Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Stars of the Heavens, The Phantom of Pangu Appears

High above the nine heavens, two figures stood suspended in the void, gazing down at the ferocious battle raging between the tribes of witches and demons. One of them watched the witch clan with evident tension, while the other smiled serenely and said, “The witches have long been prepared for this war. I fear the demons will suffer a grievous blow—why trouble yourself with worry?”

The anxious figure shook his head. “It’s not the others who concern me. It’s that I have altered Houtu’s fate. I fear some unforeseen calamity.”

From his words, it was clear how much he valued Houtu. These two were none other than Chenxing and Pangu, whom the witches revered as their ancestral father.

Originally, Chenxing intended to visit the world where his young disciple Shi Hao resided, with Pangu accompanying him. But by coincidence, they arrived just as the first great war between witches and demons erupted. Concerned for Houtu’s safety, Pangu insisted they remain until the conflict concluded before journeying to the Realm Above the Heavens.

Indeed, their destination was not the Perfect Plane, but the very summit of the heavens. After Pangu aided Shi Hao in slaying the Corpse Immortal Emperor, he left behind an interdimensional secret art for communication. Not long ago, Shi Hao sent word that he had attained the realm of Immortal Emperor and wished to ascend to the highest heavens in search of the source of darkness. Thus, Chenxing agreed to meet him there. Yet, the war between witches and demons had delayed their path.

Below, the two tribes had long since been driven to bloodlust. Witch and demon blood stained the earth, and the roars of warriors in battle, the agonized howls of the dying, echoed to the clouds. Waves of wrathful and vengeful energy soared skyward, transforming the foot of Mount Buzhou into a veritable sea of blood and torment.

Amid the chaos, demon sorcerers unleashed their powers, and the witches’ secret arts shook the heavens. Life and death were at stake; no one held anything back. Each combatant deployed their most formidable techniques, and the carnage was unimaginable.

At the heart of the battlefield, Emperor Jun and Taiyi fought side by side, wielding the Primordial Chaos Bell, a supreme innate treasure, against the Twelve Ancestral Witches. Although the two emperors were a minor realm above the ancestral witches, having reached the stage of Severing Two Corpses, without the Chaos Bell, they could not possibly withstand the combined might of twelve quasi-saints.

The Chaos Bell’s toll boomed across heaven and earth, manifesting as a colossal bell to shield the brothers from the ancestral witches’ assault. Emperor Jun also summoned the River Chart and the Book of Luo, activating countless miniature formations to ensnare Di Jiang and his kin in midair, rendering the ancestral witches frantic and furious, yet helpless against the binding power of these arrays.

Seeing the demon army’s numbers begin to overwhelm the witches, Emperor Jun exulted, shouting, “Di Jiang! Your people are scattered and disorganized. How can you hope to resist my demon horde? Today we shall drive you out and claim this secret realm for our own! Hahaha!” All the while, he manipulated his spirit treasures, laughing madly.

“Is that so?” Di Jiang and the other ancestral witches exchanged glances laced with mockery. With a thunderous roar, their forms swelled into giants a hundred yards tall. Di Jiang swung his massive fist at the Chaos Bell. With a deafening clang, the bell and the two emperors were hurled a thousand yards away.

At that moment, as the ancestral witches transformed into giants, countless battle cries erupted. From all directions, the witch tribe surged forth, encircling the demon horde. In an instant, the demons’ advantage vanished and they were slaughtered in droves.

The demon army, led by the ten great demon marshals, was soon beset by the witches both inside and out. Their formations fell into disarray, and they were mercilessly suppressed and decimated.

Emperor Jun, thrown aside by the force of the blow, bellowed in fury, “Impossible! How could you have known of our sudden attack?”

A cold snort was Di Jiang’s only answer. “That is not your concern. Today, if you hope to escape, you are only deluding yourselves. Prepare to die!” With that, he pressed the assault.

Seeing this, Taiyi hastened to shield them both with the Chaos Bell, sending a message to Emperor Jun: “Brother, it seems the witches were indeed prepared. If we wish to preserve our forces and escape, we must use that item.”

Emperor Jun gritted his teeth in frustration. “That was meant for our final confrontation with the witches! If we use it now, our reserves will be greatly depleted.”

Taiyi gave a bitter laugh. “Brother, can’t you see? If we delay any longer, our people may not survive. If all fall here, what future will our tribe have?”

Emperor Jun’s eyes reddened. With a hate-filled growl, he relented. “Fine! If we can inflict grievous losses on the witches, it will be worth it.”

Without further hesitation, despite the ancestral witches’ relentless pounding on the Chaos Bell, Emperor Jun summoned the River Chart and Book of Luo overhead. He and Taiyi retrieved over a thousand formation disks from their storage treasures and cast them into the air. The disks orbited the River Chart and Book of Luo, radiating starlight that enveloped all present.

The twelve ancestral witches found themselves suddenly oppressed, as though crushed by a myriad of stars. Their movements became sluggish and labored, and panic seized their hearts.

The River Chart, Book of Luo, and formation disks revolved together, summoning beams of starlight from the heavens that interwove with the great formation. The ancestral witches felt as though the weight of the stars pressed upon them, rendering each step an ordeal.

Stunned, the Twelve Ancestral Witches had not anticipated the demon tribe’s possession of such a powerful formation.

Unable to endure the suppression any longer, Zhu Rong, ever hot-tempered, shouted, “Brother, it’s time we played our trump card, or our people won’t last!”

Di Jiang looked around and saw their tribe being slaughtered under the formation’s weight. Fury erupted within him. “Enough! Prepare the Twelve Celestial Fiends Formation!”

The ancestral witches responded as one. With a concerted effort, they blasted the formation aside for a fleeting moment. In that instant, a dense, baleful aura surged from their bodies, coalescing into twelve small banners that whirled in the sky.

“Rise!” Di Jiang roared, and the twelve became twelve columns of blood-red light, merging with the banners.

In that moment, all of time and space in the primordial world seemed to freeze. Only the twelve banners, now fused together, drifted slowly in the sky. As they became one, an ancient, boundless presence filled the world, as if a forgotten divinity was returning. All watched in terror as a colossal apparition appeared between heaven and earth.

“Pangu the Great!” a cry rang out from Mount Kunlun—it was the Three Pure Ones. They had been observing the battle through their spiritual senses, never expecting the witches’ ultimate move: a formation to summon Pangu’s phantom. Awed and fearful, they fell to their knees.

Nor was Kunlun alone. On Spirit Mountain in the West, Zhun Ti and Jie Yin, the Blood Sea’s Ancestor Ming He, the North Sea’s Kunpeng, and many other mighty beings all quaked with dread, a newfound wariness of the witch tribe seizing their hearts.

Emperor Jun and Taiyi stared at the sky, their faces ashen. Never had they imagined the witches could conjure forth the Great God’s phantom.

They hurried to activate the Stellar Array for defense, but the Pangu phantom, whose eyes had been shut, suddenly opened them. Twin beams of divine light pierced the heavens as he thundered, “Axe, come forth!” The voice reverberated throughout eternity.

At that shout, Laozi and Yuanshi on Mount Kunlun were shaken to the core. They hastily channeled all their power to suppress the Taiji Diagram and Pangu Banner in their possession. Both innate treasures trembled violently but were barely restrained.

Meanwhile, Taiyi suffered terribly. While defending with the Chaos Bell, he expended nearly all his power to prevent his treasure from being seized by the phantom.

As for the fourth treasure born from the axe’s blade—the Godslayer Spear—it could not be summoned, for Chenxing had already taken it.

Ultimately, the phantom was but a shade. Unable to summon the Heaven-Opening Axe, it let out a furious cry and raised its colossal hand to strike the Stellar Array deployed by Emperor Jun.

In an instant, the formation that had suppressed the witches was shattered. Only Emperor Jun’s quick reflexes allowed him to retrieve the River Chart and Book of Luo, but the other disks, forged by the demon emperors, were smashed to dust.

As the phantom’s hand descended upon the demon formation, neither side noticed the devastation wrought upon the primordial land itself—it groaned as if in agony. Should the phantom strike again, the entire world might be torn asunder.

Just as the phantom prepared to unleash a second blow, an ancient voice resounded across the battlefield: “Enough! Would you shatter the world itself?”