Chapter 315: Emperor War! Qin Feng's Divine Path Astonishes the World! The Gaze of Khorne

Chapter 315: Imperial War! Qin Feng’s Divine Path Shocks the World! The Gaze of Khorne!

At the exit of the Island of Dead Meteors.

Compared to the faint, cruel, and expectant confidence radiating from the Allied Forces of the Myriad Races, the atmosphere within the Human camp was exceptionally tense, heavy, and even fraught with an indescribable anxiety.

"Is there still no news?"

A King-ranked powerhouse clad in crimson armor, his entire being seemingly ablaze with endless battle intent, could not help but speak first, his voice thick with irrepressible impatience. "What is the situation inside the Island of Dead Meteors right now?

Our communications with the interior have been completely blocked by those bastards of the Myriad Races using the [Myriad Worlds Isolation Array]!"

Beside him, a King-ranked warrior with a calmer temperament, his eyes appearing to hold the birth and death of billions of stars, shook his head, his voice low: "It is impossible to detect.

The last piece of intelligence we possessed was the message the Lord of Extremity forcibly sent in thirty thousand years ago by activating the [Myriad Worlds Knowledge Talisman].

He told Marquis Qingtian and the others in the inner island that the Myriad Races had dispatched the six strongest Divine Prohibitions under the Prism Emperor, coordinating with a million-strong elite army of the Necro and Machine races to lay a net from which there is no escape. He warned them that the situation on the outer island was critical, urging them to abandon it, hold the inner island, and wait for a turning point after thirty thousand years."

As these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the main control room grew even more oppressive.

Six peak Domain Lord-level Divine Prohibitions, a million-strong elite army.

And left behind on the outer island at that time were only the ten thousand human soldiers led by Azure Wolf, and... that young man, a mere Black Hole-level, in whom they had placed such high hopes.

"That child, Qin Feng..."

King Heaven-Swallower stood with his hands behind his back.

He gazed at the deep, swirling vortex, his brows furrowed, his eyes filled with complex emotions.

There was worry, and there was expectation.

He was Qin Feng’s master; he knew better than anyone present just how monstrous his disciple was.

But he was equally aware of the desperate, hopeless trap Qin Feng was facing.

"He went in to break the deadlock. This is the path he chose for himself, and it is the shared expectation of all the great powers of the Holy Academy."

King Heaven-Swallower’s voice was very soft, as if speaking to himself. "However, facing a lineup like that, he..."

He did not continue.

Every powerhouse present understood the unspoken words.

The prerequisite for breaking a deadlock is possessing the power to overturn the chessboard.

And at that time, Qin Feng had the potential, but not the strength.

"The Lord of Extremity once performed a divination."

Another King-ranked powerhouse, white-haired and bearded, holding an ancient star map, spoke slowly, his voice carrying the wisdom of one who perceives all things. "There are two solutions to this predicament.

First, in that desperate situation, Qin Feng fathoms life and death, realizes his own path, and amidst the myriad armies, breaks through against the tide to ascend to a true Domain Lord.

If he can achieve this, then relying on his unfathomable 'Extreme' foundation, once he enters the Domain Lord rank, he could sweep away the Divine Prohibitions.

At that moment, what would emerge from that vortex would be him and our complete human army, and the Myriad Races would be slaughtered by his hand alone."

Hearing this possibility, a flicker of burning hope flashed in the eyes of the Kings present, but the light quickly dimmed.

It was too difficult.

To achieve a breakthrough under the siege of a million troops and six Divine Prohibitions?

It was incredibly, impossibly hard.

In fact, if not for Qin Feng possessing a Machine Race avatar to gather intelligence, coupled with the restrictions on mental power within the Island of Dead Meteors, he would likely have been surrounded and killed long ago.

"And the second?"

The previously mentioned crimson-armored King asked urgently.

The King-ranked holder of the star map sighed: "Second, if he fails to break into the Domain Lord rank... then it is hard to say. The Lord of Extremity’s divination resulted in chaos, filled with variables.

However, he believes that the child Qin Feng has many means of self-preservation and a meticulous mind; even if the attempt to break the deadlock fails, he would not necessarily fall inside.

The greatest possibility is that he will use some trump card unknown to us to shed his skin like a cicada and escape alone."

This outcome left everyone in silence.

If Qin Feng escaped alone, it would mean that Marquis Qingtian and the one hundred and twenty other Marquises within the Island of Dead Meteors, along with the ten thousand human soldiers on the outer island, would be completely wiped out.

The human race would lose this top-tier secret realm battle that had lasted for hundreds of thousands of years, suffering a devastating blow.

And at this moment, the key to determining the final outcome was held by that vortex about to open.

Would the one emerging from it be a human hero who had created a myth and returned with his comrades intact, or the Allied Forces of the Myriad Races, parading in triumph, laden with the corpses and spoils of human heroes?

This answer would directly determine the final direction of the war here, and might even influence the strategic posture of the human race and the Myriad Races across the entire cosmic battlefield for tens of thousands of years to come.

The waiting became agonizing.

Every minute, every second, felt infinitely stretched.

The cold and dead silence of the universe seemed as if it would freeze and extinguish the flame of hope in everyone’s hearts, bit by bit.

...

Meanwhile, at the core of the Allied Forces of the Myriad Races, the atmosphere was much more relaxed.

The wills of several Emperors, radiating immortal divine might, were communicating.

"Prism, you seem a bit too nervous."

A thought wave filled with decay and death fluctuated; it was Emperor Yuantu of the Necro race. "For a mere Black Hole-level junior, you have caused us, along with 'Zero' of the Machine race, three Emperors to descend in person, and even mobilized nearly half of our elite legions.

Such a formation would be more than enough to surround and kill a newly ascended Emperor."

"What do you know."

The will of Emperor Prism transformed into a brilliant humanoid light, his voice devoid of emotion, yet carrying an indisputable arrogance and determination. "That human named Qin Feng is different.

His growth trajectory has already exceeded the bounds of reason.

I used a cosmic artifact to enter the Island of Dead Meteors and witnessed with my own eyes him triggering the 'Nine-Colored Divine Thunder' Dao Tribulation.

That rating signifies that he has stepped onto the Divine Path."

"Oh? Nine-Colored Divine Thunder?"

Emperor Yuantu’s will fluctuated slightly; clearly, this term had caught his attention. "That is indeed rare."

"Precisely," Emperor Prism said coldly.

"This child must die!"

Emperor Prism’s will became incredibly sharp, slicing through the surrounding space. "If he does not die, given the unreasonable speed of growth he has displayed, in at most another hundred thousand years, he will surely become a grave threat to us! By then, he will be the catastrophe that wipes out my Crystal Race!"

"That is why I have laid this inescapable trap," Emperor Prism continued.

"Hehehe..."

Emperor Yuantu let out a laugh like grinding dry bones. "Since you have calculated to this extent, it seems that human junior truly has no chance of survival. Very well, it has been a long time since I personally crushed a so-called 'Eternal Qilin Child' of the human race. I am actually looking forward to him walking out alive, just to add a little bit of amusement for me."

"Hmm..."

Even if we must abandon every cosmic crystal, Qin Feng must be slain! He has already entered the realm of divine prohibition, possessing the potential to ascend as a god, and now, he has even forged his own path to divinity!

He must be destroyed!

...

Thus, while the human race, ignorant of the intelligence within the Isle of Fallen Stars, fretted over Qin Feng, the myriad races knew he had emerged from the divine path and were preparing to surround and annihilate him.

Time slipped away, second by agonizing second, amidst these two vastly different yet equally suffocating atmospheres.

Finally—

The massive vortex at the exit, which held the heartstrings of billions of souls, began to show a visible change in its rotation.

The darkness at its center seemed to have been struck by a pebble, rippling with a faint yet unmistakable tremor.

He is coming out!

It was unclear who had whispered it, but a suppressed cry of shock echoed on the level of the soul.

In an instant!

Billions of gazes—whether from the nervous, expectant, and worried humans, or the confident, cruel, and indifferent myriad races—were like billions of unsheathed blades, piercing through space and time to focus on that singular, insignificant ripple!

Across all the low-level battlefields, the fighting seemed to receive an invisible command, the frequency of attacks dropping in unison.

The entire universe, in this moment, felt as if it had been set to slow motion.

The ripples in the vortex expanded, circle by circle, growing ever more violent.

The profound darkness at its heart began to be replaced by a strange, alien light.

At first, the glow was faint, but in a heartbeat, it turned dazzlingly brilliant.

Finally, under the gaze of human powerhouses who had all but stopped breathing, a figure stepped out from the center of the vortex, moving against the light, slowly, step by step.

He had black hair and black eyes, a face of resolute iron, and a posture as straight as a spear.

The moment he appeared, there were no earth-shattering visions, nor did he release any cataclysmic pressure.

Yet, strangely, the spiritual energy fields that had been chaotic from the collision of wills began to settle and tame around him, as if bowing to their sovereign.

The stars dimmed and the sun and moon lost their luster—not because he had devoured the light, but because the splendor of the entire universe seemed to converge upon him alone.

He stood there quietly, before the spatial vortex, under the gaze of billions of soldiers.

But that terrifying aura of the divine path swept through the star field like an invisible storm, leaving every King-level, and even the lofty Emperor-level powerhouses, in a state of shock!

Following him, one figure after another began to file out from behind his not-so-imposing frame.

Cang Lang, Taimi... over ten thousand human soldiers in standard power armor, their gear still stained with the remnants of battle.

In their eyes burned a fanatical flame, a devotion bordering on religious worship.

The human warriors formed into neat ranks, their momentum like a rainbow, a torrent of steel capable of crushing all resistance!

And at the front of the formation, the Marquis of Heaven-Reaching, the Marquis of Fierce Martial, the Sword Marquis, the Ice Heart Marquis... all one hundred and twenty human Marquises who were supposed to have perished in the inner island stood there, not one missing, their auras deep as the sea, their battle intent piercing the heavens!

Their gazes, like the sharpest blades, swept coldly across the massive coalition of the myriad races, filled with undisguised killing intent and hatred!

It... it is Qin Feng!!!

It is our people! Our human army! They... they have all come out! Not a single one is missing!

The Marquis of Heaven-Reaching and the others... they are still alive!

When they saw this complete, intact human army—whose momentum was several times stronger than when they had entered—the human camp fell into a deathly silence that lasted for several seconds.

Everyone stared in disbelief.

This... how could this be possible?!

Then, as they confirmed this was no hallucination, an indescribable, suppressed ecstasy of ten thousand years erupted from the chest of every individual like a volcano!

We won!!! We have won!

Hahahaha—we won! The Isle of Fallen Stars belongs to the human race!

A miracle! This is a true miracle!!

The earth-shaking cheers converged into a torrent of will that surpassed any secret technique, slamming into the silent universe.

Countless battle-hardened warriors, their hearts as firm as steel, were moved to tears, howling at the sky!

Victory!

They had actually, in the most incredible and dreamlike way, won this war that determined the fate of their race!

The humans were ecstatic.

The myriad races were enraged!

Seeing Qin Feng’s calm, almost indifferent face and the intact, high-spirited human troops behind him, the Prism Emperor’s will-body, formed of pure light, boiled violently.

The Divine Path!!!

A roar containing endless killing intent, shock, and a sliver of fear he himself had not realized, was no longer a mere sound; it was like the primordial singularity of the Big Bang, exploding in the deepest souls of every King and Emperor-level powerhouse!

The Prism Emperor could no longer maintain his lofty, god-like demeanor. He had completely lost his composure!

Because he knew better than anyone what the words "Divine Path" represented!

It meant a being had carved out a brand-new, unprecedented path to godhood that belonged only to them!

Every being who walked this path was a unique monster of the ages!

Their future was filled with infinite possibilities, and their limits might even surpass the original rules that created this universe!

This child... has walked his own Divine Path!!

The Prism Emperor’s will roared in madness, "He must not live! He must not be allowed to leave this place alive!!"

Slay Qin Feng!!!

If he does not die, he will surely become the greatest threat to our myriad races for all eternity!!!

Before the words had faded, the Prism Emperor acted, reckless and fierce!

He ignored the Emperors of his own rank in the human camp, tearing through the unspoken agreement between powerhouses to launch a lethal strike against a "junior"!

Hum—

Boundless divine light erupted from his will-body, instantly converging into a beam of destruction so thin it was almost invisible, yet it seemed to pierce the entire river of time and space!

This beam ignored space, ignored time; the moment it appeared, it had already reached its target!

It locked onto Qin Feng’s essence, his past, his present, and his future!

This was a full-force strike from an enraged Emperor, enough to erase an immortal King, along with the laws they commanded, from the universe entirely!

What?! The Divine Path?!

At the same time the Prism Emperor roared, the human Emperors—the Heaven-Swallowing King, the Martial God King, and others—were collectively stunned, and then, a light a billion times brighter than that of the myriad races erupted from their eyes!

It was not surprise, nor shock.

It was... ecstasy!

The ultimate ecstasy of seeing the supreme hope for the future of their race!

A peerless prodigy of the ages who has forged his own path to godhood!

What does this signify?

It signifies that the human race may, in the future, give birth to a true deity!

The Divine Prohibition is merely the potential for divinity, a future fraught with uncertainty, a mere possibility; but to walk the path of godhood is to be destined for divinity, provided one does not fall!

This is supreme fortune, enough to alter the very fabric of the cosmos!

"Protect Qin Feng!"

Almost at the same moment the Prism Emperor struck, beside the Heaven-Swallowing King, a human Sovereign—a figure as hulking as a mountain, clutching a colossal war bow, his aura ancient and desolate—let out a roar that shook the galaxy.

"Spare no cost! Escort him away! This is our race’s prodigy of the ages!!"

This human master of the bow reacted with lightning speed.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he drew his bow and notched an arrow, his movements fluid and seamless, in perfect harmony with the Great Dao of heaven and earth.

An arrow, forged entirely from his own Sovereign-level laws and wreathed in golden flames, materialized instantly upon the string.

"Go!"

The bowstring hummed, and the golden arrow vanished in an instant!

It, too, defied the constraints of space and time, arriving before it had seemingly departed, like an eternal beam of divine light piercing the darkness, striking with pinpoint precision the destructive white beam of the Prism Emperor!

BOOM!!

At that moment, the entire universe seemed to lose its voice, to lose its color.

Only that singular point of impact transformed into absolute light and heat.

The collision of two Sovereign-level powers ignited a terrifying explosion in the void, rivaling the cataclysmic collapse of the universe itself!

A gargantuan black hole formed at the center of the impact, only to be torn asunder by the clash of two even more formidable laws!

A destructive psychic storm, manifesting as visible ripples in space-time, surged outward in all directions, instantly reducing countless nearby stars and war fortresses to dust!

This earth-shattering strike was the signal!

It was the clarion call for total war!

...

When Qin Feng’s identity as the "Founder of the Divine Path" was proclaimed to the world by the Prism Emperor of the All-Race Alliance in a roar that echoed like the voice of the Dao, the strings of space-time in this star sector—already stretched to the breaking point by the standoff between the two camps—finally snapped.

"Kill!"

"Protect!"

Two words, vastly different yet imbued with the same level of resolute will, collided like the impact of two creation-stars, thundering through the seas of consciousness of every Sovereign-level entity present.

No wasted words, no meaningless probes; the intensity of the war was pushed to its zenith in that very heartbeat.

The human Heaven-Swallowing King, a majestic being who had existed for countless epochs and whose form seemed capable of devouring an entire galaxy, smiled.

It was a smile mingled with monstrous killing intent and a desperate, protective resolve.

Behind him, the phantom of a black hole capable of consuming all things slowly emerged—boundless in size, infinite in depth—warping and swallowing all light, laws, and even time itself.

He took a single step, and the very foundations of the universe seemed to groan, as he threw a punch toward the nearest and most murderous of his foes: the Prism Emperor.

"You are courting death!"

This punch held no earth-shaking brilliance, only the pure, unadorned essence of "devouring" and "ending."

Wherever the fist passed, galaxies dimmed and the Great Dao wailed; a vacuum zone stretching several light-years was carved out, as if a piece of flesh had been gouged from the body of the universe.

The Heaven-Swallowing King!

A fixture on the Sovereign Ranking for ten million years!

The universe boasts countless Sovereigns, yet the Ranking holds but a hundred!

The Heaven-Swallowing King is at the half-step to godhood and has trodden the Divine Prohibition; slaying a Sovereign with a King’s body is child’s play for him!

Such is the weight of the Sovereign Ranking.

"Heaven-Swallowing! Does your human race truly intend to ignite a Sovereign War for the sake of a mere junior?!"

The Prism Emperor roared. His true form was a bizarre lifeform composed of billions of facets, each refracting the brilliance of different laws. Now, those billions of laws intertwined to form a boundless "Mirror of Ten Thousand Laws," bracing against the fist of the Heaven-Swallowing King, which held the power to bury a universe.

BOOM!!!

A psychic storm beyond description swept outward—a collision of "Dao" against "Dao," a counter-clash of the universe’s fundamental laws.

The stars nearest to the battlefield could not withstand the shockwave for even an instant; they vanished silently like candles blown out in the wind, and with them, their entire planetary systems were reduced to cosmic dust.

Yet, this was merely the beginning.

"Hahaha, an immortal Sovereign War? For the sake of our human future, today, let this universe hear the war song of our race!"

Another human Sovereign, the Flame-Martial Emperor, wreathed in undying flames of war, laughed wildly as he struck. His opponent was a Zerg Matriarch, her body as vast as a mobile star-fortress.

The war was thoroughly ignited.

"KILL!!!"

The Heaven-Swallowing King, the Martial God King, the Abyss-Slaughtering Emperor, the Zero Emperor... every Sovereign at the pinnacle joined the fray simultaneously!

"For the human race!"

"For the myriad races!"

In that instant, the battle erupted in the most brutal and absolute manner possible.

At the core of the battlefield, a world-shaking duel raged between a dozen Sovereign-level powerhouses.

They ascended into higher dimensions, and with every exchange, galaxies collapsed and the Great Dao mourned!

Beneath them, hundreds of Kings unleashed their own laws, locked in a struggle of unimaginable carnage!

Further out, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of massive armies—like two dark torrents sweeping across the star-sea—crashed into one another after a brief pause, fueled by even more frenzied killing intent!

The goal of the All-Race Alliance became crystal clear and unified:

To exhaust every resource, to pay any price, to utterly annihilate the peerless monster who had just stepped onto the "Divine Path"—Qin Feng—before he could become a threat to the survival of their races!

And the goal of the human race was equally, unprecedentedly firm:

To fight with everything they had, to sacrifice all if necessary, to protect that rising star—the bearer of humanity’s future and its supreme hope!

And to protect the massive quantity of cosmic crystals brought out from the Isle of Dead Stars by the Sky-Prop Sovereign and his kin—crystals capable of altering the destiny of their race!

This was a racial war with no path of retreat!

A cosmic-scale conflict, affecting multiple star sectors and the fates of countless races, was ignited the moment Qin Feng stepped out of the vortex, drawing back the curtain on a bloody and magnificent prologue!

...

At the center of this Sovereign-level battlefield, destined to be recorded in the annals of cosmic history, the singularity of the storm—Qin Feng—remained unnervingly calm.

His soul, that "pure black" quality soul, allowed him to survey all before him with a perspective of near-absolute rationality.

He knew clearly that he was the fuse, the root cause that had ignited it all.

But he should not, and could not, be the protagonist of this war.

At least, not right now.

The battlefield of the Sovereigns was a realm of natural laws, a clash of universal decrees.

His current prowess, even after thirty thousand years of secluded cultivation, was potent enough to suppress and slaughter the six great divine constraints with a single thought, and could even rival a nascent Enfeoffed Marquis; yet within this sovereign war where star sectors were shattered and great paths crumbled at every turn, he remained like a solitary skiff, prone to capsize at any moment.

What was his greatest utility?

It was not to linger here, relying on his nearly perverted physical form to clash head-on with the Sovereigns.

That was not valor; it was folly.

His greatest utility lay precisely in "vanishing."

To vanish from the sight of all, to vanish from the perception locks of every Sovereign, bearing the future hope of the human race and that universe crystal, which was sufficient to drive any race mad with jealousy, as he completely broke away from this battlefield.

Only if he vanished, and the universe crystal vanished, would this sovereign war, which had already blazed into a true fury, possess even a sliver of a chance to gradually subside due to the loss of its central objective.

As this thought occurred to him, not a single ripple remained in Qin Feng’s gaze.

There was no hesitation, no wavering, and absolutely no dread born of the world-destroying spectacle of the sovereign war before his eyes.

His Dao heart had long since been tempered into something indestructible through countless instances of life and death, and endless loneliness.

He turned!

His movement carried not the slightest hint of sluggishness, resembling a routine exercise that could not be more ordinary.

That Limit Body, polished over thirty thousand years and fused with thirty peak Domain Lord-grade secret treasures as formation eyes, erupted at this exact moment with an unprecedented light.

It was not a brilliant divine light, but rather a white luminescence restrained to the absolute extreme.

Hum!

His figure transformed into a streak of flowing light.

"Trying to leave?!"

Sovereign Prism detected Qin Feng’s intent at the very first instant, and hundreds of millions of faceted surfaces simultaneously erupted with a piercing divine light that warped time and space, turning into an invisible cage composed of natural laws that shrouded down toward the direction of Qin Feng’s flight.

That was the method of a Sovereign, where words became law, capable of sealing an entire star sector within a single thought.

"Your opponent is me!"

The cold voice of the Heaven-Devouring King rang out, and the phantom image of the black hole that devoured all things suddenly expanded, forcibly swallowing that cage of laws whole, without allowing even a single ripple to rise.

"Qingtian, Liewu! Escort the genius of our race, escort the universe crystal, and return safely!"

The Heaven-Devouring King’s voice, like a heavenly decree, resounded in the ears of every single Enfeoffed Marquis of the human race.

"We obey the King's command!"

The eyes of the one hundred and twenty Enfeoffed Marquises, including Marquis Qingtian and Marquis Liewu, who had been reborn through blood, gleamed with a fanatical light.

They already understood the situation!

It was Qin Feng who, by his strength alone, had torn through the outer island, granting them the chance to revive, which in turn allowed them to seize countless universe crystals!

Qin Feng was a peerless genius who had created his own divine path!

The entire human race had rarely produced even a few such individuals!

Moreover, disregarding all else, Qin Feng had saved them! Otherwise, they would have had to wait for countless epochs in the Land of Death and Devastation just to revive, or perhaps they would never have been revived at all!

At this moment, they did not hesitate in the slightest, instantly forming an ancient battle array.

The aura of the one hundred and twenty Enfeoffed Marquises perfectly fused into one through the operation of the battle array, turning into a torrent that closely followed behind Qin Feng’s streak of flowing light.

The core logic of the battlefield was, at this moment, clearly discerned by the highest echelons of both sides.

The objective of the Myriad Races Alliance was to strangle the sprout of the "divine path," sparing no expense to completely obliterate Qin Feng, an unprecedented variable through the eons, before he could fully grow; if they could seize the universe crystal as well, it would be even better.

The objective of the human race was to preserve this "seed of the future" and safely bring back to the race’s territory that massive quantity of universe crystals, which was sufficient to alter the underlying foundation of their people.

This was very clear.

As long as Qin Feng and the universe crystal broke away from the battlefield, this sovereign war—which inflicted immense losses on both sides and might even shake the very foundations of their races—would lose its most central meaning.

After all, the strength of the human race and the Myriad Races Alliance was originally well-matched, and neither could do anything to the other.

If they truly fought to the bitter end, until Sovereigns bled and the starry river shattered, the ultimate outcome would only be mutual destruction, allowing those third-party races lurking in the dark corners of the universe, waiting like vultures for an opportunity, to reap the benefits.

The Heaven-Devouring King understood this principle, as did Sovereign Prism, the Zerg Mother Queen, and all the other Sovereigns participating in the war.

Therefore, at the moment of Qin Feng’s withdrawal, the offensive and defensive posture of the entire battlefield underwent a subtle shift.

On the side of the Myriad Races Alliance, several Enfeoffed Sovereigns separated themselves, desperately trying to tear through the defensive lines of the human Sovereigns to pursue Qin Feng.

Their attacks grew increasingly tempestuous, and they did not even hesitate to burn their own Sovereign origin just to force open a breach.

On the human side, all the Enfeoffed Sovereigns, including the Heaven-Devouring King, acted like the sturdiest of dams, blocking the Sovereigns of the myriad races with absolute resolve.

They yielded not a single step, exchanging injury for injury and blood for blood, constructing an insurmountable Wall of Sighs composed of Sovereign bodies and the great Dao.

The focus of the battlefield had already shifted from a "showdown of Sovereigns" to a "pursuit and interception."

As long as Qin Feng successfully escaped, the intensity of the distant battlefield should decrease accordingly, eventually returning to a controllable state of confrontation.

However, the development of events weirdly deviated from everyone's expectations.

...

The anomaly occurred abruptly, roughly fifteen minutes after Qin Feng and his companions had completely broken away from the core region of the sovereign war.

It was a feeling that defied description by words.

It was as though a pair of cold eyes, filled with boundless malice and madness, had slowly opened in some unknowable dimension, gazing with great interest at this battlefield that was already flowing with rivers of blood.

Immediately following this, a bizarre, frenzied, and bloodthirsty aura, like an invisible and most vicious plague, silently and quietly diffused across the entire battlefield.

This aura did not originate from any participant in the war; it seemed to seep out from the void, to breed within the cracks of time, and to stem from the deepest, most defiled malice of the universe.

It disregarded the disparity in cultivation, ignored the distinction between races, and impartially "bestowed" itself upon every living being present.

Whether they were of the human race, or the myriad races.

From the ordinary Domain Lord-grade warriors cruising along the edges of the battlefield to perform auxiliary attacks, to the Enfeoffed King-grade experts locked in pairs of mortal combat that caused stars to fall, and up to the Enfeoffed Sovereign entities who stood high above, capable of deciding the fate of hundreds of millions of lives with a single thought...

Deep within the eyes of everyone, an ominous, monstrous gleam of bloodlight began to quietly surface.

At first, this bloodlight was very faint, like mist, vanishing in a flash.

Yet as more and more living beings fell upon the battlefield, and as more and more Sovereign blood and King blood flowed through the cold universe, that gleam of bloodlight also grew increasingly dense, and increasingly frenzied.

Sanity was quietly receding.

Killing intent was frantically boiling.

"Die! Die for me!"

An Enfeoffed King from the Giant Demon race had an original opponent who was an Enfeoffed King of the human sword Dao.

The battle between the two had originally been a contest filled with the ultimate truths of the great Dao, a clash of sword light and demonic flames that was exquisite and fatal.

But at this moment, the eyes of the Giant Demon King had completely turned crimson; he abandoned all exquisite combat techniques, abandoned all defenses, and like a beast that had entirely fallen into madness, used his demonic body—which was comparable to divine metal—to forcibly slam into the sword array of the human Sword King.

Puff, puff, puff!

Thousands of sword lights instantly pierced through his demonic body, bringing forth large sprays of dark-green King blood.

Yet upon his face, there was no trace of agony, but rather a look of ultimate, morbid ecstasy.

He seized the sword-wielding arm of the Human King, and with a gaping maw, tore it—along with half his shoulder—clean away!

"Madman!"

The Human King recoiled in horror, yet within his own eyes, a flicker of irrepressible crimson began to dance.

The agony of his grievous wounds did not bring him clarity; instead, it ignited the most primal ferocity buried deep within his soul.

"Kill!"

He let out a roar that defied human nature, his lone remaining arm brandishing his divine blade, burning his very royal essence as he charged once more.

Such scenes were not isolated incidents.

The entire battlefield began to slide toward an incomprehensible state, driven by a pure, singular urge for slaughter and ruin.

Attacks were no longer calculated tactical maneuvers, but hysterical, reckless outbursts of carnage.

The collision of laws was saturated with the most primitive, barbaric cruelty and a lust for destruction.

"Hahahaha... Not enough! Still not enough!!"

At the heart of the fray, the Manggu King of the Alliance—a figure long renowned for his steady, measured temperament—was now laughing with unhinged madness.

His opponent was the human Rift-Mountain King, a powerhouse celebrated for his impenetrable defenses.

Unable to break through, the Manggu King might usually have retreated to seek a better opening, but now, his vision was consumed by a sea of blood.

"Rift-Mountain! Taste this!"

He bellowed, suddenly hoisting his companion weapon—a colossal bone club forged from the spine of an unknown cosmic behemoth, refined over millions of years and bound to his very soul.

Hum!

A devastating radiance erupted from the club, and countless ancient, brutal runes surged like a volcano awakened from its slumber.

"No! He’s going to detonate his royal weapon!"

Alarm bells rang in the Rift-Mountain King’s mind, a lethal sense of crisis enveloping him.

For a King, detonating a companion weapon was akin to severing one’s own limb, risking permanent damage to the foundation of one’s Dao; it was a forbidden act, never to be used unless facing total annihilation.

Yet, the Manggu King did it!

His goal was not even to drag the Rift-Mountain King to the grave, but merely to carve a single wound into that indestructible "mountain."

"You’re mad! You’ve gone completely insane!"

The Rift-Mountain King roared, driving his defenses to their absolute limit as phantom images of towering divine mountains layered themselves around him, shielding him within.

Yet, the next second.

BOOM——————!!!!

An indescribable roar tore through the void, bypassing the ears to strike directly at the soul and the true spirit.

The Manggu King’s companion bone club had detonated!

It was the life’s work of a King, an extension of his own laws, and the power of its explosion was terrifying.

Crack... crack...

The layered mountain phantoms before the Rift-Mountain King shattered like porcelain struck by a hammer, collapsing into dust!

The destructive energy slammed violently into the Rift-Mountain King’s physical form.

Pfft!

Even with his legendary defenses, he was sent flying, a horrific wound carved into his chest, deep enough to expose his pulsing divine heart. Royal blood sprayed like rain, staining the starry void.

On the other side, the Manggu King, having triggered the blast, was in an even more wretched state.

The horrific recoil had obliterated half his body and a portion of his skull into a mist of blood.

His aura plummeted to the depths, flickering like a candle in a gale.

Yet...

"Ha... Hahahahahaha..."

He laughed wildly.

The laughter was filled with satisfaction, with joy, with a supreme eulogy for blood and ruin.

He gazed at the wound on the Rift-Mountain King as if admiring a perfect work of art.

"Worth it... so worth it..."

He laughed as he allowed his mangled remains to be swallowed by the lingering energy storm, dissolving into nothingness.

This sight sent a chill deep into the souls of all who witnessed it, whether human or alien.

Something was wrong.

Something was terribly wrong!

Even in a racial blood feud, even with mortal hatred, it should not be like this!

That pure, reckless, and ecstatic enjoyment of destruction had transcended the boundaries of normal warfare.

Even the battlefield of the Emperors was affected.

The light refracted by the billion facets of the Prism Emperor was no longer the pure light of law, but stained with an eerie, sanguine hue.

His attacks became increasingly reckless, as if every strike sought to drag the very universe into an abyss of ruin.

The black hole of the Heaven-Swallowing King seemed to grow "hungry," radiating a terrifying will that craved the flesh, blood, and souls of all living things.

"Damn it... what is happening?"

For the first time, a sense of foreboding stirred in the heart of the Heaven-Swallowing King.

As one of the universe’s supreme existences, he could sense the bizarre aura permeating the void, yet he could not trace its source.

That power did not seem to belong to this universe, or rather, it stood above the rules he understood.

It was corrupting, seducing, turning a war that should have had clear strategic goals into a...

A grand, bloody sacrifice offered to some unknown existence!

...

Meanwhile.

On the edge of the main battlefield.

Qin Feng led one hundred and twenty human Marquises, engaged in a silent, high-speed interstellar transit.

His speed was pushed to the absolute limit.

The Primordial Furnace Array and the Limit Array within his [Limit Body] resonated perfectly, burning the stored energy within him with frantic intensity; each flicker crossed a distance a common cultivator could not traverse in a lifetime.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

The ripples of the Emperor-level battle behind them had faded until they were barely perceptible.

The pursuing forces of the myriad races failed to materialize.

Yet, a nameless, persistent dread coiled tightly around Qin Feng’s heart.

This unease was no mere phantom of the mind, but a manifestation of his "pure black" soul, granting him an intuition that transcended the mortal realm.

He halted his flight, suspended in the frigid void, his brows knitted in deep contemplation.

"Qin Feng, what is it?"

Marquis Qingtian drifted to his side, his voice low and resonant.

His eyes remained clear, though a faint, lingering trace of crimson bled through the depths of his gaze.

Having long since retreated from the battlefield, the influence of that baleful aura had faded to a negligible whisper.

Qin Feng offered no reply; he closed his eyes, pushing his perception to its absolute zenith.

His soul unfurled like an invisible web, stretching into the infinite expanse, desperate to ensnare the source of his agitation.

And then!

Hum—hum—hum—

A violent tremor, vibrating from the very core of his soul, erupted from his waist!

Qin Feng’s pupils contracted sharply as he cast his gaze downward.

There, suspended by a tether woven from soul-force, the five ghastly severed heads were shuddering uncontrollably, radiating a light of unnatural, demonic intensity!

In this moment, they seemed to have been stirred back into a wretched, unholy life!

Among them, the reaction was most violent, the radiance most blinding, emanating from the skull of the Khorne Champion.

Qin Feng understood: only the will of an Outer God could stir such a reaction from these trophies of war.

(End of chapter)