Chapter 2152: Three Legs of a Tripod (I)

Chaos Sky was dead.

Conquering the chaos, his ambition of a lifetime, had met its end in Su Yu’s hands. It’d been extinguished by the emperor of the false chaos.

Li Hao had created the result he’d sought in establishing the new chaos. Those of Myriad Realms could match multiple ninth ranks and kill a Chaos Sky who’d verified his dao through order and disorder. That was the effect the young man had hoped they would have.

Another ninth rank had died after the demise of Yin Yang and two others. This was the strongest that’d been born in the last million years, and perhaps the last ninth rank that would ever be produced.

Li Hao and the rest of his side were not ninth ranks.

A solemn atmosphere settled over Calamity and the rest watching on the side. The third generation of time was also a demon, a demon who took possession of others through devouring blood!

Second generation Li Hao was a demon. And while Fang Ping was not the first generation of time, he hailed from New Martial. That was the world of the first generation of time and Fang Ping was the king of that world.

It was clear to see that those of this bloodline were all demons. Fang Ping’s dark side was equally as horrifying as the rest.

Only four ninth ranks had died out of two dozen. Well, six if counting Disorder and Five Elements.

Many were still alive, but everyone was a bit dejected at this moment. A million years of sealing themselves away had not resulted in the stabilization of time, but the birth of a third generation fiend!

And their leader, Skyward, had had other motives in mind all this time.

At the moment, he was able to hold off five ninth ranks by himself, despite not having fully recovered to full strength. He wasn’t on the back foot either. So was this really all there was to Skyward?

What did he have in mind? What was he plotting?

Calamity felt unbounded despair. Perhaps he and the rest were nothing but pawns to Skyward! The man hadn’t been all that surprised by Chaos Sky’s death. Neither had he been moved by the demise of Yin Yang and the others.

He’d waited for something all this time and constantly kept an eye on Li Hao and the others. He’d even created opportunities for them and given them more space to operate in, crafting all sorts of fortuitous encounters...

What do you want, Skyward??

Calamity refrained from charging Su Yu again and turned to look at Li Hao in the distance. He laughed in a slightly maniacal way. “Li Hao, the two of them have shown their final cards. How about you? What do you have up your sleeves? Be careful, Galeforce!”

Galeforce and the two others facing Li Hao looked at the young man solemnly. They didn’t immediately charge him for the moment.

Instead, they backed away.

Fang Ping and Su Yu had both erupted one after another, killing many powerhouses as they did so. Whereas Li Hao... simply matched them move for move. He didn’t demonstrate a stance of invincibility even now.

The chaos that Li Hao had established had nurtured Su Yu into being. Could he really be less than Su Yu, in that case?

The three gravely retreated when their thoughts traveled here.

Spring Autumn could no longer help herself and couldn’t keep up the tough front.

“Ignore them!” she screeched. “Save me!”

Can you guys save me already?? We’re on the same team, right?! You guys are having a fine time and have killed your opponents one after another, but what about me??

I’m almost being smashed into the ground by two ninth ranks and my replicas have almost been completely obliterated. If my primary body is annihilated after that, then I’ll really be dead.

“That’s enough from you guys!” shouted Spring Autumn. “Do you think those three are the only ones with trump cards?! I hadn’t wanted to kill you guys, you forced me into doing this...”

The two ninth ranks rushing her widened their eyes, retracting their force and switching to defense. It wasn’t that they were so easily frightened, but that there had been too many examples otherwise earlier.

A few powerhouses had just died moments ago. How could they be so careless as to treat Spring Autumn’s declaration without the seriousness it deserved?

The cicada summoned all of the rest of her replicas and gnashed her teeth with absolute fury. “Have you two bastards had enough yet?!”

Her thousands of replicas rushed toward her.

“The seasons wither and flourish, there is no Spring Autumn anymore!”

Endless dao strength flooded the vicinity, making the two ninth ranks even more wary!

The next moment...

The worlds changed color and space and time were thrown into disarray. Everything spun as a fey wind swept through the area. Spring Autumn crossed through space and time, disappearing with a few major monster spirits!

When she next reappeared, she was a long distance away, but rather close to Li Hao.

The two ninth ranks gaped. They’d thought that the little girl was about to let loose with a final strike! But instead...

She’d gone on the run!

Damn it!

Spring Autumn heaved for breath, cursing up a storm inside. Where would she get such a huge burst of energy from if she wanted to blast them like the others had before? Those were two ninth ranks at the end of the day, it would be fortunate if she could run away from them.

Thankfully, the previous detonations from the others had instilled enough fear in the ninth ranks that they preemptively backed away when any of their opponents showed the same inclination. That created enough space for Spring Autumn.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gotten away.

Survival was priority number one at this stage in the game. Detonating everything she had wouldn’t kill a ninth rank. Even if it would, her primary focus was on getting away with her life intact.

I’m not going to fight them to the point of all of us going down together!

“......” The surroundings were silent. Spring Autumn had run off!

The Human King of New Martial and Su Yu of Myriad Realms had gathered together. Calamity led the other ninth ranks and hovered on the perimeter. He laughed when he saw that two of his brethren had been given the slip by a monster spirit.

“Spring Autumn is just small fry, there’s no need to care about her! Join us, gentlemen!”

Emotions flickered across their two faces before they flew wordlessly to Calamity. He didn’t care about Su Yu or Skyward. Instead, he was focused on Supreme Zhang of New Martial.

“Let them gather!” said Calamity.

The ninth ranks fighting New Martial powerhouses had long lost their composure. Hearing the command, they immediately dropped out of battle and headed toward Calamity.

Ten ninth ranks were assembled in one spot. They surrounded the New Martial and Myriad Realms factions.

Calamity didn’t make any further moves, nor did he press forward with the advantage of numbers. He simply looked at Skyward’s side, then at Li Hao’s side. Finally, he looked at Yuan Shuo’s side.

“All of you, come back,” Calamity smiled. “Let Yuan Shuo and those of Silver Moon convene with the rest...”

That would free up all twenty ninth ranks to come to him.

“Everyone, to me,” Calamity instructed with a glint in his eyes. “Since Brother Skyward has pulled his punches, we should not treat Brother Skyward with such hostility. This was all a misunderstanding!”

Skyward frowned slightly.

Those that’d been attacking him quickly disengaged and made their way to Calamity. The latter seemed to have sensed something and wanted to gather all of the ninth ranks to him for reassurance.

The situation was very complicated at the moment.

They didn’t know what Skyward’s goal was and had originally thought that taking down Myriad Realms, New Martial, and Silver Moon would be accomplished very quickly. Hence, they hadn’t cared that they were being split up.

But now that they realized they couldn’t eliminate their enemies so easily, that means they should no longer be divided.

The other ninth ranks might have ideas of how to proceed. Everyone was becoming familiar with the state of affairs.

Powerhouses disengaged from their current conflict and drifted toward each other, no longer focusing on one opponent.

Yuan Shuo heaved a sigh of relief as well and headed toward New Martial.

The Human King’s two sides of the same coin were still absorbing dao strength. Su Yu was also still preoccupied with consuming Chaos Sky’s strength.

Spring Autumn lurked in the distance. She was yet to fully leave. This battle would determine the fate of the chaos, how would she depart so easily?

It was just, she was heavily injured and needed some time to heal. In fact, she was even prepared to metamorphose again.

Skyward didn’t stop her when he saw that the cicada was about to cast off her current self.

Another five powerhouses had reached Calamity’s side. There were seventeen ninth ranks gathered in one spot now, including himself. The remaining three were with Li Hao and yet to retreat. However, they didn’t attack the young man either. They simply prevented him from venturing further into chaos dao.

Calamity’s mind was clear. He had awoken from his earlier state of invincibility thanks to strength in numbers. Smiling, he looked at the Human King, then at Skyward.

“Although all of us are ninth ranks, we are not invincible among ninth ranks. Whether it is New Martial, Silver Moon, or Myriad Realms, their ultimate enemy is not us!

“Everyone should be able to tell who is the strongest by now, who is the most formidable!

“We... just want to live!” Calamity sighed, having regained his senses. “We are unwilling to be enemies with anyone. Whether it is Silver Moon, New Martial, or Skyward, it is not that we want to set ourselves against you, but that you have tried to kill us all this time!

“It is not a crime to be a ninth rank! We didn’t mean for spirit to fade away either. Such is the great dao. Anyone who reaches ninth rank is this way. If you guys were the ones to enter ninth rank a million years ago, you would be the same...

“We have endured so much to reach ninth rank, but want nothing else than to simply keep living. Is this a crime?”

Calamity seemed quite saddened.

“We have sealed ourselves away in the depths of the chaos for the past one million years because we have worried about partaking so much spirit that we cause the chaos to collapse and fall into silence.

“What is so wrong about stabilizing the chaos with time? Why would you rather blow it up than give it to us and leave us a chance for survival??” He scanned the crowd, then looked at Su Yu, Fang Ping, Skyward, and finally Li Hao in the distance.

Calamity boomed in a resonant voice, “We have neither killed innocents nor devoured worlds since we verified our dao. We have not committed any evil! Sealing ourselves away from a million years has also contributed to a million years of peace, whether or not we wanted to be sealed away.

“At the very least, it was relatively more peaceful! We are not the ones with the real schemes and plots. We were just waiting for time to stabilize the chaos. Where is the wrong in that??”