At that very moment, in the World of the Ancient Clan.
An exquisite altar stood newly raised within the clan lands.
To construct it,
the Ancients had poured out half the strength of their treasury—star-sand and rare gems mixed together, precious beast bones layered in—until it was built.
Of course, that was merely the foundation.
In order to win the favor of the gods,
and at the same time to gain greater power, Xun'er's father offered up every treasure he had accumulated over the years.
The altar took the shape of a stepped pyramid,
about ten meters high;
its true summit, however, was a polished ceremonial platform.
Ten different Heavenly Flames were sealed within specially crafted containers,
set in a circle at the altar's heart.
Then came the living sacrifices.
Yun Yun, Ya Fei, and Medusa.
The three women wore the same look of bleak dread. Not long ago they had been captured and told they would be offered alive.
They were terrified.
If they had the freedom of movement,
they would have chosen death already rather than be slaughtered like this.
Medusa's cold gaze fixed on the woman in white gauze standing before her.
Her violet eyes locked onto the other's,
as if to kill with a stare alone.
"Don't hate me so much. When you become sacrifices and go to the God Realm, you three will thank me. True handmaidens who can serve the gods are very rare…"
Xun'er said lightly.
A look of yearning passed over her face.
Who says girls do not cherish spring?
Rin Tohsaka's world had been elevated; she had become a goddess waiting upon the deity.
Every time that tale came up, Xun'er would pinch herself.
What's so impressive about a goddess?
I, Xun'er, am naturally no worse than you.
One day I'll catch up to you.
She kept telling herself this.
Tens of thousands of tribespeople knelt beneath the altar. Xun'er cast off the stray thoughts in her heart
and began the invocation.
"Great Eternal God, I am your devout believer, Xun'er. Today I lead the Ancient Clan in offering sacrifices to you, and I pray for your mercy…"
It was the first grand sacrifice.
Everyone was tense,
afraid some misstep would bring down the displeasure of the deity.
They stared expectantly at the sky.
…The high priest had said that when a sacrifice succeeded,
a celestial sign would appear,
and then the god would descend—or if not the god, then a goddess would come forth,
bestowing power.
Every gaze tipped toward the heavens,
prayers rising in step with Xun'er's voice.
Her mellifluous tones carried across the entire Ancient Clan. Even the strongest—Dou Emperors—were down on their knees beneath the altar.
…
God's Domain, Eternal World.
Liu Che said to Hui Ye upon her return, "Well done this time. The status of the Tomb of Saints is stabilized. Next, we only need to press Chu Xuanfeng and the others to work harder collecting planes."
The deity approved,
and Hui Ye, beaming, slid into his lap and kissed him.
After a long while, she smiled and said, "I still had to push a little harder, or the world barrier wouldn't have broken for me. But they kept talking about the Three Heavenly Emperors. I looked along the river of time—their faces were full of shock."
Thinking of the three empresses' horrified looks,
she couldn't help but let a pleased expression bloom.
Such a so-called tri-heaven emperor might impress children;
to her, they were nothing,
easily slain.
Fortune or not,
they couldn't even guard their own world. In the end, they were weak.
Just then, a system prompt chimed in Liu Che's ear.
"Ding… Your believer Xun'er sacrifices Lei Gang Flame to you; the ten-thousand-fold multiplier triggers; you obtain 10,000 Fire Law fragments, which have fused into ten fragments."
"Ding… Your believer Xun'er sacrifices Waterflame to you; the ten-thousand-fold multiplier triggers; you obtain fragments of the Fire Law…"
"Ding… Your believer Xun'er sacrifices Celestial Flame to you; a multi-million-fold multiplier triggers. Congratulations, you have obtained a complete Fire Law; all fire fragments have been integrated into it."
Boom.
At the instant he obtained the Law,
the whole of God's Domain blazed with light.
This time, it was the condensation of the Law of Fire.
With the first two laws already condensed,
Liu Che remained very calm.
Flames filled the sky, flying like sparks across a sun-bright vault.
He had gained many fire-aligned law fragments before. He had not expected them to blossom and bear fruit today.
The Law of Affection, the Law of Time—
this would be the third law Liu Che had mastered. As the Fire Law condensed, the power of God's Domain rose by a full order.
The late Main God's peak.
Next came the level of Creation.
A true capstone.
Whether any god in the deity world had ever mastered three laws at the Main God stage, he did not know.
But Liu Che had absolutely done it.
At the same time,
among all believers whose paths drew upon the fire laws,
each felt their strength surge.
Such is the wondrous effect of a law.
Liu Che's power grows,
and with it the strength of all believers.
It was a qualitative leap.
"I just mastered the Law of Time, and now I still have to comprehend the fire system's law… forget it. I'll go into seclusion."
Liu Che sighed helplessly.
As for Xun'er's World of Fighting Fire—
let Tiamat go. She had done well last time in… multiple services. It wasn't bad to let her go play.
Tiamat, having received the command, left the Eternal Temple obediently and headed down to the lesser world.
After all, she was a god whose nature had returned to its source.
One step,
and she stood beside the barrier of that world.
This world was not large.
Its strength was acceptable; they could reward it for its usefulness to the deity.
…
World of Fighting Fire.
As the sacred light descended,
everyone breathed out in relief.
The gods were coming after all.
Nothing had gone wrong.
The World of Fighting Fire was small; when the Eternal God's Domain arrived,
all living things
saw the mysterious stellar vault unfurl above them.
Tiamat wished to display divine majesty—and to make herself more imposing.
In the true form she once wore,
she manifested in the sky.
Tens of thousands of meters tall,
her dark god-flesh shed an aura that drove all beings toward despair.
As she approached,
countless creatures collapsed to the ground, trembling.
They prayed to the God to smite this terrible being.
Xun'er's father stared up at the titanic silhouette, a growing sense of wrongness in his chest.
Shouldn't a god be holy?
Why did this presence before them radiate corruption and ruin?
He was not alone; murmurs of the same unease spread among the rest.
Xun'er lifted her gaze to Tiamat and suddenly understood: this was the third goddess.
She merely looked a little different from Mengmeng's image.
Presumably, this was her true body.
"The Chief Priest Xun'er greets Lord Tiamat!"
"Mmm. Rise…"
The voice was faint, very gentle,
nothing like the terror her appearance inspired.
It even gave one a feeling of well-behaved mildness.
But they knew it had to be an illusion, because that horrific aura still hung over their heads…
Far away, the Soul Race
looked up at the figure in the sky
and burst into wild laughter.
"Hahahaha… As expected, our clan is right—this world should be destroyed!"
"Yes, long live the Patriarch!"
"Quickly… Patriarch, while God is here, we must invite her over."
As a wicked spirit clan bent on ending the world,
they didn't care how terrifying this god was.
As long as they could raise their strength.
With a smile, the Soul Heaven Emperor rose into the sky and shouted, "Great God, please grant our Soul Race your power. We will surely help you eradicate the other creatures in this world—"
At that instant, Tiamat had been preparing to bestow the god's grace.
She did not expect such a grating, crooked voice to pierce her ear.
She was not of a gentle disposition to begin with.
Harried by the noise, she finally lost patience.
"Humble ants. This world is the gods' nursery. How dare you dream of destroying it? Die!"
Flaring, Tiamat cast a backward glance.
A brilliant roseate light flashed.
The Soul Race's hope—the Soul Heaven Emperor in midair—fell silent forever.
At the same time,
three-quarters of the Soul Race's territory was swept away.
Only a handful survived.
All were dumbstruck.
Well, then.
They'd kicked the horse in the shins.
It was over!
Xun'er, seeing Tiamat filled with wrath, could not help but ask, "Goddess-sister, who angered you? I will lead the clan to hunt him down!"
The irate goddess,
hearing the chief priest's words, couldn't help smiling.
This girl wasn't bad—she even called me "sister."
Ahem… Don't grin; maintain divine majesty!
Tiamat's expression hardened again. "Someone called the Soul Heaven Emperor dared to proclaim he would destroy the world. I killed him. More than half his clan died with him."
…
Everyone was stunned.
The Soul Race was nearly annihilated.
One blow.
A collective hiss of breath.
The power of a god truly transcended all.
A bead of cold sweat ran down Xun'er's smooth white brow.
"Goddess-sister, mighty!"
"Well then. This time, the Eternal God cannot appear in person, so I will reward you on his behalf. Since you are so well-behaved and sensible, I grant you the Heiyan of Destruction and one of my little pets. When you come to God's Domain in the future, be sure to seek me out…"
As divine power sank into Xun'er's slender body,
a flame was born.
Darkness, destruction, and corruption—
the force of all three attributes cycled and twined,
and Xun'er's aura surged without cease. This was a qualitative transformation.
In that instant, she surpassed everyone in this world.
Even if an ancient Dou Emperor were to appear, he would be a plaything before her.
When Tiamat's blessing ended, she gathered the three goddesses into a pillar of divine light and returned to the deity's realm.
The rift in space slowly knitted itself shut.
As for the three women who moments ago had hated everything,
they had long since ceased to struggle.
The being who stood before them was beyond imagination,
not a creature of the same dimension at all.
…
"Lord Chief Priest, did you break through?"
Seeing that Xun'er had blossomed into breathtaking maturity, the clanspeople hurried forward to ask,
faces alight with curiosity.
They wanted to know just how terrifying the power of a god could be.
Xun'er, too, wished to know.
She lifted her palm and made a small, flicking gesture toward the sky.
A black flame appeared out of the void.
The barrier that had protected the clan lands for a thousand years was instantly unmade—shattered to nothing.