This Dao was dazzling, brilliant beyond words.

Although it was still far inferior to the True Fate of Xu Zimo’s God World, it was enough to prove that the True Martial Progenitor had reached the threshold of creation. Once he could truly create, create a world where everyone could rise as dragons, he would be close to the Twelve Meridian Gates.

No wonder he dared to challenge the heavens.

This level of power wasn’t absolutely invincible, but it was exceedingly rare in all existence.

“How troublesome,” the Holy Progenitor muttered with a shake of his head. “Why is it that every few eras, someone like you appears? You people really make it hard for the world to stay peaceful.”

“In this world, some people choose to remain dogs, and some want to rise as heroes,” the True Martial Progenitor replied calmly. “Though I have only my own strength, I am willing to burn like a candle, shining until the moment I die.”

“Heroes are built atop the bones of thousands. Do you know whether you are the general… or the bones?” the Holy Progenitor said coldly.

“It doesn’t matter,” the True Martial Progenitor answered, his eyes glowing with solemn determination. “What matters is the path between becoming the general or the bones. That journey is the meaning of my existence. It will shine brighter than light, cut deeper than darkness. I am the eternal one.”

“You people are all insane,” the Holy Progenitor snapped. He no longer bothered with words. Raising his hand, he gathered overwhelming power into his palm.

“Six Paths of Lesser Samsara!”

As his voice fell, six gates appeared instantly across the sky. Each gate represented a Great Dao.

The Deva Path, the Asura Path, the Animal Path, the Preta Path, the Naraka Path, and the Human Path.

All beings cycled endlessly within these six paths, none could escape them. Birth, aging, sickness, death, all within the sixfold heavens.

The Holy Progenitor’s expression grew solemn as he pressed his hand down. The heavens seemed to overturn as a roar shook the world.

“Heaven and earth’s Six Paths, True Martial, which one will you enter?”

Within the six paths.

In the Deva Path, god-spirits manifested, divine might shaking the world.

In the Asura Path, an endless blood-soaked battlefield churned with undying Asuras refining bodies of slaughter.

In the Animal Path, pigs, dogs, cattle, and sheep lived at the mercy of others.

The Preta Path and Naraka Path merged into one.

Hell was empty and silent, while hungry ghosts roamed the world. A vast blood sea drifted through hell, birthing death and drowning newborn life. Countless hungry ghosts floated like reflections, half their bodies submerged in the hell-river below, their upper halves clawing wildly.

And in the Human Path, mortals bustled through life, ordinary yet great in their own way.

The Six Paths manifested before everyone’s eyes. Anyone else would have been filled with envy. Reincarnating within the Six Paths allowed one to choose their next life, perhaps even to be reborn as a lofty god. It was a dream countless people yearned for.

But to the True Martial Progenitor, it earned only a cold, disdainful laugh.

“Holy Progenitor, how could the Six Paths ever enter my eyes?”

“True Martial, you must choose. If you refuse, I will choose for you,” the Holy Progenitor said calmly. His voice echoed through the void with absolute authority, as though he were the master of the heavens themselves. His words carried the weight of the universe.

As the divine radiance around him intensified, the Six Paths began spinning, devouring everything with a power that could destroy heaven and earth. The roar of countless beings echoed.

Both the Eight God-Clans and the True Martial Sacred Ground disciples retreated rapidly, unwilling to be drawn into the whirlpool.

The True Martial Progenitor stood at the center, bearing the full brunt of the Six Path’s power. His green robe billowed like willow leaves, his figure towering like a cosmic pillar propping up the heavens. His hair drifted without wind, and his eyes were two lonely stars in the void.

Looking at the Six Paths, he spoke lightly.

“I am Zhen Wu and I choose my own path.”

With that, the Dao surrounding him descended, a magnificent force resisting the devouring might of the Six Paths. Though his Dao was incomplete and immature, it was his own creation, one he wielded with perfect mastery.

The Holy Progenitor’s Six Paths, though flawless, belonged to the heavens. He merely borrowed their power, and his compatibility with them was far from perfect.

Thus, the True Martial Progenitor, using an imperfect Dao, successfully held back the perfect Six Paths.

Just as the stalemate lingered a gateway appeared at the edge of the sky. From it surged immortal energy so vast it drowned the heavens.

“Zhen Wu, do you still remember me?”

Beyond the Immortal Gate sat a figure. He seemed the lord of all immortals, the source of all immortal mist. His appearance was unclear, but his presence dwarfed sun and moon, towered above mountains, and surpassed rivers and seas.

When he spoke, immortal energy surged endlessly throughout the world. He was the sovereign of the Immortal Realm.

Seeing him, the True Martial Progenitor’s expression darkened. “Immortal Lord… even you’ve come.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” the Immortal Lord replied with a soft laugh. “Today is your death day. No one can save you. Against a Heaven-Slayer like you, we have prepared thoroughly.”

Without giving him any chance to react, the Immortal Lord lifted his horsetail whisk. Its descent turned into a colossal celestial dragon, coiling toward the True Martial Progenitor.

“This is the Mountains-and-Rivers Nation-Guarding Whisk, formed from all the mountains and rivers of the world. Today, you will die.”

The dragon’s roar shook the heavens; even the sky seemed too small to contain its body. It descended swiftly. The True Martial Progenitor, still entangled by the Six Paths, could not free a hand to counter it.

“Ancestor!” the disciples of the True Martial Sacred Ground shouted anxiously.

At that critical moment, a jade-white hand tore through the void and appeared beside them. It seemed to cross billions of miles as it crushed everything before it, striking the celestial dragon with ancient, boundless force.

A deafening explosion shook heaven and earth.

When everyone looked again, the colossal dragon had shattered segment by segment, while the jade hand remained completely unscathed.

“Who?!” the Immortal Lord staggered back several steps, shouting in shock.

But after delivering the strike, the jade hand vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed.

The world fell into a stunned silence.

“Could it be…” San Dao and Shen Xing from the True Martial Sacred Ground seemed to realize something, their faces trembling with excitement.

“Hongtian… was that you?”

The Holy Progenitor’s voice turned dark.

But the empty void gave no response.

The Holy Progenitor and Immortal Lord exchanged grim looks. The two had appeared together intending to kill the True Martial Progenitor in one decisive strike, yet at the final moment, something had once again disrupted their plan.