Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

"Impressive. You’re truly strong. But your guts are even stronger. You actually dared to carry out such a crazy idea to brand all the divine runes onto your soul. Were you not afraid of your starry sea exploding?”

The Earth Cauldron’s voice echoed in Long Chen’s mind, filled with both admiration and reproach. The Earth Cauldron understood better than anyone the sheer power and danger of these divine runes. Hence, Long Chen’s actions had been nothing short of reckless, a gamble that could have left him crippled—or worse.

If the Earth Cauldron had been capable of communicating with Long Chen before, it would not have let him do something so foolish no matter what. Now, even though the process was complete, it was still reeling from the sheer audacity of what Long Chen had done. That had been extremely dangerous.

Looking at the three thousand stars that had exploded, leaving only their cores intact, the Earth Cauldron felt something akin to its heart bursting. Though it lacked a heart, the sensation was similar.

“Senior, what happened? Why couldn’t I sense any of you before?” Long Chen asked, his spirits lifted at the sound of the Earth Cauldron’s voice.

“The Jiuli Divine Stele’s runes clashed with mine. Since I’m still in the early stages of recovery, fighting it would have drained my core energy and hindered your comprehension. But I never expected you to bypass comprehension entirely and directly brand the runes onto your soul,” the Earth Cauldron replied, its tone exasperated.

“Hehe, comprehension takes time, while branding them allows me to comprehend them whenever I have time,” chuckled Long Chen.

“You’re insatiable. Greedy to the extreme. By doing this, you’ve exhausted the power of the Jiuli Divine Stele. It’s no longer available to aid in your comprehension. While there are benefits to your method, the drawbacks are significant,” the Earth Cauldron warned.

“No problem. With the Seven Treasure Colored Glass Tree, I’ll have no trouble comprehending them later. If I had settled for just ten divine runes and missed the chance to obtain all of them, that would’ve been the real loss,” Long Chen said confidently.

Long Chen was not worried about this matter at all. The Seven Treasure Colored Glass Tree could increase his comprehension, letting him gain insights faster. He was extremely confident in this miraculous and mysterious tree.

The space around him started to ripple, and the runes on the Jiuli Divine Stele ignited once more. Long Chen sighed wistfully as he observed this. Although this was the prime moment to delve into the runes’ mysteries, they were now dormant within his branded stars.

“I should let someone else benefit from this,” Long Chen muttered.

Placing his hands on the Jiuli Divine Stele, he guided the divine light it released into a concentrated stream…

…

On the seventh level, tens of millions of Northern Alliance experts were immersed in the barrier, their souls merging with the runes. These were the elementary forms of divine runes, containing the essence of heaven and earth. Comprehending them would be extremely beneficial to their futures.

The Northern Alliance’s experts were fully focused on comprehending these runes. They knew this was an incredibly rare chance for them.

This opportunity was a rare gift. Normally, such a treasure trove of divine knowledge was tightly monopolized by the divine clans, and the Northern Alliance experts were acutely aware of how rare this chance was. Hence, they poured all their focus into comprehending the divine runes, knowing full well that when the Jiuli Divine Stele’s world closed, they might face retaliation. Taking even a fragment of the divine clans’ inheritance could easily incite their envy—and their wrath.

Just as they were pushing their limits to grasp the elementary runes before them, a radiant wave of divine light erupted from the barrier and enveloped them.

“This is…!”

The sudden brilliance stole their sight, and in the blinding glow, countless ignited runes began cascading toward them.

“These are complete divine runes!”

Shocked gasps rippled through the group. What they had been struggling to comprehend before were merely the rudimentary forms of the divine runes—fragments of their true essence. Now, before their eyes, complete divine runes floated, looking majestic and awe-inspiring. They felt like they were dreaming, and the fire of their souls was instantly ignited. ⱤÁΝＯᛒƐⱾ

“AH!”

Their exultation quickly turned to agony as the divine runes surged toward them, answering some unseen call within their souls. Each rune branded itself deep into their very being, searing their souls like molten iron. The excruciating pain tore through them, making them clutch their heads and scream.

The pain of the soul was the most painful. Although most of the energy of these runes had been exhausted, the ignited power was still too much for them.

“Fools. This is the consequence of overreaching your capabilities. Did you think ants like you could comprehend what belongs to the divine clans?”

Nearby, the divine clans’ experts sneered, watching the Northern Alliance's plight with disdain. They had been a bit angry and even jealous to see the Northern Alliance reach this level. However, since they were all busy comprehending the barrier, they didn’t have time to attack the Northern Alliance experts.

Seeing them screaming, these idiots thought the Northern Alliance experts got a backlash from the barrier, thus mocking them for their misfortune.

Fortunately, this divine light was only visible to the Northern Alliance experts, so these outsiders had no idea what was going on.

When the divine light faded, the Northern Alliance experts were as pale as paper. Their Spiritual Strength was next to non-existent now.

However, all of them were filled with disbelief. Many of them had a complete divine rune branded in their souls.

“This is…” muttered one of them.

“Shut your mouth!” their leader shouted angrily, forbidding that person to speak.

When those divine runes faded, the leader somehow saw a divine stele along with a figure beside it. Although that figure was a bit blurry, he recognized who it was.

“The inheritance of the divine clans isn’t something we can touch! We’re leaving!” exclaimed their leader.

He waved his hand, and under the mocking stares of the divine clans’ experts, they dejectedly left. The idiots didn’t notice that while these people looked to be in pain and dejected, their eyes were full of joy and excitement.

From afar, Long Chen watched their departure with a faint smile.

“These fellows are smarter than they look.”

Behind him, the Jiuli Divine Stele started to dim, its brilliance fading into darkness. As its collapse began, Long Chen acted without hesitation. With a sudden motion, he seized the crumbling stele and hurled it straight at Long Zaiye.

BOOM!

The Jiuli Divine Stele in front of Long Chen exploded, and a massive spatial rift tore open where it struck. Without pause, Long Chen dove into the rift, half his body already through when he caught sight of Long Zaiye’s confused face.

“You shameless bastard, what are you looking at?”

Long Chen’s hand moved instinctively, landing a solid slap across Long Zaiye’s face.

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