32: Chapter 32: The Embryonic Form of the Fusion of Plague Cleric and the Law of Calamity
After dealing with the transformation of his believers, Su Chen's figure faded from the bustling edge of the hatchery.
The newly born Corpse-Detonating Zergling-man legions stood in orderly ranks. The powerful aura they exuded—a mixture of death and potent toxins—coalesced into a heart-palpitating pressure within the divine domain.
However, Su Chen's attention was no longer on them.
Just moments before, the instant thousands of undead creatures were reshaped into Zerg units, a torrential flood of faith washed over his divine kingdom network, causing his divine power reserves to climb once more.
But this was not the end.
It was only the beginning.
His figure passed through layer upon layer of pulsing, flesh-and-blood corridors that writhed like the internal organs of a great beast, delving deep into the very core of the Hive Temple.
This was the absolute forbidden zone of the divine domain.
The air was thick with highly concentrated divine power particles. Each breath felt like inhaling and exhaling pure energy. The surrounding flesh walls were covered in complex biological ganglia, flickering like stars, maintaining the operation of the entire divine domain.
Su Chen sat cross-legged.
The entire space fell silent, leaving only the sound of his own heartbeat gradually synchronizing with the Hive's steady, powerful pulse.
*Hum*
He spread open his palm.
Space slightly distorted. A fragment of a divine portfolio, emanating an ominous aura, hovered quietly above his palm.
[Plague divine portfolio (First Tier)].
This was the core trophy plundered from the ruins of the God of Corrupt Corpses's divine kingdom.
It displayed a dead, ashen-gray color, like burnt-out bone ash or desiccated corpse spots from countless centuries. Invisible to the naked eye, the power of laws representing decay and disease dissipated from it, transforming into a nauseating stench.
That was not the smell of mundane rot.
It was a conceptual-level 'decay' that struck directly at the soul, the ultimate lament of withering life, the aggregate of all sickness and calamity in the world. Merely sensing its existence was enough to shatter the will of the most resilient living being, plunging them into endless illusions of sickness and pain.
Yet, Su Chen's gaze was utterly calm, even carrying a trace of scorching scrutiny.
'Toxin, corrodes all things.'
'Plague, spreads withering.'
His voice whispered in the vast core temple, each word vibrating with the tremor of laws.
'Both stem from the same source, both point to the termination of life and the decomposition of matter.'
'One is violent, the other is insidious.'
This was his path, a road to supreme dominion through devouring, fusing, and evolving.
In the next moment, he closed his eyes, his will sinking into his divine sea.
'Activate the 'Toxin divine portfolio'!'
*Boom!*
The Toxin Divine Spark slumbering deep within his soul suddenly trembled, like an ancient primordial beast awakening. Dark green divine power erupted from his body, instantly enveloping the entire core area.
That was not light, nor was it liquid.
It was a viscous, living energy filled with the will to erode and destroy. Where it passed, even space itself emitted a corrosive, teeth-grating 'sizzling' sound.
The dark green toxic divine power transformed into a giant hand, grabbing hold of that ashen-gray fragment of the Plague divine portfolio.
There was no anticipated fierce resistance.
No violent conflict at the level of laws.
The moment the toxic divine power touched the Plague fragment, an eerie harmony arose between the two.
The gray Plague energy, as if finding a long-lost kin, actively flowed out from the fragment, intimately entwining with the dark green toxic divine power.
The two began to resonate.
A low, inaudible hum sounded in the deepest part of his soul. It was the mutual attraction and testing of two laws both pointing towards 'destruction'.
Green and gray, two colors representing different forms of death, began to merge.
'System, deduce the fusion path!'
Su Chen's will transformed into the coldest command.
[Command received... Initiating deduction of divine portfolio fusion scheme...]
[Database matching... Law homology confirmed...]
[Fusion path deduction in progress... 1%... 15%... 57%...]
In his soul's vision, the entire world transformed into an ocean of data.
Two thick chains, representing core laws, clearly manifested before him.
One was dark green. Every link of the chain was inscribed with toxic runes like 'Corrosion', 'Dissolution', 'Nerve Paralysis', brimming with violent destructive aura.
The other was ashen-gray. The chain was covered with Plague runes like 'Infection', 'Diffusion', 'Debilitation', 'Mutation', obscure yet tenacious, carrying a terror akin to a bone-deep maggot.
With the assistance of the system's immense computing power, these two law chains began to slowly draw closer.
They were no longer independent entities.
They began to dismantle and reassemble each other.
The 'corrosive' nature of toxin was grafted onto the 'diffusive' nature of Plague.
The 'mutative' nature of Plague began to combine with the 'nerve paralyzing' effect of toxin.
Countless possibilities were deduced, filtered, and then rejected by the system. Finally, an optimized, spiraling fusion path was determined.
The two law chains, like two giant serpents, began to frantically entwine, tear at, and devour each other!
Under the system's forced intervention, the violence of toxin and the insidiousness of Plague were no longer a simple overlay. Instead, they underwent a qualitative fusion, condensing into an even more terrifying, more advanced law force, closer to the ultimate end of all things!
This process was painful and protracted.
Su Chen felt as if his soul had been thrown into a massive gene editor, being repeatedly shattered, filtered, and then reassembled.
Every instant, torrents of information washed over his will.
An unknowable amount of time passed.
Perhaps a moment, perhaps an eternity.
At the instant the two law chains completely fused, becoming indistinguishable from one another.
*BOOM—!*
An indescribably loud explosion erupted violently within Su Chen's soul universe!
It was not an explosion of sound, but a sublimation of concept, a leap of law!
All the law fragments originally belonging to 'Toxin' and 'Plague' completely disintegrated at this moment, then collapsed and condensed towards a brand new core!
The embryonic form of a brand new Divine Spark slowly took shape in the center of his divine sea.
It was no longer pure dark green, nor dead ashen-gray.
It presented a profound, seemingly light-devouring dark hue, yet its surface flowed with an eerie radiance interwoven with dark green and ashen-gray, like a demonic eye opening within an abyss.
[Congratulations! divine portfolio fusion successful!]
[New divine portfolio Obtained]: Dual-Layer · Calamity divine portfolio (Embryonic Form)
[Law Characteristic]: All your attacks will carry the 'Calamity' effect (includes Toxin, Plague, Curse, Weakness).
*Rustle—*
At the same moment the divine portfolio took form, the sky of the entire divine domain underwent a dramatic change.
The thick flesh-clouds were torn apart by an invisible force. A grand, dark-green rain of light descended from the heavens.
The raindrops were not large, yet they covered every corner of the divine domain.
The Drones collecting resources in the mineral veins, the patrolling Zerglings, the newly born, assembled and awaiting orders Corpse-Detonating Zergling-men...
All Zerg units bathed in this rain of light gained a faint gray halo around them. Within the halo, countless tiny, ominous runes flickered.
[Full Army Buff]: Calamity Aura (Attacks have a 10% chance to inflict a random negative status on enemies).
Temple Core.
Su Chen slowly opened his eyes.
Deep within his pupils, the dark green light grew even more profound. Upon close observation, one could even see countless tiny, bizarre structures—resembling viral chains or molecular formulas—constantly disintegrating and reassembling in the depths of his eyes.
The world appeared different in his vision.
He could 'see' the microorganisms floating in the air, 'see' the weak points of the molecular bonds within the hard alloy walls, 'see' the most insignificant genetic defect within a Drone in the distance.
All things in the world revealed their 'fragile' and 'erodible' aspects to his eyes.
'This feeling...'
Su Chen raised his hand and gently clenched his fist.
He did not use any divine power, but as his fingers closed, the air around his fist emitted a faint wail. Light distorted, and visible ripples appeared in space, as if it were 'falling ill' and 'weakening'.
This was a qualitative change at the level of rules.
'Although the total amount of divine power is still at the level of a Three-Turn Demigod, my depth of control over the rules has likely touched the threshold of a Six-Turn Demigod.'
His voice was calm, yet carried a kind of coldness that controlled everything.
Ordinary demigods needed to spend hundreds or even thousands of years in arduous cultivation and comprehension to slowly advance their divine portfolios.
Yet he, through plunder and fusion, directly bypassed this lengthy accumulation process.
This was the allure of plunder and fusion.
In this world teeming with gods, locked in endless slaughter, he was forging a path of 'Calamity Dominance' never traveled before, and likely never to be followed.