Chapter 425: War God, Never Grow Old

With a thud.

Qiao Xingjun knelt, leaning on his divine sword, and chuckled softly as he watched his old adversary approach. "Old Human Emperor," he murmured, "you and I are nothing but puppets, toys for the true gods. What difference does it make if you fight to the death to stop us here? Two groups came from the High Heavens; we were merely a diversion to draw your attention. Someone else is going to activate the Celestial Phenomenon Artifact. Yankang is destined for destruction..."

Opposite him, the immense primordial spirit behind the Village Chief blazed fiercely, like a god wreathed in fiery light. Yet, at this moment, this god-like spirit was tattered and struggling to maintain itself. His primordial spirit slowly dimmed, threatening to extinguish at any moment, but then it would suddenly flare up again, repeating this cycle. Clearly, he was using every last bit of his vital energy to maintain his peak state.

"Qiao Xingjun, where is the other group?"

The Village Chief walked closer, ignoring everyone else on the battlefield, his gaze fixed solely on Qiao Xingjun. "You and I are old adversaries," he said. "A dying man's words are often true. Do you truly wish to see countless lives in Yankang perish?"

Suddenly, cracking sounds emanated from Qiao Xingjun's body. The handsome deity's face turned ashen. He chuckled hollowly, "What do I care if these low-grade beings live or die?" He looked up at the sky, mumbling, "My star is finally about to fall."

Crack.

His sword emitted a faint cracking sound, followed by another soft snap, which then slowly became more frequent, and the sounds grew faster. Simultaneously, the cracking sounds from within his own body also became more rapid.

The primordial spirit behind the Village Chief gradually faded. He tried to stir his vital energy to restore his spirit to its peak, but he couldn't ignite it. His physical body was now like a broken bellows, leaking everywhere. He wanted to rekindle his life force, but his body was too damaged to ignite it. He was crippled, having lost his limbs, which significantly affected his physical body and combat strength. But more critically, he was old.

He was so old that his lifespan had reached its limit. He originally had over a year of life left, and if he had quietly retired and diligently cultivated, he might have been able to repair his divine bridge before his death, enter another realm, and become a deity. However, this battle had drained the last of his physical body's vital energy. Now, he could no longer rekindle his life force.

"Tell me, where did the other group go?"

The Village Chief shouted, "Qiao Xingjun, where do you come from? Were you once like these people, whom you call 'vile, low-grade beings'?"

Qiao Xingjun, who had been closing his eyes, awaiting death, suddenly trembled. His eyes snapped open, vacant and lifeless. Sword wounds appeared one after another on his body. The sword wounds deepened continuously, as if invisible sharp swords were slowly cutting and tearing open his divine body. The Village Chief's final move had severed Qiao Xingjun's life force. His divine storehouse was crumbling, and his physical body was being torn apart; he was destined to die here.

"What's the use?" Qiao Xingjun lowered his head, scoffing, "Do you still have the strength to stop them? You're dying too, old friend. Just accept it, sit down, and join me on the journey. We can walk the path to the Underworld together..."

The Village Chief said in a deep voice, "Tell me, which path did they take?"

Qiao Xingjun looked up at him, his wooden gaze slowly shifting towards the Great Ruins in the darkness. His breathing suddenly became ragged. "They should be arriving soon... Cough, cough, cough. If you still have the strength, then go stop them." His face changed dramatically, and he suddenly clutched the Village Chief's clothes, screaming hoarsely, "I see karma fire! The karma fire of countless Yankang beings who died is coming for me! Stop them! Don't let the deaths of these common people become my sin... Don't come closer, don't come closer! It's not my fault, I was just following orders... There's a head to every grievance, a master to every debt! It wasn't me who killed you!"

The Village Chief broke free from his grip and darted away.

Qiao Xingjun's eyes became increasingly hollow, as if he was seeing something incredibly terrifying. He shrieked frantically, "It's not my fault, I was helpless! Don't come for my life!"

"I see countless paper boats, so many paper boats, sailing from Yankang into the darkness... Oh my god, what is that? The horns of Tu Bo... Hell! This is hell!"

"Save me! True gods, where are the true gods above me? Come quickly and save me! You promised me Tu Bo wouldn't take me away and judge me... Save me—"

A moment later, with a face full of endless terror, Qiao Xingjun stopped breathing. The divine sword in his hand suddenly disintegrated into dust, scattering across the ground. Qiao Xingjun's lifeless body fell forward, as the sword wounds erupted, tearing his corpse apart.

The Village Chief rushed into the darkness of the Great Ruins, running at full speed. His primordial spirit flickered between bright and dim. He desperately tried to pump his last drops of heart-blood to keep his physical body from dying and his will from fading. He could feel the call of death. His physical body was finding it harder and harder to contain his soul, and death was drawing ever closer. He felt something pursuing him. In fact, he had often felt this way in recent years—it was likely the summons of Youdu, the world's rules binding him, seeking to seize his soul. As his physical body gradually died, this binding sensation grew stronger, and the call from that other dark world intensified.

The Covenant of Tu Bo: every person signed this contract from the moment of birth. As soon as the physical body died, the soul would belong to Tu Bo, destined to reside in Youdu. Immortality of the flesh was the key to escaping the Covenant of Tu Bo. Deities cultivated their bodies to the divine realm; in their last divine storehouse, there was a divine bridge. When the primordial spirit crossed this divine bridge, it would become a deity, its physical body attaining divinity, and its primordial spirit would no longer be bound by the Covenant of Tu Bo. The Village Chief had once had this possibility, but Qiao Xingjun's dying strike had cut off his path. Now, he could only hope to find the other group of gods and demons from the High Heavens who were going to inflict disaster. However, even if he found them, he didn't know if he would still have the strength to continue fighting.

"I am truly old..." The Village Chief felt his vital energy fluctuating, unable to restrain his primordial spirit. His spirit suddenly shook violently, threatening to leave his body. He still dared not stop, fearing that if he did, he would collapse forever. He pressed forward frantically. In the darkness, countless monsters stirred, following him along the mountain slope, waiting for the moment of his death. When he finally fell, these monsters would swarm him, tearing him to shreds.

He ran slower and slower, his limbless body feeling increasingly heavy. A wave of sadness washed over the Village Chief, and he let out a bitter laugh, wanting to stop. "I suppose I really am going to die..."

Just then, he saw a large bird flying through the darkness, flapping its wings. The bird flew ahead of him, landing on a hilltop. It flapped its wings, folded them, and transformed into a bird-headed, human-bodied deity, who meticulously preened its feathers with its beak. "Time is up," the great bird's voice resonated.

The Village Chief continued walking, his pace growing slower and slower. "Wait!" He heard his own voice, as if from tens of thousands of miles away, distant and hazy. "Wait! I still have things left undone!"

The bird-headed, human-bodied deity looked at him with a strange gaze and repeated, "Time is up."

"Wait," the Village Chief heard his own voice, tinged with a sob. "Please wait a little longer. I don't want Yankang to become hell. I can still fight. After all, I am the Human Emperor of this land; I still have responsibilities and burdens..."

An owl-like hoot echoed in the darkness, as if the bird-headed deity was laughing. The Village Chief's hair bristled with anger. "How dare you mock me? Though I am old, my ambition remains unchanged!"

The bird-headed, human-bodied deity flapped its wings, dispersing the monsters in the darkness, and circled around him before landing on a branch ahead. It chuckled, "I laugh at a valiant man in his twilight years, impoverished and sad with white hair, yet devoid of strength."

The Village Chief paid him no mind, stumbling onward. A moment later, he saw the bird-headed deity stop in front of him again, calling out, "It's time to go. If you don't leave now, Tu Bo's underworld envoys will arrive! An old acquaintance is waiting for you in Fengdu."

"I can still fight..." The Village Chief saw his face had turned black, and the aura of death had spread to his head, causing his brain to succumb to death. His divine storehouse began to collapse, but his primordial spirit still stood on the Magpie Bridge. Beneath the bridge was endless, bottomless darkness. This was his Divine Bridge Divine Storehouse; there shouldn't have been anything external here. But in the darkness, external things were encroaching—it was another world, the world of Youdu. As his physical body entered death, the Youdu world began invading his divine storehouse. From the depths of the endless darkness within his divine storehouse, a paper boat floated towards his primordial spirit. He had to go; if he didn't, Tu Bo would claim his primordial spirit.

The Village Chief's primordial spirit looked towards the other side of the Magpie Bridge, where the Profound Guidance Bridge leading to the Heavenly Court was located. However, there was still a distance between the two bridges. He would have to cultivate the Divine Crossing Art to cross this gap and enter another mythical realm. However, his vital energy was completely depleted, and his primal qi could no longer flow within his dying body. It was almost impossible for him to activate the Divine Crossing Art.

"As Human Emperor, I will fight again!"

He let out a roar, but he could no longer hear his own voice. At that moment, he saw a ship, a ship sailing out of the darkness. The ship resembled a three-legged toad made of mountains, with streams of moonlight flowing over its entire hull. On board, a giant was wielding half a crescent moon, striking a god-demon and nearly crippling it with a single blow! The Village Chief paused, stunned.

The Moon Ship.

He had seen this ship before. When he was searching for Wuyou Township, Qin Mu had piloted this very ship through the darkness to find him. He hadn't expected to encounter it here again. The gods and demons from the High Heavens were battling this ship. Compared to Yan Jingjing, Qin Mu was truly too violent; he simply swung the crescent moon and smashed, completely disregarding the consequences! Besides him, the Dragon Qilin was also on the ship, carrying the little fox and Si Yunxiang on his back. A sapphire-blue flood dragon king god soared around the large ship, battling another High Heavens deity.

"Mu'er..." Old tears streamed down the Village Chief's cheeks. His heart suddenly relaxed, then slowly stopped beating.

The bird-headed deity tilted its head and looked at him, saying, "Are you at peace now? Come with me. The King of Hell is still waiting for you."

The Village Chief's heart gave its final beat. He smiled faintly. "I refuse to yield to old age." His primordial spirit leaped from the Magpie Bridge, soaring towards the Heavenly Court on the opposite bank.

"I was born a god of war! I will never yield to old age!"

His primordial spirit laughed aloud, its sword qi sweeping across the battlefield, rushing towards the resplendent Heavenly Court. In that moment, it felt eternal.

However, his white-haired physical body collapsed. Qin Mu looked towards the sound, witnessing the Village Chief gradually solidify into a stone statue and fall from the sky.