The moment the people below finally spotted "she" in the sky above, her eyes suddenly began to glimmer with an absolute, terrifying black light. Deep within those eyes, a primordial, dark wheel seemed to violently turn, and a catastrophic, crushing pressure instantly descended upon the world!
RUMBLE!!!!!!!!
The very instant "she" made her supreme presence known, the entire Soul Stealing Star Realm began to violently shake in profound fear, realizing that a power capable of utterly erasing it from existence had finally arrived. She had yet to unleash her true terrifying profound power, but the star realm and every single soul below already felt the full, crushing dread on their bodies and souls!
PUKE!!!!
Under the silent, absolute staring of the supreme being above, those caught in her gaze began to vomit thick, black blood, their eyes violently turning bloodshot as their very souls were brought to the agonizing verge of collapse!
"UGH!!!!"
"AHHHHHHHH!!!!"
"ARGHHHHHHH!!!!"
Screams of raw pain and absolute agony erupted in a chorus of despair! And this devastation was not confined merely to the Soul Stealing Star Realm; every inhabitant of every nearby star realm or planet instantly felt the same existential dread, the same terrifying pressure crushing their souls and bodies!
"To... think... UGH!!!! We... are... PUKE!!! still... this weak..."
"AGHHHHHH!!!!"
The collective of God Emperors, who had just brutally ascended to their pinnacle through a trial of fire and blood, were instantly collapsing back onto the cold ground. Their massive gain in power was utterly meaningless. They were the ones directly beneath "she's" gaze, and the agony of their rapidly cracking, newly mended bodies was a physical testament to the utter futility of their ultimate sacrifice.
PUKE....! Their shame was as profound as the black blood they spat.
"Sister...." On the ground, amidst the pain, Caizhi's voice was a broken whisper, a sound of ultimate love meeting absolute horror. She looked up at the terrifying woman in red, her mind frantically scrolling through cherished, memories.
The woman above—the one whose very presence shattered the world, the controller of the primordial Devil Gods, the being who had almost killed her—was the very same being she had once looked up to, the one who had protected her, the one she had called sister.
The contrast was agonizing: the gentle, fiercely protective sibling of her memory against the cold, monstrous architect of cosmic destruction above. Who else could it possibly be... if the figure in the broken, ominous red dress wasn't the Heavenly Slaughter Star God?
PUKE!!!
The moment Caizhi uttered her simple, heartbreaking word, she and the others choked out a couple more rounds of blood as they feel their vision blurred.
Yet, with a chilling suddenness, the terrifying, crushing pressure instantly lifted.
???
Slowly, the group of fallen cultivators looked upward, fear and confusion warring in their eyes.
The dark, soul-shattering light had receded from the antagonist's eyes, replaced by a cold, terrifying smile that promised absolute ruin.
"Hehehehehe..... hehehe..."
"To think... the very Heavenly Laws would return and repair itself...hehehe." Her cold, mocking laughter rang out across the vast, silent realm. "To dare to give you all a final, pathetic spark of hope... to overturn the situation..."
"Hehehehehe... but that little spark didn't matter...hehehehe," her cruel voice mocked, savoring the taste of the survivors' despair. "Hehehehe.... if you insignificant, lowly beings had enough time—perhaps an entire million years—you might have been able to turn the situation around...."
Below, those who remained conscious could only violently grip their fists, utter despair and terror rushing back to consume their souls. No, the terror had never truly left; it was merely hiding. The crushing despair had only been briefly masked by a fleeting, weaponized hope.
"Hehehehe... but... isn't this good?...hehehe" In the sky above, the Heavenly Slaughter Star God savored the fear.
"The Heavenly Laws have returned and even restored the Primordial Chaos to what it once was...hehehe... it would truly be unfair...hehehe... if I just annihilated all of you now," she purred to the stunned, bloodied figures below. Her chilling laughter sent an actual, physical ripple of primordial darkness across the shattered realm, causing distant, ruined star fragments to tremble violently.
"Hehehehhe... then how about this?" Her smile widened, revealing an ancient, cosmic cruelty.
"Hehehe.... This Lord shall give you all one single chance! You, who have just violently broken through the world's ancient limits, you who have attained a glorious new height of strength... you all shall choose three of your people to fight against my Devil Gods! Hehehehe"
"If you all manage to win at least one single fight... then this Lord... hehehe... shall let you all live!" Her chilling voice thundered, sealing the fate of the entire God Realm in an absurd, terrifying wager.
The immediate aftermath was a cataclysm of frozen emotion. A collective, agonizing gasp swept through the Soul Stealing Realm.
That one word—win—was a cruel, agonizing paradox. It was the return of absolute hope, immediately weaponized into an impossible terror. Choose three souls for a meaningless gamble, and the God Realm survives. Every face was a canvas of fresh despair, understanding the game: the ultimate challenge was not to defeat the Devil Gods, but to find three people who could carry the weight of the entire Primordial Chaos!
"Hehehe... of course, to make it entirely fair to all of you... this Lord shall limit the power of my Devil Gods to your pathetic, current strength...hehehe," the Heavenly Slaughter Star God's voice rang out once more, the condescension a final, exquisite insult.
"Ten days from now, this Lord will be back, hehehehe," she concluded, and with that, her terrifying figure silently dissolved into the oppressive night sky.
Thud....
The survivors, who had just endured her presence, slowly sank into the cold ground. Though she had seemingly offered them an opportunity to live, her final words confirmed a crushing truth to the God Emperors below: their absolute, agonizing breakthrough, the ultimate sacrifice of their bodies and souls, had still failed to reach the distant, true True God realm.
Thud... thud... thud... Knees buckled across the main hall as their previously surging hope was violently crushed.
"To think... even after all of our brutal efforts, pushing ourselves to the very brink of annihilation... we have yet to even touch the realm of the True God! Hahahaha!" a voice, heavy with hysterical, sorrowful laughter, rang out.
From his voice, the realization cascaded: they had achieved the impossible, only to find the impossible was still fundamentally insufficient.
The True God realm was not a matter of energy; it was a matter of being. Their final spiritual support was utterly destroyed. They had reached their final limit, and their limit was death.
"Fighting the True Devils? Hah! Like we would win..." The final, bitter logic of despair took root. Even if the True Devils limited their cultivation, they would still possess primordial knowledge and combat experience.
The cruelest joke: they would have to choose three champions against whatever number of Devil Gods "she" chose!
"Fair?!!! Fair my absolute ass! Might as well annihilate us now and not prolong this final, exquisite torture of our minds and souls!"
As many profound masters slumped onto the cold ground, completely broken, their final hope shattered and despair fully sinking in, a singular voice cut through the silence.
"No, it is not over yet," Chi Wuyao suddenly declared. She pointed a sharp, unwavering finger at the slumping survivors. The Devil Empress could see that their collective conviction was at its ultimate breaking point. She knew she had to intervene, for the ancient, powerful voice inside her soul was giving her a profound, absolute hope.
Just earlier, as everyone was drown in despair, as the future was bleak, the voice inside her soul rang out giving her a hope, a final hope that's in bleak darkness, seem to be the only thing she can belief in right now.
"Since she wants to fight, then we shall fight!" Chi Wuyao's voice rang out, a sharp, absolute sound of war. The survivors looked at each other, and the fragile, recently sparked light in their eyes immediately faded back into darkness.
"Devil Empress... we truly appreciate the joke, but..." Xuanyuan God Emperor's voice, now utterly drained and filled with profound despair, trailed off. Only moments ago, he had been the catalyst, the man who had reignited their hope, but now, he was drowned in the deepest despair, the reality of the odds having crushed him entirely. Hearing Chi Wuyao's final declaration of war was nothing more than a final, cruel joke in his ears.
"No, I truly meant it," Chi Wuyao's voice rang out, now devoid of all cynical amusement, filled instead with absolute, cold conviction.
"What is your plan, Devil Empress?" As the others turned away, shaking their heads in total defeat, Mu Xuanyin, who had been quietly listening, finally spoke. Her question was not born of hope, but of a cold, pragmatic faith. With her unparalleled understanding of Chi Wuyao's nature, she knew that the Empress would never speak so lightly; she must have a definitive, terrifying, and secret plan.
"We will choose the best of us," Chi Wuyao's voice rang out, her eyes now burning with terrifying, absolute conviction.
This time, even Mu Xuanyin almost shook her head, but upon looking closely at the sheer, cold confidence emanating from the Devil Empress, she decided to listen quietly.
"If sheer cultivation is no longer the ultimate factor, then we will simply choose the best of all of us!"
"Those who possess the divine ability to fight far above their cultivation level!" Chi Wuyao declared, and a jolt of sudden, terrifying enlightenment shot through the paralyzed survivors. Suddenly, a genuine, burning spark of hope was violently reborn in their hearts.
In a short span of just a few desperate hours after "she" had departed, a silent, absolute decree spread throughout the God Realm—a decree that left people stunned before suddenly igniting a final, blazing hope.
Across all regions, fighting instantly erupted: a final, furious scramble to see the very best of them all—a desperate fight, based solely on individual fighting prowess within their respective cultivation levels, to discover the ultimate heroes. These were the ultimate champions who would carry the weight of a dying cosmos—the heroes who would save the very God Realm itself!
---------
In the Eastern Divine Region, within one of the few star realms that still miraculously stood, the frantic scramble for champions was fully underway.
"Hey, you! Our cultivation levels are precisely the same! Fight this Lord for the right to represent our realm!" An old, commanding voice rang out, filled with the undeniable dignity and power of his long-held status. The colossal aura belonging to a newly ascended Divine Sovereign master violently shook the surrounding air.
Following the voice, an old man descended onto the ground. His imposing figure stood tall, his profound aura spreading out like a tide of absolute power. He stood with a magnificent sword already drawn, its tip pointed directly at the man before him—a youth dressed in shockingly odd, casual clothing, with large, inexplicable objects covering his ears.
Seeing the challenge, the younger man shook his head with profound weariness, carefully lowering the baffling headphones. He sighed, casting a look of complete, casual disregard at the indignant old master as he said,
"With all respect, just set me free — I mean no harm, so let me be."
"No wish to wound, no war to brew, I only wish no ill to you."
"What did you just say?" The old man roared, his face contorted in profound confusion.
"Whatever! Let us fight!" Not bothering to decipher the youth's meaningless words, the old master immediately surged forward, unleashing his attack! He, a man who had been agonizingly stuck at the Divine King Realm Peak for thousands of years, had finally ascended to the Divine Sovereign Realm through the Heavenly Laws' blessing. His fighting spirit was sky-high, and with the ultimate decree from the Devil Empress, he was ready to throw his absolute power into this duel!
BOOOOMMMM!!! The Divine Sovereign aura roared to life, and the old man, a blur of traditional robes and lethal profound energy, closed the distance in an instant, his sword descending!
"Wait... friend... WAIT!!!" the young man roared out, his voice laced with genuine urgency.
Seeing the old man closing in with a terrifying, unconstrained attack, the young man, who clearly had no intent to fight, had no time for further protest. His own figure instantly erupted with a profound aura—the same raw, overwhelming power of someone who had just broken through to the Divine Sovereign Realm!
BOOOOMMMMM!!! The clashing profound auras of the two newly ascended masters lightly shook the space around them.
BANG!!!!!!!!
Yet, following the young man's defensive eruption of equally powerful aura, a catastrophic sound of something shattering into nothingness instantly rang out! The young man's heart violently seized in his chest as he stared down at the spot where the bizarre artifact in his hand had been moments ago... it was utterly gone!
The old man, who had been charging forward, halted just in time, stopping his attack a hair's breadth from the youth. He was never truly going all out; this was a duel for the greater good, not a life-or-death slaughter. Despite his immense battle spirit, his warrior's honor would not allow him to harm an unwilling opponent.
"You... are you alright?" the old man asked, a genuine note of confusion in his voice. He had not missed the strange item the youth had been wearing over his ears, and now, thanks to the explosion of the dual Divine Sovereign auras, the artifact was completely vaporized, not a single speck remaining.
"YOU... YOU!!!!" The young man's shock instantly morphed into a terrifying, visceral rage. Losing his ultimate artifact—the only one he had left—was a loss far greater than the entire God Realm's collapse.
"YOU!!! IT IS BECAUSE OF YOU!!!" His trembling finger pointed directly at the bewildered old master.
"Young friend.... I truly did not intend to..." The old man, a figure of honor, instantly understood the raw grief of the youth and offered a genuine apology. If he hadn't initiated this duel, the young man would never have lost such a precious item.
Yet, his apology fell on deaf ears, utterly consumed by a terror far greater than the Devil Gods themselves.
"MY WIFE IS GOING TO KILL ME BECAUSE OF YOU!!!" The young man roared, and the true, cosmic source of his rage was finally revealed.
BOOOMMMMMM!!!!
He charged forward with a might that transcended all logic, a terrifying, unconstrained power several times greater than any average Divine Sovereign could ever unleash!
!!!!!
The old man's eyes widened in horror, realizing the mistake was irreversible. Within less than a minute, the duel was over: the honorable old master was beaten so severely, so utterly and completely humiliated, that even his own mother would not have recognized his battered form.
Soon, the young man ascended, leaving the utterly defeated, "pig-faced" old man groaning on the ground. Just before he vanished completely from the scene, the young man threw a single, precious medicine bottle toward the old master. He had not killed the honorable master, but he had satisfied his rage. Soon, his figure dissolved into the distant horizon.
"Interesting..." From the deep void, a voice belonging to a Divine Master who had been watching the entire duel instantly rang out.
"Divine Sovereign Realm Level One, yet... able to unleash power rivaling that of Late Stage Divine Sovereign Realm..." The Divine Master murmured, his mind reeling from the impossible calculation. He was the Realm King of this Star Realm, having just ascended to the Divine Master Realm himself through the blessing of the Heavenly Laws.
He had long organized this tournament to find a true champion to represent the very God Realm, just like every other surviving Realm King. Yet, he had not expected to find something this terrifyingly shocking in the areas that he didn't hold the tournament in as his eyes gleam with hope and expectation.
Soon, within the short, grueling span of just a few days that the rapid-fire tournament was held across the vast God Realm, all of the winners from every single star realm—from the lowest Divine Origin practitioner up to the highest Divine Master—were brought before Chi Wuyao and the other God Emperors in the Northern Divine Region.
Crucially, while the majority were gathered in the main halls, the God Emperors had meticulously created a separate, protected area for those who were not naturally compatible with the region's dominant Dark Profound Energy. Every single shred of hope mattered.
Finally, on the ninth day, just a day before the terrifying deadline of "her" return, the selection process concluded. In the end, only three figures stood absolutely tall, the undisputed final winners of the entire God Realm's frantic, desperate tournament.
They were the ultimate elite, the cream of the cosmos's crop within their respective cultivation levels. They, the chosen three, would now represent the entire God Realm in its final, desperate moment of hope!
The final, definitive roster of champions was assembled:
The first champion was the ultimate, Heaven-defying prodigy: Xia Yuanba, standing at Divine Spirit Realm Level One.
The second champion was the unexpected dark horse: Xiao Mo, the quietly weird, terrifyingly efficient youth who had instantly crushed his superior in the duel, standing at Divine Sovereign Level One.
And finally, after the God Emperors held their own brutal internal fight for the ultimate right to represent the realm, the victor remained tragically, inevitably the same. She still stood atop the pyramid, thanks to her unparalleled intelligence, cold tactical mind, and superior fighting ability: Chi Wuyao, the Devil Empress of the God Realm, who would also represent the entire cosmos in its final, desperate moment!
Meanwhile, in the specially designated hall separating the non-Dark Profound Energy cultivators, Xiao Mo was profoundly sweating, pacing frantically back and forth. "I'm utterly and completely fucked...." he lamented.