Chapter 282: Star-devouring Demon God! Survival of the Fittest Throughout All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds!

Lin Yi seemed to understand something.

Those ancient human tribes he encountered on the eighth and ninth levels.

They should be the tribes left behind by this human emperor, scattered throughout the Jiuzhou area to continue the human legacy.

No wonder those tribes were all soldiers, tirelessly boiling the Desolate Divine Bone day and night.

Their purpose was to construct Heaven’s Gate, to seal the Descent Abyss.

"Five hundred thousand people united, it only took ten years!"

"That Heaven’s Gate stood tall at the mouth of the Abyss!"

"Back then, I was full of spirit."

"After the Heaven’s Gate was built, I intended to lead a hundred thousand elite troops into the Abyss to slaughter the Desolate Gods within."

"To leave a peaceful path for my people for ten thousand generations to come."

"So they wouldn’t suffer the catastrophe of the Desolate God again."

Lin Yi felt his heart surge when he heard this.

These pioneers who founded sects and created history.

They all indeed had a grand wish——

To open the way for eternal peace!

Of course, Lin Yi knew that the outcome was certainly a failure.

"Everything went smoothly."

"We delved into the Abyss, as if we had arrived in another Great Thousand World!"

"We saw countless creatures from beyond the realm, who, like us, suffered from the Desolate God’s ravages."

"Or perhaps they were the source of the Desolate Gods themselves."

"And we, the Jiuzhou humans, were but a tiny speck in this Great Thousand World."

"I cannot describe the despair of that time."

"I wanted to eradicate the Desolate Gods, but how could my hundred thousand humans obliterate all the creatures of the Great Thousand World?"

"But we were already unable to return to Jiuzhou."

"It was our final resolve that led us to kill any Desolate Gods we encountered, and I thought it would be better to die in this endless slaughter."

"But we provoked a true Great Thousand Demon God."

The elder’s voice turned somber.

The illusion before Lin Yi’s eyes abruptly changed.

The Abyss spewed black and red demonic energy.

It spanned the entire Northern Domain of Jiuzhou, obstructing the Heaven’s Gate that blocked the Desolate Gods.

It crumbled in an instant.

Then, Lin Yi saw a giant hand entirely composed of pitch-black material.

The giant hand crushed all the hundred thousand elite troops who had plunged into the Abyss.

But it did not choose to kill the human emperor, already bearing several hundred divine markings, at this moment.

That giant hand emerged from the Abyss and, as the human emperor fell heavily injured, incapable of movement, directly shattered the entire ancient Heaven’s Gate with a single palm strike.

Afterward, that pitch-black, shadowy giant hand withdrew back into the Abyss, leaving no trace.

"A hundred years thereafter."

"I was utterly downcast."

"Like a walking corpse, silently waiting for death before the shattered Heaven’s Gate of the Abyss."

"Sadly, by then, I neither ate nor drank, neither slept nor rested, and still couldn’t die."

"And those Desolate Gods emerging from the Abyss could do nothing to me either."

"I named the owner of that pitch-black giant hand ’Star-devourer’."

"He was a master who had already entered the next realm of oneness with the Dao, or perhaps the ultimate next realm, of the Great Thousand Powers."

"When I saw him in the Abyss, he was devouring a large world even bigger and stronger than Jiuzhou."

"A hundred years later, there are still many things I do not understand."

"First, that Star-devouring Demon God could effortlessly kill my hundred thousand kin with a flick of a finger. If he wanted to kill me, it would have been a breeze, yet he didn’t."

"Moreover, his descent upon Jiuzhou only destroyed the Heaven’s Gate without swallowing and annihilating this world."

"I traversed Jiuzhou, seizing the moon above the nine heavens, probing the wonders of the five oceans below."

"Finally, I gradually understood everything."

The elder’s words brought Lin Yi another vision.

The deep, dark seabed.

Here, there were countless slender silver fish, their mouths opening and closing, devouring countless plankton.

Then, a larger predator took a single bite, consuming all the slender silver fish.

It swam into deeper waters.

And in that deeper darkness, a giant tentacle reached out, capturing that predator and delivering it into its mouth.

"All things thrive in the frosty sky, survival of the fittest."

"When placed in the Great Thousand World, it should be the same."

"I understand why that Star-devouring Demon God didn’t kill me, why he didn’t destroy Jiuzhou."

"Because at that time, neither I nor Jiuzhou was worthy."

"If his existence was equivalent to that octopus monster on the seabed, then Jiuzhou was merely a barren spot in the ocean floor."

"And I, along with my hundred thousand kin, were just insignificant ephemeral flies."

"He didn’t kill me to allow me to continue to develop this world."

"To let Jiuzhou nurture those slightly stronger medium-sized worlds than Jiuzhou."

"Then those slightly stronger medium-sized worlds must also be annexed by large worlds."

"Finally, it’s these top masters traveling the cosmos, dominating the Great Thousand, who consume the ripe, sweet fruits."

"To become the nourishment to make themselves infinitely stronger."

"It’s laughable that I called myself a human emperor, wasting a hundred years, yet failed to grasp this most elementary, ubiquitous truth."

After hearing all this, Lin Yi was equally astonished.

This truth, coming from this aging human emperor, unfolded far quicker than understanding it on his own.

"Get the Soul Weapon as soon as possible, then head to Descent Abyss."

It was Cheng Xiao’s previous advice to him.

"Power doesn’t disappear, it only transfers."

The elder human emperor had previously spoken of the third law.

"It seems you have also understood."

"Strength and cultivation aren’t cultivated..."

"They’re seized!"

"The so-called Great Dao, in all heavens and myriad realms, has long been divided up. Without striving and seizing, walling oneself in secluded cultivation."

"Ultimately, only to be at someone else’s mercy!"

"After realizing this, I was indeed fortunate that the Descent Abyss appeared in Jiuzhou."

"Without this door to other worlds, how could we seek a way to break the impasse?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi’s eyes brightened.

Indeed!

The Blue Star World was the same.

Though the Descent Abyss invasion had occurred an unquantifiable time ago.

He had yet to hear any senior official say they wanted to completely seal the Descent Abyss World.

To blockade and obliterate it.

It seems the underlying reason was precisely this.

Without Descent Abyss, Blue Star might not continue to grow stronger.

But to keep growing stronger was equivalent to hastening the process of becoming a "ripe fruit."

Perhaps, in the end, it would still be plucked by those Demon Gods.

But weighing the options, growing stronger is certainly better than closing off and sealing oneself.

As for the way to break the impasse...

Where can the way to break the impasse be found?

Lin Yi suddenly felt a headache.

Neither the ancient human emperor nor countless War Gods could think of it.

"I couldn’t find a way to break the impasse, so I crafted four somewhat intact fragments of the shattered Heaven’s Gate into four stone towers, dispersed across the entire Jiuzhou continent, at the four corners: east, west, south, and north."

"I removed myself from the Six Dao of Reincarnation, never to enter the cycle."

"I divided my soul into four, guarding the last layer of each stone tower, quietly awaiting the future human to come and obtain the divine mark’s power."

"Future human, now I will pass on to you the method of imprinting the divine marks, are you willing?"

As the elder’s words ended.

A prompt echoed in Lin Yi’s mind.

[Would you like to acquire a new ability: Soul Weapon?]

Lin Yi was taken aback.

Soul Weapon...

Divine Marks...

They were one and the same?!

Indeed, the ancient humans also sealed the soul of the Desolate God within themselves, borrowing its power.

This was essentially identical to the essence of Soul Weapons.

Lin Yi bowed deeply to the elder human emperor: "Please teach me."

"Though I still don’t know how to address you?"

The elder chuckled gently: "My name is no longer important, but if you insist on knowing..."

"You may call me Haotian, the Ancestor."