Chapter 388: The Hangu Pass Opens

This scene left the immortal demons and divine demons horrified.

The daughter of the Yellow Emperor, the name of the Drought God, was far more terrifying than imagined; what she dried was not merely heaven, earth, and all things—they faintly sensed a Dao within it.

This Dao was longevity, life and death.

Even lifespan was being dried up.

Watching the slender fingers of Nü Ba, five fingers wreathed in the withering aura that made all gods tremble, she gently extended her palm.

Lightly.

As if merely reaching out a hand.

Yet in the next instant, all things withered, all spirits rotted.

The immortal demons and divine demons felt their hair stand on end; ordinary humans could not comprehend why all things and spirits died—they might merely assume Nü Ba's aura was overwhelmingly fierce, brimming with deathly energy, causing all things and spirits to collapse and perish outright.

But that was not the case.

They saw clearly: all things and spirits were being siphoned—longevity, essence, vitality—all drawn away, or rather, dried up, as if longevity were water, evaporated by a terrible drought.

How could this be a female immortal?

She was plainly a monstrous, terrifying deity.

"Amitabha."

A resonant Buddhist chant echoed, vast and majestic, filling the four corners of heaven and earth, as if coming from the distant Western Pure Land of Buddha, where the Buddhist gate stood wide open, good and evil all received retribution, and hell itself lay empty.

Or as if rising from this very world, spreading through the Thirty-three tiers of heaven, echoing along the Yellow Springs and the Wheel of Rebirth.

Indra rode upon a white elephant, hands clasped, his countenance solemn and majestic, behind him ninety-nine Buddha rings, then countless billions merging into one, forming a single great Buddha-ring sun.

He was a true Buddha, ranked among the principal deities of Western Buddhism.

Buddha light spilled forth, illuminating the heavens, seeking to engulf this ancient Babylonian mythic realm.

Within the realm, blades of grass turned emerald, dripping with life, as if gilded, coated in boundless divine radiance; ordinary grass at this moment was no longer ordinary, becoming immortal herbs, ready to attain Dao and ascend to heaven right where they stood, transformed and purified.

The earth turned lush green, a hundred flowers bloomed in competition, this beautiful ancient Babylonian mythic realm stained with gold.

When the wind blew, the emerald grasslands rippled like a golden Wang Yang.

Swaying, they emitted faint traces of Buddhist nature, supremely ethereal.

If Nü Ba's withering of a world was cruel, then Indra's move was ferocious.

He intended to transform this entire ancient Babylonian mythic realm into a Buddhist Pure Land, purifying this world.

Crack!

Suddenly.

The boundless divine radiance that had been illuminating the ancient Babylonian mythic realm, seeking to transform it, shattered like thin golden mirrors.

A deity emerged from the ancient Babylonian mythic realm.

He was like a bright moon, granting light to the world in dark night, piercing through all heavens and Shanhe, as if ready to illuminate the river of time itself.

Not a single word was spoken.

This deity faced Indra directly, confronting the one on the verge of ascending to the Supreme Realm, without fear.

"Father, you should have remained in seclusion until you broke through to the Supreme Realm."

Shamash gazed at this deity, startled by his appearance—and unwilling for him to appear.

Father?

Immediately, historians understood.

"The father of the ancient Babylonian sun god Shamash—that is the moon god Sin, known as the 'Man of Heaven'!"

The world realized, turning to look at the deity who stepped forward.

His bearing was noble, his beard long, crowned with a crescent moon diadem.

No wonder he dared stand firm against Indra, who was about to reach the Supreme Realm—he was Shamash's father, a deity older than Shamash himself.

He was even more terrifying than Indra; Indra would soon attempt to reach the Supreme Realm, while Sin had already begun his ascent—he had gone further along the path to the highest realm than Indra.

"Seclusion? In this state, how could I possibly remain in seclusion?"

The moon god Sin shook his head, his body radiating gentle moonlight that completely blocked Indra's boundless divine radiance.

All the gods fell silent.

With Sin's emergence, it was as if beacon fires had been lit, alarm bells rung, and a fuse ignited.

People were horrified.

The divine demons and immortal demons were terrified.

They had all seen it.

The Initial Realm.

Vast and boundless, as if heaven and earth had no end, the earth no boundary, endless and infinite, stretching beyond measure.

In the eastern direction of the Initial Realm, waves of aura surged like fish leaping through the Dragon Gate, piercing the eastern heavens of the Initial Realm, surging through the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.

Each aura was terrifying, devoid of any sense of lifespan—they all knew these were beings who had transcended life and death, immortal.

Some of these auras were even equal to those of Indra and Sin.

Not only in the east of the Initial Realm, but in all directions—ancient Indian mythology, ancient Egyptian mythology—all four mythologies had auras surging skyward, causing great commotion.

Ancient Greek mythology, Norse mythology, and other powerful mythologies also saw ancient divine demons emerge.

Clearly.

They had sensed the upheaval in the ancient Babylonian mythic realm.

The Initial Realm trembled.

Not merely one part of the Initial Realm, but the entire Initial Realm.

At the very instant the gods emerged.

A vast, raging river, its origin unseen and its end invisible, surged forth and poured into the Initial Realm.

It was this river that triggered the boundless turmoil of the Initial Realm.

The River of Ages!!

Takahashi's supervisors froze in expression.

Then the River of Ages surged forward, its torrents racing from upstream to downstream, until the waters halted before an ancient imperial pass.

The swift, turbulent River of Ages was blocked by this ancient, weathered imperial pass, prevented from flowing further downstream.

The imperial pass was immense, built from world-sized stones as foundations, so vast that even the immortal were awed, and the River of Ages could not break it.

"Hangu Pass."

The divine demons' teeth chattered; even without close inspection, merely seeing it halt the River of Ages, such a mighty pass could be none other than Hangu Pass.

Boom—

It was as if gears forged from time itself turned—one revolution transformed sea into mulberry fields, one revolution swept away the flow of time.

It was also like bronze gears turning, clanking and dull, heavy as Rushan.

Slowly opened…

The dust-sealed gates of Hangu Pass.

There stood a figure too majestic to be described.

Simply standing there, he was taller than heaven, grander than earth, the embodiment of all ten thousand Dao— as if he were heaven and earth, as if he were the ten thousand Dao, as if he could represent time, heaven and earth, and all things!

"It's him!"

Takahashi's supervisors couldn't help crying out.

This indescribably majestic figure was not the first time they had seen him—they had seen him before…

He was the mysterious figure who, after entering the ancient Babylonian mythic realm, soon emerged from it and stepped into the River of Ages before Hangu Pass.

The depth of ancient Babylonian myth!

No excessive words, no excessive movements.

He stood before the wide-open gates of Hangu Pass, towering and upright, with the surging River of Ages before him, the majestic, imposing Hangu Pass behind him, and beyond that, the downstream River of Ages outside the gates.

Faintly visible.

At the moment the gates opened, the downstream River of Ages, shrouded in mist, rippled with disturbance.

The opening of Hangu Pass's gates had been sensed from the future side.

…

(PS: Dear readers, there's currently a double Moon Ticket event—just post a reply and cast one Moon Ticket in my book review thread "【Moon Ticket】 May 1–7 Moon Ticket Sprint Event," and you'll receive 100 Qidian Coins.)