Chapter 1036: The Flame of Civilization, the Second Mythical Surge Erupts (I)

The instant that golden-red crystal appeared, both great demon gods immediately sensed an overwhelming danger. Before they could even react, however, the sealed power of the Chaotic End principle within the dorsal fin crystal was unleashed by the activation of Chen Chu’s soul will.

Boom!

In the pitch-black void, devoid of any material elements, a golden supernova burst into blinding brilliance amid the endless contaminated energy. Like a radiant sphere condensed from molten golden matter, golden-red lightning danced across its surface, radiating a temperature surpassing hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius and annihilating everything in its path.

Its expansion exceeded the speed of light, transcended time itself, and stretched across a hundred thousand kilometers, forming a colossal golden sun across the sky, yet at its peak, the golden stellar body didn’t detonate in a violent explosion. Instead, it burned steadily like a true sun suspended in the void, raging with endless flames.

Space-time warped and melted, and this infernal brilliance descended upon the material world, emerging in the central-right region of the Forbidden Zone Battlefield. In an instant, dazzling radiance pierced through the heavens and earth, turning night into day. Even the light of the Blood Moon was driven away.

The fearsome energy rocked the entire battlefield. The invisible might of a true-spirit-level presence swept across more than two million kilometers, causing countless beings to instinctively tremble under the aura of the Destructive Dragon Emperor. Even the demon kings and great demon kings infused with the Purgatory bloodline, lurking within the dark demonic domain, felt inexplicably suppressed by an invisible force, and their auras weakened.

The golden sun abruptly collapsed inward, then erupted.

Boom!

Space collapsed across over a hundred thousand kilometers. The earth melted, and the golden shockwave of the explosion swept out over two hundred thousand kilometers, obliterating everything in its path.

At the center of the explosion, Chen Chu stood firm amid the raging chaotic currents, holding his halberd, his three-faced and ten-armed form radiating majesty. Behind him, golden-purple hair blazed like flames, surrounded by layers of radiant multicolored halos. His aura was vast and imposing.

Because of the shared origin of their souls, the Chaotic End principle infused with the Dragon Emperor’s will passed harmlessly over Chen Chu during the explosion of the sun’s flames. Only the post-explosion destructive force could potentially harm him, yet even without the true-spirit-level enhancement from a complete principle, the scorching shocks that tore through space-time merely caused his aura to boil slightly. After all, Chen Chu’s strength had already neared the threshold of the true spirit level.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Far away, in the same chaotic currents, the two great demon gods, Tyretis and Cardeos, fared far worse. Their true forms, each a towering hundred thousand meters, were covered in crimson cracks, and the abyssal world surrounding them was shattered to pieces. Their strength had only barely surpassed the limit of the ancient titan level, comparable to beings that had just reached the true spirit level. Yet in essence, they remained creatures of the ancient titan level.

Now, thin arcs of golden-red lightning still flickered over them. These were the remnants of the Endbringer Annihilation wielded by the Dragon Emperor. With the nearly advanced supreme principle, each detonation of golden-red lightning would shatter the dark and abyssal principles surrounding their bodies, sending blood and flesh flying.

However, as the two great demon gods used their principle origins to resist and extinguish the lightning, the assault finally ceased. With the suppression lifted, their injuries quickly began to recover, though their auras had weakened by a tenth.

The two demon gods stared solemnly at the two remaining crystalline structures shaped like wings on Chen Chu’s left shoulder. Earlier, they had ignored them, thinking they were merely ornamental protrusions on his battle armor. They hadn’t expected them to contain such destructive force.

Tyretis spoke slowly, its voice deep and grim. "This power... It belongs to that summoned colossal beast, doesn’t it? I destroyed your summoning altar, yet you still have this trump card hidden."

A cold smile crept across its face. "That beast’s power is indeed formidable. Even we can't withstand the destruction it releases in that instant. But now you only have two left. As long as we push through, even if we’re seriously wounded, you’re still doomed."

Though the earlier strike had left them gravely injured, they couldn’t allow their momentum to falter.

The corner of Chen Chu’s lips curled slightly as he noncommittally replied, "You're not wrong. But how can you be certain that I only have two dorsal fin destruction crystals left?"

The two great demon gods stiffened.

Something like that shouldn’t logically be carried openly on one’s person. And given how cunning and deceitful humans are, he may very well have more hidden away.

They hesitated slightly, then their murderous aura erupted explosively. "Even if you have more of those single-use forbidden weapons, so what?"

Suddenly, the void shattered. A domineering slash of black saber light cleaved through heaven and earth, opening a gaping rift tens of thousands of kilometers long right before Chen Chu.

Chen Chu’s will, vast as a great world, surged forth, and divine light blazed. The colossal dark-golden halberd in his hand, stretching a hundred thousand meters high, shot skyward, entwined with arcs of golden-white lightning. With the Supreme Power Principle, even time and space themselves shattered.

The incoming strike instantly shattered the domain of translucent principle power surrounding Chen Chu. The blow struck the Eight Desolations Halberd directly.

Boom!

The power of that slash made Chen Chu’s body sink. The space beneath his feet, just recently repaired, collapsed again, sending him falling into the depths of the void. In front of Tyretis, whose two true forms had merged into one, even he was momentarily suppressed.

Just as he fell into the void, his eight arms behind him spread open. One arm, holding the golden-white sun, suddenly struck toward the rear right.

Boom!

A dazzling golden-white glowing sphere exploded and rapidly expanded, transforming into a ten-thousand-kilometer-wide sun suspended between Cardeos and Chen Chu. Yet under the strike of Cardeos’s six arms, brimming with absolute power, the World-Ending Sun shattered and crumbled instantly.

Amid the chaotic surge of violent destructive power, the dark-red abyssal world surrounding Cardeos emitted an overwhelming dark and evil aura that surged toward Chen Chu.

Just then, a grey radiance filled with the aura of death enveloped Cardeos. From above, the colossal Death Millstone ten thousand kilometers in size emerged, blotting out the sky and twisting the boundaries between life and death. In the next instant, the void collapsed, and a massive fist shrouded in black smoke appeared beneath the millstone.

Bang!

The Death Millstone burst apart from a tyrannical and pure force representing the ultimate limit of the principle of strength, transforming into rings of pure death power that spread across more than one hundred thousand kilometers. Bathed in this principle-level aura of death, countless monsters within the void that failed to flee stiffened, rotted, and crumbled into dust.

Having fused a world-level weapon into its true form, and refined all of its power and bloodline into one, Cardeos’s strength was terrifyingly pure and had reached the absolute pinnacle of the ancient titan level.

At the very moment Cardeos was blocked, Tyretis launched over a thousand slashes. Each saber light was unimaginably sharp, cutting through the void across a hundred-thousand-kilometer span and slicing it into even purer nothingness. Every slash forced Chen Chu back, his vitality boiling.

Boom!

Behind Chen Chu, dazzling golden diamond-shaped light trembled, and a pair of pitch-black, vicious claws suddenly emerged behind his lower back. This strike was infused with the principle power of Causality Reversal. Even Chen Chu was caught off guard; his Absolute Barrier only held for a breath before being torn apart.

Bang!

Countless golden crystal-like fragments exploded as the demonic claw, brimming with world-piercing force, landed squarely on Chen Chu’s back.

Boom!

The Demon God Dark Era Battle Armor crumbled beneath the impact, fissures spreading across its surface. Yet with the prior defense of the Absolute Barrier and the nearly world-level strength of the battle armor, the strike only forced Chen Chu to cough up blood.

Suddenly, Cardeos vanished. The instant it disappeared, Chen Chu’s halberd swept backward. Radiating golden-white brilliance and infused with the will of world creation, the halberd tip slashed across the space in front of Cardeos’ neck. Had that strike landed, even battle armor forged from a world-level weapon would have been cleaved apart.

Just as Cardeos was forced back, the space-time around Chen Chu twisted. At a speed that surpassed perception, he vanished, just as his previous location was engulfed by overbearing saber lights that erased everything.

Over one hundred thousand kilometers away, Chen Chu's gaze remained cold and solemn. One great demon god alone already placed him under immense pressure. Now with two working together, even a blink had resulted in him sustaining injury. However, at this stage, there was no possibility of retreat. He could only find ways to delay them further.

As countless thoughts flashed through Chen Chu's mind, the illusory Face of the Deathly Void to his right suddenly opened its tightly shut eyes. The entire void fell into absolute darkness, engulfing over one hundred thousand kilometers. This scene resembled the effect of the demonic lantern once wielded by Cardeos; though weaker in both range and power, it still suppressed the perception of the two great demon gods, preventing them from pinpointing Chen Chu’s position.

The Void Death Pupils' Void Summon skill had surged in power when unleashed deep within the void, becoming several times stronger. At the very moment of that summoning, a pair of colossal black-golden vertical pupils emerged from the darkness, staring directly at Tyretis with an immense crushing force within.

Boom!

The space within ten thousand kilometers around Tyretis collapsed entirely. The ripping force was so strong it even tore through space-time. That one blow was enough to pulverize the true form of an ancient-titan-level demon god, but...

"Begone!" A roar shook the void. A blinding black saber light shot upward, instantly slicing through the intangible force of the Death Pupils, along with the curtain of darkness in the sky.

While the dark curtain momentarily hindered the two great demon gods, Chen Chu had already thrust his empty arms into space behind him and slowly drew out a massive black stone gate, ten thousand meters tall and exuding an ancient aura.

The stone gate stood before Chen Chu, instantly blocking the incoming pair of black fists, which had emerged out of nowhere causality-reversing power and were impossible to evade.

Boom!

The stone gate shuddered from the overwhelming and tyrannical force. A moment later, an even stronger rebound force erupted from it, releasing waves of black shockwaves that shattered space and time.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Cardeos staggered and retreated several steps, the distorted void shifting its body ten thousand kilometers away. Looking at the towering gate in the void, Cardeos, who had believed that strike would injure Chen Chu, froze for a moment.

This stone gate had been acquired by Chen Chu from deep within the ancient ruins within the Alliance of Gods, once belonging to a fallen existence that had tried to ascend to an even higher realm. Chen Chu estimated that existence had reached the peak of the true spirit level. The fact that its inner world gate alone was so durable, still standing after countless millennia, proved its might.

After Chen Chu had refined the gate, he had always used it to suppress his planar world, never once deploying it in combat. The reason was its immense energy cost. Even now, Chen Chu could barely afford to use it.

Moreover, the gate possessed only properties like suppression and immense durability, lacking any offensive power like that of halberds or demonic sabers. In ordinary situations, it served little use, but it was perfect for blocking Cardeos’ unavoidable attack.