Chapter 138: Return of the Heavenly Emperor

"Souls govern the spirit, auras govern the physical form, birth, reincarnation, soul and aura..."

A flash of inspiration struck Sangsang's mind, bringing a vague sense of enlightenment. Though deep contemplation made the thought slightly hazy, she vaguely realized that the guidance of the Saint of a Hundred Flowers could perhaps be expressed through an alternative method to achieve the effect of communicating with the origin. However, there was no time for experimentation at the moment.

"Considering that you helped me a great deal, I'll spare your life."

Sangsang watched coldly as the Great Sun Divine Lord struck the imposing posture of an Imperial Star God. Despite his tender age, his majesty was immense as he subdued subordinates and overawed the officials. The moment he ascended to the position of Crown Prince, she stripped away the power of faith gathered upon him. Then, she timed it precisely to smash her hourglass like a brick, reducing his physical body left behind into a pulp of flesh and mud, while using her other hand to extract the shattered pieces of the Time Star, storing them into her own sea of consciousness.

In his moment of triumph, the reincarnated Great Sun Divine Lord was stripped of his holy light by a massive hand descending from the heavens. Mortals, unaware of the inner story, simply assumed he had been abandoned by the heavens. Consequently, his supporters turned against him and his followers deserted him, plunging his days into extreme misery.

Although Sangsang did not kill him, without the protection of the holy light, the seven emotions and six desires invaded his mind. His original intent gradually became obscured, leaving him unable to transcend. He was doomed to cycle endlessly through rebirths within illusions until his soul was ultimately annihilated.

The moment Sangsang stepped out of the *Divine Tomb*, she felt the space outside trembling—no, the entire space-time was vibrating.

Little Gold landed on her shoulder. "Let's get out quickly. It must be the Heavenly Emperor returning."

Aside from the Heavenly Emperor, who else could cause such massive space-time fluctuations!

Sangsang agreed wholeheartedly. Putting away the *Divine Tomb*, she was just a step too slow to open the barrier; space-time had already collapsed. Wielding the Piercing Annihilation Spear, the Heavenly Emperor burst out from the collapsed void. Upon spotting Sangsang, he cried out in joyful surprise.

"It's great that you're here! Quickly stabilize it, don't waste any, the amount this time is super huge!"

Without him needing to say it, Sangsang already knew that the destructive aura caused by this space-time collapse was far greater than the previous two times. Tucking Little Gold into her collar, she deployed the Time Hourglass to stabilize space-time and prevent the collapse from spreading, then joined the Heavenly Emperor in devouring the energy voraciously.

Holding the spear in one hand and a flyswatter in the other, the Heavenly Emperor drove the energy forward while swallowing it down. He snatched two-thirds of it, leaving Sangsang with only one third.

The Time Hourglass lost its effect and dropped. The destructive force vanished, and the powerful elasticity of space-time rapidly repaired the collapsed opening, quickly erasing any trace of the passage. Even the tremors and fluctuations disappeared along with it.

The Heavenly Emperor let out a satisfying burp. "I'm so full. Accompany me to sleep for a while."

Before Sangsang could refuse, he waved his hand toward a certain direction, muttered something about "not looking at anything improper," erected a space-time barrier, and fell backward.

Sangsang shook her head, slapped him across the head, and entered the Heavenly Emperor's sea of consciousness, only to be startled.

"Why has your sea of consciousness expanded so much? Just how long have you been drifting in the gaps of time?!"

"I didn't count, probably a few decades or a hundred years?" the Heavenly Emperor said while exhaling and inhaling the space-time destructive force. Compared to the first time, the destructive force now appeared much more docile in his hands. Only a small portion escaped the control of the space-time flyswatter, but before it could stir up any trouble in the sea of consciousness, it was scooped up by a fishing net formed from devoured stars bursting forth from the depths.

Sangsang nodded. "No wonder the starry path is unobstructed and your dharma form is externally manifested; you've already reached the early Void Stage."

The Heavenly Emperor puffed out his chest proudly, feigning modesty as he said, "Not at all, not at all. I actually wanted to jump straight to the middle Void Stage and break your record. Unfortunately, my breakthrough was too hasty and my accumulation wasn't enough, so I only reached the second tier of the Void Stage. I finally found the correct time and broke through space-time just in time to reach the third tier. I'm still far behind you, though—your space-time laws are already on the verge of the fifth realm."

"The time of the Great Sun Divine Lord is quite nourishing. My space realm reached the fifth realm long ago, but time was still lagging slightly. Devouring him was just right, and your harvests from this drifting journey weren't small either."

The two ceased their idle chatter and each began to cultivate.

Once Sangsang finished purifying and absorbing the devoured space-time destructive force, the Heavenly Emperor—lacking the assistance of the space-time origin—had only completed a little less than half of his transformation and still needed some time. Therefore, she tuned her soul fluctuations to match the Heavenly Emperor's band, absorbing his experience in breaking through the spatial realm while simultaneously sharing his insights into the laws.

By the time the Heavenly Emperor finished converting the space-time destructive force, Sangsang had already digested most of the experience and insights he had accumulated during this period, putting her on the verge of a breakthrough at any moment.

Sangsang opened her eyes to find the Heavenly Emperor's face less than an inch away from hers. Her gaze instantly shifted.

"I was just smelling to see if there was any bloody stench on you," the Heavenly Emperor chuckled, rubbing his head and backing away. "Hahaha, not stinky at all, it's actually quite fragrant. I'll go check outside."

Sangsang remained silent, flipping her hand to produce a sword, and lashed out at his face.

The Heavenly Emperor yelped as he dodged. "I'll talk, I'll talk! It was Little Gold who said a sleeping beauty is awakened by a prince's kiss!"

"I didn't, that's frame-up!" Little Gold shouted. Seeing Sangsang look toward him, he stepped his left foot on his right foot and covered his eyes with both hands. "I only told a fairytale."

"I'll beat you first before talking," Sangsang ground her teeth. A single sword shattered into a thousand needles, forming a formation that surrounded and pursued the Heavenly Emperor. "Why are you dodging? Fight back!"

The Heavenly Emperor leaped forward, summoned the flyswatter into his hand, and struck a pose. "You said it yourself, I'm a tier higher than you now. Don't cry if you lose."

The two shifted around within the small barrier. Sangsang's moves were novel, and she hadn't yet repeated a single one, whereas the Heavenly Emperor relied on a single trick to conquer all situations, using the flyswatter to deal with whatever came his way.

The outside world was far from peaceful either. Aided by Little Gold, the intern judgment knights who had been locked inside the restricted temple regained their freedom. However, the lockdown had only fueled the arrogance of the Seven-Color Civilization, who showed zero fear of the special status of the judgment knights. Even the rebellious staff of the cathedral had only dared to lock them up, but the leaders of the Seven-Color Civilization dared to assemble an aerial combat legion with the intent of driving the intern judgment knights to their deaths.

It was the interns' first mission, and their hearts were not yet hardened enough. They could not comprehend why the Great Sun Divine Lord—who was autocratic, bloody, and colluded with the higher-ups of the Seven-Color Civilization, punishing anyone who refused to worship him—drew such hatred from the very people they were trying to save, to the extent that those people wanted to kill them.

Frustrated, in pain, and distressed, despite possessing absolute strength, they could not bring themselves to slaughter ordinary mortals. Facing a legion employing sea-tactics, the interns could only flee in disarray, relying on Little Gold's information sharing to escape the encirclement and following Little Gold's guidance to reach this realm of the void.

"There's trouble outside," Little Gold called a halt, informing the two of the situation outside.

The Heavenly Emperor sneered at his so-called classmates. Killing a few star beasts and they thought they had seen blood—it turned out he was right in saying they were raised inside protective bubbles. "This is my mission. You go back first."

"Alright, Little Gold will stay to help you. Remember to bring him back completely intact. If even a speck of his color is chipped, I'll make you pay." Having absorbed the Heavenly Emperor's experience and insights and having had a sparring match, Sangsang had already reached the edge of breakthrough and urgently needed to go back into seclusion.

Sangsang extracted the soul of the Great Sun Divine Lord from the Primeval Demonic Heart, then used the residual flesh and blood to cast the Art of Creation, resurrecting him. However, the resurrected Great Sun Divine Lord was merely an ordinary mortal devoid of any cultivation.

Handing the Great Sun Divine Lord and another captive on the verge of madness over to the Heavenly Emperor, Sangsang contacted the main brain, purchased a targeted teleportation, and returned to the temple.