Chapter 1568: Forbidden

The sacrificial ground felt terrifying, as if some malevolent entity resided there. As the spirit tablets swayed, they emitted chilling wails, like ancient ghosts from the most primeval eras—unknown existences reviving, whispering, crying, yearning to return to the present world.

The chief priest's face was devoid of color; even he was gripped by terror. His body was tense, as if ready to break free from the river of time and abandon the sacrificial ground at any moment.

But he could not!

As the chief priest of this epoch, any dereliction of duty would incur immense responsibility and grave sin.

Without hesitation, he slit his wrist, which appeared as dark as refined gold, allowing drops of variegated blood to fall. These vibrant, distinct colors circulated independently, never merging.

Among them, a predominantly gray blood, like the blood of death from hell, consumed all vitality it encountered.

Yet, both the colorful blood and the gray death blood were rapidly consumed, vanishing into the spirit tablets deep within the sacrificial ground.

The chilling wails near the spirit tablets diminished somewhat, but the situation remained dire. In a fleeting vision, several coffins materialized, and a spectral figure hovered nearby, appearing lost and searching for its way home.

Beings across all the heavens could not perceive this scene. Otherwise, the sheer aura and energy field alone would cause countless individuals to disintegrate and perish instantly.

For even the most powerful cultivators in the Yang Realm, direct gaze upon beings at the apex of the cultivation path was forbidden; it would lead to their immediate undoing.

Furthermore, the spirit tablets themselves were even more eerily astonishing, utterly untouchable!

Only Chu Feng felt a slight tremor, because the stone jar on his body vibrated faintly.

Previously, during his journey of evolution, at the very end of the pollen path, he had not only witnessed the fallen supreme being—the woman who had reached the pinnacle—but had also glimpsed several coffins behind her.

This might relate to her demise, and perhaps conceal a momentous secret from countless epochs past.

Now, Chu Feng experienced a faint sense of familiarity once more: wisps of that distinct coffin aura emanating from the sacrificial ground.

***

Beyond all realms, before the sacrificial ground, the Empress descended. Countless crystalline petals danced through the air, each reflecting myriad worlds and showcasing the Empress's majestic form.

She unleashed her palm strike with full power, as if to shatter all of time, past and present, plunging everything into primordial chaos, on the verge of non-existence.

A hazy divine radiance, a surging sea of thunder, and energies capable of creating worlds erupted around the Empress, tearing open the heavens and severing the long river of time, past and present.

All her devastating power converged upon the chief priest!

*Thud! Thud! Thud!*

The chief priest grunted in pain; parts of his physical form shattered, blasted open with one bloody hole after another. Even his soul light was torn to shreds by the Empress's unparalleled divine seals, threatening to disperse completely.

Most critically, the sacrificial ground itself began to crack, and the Empress, lifting her foot, stepped directly inside!

"Those of the present world cannot enter! Are you seeking your own destruction?!" the chief priest whispered, his body pierced and true blood splattering, a demonic glint in his eyes.

He was filled with apprehension, fearing the sacrificial ground would be damaged, terrified it would be ripped apart by the Empress's powerful assaults. Yet, he also secretly harbored a flicker of hope that the enigmatic power within the ground would grind the Empress into oblivion.

***

The Empress's entry into the sacrificial ground created a horrifying spectacle, akin to the very act of creation. A massive explosion erupted, chaos collapsed, and myriad boundless universes generated and perished in a continuous cycle.

During this process, the chief priest was flung diagonally outwards, as if being cast from the present realm into antiquity, on the verge of annihilation.

The Empress's palm strike pierced through the long river of time, shattering the threads of karma and destiny, locking onto him and continuously unleashing blows upon his true form.

The chief priest's boasts of infinite myriad laws and boundless grand dao were utterly shattered, leaving him utterly disfigured.

"It's difficult for peak-level beings to kill me. Though I am bound to the sacrificial ground and cannot directly contend with you, your decision to enter has severed your own path!"

The chief priest spat out a mouthful of blood, his voice icy as he glared at the ever-approaching Empress.

The white-clad woman, immaculate and unblemished, had truly crossed realms, wading through the river of time, moving against the currents of ancient history to reach this unique location, which did not belong to the reality of the present world.

"Enough. You will meet your end here. Do you truly believe beings at the peak are immortal? This place, at the very least, can consign you to eternal oblivion. No living being in the world will ever remember you, think of you, or utter your name again; you will vanish forever!" the chief priest sneered, a chilling laugh escaping his lips.

The Empress arrived, unleashing a palm strike that almost obliterated the chief priest, nearly atomizing even his soul light.

However, her own condition was also precarious; she swayed continuously, her soul light flickering erratically, as if she could not long endure in this realm.

The Empress launched successive attacks, finally blasting apart and obliterating the chief priest, who was bound by the sacrificial ground. Yet, it was clear that this being would not simply perish.

The chief priest was beyond destruction by the heavens and burial by the earth, having achieved near-eternal indestructibility. As long as anyone conceived of him, he would manifest in the world once more!

The Empress did not stop there, abruptly gazing into the deepest reaches of the forbidden ground. There, spirit tablets were enshrined amidst dilapidated, gloomy, collapsed temples, shrouded in boundless gray darkness.

*Crack!*

With a single palm strike, the Empress lashed out, aiming to shatter the spirit tablets!

This was truly akin to venturing into the deepest part of a tiger's den to seize its cubs—or more precisely, to target and destroy the forbidden energy embodied by the spirit tablets themselves!

The Empress, suspended in the air, unleashed a palm strike. A thousand shimmering threads, ten thousand grand daos, all transformed into beams of light, illustrating the creation and destruction of infinite universes, unleashing boundless rules that converged upon the spirit tablets.

"How utterly ruthless! Throwing away your life, forfeiting any chance of rebirth, just to destroy that place?" The chief priest reappeared, even he was wiping cold sweat from his brow.

Faintly, ancient coffins, more than one, appeared and flickered indistinctly before the spirit tablets.

*Boom!*

The Empress's rules struck. Ten thousand grand daos surged forth like cosmic tides, or crashing temporal waves, stirring up the currents of eternity and causing the present heavens to resonate with this terrifying location.

*Crack!*

Most horrifyingly, even as the Empress's own body swayed, her strike genuinely caused a cracking sound from the spirit tablets. A blurry ancient coffin, not truly present in the real world, trembled slightly, and one of the spirit tablets nearly toppled over.

"No, you are not your true form! You are false, illusory! Are you merely a wisp of obsession possessing a phantom body?!"

The chief priest shrieked, his heart seized by shock, and he swiftly moved to prevent the Empress from causing further destruction.

The energy here was unique, capable of extracting the true spirits contained within blood. Any true spirit that dared to approach and attack the spirit tablets would face calamity.

The chief priest realized that the Empress appeared not to have arrived in her true form.

At the same time, this sent a shiver down his spine: that woman was truly formidable, as even a mere phantom body had managed to deceive him!

Naturally, this was also partly due to his own restraint by the sacrificial ground, which prevented him from unleashing his full power.

The chief priest reappeared, frantically attempting to stop the Empress.

But in an instant, he was flung backward. The Empress, by pulling at the spirit tablets, caused the sacrificial ground to tremble violently. With a thunderous boom, one spirit tablet finally toppled completely, causing an ancient coffin to shake even more violently, triggering a cataclysmic shift.

The entire fabric of time collapsed; it seemed as though all ancient history that once existed was on the verge of being erased. This was an unimaginable, earth-shattering upheaval.

At this very moment, outside in the myriad heavens, a pall of shadow fell upon the hearts of all powerful beings. Their memories seemed to cloud over, their clarity dulled, and in a daze, they felt as though they were forgetting many things.

The struggle within the sacrificial ground involved an exceptionally high level of power, and the vast, boundless domain it emitted caused waves of terror across the mortal realms.

At the critical moment, the Empress began to glow, transforming with a *boom* into a beam of pure attack energy. She struck the spirit tablets head-on, causing the sacrificial ground to crack open. The immense field that influenced all worlds was shattered and recoiled back upon itself.

The storm erupted contained within the sacrificial ground, rather than expanding outwards.

The chief priest coughed up great mouthfuls of blood, sent hurtling sideways.

And then, with a clatter, iron chains were revealed beneath the spirit tablets, binding the enshrined relics. The dilapidated, gloomy temples rumbled ominously.

"If the sacrificial ground is harmed, all heavens will cease to exist!" the chief priest shrieked.

He had suffered severe injuries, damaging the very essence of his life and grand dao. He was inextricably linked to this place, almost physically bound to it, and the sacrificial ground's condition profoundly affected every aspect of his being.

The Empress's figure vanished, transforming into a beam of light that struck a particular spirit tablet, tearing open a horrifying rift in it.

"How dare you!" the chief priest shrieked, his voice laced with profound resentment and boundless fury.

Then, he issued a chilling threat, vowing to destroy the Yang Realm. He extended a palm, intending to cross through all heavens and reach into that very domain.

At that moment, from across the misty death bridge, an ethereal figure materialized and attacked once more. She cast a divine seal that astonishingly transformed into an exact replica of herself!

Earlier, a similar figure had been cast forth, entering the sacrificial ground.

Now, her true form continuously manifested, conjuring one divine seal, one figure, striking swiftly and imperiously. Her manifested dharma body appeared sacred and ethereal, transcendent and otherworldly, soaring into the air.

She wielded boundless power, unparalleled in the world, utterly unstoppable.

*Boom!*

This time, her dharma body intercepted the chief priest even before he reached the sacrificial ground. Furthermore, her true form on the far side of the death bridge ceaselessly formed divine seals, conjuring forth several more figures in quick succession.

Those several figures merged into one, and with an explosive *boom*, they pierced through the heavens and descended upon a specific location, causing the myriad worlds to utterly collapse!

"You..."

The chief priest was incandescent with rage. He had only just conceived of striking the Yang Realm, yet his opponent had gone further, unleashing a ruthless blow directly upon a territory belonging to the Gray Race.

Piercing through all the heavens and tearing open the firmament, that immense energy descended directly upon that territory, utterly annihilating an entire branch of the Gray Race!

This utterly shocked the mortal world, sending shivers through all of ancient history. Someone had actually pierced through the heavens across all realms to eliminate a branch of the Heavenly race—it was truly terrifying!

"I merely conceived the thought, and you acted, destroying a minor branch of my race! Die!" The chief priest roared in fury, channeling boundless energy as he urged the sacrificial ground to draw closer.

The world seemed to be collapsing, heaven and earth inverted, and the river of time plunged into disarray. The sacrificial ground was poised to enter the present world!

However, the Empress had already made her preparations. Divine seals, one after another, struck deep into the sacrificial ground, transforming into several figures, each seemingly imbued with the power of her true form!

She no longer focused on killing the chief priest but aimed directly at the spirit tablets, intending to utterly destroy them.

Amidst violent explosions, the universe was created and destroyed, chaos boiled, and the myriad worlds seemed poised to revert to their primordial state. Something utterly terrifying was unfolding within the sacrificial ground.

Some spirit tablets cracked open, and blurry ancient coffins appeared to be affected, seeking to return from an unknown realm to the present world, using the sacrificial ground as a conduit.

The chief priest, horrified, continuously fed the tablets with his true blood, then swiftly charged towards the Empress.

"I will sever your death bridge and cut off your path of return!"

The chief priest traversed myriad realms, stepped through burial pits, and rapidly approached the death bridge, aiming to cut off the Empress's retreat.

However, as he drew near, he sensed an boundless killing intent, accompanied by vibrant life force.

From the Empress, an unfathomable gravitational pull emanated, threatening to drag both the sacrificial ground and the chief priest to the opposite bank.

"Kill!"

Moreover, at this moment, the Empress spoke for the first time. It was a single word, beautiful in tone, yet imbued with such boundless killing intent that it sent a bone-deep chill even through peak-level beings.

*Pfft!*

At that instant, the chief priest suddenly burst into four pieces.

All the spirit tablets within the sacrificial ground ripped from their moorings, and every gloomy temple shattered into fragments. Accompanied by wails, whispers, and cries, several ancient coffins emerged simultaneously.

"My God... is this truly going to kill a supreme, invincible being?!" the Dog Emperor cried out with a howl.

Though it could not see, it had an instinctual feeling that a momentous event, one that would shake eternity, was about to unfold.

"Hard to say," Nine Dao One remarked grimly, his tone seasoned with vast experience. "Even if they are to be slain, it would require decapitation upon decapitation, likely for a hundred thousand eight thousand years."

The Dog Emperor stared at him as if he were a monster. "Are you even human?" it scoffed. "That's utterly sadistic! Killing someone for a hundred thousand eight thousand years—even a peak-level being would probably accumulate an infinitely vast psychological trauma from such prolonged demise."