"Kyaaaa!!!"
"FUCK!!! FUCK!!!! CALL AN AMBULANCE, N-NO—A FIRE BRIGADE, HURRY—!!!"
"S-SHIT… he's… he's already d-dead…!"
Multiple desperate shouts echoed loudly through the busy streets of Tian City.
People watched in horror.
Dark clouds of smoke spiraled upward from the burning motorcycle.
Bursts of flame engulfed the youth trapped against its tire, searing his skin.
Moments earlier, a speeding car had struck the boy on his motorcycle, killing him instantly.
The driver of the car was rescued, but the boy's body had been grotesquely mangled between the motorcycle and the vehicle.
To make matters worse, leaking petrol ignited, fueling the raging inferno that consumed him now.
"AGH…"
A few soft-hearted bystanders, especially women, immediately passed out as the horrifying scene unfolded before them.
Under such circumstances, passerbys could only watch in regret and feel deeply for the boy's family.
Yet their sorrow was for naught, for the dead boy had no one special in his life to mourn him.
Eventually, the motorcycle exploded—and with it, the remaining half-burned body.
---
One of the passageways to the Spirit World.
A golden, gleaming ray of light sped through the infinitely stretched, starry corridor connecting Earth to the Spirit World — the Path to the Afterworld.
That golden light was clearly a living soul of a person from Earth who had just died.
And judging by the intensity of its shine, this was no ordinary soul. Its purity was extraordinarily rare in the Spirit World.
To put it simply, a soul of this caliber might appear only once in a hundred Galactic Years. The odds were so astronomical that it was nearly impossible for such a soul to be born in a backward universe.
CRASH—!
A deafening explosion tore through the passageway, shattering the seemingly unbreakable corridor into countless particles.
"Hahaha!!! This Sovereign is having lady's luck today! To think such an invaluable soul would deliver itself into my hands, hahaha!" roared an old man with long, wispy eyebrows and a matching mustache. His eyes shifted toward a certain location as he continued with glee:
"Shall I destroy this soul's homeland as a thank-you gift? Heh…"
Pointing a bony finger forward, he released a short burst of condensed energy, which vanished from view almost instantly.
"Haha, that will do!!" He chuckled, his grin stretching ear to ear as he gazed at the golden soul. "I'll refine it immediately." He licked his lips, spreading his divine sense, and teleported to a gigantic asteroid.
Sitting cross-legged on its surface, the old man first consumed a Spirit Nourishment Pill to clear his mind. Then, he pointed at the golden soul before his forehead. The glowing orb disappeared into his skull in an instant.
The next moment, his expression turned grave as three deep lines appeared across his temples.
A few moments passed in utter silence.
Then, out of nowhere, a bright golden light burst from the old man's entire body, accompanied by his miserable shrieks:
"AGHHHHHH—!!"
Every cell of the old man was being refined by the golden glow at an alarming rate.
Every drop of Origin Qi from his Dantian was absorbed by the light in seconds.
Until finally, his entire soul along with his physical shell was sucked into the golden orb that had manifested from within him.
Nothing remained in the fabric of space for light-years around; it had all been absorbed by the orb.
Shining brightly for a moment, the orb suddenly began to spin, easily surpassing the limits of a pulsar star.
Then, without warning, it broke through reality itself, vanishing completely from the plane of existence.
---
Da Zhe Realm, also called the Celestial and Ancient Gods Realm.
The once-great, flourishing Immemorial Plane — home to peerless experts of terrifying power — had been forced to its knees by an intruder just days ago.
Even the top powerhouses of the highest Realm, the so-called peak Ancestor Realm cultivators, along with their heavenly armies of billions, were left utterly ashamed before this force.
All hope proved meaningless against an enemy so powerful that the very Laws of the Realm shattered the moment it entered Da Zhe.
Every being watched in horror as the golden orb devoured the fabric of the Heavenly Laws, followed by everything living within the Realm.
"What catastrophe has this world invited—"
A tall man of noble bearing muttered with hollow gaze, only to be engulfed by the golden glow the next instant.
After a very long period of time, the golden orb returned to its original small size, having finished refining the entirety of the Da Zhe Realm. It then broke through the fabric of space and time, disappearing into another plane of existence.
An unknown amount of time later~
---
Primordial Land of Gods.
It was the behemoth of the Forbidden Universe.
A planet so massive in size and overflowing with Life Energy that it was nothing short of Heaven for any cultivator.
Even Ancestor Realm and Dao Emperor Realm experts would go to war just to enter and remain on this planet, which was universally renowned for its grand name, the Primordial Land of Gods.
With perfect Heavenly Laws and a divine Will nurturing it, the Primordial Land of Gods was the epitome of the Forbidden Universe.
Yet, for the past dozens of years, something unbelievable had been transpiring on the surface of this godly land.
"O-Ohh, finally, I got it. Let's see what we have here..."
"An extraterrestrial soul? Hahahaha…"
The youth laughed uncontrollably, despite possessing the bearing of a divine being, as if he had heard a one-in-a-million joke in his long, long life.
"S-Stop laug...hing, y-you monste—" A weak, low voice of disgust sounded from beneath him.
The moment that voice came, the youth froze completely. Then, with a faint smile, he whispered, "Ssshhhh...."
The youth wriggled the menacing sword in front of him, pushing it deeper into the head of a thousand-meter-tall giant on which he was leisurely seated.
"My dear friend, sigh... the end is nigh. Any last words? I'm all ears," said the youth gently, still smiling.
"Motherfu—"
Before the voice could leave the giant's pierced mouth, his entire body and soul were sucked into the youth's hand, which was emitting a golden glow.
Clapping the residual filth off his hands, the youth shrugged and murmured to himself, "Ah, now my only friend is gone too. Who else am I going to have fun with?"
Looking around, he saw massive craters and uncountable bloodstains stretching as far as his gaze could reach.
"What a mess..."
Touching his head and rummaging through his astronomically vast memories, the youth suddenly smiled widely and sat down as if struck by inspiration.
"I should do that! Yup!" He clapped his hands together, his golden eyes brightening to an extreme degree.
"If I'm bored, I just need to find some partners!"
Declaring it with a pure smile, he stood up and nodded to himself.
"But before that, I should take care of this precious treasure, shouldn't I?"
Licking his lips, his body released a golden light as he vanished deep into the planet's core.
To refine and absorb something of such immense size and energy, he would need a great deal of time and effort.
---
Ten years later~
The Primordial Land of Gods, once magnificent, now emitted a golden light from the countless fissures that covered its surface.
Its Heavenly Laws were absorbed.
Its Divine Will was broken.
The remaining life force of the planet was gradually drained from within over the years.
Now, it had finally given in.
The surface shattered, every fragment of matter caved inward, and everything was absorbed into a single golden orb.
When the orb shrank to its original size once more, an outline of a figure materialized within the trembling fabric of space and time.
The youth gazed around, and the reality itself quivered before his presence.
Feeling his newly gained strength, the youth, clad in a black robe embroidered with golden designs of bizarre creatures, nodded in satisfaction.
"Now then... shall I begin my newfound ambition?"
Making a sword shape with his fingers, he drew them downward, tearing open an entrance in the very reality of space and time.
Seeing his success, the youth smirked, clearly pleased by his mastery over the Heavenly Laws.
"I should seal most of my strength. It would be troublesome if the world itself were to collapse before my arrival."
After placing a seal upon his Dantian, resembling a black hole, the youth folded his hands behind his back and stepped into the rift that separated reality from imagination.
"I wonder where fate will lead me next?" he chuckled as his figure disappeared from the Forbidden Universe.