That golden eye stretched across the sky.
Like the Eye of Judgment, it coldly fixed on Gu Han. The instant its gaze touched him, Gu Han felt as though all the blood in his body had nearly frozen.
Then a voice filled with immense rage exploded in everyone's ears, reverberating across the entire Star Dou Great Forest:
"God of Karma!"
"I have shown you forbearance time and again, but you have repeatedly interfered with the inheritance of my divine position, my successor, and turned karma upside down. Do you truly think I dare not completely erase a god who has yet to grow into his full power?!"
God of Karma!
Those four words were like a thunderclap, startling everyone from Shrek and making Gu Han's heart tremble.
"Is he speaking to me?"
"Am I... the God of Karma? What in the world is going on?"
Before Gu Han could think it through, a cruel glint flashed in that eye. Vast divine power gathered, and in an instant, an entire ocean appeared above the Star Dou Great Forest.
In the blink of an eye, the entire ocean condensed into a beam of azure divine light. The heavenly river poured down, crashing toward Gu Han.
Everywhere the divine light passed, space shattered, revealing the boundless void within.
"Look out!"
Zhao Wuji roared and tried to rush forward, but beneath that divine might, he couldn't summon the slightest resistance. Those whose cultivation was only at the Soul Grandmaster level were even worse; one after another, they collapsed unconscious beneath the pressure.
Gu Han's pupils contracted as the shadow of death fell over his heart.
Almost instinctively, he unleashed all his power. The Heavenly Frost Sword erupted with a chill unlike anything before, and he drove his Ultimate Ice attribute to its limit. The nearly hundred-thousand-year-old fifth Soul Ring blazed wildly.
"Fifth Soul Skill, Ice Dragon Descends!"
A massive crystal ice dragon roared into the sky, carrying a bone-deep chill as it charged fiercely into the azure divine light.
"Crack... BOOM!!!"
The moment the ice dragon touched the divine light, it lasted less than a second before shattering inch by inch, its countless fragments vanishing into ash.
The divine light was held back for only an instant. Its power had barely weakened, and it still bore the force to destroy everything as it ground down toward Gu Han.
The gap was simply too great. How could a mortal contend with a god?
At that critical moment,
a will far more ancient than Gu Han's Soul Power, one that had traversed endless time and space, suddenly awakened within him.
"Hmph."
A faint, cold snort rang through heaven and earth, indifferent and lofty, as if looking down on all eternity.
The voice sounded remarkably like Gu Han's, but was filled with endless weariness.
Then, before Gu Han could even react, his body slipped from his control and moved on its own.
The Heavenly Frost Sword in his hand silently vanished. In its place, the Karma Scissors, wrapped in countless threads of light, appeared in his palm.
But the Karma Scissors no longer looked as they did when he normally wielded them. They had grown more ethereal, as though woven from countless laws and timelines that crossed the endless reaches of space and time.
"Sea God, how dare you."
The voice came from the will within Gu Han.
"Gu Han" raised a hand and gave a gentle wave. A phantom river, containing the fates of every living being throughout all ages, stretched across heaven and earth.
Countless Lines of Karma, varying in thickness and color, spread from the river, filling the entire sky in an instant and completely halting the azure divine light.
"Good thing I kept something in reserve back then and hid this portion of my divine power deep within my Martial Soul Origin. Otherwise, you really would have gotten your way."
"Gu Han" spoke to himself and took a step forward.
With the first step, all the Soul Rings beneath his feet shattered, yet his aura surged, breaking through its bottleneck and reaching Soul Emperor.
With the second step, the pressure of a Soul Saint swept in every direction.
With the third step, the aura of a Soul Douluo weighed down even more heavily on the surrounding Soul Beasts.
With the fourth step, the pressure of a Titled Douluo descended.
With the fifth step, he crossed that unseen threshold and entered the divine realm.
The sixth step... the seventh step...
With each step, he ascended another realm, his aura surging wildly. Every step seemed to land upon a node in the River of Time, stirring echoes across countless spaces and eras.
When his seventh step fell, the pressure radiating from him was even more powerful than that of the Sea God in the sky.
"By my name, I command karma, trace the source, and sever your divine consciousness."
"Gu Han" spoke in an icy voice, then lightly swept the Karma Scissors through empty space.
This snip did not target the divine light. Instead, it followed the countless Lines of Karma upstream, tracing the connection between the Sea God's attack and his true body in the Divine Realm, crossing endless space to strike directly at the Sea God's true body.
"Pfft—"
Far away in the Divine Realm, the Sea God abruptly opened his eyes in the Sea God Temple. Seated upon his divine throne, he suddenly vomited a mouthful of golden divine blood.
He felt an irresistible power of karma strike his divinity directly, severely wounding his divine soul.
"You...!"
The Sea God was shocked and enraged. He had never imagined that a God of Karma who had not fully awakened could wound him across endless space and time.
Though his opponent seemed to have used a trump card accumulated over a long period, that degree of mastery over karma was still truly terrifying.
"Good. Very good. God of Karma, I will remember this grudge."
The Sea God's voice, full of pain and fury, echoed over the Star Dou Great Forest for a long while. It was also clearly much weaker than before.
"Asura, later..."
Before he could finish speaking, the golden eye in the sky flickered violently several times, then slowly faded away, unwilling and furious.
The terrifying pressure faded with it.
The Star Dou Great Forest brightened once more, as if everything that had just happened had been nothing but a dream.
The ancient will within Gu Han gradually receded as well. He regained control of his body, his face pale and his strength nearly spent.
The final words left by that will still echoed in his mind, full of meaning:
"I never expected that in this life, I would be forced to use this portion of my divine power so early. You will have to walk the rest of the road on your own. I believe it won't be long before we meet again in the River of Time..."
"But it is not yet time for you to know these memories. Let me erase them for you. When the time comes, you will naturally learn everything."
Gu Han stood there dazed, a trace of confusion welling up in his heart. He looked at the people lying on the ground, still unable to understand what had happened. But now, his attention was caught by the system's voice.
[Ding! Successfully resisted a god-tier threat, relied on external aid, glimpsed the divine karma tied to oneself, and drastically altered the course of fate! Reward: Divine Sense Seed x1, 5000 Modification Points! System authorization level increased, unlocking access to part of the advanced information database.]
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