When Lu Zhi unhesitatingly extracted Shen Qi's divine core, all the zodiacs and Lilith, who had successfully opened the connection to the Jun Ning River world, were stunned.
However, she didn't have any extra time to ponder this matter. As the passage was opened, the azure sky instantly turned pitch black, and the world plunged into endless darkness. Lilith, having fulfilled her mission, also transformed into the power to open the passage and merged into this chaos.
"What's happening?"
"Why has the sky turned black?"
"Look, what is that—"
In different directions, different regions, and at different distances across the globe, the sky was a vast expanse of black, accompanied by a terrifying aura of darkness that enveloped the world, as if the apocalypse had arrived.
Yet, within this boundless darkness, two brilliant fragments of light were clearly etched into everyone's sight.
Those two diamonds were too dazzling. One was golden and resplendent, blindingly brilliant, giving people a sense of dawn and hope. The other was white starlight entwined with a scarlet hue, radiating light and fervent courage.
Shen Qi's divine core was dug out by Lu Zhi. Losing his divine core undoubtedly meant losing his power and the symbol of his life. However, Shen Qi was, in the first place, a creation without a divine core, nor was he human. Losing his divine core didn't mean much to him.
But that was before. Now, Shen Qi was like a true god. Having lost his divine core, he would soon disappear.
Shen Qi's gaze never fell upon the divine core in Lu Zhi's palm. Instead, he tightly grasped Lu Zhi's wrist and said, "My Lord, I love you."
Lu Zhi clearly froze for a moment, then suddenly smiled with captivating charm, "Shen Qi, I love you too."
The answer he had waited for for nearly ten thousand years exploded in Shen Qi's heart like blooming fireworks. He smiled, grinning with childlike happiness for the first time. His body gradually faded until, just before disappearing completely, Shen Qi embraced Lu Zhi forcefully and then suddenly transformed into a sky full of scarlet petals, vanishing with the wind.
Lu Zhi's gaze was calm. He gently looked at the golden divine core in his palm and the mixed white and scarlet divine core within his body. He then lowered his head and softly kissed the white-shimmering divine core. The wind howled, rustling his clothes.
The next moment, Lu Zhi merged the two divine cores. Thunder suddenly crackled across the sky, accompanied by deafening thunderclaps. Amidst the crackling lightning, a monstrous rift tore open the sky. A colossal scarlet eye peered down at the earth from above. That eye was filled with endless dark desires. The moment one made eye contact, their soul seemed to be polluted, igniting the darkest aspects of their hearts.
The owner of that eye was Jun Ning He himself.
In the world created by Jun Ning He, he could converse with Lu Zhi and others in human form. His true appearance was merely a false god embodying all evils. To enter the origin world, he had to tear through the laws of heaven and descend upon the mortal realm.
At this moment, an ancient and steady voice echoed in Lu Zhi's mind, "Is it time already?"
The owner of this voice was the Dragon God, who had not appeared until now.
Among the twelve zodiacs, only the Dragon God was not created by Lu Zhi. The Dragon God was born from human faith and was the second true god besides Lu Zhi.
Years ago, after Lu Zhi learned that Shen Qi was about to disappear, he laid out three games of chess.
The first chess piece was the transmigration memory in his mind, which was essentially the chessboard he laid out. The male protagonist, Qin Huai, was the Son of Destiny chosen by Lu Zhi, who, with the help of the zodiacs, would confront Jun Ning He. Even if he couldn't kill Jun Ning He, he could ensure a brief period of peace for the world.
The second chess piece was the eleven branch worlds he and the Dragon God had created with their divine cores. By simulating the future developments in these eleven branch worlds, if the origin world was ultimately occupied by Jun Ning He, he and the Dragon God would sacrifice themselves, merge the eleven branch worlds, and create a new world, transferring all humans to it.
The third, and what Lu Zhi considered the least likely to succeed, was a game where the primary chess piece was his own survival.
Splitting a god's divine core was akin to tearing one's soul apart piece by piece, an agonizing process that could lead to instant disintegration.
Lu Zhi had originally split his divine core into twelve pieces. He placed the most crucial part within Shen Qi. Fearing that Shen Qi might discover this, he also sealed Shen Qi away.
However, what Lu Zhi never expected was that Shen Qi, learning some secret technique from somewhere, had created two clones of himself.
The original body was sealed by Lu Zhi in the ruins. One clone was raised by Shen Lu in a human identity, while the second clone collected fragments of Lu Zhi's divine core in the origin world and branch worlds, reconstructing a new divine core.
With the divine core reshaped, to revive himself, Shen Qi had to find a body capable of bearing Lu Zhi's rebirth. However, the backlash from the clone technique Shen Qi used was the loss of some memories. Only by merging all his clones could he recover normally.
But what Lu Zhi didn't anticipate was that a benevolent act before his death, using his divine blood to save the ancestor of Lu Chengxuan, allowed him to survive in human form.
Shen Qi embedded the divine core, which originally belonged to Lu Zhi, into Lu Zhi's body. The so-called borrowing of energy was actually a lie Shen Qi told Lu Zhi. After Shen Qi merged with his clone, he regained his memories, thus discovering that Lu Zhi was the divine being he had always loved.
The various events connected, and the karma sown by his good deeds allowed Lu Zhi to be reborn.
All the chessboards were overturned. The most improbable plan, driven by Shen Qi's persistent devotion, prompted Lu Zhi to complete the final step.
"Yes, it's time." The moment the two divine cores in Lu Zhi's palm merged, the heavens and earth shook violently. Golden points of light simultaneously lit up in eleven directions, like shooting stars rapidly integrating into the divine core. Those eleven golden points were the divine cores of the zodiacs.
As Lu Zhi had said, at this time, there should be no gods. The divine cores of the zodiacs were to be repossessed.
After the zodiacs' divine cores integrated into Lu Zhi's divine core, to everyone's astonishment, the zodiacs transformed back into their original forms, petrified. This was the state of the divine earth before the zodiacs were imbued with divine cores.
As the zodiacs' divine cores merged, countless shimmering points of light flew out from within humans all over the world. They were colorful, illuminating the dark sky with multicolored meteors converging at a single point.
Lu Zhi, enveloped in colorful light with his silver hair flying, looked up at Jun Ning He's scarlet eyes and said, "From beginning to end, I never intended to kill you. Because the world you created is the most suitable habitat for anomalies. But anomalies are, in essence, new souls, and they result from the incompleteness of the laws of the Dharma Realm. What I intend to do is to correct this mistake and allow the order of the world to rotate..."
The Manluo on Lu Zhi's index finger transformed into green points of light and merged into the divine core. The Tree of Life within the clock tower of the Non-natural Management Academy suddenly appeared beside Lu Zhi, holding the divine core and flying towards Jun Ning He.
As the Tree of Life, holding Lu Zhi's divine core, flew into the sky, Lu Zhi's figure gradually disappeared. Blinding light enveloped the world. In an instant, the world's time flow froze. A new underworld was born outside the origin world. Jun Ning He's consciousness was eliminated by Lu Zhi's divine core, giving birth to a new order. The Tree of Life served as the passage connecting the two worlds.
This new world, Lu Zhi called it the Underworld.
And humans called it the Ghost Realm.