Back in the Land of Beyond Heaven, Long Qingxuan suddenly shuddered. The letter she’d been writing—one of many meant for Yun Lintian—slipped from her fingers.
"Qingxuan?" Long Xi looked up from her own parchment.
"I... don’t know." Long Qingxuan pressed a hand to her chest. "It felt like... something just changed."
Nantian Fengyu, leaning against the window, snorted. "Changed? The only thing changing is how quickly we’re all marching toward our deaths." But even her usual venom lacked bite.
Linlin and Qingqing exchanged worried glances. Gui Xuan, half-asleep in Zhang Yu’s arms, murmured: "Big Brother... hurting..."
The room fell silent.
Long Qingxuan picked up her brush again, her strokes more determined. Whatever was coming, they would face it.
The only thing they hoped was that Yun Lintian would remember them...
Yun Lintian sat motionless, his body seemed to suspend in absolute darkness. Thirty seven distinct divine energies raged within him—each the essence of a slaughtered Primordial God, each fighting against assimilation.
The process should have been simple.
The first surge came from the Goddess of Blossoms—her power wild and untamed, like vines growing through his meridians. Yun Lintian’s veins bulged as emerald energy spread beneath his skin, threatening to tear him apart from within.
The Tree of Life in his Divine Core pulsed. Ancient roots extended through his spiritual sea, wrapping around the foreign energy. Slowly, painfully, it began converting the goddess’s essence into pure life force.
The Star God’s power erupted.
A supernova of cosmic energy exploded in Yun Lintian’s chest. His ribs cracked audibly as galaxies formed and died within his flesh. The Seed of Time activated, freezing the destruction before it could spread further. Golden threads wove through the stellar energy, unraveling its celestial nature strand by strand.
Blood trickled from Yun Lintian’s nose.
He didn’t wipe it away.
Next came the God of Rust.
Corrosive divinity ate at Yun Lintian’s bones, turning them brittle. His fingers blackened as decay spread. The Tree of Life shuddered—its leaves withering before rallying with renewed vigor. Fresh bark grew over rotting flesh, the cycle repeating endlessly as two opposing forces clashed.
Then the Thunder God’s essence struck.
Lightning coursed through Yun Lintian’s nervous system. Every muscle locked rigid as volts of divine punishment cooked him from within. His hair stood on end, his pupils dilated to black pools—yet his breathing remained steady.
The Seed of Time pulsed.
The lightning slowed.
By the thirtieth god, Yun Lintian’s body had become a battleground of warring divinities. His skin cracked like parched earth, golden light bleeding through the fissures. His organs failed and regenerated a thousand times over.
Still, he made no sound.
The God Slaying Sword hovered nearby, drinking the excess energy that leaked from his pores. Its darkness deepened with each sip, its edge growing sharper than the concept of death itself.
Yun Lintian’s eyes snapped open.
A pulse of golden-black energy exploded outward from his body—silent, yet shaking the very fabric of reality. The void itself froze as his aura expanded, turning everything it touched into absolute stillness.
Snowflakes hung motionless mid-fall.
Rivers ceased flowing.
Birds froze mid-flight.
The effect spread like a wave—across mountains, continents, oceans—until the entire star stood suspended in time.
And it didn’t stop there.
His aura rippled into the cosmos, touching neighboring stars, then galaxies beyond. Millions of celestial bodies locked in perfect stasis under the weight of his power.
At this moment, ten figures materialized at the edge of the frozen star, their divine forms flickering with alarm.
The Primordial God of Flames, whose burning essence had illuminated civilizations for eons, found his fire frozen solid.
The Goddess of Tides, who commanded oceans across dimensions, watched helplessly as the seas stood still as glass.
"What... is this?" the God of Storms whispered, his voice the only sound in the unnatural silence.
The eldest among them—the Primordial God of Wisdom—trembled as he analyzed the energy. "This isn’t just time manipulation. This is... dominance."
Their gazes snapped toward the epicenter.
Where Yun Lintian stood.
The Primordial God of Wisdom’s aged hands trembled as realization dawned.
"That aura... that presence..." His voice cracked. "It’s him. The God-Slayer from the warnings."
The Goddess of Tides’ silver eyes widened in horror. "The one who’s been slaughtering our kind across timelines?"
Before anyone could respond—
Yun Lintian looked at them.
A simple tilt of his head. Golden and black light erupted from his eyes, illuminating the frozen void with terrifying radiance.
The ten Primordial Gods froze. Not from external force—but from sheer, primal terror. The God of Flames’ eternal fire guttered out. The God of Storms’ lightning-charged hair stood on end.
Wisdom was the first to act. "NOW!"
Ten divine artifacts materialized simultaneously—
—just as Yun Lintian raised his hand.
The sound of divine bones breaking echoed through the stillness.
All the ten Primordial Gods suddenly felt as if their entire bodies being crushed bit by bit.
The Primordial God of Flames screamed first. His legendary armor—forged from the heart of a supernova—imploded inward, crushing his torso. Blood hotter than solar plasma sprayed from his lips as he desperately channeled his power.
"BURN! BURN EVERYTHING!"
His divine flames erupted in a last-ditch explosion—only to freeze mid-combustion, trapped in Yun Lintian’s unbreakable grip.
The Goddess of Tides fared no better. Her legendary trident, capable of parting oceans across dimensions, shattered in her hands. She tried to dissolve into water particles—but found every molecule locked in place.
"Release me! I’ll serve you! I’ll—"
Her plea ended as her liquid form compressed into a single, screaming droplet before popping out of existence.
The God of Storms fared worst of all. His legendary lightning whip—said to contain the fury of ten thousand thunderstorms—lashed out uselessly before coiling around his own neck. His eyes bulged as he strangled himself with his weapon.
"P-please... mercy..."
Yun Lintian’s grip tightened.
Wisdom acted fastest. His ancient staff—the Pillar of Cosmic Knowledge—erupted with blinding light as he recited forbidden incantations.
"By the laws of creation and unmaking, I command—"
The staff shattered mid-sentence.
Shards of divine wood impaled his body as Yun Lintian’s crushing force intensified. Wisdom coughed up chunks of golden divinity, his once-wise eyes now filled with childlike terror.
"You... you’re not just absorbing power..." he gasped. "You’re... consuming... the very concept of... divinity... How could you do... it?"