Supreme Warrior in the City

The Eternal Divine Emperor let out a bitter smile. "Any single Heavenly Venerable is extremely hard to deal with. Each Heavenly Venerable represents one type of rule of the Heavenly Dao, one rule by which this world operates. Within that rule, that Heavenly Venerable is invincible!"

"Then why are six of the Ancient Seven Heavenly Venerables gone?" Su Yang asked in puzzlement.

"Three died in the Ancient Times, and three died in the later Ancient era!" the Eternal Divine Emperor said. "How the Heavenly Venerables of the Ancient Times fell, I don’t know. But I personally took part in two of the battles against those three Heavenly Venerables of the later Ancient era. One of those Heavenly Venerables died right here inside the World Melting Furnace!"

"What?" Su Yang couldn’t help crying out in shock. A Heavenly Venerable died inside the World Melting Furnace?

"Who did you think wiped out the World Melting Furnace world back then?" the Eternal Divine Emperor said. "Back then it was that Heavenly Venerable who acted, completely annihilating the World Melting Furnace world, and that thoroughly enraged the master of the World Melting Furnace. The World Melting Furnace’s master rushed back, trapped that Heavenly Venerable inside the World Melting Furnace, and the Heaven Slayer and the Master of Yuling Palace arrived. The three joined forces, completely grinding away that Heavenly Venerable’s Tao, and only then did they manage to behead that Heavenly Venerable."

"There was something like that?" Su Yang was stunned. Those three teaming up could actually kill a Heavenly Venerable?

"Heavenly Venerables are indeed very powerful, but because Heavenly Venerables cannot show up together, killing one is not impossible!" the Eternal Divine Emperor said. "The Three Great Ancient could join forces to kill a Heavenly Venerable. Likewise, the Ancient Three Strong could also join forces to kill a Heavenly Venerable. However, the problem is that killing a Heavenly Venerable is extremely draining of Primordial Energy. I remember that when the Heaven Slayer and the other two slew that Heavenly Venerable, all three paid a tragic price. The Master of Yuling Palace exhausted all his Primordial Energy and had to return to the World Tree for thirty thousand years of cultivation before he recovered. And the World Melting Furnace’s master nearly had his Divine Soul completely destroyed; the Heaven Slayer guided in the Earth Principle to reshape him, and even then he had to cultivate for ten thousand years before slowly recovering."

"That price is really no small thing!" Su Yang couldn’t help sighing.

"Exactly. Otherwise, why would Heavenly Venerables be so hard to wipe out!" the Eternal Divine Emperor said. "Fortunately, Heavenly Venerables don’t appear at the same time. If they did, the Human Clan would have been doomed long ago!"

"Would the appearances of those two Heavenly Venerables be close together in time?" Su Yang asked. Since the first Heavenly Venerable already forced the Heaven Slayer and the other two to pay such a painful price, if the second Heavenly Venerable came right after the first was killed, wouldn’t the Heaven Slayer trio be doomed?

"No." The Eternal Divine Emperor shook his head. "When a Heavenly Venerable dies, its Tao dissipates, and that takes time. If another Heavenly Venerable appeared during that period, it would be affected by that dissipating Tao—after all, their Tao all comes from the Heavenly Dao. Under such conditions, the second Heavenly Venerable’s strength would drop drastically; with the slightest carelessness, it might even be dragged down, causing its own Tao to dissipate along with it!"

"It can work like that?" Su Yang was stunned.

"It has always been that way!" An old man from the Ancient era nodded. "Back in the Ancient Times, such an incident occurred. Lord Human Emperor, Lord Buddha Venerable, and Lord Taoist Venerable joined forces to behead one Heavenly Venerable. Immediately after, another Heavenly Venerable rushed in. In the end, it was assimilated by the dissipating Tao, and that Heavenly Venerable died without even fighting!"

Su Yang couldn’t help sighing. This was something he had never considered. Still, it was a good thing. If those Heavenly Venerables could appear together, wouldn’t the Human Clan have been wiped out long ago?

"Seven Heavenly Venerables, six have been beheaded, and on the Guardian God’s side there’s still one more Heavenly Venerable!" Su Yang asked in puzzlement. "After the Ancient war and the later Ancient war, both were times when the Human Clan was at its weakest. If that Heavenly Venerable had acted, wouldn’t the Human Clan have lost long ago? Why has that Heavenly Venerable always stayed hidden and never struck? Is he waiting for something?"

"Crushing the Human Clan is easy, but beheading the strongest of the Human Clan is not." The Eternal Divine Emperor said, "Every Human Clan powerhouse who can cultivate to the Heavenly Level realm has an iron will. These strong ones, even if they fall in battle, their Spiritual Sense does not perish, and they will eventually reincarnate and be reborn. The fact that those Heavenly Venerables died one after another already proves this. Striking while the Human Clan is weak doesn’t actually gain them much. So that Heavenly Venerable won’t act in such a way; he definitely has his own scheme. As for what exactly he’s plotting, that’s beyond what we can know!"

Su Yang nodded thoughtfully. From the looks of it, the situation on the Guardian God’s side was quite different from the information he’d gotten before.

"But that’s something we don’t need to worry about for now." The Eternal Divine Emperor said, "While Heavenly Venerables are scheming, the strongest of our Human Clan likewise have grand schemes. All we need to do is withstand the Immortal Palace’s assault, and according to the Master of Yuling Palace’s instructions, guard this half Heavenly Dao Stone Tablet for a thousand years and do our best to win them enough time. That will be enough!"

Su Yang nodded. This was indeed what they needed to do right now.

"How strong is the Immortal Palace?" Su Yang asked.

"Very strong!" the Eternal Divine Emperor said. "All the Human Clan powerhouses of the Ancient era put together still couldn’t match the Immortal Palace. And the strength of the Ancient Heaven Warriors is on par with those Guardian Gods outside the Immortal Palace. If we really compare, the overall strength on the Guardian God’s side is a bit higher than ours!"

"Then in our current state, trying to stand against the Immortal Palace..." Su Yang was somewhat worried.

"No need to worry." The Eternal Divine Emperor said, "The Immortal Palace is indeed powerful, but can all of its strong ones come out? Back then, the seal left by the Three Great Ancient was such that the stronger one is, the harder it is to emerge from within the seal. In other words, those who can come out of the Immortal Palace are all relatively weak; the truly powerful ones find it very hard to come out!"

"There’s something like that?" Su Yang couldn’t help feeling pleasantly surprised. This really was an unexpected boon.

The various Ancient figures all nodded; they knew this matter best. After all, when the Three Great Ancient laid down that seal, they had helped a great deal.

"Since that’s the case, we can probably hold on for this thousand years!" Su Yang nodded and said.

Everyone else nodded along as well. In truth, with things having reached this point, the Human Clan had no other choice. They had no room to retreat. If they failed to hold, the Human Clan would be utterly defeated. And once the Human Clan was defeated, they would truly fall into a desperate situation!

After that, Su Yang and the others together laid out the plans for the coming battle against the Guardian Gods.

These Heavenly Warriors, after what had just happened, no longer had the urge to fight among themselves like before. Under Su Yang’s leadership, everyone pooled their wisdom and, after a round of discussion, worked with Su Yang to devise a defensive plan.