Chapter 22: The Siege

"Go."

The Nuwa camp and the Heartless Gate had not yet clashed again, but the Great Demon Cixiu and the Blade Venerable, standing at the edge, exchanged a glance and instantly retreated into the dark golden fortress, whooshing away to a safe distance.

Inside the fortress, the Great Demon Cixiu, the Blade Venerable, and their followers were quite at ease.

"I never expected that this native world would produce a being who is among the pinnacle of Ancestral Gods," the Great Demon Cixiu exclaimed with admiration. "Such a pinnacle Ancestral God is a great expert in the boundless chaos."

Ordinary Ancestral Gods are the weakest.

Top-tier Ancestral Gods are experienced ones with formidable divine powers and high insights, most of whom can reach this level.

Pinnacle Ancestral Gods are close to World Gods in strength, truly great experts who can thrive in the boundless chaos.

Legends speak of some prodigies...

Some Ancestral Gods or Ancestral Immortals can rival World Gods, and there are even tales of 'Ancestral Gods defeating World Gods,' but those are just legends... Such prodigies are far rarer than World Gods or Chaos Immortals. Perhaps not one such prodigy can be found among millions or tens of millions of Ancestral Gods and Ancestral Immortals.

Clearly, the Three Realms have no such prodigy. To produce one requires a combination of opportunities, divine powers, techniques, treasures, and more.

...

With the sudden retreat of the Great Demon Cixiu and the Blade Venerable, the two camps were now like arrows on the bowstring, with no choice but to fight.

"Kill."

"Ji Ning, Jueming, go."

Suirenshi, Jueming Buddha, and Ji Ning simultaneously charged at the Heartlord.

...

"Let me play with you two instead." The Myriad Demon Lord's body flickered, splitting into two divine bodies, intercepting the black-robed Ji Ning and the Tathagata Buddha respectively.

The black-robed Ji Ning, with no one to stop him, had already begun a massacre.

The Tathagata Buddha also commanded a Pangu Creation Formation, likewise unopposed.

"Bang."

"Whoosh."

The two Myriad Demon Lords fought with the black-robed Ji Ning and the Tathagata Buddha. The Myriad Demon Lord's speed was too fast, even faster than Ji Ning's Three Absolute Sword Formation, so Ji Ning and the Tathagata were completely tied down.

...

"Huanmu, I have plenty of immortal pills. Let's see how long your divine power can hold out." The Sanqing Daoist also commanded a formation, battling the Huanmu Master.

The Sanqing Daoist consumed immortal energy.

The Huanmu Master consumed divine power, which could not be replenished. Strictly speaking, some rare items like 'Chaos Nectar' could restore divine power, but although Chaos Nectar was miraculous, its quantity was very scarce. One bottle of Chaos Nectar could only restore the divine bodies of a dozen or two dozen Celestial Immortals, not even enough to restore one True God's divine body.

To restore an Ancestral God's body, hundreds of bottles of Chaos Nectar would not suffice. Clearly, no one in the Three Realms could produce hundreds of bottles of Chaos Nectar. Even in the boundless chaos, no one would waste Chaos Nectar just to restore divine power.

"Don't worry, my divine power can last a long time. And the Heartlord is much stronger than before. You'll collapse soon," the Huanmu Master said coldly.

The two former friends were now locked in battle.

They knew the Heartlord had caused everything, but they were already on a tiger's back and could not dismount. The Heartless Gate and the Nuwa camp had long been deeply entrenched in hatred.

...

"Source Daoist!" Gonggong roared in fury, but faced with the boundless, sky-covering whisk, he was completely blocked.

Source Elder's defense was too formidable.

Gonggong was completely tied down.

...

"Bang, bang, bang." Shennongshi commanded the Pangu Creation Formation, battling Ink Bamboo Dao Ancestor.

...

The Blood Vulture Demon Ancestor's true body and avatar flew into their own army, helping them fight against the Nuwa camp.

...

At this moment, looking around, one leader from the two camps was free—Houyi!

Originally, the alien 'Great Demon Cixiu' had been fighting Houyi, but the two aliens had retreated. Houyi now had two choices: help his own army against the Heartless Gate army, or intervene in the top-level battle. Houyi also understood that the key to victory or defeat in this war lay in the battle with the Heartlord.

In any case, in the clash of the two great armies, even with the help of Demon Ancestor Blood Crow, the Wujian Gate had the aid of Fuxi, and the Water-Fire World-Destroying Formation completely controlled the battle situation, yet the Wujian Gate was still at a disadvantage.

"Heart Demon." Hou Yi locked onto Heart Demon Lord as his target.

……

"Heart Demon, accept your death." Ji Ning, with three heads and six arms, wielded six divine swords in close combat, his sword technique astonishing.

"Amitabha." Buddha Jueming stood in the distance, striking at Heart Demon Lord with golden palms.

Suirenshi swung his wooden staff, which transformed into towering flames that came crashing down.

"Hahaha... You think you can stop me? Overestimating yourselves!" Heart Demon Lord, having just broken free and regained his freedom, was full of pent-up energy. As Ji Ning, Jueming, and Suirenshi attacked, he shook his body and also manifested three heads and six arms, his six arms transforming into six surging rivers.

Boom~~~ The rivers surged. Even though Ji Ning tried his best to block, he was still sent flying backward by the overwhelming force.

Boom~~~ Buddha Jueming was also knocked flying backward.

Boom~~~ Suirenshi staggered back even more.

All three of them had formidable protective divine abilities and were not in danger of death, but Heart Demon Lord had manifested six arms that turned into six rivers! Just three rivers were enough to suppress them. In other words, it would take six top-tier Ancestral Gods of comparable strength to Ji Ning and the others, with sufficiently powerful divine bodies, to barely hold back Heart Demon Lord, a 'peak Ancestral God' existence. Clearly, the Nuwa camp did not have such strength.

Three rivers suppressed Ji Ning and the others, while the other three rivers surged fiercely to encircle and kill Suirenshi.

"Suirenshi, die." Heart Demon Lord said coldly.

Ji Ning and Jueming both had divine bodies comparable to top-grade先天 spirit-treasures, making them very hard to kill.

Suirenshi's divine body could transform into flames, and though also difficult to kill, it was easier than killing Ji Ning or Jueming.

Just then—

"Hm?" Heart Demon Lord suddenly felt a faint sense of dread. He turned his head to look.

In one glance, he saw Hou Yi standing in the distant void.

Hou Yi was staring coldly in this direction, holding an ancient divine bow in one hand and a black arrow in the other.

"Hou Yi?" Heart Demon Lord then sneered, his laughter shaking the void. "Hou Yi, hahaha, what I fear least is archery. Come on, come on."

But Hou Yi remained silent and calm, holding the bow in one hand while nocking the arrow and drawing the bowstring with the other.

Hummmmm~~~~

The bow was drawn to a full circle.

The arrow tip pointed at Heart Demon Lord from afar.

The entire battlefield fell into an eerie silence. All the immortals and demons present felt an invisible pressure, a suppression on their very minds.

"This is?" The watching Great Demon Cixiu and Blade Zun both changed expression slightly.

"This archery... how terrifying." Great Demon Cixiu murmured. "This Hou Yi is incredibly powerful. This native chaosworld is too strong."

"Truly formidable." Blade Zun also felt the pressure.

Even Source Elder, who was fighting Gonggong, turned his head to look at Hou Yi. He too had reached the fifth level of heartforce, and he could sense that Hou Yi was also only at the fifth level. Yet when Hou Yi drew the bowstring, the invisible pressure suppressed even his own mind. This was an archery technique of terrifying power, formed by the perfect integration of heartforce, divine power, and soul.

"This arrow is far more terrifying than the one that shot down the Golden Crow Demon Emperor back then." Fuxi also watched this scene, sighing inwardly.

"This arrow..." Ji Ning also felt a sense of dread in his heart. Although the arrow was not aimed at him, it was like a rabbit seeing a tiger—even if the tiger is asleep, the rabbit's heart still trembles.

"This arrow..." Even Allfiend Lord changed expression. In the ancient destruction war, he had not taken Hou Yi seriously; Hou Yi's arrows could not catch up to him. But now, facing this arrow, even he, Allfiend Lord, could not evade. He would have to block this arrow first before he could flee.

Everyone present felt a terrible threat.

Even the strongest, Heart Demon Lord, felt a shudder, but he had absolute confidence in himself.

"Die." Heart Demon Lord still sent four rivers to encircle and kill Suirenshi, the four surging rivers attacking him.

"Swish."

A soft sound of the bowstring being released.

A streak of arrow light immediately shot across the void. At first it was silent, but as it traversed the void, it began to madly absorb all power—the world's primal energy and chaos force converged wildly, causing the arrow's momentum to surge rapidly. Soon the arrow's trail grew to ten thousand zhang long, a million zhang long, a million li long...

Like a massive rainbow, it streaked across the void.

All the other mighty figures on the battlefield felt the pressure.

"Hahaha..." Heart Demon Lord laughed wildly, still attacking Suirenshi. Under the assault of the four surging rivers, the flames that Suirenshi had transformed into began to be continuously consumed. When they were exhausted, Suirenshi would die.

"Swish."

The arrow within the massive rainbow finally reached Heart Demon Lord. The speed of this arrow did not allow Heart Demon Lord to evade, nor did he deign to flee. His gaze finally fell on the seemingly inconspicuous arrow within the rainbow light. To him, the awe-inspiring rainbow was all illusory; the only threat was the unremarkable arrow inside.