Crack! With a thunderous boom, a heavenly lightning bolt as thick as a water bucket struck down.
After bathing and purifying himself, Ye Ling burned incense and paid homage to the heavens, performing a ritual on the God-Slaying Pillar, which caused the celestial phenomena to change. Once the divine punishment began, no one present could stop it, and the number of lightning strikes was uncontrollable.
Since ancient times, no one had ever ascended the God-Slaying Pillar. This was because no one would be foolish enough to willingly accept divine punishment on the God-Slaying Pillar. Once divine punishment was accepted, it was a reckoning based on one's own accumulated sins. At that moment, one truly depended on whether the Heavenly Dao was merciless or compassionate.
The crowd watched from afar as the Hao Tian Divine Venerable, bound to the God-Slaying Pillar, with complex emotions. Particularly the Dragon God and his daughter, although they wished they could kill him themselves because the destruction of the Divine Wood Realm was partly his doing, they also admired Hao Tian as a true man. He was the first god to willingly ascend the God-Slaying Pillar!
Upon entering Hao Tian’s body, the heavenly lightning caused him to groan. This heavenly lightning was indeed different, as it could suppress immortal spiritual power’s ability to heal internal injuries. He could only endure it with sheer grit.
Seeing this scene, Xuan Ji was already in tears. To this day, it felt like a dream that he had truly gone to the divine punishment platform to save her. No one had ever done so much for her. In the Heavenly Realm, every immortal knew what divine punishment meant…
So, her father god also loved her, his daughter? So there must have been unavoidable difficulties back then? Because she herself couldn't guarantee that one day in the future, she would go to such lengths for her child. The resentment in her heart gradually faded. She understood that all the mysterious help she had received since childhood, including guiding the young her to meet Ju Xun and thus becoming good friends with the childhood Ju Xun, entering the Azure Sea Blue Sky Realm, and from then on bidding farewell to the days of begging and being bullied in the Immortal Realm…
Two strikes, three strikes… countless heavenly lightning bolts struck Hao Tian Divine Venerable’s body. The figure on the God-Slaying Pillar remained motionless, offering no resistance, allowing the heavenly lightning to fall.
Seeing the distant Hao Tian Divine Venerable, bloody and charred black, Xuan Ji knelt with a thud before Ye Divine Venerable and the Dragon God: "Divine Venerable, Lord Dragon God, please save him. I am willing to enter reincarnation for a hundred lifetimes and swear that if I am reborn as a human, I will do more good deeds, and if I am reborn as a beast, I will absolutely not commit any killings!"
"Xuan Ji, if you knew today would come, why did you act that way in the first place? This Venerable cannot save him. You shouldn't be asking the two of us." Ye Divine Venerable glanced at Xuan Ji, then looked up at Hao Tian on the God-Slaying Pillar.
This was already the eighty-first heavenly lightning strike.
The Dragon God, without even glancing at Xuan Ji, stared intently at Hao Tian, his expression filled with sorrow. Even if Hao Tian died, his people, his Ninth, and the countless lives of the Divine Wood Realm would not return.
The catastrophe back then, although outwardly appearing to be an invasion by foreign gods and demons, was actually orchestrated by Hao Tian, Jiu Xiao, Huan Yu, Qing Hua, and Bei Qi Yun Ge. He had killed them one by one for revenge, except for Bei Qi Yun Ge who was in hiding and he couldn't find him.
Originally, Hao Tian deserved to die, but after watching the recorded stone that day, he saw that Hao Tian had helped Ninth in the end and wanted to let him off, planning to settle the score later. But Hao Tian willingly accepted divine punishment, which was indeed beyond his expectations.
Regardless of whether he truly repented or genuinely wanted to save Xuan Ji, this Hao Tian was not to be underestimated. If he safely passed the divine punishment, the Dragon God would have no reason to seek revenge. Therefore, he rather wished Hao Tian would die on the God-Slaying Pillar. The God-Slaying Pillar had not tasted blood for a million years.
Back then, the Heavenly Gate of the Divine Wood Realm, destroyed by domain-outside gods and demons, was sealed by Hu Jiu. However, some demons and domain-outside gods and demons remained hidden in the Heavenly Realm. A hundred years later, after accumulating enough strength, they began invading the Three Thousand Worlds, causing upheaval in the Immortal Realm and Divine Realm. It was Ju Xun who then appeared, eradicating demons and upholding righteousness. At that time, Hao Tian Divine Venerable was in seclusion somewhere.
The difference between demons and domain-outside gods and demons was that domain-outside gods and demons wandered in the void, lacking reason, only knowing how to devour everything. Each group would only give birth to one leader, who possessed intelligence and strength comparable to a Demon King, or even a Demon Lord. They plundered everywhere, devouring one small world after another. As for the demons, they actually cultivated a different kind of spiritual power, demonic energy. However, demonic energy was overbearing, and those with weak willpower would be eroded by it, thus losing their reason. Furthermore, demons preferred taking shortcuts, and by devouring the power of gods and immortals, they could convert it into their own demonic cultivation. This behavior was disdained by the divine race and the immortal race, eventually leading to that great war. They were driven out of the Heavenly Realm. However, at some point, the demons degenerated and colluded with the Demon Kings of the domain-outside gods and demons. They all had one goal: to occupy the Three Realms and enslave and devour the Divine Venerables, the immortal race, and the human race.
In ancient times, the demon race and the divine race fought a great war, and the demons were expelled from the Heavenly Realm by the divine race, forced to live in the resource-scarce Demon Realm, despised by all gods. For a long time, the Heavenly Realm was guarded by the ancient divine beasts of the Divine Wood Realm, with the entrance located in the Divine Wood Realm.
The immortal race feared the divine race’s magical powers and coveted the divine race’s enjoyed resources and unparalleled destiny. Jiu Xiao’s fabricated external avatars were even more ambitious. He looked down on his main body for being cooped up in the Underworld for a million years without coming out. Even Jiu Xiao’s main body didn’t expect that a single selfish thought of his would cause the destruction of the Divine Wood Realm. He also didn’t expect that his avatar, the Divine Lord Jiu Xiao, would collude with the demons, and the demons, for their own inflated ambitions, would attract the domain-outside gods and demons. In the million years after the destruction of the Divine Wood Realm, Ju Xun, along with her ten thousand divine soldiers, appeared and fought countless battles with the demons.
Was Hao Tian Divine Venerable innocent? The moment Ye Ling saw Hao Tian, he knew that his divinity was already blurred. Even if his cultivation improved, it would be of no use.
Ye Ling also admired Hao Tian’s courage, embracing death to find life. Being able to survive the divine punishment indicated that the Heavenly Dao recognized his past merits, balancing his merits and demerits. The heavenly lightning tempered his divinity, and at the same time, it resolved his feud with the Dragon God. If he hadn't survived, he probably would have accepted it willingly.
Ye Ling and the Dragon God exchanged glances, both understanding that the other knew of Hao Tian Divine Venerable's scheme. As for Xuan Ji, since she had caused Bao You to enter reincarnation, her reincarnation was considered a fair exchange.
Hao Tian Divine Venerable was indeed the Heavenly Emperor who governed the immortal race. Despite the divine punishment of one hundred and eight heavenly lightning strikes, even his charred black body still contained a faint breath of life. The Heavenly Dao left him a sliver of hope.
Ye Ling examined his body and found that the Heavenly Dao divinity had stabilized. Although his advancement was reduced to the cultivation of an Immortal Venerable, with time he could cultivate back and become a god again.
A cry sounded, it was Hao Tian's mount, the Chongming Bird. The Chongming Bird circled Hao Tian once, and seeing its master so heavily injured, it cried out mournfully. It landed on the ground and transformed into a woman.
"Greetings, Beast God, Divine Venerable!" The Chongming Bird only possessed the bloodline of an ancient Chongming Bird descendant. She had a thin bloodline and had not yet cultivated her clan’s Eye of Truth. True Chongming Birds have two pupils in each eye, also called dual-pupil birds. Their most powerful innate skill is to see into the future, possessing the Eye of Truth. The founder of the Dual-Pupil Elder sect was a dual-pupil. While traveling, he accidentally saved an injured Chongming Bird, and thus the Chongming Bird gifted him its clan's cultivation technique.