Divine Path System

Chapter 1755: Divine Rank 3

In a distant region, far away from Eden and the ruins of Virgo cluster:

"The day has arrived." Thoren Aur Deus held Eshala’s soul fragment.

With a snap, hundreds and then thousands of such shards poured out. All belonging to the ’dead’ princes and princesses of Jai over the years.

Driven by the power of life and death slivers, they spun around God Emperor, as if they were trying to merge into him.

They weren’t enough. He needed more.

He glanced into the distant space, his perception brushing over the Jai empire and the alliance.

All the living beings trembled for a moment.

Then, many amongst them suddenly flew out from whatever they were doing and fell into space cracks that appeared all over.

It wasn’t a few hundred or even a few million people. There were hundreds of millions and it was soon crossing a billion. Soon, it went from one billion to ten, ten to a hundred and it kept growing.

In mere seconds, they all appeared beneath the God Emperor, clustered together like ants in their nest, gazing up at this man who seemed like a living god.

Most of them lost consciousness in the space cracks. The few that remained awake tried to beg for mercy in hopes of being spared, though they had no idea what wrong they committed.

"My Lord!"

"Please spare!"

"O’ great one!"

Thoren raised a brow and the soul power of slivers blasted them, knocking them all unconscious.

"You are all my children." God Emperor felt his own bloodline flowing in their bodies.

His clones worked relentlessly, fathering millions of children every year. Most of them died with time.

But the survivors were strong. Quite a few of them reached divine rank 1, though only a few managed to divine rank 2.

"It is time to put your lives to good use."

With a snap, all the living children of God Emperor turned into dust, leaving behind only their bright souls.

The slivers of space and time were pushed to the limit and even the soul shards of the dead princes and princesses were affected.

Then came the slivers of life and death. Using its supremacy over souls, God Emperor forcibly aligned all these souls to his own.

Since they were his children, their souls were ’compatible’. However, they were still distinct from his.

Not caring about the differences, God Emperor raised his hands and the souls were pulled.

As billions upon billions of white orbs drilled into him, God Emperor’s soul exerted itself, devouring them.

Their memories, their feelings, their experiences and especially, their understanding of the divine paths.

The bottleneck of rank 3 that God Emperor could not break despite great efforts finally loosened.

But before it could actually break, Thoren grew wobbly, his soul on the verge of shattering.

Devouring a soul to progress in divine paths was dangerous. If it’s a compatible soul, the danger was decreased, not removed. Each absorption was some harm done.

Even God Emperor couldn’t take so many.

And he hadn’t even finished 1% of the souls.

He did not panic.

The slivers of order and chaos were pushed, exhibiting their full powers. This stabilized his soul from shattering and started proper assimilation.

But this devouring was only happening because the slivers of life and death were overseeing it.

Even then, there were two more difficulties.

It’s going to take a long, long time, perhaps thousands of years. And souls would dissipate by then.

This was where the slivers of space and time came in. They accelerated the devouring process while nearly stopping the dissipation.

As the bottleneck was loosened and the rank that no living being ever achieved grew closer, the universe seemed to respond.

Space began to shake. Time itself fluctuated.

All life in Eden felt palpitations. And the dying screamed, pointing at the sky, as if they saw something horrifying.

The mortal rankers felt a sense of weakness falling over them.

The celestials felt their divine paths fluctuating in an inexplicable, eerie way.

The divine rankers fled for their lives, but even as they ran, the throbbing in their soul did not stop.

Their own divine paths, in their own souls, were shaking as if something was about to burst out.

Boom!

Click!

The whole universe fall inexplicably silent before a crack was heard everywhere. A primordial sound, coming from everywhere and yet nowhere.

Something that was never broken was broken today.

It felt like blasphemy.

A sense of mourning overcame the living beings, as if they were witnessing the final light before eternal darkness.

They were so caught up in it that they didn’t notice that the three forbidden regions were behaving abnormally.

As Varian’s fusion was only a semi-success, these regions broke away from Hortus and were floating in space ever since the battle ended.

And now, they were trembling, as if sending out a cry for help. If Varian was conscious, he’d have sensed their pleas.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t.

So, the final cry of the forbidden regions remained unheard, except for God Emperor himself.

"Even though you’re long dead, your creations still adore you." With a flip, three incredibly large ’things’ appeared in front of him.

The thing had feet, legs, abdomen, arms...a face.

It was a corpse.

A gigantic corpse with cosmic proportions.

If these corpses were placed in a line, they’d go one end of the Milky Way to the other.

Even though dead for countless years, they carried an aura of their own. The whole of Eden put together wouldn’t be able to make a scratch on their skin.

Two corpses were relatively intact. But the third one was pieced together. The damaged one naturally belonged to the Primordial god of space and time.

Varian found the remnant spirit of the primordial god in Nirvana, but not his corpse.

He believed it either disintegrated or...that someone found it.

God Emperor collected the three corpses over the years.

There were also lingering bright lights near these three corpses. Those were the remnant souls of these gods.

God Emperor also collected them all.

"Just entering a rank 3 is not enough." He raised his hand towards the corpses and clenched.

The power of each sliver worked on its corresponding god, devouring its essence and feeding it to the God Emperor.

Three beams of brilliant light converged at Thoren.

Even at his strongest as a rank 2, this would’ve killed him.

But now, he took it all.

He devoured the essence of the primordial gods, their understanding and experiences. And used the slivers to keep himself sane.

Each Primordial god was equivalent to a peak of rank 3 in their own avenue.

Even though they’re dead and wouldn’t give him that level, God Emperor was confident he would be close.

While this was happening, the bright souls of his children kept coming, feeding him more and more.

God Emperor’s aura climbed higher and higher.

The vitality and experiences of hundreds of billions of souls, the essence of the primordial gods and their remnant spirits all propelled his strength to unprecedented peaks.

Low rank 3.

Mid rank 3.

High Rank 3!

As this was occurring, God Emperor muttered an old prophecy with a smile on his lips.

"He who ceases endless decay."

He ceased the expansion of void for hundreds of millions of years.

"So Young, Yet so Old."

As a peak rank 2, he was still young. But having burned up his lifespan, he was old and on the verge of death.

"Loathed by those he protects."

Despite doing his best to prevent God’s Eye, he was loathed by the very people.

Now, only the final part was left.

An eternal rule of Eden.

A new eden.

"O’ Eternal Ruler of Eden."

God Emperor focused his attention on the eyes imprinted on his soul.

Those eyes always used to mock and laugh. Now, they weren’t laughing anymore.

God Emperor locked onto those eyes and—

"Come out."

He pulled them out.

The universe began to crack like glass and a figure began to emerge.

Like the decree of a god, he declared. "I’ll destroy you, you pathetic and incompetent creator and make a perfect world in place of this wretched one."

As if something was broken, the void began to violently expand and the universe began to shake. The cosmos was crumbling.

A deep voice responded, the sound resounding across the universe. "The universe is perfect, by design."

The battle of Architect and God Emperor began.