Immortal-Exterminating Divine Venerable

"Impossible! His cultivation is only that of a mortal, yet this aura is already on par with a True God! I don't believe it!"

Sensing this aura, Lu Changsheng was stunned.

This was simply too incredible.

A mortal, and a True God.

Such a huge gap... even an unparalleled prodigy might not be able to cross it. That was a difference of at least a hundred million times. Was this something a human was capable of?

Impossible.

I'm afraid that even in the Ancient Era, the offspring of the most supreme Divine Beasts might not have been able to make such a great leap.

"Breaking the Nine Prohibitions! It's finally happened! Haha, the heavens have truly blessed the Human Race! A genius capable of Breaking the Nine Prohibitions has finally appeared again! The Human Race is destined for greatness!"

Human Emperor Xuanyuan, however, laughed.

He was weeping with joy.

Because only he knew.

He knew what kind of potential and talent were required to reach the top of the Mortal Ascension Platform.

The so-called Nine Prohibitions...

...referred to a series of limits. Ten times the power was the first prohibition.

One hundred times was the second.

And so on.

Only a hundred million times reached the ninth prohibition.

To break the Nine Prohibitions was to shatter the limit where one's combat power exceeded one's cultivation by a factor of over one hundred million.

In the beginning of the Martial Dao in Ancient Times, a heavenly decree had been issued: all things among the Ten Thousand Races were bound by the limit of the Nine Prohibitions.

Anyone who could break the Nine Prohibitions could be ranked among the strongest geniuses in the world.

Ever since the Primordial Emperor of Ancient Times established the Human Race's destiny, its fortunes flourished. However, humans were born frail and were also bound by the Nine Prohibitions—a limit that was even harder for them to break than for the other races.

Therefore, even with the support of Celestial Emperor Yuan Shi and the favor of the world's destiny, the Human Race was still not considered a strong race among the Ten Thousand Races.

That is, until the appearance of the first Human Emperor, the Golden Emperor Saint Mother.

She broke the limit of the Nine Prohibitions in one fell swoop, becoming the first genius in the Human Race to do so. She led her people to shatter the heavens and annihilate the Ten Thousand Races.

She gathered the scattered humans and laid the foundation for an eternal future for the Human Race.

After her came the Second Generation Human Emperor, Pan Emperor. He too was a genius who broke the Nine Prohibitions. With his Heaven-Opening Axe, he slew the leader of the Celestial Snake Clan—the Human Race's fiercest rival at the time—and claimed the Yellow Earth Land where humanity began. He secured for the Human Race a truly suitable place to live, which was also the most fertile land in the entire Divine Land Continent.

Then came the third Human Emperor, Xi Emperor, who was also a genius that broke the Nine Prohibitions. He achieved enlightenment and created the Innate Trigram Secret Array Map, using it to build nine ancient human capitals in a protective nine-palace formation.

These capitals stand to this day and are the Human Race's most important fortresses. As long as these nine ancient capitals do not fall, the Human Race cannot be exterminated, not even by a Saint Emperor.

Next was the fourth Human Emperor, Flame Emperor—who was Human Emperor Xuanyuan's uncle-in-law and the father of Yang Xiao's second life. With fire as his virtue, he passed down a supreme civilization, established a unified regime, and step by step, made humanity the protagonists of the world.

And he, too, was a genius who broke the Nine Prohibitions.

Throughout the history of the Human Race, there have only been these four geniuses who broke the Nine Prohibitions. Each one of them, possessing the undeniable Talent of the Human Emperor, was a natural choice for the title. They laid the eternal foundations for the rise of the Human Race.

Since then, no one in the Human Race has broken the Nine Prohibitions again.

Even Human Emperor Xuanyuan himself had only reached the Nine Prohibitions, never truly breaking them. Likewise, the successor he had chosen, Gongsun Xuan, was the same.

And now, Yang Xiao had appeared.

Moreover, judging by his aura, his power was still constantly increasing.

With the appearance of such an unparalleled genius...

...how could Human Emperor Xuanyuan not be thrilled?

All his previous thoughts vanished in an instant. Only one idea remained: even if it meant sacrificing Gongsun Xuan, the successor he had spent years cultivating, he had to ensure Yang Xiao grew strong enough to inherit the Human Emperor Position as the sixth Human Emperor.

With this in mind...

...his mind began to race, forming a plan.

Meanwhile, Yang Xiao, on the Ascension Platform, was unaware of this. At this moment, however, he was also overcome with joy.

Originally, even after performing the Blood Sacrifice to heaven and earth and killing nearly one hundred thousand disloyal members of the Human Race, including the Zou Family—which had made the will of the people more focused and pure—the power bestowed upon him had only brought him to Demigod Peak.

He was still lacking something to reach the True God Level. It was just like Yuan Haotian; although his internal power was a thousand times stronger than an ordinary Demigod Peak, he was still a step away from becoming a True God.

This was because the power couldn't coalesce, preventing him from truly grasping a greater strength.

It was like having a vast ocean that was still just water, unable to become a glacier.

With this level of power, Yang Xiao still couldn't stand steadily on the final step of the Ascension Platform.

Before long, his power would be depleted, and he would be thrown off, perhaps even crushed into a bloody mist once more. If that happened, he wouldn't have truly reached the summit of the Ascension Platform, and naturally, he wouldn't be able to receive the Dharma Transmission of the Power of the Emperor.

But just as Yang Xiao thought he had lost his chance at the Dharma Transmission of the Power of the Emperor, the Mysterious Small Tripod inside his body stirred at this critical moment.

Immediately after, a massive amount of mystical energy surged out.

One stream, then two.

Ten streams, then twenty.

A hundred, then two hundred.

A thousand, then two thousand.

More and more mystical energy billowed out.

The Mysterious Small Tripod, which had absorbed at least one-tenth of the Immortal Dao Will from the entire Profound Sun Continent, had finally finished its refinement process after nearly twenty days. And now, at the moment Yang Xiao needed it most, it erupted all at once.

The Emperor Golden Dragon Secret Technique was a Secret Technique based on Physical Strength; the power it could unleash often depended on one's base Physical Strength.

Now, as this mystical energy poured in, every hundred streams transformed into the power of one Flood Dragon.

A thousand streams meant the power of ten Flood Dragons.

In the blink of an eye, Yang Xiao's base power broke through the Human-God Boundary. His aura, amplified by various Secret Techniques and the power of the people's will, instantly reached the True God Level.

At the same time.

He had also reached the level of Breaking the Nine Prohibitions.

Furthermore, as the mystical energy continued to pour out, the power in his body kept rising.

'Nine thousand streams! That's the power of ninety Flood Dragons! I can't take it... Ten thousand streams! Eleven thousand... I'm going to pass out!'

Yang Xiao cheered joyfully in his heart.

Because this energy was just too much.

Too strong.

So much that he was lost in it, not wanting it to stop at all.

But in the end, it did stop.

After 33,600 streams of mystical energy had carved 33,600 mysterious patterns onto his body, Yang Xiao's power instantly increased. His original seventy-one Flood Dragons of power were supplemented by an additional three hundred thirty-six, bringing his total to four hundred and seven Flood Dragons of power.

In that moment, his Physical Strength alone had become more than five times what it was before.

With such terrifying Physical Strength, Yang Xiao was comparable to the Peak of the Eighth Layer of the Small Divine Ability Realm even without using any Secret Techniques. If he were to use his various Secret Techniques, on top of the currently gathered power of the people's will...

'A Tier Three True God... At this moment, I actually have the combat strength of a Tier Three True God.'

Yang Xiao smiled.

But just then, an immense sense of crisis appeared in his heart.

The Thousand Mechanism Eye inside his body twitched violently.

But it was too late.

A black shadow had appeared behind him at some unknown time, and a jet-black Palm Power struck out.

"Haha, go die! So what if you have the Talent of the Human Emperor and are a heaven-sent prodigy? You're still going to die this time! If Lord Demon Venerable finds out about this, my future will be made!"

A wild laugh echoed.

Yang Xiao was shocked to discover...

...that despite his combat strength having just surged to the Tier Three True God Realm, he couldn't even move an inch. His opponent was even stronger.

The opponent seemed to be...

A Tier Five Divine General!