"Another epoch transition, greetings everyone."
An ancient voice slowly echoed between heaven and earth, like the rules of this world, clearly spoken in a language unknown to any known epoch, yet deeply imprinted in everyone's hearts.
Facing the greetings of that Dominator, a figure shrouded in a black robe on the misty throne smiled wryly.
"I wouldn't say well; though we survived another epoch, our origin is incomplete. I don't know if there's a chance to recover before the great calamity erupts."
"If we fail, the incomplete origin won't endure this slumber period."
After the reawakened Demon God spoke, the scene fell into silence.
At this moment, another Demon God with two pairs of ram horns, resembling a demon yet more ferocious, spoke gravely.
"This is my third revival; in the previous two awakenings, I still retained ten percent of the Divine King Origin, swiftly entering the Main God Realm."
"But in this revival, less than one ten-thousandth of my inner origin remains; now my strength has merely returned to the pinnacle of legend, not even entering the Demigod Realm."
"A little more delay, and I would have entirely vanished without any chance of revival."
"Is your origin also this severely impaired?" asked a humanoid Divine Demon clad in thick gray armor, its appearance unclear, somewhat bewildered.
"I am not as powerful as you are; this is only my first revival."
"But my situation is much the same. Upon waking, almost nothing of my origin remains, my strength plummeted to the early stage of legend, and I've only recently recovered to the Demigod Realm."
"I originally thought it was because I had slept for too long, but it seems I am not alone in this."
Then another Demon God gravely spoke: "I've been awake for ten moons. As of now, my strength has only returned to the pinnacle of legend..."
It was, after all, a meeting of reawakened ancient powers; the atmosphere should have been grand and majestic, with conversations full of dragon roars and whirlwinds.
But as they spoke, it turned into a session of complaints, leaving the Purgatory Divine Ape a bit dumbfounded.
However, it knew this was just the surface. Among these reawakened Demon Gods, the weakest ones, although only Tier Eight Peak, have all endured millions or tens of millions of years.
Though they spent most of the time in the slumber of epoch transitions, both their strength and personal realms far surpassed the Purgatory Divine Ape.
Especially the dominator-level presence, which was terribly frightening; its strength had already returned to the True God Realm just after reviving.
With its understanding and mastery of power, it felt it would not take long to break through to the next realm, far beyond what current humans could resist.
The Purgatory Divine Ape lowered its gaze, trying to minimize its presence and avoid exposure.
Although it didn't want to speak, the Demon God Chi Heng beside it had not forgotten it, speaking in a deep voice: "Since ancient times, nine is the extreme number; starting with the Immortal Demon, we have now come to the ninth epoch."
"Not only you; like Brother Tongtian beside me, this time my origin after revival is severely impaired, my strength falling back to Tier Eight."
"Though I've once again entered the Demigod Realm, I have a premonition that this epoch's great calamity will be unprecedentedly terrifying."
The Demon God shrouded in the black robe slowly nodded: "Nine signifies change; this time, it might truly be the ultimate cycle, the catastrophe of civilization and the end of all things."
Suddenly, the atmosphere among heaven and earth became even more somber.
At this moment, that Dominator spoke, the ancient voice slowly resounding in the heavens and earth: "Life and death are both meaningful and meaningless to us."
"We survive epoch after epoch merely for a certain obsession within our hearts."
"If this is indeed the endpoint of the great calamity, this universe, already shrunk to the limit, will completely collapse and vanish, which could be considered a release for us."
"Yet before the end arrives, we must still carry on for the obsessions within our hearts."
The horned Demon God spoke in a low voice: "The Supreme speaks true; I have endured three epochs only to find it and ask why it did what it did back then."
"It is the supreme dominator, so why initiate a world-ending war? Why destroy the homeland we protected..."
As he spoke, a terrifying murderous intent and madness spread in the horned Demon God's voice.
"Hahaha... my obsession differs from yours. I just wish to completely obliterate the Celestial Dao will that was shattered by them in the previous epoch and restore freedom to all beings."
The Celestial Dao is twisted, the strongest are mad, and the source of each epoch's devastation differs.
Hence, the Purgatory Divine Ape remained silent upon hearing this, not speaking a word.
After those reawakened Demon Gods quieted down once more, the Dominator spoke again: "This time, I've summoned your projections with the Dominator's Divine Seal to commence the harvest early."
"Early? What about our allies who are yet to revive..." The Four-armed Demon God Chi Heng was somewhat hesitant.
The awe-inspiring figure enveloped in white radiance slowly shook his head: "The great calamity is imminent; we have little time left to wait for them."
"Under the cosmic origin's vibration, those destined to awaken have awakened; those who haven't will never awaken."
"The Supreme's meaning is that only we remain?" The Demon Gods' gaze swept over most of the empty thrones, including the three vacant Dominator seats, falling into silence.
Time is like a blade; even if they evaded epoch catastrophes, those Divine Kings, once standing at the pinnacle of their civilizations, eventually vanished into the river of time.
"I second that."
"Seconded."
After some contemplation, the reawakened Divine Demons chose to agree with the Dominator's proposal, including the Purgatory Divine Ape, who, clueless, also nodded in feigned agreement.
With everyone casting their affirmative votes, fragments of Divine Text flew from the thrones, gathering in the Dominator's hand.
Buzz!
An ancient large seal emerged in the Dominator's hand, emitting a blue radiance after absorbing those incomplete Divine Texts, forming a majestic celestial map in the firmament.
But the celestial map only glowed dimly, with only a few dozen stars emitting varying intensities of light.
Seeing this, faint smiles appeared on the faces of the Demon Gods: "The allies revived in the previous epoch were good, leaving us with so many Celestial Realms this time."
"Harvesting those Celestial Realms and the remnants within should suffice for restoring most of our strength."
The Celestial Realms, the places where those Ancient Divine Races reside!
The Purgatory Divine Ape looked at the obscure celestial map in the sky, its gaze stunned, not expecting those once aloof Divine Races to be mere sustenance for these reawakening Demon Gods.
"The first meeting concludes here. The star path will take a few days to converge; everyone, prepare yourselves."
"Although those powers were left by the allies revived in the last epoch, whether we can seize them and how much we can harvest, depends on each of you."
After speaking, the Dominator waved his hand.
Boom!
The Purgatory Divine Ape was instantly repelled by a terrifying force, constantly 'retreating', awakening Jiang Hou sitting in his office chair with a sudden jolt.
Dominator, Divine King, besides me, eighteen Demon Gods have revived openly in this epoch, including the hunt for Ancient Divine Races.
