1: Chapter 1 The Source of the Plague

"Digital virus, Abyss virus, Zerg virus..."

Inside a Causality Shielding Room composed of black and white, Chen Mo cautiously integrated portions of divine viruses into the godhead crystal before him.

"Almost there. A completely new Divine System—I wonder if the system will recognize it."

Though his voice sounded exhausted, Chen Mo's eyes were exceptionally bright.

[Ding! Respected player, you have successfully created an unknown 'Divine System.' Please name this Divine System.]

Chen Mo's heart jolted, but before he could react, new notification tones rang out in succession.

[Warning! Warning! This Divine System is in severe conflict with the existing Divine System 'Chaos · Plague Calamity.' According to the Principle of Authority Uniqueness, 'Grandfather Nurgle' has sensed your existence.]

Dong... Dong... Dong!

Dull tolling bells echoed as the black-and-white world he was in shattered instantly. An endless starry sky emerged, and Chen Mo, who had been in the shielding room, was pulled beneath this unknown starry expanse.

"No way, even a Level 300 Causality Shielding Room couldn't block it?"

Chen Mo watched it all, dumbfounded, as the system notifications in his ear responded urgently.

[You have been forcibly pulled into Nurgle's Divine Kingdom.]

[Your Godhead has been suppressed!]

[Your Divine Power has been suppressed!]

[Your Divine Soul has been suppressed!]

[Divine Kingdom collapsing!]

[You... are dead!]

...

In the Divine Domain Connection Room of Lanshi City First Deity Academy, Chen Mo lay inside a Connection Pod with his brow furrowed tightly.

Within his sea of consciousness, a giant hand oozing pus and maggots—comparable in size to the starry sky—was pressing down inch by inch. Just as it was about to crush him, he... woke up!

"Huff... huff..."

Gasping for air, Chen Mo stared blankly at his hands, seemingly terrified that they would rot and sprout maggots in the next second.

But none of it happened—or rather, it had already happened. After all, that was exactly how he died in his past Life.

Click!

The door of the Connection Pod slowly opened. Chen Mo sat up helplessly, and around him, several others were also rising from their pods with heavy hearts.

"Sigh! When will these agonizing days end!"

"Tell me about it. We're the only ones left who haven't condensed a Divine Domain."

Listening to his classmates' sighs and laments, a bitter smile brushed across Chen Mo's lips.

"Eh, Chen Mo, you're awake so soon?"

Another person sat up in a Connection Pod, his eyes blurry as if he had just woken from a nap.

Bai Yuanyu, his best friend in class, was another unlucky fellow who hadn't condensed a Divine Domain.

"The connection time was short this time. I recovered after just a bit of meditation. By the way, what did the teacher say when he kept you in the Divine Kingdom?"

"What else? He tried to persuade me to transfer to the Transcendent Class next door. Why, the teacher hasn't talked to you yet?" Bai Yuanyu said nonchalantly.

In this world where everyone was a deity, there were two paths. One was to condense a Divine Domain, ignite Divine Fire, and follow the path of Faith to godhood.

The other was the path of Transcendent Ascension, such as Magic or Martial Arts.

But regardless of the path, they all followed one principle.

Without becoming a god, everything eventually comes to naught!

"I'm not switching classes," Chen Mo replied decisively.

"What a coincidence, neither am I."

Bai Yuanyu chuckled and stood up, throwing an arm around Chen Mo's shoulder. "To hell with Transcendent Ascension. I'm still waiting to discipline... no, train a whole bunch of alien nuns in my Divine Domain."

"You really are something!"

Chen Mo shook his head, but his gaze couldn't help but drift to the character panel in the top right corner.

Yes, even though he was no longer a player, and even though he had traveled back three hundred years before the open beta, he still had his character panel. And it wasn't just the panel—something that should have been erased by that terrifying existence had also traveled back with him.

Name: Chen Mo {Divine Lifeform}

Level: 99 {9th Order Transcendent Peak}

Divinity: 1

Strength: 95

Speed: 97

Spirit: 125

Godhead: [Source of Plague · damaged] {Unsealing Progress: 99.99%}

Special Fate: Chaos Blessing {Curse} {1/4}

[nurgles blessing] Effect: Follower growth speed +1000%, with a certain chance of unknown mutations.

Warning: A blessing is also a curse. Those with insufficient rank and willpower will eventually become pawns of Chaos. Even across time and space, They are still watching you.

...

After returning from school, Chen Mo plunged straight into the family's Psionic Cultivation Room.

Psionic energy is the foundation of all transcendence. Logically, with his current cultivation, continuing to refine psionic energy had lost its meaning.

But anyone who knew him was aware that as long as he had free time, this kid would basically stay in the cultivation room without sleep or rest.

As for the reason...

Looking at the Godhead unsealing progress stuck at 99.99% that refused to budge, Chen Mo felt bitter, yet he could only work harder to absorb the surrounding psionic energy.

Every wisp of psionic energy he refined was poured into the pale purple godhead crystal that had long since fused with his sea of consciousness.

Hum!

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Mo, who was breathing rhythmically by instinct, suddenly heard a hum.

Before he could react, his entire body disintegrated, and his flesh-and-blood form transformed into countless condensed, golden points of light in the blink of an eye.

"Is this the power of a True God? In my past Life, a body that was just game data couldn't feel it at all. This is simply... wonderful!"

With the experience of his past Life, Chen Mo knew exactly what was happening.

Physical Law-ization.

Having successfully unsealed his Godhead, he had returned to the True God realm. However, this was ultimately just a fleeting illusion, and within seconds, he was knocked back to his original form.

But this was within his expectations. What he wanted wasn't the realm, but the 'legacy' he had left in the Godhead in his past Life.

"Waited so long, it's finally time to harvest."

Glancing at the spatial bracelet on his left wrist, with a slight thought, a pitted, fist-sized black stone appeared before him.

A 'Star Core,' also known as a divine domain stone. If the Divine Domain was a skyscraper, this was its foundation.

Without hesitation, Chen Mo gripped the divine domain stone with one hand, and the psionic energy in his body surged out all at once.

Crack, crack, crack...

The sound of shattering rang out. The divine domain stone was like glowing charcoal, except what drifted away were golden sparks.

The first step to condensing a Divine Domain, or rather, ascending to a Demigod.

Igniting the Divine Fire!

Boom!

As the pitch-black outer shell of the divine domain stone fell away, a raging golden flame rose up.

Chen Mo's eyes also burst with golden light—the light emitted by that single point of divinity within his soul.

"Come."

With that, the divine domain stone, which had completely completed its energy conversion, was pressed into his chest by him.

At that very instant, everything before his eyes changed.

The ubiquitous will of the Main World vanished, and he arrived within a vast yet desolate void.