Chapter 168

At the same moment Prince Chu Nan was killed by Chen Zheng.

In the depths of cosmic space, unimaginably far from the Profound Yellow Great World—even separated by hundreds of great worlds—floated a star.

This star was immensely huge, far larger than the countless surrounding stars, magnificent beyond description, exuding an austere aura reminiscent of primordial antiquity.

Yet the star bore no soil, not a speck, as if forged from black iron, icy cold, making anyone who glanced at it feel a bone‑chilling chill.

On the star there were no palaces or houses, yet it was dotted with countless black tents, densely packed like stars on a board.

Each tent was huge, capable of holding ten thousand people, and inside each were ten thousand individuals whose bodies were covered in bony armor, looking extremely ferocious.

These were all members of the Divine Clan.

In total, there were a million tents, housing a hundred billion Divine Clan members!

It is almost unimaginable how vast the Divine Clan's power is, and why they have stationed a hundred‑billion‑strong army here—are they preparing to invade some great world?

At this moment, inside the most splendid and largest purple‑gold tent at the very center of all the tents, there was no one, only a lamp placed in the middle.

It was a bronze oil lamp; the wick inside the lampshade burned, and the flame constantly shifted colors, casting various hues in all directions, like a multicolored great sun shining upon all beings, making the world flow with light and color, filled with a wonderful aura.

Whoosh!

As if a wind blew in, entering the lampshade, causing the originally calm flame to suddenly flicker and continually shift shape.

Indeed, it was transforming, gradually taking on a human form; the outline, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and so on coalesced, forming a man.

Apart from his deathly pale complexion, naked body, feeble breath, and lack of cultivation, this man was exactly identical to Prince Chu Nan, who had been slain by Chen Zheng in the Profound Yellow Great World.

This is Prince Chu Nan!

He had not actually died.

"Fortunately, when I was just born, my mother extracted a strand of my flesh and soul and, using the Divine Clan's supreme secret art, established an Ala Divine Lamp for me, allowing me to be reborn upon its flame even after death."

Inside the lampshade, Prince Chu Nan gasped heavily, his face showing the relief of having survived a calamity; without this Ala Divine Lamp, he would truly have died.

Hum!

Beside it, space suddenly rippled with concentric waves, and a middle‑aged woman wearing a splendid crown and draped in a purple‑gold great robe appeared out of thin air.

Her bearing was majestic, like that of a goddess‑empress ruling over all heavens.

She was the Doumu Divine Sovereign, mother of Prince Chu Nan, and one of the eight leaders of the Divine Clan.

As soon as she appeared, her phoenix eyes fixed on Prince Chu Nan inside the lampshade, and she snapped angrily: "Prince Chu Nan, how did you revive on the Ala Divine Lamp? Who killed you? Was it someone from the Boundless Great World? That old fogey, the Star Emperor, can't even protect my son—utterly useless!"

"Mother!"

Prince Chu Nan, seeing her as a savior, gritted his teeth and snarled: "Don't blame my father; the one who killed me is not from the Boundless Great World but from the Profound Yellow Great World. He refined me and seized my Imperial Release Scepter—you must avenge me!"

"How dare a mere denizen of the Profound Yellow Great World kill my son?" the Doumu Divine Sovereign raised her brows and said coldly: "Tell me his name; I will personally go and exterminate his nine clans!"

"Well..."

Prince Chu Nan's expression stalled; after a long pause he stammered: "I don't even know that person, nor do I know his name."

The Doumu Divine Sovereign's face darkened: "Then you must at least know his appearance; give me his image, and finding him won't be hard."

"Uh..."

After a long wriggle of his lips, Prince Chu Nan embarrassedly said: "He was sitting in a high‑grade Dao artifact war chariot, and I didn't get to see what he looked like..."

Upon hearing this, the Doumu Divine Sovereign nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.

Prince Chu Nan actually didn't even know what his enemy looked like, yet he was killed by him.

It was nothing short of losing all face for her.

But after all, he is her son, having just returned from a great catastrophe with his cultivation completely lost; she could not bear to blame him, so she patiently continued: "You should at least know whether he is male or female, and you ought to have seen clearly what that war chariot looked like."

"I saw clearly, I saw clearly. He is a male!"

Prince Chu Nan finally let out a sigh of relief, hastily nodded, and then recounted in detail how Chen Zheng rode that ancient war chariot, the means by which Chen Zheng killed him, and how the Star Emperor's Dragon Bed inexplicably flew out of control, carrying his concubine Fang Qingwei among other things.

"Oh? It turns out to be the war chariot of the Chariot Shaft Divine Sovereign's son!"

Prince Chu Nan had lived all his life in the Boundless Star Palace, knowing little about the Divine Clan's affairs and hardly recognizing any of its members, yet the Doumu Divine Sovereign was well informed and immediately revealed the origin of Chen Zheng's war chariot.

Her expression grew even darker.

Could the one who killed her son be the Chariot Shaft Divine Son?

No, if the Chariot Shaft Divine Son had seen the divine power on Prince Chu Nan's person, he would certainly not have struck a killing blow.

Moreover, the Chariot Shaft Divine Son is not that strong.

"A Divine Clan war chariot? That must be it—I certainly smelled the Divine Clan's aura on that chariot." Prince Chu Nan pondered carefully and nodded in realization.

He added: "That person is probably just a divine‑ability cultivator whose natal golden core contains four hundred eighty divine abilities."

"How could a divine‑ability cultivator possibly master four hundred eighty divine abilities? My Divine Clan is blessed with heaven‑defying talent, numbering in the billions of billions, yet I have never heard of anyone cultivating that many divine abilities."

The Doumu Divine Sovereign shook her head, laughing incredulously, and looked at Prince Chu Nan as if he were an idiot.

Prince Chu Nan had been pampered by her and the Star Emperor since childhood; his cultivation was decent, but his temperament was somewhat lacking, and having never suffered such a massive blow, he began to spout nonsense.

"Mother!"

Seeing the Doumu Divine Sovereign distrust him, Prince Chu Nan's face flushed with anxiety as he opened his mouth to argue.

However, before he could get a word out, the Doumu Divine Sovereign said solicitously: "This Ala Divine Lamp contains a portion of my own cultivation essence; rest easy cultivating here, solidify your Dao heart, and you will soon regain your strength. I will help you retrieve the Imperial Release Scepter; the Star Emperor's Dragon Bed also bears my own power imprint, which no one can take away. We will soon summon it back from the Profound Yellow Great World, and my daughter‑in‑law Fang Qingwei will return to your side. As for the one who killed you, I will investigate thoroughly, inquire of the Chariot Shaft Divine Sovereign, ferret out the true culprit, bring him before you, and let you personally slay him for revenge."

Having spoken those words, she did not wait for Prince Chu Nan to say more, turned, and vanished.

……

The Profound Yellow Great World.

Above the firmament, a large bed resembling a chair drifted to and fro, drifting toward the direction of the Feather Ascension Sect.

Outside the bed lay a transparent protective shield, keeping its occupant safe from heavenly winds.

Upon the bed stood a woman in tattered robes, her body covered in scars—this was Hua Tiandu.

At this moment, his eyes no longer held the emptiness and despair from being tormented by Sima Chong and Prince Chu Nan; instead they brimmed with hope, like a fledgling about to be reborn, fluttering gracefully across the vast heavens and earth.

"I, Hua Tiandu, am indeed the child of destiny, the protagonist of the three thousand great worlds; though tormented into this ghastly state, I miraculously survived, and miraculously obtained the aid of the spirit of the Star Emperor's Dragon Bed, which helps me return to the Feather Ascension Sect!"

"As long as I return to the Feather Ascension Sect, all the hardships I have endured will dissipate like smoke; I will rise again, once more look down upon the heavens, dominate the Xuanhuang realm, and repay Chen Zheng a millionfold for the pain!"

Huatiandu's expression was exhilarated, he tightly clenched his pink fists, stared at the direction where the Feather Ascension Sect was located, and let out a low roar, as if he had already anticipated the scene after his return to the Feather Ascension Sect.

That former senior brother of the Feather Ascension Sect has returned!

But just then, the Star Emperor Dragon Bed beneath his feet trembled, as if summoned by some invisible force, no longer flying toward the Feather Ascension Sect, but instead soaring upward, as if to fly up to the Nine Heavens Gale Layer and out of the Xuanhuang Great World.

"What's going on? Dragon Bed artifact spirit, what are you doing? Did you fly in the wrong direction?"

Huatiandu was shocked and panicked, hurriedly calling out to the artifact spirit inside the Dragon Bed, but received no response.

The Dragon Bed continued to fly upward, flying faster and higher, growing ever farther from the Feather Ascension Sect he longed for.

"No!"

Watching the Star Emperor Dragon Bed already enter the Nine Heavens Gale Layer and fly toward space, Huatiandu completely lost his composure, desperately pounding the transparent protective shield on the Dragon Bed, fiercely attacking with the Ruyi Immortal Gourd, hoping to break it.

If he could break it, he could jump off the bed, use the Ruyi Immortal Gourd to protect his body and fly, perhaps still having hope of returning to the Feather Ascension Sect.

But ever since his Panwu Primordial Spirit was on the verge of death and he seized Fang Qingwei, he no longer had his former cultivation, possessing only a Rou Shen Shi Chong fleshly body, and the Ruyi Immortal Gourd is merely a middle-grade treasure—how could it possibly break the light shield?

At this very moment, the protective shield that guarded him has become a prison confining him.

He has become a caged bird that cannot escape no matter what.

"Heavens above, earth below, why do you treat me like this! Why give me hope, then plunge me into despair!"

Huatiandu was on the verge of breaking apart, hysterical, screaming to the heavens, seeming mad.

But no matter how he howled, he could not change reality.

He could only be carried by the Star Emperor Dragon Bed flying toward the universe, to meet that unknown fate.

……

Outside the Feather Ascension Mountains.

The wind that Chen Zheng had transformed into drifted just like the Star Emperor Dragon Bed that Huatiandu rode, drifting and drifting, drifting and drifting.

He waited patiently, waiting for the group from the Grand Unity Sect to emerge from the Feather Ascension Sect, then he would kill them all.

About an hour passed.

Finally, a group of six flew out from the Feather Ascension Mountains, all uniformly Ancient Giants, obviously all vice sect masters of the Grand Unity Sect.

Especially the leading youth, wearing a fiery red robe, with a head of flame-like hair, from afar giving off an intensely hot, unmatched aura, as if a supreme deity walked out of the Fire Realm.

This youth is none other than Chifengtian, the First Vice Sect Master of the Grand Unity Sect who once led the six Ancient Giants to the Feather Ascension Sect to cause trouble for Chen Zheng, acclaimed as the reincarnation of the Ancient Fire God, who in this life has already reached the second level of the Immortal Undying Body.

"Hehe."

Chen Zheng gave a cold smile, instantly transformed into human form, extended a big hand, and grabbed toward Chifengtian.

(End of chapter)