<h4>Chapter 499: A Sessful Ritual</h4>


    In the center of the blood-colored twister rose a beam of light that pierced the skies. All the spiritual matter and blood amassed over the top of the capital of the empire of stars, shining so brightly that it could be seen from half the sura realm.


    The monarchs of the other sura empires looked at the unusual phenomenon in the skies with ugly expressions on their faces; it was evident that disaster would soon strike.


    The blood-colored beam contracted as the energy contained within it began to condense. An object appeared out of nowhere over thepass.


    The monarch of stars smiled with malice. Suddenly, the will of the world appeared—it had sensed the evil ritual that would sacrifice the lives of millions and threaten the entire realm. It attempted to break the monarch of stars'' ritual.


    The monarch of stars raised his head and stared up at the sky. "Haha, will of the world, I''ve been waiting for you!"


    Hidden beneath the runic inscriptions of the capital of the empire of stars was anotheryer of light.


    Countless corpses were buried under the capital, all of whom were warriors who had died in battle. The monarch of stars hadmanded that arge pit be dug for all these corpses, along with the corpses of his failed experiments. The pit was filled with a special form of earth that would preserve the spiritual essence of the dead.


    The frighteningly dense spiritual essence turned into a many-headed, many-eyed monstrosity, one that the monarch of stars sealed underground and chained up for this very moment.


    As the array of light filtered underground, the monstrosity suddenly burst free from its chains. Brilliant white light shone above the capital of the empire of stars, stacking with the bloody light. The two sources of light manifested in the form of two ethereal hands, which caught the will of the world as it descended on the empire of stars.


    Noticing something amiss, the will of the world immediately tried to leave, but it was a little toote. The probing hands tore a piece off its immaterial body and consumed it whole. The will of the world shuddered as it escaped from the scene, not daring to reveal itself or to disrupt the monarch of stars'' ns any further.


    It didn''t have the strength to do so, after all.


    A core appeared above thepass held by the monarch of stars. Red light quickly wrapped around it,yer afteryer. Pinpricks of light began to glimmer over thepass, as though a miniature gxy was trapped within.


    All that energy on thepass contracted to a point,which subsequently exploded. Blood-red light shot out from thepass in all directions, swallowing up the empire of stars and even the nearby empires.


    The light didn''t appear to cause any harm; indeed, it dissipated after the initial sh. Over thepass, however, a blood-red sun had appeared. It burned with such me, with such energy, that it seemed as though an entire gxy was contained within.


    "Haha, I''ve seeded, I''ve really seeded!"


    The monarch of stars inclined his head as heughed into the air. The sura officials all bowed their heads as they continued to kneel. "Congrattions, your majesty!"


    The monarch of stars had made a tremendous sacrifice for the object in his hands.


    The once-populous capital was naught but a desert; no living creature remained within. The citizens of the capital, sacrifices whose blood and spirit had been stripped from them, disintegrated into dust.


    In order to increase the likelihood of sess, the monarch of stars had even brought the citizens of a few nearby cities into the capital for a supposed festival. All in all, over tens of millions of sura had died.


    All across the empire of stars, sura had disappeared without a trace, leaving behind nothing but a pile of sand which scattered with the wind. The cities belonging to the empires he had conquered were entirely devoid of people.


    All this had been caused by none other than the monarch of stars.


    Worst were the empires who had been conquered by the monarch of stars; ording to thews of war agreed to by all the sura empires, ordinary citizens shouldn''t have been dragged into the conflict.


    The monarch of stars had obeyed thisw initially, and the citizens of the conquered empires found that they were treated no differently than before. The sura within began to feel goodwill toward the monarch of stars, but none of them expected that they would be sacrificed in such a cruel fashion.


    The conquered empires had turned into a barren wastnd, destroyed by the monarch of stars'' ambition. Tens of millions, hundreds of millions of sura had died, let alone the nts and gic lifeforms around. To the monarch of stars, all this was worth it; he could always conquer more empires and add more sura to his empire, after all.


    As long as he seeded in refining the object in his hands, he would be just one step away from bing an asura, from bing the god of the sura! He would have boundless strength, and the entirety of the sura realm would belong to him. And now—he had seeded in his objective!


    The monarch of starsughed in triumph as he gazed at the ruins of his empire.


    His perversion outshone his nine godsons''bined. He had walked a forbidden path to its conclusion, something even his godsons hadn''t managed.


    The skies remained tinted with blood, vibrant and red like a wound inflicted on the very realm itself. Indeed, what the monarch of stars had done had hurt the sura realm to its core.


    The blue skies and shining sun were forevermore luded from the empire of stars and the conquered empires nearby. What reced them were a bloody sky and a scarlet sun.


    By the time the monarch of stars'' ns were over, half the poption of the empire of stars had vanished, and much of the was no longer suitable for habitation. The entirety of thend was a furnace; the sura were medicine; their blood and spiritual matter was the fire that fueled the transformation.


    The monarch of stars had given up his empire for strength, for power approaching that of an asura—but the more strength he obtained, the weaker he felt.


    Many imed that the monarch of stars was the existence closest to that of an asura, but it was exactly because he was considered the closest that he realized just howrge a chasmy between him and a true asura.


    If the asura were a mountain, he was an ant—they were so different as to be iparable. The monarch of stars knew that, even if he worked and toiled his entire life, he would never approach such vaunted heights.


    Others thought it the highest ofpliments to call him the one who most closely approached the realm of an asura, but to him, that was the harshest of satire. How could an ant hope to move a mountain?