The gods gathered around the Ascension Staircase instantly erupted into uproar. Every one of them wore an expression of stunned disbelief, their minds completely unable to process what they were seeing.
The Angel Clan was the embodiment of light, born to be irreconcilable enemies with darkness and evil.
Yet now, such a dense source of darkness had emerged from the inheritance light of the new Angel God!
But in the very next second, something even more scalp-numbing happened.
The intertwined divine power of light and darkness began rising at a terrifying, frenzied speed!
The originally stable fluctuations of a first-class Divine Position soared as if strapped to a rocket, breaking through the shackles of a first-class god and charging straight into the realm of a half-step God King!
And that rising momentum showed no signs of slowing, faintly suggesting that it might continue and assault the God King realm!
Since the birth of the God Realm, the number of deities who had managed to touch the threshold of a half-step God King could be counted on one hand.
From inheriting a first-class Divine Position to entering the half-step God King realm, even peerless geniuses needed hundreds of thousands of years of arduous cultivation. Some could not touch that threshold even in their entire lives.
Yet Qian Chongguang had taken less than a hundred breaths since inheriting the Angel God Position!
The entire God Realm fell silent beneath the shock of this terrifying phenomenon.
After a long while, Evil God King finally sucked in a cold breath and slapped his forehead. He called out to Asura God with a laugh of disbelief, "Damn! Asura, Asura, you didn't find yourself an enemy—you've created a new daddy for our entire God Realm!"
Asura God stood frozen in place, his blood-red pupils filled with confusion. He looked as though he had been struck by lightning, and even the rage surrounding him had come to a standstill.
He was dumbfounded. Completely dumbfounded.
He had lived for nearly a million years, and no one understood better than him how difficult it was to cross the gulf between a first-class god and a God King.
Even if one drained all the power of faith from Douluo Planet, even if one scoured the entire God Realm for every heavenly treasure, it would still be impossible to enter the half-step God King realm the instant one inherited a Divine Position!
This simply did not conform to the laws of the God Realm. It was utterly impossible!
How exactly had this brat done it?
I'm so jealous.
The gods' shock lasted only an instant. In the next second, the four God Kings exchanged glances and almost simultaneously transformed into streaks of light, racing toward the Angel Temple.
The dozens of first-class deities behind them also snapped out of it and hurried after them. The appearance of a half-step God King was enough to shake the entire God Realm's balance. They had to see the truth for themselves.
But when they tore through the sea of clouds and landed in the plaza before the Angel Temple, the sight before them left their already crashed minds completely numb.
At the center of the white jade plaza before the temple gates, Qian Chongguang stood suspended in midair.
He wore a divine robe interwoven with gilded gold and ink-black. Twelve wings spread behind him—six were pure gilded gold, engraved with the sacred patterns of the Angel Clan. They should have embodied light and justice, yet every golden feather was covered in fine black demonic markings, exuding bone-chilling darkness and wickedness. The other six were a deep ink-black, wrapped in patterns of annihilating darkness. They should have represented evil and coldness, yet every black feather flowed with a luminous holy radiance, carrying warm light and justice.
Light and darkness, holiness and evil, had fused perfectly within him without the slightest sense of discord. Instead, they formed a terrifying pressure that made even God Kings' hearts palpitate.
The gods were utterly dumbstruck.
Since the God Realm's birth, light and darkness had been laws in absolute opposition, as incompatible as fire and water. Never had any deity controlled these two utterly opposing source powers at once, much less fused them to such an extent and used them to break through the shackles of a first-class god and step into the half-step God King realm!
This was no longer merely breaking the rules. This was turning the foundational laws of the God Realm completely upside down!
Seeing the gods' stunned expressions, as if they had seen a ghost, Qian Chongguang suddenly laughed aloud. Half his voice carried the sanctity of light, while the other half held the deep heaviness of darkness, echoing through the plaza for a long time.
"Are you all surprised? Do you believe light and darkness are opposed and can never be fused?" He raised a hand. A point of golden light and a point of black radiance lit up at his fingertips simultaneously. With a gentle touch, the two lights fused perfectly. "The principle is actually simple. With light in the daytime, people can work, farm, reproduce, and live. That is justice. With darkness at night, people can rest, sleep, and regain their strength. That is also justice. But if there were only day and never night, or only night and never day, it would be a catastrophic nightmare for all living beings."
He slowly lowered his hand, and the divine power of light and darkness around him surged again. The pressure of a half-step God King swept outward, overwhelming the heavens and earth. "Light and darkness were never absolute mortal enemies. They were always two sides of the world, dependent on and giving birth to each other. Under certain rules, they could naturally form a perfect balance and even transform into each other. And right now, I am that rule itself."
The instant his words fell, the fluctuations of divine power around him finally reached their peak.
That rising momentum slowly came to a stop, ultimately stabilizing firmly at the half-step God King realm, only one step away from becoming a true God King.
For Qian Chongguang, this amount of power was already more than enough.
From the very beginning, he had never intended to rely on this power to enter the God King realm alive.
This source of darkness was a forbidden power that he had forcibly reversed and transformed using the Angel God's source of light as a catalyst, burning away several hundred years of his own soul cultivation.
The stronger this power became, the faster his life slipped away.
He slowly raised his eyes, his gaze passing over the gathered deities before locking firmly onto Asura God at the front of the crowd. A cold smile curved across his lips.
"Asura God King, the show is over. Now, we can settle our accounts properly."
He stepped forward. His twelve light-and-dark wings gently flapped, and the battle intent around him erupted like a volcano. He spoke each word with resounding force.
"This battle will decide both superiority and life or death."
The entire plaza instantly exploded into uproar at those words!
The gods' expressions changed drastically. They all took half a step back, their faces full of terror and disbelief.
He was insane! Completely insane!
A half-step God King wanted to challenge Asura God King—the universally acknowledged strongest combatant in the God Realm, the wielder of the laws of slaughter—to a fight to the death?!
Never mind who would win; the all-out clash between two supreme experts alone would be enough to overturn half the God Realm!
The temples surrounding the Angel Temple, even the God Realm's spatial barriers, would be shattered to pieces!
"No! Absolutely not!"
Life Goddess hurried forward, dense green life radiance swirling around her as she stood between them. Her gentle voice carried urgent persuasion. "Asura, Angel, both of you need to calm down! Whatever conflict you have, we can return to the God Realm Committee and sit down to discuss it slowly. Why must you fight to the death? If you truly fight, the foundations of the God Realm will be damaged, and countless living beings will suffer. This is absolutely not what any of us want to see!"