Chapter 857
One punch kills the Venerable One, a time-manipulating demigod appears.
Another month has passed swiftly in the torrent of time and space in the primordial world.
Ancient Heaven Sixty-Eight Worlds Group.
The Iron Fist Civilization has finally come to an end.
The rifts in the Dark Rift Space, like hideous wounds, continued to expand on the barrier of the world, from which endless monsters of the Dark Rift surged forth, roaring and tearing apart all living things.
The 1.8 billion surviving Iron Fist soldiers, after years of relentless defense, finally exhausted their last bit of strength to resist.
Twenty days ago.
After painful arguments and deliberations, the three knight guardians and the chieftains of the various Ironfist clans finally made a decision that went against their racial instincts—to completely abandon the Ironfist world that had nurtured them for millions of years.
They knew very well that if they continued to hold out to the death, all that awaited the Ironfist Clan was to bleed to the last drop of blood, and for the entire race to be completely annihilated in the darkness of the primordial world.
According to the agreement reached between the Ironfist Civilization and the Azure Civilization, 600 million Ironfist people will be evacuated in batches over the next three months to the Ironfist Continent built for them by the Azure Civilization.
The so-called Iron Fist Continent is not a truly complete world; to put it bluntly, it is merely a super-giant world island that is attached to the main world of the Azure Civilization.
This implies a cruel reality—if Azure Star is destroyed, Iron Fist Continent will lose its support and instantly turn to dust.
In other words, from this day forward, the proud Ironfist people will be completely reduced to a vassal race of the Azure Civilization, their lives and deaths controlled by the Azure.
But Iron Fist had no choice.
Faced with the fundamental principle of racial survival, all pride and dignity seem utterly pale.
Under normal circumstances.
This continent has an optimal population capacity of no more than 50 million, which ensures that living comfort, resource supply, and ecological cycle can all remain stable.
But in the face of imminent collapse of civilization, no one cares about comfort or ecological balance anymore.
The forced influx of 600 million people is destined to plunge this newly formed world island into a predicament of overcrowding and resource scarcity.
Eighteen days ago.
The Azure Civilization successfully pioneered the Iron Fist Continent.
The original continent was just a floating island with an area of only two thousand square kilometers, with a bare rocky surface devoid of any vegetation.
On the very day the mainland was formed, the first batch of eager Iron Fist people, totaling one million, hurriedly moved over through a temporary spatial passage.
When they set foot on this unfamiliar land, they showed no disgust; on the contrary, they were all extremely excited.
Because there are no lurking monsters in the dark rifts that could descend at any moment, and no endless natural disasters that devour everything.
For the Iron Fist fighters who live hand to mouth these days, safety is the most precious luxury.
What reassured them even more was that the Azure Civilization had already dispatched a super engineering legion controlled by an intelligent core, which built a steel city capable of accommodating a million people on the barren continent in just one day.
From that day on, the Iron Fist Continent began to "grow" at an astonishing rate.
Standing on the cliff at the edge of the continent, you can clearly feel the ground beneath your feet trembling slightly and constantly.
Looking out into the void at the edge of the continent, clusters of bright, multicolored light surged like a reversed galaxy. Massive amounts of soil and rocks emerged from the light, as if kneaded by an invisible hand, precisely merging into the continental plate beneath one's feet.
In the blink of an eye, the land can extend several meters forward.
ten days ago.
The area of Ironfist Continent has grown wildly to 20,000 square kilometers, with a cumulative total of over 100 million Ironfist people, who are like a surging torrent of steel, continuously pouring into this newborn homeland.
Given the Ironfist Civilization's own space technology and transportation capabilities, it would be absolutely impossible for them to complete such a large-scale population migration in such a short period of time.
All of this was naturally the result of the assistance provided by the Azure Civilization.
With the help of the Azure Civilization, the Iron Fist people erected a supernatural space migration base.
At the cost of consuming the world's power, a large-scale interdimensional transfer was initiated.
Whenever the base is activated, a beam of light piercing through the heavens and earth crashes down, enveloping the 500,000 Iron Fist warriors who have gathered in advance.
The next second, the figure in the beam of light disappeared completely, leaving only black dust flying around.
The Iron Fist men watching were all dumbfounded.
Relying solely on the Iron Fist Men's strength, they might not be able to relocate 500,000 people in a single day.
However, the Azure Civilization's methods allow them to process batches every second, creating an insurmountable gap in efficiency.
The transferred Tekken first jumps to the Tekken World Gate via the pedestal.
Then, through the boundary passage built by the Azure Civilization, they were transferred to the Azure World Gate, and finally precisely landed in the designated area of the Iron Fist Continent.
The entire process was seamless and took less than a second.
At this moment.
The fiery summit of an active volcano.
Yang Fan stood quietly by the lava pool with his hands behind his back, watching the surging, scorching magma beneath his feet.
Orange-red lava flows slowly from the concave pool, merging into the rushing lava river at the foot of the mountain. Steam and the smell of sulfur permeate the air, making the twilight sky even more oppressive.
He seemed to have no supernatural aura whatsoever; his clothes fluttered gently in the hot wind, like an ordinary traveler without any special abilities.
But in the eyes of the Iron Fist Man Gabamda, Yang Fan was completely integrated with the volcano and the dying world.
It was like an unshakeable pillar supporting the heavens and earth, impossible to defeat, and even having the thought of resisting it was a desecration.
With each stolen glance at Yang Fan, the awe in the iron-fisted man's metallic eyes grew stronger.
Yang Fan gazed at the vast yet devastated land, a faint sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of deep emotion or reflection) flashing across his eyes.
Over the years, he has traveled to countless realms and witnessed the rise and fall of countless civilizations, making him quite knowledgeable.
From what he knew, races like the Ironfist, with their powerful physiques, innate control over the power of steel and lava, and living in harsh, challenging environments, were usually capable of giving rise to powerful civilizations that swept across their territories.
The saying "A fine sword is forged through tempering, and the fragrance of plum blossoms comes from bitter cold" illustrates this principle.
Iron Fist Men, ironically, have ended up on the verge of extinction.
Yang Fan glanced at his old friend Gabamuda standing beside him and said softly, "The biggest reason why the Iron Fist Clan has come to this point is that you have never truly been unified."
Unity is the biggest insight Yang Fan has gained.
Whether it's the thousands of years of history of his homeland, Great Xia, or the experiences of those powerful civilizations in the primordial world, all of them prove without exception:
Without true unification, without a central core that can mobilize all internal resources and unite the power of all races, it is impossible to be truly powerful.
The Ironfist Clan only superficially achieved clan unity and claimed to be a unified civilization; in reality, there has always been serious internal division and infighting.
Gabamuda sighed heavily: "Yes, Your Majesty is right. Each clan has always had its own ulterior motives."
"Even though the Ironfist Civilization has come to this point, the various clans are still arguing fiercely over the quota for relocating to the Ironfist Continent, and are even willing to fight each other."
The Iron Fist Man's metallic eyes revealed deep envy: "With a supreme powerhouse like Your Majesty overseeing the Azure Civilization, even if the world was once fragmented, unification is still a very easy matter." He had personally witnessed the Azure Civilization transform from a "loose alliance of four hundred countries" into the "highly unified, sweeping super civilization" it is today, and he felt this deeply.
Yang Fan gently shook his head: "No, the root cause is not me, but that our civilization has a unified spark."
Gabamuda listened with a face full of doubt.
Yang Fan slowly began to explain: "Three thousand years ago, in the Eastern Great Xia of the Canglan Civilization, there was a person called 'Zulong' who used the conquest of iron and fire to plant a seed called 'unification' for the entire civilization."
"This spark, though it may be extinguished from time to time in the chaos of the world, or be covered up by division and war, flows in the blood of generations of the Great Xia people and has never been extinguished."
"For the next three thousand years, our civilization fell into decline every time, and entered its darkest hour every time."
“Then a group of people will step forward, work together, rekindle this spark, illuminate the way forward for the entire civilization, and reunite the divided land.”
Gabamuda listened thoughtfully.
A few seconds passed.
Iron Fist Man's mouth moved as if he wanted to say something, but he swallowed the words back.
Yang Fan saw through his thoughts at a glance and said softly, "Do you want to know if Iron Fist Civilization has any hope of survival if I go all out?"
This is a long-held obsession of Iron Fist Man, a fantasy he has never stopped having since the first day the Dark Rift Disaster broke out.
Gabamuda suddenly looked up and nodded emphatically.
Yang Fan simply uttered two words: "No way!"
He then gave a cruel but true explanation: "The eternal night calamity from the neighboring realm will soon spread here."
"At that time, all neighboring civilizations will be swallowed by boundless darkness. I will use all my strength to protect the Azure Civilization at most, and I will be powerless to protect the Ironfist People."
Although he received a completely negative answer, Gabamuda breathed a long sigh of relief and whispered, "I understand."
Yang Fan looked up at the dusky yellow sky and said in a deep voice, "They've arrived!"
Gabamuda paused for a moment: "What's coming?"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Iron Fist Man saw the Azure Venerable swing his right fist with incredible speed.
Without any fluctuations of laws or release of energy, it was as if an ordinary person were throwing a punch, which was delivered fiercely towards the sky.
In that instant, the world changed color.
next moment.
Gabamda witnessed firsthand how, with Yang Fan's fist at its core, the entire Iron Fist world seemed to undergo a terrifying spatial distortion.
The land, sky, and lava within a radius of ten thousand miles seemed to be collapsing madly towards that fist, and the spatial folds were like tattered cloth, emitting a piercing tearing sound.
Not only that, Gabamuda also felt the world suddenly go dark, and all the light was swallowed up.
His soul seemed to be being pulled wildly by an invisible force, threatening to detach from his metal body at any moment and fall into the boundless void.
This is a terrifying feeling that comes from the depths of one's soul, more desperate than facing millions of monsters from the Dark Rift.
Gabamuda's back was instantly drenched in sweat, his heart was pounding wildly, and his thoughts were almost frozen.
And then.
A deafening thunderclap, powerful enough to shatter the boundary barrier, erupted high in the sky.
"Boom!"
The loud noise gave Gabamuda the illusion that his soul was about to be scattered, causing him to lose all five senses and his consciousness to go blank, like a sculpture that had been frozen in time.
It took several seconds to recover.
He gasped for breath, finally regaining his ability to think and his senses.
He knew, of course, that Venerable Canglan's punch was not aimed at him; he had only been slightly affected by the insignificant aftershock.
But even this tiny aftershock gave the Iron Fist man a terrifying feeling of impending death.
It's hard to imagine just how terrifying the true power of that punch was.
Gabamuda trembled as he looked up at the sky, and after just one glance, he was completely dumbfounded.
The sight in the sky was simply terrifying.
A colossal, pitch-black vortex, hundreds of kilometers in diameter, appeared, suspended in the sky.
The space at the edge of the vortex is constantly collapsing and reforming, and is slowly dissipating.
This vortex was not formed by clouds; it was more like a terrifying sight caused by pure spatial distortion and the annihilation of laws.
It was as if the heavens and earth had been torn open with a hideous wound.
Yang Fan withdrew his fist, his tone as relaxed as if he had swatted a mosquito: "Done!"
Gabamuda was completely bewildered, wanting to ask but too afraid to speak out of awe.
Yang Fan offered the answer: "Just now, a Venerable-level Dark Rift monster took advantage of the weakened world barrier to secretly tear through space and try to enter the Iron Fist world, but ended up running headfirst into my fist."
He paused, then added, "I killed him with one punch."
Gabamuda was visibly shaken, his face filled with utter shock.
A Dark Rift monster of the Venerable level is a terrifying existence that could absolutely crush the three Knight Guardians of the Iron Fist Clan.
However, he couldn't even withstand a single move from Venerable Canglan and was instantly killed by a single punch.
Yang Fan nodded slightly to his old friend and said, "Some trouble has come my way, so I have to leave."
Gabamda was about to speak.
Yang Fan's figure vanished in an instant.
Gabamuda let out a long sigh.
In fact.
The "trouble" that Yang Fan mentioned was by no means a trivial matter that ordinary people would imagine, but rather a terrifying demigod powerhouse.
As expected, the demigod Bichta, who had been angered by him in the Cold Mountain Realm, eventually found new helpers.
He was 100% certain that the other party was a demigod who was proficient in the realm of time.
the reason is simple.
His mastery of the laws of time is too unique, allowing him to travel to the past at any time. Even if he is no match for multiple demigods, he can escape.
That's why Beechtra left without saying a word after the negotiations failed.
Aside from another demigod with a time-related ability, the Divine Power Source Realm could not possibly send any other demigods. (End of Chapter)