Chen Xu’s excited expression made Thor curl up again, fearing that Chen Xu might hit him with something big in his agitation.
Only after confirming that Chen Xu had no intention of making a move did Thor straighten his body and speak slowly.
“I’ve uploaded everything I know to your... what was it? The Undead Network, right?
Although the name is quite odd, I have to say, this novel thing actually has some merit.
If I had this back then, setting up rituals would have been much easier. You have no idea how the ancient methods were...”
Seeing that Thor was about to ramble, Chen Xu immediately interrupted and pulled him back to the topic.
“Get to the point.”
“Oh, oh, my apologies. I haven’t communicated with anyone for too long, so I got a bit carried away.
Where was I? Oh, right. After I finished uploading the knowledge, I spent a lot of time looking through the content on this network. Using a modern term, is it called 'surfing'?
Anyway, while I was surfing, I discovered something strange—too many people are complaining about and cursing Hell.”
“Is there something wrong with that?”
“Of course there is. Hell is a Unique-tier existence; why would so many low-tier transcendents be making comments about it?
After surfing deeper, I realized that over these years, Hell has been expanding outward, spreading the eternal fires of war across world after world.
Furthermore, I think I know why you had that question earlier.”
“Which question?”
“The one about sensing Dao principles in the cosmic void.”
“Oh? What about it?”
“Is it convenient to take me into the cosmic void?”
Chen Xu didn't know what Thor intended, but he still opened a spatial gate and took him out of the Undead Dao Court, arriving in the cosmic void outside the Land of the Undead.
With the soul contract binding him, Chen Xu wasn't afraid of Thor trying anything.
Coming into the cosmic sea, Thor first took a deep breath and then stretched his body, showing a satisfied expression.
“As I thought, even the current starry sky contains extremely weak Dao principles. In my era, this kind of situation would never occur.”
Thor’s tail swept through the void, his own Dao rhyme stirring the Dao rhyme within the void and creating ripples.
“And the reason for this phenomenon is Hell.”
“Hell?”
“Yes. Hell devours and decomposes worlds on a massive scale. When those worlds are invaded and split apart, a portion of their Dao rhyme diffuses into the void.
And those world fragments are constantly emitting various kinds of Dao rhyme. Over a long period, this has led to the existence of weak Dao principles in the void.”
Hearing this, Chen Xu found it hard to believe. The cosmic void was unimaginably vast; how many worlds must Hell have cleared for the environment of the cosmic sea to change?
“That can’t be right, can it? The Dao rhyme leaked from devouring a world isn't that much. Filling this immense cosmic sea would be no easy feat.”
Chen Xu voiced his doubt. After all, he was someone who had refined a world himself.
When he refined the Akhan world, not much world Dao rhyme had scattered into the cosmic sea. If he had to put a number on it, maybe 0.0001%.
With such a tiny amount of Dao rhyme, how many worlds would need to be devoured to affect the environment of the cosmic void?
“That is exactly the point.”
Thor retracted his tail and held it in front of him. He condensed a golden sphere at the tip of his tail, then the sphere suddenly shattered into tiny pieces, simulating the process of a world collapsing.
“The current concentration of Dao principles in the cosmic void indicates that the way Hell demons devour worlds is not the traditional way.
To put it more bluntly, devouring worlds is not their goal. War is their goal.”
A glint flashed in Thor’s eyes as he continued.
“War is a term with a very strong presence in transcendent systems. Through war, many things can be achieved.
Spreading fame, sowing fear, disseminating chaos, practicing cultivation techniques, forging weapons, and... setting up rituals.”
Ritual—this extremely ancient transcendent craft was something very few people studied or used in the current Age of Transcendence.
It wasn't because rituals were difficult to learn or because there was no way to learn them.
On the contrary, rituals were a mainstream subject. Many transcendent civilizations had related records; anyone who wanted to could learn them.
So why was this ancient system abandoned by modern transcendents?
The reason was simple: rituals had a long return cycle, required massive investment, and had a very low income-to-cost ratio.
A standard ritual often spanned years. The investment required was incalculable, yet the final reward was pitifully small.
While others practiced normal cultivation and saw their realms soar from transcendent to epic and then to legendary, your ritual might only just be finishing.
And the benefits gained from completing the ritual might only just be enough to let you move from the early transcendent stage to the threshold of the epic-tier.
It was somewhat like the Dharma-Ending Age, where you were still practicing traditional martial arts, spending your life’s energy and a vast amount of wealth and resources, only to reach mastery and find yourself facing groups of guns and cannons.
In the past, during the era when transcendence was just rising, ancient methods emphasized aptitude and comprehension, and the ritual path had its own unique advantages.
Now, transcendence has grown incredibly strong, with various new methods emerging one after another. The dross of ancient methods has been optimized away, so rituals naturally don't catch the eye of newcomers.
However, as a relic of the ancient era and a leader in the path of rituals—and even the creator of the six special worlds—Thor saw at a glance that Hell’s behavior was off.
Such large-scale warfare, the long duration, the abnormal post-war processing—all these factors stacked together made Thor suspicious.
The astral behemoth’s intuition told him that Hell absolutely didn't start this war just because of their apparent madness.
There must be a deeper purpose. But whether it was a ritual, Thor didn't dare say for certain.
After all, even as an old expert in rituals, he was shocked by Hell’s handiwork.
The hellish war had lasted for an unknown number of years, involved an unknown number of worlds, encompassed an unknown amount of territory, and affected an unknown number of civilizations and races.
The lives lost in the war, the wailing souls—just these things alone, if given to an evil cultivator, could create an unknown number of evil-path immortal artifacts.
A Human Sovereign Banner? A Human Ancestor Banner, or even a Human Immortal Banner would be no problem at all.
Even Thor had never seen such a massive undertaking.
At the end of the day, he had only been an ordinary mythic-tier before, only ascending to the eternal-tier by creating the six worlds.
And a Unique-tier—one that even came from one of the special worlds—how terrifying a ritual set up by such an existence would be, even Thor didn't know.
“At first, I was curious how Hell knew I was hiding in the Origin Realm of the Sea of Spirit. After all this time, was their hatred for me still that great?
Now, everything is clear. I was just an accident. The Sea of Spirit is Hell’s goal, creating chaos is Hell’s goal, and starting wars is Hell’s goal!
When even the special worlds are being dragged in, this ritual of Hell’s is truly grand!”
Rate on N.U.
