DONG!

 

DONG!

 

DONG!

 

The Reincarnation Pagoda continued to sway uncontrollably. The power theChaos Bell unleashed forced a great toll on Taiyi. This was not because he was using it at full power, but because he was actually trying to push the bell to its absolute limit.

 

For a owners of chaos spiritual treasure, the Chaos Bell’s compatibility with Taiyi was the greatest. Hongjun may own the Pangu Banner and the Taiji Painting, but he could not bring out their full potential because he himself was not fully compatible with them.

 

“Brother, is everything okay?” Di Jun called out.

 

“Why don’t you see for yourself!” Taiyi yelled back in a rare moment of anger at his older brother.

 

As if on cue, the pagoda roared desperately. He tried hard to push everyone back with a ferocious energy wave, one that Yi Fei’e clashed against with her sword that now resembled a celestial river.

 

Di Jun waved his hand to unleash a whirling hurricane of Pure Yang Sun Fire from the Sun Chakram. Di Jiang and the other divinities sued their titanic strength merged with natural laws to beat the wave back.

 

“That pagoda is so sturdy,” Xihe complained bitterly. Her mastery over the sun allowed her to create her own magical arts over the years. From her body, ten celestial bodies rotated.

 

This was her supreme art, a spell she cultivated to be her greatest asset in battle. ‘Ten Suns Birth.’ This was also garnered her a title from the demons who joined under Di Jun. Xihe, the Mother of Ten Suns.

 

Changxi did not fall far behind, around her body orbited twelve miniature lunar stars. Her own cultivated spell was ‘Twelve Moons Creation’. Alongside Xihe, she was the Mother of Twelve Moons.

 

“Sister,” Xihe said while covering her face a gas based spell arising from the pagoda. “Help my husband. Your yin based moons are complementary to his greater yang based flames. Should feed into his flames.”

 

“I’m barely surviving as is sister,” Changxi retorted. She gritted her teeth, barely holding on despite her own drastic improvements since the beginning of the war. But nowadays, she was far inferior to Xihe.

 

Both sisters were among the weakest fighters present tussling with Mara. But while Xihe was determined to help Di Jun in battle, Changxi felt obligated to accompany Xihe. Her own personal thoughts were far more complex.

 

“You two,” Yi Fei’e jumped in before them using her own techniques to help them resist Mara. She had already suffered significant damage since Mara’s transformation. She’d also made it her duty to look out for her junior sisters.

 

“Xihe, Changxi, i suggest a retreat for you two. His combat ability is greater then what most elite Primal Zenith Chaos Immortals could achieve.”

 

“I am empress of the Heavenly Demons, my husband needs me.” Xihe stood her ground.

 

Di Jun flew close to her location as soon as she finished having assumed his true form. “Wife, that devil pagoda has become distracted by the divinities down on the ground. Let’s use this opportunity to regroup with my brother and launch another offensive.”

 

“Your majesty,” Yi Fei’e said in an almost spitting tone. “I do not appreciate you putting my junior sisters in harms way. They will not fight Demon King Mara any longer. ”

 

“Respectfully princess, you do not have a right to order my people around. They are demons first and foremost,” Di Jun snapped defensively. He quickly took a look at Taiyi and the Chaos Bell.

 

His younger brother Taiyi was struggling despite placing the Reincarnation Pagoda in complete disadvantage. The Demon Emperor wanted to relieve him more then anything else.

 

‘So many Primal Zenith Chaos Immortals, top tier ones at that and the most we can do is force out a draw?’

 

BOOM!

 

Reality shook disturbing everyone for several moments. Di Jiang and the other divinities were thrown off their feet in surprise. The felt the surging yin qi around the pagoda fizzle out as another gargantuan source that resembled a cold star in the Starry Skies took its place.

 

Di Jun felt a frozen chill that reminded him of Changxi and how Xihe was then they’d first met. It was so antithetical to his sun based cultivation, but at the same time there was a compatibility there between both sources of energy.

 

Taiyi held tightly onto his treasure. Out of everyone there he was the only one who saw the bolt of moonlight smash into the Reincarnation Pagoda. Even Yi Fei’e was too distracted to see the attack while Haotian was too busy ferrying more people out of the way.

 

“Master?” Xihe and Changxi uttered in shock.

 

“You.” Mara’s voice carried through the cold winds of the Netherworld. “You want to interfere in this war too?”

 

“Interfere? I should’ve been part of it from the start,” Wangshu replied. In her hideous true form, she grabbed hold of the towering pagoda and pulled it along with her. The wooden structure groaned as her sheer strength enabled her claws to dig into it.

 

Wangshu’s face opened up for blasts of moonlight. She acted to disrupt, outright swallowing Mara’s attacks. He tried to do the same in response. But Taiyi acted quickly by lending support with the Chaos Bell.

 

The epicentre of the battle became a storm where those below the Chaos Immortal realm would’ve instantly died.

 

Inside the pagoda, the main door opened up to reveal a throne within. Upon which sat the ragged form of the treasure spirit, Mara himself. He glared hatefully at Wangshu for reducing him to this state.

 

“I won’t lose, I cannot lose!”

 

The pagoda seemingly wrapped itself in magnificent power. Six sprouted from it while a demonic face formed on its outer walls. He wrestled against Wangshu who also posed six arms and a snarling face.

 

“ARGH!”

 

While Wangshu held him back, Di Jiang unleashed thousands of punches at his side. Zhu Jiuying slapped him with his tail, Qizi and Xuangming clawed away at him. Zhurrong unleashed well earned pay back for his earlier humiliation using his flames while Gonggong did the same with water.

 

All eleven Ancestral Divinities were working together to rip into his base. If Houtu were not busy, they’ll form the Pangu Genesis Formation and rip him apart on the spot.

 

“HAH!” Wangshu head butted the pagoda a final time. The chaos treasure leaned back, pieces of wood splintering off. Wangshu opened her mouth to blast into the pagoda’s interior.

 

Inside, before Mara’s throne, Wangshu manifested an incarnation. She stared with pity at the Demon King. He in return, began to meet her gaze with murderous fury.

 

“I’ve survived the dream existence of the Fourteen Realms. I experienced countless kalpas of death and rebirth. What gives you the right?”

 

“Nothing gives anyone the right to do anything,” Wangshu replied. “I just want to help my friend.”

 

Reaching out, the flow of qi inside the pagoda became erratic. Cracks began forming on the Mara sitting on the throne. Outside, the pagoda started dimming. It’s control over the Netherworld started dimming. It was like as if a light bulb was burning out.

 

The lines of spirits he’s been using to conduct the devil’s ghostly reincarnation suddenly appeared in an erratic tangible form. Countless screams flooded the war torn Netherworld. Both immortals and devils alike found themselves flooded by vengeful spirits. But these spirits were harmless compared to ghost devils. Little more then echoes.

 

“NO!” Luohu screamed from within the Immortal Extermination Formation. But he was trapped beneath the Four Symbols Formation and could not go to help. Despite all of his treasures arming him, it wasn’t enough to shrug off all the pressure.

 

He would not admit it aloud, but he felt genuine despair.

 

With all the chaos going on, Hundun watched from high in the sky feeling pleased. Immortals and devils alike were dying by the millions. Ghost devils were disorientated and couldn’t maintain their forms. The despair felt by living devils was palpable through their shared ties with the Devilish Dao.

 

Hundun started into his palms with a satisfied thought. ‘Bout time to start a retreat.’

 

He started at both Mara and Luohu and did not feel an ounce of guilt. “You’ve always said all paths are valid in order to pursue the Dao. What a genius you’ve been. I fully agree.”

 

In the Primitive World, the entire system of ghost devils was tied to the West Continent’s defensive formation. But right now, as a result of the Reincarnation Pagoda’s loss of control, that system was decaying.

 

A knock on affect occurred as a result. Because it was so intrinsically built in to the formation, it suddenly collapsing resulted in a domino affect where the formation started collapsing in on itself. None of its hidden anchor points could sustain it in the first place.

 

The truth was, Mara the Reincarnation Pagoda was the true pin holding the entire structure together. He tied all the laylines in the west together with himself as the epicentre. He and he alone was the most important weapon for the devils.

 

He, the whole ghost devil system, the formation suppressing the anti-devil alliance, and the west continent were essentially one entity.

 

But now, spiritual energy was going out of control. The flow was disrupted so bad from the formation collapsing that some laylines outright erupted with primordial qi. Some areas were so incredibly dense that it was comparable to the uninhabitable Central Continent.

 

The west had already suffered greatly from the anti-devil alliance rampaging through it during the war. But now it’s very spiritual foundation was exploding.

 

“The system for rebirth is collapsing. But it also is an opportunity,” Yuanshi said from inside the reincarnation ritual. “Isn’t that right senior?”

 

“Houtu, you know what to do,” Da Hai said. “Swallow it before it collapses.”

 

The sea god straightened his back and took his hands off of the ritual. At the same time, a happy smile blossomed on Houtu’s face. “At last, will it finally be over?”

 

She spread out her arms and uncoiled from her seated position. From her position, she was originally working on stabilizing the ritual from far above the others. Once again, she looked where her siblings were, feeling relieved they survived the battle safely without her.

 

As if sensing something, Zhu Jiuying glanced her way. His sun and moon eyes narrowed and he patted Di Jiang on the shoulders causing him to turn around.

 

“What are you waiting for?” Da Hai said impatiently. “If their reincarnation system collapses completely, we’ll have to start that path from scratch.”

 

The illusionary reincarnation disc had stopped rotating. Right now, it resembled an empty husk, just an outline of what it was supposed to be. It was as if it was waiting for something to fill it up.

 

“I know, but can’t a girl look at her family one last time?” Houtu said. She leaned back towards the illusionary reincarnation disc while sending a sad smile.

 

Nuwa glanced her way with a sad look, she uncoiled herself and saluted Houtu. Behind her, her burned mud puppet stood up and copied its creator’s actions.

 

Minghe grunted but still saluted her. Yanluo was unfamiliar with the gesture as he thought it was one of greeting, yet he followed the same. Finally, Yuanshi and Da Hai saluted her.

 

Then Houtu fell in.