C2368 The Revenge of the Primal Anima

The malevolent spirit that had seized control of Dickinson's body saw its divine powers surge within the Genesis Nebula, increasing several-fold. A vast expanse of gray mist billowed from its gaping maw, engulfing the Star River for thousands of miles around.

The perverse force that twisted spiritual wisdom emerged from the mist, shrouding Zhong Chichen's Book of Time in dust and causing its luster to fade instantly.

With a resounding clang, after soaring through the air, it crashed down again, fracturing the Book of Time with countless fissures.

Dickinson's body, too, was battered, his scales shattering like glass. Blood and bone scattered with the scales, painting a picture of utter devastation. Clearly, the spirit was indifferent to Dickinson's fate.

It even seemed deliberate, a punishment for the giant snake that had dared to defy its will, subjecting it to excruciating torment.

Initially, Dickinson was merely an ordinary spirit animal from the Otherworld. It was only through the spirit's favor and the bestowal of divine rules that Dickinson ascended to supremacy, distinguishing himself among his kin.

After learning the art of refining Primal Anima from another source god, Dickinson secretly struck down the spirit, transforming it into a Primal Beast and elevating himself to the pantheon of the Otherworld.

Upon awakening, the spirit's hatred for Dickinson was as deep as bone!

"I will ensure you are fully conscious to witness your own demise. I will make you endure the agony I've suffered," the spirit vowed, its consciousness pervading the clouds and mist, filling Dickinson's corporeal form.

Dickinson wailed in agony, desperately attempting to reconnect and seek the spirit's mercy, but it ignored his pleas.

"Gods' Mist!"

With a mere thought, thick blood oozed from Dickinson's shattered scales, mingling with the smoke that concealed the chaotic divine power. The blood's integration amplified the smoke's malevolent energy, making it increasingly difficult for those enveloped in the mist to withstand.

"You will all perish!"

Through Dickinson's icy gaze, the spirit glared at the Malformed Horror, the Wendigo, and Primal Beasts like Chai En with a look of deep-seated vengeance.

The God of Time, Heesters, experienced a moment of disorientation as Dickinson's blood seeped into the mist. Dickinson's form flickered before him, at times appearing close and at others, impossibly distant, rendering him unable to accurately target Dickinson's serpentine body for a direct strike.

Yu Yuan found himself deeply ensnared in the Otherworld, his mind flooded with a deluge of scenes from his past.

As the Lord of the Abyss, the dragon slayer, as Hong Qi, and as his present self, he seemed to converge within the same River of Time.

At different junctures along the River of Time, he observed the various versions of himself.

After the Spirit of Calamity had seized control of Dickinson's body, it used its soul-warping power to facilitate an extraordinary convergence of Yu Yuan's consciousness within the Genesis Nebula.

Yu Yuan struggled to discern which era he was in—was he trapped in the Abyss or lost in the Everlands?

Those ensnared in the fog of chaos were plagued with a torrent of distracting thoughts, many selves clashing within them.

Zhong Chichen, Taishi, Youyu, Qi Yunhong, Canli, and the Malformed Horror, along with the three Primal Beasts, all succumbed to a bizarre internal struggle due to the Spirit of Calamity's burgeoning power.

Zhong Chichen would at times transform into a vibrant Seven-Colored Dragon, fixing Yu Yuan and Taishi with a furious stare, and at others, he would become the refined sect master of the Order of Healing, regarding Yu Yuan with a complex gaze.

This divine dragon, too, was adrift among his various selves, his consciousness in utter disarray, unable to unify.

Youyu was no different.

Having undergone numerous cycles of reincarnation, Youyu was both the Evil King Yu Xi and the Ghost King Youling, his soul fractured into several consciousnesses.

Deep within his psyche, the various incarnations of Youyu, each with their own identities and realms, suddenly turned on one another.

The Spirit of Calamity, now inhabiting Dickinson, stirred chaos with its massive dark golden serpent, its rule and divine power ensnaring many in the bewildering Otherworld.

"You die first!"

Seizing the moment of disarray among the mighty, it slithered towards the Gluttony God Chai En through the mist. It unleashed beams of light from its maw, each one a thousand meters long, piercing Chai En's skull and heart.

Simultaneously, a luminous crescent moon drifted across from the other end of the Genesis Nebula.

Within the moon's glow, a chilling wraith of a soul emerged, likely the Moonborn Spirit that had fled alongside the spirits of the Sun and the Stars.

The Moonborn Spirit arrived with the moon, silently hovering over the heads of the gathered individuals as if scrutinizing the mortals below.

Out of nowhere, a beam of pure, radiant moonlight cascaded from the crescent moon directly onto Canli's head.

Within this moonlight resided the spiritual sense of the Moonborn Spirit.

In a fleeting moment, the Moonborn Spirit's spiritual sense had successfully taken possession of Canli.

A delicate crescent mark emerged on Canli's forehead, symbolizing the refined essence of the Path of the Moon.

After a brief stupor, Canli, like a celestial nymph, drifted towards the crescent moon and remained suspended above it.

Soon thereafter, the crescent moon emitted blinding moonlight, transforming into Moonblades that riddled the Malformed Horror and the Wendigo with countless wounds.

With Canli's body as its vessel, the Moonborn Spirit unleashed its divine power, which was nothing short of terrifying.

Endowed with the essence of light by the Light Spirit and having accessed the profound truths of the sun, moon, and stars from the Abyss of Truth through Yu Yuan, Canli also embraced the true essence of the moon.

As a newly ascended Supreme Being, Canli possessed laws within her that resonated with the moon's power, making her an ideal host for the Moonborn Spirit's possession.

Once the Moonborn Spirit had claimed Canli, it wielded her as a deadly weapon, targeting only the Primal Beasts.

Canli, who held the greatest number of laws among the supreme beings, exhibited the full extent of the Moonborn Spirit's law power, swiftly dispatching the Malformed Horror and the Wendigo.

The gods of the Otherworld, who had once consecrated Primal Anima within themselves, met their demise at the hands of the very Primal Anima they had harnessed upon its departure.

Tu Yan perished, Chai En fell, and both the Wendigo and the Malformed Horror were no more.

Following the demise of these Primal Beasts, neither the Disaster Spirits nor the Moonborn Spirit continued their assault. "Canli" did not linger for Yu Yuan and Heesters to emerge from the Mist of Confusion but instead, commandeered the moon and glided away.

Above the Book of Time, Zhong Chichen, Youyu, and their companions remained ensnared in a bewildering trance.

The colossal serpent, now possessed by Dickinson, contorted its lengthy body, slithering away in the wake of Canli.

Whoosh!

Heesters, with a swift turn of his hand, reversed the hourglass he held, and the golden sands of time resumed their flow.

The God of Time was the first to awaken, instantly noticing the Disaster Spirit's departure. He bellowed, "You think you can flee?"

"Flee?"

The Disaster Spirit appeared to scoff loudly, glancing back at Heesters through Dickinson's eyes.

Its stare conveyed to Heesters that he had been spared from attack by the Disaster Spirit and the Moonborn Spirit because of his decent treatment of the Spirit of Time.

The deceased Malformed Horror, Wendigo, Chai En, and Tu Yan had never harbored reverence or gratitude toward the Primal Anima that granted them their strength.

Thus, their deaths were of little consequence.

Upon entering the Domain of Origin, all Primal Animas naturally formed an alliance, seemingly under a unified leader!

The Disaster Spirit and the Moonborn Spirit's slaughter of several Primal Beasts was an act of vengeance for departed Primal Animas.

Boom!

Shaken, Yu Yuan came to his senses following Heesters, no longer entangled in his internal conflict.

He immediately noticed that the Disaster Spirit, in its commandeering of Dickinson, had deliberately chosen perilous paths for the serpent's flight.

As the serpent navigated through a mysterious and narrow chasm in the void, jagged rocks lacerated its scales even further.

It was evident that the spirit was relentless in its pursuit of Dickinson, intent on tormenting him even after eliminating Tu Yan and the other Primal Beasts.

Dickinson's spiritual sense was intentionally left intact, forcing him to endure the conscious witnessing of his own physical demise.

"You need me! Without my existence, you cannot unleash your full power! You should not obliterate my corporeal form. You cannot do this!"

Yu Yuan and Heesters could barely make out Dickinson's desperate pleas emanating from within the golden serpent.

"I will find a new being to endow with the complete divine powers of disaster, forging a new sovereign."

"I am a Primal Anima. I am immortal. Regardless of your attempts, you cannot truly annihilate me. As long as the Spirit of Creation exists, we Primal Animas will not perish. We are destined to rise again."

The dark golden serpent slithered away into the distance.

The intermittent dialogue between the Disaster Spirit and Dickinson echoed from within the serpent's body.

According to what was said, as long as the Spirit of Creation in the Domain of Origin existed, the various Primal Animas would avoid extinction, reviving even after their demise.

Yu Yuan felt it was similar to the Beast Gods of the Wasteland; as long as their life essence remained within the Beast God Temple, they could be resurrected even after dying in the outside world.

"This is the revenge of the Primal Animas!"

Zhong Chichen stood atop the shattered Book of Time, watching the dark golden serpent retreat, its scales bursting and blood spraying. He exclaimed, "We should never have come here! The Genesis Nebula can greatly enhance the power of Primal Animas. Entering here is fraught with peril, and we risk meeting the same fate as they did!"

He gestured towards the carcasses of several Primal Beasts.

Yu Yuan was about to respond when he noticed, to his astonishment, that although the Primal Beasts' bodies were motionless, floating in the bizarre depths, all their energy had been swiftly assimilated into the Genesis Nebula.

The strength within their blood, their flesh, and the fragmented thoughts of their residual souls had vanished in an instant.

"They've died completely."

Youyu sensed the oddity as well; he could not find a single trace of a residual soul within the minds of the Primal Beasts.

Once the Disaster Spirit vanished, everyone regained their composure, though they couldn't shake off a sense of unease.

"Canli didn't even have a chance to resist before being possessed by the Moonborn Spirit. So, could I face the same fate here in the Genesis Nebula?"

"No!"

Qi Yunhong, who had ascended to the Supreme Realm through thunder magic, realized that his initial strategy was likely doomed. If he encountered the Thunder Spirit again, he would suffer the same fate as Canli.

He dismissed the idea of attempting to refine the Thunder Spirit in the Domain of Origin or the Genesis Nebula to achieve divinity.

"I must leave this place. I need to find a way back to the Wasteland. I must seek out the Peak of Creation!"

He decided not to persist in accompanying Yu Yuan any longer. Having grasped numerous novel aspects of thunder magic in the Genesis Nebula and having harnessed his thunder psionic power, he was ready to pursue a different approach.

Without giving Yu Yuan a chance to intervene, he spun around and transformed into a bolt of lightning, racing back along the path from which he had come.

*Boom!*

The blinding lightning struck as if it had hit Sunsilver. Qi Yunhong materialized, his head bleeding profusely.

"I can't get out!"

He demonstrated to everyone that while entering was easy, leaving was exceedingly difficult.

"Heesters!"

"Heesters, is that you?"

Deep within the Genesis Nebula, a cold star shone brightly, and someone was calling out in excitement.

Heesters was thunderstruck. "Paxton, how are you still alive? How did you end up here?"

Without waiting for a response, the God of Time, clutching the hourglass, dashed toward the cold star. As he soared, he muttered in disbelief, "This can't be possible!"

"Paxton!"

Zhong Chichen's face paled with shock. Puzzled, he scratched his head while looking at the damaged Book of Time. "A man who should have been long dead, why is he in the Genesis Nebula? He was Devitt's mentor, the Space God of the previous era! Legend has it he discovered a new world, left behind a spring channel, and then perished in a catastrophic explosion."

"Why is he in the Genesis Nebula?"

Following Devitt's demise, Zhong Chichen, who had ascended to a position of power using the space magic bestowed by Devitt, found his interest reignited by the name 'Paxton.'

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