69novels Chapter 961 - 589: Reduced to Ashes
Chapter 961 - 589: Reduced to Ashes
What kind of terror must it be to make the gods risk celestial punishment, facing the crisis of soul disintegration, just to dismantle the disaster of the Six Paths of Reincarnation?
Zhang Chen dared not imagine!
The fall of the gods, true nature lost, transforming into various treasures—what an awful calamity this is!
"Unfortunately, this being even if it dismantled the Six Paths of Reincarnation, still didn’t avoid the calamity. If the opponent had, then Human Reincarnation wouldn’t appear here." Zhang Chen put away the Yin Yang Grinding Disc, and sighed lightly.
Suddenly, a sense of confusion rose in his heart; amidst the great calamity, all things return to ruins, even the legendary Ancient Gods fell, but what about himself? What should he do in the future?
Has the massive transformation of Heaven and Earth ended?
Will the situation between Heaven and Earth worsen in the future?
Looking at the fragments of Yin Souls scattered in Heaven and Earth, and the laws of Heaven and Earth operating hesitantly, seemingly stuck, Zhang Chen showed a trace of worry in his eyes.
In his deduction, the future massive transformation of Heaven and Earth is almost certain to happen.
The massive transformation of Heaven and Earth is definitely not over.
The Yin Yang Grinding Disc transformed into a stream of light, drilled into Zhang Chen’s Primordial Spirit, spinning in the Primordial Spirit Consciousness Sea, an ambiguous force circulating, suppressing the power of the consciousness sea.
Zhang Chen scanned the ground, but didn’t find any points falling, a trace of contemplation in his gaze: "Maybe it’s because Human Reincarnation is too unique. It doesn’t exist in the form of treasures or divine beings, but rather in the form of law and order... Yet that’s not right; why would skills drop?"
Zhang Chen couldn’t fathom why skills fell from the Six Paths of Reincarnation, but points did not.
But now was not the time to think too much. Seeing he gained benefits, Zhang Chen turned around and came behind Zhang Gaoqiu, pulling down the obstacle over Zhang Gaoqiu’s eyes, immediately using an escape technique to slip away.
When Zhang Chen returned to the courtyard, he summoned a Body-Stabilizing Rune, which transformed into a golden light and drilled into his body.
At this time, his family’s Lixiang Garden was still relatively stable. Due to careful control, the starfire from the sun embers hadn’t fallen near Lixiang Garden. So, although the Shen Family was engulfed in a sea of fire, it hadn’t affected the small courtyard.
At this time, Chengyu and others appeared in the courtyard, looking at the flames rising into the sky from the Shen Family, showing a trace of worry in their eyes.
"Big brother!"
Seeing Zhang Chen emerge from the shadows, Zhang Tuowei hurriedly rushed over, his voice full of anxiety: "The Shen Family is on fire, the blaze is still spreading, what do we do now?"
"Don’t worry, the fire won’t burn out. The Shen Family’s bloodline is born able to control water flow, otherwise, they wouldn’t handle the national water transport. Although the fire is fierce, it’s just a rootless duckweed, it’ll naturally extinguish as long as it’s isolated from combustible materials." Zhang Chen said.
Just then, a divine spirit from the Shen Family hovered in the void, a hundred-foot water dragon flying around them, continuously suppressing the overwhelming fire.
The flames ignited by the sun embers were not truly the Sun True Flame. Facing the water flow drawn by the Shen Family, the fire was gradually suppressed.
The urgent voice of the Shen Family’s Ninth Tier divine spirit echoed throughout the manor: "Everyone be careful, this fire is no ordinary flame, its power has reached at least Ninth Tier. Once entangled by the flames, even a Ninth Tier divine spirit could suffer burns. All divine spirits join me to temporarily suppress this exotic fire; wait for the ancestor to return to extinguish the flames. Our powers are not enough, we can only temporarily check the spread of the fire; to extinguish the fire requires the ancestor’s personal intervention."
With the order of the Shen Family’s Ninth Tier divine spirit, divine lights soared from within the Shen Family residence, controlling streams of water to suppress the fire.
"Five Ninth Tier divine spirits, seven Eighth Tier divine spirits—the Shen Family truly controls seventy percent of the nation’s water transport, such depth is terrifying." Zhang Chen looked at the rising aura, counting the experts of the Shen Family.
"You’re wrong! Wrong by far! This is just part of the Shen Family’s depth; the Shen Family controls seventy percent of the nation’s water transport, its foundation is beyond your imagination, and what you see is not all of the Shen Family’s strength. Think about it—a power that can monopolize seventy percent of the nation’s water transport, could it be simple? Even Yellow Heaven Dao’s rodents can cultivate so many experts, the Shen Family surely wouldn’t be inferior to Yellow Heaven Dao, maybe they’re not far behind." Chengyu’s eyes showed extraordinary intelligence, rebutting Zhang Chen’s words.
"The Shen Family actually has such strength?" Zhang Chen found it hard to believe.
However, thinking about the Shen Family controlling seventy percent of the nation’s water transport—like a company in the twenty-first century monopolizing seventy percent of a country’s industry’s business—what a terrifying giant it would be, with what an awful influence!
So after hearing Chengyu’s words, Zhang Chen felt there was some truth to them, and he fell silent, showing a trace of caution in his gaze: "I think I’d better stay prudent, the depths of this world are too profound, especially since the Divine Spirit Dao spread..."
"By the way, have you guys noticed that the flames look a bit familiar?" At this time, Zhang Fei, looking at the golden flames burning in the night, couldn’t help but feel he had seen them somewhere before.
"Big brother, do those flames have some similarity to the fire in your little stove?" Zhang Fei seemed to recall something, turning to ask.
Zhang Chen’s eyelid twitched, determined not to display Sun Charcoal Fire before the Shen Family henceforth, as even Zhang Fei could detect some clues. If the Shen Family’s cultivators saw, wouldn’t it be a huge trouble?
No one is a fool.
Facing Zhang Fei’s questions, Zhang Chen directly refused three times: "I don’t know! You saw it wrong! It doesn’t look like it at all!"
Mrs. Zhang also slapped Zhang Fei on the back: "What nonsense are you talking about? You can’t talk recklessly, otherwise you might cause trouble, and we will all suffer with you."
The whole family was neatly watching the fireworks in the courtyard, accompanied by the return of the Shen Family’s tenth-tier deity, they saw a stream of black water falling from the void, extinguishing the blazing flames.
Only most of the Shen Family had turned into ruins, billowing smoke rising up, enveloping the entire Shen Family.
"Everyone gather around, check for casualties!"
"Quickly assemble the clan members, investigate the loss of life." At this moment, Wang Xifeng stepped out and ordered the maids and servants to start checking the population.
Following Wang Xifeng’s order, Zhang Chen also walked out of Lixiang Garden with his family.
At this moment, Zhang Chen saw Zhang Gaoqiu and Shen Ling hugging each other in the flickering firelight, their eyes filled with the terror of parting after life and death, Shen Ling tenderly stroking Zhang Gaoqiu’s face: "Brother, are you okay?"
"I’m fine, are you okay?" Zhang Gaoqiu touched Shen Ling’s clothes up and down, checking if Shen Ling had any burns.
From afar, Zhang Chen coldly glanced at the two but did not pay much attention, as he had retrieved the Body-Stabilizing Rune earlier, Zhang Gaoqiu rushed out of the ancestral shrine afterwards.
However, as Zhang Gaoqiu was the last one to rush out of the ancestral shrine, it’s hard for him to easily shake off this blame.
Soon, Steward Lai Changrong reported back: "Madam, no one was burned to death, not even burned. But the flames were too strong, many antique porcelain, paintings and calligraphy were all burned to ashes, even gold and silver melted into the soil and need to be remelted. The loss is huge, just those antiques and paintings might be worth billions in silver."
Upon hearing this, Wang Xifeng’s face turned pale, she took a deep breath: "It seems that the Shen family’s heritage is burnt to six or seven-tenths."
The wealth accumulated by affluent families, gold and silver only occupied a small portion, most were accumulated antiques, which are the least resistant to fire.
Antiques are the heritage that becomes more valuable with time and the passage of years, even more precious than gold.
Especially in the Shen Family’s lair, accumulated with antiques collected by ancestors for thousands of years, this fire indeed burned the Shen family’s artery.
At this moment, the Shen family was bustling, everyone busy with the aftermath, some discussing the cause of the fire.
Standing at the gate of the courtyard, listening to the discussions outside, a trace of guilt suddenly arose in Zhang Chen’s heart: "Did I go too far?"
He didn’t even imagine burning six or seven-tenths of the Shen family’s heritage.
Now Wang Xifeng was directing the Shen Family’s servants for the aftermath: "Come, quickly clear the ruins, dig out the melted gold and silver and send someone to remelt them. Check if there are any unburned paintings, quickly sort them out."
"Also, does anyone know the cause of the fire?" Wang Xifeng asked among the crowd.
Upon hearing Wang Xifeng’s words, a servant approached: "Madam, earlier I saw a small spark rising in the courtyard, suddenly exploding, splashing all around in the air. The spark turned into a blazing flame upon hitting the ground, and the grass and trees ignited upon encountering the spark."
With the servant’s words, many servants came forward to corroborate.
"Spark?" At this moment, the old lady of the Shen family, supported by maids, stood out, her eyes showing a hint of evil qi: "How could the spark suddenly rise into the sky? Does anyone know where did the spark come from?"
"It seemed to come from the direction of the ancestral shrine..." a servant piped up.
Upon hearing this, the tenth-tier and ninth-tier ancestors’ hearts moved, a foreboding thought arose: ’Could we have fallen for the trick to lure the tiger away from the mountain?’
Otherwise, why was it so coincidental that at the crucial moment, someone lured the family’s tenth-tier ancestor away? And after the ancestor left, the spark suddenly rose?
A group rushed into the ancestral shrine, indeed finding the void empty within, not seeing the trace of the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
"Damn, it’s aiming for my Shen Family’s Secret Treasure! This thief really deserves to die!" The Shen family’s tenth-tier deity was furious: "Who was the last one to leave the ancestral shrine?"
Accompanied by his words, everyone exchanged glances, finally landing their eyes on Zhang Gaoqiu.