Chapter 290: At Last Revealed! The True Name of the Bronze Chain

However, what awaited him was not the intervention of that mysterious existence, but countless terrifying attacks.

Boom!!!

Amidst one explosion after another, the entire Huangcheng began to tremble continuously.

A few breaths later, under the tense gazes of everyone, the smoke and dust slowly dispersed.

"Crack, crack…"

A figure covered in cracks all over walked out. With disheveled hair, he staggered forward a few steps; as he moved, countless specks of light flaked off his body and slowly vanished. Anyone could tell he was on the verge of collapse.

This was the unique death of a cultivator at the Shenjun level. Once the entire body was filled with Spirit power and transformed into another form, even death would not leave behind a corpse; instead, it would turn into specks of light and return to heaven and earth.

Of course, this did not apply to cultivators of the Conferring Gods system.

"Cough, cough… the Mandate of Heaven… so, so… it too… can be… shattered…"

In his final moment, the yellow-robed man's eyes—impossible to tell whether filled with joy or sorrow—slowly swept over the crowd, and his lips moved as he uttered a sentence of unclear meaning.

"No one intervened?"

Watching the yellow-robed man on the verge of collapse and death, as well as the storm still raging above, Baichuan murmured with a hint of disappointment.

Was it because of indifference? Or…?

While pondering, Baichuan took a careful look at the man about to die and decided not to waste the last sliver of value the man had left.

Since this man had been chosen by that mysterious existence to be the lord of the new dynasty, logically that mysterious existence could not have left no contingency whatsoever; thus, traces of that existence's power should still linger on him.

He refused to believe that, after thoroughly examining the man's entire body and extracting his most primordial power, he still couldn't find a single trace.

With this thought, Baichuan directly controlled his newly acquired divine artifact, the bronze chain, to split off a single chain, which shot out from the void under the shocked gazes of everyone.

Whoosh!

"Gah—!"

The yellow-robed man, already on the brink of death, didn't even finish his last words before a chain piercing through from the void impaled him.

In an instant, a searing pain struck, causing the yellow-robed man to widen his eyes; his pupils rapidly contracted, filled with confusion. This was not merely physical pain, but the agony of his soul being pierced and drained—a torment that any normal being would find nearly unbearable.

Bang!

The next moment, under the extraction of the bronze chain, how could the yellow-robed man, already a dying man, possibly resist? In an instant, his last power was drawn out and he burst into a cloud of dust.

"Who is it?"

"Who?"

In an instant, the appearance of the mysterious chain caused the uninformed onlookers to cry out in shock, beginning to scan the surrounding void with suspicion and unease.

For a time, vast amounts of spiritual force began continuously searching this stretch of void.

Because they could never have imagined that, in a place that had gathered virtually all the world's powerful cultivators, there could still be an even more mysterious and powerful existence hidden in the unseen depths. At this moment, countless expressions began to shift, and some even suspected that they had unknowingly become pawns of great divine-power wielders of another tier.

However, at the very instant this chain appeared.

As if sensing a certain aura from the unseen depths between heaven and earth, the storm clouds above suddenly stirred.

The already dim sunlight vanished completely from this place, as if making way for the terrifying existence about to descend.

The pitch-black clouds rapidly gathered, and bolts of lightning tinged with blue and gold flashed ceaselessly within them, accompanied by resounding peals of thunder.

Each peal of thunder made everyone present feel their souls trembling unceasingly within, and the Spirit power they normally wielded with ease grew sluggish.

A cyan, almost tangible gale began to howl without cease, carrying with it biting, knife-sharp winds that scraped against everyone's faces with a faint but acute pain.

One must remember that among those present, there were hardly any weaklings, yet even so, these gusts of cyan wind still scraped everyone with acute pain.

This was a divine wind capable of piercing through Spirit power defenses to harm the physical body directly!

The void grew unbearably heavy, and the air became increasingly thin.

A few breaths later, heaven and earth suddenly rejoiced.

A sudden, inexplicable realization dawned in everyone's hearts: some great existence had descended upon this stretch of heaven and earth, and this place was now completely under his dominion. This was heaven and earth itself spontaneously celebrating for him!

Indeed, this was the case. The next moment, the entire pitch-black storm of clouds was seen slowly rotating into a colossal eye.

An eye whose pupil was formed of mysterious symbols conjured from high-energy lightning in blue and gold throughout, and whose sclera was made of an unknown, misty substance.

The colossal divine eye was indifferent and emotionless. The instant it took form and gazed downward, this stretch of void went still.

Without the slightest ripple of movement, everyone—whether below the Shenjun level or at the Shenjun level—felt their entire bodies stiffen, losing control.

As if it were only natural.

At this moment, everyone widened their eyes, their hearts filled with extreme terror, as if they had returned to a time when they were weak. Nothing about themselves was under their own control anymore; instead, it was imperceptibly held in the palm of the existence before them.

Life and death lay in but a single thought of his.

In an instant, the mighty power displayed by this mysterious existence caused even those Shenjun who had chosen Baichuan to feel a twinge of regret in their hearts—wondering if their choice had truly been correct.

If the Shenjun felt this way, then the powerful cultivators of the Great Prosperity were even more terrified.

This—this was the great existence who, with but a single thought, had brought their vast dynasty to ruin?

No wonder such an existence had never, across the long river of history, allowed a single dynasty to successfully rebel—even those dynasty sovereigns who were dazzlingly brilliant, even those who had suppressed an entire era.

In the end, they all perished without the slightest suspense.

Just what on earth were they making enemies of?!

Yet no matter how terrified and uneasy the crowd was, that colossal blue-and-gold divine eye had not spared them a serious glance. Its gaze, almost tangible, stared fixedly at the bronze chain still swaying in the void.

In this space where all people and all things had gone still, a chain that seemed to ignore everything around it and continued to sway was extraordinarily conspicuous.

The gaze of the blue-and-gold divine eye was so obvious, so fervent, without the slightest concealment, that everyone naturally understood.

Clearly, the change of dynasty, the deaths of the new dynasty's lord and the old dynasty's lord, had not drawn his attention in the slightest. The reason this great existence had descended was precisely because he had sensed this chain—or rather, the power of the existence behind the chain.

They had unknowingly become embroiled in a conflict between two colossal entities!

This—does this mean a Heavenly Venerable war is about to Burst forth?

At this moment, suddenly realizing this point, everyone—even though they had already lost control—couldn't help but hold their breath, their hearts nearly stopping.

Could it be that the Heavenly Venerables, who had not appeared in the world for thousands of years, were about to reappear in this era and wage a Heavenly Venerable war at this very moment?

At this instant, after this realization dawned, some were terrified, some were uneasy, and some were wildly excited and extraordinarily stirred.

Each reacted differently. The former still clung to Ren Jian, unwilling to die in the aftermath of a Heavenly Venerate's battle like the ants that had perished in the residual shockwaves of battles in days past; the latter, having felt in the long passage of time that there was no road ahead, were the sort who would willingly "hear the Dao in the morning and die content by evening."

Or perhaps, feeling that the dynasty they had served had already perished, and that their own strength was beginning to fade without cease, both won over by that monarch's charisma yet having lost the heart to be buried alongside the dynasty in its final moment.

Of course, there were also pure martial men, who had spent their lives in battle, and would be content to witness the power of the world's greatest, most mysterious Heavenly Venerate before they died!

What manner of sight, then, is the power above True Monarch?

"Hand over the Immortal-Binding Rope."

Setting aside the reactions of the crowd, after staring at that bronze chain for several breaths, that blue-gold divine gaze transmitted an indifferent intent outward.

Clearly, this was spoken to some unknown existence still hidden within the void.

But the meaning within those words caused everyone's hearts to jolt once more.

Among them, some True Monarchs whose faces were extremely aged, who had lived through long ages, had their gazes flicker most unusually.

Because the fame of the Immortal-Binding Rope was something even they knew exceedingly well—or rather, only they understood its true significance.

It was a mysterious Faba that had left countless legends throughout the endless annals of myth and history.

In the present era, no matter which tome one opened, whenever the history of the primordial age was discussed, the Faba known as the Immortal-Binding Rope was inevitably mentioned.

Yet its specific details, the biographies that truly recorded this Faba, seemed to have been erased by some existence—because it appeared to involve matters beyond this very heaven and earth.

Yes, beyond this heaven and earth.

Not referring to grotto-heavens and blessed lands, or small worlds.

Beyond this world, there existed a boundless, vast mystery—worldly secrets known only to cultivators of the old era who were like living fossils.

Of course, that was all there was to it; no one knew what specifically lay beyond heaven and earth.

Yet even so, those in the present world who knew of this secret, apart from those Heavenly Venerates and Main Gods, numbered no more than ten palms' worth.

But why had it appeared in the world at this moment?

And why was the Immortal-Binding Rope so precious that it was worth that great existence personally descending to contest for it?

For a time, countless people began to grow curious about this Faba that even Heavenly Venerates coveted.

Immortal-Binding Rope?

Hearing this familiar yet strange name, Baichuan could not help lowering his head to stroke the bronze chain's true form.

At this moment, even Baichuan could not help falling into a daze.

Because this name had stirred up, within his long memory, the earliest recollection.

This name, Jun might not be very familiar with, but another alias was exceedingly famous.

—Immortal-Binding Cord!

How had this mysterious chain once again become linked with the myths of his previous life?

A culture both familiar and strange, and now a Faba had appeared whose name connected to the myths of his previous life.

Was there some connection behind all of this?

For a time, Baichuan's thoughts also began to drift.

However, this was not the moment for him to be absent-minded.

The next instant, because of Baichuan's silence and inaction.

A flash of anger passed through the eyes of that lofty blue-gold divine gaze.

The Immortal-Binding Rope, unseen for tens of thousands of years, had now appeared within His experiment, and the aura emanating from behind it was not that of the long-slumbering existence, but that of an unfamiliar, weak presence.

Although He did not know why this Faba had fallen into the hands of an ant, and by coincidence appeared here.

Perhaps there might be some scheme involved.

But when had He ever feared?

In any case, in this world He and others like Him were already undying and imperishable existences; even if those few were willing to put it forth as a trap, what could they do to Him?

On the contrary, the Faba being in an ownerless state at this moment was sufficient.

Once He seized it and swallowed the meat into His mouth, He would see how the schemer behind the scenes would weep.

The blue-gold divine gaze was calculating thus in His heart, but He had not expected that the ant before Him would dare to ignore Him.

For a moment, this left Him, long accustomed to looking down from on high, unable to save face.

Since when had ants dared to be so brazen?

Could it be that, having not descended for so long, these ants had forgotten the mercy, compassion, grace, and majesty of us Heavenly Venerates?

If that is so, then let mortals once again recall what is meant by divine grace like the sea and divine might like a prison!

Accompanying the anger in the blue-gold divine gaze's eyes.

"Boom!"

The already exaggerated celestial phenomena flashed with a bolt of lightning, followed by the rumble of thunder.

The astonishing thunder instantly swept clean all the yin-evil in this place, and even shook the very layers of Spirit between heaven and earth until they trembled.

Causing all living beings here to fall into a dazed state.

A dazzling bolt of lightning descended from the heavens, striking straight toward the void several dozen meters from the Immortal-Binding Rope—where Baichuan's location conspicuously was.

At the same moment, a Spirit tide abruptly surged up across the entire heaven and earth, and a giant hand of Spirit power suddenly condensed near the chain swaying in that void, then clenched fiercely.

This was plainly a scheme to seize the initiative and treacherously snatch the chain!

A mere ant, even if wielding the Immortal-Binding Rope, what could it do beneath His mighty power?

The blue-gold divine gaze's existence thought thus.

Yet what He encountered was Baichuan, who did not belong to this world.

The rumble of thunder, accompanied by the escape of a great many Light Points, finally allowed the dazed Baichuan to return to his senses.

Seeing this scene, Baichuan without a word directly activated the ability he had newly evolved—Yinqi Caozong!

What he faced now was a mysterious existence that very likely grasped the source of Spirit power; no matter how overconfident Baichuan might be, he would not use Spirit power.

And the ability to manipulate Yin energy came from the master of the Immortal-Binding Rope — the power of that divine corpse.

The Yin energy it directly controlled, even if not on the same tier as Spirit power, should still be nearly equal to it.

In an instant, gust after gust of bone-chilling black wind rose between heaven and earth, beginning to stand in opposition to that azure gale.

An entire layer of black mysterious substance on the ground, like primordial chaos, began to surge up from underground; layer upon layer of blue-white Ice Frost began to form continuously, then constantly transformed into beautiful ice pillars and ice flowers.

Affected by this, all activity between heaven and earth began to slow by a step.

The lightning that came crashing slowed; the great hand that clenched grew stiff and sluggish.

That was because the vast Yin energy between heaven and earth had been summoned, spontaneously gathering over; the very nature of Yin energy was interfering with and affecting the power of Spirit power.

Even if only a sliver of effect, it was already enough!

The next instant, massive Yin energy, like long dragons, shattered the incoming lightning and surged toward the spot the lightning was about to strike.

That was precisely where Baichuan was.

In the blink of an eye, the Immortal-Binding Rope, bolstered by Yin energy of extremely high quality — those chains that had appeared somewhat sickly, confined within the void — instantly came alive as if awakened; the sharp ends of the rope swayed ceaselessly, and the confinement within the void began to rapidly recede.

The next moment, even more chains within the void began to be born one after another under the support of Yin energy, then aligned in unison toward the colossal blue-gold divine eye high in the heavens, and then—

"Clatter clatter…"

"Clatter clatter……"

The sounds of metal striking metal rang out continuously, like a moving melody of heaven and earth.

……

(End of this chapter)