The great sun rises in the west, sunlight and fire rushing forth along the long chains, streaming across the Solar Ark. This colossal land-ship drives away the darkness of the Great Ruins, illuminating its surroundings. Countless monsters lurking in the shadows sizzle and smoke the instant the sunlight touches them, black fumes billowing up.
Nearby villages stir as the refugees of the Great Ruins, startled awake, stare dumbfounded at the mountain-sized Solar Ark striding past on twelve pillar-like legs. The dazzling sunlight bathes them in warmth, bringing no discomfort at all, while the monsters in the dark scramble to flee in panic.
Scenes like this have barely been seen since the end of the Pioneer Era.
In the late Pioneer Era, when darkness fell, dozens of Solar Arks like this would automatically march west through the Great Ruins, driving away the night and bringing light to the people.
But after the Pioneer Era, the last Solar Ark became battered and broken, its sun extinguished, leaving only the Sun Wardens dragging the darkened sun as they silently guarded the Great Ruins. The ship no longer shone with its former glory or fire.
Now, the Solar Ark has revived, its blazing sun piercing the darkness, and everywhere it passes is bathed in light.
On the Solar Ark stand towering giants, bathed in golden light. As the massive ship lurches forward, it heads straight for the Godsever Mountains.
"Sun Warden, something huge is moving this way!"
On the Solar Ark, the Sun-Herder chieftain tenses, sensing a colossal presence approaching. Alarmed, he quickly reports to Crystal Blaze at the vessel’s center, who is currently steering the ship.
Crystal Blaze, now towering and godlike, immediately turns her gaze toward the darkness. She too senses a terrifying tremor—something is racing toward them from behind, far faster than the Solar Ark itself!
Her eyes become twin beams of light, tearing open the darkness and exposing what lies within.
In the swirling mist, she sees mountains looming—each one formed from countless white bones. Under the divine light of her gaze, these bones writhe and scream, scrambling to hide as if terrified of her eyes.
Behind these bone mountains, the mist thickens into a sea of fog and endless peaks. Beyond that, two gate-like mountains stand as the threshold to a deeper, darker world.
Nether City. The Ghost Gate.
Nether City’s world sweeps in at incredible speed, quickly overtaking the Solar Ark. Mist howls past as the rules of heaven and earth shift. The crew feel their flesh slough away, leaving only white bones.
The bone mountains and rivers of mist flood through their bodies, as if their forms were half-ghostly. Even the sun above the Solar Ark dims to a hazy green, its light barely a corpse-glow.
Crystal Blaze reaches out, but the laws of Nether City fail to affect her body—she’s now too powerful to be overwritten by Fengdu’s rules.
She realizes that Nether City’s world is insubstantial, not truly the same reality—they cannot touch anything within it.
Then she sees Nether City itself: a towering ghost capital where colossal underworld gods brace atop the walls and towers, all on high alert.
At the city’s center, a giant demon cloaked in darkness lets his mantle billow out, stretching in all directions—far taller and grander than the Solar Ark. The vessel passes right through his body. Crystal Blaze cannot see his face, only two blazing red eyes burning in the blackness beneath his cloak.
Whoosh—
Nether City’s world flashes past, the mist surging forward and vanishing into darkness. The sun gradually regains its brilliance, and the crew lower their heads in shock—finding their flesh restored, utterly baffled by what just happened.
"The mist of Nether City is surging toward the Godsever Mountains..."
Crystal Blaze looks up at the Godsever Mountains, where Village Chief and the others are intercepting the gods of High Heaven. The battle is fierce—some peaks suddenly rise, others plunge into the earth. Sword and saber light split the sky, shaking the soul, while demonic roars and divine whispers echo through the air.
"The cowherd brother rode the Flood-Dragon King to borrow the Lunar Ark. He said the Lunar Ark is far from here, and he’ll need to sail from the Moonwell into the star sea. He told me to hold out as long as I can... Will he make it in time? Wait—what’s that?"
Crystal Blaze pushes the Solar Ark forward at full speed, then suddenly freezes—she sees clusters of ghost-fire blooming on the Godsever-facing side of the Great Ruins, appearing out of nowhere.
"Pleiades Sun-Ring Sight!"
Fiery rings layer in Crystal Blaze’s pupils as she focuses on the ghost-fire. Within the flames, she sees paper boats drifting out from endless darkness, lanterns hanging from their bows. Paper men on paper horses gallop madly, charging into the mist.
On each paper boat, an old man in a tattered black robe sits beneath the lantern, steering the vessel into the mist. In the haze, she glimpses godlike figures locked in battle with these boatmen.
Ghostly light occasionally pierces through both worlds, but strangely, these shockwaves never reach reality. The Great Ruins remains untouched, as if none of it is truly happening.
"Those are... the legendary Youdu Underworld Envoys!"
Crystal Blaze is stunned—are the Youdu Underworld Envoys fighting against Nether City?
What is going on?
She has no time to ponder. The Solar Ark rumbles ahead, barreling toward the Godsever Mountains. The battlefield between Nether City and the Netherworld draws ever closer, and above it, Village Chief, Imperial Preceptor, and others are locked in a desperate fight with the gods of High Heaven—a spectacle grand, though not as vast as the war between the underworlds.
The fighters atop the mountains are all incredibly powerful, each one rivaling gods and demons, their divine arts boundless. Yet they seem utterly unaware of the titanic battle raging beneath their feet—a conflict even grander and more soul-shaking than their own.
(This chapter is not over yet ^.^ Please click the next page to continue reading!)
The Solar Ark rolls beneath the Godsever Mountains, not yet close, when Crystal Blaze suddenly feels a nameless dread.
Clusters of ghost-fire drift from another shadowy world, paper boats swarming toward Nether City. The old envoys aboard the boats all look identical—cold and silent. Yet their faces are shrouded in mist, their true features hidden, only a vague sense of ordinariness discernible.
Countless paper boats shoot forward like arrows, plunging into Nether City. Behind the ghost-fire fleet, Crystal Blaze witnesses a terrifying sight—a pair of flaming ox horns slowly rising from the darkness!
Those horns are immense, each segment formed from a dying continent, with countless souls screaming and struggling, endlessly plunging from the Nine-Bend Ox Horns.
"Tu Bo!"
Crystal Blaze is tense with anxiety. She knows the war between these two worlds is perilous, yet the battle atop the Godsever Mountains is at its climax. Gritting her teeth, she drives the Solar Ark straight toward the peaks.
“Ba Tu… Si Ba Tu—”
A thunderous voice rumbles from the darkness, yet it does not reach the outside world. The warriors atop the mountains, locked in combat, hear nothing unusual—only the approaching Solar Ark.
But as the Solar Ark brushes past Nether City’s world, Crystal Blaze hears the obscure Netherworld Tongue—though its meaning eludes her.
Within Nether City, Lord Hades’s cloak billows in the darkness, swirling around the city walls. Countless gods stand beneath his mantle, appearing minuscule beside him.
In the sea of mist, paper men and horses battle madly against the gods and demons. The old boatmen stand, lantern in hand, their light illuminating the carnage as charging skeletons collapse in droves, dissolving into black smoke.
Lord Hades raises his hand—and suddenly, all of Nether City freezes. Time itself seems to halt.
Lord Hades lifts his hand, manifesting a divine sword that slashes toward the ox horns in the other world. Where the black blade passes, space compresses into substance, and layered realms fracture beneath its edge.
Crystal Blaze’s scalp prickles. She has no time to hesitate—she drives the Solar Ark toward the Godsever Mountains. Half the vessel slips into both Nether City and the Netherworld, struggling forward, until it finally breaks free from the grip of those alien worlds.
She exhales in relief and glances back—both Nether City and the Netherworld have vanished, and the epic clash between their realms is nowhere to be seen.
"How bizarre!"
On the Godsever Mountains, Village Chief and the others are locked in brutal combat with the gods of High Heaven. Towering deities with four heads and eight arms, or three heads and six arms, bodies cast in gold, unleash treasures of unimaginable power—the sky and earth themselves shudder under the onslaught.
The fighters on the mountain are locked in a bloody struggle—even Village Chief, the old sword god, is battered and covered in wounds.
Their blood and qi surge so fiercely that crimson light rises to the clouds, dyeing half the sky red.
Bang—
A giant figure crashes down from the sky, landing before the Solar Ark—it’s the Imperial Preceptor’s primordial spirit, forcibly knocked down. Even a sage who reforms the world every five hundred years is no match for absolute power!
The Imperial Preceptor rises, his sword light soaring through the clouds, his techniques shifting unpredictably as he slashes at the head of a one-eyed deity.
The one-eyed god lowers his gaze, unleashing endless divine light that engulfs the Imperial Preceptor!
The clash rings out—sword light spins, piercing through the god’s eye and out the back of his head. But in the next instant, the god’s fist smashes into the Imperial Preceptor, pounding him and the mountaintop deep into the earth.
A second giant eye bursts from the back of the one-eyed god’s skull, swiveling wildly. He raises his other fist and smashes it down at the Imperial Preceptor!
"So devious..."
The Imperial Preceptor spits blood, gazing up at the descending fist. The god’s head twists unnaturally, the eye in the back staring down at him with mocking disdain.
"But I’m not so bad myself..."
A faint smile appears on the Imperial Preceptor’s lips. "First Chapter of the Sword Realm: Boundary-Fixing."
The one-eyed god falters for an instant—then the sword light hidden in his skull erupts with a thunderous roar!
——I broke my promise. Zhai Zhu broke his promise and got fat. I stayed up last night and wrote a whole chapter; today I’m not sure if I can update two chapters, but one is guaranteed! Please vote for this book—let’s sprint for the monthly ticket rankings!