The boundless sea of fog surged incessantly, like a crimson ocean.
On the massive shoulder of the Primordial Spirit, the Physical Body, formed from a severed palm, sat quietly.
"So your name is Tang Zhan..."
Xuan Hao slightly raised his palm.
A faint spiritual aura twined around his fingertips.
"A mere Mortal..."
"And he dares to slay a god?"
With indifference and a hint of mockery, Xuan Hao easily crushed that wisp of spiritual aura.
It seemed those 'false gods' clinging to life in the corners of the ruins had given this person ridiculous delusions and courage.
Killed a few insignificant evil spirits, and now he thought he could shake the might of a True Immortal?
He was a True Immortal.
An immortal existence!
He was fundamentally different from those evil spirits that relied on instinctive corruption and twisted reality.
To this day, the only being he considered an opponent was the Outer God buried deep underground, also from a higher-dimensional space.
That was a truly peer-level existence with a proper status, capable of contending with him.
However... It was about to fall.
As the crimson giant eye lit up, blinding blood-light pierced through the ground, locking onto the Outer God's egg.
"Buzz—!"
Hundreds of Scarlet Immortal Silk instantly surged and wildly danced.
With a shriek that tore through space, the Scarlet Immortal Silk plunged deep into the ground, fiercely entangling and slaughtering the equally massive cluster of dark-green tentacles.
Every collision stirred up terrifying ripples capable of annihilating the Soul.
....
Underground battlefield.
The once rampant dark tentacles were now retreating in segments.
Each time they collided with the Scarlet Immortal Silk, the tentacles appeared weak and powerless, like withered vines drained of life force.
Time quietly flowed, and several more months passed.
In the deepest part of the Earth's core, around the dark-green giant egg resembling a heart, the last remaining tentacles weakly retracted into the eggshell.
It had completely given up attacking.
Like a trapped beast driven to despair, it concentrated its power to the extreme, fiercely guarding its final core of life.
But... the outcome was already decided!
This silent, yet utterly brutal divine war, finally reached its concluding chapter.
Xuan Hao sat on the shoulder of his Primordial Spirit, his gaze icy.
With a slight shift of his thoughts.
"Buzz—!"
The Scarlet Immortal Silk furiously pierced into the giant egg.
The giant egg violently shook!
A massive surge of material energy erupted wildly within the eggshell, crashing and attempting to break free from this fatal restraint.
"Boom!"
The entire city violently shook, tall buildings swayed intensely, bridges collapsed, and the city instantly plunged into severe turbulence and panic.
For a time, alarms blared through the sky!
However, the struggle was ultimately futile.
Xuan Hao's Scarlet Immortal Silk furiously sucked the Outer God's power, and the dark-green light on the eggshell's surface rapidly dimmed.
In its place were crimson patterns spreading like spiderwebs.
The core, which had once pulsed strongly like a heart, was now being forcefully devoured by Mental Energy.
"Buzz."
A mournful cry, inaudible to the ear but directly resounding on the Soul level, pierced through the rock layers, echoing in every corner of the Mental Energy Domain.
It even permeated reality, causing countless living beings to feel an inexplicable sorrow.
That was the Outer God's final wail before its imminent annihilation.
"Boom!"
The giant egg completely collapsed.
Countless material energies, like a breached flood, were greedily devoured by Xuan Hao.
This devouring was not instantaneous.
It was a slow and grand process, like a giant whale swallowing the sea, requiring time to thoroughly digest this massive 'inheritance'.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, Xuan Hao's thoughts stirred.
Just as the devouring reached its most critical moment, a faint but clear wave of will emanated from deep within the remnants of the giant egg.
The wave contained pain, and even...
A hint of humble compromise?
"Want to surrender...?"
Xuan Hao's lips curled into a cold sneer.
He instantly understood the meaning within that wave—survival.
It was willing to offer its power in exchange for prolonged existence.
"Heh." A dismissive sneer echoed in the crimson sea of fog: "If I had allowed you to successfully gestate, then I would be the one being devoured right now. Go on and die obediently."
Xuan Hao showed no intention of stopping.
Pity? Compromise?
In the dictionary of higher-dimensional existences, these words did not exist.
Whether Corpse Disassembly Immortal or Outer God, when the essence of life ascended to this level, they had long transcended Mortal good and evil.
They themselves were a grander will.
They were a part of the Law in the infinite Universe.
Like an ever-expanding nebula, instinctively devouring all energy and Law within its reach to strengthen itself.
This devouring had nothing to do with the life or death of living beings.
This was the Law of survival at a higher dimension, a more fundamental level.
Xuan Hao raised his head, his gaze cast towards the Universe.
"Is this underground existence merely a part of you?" Xuan Hao mused.
Trapped in a spatial rift for two thousand years, he knew better than anyone the power and strangeness of the Outer God.
This giant egg buried deep underground...
It was very likely just a single tentacle of some larger, more terrifying entity residing in a higher dimension, extended into this planet.
But then again, wasn't he the same?
This Physical Body, formed from a severed palm, was also his 'anchor point' and 'tentacle' extended into this material world.
His true core, his immortal Primordial Spirit.
"Enough."
Xuan Hao retracted his gaze.
The most pressing matter was to find his lost true body and become a complete True Immortal.
As the Scarlet Immortal Silk continuously absorbed and refined the power of the Outer God's egg core, an unprecedented torrent of majestic energy surged into his Primordial Spirit's core.
"Buzz!"
The entire Mental Energy Domain, at this moment, began an unprecedented, intensely frantic expansion.
....
In the real world, Chenxi City.
The midday sun had disappeared.
This was not due to clouds obscuring the sun, but an boundless, surging and roaring crimson sea of fog.
It spread rapidly in all directions, centered around the construction site in the southern suburbs of the city, like an exploding nebula.
Its speed was far beyond the speed of sound.
The sky was swallowed.
Buildings became distorted and blurred in the blood fog.
The crimson mist, like a tide, instantly engulfed the adjacent industrial zone, the dense residential areas, and the bustling commercial center.
The spires of skyscrapers loomed faintly in the churning blood fog.
"Why is it dark?"
"What is that?"
"Red fog!"
"Are monsters coming out?!"
On the streets, within buildings, panic erupted like a plague.
Screams, cries, car crashes, and alarms blared in a cacophony.
People ran around like headless chickens.
....
At a hidden outpost not far from the construction site ruins.
Qu Huaiwei stared blankly at the sky-obscuring crimson sea of fog, feeling the vast, ocean-like, cold pressure, her heart churning with indescribably complex emotions.
"The True Lord's might has revived again."
Deep in her eyes, there was awe, shock, and a hint of hidden bewilderment.
To save her family, she chose to serve the True Lord, never intending to embark on this irreversible path known as the Corpse Immortal Path.
However, a deity was a deity after all.
Its will, its purpose, its very essence of existence, were far beyond human comprehension.
She did not know where the future would lead.
Nor did she know where this towering sea of blood would ultimately take the world.
But... there was no turning back.
She could only go all the way.
Behind her, the other members of the Corpse Immortal Path trembled.
Many had only recently joined the organization, having only heard of the True Lord's prestige, and had never witnessed such a terrifying, world-altering sight.
That boundless crimson color felt like a divine punishment descending.