Qin Ruqing fell silent for a moment, recalling the eternal cycle of suffering for the residents of the City of Sins.

She couldn’t help but say, “Did you know that those resentful souls later corrupted some of the ordinary residents, turning them into ravenous ghosts, like walking corpses? And the City of Sins developed an endless cycle of judgment, trapping its residents in an eternal loop of punishment?”

Fusheng replied calmly, “When I placed those prisoners alongside the resentful souls of the beast clans, I anticipated such an outcome.”

In other words, Fusheng had deliberately chosen the “descendants of sinners” as the group to be sacrificed because he foresaw this result.

Qin Ruqing opened her mouth to say something but ultimately remained silent.

She wasn’t a naive child; she understood long ago that there was no absolute right or wrong in the world, and everything had two sides.

The light revered by the world always cast a shadow, and without darkness, the concept of light would not exist.

To achieve widespread peace, there would inevitably be a small group of people who would not experience peace.

Qin Ruqing couldn’t criticize anyone for this; she could only remain silent.

The historical scene continued.

Several more meetings were held among the human race to discuss the sacrificial array proposed by Fusheng, but no consensus was ever reached.

However, both Fusheng and Yue Ming were resolute in their stance.

In the final meeting, when opposition still arose, Fusheng asked, “Does anyone have a better solution?”

“When the Beast Emperor breaks through to the Heavenly Realm and fully invades the human world, will the foundations you speak of be preserved?”

“Will the human world be preserved?”

The room fell silent.

Fusheng calmly summarized, “Clearly, the true foundation lies in the Human Realm and the Human Clan. As long as the Human Realm exists, the Human Clan exists, and so does the foundation.”

After finishing, Fusheng manifested a scroll in front of each person.

“This is the method I came up with to preserve the ‘foundation’ of the Human Clan after the great battle. Everyone, feel free to take a look.”

“Of course, if anyone can come up with a better idea, they’re welcome to propose it now.”

Fusheng’s attitude was evident—whoever had the ability should step up, and those who didn’t should keep quiet.

Qin Ruqing glanced around, realizing that, this time, there was complete silence in the room.

She hadn’t expected the proposal for the ultimate killing formation to pass in such a manner.

She noticed the excited expressions on the people’s faces calming down as they looked at the contingency plan laid out by the Dao Sovereign on the table.

It seemed that the Dao Sovereign’s meticulous arrangements had managed to convince them.

After the meeting ended, when only Fusheng and Yueming Daoist Masters remained in the secret chamber, Yueming said:

“After all the effort you put in, thinking of so many ways, just improving that ultimate killing formation took you nearly a hundred years, not to mention all the subsequent arrangements in various areas. So much hard work, yet no one says a good word. If it were me, I’d just slam my sword down on the table, and if anyone dared utter another word, I’d chop them down—then the world would be quiet.”

As Yueming spoke, perhaps due to her emotional fluctuations, a row of swords emitting a cold light automatically appeared behind her, looking quite intimidating.

Fusheng remained calm and gentle as ever, quietly listening to Yueming’s complaints.

Instead of talking about himself, he began advising Yueming:

“Yueming, if you learned to restrain your killing intent with composure, like Xuanming Dao Master did, achieving the Heavenly Realm would not be impossible for you.”

Yueming rolled his eyes under his eye patch and shot back bluntly:

“You’re lecturing me? If you spent less time meeting with these old guys and more time studying the Dao lineage, you’d surely reach the Heavenly Realm faster than me.”

The two Dao Sovereign exchanged glances, sharing a wry smile, and simultaneously dropped the subject.

For some reason, witnessing this scene, Qin Ruqing felt a touch of sorrow.

She could easily empathize with the silence of the two Dao Sovereign at that moment.

However, this sense of sorrow seemed somewhat unnecessary.

There were so many people worthy of her empathy; how could she possibly empathize with them all?

Qin Ruqing quickly tried to think of other things to divert her attention.

She told herself to remain absolutely calm, absolutely objective.

She needed to become a complete observer, just like she was now, watching history from the outside.

Only by doing so could she capture the most useful information from those unchangeable pasts and use it to change what could still be altered in the present.

The final battle that ended the Archaic Era finally arrived.

The dark red Abyss of Return slowly spread out, forming a battleground in the sky.

Qin Ruqing realized that even in the Archaic Era, the Void Realm was already dark red.

She wanted to know if this was its original color or if it had been stained by something later on.

Faced directly with such a prehistoric, archaic battle, Qin Ruqing found it difficult to breathe.

The mighty beings she had never seen before in her life were all gathered under this dark red sky, so many that they seemed almost commonplace.

Entire beast forms stretched across the sky, capable of blocking out the sun and moon, yet in the next second, they would mercilessly have their heads severed; while a powerful human figure who had just been commanding the scene might be swallowed up by a beast’s maw in an instant.

Under this sky, power seemed to lack any sense of reality.

Life was so fragile that it felt absurd to Qin Ruqing.

Of course, no matter how shocked she was, she could still see that in this battle, the Human Clan was always at a disadvantage.

The Human Clan was constantly sacrificing their people to compensate for the lack of middle and high-level combat strength.

The scene is stark and dramatic.

The sky, initially a dark red, shifts to a deeper crimson as the bloodshed continues.

The human race, driven by an extraordinary will, appears to be waiting for something crucial.

That pivotal moment arrives with the appearance of the Beast Emperor.

Qin Ruqing is overwhelmed by the sight of the Beast Emperor, which is no longer merely a large or dangerous creature—it represents the ultimate culmination of the beast race, an epitome of their power and procreation.

Its presence causes a significant surge in the strength of the beast army, not just an abstract increase in momentum, but a tangible boost in their bloodlines, catalyzed by some divine technique of the Beast Emperor.

The idea of the Beast Emperor breaking through to the Heavenly Realm and wreaking havoc on the human world is almost unimaginable.

For those confronting the Beast Emperor in the past, the realization of Fusheng’s foresight becomes strikingly clear.

This entity is so powerful that, unless the human race can produce a Heavenly Realm Cultivator to counter it, the only option left is to use the sacrificial array proposed by Fusheng.

The human leaders reach a unified decision: initiate the array.

Fusheng and Yue Ming Dao Sovereign step forward to confront the Beast Emperor, trying to lure it into the array.

However, either due to the Beast Emperor’s vigilance or its overwhelming strength, it remains outside the range of the deadly formation.

Fusheng, taking decisive action, commands:

“Use this array to kill the beasts. If the Beast Emperor does not enter the array, continue to kill!”

The array’s power is immense, and it begins to affect the demon kings under its influence, causing them to fall one after another.

The Beast Emperor, enraged, realizes the nature of the array.

Yet, it remains outside, either to protect its subordinates or due to its supreme confidence in its own power.

Once the Beast Emperor enters the array, Fusheng and Yue Ming immediately change their hand gestures, focusing solely on defense.

Fusheng’s Dharma form appears behind him as he declares solemnly, “Activate the array!”

As if a switch had been flipped, the five Immortals, each from different paths, respond to the command and throw themselves into the array.

Immortal Lord Shaozhen voluntarily breaks the pact with the Thunderbolt Fire, donning radiant battle armor, and joins the array with a solemn declaration, “For the human race’s sacrifice!”

Immortal Lord Ming Lu laughs heartily, rising into the air.

In front of all the immortals, he presents his Dao artifact’s core and detonates it within the array, his final act accompanied by the words, “For the human race’s sacrifice!”

Each sacrifice echoes with the solemnity of “For the human race’s sacrifice,” marking the gravitas of these moments.

Qin Ruqing, amidst these poignant events, cannot feel the emotions but silently sheds tears to the strains of this sacrificial song.

As the Beast Emperor realizes the gravity of the situation and attempts to escape, Fusheng and Yue Ming Dao Sovereign, manipulating the array, reveal their true forms—gigantic eyes representing the boundless sea and the cycles of day and night.

The two Dao Master proclaim, “Today, for the human race’s sacrifice, may the human race enjoy eternal peace!”

The world around fades as the array’s brilliance erupts.

In a cataclysmic explosion that seems to obliterate the cosmos, the area of a thousand miles falls silent, devoid of life.

---

In the aftermath, the celestial records state:

In the year 1810 of the Haoyuan era, the final battle between humans and beasts erupted in the Void Realm.

The human race employed the sacrificial array, with two Daoist Masters and a thousand immortals giving their lives.

The Beast Emperor fell, and a peace treaty was signed between humans and beasts.

It is also noted that Fusheng Dao Sovereign had arranged for a contingency: once the array activated, it would automatically form a barrier, and subsequently, the Void Realm would be sealed.

Additionally, to guard against future beast invasions, the human race adopted the family system.

Thus, the Ancient Haoyuan era concluded, and the era of the Qian Yuan system officially began.