A pair of golden eyes as vast as a star floated into view in the void. They were terrifyingly majestic, like those of a supreme god who had existed since the ancient cosmos.

Yet at this moment, a faint solemnity flickered in those dreadful eyes. As the Seventh Eternal Heavenly God of the Golden Race in the Fourth Primordial Heaven, could its perception of time have gone wrong?

Sigmund could not help but recall the report concerning Chu Batian, which it had received a few day-cycles ago from the divine region.

That same human had also defeated Voislav, a peerless prodigy at the peak of the divine king level and once honored with the title of ancient overlord, in the Ancient Arena just one day-cycle ago.

But to beings like them, even an ancient-titan-level divine king was still but an ant that could be wiped out with a mere thought. Furthermore, though a day-cycle had passed, the temporal disorder of the Ancient Arena prevented everyone from determining the exact time that Nashigas had truly fallen.

Sigmund had not paid much attention to it; it merely ordered close surveillance of the human's movements. Hence, it hadn't expected that the next piece of news about him would be that he had killed Floretia, the guardian of Borodo Eternal War City and Sigmund's direct descendant.

In the end, what mattered most was Floretia's level of strength.

Boom!

Transparent divine light flared within the golden eyes. Mysterious runes shaped like clock faces surfaced in their pure pupils and slowly rotated counterclockwise. The invisible, dreadful power of time spread, distorting the starry skies. Countless galaxies appeared and dissolved in reverse. From their destruction, they reverted until they flourished once more, then finally regressed to dust and gaseous nebulae.

Time also rewound through the thread of bloodline, taking its own as the cause and Floretia's as the effect[1]. Incomplete fragments of Floretia's past flickered rapidly before its eyes until it stopped on Chen Chu sitting on a high throne within a purple-black temple.

He nodded faintly."Floretia, praised by the ancient gods; the might of the noble Eternal Heavenly God is indeed vast. I am somewhat curious myself."

Sigmund also sensed the aura of a semi-primordial power radiating from Chen Chu through the lingering mark of Floretia's existence. Its pupils shrank slightly.

Boom!

The transparent light within the golden eyes grew brighter, and an even greater power of time erupted. It traced back through Nashigas's bloodline to locate the moment of its fall.

Elsewhere, deep in space-time, a black city as massive as a galactic system loomed. Despite the crushing oppression it emanated, some unknown force had reduced it all to ruins apart from the arena that was forged of gray stone at its center, spanning tens of millions of kilometers.

Spacetime rippled above the arena. A massive golden face appeared, its eyes releasing terrible majesty as it peered down.

A low and solemn voice echoed across the arena, shaking space-time. "Forgive me for intruding, dormant ones. I have not come to cause an affront. A prodigy of my race fell here not long ago. I descended only to see the one who struck it down."

The arena below remained silent. Sigmund paused briefly, then the rewinding mysterious runes that resembled clock dials reappeared in its eyes.

A torrent of temporal power spread across the arena as it sought to glimpse a moment from the past.

Boom!

The towering statues in the stands began to tremble, causing the previously silent arena to shudder. Among the highest seats, a fifteen-hundred-kilometer-tall statue cracked. Fragments burst from its head, and an eye-like rift split open across its brow.

The instant the rift appeared, a dreadful aura spilled forth—one that even primordial beings would fear. The time power within Sigmund's eyes shook violently under its gaze, banishing its state of retrospection.

In rage, Sigmund growled deeply, "I was just being courteous to avoid conflict. Do you truly think I fear a bunch of failures?"

A somewhat draconic roar shook space-time. Transparent brilliance burst again in Sigmund's eyes, and a second pair of golden vertical pupils opened. From them shot

two golden beams, piercing through heaven and earth.

Boom!

The attack destroyed the oppressive might that filled the sky. It then blasted toward the arena like sunlight through a storm.

Enraged by Sigmund's provocation, the statues let out dreadful shrieks and howls. The cracked one trembled violently as rifts covered its right arm.

Bang!

The stone hand exploded, and rock shards fell away, revealing a black limb beneath. A foul stench of decay and rot spread instantly across space-time.

The corruption had substance, like twisted black smoke. It ignored time itself as it enveloped the ruined city. Or rather, the whole city was already filled with the stench of rot; the arm had merely awakened it.

Poof! Poof! Poof!

The corruption's corrosive aura riddled the golden beams, which were forged from the heavenly god bloodline's power, with pits and holes.

At the same time, a deathly will that erased even principles climbed the heavenly god's power toward the golden eyes. The black arm silently stretched upward, covering the sky above the arena. An overwhelming force instantly enveloped Sigmund.

Boom!

The golden face in the sky shattered as its eyes collapsed. In the distance, a roar of rage and disbelief thundered across space-time.

"You're forcibly reviving yourself?! Are you mad?!"

The trembling statue's rasp dripped with malice. "The arena's dignity... must not be violated!"

With Sigmund driven away, the trembling statues on the stands gradually stilled. The massive statue on the main seat also calmed, the rift on its brow closing without a trace. Gray light crept over the blackened arm, turning it back to stone.

All returned to how it had been, as if nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, the other three colossal statues on the main seats stood as unmoving as true stone, ignoring the flow of time as they silently watched the ages pass.

***

"Those lunatics!"

The pair of gargantuan golden eyes shone brilliantly in the pitch-black starry void. They still brimmed with awe-inspiring majesty, but they also showed faint traces of deathly stillness now, like those of a mortally ill patient who could perish at any moment.

But a pure golden radiance soon rose within Sigmund's eyes. The deathly aura gradually weakened until it completely vanished.

Driving out that deathly aura had cost Sigmund dearly. The brilliance of its once star-like eyes had noticeably dimmed. Despite suffering a heavy loss, though, Sigmund had gotten the result it wanted.

It had confirmed that Nashigas's fall was in sync with normal temporal flow. If so, then Chu Batian had still been at the peak of the chief god level[2] only a few day-cycles ago! In such a short period, he had reached the terrifying semi-primordial level.

He had even orchestrated the latest catastrophe involving the supreme treasure, killing three guardians of peak civilizations. Their deaths had nothing to do with the forbidden power that Nuliel had unleashed.

"That human must die."

At that moment, even Sigmund, who was as lofty as could be, felt a strange fear—not of how powerful Chu Batian was now, but of his terrifying growth rate. It violated principles and overturned reason.

His monstrous advancement speed was utterly abnormal. No one could possibly cultivate fast enough to leap a major realm a mere day or two after reaching the divine king level.

It wasn't just his realm; his combat power had also increased in perfect lockstep. He was unrivaled at his realm and could fight across realms. Instead of refining them for thousands of years, his divine abilities, combat skills, and secret arts just seemed to automatically advance to perfection with every breakthrough.

This human's progress was less like cultivation and more like the revival of a Seventh Primordial Heaven immortal.

The Seventh Primordial Heaven... Could it be him? Had he not died?An incomparably grave look appeared in Sigmund's golden eyes.

If its guess was right, then the peak races hostile to humanity would soon face grave calamity. Even the Golden Eternal Race would be dragged into it.

"This is quite troublesome. Though these are just my speculations, I have most likely touched the truth," Sigmund murmured. "But this problem will weigh more heavily on them. Should they discover the true identity of the Chaotic Imperial City's lord, they will know no peace.

"No one in today's Ancient Battlefield wishes for an immortal to shatter the balance, but this speculation cannot spread from my Golden Race. I'll have to activatethatbody. What a pity, I had intended to keep it in reserve."

1. This "cause and effect" refers to causality. ☜

2. equivalent to Titan ☜

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