The horizon, covered in cracks, extended to the ground, marking the beginning of the total destruction of that place. Within these fissures, frightening spatial blades emerged, striking the entire land with a power far beyond what a mortal cultivator could endure.

The whale stood still, completely exhausted, eyes closed, while a sense of mortal urgency struck it. However, the clash of the two consciousnesses within the spatial inventory was much greater. All the golden power was extinguished, but then they felt the whole small space of their spatial inventory light up with multiple colors, something unknown to them.

Gael then muttered, astonished, "This Qi... I sense something beyond mortal chains in it."

"That's the purest origin of the queen's power... a divine Qi beyond mortal scope. We reached a high enough cultivation in the past to sense it subtly." Zane replied, thinking deeply. "What will we do with it? The queen has lost control of it; I no longer feel her will in it."

Zane was looking at the Qi, but the answer didn't come. He turned in Gael's direction and saw only half of him in silence; Gael was disappearing. Then, he looked at himself; his legs no longer existed, he wasn't much better, so he smiled strangely.

'This seems to be the end...' Zane spoke calmly. They truly had gone beyond the scope of their soul's capability, especially since their souls were already deeply damaged. Death would be the only outcome now if they didn't do something.

Gael then murmured, almost like a final sigh. 'I think there's a chance... this Qi is of divine origin; we can try to use it. It's our only way out.'

Zane nodded with little hope and immediately attracted all that luminous and multicolored Qi. Zane and Gael then closed their eyes, fully focused on understanding it; they were fading away, with at most a few minutes left. If they failed, they would cease to exist.

In their minds, memories of when they were in their original Universe came to the surface. The Divine Sovereign Realm was the twelfth and final realm of cultivation. The Sovereign represents the strongest person in the world, the existence above all laws and orders. It is the highest peak possible for a cultivator. In the entire Universe, in each generation, only a dozen people reach this point, with at most three or four managing to reach the ninth stage of that realm.

But after exterminating all forms of life and being the only existence in that Universe, they understood that the only chains binding cultivators to remain mortal in that realm were precisely their mortal attachments.

A person had friends, parents, lovers, children, belongings... everything generated an intrinsic attachment. In the land where people lived a few dozen years, most always clung to these things. In the cultivation world, after living for a few thousand years, living, even when well, became torture. Everything had been seen once or twice, and nothing had much value.

Some focused entirely on exploring the mysteries of cultivation and the world. But few had the talent or necessary fate. Soon, cultivation did not rise anymore, and their lives were immersed in deep bitterness. Living long was not exactly a good thing. So, in mortal worlds, wars were started for pure entertainment. Those who didn't have that power clung even more to mortal things; everything was valid as long as they didn't violate celestial rules.

As for Zane and Gael, they went through a solitary and infinite exile, where only they existed. Thus, nothing held them back as they thought they had overcome and ended all the hatred within them. Then, the miracle happened, and they transcended, reaching the True God Realm.

They felt one with everything, not just the Universe, but with all universes. They could sense the existence of countless other places and the connection with them, although they couldn't go there.

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It became clear that there were other unknown realms for them to advance and explore. However, after a long time, they still remained at the elementary level, equivalent to level zero, and achieved no progress.

At that time, they didn't understand; all the Qi of the Universe was at their disposal, but nothing changed. So now, as they analyzed that divine Qi that came from the queen, their minds lit up. This was the key.

One minute passed; Zane was now halfway, and Gael only existed from the shoulders up; they didn't have much time left.

Zane then commented lightly, 'This mortal body we have doesn't have the ability to manipulate this...'

'Yes, it's impossible.' Gael replied, and then a bold idea emerged. 'But... our souls are not mortal. We can only try to absorb it directly into our souls and see what happens.'

Zane immediately opened his eyes, understanding that point. Normally, Qi could only be used and manipulated by a physical body, not by souls... but... this Qi was not something normal. Well, it's worth a try.

Gael also opened his eyes, and they looked at each other, nodding and drawing everything around them. That multicolored Qi penetrated those small fragments that were rapidly disappearing. The two souls trembled slightly, and suddenly, the process of disappearing was interrupted.

Tense seconds passed before all that brightness began to fade. All those colors seemed to change slowly, and then a single tone remained. A few seconds later, the entire Qi changed, and Zane and Gael looked at each other in shock.

'This... it transmuted into soul energy?!' Gael spoke in shock.

Zane was equally amazed. 'It's truly divine Qi... it can change into any kind of energy.' Even back in their Universe, when they reached the peak of their power, they still couldn't do such a thing, so one can imagine their surprise.

Gael quickly focused, and his entire spiritual body formed again, completely fine and without any damage. Zane looked at that and did the same. Yet, before that, Zane's eyes widened as he saw Gael manipulate that divine Qi, and suddenly, a Yang rune lit up like a divine sun. Following that, the Yang rune mutated and transformed into the purest and most malignant Yin.

'God... this is so overpowered.' Gael muttered.

Zane then spoke with some anger after realizing something. 'This divine Qi must be the key to cultivating beyond common realms. Without it, advancing was impossible... the queen is probably monopolizing everything for herself.'

Gael nodded, and soon, another thing made him break into a cold sweat. 'If she has dominion over this, then she must be at an extremely high cultivation level, several times higher than we achieved in the past... and worse, she must have several experts dominated by her at similar levels.'

Zane and Gael finally managed to grasp a minimal understanding of the queen's real power. There should be an entire world and realms beyond their knowledge to explore. They thought revenge wouldn't take long, as they could quickly advance with past knowledge. But now... they understood that they were like children who hadn't even started real cultivation yet.

'Well, there's no use thinking about it now. First, we have to reach the same point we reached before, then we have to somehow solve this problem.' Gael sighed and focused on a spot in the center of that space.

There, he saw something translucent floating lightly. Zane noticed his gaze, and both drew it closer. When it approached, they saw that it was a strange rune, a few centimeters in size. It looked like a celestial rune, but at the same time, they had never seen anything like it. So they tried to sense it and were surprised.

'I feel a small fragment of Mira's soul in it...' Zane commented.

'That's it, it must be the source of the queen's dominion. As soon as someone is born, this rune is created in the spiritual sea of everyone. Then, when the queen activates it, it adds divine Qi with her will.' Gael analyzed.

Zane then touched that rune and felt it more deeply. 'This was born with Mira, becoming a part of her and living with her, so her soul merged into it. It can't be used by anyone else but her forever.'

Gael nodded, and another strange idea came to his mind. 'Hm... what if we return this to her? What happens?'

Zane furrowed his eyebrows. 'The queen will simply put her divine Qi and will back into it. Are you an idiot?'

Gael then laughed and made a gesture with his arm. Soon, all the remaining divine Qi molded itself, and a strange glow appeared.

Zane saw that and muttered after feeling it. 'Are you mimicking the queen's dominion? Do you want to enslave Mira's mind or something?'

Gael looked at Zane as if he was looking at an idiot. 'Do you think I'm you?'

Zane nodded. 'You are me.'

'Fuck!' Gael noticed his mistake. 'You know what I meant! Only you would think about something like that, not me.'

He continued. 'We've seen the power of the queen in our Universe and now in this one. It's not difficult to transform this Qi into something similar, of course, excluding the mental domination. If we do something similar with the Qi, she won't be able to reestablish control over this rune without directly intervening.'

Zane didn't seem satisfied with this idea, finding it too dangerous for Mira. Gael then added.

'The queen must not monitor and care about the ants she creates. She activates these runes on a whim and then never looks back. How many people with these runes must exist? Did you forget? Even the Abyss Crystals have a bit of her will! Erasing her presence from us shouldn't mean anything. But just imagine the power Mira can have with this.'

Zane's mind clicked, and they directly saw the power of this rune in the fight against the queen-dominated Mira. Mira displayed power far beyond her cultivation level; the rune clearly had the ability to absorb Qi from the environment for itself. And that was an extremely OP power. If that level wasn't collapsing, and spatial laws weren't destroying much of the surrounding laws, they could never have won.

Then suddenly, Zane remembered this small detail: The fifth level was collapsing!