Forbidden secrets surged into Lin Chen's mind through the torrent of his ancient bloodline. The ice-cold memories of antiquity crashed through him like thunder, sweeping over his entire consciousness in an instant.
The ancient rebellion against the Heavens, the encirclement by all the worlds, the fall across dimensions, the eternal seal... Fragmented scenes, buried for hundreds of millions of years, continued to surface deep in his mind. Slaughter filled the skies, blood stained the stars, the Heavenly Dao collapsed, and realms shattered. Under the combined assault of the Seven Supremes, the once-glorious, thriving supreme world had gradually been reduced to the wretched low-dimensional Prison Cage it was today.
It turned out that the invaders from beyond the realms had never simply been greedy plunderers, and Chaos had never invaded without cause.
This universe itself bore the original sin acknowledged by all the Heavens.
Hundreds of millions of years ago, this world had been immensely powerful, ranking among the middle and upper reaches of the Heavens. Its Heavenly Dao was complete, its source vast, and none could match its authority over its realm. But the universe's ancestors were endlessly ambitious. They sought to devour the origins of all worlds, unify the order across dimensions, and break the balance between higher and lower realms. In the end, they ignited an ancient war that swept across the entire multiverse.
The battle was unimaginably brutal. Countless beings across the Heavens perished, and countless powerful realms were destroyed and laid to waste.
In the end, the Seven Supremes joined forces, pooling all their strength to encircle and suppress this rebellious universe. They shattered the foundation of its Heavenly Dao, stripped away its authority over dimensions, and sealed its core origin. They forcibly cast the once-mighty world down to the lowest dimension, imprisoning it for eternity with no chance of rising again.
The Chaos Clan had been appointed by the Seven Supremes to guard the Prison Cage after the ancient war of conquest.
The plans laid over ten thousand years, the shattered barrier, the invasion of Chaos, the four powers opening the gate... None of it was a plot conceived on a whim. It was all part of a cycle of imprisonment that had repeated for hundreds of millions of years, an ending long since ordained.
Chaos King had been ordered to carry out the purge. The Seven Supremes watched from the sidelines, deliberately leaving three days for the inhabitants to catch their breath. It wasn't out of pity for the masses, nor was it a stalling tactic in some game of wits.
They were waiting.
Waiting for the ancient bloodline within Lin Chen to fully awaken, for the sealed ancient origin of this universe to be forcibly released, and for the force of the realms' backlash—sealed for hundreds of millions of years—to emerge completely.
The dangers left behind by the ancient war had never been eliminated. The rebellious universe still had a chance to strike back.
The Seven Supremes were unwilling to risk acting in person, so they used the invasion of Chaos and the four people's desperate resistance to force this universe to awaken its dormant reserves. Then they would eradicate every remaining threat in one fell swoop, eliminating the root of trouble across the Heavens forever.
The four of them, the people of Earth, the vast expanse of the entire galaxy—they had all been sacrificial offerings in an ancient game, brought in to settle the final account.
"Whew—"
Lin Chen sucked in a sharp breath. The ancient golden light of his bloodline trembled violently, and his previously taut body stiffened slightly, beyond his control.
All his earlier deductions, all his hopes, every thought of turning the tables in this desperate situation—all of them crumbled completely in that moment.
They had thought they were fighting against the apocalypse, thought they were protecting their home, thought a brief reprieve would give them time to find a way out.
Little did they know, their resistance itself was part of the game.
The harder they struggled, the faster their origin awakened, and the more complete their destruction would be.
The three people beside him immediately noticed the dramatic change in Lin Chen's expression, his disordered aura, and his pale face. He was utterly unlike the calm, confident man he had been before.
Kallen hurried forward. Her purple battle aura had been suppressed to the bare minimum as she asked in a low voice, "What exactly did you see? How terrifying is this ancient secret?"
The Pure-blooded Saiyan Race had endured through the ages and witnessed the rise and fall of the universe, yet they had never touched upon such a forbidden truth spanning entire eras. Why had the universe been sealed? Why had it been born so weak? Why had it continually suffered disasters from beyond the realms? Today, they finally had their answer.
Golden Full-Power Super Saiyan's expression grew utterly grave. The understanding of the universe he had accumulated over countless years had been turned upside down. He had seen planets destroyed, starfields collapse, and entire races wiped out, but he had never imagined that the universe itself was a criminal in the eyes of the Heavens, a place of rebellion exiled and imprisoned by the entire multiverse.
No wonder forces from beyond the realms kept watching them. No wonder higher-dimensional beings could so easily interfere with the laws here. No wonder they could never escape their predetermined fate, no matter how hard they fought.
Born in sin, imprisoned for eternity.
The pale Emperor Energy surrounding Frieza stirred faintly. For the first time, his usually arrogant, detached face was clouded with disbelief and gloom.
He had ruled the galaxy for hundreds of years and controlled thousands upon thousands of starfields. He had considered himself above all living things, the supreme ruler of the universe. Only now did he understand that the empire he had taken pride in, the territory he had dominated all his life, was merely one corner of the Heavens' Prison Cage.
As the Galactic Emperor, he was, in the end, nothing more than an ant in the cage—one slightly stronger than the rest.
"We're... descendants of sinners?"
Kallen's voice was dry, tinged with indescribable confusion and helplessness.
The universe they had devoted their lives to protecting, the world they had defended for generations, had been the source of the rebellion that betrayed the Heavens and ignited a war to destroy the worlds. Their desperate resistance to invasion from beyond the realms was no righteous defense. It was merely prisoners fighting their guards.
If they resisted too fiercely, the Seven Supremes behind it all would descend in person. Then, forget Earth—even the entire universe would be erased completely, without a trace of its remnant souls left behind.
Above them, the Chaos shadows gathered along the edges of the rift stirred slowly.
Chaos King stood in silence. His enormous shadow did not move at all, and his hollow eyes gazed indifferently down at the earth. He knew the whole truth, but never spoke of it. He simply carried out the same unchanging orders in silence, as he had for tens of millions of years.
Purge the Prison Cage, awaken the old dangers, and await the Supremes' reckoning.
The three-day limit was no chance at survival. It was a countdown.
Once the time was up and the ancient backlash had run its course, the Seven Supremes would cross dimensions and descend, bringing a definitive end to the rebellious cause that had endured for hundreds of millions of years.
The entire world fell into a terrifying silence.
The wind swept across the devastated land. Ruins of shattered cities continued to crumble, while the earth corroded by Chaos Power slowly sank into oblivion. There was no fighting, no roar—only despair that seeped into the bones, shrouding everything around them.
Deep in the forest, Bulma felt a chill run through her as her mind went blank.
Science could explain dimensions, analyze energy, and calculate the movement of celestial bodies. But it could never explain grievances among the Heavens that had spanned hundreds of millions of years, nor could it accept that the world she lived in was, from its very origin, an enemy of all the Heavens.
Humanity's survival, the development of civilization, the life of the planet—everything rested upon a Prison Cage that the Heavens could crush at any moment.
Little Goku clenched his fists tightly and looked up at the dark sky, his small body trembling slightly. He didn't understand original sin, the game of imprisonment, or the ancient war. He only knew that everyone was afraid, and that the sky above could collapse completely at any moment, making everyone disappear.
"If that's the case, do we still have a chance of winning?"
Golden Super Saiyan spoke slowly, his voice low and hoarse.
The universe bore original sin, the Heavens were united against them, Chaos had been commanded to suppress them, and the Seven Supremes were watching with hostile intent. Enemies surrounded them within and without, with no way out above or below. This was no simple gap in strength. It was a dead end with no solution.
Resisting as normal would only accelerate the awakening of their origin and bring about ultimate destruction.
If they didn't resist and simply waited to die, the Chaos Legion would steadily devour the world, and before long, all living things would perish all the same.
Every path led to death.
Lin Chen slowly calmed his churning thoughts and forced himself to regain his composure. The Ancestral Remnant Soul had desperately sealed these memories away because it didn't want future generations to learn the truth, despair, and give up on their own.
But now the truth was out. There was no point in running from it.
"It's not a completely hopeless dead end."
Lin Chen raised his head. The panic faded from his eyes, replaced by a renewed, steadfast light. "Although this universe lost the ancient war and was imprisoned, it wasn't completely destroyed. Our ancestors fought to the death, severely wounded several Supremes, and tore through their encirclement. Only then did the universe manage to survive, barely, until now."
"That means the Seven Supremes aren't invincible, and this universe isn't completely powerless to resist."
The seal that had lasted for hundreds of millions of years had constrained more than the universe's dimensions. It had also restrained the power of the ancient Supremes. Crossing dimensions came at a great cost, and the laws of the Heavens held one another in check. They couldn't easily enter this world in person; they could only act through projections of their will, probe it with their auras, and interfere indirectly.
The Chaos Clan had limited strength and didn't dare wipe them out recklessly.
The Seven Supremes feared the backlash left behind by the ancients and were unwilling to get personally involved.
That was the only remaining crack they could exploit.
Kallen's eyes lit up. "You mean our ancestors left something behind? The ancient bloodline, the sealing arts, and the universe's hidden reserves that have yet to emerge—could they reverse our original sin and break the Prison Cage?"
"Exactly."
Lin Chen nodded, sorting through the fragmented legacy in his mind. "Our ancestors sealed the universe's origin not just to avoid the pursuit of the Heavens, but also to gather strength in hiding. They waited for the eras to change, for the laws to loosen and the Prison Cage's shackles to weaken. Then they'd have a chance to break free of the seal, wash away the Eternal Original Sin, and return to the ranks of the Heavens."
"The invasion of Chaos seems like an apocalypse, but it's actually a sign that the Prison Cage's shackles are loosening. The shattered barrier and the cracking walls are both a crisis and a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity."
If they followed the path laid out by the Heavens and let their origin awaken, they would inevitably face annihilation in the reckoning.
But if they seized this chance to break free of their dimensional shackles and shatter the ancient game of imprisonment themselves—if they refused to remain rebellious prisoners at the mercy of others—they could find a way to save their universe.
Frieza gave a cold laugh, his tone harsh and realistic. "Easy to say. The Seven Supremes of the Heavens are stationed beyond the realms, and Chaos King guards the rift. We're locked in from both sides. The four of us are seriously wounded, the universe's origin is incomplete, and Earth is in ruins. How are we supposed to break free of a seal that's lasted hundreds of millions of years?"
Reality was so cruel it took their breath away.
They couldn't even withstand a mere projection of Chaos King, let alone the Seven Supremes of the Heavens, whose power far surpassed the level of Chaos.
"Three days."
Lin Chen gazed up at the Chaos Rift, like a countdown hanging in the sky, and spoke each word clearly. "For these three days, we can't focus on healing and recovering our fighting strength, gather an army to resist, or activate the universe's origin. Anything that accelerates the awakening of the origin will bring the Supremes down ahead of time."
"Our task is to find the flaw in the ancient Prison Cage, repair the damaged walls of the world, and temporarily halt the spread of Chaos. At the same time, we must search for the method our ancestors left to undo the seal, bypass the Heavens' surveillance, and break the dimensional restraints without alerting them."
Avoid the reckoning, provoke no killing intent, and turn the tide against all odds.
That was the only viable path.
The four quickly reached a consensus, temporarily setting aside all their grudges and differences. Earth's survival and the universe's fate were inextricably bound together. Former enemies stood shoulder to shoulder, facing an ancient deadlock that spanned the Heavens.
Kallen immediately spread her battle aura to investigate the spatial fluctuations around them, trace the path of Chaos's corruption, and prevent the black fog from consuming more of the earth's vitality.
Golden Super Saiyan drew on his experience through the ages to deduce the structure of the dimensional walls, analyze the weak points in the ancient seal, and search for blind spots in the Will of the Heavens' surveillance.
Frieza reined in his imperial malice and mobilized the remaining power within his starfields to seal off the space surrounding Earth, preventing Chaos forces from spreading outward and slowing the worsening situation.
Lin Chen sat at the core of the formation on the earth, closing his eyes and focusing. He immersed himself completely in the ancient bloodline legacy, deciphering the runes left behind by his ancestors and unraveling the secrets of the Prison Cage that had endured for hundreds of millions of years.
Time flew by.
In the deathly silent world, everyone raced against time.
Beyond the rift, the auras of the Seven Supremes remained still. They watched the beings trapped in the cage with cold indifference, in no hurry, quietly waiting for the game to follow its predetermined course.
The Chaos Legion remained motionless, neither attacking nor retreating, firmly blocking every path of escape. Like cold-hearted jailers, they kept watch over the entire Prison Cage of the universe.
Just as Lin Chen was about to identify the key point in the ancient seal and touch the core technique for breaking free of the Prison Cage,
an even more hidden, even more horrifying scene from antiquity suddenly appeared deep within his bloodline.
Near the end of the ancient war, the universe's ancestors had been on the verge of defeat. To prevent the universe from being utterly destroyed, they had not hesitated to perform a forbidden sacrificial ritual.
They offered the souls of generations to come and the endless future fortune of the universe as sacrifices, in exchange for a chance for the universe to survive.
And the one bound by this sacrificial contract—
was none other than the Chaos Clan, now guarding the rift!
As long as the universe endured, the sacrifices would never end.
As long as its people lived, the shackles would remain.
If they wanted to break the Prison Cage and escape the original sin imposed by the Heavens, they would have to destroy the Ancient Sacrificial Contract.
Once the contract shattered, the Chaos Clan would be freed from its ancient shackles, no longer controlled by the Supremes. It would become completely unrestrained, devouring all things across the Heavens without limit.
And Chaos King's true, ultimate mission had never been to purge the Prison Cage.
At the moment the Prison Cage broke, he would devour this entire universe and offer it as a sacrifice to the Seven Supremes, in exchange for his own ascension to the higher-dimensional ranks!
At the same time, beyond the walls of the heavens, the seven supreme auras that had been silent and unmoving stirred faintly in unison.
A shared will, cold and merciless, spanning the multiverse, spread across the entire world.
The three-day limit had not yet arrived,
but the ancient contract was about to break,
and the Prison Cage was on the verge of loosening.
The ultimate moment they had waited hundreds of millions of years for
had arrived ahead of schedule.
Before you continue