# Chapter 354: Child of the Cosmos

After shredding the Shadow Divine Messengers, the hundreds of tentacles surged toward Lu Yuan once more. The green veins that laced their surfaces pulsed with faint luminescence, radiating an aura far more powerful than before.

Powerful as it was, however, Lu Yuan possessed Spatial Rift. No matter how frenzied these flesh tentacles became, they couldn't lay a finger on him.

His figure flickered, and in the next instant, over two hundred Shadow Divine Messengers materialized. Bronze sand swirled around each one, caught in the domain of Sands of Time, their personal time streams accelerated to make them move several times faster than before.

Wreathed in dense cosmic starlight and surging with terrifying power, the Shadow Divine Messengers charged toward the veins at the base of the flesh tentacles.

This time, the crimson flesh mass had been watching for the Shadow Divine Messengers. The instant the swarm appeared, every tentacle abandoned its pursuit of Lu Yuan and lunged toward the shadow constructs instead.

But these Shadow Divine Messengers wielded spatial and temporal power in rapid alternation, achieving blinding speed. Though still a step slower than Lu Yuan's true body, they were extraordinarily fast in their own right.

Some were struck by tentacles and dissipated on the spot. Others reached the flesh conduits, and the shadow greatswords in their hands slashed across the crimson tubes.

**Hsssk!!**

The conduits ruptured. Green slime oozed from the wounds, and horrific tears radiated outward from each gash — the detonation effect of Cosmic Body, channeling stellar eruption directly into the flesh, dealing devastating damage.

The moment the conduits tore apart, a shriek ripped from the crimson flesh mass. All the Shadow Divine Messengers dimmed slightly, and a stabbing pain lanced through Lu Yuan's mind.

He ignored it completely.

Truthfully, the agony he'd endured evolving his genes was far worse than this. How many times had he evolved each one? Pain at this level couldn't even make him flinch.

A fierce grin spread across Lu Yuan's face. In the next instant, he activated Time Stasis.

In that frozen heartbeat, the ashen scythe swept through tentacle after tentacle where they lay limp on the ground. Scores of flesh tentacles died. Wounds that had been writhing shut now ceased entirely, the tentacles rotting away as a foul stench filled the air.

This time, Lu Yuan wasn't testing the waters. Going all out, he destroyed nearly fifty flesh tentacles in a single pass.

Almost a third of the tentacles in the hall vanished at once.

Not far away, Gaton and Guro watched the carnage unfold, shock plain on their faces.

"My Lord actually..." Gaton murmured, scarcely believing his eyes.

Guro looked even more stricken. "Spatial power, temporal power, shadow power, stellar power, and some kind of unknown force on top of all that... This human possesses too many devastating abilities, and every single one is Divine Grade! What *is* he? Don't tell me every gene he's inscribed is Divine Grade?!"

"Setting everything else aside — no War God has ever successfully inscribed a Divine Grade Spatial Type Transcendent Gene before, and he actually pulled it off! And if the Spatial Type wasn't enough... a Divine Grade temporal Transcendent Gene? The kind of gene that's supposed to be a legend? He actually found one?! And not only found it, but inscribed it successfully?! Who in the cosmos *is* this man?"

Gaton and Guro exchanged a glance, each seeing their own bewilderment mirrored in the other's eyes. They had never imagined a War God could be this powerful.

If they had faced someone like this, they would have been killed in the blink of an eye.

"He's not even in the same dimension as other War Gods," Gaton managed, his voice strained.

Guro nodded in agreement. The combat power Lu Yuan had displayed was simply terrifying.

"...A battle at this level — we can't even begin to contribute."

Bitterness filled both their hearts. All they could do was hope that My Lord would emerge victorious.

While the two exchanged words, Lu Yuan's battle with the crimson flesh mass raged on.

The sudden death of so many tentacles had agitated the creature within. The bulges pressing against the flesh mass's surface grew more pronounced, as if the thing inside was thrashing in fury, trying to rip free and tear Lu Yuan apart with its own hands.

Lu Yuan watched the pulsing, distended flesh mass in silence, evading the frenzied tentacle strikes all the while. A clock hand turned backward in his eyes, and the Spirit Power he'd burned through most of surged back in an instant.

Sands of Time — temporal reversion.

By designating himself as the target, the Spirit Power he'd expended was restored in a heartbeat. Normally, even with his vast reserves, recovering through Spirit Crystal absorption would have taken several seconds. But temporal reversion was different — it simply reset him to his prior state, letting him maintain peak condition indefinitely.

With his Spirit Power restored, Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened. From the darkness, Shadow Divine Messengers materialized once more.

Again under time acceleration and weaving through Spatial Rifts, they dodged the tentacle barrage with fluid precision. Over a hundred reached the base of the tentacles and brought their swords down on the flesh conduits.

Seeing his opening, Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes. The clock hands within them froze — and every surviving tentacle that had been lunging furiously at the Shadow Divine Messengers stopped dead where it was.

In the same breath, the ashen scythe appeared and claimed another fifty tentacles. The rest didn't escape unscathed either, each one bearing fresh wounds.

"AAAAAHHH!!!!"

Time Stasis held for only a heartbeat before shattering, and that bloodcurdling shriek tore through the air once more. The bulges on the crimson flesh mass grew even more violent. Cracks appeared across its surface, and through them seeped an aura of staggering, unbridled menace.

The moment that aura washed over him, Lu Yuan's body tensed on instinct, every nerve screaming as if he'd caught the scent of an apex predator.

He stared hard at the crimson flesh mass, his expression grim.

*The thing inside... is even stronger than I imagined.*

Even now — with ten Divine Grade Transcendent Genes inscribed and only the last one not yet fully tempered, his strength far surpassing any ordinary War God — he still felt the icy touch of mortal danger.

But he had no choice. Not anymore.

If this creature was left alone and allowed to mature and hatch, nothing in the entire cosmos would be able to stop it. Not even him — unless he mastered the Laws.

And he knew all too well how impossibly difficult that was. In all the eons of cosmic history, no one had ever achieved it, which was precisely why the Cosmic Origin had initialized and merged with him — a desperate gamble for one sliver of hope.

He couldn't even be sure how long it would take him to reach that level. And if this creature hatched before he got there, the entire cosmos was finished.

Lu Yuan felt a grim sort of gratitude that he'd discovered this thing now, while there was still a chance of defeating it.

He drew a deep breath, his gaze turning cold as steel, and used temporal power to restore his Spirit Power once more.

Then he launched the next wave.

Under Lu Yuan's assault, the remaining flesh tentacles had no means of fighting back. Bolstered by temporal and spatial power, the Shadow Divine Messengers — while individually weaker than Lu Yuan — were agile enough that most broke through the tentacle blockade and severed the conduits at their base. After that, the Scythe of Death finished them off with ease.

Better yet, as the tentacle count dwindled, fewer remained to mob the Shadow Divine Messengers. Less pressure meant higher survival rates, which meant Lu Yuan could destroy even more in each pass.

In mere moments, nearly two hundred tentacles had been eliminated. Barely a hundred still writhed throughout the hall, lashing desperately at Lu Yuan and his shadow constructs.

But a hundred was too few. They couldn't even catch the Shadow Divine Messengers anymore, let alone Lu Yuan himself.

He narrowed his eyes and sent the Shadow Divine Messengers charging toward the remaining tentacles once more.

Then he felt it — a pulse of utterly terrifying power, rolling outward and growing stronger by the second.

Lu Yuan's expression shifted. He whipped around toward the crimson flesh mass.

Throughout the slaughter, the creature within had grown increasingly berserk. The cracks across the mass's surface had been widening with each wave of tentacle deaths.

Now, a massive fissure had torn open, and through it poured an aura of overwhelming malice, utterly unrestrained. Lu Yuan's body locked rigid. He kept his eyes fixed on the flesh mass while commanding his Shadow Divine Messengers to accelerate their assault.

The shadow constructs became streaks of light, hurtling toward the remaining tentacles under the combined influence of temporal and spatial power.

In that same instant, a green ripple bloomed out of the void. Every Shadow Divine Messenger froze in place, their forms turning ghostly and translucent before the tentacles smashed them to pieces.

The green ripple washed over Lu Yuan as well. His body shuddered, his face draining of color. He stared warily at the gaping fissure in the flesh mass.

A hand slick with green slime reached through the crack and gripped its edge.

Then, slowly, a figure squeezed itself out.

As it emerged, an aura far more terrifying than anything before erupted outward. Lu Yuan's face went pale, and his body retreated two steps on pure instinct.

He stared at the figure, unable to suppress his shock.

*What an overwhelmingly powerful aura!*

*This is beyond anything I expected.*

He was beginning to doubt whether this thing was even at the War God level at all.

Or had it surpassed War God entirely?

If this was truly the Aberrant Beast Mother Nest, then this wasn't even its true body. A mere vessel of descent possessing this kind of power — how strong must its original form be?

Lu Yuan couldn't even begin to guess.

The figure finished extracting itself from the flesh mass. It was a humanoid creature composed entirely of dark crimson flesh. It looked vaguely human in shape, but had no skin — only raw, dark red muscle threaded with green veins, all coated in a sheen of green slime.

Its eyes were a fathomless green, like gazing into a bottomless abyss.

The creature raised its head to look at Lu Yuan, then twisted its neck slightly, producing a string of strange, garbled sounds.

Lu Yuan frowned as he watched the humanoid creature and its incomprehensible noises.

*It's speaking?*

*What language is that?*

*This thing has intelligence?*

*...Actually, that makes sense. If it had no intelligence, organizations like Blood of Machinery and the Heavenly Calamity Cult would never have come to worship the Aberration. Without intelligence, communication would be impossible — how would they receive divine revelations?*

As Lu Yuan was processing this, the creature's vocalizations began to shift. The sounds gradually morphed into something resembling the universal language of the cosmos, and Lu Yuan could make out a few words.

Then the humanoid creature fixed its gaze on Lu Yuan and spoke — its voice a raw, hoarse rasp, each word halting and labored:

"...Child of the Cosmos?"