In the instant the colossal Ancient God’s eyes flickered open, the spatial rift housing him trembled violently. An unimaginable aura surged forth, filling the fissure and threatening to tear it asunder.

His eyes, as still as a dead sea, reflected eons of forgotten ages. Coarse skin, like the cracked earth of a desolate world, stretched across his immense visage, which slowly twisted into a fearsome grimace.

Upon his brow rested eight dim Ancient God stars. Yet, as the titan awoke from his timeless slumber, the first of these celestial markers began to glimmer with nascent light.

A thunderous roar, far surpassing any earthly storm, echoed through the rift. If one listened closely, the sound resembled the grinding and colliding of bones.

His body, dwarfing even several celestial bodies, stirred. A simple movement from his prone position to a seated one would take even the most skilled cultivator, lacking the art of spatial compression, countless hours of flight to traverse.

Wang Lin stared, transfixed by the Ancient God’s enormity. As the being rose, a tempestuous wind swept over him and his companions, forcing them to retreat. Only the black-robed elder remained, eyes gleaming with an unusual light, fixed on the spectacle before him. Beside this god, the cultivators seemed less than insects.

“I am the Ancient God, Tuosen!” A booming voice reverberated, shattering sections of the surrounding spatial rift. The eight kings of the Corpse Yin Sect paled, desperate to retreat, but before such a being, no escape was possible. “This… this is a God…” Yan Leizi whispered, his face drained of color, utterly overwhelmed by the Ancient God’s inconceivable form. Even with his cultivation, he felt a profound sense of helplessness.

Wang Lin, the weakest of the group, did not spew blood, but his body cracked and fissured under the pressure of the resounding voice. A chasm cleaved his chest, threatening to cleave him in two, and his face turned an ashen grey, a sign that his primordial spirit was critically wounded and his flesh would soon turn to stone.

A handful of Shattering Nirvana cultivators, who had arrived previously, stood dumbstruck. Their cultivation and fortitude had allowed them to weather temporal sorcery unscathed, yet this sight threatened to shatter their very sanity. The resonating voice shattered their primordial spirits, echoing like thunderclaps within their ears.

The seated Ancient God’s gaze grew cold, and the second star upon his brow flared to life, revealing a strange, indistinct object hidden within its depths.

He regarded the floating cultivators before him and, as a mortal might swat a fly, raised his right hand. The limb, comparable in size to a celestial body, swept through the air, conjuring a tempest and bearing an irresistible force.

Before an Ancient God, distance held no meaning. The space between his raised arm and its eventual impact seemed to compress into a single instant, an instant that consumed the entire world within the eyes of the mortals present.

Even before the deafening roar reached their ears, the colossal arm was upon them. A Shattering Nirvana cultivator at the front had no chance to evade. With a frantic incantation, he channeled all his power into creating layer upon layer of protective wards, forming a thousand shimmering barriers, as he retreated, hoping to withstand the blow, even at the cost of grievous injury.

The arm crashed into the wards. Ten thousand layers of defense, built up over centuries of cultivation, proved as fragile as paper against the Ancient God’s might.

With a single, resonant *crack*, the outermost and innermost wards shattered simultaneously. Though, in truth, there was a slight difference in timing, it was negligible. The titanic limb did not falter, merely brushed aside the defenses.

As the wards crumbled, the cultivator within, a master of the Shattering Nirvana realm who had cultivated for over ten thousand years, laughed bitterly as his body exploded into a bloody spray, a crimson stain upon the Ancient God’s arm.

His primordial spirit dissipated, becoming a mere wisp of celestial energy, sucked into the rough fissures upon the Ancient God’s skin.

As the limb continued its sweeping arc, the black-robed elder’s eyes blazed with that unusual light. He stepped forward, spanning unimaginable distances, appearing before the oncoming arm.

His form, minuscule compared to the colossal limb, seemed insignificant, negligible even. Yet, with a serene expression, he raised his right hand and struck forward.

A thunderous blast erupted between the elder and the Ancient God’s arm, a maelstrom of divine lightning. The arm, which seemed destined never to stop, halted before the elder, colliding with his outstretched hand!

In that instant, the gale, finally catching up to the arm’s speed, buffeted the elder. A wind capable of collapsing mountains and scattering flesh and soul, yet it only caused his hair to rise. A simple linen band, tied to his silvered hair, snapped in two, fluttering away behind him.

The elder’s black robes whipped wildly about him, seven rents appearing in his sleeves, the bottom hem dissolving into dust and oblivion.

The skin on the hand that met the Ancient God trembled as if an undulating wave ran beneath it. The wave surged up his arm and into his body, causing more tears to rip through the fabric of his sleeve until the entirety of it was ripped free and dissolved behind him.

The elder lifted his head, eyes blazing, his face flushed with an unnatural crimson. Suppressing the urge to vomit forth a mouthful of blood, he laughed and rapidly struck five points on the back of his right hand with his left.

At the touch of the first fingertip, a force shattered the confines of the spatial rift, drawing upon a vast expanse of celestial power from ten thousand *li* away, gathering the force into his hand. The power then rushed from the back of his hand into the Ancient God’s arm.

Ten thousand *li* was not enough to challenge an Ancient God. When the second fingertip fell, celestial energy surged forth from one hundred thousand, then a million, and then ten million *li*, pouring into his five fingers to create an overwhelming power. This all happened in the blink of an eye, too fast for the other cultivators to react.

The arm, impossibly large, was forced back, separated from the elder’s hand. Yet, upon the Ancient God’s arm, a black handprint remained!

“As expected of the Royal Eight Star Ancient God! You are of a power that only the Void Nirvana realm can hope to contend. You are far stronger than the common Eight Star Ancient God I helped slay in my youth!”

The elder retreated, the color draining from his face, replaced by a ghastly pallor. Yet, his eyes shone brightly, filled with a burning battle lust.

After seven steps backward, the elder lifted his head and lunged forward, landing upon the Ancient God’s arm, using the momentum to propel himself towards Tuosen’s face!

Tuosen’s eyes, still cold, now flickered with arrogance and disdain. With a flick of his hand, the faint black handprint vanished. With a thunderous roar, his titanic form slowly rose to its full height.

His height reached the heavens, he stood. With his rising came a force as powerful as the heavens and earth. The third star upon Tuosen’s brow flickered to life, glowing brightly. Inside of its depths hid a shape… indistinct and barely felt.

Only Wang Lin, transfixed, watched Tuosen, especially the remote mark upon the ancient God’s brow. Wang Lin’s mind jolted as he recognized the technique used by Royal Eight Star Ancient Gods, though his memory did not know the method of performance. “Celestial Star Refinement!”

“Insects!” Tuosen boomed. He swept his hands through the air, creating a hurricane which he cast at the elder. The attack was instantaneous, shrinking the vast distance between him and his foe to nothing. Tuosen’s two arms, like two celestial bodies, crashed towards the old man.

The elder’s face flushed red again, his robes billowing. He stretched his arms to either side, and, with a low growl, conjured an endless well of celestial force. Around his arms icebergs, oceans of fire, mountains, and thunderstorms appeared.

The layers of magical energy appeared instantly, and, as the old man stretched his arms out, crashed against the Ancient God’s limbs.

For a moment, the spatial rift trembled. The attacks looked like fireworks against Tuosen’s skin.

The spells only stopped Tuosen’s arm for an instant, but that was all that the elder needed to leap away, through space, and towards Tuosen’s head.

“Limitless! If you do not appear now, I will not honor our agreement! Have you forgotten our oath from long ago, hiding as you are?” The elder roared as he ran.