Chapter 576: The Descent of the Seven Deities

Lower Realm, Hong Domain.

Lightning crackled across the celestial expanse, glyphs emerged amidst the blood-red radiance surging towards the heavens, colliding violently.

The void shattered, one after another streaks of dark lightning appeared—not merely ordinary thunder, but true Celestial Punishment, manifesting the Heavens’ wrath.

Crimson blood flowed from the void. This omen—commonly known as “the Weeping of Heaven”—stirred the world into panic.

“What has transpired? Blood rains from the skies… Someone has committed an immense massacre, this… this must be the legendary ‘Heavenly Weeping!'”

Even reclusive cultivators dwelling deep within remote mountains and marshes lifted their heads in alarm, their faces marked with shock. In the outer world, people whispered that this must relate to the missing population.

On this very day, countless great clans vanished from the Hong Domain; one colossal city after another stood empty, their people abducted—had they all perished? Even the omen of Heavenly Weeping had manifested.

“Boom!”

A deafening thunderclap shook heaven and earth; black lightning streaked across the skies alongside blood-red light, and a monstrous beast surged forth. Its body loomed gigantic—towering higher than the ancient mountains, exuding a terrifying aura. It tore through the dark thunder and descended toward the land.

Behind it, radiant halos flared, countless bolts of lightning cascading down in divine retribution—a calamitous storm akin to the end of the world.

“Heavens above! It’s a Void Beast! So massive… unheard of before! Has it defied the heavens?” A powerful cultivator in the Hong Domain cried out in astonishment, eyes wide, utterly stunned.

Void Beasts were rare, difficult to grow, and never particularly massive upon reaching maturity. They had long been considered extinct—none had ever seen one as enormous as a mountain.

This colossus, immeasurable in height, swooped down with unmatched majesty.

Suddenly, some chaotic lights rained down from the Upper Realm, striking its body, igniting it as it trembled violently, nearly disintegrating.

This spectacle stunned all—it was Divine Retribution itself!

Yet, as if some will were resisting, it disrupted the celestial punishment, warping heaven and earth, obliterating the laws themselves, causing the chaotic lights to weaken and vanish.

“This… battling the Heavens’ Will! Someone dares defy fate itself!”

Rumble!

With a final deafening roar, the lightning vanished, the Thunder Tribulation dispersed, and all the anomalies ceased.

Above, ancient halls crumbled into ruins. Silhouettes cloaked in chaotic mist staggered backward, spitting blood.

“Battling the Heavens’ Will indeed brings backlash. We cannot wield it again—the opportunity was ours only once. But fortunately, despite the heavy price, we succeeded.”

Wiping the blood from their lips, these figures rose, their gazes as ancient and merciless as primordial demons, radiant with thunderous lightning, surrounded by surging mists.

In the Lower Realm, the Void Beast descended straight toward the altar.

“Boom!”

Suddenly, residual chaotic energy still clinging to its frame transformed into glyph symbols, densely packed, erupting violently in that moment, causing the entire colossal body to glow.

Its entire hide ignited instantly, becoming a blazing torch, its divine essence radiating across the skies, like a comet from the heavens plummeting toward the mortal world.

The Void Beast disintegrated. With a blinding explosion, its divine hide turned to ashes, even its bones shattered, each fragment scattering outward in all directions.

Within its skull emerged a fist-sized divine furnace, glowing as it fused with the void, fiercely resisting the perilous residual energies.

But it too was affected. With a thunderous rumble, the furnace pulsed with ancient, enigmatic glyphs, attempting to shield itself as it rapidly expanded.

The Void Crucible!

It swelled into a mountainous size, but already riddled with gaping holes, dented and warped, severely damaged. It streaked as a blazing ember hurtling toward the earth.

With a cataclysmic explosion that shook the heavens and earth, it impacted the ground, colliding with the altar amidst the marsh—like a falling meteor, radiating boundless light.

The altar was instantly annihilated. Countless tormented souls wailed as they dissolved into sacred light, vanishing forever. Bones and blood upon the earth burned and evaporated into ash.

Above the sky, several exalted beings trembled. Though the blood ritual had succeeded, was the divine being who crossed realms truly alive? At the final moment, it seemed as if it had all been in vain.

Below, smoke and dust spiraled to the heavens, the marsh’s humidity long evaporated.

Massive fissures spread outward for dozens of miles, terrifying in their scale. The altar was gone, replaced by a deep ravine, within which lay the fractured divine furnace.

The Void Crucible had been a treasure par excellence, a priceless artifact revered by sects, a rarity even the gods could scarcely forge. But now, it lay in ruins.

Its glyphs shattered, though the vessel itself endured, its power severely diminished, almost reduced to a mundane relic.

As the smoke cleared, silence reigned for a long time.

Then, half an incense stick later, the sound of a metallic resonance rang out, breaking the silence—a strong being had survived and now sought to break free.

“Boom!”

A heavy object struck the lid of the furnace, causing radiant treasures to shimmer. A powerful ripple spread outward, stirring earth and stone.

The furnace had been deformed, the lid tightly sealed. Though damaged, it remained a treasure once used to seal sects. Breaking through was no easy feat.

“Clang!”

A quarter of a cycle later, the lid was blasted open, flying away. Only its durability remained, devoid of divine energy, so it could be forcefully shattered.

A bloodied hand clutched the rim of the furnace, emerging with great effort. A powerful lifeform still lived, albeit wounded. Then a head appeared, climbing out in a crouch, leaping upward to land on the earth.

A young man with silver hair and black pupils stood there, pale-faced, blood dripping from his arms. He scanned his surroundings before curling his lips into a cold sneer:

“It succeeded—I have descended into the Lower Realm!”

Within the deep ravine, from within the remains of the Void Crucible, a new sound emerged. A skeletal figure emerged—devoid of flesh, entirely golden, its bones gleaming with a holy luminescence. No trace of deathly aura lingered. From its spine sprouted wings—no mere bone wings, but ones of snow-white feathers.

“I am not dead. I have come to the Lower Realm. I must claim the Transcendence Treatise. I will seize the blessings of heaven and earth!” A colossal beast emerged, its silver-white scales shimmering, body around ten zhangs in length—a shrunken form. Had it not, it would have rivaled entire mountains in size.

It was a pangolin beast, unscathed, having merely fainted for a moment from the shock. Its hide, the hardest of all, could pierce even the divine mountains of the cosmos.

Behind it emerged a Demon Kui transformed into a human-like figure, a black sun radiating behind him, cloaking him in darkness, severing him from the outer world.

Then followed a golden human cultivator, unharmed as well, for he had cultivated the ZhangSix Golden Body, invulnerable to destruction, only slightly stunned.

Next, two more emerged—one nearly vanishing, seeming to merge into the void. The other an elder with an aura so terrifying, even the beings who had descended with him kept their distance, filled with dread.

Seven beings emerged in total, slightly wounded but still brimming with vitality and vigor, gathered together above the canyon.

“Whoosh!”

Flames rose as they all radiated light, clearly beings who had ignited their divine flames—powerful and awe-inspiring.

At this moment, they held nothing back, fully releasing their divine energies and glyph symbols, to heal their wounds and attune rapidly to this realm.

“The laws here are incomplete. This world doesn’t suppress cultivators—their strength here feels far greater than above!”

This was their immediate sensation. It explained why many aspired to descend here for cultivation, for this realm allowed one to grasp higher forces ahead of time, facilitating enlightenment and breakthroughs upon return.

The seven stood together, flames blazing, radiant and majestic, unmatched in this world.

They stood beneath the crimson sunset, their shadows stretching long, bathed in the final glow—seven divine beings like primordial deities, gazing down upon all!

“Have the others perished?” One voice broke the silence, cold and indifferent.

The sole elder raised a hand, seizing the Void Crucible, and shook it. Seven or eight corpses tumbled out—some charred, others with shattered skulls… each death distinct.

The falling impact had crushed parts of the furnace inward, and these beings were caught in the blow, meeting a tragic fate.

“There’s still divine essence on them—they still hold some worth. Let us divide them equally.” One said.

In the end, all corpses were taken, while the pangolin, without hesitation, swallowed his share whole, his body radiating light.

“Shall we proceed together, or part ways?” The silver-haired youth who emerged first spoke, his expression indifferent, yet his gaze ablaze.

“We have only just arrived. It would be wise not to act rashly,” the elder advised.

The golden skeleton opened its mouth, projecting a divine thought:

“Do not forget—the Lord of the Nether entrusted us to slay the youth named Shi Hao. He must not live another day.”

“Not yet. This realm is strange. We must first gather our bearings,” another interjected.

“Very well. Handle your affairs separately, and reconvene later,” nodded the golden-bodied warrior of the Western Sect.

Several figures soared into the sky, their radiance blazing. Distant hidden experts were swept along—obviously used as guides.

The Void Crucible vanished as well, taken by one of them.

In an instant, the land fell silent, leaving behind only the massive canyon, its cracks sprawling for hundreds of miles, nothing else remained.

The skies fell still, not a sound stirred.

And on this day, the news spread across other great domains. Countless lives vanished from Hong Domain overnight, shaking the entire continent, echoing into every great sect.

It was breaking news, relayed through every altar, spreading across lands like wildfire.

The world erupted!

Accompanying this, came the descent of the Void Beast, crashing through the fissure into the Hong Domain, the final explosion witnessed and spread far and wide.

This, without doubt, was an earthquake across the realms, shaking every faction.

“Defying the Heavens’ Will! Someone has resisted the Dao itself, forging passage from the Upper Realm to the Lower!”

It was a hermit’s proclamation, spreading unease across the races, igniting a storm of unrest throughout the world.