Chapter 409: The Colossal Corpse

"What happened?"

Director Takahashi braced himself against the table, steadying his swaying body so he wouldn't end up like the others—either sprawled on the floor or landing flat on his backside, which would have made his tailbone ache terribly.

The tremor came without warning.

With years of earthquake experience behind them, everyone instantly judged that the tremor was not an earthquake.

As if realizing something, Director Takahashi ordered, "Switch the big screen to the satellite filming the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Realm."

"Yes!"

Quickly, the big screen displayed the satellite footage of the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Realm.

"This… is something terrifying about to emerge from within the altar?!"

Minister Saito pushed himself up using an overturned chair beside him, sat up from the floor, and glanced up as he rose—his face went deathly pale.

No wonder he felt that way.

The Ancient Babylonian Mythic Realm was now in upheaval—winds rose, clouds surged, and rings of majestic energy pulsed from the altar, as if a massive boulder had plunged into Wang Yang, sending towering waves and ripples outward, the shockwave spreading from the altar to strike in all directions.

The dead beasts, the Ancient Babylonian Mythic deities, and Nidhogg were all startled awake.

"Roar!"

The blood-colored Dahu bubbled like lava in a volcanic hot spring, gurgling and frothing. Nidhogg spread its wings and flew out of the lake, a pair of death-dragon eyes wreathed in deathly aura, fixed on the altar at the center of the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Realm.

For the first time, those dragon eyes—stripped of emotion, filled only with anger, savagery, and murderous negativity—revealed a trace of anguish, a fierce yet majestic flicker of struggle.

They saw the altar undergo a sudden, violent upheaval.

"What's wrong with Nidhogg?" someone noticed the change in Nidhogg, eyes filled with confusion.

Nidhogg radiated towering savagery and brutality—the same as when they had first seen it, like a cold-blooded instrument of slaughter, mindless and unfeeling, knowing only killing. But now it was somewhat different.

That savagery and brutality was not the emotionless kind of destruction, not the kind displayed solely for slaughter.

It was more like a kind of rage, as if the dormant, sealed memories sleeping within Nidhogg's body had awakened—recalling the past, remembering that it was Nidhogg, who had died in the Ancient Babylonian Mythic encirclement.

"Babylon… Mythic…"

A voice, heavy as iron chains, as massive as a great mountain—Nidhogg was speaking, struggling to produce broken sounds, its gaze never leaving the altar.

The grand voice spread throughout all four corners of the realm.

Nidhogg truly remembered?! Its past memories had awakened.

This was the first time people had heard Nidhogg speak—no longer a slaughtering instrument that only knew how to roar, it now possessed emotion. Its body still retained memories of its past life, and now, stimulated by the altar's upheaval, those memories had revived.

"Truly worthy of being the great dragon that gnaws at the World Tree in Norse mythology," Professor Zhongtian remarked with feeling.

It had died once, its immortal dragon body had nurtured new life, yet it did not forget the past—the memories were branded into its body, its dragon bones, the deepest depths of its soul. Even the new soul that was nurtured carried them.

But only Nidhogg had recovered its past memories; the other rare birds and strange beasts of the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Realm, and the Ancient Babylonian Mythic deities, were not so fortunate.

They remained emotionless—clearly their past memories no longer existed, no question of recovery. The memories of the original body's owner that once existed within the body had long been completely erased.

"In the end, they are not immortal."

Someone analyzed that Nidhogg's retention of past memories was related to its immortal strength—that was a being that transcended life and death, no longer bound by it. Even in death, all its past remained within its body.

Perhaps, this was the unique aspect of immortality.

Life equal to Heaven, eternally undying—even if it dies, as long as the body is not destroyed and a new life is born within it, one day it can recover its past. A kind of immortal rebirth.

"So this is immortality."

Within the passage of the Eternal Star Realm, several gods and demons whose strength was still weak watched with envious, reddened eyes.

They were gods and demons of the Eternal Star Realm, of a different faction from the Star Demon Race, having not participated in the invasion of other realms—they belonged to the moderate faction.

These past days, the gods, demons, immortals, and devils of the Eternal Star Realm had been warring against other realms with no news at all. Now, four or five days later, out of curiosity, they had come to investigate and saw the past景象 presented by the altar of the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Realm.

They were awed by the terror of the Reach the Origin Realm.

Ashiya Ushi and the others had likewise noticed the gods and demons of the Eternal Star Realm. Alert to these gods and demons, but seeing that they expressed goodwill and had even helped protect Earth from being affected by the shockwaves moments ago, they let them stay and watch from over there.

The Reach the Origin Realm had been silent for too long—so long that the other heavens had forgotten its might. It was time to let the myriad heavens once again recognize the terror of the Reach the Origin Realm.

Gods and demons from the other four otherworldly realms also arrived one after another. They did not act rashly, choosing to wait and watch—they did not want to follow in the footsteps of the gods, demons, immortals, and devils of their own worlds.

At the same time.

In the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Realm, deep within the altar.

The Demon Lord, the Void Lord, and the other gods, demons, immortals, and devils were trembling with fear—some were so terrified their souls nearly flew out of their bodies.

The place they were in now did not look like the underground of an altar; it was more like a dark world—vast and grand, estimated to span hundreds of millions of miles.

What shocked them was not the hidden universe within the altar—after all, they had seen such scenes before. At the level of immortals and devils, one could refine starry skies or a small world into a magical artifact or location.

"Sleeve Universe," "World in the Palm," "Hidden Cave Heaven"—these were what described such things.

What truly made them tremble with fear was that this dark world contained nothing at all—only a sky and an earth.

And… a corpse.

On the vast, hundreds-of-millions-of-miles firmament, the heavens were pitch-black—more precisely, the blackness of the firmament was this corpse pressing down on the sky, covering it. Looking up, a colossal corpse covered the firmament, appearing as if the heavens themselves were black.

This corpse was far too massive.

It occupied the entire firmament, its entire body covered in pitch-black qi and light, bound and restrained by pitch-black iron chains thicker than the body of Taishan.

Each iron chain was like a pillar supporting the heavens, connecting to the earth, rooted firmly within it.

It looked as if a corpse had been sealed and imprisoned by tens of thousands of massive chains, locked upon this earth, confined within this sky.

"…It's still alive!!"

An immortal-devil's pupils contracted, its lips trembling, terrified to the bone.

This colossal corpse pressed down on heaven and earth, its aura suppressed by the pitch-black iron chains, yet still a wisp leaked out. The gods, demons, immortals, and devils present trembled, shaken to the core, their souls chilled and quivering.

With each breath, deathly energy surged forth.

The colossal corpse was still alive, not dead—it was breathing, merely sealed and imprisoned here.

Involuntarily, they looked toward the pitch-black iron chain nearest to them.

Too vast.

The iron chains stood like mountains, as if a dark ancient demon stood towering, suppressing eternity, their surfaces covered in intricate patterns, the Dao resonance perfectly natural, as if the great Dao itself had been branded upon them.

These patterns covered the chains, glowing gold, and with each breath of the colossal corpse, the golden patterns pulsed like breathing, flickering between bright and dim, perfectly echoing it.

Absorbing its vitality?

The Void Lord, the Demon Lord, and the gathered gods, demons, immortals, and devils sensed that these chains did more than suppress the colossal corpse — they were also absorbing its vitality.

"The death qi is exhaled from this being's nostrils. Could the vitality it's absorbing be the one sustaining that light barrier of the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Realm?"

A god or demon guessed.

The moment the words fell, the colossal corpse seemed to sense something, and its long-silent massive body stirred. The iron chains clashed and rang, emitting earth-shaking thunderous roars that nearly shattered the eardrums of the gathered gods, demons, immortals, and devils.

Suddenly!

The great earthquake that had struck the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Realm, the cataclysmic eruption of the altar — all had been triggered by this colossal being.

……