The once pitch-black Astral Realm Void has become bizarre and fantastical due to a cataclysmic war.
Beneath that dark backdrop, traces of battle remained everywhere—in some areas, the flames of the laws burned eternally, crimson tongues licking the shattered spatial structure, emitting sizzling sounds;
Some areas are filled with silvery-blue ice crystals that seem to freeze Space-Time, like countless shattered mirrors suspended in the Void, refracting millions of distorted reflections;
Some areas were eroded by the power of chaos into a hazy, void where even starlight could not exist, as if they had been forever stripped away from the real world;
In some areas, brown fragments of the earth's crust remain, like continental debris crushed by immense force, slowly floating, colliding, and shattering in the Void.
The stars are wailing.
The shattered fragments of the star spun slowly in the Void, the energy leaking from the broken star cores flowing through the Void like the blood of a dying man, flickering intermittently with its last glimmer of light.
Those weaker planes affected by the aftermath of the battle had long since crumbled, their inhabitants and civilizations reduced to dust. Countless fragments of stars, plane remnants, and laws mingled together, forming a desolate sea of ruins.
The wailing of the stars gradually faded away. The mournful and desperate sound that echoed in every corner of the Astral Realm was slowly receding, like the afterglow of a storm. Although a trace of dampness remained in the air, it was no longer the dominant theme.
One by one, the Eternal ceased their battle, casting their gazes upon the single, towering being standing.
The World Tree's enormous body stretched out slightly, its countless verdant branches swaying gently in the Void, like a forest stretching out in the wind.
The image of the Lord of Truth was reflected in His aged and deep eyes, which were filled with a warm glow of satisfaction and joy.
The Lord of Time halted the flow of the River of Time. His gaze lingered on the Lord of Truth for a long time before he finally exhaled a breath of turbid air, which transformed into ripples of time in the Void and slowly dissipated.
The thread of cause and effect, which the Goddess of Fate had already half-moved, fell silently to the ground, and a complex emotion flashed in her golden eyes.
Meanwhile, the Eternal on the other side were filled with unease.
The mad fighting spirit in the Lord of Frost and Thunder's eyes, which resembled ancient glaciers, had completely subsided, replaced by an extremely rare solemnity and vigilance.
His fingers, gripping the Frost and Thunder Staff, trembled slightly—not from fear, but from a more primal, instinctive reaction to an existence far beyond himself. The Magic Pioneer stood not far away, his gaze also fixed on the Lord of Truth. His lips were slightly pursed, and Magic Runes flickered faintly around him, yet dared not truly materialize.
For a moment, no one spoke.
The silence was oppressive, suffocating. All the Eternal stood frozen in place, as if nailed to the Void by some invisible force, daring not to make the slightest unnecessary movement. The shattered ruins of the Astral Realm floated slowly around them, the remnants silently bearing witness to the terrifying nature of the final battle that had just ended.
After a moment of silence--
Lord of Frost and Thunder!
He raised the Frost and Thunder Staff in his hand, transforming into a streak of lightning that shattered Space-Time! The lightning was a blazing purple-white, with thunder and frost intertwining around him, like a roaring behemoth of lightning drawing a trajectory that tore through Void and Space-Time! His speed was extreme, the transition from stillness to maximum speed was completed in an instant, and the distance between the Lord of Truth and him was compressed to zero in the blink of an eye!
One blow lands!
The staff's momentum carried all of the Lord of Frost and Thunder's madness and arrogance, along with His madman nature of "I'll try even against the strongest being!" Lightning crackled and frost condensed on the staff's body. Two completely opposite forces collided and erupted wildly at the staff's tip, releasing terrifying energy powerful enough to shatter an entire realm into pieces!
But--
The Magic Pioneer did not stop the blow as it fell.
The progenitor of magic in the Astral Realm stood there, his gaze fixed on the unfolding attack, his fingers tightening and loosening slightly within his sleeves. He was observing, probing, and gambling on a possibility.
Perhaps this Magic Pioneer also wanted to see the true state of the Lord of Truth —was he truly suffering irreversible damage in the fierce battle with the Mother of the Stars? Was he truly as weak as he appeared? Was he truly... at his last gasp?
That would be ideal. With the Lord of Truth and the Mother of the Stars both severely weakened, the remaining Eternal could regain control, and the ownership of the Astral Realm would no longer be the possession of any one individual.
If not...
Thinking of this, the Magic Pioneer's heart sank suddenly, as if a cold boulder had fallen into it.
Has the wolf been driven away only to be replaced by a tiger?! Although the Mother of the Stars is domineering, she does have a genuine desire to manage the Astral Realm. Her rule, though harsh, at least keeps the Astral Realm running.
But what about this Heavenly Emperor of Spirit Saint, this Lord of Truth? How will He treat the Astral Realm, how will He treat them, the Eternal?
When two powerful forces clash, if neither can suffer heavy losses, then the victor must ultimately face only one choice:
Submission.
That was the possibility that all the Eternal who stood on the side of the Mother of the Stars least wanted to face. To submit to an entity that had once left the Astral Realm and had now returned as conquerors meant that all the autonomy they had accumulated over the long years would be stripped away.
Thus, all the Eternal focused their gaze intently on the Lord of Frost and Thunder's attack.
The threads of cause and effect Goddess of Fate tightened silently in Her hands, the flow of time in the eyes of the Lord of Time slowed to an almost standstill in order to capture every detail, the body of the Ruler of the Abyss hidden in demonic energy leaned forward slightly, and even the joyful branches of the World Tree froze and swayed silently at this moment.
Then—they witnessed a scene that shocked them.
The Lord of Truth merely turned his head to look at him indifferently.
The movement was extremely casual, like someone who had been disturbed from their thoughts by a flying insect turning their head to glance at it absentmindedly.
The Lord of Truth showed no tension, no panic, no sign of going all out, and He did not even use the golden Truth Spear in His hand!
Behind the Lord of Truth, who had his back to the Lord of Frost and Thunder, a dense spider web silently appeared.
The spiderwebs had a silvery-gray sheen, and each thread was formed from pure law power, intertwined and entwined into a law network covering an area of thousands of feet.
The moment the Lord of Frost and Thunder's attack arrived, the spider web simply gathered—like a large hand with its five fingers spread out, gently scooping it down from above!
The movement was so natural, so fluid, so casual, as if he were simply brushing away a speck of dust from his robe.
The Lord of Frost and Thunder was completely trapped in the spider web, along with his Frost and Thunder Staff! His ultimate strike, powerful enough to tear through Space-Time, struck the spider web, but it was as if it had pierced into a viscous swamp from which he could never escape. All his power was dissolved, dispersed, and absorbed by the spider web layer by layer, without even causing a ripple.
The Lord of Truth easily subdued the Lord of Frost and Thunder and Thunder within his web, much like a disobedient monkey.
Then, the Lord of Truth turned away indifferently.
His gaze shifted from the Lord of Frost and Thunder, who was struggling desperately within the spiderweb, as if moving aside an insignificant scene, before he looked down upon the Eternal.
His body was enveloped in a faint yet steady golden light, which at this moment seemed to be more dazzling and unbearable than anything else, like a silent and majestic sun looking down on all living beings at His feet.
This scene silenced all the Eternal even more.
They all lowered their heads. The World Tree's gratified smile froze on its face, transforming into an even more complex expression. A hint of understanding and deep apprehension flashed in the eyes of the Lord of Time. The Ruler of the Abyss's body, hidden in demonic energy, hunched slightly, as if its spine was bent by an invisible pressure.
Even the most arrogant Ruler of the Abyss stood silently in the Void, his dark Abyss eyes lowered, not daring to meet the golden gaze.
The Magic Pioneer's face turned completely ashen at that moment.
He looked at the Lord of Frost and Thunder, who was suppressed by the spider web—the powerful being who had once defeated Him head-on in the Chaos Sea —who was captured, suppressed, and bound as easily as a naughty child in front of the Lord of Truth, unable to put up even the slightest decent resistance.
The gap is too big.
That difference cannot be explained by "whether He was injured or not". Even if the Lord of Truth was truly seriously injured in the battle with the Mother of the Stars, truly consumed a huge amount of his essence, and truly was on the verge of his limit, the difference in level between Him and the Lord of Frost and Thunder was still as insurmountable as an insurmountable chasm. That difference has transcended the simple difference in strength, but is a more fundamental one - a complete crushing of realm, path, and level of existence.
There is only one truth: the Lord of Truth, in his battle with the Mother of the Stars, still did not reveal His full power.
There was one Eternal refused to accept his fate.
A sharp glint suddenly shot from the Goddess of Fate's lowered golden eyes! The threads of cause and effect tightened abruptly at her fingertips, billions of threads of Fate trembling simultaneously, attempting to weave an ultimate divine power capable of twisting Fate —she would use the power of cause and effect as a blade, the web of Fate as an array, to create a "variable" for the Lord of Truth in the instant the spiderweb suppressed him!
But His resistance was still easily suppressed.
The Lord of Truth didn't even turn around. He merely raised the Truth Spear slightly, and a golden light flashed at the tip of the spear. A pure force of "suppression" descended from afar, like an invisible chain binding the Goddess of Fate's web of cause and effect.
Wherever that golden power passed, the threads of cause and effect of the Goddess of Fate snapped inch by inch and disintegrated layer by layer, Dissolution rapidly like a spider web under the blazing sun.
Then that force flowed downwards, gently enveloping the Goddess of Fate, like an invisible hand lifting a cat that refused to submit, and instantly transporting it to the core depths of the Spirit Saint Domain—
There, the gray light of the Heaven-Bearing Reincarnation Disc surged slightly, encompassing the Goddess of Fate within its suppression range.
Suppressed alongside the Mother of the Stars, these two Eternity beings, who once commanded the winds and rains of the Astral Realm, now lie like two collectibles displayed on a shelf, quietly submerged in the power of the six realms of the Samsara Disc.
The Lord of Truth's movements were completely fluid, as if he had casually withdrawn his hand after completing a trivial task.
Having done all this, the Lord of Truth finally raised his head.
His gaze shifted from the subjugated Eternal, traversing the cratered heavens of the Astral Realm, through layers of broken space, through the chaotic ruins permeated with remnants of laws, and looked towards a far more distant place—
They gazed towards the deep, dark place where the Astral Realm Will resided.
Then, the Lord of Truth spoke.
I said--
His voice was neither loud nor rousing, even carrying a hint of hoarseness and weariness from a recent great battle. Yet, the moment his voice spread through the Void, the entire Astral Realm trembled. That voice seemed to transcend rules, transcend the Great Dao, transcend even the celestial sound itself, becoming a conclusion more fundamental than "laws," more direct than "will," and more inviolable than "commands."
"Space-Time restoration"
"Order remains unchanged."
"Everything has returned to its proper place."
The twelve words fell.
The entire Astral Realm trembled violently!
The tremor started at the very core of the Astral Realm and spread wildly in all directions at a terrifying speed exceeding the speed of light.
Wherever it passed, shattered fragments of space converged back to their original positions as if attracted by an invisible magnetic force; broken chains of laws were reconnected one by one as if rewoven by an unseen weaver; and collapsed dimensional ruins were rebuilt, re-erected, and regained their former glory as if time had been reversed.
The Astral Realm Will reacted most violently at this moment.
A colossal face slowly emerged in the sky above the Astral Realm —the embodiment of the Astral Realm Will, the ultimate manifestation of the collective consciousness of the entire Astral Realm accumulated over billions of years.
The face was so enormous that it could not be measured by any scale. Its features were deep and ancient, as if they were composed of countless stars. Each wrinkle represented a long river of cause and effect that ran through the history of the Astral Realm, and each blink caused the ebb and flow of countless planes.
At that moment, an extremely human expression appeared on that ancient and majestic face.
Reverence.
That awe was like that of a student facing a true master, like a child facing an elder who had returned from afar and become incredibly powerful. As the collective consciousness of the Astral Realm, the Astral Realm Will had witnessed the birth of the Astral Realm Astral Realm Astral Realm, its growth, and countless Destruction and rebirths. But it had never seen any being so effortlessly and easily uproot the entire Astral Realm, so irrefutably redefining Astral Realm rules.
The Astral Realm Will slowly lowered its head—a gesture of submission and acknowledgment, an acceptance and recognition of a "master" by the Astral Realm Will.
Then, the reshaping began.
It begins with those shattered fragments of Space-Time. The broken River of Space-Time emerge simultaneously from all parts of the Astral Realm —some gushing forth from the deepest Abyss at the bottom of the Astral Realm, some cascading from the highest dome of the sky, and some flowing out from the cracks between planes.
Countless tributaries of Space-Time converge, intertwine, and merge, reconstructing the great river that traverses the Astral Realm.
Ripples spread across the river, each ripple representing a piece of history that has been restored, a civilization that has been saved, and a chain of Fate that has been reconnected.
Those gods who had perished innocently in this great war also appeared and were resurrected at the same time.
One by one, high-ranking deities who once ruled over all spirits in a certain star field re-formed from the Void. Their bodies were pieced together from shattered fragments of their souls and, under the absolute power of the Lord of Truth, were given new life and consciousness.
The first thing they saw when they opened their eyes was the rapidly reshaping Astral Realm sky, the vast golden light that enveloped everything, and the awe on the enormous face above the sky.
"This is..."
A newly resurrected high-ranking deity murmured to himself, his gaze fixed on the majestic figure at the source of light, his eyes filled with bewilderment and awe.
No one answered him.
Because everyone's eyes were fixed on that golden figure.
The entire Astral Realm is recovering at an astonishing rate.
The shattered planes closed up again, the broken stars reformed, withered life was revitalized, and extinguished stars reignited their light.
The speed, the thoroughness, the irresistibility—it was as if all the previous battles, all the destruction, all the Destruction— were just a dream, and now that the dream was over, everything had returned to normal.
Those complex and chaotic fragmented spatial structures were reorganized, rearranged, and rewoven under the power of the Lord of Truth.
The bizarre and fantastical phenomena gradually dissipated, replaced by the familiar Astral Realm sky—a deep black background adorned with the dazzling light of billions of stars, with flowing light gently swirling within, peaceful and serene.
The Lord of Frost and Thunder, who had been suppressed earlier, was still trapped within the silver-gray spiderweb.
His struggles grew weaker and weaker until they finally subsided completely, like a tamed wild beast, bowing its head and ceasing its futile resistance.
For the Lord of Truth, accomplishing all this was as natural and effortless as using his own arm.
He stood there, his movements calm and his breathing even, as if he had just trimmed some flowers and watered some plants in the courtyard. There was no sign of the exhaustion or fatigue one would expect after performing such a large-scale Space-Time reshaping.
He acted as if he had never suffered any injuries in the great battle.
That aura still filled the heavens and earth, steady and vast, like an unsinkable continent lying across the core of the Astral Realm. All beings could only look up to it, submit to it, and become a part of it.
Seeing this, the remaining Eternal finally put away all their ulterior motives.
The Magic Pioneer lowered its head, its proud form sinking deeply this time. The Ruler of the Abyss's body, hidden within the demonic energy, hunched over completely, no longer making any further movements.
The Lord of Time lingered on the Lord of Truth for a final breath, then withdrew His Way of Time, suppressed all His senses, and quietly retreated to the position of an observer, like a longsword sheathed.
Submission.
There was no choice but to submit.
The Lord of Truth stood at the very core of the Astral Realm, hands behind his back.
His gaze swept over the peaceful scene beneath his feet, a landscape restored to order by the reshaping of the Astral Realm —the complete River of Space-Time flowed slowly, the brilliant stars rotated in an orderly fashion, and countless repaired planes moved along their respective orbits. Everything had returned to order under His will.
A moment later, the Lord of Truth withdrew his gaze and looked up at the face of the Astral Realm Will in the sky, which still held a look of awe and had not yet completely disappeared. The face was slightly lowered, as if waiting for something, hoping for something.
The Lord of Truth's lips curled up slightly, revealing a faint smile that carried a hint of weariness yet also a touch of relief.
"Astral Realm," He spoke, his voice steady and powerful, "From this day forward—"
"I will take charge."