The sudden appearance of the Mortal Emperor crushed the slim glimmer of hope that the demon race had just gained, plunging them into utter despair.
On the human side, however, morale surged to its peak. With the fall of the Demon Ancestor, the demon race had lost its pinnacle combat power and was now doomed.
With the Mortal Emperor leading the charge, humanity was confident in exterminating the demon race, achieving dominion over the world, and restoring the balance of spiritual energy in the heavens and earth.
The six sect masters were well aware of this truth. They knelt before the Mortal Emperor in unison, voluntarily pledging their sects' allegiance to him and proclaiming him their sovereign.
After all, as the old saying goes, "The wise submit to the times."
With the Mortal Emperor now standing as the sole Grand Realm powerhouse in the world, these mere Creation Realm sect masters had no choice but to bow their heads.
As the tide shifted, other sects quickly followed suit. Humanity united as one, with all beings worshipping the Emperor who ascended to the heavens.
Standing above tens of thousands, the Mortal Emperor commanded the battlefield with a wave of his hand, devastating the demon race. Their casualties were catastrophic.
The remaining Creation-level powerhouses of the demon race, knowing full well that their people could not escape annihilation, issued a desperate call for a final counterattack, hoping to at least inflict heavy losses upon humanity.
Human cultivators, unwilling to back down, raised their blades and charged forward. The Mortal Emperor suppressed all resistance, his powerful spiritual energy sweeping through the demon ranks.
Just as the two armies were about to clash in a chaotic melee, a dazzling rainbow streaked across the sky, accompanied by meteors and the harmonious cries of the Four Sacred Beasts.
A transparent, crystal-like floating island descended from the heavens, positioning itself squarely between the two advancing forces.
Suspended above the battlefield, the island glittered with starlight, forming the words "Celestial Spirit Realm" in the sky a profound sight etched into everyone's minds.
Both the human and demon armies froze in shock, unable to halt their momentum as they approached the floating island.
Before they collided with it, towering, treant-like beings emerged from within the island, radiating immense power. With just a casual wave of their branches, they repelled hundreds of cultivators.
The unexpected turn of events left the Mortal Emperor deeply alarmed. He prepared to strike, but before he could act, a dragon's roar echoed from within the crystalline island, stopping him in his tracks.
A chill ran down his spine as cold sweat dripped from his brow. The overwhelming power emanating from these beings far surpassed his own, filling him with dread.
The stunned cultivators initially thought the treants were merely beasts taking advantage of the chaos to claim a share of the spoils.
However, upon witnessing the arrival of a humanoid figure glowing with divine radiance, they realized the truth: a god had descended!
Stories of divine beings from the Mythic Age's third epoch, the Age of Divine Advent, had long circulated among cultivators as mere legends. Yet now, the reality of a god's presence struck them like a thunderbolt.
The treant-like creatures were not ordinary beasts they were divine beings' creations, designated as Guardian Spirits of the Gods.
The six sect masters were equally astonished. Their ancestors, who had lived through the first Great Cataclysm of the Mythic Age, had recounted tales of divine advents.
The scene before them now was no different from those legends.
The Mortal Emperor, who claimed to be the world's greatest, now stood powerless before Aurora, unable to resist.
He understood that this being was far beyond his capabilities, transcending even the strongest Grand Realm entities in the world.
With Aurora's descent, all cultivators ceased their actions, kneeling in unison. The war came to an end under divine intervention.
As silence fell, Aurora commanded the treants to release their captives, allowing them to descend to the ground.
She then addressed both races, condemning their senseless conflict and rebuking the six sect masters and the Mortal Emperor for their actions.
She warned them that war solved nothing and would only worsen the situation.
However, this time was different from the previous Great Cataclysm. With spiritual energy in the world growing thin, unless sacrifices were made, there simply wasn't enough energy for everyone to cultivate.
A cultivator voiced this concern, prompting Aurora to fall into deep thought. After all, she was not truly a god and had no means to generate spiritual energy.
Though the war had been halted, Aurora knew that without resolving the root problem, another conflict would surely arise in the future.
As everyone struggled to find a solution, the Mortal Emperor, having regained his freedom, stepped forward and made a bold request to Aurora.
He offered to sacrifice himself, channeling all his knowledge and power to create a Heavenly Derivation that could benefit all beings.
"Heavenly Derivation spares one thread of life among the forty-nine paths."
The Mortal Emperor's body transformed into energy, creating a force that reshaped the world, ushering in an era of peace and prosperity.
His ultimate wisdom coalesced into a new foundational cultivation method: the Art of Mortal Ascension.
This technique greatly reduced spiritual energy dependency, allowing cultivators to thrive without depleting the world's energy reserves.
The new cultivation method triggered a chain reaction, dissolving the old hierarchy of realms.
New realms were established: Body Tempering, Marrow Cleansing, Spiritual Sea, Samsara, Venerable, Saint, and Emperor, among others.
The Mortal Emperor's final act broke the chains of the old era, giving rise to a new epoch.
The Mythic Age, marked by divine advents and the fall of three ancestors, ended with the dawn of the Primordial Age.
The early phase of this era became known as the Age of the Emperor's Sacrifice.
"This new cultivation system is far superior to the old one," Bai Ze marveled.
"The highest level, Emperor, likely rivals the War Marshal tier of the Main World's beings.
"And the Saint Realm should correspond to the peak of the Servant tier," he estimated.
As for the lower realms, the hierarchy naturally followed this pattern.
"To think that the Chosen of an era truly emerged to usher in a new epoch," Bai Ze sighed, reflecting on the profound changes.
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