Breaking Through the Boundary

"The Grand Archbishop is right. With so many Spatial Rifts and a large number of Saint Grade powerhouses guarding them, the Battle Saints of the Upper Layer alone will have an extremely difficult time quelling them all."

Xue Han nodded as she spoke.

Smiles appeared on everyone's faces, and they settled back into quiet anticipation.

However, before long, the Aberration flames within another Spatial Rift dissipated and the entire rift shattered, collapsing into a spatial storm.

"..."

The Heavenly Calamity Cult's leadership fell silent once again.

The Grand Archbishop's mouth twitched. Then he spoke slowly:

"What the hell is going on?!"

The assembled Apostles broke into cold sweats, none daring to speak.

The two Bishops standing nearby furrowed their brows deeply, bewilderment written across their faces.

"Something isn't right. Each Spatial Rift is guarded by two Apostles and at least fifteen Aberration Servants. How could they be wiped out so quickly? And how could the rift be repaired this fast?"

The Ancient Barbarian Bishop voiced his confusion.

The Serpent Demon Bishop frowned. "Could a War God have returned from the border?"

"Impossible. If a War God had returned, the Calamity would have warned us. Since there's been no warning, none have come back." The Grand Archbishop shook his head, dismissing the idea while calming the spatial storm.

"Then what's happening?"

The three exchanged glances, uncertainty flickering in their eyes.

"Perhaps this particular Spatial Rift happened to be near a large concentration of Battle Saints?"

The Ancient Barbarian Bishop could only speculate.

The other two had no counterargument.

"Let's wait and see."

The Grand Archbishop's expression had grown considerably more grave.

*Where there's one, there can be two — and where there's two, a third may follow.*

Everyone watched the remaining Spatial Rifts intently.

Yet barely ten minutes later, the Aberration flames in yet another rift dissipated before the Spatial Rift shattered into a spatial storm.

This time, the three Bishops could no longer cling to any shred of optimism. Their faces had turned ashen.

"Who is doing this?!"

Spirit Power surged around the Grand Archbishop, his terrifying energy causing the entirety of Heavenly Calamity Star to tremble.

Across the planet, Aberration creatures cowered while Apostles and cultists alike wore expressions of dread.

Cold sweat beaded on Xue Han's forehead as she kept her head bowed, not daring to speak.

The other two Bishops had wisps of green flame igniting around their bodies, their faces full of confusion.

The three exchanged another look. Then a fierce glint appeared on the Ancient Barbarian Bishop's face as he spoke slowly:

"I'll go in and take a look."

At these words, the Grand Archbishop and the Serpent Demon Bishop both started. The Grand Archbishop shook his head.

"No. The will of the Land of Origin is still too powerful. If only Saints enter, it may not react too strongly — but if you go in, it will suppress you with everything it has. Far too dangerous. Unless the Upper Layer has been corroded enough to weaken the Land of Origin's will, none of us three can enter freely."

"Then what do we do?"

The Ancient Barbarian Bishop's expression darkened, his aura turning wild and violent. "Are we supposed to just sit here and watch?!"

At that very moment, another Spatial Rift collapsed into a spatial storm. All three Bishops' faces shifted.

After a tense silence, the Grand Archbishop spoke:

"Offer a sacrifice to the Calamity. Request the Calamity's aid."

Everyone nodded at this.

They turned toward the Apostles behind them. Xue Han hurriedly spoke up:

"Grand Archbishop, I'll begin preparations at once."

The Grand Archbishop nodded coldly. "Make it fast. If anything else goes wrong, you know the consequences."

Xue Han nodded. "Yes!"

Land of Origin.

With Lu Yuan's strength, dealing with the Apostles and those strange human cultists — who had twisted into something more Aberration beast than human — was naturally effortless.

The only issue was that the positions Muba had given for the Aberration Sources were only approximate. Lu Yuan had to search for each one after arriving, which cost him a bit of extra time.

After that, it was simply a matter of dispatching the Saint Grade defenders, then spending a few minutes repairing each Spatial Rift.

Each one took roughly ten to twenty minutes.

After all, Lu Yuan possessed formidable spatial power. Even across the vast expanse of the Land of Origin's Upper Layer, travel took him no time at all.

In just over an hour, Lu Yuan had quelled all four Aberration Sources that Muba had mentioned. His accumulated Merits now exceeded twenty million, reaching twenty-three million two hundred thousand.

More than enough to purchase the Time Stasis Transcendent Gene.

Beyond that, having slain so many Aberration Feral Beasts, he had absorbed a massive quantity of Unknown Aura.

He could feel that the Evolution Cube's next metamorphosis wasn't far off.

He figured that once he finished dealing with the remaining Aberration Sources, the Evolution Cube would be ready to transform.

While the other Aberration Sources had sufficient personnel assigned to them, those teams were all Battle Saint-level combatants facing equally powerful Apostles. The fighting would inevitably drag on, and none of them could possibly be finished yet. Lu Yuan intended to swing by and absorb some Unknown Aura from those battles.

For the locations of the other Aberration Sources, Lu Yuan simply contacted Solomon Silver Moon and quickly got his answers.

As expected, the other Saints had only just begun engaging the Apostles. Some regions hadn't even finished rallying their forces — nowhere near the stage of repairing Spatial Rifts.

Lu Yuan vanished from where he stood, heading toward the nearest Aberration Source.

Thundering Mountain Range.

This was a vast mountain range perpetually shrouded in dark clouds and wreathed in thunder.

Its peaks soared to heights of ten thousand meters, stretching endlessly in every direction. The range teemed with both Feral Beasts and Aberration Feral Beasts in staggering numbers — a Wilderness Zone on par with Skywaste Forest.

At this moment, deep within the range, green flames blazed with fierce light.

Twisted Spatial Rifts hung among the dark clouds, and eerie Aberration fire cascaded down from above, incinerating vast swathes of forest. Several peaks had been melted by the flames, forming pools of green-glowing magma.

In this scorching hellscape, terrifying auras clashed relentlessly. Dozens of Saint Grade powerhouses battled one another amid hordes of Aberration Feral Beasts — three at Saint Grade and masses more at Sovereign Grade.

Explosions thundered without cease. Shockwaves ravaged the landscape, shattering peaks and sending magma spraying in every direction.

Leading the Aberration forces were a Night Elf Apostle and a Star Dwarf Apostle. Among those fighting them was Silas, the Star Dwarf Battle Saint Lu Yuan had met once before, alongside a tall, dark-skinned figure with crimson eyes — a Night Demon.

Silas faced off against the Star Dwarf Apostle.

The normally genial Silas now wore an expression of cold fury, grinding down his opponent with stellar power as he spoke in an icy voice:

"Abbott! Why did you join the Heavenly Calamity Cult? Why would you betray the very universe that gave us life?"

Aberration energy surged around Abbott as green flames blazed to match the stellar power blow for blow.

A twisted, fanatical grin split his face. "Elder Silas! My talent has limits. After reaching Battle Emperor, I could never advance further no matter what I tried. The universe set a ceiling for me — but the Calamity has none! Look at my power now! Even you, an Elder, are nothing special before me! Once the Calamity assimilates the universe, no one will ever hit a ceiling again."

Silas regarded Abbott's contorted expression through narrowed eyes, his face turning glacial.

"You've lost your mind. You know full well what will happen to every living thing in this universe once the Calamity assimilates it."

"So what? The Calamity will sweep across these stars regardless. Even those lofty War Gods can barely hold it back. What can you possibly do about it, Elder Silas?!"

The two continued to clash, each collision sending devastating shockwaves rippling outward.

Then a figure materialized abruptly nearby.

Both combatants were keenly attuned through Mental Power and immediately turned to look.

When Abbott saw who it was, he blinked in surprise — he hadn't expected a human.

Silas was equally startled. Then his eyes went wide with shock.

He remembered Lu Yuan well — the young man who had single-handedly held back the massive Aberration Beast Tide at the gates of Dark Night City.

He'd even believed Lu Yuan had War God potential. But what was he doing here?!

A Battle Saint's battlefield was no place for him!

Silas was about to call out a warning when Abbott had already hurled a devastating ball of Aberration fire toward Lu Yuan.

"Lu Yuan, watch out!"

Stellar light swirled in Silas's eyes as he moved to intercept — but the fireball had frozen in midair, completely motionless.

Abbott: "???"

He stared at the suspended fireball, bewildered.

Silas drew a sharp breath. "What?!"

Lu Yuan glanced at the baffled Abbott and smiled. "That eager to greet me?"

Then he turned to Silas with a grin. "Senior Silas, it's been a while. Didn't expect to find you here."

Silas recovered himself and studied Lu Yuan with an odd expression. Only now, without urgency clouding his senses, did he notice something off about Lu Yuan's aura.

On the surface it read as merely Battle Emperor level, yet the terrifying energy concealed within was enough to make even his skin crawl.

*What's going on? How does this young man have such monstrous power?*

Shock churned within him, but outwardly Silas kept his expression to one of mild puzzlement. "Lu Yuan, my boy — what brings you here?"

Lu Yuan smiled. "To help you deal with the Spatial Rifts, of course."

While the two were talking, Abbott — humiliated at being ignored — roared:

"How dare you dismiss me! You're asking to die!"

Green flames erupted around him as he charged at Lu Yuan.

A grayish-white scythe materialized above Abbott's head. It swept down in a single arc, and Abbott's body went rigid, all life draining from him in an instant.

His pupils still held a glimmer of bewilderment as his corpse began its slow descent.

Silas: "???"

He gaped at the falling body, his mind a cascade of question marks.

Abbott — who had been fighting him to a standstill just moments ago — was dead? Just like that?

And Lu Yuan had done it?!

He stared at Lu Yuan in stunned disbelief.

Lu Yuan smiled. "Senior Silas, let me take care of things here first."

He gestured toward the remaining Aberration Feral Beasts, the other Apostle, and the Aberration Servants nearby.

Silas nodded blankly.

A streak of grayish-white light flickered through Lu Yuan's eyes. The Scythe of Death struck again and again — one by one, every Saint Grade Aberration Feral Beast, every Apostle, every Aberration Servant lost their life force and drifted lifelessly to the ground.

Having learned that capturing these Apostles alive was impossible, Lu Yuan saw no reason to waste time. A swift kill was far more efficient.

And when it came to sheer killing power, the Scythe of Death far outstripped his Spatial Rift ability.

As Apostles and Aberration Servants dropped one after another, the Battle Saints who had been fighting them stood frozen in place. They stared blankly as their opponents became corpses drifting toward the earth, still struggling to process what had just happened.

Then a tremendous surge of radiant power bloomed forth. Everyone turned to look — and saw a handsome young human channeling light energy to suppress the Aberration flames and repair the Spatial Rifts.

The assembled Battle Saints stared with wide eyes.

"That light power... no Saint Grade Transcendent Gene could produce it. Is that Divine Grade?!"

"He's not one of the eight War Gods. When did a new War God appear?"

"No — wait. His cultivation level... it's only Battle Emperor?!"

"What the — ?! A Battle Emperor who's inscribed Divine Grade genes?? Has the world gone mad??"

"..."

The Battle Saints watched Lu Yuan, their expressions cycling through a kaleidoscope of disbelief.

As for Silas, standing right beside him, he had gone somewhat numb.

Divine Grade spatial power. Divine Grade death power. And now Divine Grade light power.

The young man Silas had once regarded as a promising junior had somehow become a powerhouse who eclipsed even him.

It left him feeling rather... overwhelmed.

But he quickly regained his composure. Turning to the assembled Battle Saints, he called out:

"Everyone! Lu Yuan has things handled here. We still need to deal with the Aberration Beast Tides that have spread outward and assist at other zones. Stop standing around gawking!"

His words snapped them out of it. They nodded, stole one last look at Lu Yuan, gave him respectful nods and warm smiles, then dispersed — some heading to other regions, others moving to contain the spreading Corruption.

Silas turned to Lu Yuan with a smile.

"Lu Yuan, my boy — I never imagined you'd be this powerful. Ha! Truly astonishing. With strength like this at the Battle Emperor stage... perhaps one day you'll actually break through the boundary and wipe out the extracosmic Calamity for good."

Lu Yuan returned the smile. "I'll take your good wishes to heart, Senior. I'll do my best."

Silas nodded. "I need to head to the other Aberration Sources as well. We'll talk later!"

Lu Yuan nodded. After their farewells, Silas departed.