453: catch up

The usual universe was devoid of sound, surrounded by an atmosphere of complete silence.

But today, that silence was broken.

A ball of light, moving at a speed exceeding the speed of light, hurtled towards a living planet.

This planet, though only ten billion cubic kilometers in size, appeared quite prosperous.

All sorts of beings continuously landed there, and many also departed from it.

Hundreds of trillions of lives thrived there, settling down and living peacefully.

Such a small planet was, in fact, merely the territory of a Heavenly Imperial Realm expert.

For a Heavenly Imperial Realm expert, such a small territory was, of course, considered tiny.

However, owning a planet meant that an extremely vast distance centered around it belonged to his domain.

For instance, the planet the ball of light was rushing towards had countless smaller planets as vassals around it.

Planets in the universe varied in strength, which was related to their environmental location.

This was because the distribution of spiritual energy in the universe was not uniform.

In some regions, within a radius of tens of billions of light-years, spiritual energy was so sparse it was almost nonexistent.

Life forms there were generally weaker, and development was uneven; some might still be in primitive societies, and the more unfortunate ones might not have even discovered how to make fire by rubbing sticks.

On powerful planets, however, experts of the Heavenly Imperial Realm and even the Immortal Law Realm could emerge.

Therefore, in the universe, the primal rule of the strong preying on the weak was extremely pronounced.

If those weaker planets were discovered by a certain expert, what would happen was self-evident.

Currently, this planet was doing quite well, with the protection of a Heavenly Imperial Realm expert, which was sufficient for a planet of this size to remain unmolested.

But no one knew how many rounds of massacres this planet had endured when this Heavenly Imperial Realm expert took over.

As a result, most of the inhabitants on this planet were not its original residents.

However, when the ball of light, exceeding the speed of light, descended, everything changed.

In the universe, any expert knew perfectly well what the speed of light meant.

The speed of light was the boundary between the Mortal Realm and the Immortal Realm.

No matter how fast a Mortal Realm being was, its speed could only infinitely approach the speed of light but never reach it.

Generally, objects with mass cannot reach the speed of light.

Because at the speed of light, all particles composing an object would detach from their original state of equilibrium.

Even its original form and structure might not hold true at the speed of light.

Only those in the Immortal Realm, having achieved immortality and possessing immortal matter, could withstand flying at the speed of light.

So for those below the Immortal Realm, it wasn't that their own power was insufficient to reach the speed of light, but rather that their very being could not sustain movement at the speed of light.

Therefore, once they broke through, no Immortal Realm being's speed merely reached the speed of light; it always far exceeded it.

The speed of light is a critical point, a boundary, a qualitative change point.

After crossing it, one would realize that the speed of light is merely the smallest unit used to describe speed.

Just like Chen De, when he had just broken through and was still in the transitional phase, he could reach a speed of three hundred light-years per hour.

Yet, before his breakthrough, he couldn't even reach the speed of light.

Therefore, when the ball of light rushed towards the planet, no one detected it.

Because its speed was too fast.

At this moment, it was still about a hundred light-years away from the planet; if there were no Immortal Realm beings on this planet, it would be impossible to discover it.

Because the distance between them was currently too great.

Clearly, there was only one Heavenly Imperial Realm expert stationed on this planet.

Given the Heavenly Imperial Realm expert's detection range, it was probably still too far away to be noticed.

If it had truly arrived, with his limited detection range, he wouldn't have been able to react in time.

Presumably, it would have just entered the edge of his detection range and already reached its center.

So, no one detected the ball of light before it reached the planet.

Until... until this ball of light approached the planet's vicinity, not only did it not slow down, but it directly collided with it.

In just an instant, one moment it was calm and peaceful, the next moment the planet was pierced through.

A terrifying shockwave spread from the explosion's opening, instantly engulfing the entire planet.

From one end of the planet, everything began to disintegrate.

The planet disintegrated from one end to the other into tiny fragments, which were then shattered into even finer fragments.

As for the lives that had existed on it, they were instantly vibrated into nothingness.

Including the guardian on it, that Heavenly Imperial Realm expert, who was inexplicably gone without knowing what had happened.

It... it was quite sudden!

Sometimes, dying too quickly is a kind of blessing; all the lives living on it departed without suffering.

Under the mighty power of an Immortal Realm expert, a Heavenly Imperial Realm expert was no different from an ordinary person without any cultivation.

Or rather, the Mortal Realm, whether in its early stages or at its peak, was meaningless before him. (Here, the Mortal Realm includes ordinary people without cultivation, up to the level of Chen De and Myriad Gods).

And after this ball of light flew past, several other balls of light followed closely behind.

The two sides chased each other, neither giving way.

At this moment, several voices emanated from the trailing balls of light.

These voices quickly traveled countless light-years, accurately reaching the ball of light ahead.

"Night Lord, stop running! You can't take that Supreme Demonic Creature with you."

"Hand over the Demonic Creature, and we will let you go."

"You should know how many people are eyeing this item. If you keep holding onto it, can you really take it away?"

"Yuan Chen, the Sect Master of Zhengyuan Sect, the foremost power in our Xi Chen Domain, has already declared that he is irreconcilably opposed to this Demonic Creature and will destroy it at all costs."

"Moreover, it's not just the righteous path; your demonic path's leader, the Demon Yuan Sect, has also declared that he is determined to obtain this Innate Demonic Creature. Can you truly hold onto it?"

"Zhengyuan Sect has an expert in the second stage of the Immortal Law Realm. Even if you absorb this Demonic Creature, that being can still kill you with a single finger."

Amidst the constant persuasion from the balls of light behind him, the ball of light ahead not only did not slow down but even accelerated slightly.

At the same time, he also left a message for the trailing balls of light, taunting them:

"Hahaha, Old Ghost Yang Li, the continent I just shattered should be part of your subordinate forces, right?"

"To be honest with you, I did it on purpose, specifically crashing into it."

"See? Just like fireworks, it exploded with a 'bang' without a sound, but just seeing the scene, I could imagine the sound."

"I couldn't help but hum a little tune."

Behind, the ball of light called Old Ghost Yang Li heard Night Lord's words with an unperturbed heart.

Just as Night Lord treated that planet, Yang Li's attitude towards that planet was not much better.

He had at least eighty or ninety thousand, if not a hundred thousand, small planets of this caliber under his command.

The gap between Immortals and Mortals, the chasm between them, was far greater than imagined.