Chapter 47: Mythical Idol


    "Boss, congrattions onpleting the first objective! Reward timwait, boss, boss!" The system''s voice thundered in Harun''s mind, but though he''d regained control of his thoughts, it failed to reach him. Drifting in a whirlpool of ck and white strands, Harun closed his eyes, reminiscing thest moments before he dove into the Reincarnation Cycle.


    Again, though his body seemed to temporarily belong to another, Harun witnessed all that urred. Or perhaps he just remembered it. But what he saw displeased himleaving a sour taste in his mouth.


    "Who am I, what am I? Is the course of my existence, the entirety of my struggles, written somewhere on an unalterable stone? My breaths, my encounters, my conflicts, my progress, my resolve, my survival, my emotions and desires, what are they worth?" Harun asked himself, but couldn''t find an answer. He could tell himself that past lives and karma had no ties to the current him, but the recent events showed otherwise.


    Yet, Harun refused the ties, refused this attachment to worlds, events, existences he had no care for. If the cycle of life and death went on with no end, all possessed a past, and unless destroyed in soul by their enemies, could look forward to a future. Pigs, worms, nts, men, all possessed souls and could exchange ces throughout reincarnationsyet didn''t have to think of anything but the present.


    Perhaps, from the moment heid eyes on the Life and Death Stele, from the moment he seized the light orb and peered into the Six Incarnations Bridge, all was set in stone. Harun remembered the fake prisoner in his cell, the ck-robed youth in the stele, and wondered if the whole 10,000 Sect War wasn''t just an excuse to get to him. But then his eyes opened, and his resolve burned anew.


    "Be it the Severing or Unyielding Path, those who tread the Six Incarnations Bridge choose their Karmic Links. You cannot force attachment on me if I do not allow it. My name is Harun, and my destiny toplete the Breath of Toxic Realitiesno one can take that away from me," Harun said, and closed his eyes. The Breath of Toxic Realities was his, his father and elder brother''s dream, a bold yet unrealistic concept the three came up with through drunken talk. Before, Harun kept it buried in his heart. But now that he had the Six Incarnations Bridge to support him, he would see it to the end.


    Clearing his mind of thoughts he deemed unnecessary, Harun spiraled down the reincarnation cycle, leaving the darkness above for the light below.


    But in a distantnd, sitting amidst rainbow-colored clouds, a ck-robed youth watched a projection of Harun''sst deeds with a lopsided smile, rewinding it to no end. From a distance, several people watched this iprehensible scene, yet didn''t dare butt it.


    Meanwhile, the Highest Heaven had reached the end of its destiny. Regaining their wits, the Beast Emperors assumed that the peerless expert and Extreme Yin Sir possessed deep connections. Perhaps they were one and the same. In any case, he came to tip the scales in their favor, or so they thought. Without hesitation, theyunched abined assault at Nak, aggravating his injuries, and forcing him to escape the copsing Highest Heaven.


    The remnants of the Divine Army followed suit, leaving the Highest Heaven''s survivors at the mercy of the Monstrous Beasts. Sv and his n elders split off the Serpent Domain from the Highest Heaven, while Dilnaz did the same to the Divine Pce.


    "I don''t understand. This used to be a nice ce. Get a God-level cultivation and official rank, oppress men and take their women, enjoy glory, splendor, wealth and rank. Rinse, repeat. Wasn''t that a good arrangement? Why did our generation have to produce so many psychopaths?"


    "First there was Dilnaz. On one disagreement, she directly ughtered an ancient n, not even sparing her own elders. Then there was that Son of Heaven, so young yet so deviousdirectly frying 10,000 people just to protect his eyes, and who knows what he did to the rest!"


    "They treat people''s lives like dog piss!"


    "I just want to bully the weak! Why did they have to make my life so difficult!"


    The Highest Heaven''s remaining Gods wept in bitterness, yet couldn''t escape the fate of bing Monstrous Beast food. The Serpent Domain and Divine Pce aside, none survived the cmity. With a n formation set up and reinforced by the seeding God-Emperors, and a peak Demi-Emperor such as Dilnaz to control it, the Divine Pce stood in an impregnable position.


    Likewise, the Serpent Domain didn''t fear any assault. In fact, should they choose to meddle with their full force, they could force the Beast Emperors into an immediate retreat. However, they didn''t. And so the ancient capital of the Empyrean Dynasty copsed into ruins and gore.


    "How refreshing! In the future, if we have the opportunity, we must thank Extreme Yin Sir," said the World Beast Demi-Emperor, hovering in the cosmos alongside his peers and beast horde.


    "That is only natural, and this...is merely the beginning," the White Fox Emperor approved, but at that time, red vortexes formed above the beast hordeannouncing Heaven''s punishment. Unfazed, the Beast Emperors burst intoughter.


    "You have already rejected us. Bereft of support, do you think we still care for your wrath? Brothers, I will restrain this tribtion. Together, let''s lead it to the remaining Heavens and ransack all in our path!" The World Beast Demi-Emperor chortled, and raised his right hand, summoning his race''s Divine Power: Heaven Smiting.


    In pure destructive strength, Heaven Smiting ranked second among Divine Powers, but its true worthy in its ability to dominate Heavenly Tribtions. Relying on that Divine Power, World Beasts ran amok until the Serpent Emperor''s rise drove them into submission. Later on, their weakened state enabled the First and Second Emperors to gradually erase them from the 33 Heavens'' history.


    If not for Harun rmending that they avoid antagonizing Dilnaz from the get-go to use her strength against Nak and increase their odds, they would have smashed the Divine Pce first. Still, as he witnessed the ruins and debris drifting in the Cosmos, the World Beast Demi-Emperor felt satisfied.


    Bright-red asteroids, each about 150 meters wide, dropped from the vortexes in the thousands, all aiming for the seven Demi-Emperors.


    "Heaven Smiting Domain!" The World Beast sheltered his group with a formation of 18, gargantuan white-light des that sliced off all asteroids in range. Assured of his trustworthiness, the remaining Demi-Emperors led the horde and descended on the Second Heaven. Once ruled by the Dragon n and robbed of all key resources by Dilnaz, the Second Heaven didn''t have any hegemonic force to shelter it, and under thebined assault of the Beast Demi-Emperors and Heaven''s punishment, soon turned into a pile of rubble.


    Knowing that too much was as bad as not enough, the Monstrous Beasts joined their forces to destroy the Tribtion, then dropped on the Third Heaven''s Great Roc n. A swift battle ensued, ending with the Great Roc n''s destruction. The Monstrous Beasts made the Third Heaven their home-basebringing the Grand Cataclysm came to an endat least on the surface.


    In the meantime, a youth wandered through the reincarnation cycle. His consciousness fell into torpor, and at some point in time, his face became a mask of white light. His body and limbs followed suit, and after drifting for an unknown amount of time, that light reached the end of the cycle and emerged on the other side.


    Across the Mortal Realm''s 10,000 worlds, in prestige, one stood far above the rest, for the simple reason that it beat the Heavens in one area: mountain size. Known as the Mountain-Edge World, its tallest peak reached 100.25 km, while its mountain ranges could cover other worlds'' continents. Needless to say, it also ranked among thergest worlds.


    An uncanny ce, the Mountain Edge world wasn''t divided into continents. More urately, all the water ran across and around a single supercontinent, never splitting it into severalndmasses. However, six mountain ranges separated that supercontinent in isted domains. Each several times taller than the other, those mountain ranges weren''t something anyone could cross because they wanted to. The Mountain Edge World thus took the shape of a pyramid, with the six ranges representing the stairs to the next level. And in the first range''s northernmost corner, an outwardly unremarkable swamp drove a small vige into near-extinction.


    Citizens of the Dark Stone country, the people of the Evergreen vige enjoyed a simple and ripple-free life, until a swamp formed in the outskirts, colonizing their forests. How that swamp formed was a mystery. But from it grew eerie blood lotuses that paralyzed and drained the blood of all those unfortunate enough to breathe its pollen. Trees withered, animals grieved, and within three days, the Wailing Swamps, as the vigers came to name it, had decimated all prey in the vicinitypreventing the vigers from hunting meat or harvesting fruits.


    Worse, the pollen spread to their herds, nearly destroying their farms and cattle. Forced to relocate, and with taxes to pay at the end of the year, the vigers fell into depressioncursing the heavens for ying such a cruel joke on them. But as their grief reached its peak, a bright column of light descended from the sky, hitting the very middle of the Wailing Swamps.


    The light dispersed, revealing a newborn baby whose silent breathing siphoned the toxic pollen, ridding the air of its impurities. As if animated with a mind of their own, the blood lotuses shivered, yet couldn''t fight the baby''s breathing. Soon, the vigers heard loud wheezing soundse from the swamps, and while confusion spread among them, their surviving herd rushed into the cursed swamps, forcing the bravest to rush after them.


    Realizing that the destructive pollen was gone, the vigers sought the source of this miracle, and found the baby that absorbed all this poisonous essence to save them from cmity. Glowing in golden light, the baby made no sound, but had his hands joined in a prayer sign. Moved, the vigers dropped on their knees and kowtowed in worship. The trees'' withering halted. Green leaves grew anew. And as the forest regained its life, a wailing sound came from the retreating swampsrevealing a dark-red, massive toad-shaped beast that seemed to be the source of this disaster.


    Infuriated, the demonic toad leaped toward the baby, its elongated tongueshing out like a whip to strike the miracle down. But as the vigers feared the worst, a serpentine form took shape around the child, bing a wed serpent that hurled at the toad, and devoured it with one bite.


    "A guardian spirit!" The vigers screamed in tandem, now certain that this child was the incarnation of a spiritual god entering the mortal world. A light column shot toward the sky, and the baby turned into a four-year-old child that sat crossed-legged amidst the forest.


    The wed serpent shrunk to a palm-sized snake, and merged with his back, leaving a wed-serpent tattoo behind.


    The child opened his eyes, and the vigers bowed inplete reverence.


    "Greetings, oh Spiritual Lord!"


    "Spiritual Lord, thank you for saving us!"


    "Lord, our lives belong to you!"


    Henceforth, the vigers took the child as their lord and totem, providing him with tributes, devotion and worshiphe rejected the first, and ''reluctantly'' epted the rest. Little did they know that behind his holy exterior, he cursed this unexpected twist, "When your rebirth is so overpowered that it actually gives you headaches! How am I supposed to deal with this?!"


    Harun thuspleted his reincarnation, reaching the natal-stage of the Human Realm in a...disturbingly inhuman fashion.