Alm and Bruno had never felt so helpless before. They had encountered the queen’s will many times. On one occasion, they even faced a will in which she inserted her own consciousness and fought against them; this happened during the mission when they became a Cerberus.
In all those times, it wasn’t truly her, just a remnant of her will, without her real power. But now, a part of her celestial soul was right in front of them. At that moment, she was accumulating power...
’If she wants to take on a physical form... then she suspects we’re involved and isn’t underestimating us. She knows we have a soul of the same level, and just a fragment wouldn’t be enough.’
They reflected, stunned. But at the same time, because she hadn’t underestimated them, she began accumulating the power of this sealed world as soon as she revealed herself. They could feel that fragment was entirely focused on this, and possibly hadn’t noticed them yet.
She used everything she had to seal all the existing power and stop them from doing anything. Then she began accumulating energy. But... it would only be a few mere seconds until everything was completed.
She had discovered where they were and their identity. Soon, it wouldn’t matter what they did; even if they fled, everything the whale had built or even barely interacted with would be investigated and destroyed. They would have to leave this universe forever, and saving their allies’ lives would be nearly impossible.
All the whale’s power was sealed; only the celestial soul could be used. But if they used that, obviously she would notice them much quicker. Yet, if she completed her form, even with only half of her energy and her having just a fragment, they felt like they wouldn’t be able to win.
Inside the inventory, which was a separate micro-universe, everyone was outside of her influence. The two primordial beasts and everyone present knew what was happening, and they were completely frozen in shock.
Alm and Bruno had only one hope, and turned inward: ’You two, send all your memories about that FiendGod.’ Their words sounded emotionless.
Everyone snapped out of their stupor, and the two beasts promptly sent their memories. Alm and Bruno immediately absorbed them.
This happened in a very ancient time, even before the queen’s rise and the beginning of her reign over the universes.
The Leviathan and the Ziz lived in their own private universes, which they considered their homes. They were revered as deities by mortals there; but they weren’t alone.
The two were surrounded by other Leviathans and Zizs, born in different universes. These two from the queen’s universe were the main and most powerful ones, the first of their kind and the strongest. People called them King Leviathan and King Ziz.
In the universe where Alm and Bruno lived and destroyed, they faced and killed weaker versions of a Primordial Dragon and two Phoenixes. But those creatures couldn’t even be compared to those they saw in the queen’s universe. Those were only slightly more powerful than peak divine cultivators.
That’s because that universe and others that came later became weaker over time. The first universes were where all the most powerful Primordial Beasts were born.
The strongest primordial beasts were the Kings of their species, and when they lived freely, they made sure to gather others like them. Maybe it was because they felt like equals, or maybe they wanted subordinates they could dominate and lead. They formed a sort of clan and ruled a universe as their own.
At one point in history, the universe where King Leviathan lived was forcefully invaded by the Fiendgod named Kronde, alerting everyone there.
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King Leviathan went to meet him and snorted when he recognized the figure. Kronde was a talented young man who, at one point, won the celestial tournament of divine cultivators.
This tournament took place in the underworld, where the greatest sects of the greatest universes gathered each generation to socialize.
In the past, the underworld was a place where cultivators from all the universes met. Of course, there were many conflicts between powerful universes, and some wars also happened, but thanks to the Primordial Beasts and the few immortal cultivators, everything was eventually settled.
There were various gatherings in the underworld, and the Primordial Beasts were invited as honored guests. In that generation, the three mortal beasts participated, and to maintain their prestige, they promised a prize to the winner of their choice.
Kronde, as the winner of that generation, declared that he was developing his Divine Dao and that, in the future, he might need their help.
"Greetings, sacred Leviathan," Kronde bowed politely. "Sorry for coming without notice, but I really need some guidance."
The Leviathan sighed dryly but gestured for him to continue. The FiendGod spoke calmly:
"Lord Behemoth helped me a little in the past, and I was able to find a connection between my soul and body with the celestial laws. I called them the Gate of Life and the Gate of Death."
"Humph, that idiot actually served some purpose, huh?" said the Leviathan sarcastically.
Kronde nodded slightly. "He didn’t help me directly... but the planet where he lived was completely soaked in his sacred power. Countless mutant herbs and strange things appeared there. I spent many years on that planet and found things that inspired me."
"That lazy one has challenging luck; even when he doesn’t intend to, things somehow work out around him. And when he tries something, he messes it up," the Leviathan spoke dryly.
Aqui está a tradução fiel ao original, para o inglês informal:
Kronde smiled slightly but didn’t dare respond. He then bowed deeply: "Sir, I am about to make a great breakthrough in my Dao. I need to understand the Threshold of Life and Death. Lord Ziz showed me a bit about the celestial laws and how primordial life came into being..."
"Are you an idiot?" The Leviathan roared coldly. "That’s a taboo for the celestial laws. I can already feel a heavy karma on you. In your next tribulation, a celestial punishment will fall upon you. If I tell you what you seek, you will be condemned and never be able to advance again."
Kronde kept his head lowered, not answering, but resolute. The Leviathan snorted heavily.
"You still have half your life to live. I feel that your body is very abnormal, and you have a great chance of surviving the celestial punishment. Wait until you reach the immortal realms, or the peak of divine cultivation. When you’re sure you can’t advance anymore, you won’t have problems with the laws."
"Sir... forgive me, but I feel I won’t have that time. Since I was born, I’ve always felt a great urgency; that’s why I’ve cultivated non-stop." Kronde commented, tightening his fists slightly.
"Not to mention, the higher my cultivation, the harder it’ll be to refine my body and advance in my Dao. I need to use the tribulations to my advantage to solidify everything... if I really wait to reach my limit, my Dao will never be complete. I don’t care about dying; I want to leave a legacy for the world. I want to build something that, one day, might make a difference to someone."
The Leviathan listened seriously. This young man before him wasn’t driven by ego, nor did he want to be a worshiped deity. He wanted to complete his Dao... but why was he in such a rush? And still, who would be crazy enough to cultivate it?
Everyone who interacted with Kronde knew that he used tribulations to advance in his Dao; he even deliberately made them more intense. His Dao was suicidal; no one would risk their life to cultivate it. The celestial laws were the greatest fear of any living being, after all.
"I don’t see any reason to take such risks. The universes are all cared for and protected by me and my older brothers. But... if this is your wish..."
The Leviathan did something similar to what Ziz had done. He used his connection with the laws to show the origin of the Yin of the universe; this was the same origin of death for living forms. When the primordial beasts were born, life and death followed shortly after. Everything was interconnected, and in theory, everyone was part of this connection.
After this enlightenment, Kronde excitedly said his goodbyes and thanked him. Both Ziz and the Leviathan considered his ambition foolish and didn’t believe he would achieve anything significant from what they had shown him.
Even though Kronde had created what he called the Gate of Life and Death, a direct connection to his origin, the threshold between life and death was something much deeper. All living beings pass through life and death, but no one knows exactly what happens at the threshold. It’s where souls remain before reincarnating and where the celestial laws nourish them with their power.
Nearly ten thousand years later, the Leviathan and Ziz received the news: Kronde had died.
It was in a cataclysmic event, a celestial annihilation fell upon him as he tried to break through to the final realm of divine cultivation. But, just before that, his Dao had already been accepted by the celestial laws. He truly managed to complete everything.
Then, an even more intriguing news came, which led the Leviathan and Ziz to move to the universe where Kronde had died. The annihilation killed him, but his body was so powerful that it remained intact, seeming almost immortal.
When they arrived and looked at the body, their eyes widened, clearly sensing what it was. That was indeed an immortal-level body, but Kronde hadn’t even reached the peak of divine cultivation.
An immortal body appears after a soul becomes divine. To have a divine soul and reach immortal cultivation, the cultivator must be nourished by the energy that Alm and Bruno call the Law of Origin.
The secret to this was that first, the cultivator’s soul must evolve; then, this soul slowly and automatically nourishes the body with the Law of Origin. Only then does the person officially reach the immortal realms.
The two worked together to investigate that body thoroughly, and it was exactly this aspect that they found: Kronde’s Dao had taken the reverse path. He managed to refine his body with the Law of Origin, using the gates of life and death.
He found the threshold, and... stole this energy from the heavens. He used it to refine his body, thus reaching an immortal-level state!