves generated by the Taiyi Bell behind him grind the final arrow into powder.

The supreme of the Demon Race, eyes bulging with rage, watches nine offspring skeletons blaze across the Honghuang earth, then raises his hand to summon a thousand‑foot flame dragon forged from his own true fire.

Yi Yi's beast‑skin battle armor cracks inch by inch under the quasi‑saintly pressure, yet he stubbornly draws the bowstring.

Just as the true sun fire is about to devour this Great Witch, eleven mountain‑sized figures tear through the spatial barrier; the Ancestor Shaman, shrouded in foul aura, crushes the void, and the heavy halberd of Yu Qiang held by Gong Gong collides with Emperor Di Qun's solar wheel with a thunderous crash.

This fated duel that reshapes the Honghuang order ends with the colossal crash of Mount Buzhou's collapse, heralding the prelude to the final chapter of the Wu‑Demon Great Calamity.

And the Three‑Clawed Crow Prince who narrowly escaped will, during the Investiture of the Gods war, end this karmic thread with a soul‑cutting flying dagger.

The Wu‑Demon war escalates fully as the nine fallen Three‑Clawed Crow Princes trigger a comprehensive upgrade.

At this moment, eleven of the Twelve Ancestral Witches unite to oppose the Demon Race's two emperors, Taiyi Shen and Demon Emperor Di Qun.

Although individually the Ancestor Shamans are slightly weaker, the combined might of eleven is enough to shake heaven and earth.

This quasi‑saintly duel rends the Honghuang world, causing the earth to split and the heavens to collapse, with space trembling violently.

The previously balanced stalemate was shattered by two major variables: the Wu Clan, because the Hou Tu Ancestor Shaman's reincarnation left the Great Array of the Twelve Celestial Deity Evils incomplete, and the Demon Race, because the Great Peng Bird, the demon master's flesh, was destroyed and its vital essence gravely wounded—an outcome caused by Zhou Yi's earlier severe strike against the Great Peng Bird.

As each side gains while the other loses, the battle once again stalls in a stalemate, and the slaughter grows ever more brutal.

"The time is ripe," Zhou Yi murmurs, gazing at the battlefield. In truth, he could have broken through his realm long ago, but he worries that the celestial anomalies triggered by such a breakthrough would reveal his whereabouts.