By now, Qi Yuan’s EXP bar had peaked, allowing him to step into the Mythic realm. Going from Core Formation to True God had taken him an extremely long time in this game. In contrast, advancing from First Step to Heaven to Mythic had been a breeze.

Qi Yuan narrowed his eyes. "Since you're here, you might as well stay."

With a flicker, his blood-red longsword left its sheath, cutting toward a mountain a thousand miles distant. The two Marshals on that mountain staggered.

"Mythic!"

Without hesitating, they turned and fled. Qi Yuan exuded an even greater sense of threat than Thunder.

Qi Yuan added, "This sword strike is named God Prison. Any god I enshrine shall find no escape. You shall bear the title God of Death—for you are already dead."

Divine spiritual energy surged violently along the blade. A strange Divine Domain unfolded at that very instant, dragging the two Marshals into it.

They were seized by terror.

"What is this?!"

"What kind of Divine Domain is this?!"

Rather than a Divine Domain, the place resembled a junk heap. Everything was a chaotic mess. Stars rolled across the ground like soccer balls. Gigantic bolts of lightning kept striking the ocean. Endless lava poured out of water pipes. A deep black hole inside an iron pot sneezed. Everything inside the Divine Domain was utterly deranged! [1]

"Thunder, water, wood, growth, death—it has everything! What is this?!"

The two Marshals had never encountered such a domain before! All proper Divine Domains were pure and singular. Even if there were other attributes mixed in, they were usually minor. After all, only in purity could they unleash maximum power. Yet this was a complete rubbish dump.

"Just how did idiots like you two ever cultivate to Mythic? Didn't I just say you were going to die? Given the context, this is obviously your burial ground. Didn't you learn about reading comprehension in middle school? You can't even answer such a basic question, and yet you reached Mythic... The world is unjust. I’ll do the gods’ work and correct it by killing you."

The longsword shattered into countless blood-red bullets.

"Namo Gatling Bodhisattva—ratatatata!"

The bullets transformed into enormous crimson serpents, maws spreading wide as they mercilessly devoured the two. The Marshals screamed. Under Qi Yuan's assault, their Divine Domains were as pale and fragile as paper.

"Don't kill us—aaah!"

"With such a chaotic Divine Domain, you'll never step into the Yang Spirit realm in this lifetime!"

"Spare us! Our lord will kill you once he makes a move!"

Their minds and consciousness descended into chaos as they begged desperately.

They had cultivated most of their lives, even earning the chance to illuminate the heavens with their stars. How could they accept dying like this?!

Qi Yuan looked up at the night sky. Two stars were already dim and fading, gnawed by blood-red shadows.

"You have such enormous stars! So much land, and yet you let them sit empty. What a waste! Housing prices are so high. You two are definitely part of the problem!" he said.

"What are you even on about?!"

"Yang Spirits are invincible!"

"I'm saying, why doesn't anyone live in the sun? These Yang Spirits are all black-hearted landlord tycoons!" Qi Yuan said.

The sword light swept past, shattering the Marshals’ domains completely. Within Qi Yuan's domain, two specks of dust appeared, almost invisible. A massive tide of evil god spiritual energy flooded in, and his EXP bar surged wildly upward.

"Are Mythics this weak? Or am I just too strong?"

***

The Qingheng Continent was reaching its end.

Thunder had slain Liyang. Violet lightning flickered in his eyes. Clearly, the earlier battle hadn’t satisfied him. He plunged back into the battlefield, slaughtering evil gods relentlessly.

Battle cries and thunder rolled endlessly across the battlefield. Soon, the blood-soaked ancient gods stood beneath Qi Yuan, their eyes burning with fervent battle intent. Every evil god in the base camp had been exterminated.

Thunder stood at Qi Yuan's side. His gaze, which once swept the world with arrogance, filled with utter reverence the moment it fell upon Qi Yuan.

Qi Yuan, who had been silent, finally said, "Everyone, I just realized that I'm actually pretty strong. I casually killed two Mythics just now."

None of the ancient gods were shocked. Wasn't it normal for Qi Yuan to kill Mythics?

Qi Yuan added thoughtfully, "Since we're this strong, why don't we use this chance to wipe out the other base camps as well?"

Thunder immediately agreed. "Good idea!"

He was eager for more battle!

Fire Lotus had abandoned all pretense of elegance. "Kill! I still want to kill!"

In fact, she was almost irrecognizable from before.

The other ancient gods nodded as well, killing intent surging within them.

"Kill!"

"Sweep the northern lands, restore our rivers and mountains!"

Their morale soared.

"Since that's settled..." Qi Yuan began outlining a new battle plan when his eyes suddenly widened. "They're fleeing."

All the ancient gods instinctively looked toward the skies.

In the northern lands, brilliant light burst forth. Passageways leading into the sky formed one after another. Over ten thousand evil gods squeezed into the channels, attempting to flee the Mortal Heart World.

The ancient gods were stunned, disbelief washing over them.

"Why are they running?"

"They actually ran?"

"How could they?!"

The evil gods who had ravaged their world for hundreds of thousands of years were fleeing without even looking back.

Qi Yuan muttered in disappointment, "How boring. I still wanted to kill more."

Thunder’s voice boomed. "Heavenly Sovereign! I have also formulated a plan inspired by you!"

Qi Yuan asked, surprised, "Oh? What plan?"

"Since Heavenly Sovereign laments the lack of worthy opponents, my plan has two steps. First, immediately march to the Heavenly Pillar and capture the Yang Spirit alive. Second, rally the entire world to launch a counterattack on the evil gods’ world!" Thunder said excitedly.

Qi Yuan stared at him for a moment, then said meaningfully, "Are you brainless, or do you think I am? Go fight a Yang Spirit right now? You want to die?"

He was arrogant, but not to that extent.

"Also, plagiarism is shameful. You split my plan into parts, tweaked it a bit, and called it your own. Do you have no shame? I never plagiarize and I don't want my people plagiarizing either."

1. ***E/N: must be his mindscape ☜