The Vast Expanse, boundless and infinite, contains billions of universes and endless space-time.
Taixuan Divine Realm is situated within multiple overlapping spacetime dimensions. Pieces of brilliant, ancient worlds pile up like nebulae, bearing Taixuan Divine Realm at the center as if all stars surround the moon.
Boundless and inexhaustible faith divine power converges from countless nations and universes, like rivers and tides, overwhelming heaven and earth, forming a supreme divine crown throne.
Around Taixuan Divine Realm lies the Multiversal Void Sea, composed of countless shattered spacetime dimensions, existing in none of the past, future, or present spacetimes.
Even existences at the Ancestral Dao Realm find it difficult to detect its location and determine its spatial coordinates.
This is also the very reliance that allows each Ancestral God to safely hide within multiple dimensional spacetimes.
Over the long years, countless divine kingdoms have perished and been destroyed, and not a few Ancestral Gods have fallen as well.
Only those Ancestral Gods who can evade natural enemies, seek fortune, and avoid calamity can endure through eternity.
To the countless, infinite subjects of Taixuan Divine Realm, Taixuan Ancestral God is the sole creator god. Her existence shelters all nations, allowing Taixuan Divine Realm to remain free from invasions by foreign races and warfare, enduring to this very day.
Yet ever since Taixuan Ancestral God returned last time, the entire Taixuan Divine Realm has undergone earth-shaking changes.
Countless subjects of the divine realm are deeply worried, filled with anxiety and fear.
The divine light that shrouds the border regions of the divine realm has dimmed and blurred, as if suffering some terrible erosion and contamination. The border areas grow increasingly bleak, as if about to vanish at any moment.
Waves from the Multiversal Void Sea ceaselessly batter forward, like a terrifying darkness that can engulf everything. Any living being who steps into it will perish, instantly crushed to pieces by the forces between multiple dimensions.
And the vast divine light that shelters the divine realm is a manifestation of Taixuan Ancestral God's power. What does the dimming of that divine light mean? It means Taixuan Ancestral God's power is weakening, gradually fading away.
Perhaps even she is already unable to cope, no longer able to continue sheltering Taixuan Divine Realm.
To the countless subjects of Taixuan Divine Realm, this is an indescribably heavy blow, as if the heavens themselves were collapsing.
"Once the Ancestral God's power completely disappears, the void beasts of the Multiversal Void Sea will seize the opportunity to invade and swallow our kingdoms. With our strength, it is fundamentally impossible to withstand so many void beasts…"
At the border regions of Taixuan Divine Realm, beings shrouded in divine light, with radiant divine rings behind them and multiple wings upon their backs, wielding divine weapons and clad in divine armor, stare fixedly at the ceaselessly battering, towering waves.
These so-called waves are actually composed of countless shattered spacetime dimensions and cosmic fissures. Every splash is a fissure—the remnants of those true worlds and universes that have shattered and withered over countless epochs in the Vast Expanse.
These remnants not only contain terrifying power, but have also gestated and given birth to beings called void beasts, which specifically devour the fragments of these broken universes and true worlds. Their strength is immensely formidable, and they are difficult to eliminate.
For the system of the Divine Dao Civilization, these void beasts are existences akin to natural enemies.
Many of the kingdoms established by weaker deities were annihilated in the River of Years precisely because they could not withstand the void beasts.
Only divine kingdoms with an Ancestral God presiding have the qualification and foundation to resist the void beasts and endure through eternity.
"What exactly happened? Why, after the Ancestral God returned, has her power begun to weaken? Even her divine power is starting to fade, and filth has begun to breed... I'm afraid it won't be long before these places are torn open by the void beasts, and they will come charging in…"
"Not long ago, Jiu'ao Divine Realm was swallowed by void beasts and completely annihilated. Could it be that our Taixuan Divine Realm will follow in the footsteps of Jiu'ao Divine Realm?"
A female deity spoke, her face full of terror and trembling.
Jiu'ao Divine Realm was also a famously powerful divine realm within the Divine Dao Civilization. Although its foundation was not as strong as Taixuan Divine Realm, it still had an Ancestral God presiding over it.
Yet just some time ago, Jiu'ao Ancestral God suddenly fell. Her Divine Authority shattered, her faith system collapsed. The boundless faith power that filled the skies of Jiu'ao Divine Realm burst out, tearing apart the protective barrier left by Jiu'ao Ancestral God.
In an instant, like a bursting dam, the Multiversal Void Sea flooded over, and endless void beasts followed closely behind. An ancient and powerful divine realm collapsed and disintegrated just like that.
That event stirred a huge uproar throughout the entire Divine Dao Civilization system.
Taisu Divine Realm, Chu Wu Divine Realm, and many other divine realms fell into turmoil and fear. It was at that time that Taixuan Ancestral God returned from the outside world.
Regarding the collapse of Jiu'ao Divine Realm, she seemed not at all surprised, nor did she speak much about it to her divine envoys. She then fell into recuperative slumber.
The Ancestral Gods of other divine realms also seemed to know about this matter, but none of them spoke out, as if avoiding and fearing something.
To the deities of the entire Divine Dao system, the fall of an ancient Ancestral God, along with the shattering of her Divine Authority, signified complete obliteration.
The shock and upheaval caused by this news can well be imagined.
But because even Jiu'ao Divine Realm had perished and vanished, no one pursued or investigated the matter further afterward.
For the deities of Taixuan Divine Realm, this matter seemed unrelated to them. Yet no one could have expected that during the period when Taixuan Ancestral God lay in recuperative slumber...
...the heavens of Taixuan Divine Realm changed.
First, some subjects noticed that in certain nations created by Taixuan Ancestral God, terrifying phenomena began to appear. Black blood fell like torrential rain from beyond the sky. Strange tentacles stained with filth seemed to cling to the world barriers, trying to wriggle in from unknown places outside.
In many nations, order began to descend into chaos. In dark places, filth bred, gradually corroding and infecting the souls of the subjects.
At the same time, the protective barriers left by Taixuan Ancestral God began to blur. In some places, black spots even appeared, as if struck by some eerie curse, slowly spreading like thick ink blooming on rice paper.
The entire Taixuan Divine Realm fell into panic.
Many deities suspected whether Taixuan Divine Realm was being eroded by evil gods who had fallen into darkness, with dark power seeping in from unknown places, about to corrode the entire Taixuan Divine Realm.
Yet at such a critical moment, Taixuan Ancestral God was still in deep slumber. No deity could approach her bedchamber palace, nor could they awaken her.
To all the deities of Taixuan Divine Realm, this was even more despairing.
*Rumble!* Streak after streak of black lightning, immensely thick, like black suns falling, torrential and heavy, struck down across all parts of Taixuan Divine Realm.
As the lightning flashed, clouds gathered between heaven and earth, and then black rain began to pour down in torrents.
This black rain seemed to possess some strange vitality. The moment it struck the ground, it spread and diffused outward.
Many ordinary subjects of the divine realm were stained by the black rain and soon fell gravely ill, unable to rise. After several days of unconsciousness, they awoke, and within them appeared a strange power that did not belong to divine power.
This power was beyond their control, and they would be influenced by it, becoming mad, cruel, bloodthirsty, and violent.
The same happened to ordinary vegetation. As if stimulated and accelerated, ordinary green grass grew enormously in an instant, becoming as huge as mountain ranges, utterly crazed. A mere whip of it would cause a city to collapse and shatter.
As for other living beings, it was the same...
The black rain fell heavier and heavier, soon covering one nation after another. All deities fell into despair.
Taixuan Divine Realm was created by Taixuan Ancestral God alone. For such a terrifying and eerie sudden change to occur meant that a major problem had arisen with Taixuan Ancestral God herself.
Perhaps it was not that she was unwilling to wake, but that she could not.
"Although I knew long ago that the bait was problematic, I still took the risk and took it away, thinking I could temporarily suppress it and, after returning to the Divine Realm, carefully refine and expel it. Even if I lost part of my origin, it would have been acceptable."
"But I truly never expected that the master of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance possessed such domineering and terrifying methods. I merely became contaminated with a trace of it at that time, yet it brought about endless calamity."
In the void, deep and profound space, Taixuan Ancestral God sighed softly.
How could she not perceive the changes in herself? From the severed arm, threads of black mist spread and crept upward, already thoroughly soaking her entire shoulder on one side.
This power was strange and domineering, like a maggot gnawing at the bone, utterly impossible to expel.
Back then, in that spacetime sea, in order to snatch back her arm in front of Taisu Ancestral God, Chu Wu Ancestral God, Hao Shang Ancestral God, and the others—
She knew full well that Gu Changge might have left some means within it, just waiting for her to take the bait. Yet she still forcibly fused it back on.
It was precisely because of this that it brought about her current calamity. After leaving that spacetime sea, she took the severed arm back off. But in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, that strange power had already eroded up to her shoulder.
Thus, the moment she returned to Taixuan Divine Realm, she fell into slumber, intending to completely expel and purify it.
But she had completely failed to anticipate that during this process, not only could she not expel it, but that strange power instead took root deeper and deeper.
Taixuan Ancestral God deeply regretted in her heart. If, at the beginning of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance's establishment, she had not spied on Gu Changge and offended him, perhaps today's calamity would not exist.
"This strange power is very similar to the Dark Origin. Just who is he?"
Now, the only way seemed to be to personally find Gu Changge and have him dissolve it.
However, her consciousness was trapped in this prison-like, deep, and dark space. Taixuan Ancestral God could clearly feel that within her flesh shell, a new consciousness now seemed to be gestating.
If she did not find a way to escape from this space in time, then perhaps from now on, her flesh shell would be occupied by another consciousness.
This outcome made her shudder with cold, and she could not help but think of those races and beings who had fallen into darkness.