Chapter 706: Dreamlike Illusions

Witnessing the horrifying spectacle in the image, everyone’s face turned pale. No one had imagined the Three-Pillar God would move so much faster than anticipated.

All the gods had estimated three months, but now...

“The Three-Pillar God, I fear, has already begun to probe and locate our world coordinates, intending to cross over!”

Almin’s face contorted as she looked at the surrounding gods.

“Yes, our previous efforts to sever their exploration, at the cost of the Time Worm god’s life, are now useless,” she said. “An entity of this level can distort laws, which means our shielding methods are ineffective. It can rewrite the rules to allow it to follow the God of Beautiful Dreams and find us here.”

Changing rules is a difficult concept to describe.

It’s like using a door to block people from the outside.

This is a rule of reality: in reality, a door can protect you. But what if one could interfere with that rule, rewrite the door to be penetrable, and simply walk through?

That’s roughly the situation.

“Ninth-tier... a world! And as a world, it naturally has its own established rules.”

Everyone felt as if they were witnessing a super monster. Only at this moment did they truly grasp the terrifying nature of this level of existence, the true meaning of ‘world.’

Dao Changsheng’s face drastically changed. “Our Daoist magic is already ineffective against this kind of monster,” he said. “For instance, if we cast a fire spell, the opponent could instantly distort the laws, rewriting the rule to: fire causes no damage. It could even rewrite it to: fire is an energy supplement, then forcibly absorb your energy…”

Though just a metaphor, it illustrates how utterly overpowered they are.

Those unable to distort the material plane are truly mere ants.

Only phenomena of laws can resist phenomena of laws.

Suddenly, a voice broke the silence.

“I finally understand…” Mengmei murmured, her eyes staring blankly at the terrifying Three-Pillar God slowly crossing over. “All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, a phantom, a bubble, and a shadow; like dew and like lightning. Thus should one contemplate them. Physical Buddha… it truly is you!!”

The surrounding gods trembled at her words.

They were immersed in shock and contemplation; that single sentence seemed to hold a profound, special resonance.

It perfectly described the full scope of this realm: all active, tangible, manifested, and material methods, in this realm, are but dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows.

All four are forms of delusion.

Many things could not be understood by mere deduction; only by truly witnessing them could one comprehend and grasp the grandeur of such terrifying life forms at this level!

This single sentence already encompassed the entire truth of the Ninth-tier, indicating that Mother Earth Qingteng’s origin was indeed extraordinary. What exactly was the mystery of the Physical Buddha? This left the gods greatly surprised and doubtful.

“Everyone, don’t worry,” Almin said. “The Path of 100 Ninth-tiers may seem terrifying, but it’s not an absolute crushing force. The opponent is currently like a starving, thirsty man. Although their life level has been completely elevated, their energy reserves are still the same as ours.”

Almin continued to analyze, “But ordinary attacks are already ineffective; they can be distorted. We can only use the law phenomena we ourselves interfere with to potentially cause damage.”

No one spoke.

Indeed, only those who had embarked on the Path of the Ninth-tier could inflict damage.

But that was easier said than done.

They could interfere with any rule of reality at will. Those who hadn’t completed this path, with only a 2030 fused body, could only barely manifest a few sporadic law phenomena in some limited way.

“However, since it has completely descended, we can no longer continue to contain it in such a short time…”

The faces of the surrounding gods subtly changed.

In an instant, their expressions turned grim.

“Begin the retreat,” the Blood Emperor declared. “Let the top powerhouses capable of evacuating from both realms withdraw quickly. As for the lower-level powerhouses still outside containing them, they will be left behind. Shrink the defense line! All divine kingdoms, disappear into the void.”

This time, all were silent.

No one refuted the Blood Emperor’s cold-bloodedness or his callous disregard for lives.

Because everyone knew that if they didn’t make this painful, drastic retreat now, they would all be wiped out in one swoop!

The Three-Pillar God was simply too fast, too fast!

With only a month’s time, how could billions of people be completely evacuated? More than half had been evacuated so far, which was already a very fast pace.

This was a war of worlds.

“Gods, return to your divine kingdoms and seal them, erasing any traces of the small space entrances,” Almin said, taking a deep breath. “Although it may not be entirely effective, it will still be very difficult for them to find us, and they don’t have that much energy yet. Then, swiftly return here, each of you. We are going to pilot the Immortal Realm, the Underworld, and the Demon Realm, and begin the war!”

The gods’ expressions were solemn and grave as they swiftly departed.

In just a few days, while the mortals across the entire land still had no idea what was happening, the gods vanished.

All the lofty divine kingdoms vanished without a trace.

“Great God, Lord of the Blood Race, Helmoris…”

“Ancient King of Nothingness and Illusion, your people…”

Everyday worshippers prayed to their idols, begging the gods to bestow divine oracles, but received absolutely no response, as if their pleas had vanished into thin air.

They hadn’t even realized they had been abandoned and continued to live peacefully.

Until the third day.

The sky suddenly grew dark.

“What is that?”

All beings on Earth felt their vision blur for an instant as a terrifying, ancient black entity slowly tore through space. Space seemed to ripple like water, and the entity appeared across the entire land.

Countless people looked up, as if in that instant they saw not a creature, but an entire vast and boundless world, so immense that its full extent was almost incomprehensible.

It was the world itself.

A profound and ethereal thought emerged in their minds, and all beings across the land couldn’t help but slowly kneel and prostrate themselves in worship.

“They’ve shrunk their defense line, gathering into a cluster… They actually detected me?”

The Three-Pillar God stood alone in the center of the land, its entire body covered in fine black down, with three heads and three eyes. It emitted an indescribable dazzling beauty, as if it were the sole true god between heaven and earth. Its voice seemed to carry a vast, mixed sensation of countless creatures as it overlooked the beings on Earth.

With a gentle press, a circle of transparent air ripples vibrated outwards, transforming into a large white cloud ring.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The land seemed to be cleaved into two realms, and half of the beings on Earth instantly exploded into blood mist.

“The number is too small,” it said, its voice exceedingly calm, yet radiating an immense, domineering power. “The rest will be used to infect with viruses, to become my subjects in advance and to reproduce.”

The Three-Pillar God flicked its finger, and silent viruses dispersed throughout the entire air.

“Ah!!”

“What’s happening? Your eyes are so red!”

“They’re biting people!”

Walking corpses surged through the streets, including even some cultivators with immortal demeanor. The entire land was plunged into chaos.

“Do you think you can escape?”

The Three-Pillar God pressed down hard on the ground.

Invisible space seemed to crumple into folds, overlapping layer upon layer like a compressed piece of burlap. A small house in a secret forest tens of thousands of feet away was rapidly pulled forward as if on a high-speed train, appearing directly before their eyes.

“This is spatial teleportation!?” Dao Changsheng exclaimed.

Dao Changsheng looked up.

Almin slowly stood up. “It’s not teleportation,” she explained. “It’s a higher level of application: space folding. We are each still in our original geographical locations, millions of miles apart, yet now within arm's reach. It’s like folding a cloth in half; beings at both ends of the cloth can then see each other.”

Almin was profoundly shaken. Indeed, the spatial arts of old had reached an otherworldly level, with Emperor Great Joy’s Mirror Reversal being just one clear example.

Before they could fully react, the Three-Pillar God’s voice boomed, “You three are the strongest in this world, its last hope…”

The Three-Pillar God lowered its head, its three eyes slowly rotating.

In its eyes, the three individuals before it—two men and one woman—were like flat, two-dimensional anatomical diagrams. All their secrets, their nine great spatial apertures, were completely exposed.

Within the bodies of Dao Monarch, Dao Changsheng, and Almin, there were nine small spaces, converging countless gods, powerful beings, and billions of mortals.

“Do you intend to resist?”

The Three-Pillar God’s voice was extremely cold. “Why do something so meaningless?”

“Your Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique, in our eyes, is nothing but nine holes,” a voice from one of the Pillar Gods rang out.

“Do you think the inner space rules, the inner world power furnaces, that you perceive are applicable to us?” another head spoke. “With a mere grab, we can seize your nine inner spaces in our hands.”

“Space, in our eyes, is just like a piece of flat paper,” the last head chuckled.

“Then, we have no time to bother with you; it’s over.”

An unprecedented pressure completely descended, as if something shattered. The entire Six Realms were distorted as a truly terrifying and invincible ancient entity descended upon the world.