The Reversal of Time and the Fall of the Four Emperors

A great wind howled, lightning and thunder split the sky, and terrible blood-red tornadoes coiled through the heavens, looking from afar like ghastly sea eyes sucking in the entire world.

At the periphery, crystalline white bone fragments gleamed like stars, each bearing strange patterns—innate Dao diagrams born from heaven itself. All the fragments began to rearrange and recombine, radiating a rainbow radiance that dimmed sun and moon alike.

Within the sacred light of the bone diagram, the tornadoes at the center grew ever more terrifying. Several storm eyes, like sea vortices or massive funnels, pierced through heaven and earth from above to below.

Within them, boundless divine power surged. One could clearly see a figure manifesting at the center of each dreadful storm.

Everyone was horrified. People felt time itself becoming chaotic—flowing away like a great river, never to return, yet also racing backward like a dragon defying the heavens. It was a deeply contradictory sensation: at one moment time swept forward in endless waves, at the next it reversed course, reaching back into the past.

Those terrible storm eyes did not pierce heaven and earth; they connected the past, present, and future!

In the largest vortex, endless time flowed backward, as if linking directly to the primordial age before the ancient flood.

There, the dry yellow earth cracked. Blood plasma surged upward, then heaven and earth overturned, slowly reforming into a giant.

If time had flowed forward instead of backward, it would have been a different scene: a giant with disheveled hair and bronze skin, veins bulging like coiled dragons across his body, bursting with explosive power and the majesty of one who had opened heaven and earth. He wielded a great axe, his body drenched in blood. He was like the backbone of heaven and earth, supporting the universe, but in the end he had fallen, his flesh and blood turning to yellow clay.

But everything had changed. Time flowed backward. The giant recombined, raised his world-opening stone axe, and gathered new power of rebirth. He was actually walking forth from the primordial age before the great flood!

Flash!

A streak of light shot from the small world constructed by the supreme sacred objects. Pangu King transformed into a beam and rushed into the blood-red storm eye, merging with the bronze-skinned giant.

An immeasurable, vast power instantly surged against heaven itself, rolling divine force shattered the firmament. The world-opening giant strode out of the blood-red storm eye, crossing the vast primordial age to arrive in the present era!

"Pangu is reborn!"

"He opened heaven and earth, crossed time and space, manifesting in the present day!"

"No—it is his war soul summoned from the distant primordial past!"

The Four Ancient Emperors drew in cold air. Summoning the war soul of primordial Pangu—this result was too terrifying. Pangu was an invincible figure even among emperors.

Hearing this, the cultivators in the distant sky were all stunned. Even the Stone Kings paled. Those white bone fragments possessed such power—to summon an invincible great power from the primordial past, crossing time and space—it was truly horrifying.

In the past, the Martial Ancestor had exhausted his efforts to gather the complete sacred bone fragments in the Death World. This bone diagram was unfathomably mysterious. Xiao Chen knew of its extraordinariness from two things: first, the War Sword Divine Diagram was born from it; second, an unsurpassed Ancestral Lord of the Death World had once gathered part of the bone diagram and foreseen his own fate and future.

"No matter. He perished long ago; this is not his true body being summoned. It is not as terrifying as imagined."

Even as they spoke, the Four Ancient Emperors struck simultaneously. They could not tolerate any accident, and moved to stop this unexpected turn. But at this moment, outside the vortexes, all the bone fragments trembled.

In a blaze of radiance, wind and thunder roared. Tens of white bone fragments gradually recombined, slowly merging into a complete and sacred bone diagram, like a Taiji or primordial chaos. It was covered in complex, profound markings, as if formed by nature itself—or perhaps it was born that way.

A suffocating wave of divine power rippled outward. The surrounding blood-red tornadoes grew even more violent. All the cultivators in the distance staggered, and some were blown tens of thousands of miles away.

The Four Ancient Emperors could not shatter the sacred bone in a short time. They all changed color, then fell back decisively, flying into the small world and racing along the ancient path toward the gate. They were extremely cautious, wanting to seize control of the Sole True Realm at the earliest opportunity, fearing any accident. Once they controlled it, nothing would frighten them.

At this moment, astonishing changes also took place in the other vortexes.

Nuwa of the primordial age, who had sealed the shattered heavens with her own flesh, was now freed as time flowed backward. Pure and unsullied, holy and flawless, she slowly walked forth from the primordial past. In the real world, Nuwa transformed into a beam of divine light and merged with this ancient soul of overwhelming power.

On another side, a divine fire illuminated humanity's path forward. Suiren strode forward boldly, tearing through primordial time and space. Simultaneously, Shennong, who had been buried in a foreign land, shook off the yellow earth and crossed time to arrive.

At the same time, the broken ancient lamps of the real world—one by one—flashed forward and merged with Suiren, Shennong, Fuxi, the Yellow Emperor, and others from the primordial age.

Thunder and lightning raged; the myriad worlds trembled together.

From those storm eyes walked figures, one after another—some supremely holy, others compassionate, still others looking down upon the eight directions. Their unique auras made people feel the depth of their own insignificance, compelling worship.

Pangu, Nuwa, Suiren, Fuxi, Shennong, the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao, Shun—they came from that distant primordial past, spanning the ages to stand in the present. Eternal since time immemorial, they existed in this world.

On the mysterious ancient path within the small world, one could neither fly nor traverse space—it was an emperor's road. The Four Ancient Emperors ran separately.

"Merely war souls. No need for concern!" Void Emperor glanced back.

Looking upon these former rivals, the Four Ancient Emperors felt complicated emotions. In ages past, it was these very beings who had defeated them, leaving them with no passage to heaven and no gateway to earth. In a sense, they were the losers.

Retreating now was impossible. Moving forward to erase past shame was far too risky. Better to play it safe: enter the Primordial Sacred Land and seize the Sole True Realm. Then they would hold eternity and the future.

But that seemingly peaceful and holy gate was not so easy to pass. At this moment, boundless killing thoughts surged toward them. Though the gate stood open, it contained immense danger!

A roar rang out. Countless killing thoughts came charging in—emperor-level killing intent vibrating from the Sole True Realm. The Twenty-Seven Emperors and Thirty-Six Sovereigns could not leave the Sole True Realm, but they all sensed that someone was about to set foot in the Primordial Sacred Land. They used their supreme killing thoughts to block the way.

Their true bodies did not emerge, but their killing intent crossed time and space to break through!

Boom!

Falling blossoms scattered, blood rain splashed. Heaven and earth were filled with drifting, blood-stained petals. The Four Ancient Emperors were covered in wounds. The killing intent had torn their bodies, inflicting heavy damage.

Shi Zhongdi was awed. Xiao Chen was shaken, and the cultivators of the myriad worlds were terrified.

In the past, when the Chaotic Land had warred against the Otherworld and the sacred objects had assembled, two great powers of the Primordial Celestial Realm had inadvertently used the Stone Key to open this gate and suffered this same calamity. However, those two were clearly not as powerful as the Four Ancient Emperors. Though the emperors' bodies were pierced, they recovered in the blink of an eye.

Clank... clank...

The sound of iron chains shaking came. A colossal primordial beast, whose body could shatter the stars, poked half its form out from a heavenly chasm, swaying its head and lashing its tail. Black mist billowed, hazy and indistinct, but its strength and terror were palpable.

The Four Ancient Emperors charged a second time, meeting it head-on. A massive beast claw swept back, bringing with it a boundless primordial killing thought.

Boom!

The enormous primordial beast fought the Four Emperors alone, actually managing to block them. Its colossal body shattered repeatedly, but reformed each time.

The Four Ancient Emperors changed expression completely. Their situation was now extremely unfavorable: from the Sole True Realm came endless killing thoughts, before them a primordial beast blocked the way, and behind them the emperors were closing in. Meanwhile, the time remaining to them was already short. They could not exist in this world for long, and using their supreme divine power only accelerated this terrible change. Cracks had already appeared in the emperors' flesh—irreversible damage.

Thud, thud, thud...

Pangu King, stone axe in hand, approached step by step. The entire world trembled violently beneath his feet. In the blink of an eye, he was before them. His bronze skin shimmered with faint jewel light, his body sinewy and powerful, like coiled dragons wrapped around his frame. He raised his great stone axe high.

"Pangu—reputed to have unmatched combat power. Today I will destroy your war soul and shatter this legend!" Void Emperor's eyes blazed with divine light for the first time. He roared, "What is real has long since decayed; what is illusory is fated to endure. Boundless, eternal throughout the ages—eternal illusion!"

Whoosh!

In answer, Pangu simply swung his great axe in a vertical cleave. In that moment, both the real and the illusory were split apart.

Void Emperor stared in disbelief, cried out, opened his mouth as if to speak, but his expression froze. His face was filled with shock, as if he had discovered something most terrible. But he could no longer speak.

The stone axe was unstoppable! It shattered his supreme Dao, cleaved his emperor-level flesh in two, and then blasted it to fragments!

Void Emperor was destroyed!

The other three emperors turned back and all changed color. Even if their forms had begun to decay from lingering too long in the myriad worlds, they should not have been split in two by Pangu—unless this was the true Pangu reborn, not a summoned war soul. Still, they breathed a sigh of relief: after that strike, Pangu's body had grown faint, as if it might dissipate with the wind at any moment.

"After all, only a soul, not the true body," the Three Ancient Emperors said, as if reassuring themselves.

At that moment, Pangu King withdrew. Suiren, Fuxi, Shennong, the Yellow Emperor, Yao, Shun, and the others pressed forward.

"They have only one strike left—but it is the mightiest blow of their lifetimes. Do not meet it head-on. Dodge it, and we will be the final emperors!"

The Three Ancient Emperors had seen through the reality of the assembled sovereigns and warned each other.

Boom!

A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering battle began. The Three Ancient Emperors tried desperately to evade, but the nine emperor-level experts' ultimate strike was the explosion of nine great Dao origins. Within these myriad worlds, it was nearly impossible to dodge.

"Ah!" "No!" "True ancient hatred—failure at the last step!"

Three cries of despair and unwillingness rang out in the final struggle. The Three Ancient Emperors were utterly destroyed, body and spirit. Under the grinding pressure of nine Dao origins, survival was impossible.

At the same time, Suiren, Fuxi, the Yellow Emperor, and the other nine—like Pangu before them—their bodies grew faint, as if they might vanish with the wind at any moment. Yet the ten of them pressed forward unwaveringly toward that gate.

Roar!

The colossal primordial beast from the heavenly chasm charged, swinging a world-shattering claw. Pangu King met it, his stone axe raised to block the giant claw, while he himself halted to let the other nine pass.

"Kill!"

Within the Sole True Realm, the Twenty-Seven Emperors and Thirty-Six Sovereigns sensed what was happening. Sixty-three merciless emperor-level killing thoughts tore through the space of the True Realm and surged forth!

Bang, bang, bang!

The bodies of Suiren, Fuxi, Shennong, the Yellow Emperor, Yao, and Shun shattered one after another. But they labored to reform, staggering forward.

With every step, their bodies broke apart.

The endless killing intent from the Sole True Realm continuously ground away their residual war souls.

One step, two steps, three steps… the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were about to step into the final world within the gate.

But at that moment, in the distant sky, Chi You and Xing Tian exchanged a glance. Their gazes fixed on the horizon.

Rumble...

The myriad worlds quaked, as if thousands of troops were galloping. Billowing clouds and mist surged like a tsunami, rolling in from the edge of the sky.