C1993
Yuen Bu floated in the void, three Shrouded Towers drifting behind him, his eyes contemplatively fixed on the Dragon Slash Platform.
Emblazoned on his chest, the Holy Mountain, encircled by stars, stood out like a totem, emitting an endless crimson glow.
Inhabiting the body of the Old Ape, he clutched the Skyshatter Hammer, his formidable presence sending shivers through all who were present. Yet, curiously, he showed no urgency to strike.
"Bright Clan, Cadorath," Yuen Bu said with a light chuckle.
At the sound of his laughter, Yu Yuan raised an eyebrow and suddenly spoke, "You're clearly monitoring the Abyss Gate."
"Indeed," Yuen Bu acknowledged openly. Watching Zhong Chichen pull the battered form of Loong Jie from beneath with the Time Book, he flashed a wide grin and taunted, "Continue to linger below."
With a flourish, the Skyshatter Hammer gleamed in his grasp.
Boom!
A bloody tempest erupted in the cosmos around Zhong Chichen and Loong Jie, as if laced with icy blades and frosty daggers, viciously carving into their flesh.
Zhong Chichen, with a muffled groan, quickly dove into the Time Book as blood scattered across the heavens. Loong Jie, too, was dragged along, transforming into a broad golden rainbow that vanished into a page of the Time Book.
Where the two Dragon Gods had been, only the book remained, floating, their draconic silhouettes gone.
Unconcerned with their fate, Yuen Bu paid no heed to Taishi and Reid, the celestial titans, and proposed, "Perhaps we should take this battle elsewhere."
The Shrouded Towers swiftly parted, forming a triangle that enclosed Yuen Bu, Yu Yuan, Reid, and Taishi.
Simultaneously, the towers surged with spatial powers and cast a dark, enigmatic sheen over them.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The Shrouded Towers tugged at them, severing the space they occupied and transporting them to a new locale.
Left behind in the original region were only the Rat God, Nors, the Ice Phoenix, Alex, and the Time Book, adrift.
Nothing else remained.
Stunned, Nors watched the space fragment and be whisked away like shards of a shattered mirror. He turned to Alex and urged, "We should get out of here now!"
Without the Shrouded Tower at their disposal, he and Alex had no choice but to resort to a more primitive method of evacuation.
Alex didn't utter a word of protest, fully aware that Zhong Chichen and Loong Jie were still alive and would inevitably emerge from the Time Book at any moment, prompting him to act without delay. Thus, the two fortunate Beast Gods hastily departed.
Elsewhere, near the Abyss Gate, a fractured realm wrapped in the Shrouded Tower materialized abruptly. The Devaputra Pontiff, Reid, was momentarily taken aback before he exclaimed in shock, "Cadorath, what are you doing?"
The Scepter of Light, which had been supporting them and had transported him and Taishi to the Time Secret Area to fend off an attack from Yuen Bu, was now thrust into the Abyss Gate like a spear of light. At the spear's point, the purest radiance persistently infiltrated the gate.
Cadorath, the diminutive figure of the Bright Clan's chieftain, stood above the scepter's handle. Ignoring the somber look on Yang God Yu's face, she continued to apologize while exerting more force.
An even more brilliant glow relentlessly bombarded the Abyss Gate, aiming to pierce through it. It was clear that she intended to breach the gate.
Despite being the leader of the Bright Clan and ranked just below the Great Demon God Beilstein in this world, Cadorath originally lacked the power to do so. She should have been incapable of breaking the Abyss Gate.
Yet, beneath that translucent gate, there was an immense light source as vast as a landmass, resonating with her Scepter of Light and coordinating with her in a concerted effort. Her lineage of light had received an unprecedented enhancement, and the scepter's might surged dramatically.
"Today, this gate should also be shattered," Yuen Bu said with a smirk, addressing Cadorath, who had suddenly looked up in fury. "I didn't deceive you. There truly is a Light Origin Spirit in the Desolate Realm, but... it might just be a fragment of it. Much like the source of the Yang Meridian in this world, it has separated from the blood of our Desolate Realm."
"Impossible!" Cadorath cried out in disbelief, "The Abyss lies below! It has always been within the Abyss. How could it possibly split off a part of its consciousness and cast it into your Desolate Realm?"
This doesn't make any sense!
In the heart of the Bright Clan patriarch, an Origin Realm lay between the Abyss and the Desolate Realm.
How could the Light Origin Spirit, which resided in the Abyss, circumvent the Origin Realm and implant its energy will in the Desolate Realm, the domain of the Beast God?
"Could it be... is there a chance that it and the glowing continent were originally part of the Origin Realm? Was it pulled into the depths of the Abyss by the darkness there, unable to ever return to its rightful domain?" Yuen Bu suddenly proposed.
"What?" Cadorath gasped in surprise.
Then, it dawned on her, the Light Origin Spirit had spoken of returning home.
Could it be?
The revelation stirred something in both Yu Yuans.
Yu Yuan, who wielded the Dragon Slash Platform and had brought his true form, descended silently.
Perched atop the Abyss Gate, his fleshly body was unaffected by the gate's strange pull.
This Yu Yuan, much like his Yang God counterpart, gazed upon the radiant continent.
A wave of familiarity began to swell within him.
It seemed as though he had encountered this luminous land long ago, and it had been a significant part of his past.
Yet, no memories burst forth in revelation.
His sealed memories, mostly tied to the will of the Boundless Underground, suggested that his familiarity without recollection pointed to the land below being connected to the underground will.
Was it the Origin Soul, or perhaps an Abyssal treasure?
Yu Yuan was deep in thought.
"Cadorath, if you're keen on unraveling this enigma, join me in the effort," he suggested.
Yuen Bu gave a knowing blink.
In the heart of the three Shrouded Towers, his formidable blood energy began to surge wildly.
Upon reaching the Abyss Gate, it seemed as though a latent power within him was drawing strength from all around.
The Holy Mountain within his chest, seemingly refined from the essence of the Demon God, resonated with thunderous heartbeats, unleashing its might.
The clouds, symbols of the giant beasts' bloodline secrets that had been converging at Yu Yuan's feet, were now drawn to the Holy Mountain within his chest.
They surged directly towards him.
"The time has come for it to shatter," Yuen Bu declared.
"But even in pieces, the imprinted essence of the giant beasts' bloodline on this gate won't be yours to command, Yuen Bu."
Yu Yuan snorted coldly, his hesitation vanishing.
The clouds, embodying the bloodlines of colossal beasts, descended upon Yuan Li's chest and infused themselves into the soles of Yang God Yu's feet.
Numerous bloodline essences transformed into fine strands of crimson lightning, weaving through the meridians of the Yang God.
In a mere moment, Yu Yuan had unlocked nearly a hundred secrets of the bloodlines from the deceased Starry Behemoths.
Some of these bloodlines resonated with the vast laws of the universe, while others were entirely alien to him.
Yang God Yu swiftly organized and classified them with his soul, aiming to assimilate them in the shortest time possible.
Crack! Crack!
Vast swathes of colorful halos burst forth from the Abyss Gate, flying towards Yu Yuan's Yang God like shattered tiles, turning into the purest blood energy.
This blood energy, the very foundation of the Abyss Gate, was the legacy left by the ancient Spinosaurus.
It acted as a catalyst, accelerating the fusion of Yu Yuan with the bloodline mysteries of the giant beasts, aiding his ascension to the so-called Eleventh Level in record time.
"It's shattered."
Yuan Li roared with excitement, setting aside the Skyshatter Hammer and wildly clutching at the void with his hands.
He managed to seize a portion of the fragments from the Abyss Gate, incorporating them into the heart of the Old Ape, where they vanished into the Life Keychain.
"Has it really shattered just like that?"
Cadorath gripped the Scepter of Light, peering through the fragmented colorful sea to behold the true Supreme Wisdom and the glowing land where it stood.
The land was as vast as the Tia Main Planet of the Gray Domain, crowned with a shimmering natural barrier of light.
Beneath the thin barrier, a myriad of bizarre castles and palaces stood among mountains, lakes, and remnants of human nations ravaged by war.
This world was not spherical like the Boundless Ocean but rather a more stable expanse of land.
"This place..."
Taishi stroked his chin, transfixed by the world emerging from the Abyss, his gaze settling on the central land where the Supreme Wisdom stood. "Why does it feel so familiar, as if it bears a striking resemblance to the human nations of the Boundless Ocean?"
