Chapter 2037: Heavenly Punishment

The Meteor Mountain of Annihilation plummeted downwards, while the Sky-Shattering Hammer surged upwards. Like sparks from a blacksmith's forge, a single strike unleashed a sky-filling torrent of purple lightning in all directions.

Indeed, the oppressive force of the crimson Meteor Mountain of Annihilation was overwhelming; a mere glance was enough to make one gasp for air, as if one's very spirit would be crushed. Yet, the Chief of Godcloud, whose entire body was covered by a mask, unleashed power no less formidable at that moment. With a single blow, he slowed the Meteor Mountain of Annihilation's descent, and he blasted immense lightning power into the mountain's core, causing cracks to appear all over the crimson peak, from which purple electric light surged.

“Coalesce!”

Sheng Xin's technique was far from simple. He roared instantly, forming a hand seal with his fingers. The crimson Meteor Mountain of Annihilation immediately collapsed inward, its cracks sealing up. A colossal blood-armored demon ancestral statue then emerged on the mountain's surface. This statue held a great spear, looking mighty and awe-inspiring. No sooner had it appeared than the long spear pressed down, causing the momentarily halted Meteor Mountain of Annihilation to accelerate again. Just as the Chief of Godcloud's hammer released its force and was about to rebound upwards, the mountain brutally slammed onto his neck.

“Break!”

The Chief of Godcloud, clad in the Godhood Calamity Armament, lifted a single arm, tilted his head, and used the strength of his shoulder and neck to resist the mountain's downward pressure. With a backhand, his second hammer smashed upwards again. With a thunderous boom, the crimson mountain once more split open with a massive hole, and cracks erupted everywhere. Even the mountain's spirit, the colossal blood-armored demon god statue, was directly pulverized by the Godhood Calamity's lightning.

Around the Meteor Mountain of Annihilation, shattered rocks tumbled down. Sheng Xin let out a muffled groan, but the fierce light in his eyes intensified: “How much power do you have left? Kneel before this Ancestor!”

He curled his palm and pulled again, and the mountain once more collapsed inward. Its size was now less than a tenth of its original, but what had condensed was pure essence. Furthermore, the Path-Extinguishing Profound Ruler flew towards the mountain, transforming into the shape of a colossal stele, and fiercely plunged downwards. This combined strike was like erecting a tombstone for Kuilei Han on the spot. The Annihilation power of the Meteor Mountain of Annihilation, coupled with the Path-Extinguishing ability of the Profound Ruler, attacked in tandem.

Even though the Godhood Calamity Mask's strength was sufficient to reach the Return to Zero level, after two strikes, the Ancestral God Annihilation Calamity power borrowed by Kuilei Han was almost depleted. He couldn't immediately catch his breath. His neck nearly snapped, and he was pressed by the great mountain, plummeting downwards until he crashed into the depths of the North Sea, ten thousand feet below the surface.

Cracking sounds echoed ceaselessly. Even the Godhood Calamity Armament developed cracks. By the time the Meteor Mountain of Annihilation fully crushed down, it seemed even the mask would be completely shattered, leaving him no burial place.

“Sky-Shattering Hammer, sacrifice!”

He spat out a mouthful of vital blood. In fact, it wasn't blood, but Kuilei Han overdrawing himself and exhausting his potential. As the crimson liquid coated the Sky-Shattering Hammer, the silver-white great hammer instantly turned blood-red, radiating fierce and surging malevolence. Suddenly, it vibrated and transformed into a hundred giant hammers, spreading out in all directions. Most of them escaped the Meteor Mountain of Annihilation's suppression range, scattering to all sides, above and below the mountain.

“What is this...” Sheng Xin frowned, sensing something amiss.

Kuilei Han was beneath the North Sea, facing the crimson mountain plunging directly towards him, clearly unable to move at all. Yet, God-Punishing Calamity exploded from his body, transforming into threads that remotely controlled the crimson Sky-Shattering Hammers scattered outside the Meteor Mountain of Annihilation.

“Surging Waves Style!”“Sky-Centipede Forging!”

The hundred crimson Sky-Shattering Hammers suddenly swelled in size. With lightning speed, faster than the blink of an eye, they treated the enormous Meteor Mountain of Annihilation as a piece of refined iron. A hundred hammers simultaneously slammed down, their force converging on a single point. They struck inward, then rebounded outward. Using this force, they struck inward again. This cycle repeated, a thousand times in an instant!

“Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble...”

Too fast! It was more than a hundred times faster than Kuilei Han's previous speed. There was no time for anyone to react. The colossal, sky-obscuring Meteor Mountain of Annihilation was hammered into a small hill at an incredibly exaggerated speed. Force from outside to inside. Then tremor from inside to outside. A perfect fusion of hammer and force, skill and law. In the end, Sheng Xin had no time for further action. The Meteor Mountain of Annihilation had been hammered by a hundred blows into a compressed block of refined iron, forged into a straight-bladed, hiltless sword.

“My mountain...” Sheng Xin suffered over a thousand backlashes in an instant. Finally, unable to hold it in, he spat out a mouthful of blood. The connection between him and the Meteor Mountain of Annihilation was violently severed on the spot by the Sky-Shattering Hammer's thousand-fold forging.

But that wasn't all!

As the Meteor Mountain of Annihilation was hammered into a three-zhang great sword, Kuilei Han, who had been blasted into a watery pit beneath the North Sea, also recovered his breath and surged forth. As he charged directly towards Sheng Xin, he reached back with a hand. The hundred crimson great hammers scattered outside converged one by one into his grasp. With a tremor in his palm, they merged into one.

Sheng Xin, suffering from the backlash, was powerless to act. Kuilei Han kicked him in the chest, sending him stumbling backward in the void. He raised the blood-red hammer high and slammed it down viciously onto Sheng Xin's head.

“Your head has some flaws. I'll take the trouble to fix it for you!”“Divine Punishment, Heavenly Condemnation!”

Clang—

The sound of his father's hammer rang out again from the blacksmith's shop. Cao Erzhu was startled awake. Just as he was about to get out of bed, he found his surroundings were icy cold, and he choked on a mouthful of briny seawater. His spiritual sense erupted, and the scene he witnessed was utterly shocking. He wasn't in the blacksmith's shop at all. His father, the Chief of Godcloud, clad in the Godhood Calamity Armament, wielding the blood-dissolved Sky-Shattering Hammer, unleashed a lightning judgment with a single swing, directly smashing the head of Demon Ancestor Sheng Xin in front of all Five Domains. His great cloak billowed high, and the entire space was directly pulverized into a black hole by that one hammer strike. This scene was utterly breathtaking.

With a jolt, Cao Erzhu felt his blood surge. He bent down, ready to roar something out to vent his emotions. But then an incredibly weak voice echoed in his ear: “Don't go. I'm exhausted. Get ready to collect your old man's corpse!”

What? Cao Erzhu panicked and burst out of the water. He saw that after his father's hammer strike, Sheng Xin's headless body was charred and numb from the electricity in the void, clearly as dead as can be. But how could a Return to Zero Ancestral God fall with a single blow?

“Death Proxy Art?”“Cao Yihan...”“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!”

Sheng Xin, who had used the “Death Proxy Art” to switch his main body and clone, thus escaping the Heavenly Condemnation hammer strike, felt a chill run down his spine beside the temporal passage. His weakness had always been his imperfect head. It had been pierced by Shen Yi's single strike, and the after-effects hadn't fully healed even now. Kuilei Han had actually noticed it. If he hadn't prepared a clone in advance, this strike would have likely cost him another third of his reserves, and he wouldn't have been able to handle the situation that followed.

“But, this is as far as it goes.” Two hammer strikes from the Godhood Calamity Armament under the Meteor Mountain of Annihilation, plus the thousand-odd hammerings of Sky-Centipede Forging—Sheng Xin knew, even if he just thought about it with his toes, that Kuilei Han must be exhausted. He didn't need to tangle with this guy anymore; he just needed to buy some time. But the immediate priority was not to escape the battlefield, but to re-establish the World Seal that had almost been interrupted when his clone was substituted.

Sheng Xin, returning via Death Proxy Art, immediately re-engaged the World Seal, continuing to block the passage. Only after completing this step did his divine thought burst forth, and he turned to look at the battlefield where Kuilei Han was.

“Whoosh!”

A straight-bladed, hiltless great sword directly shattered his head, pinning it above the temporal passage. With a crack, a large fissure appeared in the World Seal. Sheng Xin's heart also tore open a massive gash. He wanted to muster his strength, to stabilize the World Seal regardless of himself, but that straight-bladed, hiltless great sword, carrying an incredibly familiar Annihilation power, temporarily suppressed his power activation after piercing his skull.

“No—”

In that instant, Sheng Xin's composure shattered. When did this happen? The Meteor Mountain of Annihilation was forged into a sword, but this sword was thrown at him after Kuilei Han's head-shattering hammer blow? That's not right! His speed wasn't that fast! So, it was thrown in advance, a pre-emptive strike?

“Have you been squabbling for too long and forgotten how to fight head-on?” From afar, the Chief of Godcloud, whose Godhood Calamity Armament mask was now covered in cracks, tilted his head and sneered as he looked over: “I didn't actually think one hammer could really kill you. But did you truly believe I couldn't see this passage you wanted to protect until death, from beginning to end?”

As these words came out, the spectators from the Five Domains erupted in a complete frenzy. Sheng Xin was caught in the midst of it and couldn't see the full picture, but outsiders saw everything clearly. While Kuilei Han's head-shattering hammer struck Sheng Xin's main body, behind him, using a manipulative God-Punishing Calamity, he controlled the divine weapon he had just forged in front of the world. That straight-bladed, hiltless great sword was not aimed at Sheng Xin's main body. Instead, in conjunction with the head-shattering hammer, it simultaneously pierced the head of Sheng Xin's clone beside the temporal passage.

At that moment, no one understood. Until Sheng Xin's head was smashed by a hammer... Until on the other side, Sheng Xin's clone suddenly jolted, waking like a startled puppet, and hastily rushed to maintain the World Seal... The Five Domains immediately burst into an uproar. Undoubtedly, Sheng Xin, having just finished maintaining the World Seal, could only turn around to have his face meet the sword, his head splitting into two halves. He was stunned. The spectators were even more bewildered. This Ancestor's combat awareness, reaction, and foresight were absolutely maximized. It looked as if, after Sheng Xin barely escaped death, he voluntarily threw himself onto the tip of the straight-bladed, hiltless great sword. He had escaped one dead end only to stumble into another. From the beginning of the battle to its end, he was completely outmaneuvered by Kuilei Han!

“Qu Mingshi.” The headless Sheng Xin, seeing both the direct combat and the temporal passage attempts fail, actually extended a hand and flicked out a palm-sized black stone tablet, engraved with human-faced demonic patterns. The grotesque demonic patterns suddenly became lifelike. A demonic pattern leapt from the stone tablet, shooting out to instantly repair the collapsing World Seal and temporal passage. At the same time, with a word of divine decree, it issued two more oracles:

“Meteor Mountain of Annihilation, disperse!”“God and Demon Protector Generals, return!”

Rumble. The heavens beyond trembled, and shadows loomed. Suddenly, two cracks split open in the sky, from which descended two thousand-zhang giants, one holy and one demonic: the Protector God General and the Protector Demon General.

“Protector God General, by your command!” The Protector God General knelt on one knee, clad in azure-white robes, standing on auspicious clouds, with rays of light emanating from his back. He had the full appearance of an Ancestral Saint, holding a colossal Ancestral Saint's greatsword planted in the earth before him, radiating immense purifying power.

“Protector Demon General, by your command!” The Protector Demon General descended majestically, fully armored from head to toe in black, radiating an imposing demonic aura. His red cape billowed high. His hands were clasped as if holding something, but nothing was present.

“Hoo...” Seeing this scene, Kuilei Han let out a long sigh. The thought of completely sacrificing his Ancestral Thought God-Net for one final explosive burst of power was also dismissed. He couldn't win. He truly couldn't win. It wasn't that he couldn't confront them directly. Rather, his condition was too poor, while Sheng Xin kept revealing one trump card after another, making it impossible to keep up. These God and Demon Protector Generals were clearly super clones, refined from ancient times until now, each possessing strength no less than that of an ordinary Ancestral God.

Even more so... Looking at the Protector Demon General, Kuilei Han even felt a flicker of familiarity. He pondered briefly and realized something. Wasn't that one of the stone sculptures in Slumbering Valley, one of the Nine Perilous Lands of Void Island? When he previously ascended Void Island and left his name on the Void-Suppressing Stele in Slumbering Valley, Kuilei Han had also witnessed some fragmented historical scenes. Those were scenes of the Demon Ancestor wielding a great spear, single-handedly defeating three Void Generals, and also battling the Celestial Ancestor.

“What immense reserves, to be able to condense two such clones...” Kuilei Han felt a surge of indignation, utterly suffocated. Born at the wrong time! And fortune is not on my side!

The God and Demon Protector Generals stood guard in front, directly protecting Sheng Xin, who was behind them, self-sufficient but having to crudely draw his own sword. The entire world fell silent. One-on-one was fine, but how could he fight one against three? Not to mention, what if after these God and Demon Protector Generals finished fighting, Sheng Xin pulled out something else?

“If even Ba Zunan came, he'd be ground to death by this shameless attrition tactic, right?”“In my opinion, only Grandmaster Xu, after becoming an Ancestor, might have the sustained combat ability to fight such a deep-rooted Ancestral God.”“Tsk, Grandmaster Xu? Don't even mention him. We haven't seen him yet! Cao Erzhu dared to charge, so I think Xu Xiaoshou is just a coward!”

Just then, the Protector Demon General repeatedly gripped his hands, still not quite used to it. Finally, as if recalling something, he raised his long arm and called out in a deep voice: “Demon God's Great Spear, return!”

With a thunderous boom, the sky ruptured with another deafening sound. From the direction of Void Island, a colossal great spear flew over, its tip dripping blood, splattering crimson. The Protector Demon General gripped the great spear, swung and flicked it, without even looking back. On the spear tip, three figures, impaled from front to back, were flung to the ground, crashing directly into the dust, their fates unknown.

“Hiss! Old Man You, Mr. Si Ren, Senior Brother Xiao?”“Didn't they escape? How were they brought back, impaled by the great spear?”

With a click, the Protector God General rose, likewise gesturing with a hand. The Primordial Mother Coffin, which had been cast far away, was summoned. Its lid opened, and a figure tumbled out. He was emaciated, his flesh and blood entirely devoured, leaving only a tattered human skin wrapped around bones, resembling a corpse. After hitting the ground, one could clearly hear his spine, arm bones, etc., snapping with cracking sounds, and there was no sign of life.

“Wen Ting...” The Five Domains paled in shock. “Wen Ting, was he refined?”

The four ancient sword cultivators who had resisted all fell motionless to the ground. Regardless of how convoluted the process, the outcome was declared a failure. Just as the troubles instigated by Kuilei Han, though seemingly more troublesome than these few, would likely end in only one way.

“Just seeking death.” Sheng Xin, positioned behind the two Protector Generals, silently sneered. While maintaining the World Seal, he turned around and, from between the two Protector Generals, gazed into the distance at the Chief of Godcloud, whose mask was now cracked. He raised an eyebrow, placed a hand on his chest, and gestured with extreme elegance, bowing slightly: “This Ancestor has indeed been absent from the battlefield for a long time, because usually, to deal with trouble, these two are enough. You, however, were an unexpected challenge for this Ancestor, but if you still have strength...”

Boom! Boom!

The Protector God General raised his colossal sword, and his divine power swept through the void. The Protector Demon General held his great spear diagonally across his back, his red cape reflecting a sea of blood and mountains of corpses.

“Ancestor Nian, please.”

Provocation! Naked provocation! The suppressed unwillingness in Kuilei Han surged forth. He took a step forward, ready to unleash another desperate burst of power. Mere dual generals, under the Sky-Shattering Hammer, they would be as fragile as clay pellets!

“Dad—” Cao Erzhu rushed out, his eyes red, but he dared not shout loudly, fearing he would become a hindrance to his father. I'm so weak! How can I be so weak! From beginning to end, he could only watch, unable to solve any problems. If Brother Xu were here, if it were him...

“Brother Cao, you've done your best.” Just then, from afar, accompanied by a sword hum, a calm voice sounded, interrupting the entire tense battlefield: “Leave the rest to me.”