Trials of the Abyss-Chapter 960: The Sovereign of Fate

A lone figure quietly appeared inside the Void Temple.

It was an aged member of the Star Race.

A silver halo circled his body, and his left hand held a thick and yellowed tome. His long gray-white hair hung loosely over his shoulders. The vastness of the starry skies themselves seemed to be contained within his broad forehead.

He studied Pang Qi in the prismatic crystal with a look of quiet contemplation.

In the Primordial Chaos Starry Region, everyone stared at the reflection in the Illusory Void Realm in shock.

The man had seemingly appeared in the Void Temple out of thin air.

He was not of the Void Race, yet he seemed to become the rightful master of the Void Temple the instant he emerged.

The prismatic crystals, the grand temple itself, and even the fragmented land seemed to have belonged to him for eons. He stood there in perfect harmony with it all, as if he had always existed alongside it.

With a soft hum, the silver halo encircling him started to turn. Runes shimmered within its translucent arc. At a glance, it seemed as though a river of characters was flowing slowly through the ring.

Pang Qi's eyes widened in astonishment. It was obvious that Pang Qi did not know him.

The violent clash of light and darkness within the Primordial Chaos Starry Region had come to an abrupt halt with the appearance of this Star Race elder.

Luo Hongyan, Pang Lin, and Tian Yu all froze in shock, tacitly choosing to pause their battle to observe the elderly man.

Hovering atop the Heaven-Splitting Sword, right above the bizarre mist, Li Yuqing could not help but feel an inexplicable sense of familiarity at the man's face.

She rifled through her memories, but no matter how hard she racked her brain, she could not place him.

In the Abyss, Xing Huan of the Star Race stood utterly stupefied.

"Who is he?!"

The Duke of Thunder, Bai Zi, and the Primordial Demon all felt uneasy.

The elderly man in the Void Temple clearly had an extraordinary background.

"Old Patriarch!" Xing Huan finally cried.

"Yi Hao!" Luo Hongyan, Tian Yu, and Pang Lin all said in near unison.

Pang Jian's expression shifted. "The Sovereign of Fate!"

The Sovereign of Fate had appeared in the Void Temple.

Pang Jian knew little of him, but from Li Yuqing, he knew that Yi Hao was unlike the others.

Yi Hao bore no prejudice toward the human race and had even extended an olive branch to Li Yuqing, selflessly imparting many exquisite divine techniques to her. When the True Gods of the human race destroyed the Hall of Gods, he had not participated in the hunt for them.

He bore no resentment toward the human race of the Abyss or the Nether Gods of the Nether Abyss. Even the so-called Heretical Gods held him in high regard.

That enigmatic Sovereign had finally revealed himself. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"I didn't expect even you to be stirred," Luo Hongyan said sharply from within the dense darkness, eyes fixed on the Star Race elder in the Illusory Void Realm. "You could have shown up earlier!"

Her tone dripped with accusation, clearly implying that Fu Ya's death could have been avoided if he had arrived on time.

Tian Yu's voice was equally cold. "Yi Hao, why are you in my Void Temple instead of this starry region?! You're one of the Sovereigns. You've only achieved what you have because of its influence! You can't possibly have ignored this war against the bizarre mist. Why have you only come now?"

The Sovereign of Fate said nothing.

Unlike the youthful appearances of Tian Yu, Luo Hongyan, or Fu Ya, he looked weathered and timeworn. He lacked the grandeur and proud bearing one expected of a Sovereign.

Ignoring their rebukes, he continued to gaze quietly at Pang Qi.

The sharp cry of cicadas pierced the tranquil atmosphere of the Void Temple. The sound rippled across the Illusory Void Realm and through the bizarre mist. Everyone who heard it felt their hearts tighten, their minds filling with a flood of strange, shifting visions.

Some beheld visions from lifetimes long past. Many Gods even glimpsed their own future, only to find it largely suffused with lifeless silence.

"I die in the future?"

"I have no future!"

"Ah! How could I perish?"

The ancient Fey Gods, powerhouses within the bizarre mist, and even Long Di of the Nether Abyss all wore expressions of horror at their lack of future.

To have no future was to face death, an inevitable fall.

Were it anyone else, they would have doubted the validity of it all, but this was Yi Hao.

He was the first and only God to ever ascend as a Sovereign through the Dao of Fate!

"I did not wish to come at all."

Yi Hao's voice rippled outward, sounding as vast as the ocean and as lofty as the heavens.

A slender River of Fate flowed within the silver halo encircling him. His fate energy saturated his body with unfathomable force, causing the prismatic crystals reflecting the myriad starry skies to fracture, then burst brilliantly apart.

Streams of light scattered through the now-empty temple.

Even the crystal imprisoning Pang Qi shattered, freeing him from the long captivity of Tian Yu. However, there was no joy in his eyes, only doubt and wariness.

"Your Excellency has always refrained from meddling in the struggles between the starry skies and the bizarre mist. Why intervene now?" Pang Qi asked.

"I'm acting against my will here," Yi Hao explained with quiet resignation. Weariness shadowed his eyes. "I was forced into this, pushed here by a tide I could not resist.

"My apologies."

With that, Yi Hao bowed toward Pang Qi in an odd, almost antiquated gesture, his expression carrying genuine contrition as though sincerely seeking forgiveness.

Pang Qi, taken aback, thought he could perhaps persuade this enigmatic Sovereign of Fate to stand aside and remain a bystander to the conflict.

"Your Excellency, this—"

Pang Qi and the Void Temple exploded into motes of radiant dust.

The silver radiance emanating from the halo encircling Yi Hao brightened.

"The Void Race will not perish. They simply require a new patriarch."

Streams of light receded into Yi Hao's towering figure, disappearing into the ancient tome in his hand. The tome then noticeably grew heavier and thicker.

Bolts of fine, crackling lightning shot from the spatial rifts surrounding the fragmented land, streaking toward Yi Hao's massive tome. With each bolt absorbed, the tome swelled thicker, its presence more oppressive. These bolts were clearly no ordinary lightning. Each one was a complete, profound truth, drawn from the fallen Outer Gods and even long-vanquished Sovereigns.

Even Fu Ya's Dao of Wisdom had, upon her demise, returned to Yi Hao's tome. As with the legacies of all Sovereigns before her, her insights would be preserved within, to one day reappear in the newly forged Hall of Gods.

"After this, the Hall of Gods will be rebuilt," Yi Hao said, his tone laden with reluctant acceptance. "I never wished to shoulder this burden, but—"

He broke off with a shake of his head, glancing at Luo Hongyan and Tian Yu through the Illusory Void Realm.

He then vanished without a trace.

The Pearl of Fate in Li Yuqing's hand erupted with silver radiance, spinning wildly and swelling in size. Waves of dense fate energy poured from it, rippling across millions of li in a single breath.

Everyone that silver radiance touched, be they the Fey Gods or the True Gods, became frozen in place, as if turned to living stone.