Divine Emperor of Death

Chapter 4680: Second Layer’s Limit

”What’s wrong?” Tia noticed Davis’s frown.

Was he not happy with the location they discovered?

”Oh,” She imagined she had found the issue, ”Are you worried splitting our forces will weaken us? In that case, we only need to go to one galaxy. Whether it is the Celestial Transcendent Galaxy’s Upper Realms or another galaxy’s upper realms, I’m sure everyone will support your lead. To us, wherever you go is our home.”

Davis came out of his reverie and pinched Tia’s cheek, ”Silly little aunt. I naturally won’t split our forces when we’re just beginning to ascend to the Second Layer.”

”Then...?”

”I’m just worried that the Celestial Transcendent will go against his words. Do you still remember the exact wording he made after making the four rules?”

Tia thought a bit before she nodded, reciting, ”In exchange for Davis Loret protecting rule one to rule four, I, the Celestial Transcendent, the incumbent ruler of the Celestial Transcendent Galaxy, will agree to leave Davis Loret and his family alone for the ten-year period, allowing relative peace. If he were to go against his words, his soul would shatter and spread across the void. If I were to go against my words, I will leave him alone for the next hundred years and shall not send anyone against him— and if I were to go against these words again, it will cast a serious injury upon my soul.”

As a master of Karma Laws, she paid immense attention to the wording and the binding that came with a contract, especially as something as immense as the one Davis carried. She had tried to study the Covenant they exchanged, but she couldn’t make much of it, posing a huge challenge to her current comprehension.

Davis nodded softly, ”He already expected the scenario of him breaking the Covenant again. A serious soul injury to him could be easily cured by his wife, so it’s not realistic for us to enter the Celestial Transcendent Galaxy’s Upper Realms. He would just risk the injury to seal me once and for all, and if I fall, the destruction of the Davis Family will come to pass.”

”...” Tia’s expression turned solemn, ”Should I make a divination of that level? I might not survive.”

Davis shook his head, reciprocating her solemness, ”Never ever do something like that. Even without divination, we know the answer is that he will descend to make a short work of me. I also expect it to happen more than ninety percent, but I don’t fear it because I have my own methods to block him; only, the situation will escalate beyond my control, leaving all of your fate hanging by a thread. I will be unable to save everyone, eventually leaving us to be picked apart one by one.”

”...” Tia could tell her big brother thought about this a lot, perhaps day and night, while he was still training in the past ten years.

”But now, after dealing with a few folks, I came into the knowledge of the Second Layer’s Limit. This doesn’t bode well for us.”

Tia’s heart shook, ”How so?”

Davis ruminated for a moment before sealing Nadia’s hearing. He sighed, ”The next stage is called the True Deity Stage.”

”...”

Tia felt a strong sense of foreboding. It was the sensation of karmic burden falling on her. Nonetheless, as a cultivator with the Karmic Guardian Physique and a person who had experienced a lifetime and a lifetime in a story, she didn’t find it that scary. And as the Karmic Guardian Empress of the Davis Family, nearly every divination she made to infer their surroundings, which was constantly shaped by the presence of Divergents, the karmic burden she had been shrouded with was already high.

”In the Second Layer,” Davis continued, ”All True Deities and their counterparts in other cultivation pathways are forced to ascend. It happens right after their breakthrough. The tribulation clouds will wrap them around and forcefully take them to the Greater Realm of their respective galaxy.”

”...” Tia was shocked.

So the ascension that was recorded in stories wasn’t fake after all?

However, instead of affecting immortal tribulations, it affected immortals who underwent tribulation to become a divinity!

The Second Layer and Third Layer seemed to no longer accept divinities!

Suddenly, Davis said something else, which shattered her line of thought.

”However, this doesn’t mean True Deity-level existences don’t exist in the Second Layer. There could be over sixteen of them at any given point in time.”

”The sixteen Upper Realm rulers?” Tia instantly pointed out.

”Yes,” Davis nodded as he inwardly applauded her astute nature, ”By binding the Upper Realm Core, they are able to maintain their power as a True Deity even in the Second Layer. They’re absolute rulers who could decimate anything in their own realm. As long as they maintain their prowess around Level Three True Deity Stage, they would not be forced to ascend.”

”...” Tia’s expression churned, but she noticed something, ”Does that mean that they are unable to maintain their True Deity-level prowess when they got out of the realm?”

”Indeed. They would have to suppress themselves to somewhere below the True Deity Stage. Hence, they won’t pursue us out, so finding a celestial body outside the sixteen Upper Realms was really a lucky encounter for us. However, I’m not worried about the Realm Masters. I’m worried about the Celestial Transcendent.”

Davis smiled wryly, continuing, ”Apparently, he’s still a Primarch according to rumors, a ridiculously powerful one that even the Venerable Knights, who are equivalent to Absolute Primarchs, don’t compare. This is due to his allegiance to the heavens, like the other rulers of the seven other galaxies, and also the ruler of the Greater Realm, who bound its Realm Core. Hence, he could descend unabated without facing many restrictions. At the very least, he would face fewer restrictions than the other seven rulers who could be above the Primarch Stage.”

”Hmm, my victim also noted that it was because of his presence that the Upper Realms never fell, even in times of crisis, and that he isn’t bothered about conspiracies brewing since he could always smite them to oblivion. Hence, humanity basically sealed the weakness they exploited in others. It would be nearly impossible to keep them from sneaking into the Second Layer and making their way up.”

”...” Tia was stupefied.

Wasn’t this challenge kind of... impossible to overcome?

Wasn’t the Celestial Transcendent too overpowered?

She had already kept him in a high regard, but having the support of the heavens and also the ruler of the Greater Realm? She felt her heart sinking to the depths.

Davis wryly added, ”Originally, I thought that even if the Celestial Transcendent were to descend, he might not be more powerful than a Peak Primarch, but now, it seems like he could descend with a prowess equivalent to a Level Three or a Level Four True Deity while still being a Primarch. That appears to be the absolute upper limit for the Second Layer, but still, unless I enter the Exalt Stage, I don’t think I can deal with him.”

He chuckled, appearing wistful about their fate.

Tia was still reeling at the fact that the Celestial Transcendent could still be a Primarch.

”How can he still be a Primarch? Even if he’s powerful than an Absolute Primarch, how can it still compare to the True Deity Stage? Don’t the gaps get wider? This is the first step into divinity!”

She trembled, appearing horrified.

Davis shrugged, ”In the Primarch Stage, there’s Supreme and Absolute just like Alpha and Omega for the Exalt Stage. The latter state is incredibly hard to achieve. I suspect even an Omega Exalt or an Absolute Primarch can easily compare with a True Deity with a few levels of prowess to their strength. The fact that the rulers of the Upper Realms are still in the Primarch Stage tells me so. Ralaza Heavenshade also confirmed that their Azure Dragon Realm Master is an Absolute Primarch. This explains why the Venerable Knights looked down on me so much. As Absolute Primarchs, they’re already at the verge of matching the True Deity Stage themselves, just clipping themselves short so that they could remain in the Second Layer to dedicate their lives to hunting Divergents.”

He paused before he thought of another possibility, ”Or... they’re so powerful that stepping into a stage similar to the True Deity Stage is so difficult that it is nearly impossible for them. Moreover, they’re so unique that they need to produce their own cultivation manuals, costing them millions of years.”

”...” Tia was dumbfounded. She couldn’t help but nod absentmindedly as she felt it made sense, but the impact of it was so huge that she couldn’t wrap her head around it.

Moreover, this was a steep trap that they laid out for the Divine Emperor of Death.

Although they were already aware that Venerable Knights were overpowered, it now seems like they still hadn’t excavated their full potential in the Primarch Stage. Otherwise, they would’ve been forced to ascend since they didn’t have a specialty like the Realm Masters binding the Realm Core or the Celestial Transcendent being the primary representative for the heavens.

”So... should we not head there?” Tia raised her hand and hesitantly pointed towards the fold of space.