Crown of Supremacy: The End and The Beginning!

Crack, crack.

Clear fissures appeared in the space around Bai Cangshu, and a powerful tearing force emerged from within them. Yet Bai Cangshu could not move. He felt as though he were a specimen forcibly pressed flat against some plane by immense pressure.

After the unknown Gods truly revealed themselves, merely appearing in the material world exerted terrifying pressure upon all other beings.

And now, it was not one god, nor two—it was every deity among the Gods rising to their feet and raising their hands at the same time.

They acknowledged this challenger;

His unprecedented performance of overwhelmingly defeating every candidate had successfully pleased the gods.

Bai Cangshu’s expression twisted. As he endured the pressure born from the difference in their levels of life, endless kaleidoscopic colors flickered in his pupils. The illusory vortex behind his head opened once more, and an invisible spiral began to turn.

Bai Cangshu had never felt anything resembling worship toward any creature, individual, or entity. Faced with such a pantheon, he felt only one emotion—Greed.

He greedily wanted to see clearly just what was different about these beings compared to himself.

What exactly were gods? What were humans? Where lay the decisive gap and essential difference between the two?!

Creak, crack…

Bai Cangshu forcibly twisted his neck, and his cervical vertebrae and skull gave off sharp cracks under unbearable strain.

At last, he saw brilliant radiance emerge above the Gods. It was a dazzling mass of light condensed from endless splendor.

It constantly changed shape, like flames, like Ripples, like wind, like leaves.

With just one glance, Bai Cangshu felt his brain beginning to overflow with excessive information.

The dazzling radiance continued expanding, as though more divine power were being poured into it.

If the radiance Bai Cangshu had seen before—whether the crimson glow that appeared when he killed powerful enemies and obtained Drop Cards, the ruby-like red radiance naturally condensed after overly powerful Plot Characters died, or the golden radiance Knight Sister had drawn after receiving an S-rank evaluation—

None of them could compare to this radiance in brilliance or splendor.

It was as if it contained the essence of countless worlds. Only the rise and fall of innumerable human histories could have forged the manifestation of the vast Gods, and now the Gods were taking out a small portion of that essence and gifting it to a prodigy with the chance to open a new chapter in human history.

The radiance kept condensing and changing, containing many complex reactions that even Bai Cangshu’s current eyes could not see through.

The sphere of light slowly descended from the sky, and Bai Cangshu suddenly felt his body become light.

In an instant, his entire body flipped over like a giant python. Because of the terrifying force he had exerted earlier, Blazing White smoke exploded around him.

The enormous divine statues above the Gods that reflected the void began vanishing one after another. The Gods were leaving.

Bai Cangshu felt a faint sting on his scalp as something surging with countless powers approached him.

He raised his head and stared at the radiance. At last, it changed beneath his gaze.

The sphere began to divide. Brilliant gold transformed into a rushing current in the void, flowing through the illusory space and quickly forming a golden ring. The ring immediately began to twist;

A layer of black radiance appeared within the ring, rushing in the opposite direction. Bai Cangshu saw the black radiance resemble a pitch-black snake, constantly attempting to devour the golden outer ring.

The two rings twisted around each other while remaining parallel. In the end, after tracing a perfect circle, they converged.

The black snake and golden light touched, intertwining endlessly upward before finally condensing into the raised upper edges of a crown extending to both sides.

A third, illusory force was born from the gold and darkness, taking the shape of an inverted cross at the very center.

[Supreme Expert EX051, please touch your Supreme Crown]

The space prompt quietly appeared before Bai Cangshu. There was no special font, no endlessly scrolling notifications.

That line of text merely appeared before Bai Cangshu, as though even the space itself were participating in some solemn ritual.

Bai Cangshu raised a hand. The crown, whose design was even more unique than the fragment of the [Crown of Supremacy: Eternal Destiny] he had obtained before, quietly descended onto his head.

Sizzle!

It was as though invisible lightning pierced through Bai Cangshu’s body. A golden current poured down from the crown and circulated through his body in a single instant.

[Crown of Supremacy: The End and The Beginning has manifested]

[Supreme Expert EX051, while wearing Crown of Supremacy: The End and The Beginning, you will be recognized as the special unit: The End and The Beginning] (Note: In certain worlds, The End and The Beginning will face special missions.)

[Crown of Supremacy: The End and The Beginning cannot be revoked by authorities below Tier 11.]

Within the illusory space, the silver-white streams of information had already begun to collapse. The White Jade Arena had long been destroyed by Bai Cangshu’s strike after activating [Dharma Manifestation of Heaven and Earth] and [Eightfold Kaio-ken].

The information streams maintaining the arena’s basic structure were now dispersing as well, signaling that this temporary arena was about to vanish.

Bai Cangshu stood in the void. Suddenly, a radiant beam interwoven with gold and black shot into the sky from the crown atop his head.

On the other side of the pitch-black void, another light pillar glowing with splendid colors likewise shot upward, followed by two smaller light pillars.

Bai Cangshu discovered that the battles for the four attribute-based Crowns of Supremacy were likely all constructed within this void.

It was simply that, with the current capabilities of Reincarnators, they could not see through the scene constructed by the space and thus could not discover one another.

Only now, as the Light Pillars rose one after another, could they sense that this grand ceremony had ended.

The true trump cards of the Infinite Dimensional Space, the absolute main force of the next cycle—the new [Supreme Experts]—had all emerged and found their places.

Ten Light Pillars shot up from four directions, forming a vast space between them.

At this moment, the newly promoted Supreme Experts who had won the other selection matches also noticed something unusual.

The perilous Luminous Chessboard of the agility domain had disappeared. [Ye] stood in the pitch-black void with her pillar of light shimmering behind her, as though it contained countless hues. Judging solely by its luster and size, it was clearly overwhelmingly stronger than those of the other two.

Qiqi and Sen Xia stood to either side. The bewilderment and lingering fear in Qiqi’s expression slowly faded. Her Clear Sword Heart gradually condensed again, and the illusory Heart Light Pulse began flowing once more.

Sen Xia lowered her eyes and sighed. Her sniping plan had ultimately failed. She had no intention of becoming a Supreme Expert, but for the order and future that person desired, she could only come to intercept them.

Sen Xia and Qiqi soon noticed that the unstoppable Ye was staring somewhere into the void, and they followed her gaze.

The next instant, both their expressions changed slightly.

Only one beam of radiance?!

Had something gone wrong with the condensation of the Crown of Supremacy in a certain domain?

Neither had been in the Infinite Dimensional Space for very long, but it was common knowledge that twelve [Crowns of Supremacy] would condense, with three Supreme Experts emerging in each domain.

This was no secret. It was "common knowledge" known by every top-tier Reincarnator who had experienced or witnessed Supreme Experts!

But now, that "common knowledge" had been shattered.

In a domain other than agility, only a single radiance belonging to a Supreme Expert had appeared this time.

Though that radiance was incomparably brilliant and intense, the anomaly still felt strange to them.

The crimson, ugly face of a certain Avatar appeared in both Sen Xia and Qiqi’s minds.

"Was that Mercenary Tao’s doing…?"

Ye’s voice was incredibly magnetic, melodious and rhythmic. Even with the space’s specially fixed "Language Comprehension," Sen Xia and Qiqi could still sense the unique charm of this woman from the West District through her voice.

Clearly, Ye also guessed that Mercenary Tao was likely behind this.

Powerful, violent-tempered, and utterly without restraint in his actions…

Ye shook her head and stopped looking in that direction. As the Light Pillars slowly faded, the three of them received their return notifications.

Ye was about to leave when she seemed to suddenly remember something and spoke to the other two, who were also preparing to depart.

"Pass this message to Mercenary Tao. If the Golden Order is born in the glacial borderlands between White Bear and East Xia, I will lead people into that territory and kill everyone there."

Sen Xia frowned and looked at Ye. The other woman had originally been the person chosen by that individual, the one whom everyone—including Sen Xia—believed would inherit that person’s will and become the ultimate glory of the Idealists in both the real world and the Infinite Dimensional Space.

Yet now, Ye had not appeared in that battle, and even in the battle where Japan collapsed in the real world, Ye had stood on the opposing side and personally stopped An Zhiyuan’s reinforcements.

Sen Xia could no longer understand this woman’s actions. Had Ye changed or not?

If she had not changed, why had she betrayed that person? Why had she betrayed order?

But if she had changed, why was her Heartlight still so… clear and irresistible?

Qiqi saw Ye turn her head. Golden light shone with immense authority in her emerald eyes. This message was more like a warning.

"Those who stand against humanity will all die."

Ye’s voice contained a great many emotions. All three were experts who had mastered the complete Heart Light Pulse and were extremely sensitive to such things.

Heart Light Pulse was inherently something like [one’s true heart], [one’s true self], and [one’s essence]. It could not be concealed or disguised. Moreover, the gradual deconstruction and reconstruction of the self would affect the power level of one’s Heart Light Pulse.

It was an extremely unstable, unreasonable, and irrational power, yet in the hands of those who wielded Heart Light Pulse, clashes of this power inherently contained a struggle over the self and ideals.

From that one sentence alone, Qiqi and Sen Xia gained much more understanding of Ye.

"Choosing to stand with humanity rather than with emotion—is that her answer…?"

Ye and Qiqi left one after another, and Sen Xia sighed before departing as well.

After seeing the beams of light go out one after another, Bai Cangshu’s own light pillar finally vanished as though reluctant to leave.

[The End and The Beginning]

[Type: Crown of Supremacy]

[Description: A crown supreme above all, a magnificent crown born from the vast blessings contained within the constitution domain. It is the authority that spans The End and The Beginning.]

[Usage Requirement: Exclusive to Supreme Expert EX051]

[Authority: Primordial Human Body (Maximum Tier 11)—Under the infusion of divine power, your body will gain the properties of a primordial human. In the material world, you will gain authority over an infinite source of life. There is no upper limit to the increase in vitality, and you may endlessly replenish vitality from the source of the world; the primordial is considered to share the same origin as the world, making abilities such as dimensional exile, existential deletion, and causality reversal extremely difficult to affect the user with.] (Abilities below the authority's level cannot affect or interfere with the Primordial Human Body.)

[Current Primordial Human Body authority compatibility (35%), Level: Tier 1]

[Authority: Ouroboros of the End (Maximum Tier 11)—Under the infusion of divine power, your existence itself will span the end. You will become a coordinate upon the cycle of the end. Any attack incapable of destroying the cycle of the end will be unable to completely annihilate your existence; the Ouroboros of the End will devour any internal negative states and external energy, matter, and authority-based attacks, turning them into nourishment to sustain your existence.] (Abilities below the authority's level cannot perceive the cycle of the end.)

[Current Ouroboros of the End authority compatibility (7%), Level: Tier 1]

[Authority: God King's Edict—An authority obtainable only by gaining the recognition of over 90% of the Gods. After Primordial Human Body and Ouroboros of the End advance to Tier 7, it may be actively activated once during every deployment interval. Upon activation, obtain Divine Body: God King's Edict.]

Golden patterns flickered and flowed beneath Bai Cangshu’s skin. He felt vast life force continuously coursing through his body.

He felt as though he had returned to the Goddess’s Abode, to the sensation of having an immense amount of vitality replenished after every bloodline purification.

He even felt that, in his current state, "Existential Damage" was no longer an injury that required returning to the space to repair.

Even though he had only just acquired this authority, as long as he existed in the material world and the [World Origin] had not been destroyed, Bai Cangshu would continuously receive replenishment from the World Origin.

His existence would be restored as well.

Beyond that, he heard the familiar roar of a furnace. The [Dragon Heart Furnace], sealed by the [Life Equation], had begun roaring once more. If he spent some time figuring out the essence of this authority, the [Dragon Heart Furnace] would reopen.

He even felt that, given enough time, the seal of the [Life Equation] would not be impossible to undo. Then, the life cycle formed by the [Eternal Regression Ladder], combined with the effect of the Primordial Human Body that made him seem to stand within the source of life at every moment—

Maintaining Eightfold Kaio-ken as his normal state would no longer be impossible.

He could even attempt higher multipliers!

He could attempt activating Dharma Manifestation of Heaven and Earth and Kaio-ken simultaneously in actual combat!

Bai Cangshu still could not forget the thrill from that battle, the feeling of unleashing his power without restraint and destroying everything.

The illusory space gradually shattered, and Bai Cangshu returned to his Private Space.

At this time, a group of people was already waiting in his Private Space.

A Single Thought of Silk stood beside the table. Black Butler sat on the sofa, looking somewhat uneasy. Jin Yue’an wore a delighted expression as she waited expectantly at the spot closest to where Bai Cangshu appeared every time he returned;

Li Qingzi stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the farthest wall.

After the end of the new round of title contests, all kinds of major news and intelligence had swept through the Infinite Dimensional Space like a frenzy.

But even an Information Broker like Black Butler had no mind for business now.

For them, only one thing mattered at this moment!

"Your Majesty, welcome back!"

When Bai Cangshu appeared, the crown interwoven with golden and black luster flickered in and out of sight. An extraordinary sense of presence seemed to press down upon everyone.

It made them all instantly sense that Bai Cangshu felt different.

Jin Yue’an, Black Butler, and A Single Thought of Silk spoke almost simultaneously. Their tones differed, but the excitement and joy within them could no longer be concealed.