Inside the furnace projection, at the top of the Flame Stairway, Octavian stared in horror at Theseus, the Strange Light Bearer, who had suddenly become a stranger, as if he were a completely different person. However, he had no time to think further, because the Phoenix with pale flames swirling around its body was fiercely swooping down on him.
A piercing cry that seemed to cut through the clouds rang in my ears, sharp as a sword slicing through the air. Flames, like white tassels, floated up and down along the edges of the outstretched wings, occasionally exploding into clusters of fire-attribute energy.
The Soul-Burning Fire surged up from the Flame Stairway, like a towering wave suddenly rising from the sea, instantly blinding the three Thousand-Eyed Race True God. They were momentarily disoriented, unable to distinguish east from west, north from south, and Space-Time were reversed, only able to vaguely perceive the location of the Phoenix.
At the top of the stairs, Gustavo, who had temporarily taken over the body control of Theseus the Strange Light Bearer, crossed his arms and looked down at the fierce battle unfolding below, a faint smile playing on his lips.
As a relic left by the Main God, the Flame Stairway itself contains great power. Although it has weakened considerably over the years and due to the erosion of Space-Time storms that leak in from time to time, it is still more than enough for the three gods, whose strongest level is only that of Middle God.
Time passed slowly, and the battle lasted for about half a day. The flames within the Flame Stairway gradually weakened. The two Lower God of the Thousand-Eyed Race had long been annihilated by the Soul-Burning Fire. The Scorching World Octavian had held out until now with his own strength, but he was also exhausted and on his last legs.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Gustavo walked down the steps to Octavian, bent down, and looked at him with great interest.
"You, you're not Theseus, who are you?!" Octavian's eyes were bloodshot as he lay sprawled on the steps, divine blood oozing from the corners of his mouth, looking as if he might kick the bucket at any moment.
Who am I? Guess!
Gustavo chuckled, not answering Octavian's question. He never spoke an extra word to an enemy unless it was to mislead them; too much talk leads to mistakes. The Astral Realm was teeming with Ability Energy; who knew how his words might be transmitted?
Is insurance always safe for the dead? Not necessarily!
Swish!!
With an arm raised, a flash of silver light appeared, and the dying Octavian's head fell to the ground. His soul had long been burned away by the Soul-Burning Fire and had no value for devouring. The other two True God were the same; they left behind not much of value.
This is actually a normal phenomenon; it's unrealistic to expect to get rich instantly by killing enemies.
Many powerful beings in the Astral Realm possess spatial storage equipment with the [Dimensional Exile] ability. This ability is automatically activated the moment the owner's death is detected. As the equipment collapses, the items inside are exiled into spatial turbulence or extremely dangerous regions.
These powerful individuals' thoughts are easy to understand—ha, you think you can kill me and take the spoils? You're dreaming!
However, although the three True God themselves did not contribute much resources, the ruins they arrived at were enough for Gustavo to reap a great harvest once again.
The most valuable parts of this ruin are the four projection worlds, and the items inside are all genuine treasures. Take the Flame Stairway at Gustavo's feet, for example; its value is at least comparable to Rare Middle God Artifact, or even higher.
Such treasures must exist in the other three projected worlds as well. Coupled with the ultimate reward of the ruins, "Divine Path Configuration," this harvest, while not comparable to the value of the dimensional warehouse, is still enough to make Upper God drool.
After leaving the Furnace Projection World and temporarily putting Theseus Strange Light Bearer into a dormant state, Gustavo personally rolled up his sleeves and continued the remaining trials after stuffing him into his inner world.
The second projected world is named "Eternal Calamity Tide," while the first is named "Soul-Burning Furnace."
The Eternal Calamity Tide World represents the power of the water element. After entering, Gustavo found the architectural style here to be very strange. Countless inverted liquid palaces stood densely in all directions, and the direction of gravity would reverse every once in a while, making Gustavo feel as if he were in a giant washing machine.
At the center of the world, serving as a spatial anchor, was a black and blue runic stone carving. The moment Gustavo saw it, a violent deep-sea wave surged through his mind, along with an indescribable sense of dark dread.
"This appears to be a ' Abyssal Sea Rune Array,' capable of materializing the deep-sea fears of intelligent beings. It also possesses formidable combat capabilities and is one of the signature products of the Sea God lineage. I never expected to find one here."
After recognizing the runic stone carving, Gustavo reached out to touch it. The moment his fingertips touched the stone carving, waterfalls flowing upstream surrounded him. Inside the waterfalls, countless "Drowning Rune" forced Gustavo to the surface of a mirror-like lake that had formed below.
When Gustavo stood on the mirror-like lake, a dizzying sensation, as if the world were spinning and the heavens and earth were turning upside down, swept over his body, giving him a sense of spatial dislocation.
At the same time, mirror-like runes appeared, and Gustavo realized, "So, I'm being told to decipher these mirror-like runes, and I must do so within a specified time. Otherwise, the mirrored reflections will keep reversing my own existence, causing increasingly violent reactions until my body and soul both collapse, leading to death..."
"Speaking of which, those Thousand-Eyed Race were quite lucky. If they had entered this projected world in the first stage, they might not have even made it to my place."
After muttering a few words to himself, Gustavo began to concentrate, trying to decipher the runes that flashed across the mirror-like lake.
Overall, the difficulty of the runes in the Eternal Calamity Tide world is not higher than that of the Soul-Burning Furnace; it's just that the timing is more critical, making it more challenging.
But for Gustavo, there's actually plenty of time. After all, even if he can't do it himself, Logo can provide remote assistance.
As Gustavo had predicted, the puzzle was solved smoothly, and the second level was successfully cleared.
Gustavo is now embarking on the third stage, a wind element projection world called "Heavenly Vault Meridians".
While Gustavo was undergoing various trials within the ruins, somewhere in the Destruction Realm Abyss, Daciu, the Upper God of the Floating Light Civilization, led three True God of the Water Mirror Race, having just escaped the encirclement and pursuit of several insectoid forces, and rushed towards the location of the ruins in a rather disheveled state.
"Damn Void Insect Clan! We didn't provoke them, so why are they so relentless?" a Lower God Water Mirror Race god complained bitterly.
Upon hearing this, Daciu's face darkened further. As a high-ranking member of the Floating Light Civilization, he possessed more intelligence than the True God of the Water Mirror Race and knew that the Void Insect Clan would be making moves in the near future.
Daciu never expected that the Zerg would make such a big move; now, Zerg forces can be seen in every region of the Destruction Realm Abyss.
"What are they trying to do? Why didn't they stop the Ancestral Tree of Destruction? Does the highest level of the Floating Light clan know about this operation by the Void Insect Clan?"
A jumble of thoughts swirled and collided in his mind. Unable to find an answer for the moment, Daciu could only forcefully suppress his chaotic thoughts, calm his mind, and focus on hunting down the Thousand-Eyed Race.
"Hmph, don't think you can rest easy just because you've sealed away Eliduo. The methods of advanced civilizations are beyond your comprehension." A cold glint flashed in his eyes as Daciu took out a hollowed-out spherical positioning device. After calibrating it, he found the right direction and led the Water Mirror Race's True God to charge forward.
As time passed, Daciu and his party drew ever closer to the ruins, while Gustavo reached his final moment.
He is currently in the last of the four projected worlds, a world called the "Earth Vein Altar," which represents the power of the earth element.
Within the projected world, countless living grottoes, seemingly possessing life, spread across the land. The rock strata are inlaid with Magic Runes in the form of biological fossils. The ground occasionally rises up, and whenever this happens, earth-attribute runes gush out like fountains, forming various crystallized sculptures in the air. After a fleeting appearance, they collapse and dissipate, creating a breathtakingly beautiful scene.
The trial in the projected world of the Earth Vein Altar is called "Fossil Corridor," in which Gustavo is located. You need to touch the walls to awaken the afterimage of an ancient behemoth, and then soothe it with the corresponding runes. Once you complete all of this, you will pass the trial.
If the beasts are not successfully appeased within the allotted time, they will pounce and attack Gustavo relentlessly. As the number of beasts gradually increases, the danger will intensify.
However, Gustavo clearly had no intention of giving these ancient behemoths a chance. Whenever a behemoth appeared, he could find the corresponding soothing rune to turn the behemoth, whose anger level was soaring, into a docile and obedient baby. It looked as if touching it would make anyone stupid, and the scene was quite comical.
Rumble~!!
With the last behemoth successfully appeased, Gustavo successfully passed the test of the Earth Vein Altar world, thus completing the tests of all four projected worlds.
The ruins reacted immediately.
outside world.
Gustavo vanished in a flash, leaving the Earth Vein Altar.
Looking around, the four projections shone brightly at the same time. The beams of light formed by the four colors of white, black, blue, and yellow shot into the sky and converged in mid-air, condensing into half a stone slab covered with mysterious runes.
At the same time, the other half of the stone slab, which was also sensed, floated up.
This half of the stone slab came from Eliduo, who was captured by the Thousand-Eyed Race. It was formed by refining and condensing the latter's soul. As for Eliduo herself, her original will had perished, which can be considered as her death.
The two stone slabs merged and became one.
Gustavo reached out and caught the slowly falling stone slab. A deep voice echoed in his mind, "This is the Divine Path Configuration I used to ascend to Main God —'The Four Symbols Calamity.' By mastering any of the four elemental Divine Law of earth, fire, water, and wind, one can use this Divine Path Configuration to attempt to ascend to Main God. Elements are among the supreme powers of the Astral Realm, but their power is hidden in an inaccessible forbidden realm. Only those with sufficient wisdom and caution can touch upon the ultimate mysteries of the elements."
The words ended there. Gustavo gently stroked the stone slab in his hand, remained silent for a few seconds, then put it away. When he looked up again, the four projected worlds had somehow transformed into four completely different runes, quietly floating in mid-air.
Gustavo stretched out his hand, and four runes, like little sprites, fluttered over and landed in his palm.
After scooping up his hands and ransacking the ruins, Gustavo left. After he left, the spatial vortex collapsed with a rumble, and a violent Space-Time storm buried all traces remaining in the ruins.
"We need to leave the Abyss first. Only outside can we use the Illusory and Real Prism and Illusion to continue our plans. Otherwise, the Ancestral Tree of Destruction or the Zerg Queen might sense it, and that would be terrible..."
After pondering for a moment, Gustavo transformed into a streak of silver light and leaped swiftly within the Destruction Realm Abyss.
"What's going on? Why did the Thousand-Eyed Race suddenly move?!"
Meanwhile, as Gustavo left the ruins and quickly moved towards the outside world, Daciu's expression changed drastically. "Such speed! Have they already obtained the Divine Path Configuration and are eager to escape? We must stop them! The situation has changed; the Zerg's actions are different from what we agreed upon. We can't let the Divine Path Configuration fall into Malakai's hands!"
In a sudden shift of thought, Daciu, accompanied by three bewildered Water Mirror Race True God, immediately turned and sped away.
At this moment, Gustavo was unaware that he had been locked onto by Daciu and continued to walk outwards at a normal speed.
If you look at it from a higher perspective, on a flat map, Gustavo and Daciu's line of people resemble two ever-extending rays, getting closer and closer over time until they meet.
"Hmm? The Water Mirror Race?! That's... the True God of the Floating Light Civilization!"
In the vast Void, a Space-Time storm raged, and adventurers in a hurry occasionally swept past on both sides. Gustavo and Daciu's group faced off across the void.
The moment Gustavo saw the arrival of the man in Daciu, he recognized him. After all, the Aslant Civilization was destroyed by the Floating Light Civilization, and there were many records about the Floating Light Civilization in the database, including the ruling race of the Floating Light— the Light Walker.
"How come it's a human boy? Where's the Thousand-Eyed Race?" Silver Mirror Abyss Nervado was taken aback, looking Gustavo up and down, but he couldn't see through his true form.
Daciu's eyes narrowed, puzzled: 'I've never heard of the Thousand-Eyed Race being skilled at changing their aura and form. Could it be a special type of Upper God Artifact? That's possible; a Main God's ruins would yield great rewards, which is quite normal.'
Narrowing his eyes, Daciu sneered, "I've seen through your disguise, True God of the Thousand-Eyed Race. Don't try to fool me; obediently hand over the Divine Path Configuration."
'He didn't recognize my true form?'
Upon hearing Daciu's words, Gustavo was momentarily stunned, then thought of the Illusory and Real Prism. Could it be the passive ability of this Miracle Creation?
'If that's the case, then there's still room for fun.'
Gustavo's mind worked quickly. Realizing that he hadn't revealed his identity, he didn't say another word and turned to run.