In the chaotic void, the Undying Flame had long since gone out. The slain Spiked-Gold Beasts had all been revived by now and were lined up, kneeling respectfully before Lin Moyu. Only after finishing his affairs in the domain did Lin Moyu remember them. From their own accounts he learned the origins of the Spiked-Gold Beast clan.
The Spiked-Gold Beasts are really a hodgepodge. Their ancestress—the first Spiked-Gold Beast—was a female with a peculiar gift: she could beget offspring with any other being, regardless of species or sex. At first that might not sound remarkable, but this ancestress didn't need any contact at all—she only had to shine the golden horn on her head upon the target. The "illumination" wasn't threatening—barely even an attack—so few ever guarded against it. In one great battle, she secretly did just that, and later birthed a litter of a hundred. Every offspring looked different and varied in strength; their power scaled with the one illuminated—the stronger the target, the stronger the child, and vice versa.
All Spiked-Gold Beasts share two traits: first, they are all beast-bodied—even if the illuminated target was human, the offspring emerged beast-bodied; second, every one of them bears a single golden horn. However, their horn lacks the ancestress's reproductive power and instead serves as an offensive treasure. The ancestress went on "illuminating" others again and again, constantly producing children, so the clan's numbers and strength swelled. Aside from the ancestress, no one in the clan could reproduce; thus, every Spiked-Gold Beast is a maternal half-sibling to all the others, whatever they look like.
It was Lin Moyu's first time seeing a race like this—truly curious.
Chaos-child suddenly said, "Why do I feel like I've seen a power like that somewhere?"
Lin Moyu chuckled. "Remembered something? Plenty of races today carry vestiges of primordial bloodlines. If the Spiked-Gold ancestress's talent came from some ancient being, it wouldn't be strange."
Chaos-child frowned in thought. "I think I heard of it, but I can't recall… must not have been famous."
Little Tree spoke up: "Should be the Heaven-Mother Gold."
"That's it—the Heaven-Mother Gold," Chaos-child said. "No wonder I didn't remember; not famous, just nasty."
Little Tree explained, "Back then the Heaven-Mother Gold awakened intelligence and gained a womb-like power: anyone she bathed in her golden light, she could later gestate. Many powerhouses were illuminated by her, and she birthed many children. But those offspring were generally mediocre—and looked all kinds of strange."
Chaos-child continued, "She had almost no combat power, just that disgusting talent—so eventually people wiped her out. Think about it—who wants to suddenly 'have' a child out of nowhere? Those Heaven-Mother offspring shared blood with the 'parents'; the powerhouses could sense these sudden offspring—who looked nothing like them, yet shared their blood. It was revolting. So they killed the Heaven-Mother Gold."
Little Tree said, "Looks like they didn't finish the job. Some remnant of the Heaven-Mother Gold remained, got swallowed by a beast, and evolved into the Spiked-Gold Beasts."
Lin Moyu smiled. "So the Spiked-Gold clan isn't actually that scary."
"Not scary," Little Tree agreed. "They'll never produce true apex elites—maybe not even Perfection—unless she dares illuminate a Supreme or quasi-Supreme."
"Interesting enough," Lin Moyu said. "As long as they don't provoke me, I can't be bothered to fuss with them. Let's go."
With a wave, he collected all the Spiked-Gold Beasts he had revived. Since they were already Revived, better to keep them than erase them—who knew when they might be useful.
In the chaotic void, Lin Moyu sat on Little Peng's back. A streak of gold split the emptiness—no spatial rift, yet faster than races gifted with space-travel. Little Peng's whole body shone, wrapping himself and Lin Moyu.
"Little Peng, do you want to go there?" Lin Moyu asked.
Little Peng knew about the storage space. At present, only four knew of it: Lin Moyu, Little Peng, Chaos-child, and Little Tree. Lin Moyu had considered sending Little Peng there, but the bird was still useful in the Chaos Ancient Wilds—his presence helped Lin Moyu greatly. Even so, he asked; he had a soft spot for the one who called him "father."
"Not for now," Little Peng said, shaking his head. "I can't do much there. Here, I can help Father."
"Alright. If you change your mind, we'll go then."
They headed for the Wang East Boundary, planning to use its teleportation to reach the Wang North Boundary, then enter Linbei City and take the cross-domain grand array to the North Extreme. Linbei City was already sealed; only two routes still reached the Wang North Boundary: via the Wang East Boundary or the Central Domain God-Alliance headquarters. According to Mu Tianze, the Wang East Boundary's teleportation would also close soon, after which only HQ could send people to the North Boundary. The North Extreme could strike at any time, and the Central Domain God-Alliance had handed its defense to the Upper Domain God-Alliance. Both the Wang North Boundary and Linbei City were currently under Upper Domain control. This arrangement had happened several times before, and the Central Domain trusted them; once the war ended, the Upper Domain's people would withdraw swiftly—they preferred their own, better environment and disliked lingering in the Central Domain.
Returning to the Wang East Boundary—just a month since last time—the atmosphere was completely different. Many powerful cultivators had gathered, forces under the Central Domain God-Alliance, passing through and streaming toward the border. Clearly the Alliance had received troubling news; the East Extreme's situation was also grim.
Lin Moyu weighed it. With the Central Domain's strength, dealing with two Extremes at once was manageable; the North Extreme fell to the Upper Domain. If the West Extreme also went to war now, then the Lower Domain would have to move—but the Lower Domain took no orders; whether they would act was anyone's guess.
"A great war is coming," Lin Moyu murmured. A full conflagration among the Four Extremes and Three Domains hadn't erupted in many years. He had thought this time it would be only West Extreme versus Central Domain; he hadn't expected escalation to total war. He had the sense there was a special cause behind it—likely tied to that thing from the depths of the Ancient Wilds; or perhaps related to a Supreme, even to the Dao Itself. In any case, it wasn't as simple as it looked.
When he reached the Wang East Boundary's teleportation array, he was stopped. "Senior, our apologies—these past few days the array has been fully requisitioned."