Chapter 28: Top-Tier Ancestral God

Like two palms encompassing heaven and earth, they made the Great Demon God Cixiu gnash his teeth in anger: "He really wants to strike me before dying."

In terms of strength, the Buddha Tathagata, as a True God, displayed the power of an Ancestral God, which was indeed slightly weaker than Cixiu, who was an Ancestral God. However, in palm techniques, he completely surpassed Cixiu. Faced with Tathagata's final desperate two palms, Cixiu had no choice but to attack forcefully.

"Bang!"

The two clashed.

Buddha Tathagata used the force to quickly fly backward.

"Outsider!" Ji Ning shouted, transforming into a black electric serpent and charging at the Great Demon God Cixiu.

"Damn it." Cixiu staggered from the clash with Tathagata, and Ji Ning had already attacked. This made Cixiu glare unwillingly at the distant Buddha Tathagata flying backward. "I expended such a great cost, yet I haven't killed a single native with Ancestral God-level power. How不甘心."

Ji Ning's sword light descended!

Dazzling and brilliant, a sword that seemed to tear the sky apart.

"Slap!" Cixiu's tail also transformed into a dazzling streak of light, colliding with the sword light.

Cixiu was sent flying backward, staring coldly at Ji Ning. Ji Ning turned into a black electric serpent, flew to Buddha Tathagata's side, and with a wave of his hand, put him away.

"Master." The distant golden-armored one-armed man transmitted his voice.

"Go!" Cixiu roared angrily.

The word 'go' was spoken with such reluctance. At the same time, Cixiu waved his hand, and the six stone pillars in the distance vanished. Although the 'Endless Path' formation was somewhat damaged, it could still be repaired by a great power skilled in formations. The cost of repair was far less than obtaining a new one.

"Go."

The golden-armored one-armed man waved his hand, collecting all the outsider True Gods, as well as the three brothers of the Water Cliff Clan, the red-bearded old man, and the gaunt old man—these five servants—then flew to Cixiu's side.

"You got lucky this time." Cixiu sneered at Ji Ning and the others. "The Ancient Ruins are vast; we'll take it slow."

Swoosh.

A dark golden fortress appeared. Cixiu and the golden-armored one-armed man vanished, and the fortress quickly flew away.

...

Inside the fortress.

Cixiu sat on the throne, below him were the six servants including the golden-armored one-armed man.

"Master, how did the Northmont Sword Immortal escape the Endless Path formation so quickly?" the red-bearded old man couldn't help asking. "That was too fast; he hadn't been trapped long."

"He came out very quickly." The golden-armored one-armed man frowned. "These natives should have little experience and shouldn't recognize the 'Endless Path' formation. Someone who has never seen it would take a while to figure out how to break it. After all, the formation is vast... flying slowly would take a long time."

"Hmm." Cixiu's eyes gleamed coldly as he nodded slightly.

Right.

An inexperienced person trapped in the Endless Path formation would cautiously probe it and take a long time to escape. But Ji Ning, trapped in the formation, came out in a very short time.

"There's only one explanation: when trapped in the Endless Path formation, he immediately understood the method to break it." Cixiu said coldly. "He directly used his nine-cornered electric serpent escape technique and flew out at top speed... that's about right."

"How could he immediately understand the method to break it?" The golden-armored one-armed man frowned. "Could it be... he has seen it before?"

"This Three Realms has encountered other great powers, like the Lord of All Things, etc." Cixiu said. "The Northmont Sword Immortal might have obtained records about the 'Endless Path' from some outsider roaming the chaos. Hmph, they got lucky."

"Master, if you really wanted to kill that Tathagata... you could have." The golden-armored one-armed man looked at Cixiu.

Ancestral Gods and Ancestral Immortals also had distinctions in strength.

The ordinary Ancestral God level was the strength of a newly born Ancestral God, comparable to Sanqing, Fuxi, Tathagata, and the others.

The top-tier Ancestral God level, like the Lord of All Things and the Great Demon God Cixiu. The Lord of All Things relied on refining puppets and cultivating insect beasts. As for the 'Great Demon God Cixiu,' he relied on very bloody secret arts, thus earning the title 'Great Demon God.' In the endless chaos, anyone called 'Great Demon God' had some bloody and terrifying means. Without using secret arts, Cixiu was barely a top-tier Ancestral God.

Ji Ning, relying on his half-step Ancestral God body and formidable sword arts, reached the ordinary Ancestral God level.

When using the divine sword Ziguangqiong, he barely reached the top-tier Ancestral God level! That was why he fought Cixiu to a standstill.

"Right." Cixiu shook his head slightly. "Since I perfected my secret art, I've only used it three times. Each use... has a great impact on me, and I won't be able to use it again for at least ten thousand years. The final battle in the Three Realms is probably coming soon, within a few hundred years. So of course we can't rush! This time, I killed Tathagata's two dharma bodies, nearly all the Four Imperial Lords died, and I lost the Endless Path formation. That's enough. Now we rely on the Heartless Sect. The 'Lord of Ten Thousand Demons' of the Heartless Sect is extraordinarily powerful; he's the native I'm most wary of in the Three Realms."

"Hmm." The golden-armored one-armed man nodded solemnly. "As an Ancestral God, he escaped from a World God. Even a World God couldn't catch him! Although I've roamed the chaos for many years and encountered tens of thousands of Ancestral Gods and Ancestral Immortals, I've never seen one so formidable. I've only heard legends. I didn't expect a native Ancestral God from this chaos world to be so powerful."

"Hmm... this is just the beginning of the game." Cixiu said softly. "The two native factions haven't fought to the death yet. If we revealed all our cards, that would be ridiculous."

"That Northmont..." Cixiu suddenly frowned. "He has six divine swords. When he used one of them, the blood-colored sword, he barely reached top-tier Ancestral God power. Is it because of the sword's power? Or is he already an Ancestral God?"

...

Ji Ning and Fuxi stood together, behind them were Kuafu, Yuding Daoist, and a host of True Gods and Dao Ancestors.

They watched the distant dark golden fortress quickly disappear over the horizon. Ji Ning also released Buddha Tathagata.

"What a terrifying outsider." Fuxi said softly.

"Fortunately, Ji Ning was here this time." Buddha Tathagata smiled at Ji Ning.

Fuxi looked at Tathagata and sighed: "It's all my fault, my strength is insufficient."

"It's because the outsider is too strong." Buddha Tathagata shook his head.

Fuxi nodded solemnly: "Yes, too strong. The strength of those two chaos outsiders... especially the one with the tail, he should have top-tier Ancestral God power. Fortunately, Ji Ning held him off." Then Fuxi turned to Ji Ning, his eyes full of amazement. "Northmont, you were able to block that outsider..."

"I was at a disadvantage against him." Ji Ning said. "It was only thanks to a divine sword that I could match him."

Earlier, when he used the blood-colored divine sword, his power surged. The outsiders saw it, and Fuxi and the others saw it too; they probably already had guesses.

And in terms of strength.

Looking across the Three Realms, even including those two chaos outsiders, no one dared to claim they could definitely defeat Ji Ning! With such strength, Ji Ning naturally had nothing to fear. But he couldn't say that this was only a tiny fraction of Ziguangqiong's power. Repairing Ziguangqiong... was still a distant goal for Ji Ning.

"No wonder. It seems you've had some encounters too, Ji Ning." Fuxi smiled and nodded. "Ji Ning, you might not know exactly what a top-tier Ancestral God is. People like me, Nuwa, Zhurong, Ancestral Dragon, etc... were born as Ancestral Gods. At birth, we had Ancestral God power. People like Sanqing, Tathagata, Shennong, etc., relying on their True God or Dao Ancestor bodies and occasionally reaching extremely high insights into the Dao, could match ordinary Ancestral Gods and were called leader-level in the Three Realms."

Ji Ning nodded.

"If an Ancestral God also has high insights, such as comprehending the five Grand Daos of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, then they can achieve top-tier Ancestral God power. For example, Goddess Nuwa, before the ancient war of destruction, had already comprehended the eight Grand Daos: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Yin and Yang, and Life. Her strength was even greater than a top-tier Ancestral God! She was also much stronger than the two chaos outsiders we encountered today. Only the 'Heart Demon' of the Heartless Chaos World could match Nuwa back then."

Ji Ning nodded.

Nuwa was indeed extraordinary. She was an Ancestral God herself and had comprehended eight Grand Daos. Moreover, in that battle... she finally comprehended the Chaos Grand Dao and became a World God.