Alm and Bruno watched the colossal Nine Star Tree inside that world, clearly feeling its malice and gaze directed at them. It managed to attack them and destroy their bodies without even alerting their senses beforehand; it deeply surprised them.
’That’s the power of an immortal cultivator... it’s beyond our senses, above heavenly laws and any common sense...’ Bruno murmured, his voice dry.
But something felt off. The attack caught them off guard, but a divine cultivator should clearly have the ability to kill them or severely injure their souls. That didn’t happen; only their bodies were destroyed, and their souls were perfectly intact.
’It’s not the real thing,’ Alm stated immediately. ’The body and power come from an immortal, but something different is controlling it. That’s why it could only destroy our bodies while our souls remain completely unharmed.’
Bruno nodded; one of the main objectives of the mission was to save the Nine Star Tree. If it was really the enemy, it wouldn’t make sense, and Heaven’s Will would surely have warned them about such an important detail.
They both huffed heavily. They couldn’t expect Heaven’s Will to know everything in detail. The Queen created that place, so she probably used methods to hide certain information. Now, they were in a desperate situation, not even knowing what triggered it.
Everything happened in a matter of seconds, and the figure before them didn’t move again. Alm and Bruno realized he didn’t try because he knew it would be useless. He didn’t have the power necessary to destroy their divine souls. This confirmed that the Queen had placed another soul inside that immortal body, and he could only use a fraction of its power.
That’s when Alm and Bruno felt a massive movement behind them.
Turning around, they saw a sea of cultivators emerging. They spotted the Sect Leader, children, the elderly... people of all ages and cultivation levels.
There were millions... no... Alm and Bruno felt the immortal spatial laws of that place twisting. The space opened up with thousands of dimensional channels. Countless ones arrived, now numbering in the billions. All the cultivators of that micro-universe appeared before them.
’All of them...’ Bruno murmured, noticing something in the eyes of the cultivators. ’They don’t have any will of their own; something is controlling their movements.’
Alm scoffed: ’They’re all enslaved within this place’s reincarnation cycle. The Queen’s domain is probably different from what we know, and it’s directly linked to their souls.’
Bruno sighed in fury as things finally made sense. Mihkriel was sent to free those souls before their arrival. Heaven’s Will knew this would happen, and their missionaries should have worked together... but Alm and Bruno’s decision to save the people and prevent Mihkriel from fulfilling his goal messed everything up.
’That bastard can’t kill us... so he summoned everyone to slow us down,’ Bruno said, radiating deep hatred.
The pure, white Yang of his soul began to darken, taking on a grayish tone.
Alm stared at those billions of people; there was no life or will in their eyes. They were weak and forced to come to die. Now, the presence of death around them was almost tangible. It was clear that the Tree sent an emergency alert to the heroes; they would arrive soon.
Everything lasted only five seconds, and now all the cultivators of the nine races, from the three empires and the divine planet, were there.
"Hahaha, a Heaven-Defier... what luck," mocked a voice echoing from the Nine Star Tree, followed by a sarcastic laugh.
"Now that you’ve come to me, let’s see how you’ll escape with all of them in the way. EXPLODE!"
With that command, all the billions of cultivators were immediately surrounded by the spatial laws. Their souls and laws were pushed to the max. It was a complete detonation, and the spatial laws of the Tree would ensure that the destructive power hit the target.
But... those two souls just smiled sinisterly.
Far from that place, Leafar was moving quickly, exiting the planet’s atmosphere while carrying two unconscious women under his arms. He watched, stunned, as the spatial laws of the world wrapped around the inhabitants and transported them off the planet.
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He followed them, and when he looked at the distant spot above the planet, Leafar saw a sea of people around two ethereal, ghostly points.
Suddenly, the world plunged into impenetrable darkness, swallowing every trace of light.
The universe seemed to have been sucked into an oppressive, suffocating void. Leafar felt a scorching heat on his skin, a sensation that went beyond flesh, reaching his mind and spreading an instinctive dread that made his soul tremble.
It took him long seconds in the darkness to regain consciousness — and when his eyes adjusted, he realized the source of that terrifying presence.
Ahead, it was as if hell itself had manifested. No light, not even the laws of the nine suns could penetrate the dark mass blocking the space ahead. The nine laws distorted around the darkness, forming a multicolored ring.
In the center of that unfathomable abyss, a single ethereal figure, seemingly fused with the darkness, hovered still, with its eyes closed.
Then, it opened them.
Its gaze swept across the world, hitting everything and everyone, and every living being felt a deadly chill. The dark karma, death, and wickedness seemed to be the shadow of that figure. If evil had a physical form, it would certainly be something like that.
A wicked grin, just a simple curl of the lips, appeared on the face of the abyssal figure. The sight of that smile made Leafar’s soul tremble uncontrollably, a fear that resonated in every cell of his body.
He wasn’t alone; billions were petrified by the inescapable horror, their minds crushed by a force that wiped out even the slightest desire to resist.
The power radiating from all of them was immediately suppressed; every movement and thought was forcibly interrupted, as if every inch of them was under that entity’s will.
But then, something changed.
The figure’s eyes gleamed, and a new law, strange and volatile, shone within them, radiating an incomprehensible force.
**RUMBLE!!!**
Leafar snapped out of his shock and turned around. On the nearby planet, he heard three violent explosions. The whole planet shook; at three distant points, pillars of light, blending into black and white, shot up into the sky.
After a few seconds, the tremors stopped, and three small stars shot out of the planet, piercing through space towards that wicked figure.
The villain extended his hand and captured the three runes of the Shadow Duality law, tossing them into his inventory.
Once in the inventory, the three runes shattered. All the power of the Law of Origin and the soul, which resided atop the sacred mountains, was successfully stolen.
At the time, they remembered to leave a fragment of their souls behind; they recorded the other two remaining parts of that reincarnatory formation in the soul fragment, now using the connection between their souls to reclaim everything.
At that moment, the figure sighed, and its soul became more translucent. Simultaneously, all phenomena ceased.
They had summoned their karma and used the power of their souls to terrorize and instinctively affect everyone present. Even though they were under control, the common souls could still feel a primitive fear. It was a trade-off of half their divine soul to quickly regain that power.
Alm and Bruno huffed. In that instant, all the billions of cultivators recovered. The nine-star tree behind them, in a clear state of despair, roared:
"Kill them!"
Everyone trembled, and their souls and cultivation began to incinerate. But Alm and Bruno waved their hands. From inside the inventory, all that Law of Origin stirred, and they manipulated it seriously.
Inside the inventory, Liumi fiercely shook a soul bound by runes, breaking the seal completely.
"WAKE UP, BASTARD!"
*Slap! Slap!*
Mihkriel opened his eyes, feeling the claws of that purple cat dangerously close to his face. "Stop!"
"Master needs you! Hurry!" Liumi roared, pointing to a spot. There was the exit of the inventory, where the outside world was visible.
"What?!"
He stepped closer and saw a sea of billions of cultivators trembling, their bodies cracked and about to explode.
But an invisible energy was pressing down on them fiercely, preventing them... it was clear this was like trying to cover the sun with a sieve; it wouldn’t last more than a few seconds.
Alm and Bruno concentrated all the Law of Origin in a desperate attempt to prevent the worst. The situation was critical. Earlier, when they invaded the mountains and placed their law and soul inside them, they memorized the core of the formation but didn’t have enough time to fully understand the reincarnatory cycle.
They were reasonably familiar with the first part and reflected on it, but the other two had just arrived, and with fragmented knowledge and no deep study, they were trying to create a miracle against the clock. These people’s lives depended on it; if they failed, their souls would be utterly crushed.
Liumi, however, decided to act on her own and awakened Mihkriel. She had been with them the whole time, seeing and hearing everything. She knew he had spent a lot of time studying the reincarnatory cycle, but with the intent to destroy it.
While Mihkriel had studied the basics in the Three Empires, Alm and Bruno had information from the core of the formation. It was a complex puzzle with many pieces, but Mihkriel’s mission was just to destroy, so he didn’t need everything to grasp the essentials.
"What does he want to do?!" Mihkriel asked, stunned, from inside the inventory, watching the complex situation outside.
"Master wants to save them all. You studied all this—you must have some idea. Hurry!" Liumi roared fiercely.
"But... I only studied the basics. It’s like seeing a giant just by its feet, without knowing what’s above..."
Mihkriel barely finished speaking when Liumi attacked him with her claws. He instinctively grunted, even though he was a divine soul and could never be hurt like this.
Liumi transferred memories to him. She had also seen the formation the first time, and the runes that had recently entered the inventory carried soul fragments that held the other two parts.
Those were fragments of Alm and Bruno, and she managed to access the memories with no resistance from them.
Receiving everything directly into his soul, Mihkriel felt like he was finally seeing the whole giant, from bottom to top. It was just a glimpse; obviously, he’d still need more time to study it thoroughly.
Until... an idea sparked.
"The core and the Laws of the Divine Inquisitors, coming from the Three Empires, were fused into their souls. For that to happen, Qi and some runes from one of the Three Treasures are needed. They need that to ascend…"
"And if... if the souls are connected to this place, by something completely fused to their souls? It would be similar to the laws fused with the soul... using the same method," Mihkriel murmured, uncertain, merely conjecturing a vague possibility.
"Master!" Liumi roared.
Alm and Bruno sighed. They were attentive to everything, even though they couldn’t respond, completely focused.
’We can’t hold on for more than five seconds... we have to bet everything on this.’ They murmured dryly, ’Fused to the soul... maybe it’s within their Law of Origin.’
They gathered the Law of Origin around everyone, preparing to invade their souls together. They would need to break in, locate, and remove something they didn’t even know for sure existed.
But...
"Hahahahah! Too late!"
A mocking laugh echoed behind them, coming from the ’Nine-Star Tree.’ Suddenly, within that small space, a spatial rift opened, revealing a golden channel of light.
In an instant, hundreds of golden rifts opened, with hundreds of figures crossing through: the Heroes had arrived.