Chapter 974: The Perished Dao Sources

The Bee Sovereign was speaking to the Dao Source of Metal, the bronze continent at the bottom of the Abyss.

He had sensed a strange sentient will from the massive World God Pendant and realized that the primordial Dao Source, born at the dawn of existence, was indirectly taking part in the battle.

Yi Hao's temporal seal held the miraculous power to imprison everything. As a tangible, material existence, the Dao Source of Metal would have normally been bound.

The only thing capable of moving within the temporal seal was the soul. Only a consciousness of a higher dimension could retain its own will when time and space were locked in place.

In other words, only the Dao Source of Soul could remain unaffected by the temporal-spatial restriction, its spirit still able to exert its power.

The Bee Sovereign mused in silence before attempting to establish a connection with Pang Jian.

His will entered Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul, where he beheld suns, moons, and stars in a sea of gray mist. It was as though Pang Jian had absorbed the bizarre mist into his body.

Strange crystalline mountains loomed within, each infused with marvels like lightning, icy currents, or unfathomable darkness.

The mountains within Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul shone with the majesty of a Divine Persona. Fragments of Pang Jian's soul sat enthroned on the crystalline peaks, like divine beings presiding over their domains.

As the Bee Sovereign wandered through Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul, he was astonished to see five viscera, each encompassing one of the five elements—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—drifting across the sea of gray mist like five boundless worlds.

Each world brimmed with the essence of the Heavenly Daos and radiated the unmistakable fluctuation of a Dao Source. More of Pang Jian's soul fragments could be seen reigning over its corresponding world as a supreme deity.

Pang Jian used the profound truths of the five elements to condense his organs into worlds. He then had fragments of his soul rule over them.

The Metal-element world of his lungs carries the aura of the Dao Source of Metal, as though repeatedly tempered within its essence.

The world of his heart, corresponding with Fire, blazes with flames of utmost purity. Moreover, the soul governing it appears to draw directly from the Dao Source of Fire.

God King Yan Hao once refined bizarre flames and even gathered the remnants of the Dao Source of Fire...

The Bee Sovereign's thoughts raced. He grew increasingly shocked with every marvel he saw in Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul.

Many of the primordial Dao Sources, born at the dawn of existence, had been destroyed in the clash between the two supreme wills, or else refined by mighty God Kings.

As the Dao Sources had slowly vanished, the two supreme wills grew stronger.

Sovereigns and God Kings alike would refine Dao Sources, both shattered and whole, hoping to either ascend or to increase their might.

Those Sovereigns and God Kings would eventually perish in battles, their remains scattering into the starry skies or sinking into the bizarre mist.

Dao Sources that lacked sentience were nothing more than natural manifestations of the Heavenly Daos. Regardless, the Gods of the starry skies and the bizarre mist viewed them as priceless treasures of ascension, indispensable keys to higher realms.

Gods of the various races, born through the two supreme wills, would follow the paths laid down for them toward godhood, only to either perish in battle or succumb to the perils of the restricted areas.

Even without a grand event, the Gods of the starry skies and the bizarre mist remained locked in ceaseless slaughter, further divided between the righteous and the heretics. Through this endless struggle, near-immortal Sovereigns would emerge, then eventually, peerless God Kings.

By the time a God King appeared, it was usually time for the world-shaking grand event to occur. Sovereigns and God Kings alike would then either fall in battle or disappear without a trace.

The Dao Sources they had refined and fused with ultimately returned to the starry skies or bizarre mist upon their death.

Thus, Dao Sources inevitably dwindled in number, while the two supreme wills continued to grow stronger. Each new God that rose also achieved ever-greater power as a result.

The Dao Sources that vanished with the fall of Sovereigns and God Kings never appeared again.

Despite this, when the Bee Sovereign gazed into Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul, he discerned traces of those long-gone Dao Sources within his five viscera.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The presence of the Dao Source of Metal was reasonable, as it was still intact. However, the Dao Source of Fire had disappeared along with Yan Hao. It no longer existed. The fact that Pang Jian's heart flickered with unmistakable traces of the Dao Source of Fire defied all logic. Furthermore, the Dao Sources of Water, Wood, and Earth could also be sensed in his other three viscera.

As the Bee Sovereign pondered in silence, several names came to mind: God King Yan Hao, God King Cang Miao, Sovereign Xi Lin, and Sovereign Hou Tu.

Yan Hao, born in the starry skies, had waged war upon the bizarre mist with his Nine Suns Strikes the Heavens. In the end, he perished in the bizarre mist, with his skull becoming the Ruin Realm.

Cang Miao, a God King of the Sea Race, ascended through the Dao of Water. Upon becoming a Sovereign, he gathered the essence of the Dao Source of Water from countless rivers and great torrents before ultimately ascending as a God King. He, too, launched a campaign against the bizarre mist and, like Yan Hao, met his end there.

Xi Lin and Hou Tu were both born in the bizarre mist, one of the Wood Race and the other of the Rock Race. Together, they led a campaign against the starry skies. Unfortunately, overcome by the combined might of the Outer Gods, they were eventually defeated, with their bodies sinking into the bizarre mist.

In their time as Sovereigns, Xi Lin and Hou Tu scoured worlds and abysses in search of the Dao Sources of Wood and Earth, but only ever managed to secure fragmented remains.

The pair had died before collecting all the pieces of their respective Dao Sources, but what they had gathered seemed to have manifested within Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul, as though fused into him.

Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul, saturated with gray mist, held traces of vanished Dao Sources not only within his viscera but also in his crystalline bones, stars, suns, and moons.

The Dao Sources were supposed to have vanished with the Sovereigns and God Kings who refined them. Yet, they had reappeared in Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul, persisting beyond their fall.

Lives were extinguished, but the Dao Sources were preserved. Even so, the Dao Sources didn't reveal themselves before, so why are they now blazing forth in abundance within Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul?

The Bee Sovereign's gaze grew profound. Turning toward God King Yi Hao, he caught the traces of other Dao Sources in the silver eye as well.

Those two supreme wills have been hunting the Dao Sources!

They have no vessels of their own and can only rely on their creations to ascend and eventually refine the Dao Sources!

They then set these Sovereigns and God Kings on each other in eternal wars that inevitably end with their falls. With that, the supreme wills can claim the refined Dao Sources and harvest them for their own advancement!