Chapter 196: Murim’s Fate
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The cracks between worlds continued spreading as the battle between Cosmic Deities reached a stalemate that never ended. Her eyes spread across the entire Tower, a gigantic structure across space and time, her eyes widening as she noticed these cracks.
“So this was your purpose the entire time? To infiltrate the worlds slowly, you cockroach?”
A titanic being made of pure white light laughed with its dozens of human-like heads lined up together, its form and body defying the laws of reality, as it seemed to exist between several dimensions at once.
“If I couldn’t get there by myself, I simply had to slowly do so, don’t you think? It is no genius plan, but something very simple. You should have predicted that already.”
“Bastard…! This Tower and its Worlds, they’re all mine to protect!”
The Cosmic Deity protecting the Tower, her presence resembling a beautiful young woman, encompassed her surroundings, the cosmos itself twisting and warping around her.
Hundreds of gigantic stars were launched at her foe, the alien from another dimension, whose white body began to slightly crumble as more stars impacted it.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“You will not get away with this!” she screamed. “They are there, and they will stop whatever you’re planning; I know they will!”
“Eheh… Heheahahaha!”
The monstrous alien laughed; its entire body crumbled down and exploded into white light, only for another body to emerge out of the Tower he had completely taken over.
“This is unending…!” The Tower Master’s eyes, made of many stars glistening across a body composed of nebulas, muttered. “Disconnecting the Tower from Earth would be the natural course at this moment, but it seems impossible now. Her very existence anchoring the tower with her world…!”
She had already tried simply plugging the Tower out, as some would say, but that seemed utterly impossible, her presence having twisted the very roots of the tower into that world.
And both were unified even when Earth wasn’t even recognized as a Floor!
“Bing Xue…! My precious Bing Xue…! I can finally see her! Ahhh! She’s so beautiful! SO BEAUTIFUL! I WANT HER…! I WANT HER ALL FOR MYSELF!”
The monstrous entity before her started grabbing its head, twisting it apart, and tearing out his eyes one after another, inflicting harm on itself due to its endless madness.
“By the stars, I couldn’t be possibly considering requesting the help of other Tower Masters now?” wondered the girl. “The price for their aid would be too great for me to pay even in a billion years! Maybe my brother wouldn’t mind helping me, but I’ve already asked him too many favors.”
She was running out of options…
And yet.
She glanced at that world again, at the source of these problems, and also at the only one that could eventually solve them.
“You and your family… If you can reach this point… Perhaps I won’t need to ask for their aid.”
“GRAAAHHH!”
The monstrous alien attacked her again; thousands of massive, long, white-colored arms swung down, attempting to slash through her presence with their sharp claws.
“Another clash… Fine,” The Tower Master said. “As long as I can hold you on…!”
“{Myriad Self Arts}: {Soul Nebula}”
The Tower Master suddenly summoned a rainbow and cosmic Aura from her ethereal body composed of stars, expanding into millions of clones of herself.
Their hands moved dexterously, summoning all kinds of weapons, resembling a nebula made out of her own soul.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
As they clashed and seemed evenly matched, the alien from another world glanced at its own Tower, which it had stolen from another cosmic deity, foolishly attempting a negotiation with him.
The tower breached towards the world this entity belonged to, the worlds it contained, and even its gods, rapidly beginning to fall towards this world, fueling it with even more of its otherworldly essence.
“I’ll simply feed Murim with this Tower, further merging their components…” The being laughed internally. “This way, I will gain more of its powers, as my Origin remains anchored to Murim!”
After the Era of Peace, which Bing Xue worked so hard to make a reality, it seemed that a new Era of Chaos was about to begin within Murim.
.
.
.
RUMBLE!
The World of Murim trembled; the Nine Heavens above twisted and rapidly began to create a gigantic vortex, provoking a gigantic tear, a crack through space, and even time.
The people of the World of Murim all watched in disbelief and awe as the titanic crack in space expanded for dozens of kilometers, becoming a permanent “wound” in the skies.
All provoked not by any Immortal, Primordial, or even Venerable…
But by the Heavenly Will itself.
Within the Headquarters of the Heavenly Court, the disciples of Bing Xue, the only person to ever achieve Rank 21 of the Primordial Immemorial Venerable Realm and the one that had escaped this world long ago, glanced at the scene in disbelief.
“What is happening…!”
“The sky is tearing apart!”
“Won’t we be sucked into that vortex?! It’s dangerous!”
“This is a power even beyond our understanding…!”
The Primordial Immortals within the Heavenly Court, the strongest Elders, and representatives of various Orthodox Sects and Clans across Murim all seemed to have similar reactions.
Except Bing Xue’s disciples, who, despite the adversities, remained calm, analyzing the situation. A beautiful long-haired blonde woman with glistening sapphire-colored eyes glanced into the skies, noticing the disturbances across the Nine Heavens.
“We cannot remain here! The Heavens seem to be collapsing. Let us retreat below, into the World of Mortals,” she said with a commanding voice.
Despite being among the youngest members of this entire Court, she was the strongest and Bing Xue’s greatest and most talented disciple ever.
Young Lady Fen Chun, the Heavenly Court’s Leader, and the Radiant Star Princess.
Wielder of the powerful Radiant Star Essence, a power that had evolved from Bing Xue’s feared Photon Essence, she was without a doubt the strongest of Murim right now.
Someone who was only a step from becoming the new Venerable of Murim!
“But Court Leader!”
“Princess, we cannot possibly leave the Heavens!”
“This is our territory; all our resources grow here; without them, the Heavenly Court would slowly collapse as we-”
“They’re nothing more than luxuries!” said Fen Chun. “Descend this very instant; it is an ORDER.”
“Well, you heard her,” giggled a young and handsome man with short silver hair and azure-colored eyes; he was Fen Chun’s left hand, her aide, her retainer, and Bing Xue’s second-strongest disciple. “Let’s begin our descent this very moment.”
RUMBLE!
The massive and titanic structure, a gigantic palace divided into twelve different towers and gardens across the White Heavens, began its rapid descent.
The hundreds of Primordial Immortals panicked slightly as they saw their territory being abandoned after thousands of years, but the majority ended up agreeing to this at the end.
TRUUUM!
However, as the palaces descended, a presence of overwhelming power began to rapidly approach them, its gigantic, divine, and immortal presence making the temples themselves tremble!
“T-This is…?!”
Fen Chun’s eyes widened as she rushed outside of the palace, her body encompassed with her Radiant Star Essence, as she noticed a massive presence of immense power moving across the skies.
Her golden and silver robes waved by the strong winds; a gigantic multi-heaven storm was happening right now, the Heavenly Ki seeping and leaking everywhere; anybody weaker than Primordial Immortals would be easily swept away by it and torn to shreds.
“It can’t be… a Venerable’s presence?!”
She glanced into the skies, realizing just how lucky she was. If she had not descended just a few minutes ago, she would have gotten on the path of whatever this monster was and could have paid the price for that insolence.
“This can’t be! There is no longer any Venerables after Master left! Who… Who is that man?!”
The man didn’t even give her a glance too lowly before his might to even be considered anything worthwhile, though his appearance instantly made her remember something.
The appearance of one of the powerful Venerables of the past, when there were many alive and when they fought for supremacy, spreading chaos and destruction across Murim because of their own selfish desires.
Yes, this man was the living embodiment of a statue of one of such Venerables, long black hair, a slender and tall body, a handsome face, a cocky smile, black and red robes, and a Primordial Immortal Aura containing thousands of other Auras within it, taken and devoured from its foes.
“F-Fang Gu Lang, the Heavenly Venerable of the Seven Paths of Heaven.”
His name and title alone sent shivers down her spine—a monster that self-proclaimed himself as “The Greatest Villain of Murim”, who robbed, slaughtered, and raped millions.
A man with a harem of millions of women he had personally kidnapped, raped, and tortured until their minds were broken, someone that every female feared even more than males.
An unhinged demon that Bing Xue tricked, seducing him, to then backstab him and kill him at cold blood, finally ending his tyranny.
For the first time in thousands of years, Fen Chun felt fear; she rapidly flew back to the palace, alerting everyone of what she saw.
Naturally, they couldn’t believe her, despite his enormous presence above the skies!
“B-But how is he alive?! I am fairly sure our Master killed him!”
“I am sure of it; she even said she absorbed his powers to become stronger… Not even his bones should be left after that…”
“This could be a plot from the Heavenly Will, which had continued to become stranger and more warped since Master left…” Yun Cheng said, the young man by Fen Chun’s side. “The Heavenly Will is the combination of the Nine Primordial Heaven Gods; his power is boundless and infinite. But as a will that desires to protect the world, they never truly manifested… until master appeared, and it gained a strange obsession with her.”
“You’re saying that the Heavenly Will revived Fang Gu?!”
“T-This is impossible!”
“Why would the Heavens revive such a monster? Someone that went directly against them to begin with?”
“I cannot… even fathom what it is planning anymore!”
From beautiful immortal fairies, old masters, talented youngsters, swordsmen, and mighty warriors, the Primordial Immortals talked with one another, creating a massive ruckus.
“Calm down, everyone,” Fen Chun said. “For now, he seems to have left; his presence has now become faint. It seems that he moved towards that portal, alongside thousands of others… Immortals, not from our Court, but from the other annexed Clans and Sects.”
“W-What?!”
“You’re saying they betrayed us?”
“Bastards! I knew it…! Our master was too merciful; we should’ve slaughtered them all while we had the opportunity!”
“So the moment that despicable monster was revived, they jumped ships, huh?”
“Master is not dead,” Fen Chun said. “Since that portal opened, her presence has become ever stronger. I can sense her. Wherever Fang Gu is going, he’s moving where she is. There is a great plot and a great scheme at play here! I believe the Heavenly Will revived Fang Gu to kill Master, who had escaped to another world.”
“T-That’s… Are you sure this could be true?”
“If that’s the case, we should follow him and find master as well!”
“No.” Fen Chun quickly stopped them. “She left to us a great task: to protect Murim’s Era of Peace… And that is what we must do. Let’s remain calm; let’s gather resources, any ally that remains, and then let us scout the surrounding…”
“Fen Chun!” suddenly, a young Primordial Immortal boy with blue hair and golden eyes screamed, flying towards the palace and calling for the Radiant Star Princess. “Sister Fen Chun! This is bad! Really bad news!”
“Lan Lianhua?” Fen Chun asked. “What’s wrong?!”
“The Lower World… The Immortal Realm! It’s strange! It has changed way too much!” Lan Lianhua cried, moving his arms around and shaking his robes.
“C-Calm down, please! What do you mean? Of course it’ll change; it has been thousands of years since we visited this place and-”
“It’s not that! It’s strange! It is as if the entire landscape became merged… with something else entirely! Come! Everyone has to see this!”
The little boy guided the elders outside, their eyes widening in disbelief at what they saw.
The beautiful Green Mountains of this Land had been completely rewritten; only a third of their original appearance remained, as the other half had been replaced by completely different landscapes.
Apocalyptic, ruined city landscapes, with massive monsters made of metal walking around, a burning volcanic landscape with gigantic, red-scaled salamanders and dragons, an endless forest as gigantic as the mountains, with massive forest creatures that should never be this gigantic, a swamp of foul black miasma, where aberrations lurk everywhere, desertic steppes, where gigantic humans wandered, glaring them from afar…
“W-What is this? Our world… Murim has changed so much? This presence… these aren’t from our world either!” Fen Chun said. “What is the meaning of this?!”
And as if things couldn’t get crazier…
BOOOM!
A gigantic explosion happened in the distance as a massive ship made of white and silver steel descended from the skies, its metallic wings on flames.
“A meteor?!”
“No, that’s some sort of metallic bird?”
“What is that thing? A ship of some sort?”
“That’s… a plane?” Fen Chun remembered the toys her master made for her and the children; a plane was a strange flying machine made in her original world, where humans with no supernatural powers conquered the world with technology. “Move aside!”
She waved her hand, her Radiant Star Essence surging like a hand and catching the massive plane from crashing down, turning off its flames.
BAAAM!
As the plane was placed above the grasslands in front of them, the door was kicked out, as someone wearing strange, mechanical armor crawled out of it, couching blood, with a large steel pipe piercing his stomach.
“H-Help…! Please… someone…!”
The mechanical armor had all sorts of strange, bizarre lights; the Primordial Immortals detected no threat in the wounded man, a mortal with no power, yet his technology… it was too alien!
“Are you okay?”
Fen Chun ran to help, the Immortals trying to warn her, yet she did not care.
“A-Ah…!”
The steel pipe was extracted, as the man’s wounds were rapidly healed by her Heavenly Light techniques; healing a mortal was simple enough.
Fen Chun took off his helmet and armor, revealing the body of a young woman, no older than her early twenties, with short brown hair and blue eyes.
Her appearance wasn’t like any person from Murim and resembled more the “western looks” of Bing Xue, someone that came from another world.
“T-Thank you…! Ah! No! T-They’re coming! You have to run away!”
The young woman started hyperventilating in horror after remembering what she went through, trying to warn Fen Chun.
“They’re here…! T-They’re-”
CRASH!
Until she fell silent, her eyes glancing at the origin of that sound.
A five-meter tall, humanoid… puppet thing, made of white and silver metal, with glowing red eyes and many arms and legs.
“HOMO SAPIENS FOUND. INITIATING EXTERMINATION.”
Not even Murim would be safe from the horrors that existed beyond the cosmos.
“Begone.”
BOOOM!
The machine exploded into pieces as a ray of Starlight Essence reached it in a split second.
The armored woman glanced at the scene in disbelief as the nemesis of her planet’s humanity was killed so… easily.
“Don’t worry, whatever that was, it won’t hurt you anymore.”
“A-Ah… I can’t believe it…”
Perhaps it was the opposite.
The worlds beyond the cosmos weren’t ready for Murim.
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