The moment the god arrived, everyone was shaken.
Xu Qing's eyes gleamed. The captain narrowed his eyes with a solemn expression.
The cultivators from Moon Rebel were frightened, but Red Moon wasn't as excited as imagined.
As the blood in the torn mortal skin spread, all the Red Moon cultivators' cultivation and blood showed signs of losing control.
It seemed like that was the origin, intending to draw everything from them.
As everyone felt a sense of unease, the heir and others who had retreated swiftly dispersed, each displaying a serious expression and bursting with energy. They formed rainbows that intertwined with each other, creating a five-pointed star formation.
The light emanating from them was imprinted in the void, leaving traces of a pentagram. Afterward, the positions of the five individuals changed, standing on the corners of the pentagram, forming a quadrilateral formation.
The heir was on the left, Old Eighth was on the right, Old Ninth was in front, and the fifth princess was behind.
As for Princess Mingmei, she stood in the center with killing intent in her eyes as she spoke.
"His ascension ritual wasn't completely successful. It was forcefully interrupted by, so his[1] divine fire wasn't completely ignited!"
"The current him seems to have the aura of a god, but at the same time, this is also when he is at his most vulnerable. He is suppressing the backlash from failing the ritual!"
"Once he suppresses it and lights the divine fire again, we won't be able to fight back!"
"Therefore, this is our only chance now! I'll cast a taboo art and use time as the source to unlock the Heavenly Dao's lock. I'll use the past to slay him, causing his aura to become chaotic. He will have to withstand the backlash of the failed ritual and will perish on his own!"
Almost at the instant Princess Mingmei spoke, the figure in the Crimson Goddess' mortal skin walked over.
The blood under His feet was like a sea that gushed out, stirring up waves that spread to the ground and the lake, dyeing the world red again.
The stench of blood was so strong that it permeated the air.
The person who walked out of the red light was towering in stature. With every step he took, the resounding sound of heavy footsteps rang out.
This sound caused the sky to ripple and the ground to rumble, affecting the minds of all the cultivators.
Regardless of whether it was the Red Moon cultivators or the Moon Rebel cultivators, their faces turned pale when they heard the footsteps.
The footsteps seemed to have replaced their heartbeats. Step by step, it was as though He was stepping on their hearts.
Everyone instinctively retreated. At the same time, a chill that came from their souls spread throughout their bodies.
In this trembling, almost no one could control the urge to worship Him.
That was the suppression from the level of life. It was the fear of the weak towards the strong.
Under the countless gazes, the figure that walked out of the torn mortal skin became clearer and clearer, gradually entering the world.
That figure was 100 feet tall, entirely crimson, as if He had no skin. While He was badly mangled, one could see that there were many faces on His body.
Every face was different, and there were a total of 13 of them. They were the other 13 among the sovereign's children other than the fourth.
The heir, Mingmei, the fifth princess, Old Eighth, and Old Ninth were all among them.
This scene was incomparably bizarre.
As for the appearance of that figure, it was extremely hideous, with some irregular golden spots between the flesh, dense and ugly.
The four eyes all had double pupils that emitted a cold and indifferent light, as if everything in that world was unimportant in His eyes.
On top of its head, there were thorn-like horns, not just one, but a row extending behind the head and back, connecting with the tail behind.
The tail was entirely golden, trailing on the ground as the figure walked, drawing long trails in the sea of blood.
His hands were similar to the human race's, but He didn't have five fingers but four.
His right hand was still holding a beating heart. As He walked, He squeezed it. When He walked out of the mortal skin and was clearly seen by everyone here, He clenched his hand.
The heart was crushed to pieces.
The heir spat out a mouthful of blood. His face turned pale as he hurriedly spoke.
"His ascension ritual revolves around time."
"The main point of this ritual is to use the time produced by all his blood relatives when they broke through a major realm in the past as the foundation. Devour these breakthrough times and transform them into his own strength, becoming fuel for igniting the divine fire!"
"If he succeeds, it will be equivalent to him gathering everything alone."
"There are a total of 14 of us brothers and sisters, so this ritual has 14 past nodes. Each of these 14 nodes has his shadow of time!"
"Every shadow of time corresponds to a different cultivation base. Only by killing him at these nodes can his ritual be considered a complete failure."
"We have already cleared the five most difficult nodes. There are still nine left now! Next, we will cut off five more, and the remaining four are currently beyond our immediate attention. Li Xiaoshan, if you can fight, you'll deal with one of them, and Divine Sparrow, you'll deal with another one!"
"The only ones who can participate in this ritual are those with the potential of Soul Accumulation or have the authority of a god. So, for the remaining two… Xu Qing, you have authority, and Erniu, you're a divine sinner. Can you two do it?"
The heir's tone echoed in everyone's ears.
Li Xiaoshan's entire body was badly mangled. Amidst his sorry state, he laughed loudly with determination in his eyes.
Divine Sparrow nodded while fighting in the battlefield.
Xu Qing and the captain exchanged glances, and as the battle intent surged, the formation on the side of the heir erupted at that moment. The auras of each person diffused, creating a vortex.
From afar, the heir and his siblings stood in the pentagram, their bodies in a quadrilateral formation. Various phenomena rose in front, back, left, and right.
The phenomenon that appeared on the fifth princess' body was a huge flower basket. Petals were dancing, forming a soft light.
Old Eighth's phenomena was a strange face formed by the convergence of seven emotions and six desires. His expression constantly changed, alternating between all emotions and desires in an instant.
As for the heir, the phantom of Ruler Li Zihua appeared. His aura was majestic, as though it could suppress everything.
Old Ninth's phenomena was a sharp blade that could destroy the world, and it was the manifestation of the God Slaying Platform he had comprehended!
After these four phenomena appeared, they fused together and overlapped to form one great world after another.
At the center of these worlds was Princess Mingmei.
She stood there. Surrounded by the River of Time, her figure was reflected in every large world.
It was as though countless of her had appeared.
They all gazed at the Crimson Goddess' mortal skin.
At that moment, the ocean of blood in the Crimson Goddess' mortal skin once again erupted, and the Divine Son's figure took more steps forward. The color of the world became even more crimson, and the blood of all the cultivators present was also affected.
Regardless of whether it was Red Moon or the Moon Rebel, they felt an increasing loss of control over their blood and cultivation bases.
It wanted to break through their bodies and rush out.
There were even some whose cultivation levels were weak. Their bodies exploded and a large amount of blood gushed out, heading straight for the Divine Son.
Among them were Red Moon cultivators as well.
This scene instantly caused the expressions of the surrounding Red Moon cultivators to change and they didn't dare to approach.
Clearly, the Divine Son no longer cared about the faction. What he cared about was becoming a god.
Hence, even though the Red Moon cultivators retreated, the connection from the same source still caused the bodies of many Red Moon cultivators to continue collapsing and blood gushed out in large amounts.
As the blood fused, the dense god's aura rose even more from the Divine Son's body, affecting the sky and land.
In an instant, the sky distorted, the void became blurry, and the ground churned.
His aura didn't stop.
The Divine Son's cold gaze swept across the surroundings and finally landed on the ritual of the heir and the others.
"Father's path is wrong. In this world, becoming a god is the only way out."
"As for me, I was born after he attained godhood and before he destroyed his divine fire. Hence, I'm different from you guys."
"Your existence serves as a part of my path to godhood, while my purpose is to walk the path my father didn't complete back then."
"This is also the reason why I chose Crimson Goddess. She is my future Dao companion."
The Divine Son calmly spoke. After He finished speaking, He lifted His left hand and grabbed at the mortal skin behind Him.
The mortal skin shook and flew out, heading straight for the Divine Son. After enveloping Him, it transformed into a blood-colored armor that covered His entire body. After that, He took a step toward the heir and the others.
The instant His stride landed, the captain's eyes revealed an intense light. He quickly waved his hand and the sky instantly darkened. The ring of nine suns that he had used earlier descended again at this moment, forming a remission that rumbled and enveloped the Divine Son.
"Junior Brother!"
Almost at the same time the captain spoke, Xu Qing acted. He controlled the Moon Rebel Mirror to rotate slightly.
He knew that the captain rarely did things without rhyme or reason. Since he chose to use the nine suns augmentation at this time and asked him to help, there must be a reason.
Very soon, as the mirror rotated, it shone brightly, illuminating the Divine Son.
In an instant, the Moon Rebel Mirror trembled and the nine suns ring rotated rapidly.
However, the Divine Son ignored all of this. To Him, Xu Qing and the others were just ants. Right now, on the battlefield, only the heir and the others were worthy of His attention.
Hence, His footsteps didn't stop at all. The moment His feet landed, the Moon Rebel Mirror rumbled and cracks manifested on the nine suns ring.
At this moment, in the ritual formed by the heir and the other three, Princess Mingmei, whose images were in the multiple great worlds, simultaneously closed her eyes.
The moment her eyes closed, her tone echoed from the void, the past, and all directions.
"Element earth, burying thoughts, hiding the Dao, pacifying the land of time!"
"Element wood, nurturing the present, harboring the ancient, stabilizing the gate of years!"
"Element water, flowing through the years, grasping the path of life and death!"
"Element fire, burning memories, breaking the lock of the Heavenly Dao!"
"And I, representing metal, bury, nurture, flow, burn, pacify, stabilize, grasp, break!"
Following Princess Mingmei's incantation, the universe reversed. The sky dimmed and everything became blurry.
A surging rainbow river emerged from the void, flowing against the current, submerging everything.
Even the Divine Son who was walking over found it difficult to break through and was enveloped by the long river.
The power of time circulated unprecedentedly here.
From afar, the area surrounding the island seemed to have been erased and fused into the ancient times. Finally, it transformed into an ancient gate on the River of Time that slowly opened.
[1] Princess Mingmei doesn't take him as a god, so she uses 'he' and not 'He'.
