Chapter 605 - 558: Evil Thought Heaven

Shi Ming leaped out of the Apocalypse Divine Artifact.

Patches of skin on his body had been burned to a crisp. They flaked off, and new skin quickly grew in their place.

A minor wound.

Nothing serious.

Due to repeated overloads, the Apocalypse Divine Artifact—a creation of the gods—was temporarily unusable. It would need at least a month to cool down, or it could be restoratively upgraded using the Brain of Creation.

But considering the outcome of this battle, such a loss was completely insignificant.

The battle was over.

It ended with the complete annihilation of four pseudo-gods.

...

...

...

[You have slain Bertutan, the last traitor.]

[As his body was utterly annihilated, the Eye of Destiny saw his blurry trump card clearly. It was a power from an alien species, sharing the same root as the power of the ancient evil, "Evil Thought Heaven." After Bertutan’s death, this power did not completely dissipate. Instead, it tightly bound itself to the origin of "Emptiness"...]

[This may lead to some other discoveries.]

[...]

[Countless historical events have proven that the sturdiest Pillar Stones are the most susceptible to rot. From this perspective, the fall of the old gods and the demise of the First Civilization Cosmic Country were indeed foregone conclusions.]

...

...

...

With no time to take stock of his spoils, Shi Ming turned his inner gaze toward the Colorful Insect in his Sea of Spirit and taunted the creature, which was also one of the alien species:

"It seems you’ve truly had a satisfactory rebirth."

"I should even thank you."

"If it weren’t for your early warning, I never would have predicted that this pseudo-god’s trump card was the remnant power of the legendary ancient evil, [Evil Thought Heaven]. Heh heh... a Dragon of Emptiness plus Bertutan plus the power of an ancient evil... that would have nearly been another bloody battle."

"And you helped me avoid such a bloody battle."

"You also reminded me—just as the gods said, disaster and the alien species are never far away. If even the most powerful pseudo-gods can be tempted and corrupted by the power of the alien species, how many other beings in this starry sky have been tainted by them without anyone knowing?"

Shi Ming’s words were dripping with sarcasm. He knew, of course, that the Colorful Insect’s warning was a pure coincidence. Or rather, the creature hadn’t been giving a warning at all; it was just an irrepressible mix of confusion and joy upon encountering one of its own kind.

For the insect, it was instinct.

Only Shi Ming himself, with his sensitivity and sharp perception of such changes, could deduce the nature of Bertutan’s trump card from that small detail. He then decisively used the already overloaded Apocalypse Divine Artifact to swiftly crush the threat in its infancy.

Just as predicted in [Tributary 32: Delayed Judgment]:

It was a hard-won victory, but fortunately, everything had been handled in the best possible way.

The Colorful Insect remained silent.

Through a series of strange coincidences, it had already helped Shi Ming several times.

Not once had it been intentional.

The first time, it was captured by Shi Ming in the Banded Dream Realm and suppressed within the Hundred-Floor Celestial Tower. Its power significantly boosted Shi Ming’s five-dimensional stats and allowed him to call upon the abilities of a natural disaster.

The second time, during the fusion with [Zero], it was used as a power bank, constantly drained to provide the nourishment for [Zero]’s rebirth.

The third time, during a combined attack from five pseudo-gods, it was used as a shield to block a massive joint attack consisting of five different numbered Nirvana skills.

The fourth time, when slaying Huang Ji, it was used as a secret weapon. Its Colorful power was used to indirectly contaminate Huang Ji, turning the highly resilient pseudo-god into Shi Ming’s slave amidst the contamination and rendering all her resurrection methods useless.

And the fifth time, today, a simple, instinctual twitch was used as a radar to detect the crisis from the ancient evil...

’Damned human.’

’So cunning.’

’One day, I will escape your suppression! I will make you pay back a thousand, a hundred thousand times over for the losses I’ve suffered at your hands.’

The Colorful Insect made its own solemn vow.

Shi Ming paid it no more mind.

The power of Emptiness had vanished, and Bertutan’s corpse had turned to ash. The battlefield had returned to normal. Unfortunately, the Divine Satellite had shattered into pieces. A vast amount of spoils drifted in the void, mixed in with the fragments, each one like a Gold Coin dropped by the old-timers.

Some could be salvaged and reused, while others were quite dangerous and required special methods to handle.

...

...

...

Amonev emerged from her hidden state, cloaked in starlight, and stood suspended in space, gazing at the ruined battlefield.

Once again, Shi Ming’s methods had surpassed her understanding.

That floating black mecha looked very familiar. Wasn’t it the [Apocalypse Divine Artifact], ranked second in the Divine Treasure Vault? With its hefty price of ten million Civilization Stones, it had never been redeemed in the entire long history of the First Civilization Cosmic Country. To take out Bertutan in a single blow... the Apocalypse Divine Artifact’s power was so immense, it was truly worthy of its price.

And the origin that Bertutan left behind after his death... it seemed a little strange, didn’t it?

She had too many questions.

Fortunately, the outcome was good.

Huang Ji, Candela, Herakrode, Bertutan... all four usurpers had been judged. The commission the gods had left for her upon their fall could finally be completed. The secrets and burdens of one hundred twenty thousand years could now, at last, be set down. As for the "Heart of Chaos," which could now be activated... in the current situation, it had become insignificant.

It was less a source of power or a legacy and more of an even heavier burden.

One hundred twenty thousand years had passed.

Amonev wanted to be free, just this once.

"Shi Ming, that is..."

She looked toward the origin of [Emptiness] that Bertutan had left behind.

The clear [Emptiness] was now coated in an iridescent sheen, emitting a dangerous and alluring aura that reminded Amonev of some bad memories from over a hundred thousand years ago.

"Bertutan’s origin of [Emptiness] has fused with power from the ancient evil, [Evil Thought Heaven]. The latter was Bertutan’s true trump card when he backstabbed the gods, and it’s also the evidence of this pseudo-god’s collusion with the alien species."

"???"

The origin of Emptiness had been tainted.

Shi Ming’s gaze locked onto it as he activated the power of his Eye of Destiny. When the power of Evil Thought Heaven was inside Bertutan’s body, the Eye of Destiny couldn’t see through it completely. But now that it was fully exposed before the Eye of Destiny, perhaps he could analyze it for some special intelligence.

[BEEP. BEEP.]

[Gathering intelligence... Intelligence report generated.]

[Evil Thought Source Blood]

[The root blood of the four great ancient evils. It contains an extremely complex power from the alien species. Activating its power allows one to use the skills and pressure of an ancient evil, temporarily gaining its abilities. When fused with powers born from the starry sky, it can achieve a 1+1 > 2 effect, but the user will also be contaminated and assimilated by the power of the alien species.]

[Danger Level: Five Stars.]

[Do not utilize before the Eye of Destiny evolves into the Eye of the Divine.]

[Sealing required.]