Chapter 1278: High Demi God

I slowly opened my eyes, and the first thing I did was summon my status panel.

[Status]

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Name : Billion Ironhart

Race : Human

Class : Primordial Executor – Transcendent (Mythic)

Realm : High Demi-God

Divine Core :

Stage 2 : Deep Golden — 80%

Origin Resonance :

Space : 57% Time : 49% Fire : 32% Water : 32% Earth : 32% Wind : 32% Blood : 35% Resonance : 32% Polarity : 40% Ice : 19%

Authority :

Absolute — Manifested Foundations :

Isolate — Space and Time

Anchor — Space and Time

Decay — Time

Insight — Resonance

Equalize — Polarity

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I stared at the numbers for several seconds, especially the one that represented my Space Origin. Fifty-seven percent. I had crossed the fifty-percent threshold, and with it, I had finally stepped into the High Demi-God realm.

The transformation was far greater than simply increasing my Origin Resonance. My understanding of Space had expanded to a level where the surrounding void no longer felt like something separate from me. It felt almost as if I could reach out and touch the very structure that held everything together.

The increase had also affected my other Origins. My Time Origin had risen by six percent, reaching forty-nine, while the rest of my major Origins had increased by five percent. Even Polarity had climbed to forty percent, and Ice had reached nineteen.

The skeleton had only contained Space Origin, yet the comprehension it had given me had strengthened the connections between my other Origins as well. The changes were not as dramatic as the increase in Space, but they were enough to make me feel that my entire foundation had become considerably more stable.

Yet those changes were not what interested me most.

My eyes moved toward the Authority section.

Absolute — Manifested.

Previously, my Absolute Authority had been at the Initiated stage. Now it had advanced to Manifested.

I could immediately sense the difference.

Before, my Authority had felt like an immense force that existed within me, something I could invoke and use to command my Origins with absolute precision. Now it felt closer to an extension of my existence. I did not need to consciously gather the Origins first. The moment I thought about using them, they responded as naturally as moving one of my fingers.

I wanted to know exactly how far that change went.

I slowly raised my palm.

Space immediately began to distort around my hand.

I did not release any Soul Force, nor did I deliberately activate my Space Origin. I simply thought about moving the space in front of me.

The result was instantaneous.

The void folded.

A small section of the pocket dimension suddenly compressed into a point no larger than my fingertip before expanding again several meters away. I watched the process carefully, trying to understand what had changed compared to before. Previously, manipulating Space at this level required concentration and precise control of my Origin Resonance, but now the response was almost immediate.

It was as if Space itself understood what I wanted before I finished giving the command.

I smiled slightly.

That alone was already an enormous improvement.

I then took a step forward.

I disappeared.

There was no spatial tunnel, no visible fluctuation, and no feeling of crossing the distance between two locations. One moment I was standing before the remains of the ancient skeleton, and the next I was standing several thousand kilometers away within the same pocket dimension.

I turned around and looked at the place where I had been standing.

The distance felt meaningless.

I tried again.

This time, I focused on a location outside the pocket dimension.

Space opened before me.

I could sense the outer layer of the asteroid cluster, the larger spatial structure surrounding it, and the universe beyond it, all at once. Previously, I would have needed to carefully locate the destination before tearing open a passage, but now I could directly perceive the relationship between my current position and the location I wanted to reach.

I stepped forward.

The surrounding space folded around me.

When I emerged, I was already outside the pocket dimension.

I looked back and could still sense the entire structure behind me with astonishing clarity. The pocket dimension was no longer a sealed place from my perception. I could see the layers of Space surrounding it as clearly as if they were physical walls.

I wanted to test something more.

I extended my hand toward the distant void and lightly closed my fingers.

Space trembled.

A region several thousand kilometers away suddenly compressed inward.

I released my fingers, and it returned to normal.

My expression became more serious.

This was not simply stronger Space manipulation.

My relationship with Space had fundamentally changed.

I then tried something even more basic.

I thought of a location.

A single point appeared in my mind.

I wanted to go there.

The next moment, I was there.

I did not need to create a spatial passage.

I did not need to accelerate my body.

I simply decided that the distance between myself and that location no longer mattered.

That was when I finally understood what my new comprehension had given me.

At fifty-seven percent Space Origin Resonance, I was no longer merely manipulating Space.

I was beginning to understand how Space itself connected everything.

I spent several more hours testing my new abilities, moving across enormous distances with nothing more than a thought, compressing and expanding regions of Space, creating spatial barriers, folding multiple layers together, and even separating a section of Space from its surroundings. Each experiment confirmed the same thing. My control had become far more natural, and my Absolute Authority had become much easier to manifest.

Eventually, I returned to the pocket dimension.

There was nothing left for me here.

The ancient skeleton had been completely consumed, and I had gained everything it could offer.

I glanced around the empty void one final time before extending my hand.

Space folded open.

A passage appeared without any instability.

On the other side was the galaxy I had entered earlier.

I stepped through.

The moment I returned, I immediately recalled the location of the planet where I had previously encountered one of the Middle Demi-Gods of the Beastheart Galaxy. Before entering the pocket dimension, I had needed to carefully follow spatial fluctuations to track that man’s movements, but now I did not need to do anything so complicated.

I simply thought of the palace.

Space responded.

My body vanished.

When I reappeared, I was already inside the palace.

There had been no warning.

No fluctuation.

No spatial ripple.

Even a Demi-God would have found it difficult to detect my arrival.

I stood quietly within the palace and allowed my perception to spread.

The entire structure unfolded inside my mind.

I could sense every corridor, every chamber, every layer of the palace, and every creature within it. More importantly, I immediately found the Middle Demi-God I had been searching for.

He was sitting alone in a vast cultivation chamber deep within the palace.

At first glance, he appeared to be an ordinary middle-aged human man with dark hair and a calm expression. His body was tall and muscular, and his eyes remained closed as he quietly circulated his Origin.

But after my Space Origin had reached its current level, I could see far more than his appearance.

The darkness surrounding him was not ordinary darkness.

It was his Origin.

Darkness filled the space around his body like an invisible ocean, swallowing light and suppressing every fluctuation that entered its range. Even the surrounding Space seemed slightly distorted by the influence of his Origin.

I focused my perception on him for a moment.

Then I smiled.

I had already seen his true nature.

The human appearance was merely a form he had chosen.

Beneath it was a gigantic black panther.

His bones, muscles, blood, and even the structure of his soul carried the characteristics of a powerful feline beast. His body contained an extremely dense life force, and the faint traces of his beast bloodline were impossible for me to miss now that my comprehension of Space had reached this level.

A black panther.

A Middle Demi-God with Darkness Origin.

And he had no idea that I was standing inside his palace.

I quietly watched him from the shadows, observing his cultivation and the way his Darkness Origin moved around his body.

I raised my hand and released a trace of Time Origin.

The darkness surrounding the black panther froze instantly.

His entire body stopped in the middle of his cultivation, the Darkness Origin around him becoming completely motionless as Time itself was locked in place. Even his thoughts were frozen before he could sense the change.

I did not need to use much Soul Force anymore. At forty-nine percent Time Origin Resonance, combined with my Manifested Absolute Authority, freezing a Middle Demi-God who had not been prepared for an attack was almost effortless.

I casually walked toward him.

He remained completely still, his eyes fixed in the direction where I had appeared, but there was no fear in them because he could not even think yet. I stopped directly in front of him and examined his frozen body for a moment before reaching out toward the space beside us.

Then I tore it open.

There was no violent explosion, nor did I need to construct a complicated spatial passage. My fingers simply moved through the void as if space were a thin piece of cloth, and I pulled it apart.

Beyond the opening was the same pocket dimension where the ancient silver Roc skeleton had once existed.

I stepped through first, and the frozen black panther was dragged after me.

What made the process terrifying was that I did not actually create a path between the two locations. I directly connected the spaces themselves, forcing two completely separate regions of the universe to overlap for a brief moment. The distance between them became meaningless under my control.

A moment later, both of us stood inside the empty pocket dimension.

I released the Time lock.

The black panther’s eyes suddenly widened as his consciousness returned, and before he could react, he realized that the entire world around him had changed.

I smiled calmly.

This was the power of fifty-seven percent Space Origin.

Space was no longer merely something I could control.

It was something I could tear apart.