22: Chapter 22 The Breakthrough to a Third-Tier Demigod and the Tracking of Causal Reversal
The command system was now fully integrated, rendering the defenses of the divine realm impenetrable both inside and out.
Su Chen's consciousness slowly withdrew from the vast and intricate network of the Zerg Swarm. The absolute sense of order that came with controlling everything sent a shiver deep into his divine soul.
Zaz's return had filled the final, most crucial piece of the puzzle that was the Zerg Swarm war machine.
With no worries left behind him...
Su Chen knew the time had finally ripened for him to assault a higher realm.
Deep within the temple, at the core of the Hive Mind.
Su Chen's divine form sat cross-legged in absolute silence, broken only by the faint sound of nutrient fluid flowing through biomass conduits.
Before him, a vast, indescribable golden sea of light slowly rotated, rising and falling.
That was a full twenty-five million units of Power Of Faith.
It was the most fundamental energy, condensed from the purest prayers of countless believers, refined by the laws of the divine kingdom.
Now, this golden ocean would become the fuel for his life-level ascension.
"Begin."
Su Chen's will transformed into a silent command.
He actively opened his divine soul.
In the next instant, the suspended golden sea erupted violently, transforming into a golden tornado that pierced heaven and earth, forcefully pouring into his body!
*RUMBLE—!*
The entire temple, even the entire Hive, began to tremble violently.
An immeasurable, torrential energy rampaged and surged wildly within his divine soul.
Two distinct yet fundamentally related forces of law were brutally activated by this external power.
One was crimson as blood, filled with endless intent for slaughter and destruction—the manifestation of the Law of Slaughter.
The other was ink-green like a festering sore, exuding an eerie aura that corroded all things and withered vitality—the manifestation of the Law of Poison.
In the past, they had remained clearly demarcated under Su Chen's control.
But now, under the impact of this immense Power Of Faith, the two forces of law spiraled completely out of control. Like two enraged primordial beasts, they engaged in the most primal struggle and collision within the space of his divine soul!
Crimson and ink-green eroded, tore, and devoured each other.
Unimaginable agony acted directly upon the origin of his divine soul.
It was a fundamental pain that transcended flesh and spirit, as if his very "existence" was being torn to shreds and then ground to dust.
Su Chen's divine soul flickered uncertainly amidst the excruciating pain, yet he tenaciously clung to the last shred of clarity.
He understood clearly that this was the only path to break and then establish anew.
Slaughter and Poison were inherently complementary paths of destruction. Only by fusing them completely could a more terrifying, more fundamental power be born.
His life level began a qualitative leap amidst this alternating cycle of destruction and reconstruction.
His divine soul was torn apart, then reshaped by Power Of Faith.
No sooner had it been reshaped than it was torn apart again by the two forces of law.
With each cycle, his divine soul grew more condensed, and his control over the two laws deepened.
Gradually, the crimson Slaughter and ink-green Poison were no longer merely opposing each other; they began a true fusion.
From the intertwined center of the two, wisps of grayish, deathly aura were born.
It was a concept of "Death" more ultimate than either Slaughter or Poison.
Su Chen's divine soul also began to radiate a majestic, vast, and awe-inspiring pressure from within.
That was the exclusive pressure of a True God!
This perilous metamorphosis lasted for three full days.
Three days later, the energy storm at the temple's core finally reached its peak.
Just as Su Chen's divine soul was about to fully accommodate that newly-born grayish power and break through the threshold of a Three-Turn Demigod in one go...
The absolute control he had maintained for three days experienced an unavoidable, extremely brief moment of laxity.
It was in that instant.
An immensely powerful, yet slightly unstable and nascent divine aura, centered on him, violently pierced through the temple's shielding, pierced through the crystalline walls of the divine realm, and uncontrollably leaked into the endless void for a fleeting moment!
...
Meanwhile.
In a distant plane, so far away distance was meaningless.
Within a massive, twisted temple built entirely from the rotting corpses of countless beings, the thick stench of decay and resentment had almost solidified.
On the temple throne, a figure of immense size, with skin festering and oozing pus, two clusters of ghastly green divine fire burning in its eye sockets, paced back and forth anxiously.
It was the God of Corrupt Corpses.
Before him, a huge black crystal sphere emitted an ominous glow.
Before the crystal sphere, a deity clad in starry robes, with a withered face, sat cross-legged. Drenched in sweat, he pressed his hands firmly against the crystal sphere, maintaining a prophecy spell that consumed a tremendous amount of divine power.
He was a prophetic deity the God of Corrupt Corpses had hired from the "Market of Fate," having mortgaged a part of his own divine portfolio as collateral.
Suddenly, the withered body of the Prophecy God shuddered violently.
"Found it!"
He rasped out a startled cry, expending his last bit of divine power to forcibly inject a freshly captured coordinate into the crystal sphere!
The previously chaotic scene within the crystal sphere began to swirl madly.
Countless fragmented images of planes flashed by, until finally, the image froze abruptly.
It depicted a vast, boundless desolate world where yellow sand was the only dominant color.
The moment the image froze, a grayish, deathly, yet incredibly powerful aura flashed across the scene!
"That's him!"
The God of Corrupt Corpses on the throne snapped his head up, his gaze fixed intently on that aura. On his festering face, resentment and ecstasy interwown, almost twisting and cracking his entire visage.
"That damned insect! It is you!"
No mistake!
Although the aura was a hundred times stronger than before, the essence of the Law of Poison contained within it was identical to the one belonging to the existence that had stolen his poisonous water essence pearl!
Although the aura that leaked out in that instant was powerful, even causing a flicker of unease in him...
He had also keenly grasped the most crucial point about it—instability!
"The aura is unsteady, the foundation unstable. This is the sign of a recent, forced breakthrough, before the realm has been fully consolidated!"
The divine fire in the God of Corrupt Corpses's eyes flickered violently as he let out a piercing, owl-like cackle of maniacal laughter.
"Hahahaha! Heaven helps me! Truly, heaven helps me!"
The heart he had kept suspended finally settled completely.
His greatest fear had been that the other party had some formidable background or was an old monster hiding his true strength.
But now it seemed that was not the case at all!
The other party was merely a novice with good luck, having obtained some opportunity, who had just barely touched the threshold of a Three-Turn Demigod!
A novice, no matter how talented, how much depth could he possibly have?
For revenge.
And for that priceless poisonous water essence pearl, valuable enough to evolve his own divinity.
The greed and cruelty in the God of Corrupt Corpses's eyes completely overwhelmed reason.
He gritted his teeth fiercely and made a mad decision.
He spread his hand, and an artifact exuding infinite deathly aura appeared in his palm.
It was a palm-sized totem carved from the bleached finger bone of an unknown creature. The totem was covered with faces contorted in agony and wailing, emitting an aura of soul-freezing cold.
A sixth-tier divine artifact!
[Divine Artifact]: Totem of Death and Withering
[Effect]: Releases a large-scale instant-death field targeting specified coordinates. Within the field, all beings with vitality below a certain threshold will have their souls annihilated, dying completely. This effect specifically counters species with vigorous vitality and prevents any form of resurrection!
This was the trump card treasure he had temporarily rented by mortgaging the core essence of his own divine realm to the War Temple!
"With this, your swarm tactics are a joke!"
The God of Corrupt Corpses stroked the cold totem, a bloodthirsty gleam flashing in his eyes.
He directly tore open a scroll radiating dense spatial fluctuations. A portal leading to the War Temple instantly opened.
He stepped into it, leaving only a single resentful curse echoing through the decaying temple.
"Su Chen, your time of death has come!"