The owl-like shriek and gray cloak made Li Fire Divine Lord think of someone—Cyclops Heretic Lord.
The person was elusive and had a rather odd character. He seemed perverse enough to torture to death anyone who gave him even the tiniest of slight. He was rather infamous and because of this, he had offended numerous people. Yet, he was still well alive up to this day.
And Cyclops Heretic Lord's strength, which he greatly relied on, stemmed from his puppet. It came from an ancient ruin that was related to a Godly Monarch. Its entire body was made of Immutable Divine Gold, an extremely resilient material. He also wore a concealment cloak that was a treasure in and of itself. It could hide all his aura. Even mighty figures a full realm higher than him would hardly detect his presence under its effects.
And at that moment, Cyclops Heretic Lord was relying on the concealment cloak to approach the River of the Netherworld silently. With a beckon of his hand, a dark golden puppet flew out and charged right at the Netherworld tree.
Divine Gold Puppet!
Li Fire Divine Lord's heart tightened. It was impossible for a person's body to withstand the rapid passage of time from the Netherworld water but treasures were different. Many treasures sat in ancient ruins for hundreds of millions of years while retaining their mighty power. And the puppet that Cyclops Heretic Lord had released was made of Immutable Divine Gold, a material that was virtually indestructible.
Once Cyclops Heretic Lord obtained the Netherworld tree's fruit, he would definitely use his concealment cloak to escape. It would be near impossible for them to find him once that happened.
"Stop him!" Li Fire Divine Lord bellowed.
At that moment, Cyclops Heretic Lord had disappeared as though he vanished into thin air. As for the Divine Gold puppet, it had charged straight at the Netherworld tree. This was Cyclops Heretic Lord's modus operandi in combat. His opponents would be unable to hit him while they were worn down by the indestructible Divine Gold puppet.
Li Fire Divine Lord anxiously sought Cyclops Heretic Lord's location and mustered all his attention to intercept the Divine Gold puppet when it retreated.
But at that moment, he felt a chilling sensation behind him.
The instant the Divine Gold puppet made contact with the Netherworld tree, it began to crumble like an exquisite sand sculpture. Countless fine cracks appeared on its surface and spread across its entire body. The puppet was reduced to golden sand under the watchful gazes of everyone. It scattered away with a gust of wind, eventually vanishing into nothingness.
What!?
Li Fire Divine Lord felt palpitations run through him. That was Immutable Divine Gold, a material that could virtually last for eternity. Yet it could not even survive the Netherworld water and even disintegrated in such a short period of time!?
"Ah!"
At that moment, an ear-piercing voice sounded. A gray figure plummeted from the sky and crashed heavily to the ground.
The gray figure was none other than Cyclops Heretic Lord.
He struggled frantically after crashing to the ground. He was even crawling away from the Netherworld tree on all fours.
Cyclops Heretic Lord kept shouting tragically. The Immutable Divine Gold puppet was connected to his soul. The moment it was reduced to dust, his psyche suffered horrible damage, causing irreparable damage!
"How… How did this happen to you…"
For a moment, Li Fire Divine Lord saw Cyclops Heretic Lord's face under the gray cloak. Although Cyclops Heretic Lord was not young, the impression people had of him was that he must've looked like a mortal in his fifties or sixties. But at that moment, Li Fire Divine Lord saw that Cyclops Heretic Lord looked like a old man. All his wrinkles were scrunched together, his eyes turbid. His hair was falling off in clumps, revealing a wrinkled bald head filled with age spots.
Cyclops Heretic Lord struggled in pain. More than ninety percent of his vitality had been drained. He did not look like he had long to live.
Li Fire Divine Lord drew a gasp. Cyclops Heretic Lord was injured by the backlash to his soul when his puppet was destroyed. It caused him to fall to a spot relatively close to the River of the Netherworld. Almost instantly, the passage of time eroded him!
Although Cyclops Heretic Lord was a Divine Lord that had yet to fuse a Divine Lord Royal Seal, he was still a Divine Lord. Even so, he was destroyed so simply without even touching the Netherworld water.
Such a terrifying set of time laws sent chills down the backs of everyone present.
As Li Fire Divine Lord was pondering over the matter, Xing Yu Divine Lord walked towards the Netherworld tree.
His actions immediately drew the gazes of everyone present. After all, with a precedent clearly established by Cyclops Heretic Lord, his attempt was a commendable act of bravery.
Xing Yu Divine Lord wiped his interspatial ring as an ancient wooden chessboard appeared in his hand.
The moment it appeared, it flew into mid-air and spun slowly.
The squarish chessboard had a few pieces on it that held fast to the board. A world seemed to be sealed within the board.
"Constellation Revolution?" exclaimed the whisk-wielding Daoist nun.
"Master, what is that?" Bluejade asked out of curiosity.
"This chessboard is a very famous spatial artifact. Space-time is a Great Dao of Supremacy. It is indeed a smart move for Xing Yu to use space to tackle time."
The nun's expression was heavy. She clearly believed that Xing Yu's method might work and was afraid that he would obtain the treasure.
The black and white pieces on the wooden chessboard shimmered with dazzling beams of light. An interlocking net spread out and enveloped space itself.
The surrounding scenery vanished as everyone found themselves standing on top of the massive net with a black backdrop behind them. The pieces also became extremely large.
As for the Netherworld tree, it was also transported to the chessboard's Tian Yuan location.
Constellation Revolution referred to the spatial transformations of space.
Xing Yu knew he had no way to withstand the River of the Netherworld's time laws. Instead, he hoped to use spatial dimension laws to take the tree away from the river.
If he could move the tree to a spot right in front of him, the threat posed by the River of the Netherworld would naturally become nonexistent. Not only would plucking the fruit be easy, he could even take the entire tree away without any danger.
Using space to crack time was a good way to evade the crucial problem, one might even call it extremely ingenious.
Xing Yu moved his fingers as though the world was a giant chess game, because it was. Piece after pieced moved as they landed on the eight 'stars' around the Tian Yuan.
The eight pieces trembled, surrounding the Tian Yuan completely and sealing off space.
With that, Xing Yu made a grab as the eight pieces encroached towards the Tian Yuan spot. The very spatial laws changed as Constellation Revolution acted on the world!
But at that moment, Xing Yu's expression changed. He watched helplessly as, in the chess network that filled the world, the spot in the Tian Yuan position turned as black as ink for a baffling reason. The blackness got even darker as it transformed into what seemed like a black hole that could swallow everything. It tugged at the entire worldly chessboard and, with that, the middle of the chessboard began disintegrating.
The Tian Yuan shattered as the spatial plane created by the chessboard began crumbling from the middle. Immediately following that, the net that filled the void began falling apart.
This…
Xing Yu was alarmed. The worldly chessboard was no simple man-made item, but something condensed from laws.
The chessboard he formed out of spatial dimension laws was disintegrating just like that?
It was naturally impossible to trigger Constellation Revolution the moment the laws powering it were destroyed. The worldly chessboard completely exploded as he retreated several steps back with a pale face and found his footing only with Di Rong's help.
He had suffered backlash from the destruction of the laws. Fortunately, he did not directly approach the Netherworld tree, and so kept his life.