Chapter 468 - 457-

As the vortex in the sky spun at an increasingly terrifying rate, the entirety of the Heavenly Vine was completely dyed crimson.

The transformation was no longer subtle.

Every leaf, every branch, and every inch of the enormous vine had been stained a deep, bloody red. The color was so vivid that it almost seemed as though the plant had been soaked in an ocean of blood.

A thick, bloody stench suddenly wafted outward from the Heavenly Vine, spreading through the surrounding area.

The smell was nauseating.

It was the stench of blood that had been left to rot for countless years, mixed with something far more ancient and sinister. Even from a considerable distance, Grey could smell it clearly. The moment the stench entered his nostrils, his brows furrowed and his expression became solemn.

Slowly, the ground and air surrounding the Heavenly Vine began to take on a faint crimson hue.

At first, it was so faint that it was almost impossible to notice. But as time passed, the red coloration gradually intensified.

It was as if the transformation of the Heavenly Vine was spreading outward, dyeing everything around it with its own crimson color. The soil, the air, the surrounding vegetation and even the space itself seemed to be gradually infected by that bloody hue.

If this continued, Grey had no doubt that the entire place would eventually turn red.

The land would resemble a sea of blood, and the air would be filled with that disgusting stench.

"Alright, little Grey..." Violet suddenly said.

Her voice pulled Grey’s attention away from the Heavenly Vine. She tightened her grip around the small mound of flesh in her hand, her expression becoming unusually serious.

"Follow my movements and do exactly what I do."

As soon as she finished speaking, Violet squeezed the mound of flesh tightly. Then, she began forming a series of complicated hand seals.

Her fingers moved rapidly, constantly changing positions in a sequence that Grey had never seen before. Each movement seemed to contain a strange rhythm, and there was an inexplicable feeling of power hidden within every seal.

At the same time, Violet’s lips parted. Strange and bizarre words began to emerge from her mouth.

The words were completely unfamiliar.

They did not resemble any language Grey had ever heard before. They were ancient, mysterious, and carried an indescribable rhythm. Each syllable seemed to possess a strange resonance that made the surrounding space tremble faintly.

It was almost as though Violet was speaking a language that did not belong to the mortal world.

Grey’s eyes narrowed. He immediately looked toward the Captain and began copying her movements.

He tightened his grip around the piece of cloth in his hands before starting to form the same hand seals.

At first, it was extremely difficult. Violet’s movements were simply too fast.

Her fingers shifted from one seal to another in rapid succession, leaving Grey struggling to keep up. Several times, his movements became slightly delayed, forcing him to concentrate even harder.

However, after a few moments, something strange happened. Grey found the rhythm.

Once he understood the sequence of the hand seals, his movements gradually became smoother. His fingers began moving almost instinctively, following the same pattern as Violet’s.

A few moments later, Grey was performing the hand seals just as fluidly as she was.

Then came the next step. The language.

Grey immediately became troubled. He had no idea how to speak the strange words that Violet was uttering.

He could copy her movements, but the bizarre language was another matter entirely.

Yet the moment Grey completed the final hand seal, something happened within his body.

His body instinctively knew what to say. Without consciously thinking about it, Grey opened his mouth. The same strange words flowed from his lips.

At first, even Grey was startled by the sound of his own voice.

But as he continued speaking, an indescribable sensation suddenly enveloped him.

It felt as though his consciousness had been plunged into a completely different world. Everything around him seemed to disappear.

The crimson Heavenly Vine. The mutated creatures.

Violet.

Even his own physical body. For a brief moment, none of them seemed to exist.

Only the strange language remained and the meaning in his head.

The words that Grey had previously considered bizarre and incomprehensible suddenly began to become clear.

He could understand them. Not merely the sounds themselves, but the meaning hidden behind them.

A realization suddenly struck him. Grey’s pupils contracted. He knew what language he was speaking.

He was speaking a language that only divine existences could speak. The language of divinity.

Ever since God had descended upon the world, the importance of divinity and the divine itself had become just as significant as cultivation.

At the peak of the world stood countless old monsters who had cultivated to the limits of what mortals could achieve.

They had spent countless years pursuing higher realms, comprehending laws, tempering their bodies, strengthening their souls, and searching for a path beyond mortality.

But above them... There were gods. Gods were fundamentally different from cultivators.

They did not need cultivation realms in the same way mortals did. They did not need to break through one realm after another.

They did not need to accumulate spiritual energy endlessly just to reach a higher level.

They advanced through the cultivation of their divinity. Their existence itself was fundamentally different.

And now, Grey was speaking the language of those divine existences. Grey knew this because he had heard it before.

Or, more accurately, he had heard fragments of it. His mind immediately recalled the time when he had entered the red world belonging to the Soul Ascendency realm expert.

Back then, he had encountered those strange white ghosts.

Those ghosts had willingly offered their bodies to the terrifying existence behind the wooden door.

Grey still remembered what had happened. During their offering, the white ghosts had sung a strange chant.

They had praised the existence behind the wooden door, exalting it and offering themselves willingly.

The chant had been strange and ancient, and although Grey had not understood the meaning of the words at the time, he had never forgotten the sound.

Now, hearing Violet speak this language, Grey immediately recognized the similarity.

The words were not exactly the same.

But the structure, the rhythm, and the strange resonance contained within them were almost identical.

That was what allowed Grey to realize that the language he was speaking now was the language of divinity.

And the more he spoke it... The more he understood. The strange hand seals and bizarre words were no longer meaningless movements.

He could understand what every seal represented. He could understand what the words meant.

And then Violet’s voice suddenly became louder.

"I offer my holy nature to you to aid in your advancement! Great Heavenly Vine that even the heavens could not destroy! Great vine whose light of divinity blinds the world!"

The moment her final words fell, an astonishing change occurred.

Violet’s entire body suddenly began to glow with a bloody-red radiance. A faint but terrifying presence emerged from within her.

Divinity.

Grey’s eyes widened slightly.

A trace of divine aura began to spread from Violet’s body. Her pupils were gradually dyed crimson, and the aura surrounding her became increasingly mysterious.

If an ordinary cultivator were standing before her at this moment, they might have been unable to withstand the pressure.

They could very well cough up blood simply from being exposed to the divine aura radiating from her body.

At this moment, Violet could almost be described as a divine entity.

The aura of divinity surrounding her was incredibly similar to the divinity radiating from the Heavenly Vine.

In fact, it was so similar that Grey could barely distinguish between the two.

It was almost as though the Heavenly Vine had bestowed a portion of its divinity upon Violet.

Or perhaps... it had accepted her. The realization caused Grey’s expression to become even more solemn.

The Captain had ceased to be an ordinary mortal. At least, her flesh had.

The small mound of flesh in her hand was currently acting as her source of divinity, allowing her body to temporarily possess a divine nature.

And from the words she had spoken, Grey could already understand what she was doing.

She was offering that divine nature as a holy sacrifice to the Heavenly Vine. She was giving the divinity contained within the mound of flesh to the Heavenly Vine in order to assist it in its advancement.

To Violet, this was nothing more than a stepping stone.

A sacrifice.

A means of helping the Heavenly Vine cross the final threshold and advance toward true divinity. Grey’s eyes narrowed as he continued speaking the strange language.

He could now understand something else. The Heavenly Vine was not truly divine yet.

At least, not completely. The short chant Violet had spoken contained no true honorific titles.

She had praised the Heavenly Vine and exalted it. She had acknowledged its terrifying existence and its potential to become divine.

But she had not addressed it as a true god. That distinction was extremely important. It meant that the Heavenly Vine had yet to truly become a divine existence.

It was still in the process of ascending. And what was happening now...

Was the final step. A strange and bizarre feeling suddenly filled Grey’s heart. He was witnessing the birth of a god.

No.

Perhaps it was more accurate to say that he was witnessing the moment when an existence was attempting to cross the boundary between mortality and divinity.

And somehow, he was participating in it.

"Hurry, Grey!"

Violet’s voice suddenly rang out again, pulling him from his thoughts. Her expression had become increasingly urgent.

"Say the exact same thing that I said!"

She tightened her grip around the mound of flesh.

"If too much time passes, you won’t be able to participate in what’s coming."

Grey’s eyes flickered. What’s coming? He did not know exactly what Violet meant.

But judging from the urgency in her voice, whatever was about to happen was undoubtedly something extraordinary.

Grey immediately stopped thinking about it. His fingers continued moving through the complicated hand seals.

His voice followed Violet’s. And as the two voices echoed through the crimson surroundings, the vortex above them began spinning even faster.

The Heavenly Vine trembled violently.