In the dawn of time, cosmic plunderers

The jolting sensation of the spatial passage abruptly vanished.

Nightmare stepped out, but his landing spot was not solid ground, but rather a fragment of meteorite floating in the void.

All around him lay a boundless, desolate Meteorite Belt, where massive rocks drifted in silence; further away, chaotic, multicolored Grandmist turbulence surged and roared like a violent river, bringing an aura of the Universe that was primal, oppressive, and completely different from the Three Realms.

"Is this the Hongmeng Universe?" Nightmare narrowed his eyes slightly, spreading his Divine Thought like mercury pouring over the ground. He instantly sensed the extreme instability of the space here, as well as the unknown energy permeating the air—a more refined yet far more violent energy: Grandmist Spiritual Qi.

Before he could carefully comprehend the rules of this new world, several malicious and greedy Divine Thoughts locked onto him.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

Five figures flashed out from behind several nearby massive meteorites, surrounding him in a semicircle.

The newcomers all wore strangely styled dark armor, their auras mixed and ferocious, their eyes gleaming with the intensity of seeing prey.

The leader was a one-eyed brute carrying an exaggerated serrated broadsword, who looked Nightmare up and down. Especially when he sensed the "Reverse Path" aura on Nightmare, which was vastly different from that of ordinary Hongmeng Cultivators, the greed in his single eye nearly spilled over.

"Hahaha, what good luck! We just happened to snag a fat sheep that smuggled itself up from the Lower Realm!" The one-eyed brute grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Kid, you look new here. Is this your first time in the Hongmeng Universe? Do you know the rules of this Meteorite Belt?"

Nightmare looked at him expressionlessly, his gaze as calm as if he were looking at mere rocks.

Seeing that Nightmare did not reply, a tall, thin man behind the one-eyed brute shrieked, "Boss, why waste words on him? The Origin aura on this kid is very strange; it must be good stuff! Take him down, extract his Origin, and offer it to Lord Black Skull; we might be able to trade it for quite a few origin crystals!"

"Did you hear that?" The one-eyed brute pointed his sword tip at Nightmare, acting imperiously. "Hand over that strange Origin of yours obediently, and offer up all your Magic Treasures. If we're in a good mood, we might leave you a sliver of your Divine Soul to reincarnate. Otherwise..." He licked his lips, his killing intent chilling. "We'll let you taste the feeling of Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering!"

The others also grinned maliciously, driving their own auras. The power fluctuations of the Elementary Hongmeng Lord Realm spread out, churning the surrounding meteorite fragments.

They had been in this line of work for a long time, specializing in robbing foreign Cultivators who were new to the Hongmeng and unfamiliar with the territory.

The kid before them was alone; although his aura was a bit special, he was clearly a newcomer and the easiest kind of soft persimmon to squeeze.

Nightmare finally moved. He lifted his eyelids slightly, looked at the one-eyed brute, and said only two words: "Noisy."

Before his voice had even faded, a deep, cold black flame that seemed capable of devouring everything erupted violently with him at its center! This flame was not scorching, but carried an extreme sense of destruction and chaotic reversal—the Hongmeng Reverse Dao Demonic Star Flame!

The flames instantly swept across the entire Meteorite Belt, moving so fast that the malicious grins on the faces of the five predators did not even have time to change.

"What?!" "Not good!"

The one-eyed brute's pupils constricted sharply as he sensed the terrifying power contained within the black flames, far exceeding his imagination! He frantically drove the Universe Origin within his body, trying to form a defense, and his serrated broadsword also erupted with black light, slashing toward the black flames.

However, it was useless.

The eerie black flames seemed to ignore their defenses and attacks, passing directly through them as if they were alive, and precisely wrapped around the core of each of their bodies.

"Ah—!" "My Origin! It's devouring my Origin!" "Spare me! Spare me, my Lord!"

The shrill screams came to an abrupt end. Where the black flames passed, five bodies quickly withered and annihilated, and along with them, their Divine Souls were instantly reduced to nothingness under the burning of the Demonic Flame, disappearing completely from this Universe.

From the moment he struck to the end, it was but a breath's time. Five predators of the Elementary Hongmeng Lord Realm, all wiped out, their Divine Souls utterly destroyed.

Nightmare's eyes did not fluctuate in the slightest, as if he had merely brushed away a few specks of dust. He raised his hand, and the one-eyed brute's Storage Pouch, along with a few scattered items from the others that hadn't been completely devoured by the Demonic Flame, flew into his hand.

The original Divine Soul imprint on the Storage Pouch had long since vanished along with its master. Nightmare's Divine Sense probed inside, passing over a pile of miscellaneous, inferior Materials and a small amount of low-purity energy stones, and quickly found something of value.

A leather star chart made of a special material, outlining vast unknown areas, but a portion of the edge—especially the "Meteorite Universe Belt" where he was currently located and the nearby area marked as "Black Rock Elementary Universe Domain"—was still relatively clear.

There were also a few Jade Slips containing the most basic common knowledge of the Hongmeng Universe: Universe Domains are divided into Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced, ruled by Dominators of different Realms; the common energy currency is the "Hongmeng origin crystal"; basic methods for absorbing and utilizing Universe Origin...

"Black Rock Elementary Universe Domain..." Nightmare's gaze fell on a point of light on the star chart; it was not too far from here.

He crushed the Jade Slips that recorded the predators' chaotic Cultivation Techniques and irrelevant memories, and completely wiped away the slight traces of the battle left at the scene with his Demonic Flame.

After doing all this, he looked at the star chart again to confirm his direction.

"Hongmeng Universe... It seems more interesting than I imagined." A cold arc curled at the corner of Nightmare's mouth; it was an indifference toward new challenges, and also a preview of the bloody storm about to be unleashed.

"The first step: I will go to this Black Rock Domain and see what capabilities these so-called Dominators possess."

His figure flickered, turning into a dim black stream of fire, cutting through the Grandmist turbulence and speeding away in the direction of the Black Rock Elementary Universe Domain.

Behind him, only the desolate and silent Meteorite Belt remained, as if nothing had ever happened.