CHAPTER 18: THE VOID'S VOYAGE AND THE NEW STAGE OF DESTINY
The destruction of the Mysterious Heaven Continent was not an end, but a violent rebirth. As the final thread of the world's Law was consumed, Li Xiao stood in the center of an infinite, silent vacuum. The once-mighty Sea of Laws had been reduced to a handful of obsidian dust in his palm. Behind him, his four Void Apostles—Lin Yue, Wei, Han Xue, and Yan Feng—floated like dark stars, their existences now tethered solely to his will. They had no world to return to, no history that wasn't written in Li Xiao's shadow.
Li Xiao looked at the obsidian dust in his hand and blew it into the void. "A world of five thousand years, gone in a single harvest. And yet, the hunger remains."
[ Ding! Integration with 'Heaven's Will' Complete. ]
[ System Evolution: Omni-Fate Architect Status - Active. ]
[ New Map Unlocked: The Star-Cluster of the Eternal Gods. ]
[ Current Objective: Locate the 'Source of the Five Seals'. ]
The violet rifts in Li Xiao's eyes intensified as he looked through the fabric of the multiverse. He realized now that the "System" he had awakened in the Blue Cloud Sect was not a random occurrence. It was a fragment of a much larger, primordial engine designed to keep the "Devourers" at bay. The Five Simulations he had lived through were not just punishments—they were keys to unlocking his true memory, a memory that stretched back to the dawn of the first universe.
"Lin Yue, prepare yourself," Li Xiao spoke, his voice vibrating through the vacuum. "We are no longer fighting for the fate of a single continent. We are moving toward the 'Source'. The gods of the next realm have already sensed the collapse of the lower world. They are waiting for us."
With a single wave of his obsidian wing, Li Xiao tore open a colossal rift in the void. On the other side, a new reality began to materialize. This was not a world of earth and water, but a "Star-Cluster" where every planet was a sentient being, and every star was a throne for a god.
[ Warning: Entering the Realm of Eternal Gods. ]
[ Divine Pressure: 1,000,000x higher than the previous world. ]
[ Simulation Status: 'The Silent Emperor of the Falling Stars' - Initiated. ]
As they stepped through the rift, the four Apostles felt their new obsidian forms being tested. The gravity here was so intense that it could crush a Nascent Soul expert into a bloody mist in seconds. But Li Xiao only smiled. He breathed in the ancient, divine air of the realm, and his power—the power of the Devourer—began to react, expanding to fill the void of the new territory.
They arrived on a planet made of solidified starlight, known as the 'Graveyard of Fallen Divinities'. Below them, a city of towering crystalline spires stretched for thousands of miles, populated by beings who had lived for millions of years. These were the "Lesser Gods" of the Star-Cluster, and they were currently in the middle of a grand ceremony—the 'Auction of Souls'.
Li Xiao descended toward the city, his black robes trailing shadows that extinguished the starlight around him. He didn't hide his aura. He wanted the gods of this realm to know that the Architect of their end had arrived.
At the center of the city, on a pedestal of burning sun-matter, stood a man with three eyes and skin made of shifting constellations. He was the 'Soul-Auctioneer', a being of the Divine Spark realm. He was currently holding a cage containing a familiar soul—a soul that Li Xiao recognized from the deepest recesses of his fifth simulation.
"And now," the Auctioneer's voice boomed across the city, "the final item! A fragment of the 'Primordial Heart', a soul that once belonged to the consort of the Void Calamity! The starting bid is ten thousand God-Essence Stones!"
Lin Yue's eyes flared with a cold, golden fire. "Master... that soul... it carries the same resonance as my own, but it is ancient. Who is she?"
Li Xiao stopped in mid-air, his gaze fixed on the cage. A flicker of something he hadn't felt in aeons—a genuine emotion—disturbed the obsidian surface of his eyes. "That is not a 'she', Lin Yue. That is the original 'Seed of Regret'. The reason the Heavens created the first simulation. She was my first teacher... and my first betrayal."
The Auctioneer suddenly stopped. He looked up at the sky, his third eye widening in terror as he saw the black eclipse covering the starlight. The crowd of thousands of gods turned their gazes upward, only to see a youth in black robes standing amidst a sea of obsidian shadows.
"I am not here to bid," Li Xiao's voice echoed, crushing the divine formations of the city with a single word. "I am here to collect a debt that was written before your stars were born."
The Auctioneer tried to raise his hand to activate the city's defenses, but he found his arm turning to black ash. The 'Fate Tax' of the Architect had reached the Star-Cluster.
"The Master has returned," Yan Feng laughed, his crimson arm glowing with a hunger that matched Li Xiao's. "And this time, the gods will be the ones who provide the blood for the life pills."
Li Xiao landed on the pedestal, the sun-matter beneath his feet turning cold and dark. He looked at the soul in the cage—a faint, beautiful flicker of white light. "You waited for me for ten million years, didn't you? You wanted to see if the 'Monster' you loved could ever become the 'Hero' you dreamed of."
He reached out and shattered the divine cage with his bare hand. "I'm sorry to disappoint you. The Hero is dead. But the Architect... the Architect will make sure that the gods who sold your soul will regret ever having an existence to lose."
[ Ding! New Simulation Synchronizing: 'The Vengeance of the Star-Less King'. ]
[ Harvesting of the Star-Cluster: Phase 1 - Initiated. ]
Li Xiao looked at the thousands of gods surrounding him, their expressions turning from arrogance to absolute horror. He was no longer a 'trash' disciple or a 'Sacrifice'. He was the Eclipse that would swallow their eternity.
"Lin Yue, Wei, Han Xue, Yan Feng... the harvest in the lower world was just a snack," Li Xiao whispered, the obsidian wings behind him spreading to cover the entire planet. "Now, let us begin the feast of the Gods."
The Star-Cluster of the Eternal Gods had stood for a trillion years, but in that single moment, its destiny was unwritten. The Architect had found his next simul
ation, and the heavens were once again about to bleed.