Chapter 3082: The Final Step (3)
Somewhere in the absolute deepest, most silent embrace of the void, where not even the faint echo of light or the whisper of time could reach, a figure sat in meditation.
This place was not simply empty space; it was the conceptual heart of nothingness itself. Here, Yin, the embodiment of Uncreation, floated cross-legged. The void around him was not dark; it was the absence of the concept of light. It was not cold; it was the absence of heat.
His eyes had been closed for what felt like eternities, but now, they slowly opened.
The eyes that opened were not like they were before. Previously, they had been pools of deep, intelligent void. Now, they were endless. They did not reflect the universe; they seemed to contain it. Galaxies swirled within their depths, stars were born and died in microseconds, entire civilizations rose and fell in the space of a blink. They were windows into the infinite cycles of existence and the silent eternity that followed.
A faint, knowing smile touched Yin’s lips. It was a smile of absolute completion.
"He has done it," Yin murmured, his voice the soft sigh of entropy itself. "The new ’Creator’ has truly ascended. The balance is restored... and thus, so am I."
The moment Nian Shi had fully mastered the power of Creation within Yun Lintian’s body, the effect had rippled across the entire cosmos. The universe, which had been languishing in a state of decay and imbalance since the original Creator’s fall, suddenly experienced a renaissance.
Life flourished at an impossible rate. Dead stars re-ignited. Barren worlds teemed with new, complex organisms. The power of Creation, now wielded by a true master, flooded every corner of existence, bringing it back to—and even surpassing—the peak era when the Creator herself had walked among her works.
And Yin, as the necessary counterbalance, the equal and opposite force, benefited directly. The restoration of Creation to its peak meant the restoration of Uncreation to its own zenith.
He had finally, after eons of waiting and scheming, returned to the absolute ceiling of power he had possessed at the moment of his birth...
Before Yin, kneeling in the void, were eight figures. Number Three to Number Ten. His remaining Void Hunters. They, too, had been transformed. As extensions of his will, conduits of Uncreation, their power had soared alongside his.
Their auras now radiated a pressure that was terrifyingly familiar—it was on the same level as the Primordial Gods at the absolute peak of their power during the first war. They were no mere assassins now; they were generals of the void.
"Number Three," Yin’s voice echoed softly in the non-space.
The lead hunter, a female figure whose form seemed to be woven from solidified shadow and silent event horizons, bowed her head lower. "Master."
"The God Tomb," Yin said, his tone casual, as if asking about the weather. "Have you found it?"
Number Three responded without looking up, her voice respectful and devoid of all emotion. "It has been found, Master. Its coordinates are fixed. The seals placed by the ten Primordial Gods remain, but they are weak against your presence."
A pleased glint flickered in the universe-containing depths of Yin’s eyes. "Good."
He stood up. The void itself seemed to bow to the motion. He did not gesture or chant. He simply took a step.
He disappeared from the heart of the void and appeared... elsewhere.
He stood before a massive, desolate structure that floated in a sea of dead stars and frozen time.
It was the God Tomb—the final resting place, the eternal prison for the Gods who had opposed the Creator and been sealed away at the war’s end by their own brethren...
The atmosphere was heavy with forgotten divinity and despair. Yin paid it no mind. He took another step.
He passed through the layers of divine seals as if they were mist. They shrieked and flared with desperate, fading light at his passage, but could not hinder him. He was Uncreation itself; seals meant to contain divine power were meaningless against him.
He appeared inside the tomb’s central chamber. Before him stood a towering structure, an obsidian ziggurat that pulsed with a faint, captive light—the Tower of Limitless, the core of the prison.
Yin smiled, a playful, cruel expression, and stepped inside.
He emerged at the very top floor, a vast, circular chamber. The air here was thick with the spectral remains of immense power.
As he appeared, the space shimmered. Ten figures materialized before him, their forms translucent and flickering—ghostly projections of their former selves. They were the guardians of the tomb, the souls of the ten Primordial Gods who had sacrificed their physical forms to create and maintain this eternal prison.
At their head was the Scholar God, his form radiating wisdom and grim resolve. To his left was the War God, a spectral figure still clad in battered armor, his aura one of relentless fury. To his right was the God of Valor, his ghostly form standing straight and unyielding.
When their gazes fell upon Yin, a shockwave of pure disbelief and terror ran through them. Their spectral forms flickered violently.
"Y-Yin?!" the Scholar God stammered, his voice a whisper of astounded horror. "How?! How can you be here?! You are sealed within the Gate of the Abyss! This is impossible!"
At the far end of the hall, behind the spectral gods, was a massive gate. It was strikingly similar to the Gate of the Abyss, but smaller, its surface etched with different, equally complex runes of binding. This was the seal containing the other half of the Primordial Gods who had sided with Yin in the first war.
Yin’s playful smile widened. "Sealed? That bitch was clever, I’ll give her that. Dividing me into two parts and sealing each separately—one in the Abyss, one here. A elegant solution."
He took a leisurely step forward, his hands clasped behind his back. "But she always underestimated me. She thought in binaries. Creation and Uncreation. Light and Dark. Order and Chaos. She never considered that I, the embodiment of the void, could also divide myself."
He stopped, his universe-eyes glinting with malicious amusement. "While she was busy splitting me in two, I was busy splitting myself into four."
The truth was staggering. The Yin that had been fought and sealed was only a quarter of his true essence. Another quarter was sealed here, within this tomb. The remaining half had been hiding, weakened but free, waiting and scheming across the eons.
The Scholar God’s eyes widened in dawning, absolute horror. "You... you didn’t..."
"Before you can finish your tedious realization," Yin said, his tone suddenly bored, "this conversation is over. Your purpose as guardians is fulfilled."
He didn’t even raise a hand. He simply looked at them.
Puff!
The ten spectral Primordial Gods, beings of immense power even in death, had no time to react. Under Yin’s gaze, their forms simply... ceased...