Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme

Chapter 486: Chapter 298: Years_2

“The Dao of the Five Elements, the foundation of the world, fused with the laws of the Broken Void, you…!!”

“Leng Aotian, you useless trash!”

“Since my lifespan is almost up, I’ll fight you to the death!”

“Taoist Master, I am willing to surrender, I am willing to submit!”

“The Heavenly Dao is unjust, the Heavenly Dao is unjust!”

“…”

Two thousand years later, the Temple of War God opened once again.

Beneath the Void Stele, Xu Yang sat in silence, wordless and expressionless.

Behind him stood several figures, all in the form of beings in the Tribulation Realm, including Su Shaoqing, Yun Mengyao, Ren Weidao, Ning Wuwo, and others, resolutely present.

Suddenly…

“Bang!!!”

The stele trembled, the void shattered, and a figure burst forth, his hair white as snow, his features gaunt, his clothes tattered, and an aura of twilight about him. Although he still had the countenance of a youth, he no longer bore the spirited vigor of his younger years.

“Two thousand years, it’s been two thousand years!”

“Xu Qingyang, you obstructed my path, this grudge, this hatred, is eternal, eternal!!!”

Leng Aotian flung his head back, his white hair wildly unfurled, his eyes a bloody red, glaring intently at Xu Yang amidst the crowd.

Xu Yang glanced at him, then lowered his eyes, ignoring him.

“Time is like a knife, truly merciless!”

Only a soft sigh came from behind, as two figures stood up side by side. It was the former leader of the Divine Martial Alliance, Ren Weidao, and the master of Freewheeling Peak, Ning Wuwo.

The two gazed at the haggard and twilight-stricken Leng Aotian, at the end of his lifespan, recalling the past and the flood of emotions within them, but in the end, they only let out a light sigh, “Brother Leng, let the two of us see you off on your final journey!”

After speaking, they stepped forward together, advancing toward the Demon Monarch.

“Just with you two!!!”

The nearly mad Leng Aotian let out a long howl, no longer retreating, he kindled the last fire of life, and charged at the two of them.

Two thousand years, two thousand years, this Heavenly Demon God Monarch, a once-in-a-lifetime genius with the greatest hope of stepping into the Heavenly Tribulation Realm, ultimately failed to sharpen his blade, to break through the Heaven and Earth Pass, and instead faced the end of his life.

As for those old demons who fled with him into the Broken Void Stele… they had already turned to ash and dissipate.

Time mercilessly cuts down the geniuses!

Even those with the most extraordinary talent and shocking abilities cannot withstand the wear of time. If they fail to break through, their lifespan ends in death.

Anger, unwillingness, despair, confusion, an array of emotions, a thousand words, all within the confrontation of life and death.

Leng Aotian, Ren Weidao, and Ning Wuwo, the battle among the three began.

They were contemporaries, leaders of the Divine Martial Alliance, Freewheeling Peak, and Heavenly Demon Sect respectively. They ranked in the top three on the Divine Martial List back in the day, entangled for many years, with slight differences in their strengths, but not by much.

Until later, Leng Aotian, with his exceptional talent, was the first to enter the Earth Calamity Extreme Realm, standing shoulder to shoulder with the older generation like Ning Beiming and Zhang Canglan, leaving the other two behind.

Unfortunately, what followed was the rise of the Wandao School, which sealed him in the Temple of War God, trapping him for two thousand years.

For those two thousand years, he used the Taoist Masters as his sharpening stone, trying to hone his own edge, but he never managed to sharpen the earth-shattering Heavenly Tribulation blade. Instead, his two old rivals took advantage of the Immortal Martial Dual Cultivation and later overtook him.

Such a twist of fate was indeed vexing!

The two thought about this and sighed inwardly, but their attacks showed no mercy. Working together, the two of them with their combined Immortal Martial skills soon cornered Leng Aotian, whose lifespan was ending and who was close to his ultimate limit, pushing him into a corner.

In the end…

“Demon Gods dance wildly, Swallow Heaven and Annihilate Earth—ah!!”

At the brink of death, the flame of life nearly extinguished, Leng Aotian, with nothing left to hold back, finally unleashed his most extreme move.

He appeared like a madman possessed, his spirit crazed, his fists chaotically striking out, displaying a world-shaking demonic martial art.

One punch changed the Heavenly Spirit dramatically, Demonic Qi surged, throwing Yin and Yang out of balance, upending Qiankun!

Another punch caused the Earth Yuan to swirl violently, like an awakening dragon, shaking the wilderness and obliterating all directions!

A punch blazed like raging flames, as if a great sun were plummeting, scorching the heavens and boiling the ocean!

A punch froze the void, forming a realm of silver crystals, like an icy domain of absolute desolation, chilling all life!

A punch brought tumultuous wind and scurrying clouds, flashing lightning, thundering like a devastating cyclone, swallowing up all vitality!

A punch shattered mountains and clefts, unmatched in ferocity, causing Vajras to shatter, Buddhas to weep blood!

And then another punch, the arrival of gods and demons, the Swallow Heaven and Annihilate Earth, dominating the azure sky!

It was Leng Aotian’s pinnacle achievement in life, the art he had cultivated with painstaking effort—the Heavenly Demon Divine Martial’s seven ultimate limits!

The War God’s Atlas consisted of forty-nine images, each one containing profound mysteries and the ultimate truths of heaven and earth, but practicing them individually could at most advance one’s Divine Intent. To reach the pinnacle of Divine Intent, or even to break through the Heavenly Tribulation Realm, one must integrate the first forty-eight images’ skills with the forty-ninth’s breaking mechanism.

The more images integrated, the stronger the Divine Martial Skill becomes. Like the former Supreme Elder of the Red Lotus Sect, the aged demon Deng Yunpeng, who integrated seven atlases including the Red Lotus Karma Fire, the Heavenly Demon Great Skill, and the Blood Sea Divine Reflecting, and stepped into the realm of great achievement in the Earth Calamity, also a top figure in the Temple of War God.

And as for the top of the Earth Calamity Extreme Realm, the once-in-a-lifetime genius who had the greatest hope of entering the Heavenly Tribulation was Leng Aotian, who had integrated a full fourteen images, combining them into a seven-move, earth-shattering demon skill—the Heavenly Demon Divine Martial’s seven ultimate limits.

He had honed these seven limits to perfection, just one step short of combining the seven into one, overcoming that final hurdle and unleashing the eighth, which would have allowed him to enter the long-coveted Heavenly Tribulation Realm.

But that one step, that final step, eluded him!

Heavenly Tribulation, the great divide between heaven and earth, even with his talent and brilliance, he couldn’t break through, he couldn’t cross?

Unwilling, angry, desperate, tormented, fearful, panicked…

A multitude of thoughts burned up the last of his life force as he struck out with the ultimate blow of his existence!

This punch, this strike, this move, was the zenith of his life!

The bottleneck he could never break through, the barrier he could never cross—seemed, at that moment, to give way, as the seven ultimate moves of Swallow Heaven and Annihilate Earth faintly seemed to merge into one, trending towards breaking through to the Heavenly Tribulation Realm.