Chapter 969: Exalted God!

The space around Pang Jian, previously torn apart by Yi Hao's raging storm, was restored in the blink of an eye. Stars shone brightly across the starry region, with two blazing suns and three flawless moons hanging high above.

Pang Jian hovered serenely above the God King's skull as the seemingly infinite energies in the starry region poured unceasingly into the Immortal Divine Soul in his sea of consciousness.

Suns, moons, and stars manifested in the chest of his Immortal Divine Soul.

Rolling tides of Faith, interwoven with his will, crystallized into spectral spirit bodies before descending upon the stars, suns, and moons. Some even coiled above his crystalline bones—which gleamed with lightning, frost, and demonic energy—and his five elemental viscera.

Everything in his Immortal Divine Soul had transformed into crystalline platforms for these spirit bodies, mirroring the divine platforms of the Outer Gods.

Spirit bodies resting upon divine platforms, each a God in its own right.

These spirit bodies, each a fragment of his own soul, were like Gods presiding over a Heavenly Dao. They sat upon their respective platforms, comprehending profound mysteries of the Heavenly Daos—a mix of low-ranking, mid-ranking, and high-ranking Gods alike.

His Immortal Divine Soul became like a miniature cosmos, a self-contained starry expanse. The soul fragments each became divine beings, dwelling in the suns, moons, stars, the five elemental viscera, and the crystalline bones.

Their reign within Pang Jian's body mirrored the hierarchy laid out across the starry skies.

The Exalted God Realm is the realm where one becomes a God ruling over themselves!

Exalted God!

Pang Jian's prismatic Immortal Divine Soul slowly rose from his Divine Persona. Glancing down, he felt he could command his Divine Persona and Sovereign body at will. Governing his own body was no different from commanding the many Gods within his Immortal Divine Soul. His rule was effortless and absolute.

The Exalted God Realm means ruling over oneself and also the Outer Gods! This realm's conception is incomparably lofty, its ambition boundless!

Reaching out, he sensed that the Rank Thirteen World Tree, the black turtle, the Black Dragon King, Yuan Qi, and the Ice Armor Eel Dragon were all similarly subject to his Immortal Divine Soul's dominion.

As an Exalted God, he could subjugate any number of beings!

Pang Jian attempted to rouse his strength. The many divine beings within his Immortal Divine Soul started to draw in the vast energies in the starry region, rapidly becoming tangible and real, each enthroned upon a unique divine platform.

My Exalted God Realm is taking shape!

Pang Jian let out a deep exhale to compose himself.

At the same time, he could not help but glance over at Luo Hongyan.

Far in the distance, Luo Hongyan stood amid waves of alternating light and darkness, fixing a cold look at the neutralized Yi Hao.

Yi Hao's furious rebuke had not stirred even the slightest ripple in her heart. The Sovereign of Fate's words held no sway over her.

"Revere it?" A soft, derisive laugh escaped Luo Hongyan's mouth. "That supreme will is barren of emotion. It sees everything and everyone as the same as itself—nothing but empty husks. It is the true aberration. And yet you choose to obey it."

Luo Hongyan's wings, eyes, and even her heart swirled with intertwining flows of light and darkness. Worlds of light and darkness rose and collapsed around her, plunged into darkness or illuminated in day with but a single thought.

She wielded dominion over both light and darkness, a supreme deity with a core steeped in emotion. That vessel of humanity within her was none other than the crimson-clad Luo Hongyan from the Abyss, with her seven emotions and six desires[1].

"Its grand design was to rule the starry heavens using emotionless Gods—a strategy most suited to its nature.

"Those who look upon mortals with cold indifference, never sparing a thought for the lives of their believers, will only ever care for themselves. Tell me, is having such Gods truly a blessing for the living?

"Yi Hao, you choose to bow your head as its slave—its dog. But that's your choice, not ours. In my eyes, you're less than Fu Ya, less than Tian Yu, less than any Sovereign bold enough to defy fate itself!"

Her words tore into Yi Hao's mind like sharpened blades. Beneath that defiance, she was still actively suppressing the will of the starry skies. She resisted the crushing tide with her fragile humanity.

The storm in her heart folded back into a quiet breeze, and her gaze shifted to Pang Lin.

"Why?" she asked. "What will you gain? You abandoned your phoenix body to complete me, so Pang Jian could ascend to the Exalted God Realm, but you seem to have received nothing at all."

Luo Hongyan simply could not make sense of Pang Lin's decision. Nevertheless, the fact that Pang Lin helped her against that supreme will was enough for her hostility to lessen greatly.

Even so, doubt still gnawed at her.

Why does she insist on weaving a bridal robe for others to wear?[

ref]Weaving a bridal robe for others to wear is a Chinese idiom. It meant to put in effort, make sacrifices, or build achievements, but ultimately let someone else enjoy the credit, benefit, or glory.[/ref]

"Why?" Pang Lin smiled. "Perhaps because I refuse to be fooled and enslaved again. Hongyan, you've become a Sovereign and endured the agony of having it tug on your Divine Persona this one time.

"I, however, have suffered it many times."

Memories flooded the river of recollection in Pang Lin's heart.

"I fell over and over again, with it being the mastermind behind every collapse!

"I crossed paths with the will of the bizarre mist long ago. I aided the True Gods of the human race in destroying the Hall of Gods!

"The True Gods of the human race could not have possibly destroyed it had I not summoned all of us away. Had even one Sovereign remained to guard the Hall of Gods, they would have failed.

"That was my token of allegiance to the will of the bizarre mist."

Pang Lin's lilting voice echoed across the starry region and carried deep into the abysses.

The older generation of True Gods like Lin Baixiang and Mu Qingya trembled as they listened, finally grasping how their predecessors had been able to destroy the Hall of Gods.

Back then, the human race had not yet given rise to an Exalted God. They had no one capable of contending against a Sovereign. By all logic, it was an impossible feat.

Having the aid of the Black Empyrean Phoenix, however, was a different matter entirely.

The Black Empyrean Phoenix, the strongest among the Sovereigns before her fall, had lured the other Sovereigns from the Hall of Gods under the guise of negotiations in the forbidden region of the starry skies. She then secretly severed their connection to the Hall of Gods and informed the True Gods of the secret to its destruction.

"So, strictly speaking, the human race of the Abyss didn't bring down the Hall of Gods," Pang Lin calmly revealed. "I did. I gained recognition from the will of the bizarre mist precisely because I aided it in secret.

"That's also why I could survive in the bizarre mist after your ambush, even without becoming a God King through the Dao Source of Darkness.

"As for why I didn't become a God King, the grand event had not yet arrived, and you had not yet gathered and refined the Dao Source of Light.

"If I became a God King, I would have become nothing more than a vessel for its descent. Would it not have been better to vanish silently into the Abyss and wait for the grand event to arrive?

"They laid down the rules. If we are to contend with them, we need to plan far, far ahead. I only hope that you're prepared."

Unlike Yi Hao, Pang Lin held no reverence for the two supreme wills.

She felt no need to follow one with unwavering conviction. Instead, she alternated between both sides, striking bargains and switching allegiances as it suited her. The ability to do that was what marked her as a level above Yi Hao and the other Sovereigns.

"You regard yourself as their equal?" Luo Hongyan whispered, shaken to the core.

She had never once considered herself on par with them, not even after fusing the Daos of Light and Darkness into one and ascending as a God King with the strength to resist the will of the starry skies.

Meanwhile, Pang Lin—or rather, the Black Empyrean Phoenix—had roamed freely between the two, never truly submitting to either.

1. 七情六欲 is a classical Chinese expression referring to the seven emotions and six desires, encompassing the full spectrum of human feelings and worldly cravings. The seven emotions are joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, and desire, while the six desires arise from the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, manifesting as attachment to the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, along with thoughts. ☜