Chapter 354: Banquet

The entire city had been reduced to scorched earth. On top of that, every sect member who had been there had died brutally. Outside the city, in the divine mountains, there were still people alive, but they were all terrified and hiding, not daring to emit even the slightest fluctuation.

Outside the planet, the fleet of Flying Warships remained stationary.

Inside the one carrying the leadership, Dandara held Mirra in her arms. Beside her were Mishnar and the entire Elder army, all watching the planet covered in dark clouds.

Everyone was stunned. Only Dandara and Mirra remained calm and silent, trusting that everything would be fine.

Meanwhile, the Heavenly River Valley Sect still had no idea what was happening. The world’s laws had created a domain within the planet, preventing the members’ life plaques from activating even after their deaths.

"What the hell is he planning..." one of the Elders muttered tensely.

This event was a clear attack on the Heavenly River Valley Sect. As soon as everything was over, a diplomatic crisis between the two sects would erupt like a storm.

No one could even imagine anything that would justify Priam’s actions. But at the same time, they knew he wasn’t a fool.

...

Back on the planet.

After everyone else died, the clouds began to churn violently, and countless bolts of lightning accumulated.

"That was just a warm-up? Now it’s getting serious?!" Priam’s expression involuntarily changed when he realized this.

At first, he thought he had gotten lucky and that his plan would work perfectly. He would focus on absorbing the small amount of Life energy... but now, he realized just how wrong he had been.

Those bolts had only been the prelude. Now the true punitive trial of the heavens was about to begin.

The previous intensity had been enough to annihilate even the main Elder of this place. How powerful would this attack have to be if it was focused entirely on him?

"Fuck it! Bring it on! I’ve never had anything easy in any of my lives! I’m already used to getting fucked over!" Priam roared.

This was already his third life of tribulations.

In this one, he had gained far more than anyone could ever dream of; but... as that superhero movie he had watched on Earth used to say: With great power comes great responsibility.

He was always five steps ahead of anyone at the same level as him. But he was also equally close to danger, under extreme pressure to never make a mistake. That pressure sometimes made him wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to never have had the System and simply be more normal.

Even if he were a million times slower, perhaps that would have been a safer way to live and continue advancing. With his willpower and focus, he had no doubt he could reach the top that way.

But... that option didn’t exist.

*BUZZZ!*

The entire sky hummed ominously.

An endless destructive will was directed at him.

Priam clenched his fists and remained at his peak.

**KBOOOOM!**

A dense bolt of lightning descended from the heavens. The lightning enveloped Priam and dozens of meters around him.

His clothes were torn apart, and uncontrolled energy spread in every direction, with Priam at the center.

**RUMBLE!**

The ground seemed to turn into water, and a massive ripple spread out from the terrifying energy.

Everything that wave passed over was instantly destroyed. One of the planet’s divine mountains, the one closest to him... completely collapsed, sending a wave of earth and dust into the air.

Everyone there died with their eyes wide open.

As for Priam, inside that dense bolt of lightning, his skin split open, spraying blood. Even with his powerful physical body, he couldn’t withstand that fierce attack. The first strike was enough to injure him.

"Fuck, keep trying!" Priam roared crazily.

The pain had deeply irritated him, causing his fury and will to live to explode. There were countless people waiting for him, and he wanted to take care of all of them. He couldn’t die there, no matter what happened.

**BOOM! BOOOM!! BOOOOM!!!**

As if provoked, the lightning struck even harder, again and again. The entire planet trembled and cracked apart.

Priam coughed up blood nonstop. His wounds had reached the point where it was almost possible to see his bones, but he still gritted his teeth and laughed madly.

Facing this Celestial Punishment, enhanced because of the main Elder, was truly insane.

But danger always brought opportunities with it.

"Keep coming! Fuck your laws!"

**KBOOOOM!**

The force of the thunder made Priam’s vision go dark. He nearly passed out, feeling the piercing pain even in his soul, but... what did pain mean to him?

He had lived as a slave for an immeasurable amount of time, enduring all kinds of pain and experiments. He had even been tortured by the Sovereigns when he was nothing more than a fragile soul.

Priam clenched his teeth hard and endured, endured, and endured.

That was his true superpower.

No matter what situation he was facing, he would endure, because it would eventually pass. Nothing in this world was capable of making him bow his head and give up.

[Synthesize?] [Yes / No]

He accepted again, and again, and again.

Priam was creating the Power Rune: Celestial Nourishment over and over without stopping.

This was an extremely high-level synthesis that could completely absorb energy coming from the heavens. Then, it would settle into his body and fuse with his flesh. Over time, it separated the destruction energy from the life energy, allowing him to absorb only the life energy.

But the power was absurdly aggressive and vast. He could only create one Power Rune at a time, and it filled up extremely quickly, forcing him to endure everything else for a few seconds.

The runes filled up and settled into his body. He created another one, and the process continued.

At the same time, he was focused on healing himself, using his Pristine Core and the energy of nature on his own. He was burning through the huge amounts of accumulated liquid Ether like crazy.

He was like a lion cub trying to devour a hippopotamus ten times bigger than itself. It was incredibly difficult.

But he was pleased to discover that he was actually managing it, and within mere minutes, hundreds of Nourishment Runes were accumulating inside his body.

It was a last-minute plan with very little room for maneuvering—something Priam normally didn’t like doing. But he was actually managing to benefit from all of this.

"SEND MORE!"

He was covered in blood, and his entire body was nothing more than a mass of ground meat in humanoid form, but he didn’t stop cursing. In fact, he started cursing even louder. He needed those words to remind himself that he was still alive.

That could be considered truly living too, right?

But even though he was shouting and full of fighting spirit... the heavens didn’t seem like they were going to stop punishing him anytime soon. Worse... it seemed like this wasn’t even the final level.

He had already used up two-thirds of the liquid Ether he had stored.

’Fuck... at this rate, I’m really going to die.’

He could only endure bitterly, thinking desperately.

"?"

Then, he noticed something encouraging.

His physical body was automatically absorbing the excess life energy.

His physique was naturally becoming stronger. It was a luxury training session! However, this method was completely insane and brutal.

Priam’s eyes widened.

Although he seemed to be in a terrible situation right now, the life energy was actually altering his mortal structure!

’Wait... could it be...’

Priam’s heart pounded wildly at a crazy idea.

*BOOOM!!!*

An even heavier-than-average bolt of lightning struck him, interrupting his excitement. Priam nearly fell to his knees and passed out, but barely managed to endure it.

When he looked up... the black clouds in the sky suddenly shrank, forming a ball. The clouds that had stretched for hundreds of kilometers shrank to less than 100 kilometers.

As soon as the clouds gathered together, the world immediately fell silent.

The sky and earth were plunged into a deathly silence. It was as if time itself had frozen.

Priam suddenly felt every hair on his body stand on end. An intense sensation of death enveloped him.

’Well... let’s give it a shot. It’s all or nothing...’

Taking advantage of that brief moment of peace, Priam focused on the Nexus Seed.

Inside was 1 Creation Rune, obtained from the last Sorcerer he had captured and read the memories of.

He was an old man whose power was equivalent to a Level 1 Philosopher Sage. As such, he had countless Celestial Bodies under his control, and even several planets.

[Domain Synthesis]

[Use?] [Yes / No]

He accepted immediately.

Then, he felt a very subtle connection with countless distant Celestial Bodies.

Priam quickly focused on the hundreds of comets. He had to reestablish a solid connection with them now; none of them truly belonged to him yet.

*Crack*

A muffled sound echoed from within his body.

’Level 3!’

*Crack!*

’Level 4!’

That life energy had truly changed his body for the better, allowing it to adapt more easily to the Creation Essence.

Priam took a deep breath, feeling the rejection return. It had only been two levels.

But...

He looked toward the heavens.

The banquet isn’t over yet.