Heaven's Greatest Professor

There was a core within the skeletal form, not tiny like a nail or fist-sized, but as big as a human head. It was completely dark, with a golden sceptre drilled into it, destroying its perfect state as thick, smoky dark essence oozed out. An isolating barrier surrounded the corpse, but it was unable to contain all the dark essence the core exerted.

From just a glance, he could tell the barrier wasn't there simply to block the dark essence; it was actually to weaken the core, isolate the dark essence from its control, and pump it outwards to disintegrate. However, even with that, the concentration of dark essence was so thick that it had completely changed the ambient nature of the essence of the place.

After scouting the area and finding no relative danger, he approached the barrier. Much of its script had eroded over time, and he could only imagine how many millennia had passed within this chamber—perhaps over a million years, given the time dilation in place.

"To even power all these facilities for over a million years," he mumbled, scratching the eroded script engraved on the ground. "The essence vein should have been one of a kind to last this long..."

"But not so much as it is now," Agnes finally said, gasping.

"This is what it takes to kill a god," he said. After a moment, he added, "And keep it dead."

"You mean..."

"Yes," he didn't wait for her to finish. "All these designs are to keep it from resurrecting."

Her eyes lingered on the sceptre lodged into the core of the once traitorous god. "Is it dead dead now," she asked, suppressing a shiver, "or do you think it still stands a chance at the resurrection?"

"Unlikely," he said, as Agnes let out the breath she was holding. "This place was completely severed from the Way to cut its access. On top of that, the formation had weakened its core for at least a million years. It probably lost access to its soul records long ago. However, it might turn into a transcendent version of those moonspawns if given a chance."

Agnes narrowed her eyes. "Are you strong enough to go against a transcendent moonspawn?"

He tilted his head. "For a few minutes."

He did not believe whatever it turned into would have any better intelligence than those he just killed. It wouldn't be difficult for him to take Agnes and flee if necessary, but he did not think it would come to that.

He was already finding ways to extract all the riches without setting off any danger.

"What are you planning?"

"It is difficult without access to my essence," he mumbled, "but that's going to change if I tap into the essence vein." He finally turned towards her. "What was your task again?"

"To extract a powerful soul relic," she said, eyes pointing towards the sceptre dug into the core. "The sceptre is likely that."

"What about the corpse of the traitor god?" he said. "I'm pretty sure the forsaken came for that. After all, the corpse isn't any less significant than the weapon that helped to kill it."

"I..." Agnes lost her voice, swallowing a breath as she stared at the jet-black core, full of dark essence beyond her wild imagination. If she were to devour even a part of it...

Agnes shook her head and covered her mouth and nose with her palm. She did not even stand a chance of absorbing the dark essence and returning without being corrupted. The thick foulness in the air was already getting on her nerves.

"The empire would want to get their hands on the corpse," she said. "Hell, all the nations and powerful guilds would want to possess the corpse of a god, even if they have no clue what they were dealing with. No, we cannot gamble on that." She turned to him and said firmly, "You have to take it. Store it in your subspace, and nobody should even be aware of it."

He narrowed his eyes. Honestly, he had already been contemplating that. His only fear was if the dark essence somehow corrupted his subspace and found a way to invade his system. He was confident in his radiance essence, but he wasn't nearly strong enough to deal with the sheer amount of dark essence the dark core held.

"Let's enter the barrier and see if I can find a way to keep it restricted," he said and crouched down again. He began scratching out the rune formation on the ground. He even drew a few lines and runes for about a couple of hours before it was finally ready.

"The sceptre stabilizes all the higher laws of this subspace," he said, turning to her. "If we are to take it away—"

"Will the realm collapse?"

"Maybe," he wasn't sure. "I'm sure the time dilation would collapse, as well as the suppression. The dimension will begin to erode, but it won't be as fast as the other two. I think we'd have time to escape even if it came to that."

"How sure are you?"
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"Pretty sure," he sighed. He didn't think even a transcendent would be completely sure of what was to come without triggering it.

"Come on, let's finish this off." Saying that, he punched the barrier, and it shattered to open a crack. Dark essence came out in a flood, and he gave way for it to disperse.

They entered slowly. With each step, their bodies became heavier and harder to move. There were only a few dozen steps between them and the core, but the path looked impossible as the suppression on their bodies and spirits increased with each step.

"I don't think..." Agnes croaked after they crossed half the distance. She was on her knees, gasping for breath, sweat all over her form even in the coldest environment. "I can't move."

Saying that, she fell flat on the ground. Now it was all left to him.

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One more chapter coming right up in a couple of hours and we'll be done with this arc... YEEEEEHHHHHHH!