Jiang Yao, trapped in darkness on a desolate planet somewhere in the Yanhe Star System, naturally had no idea that countless powerful beings in the Primal Universe had already been affected by his cultivation of the Nine Transformations of the Desolate God.
To be precise, Jiang Yao was no longer himself. The only thoughts left in his mind were "hunger" and "break free."
After countless collisions against the dark restraints, Jiang Yao could clearly feel that the once-unbreakable thing enclosing and imprisoning him had begun to loosen.
This spurred his consciousness on, and he stabbed at the dark shell imprisoning him even more frantically with his sharp beak.
At last, a crack split the darkness!
With another heavy strike, he finally broke through.
In an instant, it was as if a second star had appeared in this desolate, lifeless star system!
Its light not only illuminated the planet beneath it, but several nearby planets as well. If any of those planets had been inhabited, their people would have seen a second sun appear in the sky.
If there had been life on the desolate planet beneath this "new star"... well, there could no longer be any life there.
The barren planet Jiang Yao had carefully selected at the Messenger's urging had become a living hell. Its surface glowed red, and it was on the verge of melting into magma.
A creature with a crane's head, an eagle's beak, a long neck, and slender legs vented the ferocity it had bottled up for so long, reveling in its freedom!
At the same time, the anomaly that had begun to stir in the Origin Will of the Original Universe subsided once more.
It was like a piece of music that had played only its opening notes before abruptly stopping midway.
All that remained was the bewilderment of everyone in the Primal Universe who cultivated the Path of the Beast God, the confusion of the Three Ancestor Gods of the Ancestral God Sect, and Mountain Sitting Guest's surprise.
And then there was the Thunder Beast God, responsible for managing the sect's daily affairs, who felt he'd been given the short end of the stick. "I was all ready for it to give birth, and it couldn't even finish the job? How could it stop halfway?"
In the Virtual Universe, a white-robed man's eyes gleamed like jade as he contemplated the mysteries of the entire universe. Even he was faintly puzzled. "It's rare for the Origin Will of the Original Universe to be perplexed. There are only a fixed number of innate Beast Gods, embodiments of the eight great laws. What kind of change forced it to conceive another one?"
In a remote corner of Human Race territory, the newly hatched "Bizhang" knew nothing of what had happened. Its consciousness was like that of a hatchling, and it raised its head and let out a crane's cry, announcing its first call!
But the hunger that followed soon pushed its joy aside. It needed food!
There was no trace of food on the nearby stars. The crane's head turned, scanning the surroundings, then fixed on a particular direction.
It seemed far away, but the faint scent of food was unmistakable!
If Jiang Yao's consciousness had been clear, he would have known that the direction led to the Twin Star System, where the Yanhe Planet—the capital of the Lingtong Race in the Yanhe Lineage—was located.
On Yanhe Planet, in an underground space at Longshan Company's representative office for the Yanhe Star System, the mysterious Domain Lord living under an assumed name seemed to sense something.
It was like being watched by a hunter, a prickling sensation running down his back. But it vanished in an instant, so quickly that it could have been his imagination.
As the mysterious Domain Lord pondered the strange sensation, he sensed someone approaching the door and knocking respectfully.
"Come in."
The visitor was Jiernuo, the head representative of Longshan Company in the Yanhe Star System and the owner of the Longshan building.
"What is it? Has our target made a move?"
Jiernuo shook his head. "My lord, half a year ago, a D7 spacecraft left the spaceport. It belonged to the chief elder of the Lingtong Race. He must have left Yanhe Planet. And the Lingtong Race's patriarch is away as well, so no one is overseeing the defense system. Why not strike now? With your power, a Soul Attack alone would be enough to deal with a mere Planetary Level fighter."
The mysterious Domain Lord scoffed. "Jiuyuan Holy Land planted a minor branch right in the heart of the Longshan Federation and hasn't yielded for hundreds of eras. Do you think Jiuyuan Holy Land is stupid? Do you think it wouldn't have given them a trump card?
"You believe there isn't a single elder guarding an important place like Yanhe Planet?
"Besides, the Two Great Holy Lands have an agreement. Whatever we do, we can't let anyone catch us in the act. As long as no one catches us, there's room to maneuver. I'm not trying to kill that brat. I want him alive. It's safest to ambush him on the way."
The more he thought about it, the more certain the mysterious Domain Lord became that he had made the right call. That prickling sensation, as if some danger had fixed its gaze on him, might well have been one of the Lingtong Race's hidden defenses.
What could it be? An E-class laser cannon or some other weapon? Or something even more terrifying?
Jiernuo gritted his teeth. "My lord, I just received word that the Lingtong Race is preparing a welcoming ceremony for an important guest. The intelligence department believes the visitor is probably from Jiuyuan Holy Land."
The mysterious Domain Lord was startled. "Someone from Jiuyuan Holy Land?"
Jiernuo nodded. "When someone from the Main Sect visits, it's usually not a Universe-level fighter. More often, it's a Domain Lord-level Elder."
In other words, if they didn't act now, they might not get another chance.
But after his initial surprise, the mysterious Domain Lord wasn't nearly as tense as Jiernuo expected. Instead, he sneered. "Fortunately... this lord is cautious. Good. The chance to kill a Domain Lord Elder from Jiuyuan Holy Land doesn't come along often."
The name in the middle was left unsaid.
Jiernuo was shocked. He didn't even care about Domain Lords?
He knew the gap between the strong and weak among Universe-level fighters could be enormous. The differences between Domain Lords were probably no smaller. Could this lord be a peak Domain Lord, someone who didn't take ordinary peers seriously?
"Bizhang" stood on the planet, now a sea of magma, and spread its red-and-white wings, as if preparing to fly toward the place where it had sensed food.
Meanwhile, the Messenger, who was inside the Void Space of the Taihuan Token, had already realized something was wrong the moment Bizhang turned its gaze toward Yanhe Planet.
"Not good! I didn't expect it could sense something from this far away!"
The Taihuan Token Envoy's expression turned grave. His piglike face tightened, and his small eyes narrowed. Then the half-spread wings of "Bizhang" suddenly froze. Its feathers began to retract, its long neck shortened, and its sharp talons and eagle's beak began to change and shrink.
It was as if time were flowing backward!
"Bizhang" struggled desperately, but couldn't stop its body from shrinking and changing.
The next instant, Jiang Yao reappeared in human form!
Still shaken, Jiang Yao stared at the surrounding sea of magma. Just now, it had felt as if he'd had a dream. In that dream, he was no longer Jiang Yao, and he didn't know who he was. There had been only hunger and an all-consuming ferocity that wanted to burn everything.
But what he saw before him proved that it hadn't been a dream!
This was the result of cultivating the Nine Transformations of the Desolate God. Judging by what had happened, he must have reached the entry level, right?
Jiang Yao was about to speak when the Taihuan Token Envoy warned him gravely, "Don't let your guard down!"
His questions had only just surfaced when hunger and ferocity surged once more from the depths of his soul!
He wanted food!
He wanted to burn everything before him!
The impulse was so powerful that his consciousness began to blur, as if a tsunami had swallowed him whole.
It was as if another will lay hidden in his soul, rapidly devouring his sense of self as Jiang Yao—his awareness, his emotions—replacing him bit by bit!
That will was also devouring his control over his body.
His hands and feet, one organ after another—all were wrested from him, their ownership and control seized.
As the will, howling with hunger and ferocity, spread through every organ and reached every cell, his body underwent subtle changes. His Life Gene Level stirred, undergoing minute evolution and rising to a higher level.
But Jiang Yao could no longer concern himself with any of that.
Void... Void...
Jiang Yao tried to enter the Xu Yuan Space, but his consciousness was so weak that the mysterious space—built upon his convictions and will, and existing somewhere between illusion and reality—didn't appear.
Just as the other will was about to devour him completely, a call came from afar!
It was a familiar call, coming from the Taihuan Token Envoy.
"Jiang Yao! Jiang Yao!"
The call seemed to conjure energy from nothing, empowering his dying will and giving him something to hold on to just as he was about to be swallowed completely.
Jiang Yao summoned the last trace of his will and brought the Xu Yuan Space into being from the chaos. In an instant, his consciousness entered it.
Once more, he possessed a power as supreme as that of a god.
Before he could catch his breath, the familiar hunger and ferocity arose from his consciousness again, like maggots in his bones!
That will had entered the Xu Yuan Space with him!
It was as though the Xu Yuan Space now had two masters. Their competing wills unleashed a raging storm!
Just as Jiang Yao was falling into despair, inspiration suddenly struck. His will swept across the Xu Yuan Space.
Golden, three-dimensional symbols appeared across its boundary membrane.
Yan Script!
It was the Yan Script Jiang Yao had painstakingly carved, enduring immense pain day and night!
The very Yan Script that formed the axe-shaped shell used to create the Xu Yuan Space!
Back then, under the influence of the Supreme Rule, the immense information contained in these symbols from another Source World had been distorted into a vast sea of useless data.
But now, he could understand them!
Every Yan Script symbol held boundless information, and that information flooded into his consciousness in an instant.
It was the method for cultivating the final chapter of Xu Yuan Opening, the Sealing Chapter!
The Taihuan Token Envoy had given him the Opening Chapter and the Control Chapter of Xu Yuan Opening. When he had asked about the final Sealing Chapter, the Messenger had only said the time wasn't right.
So had that time finally come?
Jiang Yao didn't hesitate. He summoned the last of his strength and immediately began to cultivate the Sealing Chapter.
Godlike power surged out of the Xu Yuan Space and spread in the blink of an eye to every cell in his body, driving out the ferocious will that had taken control of him.
The same power swept through the ferocious will buried deep in his soul and consciousness, pulling it out as well.
But the ferocious will refused to submit. It began to fight back violently.
Even Jiang Yao, with the immense power of the Xu Yuan Space at his disposal, found it extremely difficult.
It was like a tug-of-war.
In the end, the Sealing Chapter he had just learned proved superior. It drove every last trace of the ferocious will from his body and forced it into the Xu Yuan Space, where the godlike power sealed it away.
After exhausting himself to resolve the sudden crisis, Jiang Yao regained control of his body. He scanned himself, still shaken, then finally relaxed.
Jiang Yao was about to ask the Taihuan Token Envoy something when he suddenly froze.
His mental power swept across the surrounding space. He wasn't shocked by the planet beneath him, which had become a world of magma.
He was stunned by a truly astonishing discovery.
He didn't even need to calm his mind or meditate. With nothing more than a sweep of his mental power through the void, he could sense the rich, wondrous fluctuations dancing by his ears.
It was as if the universe had suddenly revealed its true face to him.
They were Origin Law fluctuations!
The fluctuations of the Origin Law of Fire!
And that wasn't all.
There were also the less distinct fluctuations of the Origin Law of Light!
Above those two Origin Laws lay another, subtler and more hidden fluctuation: the Origin Law of Space.
The fluctuations of the Origin Law of Space were vague, but he could still make them out.
And apart from the Origin Law of Space, there was another extremely faint fluctuation. Several times Jiang Yao had thought he was imagining it, but he knew he wasn't—the fluctuations of the Origin Law of Time!
Jiang Yao's mental power delved into the magma. A crimson ball of molten rock floated before him, its flowing surface then hardening into a dagger.
The dagger streaked with a red rainbow glow, traced a mysterious arc as it cut through the void, and shot toward the sky.
Jiang Yao could hardly believe what he sensed within himself. He could not only clearly perceive the fluctuations of the Origin Law of Fire; he had even grasped a trace of the Origin Law of Fire!
And judging by the rich fluctuations of the Origin Law of Fire all around him, reaching the threshold of the Origin Law was just a matter of spending a little more time.
Before you continue