Manifesting Speech into Law

The system panel instantly refreshed before Chen Zhou's eyes.

【Breakthrough mission complete!】

【Current Level: Calamity Grade (third symbiosis contract)】

【You have become a ranked god; your filth and withering divinities now resonate with your inner godhead.】

【Your Domain of Defiled Earth and Withering Venom have been enhanced by the inner godhead and can now take effect against gods with status.】

【Your Divine Path Authority · Yin-Yang Decree (Incomplete) has been upgraded.】

【New Ability Added — Sinful Karma Punishment】

【As a god wielding the Yin-Yang Decree, you possess the authority to judge sinful karma and impose punishment.】

【This authority's effect is weakened against those with merit and immense fortune, and extremely potent against those mired in sin and heavy karma.】

【Please use this ability with caution; it consumes the godhead origin. Excessive use will lead to damage to the godhead and a drop in status.】

【For every judgment of sinful karma, you must bear the corresponding causality. Without sufficient power of faith to purify it, you will suffer a backlash.】

Chen Zhou felt the surging power within his body, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

The third symbiosis contract.

The godhead had enhanced two of his abilities, and the complete divinity of sin had filled the gaps in one of his Divine Path authorities.

The upgrade was significant.

Chen Zhou had already experienced the gap between ranked and unranked gods through the Judge.

They were existences on completely different levels; even if their raw strength were close, the difference remained as vast as heaven and earth.

The reason Chen Zhou couldn't judge the Judge before was because of the true god status the other possessed.

It was a sense of powerlessness suppressed by laws, a barrier that no amount of strength could break.

But now, he also stood atop that barrier.

The godhead had enhanced the abilities brought by his two divinities, while the complete divinity of sin had perfected his Divine Path Authority, the Yin-Yang Decree.

In the past, the judgment ability he wielded required the target to have actual sinful karma for the judgment to hold.

Merit could offset evil karma, and causality required balance.

But now, that was no longer necessary.

He was the one who wrote the rules.

Right and wrong, the depth of sinful karma—all of it was decided in a single thought.

"If I judge you guilty, you are guilty."

Creating something from nothing, pointing at a deer and calling it a horse—all of it was possible.

Even if someone were a paragon of virtue who spent their life doing good, as long as Chen Zhou was willing to bear the backlash, he could declare them a villain beyond redemption with a single word.

If they were guilty, the judgment could proceed, and they could be subjected to the punishment of karma-fire.

In this way, Chen Zhou would hold absolute initiative.

Of course, the price was not small; every use required consuming the godhead origin, and he needed enough power of faith to purify the backlash.

But for an evil god who sat upon millions of believers, this was not unbearable.

Chen Zhou looked up at the raging vermilion fire in the sky.

His Ghost Domain had already been worn down by nearly a third during the brief period of his upgrade.

But now, because of his successful breakthrough, the Ghost Domain was infused with even more death qi, becoming fierce as it pushed back.

The defiled earth spread, and the grey-white death qi surged toward the horizon like a tide, forcing the vermilion fire back inch by inch.

Chen Zhou slowly raised his hand toward the sinful karma divine fire in the sky and made a grasping motion in the air.

"Begone."

One word was uttered, and speech was manifested into law.

A soft sound echoed.

The vermilion fire was instantly extinguished by more than half.

Even the vermilion light in the sky dimmed considerably.

Song Zi'an and the others felt their bodies lighten as that terrifying pressure vanished.

They looked up blankly at Chen Zhou's back.

At this moment, Chen Zhou was surrounded by a grey-black mist that seemed to have a life of its own, circling him like stars around a moon.

He stood tall above the Altar of Heaven, contending against the heavens themselves.

Yu He's pupils shook violently.

What was he seeing?

The mysterious man in black robes had extinguished the fire sent down by a god with a single sentence?

How... how was this possible?!

"You..."

In the sky, Zhu Pan's voice held a hint of disbelief.

Although this sliver of divine sense was not his main body, it still contained a trace of true god power. The sinful karma divine fire he unleashed was an orthodox divine art recognized by Sky-Monitoring, specifically meant to incinerate demons and evils that disrespected heaven and earth.

Logically, in a place like an outer province where death qi was rampant, his divine fire should have been in its element.

Especially in a place like the Gloomlight provincial capital, where sinful karma was deep and death qi was thick, the divine fire should have burned even brighter.

Yet now, not only had it failed to burn through the opponent's strange domain, but it had been extinguished by a single word?

This defied logic!

"How can such a primitive place like the outer province produce an existence with death qi this pure?"

Zhu Pan was somewhat incensed.

Even though only a sliver of his divine sense had descended, carrying less than one percent of his main body's power, it was still not something an evil spirit from the outer province should be able to resist.

In his eyes, the strongest beings in a place like Gloomlight Province were merely low-level creatures who had just touched the threshold of the seventh-stage.

Anyone below the eighth-stage Siming was nothing but an ant that he could crush at will.

"The third symbiosis contract... Though you haven't reached the Siming stage, such strength is enough to look down upon an entire province here."

It was also enough to warrant his attention.

Chen Zhou let out a light chuckle.

"Look down upon a single province?"

"Lord Zhu Pan underestimates me too much."

"What I want is far more than just one province."

Yu He listened from the side, his heart leaping into his throat.

This man... this man was actually bargaining with a true god?

And his tone was so nonchalant, as if he were speaking of a trivial matter.

Does he even know what he's saying?!

Zhu Pan fell silent for a moment.

He had indeed misjudged.

With such an arrogant tone, the man was either a madman or truly had something to rely on.

And an existence that could easily extinguish his divine fire and resist his divine sense's pressure could not possibly be the former.

Then, only one possibility remained.

This boy really had a trump card.

And it was a trump card so massive that even he, a Sky-Monitoring Four-Direction Envoy, could not see through it.

Zhu Pan's voice grew solemn.

"An existence like you could never naturally be nurtured within the outer province."

"Your death qi is excessively pure, and your status is quite strange—it has both the youth of a new god and the ancient weight of an old god."

In that instant just now, he had sensed the other's status.

It seemed even more ancient and pure than his own. Although the godhead was not yet complete, the foundation was terrifyingly solid.

"Who exactly are you?"

"To be able to block one strike from this seat, you are qualified to announce your name."

Chen Zhou laughed openly.

"Block one strike from you?"

"I merely snuffed out a stray spark; is that enough for you to be so surprised?"

"It seems the Central Province false gods are nothing more than a bunch of frogs in a well who haven't seen the world."

In the sky, Zhu Pan fell into a brief silence.

Immediately following that, a fury even more violent than before swept across the entire sky.

"Presumptuous!"

"A mere evil from the outer province, having gained a bit of opportunity, dares to claim the title of true god and slander this seat?!"

Zhu Pan was thoroughly enraged.

Since he had taken the office of Sky-Monitoring Four-Direction Envoy, when had he ever suffered such an insult?

And it came from an outer province barbarian!

Though he wished he could ignore everything and follow his divine sense to crush the opponent right now, he did not truly lose his reason.