Chapter 821: Fleeting Humanity

The Heaven Ascension Tribulation Array spanned the entire Abyss, and Pang Jian was its irreplaceable core! His Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea and the harmony between his dantian and the Abyss were the very foundation required to activate the Heaven Ascension Tribulation Array!

Only now did he realize what was going on!

So you're trying to use my body to continue suppressing the Black Empyrean Phoenix through the Heaven Ascension Tribulation Array? Was leaving the chest here your backup plan all along?

Pang Jian questioned Sovereign Luo as she began to control him.

Your limited perspective is your shortcoming. Your cultivation realm is still too low.

The true body of Sovereign Luo in the starry skies responded with a calm smile, her voice tinged with something almost like human emotion.

Pang Jian, you bear remarkable treasures, but you're still blind to their wonders. You've failed to grasp what the previous World God left you.

With regards to your artifacts and your cultivation...you're still too ignorant.

From the starry sky high above the world within the chest, a radiant figure of immense grandeur unhurriedly revealed itself.

Bathed in a blinding brilliance, her tall and elegant body unfurled a pair of immaculate white wings behind her. Those shimmering wings spread wide, eclipsing stars, veiling the sun and moon alike.

Whenever she revealed her true body, the sun, moon, and stars would all pale in comparison as if she were the embodiment of light itself.

Everyone in the vast Abyss could sense her presence without even looking up.

Not only in the Abyss, but across the Shadow, Thunder, and Nether Abysses, powerful beings sensed her presence as the dark sky blazed with light.

The powerful beings of the various Abysses instantly recognized the power of the Sovereign who wielded the power of light, and knew that she was unleashing her might from the starry skies beyond.

Within the Nether Abyss, Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul burst out from a sacred hall, hovering in the void.

"I lost connection with my physical body after it entered the Heaven-Earth Cosmos Chest!"

When he lifted his gaze, he too saw that vast, radiant source of light—a towering divine being, cloaked in brilliance, whose countless wings stretched wide through the void.

"It's Sovereign Luo!"

Long Di and Bai Zi flew out of the sacred hall too, shaken by the unavoidable light in the starry skies above.

Long Di, ever proud and self-assured, had been convinced that he could stand against even a Sovereign with the will of the Nether Abyss behind him. But now, bitterness rose in his heart as he beheld that overwhelming brilliance.

He finally realized that he had been lying to himself all along. If a being like Sovereign Luo or the God of Wisdom descended upon the Nether Abyss personally, he would not even last a single exchange.

"The direction she's looking toward should be the Abyss." Pang Jian drew in a deep breath. He tried to silently connect with his physical body, but no matter how he reached out, there was no response. "She's still not giving up!"

Bai Zi gasped. "Are you the reason behind her strange behavior?!"

Pang Jian's darkened. "Almost certainly."

***

In the Abyss.

"Immortal Divine Soul...

"The Soulstream...

"Luan Ji, Fa Ji, He Motian...

"Black turtle, Xiao Hei, Pang Ling..."

Within the small world inside the Heaven-Earth Cosmos Chest, a faint ripple stirred in Pang Jian's Divine Persona, setting off waves across his sea of consciousness. Pang Jian capitalized on the opportunity with great effort and attempted to spread his will outward and retake control of his body.

Despite his best efforts, his physical body was ablaze with radiant light; his consciousness could not breach the walls of the chest.

The artifact known as the Heaven-Earth Cosmos Chest had fallen utterly under the Sovereign Luo's control. He could no longer leverage the chest in the slightest. The presences and locations he had once been able to sense with ease were now completely beyond reach.

You're wasting your energy.

Sovereign Luo laughed softly, her derision echoing through his sea of consciousness.

I'm merely borrowing your body to suppress that Black Empyrean Phoenix. Hindering her path of nirvanic rebirth is good for the human race, wouldn't you say?

Another surge of light poured down from the void within the chest.

As the greatest light source within the chest, Pang Jian's body suddenly radiated an even more blinding radiance. That radiance condensed into visible arcs of spectral lightning, imbued with the profound mysteries of the sun, moon, and stars. All the insights he had comprehended into the Dao of Light, imprinted within his Divine Persona and dantian, were amplified by Sovereign Luo's divine power.

Condensations of pure light and no larger than fingernails began to crystallize out of thin air within the miniature world inside the chest. Upon closer inspection, the crystals resembled the fragment of the Divine Persona of Light that had once resided within Sovereign Luo's vessel.

Before Sovereign Luo's vessel had been destroyed, Pang Jian had condensed a black-canopied ferry with his divine sense to carry away the shattered fragments of her four Divine Persona. In the process, he had absorbed many insights into the Dao of Life and the Dao of Cold.

After the Divine Personas of Light and Death had been destroyed, Pang Jian assumed that the fragments of those two Divine Personas had completely vanished from his body.

He bitterly realized that he had been too naive. He now understood that if something had ever manifested within him, it would not simply disappear without a trace. It was only a matter of when Sovereign Luo chose to make use of it.

Such was the case now.

As Sovereign Luo poured her divine power into Pang Jian, using his physical body to activate the Heaven Ascension Tribulation Array, the light that was buried in obscurity flickered back to life.

More and more crystals of pure brilliance emerged, each one drifting through the miniature world within the chest like stars scattered across the starry skies.

Shine,

Sovereign Luo commanded softly from the lofty starry skies beyond.

The hundreds of thousands of radiant crystals devoured the light pouring from Pang Jian and the celestial bodies above him. Surging with energy, they revealed their astonishing power within the chest.

The copper chest slowly rose to the sky of Eight Trigrams City. Light first poured from the Heaven Ascension Tribulation Pillar, then from the Fifth Continent. Finally, the entire Fifth World lit up.

The Heaven Ascension Tribulation Pillars, and the continents that bore them, became vast fountains of light. The Fifth World, long cloaked in gloom, now burned with the brilliance of a midday sun.

The Fifth World had never outshone the worlds above before. Not until today.

Today, the Abyss seemed to have turned upside down. It was as if the Fifth World had become the blazing sun within the starry skies that the other Worlds basked in.

The incursion of murky energy now plummeted downward with astonishing speed, withdrawing faster and faster with every passing moment. In no time, the murky energy vanished entirely from the Third World, and more than half had already dissipated from the Fourth World.

The murky energy, which had taken ages to surge into the upper worlds, was abruptly thrown into disarray the moment the Heaven Ascension Tribulation Array revealed its true might.

***

"What's going on?"

The Celestial Race's Yu Xin, the Demon Scale Race's Xuan Ying, and many other foreign race warriors had just been forced back into the Fifth World. Disoriented and discontent, they gazed into the distance toward the fifth Heaven Ascension Tribulation Pillar. Their eyes were fixed on the enormous copper chest and the brilliance glowing along the pillar's body.

The seven Heaven Ascension Tribulation Pillars were originally forged to suppress the ascension of foreign races, barring them from the upper worlds for all of time. They would never have thought that the pillars could also forcibly reverse the flow of murky energy.

After Luo Hongyan perished, the laws of the Abyss began to shift, and the Fey Race entered a period of resurgence. What they call murky energy is actually the residual divine power leaking from the remains of that Sovereign of the Fey Race.

The rising of the murky energy reflects her will and her efforts to push the Fey Race to prominence.

If it's now sinking instead, doesn't that mean she may not have truly seized control over the Abyss after all?

Xuan Ying fell into deep thought. After pondering for a moment, she used her demonic blade to send a message to the Great Demon Gods.

There's been another upheaval in the Abyss. It seems Pang Jian has entered one of the Heaven Ascension Tribulation Pillars and caused the rising murky energy to sink back into the lower worlds...

She reported her findings meticulously, leaving nothing out, and waited quietly. Soon enough, she received a response from the Great Demon Gods.

A foreign will echoed from the demonic blade.

From this moment on, you may regard Pang Jian as one of us, one of the Demon Gods. Treat him as you would He Motian, or you would me, Luan Ji. No further hostility is permitted.

Xuan Ying's face froze. In stunned disbelief, she communicated back,

Treat him as a Great Demon God?

That's right. Treat him as you would any Great Demon God. We treat He Motian of the Titan Race as one of us, and we will do the same with Pang Jian.

Luan Ji's voice brooked no dissent.

Regardless of origin, so long as one walks the Dao of Demon and can achieve mastery in that path, they are one of our own.

This was the rule set by Lord Demonheaven. We have abided by it from the beginning, and we will continue to do so. All you need to do is follow our lead.

Xuan Ying bowed her head. After a long silence, she nodded and immersed her divine sense into the demonic blade.

Understood.