The spiritual spark constituting the demonic dragon's soul was unexpectedly pieced together from many broken spiritual sparks, just like a jigsaw puzzle riddled with cracks.
Deep within that puzzle, a single shard of spiritual spark radiated an ominous aura—plainly the source of the Calamity Demonic Dragon's power.
To be honest, this completely upended Yu Xian's understanding of spiritual sparks.
According to the common knowledge of the extraordinary world, a living creature's soul was composed of three things: memory, psionic energy, and spiritual spark. Memory determined personality and behavior, psionic energy determined the quality of spiritual energy, and the spiritual spark determined fundamental good and evil.
In immortal cultivation worlds, for instance, after the physical body died, one could continue cultivating in the form of a soul body—the so-called ghost cultivator.
If a ghost cultivator's soul was scattered, only a single speck of spiritual spark would remain, and the spiritual spark was the most fundamental particle of spirit, virtually indestructible in theory.
Yet now Yu Xian was looking at a jigsaw-puzzle version of a spiritual spark.
Precisely because it was pieced together like a puzzle, it was exceptionally conspicuous even within the soul.
"Looks like you have quite a formidable background."
Yu Xian glanced at the demonic dragon, and in the next moment, the power of Chaos and Myriad Phenomena and the power of Grand Dao Myriad Phenomena erupted simultaneously.
The two forces boosted off one another, instantly invading the demonic dragon's body and tracing along its soul toward its spiritual spark.
Although the power of Chaos and Myriad Phenomena and the power of Grand Dao Myriad Phenomena were polar opposites, they could in fact become mutually complementary.
Coordinated, Yu Xian could even become omnipotent within the scope of his abilities—roughly equivalent to a tier-five or tier-six level of omniscience and omnipotence.
The next instant, through the jigsaw spiritual spark within the Calamity Demonic Dragon, Yu Xian witnessed an epochal grand battle.
Why the war started was unknown; who the combatants were was likewise an enigma. But the scope swept up by this battle was extraordinarily vast, spanning nearly a thousandth of the Tree Universe's total area.
Countless powerhouses took part in the conflict; of Mighty Ones alone, Yu Xian noticed no fewer than several thousand.
He saw a bladesman wielding a long saber who slashed enemies into fundamental particles in an instant; a bizarre sorcerer who turned people into oranges and crushed them; and a powerful summoner who controlled a dense swarm of innumerable white monsters.
The shards of spiritual spark inside the Calamity Demonic Dragon were actually powerhouses who had fallen in that grand battle.
Their spiritual sparks had all been shattered, leaving behind only fragments drifting across the Tree Universe before finally being pieced together through all manner of coincidences to form the jigsaw spiritual spark currently inside the dragon.
This spiritual spark had in fact already reincarnated for many, many, many lifetimes in this world.
Bound by this world all along, it had once been the Calamity Witch, the Calamity Goddess, the Calamity Demon King, the Calamity Skeleton King, and the Calamity General, before finally turning into today's Calamity Demonic Dragon.
"No wonder..."
Yu Xian slowly withdrew his hand. Earlier, he had found it strange why the demonic dragon slept incessantly.
The reason was actually very simple: its spiritual spark was too cluttered, so with every reincarnation, a different shard dominated its instincts.
At present, the Calamity Demonic Dragon was dominated by one of the comparatively benevolent shards, which was why it was unwilling to harm anyone. Yet because the calamity shard within its body affected the world every single moment, it could only hibernate as much as possible to minimize its impact.
In fact, among all the shards of spiritual spark, the one bearing the power of calamity was the most powerful.
For the original master of that spiritual spark had already embarked upon the path of Origin Return; had he been able to unite all the origin essence of calamity in the entire Tree Universe within himself, he would have become the Lord of Calamity.
Unfortunately, he failed, and he died.
Even his spiritual spark was smashed to pieces, leaving only fragments, leaving him with no chance to start over.
***
Yu Xian quietly departed.
He planned to wait until the Hero Party finished subjugating the Calamity Demonic Dragon before coming back to claim that jigsaw spiritual spark.
This puzzle version of a spiritual spark held tremendous research value—at the very least, he had never seen such a bizarre spark before. Furthermore, that shard possessing the calamity origin essence was of immeasurable value.
If he took the path of Origin Return in the future, the value of this shard would rise even further.
Even if he didn't pursue Origin Return and instead walked the path of transcendence, the calamity origin essence in this shard was still a priceless treasure that countless Mighty Ones would scramble for. All in all, this Calamity Demonic Dragon's spiritual spark was arguably the most valuable treasure he had encountered on his travels.
However, for safety's sake, he needed to make some preparations.
After leaving the Calamity Demonic Dragon's abode, Yu Xian flew straight into the sky, ascending continuously.
Gradually, he saw island after island floating in the air. These islands were the abodes of this world's gods; among mortals, only legends were qualified to set foot upon them.
Any creature below legendary tier flying to these islands would invite divine retribution—such as the Thunder God's lightning, the Fire God's heavenly flames, the War God's axe, or the God King's light beams.
Yu Xian stepped onto one of the islands, and in the next instant, countless summoned beasts appeared from magic circles.
This world still needed to maintain stability, so he would replace the gods with his own summoned beasts. As for the gods... it was more convenient if they died for the time being.
Matters succeed through secrecy and fail through disclosure.
The gazes of this world's gods were practically all focused on the Calamity Demonic Dragon and the Hero Party. While Yu Xian had ways to veil their eyes, they weren't fools after all.
Therefore, dead gods were good gods. That was the price of not being fools.
War God Clark, upon discovering the intruder, immediately entered combat stance. Holding his axe, he let out a great roar and charged at Yu Xian's summoned beasts.
And then, he was blasted to death with a single punch by Yu Xian's top general, the resurrected Wolf King Bolaiye.
The other islands met a similar fate: the Thunder God had his Godhead shattered by an arrow from Xielina; the Fire God was suppressed and killed with a single glance from Death Emperor; and the God King, noticing the enemy was overwhelmingly powerful, turned into light to flee, only to be swallowed whole in a single gulp by Jormunid—ending his life as God King in complete humiliation without even a chance to fight or struggle.
After his summoned beasts swept the islands clean, Yu Xian simply sat on the edge of one of the islands and cast his gaze toward the Hero Party. Showtime had arrived.
He had actually considered personally killing the Calamity Demonic Dragon and leaving with the jigsaw spiritual spark.
However, he then felt that would be rather anticlimactic. Why not wait until the Hero Party finished playing out the 'story' before claiming his spoils and leaving?
He wasn't afraid of unexpected complications anyway. Unless a Transcender showed up, who could snatch the spiritual spark from under his nose?
Killing the gods of this world was merely because they kept watching, and sooner or later would come to know too much.
Thus, even if one possessed the ability to oversee the world, it was best to practice a little feigned ignorance.
Not playing dumb?
Then one day, you might just die a senseless, clueless death.
In fact, the gods of this world truly had no idea what they died for right up to the end, nor did they even know who the enemy was.
Chapter 679