Thor appeared extremely tense at the Lord of Heaven's suggestion, hiding behind Chen Xu and hissing incessantly.
Chen Xu, unaware of the history between them, found it difficult to understand the Lord of Heaven's current mood.
Thus, Chen Xu asked tentatively.
“Lord of Heaven, this astral behemoth, Thor, claims to be the creator of the six special worlds. What exactly is your relationship with him?”
The Lord of Heaven fell silent at the question. After a moment of thought, he answered.
“Originally, this past was buried in the dust of the river of time. Only a few who lived through it still know the truth.
“Hell, myself, Elemental, and him.”
The Lord of Heaven pointed a finger toward Thor behind Chen Xu.
“Since you have inherited the authority of the undead, you have a connection to this. There is no harm in telling you.”
The Lord of Heaven leaned back, and a pure, holy white seat appeared to support him. He reclined slightly against the chair, resting his chin on his right hand as he began to recount the past.
A long, long time ago, the transcendent powers in the myriad worlds were not as active as they are now. Back then, the eternal-tier was a rare level of strength, and the unique-tier was considered the supreme of the myriad worlds.
In those days, the transcendent systems were not yet mature, and there weren't even recognized standards for transcendent realms.
It was very different from the current situation where mythic-tier beings are everywhere and one is only considered a person upon reaching the eternal-tier.
This phenomenon was very similar to the academic degree inflation in Chen Xu's previous world.
At that time, the living beings within the worlds were weak. The stellar species within the universe were the masters of the myriad worlds; they were born with miraculous abilities and inherent transcendence.
A few kings among the stellar behemoths even fed on worlds and stars.
But among this group of formidable stellar behemoths, there was an outlier—Thor.
Thor did not have a massive body capable of swallowing planets, nor could he breathe destructive energy to ruin worlds.
He lacked superior speed to roam the stars and hunt lone transcendents.
What he possessed was a very rare trait among stellar behemoths: wisdom.
Thor was born different from other stellar behemoths. He preferred to wander within worlds, absorbing knowledge from the inhabitants to increase his wisdom.
He would even play the role of rare beasts, masking his identity to mingle in transcendent worlds and integrate into local societies.
This behavior wasn't for fun; it was Thor's unique path of advancement. It was a very ancient transcendent craft—the ritual.
A ritual, through extensive preparation, incorporates everything in its surroundings—people, animals, objects, buildings, nature, the environment—all become part of it.
The wider the ritual reaches, the greater its value—or rather, its power.
This ancient craft of obtaining transcendent power through long-term planning originated from a very weak species. They lacked the strength to destroy everything and the speed to transcend; they only had the wisdom to solve problems and the patience to wait.
And Thor possessed all of these.
By arranging ritual after ritual within transcendent civilizations, Thor continuously advanced, growing from an ordinary, weak transcendent-tier beast into a mythic-tier behemoth.
In the myriad worlds of that era, the mythic-tier was already a magnificent existence.
But after stepping into the mythic-tier, ordinary rituals could no longer advance Thor.
The power of rituals is indeed vast, but to advance to the eternal-tier or even the unique-tier, one must design an unprecedented ritual. Only a ritual of such scale could allow a stellar behemoth with his extraordinary foundation to advance.
Thus, Thor set his sights on the worlds themselves.
A world is both a dwelling for living beings and a special race in its own right. However, compared to ordinary creatures, it is much harder for a world to awaken sentience.
For example, the Blue Star World Will only gained sentience and opened the job-holder system under the influence of external forces.
Compared to ordinary beings, the growth of a world is far more difficult.
Ordinary beings can obtain resources from within a world to grow. But a world must slowly absorb energy from the empty Cosmic Sea, relying on a steady trickle to increase its foundation.
Cases like Blue Star, which grew rapidly by relying on fragments of other worlds, are a minority among minorities.
“Therefore, when Thor appeared within those six worlds and described his grand plan and vision to their World Wills, those six worlds fell for it.”
The Lord of Heaven sighed, sounding slightly nostalgic.
“Back then, the unique-tier and eternal-tier were exclusive to the beings within the worlds. We, the worlds themselves, were also unwilling to settle, but the path of growth was so difficult.
“So, we believed his words and became part of his ritual.”
Under Thor's guidance, the World Wills of the six worlds began to exert conscious control.
The environments within the worlds, the direction of civilizations, and the guidance of transcendent systems were all regulated by Thor's hidden hand.
When everything within the worlds reached an extreme, an anomaly occurred.
One world was left with only endless light; one world became a sea of purgatory fire; in one world, physical matter was emptied out, completely transformed into nourishment for the World Will itself.
In one world, life changed, and natural elements gained new life; one world was washed blank, leaving only a vast expanse of white—white to the point of silence, white to the point of terror.
“And the last world—hehe, it’s quite interesting when you think about it—the Land of the Undead, seen by the world as the symbol of death, was once the most extreme form of vitality.”
After saying this, a smile appeared on the Lord of Heaven's face as he looked at Chen Xu.
“Indeed. Souls that should have died but were unwilling, under the influence of necrotic aura, lived another life.
“New life blooming from death—how could that not be the most extreme form of vitality?”
The six worlds the Lord of Heaven spoke of were the current Heaven, Hell, the Sea of Spirit, the Elemental Spirit Realm, the Blank Zone, and the Land of the Undead.
Confirmed by the Lord of Heaven, it seemed Thor's identity as the creator of the six special worlds was indeed true.
But since Thor created them, why did the Mother of Hell and the Lord of Heaven have such poor attitudes toward him—even to the point of loathing?
The Lord of Heaven saw Chen Xu's confusion and, after a brief pause, continued his story.
“The specialization of the six worlds succeeded, and his ritual was declared complete. Relying on the fluctuations brought by this earth-shaking event, Thor advanced directly to the eternal-tier.
“The World Wills of the six special worlds also stepped into the unique-tier one after another.
“However, this evolution was imperfect. It was flawed, and the flaws were immense!”
The Lord of Heaven straightened his body and raised his right hand, using holy light to manifest scenes to explain to Chen Xu.
“The boundless blood sea within Hell, the extreme corruption, and the extreme flesh brought about nothing but endless madness. To maintain its sanity, Hell constantly expels the madness from itself; the Hell demons originated from this.”
“The Blank Zone is the most pitiful. An empty world made the World Will empty as well. Do you humans have an insult? Something like, ‘Is your head empty?’ The situation in the Blank Zone is somewhat similar.”
“The Elemental Spirit Realm is relatively better. Its strength grew while its sanity remained unaffected. The only regret is being locked inside its own world for life, unable to leave.”
“The Sea of Spirit... Dream, that most interesting friend—its end, ha, I don't want to say. You can ask Thor yourself.”
“As for the Land of the Undead, since you inherited the authority of the Lord of the Undead, you should know that it is the only one among the six special worlds where a change of ruler occurred.”
Chen Xu nodded. “Legend has it that the World Will of the Land of the Undead wanted to transcend and sought the laws of other Dao Lords, but was plotted against. This resulted in the separation of the supreme authority of the Lord of the Undead.”
The Lord of Heaven smiled. “Seeking laws and exchanging knowledge with other Dao Lords—that part is true. But saying it was for transcendence isn't quite accurate; it was merely self-preservation.”
“Just like me. If I hadn't founded the Heavenly Pantheon and used the power of faith to suppress my own scorching nature—by adding the radiance of humanity to make the domineering holy light a bit softer—
“Otherwise, at this moment, I might be no different from Hell.”
“The Undead was tortured by extreme vitality to the point where it could no longer distinguish itself. Every moment, new consciousnesses were born from its body.
“Thousands of versions of itself were whispering, thousands were thinking about different things. Even at the unique-tier, it couldn't hold out for long.
“It came up with a plan, wanting to reference the Severing the Corpse Method from the immortal transcendent system to separately cut out the world's vitality as an independent existence.
“In the end, it succeeded, yet it also failed.
“The Supreme Throne was born to pass down the functions of the Land of the Undead. But the Undead's consciousness perished amidst the wariness of the Dao Lords.
“A mad Hell was already enough to make the myriad worlds afraid. A similarly mad Undead was something they would not tolerate.
“This is what that astral behemoth did.
“So, Excellency Chen Xu, how will you choose now?”
Rate on N.U.
