Summit of the Old Gods-Chapter 1176 - 1088: The Grand Finale (Part 1)

The heat comes and goes, it’s the first of June.

Dark clouds shroud the empty and desolate Rain Alley Town, with its drizzling rain bringing a touch of coolness to the stifling summer day.

Inside the Rain Alley Home District, on a bench beside the lawn.

A young man is sitting quietly, his gaze somewhat unfocused, staring at the old residential building not far away.

Raindrops fall upon him, unable to awaken him from his deep contemplation.

Until a burst of energy emerges, and a crystal-clear teardrop appears beside the bench, radiating beautiful starlight.

"Bro~"

From the tear-shaped ice-blue energy body, a tall and graceful figure emerges.

Long hair draped over shoulders, standing elegantly.

Yet despite the girl’s charming and graceful appearance, she wears an adorable smile that doesn’t quite match the goddess-like aura when facing Lu Ran.

Yuanxi doesn’t shed her human nature, habitually raising her hand to shield her forehead, looking at the young man sitting quietly in the rain, she can’t help but show a strange expression and blurt out:

"Pretending to be gloomy?"

Lu Ran: "..."

"Hehe~" Qiao Yuanxi covered her mouth and chuckled, looking at her brother dressed ordinarily, she felt somewhat peculiar.

Lu Ran was dressed in a simple white t-shirt and shorts, such casual home attire reminded Qiao Yuanxi of a saying — putting away swords and spears, and letting horses graze in the southern mountains.

However, external matters are easily discarded, but people cannot return to their original selves.

Compared to seven years ago today, the day Lu Ran first became a believer, his transformation is immense.

The youthful and tender image of the past has long become a memory, and the word "heroic" is no longer sufficient to describe his current demeanor and appearance.

The divine weapon blade at his waist can be easily removed, yet he himself has been tempered by time and battle into a blade.

This blade,

how can it be removed?

The dignified black gold emperor robe on his body can be taken off, but under his feet, he treads upon a myriad of gods and demons, his existence itself is like an invisible emperor robe woven from absolute power and influence.

This emperor robe, how can it be shed?

The current appearance of Lu Ran is the result of his earnest effort to adjust and maintain his calm mindset.

Otherwise, Little Yuanxi could not remain calm in front of him, she would tremble under his terrifying aura, her soul shivering.

"Why aren’t you out recruiting believers?" Lu Ran asked softly.

He dared not look into her eyes, afraid of frightening her, but as he followed the hem of her black dress, he noticed her bare, fair feet.

Lu Ran couldn’t help but frown slightly, instinctively wanting to say the ground is cold, but he swallowed his words.

Lord God... isn’t afraid of the cold.

With the water flow armor, there’s no issue of cleanliness.

On Little Yuanxi’s ankle was a gold bell, which he had tied there himself a few years ago.

Unfortunately, the other bell of the pair had left forever with another gold dress girl who liked to run barefoot.

"It’s already noon!" Qiao Yuanxi pouted her lips, taking two steps forward, the bell chiming crisply.

"Oh, everything went well right?" Lu Ran’s voice was gentle.

"Of course, everyone likes me, they all want to join my sect~" Qiao Yuanxi sat beside Lu Ran, casually holding onto his arm, her fingers landing on his wrist.

Lu Ran’s attire was very homely, only one accessory was quite extraordinary.

Magic Artifact Fragment--Rebirth Money!

A fine red string threaded through the square hole of an ancient copper coin, winding around in circles, tied at his wrist.

Inside it housed a formidable dead soul.

A Corpse Soul Mountain!

Qiao Yuanxi could sense the powerful dead soul within, but had never truly seen its form.

"Why did you come to find me?" Lu Ran continued in a gentle tone.

"What words are those, can’t I come to see my brother even if there’s no reason?" Qiao Yuanxi retorted unhappily, "The Lord of Gods and Demons, so pretentious."

Lu Ran only felt a headache, responding helplessly: "I’m afraid if you stay by my side too long, you’ll feel uncomfortable."

"It’s alright~" Qiao Yuanxi mumbled quietly, "You’ve made great progress, I’m not as startled as before, just now I even dared to joke with you."

Lu Ran rolled his eyes.

Qiao Yuanxi giggled: "I came to ask on behalf of Sister Yingying and Sister Manni, how are Ox Head and Grandpa Bai."

Upon hearing this, Lu Ran also smiled: "You’ve come at the right time indeed."

"Oh?" Qiao Yuanxi blinked her eyes.

"Ox Head can be resurrected today."

"Really?" Qiao Yuanxi was quite delighted, then asked, "What about Grandpa Bai?"

"Ox Head possesses the divine position of a divine soul, borrowing a corpse for resurrection is faster, Elder Bai when he died was a fake god, the heavenly realm soul wanting to fully occupy a stone sculpture has greater difficulty, still needs some time."

"Oh oh." Qiao Yuanxi understood in her heart.

In the past half year, the Burning Gate’s soldiers have been resurrected one after another.

The first to return were naturally Wuya and Hua Qingying, followed by Fake God Wang Longxiang.

An interesting point: Wang Longxiang has returned to the human world by borrowing the stone sculpture of the Fourth-Class God Cloud Mace, and Cloud Mace is a tall and brawny male general.

It will take a long time for Wang Longxiang to revert to his original appearance...

Of course, Wuya returned in the form of the Evil Sculpture Fang-faced Man, and Hua Qingying returned in the form of the Evil Demon Green Lamp.

One is a humanoid fierce beast with fangs, the other isn’t even a living thing.

Just a lamp~

Both of them need time to transform the form and appearance of their stone-sculpted bodies, it cannot be rushed.

Anyhow, the first batch of soldiers who died in battle have all been resurrected.

Now it’s time for Niu Zhengzheng and Huangfu Zhao’s batch.

Every soldier’s return fills the Ran Gate Gods with excitement and joy, as everyone are comrades who have shared life and death, naturally there is quite deep affection.

Lu Ran continued: "If you are willing to wait, shortly I will toss Ox Head into the Fiery Phoenix Patterned Gourd.

You can take the gourd and personally deliver the good news."

"Great, great~" Qiao Yuanxi joyfully shook Lu Ran’s arm, then suddenly thought of something, hesitated wanting to speak.

"What is it?" Lu Ran’s senses were quite keen.

Qiao Yuansi said, "With your current ability, can I achieve eternal life?"

Lu Ran was silent for a moment, then gently nodded.

In this world, only Lu Ran is eternal and immortal.

Qiao Yuansi’s eternity is not immortality, but rather that after her death, Lu Ran can bring her back.

Giving her life for the next lifetime.

The next one, and the one after that...

"Wow~" Qiao Yuansi said softly, "Eternal life, it sounds really dreamy."

Lu Ran shrugged: "Unless you wish to leave on your own."

Qiao Yuansi pursed her lips: "Living well, who would want to die."

Lu Ran remained silent.

The siblings are just in their early twenties, with extremely vigorous life force, full of curiosity about this world, certainly not thinking about leaving.

What about the future?

Lord Jian Yi is a good example.

The life of a God Demon can reach tens of billions of years, and in such a long time, who can guarantee that no upheaval will occur?

"Moreover." Qiao Yuansi looked at Lu Ran’s profile, "With your personality, would you allow me to leave?"

Lu Ran grinned.

On a positive note, Qiao Yuansi can eternally live through reincarnation with her brother’s help.

On a pessimistic note, without Lu Ran’s consent, Qiao Yuansi wouldn’t even be able to die.

Lord Immortal Sheep once shared his philosophy and persistence:

Without death, there is no life.

Lu Ran could probably understand this principle, but at his young age, he still can’t accept the departure of loved ones.

Just like now, he willingly spends a lot of time and energy resurrecting each fallen comrade.

From the depths of his heart, he eagerly anticipates a reunion with them.

This practice undoubtedly contradicts Lord Immortal Sheep’s philosophy.

Fortunately, it does not violate Lord Immortal Sheep’s last wishes.

In front of the small divine shrine at home, before Immortal Sheep left, he clearly stated: "Without death, life is my philosophy, my purpose of existence, not yours."

"Am I necessarily right? No, I am old news, something that should be eliminated."

"If one must speak of my legacy... Lu Ran, I hope you carve out your own path."

Carve out your own path.

This is Lord Immortal Sheep’s nurturing philosophy for Lu Ran, running through Lu Ran’s entire growth.

A young tomb,

How to approach life and death, and face the future...

Everything must be grasped, felt, and understood by Lu Ran himself.

To hold it himself.

"Brother?"

"Hmm?" Lu Ran snapped out of his reverie.

"Why the sudden sadness?" Qiao Yuansi asked, concerned.

"Heh." Lu Ran laughed, shaking his head, "You’re bold, daring to look into my eyes."

"No need to look into your eyes!" Qiao Yuansi tilted her head, resting on Lu Ran’s shoulder. "As soon as your mood changes, my emotions follow yours, where’s the autonomy?

Are you ready to soothe me?

Feeling so sad, I’m about to cry~"

Lu Ran was slightly embarrassed, but fortunately, good news came from the sculpture garden.

"Whew~"

Surges of energy flowed from Lu Ran’s eyes, and two towering divine souls appeared.

"Brother Ran!" Niu Zhengzheng was thrilled, with big eyes staring at the siblings sitting on the bench.

Divine souls cannot adjust their size.

As a result, the two-hundred-and-seventy-something-meter-tall Niu Zhengzheng towered over the entire residential building.

Luckily, he was a phantom divine soul rather than a solid divine sculpture.

"Sect Leader!" In contrast, Huangfu Zhao was much calmer, kneeling on one knee with gratitude, bowing in salute.

"Ah~ Ox Head!" Qiao Yuansi raised her beautiful face, waving repeatedly.

"Haha, I’m finally back again!" Niu Zhengzheng laughed heartily, emotionally charged.

This joy of returning to the human world seemed to brighten the gloomy Rain Alley Town slightly.

"Brother Ran! You’re my god! No, you’re my rebirth parents, creators! Next life I’ll be your bull, your horse..."

Qiao Yuansi suddenly said, "Ox Head! Your past life is over, now it’s your next life!"

"Huh?" Niu Zhengzheng was momentarily dumbfounded.

Lu Ran couldn’t help but laugh, inadvertently breaking the norm, looking up to see what expression Niu had.

However, as their gazes crossed, Niu Zhengzheng’s divine soul trembled violently, his face froze completely.

Lu Ran helplessly lowered his gaze, casually saying, "Just treat Yingying well in the future."

"Yes... yes."

The towering divine soul, tremblingly knelt and saluted, responding shakily.

This is truly... anticlimactic.

Lu Ran sighed internally, paused for a moment, then looked towards a family house not far away.

After a while, a window of a small bedroom was opened, letting out a gorgeous Fiery Phoenix Patterned Gourd.

Lu Ran grasped the plump Treasure Gourd, and added, "Yuansi will guide you to reunite with comrades..."

Before finishing his sentence, he suddenly sensed something and glanced at the house again.

Did someone come home?

...