Master of Strange Dao

The figure of the deity in the Ancient God's palm continually collapsed and recovered, repeating this cycle.

The deity couldn't escape, nor could it die immediately, having no choice but to watch helplessly.

Under the relentless erasing force of destruction, it was unknown how long it took before a deity was completely obliterated.

It was as if the characteristic of being undying and indestructible was forcibly worn away.

A trace of fear began to grow in the heart of the Yang Devil.

It seemed that when facing the Ancient God, the deity was utterly suppressed.

The scene flickered next, jumping ahead significantly, leaving unknown what had transpired in between.

The Ancient God fell, the last of the Ancient Gods, its colossal body plummeting, marking the official beginning of the Deity Era.

Afterward, the jumps in memory became less frequent, with fewer instances of skipping large segments.

As the Deity Era began, intelligent living beings started to emerge, and ancient totems of faith appeared.

Wars between deities emerged naturally, and what spread was the war among their followers.

The era of the Hundred Clans vying for dominance formally began at this time.

These conflicts were sometimes intense, sometimes calm; fighting this year, negotiating peace and cooperation the next were all quite normal.

In these circumstances, the human race was not noticeable at all, with frail bodies and very short lifespans, rarely living past thirty.

Therefore, the human race emphasized reproduction, was fertile, and above all, clever; thus, while other intelligent species went extinct, the human race endured and did not perish.

As time passed, more species went extinct, and some began to abhor the wars among deities.

Many of the surviving species gathered together and started to share a common clan name.

The Demon Clan.

By this time, humans were also part of it, still an inconspicuous member.

After an unknown period, the first human Qi Refiners emerged, silently spreading out.

By the time the deities noticed, it was already too late.

As death was all too commonplace and disappearances too ordinary, not even the deities or the leaders of the human race cared about such matters.

The initial Qi Refiners, all presumed to have disappeared leaving no traces, became typical examples of such.

But at this time, the deities did not overly concern themselves with humans, as the demon clan's resistance was fiercer and obviously stronger; humans with their few resources dared not show themselves, so it was clear which side to deal with.

The Yang Devil was still busy fighting during this time; although he was aware of such news, he didn't pay much attention.

The next time he noticed the humans was when a minor deity was killed by humans.

By this time, the conflict between deities and the demon clan had reached a fever pitch.

A tug-of-war began again, as some deities started enlisting humans to counter the demon clan, offering numerous benefits, if only not to assist the demon clan against them.

Then, the humans took the benefits but did not take action.

When the warring parties were heavily bloodied, the humans, who had been lying low, unexpectedly revealed a few powerhouses, pulling out an army and backstabbing the deities.

The Yang Devil awakened to the situation, as did the deities, but it was already too late.

The tide had firmly turned; even the Dharma Methods of Qi Refiners had been summarized, providing proper guidance to the descendants, and the emergence rate and frequency of powerhouses began to explode at a shocking rate.

The most intense confrontations also began around this time.

The Yang Devil personally witnessed a deity being engulfed by vast Death Qi, disappearing without a trace, with even its rank shattered and dispersed.

It was on this day, he personally felt the power of death, and finally understood human perception of death.

The next time he personally engaged was when he encountered a human powerhouse.

The opponent had thick eyebrows, big eyes, a gleaming bald head, looking fiercely terrifying, stepping forward step by step, with countless hallucinations following behind, all the various living beings that had died at his hands.

At the forefront of those countless beings was the silhouette of a White Tiger.

The White Tiger silhouette roared continuously, its eyes full of venomous hatred, staring at the back of the bald figure.

Unfortunately, the roaring power, the pervasive murderous intent, only made the bald figure grow ever stronger.

The Yang Devil recognized the White Tiger silhouette as a deity, known as the God of Slaying.

In terms of pure combat power, it was absolutely one of the top-ranking deities.

Then, the God of Slaying was slain.

This bald figure, wrapped in the power and might of having killed the God of Slaying, was unstoppable.

The Yang Devil felt intimidated, not daring to face it alone, thus teaming up with the Seven Yin King.

Unexpectedly, the Seven Yin King used him as a scapegoat and fled.

Another segment of memory is missing after this; the Yang Devil did not know what he encountered, ultimately having his True Form forcibly destroyed, and in the final moment of descent, he froze that instant, transforming into a Frozen World, struggling to survive.

The Yang Devil did not bear much resentment towards his defeat, acknowledging it was merely due to inferior strength, yet his grudge against the Seven Yin King was so immense it overshadowed everything else.

Yu Ziqing roughly skimmed over it; the Yang Devil's memory was too vast, spanning too long a time, so long even it felt blurry on many events.

Yu Ziqing thought of that thick-browed, fierce-looking bald figure, wondering if perhaps that was the Mountain Lord?

Actually, the Yang Devil's memory also had gaps, not remembering what happened during the interim, uncertain even if it was this person who had beaten him like this.