C1520 To Shatter the Divine Throne
In the extraterrestrial expanse of the cosmos, the Dark Realm stood as the birthplace of the Shura—a mysterious forbidden area renowned throughout the world, shrouded in perpetual darkness and biting cold, devoid of any other energy or presence. Legend held that only the Shura could fully adapt to the Dark Realm's harsh conditions and thrive within its shadows, able to see one another where no others could.
Such a forbidding environment necessitated that the original Shura migrate outward to ensure the continuation of their lineage. This led to a division within the Shura: those born in the Dark Realm were known as Dark Realm Shura, while those from the outside world were simply referred to as Shura. Yet, the true rulers of the Shura were the select few from the Dark Realm.
Only Shura with exceptional talents and bloodlines were invited to join the ranks and undergo the baptism of the Dark Realm. Those who emerged victorious earned the prestigious title of Dark Realm Shura. For a Shura warrior, having the prefix "Dark Realm" signified a world of difference—it denoted greater strength, valor, potential, and a more revered status.
Driven by this honor, countless Shura from the outside world aspired to enter the Dark Realm for their rite of passage. Elena was among them. She now stood in the frigid wilderness, conferring with her peers on how to divide the spoils after slaying a colossal Frost Beast. Unaffected by the enveloping darkness and extreme cold, the Shura could still perceive one another, their theurgy allowing them to navigate the blackness unimpeded.
"Look over there!" exclaimed a towering Shura warrior, perched atop the Silver Peaks, gesturing towards the horizon. Suddenly, a multitude of dazzling stars emerged in the distance, forming a swiftly moving Star River, its mysterious and dreamlike hues presenting an extraordinary spectacle. In the Dark Realm, a place where no light should exist and no Shura dared to tread, the appearance of stars was an anomaly.
As the thought crossed their minds, the myriad of stars coalesced into a resplendent Milky Way, transforming into a gleaming blade that followed the celestial trajectory and struck a target in the void. Above the radiant galaxy, a speck of light, no larger than a grain, expanded exponentially in the blink of an eye.
She transformed into a little girl, her entire being shimmering as if she had harnessed all the light in the world!
At that moment, the little girl's form was as vast as the sun and moon, surpassing the size of most Domains. Yet, due to the vast distance, she still appeared delicate.
The instant the enigmatic little girl materialized, she illuminated the entire Dark Realm.
She also sharpened the radiance of the thousands of stars, seemingly amplifying their power in a flash.
Wielding her wand in the distant dark starry sky, the little girl sent millions of broad beams of light streaking towards a specific point, alongside the dazzling Star River.
Simultaneously.
From the depths of the Dark Realm, a desolate area erupted with countless golden divine glows.
Within these golden lights hid the bloodline rules of the Blood King, Sabonis, which rapidly coalesced into myriad golden light rivers.
A vast Dark Sea, sprawling across billions of acres capable of enveloping numerous Domains, roiled in the void.
This Dark Sea was devoid of ice energy, filled only with dark energy that struck terror into the souls and hearts of all beings.
The most extreme, the most unadulterated darkness, it bore no attributes.
Absent of cold, devoid of heat, it harbored no evil.
The brilliant Milky Way, formed by thousands of stars, and the millions of thick light pillars, along with tens of millions of golden glows, carried with them stars, light, and thousands of cosmic orders. Divine chains of radiance suddenly pierced the enigmatic darkness.
In an instant, the churning Dark Seas were riddled with countless cavities.
Shortly thereafter.
The mysterious Dark Seas began to draw in the dark energy of the Dark Realm. The oppressive darkness that Elena and the others gazed upon was rapidly receding.
It wasn't scattered by the starlight, the little girl's brilliance, nor the golden glow.
Rather, it was being devoured by the Dark Seas!
"Tan Xiaotian! This is too much!"
The Blood King Sabonis, speaking in the human tongue, unleashed his fury. At last, he ascended his Golden Chariot, revealing the colossal form of the Golden Shura, towering tens of millions of feet high.
"The Dark Realm, where darkness and absolute cold coexist. I've explored many secret places among the stars, yet the Dark Realm has always eluded me. It has been my life's greatest regret. If I didn't seize this opportunity—while you were gravely injured, with Alonso gone, and the Titanblade breaking free, shattering the foundation of this place—when would I ever have the chance to come to the Dark Realm?"
A deep male voice rose from the Dark Seas.
"Cardo, Ballo, one of you is a patriarch of the Dawnbringers, and the other of the Starborn. How could you possibly aid Sabonis? If I'm not mistaken, Sabonis and Grec have always been at odds with you, haven't they?"
Whoosh!
The Dark Seas undulated, consuming dark energy from elsewhere, utterly disregarding the two mightiest Otherkin below.
Where the Dark Seas passed, the so-called Frozen Abyss was laid bare, leaving only the ice energy behind.
"Cardo!"
"Ballo!"
Elena and the Shura warriors exclaimed in horror.
They realized that Cardo and Ballo had merely used their light and brilliant stars to dispel the darkness of the Dark Realm.
It was a mere dispersal...
Once they retracted their power, the light would fade, and the darkness would return to engulf everything.
The Dark Seas, however, were different.
As it moved, it extracted the darkness. Once it departed, the darkness would not resume its suffocating embrace.
For the darkness had been dissolved.
"Everlands, Demon Lord Tan Xiaotian!"
"Tan Xiaotian has invaded the Dark Realm!"
Upon hearing this name, every native Shura and those training in the Dark Realm felt their souls quiver.
"In your Everlands, there's a saying, 'Shared glory, shared loss.'"
Ballo, once his avatar left the Dark Seas, transformed back into a myriad of dazzling stars.
Each star was a core he had refined, a fusion of his lifeblood, varying in size from mountainous to minuscule, all capable of being freely absorbed into his body.
"Alonso is gone, and the Shura have been weakened. Sabonis has paid a sufficient price," Ballo reflected.
"If the humans of your Everlands can set aside their prejudices and unite against a common foe, then so can we." Cardo, in the form of a little girl, shone like a massive beacon as she advanced towards Tan Xiaotian. "You are the sworn enemy of our Dawnbringers. How could I possibly let you have your way?"
"Really? Do you think you can stop me?"
Tan Xiaotian's deep voice emanated from the Dark Seas, betraying no hint of distress.
Venturing deep into the Dark Realm, he stood before the Blood King Sabonis, the second mightiest of the Starborn, Cardo, and the Starborn Ballo. Yet, he dared to remain.
"Since I've arrived, I am determined to grasp this uncharted darkness. Once I've unraveled the hidden laws and principles of this place, I will claim this Dark Realm as my personal domain. I will relocate my seat from Wintermaw in the Glimmerdrift Nebula to here."
"By taking the Shura ancestral land and seizing the Dark Realm, I will rewrite its cosmic order, and the Everlands will gain another divine throne! This world, which I have conquered, will naturally house the new Supreme God seat of the Devil Palace."
Tan Xiaotian spoke unabashedly of his conquest.
"The prosperity of a race, the emergence and transformation of a species, must follow this path."
"Hasn't your Shura Race achieved its current status in the cosmos, its vast Astral Domains, and the rise of your own Sabonis and Alonso, in the same way?"
With that, the Dark Seas continued their relentless consumption of the Dark Realm.
The three peak extraterrestrial beings pursued him doggedly, steadily depleting the dark essence that embodied Tan Xiaotian.
Yet, Tan Xiaotian could swiftly replenish his strength through the dark energy of the Dark Realm.
Throughout this ordeal, he occasionally deciphered divine chains of pure black Cosmic Order, inscribing them into his dark essence.
The Dark Realm has always been a forbidden area, eternally shrouded in darkness and extreme cold.
Tan Xiaotian had long coveted this place, waiting for countless years for the right moment.
At last, he seized the opportunity when Sabonis was gravely wounded and Alonso had perished. With a single stroke of the Titanblade, he severed Sabonis's connection to the cosmic order of the Dark Realm, stripping him of his dominion.
No longer could he wield the Dark Realm's darkness and extreme cold at will.
...
"Am I to support Cao Yi?"
Yu Yuan furrowed his brow, gripping the Dragon Slaying Stage as he gazed toward the Devil Palace, yet unable to discern the Divine War between Youyu and Zhu Zhenlin.
"No one knows his preferred candidate," Tian Zang clarified.
"We'll just have to watch how things unfold."
Jiang Miaojie declared with excitement.
Regardless of whether they were willing, everyone had no choice but to await the outcome of the Divine War.
In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed.
Above the Fallen Star Eyes, it was visible to the naked eye that the area presided over by Zhu Zhenlin of the Devil Palace was suffused with a thick dispersion of spiritual energy.
Zhu Zhenlin, being human, drew his power from spiritual energy, whereas Youyu did not depend on it.
Clearly, Zhu Zhenlin's body and Divine Visage had sustained severe damage.
Many powerful beings from the Aetherius Continent were closely monitoring the battle, all anticipating the final verdict.
Another day passed, and Yu Yuan, with the Dragon Slaying Stage in hand, scrutinized it once more.
Whoosh!
His remnant soul, amplified hundreds of times by the Dragon Slaying Stage, transformed into a faint cloud that materialized above the palace.
Once the remnant soul took shape, it seemed to be drawn by an unseen force.
His Lunar Spirit suddenly appeared within this cloud-like remnant soul and merged with it.
"Youyu..."
He murmured, and the Lunar Spirit, no longer under control, plummeted down, breaking through the myriad of seals and arriving above the confluence of two intertwining rivers.
Below the Lunar Spirit, the Devil Palace's cultivators were either gone or dead.
Above the Lunar Spirit, not a single dark adept remained alive.
A colossal iron-gray Dread Mount, thousands of feet tall, loomed over the land as if it had stood for millennia, unyielding to time.
The Dread Mount bore countless spell symbols, bizarre patterns, chapters of ancient dark arts, and profound marks of the Circle of Damnation.
It seemed that the Dread Mount was the Divine Visage that Zhu Zhenlin had once forged.
The original palace had become iron-gray shells, resembling an unconventional armor, encasing the Dread Mount.
Now, these shells were peeling away.
As each shell hit the ground, it burst into dense spiritual energy that seeped into the earth.
Crack!
The iron-gray shells and the stones of the Dread Mount continued to crumble.
Zhu Zhenlin appeared to be falling apart.
Yu Yuan's Lunar Spirit intently observed the emaciated Youyu, who, holding the miniaturized Dark Court, had reached Zhu Zhenlin's Mindscape.
The vast Sea of Souls shimmered with endless divine light. A towering, amber-hued pillar, etched with the Cosmic Order, stood majestically. It once bore the marks of processes related to refining Voodoo Shades, reincarnation, rebirth, condensing devil souls, and fortifying the body, but many of these had been shattered by Youyu with the aid of the Dark Court.
This amber pillar, which seemed to connect heaven and earth, spanned the entirety of the Everlands. But now...
As the Dark Court collided with the pillar, the Dread Mount that Zhu Zhenlin had become began to falter. Countless glimmering fireflies, the crystallized essence of spiritual energy and lifeblood, burst into oblivion.
Yu Yuan sensed the Cosmic Order Zhu Zhenlin had mastered crumbling away, dissolving back into the fabric of this realm. The mysterious pillar that had intrigued him suddenly transformed into a transparent, spinning stage, casting bolts of lightning.
"It's tangible!"
Yu Yuan was profoundly shaken. The objects within Zhu Zhenlin's Mindscape, whether the immense pillar or the altar-like oddity, were no mere illusions. They were a genuine, magical substance in existence—the Divine Throne!
A spark of realization detonated within his Lunar Spirit. The object shattered by the Dark Court was the Divine Throne Zhu Zhenlin had forged!
To create a primordial spirit, one must first condense the fortunes of the Everlands into a liquid essence, then refine it into a solid crystal, ultimately crafting the Divine Throne where the dominant soul undergoes metamorphosis.
Once the Divine Throne is imprinted with the sacred way comprehended by the soul, and the dominant soul merges with the Divine Throne, it evolves into the primordial spirit.
What Youyu was doing was shattering the crystalline primordial spirit formed by Zhu Zhenlin's main soul and Divine Throne.
After being shattered, it would revert to the primordial essence of the Everlands. Without external intervention, this essence would dissipate into a gaseous state and rejoin the Everlands. Later, when another seeks to claim the Divine Throne, they would gather and refine this essence anew.
Youyu had intentionally allowed Yu Yuan to witness this process firsthand by entering as a Lunar Spirit. By breaking the crystal-like Divine Throne and erasing the imprints of the Way of Heaven within, the fragments dissolved back into the original essence, merging with the spiritual energy and vanishing into the cosmos.
In the future, the process of forging the Divine Throne would simply require him to reverse the current method.
