Chapter 104 The Great Existence's Invasion

On the long northwest coastline of Qingqiu Continent, there are hundreds of high-quality beaches. The seawater here is clear, the temperature is suitable, and the sun shines all year round. It used to be one of the most beloved tourist destinations for the Qingqiu people. Even residents from other world domains under the Central Divine Court were willing to cross the vast distance to come here for relaxation and vacation.

But those are things of the past... Now, amidst howling winds and torrential rain, the unextinguished demonic fire illuminates the night sky, and bone and blood fill this place.

On the battlefield littered with corpses, surrounded by countless Qingqiu people's limbs and the corpses of Jiuli giants, Su Zhou, who had returned to his human form, raised his head, gazed at the distant sky, and slowly took a step forward.

Azure-purple spiritual power seared burning footprints beneath his feet, and spiritual fire spread, igniting raging flames.

Among the many corpses, crimson blood mixed with rainwater gathered into rivers, crisscrossing the battlefield. When the spiritual flames intersected with the rivers of blood, scarlet true qi was vaporized by the high temperature, resembling clouds and mist, like a demonic realm.

Blood mist swirled and rose, and numerous pitch-black evil souls floated in the air. Like small boats drawn in by a vortex, they automatically moved closer to Su Zhou as they drifted, and then were absorbed into his body.

At this moment, Su Zhou did not care about these bizarre phenomena that made him look like a villain. He simply stared at the distant clouds that had been torn apart by the aftershocks of the previous battle, and the stars and moon above the clouds, his mind surging with thoughts.

All the Heavenly Demon clusters from the Lianyi Sea had just been slain by Su Zhou, and it would take a long time for the Heavenly Demon army further away to arrive.

Moreover, compared to those insignificant cannon fodder, he sensed a stronger presence.

"An enemy at the Earth Immortal realm…"

Speaking to himself, Su Zhou's tone did not betray much fear.

The Heavenly Demons of Qingqiu have been eroding this world for thousands of years. Whether it was exploiting the bones and blood of the Qingqiu people or hoarding spiritual power for their own use, it would be strange if they didn't nurture an Earth Immortal. He had already considered this when he learned that the enemy's true form was Heavenly Demons.

What's more, after the long battle just now, the power within Su Zhou's body was also eager to try, about to break through that final barrier.

Human Immortals and Earth Immortals, chieftains and overlords, the gap between them was not as large as imagined.

The difference between them was the difference between 'having walked one's own path' and not having walked one's path, the difference between 'the mortal surpassing the immortal' and 'the immortal surpassing the mortal.' This was very different from the decisive difference between Heavenly Immortals, who 'walk to the end of their path and begin to self-derive their own path,' 'pure immortals.'

Su Zhou believed that as long as a peak Human Immortal had a powerful trump card, that is, a powerful magical treasure, then there was no need to fear too much an Earth Immortal who had not reached the end of their own path.

Therefore, what the young man was pondering now were other more important, more grand things.

"The great existence, has its erosion of this universe reached this point?"

Su Zhou muttered to himself, his expression grave.

Ever since he met Yala in 2014, Su Zhou knew that if he did not take action, and other great existences did not break through the seal, then there would only be fifteen and a half years left before the Great Seal was broken, this universe was completely destroyed, and even other universes were chain-collapsed.

Now, three years have passed since then, but Su Zhou has also passed through the Divine Wood World, the Samsara World, and the Divine Dragon World, and the time of the Great Seal has therefore been extended to twenty-seven years.

However, the awakening of the Pioneer, and the changes it created, also stirred up the reaction of the Great Seal... Now Su Zhou didn't know exactly what kind of damage it had suffered, but without a doubt, the Pioneer's actions would definitely make the Great Seal more fragile.

Even if the destruction of the world was delayed by himself, their influence would still continue to spread throughout the universe, becoming more and more intense.

Just like now, facing this great existence called the [Fate Pusher] by the Descending Spirit Society, the kindred it created had already swept across a planet.

Even if he defeated this 'fiend' on Qingqiu Star and completely destroyed it, it would only be that the threat around Earth was eliminated... But what if they were on an alien planet? In other spiral arms of the Milky Way, other galaxies, outside other galaxy clusters, choosing the races they wanted to influence and erode?

At that time, could he run out of the Milky Way, tread through hyperspace channels, and hunt down the kindred of these great existences throughout the observable universe?

He, Su Zhou, wasn't a space cop!

"It has finally come. I had already anticipated this day."

Closing his eyes, although the future may not be optimistic, at least now, facing the incoming Earth Immortal Heavenly Demon, Su Zhou felt no fear in his heart.

After all, he had plenty of trump cards.

Opening his eyes again, a beam of divine light shone in Su Zhou's eyes, piercing through the clouds. His gaze swept across the heavens and the earth, and neither the rising blood mist nor the dim clouds could stop it. The powerful spiritual radiation was like a humanoid spiritual energy radar, and even the aftershocks spread for dozens of miles around!

Wherever Su Zhou's gaze swept, whether it was the fish in the deep sea or the seabirds flying in the clouds, they trembled because of it. They felt that a cold divine thought had locked onto them, as if analyzing them from head to toe—instantly, countless fish fled in fear into the deep sea, and the birds froze in mid-air, falling like stones towards the seabed.

Soon, as the divine thought spread, Su Zhou locked onto that icy-blue meteor flying from thousands of miles away!

It was a mass of indifferent coldness, a stubborn stone without any emotional fluctuations. It was hard, huge, unwavering, and unchangeable. When this cold flame flew by, the heavens and the earth seemed to be frozen. Whether it was the clouds or the seawater, they were completely dominated as if they were still at the moment it passed, until the next moment when they regained their freedom and began to flow and surge again.

At this moment, this icy-blue stubborn stone also seemed to sense Su Zhou's gaze. Without any hesitation, its will also pierced through the air, directly colliding with Su Zhou!

Buzz! Like the metallic hum of swords clashing, the wills of both sides immediately receded after the confrontation.

But even so, Su Zhou sensed the one-sided essence of the other party.

That was thorough domination, an absolute without any surprises.

[Fate] [Foundation] [Gear] [Command] and [Domination]... Too many elements, as if it was a sea composed of machines and gears, churning up what seemed to be a vast and mighty, but actually cold and lifeless tide.

And all of these elements ultimately turned into a mighty 'torrent.'

Its name was… [Destiny].

Then, a contemptuous voice rang out.

"Truly a detestable, genuinely loathsome fellow."

In the distance, light was already shining, and an icy-blue divine light was tearing through the atmosphere, bringing with it a hurricane, sweeping towards this place at a speed sufficient to break through the gravity of a star.

There was no movement or sound, because the sound was far from as fast as it was; there were no unusual omens, because it would arrive before the omens appeared.

Boom!

Above the earth on the northwest coast, a roar resounded!

At this moment, under Su Zhou's feet, thousands of Lan seeds condensed, transforming into a structure like a rocket, and his body was surrounded by a white shockwave shield, like a layer of white solid armor. Azure-purple flames and lightning shuttled through it, releasing incomparably bright brilliance, while also forming complex and magnificent spiritual patterns.

In the eyes of the armor, burning light spots flickered, and in the next moment, he stepped forward, the ground beneath his feet constantly collapsing, and shattered patterns spread in all directions.

Then, accompanied by the ear-splitting screech of rocket propulsion and shockwaves, an azure-purple star soared into the sky. Behind him, corpses were burned to ashes, blood rivers were evaporated into mist, the corpses of huge Jiuli giants were directly destroyed, and mountains piled up by countless Heavenly Demons were melted like melting cream mountains into burnt, rancid grease—starlight flew, leaving only a magma lake that appeared instantly on the ground, and columns of smoke with lightning flashing.

If at this time, someone were to look down on the planet from the distant end of the high altitude, in outer space orbit, then he would be able to see that on the edge of the Lianyi Sea in the northwest of Qingqiu Continent, an icy-blue star was swooping down, and an azure-purple star was rising up.

Without any verbal exchanges or probing, without any communication or observation.

The otherworldly visitor clad in white Lan armor, and the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox King, the two meteors collided in the silent ten-thousand-meter high altitude at a relative speed exceeding sixty kilometers per second.

Gazes met, the cold icy-blue light and the azure-purple dragon pupils met—and then, it was an attack!

In an instant, time seemed to freeze. Apart from the other's face, the eyes of both sides could no longer see anything else. Everything was pausing, slowing down. The only thing that did not change was that both sides simultaneously raised, and used all their strength to swing out, their iron fists!

Boom!!!

At the moment when the two fists collided, the atmosphere between them ionized, and the collision of pure power even ignited exploding electric arcs. Pure plasma was born in the shrinking distance between the fists—and in the next moment, the two fists collided together.

Instantly, with Su Zhou and this Heavenly Demon King as the center, the air was like an ocean, suddenly stirring up a visible tsunami, a phenomenon formed by the air being squeezed and pushed by excessive force, turning into a shockwave.

Immediately afterwards, spiritual light erupted, and two spiritual forces sufficient to collapse mountains and destroy cities burst out towards the ten directions of heaven and earth after colliding, stirring up gusts of wind and tornadoes!

Puchi! The Lan armor shattered, and the flesh and blood on Su Zhou's right arm shattered and fell off on the spot due to the violent collision, leaving only fragmented, cracked hand bones—while the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Demon's arm was largely unharmed, only the entire right fist was completely shattered, and both flesh and blood and bones turned into ashes and dissipated.

In an instant, both sides immediately retreated more than ten kilometers. This distance, for transcendents of their level, was actually a close-quarters confrontation, a few steps apart, ready to launch an attack again at any time.

Huhu—the white shockwave surged again, reshaping the Lan armor, and amidst the raging wind, it could be seen that flesh and blood were wriggling on the arm.

Soon, the flesh and blood on Su Zhou's right hand had regenerated, as if returning to its original state.

But Su Zhou's gaze remained grave, because on the shattered right fist of the Heavenly Demon in the distance, spiritual power was also gathering, re-condensing into a complete palm, even easier and more comfortable than his regeneration.

The Primal Corruptor, the Primal Heavenly Demon on Qingqiu Star, the great demon belonging to 'Destiny,' the Lord of the Six Paths Illusion, the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox King—

This monster held crushing power!

"Is this an Earth Immortal?"

Locking onto the other party's figure firmly, Su Zhou's heart was extremely solemn at this time—in the tentative fist-to-fist confrontation just now, he seemed to have suffered no loss, but in fact, feeling the other party's enormous, unbelievable spiritual power in an instant, he had proactively abandoned the defense of his right arm, and instead used all his spiritual power to attack the other party.

But even so, this attack that abandoned defense did not completely break through the Heavenly Demon's defense, only destroying one of the other's fists.

As for why he didn't use his true form to fight, the answer was simple. The behemoth's body was fine against equally huge monsters and large armies, but against transcendents who were stronger than him but of normal size, it was useless. He would only be easily targeted and destroyed, so it was better to use it as a raw material reserve for self-repair.

"It's the Dao of Spirit! This guy, achieved Earth Immortal status through the Dao of Spirit!"

Determining this at the first moment of probing, Su Zhou began to think rapidly about the next countermeasures.

At the same time, the Heavenly Demon in the distance also collected Su Zhou's relevant information and made the next action steps.

[—Lock, Disassemble, Destroy—]

[Execute erasure against 'Chaos Favored']

Crack, crack, crack.

A rumbling sound came from the sky, and a low sound of gears turning was heard.

Behind the Primal Heavenly Demon, six extremely large gears emerged from the void and intertwined with each other. They rotated and meshed with each other, spinning in the sky, forming a huge, regular, and unshakable cycle.

In the eyes of the Heavenly Fox, it seemed that gears were also turning, and as the gear teeth meshed, they ignited an icy-blue fire, and his skin instantly became translucent, like some kind of crystal clear glaze.

[Six Paths True Art · Pratyekabuddha Deva Path]

Instantly, an icy-blue domain of power spread, and within the scope of the domain, the sea mist suddenly boiled, and a sacred and melodious music suddenly resounded between heaven and earth.

The air stirred up a storm, emitting a sacred hymn-like harmony, the sea churned up huge waves, as if beating a rhythm, and lightning began to generate in the dim clouds, as if striking a giant drum.

In this instant, all the natural forces between heaven and earth began to converge towards the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Demon. On the black nine tails, each long tail seemed to be transformed into a vast and mighty force of some natural phenomenon, storm, tsunami, thunderstorm, tornado, and—

But Su Zhou didn't care about this.

Battles required probing. After all, without a real comparison, who would know how to fight next, how to make a plan? The early reconnaissance was to reduce the time spent probing.

And now, after judging the enemy's specific power, his action was only a very simple one.

"Consider yourself unlucky. I'm not a member of the Squirrel Party—it won't do to save the big move for last."

Sweeping his hands across the atmosphere on both sides, opening his personal space, Su Zhou took out a jade box with his left hand and grasped the Blade of Extinction tightly with his right hand.

He tightly grasped the jade box, which was vibrating crazily, with the things stored inside about to burst out, and then he flexed his muscles and exerted force, directly crushing it, grasping the surging, abundant divine power in his palm, and then pressing it on the divine blade in his hand.

In this instant, it seemed that a chilling, frost-like sword light flashed, and then its aura soared!

Su Zhou solemnly clasped the Blade of Extinction with both hands, and as spiritual light flickered, it seemed that a cloud-patterned, seven-colored, Nine-Glory divine sword covered the blade—the illusory long sword was simple and dignified. Just witnessing it, one would feel that the mandate of heaven was clear and the imperial way was magnificent.

Its sword body was like frost and snow, and its blade flowed with bright, unbelievable crimson divine light. Dazzling patterns spread across the sword ridge, forming two simple and ancient characters.

Chixiao.

Chixiao Sword Qi!

——The vast Han race, bestowed with the name Han. The Chixiao Divine Sword, in the era when immortals and gods had all departed, was the last divine weapon forged by mortals on the eve of the severing of spiritual energy, used to protect the country and the race, quell turmoil, and stabilize peace!

For thousands of years, the wish power of all the people of Shenzhou has been gathered in this sword, and it also equally protects everyone, never being used because of anyone's selfish desires... Only when a people is plunged into a great disaster and cannot extricate themselves from suffering will it radiate sword light, sweeping away all evil and disobedience!

Just like this time, it was the power of the Chixiao Sword that guided Su Zhou and others to Qingqiu, and detected the atrocities of the Heavenly Demon of Destiny!

At this moment, although what Su Zhou was holding tightly in his hand was only the divine weapon sword qi with the power of immortals and gods, even so, the sword qi attached to the Blade of Extinction still had infinite power.

Even the wish power belonging to the Divine Wood World, from slaying the Demon Emperor, destroying the Demon Dynasty, and creating the 'Tianzheng Alliance,' began to resonate with the wish power on this wisp of Chixiao Sword Qi, conjuring the cheers of tens of thousands of people.

Raising the divine blade, Su Zhou placed it between his eyes. Before the azure-purple dragon eyes, there was the boiling sea and the roaring gale. The thunder light traversing between the sea and sky had been fused by the hands of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Demon into a thunder sword, and the power of the entire world was condensed under the control of the 'Pratyekabuddha Deva Path.'

But there were far too many powers that could surpass the power of heaven and earth.

The power of mankind was one of them.

Clang, the sword qi and blade light sounded at this moment. The solemn Su Zhou poured all his power into the sword in his hand, aiming the blade at the location of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Demon.

He swung it down fiercely.

In the next instant, above the ten-thousand-meter high altitude, power as vast as the sea was drawn into the blade, returning to the edge... Immediately afterwards, a dazzling cold light that illuminated hundreds of miles around, thus illuminated the heaven and earth!

A huge blade of light that suddenly erupted like a galaxy, carrying the wish power of tens of thousands of people cheering in unison, slashed straight down at the center of that deva domain!

Crack!

Everything was torn apart. A sound like the shattering of glaze resounded, and the Heavenly Demon's deva domain shattered on the spot—the clouds were cut open by a mysterious force, revealing the starry sky behind them. The spiritual energy wandering in nature receded, the sea howled and rolled back, and the thunder light trembled and extinguished, as if fearing the arrival of destruction.

Only this dazzling sword light remained in heaven and earth. It shone in heaven and earth, like a dividing line that separated the world and defined heaven and earth. The clouds and the sea were separated by it. It could be seen that a huge sword scar in the sea extended for dozens of miles, the sea separating to the left and right, turning into a stagnant waterfall.

But in the next instant, Su Zhou did not stop attacking. In a circle of light that suddenly lit up, the huge Zhuzhou Dragon reappeared in the world. Without any pause, he directly condensed all the power in his dragon body, and then transformed it into a breath, bombarding the place where the Primal Heavenly Demon he had locked onto was!

Rumble!!!

Instantly, another light soared, turning into a surging torrent that flew past—the terrifying shockwave swept through the thunder and flames, passing through the vacuum that had been cleaved out by the Chixiao Sword Qi before, bombarding a certain place in the darkness with the most concentrated, undiminished posture.

It seemed to be blocked by something for a moment, but soon, under the vast torrent of energy, this breath beam was not blocked for too long. The dragon's breath went straight into the sea, deep into the sea for thousands of meters, illuminating the deep, incomparably deep seabed. This scene did not last long, and a violent explosion erupted in the depths of the seabed, bringing with it huge waves.

For a time, it was as if heaven and earth were first opened, and huge, boiling bubbles surged in the churning ocean. Azure sky thunder crisscrossed between the clouds and mist. Tornadoes, giant waves, and hot gales filled the eye. If the full-force strike of the divine weapon and the divine dragon were to bombard the earth, it would be a peerlessly strong strike that would be enough to traverse mountains and turn hilly areas into plains, enough to cause permanent terrain changes. Even at sea, it would be enough to create a huge tsunami that would submerge the northwestern part of Qingqiu's coastline.

But even so, Su Zhou did not relax in the slightest—returning to his human form, he immediately began to frantically draw on the spiritual energy in the surrounding heaven and earth, recovering the spiritual energy in his body at a speed that would make other chieftain-level cultivators dumbfounded.

This was not a wrong choice.

Because, just as Su Zhou thought, just as he was rapidly recovering his spiritual power, icy-blue fragments began to slowly surge from the churning ocean around Lianyi Sea, gradually regrouping into fragile human forms.

One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand... Countless fragments of spiritual light condensed into hundreds of thousands of fragile Heavenly Fox human forms, and then began to condense and integrate like fireflies.

Soon, as light and shadow flickered, a Heavenly Demon phantom with the strength of the early stage of a chieftain, but whose spiritual power was rapidly increasing within its body, appeared dozens of miles away.

Su Zhou coldly stared at the Heavenly Demon human form in the distance that was slowly re-condensing its strength, but which had weakened beyond recognition compared to before, and the big stone in his heart was somewhat relieved.

——Heavenly Demons are immortal. He had long anticipated this.

But at least the Earth Immortal status had been temporarily knocked down by him.

Blow up an Earth Immortal with one sword? If it was a normal low-level Earth Immortal, facing the Chixiao Sword Qi, as well as his powerful destructive breath, it would definitely be completely shattered, not even scum would be left—but Su Zhou knew that the main body of the Heavenly Demons in this world were not these 'corrupted bodies' composed of spiritual power or the corpses of the Qingqiu people.

Their main bodies were the 'Six Paths Illusion' located in the spirit-suppressing towers, or rather, the 'Heavenly Demon Matrixes!'

That was the Heavenly Demon's true body, and what was used for battle was only a 'clone.'

Su Zhou didn't know exactly what the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox human form just now was, but the other party really did have a strong-to-the-extreme Earth Immortal status, and it was still the 'Dao of Spirit.'

The Dao of Nature was to endlessly enhance one's soul through some method, the Dao of Life was to endlessly strengthen one's physical body, and the Dao of Laws was to make spells communicate with the divine, almost approaching the Dao.

Then, the meaning represented by the Dao of Spirit was to endlessly strengthen one's own spiritual power reserves through some method, and to be able to use it freely like other immortals.

The Heavenly Demon's Dao of Spirit was to improve one's own spiritual power reserves almost without limit through the overlapping and cohesive condensation of an extremely large number of Heavenly Demon souls—the Earth Immortal-level Heavenly Demon before had condensed at least millions of Heavenly Demon souls, and its every move had the power to destroy heaven and earth, starting from at least several hundred Great Zhous, which even Su Zhou could not match.

And now, even if the Heavenly Demon Matrix in the distance was constantly condensing and transporting Heavenly Demon souls to this place, what could be used temporarily was only a chieftain-level Human Immortal clone with hundreds of thousands of souls.

This was much easier to fight—ten thousand times simpler than dealing with an Earth Immortal.

Of course, if the other party was some third-rate cultivator, a rural immortal, then Su Zhou felt that he might not be able to fight across realms, but after confirming that the other party was an agent of a great existence, the young man would not have any arrogant thoughts—in a normal battle, he simply had no chance of winning. This Earth Immortal Heavenly Demon could just spit water and drown him in a sea of it.

And although that strike just now did not seem to completely eliminate the other party, in fact, Su Zhou had already obtained a lot of information about the other party's essence from the fragments of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Demon at the moment he shattered it with the Chixiao Sword Qi.

The Heavenly Demon Cluster—pure information life, constantly fulfilling its mission with a certain command or code of conduct as its guideline, the most orderly life form.

It, along with swarm, Gestalt AIs, cluster lifeforms, autocratic emperors, the Final Producer Tyrant, and in mythology, any existence related to 'Six Paths of Reincarnation', 'Destiny Prediction', or 'Heavenly Dao Destiny' are the life modes most favored by [Destiny].

If the Heavenly Demon cluster on this Qingqiu Star really enveloped the entire Qingqiu Star in its Six Paths Illusion, then it would be equivalent to conducting the grandest sacrifice to [Destiny], and could receive His blessing and descend, instantly 'ascending to demonhood', becoming a true 'God-Chosen Great Demon!'

This was not something to be trifled with, and Su Zhou would not allow it to happen.

Thinking was lengthy, but in reality it was only a few breaths.

Drawing out the divine blade again, Su Zhou, who had recovered eighty percent of his spiritual power, stared at the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Demon clone in the distance, which had just recovered to the middle stage of a chieftain, and revealed a ferocious smile.

Using one of his trump cards to bury the strongest Earth Immortal clone that the Heavenly Demon cluster had condensed for a long time could not be said to be a loss. It could only be said to be a reasonable tactic.

At least now, the other party and he were on the same starting line, or even lower.

And in the distance, the Heavenly Demon clone, which had regained its basic human form, once again assumed a fighting stance, and the six gears behind it once again emerged from the void.

The initial exchange had gone through the first round.

The battle had only just begun.