Chapter 885: Refining Firmament

"Pang Jian!"

The World Gods and the Duke of Thunder were in shock when Pang Jian reappeared in the Ruin Realm despite having lost his World God Pendants.

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

The three blazing suns behind Pang Jian radiated fierce heat that seemed to set the entire Ruin Realm ablaze. Their scorching heat caused the vitality being nurtured within the stars and continents to wither away.

Ling Yun, the ancient God of Life, sought to unleash the full might of his divine power and create new life within the Ruin Realm itself. The new life born in the Ruin Realm would all revere him as the supreme creator.

God King Yan Hao's residual divine power and divine consciousness, left behind in the skull, would naturally flow into these new lives. Entirely new races could be born, ones even surpassing the Spirit Race, Celestial Race, Demon Races, and Fey Race.

Ling Yun planned to use this feat to force his way back into Sovereignhood and dreamed of surpassing his previous peak before his fall.

Then, Pang Jian returned with his three blazing suns. Their fierce solar radiance illuminated the entire Ruin Realm as Pang Jian channeled the Sun-Refining Art.

Those three dazzling suns started greedily devouring the energies within the Ruin Realm. The already large suns visibly swelled and grew at a speed visible to the naked eye!

"The Sun-Refining Art was Yan Hao's greatest divine technique." Wrapped in the pitch-black cloak and hovering above the Divine Court of Thunder, Pang Jian smiled. "I wield a power that aligns with the God King's Dao. Your Dao, on the other hand—your mastery over the Dao of Life—doesn't fall within his domain."

"I'm on the verge of advancing to high-ranking godhood!" the Duke of Thunder suddenly growled from within the Thunder Pool.

"Let me help you with that," Pang Jian replied with a brilliant smile, eyes locking onto his World God Pendant floating before Ling Yun.

A streak of multicolored light flared from between his brows.

Radiant colors rippled like flowing water across the surface of the World God Pendant of the Abyss.

Ling Yun had been in the middle of casting a technique that connected each abyss, intending to draw power from the surviving abysses through the pendants and gather the seeds of life from every race.

However, Pang Jian's return to the Ruin Realm thoroughly foiled this plan.

Ling Yun could feel both the Ruin Realm and the World God Pendants slipping out of his control.

The stars, sun, and moon in the desolate starry region outside still looked dim and lifeless.

At the same time, in the Ruin Realm, stars appeared on the surface of the demonic cloak that draped over Pang Jian's body. It was as if Pang Jian had drawn the boundless energies of the real sun, moon, and stars outside and funneled them into the cloak.

The demonic cloak spread out over the Ruin Realm, becoming its new firmament.

This new "sky" appeared even darker and deeper than before. In it were towering ancient Demon Gods, treading on suns and moons with stars coiled at their waists, as if stepping straight out of the distant past.

Below, Fa Ji's eyes were filled with astonishment as he felt the shift.

"A Demon Realm!"

This Demon Realm seethed with demonic thoughts and evil intent, the vast "sky" transforming the various energies in the Ruin Realm into pure demonic energy.

Pang Jian, with three blazing suns hovering behind him, appeared to have become akin to a supreme Demon God. The Demon Gods rising from the sea of demonic energy seemed to be nothing more than manifestations of his power and will.

A grin stretched across Pang Jian's face. "All the energies in the starry skies can be transformed."

At that moment, he finally understood the true purpose of the barriers in the abysses.

The barriers did not just seal their inhabitants in. They also drew in energies from the starry skies, converting them into something that their inhabitants could use to grow stronger.

For most of the abysses, the energies that were drawn in and refined remained similar to those of the starry region above. Meanwhile, the barriers of the Nether Abyss and the Abyss refined the energies outside into neutral, attribute-free spiritual qi. This allowed the human race and the Nether Race to absorb them directly into their bodies without repeated cycles of purification.

The inky-black "sky" formed from the demonic cloak functioned like one of those barriers. As it devoured the myriad energies within the Ruin Realm, it converted them into demonic energy, expanding the reach of the Demon Domain and greatly increasing the power at Pang Jian's disposal.

At the same time, the three blazing suns continued to draw in God King Yan Hao's lingering solar radiance and roaring rivers of flame.

The Outer Gods outside watched as the blazing balls of fire in the eye sockets of the massive crimson skull quietly dissipated. The skull's mouth also lost its ability to draw in energies from the starry skies.

The threat the God King's skull posed to the Outer Gods had disappeared!

On the yellow star, the four Great Demon Gods watched as that massive skull settled back into a strange realm encased in a transparent membrane as before.

"Ling Yun, the will of the bizarre mist abandoned you the moment you failed. No matter how hard you struggle or how much you scheme, that fact will never change. Stop wasting your time," Pang Jian said with a shake of his head.

Pang Jian's divine sense spread out, colliding with Ling Yun's Dao of Life within the stars and continents.

His divine power transformed into blinding blades, each carrying Yan Hao's profound understanding of the Dao of Sun and the Dao of Fire. They clearly held the upper hand in the clash against Ling Yun's Dao of Life.

The Ruin Realm was, at its core, still Yan Hao's skull. Thus, Yan Hao's Dao naturally received an immense boost within it.

It did not take long for Pang Jian's divine power and divine sense to completely overwhelm the Dao of Life that Ling Yun had buried within the Ruin Realm.

Control of the Ruin Realm firmly shifted from Ling Yun to Pang Jian.

"Sink," Pang Jian willed.

The humongous Ruin Realm plunged downward, meeting the rapidly rising bizarre mist and swiftly vanishing into its boundless gray depths.

Pang Jian felt a faint, indistinct presence as the Ruin Realm entered the bizarre mist. It was as if the will of the bizarre mist was praising his actions, recognizing the return of the God King's skull as a significant deed.