by KSY
If you saw the Radiant Divine World from space, you’d see a Translucent red spherical barrier encasing it. This barrier made sure that none of the members of the enemy army were able to enter the Radiant Divine World. The aura released by the barrier was very oppressive and sinister. The barrier in itself was a wonder given its sheer size, and it had caught their enemies off guard, as they hadn’t expected the Heaven Sundering Family Clan and the Eternity Family Clan to possess an Artifact which was capable of forming such a big and powerful barrier around the entirety of a Divine World.
Generally, it is not easy to find such Artifacts as only an existence above that of the Gods can create them. The Clans’ enemies became greedy after seeing such a powerful Treasured Artifact, as they had thoroughly investigated both Family Clans and were certain that they lacked an existence that was above that of the Gods, and also lacked support from a powerful faction. That meant they had acquired it from some ruins or a Legacy land. They had already made up their minds to get this Treasured Artifact for themselves, and had even informed their factional higher-ups, following which the higher-ups had decided to personally come to the Radiant Divine World to retrieve it.
The Translucent red barrier was the last line of defense for the members of the Main branches of both Family Clans. Outside the barrier, there were countless powerful beings like Godly Humanoids, Elemental Beasts and so on attacking the barrier with their full-powered attacks. All these beings possessed very oppressive and powerful auras. They were either Celestials or Gods, and their intention was to drain the Artifact’s energy. Once that happened, then the barrier would cease to exist. Each of their attacks caused wide-scale explosions on the barrier, but the barrier still held its ground even under such relentless attacks.
The members of the Main branches of the Eternity Family Clan and the Heaven Sundering Family Clan knew that barrier was just a temporary measure - it wouldn’t last forever. Their morale was at its lowest since the founding of their Family Clans, the main reason being the severe injuries that their Founders had received during the surprise attack from the unknown enemy faction. The Founders had had no choice but to use the Treasured Artifact after receiving those injuries. The moment they activated the Artifact, the entire radiant Divine World was encased in the powerful barrier, and all the enemies that were still inside the barrier died instantly as their souls were sucked into the Treasured Artifact.
One thing was clear: this Treasured Artifact was demonic in nature. Many people (enemies as well as the members of the Main branches of both Family Clans) had a hard time believing that righteous Family Clans like the Eternity Family Clan and the Heaven Sundering Family Clan would actually possess such a vicious and terrifying Artifact.
Currently, all the surviving members of the Main branches of both Family Clans were anxiously looking up into the sky as they could hear the explosive sounds coming from high up there, where the enemy faction was relentlessly attacking the barrier. It made it impossible for them to even mourn their dead in peace.
They could tell from the intensity and power of the attacks that the enemy faction was many times stronger than the combined might of both their Family Clans. They had no hope of even resisting against such an enemy faction: it would be a one-sided slaughter the moment the barrier disappeared. They just prayed to the heavens that nothing would happen to the barrier, even though they knew that that was just wishful thinking.
They would also occasionally look at a Pillar that was hovering up in the sky, which was actually the Treasured Artifact. The Pillar was around two kilometers in height and about two hundred meters or so in thickness. It was shining with a red light similar to the color of the barrier, but the Pillar’s glow had been receding slowly and steadily with the passage of time. It was clear that its energy was being depleted due to the enemy army’s relentless attacks on the barrier.
Many Elders and Grand Elders from the Main branches of both Family Clans had been studying the Demonic Artifact with the intention of somehow recharging its energy, but no one was able to understand its mechanics. The runes engraved on its body were something they had never seen before; they were extremely complex and powerful. That fact didn’t discourage them, however, but made them even more determined to understand them as the Translucent red barrier was the last lifeline for both Main branches.
Another group of Elders and Grand Elders was trying to open a Teleportation portal to Grandura. In the face of the biggest threat to their existence since their foundation, the higher-ups of both Family Clans had decided to send everyone with Cultivation Levels below the Celestial Realm to Grandura.
The remaining members of both Family Clans would stay behind and fight until the bitter end, and kill as many members of the enemy faction as possible before embracing death.
On the top of the tallest mountain of the Radiant Divine World, there was a Godly Palace. This was the residence of the Founder of Heaven Sundering Family Clan. It had sustained severe damage due to war, but even then, its beauty and grandeur hadn’t gone down even by a notch. The palace was truly Godly in every sense.
In the Living room of the Godly Palace, a high-profile meeting was about to start for which all the powerful existences of both Family Clans had assembled. The attendees ranged from human beings to various kinds of powerful beings, that had transformed into their Humanoid forms in order to attend the meeting. All of them were looking with concerned expressions at two middle-aged humans sealed in golden orbs.
Those humans were none other than the Founders of both Family Clans. The Founder of Eternity Family Clan was named Herman, and the Founder of the Heaven Sundering Family Clan, Heron. Herman was the elder brother and Heron, the younger. Both of them wore tranquil expressions while they slowly tried to heal their injuries. Their bodies were covered with vicious wounds. The golden orbs in which they were sealed were actually Light Attribute Healing Orbs that were helping to stabilize them. Light Attribute Healing Orbs are a signature technique of Light Attribute doctors, but these ones were by no means ordinary: they’d been created by the combined might of all the Light Attribute beings of both Family Clans.
Both Herman and Heron were sitting in meditative positions within the Light Attribute Healing Orbs as they tried to heal themselves, while the Light Orbs acted as supports. Normally, Light Attribute Healing Orbs are sufficient to heal all kinds of physical injuries, but for Herman and Heron that was not the case, as they’d both also been poisoned by the enemy faction. The poison was quite vicious: it wouldn’t allow their wounds to heal, and was slowly consuming their life forces. The Light Attribute Healing Orbs were only able to stabilize them, while Herman and Heron tried to expel the poison from their bodies, but it had already been quite some time and they had yet to succeed.
Meanwhile, Herman’s and Heron’s wives wore frustrated expressions as they still didn’t know which faction had declared war on them. The name of Herman’s wife was Aquila, while Heron’s wife was Cornelia. Currently, they were highest authorities in their respective Family Clans.
“Mother, none of our allies are responding to our calls for help!” one middle aged man said in anger, with a murderous expression on his face. He was the second oldest son of Herman, and was named Lucius.
“That is to be expected. Anyone would be apprehensive about helping us after seeing such a strong enemy lineup,” Aquila said in a calm manner, though anger could be sensed in her words.
“I don’t remember our Family Clans ever messing with such a powerful foe. We always made sure of that,” Cornelia said as her eyes became a little moist, as she could already see the end of both Family Clans.
“The enemy must be an A Grade faction at least, and one of the strongest A Grade factions at that,” Lucius suggested.
The factions in the Divine Universe are graded as SSS, SS, S, A, B, C, D, E and F in decreasing order of strength. Both the Heaven Sundering Family Clan and the Eternity Family Clan were considered B Grade factions individually but their combined strengt
h could rival any weaker A Grade faction. The main factor that decided a faction’s Grade was the number of Gods and beings it contained that had become Existences Beyond Gods.
After breakthrough, a Late Immortal Saint Realm Martial Artist or any being steps into the Celestial Realm of the Martial Path. The Celestial Realm has six Sub-realms: Celestial Elite Realm, Celestial Lord Realm, Celestial King Realm, Celestial Emperor Realm, Celestial Sage Realm, and Celestial Saint Realm. After the Celestial Realm, a Martial Artist or any being steps into the God realm. The God Realm also has six Sub-realms: God Elite Realm, God Lord Realm, God King Realm, God Emperor Realm, God Sage Realm, and God Saint Realm.
The Main branches of the Heaven Sundering Family Clan and the Eternity Family Clan only had Celestials and Gods in their ranks. They lacked beings that had surpassed the limits of the Gods. These beings are called Primordial Gods, and only S, SS and SSS Grade factions have them. Primordial Gods are considered the true powerhouses of the Divine Universe. A single Primordial God can wipe out any A Grade faction without even putting his or her all into it.
Herman and Heron had Cultivation Levels of Late God Saint Realm and were just one step away from becoming Primordial Gods, but even so the Radiant Divine World had suffered heavily. It was not that Herman and Heron were any weaker than the strongest Gods on the enemy’s side, but the sheer difference in the numbers of Gods on both sides decided the entire flow of the war. Heron and Herman were besieged from all sides by hundreds of God Saint Realm beings, because of which they’d almost lost their lives and had had no choice but to use their Family Clans’ Treasured Artifact in order to save themselves and their descendants.
Aquila and Cornelia both nodded their heads in agreement, as they found merit in Lucius’ words, and everyone else in the Living room also had similar thoughts. To put them in a condition where they were unable to retaliate and were only able to defend meant that their enemy was many times stronger than they were.
“The enemy is even stronger than your assumptions,” a voice reverberated inside the Living room and shook everyone’s hearts.
“How long has this intruder been spying on us?” everyone could not help but think. They quickly spread out their Divine-senses to find the intruder, but were unable to sense anyone, which horrified them to the extreme. After a being becomes a God, a being’s Soul-sense undergoes an evolution and turns into Divine-sense, which is many times more powerful and sensitive than Soul-sense. It can also be used to attack others, unlike Soul-sense.
Everyone present in the room immediately got into a defensive formation around Herman and Heron in order to protect them, but feelings of helplessness arose in their hearts.
Soon a middle-aged man appeared in the Living room at some distance away from them. If anyone from the Grandura branches of the Heaven Sundering Family Clan and the Eternity Family Clan had been present there, then they would have found this man to be a mature version of Ryan.
The expressions of Aquila and the rest changed upon seeing the man. They could tell that he was many times stronger than they were, but even so they didn’t put their weapons down. It was clear that they would die rather than beg for mercy.
“Senior, may I know what wrongs we have committed for you and your faction to attack us in such a ruthless manner?” Cornelia asked in a calm manner. She was already prepared to die, but she still wanted to know why they’d been attacked in the first place. She could tell that the enemy hated their very existence given the way they were being attacked.
“Hey! Didn’t they tell you guys about me?” The middle-aged man asked in a shocked manner as he pointed his right hand index finger at Herman and Heron. Cornelia and the rest looked at the intruder in a bewildered manner, while the intruder looked at them with an expression as if Herman and Heron had wronged him terribly by not telling them about him.
Cornelia and the others had a hard time, as even after fifteen minutes the intruder still wore that shocked expression, hadn’t even budged a little, and was still in the same position as before. He looked into the void expressionlessly and sighed after every minute. Two hours passed, and the intruder was still behaving like that.
“Senior, who are you?” a middle-aged woman finally asked. She was Rufina and one of the many daughters of Heron. She found the intruder’s behavior quite odd. It was just her hunch, but she felt as if he was waiting for them to ask that question. She’d consulted with others about that but everyone had rejected her hunch, and asked her not to ask. So, in the end, she just steeled herself to ask it, as she was scared that it might piss off the intruder and he might kill her in anger. The others also had similar thoughts.
“I am your grandfather,” the intruder said as a bright smile appeared his face. Cornelia and the rest felt like vomiting blood, as it had turned out that Rufina’s hunch had been correct! He had indeed been waiting for them to ask that question. Everyone looked at the intruder with bewildered expressions.
“You can’t be serious, right? You made us stand here for two hours for that?” everyone thought to themselves, but then sudden realizations hit them as they slowly processed his words. Everyone’s expressions changed and powerful auras erupted out of their bodies.
The intruder’s expression changed on seeing this. He’d been expecting Cornelia and company to respectfully greet him with tears since he was Herman and Heron’s father, but contrary to his expectation they were thinking of attacking him! He could tell from their actions that they didn’t believe him even one bit. He couldn’t help but curse his idiotic sons for this situation.
“I am telling the truth! My name is Solomon. I am the father of these two idiots. Please believe me!” Solomon protested, but Cornelia and the rest had no intention of believing him.
They were certain that Solomon was lying to them as Herman and Heron wouldn’t have hidden something so important from them. It was well known within both Family Clans that Herman and Heron were orphans and had no idea who their parents were. They were certain that Solomon was trying to play with their emotions to backstab them later, as there were many Demonic Martial Artists who loved doing that sort of thing. Aquila and the rest ignored Solomon’s pleading and combined their might to take him out, but suddenly they found their bodies sealed, and they were unable to move even a centimeter. This shocked them in the extreme: they realized that the person in front of them could be a Primordial God.
“Let me tell you a few things about myself. You will definitely believe me once I am done,” Solomon said with solemn and sorrowful expression unlike his previous idiotic and childish expressions.
Aquila and rest all felt that Solomon might be telling truth as he hadn’t hurt them even when they were about to attack him with their combined full-powered attacks. If his current expression was an act, then no one was a better actor than him in the entire Divine Universe.
They instantly perked up their ears to hear out Solomon, as they wanted to know why Heron and Herman had hidden the fact that their father was still alive.
Ch.7
On Grandura, the Ancestor Level Martial Artists of Heaven Sundering Family Clan that had been given the task of opening the Teleportation portal to the Treasure Space were in the final stages of opening it. Ninety-nine percent of the runes on the metallic disc had already been lit up and only around ten or so remained.
“Ancestor Eadgar, how long until these runes light up?” one of the Ancestor Level Martial Artists tasked with opening the Portal asked with a frustrated expression. Those ten remaining runes seemed to require a lot more energy than the rest of them.
“Roughly four to five days if no one slacks again,” Eadgar said with an expressionless face. The faces of all the Ancestor Level Martial Artists twitched upon hearing that. They knew what Eadgar meant by those words: the opening of the Treasure Space was still a few days away because of their slacking off on more than one occasion.
They just sighed and continued pouring their Spirit Power into the metallic disc.
It had
already been two days since Ryan had entered a Closed-door Cultivation session.
Currently, he was busy advancing his Death Fire Dual Attribute Soul Core to Mid Mortal Lord Realm. The first thing that he’d done after entering the Closed-door session was to make his understanding in Fire Elemental Laws comparable to his understanding in Death Elemental Laws. Ryan’s insights and understanding of Death Elemental Laws had already surpassed the threshold requirement for advancing his Death Fire Soul Core to Mid Mortal Lord Realm quite some time ago, but he was patiently waiting for his understanding of Fire Elemental Laws to catch up too. Ryan intended to advance both of them in this Cultivation session.
In Mortal Lord Realm, Martial Artists need to purify their Liquid Spirit Power in order to advance their Soul Cores, and currently, Ryan was doing just that. He’d begun by purifying his Liquid Spirit Power inside his Death Fire Dual Attribute Soul Core, once his insights and understanding of Death Elemental Laws and Fire Elemental Laws had surpassed the threshold requirements for advancing his Soul Cores to Mid Mortal Lord Realm.
If you could look at Ryan’s Death Fire Soul Core, then you would see a vortex in it. The vortex was churning Ryan’s Death Attribute Liquid Spirit Power and in turn purifying it. Ryan’s Death Attribute Liquid Spirit Power was becoming more viscous with each passing second due to the churning by the vortex; and the purification was happening at a terrifying speed as Ryan’s insights in both Elemental Laws had finally exceeded the threshold requirement for advancing to Mid Mortal Lord Realm.
Boom!!!
A small explosion occurred inside Ryan’s Death Fire Dual Attribute Soul Core as his Death Fire Dual Attribute Soul Core finally advanced to Mid Mortal Lord Realm. Ryan’s entire body was covered in Hell’s Fire flame and Death aura as his Soul Core started undergoing changes. His Death Attribute Liquid Spirit Power underwent a qualitative change, and the powers displayed by his Death Attribute Martial Skills, Fire Attribute Martial Skills and Yama’s Innate Abilities would increase exponentially too. The amount of Liquid Spirit Power consumed for the execution of Martial Skills and the use of Innate Abilities would drastically reduce, due to the increased quality of the Liquid Spirit Power in Ryan’s Death Fire Dual Attribute Soul Core.