Summit of the Old Gods-Chapter 1170 - 1083: Conclusion

No way to the heavens, no door to the earth.

Not only was the entrance to Jade Corpse Mountain sealed off, but its hollowed interior, countless minions turned into jade powder, quickly assembled into white jade corpses, compressing Huangfu Zhao’s space for survival!

What to do?

Huangfu Zhao’s face was grim, and after counting the skills of the Dongting and Purple Thunder Demon Peng sects, he despairingly realized he had no way to escape.

"Ha!!"

Huangfu Zhao roared in anger, unwilling to give up, and once again performed the Evil Technique·Demon Peng’s Mighty Weight in the increasingly limited space.

Just like how he charged in before, now he should charge out!

However... he was still missing that momentum.

To make matters worse, the structure of the entire Jade Corpse Mountain was becoming increasingly firm.

"Ah! Ahhh!" Huangfu Zhao roared, recklessly charging with all his might.

No more.

No hope left.

Only layers of piled-up white jade corpses filled the mountain’s interior, repeatedly pressing against Huangfu Zhao’s stone-sculpted body.

"Crack!!"

The Thunderbird shell shattered with a bang, and the corpses surged like waves.

At this moment, Huangfu Zhao stopped struggling.

The rushing corpses from all directions bore tortured, twisted faces, as if foreshadowing the fate awaiting him.

"Heh." Huangfu Zhao suddenly laughed.

It was the laughter of someone reconciled.

He had experienced too much in this life, already seeing through life and death.

Ever since the Cloud Sea Sect was scattered and Master Qiao was called back to the human world, he lived like a walking corpse, enslaved by the gods, wandering aimlessly in the Heavenly Realm.

Huangfu Zhao did not blame Master Qiao; he felt honored to have fought alongside Master Qiao for a time.

Even more fortunate to have met the Young Master years later and escorted him for a time.

Gathering the remnants, slaughtering gods, and slaying demons.

This life wasn’t lived in vain.

Almost there.

So many disciples of the Cloud Sea Sect were waiting for him...

"Boom!"

The white jade corpses piled up and covered Huangfu Zhao’s body.

The "crackling" sound was the noise of Huangfu Zhao’s body continuously turning into jade stone and breaking into jade powder.

The deity of the human clan, being severely squeezed, did not roar out loud but quietly accepted everything.

Lower leg damaged, arm broken.

His gray stone face, cracking and caving inch by inch...

As the world spun around him, Huangfu Zhao suddenly felt something different.

Was this his hallucination?

Or, perhaps he was already dead?

Why did the surrounding corpses squeezed together suddenly disappear?

Only the corpses beneath were crowding around him...

"Who are you?" a puzzled voice came from ahead.

Huangfu Zhao, equally confused, despite his broken body, tried to discern the direction of the voice.

"Why am I here?" The female voice came again.

Besides confusion, she seemed to be in pain.

Huangfu Zhao opened his left eye and the half-damaged right eye, trying hard to see clearly ahead.

Was that... the Faceless Jade Venerable?

She held her head in her hands, her face twisted: "Who are you... I... why... uh."

Huangfu Zhao suddenly realized that he was still alive!

Why?

Because she wanted to ask questions?

"Screech~~~"

Huangfu Zhao’s divine power surged, the Thunderbird shell covered his battered body, lightning shattered the jade skin, revealing the gray stone sculpture beneath.

Thus, the divine sculpted body became even smaller.

Huangfu Zhao didn’t care about the other’s questions, desperately trying to escape.

But countless hands clung to his broken thighs, wrapped around his waist, submerging his lower body.

Looking down, there were faces of those who died tragically.

The white jade corpses hadn’t come to life, but they could move, submerging Huangfu Zhao’s lower body under the mind of the Faceless Jade Venerable, firmly holding him in place.

The Thunderbird shell easily tore apart the Heavenly Realm minions around him.

But it couldn’t tear the white jade corpses.

"Who am I..."

At the peak of Jade Corpse Mountain, the massive Jade Venerable had one hand on her head, looking at the half-exposed stone sculpture on the mountain’s surface below.

She stared down at him, wanting to say something more, but Huangfu Zhao’s eyes were bursting with rage, his body coursing with divine power.

Sparkling currents slashed across Huangfu Zhao’s shattered face, bursting from his broken eyeball.

"Hoo!!"

In the sky, dark clouds gathered.

Without arms, unable to summon a battle axe; with broken legs, unable to step out the Thunderstorm Purple Light.

But he could coat himself with the Thunderbird shell, could grow wings from his back!

Even if he couldn’t escape, he could still summon dense clouds, calling down massive lightning like heavenly punishment, to destroy everything.

Sadly, this Jade Corpse Mountain was not within the scope of "everything."

But it didn’t matter.

It all... didn’t matter anymore.

Dongting Sect’s second greatest move·Thunder Shock Fury!

"Crack! Crack..."

Thunderclouds roiled, lightning struck down.

The surrounding white jade city walls cracked, countless Jade Venerable minions fell, and even the towering Jade Corpse Mountain trembled but did not shatter.

"Why? I just want to ask you... I just want to know... uh."

The Faceless Jade Venerable moaned in pain, ranting angrily.

Huangfu Zhao squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "You, should die!"

In the dense lightning, his vision suddenly blurred as a figure suddenly appeared before him.

Huangfu Zhao’s eyes suddenly widened!

The Evil Shadow Guardian’s hands had already grasped his shoulders.

"Boom!" Endless white jade corpses churned beneath, swiftly submerging Yan Shuangzi’s legs.

"Swoosh!"

Two stone sculptures suddenly flashed away and disappeared without a trace.

"Huangfu Heavenly General!"

"Huangfu!" Concerned voices echoed from Conlong Divine Mountain.

To Huangfu Zhao, the voice seemed distant, as if coming from the horizon.

"Crack..."

The broken stone body shattered completely from the waist below.

The upper half of the body, on the verge of breaking... no miracle happened.

Huangfu Zhao still accepted it calmly, just a faint sadness welled up in his eyes.

He greeted the black and gold fish, but, severely wounded, he couldn’t survive.

The stone body was damaged, the mist dispersed.

"Disperse!" Jiang Ruyi decisively commanded, picking up the Rebirth Money, moving forward.

Above the mountain in the high sky, Qiao Wanjun pursed her lips, standing on her sword, gazing towards the southeast.

The thunderclouds were gradually dissipating, and the fine lightning no longer struck down.

But Huangfu Zhao’s last strike before dying clearly indicated the location of Jade Corpse Mountain for everyone and also opened a path for himself.

The Evil Shadow Guardian, with its uniquely capable eyes, discovered and brought back his skeleton from the midst of the army.

The skeleton, signified the Divine Soul.

In the palm of a tomb, the Divine Soul meant rebirth!

"The original soldiers of Conlong Divine Mountain and Heavenly General Bai, continue to guard this mountain," Jiang Ruyi’s voice echoed again, "All others, target Jade Corpse Mountain! Attack!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!" Indignant voices reverberated across the battlefield.

All the soldiers flew from the Divine Mountain, leaving the area of dense mist that Huangfu Zhao dispersed, also seeing the direction he had pointed out with his life.

Jade Corpse Mountain was right there!

At this moment, the overwhelming minions of Jade Venerable were closing the city walls, seemingly trying to conceal the Corpse Mountain.

Was the Jade Venerable’s true body trying to escape?

No! No! Not allowed!

Several Heavenly Emperors raced away, followed closely by Divine Generals and Heavenly Generals.

Countless Frost Swords and Wind Blades were unleashed, a Sea-piercing Flame trailing after and quickly approaching the White Jade City Wall.

And before these attacks reached, two torrents of long spears appeared in front of the city wall, splitting open two broad pathways.

Another blood sea was surging forth.

Jiang Ruyi securely stowed away Huangfu Zhao’s Divine Soul and instinctively looked down at her palm.

Alas, the mist was too thick; she couldn’t see the Emperor-robed Youth.

Even without the mist, she couldn’t see the river of memories surrounding the youth, nor the floating phantom ancient copper coins.

"Hoo~"

Lu Ran’s hand slowly clenched tightly, and the last fragment of the memory scene was compressed and solidified into a phantom ancient coin.

As his hand lifted, the Floating Life Coin flew out from the memory scroll, together with a large number of Floating Life Coins, gently floating around him.

It was enough.

"Hoo~"

Lu Ran’s hand opened, and a large number of Floating Life Coins flew in, stacking layer upon layer in his palm.

What is the essence of existence?

From Lu Ran’s current perspective: existence is a stream of flowing memories.

The souls of the living carry countless pasts, while the Faceless Jade Venerable has accumulated unimaginable experiences over the long years.

This brought much agony to Lu Ran.

Fortunately, time helped him greatly, and most trivial matters had already become obscure in Jade Venerable’s mind.

What still exists within her Divine Soul are those heavily emotional scenes.

Joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.

They were like knives, carving out the present Faceless Jade Venerable, cut by cut.

All beings are like this.

The reason you become who you are at this moment half comes from your inherent personality traits, the other half from the traces that the river of time carves out on you.

The grains of rice you ate yesterday will not stay forever in your stomach.

But they transform into nourishment, maintaining your body functions at that moment, becoming part of your life.

Similarly, every person you meet in life, every event you experience, every piece of text you read, every taste of success and failure, joy and sorrow...

All of these, collectively, are knives.

Together they carve and shape who you are at this very moment.

So now the question arises.

When these memories, when all the elements that shaped you throughout time, are completely uprooted and extracted...

What remains?

What will the Faceless Jade Venerable be at that time?

A mere empty shell with a powerful body, yet bewildered and lost?

An empty, undefined, and selfless void of a soul!

"Snap."

Lu Ran embraced a lamb, holding its head in one hand.

The fragile creature’s skull was easily crushed.

In an instant, another burst of intense Divine Power dispersed, and the Divine Soul of the Jade Venerable’s true body arose.

"Lu Ran?" Jiang Ruyi immediately sensed something was wrong with the energy concentration around him.

The Magic Artifact Fragments--Rebirth Money in her hand also trembled, informing its owner of the presence of a Divine Soul.

"Hmm." Lu Ran appeared sorrowful, still steeped in extreme emotion, storing the thickly piled Floating Life Coins into the Fiery Phoenix Patterned Gourd.

He glanced over, his gaze piercing through the mist flame jade powder, witnessing a newly slain White Jade Passage.

And further in the southeastern distance, he saw his subordinates besieging Jade Corpse Mountain.

Jade Venerable...

It should end.

...