Mythical Era: My Evolution into a Celestial Beast

A black hole, spanning hundreds of thousands of kilometers in diameter, pierced through Hell and the Great Thousand World of Labio. Centered on that passage, a tide of blood-colored light imbued with supreme will spread outward like a tsunami. It suppressed the principles of heaven and earth and pressed down on the world's will, unstoppable in its descent. In just a short while, the blood-colored light covered millions of kilometers. Under the shroud of Hell Power, all Hell Apostles not only escaped suppression from heaven and earth, but had their aura swell by nearly double, becoming even more terrifying.

Thirteen Hell Apostles rampaged across the battlefield. Seven of them clashed head-on against pantheons led by elemental ancient gods, tearing apart elemental deities time and again, their ferocity boundless. Insect Xiao and the Apostle of Shadows fought side by side, besieging the semi-primordial Lord of Light and Darkness. The remaining four Hell Apostles commanded their followers, contending with the ancient gods of the giant trolls and Caesar Race, their races' legions, as well as figures such as the god of war and the high priest.

Other apostle legions battled fiercely against the forces of various races, and the warfront spilled across a million kilometers, still expanding deeper into the world. Aside from Insect Xiao's swarming sea of insects, the largest apostle legions numbered only a few tens of millions, while the smallest counted mere millions.

The clash between these two planar worlds drew six to seven billion transcendent beings into battle. Over a thousand deities roared, and ancient gods bellowed. For a time, heaven and earth turned upside down, as the sun and moon darkened.

Yet in Chen Chu's eyes, such a colossal planar battle seemed... somewhat weak. It didn't feel much stronger than the decisive battle against the Purgatory Demon Clan. At best, there were slightly more peak true-spirit-level ancient gods, with a scattering of ancient-titan-level beings, but their transcendent legions were far too frail.

In the mythical world, even the weakest transcendent warriors began at the fourth tier, with most soldiers standing at the fifth or sixth tier. The true main force lay in the eighth and ninth tiers. However, here in Labio, the transcendent armies consisted mostly of first-tier beings, with numbers thinning sharply from the fourth tier upward.

Similarly, though the Hell Apostles themselves wielded immense power, most of their followers were merely at the second tier. Only a minority were high-level warriors, commanded by a handful of eighth- and ninth-tier leaders.

Watching this, Chen Chu suddenly realized that it wasn't that the Human Federation, with its fusion of cultivation and technology, had been weak. They had simply always been fighting on the highest stage.

Still, Labio remained formidable. In terms of comprehensive strength, it surpassed even the Ancient Civilization from the great expedition era. Tragically, this world had drawn the attention of two supreme planes. Its destruction was already sealed, its fate of being dragged into Hell or the Abyss inevitable.

As Chen Chu observed and compared the differences between this world and the mythical world, a will condensed at his side, manifesting into the towering projection of Alvaron.

The Lord of Hell studied Chen Chu, who stood with his hands clasped behind his back, not stepping into Labio, and slowly said, "Chu Batian, your first time joining a planar battle. Do you not find it cruel?"

"Not really." Chen Chu shook his head lightly, unconcerned.

He was no saint, no moral zealot. As long as it didn't concern him or humanity's interests, he wouldn't go out of his way to bully weaker civilizations. Likewise, without a full understanding of the laws governing the infinite worlds, he wouldn't judge whether this planar invasion was just.

Justice, after all, varied across countless civilizations and races. Some cultivation civilizations abided only by the law of the jungle, where strength reigned supreme and resources were seized by any means. Such societies brimmed with oppression and selfishness, and mercy for the weak did not exist. Many even embraced the spirit of sacrificing everything for the future of their race, surrendering individuals entirely for the collective.

While Chen Chu pondered life, morality, and the weight of philosophy, Alvaron, mistaking his calm response for casual indifference, said in a low tone, "Chu Batian, do not be fooled by how these races fight desperately to defend their world. Before we descended, they themselves had done the same, invading other worlds."

"The deities of Labio once invaded other planes?" Chen Chu turned toward Alvaron in surprise.

The Lord of Hell's projection nodded slowly. "Indeed. The Supreme Hell abides by its own order of operation. Devouring worlds and planes follows the foundational principles of chaos. In the Sea of Chaos, worlds are born and destroyed every moment, their numbers as uncountable as sands. These worlds exist across different times, dimensions, and layers of reality. Even within Great Thousand Worlds, micro-worlds can emerge. No one truly knows how many worlds exist in the infinite space-time. To wander the Sea of Chaos or drift within deep time, one might search for centuries, millennia, and never discover a single world. Even for me, ruling a Supreme Hell Plane, to randomly locate a new world within the vastness of time and space is immensely difficult.

"To explore beyond, to uncover the secrets of other planes, many powerful beings devised secret arts and divine abilities. Some tear through crystal walls, casting beacons into the river of time spanning billions of worlds. Some rely on transcendent relics from other realms, using causality reversal to trace their origins. Others condense seeds of power, cast them into the river of time, and use any being that merges with this power as a seed and a coordinate, from which to build churches and cultivate followers. When the time ripens, such great beings can then descend, using those coordinates to cross space and planes.

"Among the infinite worlds, the first method is most common. It has allowed countless beings to learn of the outer heavens, even forming alliances for exchange. But the most precise method of locating coordinates is relying on transcendent items. Such a method usually requires true-spirit-level strength and mastery of space-time calculation. The stronger the relic's power, the sharper its precision. When a transcendent item from one world appears in another, it means one of two things: either an invasion, or being invaded.

"In the neutral plane of the Supreme Celestial Realm, many surviving deities, whose worlds have been destroyed, sell off items from their invaders. Labio's coordinates, for example, came from a shattered divine artifact, once in the hands of a chief god from the White Night race. Their world was invaded two hundred and fifty years ago by Labio's own Natural God Cult. The mightiest of that world was only a peak ancient-titan-level divine king, who was no match for Labio's true-spirit-level elemental ancient gods. Their civilization lasted but two years before its destruction and the collapse of its plane. That broken artifact was seized when the White Night chief god slew one of Labio's elemental deities. Exiled for more than two centuries, its heart brimmed with resentment. After entering the Supreme Celestial Realm, the artifact changed hands until eventually bought by Apostle Strolavur. And so, we descended here.

"Was this not also a twist of fate? The Supreme Hell is the gathering place of all slaughter and despair. Even those worlds that worship violence find their echoes within us."

Beneath Alvaron's blood-red robe, its gaze shone cold and detached, watching quietly as Hell's corruption seeped into the world before them.

Watching the battle rage across the passage, seeing elemental deities and gods of wars of countless races drenched in murderous aura, Chen Chu slowly said, "Killers shall in turn be killed, is that it?"

From Alvaron's words, the infinite worlds were nothing but a dark forest. Whoever revealed themselves first risked drawing the invasion of stronger worlds or mightier beings, and even destruction.

The reason for invasion was simple: resources and the chance to grow stronger. Natural treasures from another world carried attributes and law particles utterly different from one's own. For many powerful beings, such things served as whetstones to sharpen their own paths. Other worlds' power systems could also be studied, used as proof or contrast to refine one's own cultivation.

Moreover, when a weak plane was shattered, its world origin could be plundered in vast amounts, directly bolstering cultivation. Thus, in the infinite worlds, to expose one's coordinates was nothing but folly. There always existed stronger worlds and greater beings. A single misstep could spell annihilation. Even the mythical world had once fought against an Eternal World of equal rank. Both sides suffered grievously, and the mythical world still lay in slumber.

Of course, fools were never in short supply. Take the Blue Planet, for example; in their eagerness to explore the universe, humanity launched two probes into outer space in the century before the mythical era had begun. They even carried human voices, images, and greetings. They were naive hopes that centuries later, some alien would find them, establish contact, and lead humans beyond their galaxy.

However, those fools never thought about whether such aliens would seize the Blue Planet, slaughter its life, or enslave humanity. Perhaps they assumed they would be long dead, and after death, what did the flood matter?

At this, Chen Chu recalled something, and turned toward Alvaron's towering projection. "Great Lord Alvaron, just now you seemed to mention that the Supreme Celestial Realm is considered neutral among the infinite worlds?"

Toward Chen Chu, apostle chosen beneath a supreme will, Alvaron's attitude was markedly different. It inclined its head. "Correct. Among the four supreme planes, the rule of Hell and the Abyss is invasion, assimilation of other planes and absorbing powerful beings to expand themselves. But the Supreme Celestial Realm serves as a neutral hub, linking countless acknowledged worlds into a vast network. The gods of those worlds may travel through the Celestial Realm into other planes, to roam, to exchange, even to form expeditions into the Sea of Chaos.

"In terms of sheer reach, its influence surpasses even Hell and the Abyss. Of course, those scattered and disunited ones of the Celestial Realm would never dare provoke the Supreme Hell."

Chen Chu pressed further. "And what of the Dark-Red Plane, Great Lord Alvaron?"

"The Dark-Red Plane..." Alvaron paused slightly. "That is a special plane. The Dark-Red Beasts of Destruction that dwell there have but one purpose: to annihilate every world they see. Pure destruction. In the past, it was not the Abyss that troubled us most, but these beasts. Whenever the three supreme planes clashed, in the end the contested planes were destroyed by those dark-red creatures, leaving all our struggles for naught. Fortunately, in the last tens of thousands of years, the Dark-Red Plane has quieted, because its strongest beast was suppressed by Griffith."

Suppressed by an Eternal World?Chen Chu was stunned. He thought at once of the blood-red moon hanging in the outer heavens.

No wonder. Back when he had peered outward in his Divine Fusion form, he had seen three blazing suns and a moon, all seemingly projections of colossal beasts. Only the blood-red moon wasn't a beast, but the endless projection of the Dark-Red World.

So it's a Dark-Red Beast, suppressed by the mythical world itself.

Perhaps because it had not spoken with another in ages, or because it meant to groom Chen Chu, Alvaron's voice grew solemn and heavy as it continued. "The Dark-Red Plane differs from the Hell and Abyss Planes. It follows a single beast of destruction, wandering space-time and feeding on the ruin of broken worlds to strengthen itself. When the mightiest of these beasts was suppressed, the entire Dark-Red Plane was nailed down to Griffith. Unless that beast, which was rumored to have reached the end of the primordial path, perhaps even brushed against eternity, breaks free of its chains, the Dark-Red World will not appear again.

"And because you stand backed by a powerful Eternal World, Chu Batian, as a Hell Apostle on the planar battlefields, you carry almost no fear of reprisal. You need not dread a stronger enemy tracing you by causality to your world and endangering your civilization. In fact, if the chance arises, you might even draw upon Griffith's power to suppress those who pursue you."

Chen Chu nodded. "Thank you, Great Lord Alvaron, for the reminder. That can indeed serve as a hidden card."

As they spoke, from deep within Labio erupted a dreadful aura beyond the primordial level, a surge of power that made the entire world tremble. At once Boroedo and the other Hell Apostles stiffened, reining in their strength so that they wouldn't push too far and draw the first strike of a hidden ancient god.

Outside the world, sensing that flash of overwhelming might, Chen Chu's gaze hardened. "That primordial one... Its strength is formidable."

"It doesn't matter. Today its only end is to abandon its world and flee into the chaotic void, or to be suppressed by me. If it still hesitates, once Hell's power and the coming Abyss consume the world entirely, it will be too late to flee."

Alvaron's voice was calm, indifferent even to a primordial being backed by its native Great Thousand World and its world will. Its true opponent was the Abyssal Lord who could descend at any moment.

"I've watched long enough. I should enter as well." With that, Chen Chu stepped forward. Wreathed in blood-colored light, his figure appeared before the world passage, and he strode in.

Boom!

The moment Chen Chu entered, the black vortex spanning hundreds of thousands of kilometers shook violently, as though a boundless beast was forcing its way through. The pressure was so immense that even Alvaron's gaze flickered faintly beneath its blood-red robe.