Chapter 851: The Leader of the Heretical Gods

The lifeless starry expanse was Heretical God Du Ling's conjured domain.

This illusory domain could well exist somewhere in reality, but what appeared in the Abyss was not its true form. Rather, it was a false domain reconstructed through Du Ling's Dao of Death and his aura of death.

Even so, the pale gray form he refined within that domain had a real chance of transforming into a body of flesh and blood.

As the aura of death drifting through the Fourth World was steadily drawn into this illusory domain, the rotting kingdoms on the drifting celestial bodies grew increasingly real.

The laws were stabilizing, and the Heavenly Dao solidified as the domain neared completion. Du Ling's grotesque body materialized alongside it.

"Still haven't taken form?" Pang Jian smiled at Du Ling's continued silence. "The abysses within the bizarre mist are no place for a heretical God like you. I'm willing to let you go if you voluntarily withdraw your divine power and leave."

The Bronze-Masked God and Long Di had previously told him that the True Gods of the human race were regarded as heretics out in the starry skies.

Any divine beings that the so-called Orthodox Gods from the Hall of Gods did not recognize—be they Nether Gods, True Gods, or Aberrant Spirits—were labeled as heretics and relentlessly suppressed.

Du Ling had once been widely acknowledged as a leader of these heretics.

Pang Jian needed no further evidence to confirm that Du Ling's fall had almost certainly involved the Fu Ya, Sovereign Luo, and the God of Space.

Had Du Ling not attempted his resurrection in the Abyss, Pang Jian would have likely even welcomed it during these tumultuous times.

Du Ling stood like a javelin atop the towering altar of bone, his form still indistinct.

"The Abyss..."

The aura of death radiating from him birthed eerie bone-white flowers, withered trees, decaying corpses, and black gravestones.

A palpable aura of death permeated the continent.

Objects bearing the mark of death gradually took form, plunging the Fourth World of the Abyss into a stifling oppression.

Any creature of flesh and blood in such an environment would find their vitality corroded, swiftly reduced to mere fuel to further power the aura of death.

Pang Jian sneered, unfazed, "Du Ling, you chose the wrong time to appear. Had you manifested like this in the Abyss earlier, likely no one could've stopped you. But now? You're not nearly as terrifying as you once were."

With that, Pang Jian's strange form, forged from blood essence and the Dao of Life, let out a piercing howl.

The divine domain of death became riddled with gaping holes.

Torrents of blood surged through those holes, flooding Du Ling's divine domain of death, spreading streaks of crimson across the desolate starry expanse. Pang Jian's Dao of Life twisted the fabric of Du Ling's divine domain, shaking its foundations.

Thick, vine-like veins brimming with vitality coursed through Pang Jian's strange form. Metallic chimes rang out as his bones shifted and interlocked, like iron striking jade.

Forging a unique body of flesh and blood from blood essence was no longer a difficult task after grasping the profound truths of the mysteries of life.

That ancient ape could summon long-deceased Fey Gods using his blood essence. The Black Empyrean Phoenix could give rise to one Fey Race after another within the Abyss using the Bloodline Repository. Pang Ling could give rise to forests using her seeds.

All of this fell within the domain of the Dao of Life.

Pang Jian had not entered Du Ling's divine domain of death on impulse. Rather, he had realized that his mastery over the three branches of the Dao of Life was enough to put him on equal footing with this Heretical God!

The Abyss was his home ground, and he knew it would lend him its strength.

Moreover, he still resonated with the Dao Sources of both the Dao of Metal and the Dao of Soul.

The will of the Abyss would never allow a Sovereign of Death to be born from the extinction of its inhabitants. This knowledge eased Pang Jian's concerns, allowing him to maintain his composure.

"Abyss..." Du Ling muttered in a strange cadence, ignoring Pang Jian's taunts. "Guidance...death..."

The lifeless starry expanse resonated with various outer worlds. Everything in those distant worlds was withered away, steeped in the aura of death.

This aura of death descended from the starry skies!

Du Ling's blurry figure solidified.

He was a handsome man in gray robes with white hair and a white beard.

A dense aura of death radiated from his slightly gaunt body. His meridians were physical manifestations of the Dao of Death, and his flesh held no trace of vitality, only terrifying techniques that transformed vitality into the aura of death.

Like Pang Jian, this was not Du Ling's true body.

His eyes fluttered open, flickering with a hint of clarity as he glanced over Pang Jian.

Looking beyond the bounds of his divine domain, he took in the vast landmass of the Fourth World, sensing the deaths of the Wood Race there.

"To my knowledge, no high-ranking God is supposed to be able to exist within the Abyss—at least, not in my era. The human race of the Abyss truly is peculiar."

Du Ling's pupils shifted through several colors before settling into a pale gray.

"A World Tree."

His attention swept toward Pang Ling.

"You've merged two rare and extraordinary branches of the Dao of Life into that young World Tree. Very good. You'll help accelerate my revival. I need to draw upon vast vitality to return."

Du Ling had previously hunted down and killed the World Tree in the Darkcloud Realm to use for his future resurrection. The Dao of Death he cultivated included a bizarre resurrection technique that required an abundant source of vitality as its foundation, and that World Tree had been exactly what he needed.

Knowing he would face endless obstructions on his path to becoming a Sovereign, he had left himself a contingency. Thus, he treated that World Tree as the key to his resurrection and secretly imprinted it with his mark of death.

As it turned out, his foresight had been correct. The so-called Orthodox Gods had persecuted him during his ascension, and he had indeed fallen.

Many years later, a new World Tree found its way to the remains of the old one, triggering his hidden mark of death and opening the path to his resurrection.

Critically, this resurrection did not occur in the starry skies beyond but in the Abyss, a place even Sovereigns struggled to influence!

Who can stop my resurrection now? This human before me?

Disdain flickered in Du Ling's eyes.

"Junior, did you know that some of your True Gods once came to beg me when they had nowhere else to turn?

"Do you know why they were so determined to destroy the Hall of Gods? And why the Sovereigns happened to be absent at the time?

"When I was alive, I commanded countless Heretical Outer Gods. My foundation was no weaker than the Sovereigns'. I merely lacked the authority of one!

"Had I become one, the Heretical Outer Gods would have had a guiding pillar. I would have welcomed the exiled True Gods into my fold. We could've destroyed the Hall of Gods together and turned the so-called Heretical Outer Gods into Orthodox Gods.

"Junior, why are you stopping me instead of doing everything in your power to help me? It's just a World Tree. So what if it's sacrificed?" Du Ling persuaded.

His eloquence and conviction were hard to argue against.

Even Pang Jian found himself swayed by his reasoning.

"You know the reason the True Gods destroyed the Hall of Gods?" Pang Jian asked. "Let's hear it then."

Even the Bronze-Masked God did not know the truth. No one could understand why those True Gods had sacrificed their futures to tear down the Hall of Gods.

"I'll tell you everything once I've resurrected."

The altar of bones, the tangible manifestations of the Dao of Death, and the divine domain as a whole continued to siphon the aura of death from the outer worlds.

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The starry regions he had tainted with death had remained lifeless for tens of thousands of years, the aura of death still lingering to this day, allowing him to draw endlessly from them.