I Am the Fated Villain Chapter 1284:

The display caused a wave of terror to ripple through the gathered crowd once more.

Elder Jin was a legendary figure who had occupied the Dao Ancestor realm for eons. Having existed for countless eras, he was a living relic of history who had once been a contemporary of Xinu, the master of Saintess Xiyuan. The sight of him being utterly defeated and heavily wounded was almost impossible for the spectators to process.

While Chancellor Chu Yuan of the Immortal Chu Haotu had not yet reached the Dao Ancestor level, Elder Jin’s peak power far exceeded that of a typical Dao Ancestor. There was a clear disparity in their standings.

Furthermore, despite holding the advantage of numbers and joining forces with the Dharma Saint Chu Gucheng and other Daoist experts, they remained unable to suppress Gu Changge. Instead, they suffered brutal injuries, and it was whispered that several Dao Ancestors had already met their end within that fractured otherworldly battlefield.

The fallout of this confrontation promised to be cataclysmic, threatening to trigger a seismic shift in the world's power structure.

“Senior Xingying, we implore you to assist us. The power wielded by the Lord of the Patching Heaven Alliance is incomprehensible; it is as if he transcends the laws of this reality. We are simply not his equals.”

“Chancellor Chu is barely maintaining his ground by drawing upon the infinite Qi and fate of the billions of souls within the Immortal Chu Haotu…”

Drenched in blood, Elder Jin plummeted from a massive rift in the otherworldly battlefield. His injuries were gruesome, with his arms shattered to the point that white marrow was visible. Despite the agonizing pain, he pleaded with the esteemed guests of the Immortal Chu Haotu, his gaze trembling with horror and disbelief.

He was loath to admit it or praise his enemy, but the reality was undeniable. Three Dao Ancestors and a host of Daoist experts, bolstered by every advantage, had failed to apprehend Gu Changge and had been maimed in the attempt.

Elder Jin also felt a chilling intuition. It appeared as though Gu Changge was preoccupied, waiting for something else rather than focusing entirely on their struggle.

Even so, the pressure they faced was suffocating.

In just a few exchanges, they had been stripped of their fighting capacity. Elder Jin’s very foundation had been damaged, ensuring he would be sidelined for a significant period.

“His strength is truly monstrous. Under these conditions, even the Saintess Xiyuan of the past would have struggled against the combined might of Chu Gucheng and the others.”

“Who is this enigmatic leader of the Patching Heaven Alliance?”

“When did such a figure emerge? Our investigations yield nothing. He has no footprint in the annals of history, nor does he seem to belong to the future. He stands alone. Could he be a primordial sage who has reached the very end of the Dao?”

The eyes of the elderly Xingying shimmered with a pearly radiance, reflecting the unfolding Dao laws she was analyzing. She had been watching the clash intently, expecting a predictable outcome.

She had estimated Gu Changge’s power to be slightly above Saintess Xiyuan—someone who had weathered eight heavenly calamities—but she assumed there was a limit. She believed Chu Gucheng and his allies had more than enough resources to subdue him. Now, she realized she had drastically miscalculated. They had never truly grasped the depth of Gu Changge’s Cultivation or his true origins.

“Senior Sister Xingying, we cannot remain idle. We must step in before an unforeseen variable shifts the scales entirely.”

The white-browed Star Lord of the Immortal Chu Haotu spoke with a heavy frown. Having survived seven heavenly calamities himself, he was no weakling, yet he knew Xingying’s power far exceeded his own. Though she had not yet passed the eighth calamity, she was far more advanced on that path.

The eighth heavenly calamity represented a terrifying threshold, a chasm as wide as the one between gods and insects. Even within a pinnacle civilization like Xiyuan, survivors of such a trial were rare.

“Our intervention would bolster our chances, yet I fear this might be a trap laid by the Patching Heaven Alliance’s Lord. Elder Jin is your equal in strength, yet he was broken with ease. This suggests the Lord’s power is on an entirely different plane…”

Xingying replied in a somber tone, hesitant to leap into the fray.

Her words caused the white-browed Star Lord to freeze as a cold sweat broke out across his brow. The implication was chilling.

“Are you suggesting, Senior Sister, that he allowed himself to be cornered intentionally? That he is using himself as a lure to systematically wipe out the core power of the Immortal Chu Haotu?” he asked, his voice low.

It was common knowledge that Dao Ancestors were nearly impossible to slay. Even peers could rarely prevent one another from fleeing.

Unless one’s Cultivation was vastly superior, a Dao Ancestor could always escape if they chose.

Xingying nodded slowly. “We cannot dismiss that theory. Let us wait. Master holds Chu Gucheng in high regard; surely he possesses hidden depths. His Cultivation nearly touches the eighth Heavenly Calamity, and on the soil of the Immortal Chu Haotu, he should be invincible.”

The Star Lord remained uneasy. “But what if the Chancellor falls?”

“Master provided the golden pouch because he foresaw these events,” Xingying stated. “He knows Chu Gucheng will prevail. He is the chosen one of the Xiyuan Civilization meant to endure this tribulation; he will not be extinguished so easily.”

Elder Jin, battered and broken, descended from the heavens. He immediately assumed a meditative posture, drawing Qi from the void to mend his form. Behind him, the phantom of a rotating universe appeared, exerting a pressure like a swirling star-river that forced many observers to their knees in involuntary worship.

Such was the aura of a Dao Ancestor. Even near death, a mere thought from him could obliterate lesser beings.

The guests within the Imperial Capital felt their blood boil under the weight of his leaking aura, realizing that Elder Jin was too wounded to even contain his own presence.

It was a mercy the fight was contained in another dimension; a single drop of a Dao Ancestor’s blood falling here would bring ruin to millions. The death of such a being would likely send shockwaves through the entire Xiyuan Civilization.

“Young Master, the Immortal Chu Haotu has completely isolated the Imperial Capital’s space. Communication with the Imperial Immortal Palace has been severed.”

Elders from the Imperial Immortal Palace reported with grim faces. They were unaware of the private link between Ling Yuxian and Ling Yuling, fearing only for Ling Yuxian’s safety amidst the escalating chaos.

“The Immortal Chu Haotu would not dare provoke our Palace…”

Ling Yuxian shook her head, though her pale features remained tense.

She had already reached out to her sister, Ling Yuling, only to find that her sister had no plans to interfere. Ling Yuling had instructed her to simply watch the events unfold.

Ling Yuxian found her sister’s stance toward Gu Changge baffling.

Gu Changge had rescued her sister and purged the dark matter from her Meridians. Gratitude seemed the logical response, yet Ling Yuling remained detached. It felt as though she was using the Immortal Chu Haotu as a tool to measure Gu Changge’s true limits.

High atop a mist-shrouded peak in the Imperial Immortal Palace, Ling Yuling sat in silence. Her dark hair danced in the wind, and her ethereal face was partially obscured by swirling chaotic Qi.

“The imitation of the Coffin of the Dead World is here. It must be linked to the group Nan Qing mentioned. But where is the Nightmare Demon Domain?”

“If Zixiao Mountain has been compromised by them, how many other Sects in Xiyuan have been infiltrated?”

Ling Yuling sighed as she watched the shimmering water screen, feeling a rare sense of helplessness. Her doubts about Gu Changge persisted.

Despite his help, she could not bring herself to trust a man of such mystery and power. During the era of the black calamity, even those at the peak of the Dao could not cleanse dark matter. Once tainted, the soul was usually lost to a dark persona.

She had searched the ancient records of the Southern Venerable in the chaotic sea of time, looking for any precedent of someone surviving such corruption. She found nothing.

There was no known method—ancient or modern—to purge dark matter. So how had Gu Changge saved Jing Tianyuan of the Jing Clan? How had he cleared the Immortal Gate?

Her suspicions had taken root the moment Gu Changge and Jing Tianyuan arrived to rescue her.

Had Ling Yuxian been more observant, she would have seen Ling Yuling testing Jing Tianyuan. Ling Yuling had intentionally altered details of their shared past, yet Jing Tianyuan had not corrected her. She had even agreed to events that never occurred, while showing no recognition of real events, such as their past help. These inconsistencies led Ling Yuling to believe something was fundamentally wrong with Jing Tianyuan’s soul.

She suspected Gu Changge might be a survivor of the Dark Calamity era—a sage from her own time who had returned with dark methods. She had only allowed him to "heal" her as a way to observe his techniques and deduce his origin.

The Immortal Chu Haotu was a vast realm of thousands of states, each as large as a universe. But as the battle raged in the capital, the entire territory was plunged into a supernatural night. The sun, moon, and stars vanished, replaced by an atmosphere of impending doom.

Near the fallen Coffin of the Dead World, a thick black fog began to roll across the land like a tidal wave. It consumed everything in its path, rising thousands of feet high and obliterating entire star systems.

No ordinary cultivator could survive its touch. Desperate cries echoed as the darkness swallowed the world. Elsewhere, the war between the Immortal Chu Haotu and the Demon Court reached a fever pitch. Blood flowed in rivers, and the casualties were beyond counting.

Ziwang He, the Lord of Zixiao Mountain, led his forces like a devastating flood, crushing everything in his path as he seized territory from the Immortal Chu Haotu. The heavens were filled with the debris of shattered worlds and the stench of death.

In the heart of the Dao Ancestor battlefield, the void suddenly erupted with the light of a million lightning bolts.

A colossal hand appeared, seemingly large enough to cradle the entire world, causing stars to pop like bubbles. It descended with the weight of the heavens themselves.

Chancellor Chu Gucheng stood his ground, his Dantian surging with power as he roared. He invoked the image of the Human Emperor, his massive Dharma body illuminating the dark star sea.

For a moment, he embodied the ultimate authority of humanity, his aura reaching a terrifying peak.

“Follow me, all living souls, and we shall purge the demons!”

His voice shook the foundations of multiple universes. He threw a punch that carried the force to upend the sky.

Every strand of his hair glowed like immortal jade, fueled by the incense and prayers of his people. His body radiated divine light as he channeled the strength of three thousand worlds into his fist, striking into the dark void.

The fate of the Immortal Chu Haotu manifested as golden dragons, pouring their strength into him. The outer reaches of the world seemed ready to shatter under the intensity of his assault.

Chu Gucheng struck repeatedly, but across from him, Gu Changge remained as immovable as a demonic mountain. He watched the onslaught with a chilling, detached calm.

“The will of the people was never meant to be squandered in this way,” Gu Changge said frostily.

The fabric of reality seemed to buckle under Gu Changge’s presence. His giant hand continued its descent, tearing through rules and defenses as if they were wet paper. Chu Gucheng’s fist lights dissolved into nothingness before they could even touch his opponent.

Despite having the power to rival those of the eighth Heavenly Calamity, Chu Gucheng felt a crushing sense of futility. Space buckled and exploded, birthing and destroying tiny realms in the vacuum.

With a single strike from Gu Changge, Chu Gucheng was sent reeling, coughing up blood, his regal appearance ruined.

In the capital, the guests watched in stunned silence, their hearts racing with dread.

“Even with power equaling the eighth calamity, the Chancellor cannot close the gap,” the Star Lord whispered.

Xingying’s brow furrowed deeper as she watched the desperate struggle in the black sky above. For the citizens of the Immortal Chu Haotu, it was the sight of their protector being cast aside like a broken doll.