Chapter 1576 — The Calamity of Extinction

Xiaotianzun held the Primordial Stone in his hand, turning it over and over as he examined it, his eyes holding something that was part sorrow, part joy.

Countless Creators surged toward him. The Creators of the Other Shore Void had been through battle against the Heavenly Court's armies, had stared death in the face time and again, and had grown fierce and battle-hardened.

Moreover, Lord Langwan had pushed through reforms, fusing the crude ancestral methods of divine consciousness cultivation with the God's Treasury Heavenly Palace system, and had even sent Creators to Jingping to absorb the fruits of Jingping's reforms. The Creators of today were immeasurably stronger than those of the ancient era. They too cultivated their primordial spirits, and they had studied the Dao Realm system as well; their strength was exceedingly high, their divine powers exceedingly refined.

Though they still relied chiefly on divine consciousness attacks, their vital essence was likewise immensely powerful. Yet before they could reach Xiaotianzun's side, they saw heavenly palaces materialize one after another behind him, and a force of incomparable power pressed down upon them, leaving them mired as though in mud, unable to move.

The gap was simply too vast. Even the Spirit Ancestor Realm, which could suppress Langwan, was before Xiaotianzun like a sculpture of mud, crumbling and collapsing at a mere raise of his hand — how much less could they withstand him?

Furthermore, the Dao of the Primordial Beginning encompassed both the Innate Qi and divine consciousness. The Innate Qi was the Primordial Vital Essence, a vital essence of the highest order.

Their divine consciousness powers and the powers conjured from vital essence all came at him only to be absorbed by Xiaotianzun, becoming his nourishment. Their divine consciousness had originally been obtained through the Primordial Divine Stone; to Xiaotianzun, it was now simply returning to its rightful owner. The divine consciousness they had cultivated was, to Xiaotianzun, merely the result of lending them the divine stone to cultivate with.

These Creators were, in effect, cultivating divine consciousness on his behalf.

Xiaotianzun paid no heed to the powerful Creators among those charging at him. Instead he raised the raw stone and examined it again and again, the sorrow on his face gradually fading until only joy remained.

His joy deepened, and the Primordial Stone in his hand began to float upward of its own accord. He was attempting to activate the stone using the Dao of the Primordial Beginning, which fused the Innate Qi and divine consciousness.

Behind him, more Creators charged in, only to be frozen one by one in his wake. Those as powerful as clan chiefs and elders found the flow of time around them slowed to an extreme; those of lesser strength were stopped entirely.

The power of the Dao of the Primordial Beginning was evident at a glance! In the very instant Xiaotianzun activated the Primordial Stone, the Water Moon Divine King, nearest to him, began to disintegrate — her physical body crumbling, her primordial spirit scattering, her soul decomposing! She was the most powerful Creator after Langwan, yet before an existence like Xiaotianzun she had no power to resist.

Xiaotianzun was not merely their nemesis — he was also the very origin of the divine consciousness they relied upon!

Facing such an existence, nothing remained in their hearts but deep, shuddering dread. Yet the Water Moon Divine King, after all, had the deepest cultivation.

Even as she gradually decomposed — her body, primordial spirit, and vital essence breaking down into Innate Qi, her divine consciousness stripped away by the Primordial Stone — she could not die in so short a time.

But the other clan chiefs and elders decomposed far more quickly.

The skin on the Water Moon Divine King's face disintegrated like a paper figure pasted together layer by layer, her body's flesh burning away stratum by stratum.

She opened her mouth, wanting to shout and drive back the Creators still charging toward them, but her voice became endlessly prolonged, and her divine consciousness could not issue forth either. This situation resembled the Grand Emperor's Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain.

The Grand Emperor was the one who had comprehended a domain through his own insight, the first to comprehend such a domain.

The Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain used divine consciousness to create an absolute domain, within which time itself seemed to stand still.

With this method he was invincible in the world — until he encountered Ling Tianzun. Ling Tianzun saw through the essential truth that time does not exist, created the Unchanging Divine Power, and shattered the myth of the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain's invincibility.

Xiaotianzun had seen the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain, but he had never received the Grand Emperor's teachings. Yet as his divine consciousness grew madly, surged madly, he had naturally comprehended the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain. For him, everything came as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

Not only that — his divine consciousness domain was more complete than the Grand Emperor's, its flaws fewer! Within his divine consciousness domain was also mixed the wondrous function of the Innate Qi, and the wondrous function of the Dao of the Primordial Beginning.

It could seize another's bodily vital essence and transform it into Innate Qi; seize another's divine consciousness and transform it into his own! "Flee!

" The Creators at the edge of the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain sensed the deadly peril, halted at once, turned, and fled madly outward, crying out in a harsh voice, "Everyone, flee quickly!

" The other Creators surging forward drowned him out and continued pressing toward Xiaotianzun — but then, one by one, they were frozen in place.

More Creators realized the danger and turned to flee. One elder barely escaped, grief-stricken beyond measure, and cried out at the top of his voice, "Lord Langwan spoke the truth — when the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold!

Without Carefree Land, the Other Shore Void is nothing but a cage!

All clansmen, hear my command — make at once for the Void Bridge and leave the Other Shore! " The escaped Creators immediately ran toward the various heavens of their own tribes, intending to lead their people in flight to the Void Bridge.

If they could reach the Void Bridge, they still had a chance at survival.

Yet as Xiaotianzun activated the Primordial Divine Stone, the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain expanded at tremendous speed. Fast as they fled, the domain expanded just as fast. Those lagging behind quickly grew rigid and immobile. In the eyes of these frozen Creators, their clansmen fled outward one by one at inconceivable speed, yet seemed sealed in ice by time itself.

Even the stars, constellations, and celestial bodies in the sky were now frozen one by one by the expanding Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain. Even the vast river of stars no longer turned within the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain.

Xiaotianzun's Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain continued to expand, soon reaching the first heaven.

The domain swept across the entire heaven. This heaven was home to more than a hundred thousand Creators, and all of them were frozen in an instant, their bodies held in every conceivable posture — some dragging families and belongings as they ran, some already flown into the air, some hiding in the shadows of houses, some furious and intent on turning back to fight Xiaotianzun to the death.

Their faces were terrified, or filled with despair, or caught in shuddering panic — but not one of them could escape. The Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain continued to expand, soon touching the second heaven, then spreading to the third, the fourth.

. .

In the Other Shore Void, the Creators had built a splendid civilization.