Chapter 479 - 478: Divine Star
The battle was over. The Divine Realm was shrouded in a deathly silence. All the gods, devastated by self-destruction and war, could only stare blankly at the sky, their minds a complete blank.
Tang San was dead. The Golden Dragon King was dead. The God of Destruction and the Goddess of Life had been captured by an unknown existence. On this day, three of the Five God Kings of the Divine Realm had truly fallen.
At this moment, Lu Jingming's figure slowly rose to the highest point of the Divine Realm. His gaze calmly swept over all the gods present. Then, his indifferent voice echoed through the realm.
"God Asura is dead. From now on, I will be the sole master of this sacred domain."
"Who agrees? Who objects?"
As soon as the words fell, Acheron, standing beside him, once again drew her sword. A chilling and terrifying aura swept out, powerful enough to devour everything and return it all to nothingness, instantly enveloping all the gods present. Its meaning could not have been clearer:
If you have an opinion, stand up. If you can survive Acheron's blade, then you qualify to talk to Lu Jingming.
The Divine Realm remained in dead silence. All the gods unconsciously lowered their heads, afraid even to look at the figure radiating the aura of the void. Even the Five God Kings had been defeated—what could these ordinary First, Second, and Third Class gods possibly resist with?
Suicide?
Rong Nianbing let out a deep sigh once more. He looked at the gods, their faces painted with fear and anxiety, and in the end, he chose silence. Ji Dong and Lie Yan exchanged glances, each seeing helplessness and resignation in the other's eyes. The situation was beyond human strength; they had no choice but to accept it.
Seeing that no one objected, a satisfied smile appeared at the corner of Lu Jingming's lips. His figure flashed and appeared at the very center of the Divine Realm—the spot symbolizing the highest authority in the entire realm. He simply reached out and gently pressed his hand against the massive sphere of light formed from countless laws and the power of faith. Under the terrified gazes of all the gods, the sphere of light, once manipulable only by the Five God Kings, rapidly shrank like the tamest of pets, eventually turning into a small, colorful core that fell into his palm.
From this moment on, from the laws of physics to the rules of reality, from the past to the present, the entire Divine Realm was completely under his control.
…
A few days later, under Lu Jingming's nearly creative power, the Divine Realm regained its former tranquility and was even more stable than before. The power structure of the Divine Realm was finally reorganized.
Under the guidance of Rong Nianbing, Ji Dong, and Lie Yan, many native gods of the Divine Realm swore allegiance to Lu Jingming. As for the outsiders—such as Heavenly Emperor Tian Hen, Immortal Emperor Hai Long, and the God of Light, Chang Gongwei—who had already lost their homes, they chose to join "the Pantheon," willingly accepting Lu Jingming's recruitment after learning that he possessed technology to traverse worlds and locate coordinates, promising to help them find their way home in the future.
Thus, a new, unprecedentedly unified "Supreme Divine Realm" was born, with Lu Jingming as the sole and highest will.
…
The war in the Divine Realm had ended. All the gods chose to surrender before Acheron's "Naught" sword, capable of devouring even the Netherworld itself. Lu Jingming stood at the center of the Divine Realm, which he had completely analyzed and reconstructed, his divine consciousness spreading like a tide to every corner of the realm. He could feel the awe, fear, and confusion in every god's heart. He also sensed that, after the tragic battle of the God Kings, this dimension was on the verge of collapse.
To the ancient gods, the Divine Realm was the ultimate, eternal end of immortality. But to Lu Jingming, it was nothing more than a resource.
"Herta, you may begin."
Lu Jingming's consciousness connected with The Herta.
"Hmph, it's finally over. What a tedious farce,"
The Herta's voice rang straight in Lu Jingming's mind.
Immediately after, the newly restored azure dome of the Divine Realm was once again torn apart by a massive spatial rift. A silver spaceship, packed with futuristic technology and shaped like a beautiful palace, slowly sailed out from the rift. At the bow, Herta sat on a dazzling throne made of diamond-star, while Arlan sat cross-legged, sipping a cup of strangely fragrant space-brewed coffee.
"There may be damage, but enough heritage remains. It's good enough to use as material,"
she said, overlooking the vast Divine Realm continent.
"Let's begin."
Herta snapped her fingers.
From the massive spaceship, thousands of orderly mechanical puppets surged out like locusts crossing a border. Some became spiderweb-like energy emitters, setting anchors to stabilize the spatial structure at the four extremes of the Divine Realm. Some transformed into nanobots so small as to be invisible to the naked eye, infiltrating every node and beginning analysis and marking at the lowest level. Meanwhile, a spatial gravitational field made purely of imaginary energy was constructed across the entire Divine Realm.
All the gods stared in stunned silence at this scene beyond their comprehension. They felt as if they and their world were patients sent to an operating table, and these cold, mechanical puppets were surgeons, bringing all sorts of surgical tools.
Rumble—
The entire Divine Realm began to shake violently. But this vibration was not due to collapse, but... movement.
With The Herta's technology, reality itself was torn open, and the entire Douluo Divine Realm was "pulled out" from its original space-time coordinates, like a gigantic ship with all its cables cut, slowly moving toward the massive spatial rift under the pull of invisible cosmic forces.
Beyond the rift lay the Pantheon.
At this moment, Lu Jingming's figure reappeared at the main seat of the Pantheon. He gazed at the sacred world being "dragged in," his eyes shining with anticipation.
The Pantheon was based on his own Stigmata Space, built by Ruan Mei and Herta, an almost perfect demi-plane. It had the most stable spatial structure, the most advanced energy circulation system, and the most complete mechanisms. Yet it lacked only one thing—a "soul" in the truest sense, something that could support its evolution from a "dead thing" to a living being.
The Douluo Divine Realm was the final piece, the most perfect "puzzle."
Buzz—!!!
At the instant the Douluo Divine Realm was drawn completely into the Pantheon, two dimensions of entirely different size, level, and laws began the most intense and magnificent "fusion."
The Pantheon was like a prepared, massive furnace; the Douluo Divine Realm, the catalyst thrown into it. Upon contact, the Douluo Divine Realm was swiftly analyzed, absorbed, and assimilated, just like ice and snow melting away.
The immense power of faith accumulated over many years flooded into the Pantheon's energy circulation system like a torrent, acting as fuel for the final transformation of the entire dimension.
All the gods standing within the Pantheon witnessed this miracle of creation with their own eyes, enough to be recorded in the annals of the universe. They saw that the sky of the Pantheon was no longer the eternally dark, unchanging starry sky. The azure dome, golden sea of clouds, and sun formed from pure fairy power of the Douluo Divine Realm were perfectly copied and pasted. They saw that the Pantheon's earth was no longer a cold, black crystal round table. The vast Douluo continent, with its rolling mountains, rushing rivers, and majestic temples filled with holy aura, appeared one after another like mirages, swiftly changing from illusion to reality.
These two worlds fused together in an unimaginably perfect way. And it did not stop there.
As the fusion reached its most critical stage, the newborn divine whole suddenly began to expand outward at a speed surpassing light, almost a conceptual leap. Its territory surpassed every known plane in the blink of an eye. The boundary, swallowing infinite imaginary energy, shifted from "virtual" to "real," forming an indestructible crystal wall.
Immediately after—
Thump.
A faint sound, as if echoing from the depths of everyone's soul, like the first heartbeat.
Thump... thump... thump...
The heartbeat grew faster and stronger. The sound came from the core of the immense newborn machine—a heart, slowly forming from countless laws and energies. When the heart was fully formed and completed its first full beat, the entire divine whole was infused with life.
No longer a cold, half-plane made of laws and energy, it now possessed life of its own. It evolved into one of the rarest and highest forms of life in the universe, something even the original Dragon God had dreamed of but ultimately failed to achieve—
—A Divine Star!
A special astral lifeform, with a plane as its body and a star as its heart, truly self-aware and alive.
"Success... This is a perfect lifeform, with infinite potential for evolution."
Herta's eyes shone with a scientist's light. The instrument in her hand rapidly recorded the energy fluctuations from this sacred star. To her, this was far more fascinating than any battle or slaughter.
But just as all the gods were overwhelmed by infinite shock and awe at the birth of the Divine Star, an even more unbelievable miracle occurred, nearly stopping their thoughts entirely.
They saw, atop the core of the Divine Star, above the heart radiating infinite light and heat like a sun, two figures slowly walking forth.
One wore a gorgeous purple robe, sword in hand, surrounded by eternally calm thunder—real thunder and lightning. The other, barefoot and clad in a sacred white dress, each step radiating infinite life and wisdom, with flowers blooming at her feet. Her emerald green eyes brimmed with compassion and kindness, as if seeing and accepting all the world.
She was the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
The moment the two stepped out from the heart at the core of the Divine Star, their will was tightly intertwined with the Divine Star itself. Contrary to expectations, the newborn star did not produce a new, primitive consciousness—because it was unnecessary.
From the very beginning, the Pantheon was constructed from Lu Jingming's Stigmata Space, with Raiden Makoto and the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata—two of Lu Jingming's stigmata consciousnesses—serving as its administrators. As the Stigmata Space was upgraded, it became the Pantheon. When the Pantheon finally swallowed the Divine Realm and transformed into a Divine Star, the two naturally completed their own ultimate upgrade as the core consciousness of the space.
Their consciousness was now fully integrated with the very existence of the Divine Star. They had become its brain and soul, higher-dimensional beings akin to "Star Spirits." Every breath of the Divine Star was their breath. Every inch of its sacred land was their perception. Every strand of its energy was power they could freely mobilize. On this sacred planet they governed, they were omniscient and omnipotent, true creator gods.
Lu Jingming's figure appeared before them, a heartfelt smile on his face.
"Thank you, Makoto. Buer."
Raiden Makoto and the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata embraced Lu Jingming sincerely, for he had given them new life. Lu Jingming gently stroked their long, soft hair, feeling the breath of life fused with the Divine Star. By doing so, not only had he created a Divine Star with unlimited potential, but Raiden Makoto and the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata had also gained a new, nearly immortal life.
From now on, unless the Divine Star was completely destroyed, as its spirits, they could never die. And as for whether there existed another Divine Star capable of destroying this ever-evolving, ever-growing sacred star... perhaps, it had not yet been born in this world.
With every breath, the Divine Star swallowed and exhaled endless imaginary energy from the universe, and with every heartbeat, it proclaimed the arrival of a new era to the entire cosmos.