Why the three giants who divided the world dared not accept the challenge, no one knew for sure.
Some said they likely knew they were no match and thus did not dare to fight, after all, the World Little Tyrant Shi Tian's Pure Yang Tyrant Body was diamond indestructible and possessed immense strength. With three Present Era Heavenly Destinies and one Ancient Throne Heavenly Destiny, he represented an existence that was unique even among those bearing Heavenly Destiny.
As was widely known, those with Heavenly Destiny were those who received the mandate of heaven.
And Heavenly Destiny was irreversible; to defy it was to offend heaven's majesty and invite heavenly punishment.
However.
Others said the three giants not accepting the challenge did not mean they dared not. The three giants themselves were relatively low-key; for most people in the world, they were more often heard of than seen. Most importantly, each of the three commanded legions of experts. These experts were not only bearers of Present Era Star-Dwelling Heavenly Destinies but also of Ancient Throne Heavenly Destinies. It was said there were also many powerful reincarnated great powers, and even awakened ancient great powers.
Imagine being able to command the allegiance of Present Era Heavenly Destinies, Ancient Heavenly Destinies, and those reincarnated and awakened great powers—the existence of the three giants absolutely surpassed imagination.
The reason they did not accept the challenge was probably simply that they did not wish to stoop to the level of the World Little Tyrant Shi Tian.
Not only did they not accept the challenge, but the inner sect of the Shangqing Sect, the Crimson-Letter Manor's Purple Cloud Pavilion, and the Immortal Dynasty's Purple-Gold Hall also all entered seclusion one after another.
This was very difficult for people to understand.
Later, at some unknown time, a piece of hearsay began to quietly circulate in This World.
It said that something major was about to happen in This World, and therefore, the three giants were all making preparations for this so-called major event.
What exactly this major event was, no one knew.
At first, people did not believe it, but upon careful reflection later, gradually many began to believe it.
Because the Present Era was truly too frenzied, frenzied to an abnormal degree.
The Present Era had only been open for a mere hundred years. Not only had the Heavenly Dao bestowed Heavenly Destinies, but the number bestowed was also exceptionally large. If they were only Present Era Heavenly Destinies, that would be one thing, but what descended was not limited to Present Era Heavenly Destinies.
Back when the heavens descended the Heavenly Destinies, there were dozens of beams of Heavenly Destiny light. Yet after so many years, the known Present Era Heavenly Destinies numbered little more than ten.
Many Heavenly Destinies had still not shown themselves.
At the time, there was hearsay that the Heavenly Destinies bestowed by the heavens were not limited to Present Era star-dwellers, but also included Ancient Thrones, and even Primordial Imperial Seals.
Originally, people did not believe it, but the sudden emergence of the World Little Tyrant had already verified this point.
Facts proved that in that descent of Heavenly Destinies, what descended truly was not limited to Present Era star-dwellers, but also included Ancient Thrones.
If Shi Tian only possessed the single Heavenly Destiny of an Ancient Throne, it would not be so strange. But besides that, he actually also possessed three Present Era Heavenly Destinies.
This had absolutely never happened in history.
How could anyone possess so many Heavenly Destinies?
One must know that the famously renowned Lord Chixiao of Ancient Times, who was able to possess the Peerless Immortal-Demon Throne, did not receive it as a grant from the heavens, but seized it by force from others. It was an act of defying heaven and offending superiors, a great rebellion, intolerable to Heaven and Earth.
Yet Shi Tian's three Present Era Star-Dwelling Destinies and one Ancient Throne were bestowed by the heavens.
If they had been seized, judgment would have descended long ago, and he would never have been allowed to run rampant in This World.
Besides Shi Tian.
There was also the Taiji Human Prodigy Shangguan Yu, who bore the True Mandate.
His emergence made people feel even more that the Present Era was frenzied to an abnormal degree.
For many, the existence of a Taiji Human Prodigy was as remote and unattainable as a legend.
After all, neither the Ancient Times Era nor the Primordial Era had seen one appear. Why would one appear precisely in the Present Era? And shouldn't a fortune like a True Mandate-bearing Taiji Human Prodigy appear in the Great Desolate Heavenly Realm?
Why did it appear in This World, this mundane realm?
Abnormal.
Absolutely abnormal.
Especially those senior predecessors who had cultivated for thousands upon thousands of years all felt the Present Era was frenzied abnormally.
They had cultivated for a long time, their experience was ample, their knowledge absolutely rich. They clearly knew an old saying: If Heaven wishes to destroy someone, it first makes them mad.
Looking across past and present, it was always so, without exception.
Every time before a great change in the world, before Heaven and Earth were thrown into turmoil, such things would happen. Not to mention others, just take the Ancient Times Era of This World. The Immortal Dynasty's autocratic rule caused the people to live in misery. Yet in such an era of scarce resources, many heaven-defying talents and prodigies were born.
Like the Borderland Queen of the Great Northwest, Feng Zhuyue.
The Female Emperor of the Yanluo Kingdom, Tang Hengheng.
The Female Sect Matriarch of the Shangqing Sect, Ye Tianlan.
And the World-Honored Matriarch, Jun Xuanji, and so on.
All were rare, peerless prodigies of the Ancient Times Era of This World, and each was more frenzied than the last.
Speaking of the most frenzied, it had to be Lord Chixiao.
His cultivation underwent nine destructions and nine re-establishments, his fate nine lives and nine deaths, achieving nine Immortals and nine Demons, ascending to the Peerless Immortal-Demon Throne. All his fortunes were defied and unique. He destroyed the Immortal Dynasty, severed the Immortal River, dominated the Nine Heavens, trod upon the Nine Halls, defied the Nine Heavens, hailed as the one and only in the three thousand boundless great worlds since ancient times, with absolutely no second like him.
If they had appeared in a prosperous age of cultivation, that would be one thing, but they did not. They appeared at the end of the Ancient Times Era, also the most difficult period for This World—so difficult that in another few hundred years, the cultivation civilization might have been severed.
Back then, some had said: If Heaven wishes to destroy someone, it first makes them mad.
The Ancient Times Era being so abnormal might be an ill omen, perhaps something bad was about to happen.
Sure enough.
Not long after, came the Heaven and Earth Cataclysm, and then the Ancient Times ended.
Now the Present Era was also beginning to become abnormal. Heaven-defying talents and prodigies emerged one after another, and they too were each more frenzied than the last. So many Heavenly Destinies could appear on a single person. A Taiji Human Prodigy that never appeared even in Ancient or Primordial times was born. What was this if not frenzy?
Even more frenzied was this.
When Shi Tian emerged into the world, he was accompanied by rolling heavenly majesty. When Shi Tian charged straight into the clouds, even the sun hanging in the sky seemed to shy away from his edge.
And when Shangguan Yu emerged into the world, he was accompanied by heaven-bestowed auspicious signs, as if dragons and phoenixes manifested, bestowing grace upon the earth, making the vitality and spiritual energy of This World even more abundant.
Without exception, both their emergences displayed different Heaven Omens.
And Heaven Omens also had distinctions of good and bad.
Some Heaven Omens foretold life, while others foretold death.
This could not help but make people worry. Could it be that all this was another ill omen, that something terrible might happen to This World?
Like in the Ancient Times Era?
A Heaven and Earth Cataclysm?
But the Present Era had only been open for a mere hundred years!
How could a Cataclysm descend again?
Unknown.
No one could say clearly.
But one thing everyone knew: even if it wasn't Heaven and Earth thrown into turmoil, something terrible would definitely happen in This World.
Because a few years after Shangguan Yu's emergence, Heaven Omens appeared again. This time, it was neither rolling heavenly majesty nor heaven-bestowed auspicious signs, but an anomaly in the Great Nature. The myriad colors descended once more. This time, what emerged was a Princess of the Great Nature.