Chapter 902: Reappear

That same thought flashed through the minds of everyone across all three factions.

He left?

Over at You Ying Palace, everyone, from Heavenly Emperor Miao Zhuan, Ji Shun, and Ling Hua to Divine Emperor You Ying herself, let out a collective sigh of relief. The nightmare was finally over.

As for Li Pin, having just been facing off against the mighty Creation cultivator Miao Ya... he stood there, caught between surprise and a faint sense of unfinished battle intent.

Miao Ya had still held a slight upper hand just moments before. Li Pin hadn't expected the mighty cultivator to retreat so quickly and decisively. A deep sense of regret lingered.

As for the last factions... the five Divine Emperors—Qiu Yu, Zhong Yan, Mo Xing, Yang Guang, and Tian Yu of the Astral Lord Council—they all stood dumbfounded.

Gone? Just like that?

Li Pin and Miao Ya had still been locked deep in combat only moments ago. How did Miao Ya suddenly decide to leave?

Even if he wanted to retreat, couldn't he at least have said something and given us a chance to pull out first? We hadn't even begun to withdraw, and now the one who was supposed to hold the front line has simply taken off?

Li Pin had effortlessly wiped out tens of thousands of miles of the Abyssal Rift with a single strike. With Creation Miao Ya gone, the next to take on Li Pin would be them. At this realization, the five Divine Emperors felt a wave of despair crash over them. It was as if the entire universe had turned against them.

They snapped out of their shock and didn't hesitate for even a second. One by one, they burst into rays of light, fleeing in all directions at full speed. "Everyone, move! Get out of here!"

Of course, chances were, none of them would escape.

Somewhere in their minds, the five Divine Emperors recalled the footage from the Ten Thousand Tribes Dominion War.

Back then... Li Pin had mastered the Laws of Space in the midst of battle. The participants facing him must have felt the same utter despair.

The only difference was... back then, it had been the young prodigy Tyrants of the various races. But now... that same fate had come for them, Divine Emperors who once stood at the very peak of the Astral World.

Their escape stirred up heavy ripples across time and space. The surge of spatial energy snapped Li Pin back from his lingering regret. "I gained quite a lot from this battle, but it still feels unfinished. Now that Creation Miao Ya's gone... I'll end this fight with you five."

Li Pin focused his mind. His senses spread like countless tendrils, instantly locking onto the spacetime trajectories of the five fleeing Divine Emperors.

His Heavenly Fate Art had evolved. It now operated on the level of the "present," precisely discerning not only their current paths, but every possible variation their escape routes could take.

From there, he could even infer the future, seeing where each of them would appear in the next second. All he had to do was place his sword strikes in those locations... and they'd run right into them.

Just like now.

Whoosh!

Li Pin drew his sword.

The Eternal Swordlight swept through time and space, slicing through the void.

At first glance, the five sword strikes didn't seem aimed directly at the Divine Emperors. It looked almost like... Li Pin had shown mercy.

But the sheer fear of his strength, and the looming threat of death, forced them to change direction the moment they sensed his attack. They exploded with everything they had, trying to break free from the encirclement of those sword lights and force their way along another path.

Yet every move they made... had already been accounted for in Li Pin's calculations.

With the present as his foundation, Li Pin had already deduced everything through his Heavenly Fate Art. From how fast they could go when pushing themselves to the limit, how far they would fly, to the intensity of the spacetime distortion their escape would create,

Because of that, their desperate breakout didn't help them at all. In fact, the moment they exploded with full power... it was as if they had rushed headlong into death, throwing themselves straight into the Eternal Swordlight that hadn't even seemed aimed at them.

Of course, that was only how it looked from the outside.

In the perception of the five Divine Emperors, that swordlight felt like a death sentence from which there was no escape. No matter how hard they pushed themselves, they could never get out from under the shadow of that glowing blade, which now seemed soaked in death itself.

After exhausting every last method at their disposal, all they could do was watch helplessly as the sword light drew closer and closer.

"No!"

"Why... why would a prodigy like this be born among the humans..."

"I refuse to accept this!"

Amidst those cries of despair, already expected at this point, the five Divine Emperors were cleaved apart and consumed by the Eternal Swordlight.

Following the death of the five Divine Emperors, Li Pin waved his hand.

In the next moment, seven streams of light tore through the sky and landed in his palm.

These were the Supreme Divine Weapons and Indestructible Matter once belonging to the five Divine Emperors.

Among them, Tian Yu of the Divine Race and Mo Xing of the Star Spirit Clan had each contributed two.

Li Pin remarked, "Supremes usually only carry one or two Supreme Divine Weapons. Those from lesser races might not even have a single one... In that sense, killing Divine Emperors offers a better return than hunting Supremes."

In truth, the five had likely carried more than just these. There should have been quite a few Sovereign-grade and even Pinnacle Cosmic Radiance Divine Weapons among their possessions.

But since they all tried to scatter and flee, chasing each of them down would've taken too much time and effort.

So he struck with greater force from the start, which inevitably led to everything but the Supreme Divine Weapons forged from Indestructible Matter being destroyed.

I'll find a nearby place to enter seclusion and fully digest the insights I gained from Creation Miao Ya's Reincarnation power,

Li Pin thought.

That was also why he hadn't bothered chasing the five down individually.

Creation Miao Ya had left too quickly, cutting short Li Pin's grasp on reincarnation. If their battle had gone on a little longer... he might've achieved full mastery over it, allowing him to shift his focus entirely to the study of karma.

That said...

Reincarnation and karma. Just as matter could be converted into energy, and time and space formed spacetime, reincarnation and karma also shared a deep and mysterious connection.

Now that he had fully comprehended reincarnation, it was only a matter of time until he fully understood karma.

***

Heavenly Emperor Miao Zhuan murmured, "It's... over..."

Heavenly Emperor Ling Hua nodded absentmindedly. "Yes... it's over..."

She knew her words meant nothing, yet she still said them.

Clearly, neither of them had recovered from the battle that had nearly overturned everything they thought they understood.

Heavenly Emperor Ling Hua, in particular. She had long lived within the Abyssal Rift. To her, the rift had always been a lawless place. She had witnessed countless brutal clashes among Cosmic Radiances, Tyrants, Sacred Monarchs, and even Heavenly Emperors, yet even the fiercest energy surges would only affect a range of ten thousand meters at most.

But now, someone had managed to blanket the entire rift with power of their own.

For someone like her, who had spent so long in this place, that moment, where everything within sight was bathed in starlight, felt as if a battlefield within a planet had suddenly been struck by an alien spaceship. One particle of light, wiping out their star.

The shock of it all... utterly shattered the limits of their understanding.

It was this realization that led Emperor Miao Zhuan to say,

"The power of Eternal Oblivion... is gone."

If not for the fact that every Heavenly Emperor had forged their True Spirit and possessed unshakable, powerful wills, that blow alone might have driven them to collapse.

Absolute Control? The Perfect Realm? The Ultimate Realm? That one moment, where the Eternal Oblivion Force was rendered meaningless, had completely overturned what they had believed in for countless years.

The so-called Perfect Realm they had pursued all their lives had just been dismissed like nothing.

Only now did they realize that dedicating their entire lives and cultivation to mastering and refining this Perfect Realm... had been utterly, fundamentally wrong.

Divine Emperor You Ying stood on the battlefield, watching as the five Divine Emperors of the Astral Lord Council were crushed without resistance. A tangle of indescribable emotions stirred within her.

She spoke softly. "I need... some time alone."

She turned and walked into the depths of the palace.

Fortunately, she hadn't yet lost her grip on rational thought. "Ling Hua, see that His Majesty Origin is properly received."

Emperor Ling Hua quickly gathered herself and answered, "Yes."

She felt the urgent need to keep herself busy, because if she didn't... her thoughts might spiral out of control, and her Dao heart could collapse.

Not long after You Ying left, Li Pin stepped through the void and appeared inside You Ying Palace.

To him, the Abyssal Rift, where all rules ceased to exist, now felt no different from the outer edges of the Astral World.

No... it even felt the same as the Material World.

He freely channeled the power of laws, yet not a single trace of the Eternal Oblivion Force stirred in response.

Emperor Ling Hua quickly stepped forward and bowed respectfully. "Welcome! Your Majesty Sovereign Divine Emperor Origin!"

"Your Majesty, with your divine might, you crushed the schemes of the Astral Lord Council and brought great honor to the Human Race. With you among us, it truly feels as though Heaven favors humanity."

Just moments ago, she had spoken to Li Pin as an equal, her tone laced with a hint of pride. But now, the change in her demeanor came with surprising ease.

Perhaps... anyone who had witnessed that reality-shattering battle between Li Pin and the Creation Miao Ya would have reacted the same.

"I only did what needed to be done," Li Pin said with a nod toward Heavenly Emperor Ling Hua. "I gained some insights during the fight that I need to digest. I'd like to enter seclusion here for a while. Please make the arrangements."

At that, Heavenly Emperor Ling Hua felt a faint chill run down her spine.

You... had another breakthrough? Is this the difference between the ruler of an era and ordinary cultivators?

Back in her prime, she too had been hailed as the supreme prodigy of her generation. She had once overshadowed an entire era, leaving countless so-called peerless geniuses struggling beneath her presence, until they finally surrendered the title of supreme prodigy to her.

Despite the tangled emotions swirling inside her, the Heavenly Emperor composed herself quickly and replied softly, "To provide a place of cultivation for you is our honor. Please, this way."

Li Pin gave a slight nod, then turned to glance at Miao Zhuan, Ji Shun, and the others. They looked like they hadn't fully recovered from what they'd just seen.

Then, he followed Heavenly Emperor Ling Hua into the palace.

He had meant to ask where the master of this place, Divine Emperor You Ying, was.

Back then, he had even considered challenging her, just to get a sense of what kind of power a Divine Emperor truly held.

But now... it no longer meant anything, nor did it matter anymore.