The four loyal followers exchanged glances, and following Urnos's instructions, raised their hands, released their energy, and merged it into his body.
The situation in the arena immediately escalated, like adding fuel to the fire. The intensity of the energy storm surged, becoming increasingly violent. Urnos, who was at the center, could no longer be seen, leaving only a dazzling light.
The aura belonging to Urnos rose steadily, causing the four to feel their hearts and minds tremble.
"It seems like it might actually work?!"
"As expected of the former undisputed number one powerhouse, although Black Star beat him to it, he was still able to keep up."
The four close associates had a spiritual exchange, which was both surprising and delightful.
On the other side, the leaders of the Arcane Sect and other high-ranking members who were watching this scene had their hearts in their throats, feeling the tension of their own children taking an exam. Their eyes were fixed on the scene of advancement, not wanting to miss a single second.
They had all heard Urnos say that this advancement was risky, so many high-ranking Arcane were on tenterhooks, filled with both anticipation and worry.
The existence of Urnos gives the Arcane Church a significant advantage over the other two factions in terms of individual power, making it extremely important. If this pillar were to be sacrificed as a result, it would be a heavy loss.
The fleet's sensors were constantly buzzing, and the energy detection values were rising steadily.
This process lasted for a long time. Under everyone's watchful eyes, the energy storm finally began to slowly contract and be absorbed back into the body. Urnos's aura rose to its peak and slowly became stable.
"Is this going to be a success?!"
Upon seeing this, the higher-ups of the Arcane were overjoyed, watching this scene with eager anticipation.
"It seems the first Beyond God Grade direct descendant is about to be born..."
The leader of the Arcane Sect was overjoyed and breathed a sigh of relief.
However, just when he thought the advancement was about to be completed smoothly, the shrinking energy storm suddenly stopped.
The next moment, centered on Urnos, a violent energy burst forth, and the energy storm absorbed into his body surged back out, bursting out at an even faster speed.
The blinding light turned everyone's vision into a white blur; the sound was so faint yet it seemed to resonate like a world-shaking roar in everyone's hearts!
Boom!!
The surrounding guard fleet was forced to deploy its shields, but they were quickly riddled with cracks from the impact. The four elite Beyond Grade A members closest to the epicenter of the explosion were caught off guard and blasted away by the powerful energy shockwave, like shrapnel from a bomb exploding, tumbling far into space.
"What's going on? Why did it suddenly explode?!"
The leader of the Arcane Cult was a remote projection and was unaffected, but he was still startled and instantly became tense.
Could it be that Urnos failed in his advancement, tragically perished, and was blown to bits?!
The leader of the Arcane Sect immediately panicked and quickly ordered his four loyal followers and the surrounding fleet to be ready to rescue the people at any time.
Fortunately, the energy burst was only in one wave and did not cause sustained damage to the surrounding fleet. When the energy was completely released, the bright light in the center slowly faded, finally revealing Urnos's figure.
He hovered in mid-air, golden blood droplets continuously seeping from every pore. These droplets quickly condensed in the cosmic environment, turning into translucent golden crystals, like snowflakes drifting down.
The energy readings of the sensing radar plummeted, and Urnos appeared listless, as if he had been severely injured and was on the verge of collapse.
The surrounding spaceships rushed to the rescue, but Urnos waved his hand to indicate that it was not necessary. He pointed his finger lightly at the Temple of All Gods in the distance, and remotely seized the divinity of a statue, summoning a Deity Avatar dressed in a magnificent long dress, which separated from his body.
The original form of this deity's Deity Avatar is clearly female, but she has his face. Although the features have been softened, she still looks like a cross-dressing hunky man, which is quite an eyesore.
As soon as the Deity Avatar appeared, it showered down a sky full of radiance, which merged into Urnos's body. His injuries were quickly brought under control and did not continue to worsen. Although his aura was still weak, it gradually stabilized. Clearly, the prototype of this divine being was a deity in charge of healing from a certain religious sect.
At this moment, the leader of the Arcane Cult reconnected with Urnos and asked with concern, "Are you alright?"
"I've only lost a lot of my life force, I won't die yet." Urnos spat out a mouthful of golden blood and coughed weakly a few times.
"You... failed to advance?" The leader of the Arcane Sect asked hesitantly.
"Hmm." Urnos nodded weakly.
"Didn't you say there was a 70% success rate? How come...?"
Before the leader of the Arcane Cult could finish his question, Urnos interrupted him.
"I did it on purpose. I could have advanced smoothly, but I stopped it at the last minute."
"What?!"
This answer took the Arcane Cult Leader by surprise.
He thought he had encountered an obstacle in his advancement and that's why he failed. He never expected that it was Urnos who did it on purpose. No wonder he looked so badly injured.
The cells had already successfully undergone transformation, but the process was abruptly interrupted, forcing the evolved genes to revert to their original state. This is like reversing a sex change procedure halfway through; it will certainly not bring any benefits, will severely deplete vitality, and will cause great damage to the cells.
What do you mean by that?
The leader of the Arcane Cult was extremely surprised, knowing that Urnos wouldn't do something so disastrous without a reason.
"When I was advancing, I realized something was wrong. My life level hadn't changed much, and it was very different from when Black Star advanced. There must be something wrong with my actions!" Urnos said in a deep voice.
"... So you mean this method of advancement is wrong?" The leader of the Arcane Sect frowned.
"Indeed, the method to advance to the Beyond God Grade seems to be more complex than it appears. Black Star must be hiding some crucial conditions."
Although Urnos suffered a severe backlash, his eyes remained sharp.
He was initially pleased with the smooth progress, but as the advancement drew to a close, he began to feel something was amiss.
Although this advancement would indeed make him stronger, the increase in his own strength was far from meeting his expectations for the Beyond God Grade, which made him full of doubts.
He had a vague premonition that this advancement wouldn't allow him to reach the Beyond God Grade. If he did advance, he would have to reach a new limit to advance again, and his potential was almost exhausted. He didn't know how long it would be before he could get another chance to advance, or he might never have another chance.
In this way, the dream of Beyond God Grade will likely vanish into thin air, never to be realized.
After a fierce internal struggle, Urnos finally made up his mind. Having successfully advanced more than halfway, he decided to cut his losses and, even at the risk of his life and suffering the backlash, stop the advancement and decisively minimize the damage.
Generally speaking, the advancement process of superhumans is irreversible, but at Urnos's level, he can perfectly control everything about himself, so interrupting the advancement and reversing the transformation is feasible.
Of course, doing this might cause a collapse at the genetic level for a normal person, but the "stability" of the Arcane National Treasure is one of the reasons why Urnos dares to take the risk. Even if there is damage, it can be greatly reduced.
In this way, although he is seriously injured, he can recover completely after a period of recuperation. This precious opportunity for advancement will not be wasted. Just like when he failed to advance to a higher level before, this is not the first time he has experienced this situation.
If Han Xiao were here, he would immediately understand the meaning behind Urnos's actions. If Urnos had successfully advanced normally, at his current level, it would have been incredibly difficult to reach the next advancement threshold by leveling up another 20 levels.
By deliberately failing the advancement, the opportunity is not wasted. According to the advancement rules of this level, to advance, you only need to complete a new advancement task. However, for those without a panel, there should be no hard requirement for advancement tasks. Perhaps they can just train for a period of time to get back to their peak condition.
However, this approach is very dangerous. If a malignant mutation occurs, it can only benefit future generations.
However, a simple failure to advance is not fatal; it is the malignant mutation that occurs during the advancement that is fatal. The probability of the two is separate and independent. Most Beyond Grade A individuals are those with the best luck, Urnos is one of the best among them. Thanks to his profound experience and good luck, he did not encounter a malignant mutation this time and was not killed by his own actions.
At this moment, another high-ranking bystander couldn't help but angrily say:
"Black Star knew there was something fishy going on and deliberately kept it a secret. Maybe he was just waiting for you to fail in your advancement so he could trick us and indirectly kill a key member of Three Universal Civilizations, preventing us from obtaining Beyond God Grade combat power and thus rendering us unable to threaten him!"
Urnos shook his head. "It's not his fault; I was too impatient."
This was quite a close call, and he was still somewhat frightened and lingering in fear. He couldn't help but recall the brief advice Black Star had given him after completing his advancement, but unfortunately, he hadn't taken it to heart, knowing he couldn't blame anyone else.
Urnos has the guts to get this far; he wouldn't hold a grudge against Han Xiao.
On the other side, the leader of the Arcane Cult remained silent for a while, then sighed and spoke:
"So, we still can't reach the Beyond God Grade. For the time being, only Black Star in the universe possesses such power, which isn't a good thing... Should we ask Black Star again about how to advance to the Beyond God Grade?"
"Forget it. Put yourself in his shoes. He's either not telling us or he's lying. If we try to get information out of him, he'll not only take some of our benefits, but he'll also play us again." Urnos waved his hand.
"That's true... Oh well, it's good that we're alive. We'll deal with things more slowly later."
The leader of the Arcane Spirits looked helpless. He had placed high hopes on Urnos, but now that those hopes had been dashed, he was naturally disappointed. However, it was not appropriate for him to show this in front of Urnos, who had just escaped death.
In this way, they were back on the same starting line as the other two major civilizations, and their intelligence advantage vanished.
"Well..."
The leader of the Arcane Cult sighed, not saying much, only instructing Urnos to rest well, and then deactivated the remote projection.
He had originally intended to celebrate the birth of the Arcane's Beyond God Grade direct descendant in a grand ceremony, but since it ended in failure, he lost interest in staying here and had to go back to manage the affairs of Wan Ji.
The guard fleet dispersed, and the four loyal followers also resigned. Martial law was lifted in the area, and it returned to its desolate state.
Urnos returned to the Temple of All Gods alone to lick his wounds, repeatedly recalling Han Xiao's advancement process in his mind, muttering to himself:
"What am I missing...?"
A few days later, in the offices of the leaders of the Three Universal Civilizations.
"... That's the gist of it. I plan to invite representatives from all major civilizations, including the Three Universal Civilizations, as well as various well-known forces, to a conference on interstellar social order, specifically to discuss the elimination of the human trade..."
Inside the room, Han Xiao spoke eloquently via remote projection.
He took time out of his day to come and talk to the leaders of the Three Universal Civilizations, preparing to work on [the End of Darkness]. The attitudes of the Three Universal Civilizations were very important.
"That's good, we agree in principle," Louis nodded. "However, the external enemy hasn't been dealt with yet, isn't it premature to worry about this issue now?"
"It'll be too late once the war is over. There's no harm in cleaning up the security before the war. Anyway, many troops are on standby now, so it's good to pull them out and do something," Han Xiao said casually.
Louis hesitated for a few seconds, then turned to look at the other two. "What are your thoughts?"
"I have no objection."
Me too.
Mabrus and the leader of the Arcane Cult nodded and exchanged a glance.
They were quite curious as to why Black Star would do something so "unimportant" at this time. After some analysis, they all felt that it was most likely an attempt by Black Star to gain public favor. If he succeeded, his reputation would surely increase greatly.
The three weren't entirely opposed to it; at least Black Star's desire for it indicated his confidence in the war, and given the various factors at play, they were now finding it difficult to curb Black Star's efforts to increase his prestige.
"In that case, I will issue a unified invitation to all major powers in the name of the association and the Three Universal Civilizations in a while."
Han Xiao nodded. This matter required the cooperation of many forces, and he planned to hold a conference to invite forces from all star regions of the universe to participate.
Having achieved his goal, Han Xiao was in a much better mood. He turned to look at the leader of the Arcane Sect, then suddenly remembered something and asked curiously:
"By the way, has Urnos attempted to advance?"
The leader of the Arcane Cult twitched his eye. "Why do you care about this?"
"Judging from your expression, you've probably already tried." Han Xiao raised an eyebrow, a playful look in his eyes. "He failed, didn't he? Is he still alive?"
The leader of the Arcane Sect immediately became unhappy, feeling that this was a mockery, and didn't want to speak anymore.
"Hmm, looks like you're not dead, otherwise you wouldn't be so quiet. But I did advise Urnos not to rush into advancement; it's his problem if he didn't listen, not mine."
Han Xiao didn't take it seriously, his tone mocking.
"... He's still alive, but he deliberately stopped his advancement and suffered some backlash. He'll recover in a while." The leader of the Arcane Sect had a somber face. There was no point in keeping this a secret; with Han Xiao's intelligence network, he would find out about this soon enough, and it might even be told to him by Urnos himself.
Seeing this, Han Xiao's eyes flickered slightly.
If Urnos had undergone a normal advancement, he would not have been qualified to challenge for the Beyond God Grade for a long time. However, if he had only failed to advance and had not died, he would still have a chance. In fact, he didn't care whether it was the former or the latter.
If it's the former, then Urnos will no longer be a threat to him; if it's the latter, then it means that Urnos still has a chance to become Beyond Divine Remnant Power. In any case, he won't lose out either way, monopolizing the advancement method and sitting comfortably on the sidelines.
'But the fact that he voluntarily stopped his advancement shows some courage...'
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and nodded secretly.
It seems that this little scheme won't easily cause Urnos to fail. After all, he's a big shot who has stood at the pinnacle of individual power for so many years; he's got some skills.
He had no grudge against Urnos and had no intention of targeting him, but he also did not advise Urnos to temporarily abandon his obligation to advance, so he did not care about the outcome.
However, seeing this guy suffer for imitating him, Han Xiao felt a little smug.
Hey, you tried to copy me, and now you're in big trouble!