Li Zhexian, together with Qian Renxue, Zhu Zhuqing, and the others, was jointly constructing a Spiritual Energy Pillar.
With casual motions of his hand—
Divine power wove together like threads of silk.
Condensing into radiant bricks engraved with profound and abstruse laws.
They were then stacked steadily in place.
The speed at which Li Zhaixian alone carried out the repairs was already comparable to the combined efforts of all the gods.
Even though Li Zhexian had clearly stated that there existed a way to resolve the impending calamity,
making additional preparations was never a mistake.
Thus, the reconstruction of the Divine Realm's defensive system continued at full intensity.
The gods' gazes frequently drifted—seemingly unintentionally—toward Li Zhexian, their faces filled with awe and reverence.
Divine thoughts quietly exchanged in secret.
"Supreme God King… Could Sword Lord's current strength already rival that of the ancient Dragon God?"
"Sword Lord still bears the karmic burden of Spirit Beasts. Has he truly reached the point of severing the Divine Realm's laws with a single sword strike?"
Amid the gods' murmurs,
the God of Destruction and the Goddess of Life moved swiftly toward Li Zhexian.
Qian Renxue, Zhu Zhuqing, and the others frowned, instinctively stepping forward to block their path.
"Let them come."
Hearing Li Zhexian's words,
they stepped aside.
The God of Destruction approached Li Zhexian, gazing at the radiant figure before him—whose aura alone now made him tremble—his eyes flickering with complicated emotions.
He remembered…
Back when he had proposed expanding the Divine Realm to the Sword Lord,
this youth had arrogantly declared that he could cleave apart space-time storm with a single sword strike.
Now, it seemed,
perhaps those words had not been empty bravado.
The God of Destruction remained silent for a long while, then—together with the Goddess of Life—slowly bowed to Li Zhexian.
"Because of my extremism, I committed a grave mistake."
"Fortunately, the Divine Realm has you—only thus does it retain hope of surviving this calamity."
"Otherwise, if the Divine Realm were exiled into the cosmos because of me, I, Destruction… even ten thousand deaths would not atone for such sin."
Li Zhaixian set a brick of laws firmly into place.
Only then did he turn around.
Looking at the dejected God of Destruction, he let out a soft sigh.
Among the God Kings, the God of Destruction had always been the most diligent.
The present situation—
his original intention had been for the future of the Divine Realm,
yet it had brought about consequences too heavy to bear.
"Sword Lord…"
The God of Destruction tugged at the corner of his mouth and spoke slowly:
"Life and I have already discussed this."
"Once the Divine Realm survives this calamity…"
"We will descend to the lower realms and undergo a hundred lifetimes of reincarnation."
"Thus shall we atone for my sins, and personally experience the suffering of all living beings."
Li Zhexian smiled and nodded.
"Very well."
From then on,
the gods continued constructing the Divine Realm's defenses day and night without rest.
At some point,
Li Zhexian ceased participating directly in the construction.
Instead, he sat cross-legged with eyes closed upon a great star.
The divine power surging around him stirred the star river into rolling waves.
He needed to maintain peak condition
to confront the space-time storm that could arrive at any moment.
Only when the gods' divine power was on the verge of exhaustion would he activate his Wine Martial Soul, restoring everyone to perfect condition.
"Truly… unfathomable…"
From time to time, the Sea God would glance toward the figure seated upon the great star.
After sighing in admiration,
he would then head toward the fringes of the Divine Realm.
There, he searched the void for fragments of law bricks scattered across the cosmos after the collapse of the Spiritual Energy Pillars.
If these fragments could be recovered, reorganized, and their laws continued,
they could be reused—saving immense effort in reconstruction.
Whoosh—
Whoosh—
The sea transformed into tendrils of perception,
spreading through the silent star field.
He carefully sensed the residual law fluctuations within the broken bricks.
Just as a wave lifted one such fragment, about to draw it into his grasp—
the fragment suddenly began to tremble faintly.
"Hmm?"
The Sea God frowned deeply.
A sudden sense of unease surged in his heart.
He raised his head,
gazing into the depths of the cosmos.
As far as his eyes could see, there was only endless profundity—no visible abnormality in the universe.
The Sea God knitted his brows and pondered for several breaths.
Then suddenly, brilliant divine light burst from his eyes, his pupils turning blue-gold.
His gaze pierced through layer after layer of star fields,
reaching toward a distance so remote it was beyond measurement.
And then—
he saw it.
A chaotic tide stretching across the entire universe, like a colossal flood sweeping over sand-built castles, silently dismantling one star region after another.
Stars were extinguished, peeling away inch by inch like weathered bones, dissolving into slowly spreading clouds of cosmic dust.
Wherever it passed,
even space-time itself was crushed,
reverting to the primordial chaos before its birth.
Even separated by countless star rivers, witnessing entire star fields being annihilated in swathes, the Sea God felt a chill explode from the depths of his divine consciousness. The divine power surging through his body nearly froze.
"Space-time storm… has arrived!"
He no longer dared delay. Transforming into a streak of azure light, he rushed back at the fastest speed of his life.
The Sea God crashed down into the Divine Realm's central region, his face deathly pale as he roared hoarsely:
"Space-time storm—has arrived!!!"
In an instant,
all sound vanished.
Then panic erupted among the gods.
"How could it arrive so quickly?!"
Not even three Spiritual Energy Pillars had been built; they likely wouldn't be of any use.
But these were, after all, gods who had experienced tens of thousands of years of ups and downs. After a brief moment of alarm, they all calmed down.
Boom!
Boom!
One after another, divine radiance erupted, multicolored godly lights interweaving and surging.
The star region was illuminated more brilliantly than if ten thousand suns were burning at once.
Ji Dong, Kindness, Asura, Destruction, and Life—the five great God Kings—stood at the forefront of the gods, each gripping their exclusive super divine artifacts, expressions grave.
"Resist the space-time storm!"
Just as battle intent surged to its peak—
Boom!
The massive star shattered.
Li Zhexian stood calmly before the five God Kings, the Qinglian Sword in hand.
"Resist the space-time storm."
Space-time storm involved the laws of time and space; in a single instant, it could cross tens of thousands of star regions, allowing no time to breathe.
Li Zhexian and the five God Kings transformed into streaks of light and surged forward first, with three thousand gods following closely behind, racing beyond the Divine Realm's frontier.
"The Divine Realm's defenses are empty—under no circumstances can we allow the spacetime storm to approach the star region where the Divine Realm resides!"
Deeply versed in the laws of space and time, Li Zhexian shouted sharply:
"Otherwise, once space-time collapses and laws invert, it will be a situation of eternal annihilation!"
"Understood!"
The gods responded in unison, their voices shaking the star river.
They crossed more than ten star regions and halted before a lifeless expanse of space.
Then—
whether ordinary gods or the five God Kings—
their faces all turned pale.
The scene in the distance
could no longer be described as merely a "disaster."
Stars flickered like dying candles in the wind; nebulae were torn into shredded wisps.
Space was cracking. Time lost its direction.
Extinguished suns, fragments of star regions, and even shattered laws were all being swept into the chaotic tide devouring the universe, becoming part of it.
Before such a cosmic terror capable of swallowing all existence,
even God Kings felt themselves as insignificant as dust.
"Evil, Kindness, Destruction, Life!"
The Asura God leveled his sword forward.
Ji Dong and the other four God Kings raised their super divine tools, unleashing godly power so immense that the entire star region trembled.
Li Zhexian gripped the Qinglian Sword and summoned the Clear Spring Wine Gourd.
Ten Spirit Rings rose one by one beneath his feet.
Among them, the two Spirit Rings representing the Silver Dragon King and the Gold Dragon King suddenly flared with resplendent divine radiance, illuminating the entire star region…