The dense Abyssal Dust hovered silently at the edge of the great road, its presence suffocating, ancient, and unfathomable. Not a single soul among the gathered dared to speak. All eyes were locked on that drifting mass of shadow, waiting, trembling, uncertain of what would emerge.
Even Mo Su, the eternal monarch of the Abyss, narrowed his gaze as he looked upon it. For the first time in countless years, his pupils trembled. His soul twitched—a fleeting moment, but undeniable.
He could feel it. He had returned.
Mo Su, once the Crown Prince of the Heaven Punishment God Race… The son of Mo E, the Heaven Punishment Creation God… The monarch of the Abyss whose divine insight stood unmatched for eras—
He had long known that Yun Che was no ordinary.
Their first encounter had already awakened something deep in his instincts. From the very beginning, he had sensed that Yun Che's inherited the power of Ni Xuan, his Big Brother, the Creation God of Elements.
And with each meeting… that truth had only become clearer... it was much more.
Yun Che did not just carry the legacy of Ni Xuan. He bore the legacy of a Creation God… and a Devil Emperor. A being of both creation and destruction.
And now… as that dark dust hovered before him, even Mo Su—who had never known greed in his life—felt it. A faint pull. A desire to grasp what stood before him. To seize that impossible power.
But he crushed it. Silently. Instantly.
Raising his head high, his voice calm and majestic, the emperor within him called out—
"You've come, Yun Che."
Amidst the heavy, almost suffocating tension that blanketed the Pure Land, Mo Su's voice echoed out with calm authority, resonating through the hearts of all present. The moment he spoke, the great entrance of the Pure Land slowly opened, its ancient gates creaking apart like the doors of a sleeping giant awakening. Beyond it, the Pure Land guards, clad in sacred armor and bearing years of unwavering discipline, found themselves retreating instinctively, their composure faltering as the dense Abyssal Dust began to drift inward—silent, thick, and commanding. It moved not like a storm, but like a living will, and the guards scattered to the sides, unable to resist the primordial fear rising within them.
Then, as though guided by fate itself, every gaze turned upward, locking onto the floating mass of Abyssal Dust as it loomed like a sovereign being descending from the heavens. The sky, the land, the very essence of the Abyss, seemed to hold its breath.
"I thought it would take you many years before you returned... I'm truly surprised—truly," Mo Su said, his voice low, but carrying the weight of endless understanding. His expression remained composed, yet his words betrayed a sense of awe that no one in the Abyss had ever heard from him before.
"Your progress… your cultivation… to think..." he continued, his tone deepening as his eyes narrowed slightly, peering into the swirling veil of dust before him, as though trying to glimpse the truth hidden within.
"That you would reach the Realm of True God… it seems your harvest within the Samsara… far exceeded even my imagination."
"WHAT!!!!!!!"
The single word tore through the air like a thunderclap, as if the heavens themselves had been struck by lightning. The moment Mo Su's words fell—calm and measured though they were—every single person gathered, from Divine Extinction cultivators, to those of Divine Limited, to the exalted Gods and even the Ancient True Gods themselves, stood frozen in place, their expressions unified in one single, overwhelming reaction: shock.
Their mouths fell open, disbelief etched across every face. In the entire history of the Abyss, no such absurd declaration had ever been made so casually—yet it had come from the Abyssal Monarch himself.
"L-Lord… what… what…?"Even High Priest Wan Dao, whose will was as immovable as ancient stone, found himself stammering uncontrollably, his voice cracking as he struggled to process the impossible.
Beside him, High Priest Liu Xiao could only squint his eyes, his divine sense piercing outward with all his might—desperately trying to break through the dense veil of Abyssal Dust that floated like a wall between them and the truth. But no matter how hard he tried… he saw nothing.
"...."
Even their hearts, trained and tempered over millions of years, began to waver.
And before they could recompose themselves, more voices rose—trembling, stunned, disbelieving.
"YOUR MAJESTY!!! WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!!!"The Twin Gods of the Moon and Star Divine Kingdoms cried out in unison, unable to contain the sheer shock in their hearts. Their divine auras trembled as the weight of Mo Su's words crashed down upon them.
"True God?!!! Your Majesty… your sense of humor… it… just…"One of them trailed off, unable to even finish, his voice caught between nervous laughter and terrified reverence. The idea was too absurd. Too unthinkable.
Just one month ago—a single, fleeting month in the vast river of time—Yun Che, despite his battle prowess that defied all common sense, had still only stood at the threshold of Divine Limited Realm Level One, a realm he reached only after unleashing some terrifying, unexplainable technique whose origins no one could fully comprehend. And without that technique… he had merely been at Divine Extinction Level One.
To claim that such a man—in the span of thirty days—had not only crossed the Divine Limited Realm, but ascended into the True God Realm?
How absurd was that?!
The sheer impossibility of it made the entire Abyss tremble with disbelief. Faces turned pale, divine senses frantically scanned the veil of dust, and hearts refused to accept what their ears had heard. Their lord—the Abyssal Monarch—was not one to jest. But this… this had to be beyond even legend.
Yet—
Before their denials could take root, the dense Abyssal Dust suddenly trembled, the space around it warping as though bowing to the will of something beyond their comprehension. In the next moment, the swirling veil began to disperse, folding back like the curtain before a god's descent.
And there, revealed to all—
Stood a single man.
A figure alone in the sky, yet vast as the heavens.
His eyes were black, darker than any abyss, reflecting the cosmos themselves. His robes billowed like living shadow, woven from night itself, and his long, jet-black hair swayed gently with the wind, falling behind him like the tail of a divine comet. His very presence demanded silence, reverence, fear.
Even Mo Su, revered by all as the pinnacle of male divinity, the embodiment of power and grace, could not deny it—the man now standing before them, silhouetted against the sky, was in no way lesser than him. Not in form… nor in presence.
But it wasn't his appearance that shattered the hearts of gods and titans alike.
It was what their divine senses—refined over eons—confirmed again and again… No illusion. No trick. No mistake. The aura that Yun Che radiant... from his body, from his soul. It's unmistakenly radiant the power of True God!
"True… True… TRUE GOD!!!"
"HE REALLY REACHED THE TRUE GOD REALM!!"
The cry echoed through the Pure Land like a roar of thunder, not in awe… but in horror.
"Yuan..."
In the midst of the vast sea of trembling awe and suffocating fear, a soft whisper escaped from the lips of Meng Kongchan—a name spoken not in command, but in longing. His eyes, usually calm and detached, trembled as they locked onto the lone figure standing in the sky, and that single word… slipped out before he could stop it.
Yet, as soon as it did, he bit down on the rest, silencing himself.
Yun Che… is not my son.My son, Jianyuan... is long dead...
He reminded himself, once more, as he had countless times before—though the ache in his chest said otherwise.
Beside him, Hua Fuchen inhaled sharply, the sound of his breath drawn tight and cold. "True God..." he muttered, his voice hollow as his eyes remained fixed on the dark figure above.
And next to him, Hua Qingying stared upward with a stillness that masked the whirlwind churning within her heart.
Back then… when she first met him, Yun Che had merely stood at the Mortal Divine Sovereign Realm—a realm she had once viewed with casual superiority. And yet now, in what felt like no more than a blink of time… he had shattered the world's expectations and crossed the unreachable threshold into True Divinity.
He had become a True God. Surpassing even her... who was only a breath away from reaching the said realm long ago. She closed her eyes briefly, steadying her breath as she buried the tangled emotions she didn't dare voice.
Then, as her divine sense spread across the area surrounding Yun Che, scanning for the familiar aura that should have accompanied him—
She found nothing. Her brows furrowed slightly. Her heart stirred.
"Where… is Caili?" she murmured under her breath, the words barely louder than thought—yet sharp enough to rouse Hua Fuchen from his stunned silence.
His eyes widened. Because amidst the crowd, the dust, the fear…
Hua Caili was nowhere to be found.
In truth, it wasn't just Hua Caili, nor Pan Buwang, nor the others who had once chosen to stand unshaken at Yun Che's side—every single one of them was absent. Every familiar aura, every soul that had walked beside him through storms and trials, had vanished without a trace.
And Yun Che… had come alone.
Utterly, absolutely, terrifyingly alone.
Not a single follower walked behind him. Not a single ally stood at his flank. He hadn't brought the monstrous Abyssal Beasts, nor the nightmarish Abyssal Ghosts that had once obeyed his will. No grand entourage, no battalion of loyalists. Just him—one man—standing against the entire Abyss.
And as more eyes turned, more divine senses stretched toward the silent sky where Yun Che floated like a dark sun, realization began to dawn.
Fear—once thick and absolute—began to loosen its grip. As the truth settled in, heartbeats steadied, fists clenched not in panic, but in contemplation.
He came alone. No army. No protection. No backup.
How arrogant. How foolish. How impossibly bold.
Whispers returned, now charged with disbelief and brewing defiance.
Upon the high throne of the Pure Land, Mo Su—the Abyssal Monarch himself—watched with narrowed eyes. The divine senses of a Ancient True God, honed across countless eras, swept across the land again and again, dissecting every corner, every inch of surrounding space.
But he found nothing. Not even a whisper of concealment.
And even the ancient spirits of the Heavenly Treasures, whose wisdom reached deeper than time itself, sent confirmation after confirmation—
Yun Che was alone.
Mo Su's brow twitched, again and again, the movement betraying the silent storm rising in his heart. It made no sense. Yun Che had returned from the Well of Samsara, ascended into godhood, and then dared to walk straight into the seat of power of the Abyss…
Alone.
As his eyes locked once more onto the young man suspended in the sky like a divine shadow, Mo Su's thoughts stirred with heavy weight.
"Just... what are you... planning, Yun Che?" The words echoed quietly in his mind.
"Hmph! How arrogant! How bold of you!"
The voice of High Priest Liu Xiao rang out, sharp and thunderous, his fury boiling over as he took a step forward, divine aura flaring behind him like a surging tide.
"Your arrogance will be your downfall…"
High Priest Wan Dao added coldly. Beside them, Chief Priest Big Rage gave a solemn nod, his eyes narrowing as he turned to glance at Mo Su, the Abyssal Monarch, awaiting his decree.
Just as everyone awaiting the Abyssal Monarch, Mo Su's order. Yun Che, who had remained motionless and wordless since his arrival, ignored everything around him as he slowly raised a single finger.
He did not speak. He simply pointed—calm, deliberate, and absolute. Toward a specific direction.
"???"
Confusion spread like wildfire as countless eyes followed the path of Yun Che's finger.
In that direction stood a group of figures—several individuals clustered together, and among them, unmistakably, were members of the Moon and Star Divine Kingdoms.
As the Gods of the Moon and Star Divine Kingdom sensed an impending threat, they rushed toward their people and raised protective barriers. Yet it seem they're a little too late as a pained cry still rang out from behind them.
"Ugh…!"
A sharp gasp rang out. All eyes turned instantly toward the source, and what they saw caused the surrounding space to ripple in dread.
The Divine Son of the Star God—his body trembling violently, a deep, uncontrollable shiver running through him—was hunched over. His eyes wide with horror, mouth agape.
Then—blood poured from his lips, bright and hot, splattering across the sacred stone beneath his feet.
He clutched his chest as if something inside was being torn apart.
"Sha Xing!"A voice filled with panic and fury tore through the silence as Divine Regent Wu Shenxing—a pillar of the Star Divine Kingdom—flashed to his Divine Son's side in an instant. His arm wrapped around the trembling youth, and without hesitation, he channeled vast waves of divine power into Sha Xing's body, trying to stabilize him.
His divine sense surged through every meridian, every strand of the soul, every corner of the boy's internal world—searching, probing, desperately seeking the cause of the sudden collapse.
But no matter how deep he looked, he could find nothing.
The energy fluctuations were strange, foreign, but clean. No traces of hostility, no imprint of an attack, no signs of external spiritual force… and yet, Sha Xing had nearly collapsed.
The Divine Regent's eyes snapped toward the dark figure in the sky, his face twisted with disbelief and fury.
"WHAT… YUN CHE… WHAT DID YOU DO?!!!"
His voice was thick with anger and accusation, echoing throughout the Pure Land like a blade unsheathed. In the presence of so many gods, so many powers, Yun Che—now standing as a True God—had chosen to act against a Divine Son, a junior, a youth not even capable of defending himself before such overwhelming might.
How disgraceful. How cowardly. How low.
Or so everyone believed.
But just as the clamor of rising voices prepared to surge in condemnation, Yun Che—still hovering motionless in the sky, his robes fluttering in the silent breeze—spoke.
His voice was calm. Devoid of arrogance. Purely matter-of-fact.
"The Abyssal Core inside him has been destroyed."
A beat of silence. And then—he continued.
"He doesn't have to worry about turning into a mindless Abyssal Ghost anymore."
The words fell like a hammer across the gathered gods. Stunned silence followed. No one moved. No one spoke.
Because in that moment… everyone's thoughts came to a screeching halt.
What… what did he just say? The Abyssal Core… destroyed?
What did Yun Che mean by those words… was he truly saying that there had been an Abyssal Core hidden inside Sha Xing all this time?
The crowd, already frozen by his sudden action, began to stir with renewed disbelief as the weight of his statement slowly seeped into their minds. Such a claim was too inconceivable, too horrifying to be accepted immediately.
Since when had it been there? How could such a thing escape the detection of so many gods, so many peak cultivators who watched over him with utmost care?
And more importantly… why would there be an Abyssal Core inside him at all?
As confusion spread and divine thoughts raced, more than a few among them recalled a peculiar rumor—one many had long dismissed. The Twin Gods, in particular, turned sharply toward one another, their expressions contorted by the same sudden realization, for they remembered a moment not long ago, when Sha Xing, with evident unease, had spoken of something inside his body—a strange sensation, as though something dormant was waiting to erupt from within. At the time, despite his sincerity, despite the dread in his eyes, they had brushed it off as a sign of pressure, of overthinking, of the burdens of divine inheritance. They had searched him, tested him, applied divine techniques… yet found nothing, and thus convinced themselves that it was no more than a psychological shadow.
But now… standing beneath the shadow of Yun Che's words, they realized what they had missed.
The sensation Sha Xing spoke of was not illusion, not imagination—it had been real all along. That hidden fear that even their divine senses failed to uncover had been the Abyssal Core, lurking within him like a slumbering beast, waiting only for the right moment to awaken and devour everything he was.
Their thoughts raced further still, back to the terrifying incident of the Abyssal Knight Commander, a man of unquestionable loyalty and strength, who one day transformed into a mindless Abyssal Ghost without warning, without corruption that could be sensed beforehand. Not even he knew what had happened—until it was too late.
To realize that the same insidious force had lain inside their Divine Son all this time—untouched, unseen, and ready to erupt at any moment—was a truth more terrifying than any blade.
And yet… a deeper, more confounding question now gnawed at them.
If the Abyssal Core had been placed there, as many believed, by Yun Che himself... then why, of all things, would he choose to remove it now?
Whether or not there had truly been an Abyssal Core inside Sha Xing, no one could say with absolute certainty—no one but Sha Xing himself. And yet, if what Yun Che claimed was true… if he had truly removed such a thing from within the Divine Son of the Star Divine Kingdom, then one could only question just how reckless—or perhaps foolish—such a move was. After all, if he had indeed planted that core, then it was a powerful hidden weapon, a silent blade at the throats of the Abyssal Divine Kingdoms, one that could have been activated at any time to plunge them into chaos.
And yet now, in front of all the gods, all the rulers, and the Monarch himself, he had willingly cast it aside, discarded it like something that no longer held value.
Such arrogance, such certainty… or perhaps, such intent?
"Just… what are you really planning, Yun Che..."
Mo Su's thoughts echoed within his own mind as he kept his gaze firmly locked on the dark figure in the sky. Since Yun Che's arrival, he had spoken so few words, made so few gestures, and yet everyone had sent ripples through the order of the world. And now, after showing mercy—or was its mockery—he removed a deadly card from his own hand, a move that defied logic, strategy, and the cold calculus of power.
Was this an act of goodwill? A declaration of peace? Or was it simply an expression of something deeper, something so absolute that it required no subtlety?
Mo Su wasn't sure.
And he wasn't alone in that confusion. Around the Pure Land, countless divine minds stirred restlessly, their thoughts muddled, unable to grasp the purpose behind Yun Che's actions.
And just as uncertainty thickened like storm clouds above them, Yun Che—who had until then stood in silence—spoke.
His words were calm, uncaring, and carried with them a weight that pressed down on every soul present.
"Don't overthink. This Emperor doesn't need such a lowly card against all of you."
Then, after a momentary pause, his gaze swept across the crowd with quiet disdain, and he added—
"If this Emperor wished it, THIS EMPEROR COULD TAKE ON ALL OF YOU AT ONCE. So, there is no need to overthink."
It was a short statement. A simple one. No grand proclamation, no roar of divine might, no threat laced in malice. Yet, Yun Che voice seems to deepen as if he intentionally emphasized some of the words.
And those few words—uttered with absolute conviction, devoid of boast or hesitation—struck harder than any divine technique.
Veins popped. Foreheads throbbed. Blood rushed violently to the heads of even the most composed deities. Rage, disbelief, and humiliation surged all at once.
"BOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!"
As if bound by instinct, auras erupted at once, surging skyward like volcanoes breaking the world's spine. Divine might rage through the Pure Land, shaking space, shattering clouds, and forcing weaker cultivators to collapse where they stood, unable to even breathe beneath the suffocating pressure.
What Yun Che had said—what he had dared to say in the heart of the Abyss—
Was nothing less than divine provocation.