Chapter 905: Predestined Victory

The sky of Youming Jie was like a torn brocade, and viscous crimson matter seeped from the fissures. The ten‑thousand eon blood essence left behind when the Blood Daoist fled continues to corrode the void, turning the land within thousands of miles into boiling pools of blood.

Where the Nether God Emperor fell, a half‑broken antler was lodged, its surface entwined with dissipating imperial violet aura; the shattered star core of the Lord of the Starry Sky scattered across the scorched earth, and occasional bursts of stellar rays illuminated the remaining Asura corpses.

Yan Buji stood atop a collapsed peak, beneath his feet a blood pool solidified into crystal.

He reached out to the floating blood mist, and a burning sensation instantly spread to his fingertips. It was the Dao Mark backlash from a Great Vehicle Stage cultivator's fall; ordinary He Dao cultivators die upon contact.

"It seems the laws of Youming Jie… are being completely rewritten," he said, staring at the blood‑colored rune appearing in his palm, which was the Extreme Desire Demon Pot automatically devouring the residual blood essence.

The pot's dragon‑scale pattern grew ever clearer, and two illusory dragon horns sprouted from the dragon head at its spout.

"Brother Yan, are you still enjoying this spectacle?"

The newly appointed King Yan's voice pierced the void, shaking Yan Buji's spirit.

He looked up and saw that the figure behind the jeweled curtains of the sedan was no longer the once‑defeated, fleeing, destitute monarch; twelve tail‑grasping giant dragons floated on the jet‑black dragon robe, a vanishing phenomenon of the star vault swirled in the vertical pupils on his forehead, and nine Nether chains extended from the throne, their ends binding the heads of various races, each the size of a star.

"In just a few decades, Lord Yan has indeed been reborn," Yan Buji silently activated the Swallow Desire Pot, and the blood‑colored Dao fire inside the pot quietly rose.

The King Yan chuckled lightly, snapped a finger and flung an Asura skull.

The skull exploded into blood mist in the air, then reassembled into a projection of the decisive battle of that year:

In the scene, the fleeing King Yan encountered the Blood Daoist at a tributary of the Yellow Springs; beneath them lay mountains of shadow‑soldier corpses, and in the distance the Starry Sky Sect's warships were closing in.

"Hand over the *Yellow Springs Crossing Scripture*, and I can help you turn the tide," the Blood Daoist said, nine blood dragons coiling around his body, each scale reflecting the thunderous divine punishment of the tribulation crossing.

The King Yan tore open his chest, extracted a jade tablet etched with dragon motifs, and said, "I can give you the scripture, but I want nine Blood Divine Offspring."

The Blood Daoist's pupils contracted sharply: "How do you know I have forged the hundred‑thousandth Blood Divine Offspring?"

"Because I have seen you cross the tribulation for the ninth time," the King replied, wiping the black blood from his mouth corner. "You hid a hundred‑thousand Blood Divine Offspring clones within the thunder clouds—did you really think no one noticed?"

The projection froze there, the blood mist coalescing into nine pulsating blood pearls. The scene shifted to the main altar of the Starry Sky Sect. At the celebratory banquet, the High Priest raised a scepter studded with a star core, behind which unfurled a celestial star map covering half of Youming Jie.

"From today onward, Youming Jie shall revere the starry sky!"

Amid the clinking goblets, no one noticed that the wine presented by the attendants had been tinged with blood.

When the High Priest drank the ninth cup of ambrosia, the star core on the scepter suddenly turned scarlet, and the Blood Divine Offspring parasitic in the wine awakened!

The core of the star map exploded into blood‑colored rays, half the stars transformed into ferocious blood eyes. The Asura warships slaughtered each other in the blood light, and the Rakshasa cultivator's primordial spirit was forcibly ripped out, becoming nourishment for the Blood Divine Offspring.

The projection then vanished, and the King Yan toyed with a fragment of the Lord of the Starry Sky's star core: "Now you understand? From the moment you stormed the Underworld, you were destined to become my stepping stones."

Yan Buji furrowed his brow, suddenly recalling that when he was with the Great Sinful Sect, the Blood Daoist had once visited Youming Jie; could it be that the newly appointed King Yan had already forged a pact with the Blood Daoist back then?

"So, between the Nether God Emperor and Lord King Yan, is it cooperation or what?"

"Where in this world are there ever‑lasting friends," the King Yan said, his words laden with the weight of ages.

"Furthermore, although I previously aided you, now you help me reclaim Youming Jie, and thus neither of us owes the other anything," the King Yan said calmly.

Yan Buji's eyes flicked, and he looked at the other with puzzlement: "Does Lord King Yan mean there will be a battle between us?"

"That's not certain, but the likelihood is high. Since you stole a portion of the primordial wisdom, you should now know the hidden secrets of heaven and earth. This world has already entered the Ultimate Cycle; no one can escape," the King Yan shook his head and, after speaking, left the place.

Yan Buji frowned, still unsure what the King Yan was planning.

"The Ultimate Cycle? Isn't it that after Existence is born, all Disorder returns to Order, and truly one must sacrifice everything in this world to achieve that one's supremacy?"

Yan Buji did not understand, but that did not mean he would not act.

Now he had reached the mid‑stage of Refining Void; as long as he continues to absorb desires, discerns the state of the dragon heart and finds a way to make it his own, his strength will grow again!

However, regarding the cultivation ahead, he still did not fully comprehend and needed someone to specifically clarify things for him.

Thinking of this, Yan Buji activated the Heaven Gate Law and left Youming Jie.

Since events had taken a turn, the war in Youming Jie seemed to have finally drawn its curtain.

"But why does the King Yan say I helped him?" Yan Buji could not figure it out.

He did not seem to, like the Lord of the Starry Sky and the Nether God Emperor, invest in himself through achievements; rather, he seemed to have seen through the future.

This distinction between the King Yan and those two lies in that, when the Underworld was in such misery, Yan Buji never saw the King Yan's impatient urgency, as if he had long foreseen the day when he would once again preside over Youming Jie.

"How peculiar… or perhaps this King Yan has also achieved something unique," Yan Buji smiled.

After leaving Youming Jie, Yan Buji did not return to Nan Ting Mountain Region, but instead headed to the West Sand River Basin!

Buddhist cultivators of the Buddhist sect understood the cycles of life and death and the cultivation of the seven emotions and six desires better than he did; they even said that most of these practitioners, besides the usual condensation of magical power to refine Dao Marks, also either restrain or indulge their desires for cultivation.

Among the Buddhist techniques Yan Buji knew, both extreme methods were not uncommon and were both recognized, not heretical.

The West Sand River Basin remained as ever, with endless yellow sand; after Yan Buji arrived at a gathering place, he restrained his own aura and flew across the vast desert.

From time to time, he could see some West Sand cultivators carrying a spirit spear, and Yan Buji, curious, took a trip to a nearby cultivation market to have a look.

"Invented in Great Hero City, produced in Hundred Net City, the new short‑range spirit spear is now on sale! This triple‑turn spirit spear utilizes…"

Yan Buji stood among the crowd, watching with curiosity.

When the actual combat began, Yan Buji suddenly discovered that the spear's construction seemed upgraded: it could be controlled with minimal magical power, and, using special Accumulation Device components—'Infuse Spirit', 'Amplify Spirit', 'Control Spirit'—it produced spirit‑energy bullets that could be manipulated with spiritual awareness, making it far more versatile.

"It seems the West Sand River Basin has never abandoned the Accumulation Device of spirit spears and spirit cannons that can be popularized even to the Lianqi Phase and ordinary mortals."

Yan Buji did not purchase a new spirit spear for study; he now had his own combat style, and the spirit spear and cannon were of little use to him.

"I now need to quickly figure out how Refining Void, He Dao, and even Great Vehicle Stage cultivators should cultivate to increase strength. At this level, a cultivator's need for techniques should not be that high; instead, they should focus on the laws, the Dao's cultivation and comprehension… plus the realm of perceiving the Dao's principles that I've heard of before…"

Yan Buji smiled, and suddenly a plan formed in his mind!