Chapter 377 - 221: Birth of the [Ancient Gods] (Part 2)

Most of Zorn’s attention was immersed in comprehending the Calamity Rune Magic Ring.

Although it seemed Zorn was at a disadvantage in the war of Heroic Spirits against the eighteen Divine Spirits, the outcome of the battle actually made no difference to him.

If he won, would those two experts—the Seven Holy Stars and Nine Holy Stars masters—really just hand over their territory?

Of course not.

Zorn would still have to cultivate in seclusion for two or three hundred years, raising his Rune Magic Ring to a high enough level before he could conquer the territories of those two.

If he lost, Zorn would have an even more legitimate reason to withdraw his forces and cultivate in seclusion.

He could just come back to fight in a hundred years.

Zorn had only challenged them to find an excuse to fight, to use the battle to catalyze his own Divine Kingdom.

The outcome wasn’t important; what mattered was the process—the process of growing and strengthening.

Zorn wanted to stall for time, allowing himself to grow stronger continuously.

And those eighteen Divine Spirits also seemed to want to drag things out.

As a result, the divine war between the two sides was maintained at an intensity that was neither too high nor too low.

One year after another passed in this era of divine wars.

And Zorn’s Divine Kingdom, as well as his own power, were also steadily on the rise.

...

「Inside the Calamity Divine Kingdom.」

Several Crystal Wall Furnaces were burning.

After witnessing the Divine Kingdom Furnaces of the Calamity Court Divine Kingdom, Zorn had invited Chronovat to help him construct several of his own Divine Kingdom Crystal Wall Furnaces.

Now, these Crystal Wall Furnaces were gradually being put to use.

Within one of the Crystal Wall Furnaces, the Cosmic Altar was using its Ritual Fire to slowly temper the white Material Plane that had been formed from a thirty-million-year-old Ancient God.

And beside it...

Zorn’s Upper Rank Divine Artifact, Sikes’ Magic Wand, was absorbing that very Ancient God as it was being smelted.

Refining an Ancient God and forging his own "Ancient Magic Wand"—this was what Zorn had been doing for the past one to two hundred years.

For a normal Upper Rank Divine Artifact, it was already quite difficult to construct a Thousand-Ring Rune Magic Ring.

And the further one tried to enhance it, the greater the difficulty became.

Even many High Holy Star Upper Rank Gods only wielded Upper Rank Divine Artifacts with close to 2,000 rings.

Even the Divine Artifacts of the Ancient Sacred Mark Upper Rank Gods only had a little over two thousand rings.

Therefore, the maximum number of Rune Magic Rings an Upper Rank God could gain from a Divine Artifact was around two thousand.

However, if it were an offensive Ancient God Artifact...

...then its number of Rune Magic Rings could easily reach 5,000.

With the addition of a small amount of Cosmic Essence, its number of Rune Magic Rings could increase significantly, reaching 6,000, 8,000, or even as high as 9,000 rings.

As for Zorn’s Sikes’ Magic Wand, he had already invested a considerable amount of Cosmic Essence into it.

But because it was merely an ancient Upper Rank Divine Artifact...

...its number of Rune Magic Rings had just barely reached a level of 1,980.

After so many years of refinement while absorbing the Ancient God, Sikes’ Magic Wand had, in recent years, begun to slowly increase its maximum number of Rune Magic Rings.

And the rate of improvement was getting faster and faster.

Admittedly, the Rune Magic Rings from this Divine Artifact couldn’t be used to empower his Tree of the Magic Ring for direct confrontations with other Trees.

But they could be used in combat.

This essentially guaranteed that as long as he didn’t fall behind in a confrontation between Trees of the Magic Ring, he would be certain to win the battle.

...

Zorn’s divine war against more than a dozen Upper Rank Gods continued.

The war between the Three Great Divine Kingdoms of the Star Dust Plateau also raged on.

But the Ancient Gods on both sides remained silent and did not join the battle.

Before he knew it, more than a decade had passed.

「One day.」

Zorn was immersed in constructing his Calamity Rune Magic Ring.

"4,500 rings!"

Sensing the number of rings in his Calamity Rune Magic Ring, the secluded Zorn let out a soft breath.

He then looked toward Sikes’ Magic Wand, which was being tempered in the direction of an Ancient God Artifact.

At a glance, Zorn was overjoyed.

Sikes’ Magic Wand, which had only possessed 2,000 Rune Magic Rings a little over a decade ago, had now surged to a level of 3,100 Rune Magic Rings.

Under the dual effects of sacrificing an Ancient God and infusing it with Cosmic Essence...

...Sikes’ Magic Wand was transforming into the Ancient Sikes’ Magic Wand.

’Added together, that’s the power of roughly seven thousand Rune Magic Rings.’

’Right now, I can’t say I’m guaranteed to win against Taixing Ancient of the Nine Holy Stars, but against Froson of the Seven Holy Stars, I’d have an absolute victory.’

’After all, the Level of my Ancient God Curse absolutely crushes theirs.’

’However...’

Zorn looked out at the war of Divine Kingdom Heroic Spirits, which was currently in a stable stalemate.

’If this keeps up, the longer it drags on, the greater my advantage will become.’

’So there’s no rush to have a complete falling-out with them.’

’Also... over the years, the Calamity Court has eliminated many Divine Spirits from the other two great kingdoms, and their offensive momentum is growing fiercer.’

’And those top-tier Divine Spirits seem to have realized that this divine war is carving out an Ancient Sacred Mark, so every one of them is fighting with desperate ferocity.’

’I estimate that in a while, the front line will need to be pushed again, and the pressure will have to be further intensified at that time.’

’Besides that, the infiltration of the two great Trees of the Magic Ring through the Starry Sky Ancient Insect Path is still underway.’

’The Ancient Gods of these two Divine Kingdoms are doing quite a thorough job protecting their Trees of the Magic Ring.’

’Apparently, they also received intel about this from the Jade Realm.’

’A pity... but right now, my main goal isn’t to infiltrate your two Trees of the Magic Ring, but to refine the "Starry Sky Ancient Insect Path" itself using the Insect King Curse.’

’My Insect King Curse is already approaching Level 17, and its refining efficiency is getting higher and higher.’

’Once it reaches Level 18, the Insect King Curse will be able to devour and digest a Material Plane, and then I’ll be able to rapidly refine the various nodes of the Starry Sky Ancient Insect Path.’

Although ascending to become an Ancient God was important...

...the various aspects of the foundation required to become an Ancient God were just as crucial.

Otherwise, simply becoming an Ancient God would mean being forced onto the defensive, never daring to take the initiative.

Just as Zorn calmed his mind and prepared to continue his steady cultivation...

BOOM! RUMBLE...

An extremely dense and majestic aura of an Ancient God bloomed dazzlingly across the Star Realm.

The aura of this Ancient God was so astonishing that the entire Star Realm Cosmic resonated with it, and all the stars flickered in response.

"This..."

Zorn abruptly raised his head to look at the stars.

It wasn’t just Zorn; the astonishingly powerful rulers of the Mid-High Tier Holy Stars, all Upper Rank Gods...

...all turned their gazes to the vast sea of stars, to the endless Star Realm Cosmic.

A strange mix of expressions appeared on every face.

There was no lack of envy, jealousy, longing, and admiration.

"Someone else has reached the summit!"

A Holy Star Upper Rank God ruler sighed softly.

"Yes! Another Divine Spirit has reached the supreme summit of the Ancient Gods."

The phenomenon now pervading the entire Star Realm Cosmic...

...was clearly caused by an Upper Rank God transforming and ascending to become an Ancient God.

"A newly born Ancient God. The effects of the Mythical Wave are beginning to manifest."

"And next, all sides will be bound to launch even more ferocious wars to carve their own Ancient Sacred Marks within this Mythical Wave."

"The intensity of the wars will likely rise to another level."

Although Divine Spirits were also eternal beings...

...those who had not reached the summit of the Ancient Gods, even Upper Rank Gods, would to some extent be forced to participate in cruel wars.

And in war, even Upper Rank Gods could fall.

In every era’s Mythical Wave, a large number of top-tier Upper Rank Gods would perish.

As for the Ancient Gods, they might not even participate in the battles of many epochal waves.

Even if they did participate, their own safety was more or less guaranteed.

Both were eternal.

But the eternity of an Ancient God was stable and enduring.

While the eternity of an Upper Rank God could be terminated with the passage of time.

There were many Ancient Gods who were hundreds of millions of years old.

But an Upper Rank God who was hundreds of millions of years old was a rarity.

Therefore, every Upper Rank God longed to ascend and become an Ancient God, to grasp a more stable form of eternity.

Once one stood at the apex of the Star Realm Cosmic, no one could threaten their eternity.

As these thoughts raced through his mind, Zorn looked toward the source of the ancient aura.

’It seems to be... in the direction of the Jade Realm.’

Zorn’s brow furrowed slightly, and he rubbed the space between his eyebrows.

’This is really not good news at all!’