Covering the sky: Starting from the Golden Crow of the Holy Cliff

Chapter 173: Another faction led by Jiang Taixu and Ye Fan, the internal strife within the Heavenly Court.
The altar opened, golden auspicious clouds swirled, and a terrifying aura seemed to emanate from it, spreading out terrifying Dao principles.

Ahead, there was a hazy celestial glow, swirling with chaotic energy, and the imperial source transformed into immortal essence, enveloping a humanoid body like a self-bound divine cocoon, rising and falling.

But none of that is the point!

In the center of the golden clouds, wisps of divine light tore through the heavens and earth, making it impossible to look directly at them.

An aura similar to that of ancient emperors permeated the air, extremely terrifying, causing people to involuntarily retreat, sensing a primal shock to their souls.

"That is……"

"The scriptures passed down from the Holy Body Ancestor, as well as the ancient artifacts he left behind."

Even Dao Yi, who had become a prisoner, was stunned when he saw the object in the auspicious clouds.

A battle halberd, its blood-red light surging, carrying boundless supreme aura and releasing unparalleled divine might, was startled at this moment. The weapon's body emitted bursts of divine mist, sweeping away everything in its path and destroying all obstacles.

"Oh no, this weapon is reviving!" Princess Shencan exclaimed, her expression turning solemn.

"Buzz!"

At the critical moment, Yan Ming took a step forward, extended a finger, used the Origin Dao Sealing Immortal Technique to block the field, and then activated the Soldier Secret Technique, trying to quell the chaos.

This process is very difficult!
Because this is a true supreme weapon, which once slew a Great Accomplished Holy Spirit. It is more terrifying than the Holy Spirit Stone Token that appeared in Shrouding the Heavens, and its power is immeasurable, almost comparable to an Emperor's weapon. Now that it has been revived, it is a catastrophic disaster for a Saint.

Yan Ming's eyes opened and closed, a purple light flashed above his head, and a purple artifact surged from within his crown chakra, opening up the heavens. It was like a celestial lamp from the upper realm flying in, dazzling and astonishing in its Dao light.

The lights were crystal clear, illuminating the fourteen heavens. One layer of golden light covered the ground, rising in a misty haze. Inside, a supreme being sat cross-legged, chanting scriptures and expounding the sacred texts. This echoed the golden auspicious clouds outside, as if they shared the same origin.

"It has actually been refined to this extent!" Princess Divine Silkworm exclaimed in amazement, seeing the Dream Lamp for the first time.

Each type of immortal gold has its own unique value. If the Divine Mark Purple Gold is refined to the point of being spiritually connected with immortals, it can capture the Great Dao runes between heaven and earth after merging with the soul of its master.

It was obvious that the divine purple-gold lamp she saw had reached an astonishing level!

"Buzz!"

Gradually, the imperial halberd dimmed its light and ceased to radiate destructive power. Instead, golden clouds billowed above Yan Ming's head among the fourteen heavens, and a man in golden robes rose to his feet, grasping the halberd in the gaze of everyone.

In an instant, an overwhelming aura spread out!
The man in gold had long, disheveled gray hair and his body was enveloped in chaotic energy, making him mysterious and unpredictable. The Heavenly Halberd in his hand seemed to have been given a soul, as if it had crossed the river of time and arrived with surging chaotic light from all directions, an unparalleled terror!
An ancient cemetery appeared in the shadows, resembling the Big Dipper and the mountains and rivers.

A new sparkle appeared in his eyes. Standing beside the mound of yellow earth, alone with his spear, he looked down upon the eternal sky, exuding a solitary darkness, a solitary companion on the path of the gods!
The true divine power of the Great Emperor descended, causing time to distort, space to collapse, and utter chaos to ensue!

Even Yan Ming glanced sideways, watching quietly. This was a scene from the past, a re-enactment of the old state of the Yinghuo Sacred Body.

He gazed upon the past, present, and future, suppressed darkness and turmoil, and protected all living beings for ten thousand years. In the end, he could only sit alone in the universe, without a single friend or relative.

"I'm the only one left..."

Amidst distant whispers, the man in golden robes remained motionless, his body dappled with light, as if it were disintegrating. The beam of light flew across the heavens and the earth, to places where he had fought and protected, to the remains of his enemies and comrades, and even to the ancient grave where he tragically buried his beloved…

And so, the light rain he transformed into fell upon the cemetery, while some of his essence was separated, carrying away his legacy.

When everything dissipated, the imperial figure lost its life force and returned to the Dipankara Heaven.

The nine sacred bodies of the past are gone and can never be found again!

Chen Ge trembled slightly, revealing a sense of sorrow. The deity within him awakened and sighed...

"The memory inheritance and weapon of the Great Accomplished Holy Body." Princess Divine Silkworm pursed her lips slightly, clearly not expecting such a heaven-defying opportunity to be obtained by a junior.

She had heard of the Heavenly Court's many prodigies, but she hadn't paid much attention to them. This time, however, she was deeply moved.

This lineage alone could establish an ancient royal family!
The group arrived quickly and left quickly, leaving a trace before departing, rendering the original restrictions ineffective.

Princess Shencan subconsciously turned around and looked at the supreme weapon.

"Are you really not taking it with you? That's a true divine artifact, no weaker than an ancient imperial weapon."

"Isn't it only natural that the relics left behind by the Great Accomplished Holy Body should be obtained by the Holy Body of later generations?" Yan Ming said, his expression calm and composed, showing no greed even when facing the top-tier supreme artifact.

"If we were to send that senior..."

Princess Shencan's gaze shifted, a sinister glint in her eyes. She transmitted her voice, "Do you really not understand? Or are you deliberately trying to aid the enemy? He and Jiang Taixu will both eventually leave."

Seeing that Yan Ming remained silent, she brought up another past event.

After conquering and destroying a powerful clan in Eternal Realm, Jiang Taixu appeared. A brief confrontation ensued due to disagreements between the two sides regarding the handling of prisoners.

In the end, it was only through the intervention of the Nine Phoenix King that he was able to travel to the Ancient Star of Tongtian.

"The blood sacrifice went too far, to the point where less than one in a hundred survived. Before, it was just a few auxiliary stars like Immortal Feather and Divine Soil, and even then, that member of the Jiang family had such strong opinions..."

"The Eternal Kingdom is mostly inhabited by humans, and the Undying Golden Body is known as the sacred body of the human race."

"How will you choose?"

Princess Shencan had a graceful and beautiful figure, but the moment she opened her mouth, her purple hair fluttered, and she exuded a unique kind of bewitching charm that made people subconsciously want to fall into her trap.

She offered her opinion.

We need to persuade that senior to return the supreme artifact to its rightful owner, and then exile Jiang Taixu and Ye Fan to remote star regions, completely marginalizing that faction.

There's no need to worry about Hengyu Furnace. That imperial artifact recognizes the ancestral bloodline of Emperor Jiang Yifei, who is comparable to the Emperor's son. The latter has been ordained and can be considered one of them.

Looking around the Heavenly Court, Jiang Taixu's faction was quite conspicuous.

"We can't let this continue, otherwise the internal friction will be too great, and even we can't afford such losses," said Princess Divine Silkworm.

Is it really that simple?

Yan Ming thought of Cai Yong, Gai Jiuyou, and others, his eyes filled with the swirling patterns of tribulation, revealing a deep darkness.

Abandoning the way of sacrifice is impossible. The Ancient Flame needs offerings, the Immortal Ruins need to expand, and the Heavenly Court needs more powerful individuals.

But dealing with all of this isn't as difficult as it seems...

Yan Ming returned to the Immortal Ruins and began his seclusion to break through to the Great Saint realm.

A brief battle erupted from the sacrificial ground, with supreme light shooting into the sky, attempting to break free of its cage.

As a result, a quasi-emperor appeared and slapped the Dao Yan Immortal Robe replica, causing it to crack.

Dao Yi was utterly desperate. In extreme resentment, he fell from the sky and was buried in the sacrificial soil along with his armor. His protector was also buried next to him.

Soon after, the Heavenly Kings of Eternity were defeated one after another and were brought here by the Dark Golden Crow to continue following His Highness of the Dao Yan lineage...

The entire Eternal Kingdom was completely conquered, and approximately 800 million elites who possessed core technologies survived and migrated to Earth.

Meanwhile, a debate concerning Daoist beliefs was quietly unfolding within the Heavenly Court. Someone on the front lines of eternity had secretly witnessed the Dark Golden Crows' blood sacrifice of hundreds of billions of lives, a massacre so excessive that they used divine crystals to record some of the figures, including the entire sacrificial process, imprinting it all within, which was tantamount to recreating the scene at that time.

After the crystal was delivered to Taixu Palace, it immediately triggered a great storm.

This is definitely a major event. Although people within the Heavenly Court have been saying that the bloodshed on the front lines is too intense, there is no direct evidence.

Many people didn't take it seriously, believing that the intensity of the war was normal. Some families that suffered heavy losses in the Immortal Feather War even thought that the punishment was far from enough.

Now that real evidence has emerged, it involves the extermination of billions of people and also implicates a high-ranking Dark Daoist in the Heavenly Court.

Most people in the Heavenly Court were unaware of the true situation because they were too far away. As for the four million fire god crows, they were always considered sacred, lofty, and the mainstay of the Heavenly Court's protection.

When a crystal was thrown out, reflecting the horrific blood sacrifice, many people were shocked, and some beliefs collapsed.

This was a huge uproar, like a tsunami that shook the heavens and the earth!

Killing surrendered soldiers is an ominous sign!
This is a large-scale massacre of the weak.

What is the difference between this and the Dark Turmoil?
That's too heartless.

"This is absolutely fake. Someone forged it. How can such a small piece of crystal be used as evidence? What a joke!" Someone jumped out, believing that the crystal was suspected of being forged, and cheered for Daozi.

Almost immediately, a huge storm began. The forces within the Heavenly Court were trembling with fear. Some families remained silent, knowing that this matter involved a struggle of ideologies at the highest level.

The person actually involved watched coldly, knowing that the person who spoke up had malicious intentions and wanted to put him on a pedestal.

Stirring up trouble at this time of year!
"You're courting death!" the now-saintly Dark Golden Crow said coldly.

This is the third-ranking figure of the Immortal Ruins Crow Clan. Unlike the extremely senior Taiyin Golden Crow, this Dark Golden Crow is a prodigy born from among millions of Fire God Crows. He is a true Dark Evolver with extraordinary potential.

He was dressed in a long purple-black robe and held a Zuwu Banner, which was Yan Ming's birth item and later became the symbolic artifact of the Raven Elf race.

Soon, he arrived at the Dao Clan and found the instigator.

"Greetings, Lin Daozi." The man's heart trembled, but his face remained calm and composed as he respectfully paid homage to the sage.

Several high-ranking members of the Daoist Yang lineage also arrived, their attitudes very reserved. Their lineage has not yet produced a sage, so they hold high positions but are weak, inherently deficient.

"Did Daozi come for that matter? It's just a crystal, nothing more. It proves nothing. Someone is forging it!" An old man, not understanding the situation, spoke up and invited the Dark Golden Crow to take its place.

"It's not a fake; the crystal is real."

Lin Dong said coldly, no one expected that he would break through this barrier and reveal the truth to the public, which surprised many people in the Yang Meridian.

“How could this be? Daozi is highly respected, and his clan holds a dominant position in the world, protecting the beings of the Heavenly Court. There must be some hidden story behind this.” The person said, with a faint trace of solar blood on his body, indicating a certain status among the Yang lineage of the Dao clan.

"Shut up!" an old man shouted, realizing something was amiss, and quickly explained, "I hope you will calm down, Daozi."

"Throw this man out and throw him in jail!" Ye Tong's father couldn't sit still any longer. As the head of the clan, he issued the order, not wanting the situation to escalate.

If left unchecked, their entire lineage could face a great calamity.

The youth, who had awakened a portion of the Sun Blood, struggled, but his Sendai cultivation was too weak. He was suppressed by his elders and, before being taken away, stopped forging and shouted, "Traitor! Villain! You have committed crimes against humanity and slaughtered billions of lives. One day, someone will surely settle accounts with you!"

The old man with the Yang Meridian changed color and sternly rebuked, "Ignorant fool, how dare you spout nonsense!"

“Uncle, we are all descendants of the King of Humanity, how can we side with traitors? Are we to abandon our ancestral roots for worldly glory and wealth? To join forces with these executioners…”

"We are born as humans and die as ghosts. Today we suffer eternal bloodshed, and who knows how many more will die in the future?"

He cursed incessantly, struggling with his legs, showing no fear of life or death.

The group looked at each other, feeling extremely uneasy. This was an unexpected disaster; no one had expected that their former companions would utter such shocking words.

The black-robed saint in the main seat didn't say much, and then summoned twenty fire crow guards to capture the young man and interrogate him in the hall.

The latter remained calm and showed no fear.

"So weak, yet you dare to stir up trouble. Someone must have instigated you. Name that person, and I will spare you." Lin Dong's face was resolute, and he possessed a vast and imposing aura, a kind of vicissitude unique to a saint in the end times.

He was extremely bloodthirsty, which is why he had the character "Lin" in his name. The emperor hoped that he would use wood to control fire, and his actions were driven by a love of killing and fighting.

"You heartless thief who indiscriminately kills and stirs up chaos, everyone in the world wants to kill you!" The young man was so heavy that he couldn't lift his head, but his mouth remained defiant, showing a determination to sacrifice himself for the cause.

"A tough guy has emerged from the descendants of the Queen."

Sage Lin sighed softly, then immediately ordered his guards to beat him severely.

Ten breaths later, the young man's skin was torn open and blood flowed all over the ground. He was beaten unconscious, but after being doused with the True Water of the Sun, he woke up again. After opening his eyes, he gritted his teeth and cursed incessantly.

A long nail flew out and pierced his upper and lower jawbones, rendering him unable to make a sound, only able to whimper.

"It's interesting. I didn't expect the first one to step forward would be a descendant of the Holy Empress." Lin Dong stood up, having already discovered that the other party was on good terms with Ye Fan and the others.

"This child is young and ignorant, and acted impulsively because of a moment of passion."

The patriarch of the Yang lineage sighed, his face filled with sorrow. How could he not know that the younger generation had been blinded by the righteousness of the human race and was willing to die?

Little did he know, the world was not at all what he imagined.

Back then, their lineage in Ziwei Divine Continent was constantly declining, and it seemed that they were about to face the disaster of extinction of the clan and the sect.

The past of the Taiyin Cult is the future of the Taiyang Cult!
Those so-called great religions of humanity stood by and watched as the descendants of the Taiyin Queen perished.

in this way!

Where exactly is the so-called greater good of humanity?

“Foolish child, you can pity the weak, but you must never expect the strong to pity you…” The clan leader sighed, knowing that this departure would be the end of life and death.

Just for a surge of courage?
It's really not worth it!

"You sympathize so much with the Eternal Humans, but if you were captured by the people of the Eternal Kingdom, do you think they would treat you with courtesy? You would only be bled to death. They are a bunch of slave traders, a bunch of interstellar thieves, a bunch of planetary colonists..."

In the prison, Ye Tong saw her fellow clansman and couldn't help but shake her head: "Why bother offending the saint for the sake of such a group of people?"

"Could it be... that killing billions of surrendered prisoners is the right thing to do...?" The young man, covered in blood and pierced by the dragon bone, did not agree with Ye Tong's statement.

"Where were you when Xianyu was defeated and Yongheng slaughtered more than 100,000 Heavenly Court soldiers?" Ye Tong asked in return.

"It can't be generalized... How can two hundred thousand compare to ten billion? What follows is... a dark catastrophe..."

Ye Tong, standing to the side, closed her eyes and thought of the prodigy who shared the same surname as her.

Was it really you who did it?

(End of this chapter)