On this day, the world suddenly began to shake, and huge waves soared out of the Martial Heaven Sea-Ring. The stars in the sky shuddered. All the lifeforms on the continent were terrified.
“What’s happening?!” Cries of despair rang out and buildings collapsed.
“Is this the end of the world?!”
The sun and moon lost their light. Regardless of cultivation base, a sensation of despair filled every person’s heart.
This strange phenomenon made all cultivators feel like the Martial Heaven Continent was about to be destroyed. In front of this, they all felt miniscule and powerless.
Certain cultivators that had felt like hegemons in control of everything now found that in front of this despair, they could only shudder. They were like tiny ants.
The entire continent was thrown into chaos. Commoners knelt on the ground and prayed for the gods’ mercy.
Women and children silently shuddered, not even daring to cry. They were simply terrified.
The various experts of every faction on the continent stood in shock, staring up at the sky. There was a terrifying heavenly might gathering. They had no idea what to do.
“Disciples of the Martial Heaven Alliance, no need to fear. This phenomenon indicates that we are entering the final phase of the great era, the qi flow eruption!” announced Qu Jianying.
Only then did those disciples relax slightly. However, they still sensed the twisting will of the Heavenly Daos raging within the sky. In front of that power, they were nothing.
“Tianxuan, what do you think?”
The Martial Heaven Alliance’s top experts were gathered, looking at the phenomenon. It was Qu Jianying who asked Li Tianxuan. Li Tianxuan’s status was extremely high within the Martial Heaven Alliance, second only to Qu Jianying. He was praised as their number one strategist. Many seniors even felt great admiration for him.
“Based on historical records, this qi flow eruption is coming a full ten years ahead of time. It’s truly strange.” Li Tianxuan shook his head.
In the past great eras, first came certain omens, then various powerful geniuses rose, and then the competition between those heavenly geniuses would be fought.
The competition between heavenly geniuses was a bloody and cruel one. At the very least, over half of them would die during that fight.
Normally, that competition would last over ten years. It was only when the various Empyreans hidden throughout the continent finally came out that the true competition would begin. Only at least ten years later would it be time for the qi flow eruption.
However, this time, those heavenly geniuses had only just appeared. There hadn’t been any true competition between them, but they had already entered the final phase of the great era, the qi flow eruption.
“Is it related to Long Chen? He killed two awakened Empyreans…” said one elder.
Yan Nantian shook his head. “It has nothing to do with that. The deaths of just those two are unable to affect the continent’s qi flow. There’s no need to guess because it’s meaningless. This great era is history’s greatest and most dangerous era. The few of us are only witnesses to the upcoming history. But we are not the main characters.”
Everyone nodded. They looked toward Ye Lingshan who was behind Qu Jianying. Ye Lingshan was the successor of the Martial Heaven Alliance, leading countless experts of the same generation. This era belonged to them.
Within the Wine God Palace, the High Priest was standing in his courtyard. There seemed to be a million stars revolving within his turbid eyes. Those eyes seemed to see through space.
The High Priest frowned. “Someone forcibly changed the qi flow. Pill Valley, just what are you doing?”
In the Northern Xuan Region, within an icy palace, ice crystals were flowing through the air. It was like the very space was about to freeze. A white-robed Daoist Heavenly Feather was looking up at the sky. Light flowed within her eyes.
“The qi flow eruption is coming ahead of time. The Martial Heaven Continent’s qi flow is almost exhausted. Whether or not it will survive the upcoming tribulation is impossible to tell. Victory means nirvanic rebirth, defeat means being blown to dust. The lives of everyone in this world lie in the hands of your generation.”
Daoist Heavenly Feather turned toward the throne of the palace. There was Ye Zhiqiu. She was like a statue, a holy light radiating from her.
Above Ye Zhiqiu’s head was an ice sword. It was suspended there, unleashing divine light over her.
This terrifying phenomenon continued for three days and nights before it finally ended. When the sun finally rose over the horizon, cries of relief rang out.
The commoners weren’t cultivators. Hence, they were filled with reverence and gratitude toward the world. Those who prayed were overjoyed, thinking that their prayers had been heard by the gods, and so they had decided not to unleash their divine punishment.
People felt like they had been reborn. The gods had forgiven them of their sins, causing them to cherish this life even more. Rather than complaining that their lot in life was unfair, they steadily lived their lives.
This phenomenon didn’t change the world, but it changed many hearts. Those people felt just how blessed life was.
Their grievances, their resentment, their envy, these all weren’t worth anything in front of death. They all felt laughable and stupid.
Some tribes and noble families with old enmities actually gave up their fighting and tried to make peace.
They felt like their greed, their overblown desires had been what had drawn the wrath of the heavens. They had forgotten about everything that they already had.
Through this phenomenon, one person made a profound conclusion: the greed of humans was even more frightening than devils or gods.
Many people who felt like they were unlucky with life hadn’t realized before just how lucky they were. They were focused on what other people had. Short people envied tall people, ugly people envied pretty people, poor people envied rich people. Even if they obtained the same thing, they wanted to take the other person’s portion.
Greed grew into resentment, resentment grew into envy, envy gave birth to ugly thoughts. Ugly thoughts could be carried out as soon as a suitable opportunity presented itself.
That eventually became a habit, making people greedier, until they were willing to do anything to get what they wanted.
In truth, the heavens were fair. If they gave you beauty, they made you poor. If they gave you money, they made you ugly. Some people possessed both, but then their hearts and spirits were empty. Looking blessed was just an appearance that made others jealous.
Everyone had scars or things that they had to bear. People had a habit of looking at other people’s blessings without looking at their own.
However, this terrifying phenomenon, which had made them feel like their lives were about to end, made them realize that their blessings had always been beside them. After it was over, they continued living. Now they understood why those people who were dying always seemed regretful right before death.
Only upon realizing that they were about to lose everything did they realize how blessed they were. By then, it was too late.
Many battles stopped within the secular world. For at least a short while, warring and plundering ceased to happen.
However, within the cultivation world, dark undercurrents were flowing. This phenomenon indicated that the qi flow eruption was coming. Some extremely low-key powers were emerging from hibernation.
“Did you hear? The everlasting families are starting to move.”
“Those families from the time of Sovereigns? Is that really true?”
“It’s not just the everlasting families. Some other ancient monsters are also awakening.”
“Did you hear? Those unrivaled monsters from the ancient era actually paid a huge price to seal themselves within a crack in spacetime just because they weren’t born in the right era.”
“Countless monsters have been born throughout history. Some of them rose like shooting stars, eclipsing the light of all others within their generation, only to suddenly vanish. They were most likely sealed. They waited thousands or even tens of thousands of years for the great era to come. They must be attempting to become the new Sovereign.”
“A Sovereign can only be born during the great era. Those unrivaled monsters are probably going to cause a bloody storm.”
“Long Chen is also an unrivaled monster within his generation, but compared to those monsters that appeared throughout history, it seems that he’s lacking a bit. After all, those monsters were those who fought until there was no one else who dared to fight against them. Only then were they sealed.”
“Long Chen, ah, Long Chen. I wonder how he’ll compare to those ancient monsters. I hope he doesn’t sadly wither in comparison!”
The Martial Heaven Continent’s experts were all tense. Originally, they had thought that they knew everything about the continent that there was to now. However, after the phenomenon, they found out that the continent they occupied had been hiding many terrifying sects.
Those sects hadn’t made appearances within thousands or even tens of thousands of years. Some of them did not even exist within historical records.
The four everlasting families in particular were extremely frightening existences throughout history. People had simply assumed that they had been lost within the flow of time after not appearing for so long, but they had now come out.
Those were families that had borne witness to the rising of Sovereigns. The foundations of such families were definitely unimaginable. Once they came out, wouldn’t this world belong to them?
Various experts that had been hiding on the continent gradually came out, showing their brilliance. This was an announcement that this world would be theirs.
The Central Xuan Region grew livelier. Some powers were already making secret moves, thinking about how they could form good relations with those ancient sects that had dominated their time.
As the outer world became bustling with activity, Long Chen finally awoke. Upon waking up, his face was pale, and he was covered in cold sweat.