While the battle unfolded, back in the underworld, the whale had just arrived at the city center. Yanson, Lirelia, and a dozen members of the Black Phoenix Clan were right behind him, all covering a long distance. A large square extended to the end of the location.
There were millions of people present in the square. A gigantic light screen was visible in front of the square, and through it, they could observe a desolate world still partially shrouded in clouds before fully revealing itself.
It was possible to see a mountainous land without a single blade of grass. However, this desolate world still exuded a sense of immense vitality mixed with a deadly aura. Yin and Yang flowed together.
"This is the Elemental Condensation World, a precious land specially built for beastly experts to advance. The laws here are dense, and there’s abundant Qi. Celestial tribulations are also softened due to the influence of the primordial core, but their refining power is several times greater. Moreover, everyone can freely absorb the Yin and Yang thunder force during the tribulations here. All thanks to the stellar formation created by a divine being," Lirelia said enthusiastically.
That’s why powerful races like the Black Phoenix Race, Infernal Mammoth, and Abyssal Bakunawa chose to come and live in this place, despite having their own hereditary lands elsewhere. The stellar formation was a divine gift for them.
The whale just waved indifferently. At this moment, a large platform rose above the light screen, revealing eight Golden Asuras with extraordinary divine cultivations. They stood around the platform, holding their weapons vigilantly.
Alm and Bruno looked intrigued, questioning what was happening. As soon as the eight Golden Asuras positioned themselves, a wooden cross emerged in the center of the platform, revealing a person chained to the cross. Upon clearly seeing who this person was, both of their expressions turned serious.
’The missionary of Heaven’s Will...’ Bruno murmured mentally. The cultivator chained to the wooden cross had just appeared, and they felt an indescribable sense of closeness to this man.
He was tall, with long silver hair, presenting a human appearance but belonging to a completely different race. The onlookers around sighed in astonishment as he exuded the feeling that his power could unleash the heavens’ collapse.
The cultivator’s body was covered in hundreds of black steel stakes, each adorned with runes emitting a divine aura. Besides the stakes and black steel chains, he was also bound by handcuffs and shackles. Despite the exposed wounds all over his body, not a drop of blood flowed, as it had already dried up; he looked practically like a corpse.
However, frightened murmurs echoed from the cultivators. His aura was absolutely oppressive. Despite being in the Body Destruction Realm, he emanated a pressure almost equivalent to that of a Spirit Fusion Realm cultivator, a whole realm above... maybe even stronger if he can unleash his full potential...
Furthermore, the killing intent around him was incredibly dense, enveloping him like a shroud of death. He exuded a presence that made people’s souls tremble just by looking at him.
"What a terrifying physical body. Even though all his blood has dried up, he still emits such pressure. Who is he?" Yanson looked in shock at that figure. This new opening of the world was completely different from anything he had ever known.
Suddenly, the man changed his posture. The simple action of raising his head tightened the chains that bound him, and all the young cultivators instinctively stepped back, overwhelmed by fear.
Even though he was chained, he still terrified them. It was only when he raised his head that people realized he didn’t seem very old. Although his eyes seemed to have lost their shine, he still radiated a harmonious and beautiful aura.
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The gaze of that person swept the crowd, and he smiled slowly with disdain. Then, the chains on his body tightened slowly, forcing his head down. He seemed to be trying to resist, but he was helpless in the face of the chains’ strength. He had to lower his head.
Suddenly, a green screen appeared before the whale, surprising Alm and Bruno.
[Celestial communication received.]
[Accept?]
[Yes / No]
They accepted with strange looks before a gentle voice sounded in their minds. ’I am grateful to be able to see another Heaven’s Will missionary before I die. I, Mihkriel, can die without regrets... but unfortunately, even that has been taken from me.’
Suddenly, the voice became a bit strange and doubtful. ’But... why can’t I feel your divine soul? I sense a weak soul power...’
’Hm? This is a soul technique I cultivate. It splits my soul into two poles, one Yin and the other Yang. With this, I cultivate both more easily.’ Bruno replied lightly, with a half-truth.
Mihkriel responded softly. ’I see. That’s good, it makes it harder for you to be detected. Everyone with a divine soul, below mortal cultivation, is hunted by the Divine Inquisitors. They invade universes as soon as they find out. As for me, I was too naive.’
Alm and Bruno are pensive. They always had a divine soul in the previous universe, but they weren’t hunted. Was something protecting them?
Bruno spoke calmly. ’Brother, I have methods to destroy this place. But I lack knowledge about many things.’ Immediately, the man chained by the shackles trembled upon hearing this. Then, another green screen appeared in front of them.
[Memory fragments received]
[Accept?]
[Yes / No]
The whale quickly accepted, and in two seconds, everything flowed into them as if they had read a book for hours. The system was surprisingly efficient.
Mihkriel was a human cultivator who reached the peak of divine cultivation in a common universe, where the queen’s mind control wasn’t as strong. There was no clear pattern to how her control worked across different universes. It seemed that sometimes she merely set rules for mortals, and those rules didn’t necessarily stop them from doing certain things—like opposing a hero. It was incomprehensible and vastly different from the universe that Alm and Bruno had destroyed, but in the future, they would uncover the reason behind the queen’s actions.
In the place where Mihkriel lived, there was a hero, and unsurprisingly, that hero killed and destroyed in the name of justice. Naively, Mihkriel organized a resistance against the hero, directly opposing him. In the end, he died tragically, humiliated, with everything related to him burned and destroyed right before his eyes. He watched his family, his love, and everything he cared about be brutally tortured and killed—all because of him.
However, he was reborn elsewhere, remembering his entire life, similar to Alm and Bruno. To his surprise, not as a human, but in a body of a humanoid race connected to the heavens, similar to a primordial beast. His power was sacred, and all the laws of the world bowed to him. His new life was lush, and he was always filled with techniques from other universes, thanks to the Heaven’s Will. Using his previous experience, he rose rapidly.
Heaven’s Will even communicated with him, explaining about the queen. But in summary... he drew so much attention, even daring to go to the underworld to show his power. He was easily found and captured. This happened just over two million years ago, and thanks to his divine soul, he was almost immortal. His torture persisted until today, and there was no choice to give up.
Alm and Bruno sighed, understanding something. They saw in the memories that Mihkriel encountered other missionaries in his second life. It wasn’t just one, it was hundreds. However, he realized that they disappeared or no longer contacted him. But due to his arrogance, he just moved forward thinking he was superior.
In the past, Heaven’s Will helped a lot and gave everything to its missionaries. A powerful body, many techniques... all complete, not divided into levels like theirs. In the end, this proved to be a fatal mistake. They became strong by getting everything too easily, so everyone died or was captured.
’Probably, as we were the last missionaries, we were taken to a very dark universe, so Heaven’s Will hid our divine soul. That’s why it didn’t give us anything in our second life. When we showed our... somewhat dubious result, that’s when it released the chains and protection.’ Bruno concluded with conviction.
In the midst of this conclusion, a Golden Asura released his cultivation, making everyone snap to attention. His pressure made it difficult for everyone to breathe, even though he wasn’t releasing that powerful pressure with malice. However, his natural aura simply made the entire plaza become grave and solemn.
"This is a special date in the opening of the Elemental Condensation World. We are celebrating exactly two million years since the construction of the star formation." The Golden Asura spoke, and the demonic beasts became excited in anticipation.
"I am here to perform maintenance and restore the world’s maximum power. With every century of use, the energy of the place is spent. In exactly two million years, everything comes to an end in the last opening. I will renew everything now; therefore, this first opening will be at least a thousand times more powerful than the one that occurred a century ago. In a hundred years, the formation runes will consume almost two-thirds of the energy internally. Then, the remainder will burn slowly over time. Hence, this opening is special. This generation of youth has greatly benefited from this event and was born to become supreme lords."
He spoke slowly, and all the young ones immediately trembled in ecstasy. Only a small select group of cultivators remained without significant reactions. Among them were the two clans living in the city.
But Alm and Bruno realized that the Black Phoenix Clan definitely didn’t know anything about this. If they did, they would have prepared in advance as many disciples as they could, then forcefully nurtured and sealed the talented from the previous generation to participate. Currently, they had only a dozen members, while the larger clans, who already knew about this, had hundreds and almost a thousand each.
’It was a scheme to absorb the Black Phoenix Clan. They would be severely disadvantaged and fall in power over time, with so many powerful cultivators emerging simultaneously from the other sides. I prefer just massacring directly; this kind of scheme seems even more like something done by humans.’ Alm commented emotionlessly.
In the midst of these thoughts, the Divine Asura continued, "People, do you know who this condemned is? I’ll tell you. He is the primary source of power for the star formation. He is the most perverse, bloodthirsty, and hated existence in all universes and the underworld; a Heaven-Defier."
Scared screams echoed. The name Heaven-Defier was known to everyone. Legend had it that they were unparalleled beings within the same realm. However, these people had only heard of them and had never seen one. Looking at the man, feeling his terrifying aura, they were shocked. As expected from a macabre being with such a reputation.
The Golden Asura continued to speak, his voice resonating imperiously through the sky and the earth. "Heaven-Defiers are the scum of the world. They were enemies of celestial laws, refusing to submit to the will of the heavens. There is a saying that such people should never have existed in the world. Their fundamental existence was a mistake, so they had to be eliminated. There is another saying that if a Heaven-Defier could grow, one day they would be able to threaten the Celestial laws and enslave all life."
"Can you feel his body? The reason he has such a terrifying physical body is that he killed countless demonic beasts, taking their power for himself. His cultivation is special. It’s a cultivation technique that relies on harming others to strengthen oneself, so he killed countless forms of life. Innumerable demonic beasts were killed to build his powerful physical body. That’s why a little being similar to a pathetic human possesses such power."
"Not only that, feel his soul... it is even more powerful than his body. You must wonder how he achieved that. Countless souls were destroyed... this guy refined countless lives, and he could even refine an entire universe if we hadn’t captured him."
’Hm... interesting,’ Alm mentally remarked sarcastically.
Bruno snorted. ’He clearly wants to make the missionaries enemies of everyone. It seems that the heroes and the queen don’t know that there’s only one loose. So they continue to expand their surveillance to find others.’
The Golden Asura continued speaking with righteousness. "Do you know how many innocent forms of life were used to build his soul body? Have you ever thought about the parents, mothers, partners, and children of the demonic beasts you killed? In your dreams, have you seen the resentful spirits of the demonic beasts whose lives you took..."
’This bastard has no shame. More importantly, his voice contains a charming power that is starting to inflame these demonic beasts. Their own anger is being extracted, and they are being deceived like this,’ Bruno commented. But internally, he was both amazed and studying it, pretending otherwise.
"All his blood and power were taken to create the formation. And the power of his soul is the primary energy that sustains the world. His power is nefarious and infinite; hence, his soul can slowly recover. Now, he is used to benefit everyone and redeem his sins," concluded the Golden Asura, and soon he turned to the others in his group, and they all moved after the speech.
Everyone witnessed endless runes covering the man. There were no screams or any sound; but everyone felt their souls tremble as the entire soul of the figure was sucked. It was like an infinite well, a literally divine power that inflated all the runes of pulsating and oppressive power.
The missionary had almost two-thirds of his divine soul sucked until everything stopped... with the remaining, he could recover in two million years. So that everything could be harvested again in an efficient and endless cycle.
’Brother... all I want is to die... if you can free me, I have the method to hide... I swear I will reward you... my supreme technique will be yours.’
Mihkriel’s last powerless words echoed in the whale’s mind. At the same time, its eyes subtly glowed with excitement. Soon, Mihkriel disappeared from everyone’s sight. At that moment, everyone finally felt the opening of the world before them.