At this moment, Chu Mo looked at the Sky Patriarch, clasped his fists, and said, "Senior, killing me would be as easy as turning your palm. But as Senior has said, by the end of this ancient battlefield, those remaining as giants may number fewer than fifty. Perhaps there will be a mutation because of that—no one can say for sure. If Senior is willing to spare me this time, it would mean I owe Senior a life. Someday, should Senior need assistance, I will do everything in my power to help!"

"What you say does seem to make some sense." The Sky Patriarch looked at Chu Mo and decisively withdrew the divine sense that was locking onto him, along with the overwhelming pressure emanating from him. At this level, decisions are made with but a mere thought.

There was no room for remorse. He understood well that killing this young man now would simply be adding another death—a matter of no particular significance. Besides, he was supremely confident that the next time he encountered Chu Mo, he would still be able to suppress him.

Thus, he might as well let him go. Having such a promising young man owe him a favor might not be a bad thing!

Moreover, he was very interested in the prophecy Chu Mo had mentioned. Sparing this life might lead to many intriguing developments.

With that decision, the Sky Patriarch cleanly and sharply spared Chu Mo's life.

Only then did Chu Mo truly exhale in relief. He clasped his fists again and respectfully said, "Thank you, Senior, for your magnanimity. I will remember this forever."

"You may leave." The Sky Patriarch said, his figure gradually fading until he vanished into the void.

Chu Mo immediately turned and left.

This encounter with the Sky Patriarch served as a sharp warning for Chu Mo. On this ancient battlefield, the number of giants far exceeded what he typically encountered in the Immortal Domain.

In the past, while he knew of giants' existence, hardly any showed themselves publicly, nor did they easily act. But here, things were utterly different. In this place, giants of the ancestral realm roamed freely, acting as invincible hunters!

The Sky Patriarch might let him go, but this did not mean other giants would share that sentiment.

Moreover, the Primordial Chaos Patriarch would surely continue to hunt him down the moment he realized Chu Mo was still alive.

Chu Mo streaked quickly across the vast starry river, an urgent thought weighing heavily in his heart: I must accelerate my own breakthrough to the ancestral realm! To survive in this ancient battlefield, I must become a true giant!

At this point, Chu Mo began leveraging the Fengshui Divine Art to deduce the void of the cosmos around him. His divine sense stretched out to an incredibly vast distance, eventually locating a suitable star.

It was a colossal dead star, lifeless for countless years. The surface of the star was plagued by horrible storms raging endlessly. Even his divine sense required considerable effort and time to survey everything on this star.

Giants' divine senses could instantly cover the boundless starry skies, yet they rarely paid significant attention to stars like this one.

"I will retreat here to cultivate!" Chu Mo thought, flying directly toward the star.

The closer he got to the terrifying storms, the more he could feel their ferocity. Even with his body in the ancestral realm, he found it hard to endure.

Immediately, he activated his divine war armor and descended straight to the star's surface, following the center of a storm.

Afterward, he entered the star's interior.

The star was vast, with a diameter of over ten billion miles. Within this expanse of sky, although not the largest, it was quite prominent.

Places like this were often overlooked. Combined with its harsh conditions, it was seen as wholly unsuitable for cultivation. Typically, no one would think of retreating here intentionally.

The star's interior was calm, yet utterly dead, devoid of vitality, spirit energy, or essence energy.

But for Chu Mo, what he needed now was not energy accumulation, but comprehension of a higher realm of the Dao.

Thus, at least for now, this place was ideal for him.

Chu Mo proceeded directly to the near-center of the star. Going further inward became extraordinarily difficult, even for someone of his level. The crushing pressure was only one factor; the hardness of the environment here posed yet another challenge!

Chu Mo carved out a small space here and swept away all traces of his presence. Then, he concealed his aura and merged with the star itself.

Unless a giant of the ancestral realm specifically stopped here and carefully searched its innermost depths using divine sense, they would be unable to discover him.

Satisfied with this refuge, Chu Mo sat cross-legged and embarked on a prolonged journey of enlightenment.

Time passed in haste; before long, eight years had transpired.

During these eight years, countless beings perished on this battlefield.

In truth, by the third year, nearly all the cultivators who had entered the ancient battlefield were almost entirely wiped out. Only a precious few—those of Chu Mo's caliber—managed to find such isolated sanctuaries.

But not everyone had a cultivation level like Chu Mo's, which enabled him to retreat to such an extreme location.

Hence, in the subsequent years, the death toll only grew. Few cultivators beneath the level of giants survived.

The entire ancient battlefield became riddled with cold corpses and vast lakes of blood, saturated with boundless resentment and an overwhelming stench of slaughter.

This was now a true human purgatory.

At the end of the seventh year, a mysterious ranking list suddenly appeared in the mental consciousness of everyone still alive on the battlefield.

The list contained exactly one hundred names!

No one knew where the list came from or why it appeared in their mental consciousness.

But everyone understood: the final moment was drawing near!

When this battlefield first opened, billions upon billions of beings entered! Yet in these short—not even ten—years, almost all were dead! Only one hundred individuals remained!

Many powerful cultivators quickly scanned the list with their divine sense, examining the names one by one.

Instead of beginning from the top, they started from the bottom!

This was because the top names on the list were recognized as the most notorious, mighty giants in the battlefield—standing indisputably at the peak of power! In essence, the rankings likely mirrored combat prowess!

Thus, in their view, the last fifty names on the list were likely the ones that needed to be eliminated.

Among several giants scanning the list with their divine sense, there was a brief pause in their expressions.

Ranked seventy-sixth on the list was a name that drew collective attention—Chu Mo!

"He's still alive?" The Primordial Chaos Patriarch momentarily shuddered in shock, genuinely caught off guard. That little runt had once entered another giant's divine sense range, and that giant had acted against him!

Could it be that he survived even that? How was this possible!

The Primordial Chaos Patriarch's face grew grim. As long as Chu Mo was alive, he felt deeply unsettled. The moment the list entered his mental consciousness, he began deducing Chu Mo's specific location.

In another frigid expanse of starry void, Patriarch Canglan had just driven a half-step giant out of the center of a star. With a single palm strike, he shattered the star entirely, then pressed his attack toward the fleeing half-step giant. Just then, the ranking list appeared.

This interruption caused Patriarch Canglan's palm strike to falter slightly.

The opponent, although coughing up blood, seized the opportunity to escape billions of miles away, vanishing into the vast cosmos.

Patriarch Canglan did not pursue. Looking strikingly young, like a thirty-something Daoist, he appeared to be a youth. In reality, he was a genuine giant. A playful smile crept across his face as he murmured, "Chu Mo… this name rings familiar! Surviving so many calamities and making it onto the hundred-person ranking—it's impressive. But… do you think this alone will ensure your survival? Naive!"

Patriarch Canglan immediately began his deductions.

However, Chu Mo's Tianji was exceedingly obscure. Finding him would not be quick or easy.

Yet Patriarch Canglan was unfazed. In this battlefield, the Investiture of the Gods would only arrive when fifty individuals were left standing. Time here mattered little.

Elsewhere across another sector of the starry void, Patriarch Jiu Lie had just slain a Great Saint Realm cultivator.

To be frank, this Great Saint Realm cultivator's combat ability was truly subpar. He couldn't withstand even a single strike from Patriarch Jiu Lie. Yet his exceptional skill was his ability to flawlessly merge with any object!

Indeed, he had successfully eluded Patriarch Jiu Lie's divine sense, which had not detected a presence on that star.

Patriarch Jiu Lie had merely destroyed the star out of routine.

On every ancient battlefield, toward the later stages, giants invariably engaged in tactics like these.

Otherwise, some individuals could truly remain undetectable.

Thus, when Patriarch Jiu Lie annihilated the star, he was startled to find a cultivator hidden within, killed outright by the impact.

But Patriarch Jiu Lie felt no joy from this—it was purely coincidental.

When the ranking list emerged in Patriarch Jiu Lie's mental consciousness, his eyes immediately shot forth twin spears of frosty light. A cold laugh escaped his lips: "Chu Mo… still alive? This one must die!"

In that instant, three giants simultaneously developed a vehement intent to kill Chu Mo.

This murderous intent was utterly unrestrained!

In fact, they deliberately projected their killing intent outward, hoping Chu Mo might sense it and react. This would make it easier to track him down and strike him dead!

The specificity of this killing intent was crystal clear; others who sensed it instinctively knew it wasn't directed at them.

Truthfully, during this brief moment, the Primordial Chaos Patriarch, Patriarch Canglan, and Patriarch Jiu Lie were not the only giants to unleash their bloodthirsty resolve. There were another seven or eight waves of killing intent with similarly unmistakable targets.

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