Mythical Era: My Evolution into a Celestial Beast

After breaking through to the mythical level and forging a law-condensed true form, a cultivator's shape was no longer fixed. It could shift at will, even in size. Thus, above the mythical level, beings no longer judged identity by appearance. Instead, they used fluctuations of the soul, the force one wielded, or certain familiar items with distinctive auras, like the Eight Desolations Halberd in Chen Chu's hand. Though its hue had shifted, its savage and domineering form remained the same.

For An Fuqing, that halberd had followed Chen Chu since the Fourth Heavenly Realm. She could never mistake it. Coupled with that overwhelming, domineering battle style, the murderous aura, and the blood sea domain he once revealed on the Void Continent, she recognized him at once.

What left her stunned was why Chen Chu was here at all. After only half a year apart, he had already surpassed the true spirit level, strong enough to blow apart a late-stage Abyssal Great Demon with a single strike.

As expected of you,An Fuqing thought in her heart.

Back in the final battle at the Heavenly Feathered Battlefield, she and Zuo Mo had fallen into the Dark-Red World. There, Zuo Mo had easily broken through into the ancient titan level after fusing his three selves. For more than a month, father and daughter wandered in that world, fighting dozens of deadly battles before finally finding a spatial rift.

However, upon leaving through it, they had been caught in a spacetime storm. By the time Zuo Mo exhausted his strength to break free, they had already fallen into an Abyssal Plane; more precisely, the Avici[1] Abyss.

As one of the Purgatory Demon Clan, Zuo Mo had felt as though he had returned home amid the abyssal darkness. With his protection, An Fuqing not only suffered no danger, but instead gained sudden insight from sensing both the Dark-Red Plane and the Abyssal Plane, her cultivation soaring at rapid speed. Two months ago, when she broke through to the heavenly king level within the Abyssal Plane, she briefly touched the very essence and origin core of the Avici Abyss through her epiphany talent.

For one who wasn't even an abyssal demon king, merely at the beginning of the heavenly king level, to touch the origin of one of the supreme planes... Such a feat had instantly alarmed the lord of that abyss. While Zuo Mo was carving out a territory by sweeping across nearby demon kings, the lord of that plane descended.

The Abyssal Lord Revafavari saw through her at a glance. Her life-engraving wheel was only eighteen years, with less than two years of cultivation traces, yet she possessed a talent more compatible with heaven and earth than even Innate Demon God bloodlines.

After some testing, Zuo Mo was accepted into the Dark Demon Legion as a great commander, leading tens of millions of abyssal troops. An Fuqing herself was taken as a disciple, gifted with True Primordial Blood, and infused with the Abyssal Lord's bloodline without altering her outward form. Backed by such resources, her cultivation now stood at the peak of the heavenly king level, and she could break through to the supreme level at any moment.

She had believed that with her recent opportunities, she would at least catch up to Chen Chu. Half a year ago, when they parted, he had only just reached the heavenly king level. Even with his monstrous talent, in six months he should have reached at most the supreme level.

A supreme-level cultivator in less than two years was already shocking enough, but now, he had surpassed even that, and had reached the true spirit level.

Even with her broadened perspective, An Fuqing was momentarily dazed. It was obvious Chen Chu held countless secrets, including his identity as a Hell Apostle. He must have been exposed to the wider outside world long before.

His current cultivation was shocking, but not unexpected. She had grown accustomed to such impossibilities from him. Only now, they stood in opposing camps, and recognition was out of the question.

At the very same moment, beneath the Abyssal Lord's throne, among the hundreds of billions of Dark Demon soldiers, the eyes of one Purgatory Demon God lit with surprise. Zuo Mo too found that blood-colored halberd strangely familiar, yet unlike An Fuqing, his brief encounters with Chen Chu left him unable to recognize him.

Looking at the halberd-wielding figure standing before the passage, and Alvaron standing on the opposite side of the world, the towering being on the throne slowly spoke. The voice carried a crushing weight as it echoed through the entire plane. "The beginning stage of the true spirit level, semi-primordial power... Truly impressive, even to me. But within the infinite worlds lies a silent law: the greater the talent, the quicker the death. Every moment, dazzling prodigies fall. Today will be no exception."

Revafavari slowly raised its palm. Blue lightning danced between its claws, converging into a massive sphere like a blue star.

"Whoever slays that Apostle shall have this Primordial Heart."

Instantly, the fourteen remaining Abyssal Great Demons quickened their breath. The hesitation in their eyes vanished, replaced by killing intent and frenzy as they stared at Chen Chu.

A Primordial Heart contained the essence of creation, ranked above primordial power itself. Refining it would not only elevate cultivation, but also temper their true forms with half the qualities of the primordial.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Fourteen Abyssal Great Demons unleashed terrifying true-spirit-level auras. Abyssal demonic qi surged, shaking the chaotic void as their true forms emerged.

The strongest among them radiated an aura surpassing even Insect Xiao, faintly tinged with primordial resonance; a peak true-spirit-level Abyssal Demon, already beginning to condense primordial qi. "For the dignity of the Supreme Abyss, this Apostle must die. Join forces to suppress it!"

With a chorus of cold, savage roars, led by the semi-primordial Abyssal Demon, the fourteen surged into the crimson vortex, intent on surrounding and killing Chen Chu.

One on one? Such a thought never crossed their minds. They were Abyssal Demons, incarnations of savagery, evil, and all things dark.

Within Labio, standing upon a river of blood suppressing the broken corpse of an Abyssal Demon, Chen Chu's lips curved into a faint, grim smile. He hadn't fully destroyed that demon precisely to bait this moment.

Boom!

Abyssal demonic qi erupted, endless and overwhelming. Three Abyssal Demons descended, their true forms stretching nineteen thousand, twenty-seven thousand, and forty-nine thousand meters tall.

They hailed from different dark races. The smallest one resembled a Purgatory Demon God with three heads and eight arms. Another was draconic yet not a dragon, with six wings fanning from its back.

The last and mightiest was formed of dark-red bone, a terrifying bone demon. As it descended, within a radius of a hundred thousand kilometers, countless razor-sharp bone spikes erupted into being, turning space itself into a hell of bones.

"Kill!"

No wasted words. The instant the three Abyssal Demons descended, forty thousand kilometers apart, they struck without hesitation.

Boom!

Above Chen Chu, the void shattered. A blood-colored claw, tens of thousands of kilometers wide, tore through the sky like a falling continent. At the same time, a force spread out, silently erasing the blood sea surrounding him. Even the Supreme Hell power that had been illuminating heaven and earth vanished in an instant.

Roar!

A vicious, frenzied bellow shook heaven and earth. Dimensional layers split open, and from within crawled a monstrous creature the size of a planet, resembling both fly and locust. Its needle-like mouth ignored space, matter, even the protective force fields formed by divine abilities, appearing silently behind Chen Chu.

However, blood-red lightning leapt across his body. His form expanded violently, and a blinding crimson glow dyed heaven and earth into a Blood Sea Purgatory. The blood dragon-demon, towering at two hundred thousand meters, rose in the void and roared skyward.

"Begone!"

Bang!

His hand, wreathed in blood-red lightning, slammed onto the monster's mouthparts, tearing through layer after layer of void and crushing it in another dimension.

The lightning pierced dimensions themselves, engulfing an Abyssal Demon of over a hundred thousand meters. Charged with crushing principle power, it exploded and shattered the demon's true form, eliciting a furious, pained roar.

Behind Chen Chu, his other hand held a blood-red sun. Ignoring space and time, it appeared before the six-winged abyssal dragon-demon, blazing with annihilating light.

Boom!

A crimson supernova exploded, flooding heaven and earth. It instantly obliterated the Abyssal Demonic Domain and blasted apart the late-stage true-spirit-level demon.

From the brilliance of ruin, a halberd light ten thousand kilometers long rose skyward. Where it passed, everything split open, including the semi-primordial strike of that crimson bone claw, leaving behind a million-kilometer rift in the void that couldn't heal.

Heaven and earth were divided, the elements remade. This was the might of the pseudo-world-creation weapon, the Eight Desolations Halberd. In Chen Chu's domineering grip, it erupted with invincible force. Amid the cataclysmic shockwaves, the bone demon's eyes burned with black fire, heavy with dread.

At the very instant Chen Chu shattered two Abyssal Demons and withstood a semi-primordial strike, new waves of true-spirit-level pressure descended. The ten remaining demons had entered.

Meanwhile, the two whose bodies had been destroyed reformed in moments, their blood and flesh condensing once more. Their auras were weakened by a third, and their faces twisted with rage.

The abyssal bone demon growled low. "Beware. This Apostle is far stronger than expected. Its power is tyrannical, with the nature to crush and annihilate all things."

"You've finally arrived." Chen Chu's deep voice rolled through the void. Behind him, a Heavenly Gate veiled in blood-red light unfolded layer by layer. Eight gates appeared in total. Only eight, because the cost of nine exceeded the limits of the "true spirit domain." To step beyond that would be too dangerous.

Before the horrified stares of the demons, the eight gates shattered. A torrential surge of vitality and blood energy erupted skyward.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Eight blood dragon phantoms roared and poured into Chen Chu's body. His aura surged, radiating a force that made every Abyssal Demon tremble.

All of it happened in an instant. The moment his Eight-Fold Heavenly Gates opened, Mills' sealed body beneath him was crushed into nothing, its despairing scream lost beneath Chen Chu's burning vitality.

A blinding red light exploded. A destructive force of annihilation descended, plunging the heavens into darkness. Only a blood-red halberd, tens of thousands of kilometers long, remained, spanning the sky. It drew down ruinous power as it fell, covering every Abyssal Demon.

Time froze, and space solidified. All principles, all forces—tangible or intangible—were suppressed beneath this higher power. Unless they could break free of the frozen perception, every Abyssal Demon would be destroyed in the stillness.

"Break!"

In the frozen layers of time, a furious roar echoed. The thirty-thousand-meter bone demon extended its claws, tearing apart the solidified void. Facing the world-ending halberd falling from the heavens, the abyssal bone demon drove its claw into its chest and ripped free a bone sword, forged of countless white bones bound with the arms of slaughtered beings.

The moment it appeared, the bone demon's faint primordial aura flared violently.

"Reverse all things!" The bone demon's low chant was reverent. The sword radiated black-and-red light, twisting heaven, earth, matter, and principles, lifting toward the world-ending halberd.

Silently, the two weapons met. Yet even as they clashed, in the bone demon's unbelieving gaze, the sword that carried its Dao, its very essence, shattered to pieces. "How is this possible? Your power!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Its roar of rage and terror echoed across heaven and earth. Beneath that world-ending halberd, all fourteen Abyssal Demons, including the bone demon, exploded into fragments. The force obliterated millions of kilometers of world, collapsing layer upon layer of space and tearing through to the crystal wall of reality itself.

It was power at the very limits of the true spirit level, one step shy of the primordial level. Even the dark-red vortex trembled violently from the shock.

Domineering. Unstoppable. This was Chen Chu's dominion over all at the same level. Not one could withstand a single blow.

Such force made Revafavari rise abruptly from its throne, its eyes filled with horror. Even Alvaron, watching from the other side of the world, was struck with shock.

It wasn't Chen Chu's near-primordial might that startled them. As lords of supreme planes, they could crush newly ascended primordial beings with ease.

What astonished them was the complexity of Chen Chu's power. That halberd strike had combined tyrannical principle power, a divine ability that crushed all, and other overwhelming strengths. Among them, there was a faint trace of Dragon Force so dreadful it made even them uneasy.

1. Avīci or Avici is one of the hells (naraka) in Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, it is one of the twenty-eight hells located in the kingdom of Yama, where individuals are reborn for bearing false witness and outright lying while transacting business or giving charity. In Buddhism, it is the lowest level of the Naraka or "hell" realm, with the most suffering, into which the dead who have committed grave misdeeds may be reborn. It is used in this novel as a more accurate translation of "无间" (Wu Jian). ☜