Flames—flames were spreading.
Invisible flames engulfed the entire world, incinerating and remaking everything into a form completely distinct from the past.
From the very instant Limbo forced its way into the Divine Kingdom, brand-new rules had already been injected into this excessively stale and prolonged dream.
And so, the light of flames soared skyward!
Right within Tiancheng, bloody fire erupted, wreathing and swirling across one iron demon after another, surging wildly and dyeing half the sky crimson!
—Swarm!
At that moment, the power held in reserve since the battle began finally manifested. Facing an almost endless angelic host, merely a few hundred iron demons in the vanguard actually surged upward against the tide.
Casting aside the massive shields crumbling in their grasp, they drew their swords, directly shattering the forest of spearheads, advancing with unstoppable momentum. As bloody radiance circulated, it bonded them together into a unified whole!
Dauntless and heedless of death—or rather, violently defying death!
Even when impaled and broken apart, within the circulation of blood and fire, they completely knitted together again in the very next instant, growing even more frenzied.
Endless bloody flames, ceaseless struggle!
The Mycelium's Sacrificial Rite of Inheritance was reenacted within the dream, chaining all the demons together as one. The tightness of their connection was even greater than the cohesion of Heavenly Radiance.
What was more terrifying was the power continually erupting!
Blessings!
[Drink Blood], [Sunder Bulwark], and [War]—the classic Swarm trinity. The blessing chain ensured that every demon became an unkillable, indestructible, enduring cockroach. Immediately following was the high-tier offensive trinity of [Fierce Fire and Sweeping Wind], [Crushing Ruin], and [Extermination], ensuring that these stat-bloated monsters vented their destructive might to the fullest before every foe.
With Ji Jue present as the Sacrificial Lord, even the effects of the Sacrificial Rite of Inheritance had been reproduced. Now, every single one of them was a Knight of Homecoming blessed by the Mycelium!
If necessary, Ji Jue could even switch the rite to that of Scar, trading blood for blood and wound for wound, guaranteeing that every opponent in this brawl would experience the revolting nightmare unique to the Swarm!
In fact, it wasn't just the Swarm.
Tianyuan, White Stag, Ascension, Surplus, Entropy, Desolate Ruins—having completed the Artificial Sovereign Virtue System based upon Paradise, everyone incorporated into the system would receive the Sovereign Virtue and configuration best suited to them under Paradise's matching.
This was why Ji Jue hadn't hesitated to expend so many Spirits of Creation to deliver all the sinners and heretics to Tiancheng. Once the Artificial Sovereign Virtue System was activated, everyone would instantly become a Celestial Chosen!
Naturally, there were also numerous weaknesses and shortcomings. For instance, Heart Pivot, Aether, and Mirror—hardly anyone matched with these three Sovereign Virtues, and even if someone did, they received little enhancement.
The strength of each Sovereign Virtue stemmed entirely from Ji Jue's own understanding. Unfortunately, among these three, the former two were mediocre though passably serviceable, while for the latter, beyond occasional passing familiarity, he had conducted no research whatsoever!
To begin with, the Sovereign Virtues injected into the dream at this moment were merely external manifestations—a format and set of rules created by Ji Jue based on his understanding of the real world.
It could be called Sovereign Virtue, it could be called Divine Sovereign, or it could be called any other name.
It was merely a designation.
Its essence was that Ji Jue had poured his own Awakening—the power used to interfere with the outside world—into Paradise, demarcated twelve aspects representing Sovereign Virtues within the system, and distributed them into everyone's hands after filling them with a number of simulated blessings.
He took the power within this dream that originally belonged exclusively to him and distributed it into everyone's hands under the guise of Sovereign Virtues!
Without requiring the complex maneuvers and precise control Ji Jue employed, lowering the skill threshold through templated simulated blessings maximized the power of each person!
He didn't even need to fully complete the system; he only needed to set up a framework!
Even if Sovereign Virtues did not exist in this dream, traces of them lingered everywhere. As long as the first step was taken, the moment the rules were injected into the dream, classification would begin, and naturally, endless phenomena would latch on, kicking off frenzied iteration and growth.
In just a few minutes, what was merely an embryonic version grew once more beneath the influx and attachment of countless souls!
Every user was actively or passively advancing the progress and stability of the Sovereign Virtue System, becoming a part of it while shouldering the strain of the entire network.
Through the foundational architecture Ji Jue had created within Paradise, every single person could unleash this power that changed everything!
Now, every single person was an Enemy of God!
Every single one!
This meant that not only the heretics and sinners currently facing off against the angelic host, but even all the believers across the earth, and even all the angels before their eyes, were covered under this rule!
If it was going to be done, do it thoroughly!
Restricting oneself when facing an enemy was far too foolish. The domain-wide coverage and architecture of the Sovereign Virtue System were already overly complex. If an open system meant for everyone had entry barriers and identification mechanisms added, or only permitted a fraction of people to use it, it wouldn't be able to alter the greater situation at all!
Why put on airs? Why hide anything?
If change was coming, everyone changed together; if it was to be used, everyone used it together!
Sovereign Virtue and the Holy God—two operating systems. The market was only so big, the pie only so large. Once people actually used both, couldn't the users tell for themselves which was more convenient?
The more the Sovereign Virtue System was used, the further users drifted from the faction and dogma demarcated by the Order and Heavenly Radiance!
After all, compared to the Order's severity and insularity, the Sovereign Virtue System was far too lenient. The doors swung wide open, embracing all, offering everyone a second choice.
Yet unlike Sovereign Virtue, faith was exclusive, and piety had to be absolute.
Once touched, this power was destined to be intolerable to the Order, intolerable to the Holy God!
As for whether the Order might turn around, use this system to topple Ji Jue, and then seize it for themselves—that possibility certainly existed, and in fact, was bound to occur.
Just like right now!
The moment he realized the Sovereign Virtue System was unreservedly open to everyone, the Pope fell into bewilderment and confusion, unable to believe it.
How could anyone be so foolish!
To hold Tai'a in hand, yet willingly hand the hilt to others?!
Or rather—
Something was wrong!
There was a problem! In this, there was definitely—
The instant he detected an anomaly, the Pope's expression changed drastically. Before he could even warn everyone not to touch this power, the problem manifested right before his eyes.
When the world changed, when that touch surged into their hearts, when a brand-new world opened its doors to them—in the midst of struggle, slaughter, and desperate chaos where none could fend for themselves—countless people felt fear and instinctively rejected it. Yet even more had long had their minds fried by zealotry. Answering the call of Sovereign Virtue, they pushed that door open and looked at the scenery beyond.
Yet there was no scenery behind the door.
Behind the door lay only the abyss.
And now, the abyss looked back at them!
Immediately following, accompanied by that selfless gift, a man-devouring darkness erupted like a gusher, sweeping across!
Wails, screeches, desperate cries, frenzied roars.
They rose and fell in unbroken waves across the chaotic battlefield.
Under the illumination of thunder and fire, across the blood-drenched battlefield, among the angels, bodies suddenly began convulsing violently—expanding, swelling, exploding!
In an instant, they blew into pieces, yet the shattered skeletal frames multiplied rapidly alongside muscle tissue. Countless organs sprouted haphazardly from the flesh and blood, coalescing into a single mass.
Flesh aberration.
Others wailed, sinking to their knees, bodies trembling. Beneath peeling armor, thick, coarse fur sprouted wildly. And when those contorted, twitching faces lifted, they had already grown freakishly elongated like the muzzles of wolves!
Cannibalistic urge.
Still others became like walking corpses, losing consciousness and self. Their egos were obliterated and their self-nature evaporated. Black threads spread haphazardly from their bodies, the laws of aberration expanding outward. They even turned to bind the Heavenly Radiance within them, corrupting that pure brilliance—distortion of rules.
Some angels burned from head to toe in blood-red flames, howling with mania as they lunged at their own comrades, weapons drawn against one another. If blades shattered, they used fists; if fists shattered, they used teeth. Even if torn to pieces, they pulled back together in an instant, and even if burned to ash, their undying souls reconvened like evil spirits, venting endless madness and bloodlust.
Frenzied slaughter.
The bodies of other angels suddenly shattered like earthenware, mutated spirit forms breaking free like phantoms, shrieking as they released blasts of spiritus, rapidly dividing and turning into wraiths—spiritus fission.
At this moment, not just in Tiancheng, an unadulterated hell descended upon every corner of the Divine Kingdom. Countless individuals who rashly reached for Sovereign Virtue met with unexpected backlash and aberration the instant they embraced this power. Monster after monster and aberrant after aberrant preyed greedily upon everything around them amid shrieks, unstoppably plunging everything toward ever more ruthless chaos and ruin.
Even the Pope's vision swam with waves of darkness. Forcibly sustaining the release of divine power to cover the vast majority of angels, he struggled desperately to sever and purge the infiltration brought by Sovereign Virtue!
In that instant, once again, he saw the Enemy of God smiling contemptuously amidst the blood and fire.
This heretic!!!!
"Take a deep breath. Don't panic. Corruption is normal."
Ji Jue spread his hands with an expression of helpless regret. "Honestly, you can't blame me for this. Sovereign Virtue is equal to all of us. If you want to blame someone, blame yourselves for playing too wild in the Realm of Ultimate Bliss."
Who told the Order to use a piece of shit like the Realm of Ultimate Bliss as a fringe benefit?
Who told every Order higher-up to linger endlessly in the Realm of Ultimate Bliss?! Vast hordes of angels had bathed in it year after year, month after month, long accustomed to that supreme sensation and sweetness!
Yet all violent delights must have violent ends!
Endless sights and sounds, pleasure hundreds and thousands of times greater than illicit drugs, desires satisfied no matter how unrestrained the indulgence, breaking past former limits time and time again to feel increasingly exaggerated and unforgettable stimulation—yet still insatiable!
When you engaged in such dissolute, decadent revelry, that reason long riddled with holes through indulgence, that self-nature already depleted to its absolute limits through prayer and fanaticism, had long been doomed to plunge into the abyss!
Ji Jue had done nothing.
Ji Jue needed to do nothing.
All he had to do was gently open that door for them, grant them an opportunity to fall, and this irremediable decay would roll down toward the abyss like a torrential mudslide!
These were the true flames!
Chapter 536