# Chapter 2201: Slaying a God to Establish Authority
"Rustle."
Countless Heaven and Earth Rules emerged, intertwining with each other, completely enveloping the planet where the Underworld King was located.
Even from a great distance, one could clearly feel the vast and awe-inspiring pressure of Heaven and Earth.
Under normal circumstances, when living beings cultivate to become gods, they must undergo a Divine Tribulation.
Divine Tribulations vary from person to person, including Love Tribulations, Killing Tribulations, Thunder Tribulations, Desire Tribulations, Heart Tribulations, Mundane World Tribulations... and so on. Different beings have different cultivation experiences, so their tribulations differ as well.
The difficulty of the tribulations naturally varies too.
Generally speaking, whatever a being fears most, the corresponding tribulation will come.
The greater the fear, the stronger the tribulation.
Take Empress Chi Yao, for example. Back then, she underwent a Love Tribulation, relying on Zhang Ruochen to perfect herself, and thus achieved the Divine Path.
Now, the Underworld King needed to undergo a Heart Tribulation, which tested his heart.
Because over the ten thousand-plus years of his cultivation, his heart had been unsettled, brewing a rage within, nurturing resentment.
"This king can overcome even the will of Sword Ancestor, destined to become a supreme powerhouse shaking the heavens and myriad realms. What is a mere Heart Tribulation to me?"
A brilliant divine light burst forth from the Underworld King's eyes.
His divine heart was as firm as a rock, unshakable.
Having cultivated in seclusion in the Nether Prison for ten thousand years, the Underworld King's heart and will had grown to an unimaginably formidable level. A Heart Tribulation was no challenge to him at all.
It was like a threshold—just a step and he could cross it.
"Whoosh—"
Before long, the divine radiance blooming from the Underworld King's body became even more dazzling and brilliant, like a divine sun, as if it would completely illuminate the dim starry sky.
At the same time, a vast divine might emanated from the Underworld King, spreading in all directions like a tidal wave, causing ripples to form across the surrounding star sea.
A massive amount of Heaven and Earth power surged into his body, driving the transformation of divine power.
"He has passed the Heart Tribulation," Xue Hou said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Becoming a god is this easy?"
"That's because, from the very beginning of his cultivation, few external things could affect him. As for the anger and resentment within his heart, he had already overcome them in the Nether Prison; they could no longer influence his spiritual will. Several thousand years ago, he already had the confidence to become a god. After thousands of years of tempering, how could a Heart Tribulation still trouble him?" Xue Hou said.
Zhang Ruochen had no concept of Divine Tribulations at all.
On the surface, everything seemed calm, but who knew what the Underworld King had actually experienced during that time?
"Boom."
A surging tide of blood energy shot up into the sky, shaking the nine heavens.
The Underworld King stood up, stepping on the planet, his body rapidly expanding.
When any living being breaks through to become a god, it is a great leap in life level. Without deliberately suppressing it, they take on the form of a divine sacred giant.
The stronger the blood energy of a being, the larger the divine body they shape when becoming a god.
Inside the Underworld King's body, vigorous blood energy continuously surged forth, guiding his divine body to rise step by step, as if without limit.
Finally, it reached a full ninety thousand miles before stabilizing.
"Boom."
That yellow-brown planet, thirty thousand miles in diameter, could not bear the Underworld King's divine body and the divine power radiating from him, shattering into a field of asteroid fragments.
"Hiss."
Blood Butcher, Blood Demon, Qi Sheng, and Ying Huo all looked up at the Underworld King's divine body, unable to help but suck in cold breaths.
Even Zhang Ruochen's mind was impacted, ripples stirring within him.
Even though he had now become a Great Saint realm expert and possessed a half-god physical body, compared to a true god, there was still a chasm-like difference.
"A ninety-thousand-mile true body—how much power must it contain? I wonder how many Star Soul Divine Thrones the Underworld King can condense?" Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
The number of Star Soul Divine Thrones was related to the cultivator's accumulation.
The more profound the accumulation, the more Star Soul Divine Thrones one could condense.
To become a god, one needed at least the power of a single star, that is, to condense one Star Soul Divine Throne.
The energy contained in a star was terrifying. Even a slight fluctuation could wipe out all life on nearby planets.
If a star exploded, the surrounding starry sky would be destroyed.
For this reason, in the eyes of gods, those who did not become gods were ultimately ants.
Under normal circumstances, cultivators would do their best to enhance their accumulation and would not rush to break through to godhood. Therefore, the number of Star Soul Divine Thrones they condensed was almost always two or more.
Only those who reached the Divine Realm by refining Divine Sources would have just one Star Soul Divine Throne.
Such beings, though also gods, were not recognized as such and could only be considered False Gods.
False Gods could not survive the Eon Calamity and could only live for one eon.
When becoming a god, the number of Star Soul Divine Thrones one condensed had a great impact on future achievements, so the more, the better.
When Empress Chi Yao became a god, she condensed a total of thirty-three Star Soul Divine Thrones. That is, at the moment she became a god, she possessed the terrifying power of thirty-three stars, almost comparable to a god who had survived one Eon Calamity.
"Rustle."
Above the Underworld King's head, a vast and boundless starry sky appeared, faintly visible.
This starry sky was extremely eerie. Hundreds of billions of stars gathered into a long river, spanning the universe, with no known beginning or end, giving people a very unreal feeling.
The starry sky emitted a yellow light, like a Yellow Spring, flowing through the universe.
"Is that starry sky the Hell Realm?" Zhang Ruochen murmured.
He was no stranger to this Yellow Spring Star River. Twice when he went to the Ghost Gate, he had seen it.
Zhang Ruochen knew very well that the Yellow Spring Star River was actually extremely far from this starry sky. Under normal circumstances, it could not be seen at all.
It was because the Underworld King was becoming a god that it reflected Heaven and Earth, manifesting across the void.
This could be called a divine miracle.
The divine body had already been shaped. Next came the creation of the Star Soul Divine Throne.
There were two methods to create a Star Soul Divine Throne:
The first was to directly absorb planets from the universe, integrating one's own rules and divine soul into them.
The second was to condense it entirely from rules, combining one's own rules with the rules of Heaven and Earth.
Comparatively, the Star Soul Divine Throne created by the second method was more compatible with the god and could store more divine power in the future.
However, completely condensing a Star Soul Divine Throne from rules was extremely difficult, and only a few could accomplish it.
Given the Underworld King's pride and strength, he naturally wanted to condense a Star Soul Divine Throne that was most compatible with himself.
Countless thick and solid divine rules surged out from the Underworld King's body, plunging into the Yellow Spring Star River, drawing in the Heaven and Earth rules of the Hell Realm, intertwining and converging.
The commotion of the Underworld King becoming a god was too great, causing many planets in the nearby starry sky to tremble.
...
In a relatively distant starry sky, a dead Star Soul Divine Throne floated. At the top of the highest mountain peak on the planet sat a tall, burly golden-armored god.
This Star Soul Divine Throne belonged to the Golden Que Great God of the Kunlun Realm.
The Golden Que Great God had fallen in the divine war of the Middle Ages. His Star Soul Divine Throne had originally been hidden by Xumi Saint Monk using time-space means, but the golden-armored god had found it in the universe.
At this moment, he was refining the residual divine star soul within the Star Soul Divine Throne to enhance his own strength.
Suddenly, the golden-armored god sensed a powerful divine power fluctuation and cast his gaze toward the distant starry sky.
"Such a strong divine power fluctuation—it doesn't belong to the Heavenly Court side. A god of the Hell Realm?"
The golden-armored god stood up, waving his arm. His five fingers grasped the void as if picking up a glass ball, taking away that massive Star Soul Divine Throne.
No matter how many tens of thousands of pounds a planet weighed, to a god, it was as light as a feather.
"Shua."
Beneath the golden-armored god's feet, a space star path formed from divine power appeared, illusory in nature, extending all the way to the other shore of the starry sky.
That space star path could only be seen by gods.
Walking on the space star path, each step he took covered one hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred miles.
It did not take long for the golden-armored god to appear near the place where the Underworld King was undergoing his tribulation.
His gaze first locked onto the Underworld King. Seeing the ninety-thousand-mile divine body, a look of shock flashed in his eyes.
"The Sword Dao aura on him is so strong—it's the same origin as that divine artifact that appeared in the Kunlun Realm not long ago. Could it be that the divine artifact is on him?" the golden-armored god thought to himself.
Earlier, when the Star Divine Sword was unearthed, it shook the entire Central Domain, naturally not escaping the perception of gods.
At that time, many gods from the Heavenly Court and Hell Realm were alarmed, sensing the aura of the Star Divine Sword. Unfortunately, after the Underworld King entered the Endless Abyss, that aura disappeared.
Shifting his gaze, the golden-armored god looked at Xue Hou, and his eyes immediately narrowed.
The reason was that, as a god, he could not see through that woman at all. She gave him a feeling of unfathomable depth. He could only determine that she was from the Undying Blood Clan.
The golden-armored god frowned slightly, thinking to himself: "Who is she? Why have I never heard of such a god existing in the Undying Blood Clan? No matter what, I must interrupt that Undying Blood Clan man from condensing his Star Soul Divine Throne. The Hell Realm cannot add another new god."
Immediately, the golden-armored god activated his powerful divine power, swung the heavenly halberd in his hand, and struck at the Underworld King.
The attack from the heavenly halberd tore through the starry sky, slashing out a golden edge, like a comet flying across the void.
Condensing a Star Soul Divine Throne required completing it in one go. If obstructed, at best, one could not continue condensing; at worst, even the already condensed Star Soul Divine Thrones could be destroyed.
This would be equivalent to just becoming a god, then falling back down from the Divine Realm, and suffering terrible backlash.
Therefore, when breaking through to become a god, one usually asked someone to protect them or made various preparations in advance to guard against unexpected situations.
Xue Hou had long sensed the aura of that golden-armored god. Seeing him launch an attack, she snorted coldly, raised a palm as crystalline as divine jade, and pressed forward.
Instantly, a massive divine stele phantom condensed in the starry sky, tens of thousands of miles tall.
"Boom."
As soon as it touched the stele phantom, the golden edge slashed out by the heavenly halberd shattered like an egg hitting a stone, dissipating into nothingness.
Xue Hou twisted her wrist and pressed down on the void with her backhand.
Then, the divine stele phantom directly suppressed toward the golden-armored god.
"Not good—it's a True God."
The golden-armored god's expression changed drastically. As he retreated, he went all out to block.
In an instant, the golden-armored god manifested his true body—a thirty-thousand-zhang divine body—but before the tens-of-thousands-of-miles-tall divine stele, he still appeared extremely small.
"Bang."
The golden-armored god ultimately could not withstand it. His divine body was smashed and exploded.
The divine stele bloomed with brilliant blood light, completely enveloping the golden-armored god's flesh and blood. Then it vibrated, releasing a power that annihilated all things.
"No."
The golden-armored god let out an unwilling and desperate roar, struggling with all his might to break free.
At this moment, he truly felt the threat of death.
"A mere one-star False God dares to come seeking death?" Xue Hou said indifferently.
For this kind of god who had become divine by refining a Divine Source, Xue Hou clearly looked down on them.
In fact, most of the gods sent by the Heavenly Court and Hell Realm to patrol the Merit Battlefields were one-star False Gods. Because they had no potential for growth, even if they fell, it was not a great loss.
Suddenly, Xue Hou looked up into the distance and murmured, "Another god has come."
Before the words faded, a five-colored ribbon tore through the starry sky, extending over.
A ball of fire several hundred miles in size appeared on the five-colored ribbon.
"Rustle."
The fire exploded, forming a huge ring of flames.
A majestic god clad in three-colored armor stepped out from the ring of flames, emitting an extremely terrifying amount of heat, causing the surrounding starry sky to warp.
Recognizing the newcomer, a cold light flashed in Zhang Ruochen's eyes.
He was all too familiar with this god—it was none other than Yan God of the Merit Divine Temple, who had once been determined to kill him.
Yan God had been wounded on Moon God Mountain, causing the Merit Divine Temple to lose face. After returning, he was punished and sent to collect the merit power from the Kunlun Realm Merit Battlefield.
The Merit Divine Temple held an extraordinary position in the Heavenly Court, with many gods stationed within it. However, they were either in seclusion cultivating or stationed in various Merit Battlefields.
Yan God had previously been mainly responsible for managing the affairs of the Merit Divine Temple, essentially acting as a steward appointed by the Merit Hall Master.
"Save... save me."
The golden-armored god being suppressed by the divine stele transmitted a weak cry for help.
As a one-star False God, his spiritual will and life force were far inferior to those of a True God, making him easier to kill.
"Stop."
Yan God shouted, clasping his hands together. Surging divine fire erupted from his body.
The divine fire was too intense, completely enveloping Yan God, making him look like a sun, emitting extreme light and heat, as if it would melt this starry sky.
Three-colored flames intertwined, condensing into a torrent of fire, like a fire dragon crossing the void, striking at that tens-of-thousands-of-miles-tall divine stele.
Although Yan God had not grasped Esoterica and was not yet an ancient god who had survived an Eon Calamity, he cultivated the "Three Corpses Refining the Dao" from the "Taiyi Divine Skill Ranking," making him extremely powerful—far beyond ordinary gods.
Xue Hou remained very calm, forming a seal, releasing more divine rules and divine power, condensing another divine stele, and slapping it toward Yan God.
"Boom."
The divine stele was unstoppable, shattering the fire torrent into a rain of flames, brilliant and magnificent.
Yan God's heart sank. Without any hesitation, he immediately drew upon merit power. Merit power was mysterious and wonderful, and when added to his body, it greatly increased his strength.
Yan God pushed forward with both hands, and the merit power condensed into a five-colored divine seal as massive as a star.
"Bang."
However, the five-colored divine seal could not withstand the divine stele. The moment it made contact, it was pierced through, turning into a cloud of vapor.
The next moment, the divine stele struck Yan God's body.
"Pfft."
Yan God was sent flying backward four thousand miles, a trail of blood at the corner of his mouth, his chest heaving violently.
"Esoterica, again it's Esoterica."
Yan God's eyes were wide open, both shocked and furious.
In the battle at Moon God Mountain, he had suffered from Esoterica, having half his body severed by Moon God. Even now, his injuries had not healed—a true great humiliation.
There were very few gods in the world who grasped Esoterica, and each one was a figure with a known name.
But Yan God had no impression of Xue Hou at all, which was truly strange.
Encountering a True God who grasped Esoterica, Yan God dared not easily attempt a rescue, fearing he would be implicated. After all, this was not the Heavenly Court, and she was not a god of the Heavenly Court.
In the Heavenly Court, even with Moon God's dominance, she would not dare to actually kill him.
But a god of the Hell Realm had no such scruples.
"That's... Zhang Ruochen, he's still alive."
Yan God sensed a familiar divine power fluctuation, stared at it, and saw Zhang Ruochen standing beside Xue Hou.
Finally, his gaze locked onto Zhang Ruochen's leg.
He had long known that Moon God had given his divine leg to an ant at the Saint King realm, making Yan God a laughingstock among the gods. Now seeing Zhang Ruochen, flames directly surged in Yan God's eyes, and he hated so much that he wanted to grind his teeth to dust.
"This bastard, how is he still alive?"
The news of Zhang Ruochen's fall in the Kunlun Realm had long spread throughout the heavens and myriad realms, and Yan God had heard of it.
On the other side, the screams gradually faded. The divine stele had completely ground away the golden-armored god's spiritual will and life force, leaving only a husk.
Outside the golden-armored god's home world, his only Star Soul Divine Throne dimmed, losing its luster.
A god had fallen.
Xue Hou extended a large hand, taking away the False God's body, holding it in her palm. Her eyes glanced at Yan God: "I can feel the anger in your heart. Show me your true skills. I, the Empress, am just thinking of slaying a True God to establish authority."
Killing a False God left Xue Hou somewhat unsatisfied.
After the battle at Moon God Mountain, Yan God had learned his lesson. He knew he was not one of those War Gods permanently stationed in Merit Battlefields, so there was no need to fight to the death with a True God of the Hell Realm.
His eyelids drooped, and he said indifferently, "Just a new god, don't be too arrogant. The gods of my Heavenly Court will soon arrive. Killing a god of the Heavenly Court comes at a price."
Blood Butcher whispered in Zhang Ruochen's ear, laughing, "See that? How hypocritical are the gods of the Heavenly Court? Just now, if he had gone all out, he might not have been able to save that False God, but he chose to retreat."
Blood Demon, Qi Sheng, and Ying Huo beside him all let out contemptuous laughter.
Anyway, with Xue Hou blocking the front, even if the opponent was a god, there was nothing to fear.
Yan God's gaze turned even colder. If he had also cultivated Esoterica, he would have annihilated this group of Undying Blood Clan. Those who insulted gods must die.
On the other side, in the Yellow Spring Star River, one Star Soul Divine Throne after another was being created.
Before becoming a god, the Underworld King already possessed the power of a star, crossing the heavenly moat, comparable to a one-star False God.
With such a profound accumulation, his breakthrough naturally could not be compared to ordinary gods.
The Underworld King held nothing back, fully releasing his own rules and divine power. In an extremely short time, he smoothly completed the creation of his Star Soul Divine Throne.
In the Yellow Spring Star River, twenty-eight dazzling stars emerged, connected together, outlining the Underworld King's form.
At a glance, these twenty-eight stars stood out exceptionally, their radiance illuminating the entire Yellow Spring Star River even brighter.
For gods, the brighter the Star Soul Divine Throne, the better, representing the god's own state. Often, cultivators judged a god's condition by the light of their Star Soul Divine Throne.
Back when Moon God was severely wounded and near death, her Star Soul Divine Throne had completely dimmed, leading Bian Zhuang War God to mistakenly believe she was dead. In a rage, he abandoned the Heavenly River and charged alone into the Hell Realm.
"Twenty-eight Star Soul Divine Thrones. Sixth Brother's opportunities in the Nether Prison were not small." A flicker of surprise passed through Xue Hou's eyes.
Star Soul Divine Thrones not only represented the power a god currently possessed but also, to a large extent, the potential a god had.
Almost all gods who could grasp Esoterica had condensed a considerable number of Star Soul Divine Thrones.
Zhang Ruochen's gaze fixed on the twenty-eight Star Soul Divine Thrones suspended in the Yellow Spring Star River. The Underworld King had indeed not boasted—once he became a god, he was truly extraordinary.
"With such a Star Soul Divine Throne, plus the Star Divine Sword, the Underworld King's strength might already be comparable to an ancient god who has survived an Eon Calamity," Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
Just becoming a god and already this powerful—after cultivating for another eon, who knew how formidable he would become.
Qi Sheng's eyes were filled with deep reverence, his heart extremely excited. From birth, he had always heard various legends about the Underworld King.
He had also tried hard, wanting to rescue the Underworld King from the Nether Prison.
He had never imagined that one day he would personally witness the great moment of the Underworld King becoming a god.
"Boom rumble."
Just then, the starry sky violently shook, one divine light after another appearing. The commotion of the divine battle was too great, drawing the descent of the gods from the Heavenly Court and Hell Realm.