When the eternal night disappeared, everyone's distorted senses and consciousness recovered. Only then did they realize that the world before their eyes had returned to its original clarity.

On the Supreme Platform, the Hundred-eyed Dark Crow, which resembled an apocalyptic catastrophe, had long vanished, and the grand spectacle of the Heavenly Palace was also gone.

The clouds in the sky had completely dispersed. The vast sky was clear, an immaculate blue, without a single wisp of cloud.

Only a faint golden light sprinkled down from the heavens, falling on a figure upon the platform who was emitting a soft white halo.

It bathed his already indescribably magnificent body in an additional layer of golden radiance, as if he had just stepped from the pages of myth and legend.

It was Lu Yuan, and the transformation within him was still ongoing.

This transformation was thorough, from the inside out, from spirit to physique.

It required some time, but Lu Yuan was not in a hurry. He savored the process, all while watching the figure before him.

The figure was Wu Chao. Heaven Lord Wu Chao. He was very calm at this moment.

Neither of them exuded any discernible aura. The air on the platform flowed normally, the Pot Heaven hung high overhead, and the rosy clouds remained.

Everything was so calm, as if two ordinary people were simply standing there, conversing casually.

"What is the realm you are breaking through to?" Wu Chao looked into Lu Yuan's eyes and asked him.

"Grandmaster," Lu Yuan answered.

Wu Chao frowned and shook his head. "Impossible. Are you joking with me?"

"I'm not joking." Lu Yuan took a gentle breath, and the naturally emitted white halo around his body expanded and contracted rhythmically with his breath. He could clearly sense the rapid and meticulous process of his muscles, bones, and blood vessels reshaping and regrowing within him. "What I'm breaking through to is the true Grandmaster. And all of you... are false."

Lu Yuan stretched out a hand towards Wu Chao, palm up, fingers slowly closing. In his palm, tiny white lights flickered like lightning. He was showing something to Wu Chao, who watched with intense focus. Gradually, Wu Chao became engrossed, his gaze fixed on Lu Yuan's palm as if drawn into a bizarre, phantasmagorical world.

Lu Yuan's fingers closed completely, and the white light in his palm vanished. Only then did Wu Chao reluctantly withdraw his gaze.

"I never imagined that after living for two hundred and thirty-two years, I would only realize at the brink of death that the path I've always walked was wrong, that it was false... I cannot accept it! I simply cannot accept it..." Regret filled Wu Chao's face as he sighed repeatedly.

Suddenly, his eyes burned brightly as he stared at Lu Yuan and asked, "My Heavenly Palace Sect's martial arts—did you memorize them?"

Lu Yuan was momentarily taken aback but still nodded. "I memorized them."

"Are they useful to you?" Wu Chao asked again, his gaze fixed on Lu Yuan's eyes.

A peculiar expression flickered across Lu Yuan's face, but he nodded again. "They are."

"That's good." Wu Chao seemed to release a breath of relief, then instructed Lu Yuan, "If you haven't memorized everything, it doesn't matter. I've written down all the essentials of the Heavenly Palace Sect's martial arts and placed them in the Pot Heaven Secret Realm..."

Wu Chao meticulously detailed to Lu Yuan what he had left and where, urging him not to forget to retrieve these items later. He sounded as if he were dictating his last will and settling his affairs. Yet, only a short while ago, they had been locked in a life-and-death struggle, each bent on the other's swift destruction.

Lu Yuan seemed to understand something. He listened quietly, nodding periodically.

Once he had relayed everything, Wu Chao looked at Lu Yuan a final time, his face etched with calm and serenity. His gaze towards Lu Yuan had transformed significantly—it was like that of a true elder regarding a junior, or like one looking upon a long-sought-after hope, the continuation of a profound will.

"I hope today's battle will be of some benefit to you." Looking at Lu Yuan, Wu Chao said softly, "My era has ended; the next era is yours... You can go further than anyone else. Alas... I will not live to see it."

With those words, the light in Wu Chao's eyes rapidly dimmed. His face and body aged with startling speed. Within mere seconds, he transformed from a man of striking, jade-like handsomeness into the withered form of a centenarian on the verge of death.

Lu Yuan watched as Wu Chao's hair turned brittle white and fell out, his skin wrinkled and developed large, dark age spots, and his frame hunched and shriveled.

Finally, utterly ancient, he seemed like completely decayed wood dust. A gust of wind across the high platform... and he scattered completely.

Lu Yuan gazed at the white ash on the ground—all that remained of Wu Chao. He thought of how a Penglai Heaven Lord, a legend of the martial arts world, had been reduced to this pile before him... For a moment, an indescribable melancholy and wistfulness welled up in his heart.

After two hundred years... will I also end up like this?

Previously, Lu Yuan had never contemplated the question of lifespan. He was only seventeen, or eighteen by traditional reckoning. As he himself had said, he was like the sun just risen at seven or eight in the morning. He was still young; he still had abundant time to spend.

But... no matter how young he was now, time flowed ceaselessly, and one day he, too, would inevitably grow old.

Immortality is an eternal, unchanging pursuit... Can the abilities I now possess allow me to live longer than most people? Lu Yuan asked himself but found no answer.

He quickly banished these stray thoughts, along with the lingering melancholy from Wu Chao's death. These were not questions for him to consider now; he would face them when, and if, that day came.

Lu Yuan gathered his thoughts and looked ahead. The platform was in ruins from his battle with Wu Chao. Only a set of stone steps directly before him remained intact.

The stone steps stretched upward, their top disappearing into a gourd-shaped void in mid-air. Copious rosy light spilled from this opening, just as Lu Yuan had seen when he first ascended the platform.

Wu Chao was dead, but the rosy light remained.

This gourd-shaped gap was the true entrance to Penglai. According to Wu Chao, Penglai's true name was the Pot Heaven Secret Realm.

As for the stone steps leading to the Pot Heaven, they must be the so-called Heaven Climbing Ladder of Penglai.

Even from a distance, Lu Yuan could feel the faint, mixed waves of intent emanating from the staircase.

It was said that the Heaven Climbing Ladder of Penglai held the martial imprints of all Grandmasters from the past century, providing a powerful incentive for those seeking to break through to the Grandmaster Realm.

Part of Lu Yuan's original purpose in coming here was for this Heaven Climbing Ladder. He hadn't expected, however, that he would first need to pass a trial after landing on the island to ascend it.

He had already successfully broken through to the Grandmaster Realm, so the Heaven Climbing Ladder was now useless to him.

Lu Yuan strolled towards the stone steps. As he drew closer, he narrowed his eyes. He then saw various distinct visions flanking both sides of the steps.

Each vision represented a martial arts style brought to Great Achievement, a testament to a Grandmaster Level Martial Arts Intent.

Some visions were powerful, others feeble; some were distinct, others vague... They flickered and shifted, a dazzling, almost overwhelming array.

These martial arts visions and Grandmaster Intents intertwined, creating an immense spiritual pressure on the stone steps, crashing down like relentless waves.

Lu Yuan stepped lightly onto the first step of the Heaven Climbing Ladder. Instantly... all pressure vanished, and the visions flanking the steps disappeared entirely.

With a calm expression, Lu Yuan ascended the steps slowly and steadily. He observed the rock walls on either side, marked with countless palm prints, finger imprints, and fist marks... By reaching out to touch them, he could clearly perceive the Grandmaster Martial Arts Intent contained within each imprint.

He proceeded unhurriedly, observing as he walked. In a daze, it felt as if he were reviewing the martial arts history of Sum Country from the past century.

「.....」

To the spectators on Martial Saint Island, the process of Wu Chao's death—his decay into ash—felt as though an entire century had passed.

They had witnessed the Heavenly Palace rise majestically, only to see it crumble. Many were left in a daze.

For many among them, Heaven Lord Wu Chao's name was already renowned when they had just taken their first steps on the path of martial arts.

They had climbed step by step in the martial world: Cultivating Skin, Cultivating Flesh, Cultivating Bone, PracticeOrgans, becoming a martial master, comprehending True Intention, and even reaching Grandmaster.

The higher they climbed, the more intensely they felt the brilliance and majesty of his name—like a radiant sun, to be gazed upon in awe, never to be touched.

Yet now, that sun, which had hung over the Ancient Martial Arts World of Great Sum for two hundred years, had finally set, its light extinguished.

The end of one legend heralded the rise of another. From this day forward, a new name would replace the Heaven Lord, becoming the new sun for countless individuals in the Pure Martial world to look up to and venerate.

Countless people were immersed in the epic atmosphere of this transition between old and new myths. As witnesses to a scene destined to be recorded in martial history, their emotions were complex, their thoughts tumultuous.

After some time, someone suddenly realized something and blurted out, "Isn't he the current Evil Emperor of the Evil Martial Association? Why hasn't he displayed any evil force throughout this entire battle?"

"Huh?!" Many were abruptly startled. Thinking back carefully... Yes, Lu Yuan, known as the God Emperor of the War God Alliance, had stormed Martial Saint Island with overwhelming momentum.

Along the way, he had defeated dozens of Grandmasters and the Penglai Wu Chao, and now, even Heaven Lord Wu Chao, the living legend of the old martial arts world, had been slain by him.

But from beginning to end, he had used only Pure Martial techniques, never revealing even a hint of the Evil God Power unique to Evil Martial practitioners.

FUCKING HELL... Could it be that this guy, who killed the Heaven Lord... actually still held back some of his strength?!

This speculation left the crowd utterly dumbfounded. The profound sentiments they had felt moments ago vanished with this realization.

If this were truly the case, then what they had witnessed today was not a new sun replacing an old one. Rather... it was the sole sun of the Ancient Martial Arts World being devoured by a cataclysm that blotted out the heavens! From this day on, the Ancient Martial Arts World might be facing an unprecedentedly long and dark era!

"Master, the Heaven Lord is dead..." Over with the Rock Breaking Sect, a Rock Breaking Disciple had just stammered out, still in a daze.

Suddenly, BOOM! The ground beside them exploded, and a dark shadow seemed to flit past their eyes.

The group of Rock Breaking Disciples instinctively turned their heads to look— only to see their silver-haired old Sect Leader, the one who had led them here, sprinting towards the island's edge at an unbelievable speed.

That nimble and swift retreating figure was identical to how he looked when he had eagerly rushed to be the first to land on the island. The sight left all the Rock Breaking Disciples utterly stunned.

"Long live the God Emperor, unify Penglai! War God is the true Supreme Path, hahaha!"

At this moment, the Protectors of the Evil Martial Association were likely the most ecstatic members of the crowd.

Seeing Heaven Lord Wu Chao slain and Martial Saint Island utterly conquered by Lu Yuan, the years of pent-up frustration in the hearts of the Evil Martial Association members seemed to erupt and dissipate all at once.

Since its inception, the Evil Martial Association had been locked in an irreconcilable ideological conflict with the Pure Martial world. Throughout its long history, despite boasting dozens of Evil Emperors, they had always been the ones sanctioned and hunted down by Penglai. Never before had there been a spectacle like today— the current Evil Emperor, by his own power, had single-handedly crushed the entirety of Penglai in a world-shattering feat!

Even Penglai Heaven Lord, that legendary figure of the Pure Martial world, had been slain. And what's more, Lu Yuan hadn't even resorted to using his most formidable Evil God Power.

The Protectors of the Evil Martial Association were so overjoyed their feelings were beyond words. Even those among them who previously harbored doubts now looked up at Lu Yuan, high on the platform, with a newfound, unwavering loyalty, ready to follow him to the death.

They brazenly unleashed their Evil Energy auras, as if rallying for the supreme God Emperor in their hearts, bolstering his awe-inspiring prestige.

Just as the entirety of Martial Saint Island began to seethe with turmoil following the conclusion of the battle on the Supreme Platform, an incredibly potent Evil Energy Fluctuation suddenly erupted in the sky above the small island.

Like a colossal, abruptly rising tidal wave, this fluctuation surged outward, spreading in all directions across the small island. In an instant, it seized everyone's attention.

Then, everyone heard a cold, indifferent voice resonate between heaven and earth: "That piece of trash, Wu Chao... is dead?"

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