"We killed a god?"
"We... didn't kill a god."
The ancients were initially exhilarated, then bewildered, followed by confusion, loss, and dejection.
A mortal body indeed could not kill a god.
Only another unfathomable, malevolent god could slay an evil god.
Only a few beings, such as the Great Sun God, the Moon Lord, and the Lord of the Earth, frowned, sensing an anomaly but unable to pinpoint it.
What was wrong?
The Shadow of Darkness had indeed fallen by the hand of the Twisted Black River.
"Yes, what's wrong?" Yiluo Xi pondered, then abandoned thought.
"Wrong, of course it's wrong..." An Jianyou murmured, the Underworld reflected in her eyes, which in turn reflected past history.
One timeline was fading.
One timeline had been set in stone.
"Is this the power of an evil god?" she clenched her fist.
The Black Blade remained silent, merely tightening its grip on the hilt, gazing at the unfathomable Black River.
Boom—
Fang You retreated tens of thousands of miles, his divine body cracked, oozing blood.
He looked at the black river, like a colossal serpent coiled across the universe, and sighed softly.
"An unexpected turn of events, as predicted."
"The God-Slaying War could never proceed as anticipated. Furthermore, our understanding of evil gods is too, too shallow, only fragmented information gleaned from our severed history."
Unexpected, yet not unexpected at all.
He still clenched his fist slightly.
And as he had foreseen, after altering the timeline and preemptively slaying the Shadow of Darkness, the power of the Twisted Black River was rapidly escalating.
If before, he could barely hold out against this evil god for a moment with the combined might of his authorities, now, he wouldn't last more than a few blows.
However, the Twisted Black River's gaze was not upon him.
Glancing past him, Its gaze briefly lingered on the World Tree, then focused on the Mother of Desires.
Having ascended, the Twisted Black River was even stronger. If It continued to slay the Mother of Desires and absorb more power, It would snowball into an unstoppable force, capable of easily defeating and consuming even the combined might of the Crimson Moon, the Nether Lord of Eternal Night, and the Twilight of the Ancients.
Until, It regained the status of an Original Evil God.
With this thought, Fang You advanced instead of retreating. He would snatch the Mother of Desires from the jaws of the Twisted Black River.
"The Twisted Black River possesses the terrifying ability to alter timelines, and Its status far surpasses mine. The history It has already changed and set in stone, I can no longer alter."
"However, manipulating time is subject to various limitations for the Twisted Black River. It cannot change too much, otherwise, It wouldn't have waited until we slew the Shadow of Darkness to tamper."
The Twisted Black River was also unwilling to bear the backlash of altering time to slay a 'god.'
Therefore, It waited.
When It tampered, the demise of the 'Shadow of Darkness' was already a foregone conclusion. It had merely altered a small portion of history, changing the slayer from Fang Liu Yi to Itself.
The major nexus of history, the great event of the Shadow of Darkness's demise, remained unchanged.
"With preparation, guarding against the Twisted Black River's further timeline manipulation is not difficult. The truly difficult part is..."
Above the gray fog.
The surging black river obscured more than half the sky, pushing aside even the distant red moon.
The pink mother tree, constantly scoured by the rolling black waves, was like a candle flickering in the wind, about to be extinguished at any moment.
The Mother of Desires was on the verge of collapse.
And without an evil god to contain it, snatching prey from its jaws was harder than ascending to heaven!
Previously, while they lacked understanding of evil gods, the Twisted Black River also didn't know that humans could slay gods, thus giving them an opportunity. Otherwise, the Twisted Black River would not have allowed it. The cost of tampering with time to slay and devour the Shadow of Darkness must have been significant.
Fang You steadied his divine body, leaving the protection of the Oasis City Wall, and stepped upward, step by step.
He passed through the gray fog, ascending above it.
An Jianyou, Black Blade, and others followed suit.
The Great Sun God, Moon Lord, Lord of the Earth, and other ancients gritted their teeth and followed. However, their expressions quickly changed; without the protection of the Oasis City Wall, they were soon overwhelmed by the immense terror of the evil god.
In such a situation, let alone reversing the attack on an evil god, maintaining their own state seemed difficult.
"Tree of Life, project."
Fang You unfurled his crimson skill, Tree of Life, using it as an anchor to draw upon the World Tree's power, radiating a pure white domain field.
The range of the domain was small. Compared to the divine calamity that enveloped the entire sky, the World Domain was like a sesame seed.
Tiny, weak, inconspicuous.
But its coverage repelled the evil god's influence and the corrupting impact, giving everyone a chance to fight.
However,
The majestic law-based attacks unleashed by the ancients were like pebbles thrown into the boundless black river, causing only ripples. They could only create small splashes in the water.
The evil god, the Twisted Black River, completely ignored these minuscule beings, focusing its attention on slaying and devouring the Mother of Desires.
And the retainers and servants of the Black River faction were arriving from all directions.
Colossal beings also emerged from the black river, roaring.
Above, below, darkness pervaded.
But there was still light.
The light of faith, the light of defiance.
The light of faith could not last forever, but over these three days and nights, Fang You had amassed a sea of faith, an endless ocean of belief. These powers spread out, illuminating the sea surface with immense radiance.
He drew forth a single strand, a torrent of belief power like a rushing river, which began to burn fiercely.
They were impatient!
This was the faith of all beings, yearning to break through the endless night.
Authority: Myriad Light Wheels, Billions of Faith Power!
Light wheels unfurled behind Fang You.
The Oasis City Wall shone brilliantly, reflecting countless magnificent cities and bustling streets.
"Human faith is minuscule."
"But the accumulated faith of generations of humanity is immensely great."
"This is a hymn to courage."
"This is eternal faith."
"Passing the torch, humanity endures, faith is immortal."
"Slash—"
Billions of faith powers burned as fuel, releasing boundless might that transformed into a sword, a sword of light that pierced everything.
The indescribable Sword of Faith descended, and evil god attendants and retainers dissolved like snow.
The vast, conceptually infinite, surging black river was cleaved open.
Shattering the great domain.
Stopping time.
"#####!"
From within the black river, a low, hoarse roar was heard.
It was the wrath of the Twisted Black River.
For the first time, It was angered by ant-like beings. The black river waves rolled, washing away the color of time itself.
At the forefront of the temporal tide, Fang You's figure gradually blurred, like a small boat about to capsize beneath the surging waves.
But the next moment, a flame surpassing all worldly things erupted from the shattered space, piercing the dimness of time.
It was Yiluo Xi.
"It's my turn to make an entrance!"
Under the gaze of countless eyes, she smiled provocatively, but her eyes held extreme seriousness and a gamble of everything.
One must have a goal in life.
Her goal was to stand at the pinnacle of the world, to reach the highest position.
Even if only for a fleeting moment.
"Burn to ashes—"
Billions of spatial ripples suddenly spread, and within them, scorching red flames pierced through the spatial barriers, shattering infinite space as they erupted.
Infinite space shattered.
Because the entire boundless space was filled with world-ending fire, Yiluo Xi lost control.
But only a world-ending fire that couldn't be controlled by oneself was worthy of launching the strongest attack against an evil god.
She was the strongest!
At the cost of completely destroying her Infinite Gate skill, the orange-red flames rapidly spread, engulfing half the strange realm!
The Black River was also covered in the inextinguishable flames of world destruction.
Bang—
Yiluo Xi fainted and was supported by An Jianyou into the Underworld.
Simultaneously, Fang Liu Yi seized the burning, broken black river waves and planted the World Flower within the Mother of Desires.
World Flower, bloom!
...
Time froze.
In the distance, the Crimson Moon still suppressed the Nether Lord of Eternal Night and the Twilight of the Ancients. Perhaps sensing the Twisted Black River's lead, the red moon in the sky became even more ferocious, as if it had grown countless red hairs, chilling people to the bone.
But on the path to becoming an Original Evil God, the Twisted Black River still led.
The Shadow of Darkness had fallen, and the Mother of Desires was on the verge of being slain.
The World Flower was quietly blooming.
Black river water flowed over the peach-pink mother tree.
Fang You wore the Hand of the World Master, on which, world gem after world gem lit up.
This divine weapon, vastly different from its once complete form, finally unleashed its radiance tens of thousands of years later.
The radiance of God-Slaying...
World Spear pierces! Karma Spear slays!
Above the gray fog, the unfathomable, bizarre peach-pink mother tree was slowly disintegrating.
Desire, reproduction, life...
The concepts belonging to the Mother of Desires were disappearing.
She had fallen.
But the Great Sun God, Moon Lord, and other powerful beings still wore grave expressions. Who was the God-Slayer?
They vaguely glimpsed history.
The World Flower bloomed.
The Black River covered the past.
But the Spear of Destiny fixed the karma.
With a mortal body, slaying the evil god · Mother of Desires, this was the consequence!
As the Spear of Karma and Destiny returned to his hand, Fang You finally revealed a faint smile.
The night was still long, but at least, a glimmer of dawn had appeared.
"Crack—"
The Hand of the World Master cracked slightly, causing Fang You some heartache. If he himself hadn't already wielded most of the authorities and possessed immense power, he might not have been able to destroy the dying body of the Mother of Desires even with the full power of the Hand of the World Master.
The reason why the eighteen god-slaying weapons of Candela were broken, leaving no fragments, was that during god-slaying, these weapons often paid the price of their complete destruction to unleash a final, ultimate blow.
The Mother of Desires perished, the peach-pink mother tree completely vanished without a trace.
However,
Fang You still sensed a surge of power.
The power of evil gods was eternal. Although he, wielding the power of the world as a spear, was qualified to slay an evil god, he could not truly erase this power.
If the slayer were another evil god, It would instantly devour the other evil god's power.
If the slayer were a mortal being other than an evil god, this power would...
Disperse and flow evenly into the bodies of other evil gods.
The Twisted Black River, the Crimson Moon, the Twilight of the Ancients, the Nether Lord of Eternal Night...
The power left behind by the fallen Mother of Desires split into five streams, with the Crimson Moon and other evil gods each receiving one.
They still hadn't slain a god!
The Great Sun God, Moon Lord, and a few others also vaguely understood this, their faces filled with bitterness.
Time and again, they thought they saw hope, only to realize it was a mirage, easily shattered. Despair remained, and would always remain, before them!
This damned world!
But seeing the unchanging expression of the Torchlight Mentor, as if everything was proceeding as expected, they regained some fighting spirit.
Until the very end, one must not give up.
"We have not completely failed."
"At the very least, we have truly slain an evil god."
"The Crimson Moon and the Twisted Black River have indeed grown stronger, but they are still merely evil gods."
Merely!
But Mentor Fang was right; if they could slay one, they could slay a second.
Fang You was not merely comforting others.
He was indeed somewhat disappointed that god-slaying could not erase the Mother of Desires' power, but it was not entirely outside his predictions.
He had still simulated this possibility.
Could it be worse than the evil gods setting aside their grievances and fully focusing their attacks on humanity?
Moreover, by slaying the Mother of Desires, he had gained a crucial clue.
Could slaying gods break through the endless night?
Fang You had no certainty, absolutely none.
But some things had to be fought for; only by fighting could one grasp the sole light in the darkness.
And now...
"We should retreat!"
Snatching prey from its jaws had truly angered the Twisted Black River, and Its gaze was now fixed upon Fang You.
Instantly, Fang You's pressure intensified, his every cellular particle seeming to come alive, to generate its own will.
He unleashed the Tower of Combat, using this supreme treasure as a ship, and swiftly retreated.
At this moment, the Crimson Moon, at a great cost, had slain and devoured the evil god · Nether Lord of Eternal Night.
It had also ascended.
Its power was now no less than that of the Twisted Black River.
The black river above the gray fog hesitated for a moment, then flowed towards the Twilight of the Ancients.
Three evil gods remained.
Both the Crimson Moon and the Twisted Black River wanted to devour the Twilight of the Ancients.
Whoever devoured the Twilight of the Ancients would dominate all.
In comparison, their hatred for humanity was insignificant.
However, both the Crimson Moon and the Twisted Black River, with unspoken agreement, had their attendants and retainers attack the human oasis.
Under divine command, the strong from both factions had rarely cooperated.
Above the gray fog, the struggles between the evil gods were becoming fiercer.
Cracks appeared on the red moon, and sections of the riverbed within the black river ran dry.
But perhaps because the Crimson Moon had been more heavily injured previously, in the ensuing battle, the Black River gained the upper hand, its surging black waves already enveloping the unfathomable Twilight.
Suddenly,
Within the Twilight of the Ancients, another red moon appeared, as if a matryoshka doll, dyeing it crimson.
One inside, one outside, the two red moons sandwiched the Black River in between.
The Crimson Moon had secretly planted a contingency within another evil god.
Time reversed.
History shattered and reformed.
The ancient red moon and the vast black river roared, or perhaps wailed.
Black rain fell, red moons rose into the sky.
Figures battled in the heavens.
Clang—
...
"Through valiant struggle, and at great cost, we have finally slain the evil god, bringing daylight back to the strange realm. We have overcome the great catastrophe!"
"This is a great victory! A great victory for us beings!!"
Some ancients cheered, their spirits uplifted, weeping with joy.
An Jianyou smiled, unable to conceal her happiness.
Beneath the mask, Black Blade's lips seemed to curve into a smile.
"We won?"
Fang You murmured, looking out the window.
Under the night sky, a red moon hung high, exotically dripping blood.