The Seal of Twenty-Four War Swords

Terrifying fluctuations burst forth from the spatial rift once more, vast and unfathomable, enough to make the souls of the Semi-Ancestors shudder—there could only be one explanation... another Ancestral God had arrived!

"How can this be? How can this be!"

In that instant, every Semi-Ancestor looked up to heaven and sighed long. The appearance of one Ancestral God in the World of Immortality was already a miracle, barely enough to hold off the Otherworld Ancestral God. And now a second Otherworld Ancestral God was descending—how could they resist?

Was the World of Immortality truly doomed? In that moment, all hearts grew unbearably heavy.

"Stars, fall!"

The Sun Holy Deity, the Three Holy Spirits, Satan, Allah, and the other Western Semi-Ancestors shouted as one. The primordial star cluster that had been aimed at destruction changed course. Beyond the heavens, a stream of meteors blazed with piercing light, hurtling toward the Ancient God Wasteland of the World of Immortality. Their target was no longer the destruction of the Otherworld Semi-Ancestors, but that spatial rift.

In that instant, the vast Ancient God Wasteland, stretching over two hundred thousand li, churned like an angry sea. Each wave of sand rose tens of thousands of feet high, billowing up like ancient mountain ranges, surging and falling one after another.

Such was the power of the apocalyptic stars!

Before they even arrived, their vast fluctuations had already swept down, enough to annihilate the physical bodies of the last few Otherworld Semi-Ancestors. Now redirected, their sole purpose was to prevent the Otherworld Ancestral God from entering the World of Immortality.

The stars blazed brilliantly as they rushed into the sky above the World of Immortality, illuminating the entire continent. The souls of countless billions of living beings trembled in fear.

Yes, it was a sight unseen in millennia! In the sky, it was as if suns were falling—huge, blinding stellar bodies blazing with intense light, carving out trails of dazzling flame, even fiercer than the true sun.

The Eternal Continent shone bright.

The true sun was eclipsed, utterly suppressed by the light of the falling stars.

In that moment, all the people of the Eternal Continent fell to their knees, their hearts filled with utmost terror.

Were the Ancestral Gods angered? Or was an Ancestral God perishing? Such was the terrified thought in the hearts of the Eternal Continent's billions.

Dozens, then hundreds of falling stars plunged into the Ancient God Wasteland. The Sun Holy Deity, Satan, and the Three Holy Spirits shouted together, their voices shaking heaven and earth.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Blinding radiance became the only thing in heaven and earth. Hundreds of falling stars all crashed into the spatial rift. The vast fluctuations drained heaven and earth of color. Thunderclaps followed one after another, as if the world were ending.

The spatial rift became a terrifying death zone of raging energy, with nothing but destructive force surging and annihilating space.

"Hmph!"

A muffled groan came from that forbidden realm, the voice icy cold. The Semi-Ancestors present felt their hearts tremble. But the Otherworld Ancestral God's fluctuations had clearly weakened considerably. Even the devastating meteor swarm couldn't kill an Ancestral God, but it had effectively blocked his advance.

Primordial shouted, "He must gather enough energy to activate an ancient teleportation formation to enter this world. We smashed celestial bodies into the spatial rift to destroy his formation!"

In that moment, Primordial, the Buddha, Zhunti, Tongtian, the Sun Holy Deity, the Three Holy Spirits, and all the others began summoning stars with their great power. This time, they relied not on incantations but entirely on their great divine abilities to forcibly pull heavenly bodies toward the World of Immortality.

It was as if formless great hands were tugging at huge stars, drawing them down toward the World of Immortality.

The starry sky beyond trembled!

The vast World of Immortality also trembled!

The few surviving Otherworld Semi-Ancestors tried to disrupt the process, but the number of Semi-Ancestors on the Eternal Continent's side held an absolute advantage. The Martial Saint Sun Wu had been watching coldly from the side; seeing them about to act, he immediately joined forces with the Assassin Supreme, the Great Demon of Heaven, the White Tiger Saint Emperor, and others to attack.

At the spatial rift, the Yellow Emperor, Laozi, Chiyou, Confucius, the Old Dragon of the Southern Wastes, the Phoenix Matriarch, and others began to channel their great power to take in the stars hurtling in from beyond the sky. Some of these stars were simply too massive, and needed to be refined first; otherwise, rather than crashing into the spatial rift, they would directly slam into the Ancient God Wasteland on a massive scale.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

It was as if heaven and earth were splitting apart. The golden desert boiled and erupted.

Star after star was refined and driven into the spatial rift. The Otherworld Ancestral God trying to descend into the World of Immortality let out several muffled groans. Boundless killing intent seeped through from the other world, as bone-chillingly cold as a harsh winter. But the heaven-annihilating fluctuations of the Ancestral God receded like a tide.

The Otherworld Ancestral God had been momentarily blocked!

Now all hopes rested on Shennong. Only if this Ancestral God of the World of Immortality could defeat the Otherworld Ancestral God in the shortest possible time and come here in person could he block the steps of the second Otherworld Ancestral God attempting to cross over.

"Now is the time to annihilate them!" Lord Tongtian cried out.

The Semi-Ancestors of the World of Immortality formed an encirclement, trapping the last few Otherworld Semi-Ancestors. Space had been locked down; even with great power, they could not tear through space to escape.

"Kill!"

With that cry, all manner of heaven-defying divine abilities manifested.

The Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation, Buddha's Dharma Seals, the Sun's Holy Light, Primordial's Jade Hand, Zhunti's Golden Body, Satan's Demonic Form... they directly annihilated that region of heaven and earth, returning everything to primordial chaos.

Fearing that the Otherworld Semi-Ancestors might reconstitute their physical forms, the Semi-Ancestors of the World of Immortality directly summoned death-black clouds from beyond the starry sky, completely shrouding that shattered space.

It was a battle with no suspense. In terms of numbers, they held an absolute advantage. The assembled experts of the World of Immortality annihilated all the Otherworld Semi-Ancestors.

But not a single person could relax. They knew that once the Ancestral God in the spatial rift successfully descended, all their hard-won gains would be erased.

Beyond the starry sky, fluctuations that made even Semi-Ancestors' souls shudder continued to come, indicating that the battle between Shennong and the Otherworld Ancestral God was extremely fierce and would be hard to decide in a short time.

Whether a world would be destroyed or not would be determined before long. The pressure on the Ancestral God Shennong was enormous.

"Seal all the Semi-Ancestors' spiritual consciousness!" the Martial Saint Sun Wu shouted, and at the same time looked toward Xiao Chen, who was protected by the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree.

The Otherworld Semi-Ancestors whose physical bodies had been shattered earlier had all rushed toward the spatial rift to escape back to their own world. But all their spiritual consciousness had been trapped by the Yellow Emperor, Laozi, and Chiyou, who had been lying in ambush there. And the spiritual consciousness of those whose physical forms were destroyed later were also sealed by the crowd on the scene; not one had escaped.

Xiao Chen's entire body was shrouded in the sacred tree's radiance. His divine sense had already probed into the tree, where he saw seven-colored rays entwining a sleeping snow-white little beast. He gently called out with his divine sense: "Keke... wake up... quickly wake up..."

But no matter how he called, the sleeping little beast showed no reaction.

At this critical moment, every second counted. The Martial Saint Sun Wu sent a stream of divine power into Xiao Chen's body, then transmitted a message to him: "Try calling out like this."

Xiao Chen shouted, "Fresh divine fruit! Yin Wood Ginseng Fruit!"

"Where? Where?" The sleeping little beast jolted awake instantly, rubbing its big eyes and looking around, mumbling in a daze.

Even in this dire situation, Xiao Chen couldn't help but laugh. What a greedy little thing.

Flash—

A beam of light shot out, and Keke's soul emerged from the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree, floating beside Xiao Chen. It blinked its lively big eyes and grumbled discontentedly, "Why did you lie to me..."

Suddenly, it saw Primordial, Tongtian, the Sun Holy Deity, and the others in the sky. Its eyes went wide, and it called out angrily, "Bad guys! A bunch of bad guys!"

Although the Semi-Ancestors had greatly changed in appearance, the little beast's spiritual perception was exceptionally keen. It recognized them and huffily charged forward, only for Xiao Chen to grab it and hold it back.

"Keke, don't be reckless. We need your help now..." Xiao Chen used the simplest words to explain the gravity of the situation.

"But... I hate them." The little white beast pointed resentfully at the Semi-Ancestors in the sky, its face full of unwillingness, and a watery mist gathered in its large eyes.

"But right now we really need you..."

Keke nodded unwillingly, its childish voice tinged with grievance: "All right."

The little beast opened Paradise Lost. A gorgeous space manifested around it, filled with exotic flowers, lush spirit herbs, a clear stream flowing gently, and the fragrant scent of blossoms wafting to meet the face. It was beautiful as a painting.

The many Semi-Ancestors descended. Sun Wu transmitted a message to Keke: "In a moment, we will drive the Semi-Ancestors' spiritual consciousness into Paradise Lost. You will... be able to slowly refine them."

The little thing's eyes immediately lit up. It blinked quickly, staring at the Martial Saint, then at the Semi-Ancestors around. It was already hatching a little scheme—if it could later capture this bunch of Semi-Ancestors inside... it would teach them all a lesson! This was a display of its childlike nature.

"Keke, there won't be any danger, will there?" Xiao Chen asked. This was what concerned him most.

"No. If it can refine the remnant spirits of those Semi-Ancestors, it might even receive a great heavenly opportunity." The Martial Saint sighed. "Paradise Lost is a heaven-defying existence."

Flash, flash, flash—

Light flickered continuously. The Semi-Ancestors drove the remnant spirits one by one into Paradise Lost. Finally, Keke quickly sealed the space.

Now time was more precious than life itself. The Semi-Ancestors next used their great divine powers to shatter space, and in almost an instant, everyone arrived at the spatial rift several hundred li away, reuniting with the Yellow Emperor, Laozi, Chiyou, and the others.

Xiao Chen had no time to gaze upon the legendary Yellow Emperor, the Phoenix Matriarch, and the rest. Because at the moment Keke collected the remnant spirits of the remaining Semi-Ancestors, the spatial rift once again erupted with heaven-shaking energy fluctuations. They had to fall back.

"There is no way to stop the Otherworld Ancestral God from descending. Even summoning more stars from beyond the sky to bombard him would be useless."

All the Semi-Ancestors' expressions turned exceedingly grim.

"Has the Ancestral God Shennong still not gained the upper hand?"

Everyone's hearts were in their throats.

At that moment, the vanished butterfly tore through the void and appeared. Zhuangzi said anxiously, "Not good. Although the Ancestral God Shennong wields the stone dagger, he is still at a disadvantage... He has no true physical body and cannot exert the full power of his prime."

This was not good news. The mood of every Semi-Ancestor grew unbearably heavy.

One Otherworld Ancestral God was already unopposable, and another was about to descend. Was the World of Immortality truly doomed?

"Let us go and aid the Ancestral God Shennong!" Sun Wu shouted. "Though we may be annihilated in an instant, we must go. We must share as much of the Ancestral God's burden as we can!"

The Yellow Emperor took a step forward. Although hazy mist veiled his body, his majestic bearing fully displayed the spirit of a great emperor. He said, "Leave half of our people here to do everything possible to hold the rift. The rest will go beyond the starry sky to aid the Ancestral God Shennong."

Flash—

A beam of light shot out, and the Yellow Emperor, the Martial Saint, Laozi, and Zhuangzi were the first to charge toward the heavens. Then the Buddha, the Phoenix Matriarch, Confucius, and others also soared into the sky.

Tongtian, Primordial, the Sun Holy Deity, the Three Holy Spirits, Zhunti, the Old Dragon of the Southern Wastes, the White Tiger Saint Emperor, the Great Demon of Heaven, and others stayed behind to resist the Otherworld Ancestral God's descent.

"Boom!"

Terrifying fluctuations rippled out. The Otherworld Ancestral God seemed to have prepared once more to cross over.

"This was originally a scheme to lure the Semi-Ancestors from the space that threatened our World of Immortality, but we inadvertently drew in an Ancestral God from another world. It has been a failed plot." The Old Dragon of the Southern Wastes sighed long.

Killing intent flashed in Tongtian's eyes. He stared coldly at Xiao Chen and said darkly, "There is only one way now!"

Whisk—

All eyes swept toward Xiao Chen like icy blades, sending a chill through his entire body, a cold beyond compare.

At the same moment, Lord Tongtian acted. His speed exceeded imagination. He appeared between Xiao Chen and Keke in an instant and snatched Xiao Chen away.

"Ya-ya... Tongtian, you bad egg! Let Xiao Chen go!" The little white beast cried out in fury.

"The Twenty-Four War Swords, combined with the Heavenly Stele, can seal Paradise Lost and the Ancient Demon Cave below. Clearly, they are sufficient to temporarily seal this spatial rift." Primordial's voice was cold and emotionless, containing not a shred of feeling.

The Sun Holy Deity, the Three Holy Spirits, Zhunti, the Old Dragon of the Southern Wastes, the White Tiger Saint Emperor, the Great Demon of Heaven—all nodded in agreement.

Xiao Chen felt an icy coldness throughout his body. "Very well. Since you need the Twenty-Four War Swords, I have sixteen in my body. Take them to seal the rift."

Everyone's gaze was icy; no one answered him.

Lord Tongtian said darkly, "No need. The Ancestral God's supreme treasure—the smooth round stone—that I obtained from the Heavenly Palace of Youchao is also inside you. And now, with my celestial eye, I cannot even clearly examine your body—there is something strange. Perfect. With your body as the conduit to condense the Twenty-Four War Swords, together with the Ancestral God's precious stone, I believe it will seal the spatial rift for several decades."

"We must be meticulous with the seal. Though few know how to operate the Twenty-Four War Swords, if the Otherworld Ancestral God were to obtain them, the consequences would be unthinkable," said Zhunti.

"No need to worry. For several decades, there is no concern."

"Ya-ya, ya-ya..." The little white beast grew frantic upon hearing this. It sent out a tender voice through spiritual fluctuations: "Bad guys! You're all bad guys! I won't allow it! I won't let you do this!"

The little white beast had already warily opened Paradise Lost and charged at Lord Tongtian.

Flash—

Lord Tongtian vanished from his spot. Keke had lunged at nothing.

As long as they did not enter Paradise Lost, the Semi-Ancestors' magical powers were unfathomable; Keke's speed could never catch them. And of course, as long as the little beast hid inside Paradise Lost, even a Semi-Ancestor would be helpless against it.

"Ya-ya, ya-ya... Please let him go." Keke's soft, tender voice carried a pleading tone.

"There is no time. Quickly, bring out the War Swords you have obtained since."

"Clang, clang, clang..."

Eight War Swords manifested. These were the swords gathered by the disciples of the Semi-Ancestors and later offered to the reborn Semi-Ancestors.

"Puff!"

Lord Tongtian was the first to act. A War Sword pierced through Xiao Chen's chest, and blood gushed out.

"Puff!"

Primordial acted second. A War Sword stabbed through Xiao Chen's abdomen; blood splattered.

Then Primordial, the Sun Holy Deity, and Zhunti all struck in succession, piercing Xiao Chen's body with War Swords. The Great Demon of Heaven was the last to act; he held two War Swords and thrust them through Xiao Chen's body.

Blood stained the golden sand. Xiao Chen's entire body was drenched in fresh red blood. From eight blood holes, blood flowed in streams.

"Ya-ya... No! Wuwu... I beg you, spare him..." The little white beast's childish cries rang out. Time and again it had charged, but it could never catch the traces of the Semi-Ancestors.

"Ya-ya... Wuwu... I'm willing to trade Paradise Lost for him."

All was silent. No one answered.

"Keke, leave quickly. You cannot save me, and I do not hate them. There is no need for you to save me. Even if this world is truly destroyed, you will be safe with Paradise Lost."

"No!" The little white beast rushed forward in desperation.

At that moment, all the Semi-Ancestors acted together, driving Xiao Chen, pierced by the War Swords, into the spatial rift, and shouted: "Seal!"

Twenty-four sword auras shot up from Xiao Chen's body, then transformed into boundless radiance that flooded the spatial rift.

All the Semi-Ancestors struck at once, using the Twenty-Four War Swords to seal the spatial rift.

Xiao Chen's body began to petrify from the inside out, then rapidly expanded. Finally, a stone statue like a giant holding up the heavens blocked the spatial rift, with eight huge War Swords piercing the mountain-like stone body.

"Who would have thought... it would go so smoothly. I believe it can be sealed for a hundred years, even a thousand," the White Tiger Saint Emperor marveled.

"There was something strange within his body; he was the perfect vessel for condensing the Twenty-Four War Swords," Primordial said flatly.

Lord Tongtian circled the enormous stone statue and said, "As you sow, so shall you reap. You slaughtered the Semi-Ancestors, and now you are killed and sealed to guard the spatial rift—that balances the karmic debt."

"If you survive this crisis, Xiao Chen, you will be counted as a great contributor," Zhunti said, circling the massive stone statue like an ancient demonic mountain, holding the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree. "But... your merits are destined to go unknown. Silently guard the spatial rift."

"Ya-ya... Wuwu..."

The little white beast, with the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree atop its head, launched a frantic assault on everyone, trying to draw them into Paradise Lost.

But it could never move faster than the Semi-Ancestors, could never get the better of them.

A flash of murderous intent flickered in the White Tiger Saint Emperor's eyes. "Should we find a way to eliminate it?"

"Good sir, you harbor an obsession. In this life, you have no fate with becoming an Ancestral God," Zhunti said.

The White Tiger Saint Emperor let out a cold snort. "And you think you can become an Ancestral God?"

Though some were openly hostile, in the end they all shot into the starry sky beyond. The most pressing matter now was to help Shennong win.

"Ya-ya... Wuwu... I don't want this..." Deep in the silent Ancient God Wasteland, the little white beast wept alone, lying on the colossal stone statue, its expression infinitely sorrowful.

In the end, the Ancestral God Shennong was victorious. The crisis that threatened to destroy the World of Immortality was averted. The billions of living beings on the Eternal Continent, grateful for the Ancestral God's grace, all enshrined Shennong's golden statue.

Naturally, the Semi-Ancestors who had exerted themselves in the great war also became famous throughout the World of Immortality. All were elevated to places of honor in temples and shrines. Especially those Semi-Ancestors who had fallen and then returned—they were worshipped all the more, for their disciples and followers all spread tales of their merits, saying that these patriarchs had defied heaven and been reborn in order to resist the Otherworld Ancestral Gods, that they were sages of boundless compassion and infinite virtue.

No one knew that some Semi-Ancestors had entered the game unwillingly, that they were part of a failed plot.

And Xiao Chen was fated to remain unknown to the world. He and the Twenty-Four War Swords sealed the spatial rift, but he would be forgotten, standing alone in the wind and rain in silence.

If anyone did ever recall the name Xiao Chen, it would only be to remember his evil deeds of slaughtering Semi-Ancestors.