98: Kingdom of God in a Bottle

On Qingyang Plaza, the cheers for the Thunder Emperor gradually subsided, leaving behind exhaustion and emptiness like a receding tide.

The myriad people still knelt, not daring to look up, only heavy breathing and the dazedness of having survived a catastrophe remained.

Mo Yuan—the Thunder Emperor—stood at the top of the flagpole, feeling the Dynasty's Luck, mixed with fear, reverence, and faint Power Of Will, gather towards him, nourishing his parched Meridians and damaged Divine Soul like a cold stream.

The afterglow of the coronation had not yet dissipated when his deep, dark-golden pupils, reflecting the shattered world, shifted from the masses to the magic bottle in his arms.

There, the magic bottle continued to emit a low, steady hum.

The largest crack on the bottle's body had been filled and mended by the Heavenly Dao Golden Mark, leaving only a faint, lightning-shaped golden mark, which was no longer a weakness but rather a mysterious medal.

However, the magic bottle's "hunger" was clearly transmitted through the Soul link—it had devoured a portion of the Heavenly Dao's wrathful lightning, completing its initial Fusion with the Dao and evolution, but the Origin consumed earlier to resist the Heavenly Tribulation, Cultivate the sequence, and accelerate time was simply too vast; its interior remained empty, like a weakened giant that had just undergone a major blood transfusion and was in urgent need of nourishment.

Its "hunger" was not for ordinary Spiritual Qi, but for... higher-level energy, the sustenance capable of supporting the continued evolution of the world within it, which was on the verge of collapse yet reborn.

Mo Yuan's gaze slowly lifted, locking onto the Nine Heavens—that remaining tribulation cloud, which, though no longer dominated by the Heavenly Tribulation's will, was still thick and heavy, containing immense tribulation lightning energy!

For ordinary Cultivators and even Sects, this energy was a destructive residual poison to be avoided.

But for the magic bottle, which had fused with a trace of Heavenly Dao Law and whose essence had transformed into a Chaos Divine Artifact, this was... a great tonic!

"The bottle... is not yet full."

"These clouds... are just in time."

The cold whisper dissipated in the wind.

The Thunder Emperor slowly raised his Thunder God Arm, riddled with cracks, not to attack, but to point it remotely at the rolling tribulation clouds in the sky.

"Devour!"

The command was given!

The magic bottle in his arms trembled violently! The dark vortex at its mouth expanded to an unprecedented degree, no longer the eerie gloom of devouring Death Qi and Souls, but emitting a... grand suction force like a whale swallowing the seas!

At the same time, the lightning-shaped golden mark on the bottle's body suddenly lit up, flowing with dazzling Heavenly Dao Golden Marks, resonating with the suction at the mouth to form a peculiar guiding force field!

Buzz—!!!

An invisible, yet immense devouring force that distorted light instantly crossed the Void Realm, enveloping that vast expanse of residual tribulation clouds!

The next moment, a shocking sight occurred!

The tribulation clouds, which were originally slowly dissipating on their own, seemed to be fiercely clutched and stirred by an invisible giant hand, and then... transformed into an incomparably thick torrent of energy, mixed with dark cloud Qi and dark-purple lightning, rushing towards the magic bottle's mouth like a heavenly river pouring down!

The momentum was grand, yet strangely, it didn't make much sound, only a dull hum of energy being forcibly extracted echoed between heaven and earth!

The survivors on the plaza felt this terrifying suction, and were so frightened that they prostrated themselves on the ground, trembling, thinking it was a new disaster.

The energy torrent poured into the magic bottle without causing any uncomfortable expansion.

The evolved magic bottle's internal space and capacity were now incomparable.

Mo Yuan's consciousness sank into the bottle.

Here, it was no longer the dying, desolate, and dilapidated scene from before.

In the sky, the enormous cracks had been largely repaired by the Heavenly Dao Golden Marks; though some hideous scars could still be seen, no Chaos Qi flowed down, and instead, it presented a... stable appearance.

Those newly formed areas of the sky, flowing with golden marks, even faintly emitted a weak, dark-golden glow, like a sunset.

The earth was still shattered, but many fragments were restrained by an invisible force, no longer scattering everywhere.

On some larger fragments, in the soil condensed from Nether Lightning Pool residue and Chaos matter, an extremely faint wave of vitality actually began to emanate—a miraculous change resulting from the transformation of the devoured Heavenly Dao energy.

And at the center of the world, where the Nether Lightning Pool was originally located, a huge energy vortex had now formed.

The vast tribulation cloud energy was frantically sucked into this place, refined and transformed by the magic bottle's Origin into pure, new energy mixed with Chaos and Heavenly Dao aura, rushing to every corner of this Small World like the source of creation!

Under the infusion of this immense energy, an even more astonishing evolution began!

In the extremely high reaches of the repaired "sky," some gathered, pure Yang Heavenly Dao energy combined with Chaos Qi, began to condense, emit light, generate heat... and finally, transformed into a dark-golden sun, only the size of a washbasin, yet its light was warm and constant, with subtle golden lightning marks flickering at its edges!

Though tiny, it genuinely emitted light and heat!

And on the opposite end of the "sky," some Yin-natured tribulation cloud energy containing the aura of the Great Yin condensed into a silver-white moon of similar size, entirely bright and pure, yet with faint azure electric light flowing within it!

Further away, the scattered tribulation cloud energy and spatial fragments that had not yet been fully absorbed, under the guidance of Chaos, transformed into countless tiny stars, sparkling with various colors of lightning, adorning the background of the "sky"!

Sun, Moon, and Stars! Evolved within the Small World in the bottle!

Although all of this was still extremely tiny and fragile, like a delicate model, the Law significance it contained was earth-shattering!

This meant that the interior of the magic bottle was transforming from a chaotic energy space into a true, miniature world possessing basic celestial body Laws!

At the same time, Mo Yuan clearly felt that with the birth of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, the flow of time within this Small World was undergoing a fundamental change!

The influence of the external heaven and earth Laws on it became increasingly small, and a new time Law, self-contained and jointly derived from Chaos and the Heavenly Dao, began to dominate its interior!

Finally, the flow of time stabilized at an astonishing ratio—one day outside, thirty days inside the bottle!

(Time flow rate 1:30)

Not only that, but the scope of the world, supported by the new energy, also began to slowly, yet steadily... expand outwards!

Though slow, it was a continuous process!

A "Divine Kingdom in the Bottle" with nascent Sun, Moon, and Stars, a time flow rate far exceeding the outside, and still continuously growing and expanding! Its prototype had emerged!

Mo Yuan's consciousness withdrew from the magic bottle, feeling the treasure in his arms, which had become heavy and emitted a warm and grand aura; a flicker of unconcealable fervor finally appeared in his eyes.

Energy crisis? Resource shortage? Overly long cultivation cycles?

In front of the magic bottle at this moment, these were no longer insurmountable obstacles!

This Divine Kingdom would be the Mo Sect's most powerful logistical base! The most perfect time-accelerated Cultivation ground! The most concealed strategic rear! And in the future... the foundation of a mobile fortress for conquering the star sea!

He looked up at the sky again; the remaining tribulation clouds had been completely devoured, revealing a rare, clear yet shattered sky.

A cold and profound arc curved at the Thunder Emperor's lips.

Coronation as Emperor was not the end.

Possessing a Divine Kingdom was... the true starting point of the journey!

His Dynasty would no longer be confined to this broken land.

His gaze had already turned towards the boundless deep space where the Sun, Moon, and Stars resided!