King of Flesh

Child of the Cosmos?

Lu Yuan froze for a moment, then it hit him—he had merged with the Cosmic Origin. In a sense, he truly could be called a Child of the Cosmos.

*This creature can see the Cosmic Origin inside me?*

A weight settled in his chest. He stared at the skinless humanoid monstrosity and spoke:

"What are you?"

The humanoid creature studied Lu Yuan with deep green eyes. Its voice was hoarse, though noticeably more fluent than before:

"I am the King of Flesh—one of the Three Kings serving the Mother of Aberration."

*Not the Aberrant Beast Mother Nest itself?*

Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed, his expression growing graver still.

*The Mother of Aberration... is the most powerful entity within the Aberrant Beast Mother Nest?*

*If that's the case, then the King of Flesh—merely one of her subordinates—already wields this level of power. How strong must the Mother of Aberration herself be?*

*No... the King of Flesh probably isn't even at full strength yet. What would he be like at his peak?*

The pressure bearing down on Lu Yuan felt immense.

*If even a single descended avatar of one of the Mother of Aberration's servants is this powerful, how far do I need to advance before I can destroy the Mother Nest?*

Thoughts raced through his mind. Before him, the King of Flesh's aura surged and turned savage.

The creature's lips curled into a vicious grin:

"How unexpected—to encounter a Child of the Cosmos here. Once I kill you, this universe will be ours for the taking."

Lu Yuan met the creature's gaze and returned a cold smile of his own:

"This universe isn't yours to claim. And I'm not so easy to kill."

The King of Flesh said nothing. He extended his right hand toward Lu Yuan, then clenched it in a violent fist.

Lu Yuan stiffened. He felt the flesh within his own body rebel against his control—blood vessels rupturing, muscle detonating.

**Boom.** Both his hands exploded into crimson mist, and the destruction threatened to crawl further along his arms toward his torso.

In that instant, Spirit Power surged around him. A clock hand materialized, and the blood mist reversed course, flowing backward through time until his hands were whole once more.

He fixed the King of Flesh with a wary gaze, shock reverberating through him.

He'd known this creature was dangerous. He'd been on guard from the very start—and still it had gotten through.

Seeing his attack undone, the King of Flesh thrust both hands forward to strike again.

But Spirit Power was already roiling around Lu Yuan, his aura swelling far beyond what it had been moments before.

From the surrounding darkness, Shadow Divine Messengers materialized en masse.

Bronze sand swirled around each one—Sands of Time granting them acceleration.

Simultaneously, they activated the full enhancement effects of Cosmic Body and Life Spirit, their combined presence becoming nothing short of terrifying.

Every Shadow Divine Messenger raised its dark greatsword and brought it crashing down toward the King of Flesh.

**Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!**

Devastating sword light tore through space, the force behind each strike immense.

The King of Flesh abandoned his assault on Lu Yuan. The deep green of his eyes flared into blinding brilliance.

He let out a guttural roar. Horrifying green radiance erupted across his body, and green ripples expanded outward in every direction.

Under the wash of those ripples, every Shadow Divine Messenger was sent hurtling backward, their forms flickering and growing translucent.

The green radiance blazing from the King of Flesh erupted like a catastrophic Spirit Power detonation—a pillar of green light rocketed skyward, shredding through both the Shadow Divine Kingdom and the Sands of Time domains, punching clean through them almost instantaneously.

And it didn't stop there. The green pillar pierced straight through the Blood of Machinery's colossal mechanical fortress. A column of green light now ran through the planet-sized stronghold from top to bottom, splitting it through its core.

As the green ripples swept outward, Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened. His body vanished from where he stood, dodging the attack entirely.

He glanced at the shattered remnants of Shadow Divine Kingdom and Sands of Time. Rather than restoring either domain, he deliberately let both dissipate.

Against enemies weaker than him—or even those roughly his equal or slightly stronger—those two domains served him well.

But against the King of Flesh, who could shatter both with ease, their constraining effect was negligible. Worse, they would drag down Lu Yuan's own performance.

After all, maintaining two domains simultaneously demanded a constant investment of focus and Spirit Power.

With both domains dismissed, Lu Yuan hovered opposite the King of Flesh, wisps of Sands of Time flowing around his body.

He locked the power of time into a constant effect over himself. It might not significantly affect the King of Flesh, but for Lu Yuan personally, the temporal enhancement remained enormously powerful.

At the same time, golden light blazed in his eyes like twin rising suns, and Radiant Fire ignited across his body.

Since Shadow Divine Kingdom was no longer useful, he would switch to Heart of Light.

Pushing Heart of Light to its fullest, dense waves of radiant power spread outward in every direction, colliding with the green ripples. Thunderous booms echoed without end as shockwaves ran wild, carving cracks across the entire great hall. The remaining flesh tentacles thrashed wildly, fine lacerations splitting open across their surfaces.

Yet the radiant power gave ground before the green ripples, compressed steadily backward until it held only a small zone around Lu Yuan—unable to compare with the green energy, barely holding on.

Nearby, Kro and Garton's eyes flickered. They erupted with green radiance of their own, forming shields as they struggled to withstand even the residual shockwaves.

The two Aberration-corrupted War Gods of the Mechanical Race exchanged a glance and saw the same horror mirrored in each other's faces.

They were War God-level powerhouses, after all.

And yet in this battle, simply weathering the shockwaves had become a desperate ordeal.

The implications were staggering. Whether it was their Lord or this human, both possessed strength that far exceeded anything they had imagined.

But Lu Yuan wasn't finished. Even as Heart of Light blazed at full intensity, phantom stars materialized around him—slowly coalescing, then detonating in cycles of cosmic birth and death.

Cosmic Body.

With Cosmic Body fully unleashed, Lu Yuan's aura surged another level higher.

Terrifying force pushed the green ripples back, gradually expanding outward until it had fully neutralized the King of Flesh's overwhelming pressure.

Then spectral flowers and verdant trees bloomed around him, and the quiet melody of a song of life drifted through the air.

Life Spirit.

Though Life Spirit was a Healer Type Combat Technique, it also provided a measure of self-enhancement.

At this point, Lu Yuan was stacking every possible buff regardless of type—if it could boost him, it was activated.

Under Life Spirit's amplification, Lu Yuan's presence finally matched the King of Flesh's. Their clashing auras collided in midair, tearing space apart, constant thunderous detonations echoing in every direction.

Throughout the Blood of Machinery fortress, sections that couldn't withstand the collision of their auras simply exploded. Weaker members of Blood of Machinery were crushed outright by stray shockwaves, reduced to fragments—not even Battle King or Battle Sovereign-rank fighters were spared.

Only those at Battle Emperor and Battle Saint level could barely endure the onslaught.

**BOOM!!**

As section after section crumbled, the entire mechanical fortress finally detonated in a brilliant cascade of fire, reduced to nothing.

Battle Emperors, Battle Saints, and the two War Gods Kro and Garton—every one of them burst from the inferno, staring back at the blazing wreckage with something close to terror.

Among the Blood of Machinery members, more than a few Battle Emperors bore wounds. Some were missing limbs entirely—all casualties of the shockwaves and the explosion.

A Battle Saint-level member of Blood of Machinery looked at Kro and Garton standing nearby, fear carved into his face:

"My Lords, what happened? What... what is that thing in there?!"

Kro and Garton exchanged a glance. Then Garton turned to the Battle Saint, surveyed the other terrified subordinates, and after a moment's pause spoke with fervent intensity:

"Our Lord has descended into this universe. However, he is currently locked in battle with a powerful enemy!"

At the first words, every Blood of Machinery member's face lit up with elation.

But the second half froze those expressions in place.

It dawned on them—no wonder the energy fluctuations had been so catastrophic.

It was their Lord!

But someone could actually fight him to a standstill?

They could hardly believe it.

Every one of them was a mid-to-high-ranking member of Blood of Machinery. They knew exactly who that Lord within the fortress was. They had assumed that once he fully descended, they could annihilate this entire universe.

Yet there existed a being in this universe capable of matching him?

Reading their expressions, Kro spoke in a cold, hard voice:

"Rest assured. It won't be long before our Lord crushes the enemy completely. When that time comes, he will lead us to corrupt the entire Mechanical Kingdom—and after that, the other three races. Aberration shall descend!"

Fanatical fire blazed across every face.

"Follow our Lord!"

"Aberration shall descend!"

While the Blood of Machinery members rallied behind their war cries, Lu Yuan finished pushing himself to the absolute peak of his current power within the flames.

In truth, ever since acquiring Shadow Divine Kingdom, Lu Yuan had rarely fought in person. The Shadow Divine Messengers were formidable enough that most situations never called for him to enter the battlefield himself.

But now he had no choice.

Shadow Divine Messengers possessed eighty percent of Lu Yuan's strength, yet they couldn't wield Heart of Light. Their self-enhancement fell far short of what Lu Yuan could achieve in his true body.

Moreover, the radiant power generated by Heart of Light could weaken enemies—making direct combat the clear optimal choice.

With Cosmic Body, Life Spirit, and Heart of Light all fully activated, the phantom of the Wheel of Fate surfaced in Lu Yuan's eyes. He applied Fortune to himself.

Bronze Sands of Time continued to orbit him in a perpetual loop, ensuring his Spirit Power never depleted—keeping him locked at absolute peak condition at every moment.

And then, around Lu Yuan, massive mechanical Spirit Cannons materialized one after another. Hundreds of them.

Every single one was a Divine Grade Spirit Cannon of Lu Yuan's own creation, empowered through Mechanical Apotheosis to devastating effect.

Every cannon barrel swiveled toward the distant King of Flesh and began charging terrifying blasts of Spirit Power.