Alm and Bruno’s consciousness returned quietly. Light penetrated their eyes, causing the whale’s body to awaken. They found themselves again in the underworld, completely surrounded by a gigantic golden domain. Dozens of demonic beasts, with cultivation at the peak of the divine realm, were around them, closing off all escape routes.
Everything was still frozen in time. The runes covering them began to slowly disappear, and everything returned to normal temporal flow. It took a few seconds, but when everything returned to normal, Alm and Bruno didn’t hesitate.
[Do you wish to accept the rewards?]
[Yes / No]
Mentally, they accepted. Then, all the demonic beasts, which had already prepared Qi in their meridians to attack them, stopped. The aura of the whale began to increase rapidly, and consecutive explosive sounds echoed from its body.
Crack! Crack!! Crack!!!
Each sound was accompanied by a powerful reverberation of the laws. Its body seemed to break divine chains, leaving everyone stunned, until...
BOOM!!!!!
Finally, a loud boom echoed. Everyone’s expressions changed as they looked up and saw that the dark clouds had completely filled the sky. Due to the full focus on the whale, no one noticed the change in the clouds. Now that they saw the endless tribulation clouds, their eyes trembled, and their faces paled.
"He... how the hell did he advance?!" roared a demonic beast, its words trembling with fear. "But... why is this tribulation so terrifying?!"
"You bastard, is he bringing us into his tribulation?!" a Golden Azura spoke dryly.
The skies and dark clouds expanded rapidly... in a matter of seconds, they already occupied the entire area of the previous celestial punishment, and continued to expand at a dizzying pace.
Everyone was horrified. What was happening with this celestial tribulation? Clearly, it was beyond a simple tribulation... and even beyond a punishment... was this the legendary annihilation, capable of destroying the entire world? Everyone thought in disbelief.
Veria looked at it all, completely shocked. "He’s a Heaven-Defier! He cultivates by defying the heavens, just attempting to break through already attracts annihilation..." She spoke and everyone from her clan trembled in terror.
She snorted and moved. Everyone nearby also reacted quickly, flapping their wings and flying away. They were Black Phoenixes, flying beasts. They didn’t need to use Qi to fly. They wouldn’t dare to be marked by the heavens if it wasn’t the case. Thus, they quickly left the planet. Veria dragged her ’dead’ daughter with her and, for some reason, brought the little Dark Elf along.
She hadn’t reasoned about it yet, but obviously, everyone saw the benefits that Yanson, the Cerberos couple, and Lirelia received from the whale. Their futures had completely changed; now, they were destined to become the next emperors of the world. Currently, Veria would surely approve if they joined forces.
Quickly, half of the gigantic underworld planet was covered by the annihilation clouds. The Elder Golden Azura simply ordered everyone to hold position on alert, with a serious look on his face. A rune on his forehead lit up shortly after.
The golden domain around the whale dissipated, but everyone still remained motionless around it, offering not a single escape route. Flying was technically to meet death. Soon, a golden aura covered them all, with the elder at the center.
The whale looked at them and felt clearly that the heavens completely ignored them. Even the annihilating electrical laws seemed to avoid hitting them. They immediately felt a growing fury, it was a clear manifestation of the queen’s will, something that transcended celestial laws. This elder had it under control and was using it without hesitation.
The Golden Azura Elder roared. "You won’t escape with that stupid trick. Are you trying to commit suicide? Is that it? Forget it! With the power of the goddess, I’ll trap your soul forever as soon as your body is annihilated by the heavens. You’ll be the new food for the formation!"
"What? Is that really possible?" The whale asked, surprised.
All the demon beasts smirked maliciously, looking coldly at him. "You’re wasting your time."
"Is that so?"
BOOM!!!
Endless lightning arrows suddenly rained from the sky, each one thirty centimeters thick and three meters long.
The heavens collapsed towards a single point, completely engulfing the whale in the lightning bolts, causing the earth to crumble under endless power. Meanwhile, all those surrounding it didn’t receive a single bolt or residue of annihilating power. The golden aura around them protected them from any harm. However, unable to use their Qi, they simply maintained the siege, waiting for the right moment to attack once the whale was defeated, avoiding the heavens’ marking.
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Alm and Bruno remained motionless, feeling the power flowing between their meridians. After completing the second level of physical cultivation, they wouldn’t be easily killed. They were about to enter the Elemental Condensation Realm; the tribulation should contain the energy of all elements, allowing cultivators to choose one and focus on creating an internal rune. However, they already had three of these runes. Moreover, they were facing only the will to be annihilated, making it impossible to form any rune with this type of tribulation.
The heavens roared again, and the power multiplied. In the blink of an eye, thousands of electric pythons emerged from the clouds and attacked the earth. The demon beasts watched with their hearts pounding frantically. Previously, dozens of these pythons caused unprecedented devastation. Now, hundreds of times more were rapidly appearing.
Alm and Bruno looked at the sky calmly. ’Hmm... unfortunately, without the third level of physical cultivation, we won’t be able to take advantage of any of this. We can refine some of our runes with this, but they would just break. It’s like a cultivator ascending too quickly. They need to stabilize first. In the end, we can’t use anything... it’s a complete waste,’ said Alm, slightly disappointed in his voice.
Bruno pondered for a few seconds, feeling all the lightning pythons trying to destroy them. Their skins gave way, and the whale was covered in blood. But that meant nothing but a lot of pain; they simply ignored it.
Then, Bruno’s eyes lit up. ’I sense a tiny bit of celestial energy! It’s less than 0.01%, but it still exists. After all, the lightning came from the celestial laws.’
Alm quickly understood, and the two had the same idea at the same time. He said, ’Life is born in front of lightning... excellent. Since they’re infinite, the numbers make up for the little residue each one has.’
They then opened their meridians, and all the endless electrical power invaded without hesitation. The whale’s body began to break apart from within, a pain that would make any living being lose sanity struck them. However, they calmly ignited their tattoos and meticulously extracted all the celestial energy. It was like panning for gold among the infinite stones on the riverbank. Pain? What is that? Can you eat it?
It took several minutes. Everyone around the whale was in shock. It showed no signs of discomfort with it. Were they really going to die?
Buzz...
Suddenly, the lightning pythons began to diminish. Everyone sighed, but nothing changed; they could just kill it directly.
"Prepare to die!"
The Golden Azura Elder was about to attack when suddenly he became absolutely still and then slowly raised his head to look at the sky. Following his gaze, he saw that some black clouds revealed countless... lightning monsters? He thought, not fully understanding.
The lightning monsters blocked the clouds, making him think the clouds had already dispersed. Each of these lightning monsters was over thirty meters long. There were wolves, tigers, leopards, jackals, among others.
These creatures weren’t true beasts. They were just what the power of thunder had transformed them into. And yet, the endless destructive aura they emanated made it seem like they could destroy the entire world. Moreover, a subtle presence of the soul existed within them.
"That... is it alive?!" Someone spoke horrified.
Alm and Bruno almost answered: No. Celestial lightning was known to be almost indefensible and nearly invincible. The "almost" was exactly because they lacked intelligence, only the will of the heavens to hit their target. Now they were facing something completely new; it had a fragment of a soul, something that could properly command all this... just the thought, terror struck on all the onlookers.
The whale’s eyes gleamed intensely. Then, descending from the heavens, countless lightning monsters came down as if they were raindrops. There were thousands, tens of thousands, maybe millions, it was impossible to count. They all focused on the whale. All onlookers were astonished to see that army with real intelligence. Meanwhile, the whale began to tremble... with excitement!
Alm and Bruno couldn’t wait; the whale roared and attacked the skies. Everyone watched as it left the encirclement... but none of them could move to pursue it. By instinct, they felt an irrational fear.
Outside the planet, Veria and a few demonic beasts could sense what was happening through the fluctuations of the laws. She and everyone else turned pale with terror. However, within seconds, they jumped in surprise.
"How...?" Veria couldn’t explain what she was perceiving.
The whale simply leaped forward amidst those monsters, and then the spatial laws distorted. Dozens vanished as if they had never existed!
In the sky, amid all that, Alm and Bruno seemed like children receiving a desired gift. "Hahaha, come on, come on!" Alm laughed uncontrollably.
An electric monster with a trace of soul and intelligence, but not really alive? Could there be something so good?
Alm absorbed them all like a black hole, while Bruno dealt with them personally inside the spatial inventory. They got the best fertilizer in the world. These monsters kept control over the annihilating laws. It was an intelligence that could be infinitely deadly and invincible to anyone except for them.
Previous lightning bolts could also be stored, but they caused a lot of damage to the whale’s body because they only attacked directly without caring about anything else. Therefore, absorbing too much was unfeasible. But these were being delivered directly to them.
The principle of intelligence was to preserve itself and fulfill the objective, so they kept the annihilating power under control. They wouldn’t allow themselves to self-destruct without achieving the goal. A soul and intelligence helped the beasts control their power and multiply efficiency. But in exchange, faced with the whale, they were simply placed inside the inventory without being able to react.
Thus, the whale fully capitalized on everything. And Alm and Bruno even gained soul power and celestial power, all together.
Everyone on the planet watched them swiftly running through the skies. The whale surged forward, and everything in its path vanished without a trace. No one could believe or understand... it took almost an hour... until all the electric monsters were defeated? Or stolen, maybe? Alm and Bruno didn’t care to think about it.
The skies roared furiously as if it knew exactly what was happening. But the whale looked up and smiled upon realizing something. ’The clouds are losing strength. It’ll be against the rules if the annihilation tries to continue; it can’t break its own rules,’ Bruno said, lightly laughing.
’Gaia! Quick, get ready to take us away!’ Alm mentally roared, focusing his words on the Gaia rune in his soul.
Everyone still watched, looking up, while the clouds roared furiously. They couldn’t comprehend that it wouldn’t attack again; fear and astonishment made them lose their reasoning.
After several seconds, when they finally saw the clouds seeming to disperse, the whole planet violently trembled, catching them by surprise.
The earth split open, and an endless natural Qi seemed to spring directly from the core of that place. Everyone felt it beneath them. They had no time for any reaction, as the whale was quickly surrounded by an infinite green aura.
’Thank you for everything... if you really are the last one... they won’t be able to raise the formation again... thank you...’ Gaia bid farewell still with strange, spaced-out words.
When the Divine Asura Elder realized what was happening, the whale disappeared completely from his sight and senses. The fabric of space-time was briefly torn by a power connected to the heavens, something that should be impossible...
Alm and Bruno found themselves in a distorted and broken world; seconds later, everything stabilized as if they had entered a sea of calm waters. Suddenly, before they could understand anything, they were in a place surrounded by yang and stars everywhere. They were randomly placed back inside the queen’s universe again.
’We’re finally back,’ Alm let out along with a relieved sigh, clearly demonstrating what he felt now, something extremely rare to hear.