The massive body of the Serpent-Dragon was riddled with wounds, weeping viscous yellow fluid that gave off a pungent, foul stench. Vidson's flesh swelled, taut like a rapidly inflating bladder, on the verge of bursting, while fine fissures spiderwebbed across his abdomen, splitting open with horrifying clarity.
From that abdomen erupted an overwhelming, world-ending malevolence, a baleful aura that fueled his life's potential, consuming his very soul to ignite every last reserve of his strength! Anyone could see that Vidson’s explosive surge was purchased at the cost of his own imminent demise!
No one truly cared whether he lived or died. Ming Hao and Xuan He waited, anticipating the moment the giant worm, the Serpent-Dragon, would have its flesh eroded and its defenses utterly stripped away.
That would be their signal to close in—the optimal moment to claim the spoils of war. The giant worm’s body began to rot and dissolve, thick, inky smoke billowing from within.
This smoke was entirely absorbed by the mystical apertures of Shi Yan’s form, augmenting both his physical body and his soul. Suddenly, Shi Yan abruptly ceased his assault on the Serpent-Dragon’s body, halting his destructive efforts on one particular section of the great beast.
A wondrous sensation of soul sublimation instantly flowed into his heart. His apertures, meridians, and the ancient tree of divine power had seamlessly integrated into a single entity, achieving a delicate connectivity.
The tree’s branches connected to the meridians, the meridians linked to the apertures, and the power seeping from the apertures flowed along the meridians back into his Dantian. That luminous, crystal-clear ancient tree of divine power flourished robustly once more, and with its growth, a warm current flooded his mind, gliding into his Sea of Consciousness.
An unparalleled sense of soothing comfort enveloped the Soul Altar. The dross, residue, and filth within the altar seemed to be washed away by water of absolute purity, rendered impossibly clean.
In that instant, his Soul Altar transformed into a piece of flawless jade, pristine, transparent, and brimming with infinite mystery. He suddenly felt that his comprehension of space, the stars, and the profound essence of life and death had deepened exponentially.
It was as if an ignorant youth had had their latent wisdom unlocked, becoming sharp and intelligent. As his thoughts shifted, wisps of warm current continued to cleanse the altar, the mysteries themselves darting through the space like rays of light.
Waves of profound, ineffable enlightenment dawned upon him, sinking in deeply. He felt as if he were soaring within the very source of these mysteries, grasping at the deepest secrets… This was the sublimation of the Soul Altar, a further ascent of realm.
He had actually leaped directly from the second level of the Initial God Realm straight into the third! An unbelievable breakthrough!
He froze there, absorbing the miraculous transformation unfolding within his body, his altar, and his soul. A light of sudden epiphany sparked in his eyes as he focused intently on the giant worm below.
Abruptly, his expression shifted violently. In the precise direction of his gaze, he saw a pair of eyes—eyes that absolutely should not have been open.
They were the eyes of Xing Huo. Xing Huo was clearly dead.
Shi Yan had examined him meticulously before, certain that even his life’s magnetic field had vanished, leaving no trace. He was utterly extinguished; how could his eyes reopen?
The situation reeked of strangeness! His first thought was that the Serpent-Dragon was leveraging Xing Huo’s corpse for a final struggle.
However, after staring intently at the eyes for several seconds, he immediately dismissed the suspicion. Because the emotion radiating from Xing Huo’s eyes was definitely not the emotionless void of the Serpent-Dragon.
That gaze was deep and ancient, tinged with a hint of mockery and cold indifference, like a hunter quietly waiting for its prey to stumble into the net, sending a tremor of unease through him. More peculiar still, those eyes looked directly at him, showing no aversion to being seen, clearly not fearing his discovery in the slightest.
“No! Something is wrong!” A sense of foreboding intuition struck him, as if the gaze was strangely familiar.
He racked his mind desperately, and then, with a surge, summoned his subordinate soul from the Primeval Realm, allowing it to settle back onto his Altar. When he looked at those eyes again, he staggered with shock, unable to suppress a harsh cry: “Heige!” There was a subtle, inherent connection between the four ancient continents: Divine Grace, Divine Favor, Ancient God, and Ancient Demon.
Having fused with the Divine Grace Continent, Shi Yan could sense the unique aura emanating from Heige. It was a specific scent belonging only to the ancient continents, detectable only by those of the same kind—an indelible mark left on the soul after fusion, impossible to conceal.
Following his sharp exclamation, the expression in those eyes flickered with surprise. They stared deeply into him, the color shifting with inscrutable complexity.
A wave of intense anxiety washed over Shi Yan. Before the gaze could change further, he suddenly recoiled, transforming into a cluster of starlight, piercing the seal with spatial mystery, withdrawing from the surface of the Serpent-Dragon’s massive body.
“Whoosh!” He stabilized beside the Azure Dragon sacred beast, his expression grim. “The eyes of Xing Huo have opened on that giant worm.
The owner of those eyes… it must be Heige. I can feel his unique aura!” “Heige?” Ming Hao scoffed, shaking his head.
“You must be mistaken. Heige no longer exists.
He is dead.” “Dead?” Shi Yan was stunned, refusing to believe it. “Impossible!
That fellow clearly carries the primordial essence of the Ancient God Continent. How could I, who has fused with the primordial essence of the Divine Grace Continent, perceive it incorrectly?” Ming Hao paused momentarily, then shuddered violently, his face turning deeply solemn.
“You mean, the aura of the Ancient God Continent’s essence flows from him?” “Absolutely certain!” The expressions of Ming Hao, Xuan He, the Azure Dragon, and Dicaro all darkened, growing grim. They all turned to look at the surface of the Serpent-Dragon’s flesh, each adopting a posture of high alert.
“Brian! If you’re here, then show yourself!
Why hide your head and tail?” Ming Hao roared. The utterance of the name “Brian” sent a jolt of shock through Ready and Phillip, their faces draining of color as if they had witnessed a ghost in broad daylight.
Their previous excitement and ecstasy were instantly doused by a bucket of cold water, extinguishing all their fervor. “How could he have arrived?” Phillip’s pale face grew even whiter.
This was not fear, but the physical manifestation of his Corpse Power being compressed to its absolute limit. He was already fighting with everything he had.
“Crack! Crack!
Crack! Crack!” Coils of lightning, as thick as giant pythons, erupted from the core of the Azure Dragon sacred beast, forming a sea of thunder and electricity.
The sheer, world-annihilating force of the frantic lightning currents stirred the chaotic spatial currents, causing iridescent flares to burst everywhere. They had not been this grave when confronting the Serpent-Dragon itself.
They all shifted their attention to where Shi Yan was pointing. Ming Hao, however, looked toward Vidson, his expression shadowed.
He suddenly said, “I know why Vidson’s power suddenly surged. It was you, adding fuel to the fire from the shadows.
It seems you Divine Race finally utilized all the bones of my Master you have collected over the years, haven’t you?” “Crack!” A lump of flesh on the Serpent-Dragon’s surface suddenly exploded. As yellow fluid sprayed outward, clusters of sacred, magnificent light coalesced, gradually forming the shape of “Heige.” “Tear!” He ripped free from Xing Huo’s body and emerged, standing calmly on the Serpent-Dragon’s form, looking upon Ming Hao and the others with an indifferent air.
“After the fall of the Bloodthirsty One, you have all changed greatly. You lack the sharp edge you once possessed.
I have watched you for so long, yet none of you truly dared to charge forward and unleash your full power within the flesh of a Primal Lifeform.” “It’s no wonder that after ten thousand years, you have only achieved slight breakthroughs. If I hadn’t critically wounded him to the point of physical annihilation back then, today, I would likely have transcended heaven and earth, soaring through the ‘Void Sea of Mysteries’ like the Bloodthirsty One, unbound by any constraint.” As he spoke, his body shimmered like crystalline gemstones, refracting billions of piercing rays of light.
This light spread out mightily, stabbing into every corner of space like dense, sharp swords. Within every ray resided the fluctuation of life, as if each one were a soul clone of his.
“Puff! Puff!” As the beams of light struck, the Serpent-Dragon beside him bore the brunt.
The light pierced the tough, bright yellow cuticle—a defense that even the mystery of corrosion could not instantly breach—simply passing right through it. He was the second being capable of genuinely fracturing that layer of primal defense on the Serpent-Dragon.
Unlike Shi Yan, he relied on no divine artifacts; only the radiant swords condensed from his divine power managed to truly wound this Primal Lifeform. “Whoosh!
Whoosh! Whoosh!” The dazzling rays of light shot forward, carrying the essence of his profound mysteries.
Xuan He, Ming Hao, and the others had to focus their attention, their faces grim, as they deployed their own unique skills to construct defensive barriers and restrictions. Shi Yan was no exception.
Within those beams of light, he seemed to glimpse the demeanor of the first generation of Divine Race ancestors. In the Wilderness, he had merged with the Primeval Realm stars of those ancestors, gaining insight into that figure’s deep understanding of the realm.
Now, as the Divine Lord released his profound mysteries, Shi Yan focused, carefully absorbing the experience, and realized that the Divine Lord’s mastery over the Mystery of Light might even surpass that of the Divine Race ancestors from one hundred thousand years ago, marking him as the most terrifying and powerful existence the Divine Race had ever produced! “Star Sea Annihilation!” Shi Yan’s spirit trembled, and as he urged his divine power forth, a look of sudden joy appeared on his face.
The speed at which his divine power coursed through his entire body had increased several times over compared to before! This was not merely a breakthrough in the Initial God Realm; it was a deep-seated metamorphosis of his meridians, flesh, and cells—an evolution of life itself!
In an instant, a sea of stars materialized before his eyes, hazy and ethereal, like a flower in a mirror or the moon in the water, constantly shifting in marvelous ways—sometimes clear and distinct, sometimes blurry as nothingness. The Divine Lord’s beams of light, attempting to pierce through, seemed to be assimilated instead; they flew around lost within the star sea he projected, forever unable to escape and pierce Shi Yan’s true body.
This was a divine ability that Shi Yan understood in a sudden moment of clarity, born from the fusion of the mysteries of stars and space—a breakthrough achieved through sheer inspiration. “Oh?” The Divine Lord let out a soft exclamation, his deep eyes falling upon Shi Yan.
His expression moved, and then he chuckled lightly. “Very well.
I shall first seize your soul and integrate the primordial essence of the Divine Grace Continent.” His figure shifted, crossing the void, instantly landing within the star sea projected by Shi Yan. At that very moment, a cluster of thick, viscous blood splattered out from Vidson’s body.
This blood spun rapidly in the void like a key. The blood suddenly transformed, becoming a gate or window, and several figures poured through it directly.
The Four Heavenly Kings—Free and Unfettered, Light, Ease, and Divine Might—appeared first. Following them, Sealed and Pierce, along with the elders of the Divine Race and the patriarchs of the Twelve Great Families, materialized one after another, all taking form near Vidson.
Surprisingly, the corrosive force released by Vidson posed no threat to them. This was because dense beams of light were piercing through the domain field surrounding Vidson, forcibly altering the corrosive power and greatly diminishing the profound efficacy of the mystery of corrosion.
Those beams originated from the Divine Lord; his rays of light served not only to intimidate Ming Hao and Xuan He but primarily to ensure the safe landing of the group including Xiaoyao.