Chapter 1277: Remaining Calamity of Upper Wasteland

Chapter 1277: The Lingering Calamity of Shanghuang

In the deep void, within the Fourth Stellar Ring, lay the Rift of Emptiness—a place vast enough to rival multiple universes. Crimson dust perpetually swirled around its periphery, marking it as one of the Four Forbidden Zones of the Fourth Stellar Ring.

Since time immemorial, few who ventured inside ever returned alive.

And those gods who perished here… none had ever come back.

At this very moment, as the great bell tolled and the Primordial Mother Star erupted, even this forbidden land stirred!

Deep within the forbidden zone—where almost no deity dared tread—stood an altar built from countless divine bones and crawling with grotesque, writhing vermin. Upon it rested a bronze coffin wreathed in chaotic mist.

Innumerable divine chains, emerging from nothingness itself, bound the coffin tightly in place.

The instant the storm outside swept through the Sea of Memories, the chains trembled violently—and the coffin suddenly exploded open!

From within rose a half-rotted corpse that seemed to have slumbered for millions upon millions of years, slowly sitting upright.

Its rising shook the entire forbidden land. Countless divine sigils emerged from all directions, converging upon It to suppress Its awakening.

Yet the risen remnant paid them no heed, letting out a rasping, grating laugh.

“Nanke, Divine Sovereign… your Mandate of Fate is being stripped away.”

“Just as you once, like a soul-devouring worm, seized fragments of another’s authority during the Great Calamity of Shanghuang—you too must now endure that same ancient tribulation!”

“So allow me… to press down upon you once more!”

As His voice echoed, the half-decayed divine core within His chest flared with blinding crimson light. At that moment, the dense web of divine chains stretching from the void snapped apart, link by link.

“And as for that cultivator of the Immortal Dao who ascended to our ranks—he used the karmic threads of Shanghuang to veil your omniscience over fate. Such scheming… brilliant! Fascinating!”

His decayed divine words rippled through the void, instantly vaporizing the countless soul-devouring worms clinging to the coffin.

But in the next breath, ten thousand times more divine sigils surged forth from the forbidden land, crashing toward Him like a torrential flood. In an instant, they overwhelmed everything and forced it all back into submission.

The shattered coffin re-formed. The broken chains mended themselves anew.

The remnant god remained sealed once more within the bronze casket.

Only His laughter seeped through the coffin, echoing still—until it finally coalesced into a single divine utterance:

“I see… fate may be shattered, but destiny must be obeyed!”

…

Within the Fourth Stellar Ring existed numerous divine realms. Every True God could shape their own domain into a sovereign nation.

Above these nations stood the Divine Dynasties.

There were twelve Divine Sovereigns across the entire Fourth Stellar Ring—and thus, twelve Divine Dynasties.

And above even the dynasties loomed the Divine Court—the supreme authority of the entire Fourth Stellar Ring, ruled directly by the Divine Sovereign!

At this moment, terrifying waves of consciousness emanated from each of the twelve Divine Sovereigns, radiating outward from their respective main palace effigies. They blanketed the Fourth Stellar Ring and delved deep into the Sea of Memories.

Yet none acted rashly. Instead, they merely watched and bore witness to the unfolding spectacle upon the Primordial Mother Star—the emergence of that extraordinary Sovereign!

For the Divine Court… had remained utterly silent from beginning to end. Not a single decree had issued forth from the Divine Sovereign.

This was deeply abnormal.

Until the tolling of the great bell surpassed nine breaths—then, within the Everlasting Dynasty among the Twelve, atop the Highest Throne—

sat an indescribable shadow.

Its form shifted constantly and unnaturally: one moment human, encompassing men and women, young and old, as if containing all sentient beings;

the next moment alien, bearing shapes both of extant races and long-vanished spirits lost to history;

then again divine, radiating overwhelming godly might;

and yet again death incarnate, manifesting countless forms of demise.

Such ceaseless transformations, shifting myriad forms within a single breath, rendered It truly indescribable!

And now—It suddenly opened Its eyes.

In the instant Its eyelids parted, Its ever-shifting form solidified, freezing into the exact visage It held at that precise moment:

a golden stone statue!

He was the Everlasting Sovereign—one of the Twelve Divine Emperors of the Fourth Stellar Ring!

Once a mere servant beneath the Divine Sovereign, He had ascended through His own power to become a Sovereign. While others might only observe, His origins and sacred duty compelled Him—after a period of silence—to gaze upon the golden orb before Him, which embodied the very essence of His dynasty.

That orb was dimming.

So He closed His eyes once more. After several breaths, He abruptly reopened them, raised His right hand, and flicked a single finger.

A force capable of annihilating all resistance erupted instantly, tearing open the Sea of Memories that lay between illusion and reality!

Then, seventy-two Edicts of Eternity shot forth like streaks of light, piercing through the void.

“Stop Him. The birth of a new Emperor will shatter the balance.”

Almost simultaneously, outside the Primordial Mother Star—at the spacetime rift embedded within the collective memory of the gods—the eerie green starlight suddenly halted, then swiftly coalesced.

Finally, it transformed into row upon row of ghostly green portals!

With a thunderous roar, all these gates burst wide open.

One by one, True Gods who had received the Everlasting Sovereign’s edict charged forth from the gaping portals—

straight toward the Primordial Mother Star!

In their eyes, the distant Primordial Mother Star now wore an outer shell.

It was the skin of the Primordial Mother Star—peeled away by Young Lord Aurora and draped over the planet’s flesh, becoming what mortals called “Heaven.”

Their mission was clear: tear open this stellar hide and halt whatever was unfolding upon the Primordial Mother Star!

Thus, in the next instant, these summoned True Gods unleashed their full divine might as they drew near, conjuring spell after spell of cataclysmic power.

But… the skin of the Primordial Mother Star inherently possessed the ability to absorb primal essences. And Young Lord Aurora’s earlier act of peeling it back had been precisely to transform it into the first layer of defense.

Therefore, despite the arrival and furious assaults of these gods, though the hide roared under the onslaught—it held firm, unbroken for now!

Only muffled sounds penetrated inward,

reaching the ears of Xu Qing and Linghuang Immortal Lady.

Xu Qing immediately stilled the turmoil in his heart and lifted his gaze toward the crimson-starred sky—the celestial canopy formed by the planetary hide.

He saw the heavens bulging repeatedly, shedding even more blood—but its defensive strength… was truly astonishing.

Meanwhile, Young Lord Aurora, in the midst of ascending to Sovereignhood, now faced a jagged crimson crystal before him.

It shimmered with the hue of fresh blood—or perhaps the glow of auroras.

And it appeared… mirror-like!

Radiating unmatched sanctity and an earth-shattering aura of terror, it resembled nothing less than a peerless treasure of the heavens!

That is a divine core!

Or more precisely, a fragment of one.

It was drawing upon the collective divinity of the Fourth Stellar Ring, growing at an astonishing rate as the foundational logic and structure of that ring underwent rewriting!

"Not yet enough."

Gazing upon the divine core, the Young Lord of Aurora spoke—his voice manifesting as tangible ripples of cosmic law, echoing across all directions.

Wherever those ripples passed, spacetime fractured like glass.

Then he lifted his eyes to the heavens; his pupils split into twelve spinning golden rings.

"More... nourishment is required."

As he spoke, countless blood vessels behind him writhed instantly, using the Primal Mother Star as a conduit to plunge deep into the Ocean of Divine Memories—and through it, spread throughout every being in the Fourth Stellar Ring.

In an instant, colossal waves surged across the Ocean of Memories. The Young Lord’s absorption coursed through its currents, linking the myriad realms of existence!

Countless deities within the Fourth Stellar Ring trembled uncontrollably, sensing in their very essence the summons of a supreme presence.

They withered en masse, dissolving into innumerable golden motes that rose from billions of stars, converging into a river spanning the starry seas—rushing toward the remembered Primal Mother Star.

Through the stellar skin they came!

Here, they transformed into a torrent of murmuring whispers, flooding into the Young Lord of Aurora’s body.

Before him, the divine core accelerated its coalescence.

Xu Qing watched, his heart churning like storm-tossed seas. He and his senior brother had accomplished many grand deeds before—becoming Father of the Heavenly Dao, scheming against the Crimson Mother… Yet none of those feats, save perhaps the incident with the Remnant Flesh, could compare to what unfolded today!

Indeed, in sheer scale, this moment surpassed them all!

While Xu Qing’s thoughts surged, thunder suddenly roared across the firmament.

The stellar skin bulged inward—a massive protrusion forming—as if some even more terrifying external force had struck it, causing it to cave from without.

Seeing this, Xu Qing activated his cultivation. Behind him, his nascent immortal embryo rippled; beside him, iron talismans shot forth, while layers of Temporal Constitutions overlapped around him.

Moreover, his soul resonated, summoning the power of True Names to fortify himself—an instinctive urge to safeguard the Young Lord’s ascension.

But Linghuang Immortal halted him gently, her expression serene as she whispered:

"Your brother’s ascension needs no guardian."

"He once said only the weak rely on external protection."

"And he… does not need it!"

"Besides, our role as Anchors is paramount—the true crux. We must not be shaken by outside forces."

Hearing this, Xu Qing recalled the Young Lord’s overwhelming aura and nodded, stirred by quiet admiration.

Meanwhile, beyond the stellar skin, past the ranks of True Gods, forty-nine colossal deities—each as vast as a star—marched forth from the Ocean of Memories, each bearing a statue upon their back.

Though the statues differed in form and visage, the divine might radiating from them was identical—

All belonged to one Sovereign God:

The Eternal God-Emperor.

As they neared the Primal Mother Star, surrounding True Gods parted respectfully. The forty-nine titanic deities roared in unison; the statues upon their backs soared skyward, unleashing the Sovereign’s overwhelming authority.

Each statue dissolved instantly, transforming into forty-nine ancient golden stone spears brimming with unprecedented terror—howling straight toward the skin of the Primal Mother Star!

They struck the stellar skin in a flash.

It shuddered violently, unable to withstand the assault. Within moments, a mournful wail echoed through the void as it tore open—a gaping wound rent through its surface.

The forty-nine spears pierced through, hurtling directly toward the Young Lord of Aurora!

At the critical juncture, just as Xu Qing tensed, the Young Lord—who had been gathering the divine core—suddenly raised his head. In that fleeting instant, a vertical eye opened upon his brow!

Forged during the formation of the divine core from his ninety-six thousand True Names, it was the Eye of Omniscience.

"Daring not come yourself, you send mere probes to test me? How… noisy."

A cold, indifferent divine decree resounded throughout the cosmos. Instantly, the forty-nine golden stone spears trembling in the sky began visibly crumbling—flaking apart as though peeled away by unseen hands.

The Sovereign’s essence contained within them detonated one after another under the Young Lord’s transcendent rank.

Before the scattered fragments of law could dissipate, the writhing flesh of the Mother Star devoured them entirely—transforming them into fresh fuel for the Young Lord’s divine core!

In that instant, the core swelled dramatically.

"Is there more?"

The Young Lord of Aurora licked his lips, glancing at the crimson divine core before him—still slightly incomplete—and spoke softly.