Chapter 251: Ruling the World (20)

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. Across the major cities, market towns, island sects, and clans of the Heavenly Abyss Sea, a storm of rumors had already swept through.

Cultivators from all directions rushed to spread the news. In every street and alley, people fervently discussed a secret that had rocked the entire sea region. The most bustling spots were the local inns where traveling cultivators stayed. Amid the clamor of voices and endless debates, cultivators from all walks of life gathered, and every conversation inevitably circled back to that great figure who had suddenly appeared.

At a neighboring table, a green-robed cultivator lowered his voice. His face tight with disbelief, he spoke of the secret that had spread across the four seas in recent days.

"Have you all heard? When the Ancient Teleportation Array appeared that day, the mysterious almighty figure who crossed realms through it was none other than the second Nascent Soul Late Stage expert to suddenly emerge in the Demonic Path Alliance over four hundred years ago—Demon Venerable Nine Nether!"

A young cultivator widened his eyes in horror. "Are you serious? Doesn't that mean he's a senior who has lived for nearly two thousand years? A true ancient monster!"

"Shh! Keep your voice down!" an older cultivator nearby quickly raised a hand to silence him, his expression filled with extreme dread. "Senior Jiuyou has always had an unpredictable temperament and kills on a whim. He was a famously vicious figure of the Demonic Path with a terrifying reputation back in the day. He once slaughtered his way into the heartland of the Righteous Path Alliance alone, wiped out a major sect of the Righteous Path, and retreated entirely unscathed despite being surrounded by dozens of cultivators at the same stage. Now, rumors say he has already stepped into the Deity Transformation Realm, ascending to the absolute peak of the Great Dao in this world. Ancient Records state that a Deity Transformation Cultivator's Divine Sense covers a thousand li. A careless word from us could be instantly perceived by him from afar, leaving our bodies perishing and Dao vanishing without us even knowing why."

He paused, his tone growing even more solemn as he laid out the proof. "This is absolutely no rumor; it was released by the Demonic Path Alliance themselves. At first, many in the Righteous Path Alliance had their doubts and secretly sent people to investigate, but after those envoys returned, the entire Righteous Path Alliance fell utterly silent. Without a single word of dissent left, they have clearly confirmed it to be true."

The cultivators in the inn exchanged terrified looks, sighing in amazement.

"When he appeared four hundred years ago, he had already achieved the Nascent Soul Late Stage. After hiding away to cultivate for several centuries, he actually took that final step and achieved the Great Dao of Deity Transformation! Such fortune is simply unimaginable."

"Things are going to get lively now. I'm afraid the Righteous Path Alliance won't be able to sleep at night. The three major factions used to balance each other in peace, but now the Demonic Path has an almighty Deity Transformation figure holding down the fort out of nowhere. The future dynamic between the righteous and demonic factions is going to be completely overturned."

The rising and falling cries of shock and lamentation lingered in the inn for a long time.

It wasn't just this one small inn. At this very moment, the news was spreading like wildfire through all cultivator circles across the entire Heavenly Abyss Sea.

Countless people were filled with bewilderment, struggling to believe that Demon Venerable Nine Nether—who had vanished for centuries and was widely presumed dead—had not only survived unscathed to this day but had broken through his bottlenecks to achieve the Deity Transformation Dao fruit, a feat rarely seen in ten thousand years.

However, all the clues and evidence left the masses with no choice but to believe it. The celestial phenomena of the Ancient Teleportation Array, the terrifying pressure of the realm-crossing almighty figure that day, the personal confirmation from the Demonic Path Alliance, and the tacit silence of the Righteous Path Alliance—every single piece of this was ironclad proof.

This news, like a monstrous storm, thoroughly swept across the entire Heavenly Abyss Sea.

The Heavenly Abyss Sea had limited foundations and barren ancient inheritances. Aside from the sudden descent of five mysterious Deity Transformation Realm cultivators seven or eight hundred years ago to pacify the blood mist disaster, this region had not produced a single native Deity Transformation Cultivator in over ten thousand years.

The emergence of Jiuyou made him the second Deity Transformation powerhouse in the recorded history of the Heavenly Abyss Sea.

The previous one was the ancient progenitor who had led the early pioneers across the sea region to migrate and take root here, and they had long since turned to dust in the wind of time. After a gap of ten thousand years, the Heavenly Abyss Sea had once again birthed a Deity Transformation expert, a feat more than enough to shake the foundations of all the factions.

Everyone clearly understood that from this point forward, the Demonic Path Alliance, which had remained quiet for hundreds of years, was bound to rise again in dominance.

Even if Jiuyou remained indifferent to worldly affairs from now on, with no intention of intervening in the sea region's disputes or balancing the various factions, merely having the name of a Deity Transformation expert holding the fort made for an unshakable, heaven-supporting pillar.

The various sects, clans, and rogue cultivators who previously coveted the resources of Endless Island and secretly made things difficult for the branch factions of the Demonic Path would be silenced by fear from now on, with not a single person daring to harbor even a sliver of malicious intent.

What was more, Xiao Yi—who currently controlled Endless Island and commanded all the Demonic Path factions in the Heavenly Abyss Sea—was technically Jiuyou's junior separated by a generation. Since the Demonic Path Alliance had released the news of Jiuyou's return to the world, the two of them had presumably already reunited and acknowledged each other.

With this Deity Transformation martial ancestor backing him, there was no need for any verbal protection. By virtue of this connection alone, Xiao Yi could likely run rampant without taboo across the Heavenly Abyss Sea, Lingchuan, and even Ganzhou, the rumored holy land of cultivation. No cultivator or faction would ever dare to provoke him lightly again.

At the same time, on Endless Island, within the Emberless Ancestral Soul Grand Hall.

The light inside the grand hall was dim and solemn, the atmosphere heavy as iron. Standing strictly on both sides of the hall were the top figures under the Demonic Path Alliance—all people who wielded power over major sects, noble clans, and islands, with the absolute lowest cultivation among them at the Middle Nascent Soul Stage. At a rough glance, there were a good sixty or seventy people arranged in two rows. Everyone possessed a profound aura; on any normal day, they were all giant figures whose words carried absolute weight in their respective territories.

Yet at this moment, these almighty figures of the Demonic Path—who were usually high and mighty—all wore formal expressions. They secretly released their Divine Sense to converse in low tones, their brows hiding a restlessness and anticipation that was hard to suppress.

Before long, two sets of steady footsteps approached from a distance, echoing clearly into the hall.

All the cultivators instantly cut off their Divine Sense conversations, and the entire venue went dead silent. Everyone reigned in their thoughts, holding their breath in deep concentration as their gazes uniformly landed on the main doors of the hall.

A tall, imposing figure stepped slowly into the hall, with Xiao Yi following closely behind, accompanying him with utmost reverence.

The very instant this person appeared, a vast, majestic, and formless pressure swept through the entire ancestral soul hall.

This spiritual pressure had long since transcended the boundaries of the Nascent Soul realm, towering above all cultivation systems in this world. The sixty-odd Nascent Soul almighty figures in the hall felt their own Nascent Souls trembling endlessly. Their souls were completely and firmly sealed in place, as if their life, death, glory, and disgrace all rested on a single thought from the other party.

Everyone's minds were violently shaken, and the Dao heart they had honed for centuries nearly shattered. Their usual arrogance and dominance were entirely wiped out; right now, they were like stiff-limbed children, not daring to make the slightest movement.

Jiuyou swept his gaze lightly across the hall and coldly scoffed inwardly.

The scene couldn't be considered extravagant or lavish; everything was kept simple, without any massive banquets or flashy grandstanding. It actually suited his tastes perfectly.

He stepped forward unhurriedly, passing through the dead-silent crowd and walking straight toward the supreme seat of honor at the very top of the hall before slowly taking his seat.

As he settled into his seat, the terrifying pressure that had just filled the hall and nearly suffocated everyone abruptly retracted, fading away without a trace like the receding tide.

The bodies of everyone in the hall instantly felt lighter. Their minds, stretched taut to the absolute limit, suddenly relaxed. Quite a few people couldn't help but gasp heavily for air, their backs already soaked through with cold sweat, as if they had just narrowly survived a trip through the gates of hell.

Everyone hurriedly lowered their normally noble heads, bowing at the waist to display their reverence toward this entity.

It wasn't until this moment that the last remaining sliver of doubt in everyone's hearts completely vanished into thin air.

Rumors were empty in the end; only by personally experiencing that terrifying suppression capable of reaching the heavens and piercing the earth did they truly believe it. Senior Jiuyou, who had vanished for hundreds of years and was now right in front of them, had indeed already stepped into the Deity Transformation Realm, becoming a top-tier almighty figure who had transcended this world.

Silence reigned inside the grand hall. Countless gazes quietly landed on that figure up above, while the same question surfaced in their minds all at once.

A Deity Transformation Divine Lord who already looked down upon the world and transcended the mortal plane would long be free from the shackles of territorial factions. Why would he return to the Heavenly Abyss Sea and appear once again in this ancestral hall of the Demonic Path?