Chapter 616 Side Story: O Sacred! The Eternal Illumination of Zhuzhou's Light! Part 1

"Chris, what do you think is beyond our world?"

"I don't know, Dechimus. I've never thought about that."

1999, autumn twenty years ago, night.

The black-haired girl sat on the grassy slope of a hill in rural America, pulling weeds beside her while perfunctorily answering the boy's enthusiastic question.

The boy was lying on the grass, gazing at the starry sky above. The cloudless night sky was like an endless wall, stretching infinitely in all directions, dotted with specks of light.

A brilliant Milky Way, composed of countless stars, extended from the left side of his vision to the right, inspiring boundless imagination in anyone who gazed upon it.

"Beyond the world, there are other worlds,"

The boy said boastfully, having just read some popular science books on astronomy, prompting the girl, who had also read them, to retort, "What are you talking about? Those are just stars, aren't they? The book says Earth is a planet, and the other stars are the same as Earth."

"They're all the same, other planets are other worlds, but they're very different from Earth."

The boy, named Dechimus, sat up from the grass, still gazing at the stars, not noticing the slight annoyance on the girl's face. "It is said that in those places, there is red soil, black plants, and all sorts of strange but powerful beasts, like mushrooms... There's not even air or water there; humans can't live there at all!"

"What's so great about that? And who told you there would be alien beasts on other planets?"

The girl, named Chris, instinctively snapped a weed in half, replying helplessly, "Not only are there no humans there, there's nothing at all. It's a desolate, rocky desert; there won't be any life!"

"Because it's fascinating! We need water and oxygen, but those planets don't have them. Doesn't that seem strange?"

The boy clearly didn't care about the girl's retort. His eyes were shining, reflecting the light of the stars in the sky. "If we humans can't survive there, what's the point of those stars and worlds?"

The girl's eyes widened slightly. Her thinking wasn't as free-flowing as the boy's. The ten-year-old girl was even drawn in, beginning to ponder, "Right, right... Why do planets exist that humans can't live on? What's their purpose..."

Because she was too young, a question that wouldn't puzzle any adult did indeed plunge the intelligent girl into great confusion.

But then, the boy's enthusiastic answer interrupted her thoughts.

"It's exploration!"

Standing up, the boy spread his arms towards the starry sea.

The child, with brown hair and blue eyes, spoke with overflowing enthusiasm, confidence, and a unique conviction of young children: "Those stars are left for us to explore!"

"Not only that, but the entire starry sky, all the worlds, were created for us to explore!"

"...Hmph, only I'm willing to humor your wild fantasies all the time."

Initially a little surprised, the girl quickly came to her senses and lowered her head, her amber eyes gazing at the weeds she had twisted and pulled out, then raised again to look at the starry sky with the boy.

After a while, the girl's voice sounded softly, "Hey, Dechimus..."

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I want to be an explorer!"

The boy's answer was without hesitation, as if he had thought it through long ago. "Like Columbus discovering the New World, I want to discover new planets and worlds!"

"Is that so... That's nice. I want to too."

Hearing this answer, the girl revealed an expression of 'I knew it'.

But this time, instead of retorting to his strange dream as she usually did, she said to herself with some disappointment, "But I can't. The family's dessert shop is still waiting for me... I can only be a pastry chef."

Saying this, the girl shook her head and patted her face, cheering herself up:

"But it's okay, when you come back from exploring when you're older, I'll make you desserts."

Only then did the boy notice that his friend's tone was more lonely and sad than usual.

He turned his head in some surprise, looking at the girl beside him.

He grinned and said, "What are you thinking, Chris? I'll take you with me then!"

The American countryside before the new century was always like this: endless wheat fields, scattered farmhouses, old towns that hadn't changed in decades, and familiar-to-the-point-of-annoying family matters and relationships.

Living here meant being prepared to live here for the rest of your life. Few people who left ever came back. Even the smallest detail of a bustling city was enough to attract the full attention of young people.

The wind blew, carrying a sense of peace. The towering grain storage towers were illuminated by the moonlight, casting long shadows. The boy and girl on the small hill were bathed in the endless starlight. They talked about the future, sharing their ideals and wishes, and then laughed and fell into a deep sleep.

Twenty years later.

2019, summer, evening.

Dechimus, returning to his hometown, once again stood on the small hill that was etched in his heart. The silent man, carrying a package, gazed at the hillside that seemed unchanged, unable to help but recall those beautiful memories of the past.

But this time, he was alone.

As a pioneer 'Explorer'.

Outside the distant world, it seemed that a very long time had passed, but for his mother world, his hometown, it had only been a mere five years.

Five years was enough to turn a small-town boy, who had never studied any extraordinary power, or even occultism before, into a demigod who could be called a 'strong man' in most worlds.

"The Earth has also experienced a spiritual resurgence... Well, it's not surprising, after all, Earth is one of the many worlds."

Like in his childhood, Dechimus sat on that familiar hillside, put down the package in his hand, and closed his eyes: "Thinking about it carefully, I've always wanted to explore beyond the world, but I've never taken the time to explore my own home."

"What secrets does my hometown hold? I've never really thought about that at all."

At the peak of the Dominator Tier, just one step away from the Overlord Tier, the man who had been called before the spiritual resurgence, left Earth, and explored in the multiverse took a deep breath, feeling the taste of home.

Then, there was silence.

...This is a cliché story.

The boy and girl who grew up became dependents of the Pioneer Space one after another.

First separation, then reunion. They were first sad, then excited, angry, fought, and finally reconciled.

People who yearn to explore the distance go hand in hand, clumsily moving forward in the unknown darkness.

They walked slowly on the tightrope woven with danger and fun, and stepped on the single-plank bridge over the torrents of fate and nothingness.

Everything was just for the other worlds in the mouths of the boy and girl in childhood, and the light in the distant beyond.

Dancing with danger, walking alongside death.

During that time, their lives were indeed wonderful, radiating endless brilliance—people who are different from ordinary people can only live out their own taste under the protection of a great existence.

Until an expedition, which was considered the most difficult even in the entire Pioneer Space, the 'Primordial Realm Exploration', interrupted the journey of the two.

A higher world, the prototype of the 'World of Heavenly Light', the ultimate world at the very top of this world lineage, the 'World of Creation'...

Dechimus and Chris, who entered it, knew the danger of this world well. After entering this world, they hid their identities and explored its corners with the most cautious methods, with safety first.

But even so, in the face of the ten major forces in the World of Creation, the ten 'Cosmic God Systems', the information of these 'World Breakers' was quickly grasped.

They seemed to have a giant net, a super network spread across the starry sky, as long as an existence from the outside world entered their territory, they could instantly detect it.

Then... there was pursuit, escape, fighting, continuing to escape, and then failure, and forced return.

The process of explorers exploring the world is indeed full of passion and romance, but it is not always smooth sailing. Even if the Pioneer Space has established various preferential policies and even protection measures for its explorers, it will occasionally fail when facing those overly powerful 'aboriginals'.

During the final return, in order to protect the seriously injured Dechimus, Chris chose to face the pursuers of the 'Cosmic God System' alone, to buy time for the Pioneer Space's final teleportation.

She succeeded—when both of them were about to be captured by the Cosmic God System, the Pioneer Space took the first step to open the teleportation, pulling its dependents back to the Pioneer Space.

However, the Cosmic God System was too powerful.

The strong among them took action, stopping all movement in the area where the two were located—particles, waves, spiritual energy, time and space, and everything else that existed, everything was covered by absolute stillness, and time stood still here.

Of course, such a powerful divine skill, as long as it is not fully activated, cannot stop the Pioneer Space from returning. Dechimus successfully returned to the Pioneer Space.

However, because Chris was held back, she was completely hit by the time-stopping divine skill, turning into an amber of time, and was taken away by the Cosmic God System for analysis and research.

No one can break the Pioneer Space's protection shield for its dependents during teleportation, which is equivalent to arm wrestling with a great existence. Even if you use a black hole to hit it, the one that shatters will definitely be the black hole.

But there is no need to head-on, there are too many ways to imprison explorers in place.

Then, seal, imprison.

The power of the primordial world is so incredible, it is the ultimate goal of all explorers, a world full of blood and excitement.

But now, he no longer has that enthusiasm.

Time passed, and by the time the light of the setting sun dimmed, the red sun fell into the mountains on the other side of the sky, and darkness once again covered the sky, causing the stars to twinkle, the man's murmur, filled with the same 'determination' as twenty years ago, could be heard.

"Chris... I will definitely save you."

Standing up, Dechimus's emotions had calmed down.

Next, he had a very important thing to do, which was to find Chris's family and get their blood.

This would be very difficult for ordinary people, but for a demigod mage, it was just a trivial matter, but the problem was that Chris's family had moved away from this town three years ago, and no one currently knew where they were.

After all, the fact that their daughter eloped with a poor boy whose relatives had died out did indeed make them lose face.

The poor boy of the past, the current demigod Dechimus, didn't care about their thoughts, but he did need the blood of these Chris's relatives as a divination tool to find the location of his lover who was now imprisoned in another world.

"I don't know what the situation on Earth is... The technological progress in these five years seems to be very large? Even my hometown has projection light screens, and it seems that everyone knows one or two spells?"

Already prepared to act, Dechimus's mind flashed back to the various situations he had encountered since returning to Earth, which, although strange, he had previously ignored because he was too anxious. This made him quite puzzled: "This has the basic conditions for a high-magic world!"

"But it's not surprising, after all, high magic and high tech are only separated by a thin line."

Although he discovered these strange things, the man didn't pay too much attention.

Even in a high-magic world, with his strength, not to mention being unimpeded, at least he wouldn't encounter any particularly troublesome problems.

As long as he didn't clash with gods or be targeted by major god systems, a Dominator-Tier demigod could live very well in any world.

Take a young dragon teammate he had once adventured with as an example.

That one, who was at most not yet twenty years old and claimed to be Jiuming, a water-type dragon clan, although his strength was only around the early stage of the Dominator Tier, had already made a name for himself in the well-known higher world 'Journey to the West: Demon Subduing'. As long as he didn't provoke those immortal gods who came down to the mortal world as pets and children, or be targeted by that team of demon subduing masters and disciples, he could act freely in the human world, or even become the mountain king of a certain place.

No matter how dangerous the situation on Earth was, it couldn't be more dangerous than a higher exploration world, could it?

This was Dechimus's hometown!

Didn't he know the situation in his hometown? No one understood Earth better than him!

"No matter what, it can't be more terrifying than the 'World of Creation', right?"

With this thought in mind, the man picked up the package and prepared to leave. He ridiculed himself: "That place has at least one or two gods stationed on every planet. If it's an important planet, there are even true gods stationed!"

His figure was blurry, as if he had merged into the surrounding world. Dechimus cast 'Void Walking', entered the spirit world, and prepared to go to his lover Chris's former home to collect the aura of her parents and relatives, and then use divination magic to find where they were.

However, just as he was about to start his action, Dechimus suddenly stopped.

"Who!"

Turning his head vigilantly, looking behind him, he saw the sparse trees on the hill swaying in the wind, and the moonlight falling from the dense cirrus clouds in the dark sky, outlining the contours of the edges of the clouds.

But these were just illusions.

In the caster's perception, he sensed a hidden but definitely not natural magic fluctuation, this fluctuation appeared within 400 meters of him, and gave him a dangerous premonition.

Four hundred meters, for a Dominator Tier, was almost an instant. At this distance, a surprise attack was almost impossible to avoid, so before shouting, Dechimus had already cast more than three enhancement spells on himself through silent casting, and opened the package in his hand, activating the 'Alchemy Armor - Bedrock Armor' stored inside, about to enter a state of complete combat.

At the same time, he also used elemental perception to outline the enemy's current location and shape in his soul's vision.

However, just when Dechimus, who had fully entered combat mode and was about to absorb all the earth elements within hundreds of meters around him to condense his combat form, actually saw his 'enemy', he was stunned in place, unmoving.

Because what appeared in his soul's vision was not what he had imagined, just a 'Dominator Tier'.

But four Dominator Peaks, plus dozens of Transcendent Peaks!

—What's going on?! Why did so many strong people suddenly appear?!

—Four demigods, dozens of high-level professionals... Where did they come from?!

"What the hell!"

Dechimus couldn't help but be shocked.

Such a lineup, even in the Abyss Blood War, would be considered an extremely elite squad. Unless an Abyss Demon Lord personally arrived, or a Devil Archon led his personal guards to encircle and suppress them, it would be impossible to completely eliminate them.

If there was one more ordinary god (Overlord Earth Immortal) among them, then they could completely occupy a part of the abyss and slowly plot to become a new Abyss Lord! If it was a true god (Immortal Heavenly Immortal), it would not be strange to occupy an abyss alone, turn it into a lair, and become one of the masterminds behind the Blood War!

"Mr. Dechimus, please don't resist."

Seeming to have been discovered, so he didn't bother to continue hiding.

Among the group of American Federation powerhouses who appeared together with a wave of magic, a man with long golden hair and a rather feminine face slowly walked out.

He had the strength of the Dominator Tier, and his smile was very friendly, but that gentle smile was extremely dangerous in Dechimus's eyes, like a lurking viper: "My name is Krosel, a high-level executive of the NW Foundation of the American Federation, and the president of the Rainbow Serpent Group."

"Because our void ritual reacted, there were obvious and abnormal void fluctuations in your direction, so we guessed that a powerful Pioneer Space explorer had descended here, so I personally led the team to come here to welcome you."

"...What exactly do you want to do?"

Hearing the other party say the words 'Pioneer Space', Dechimus's pupils couldn't help but shrink slightly.

He sensed at this moment that the surrounding spirit world had been sealed by a magic circle, and he had also been hit with more than a dozen dimensional anchors, making it impossible to escape by teleportation or elementalization.

And facing each other head-on, he was just a caster. After being countered by a large number of emergency spells, not to mention defeating four strong men of the same level who looked prepared, whether he could survive the first three seconds of the battle was a question.

However, the only thing worth celebrating now was that the purpose of this group of transcendent beings was not to eliminate him, but to talk to him.

"...What do you want to talk to me about?"

Taking a deep breath, Dechimus said in a deep voice: "Let me state in advance that I haven't been on Earth for the past five years. If you want to ask about this aspect, I know nothing."

"We know, Mr. Pioneer Space Explorer."

The blond man was very satisfied with Dechimus's attitude, which, although it seemed a bit stubborn, had actually completely softened.

"Scales originating from my Lord and the apostles of my Lord tell me that you have the aura of an unknown 'Ancient Venerable'."

The President of the Holy Serpent Spiritual Prayer Society, a high-level executive of the NW Foundation, and the leader of a whitewashed mysterious organization, Krosel looked at the man in front of him with a beard, who looked a bit lonely and seemed to have suffered a great blow, with a smile.

He said softly: "It seems that you have encountered something irreversible? But don't worry."

Saying this, Krosel drew a circle quite fanatically on his chest—of course, according to the arc, it could also be an egg.

Then, he said loudly: "Then make a wish to my Lord!"

"Under the illumination of Zhuzhou's Light, your sorrows will be smoothed out!"

"O Sacred!"

And after Krosel, all the members of the NW Foundation who followed him—that is, the members of the whitewashed Holy Serpent Spiritual Prayer Society, also shouted in unison: "My Lord is Merciful!"

"Huh?"

Being plastered in the face with a sudden and strange prayer, Dechimus looked blank.

He stared at Krosel in front of him with incredulous eyes: "Wait, who did you say your Lord is?"

"You actually worship a random world Boss, a police disruptor... ah no, you actually worship Zhuzhou?!"

For full attendance, I can only charge

I'll find a free chapter later, there's more later