The Mother of Aberration's Avatar

"Yuan, are you alright?"

Kro looked at Lu Yuan with concern.

Lu Yuan was momentarily taken aback, then understood what Kro meant. After all, there had been four Laws Rank experts.

He smiled and nodded. "Nothing too serious. Head back for now."

Kro and Yingu exchanged a glance. Understanding there was nothing they could do to help, they both nodded and flew off toward the distant Mechanical fortress.

They had barely returned when Mados and the others came to meet them.

"How did it go?"

Kro glanced at Lu Yuan's retreating silhouette in the distance, his mood complicated. He was a War God, after all — for hundreds of millions of years he had held the defensive line of the Universe Bubble, yet now he hadn't even had a chance to intervene. Against Laws Rank opponents, even War Gods were simply too weak.

It had come to this: only Lu Yuan could truly stand against Laws Rank threats. He had become this universe's true Guardian.

"Yuan says he's fine," Kro said slowly. "All we can do is trust him."

The other War Gods fell silent, then nodded one by one.

"...Let's get word to the others. All we can do now is hold the rear — we don't want to give Lu Yuan anything else to worry about."

Yingu cracked a grim smile, his expression heavy. As War Gods, every one of them was proud to their core. And yet they couldn't even find an opening to act. It was hard not to feel the bitterness of it.

Bingling, Mados, and the rest nodded. They sent word to the remaining War Gods and fixed their gazes on the Chaos Sea in the distance.

Lu Yuan floated in the Chaos Sea. Chaotic energy roiled and crashed against his body — even the hardest metals in the universe would slowly crumble to dust under its erosive force, and War God–level cultivators could not survive long in Chaos.

But Lu Yuan's body, tempered by wave after wave of Law Force, was stronger than even the hardest of metals. The chaotic energy could do little against him.

He watched the two massive nests in the distance with a calm expression.

Last time it had been the King of Flesh's nest. This time, two had arrived.

Gazing at the nest oozing green slime and the one formed from compacted bone, he immediately thought of the King of Corruption and the King of Destruction. They were the only remaining Aberration Kings.

As he was thinking, a tremendous Aberrant aura surged. An instant later, the King of Corruption and the King of Destruction burst from their nests and flew toward him.

Alongside the two Aberration Kings, Lu Yuan also spotted two grotesquely shaped flesh creatures.

He raised an eyebrow. These two were Laws Rank as well — but they weren't the true bodies of the Descended Avatars he had previously encountered inside the universe. Evidently, beyond those three Descended Avatars, there were other Laws Rank powerhouses within the Aberrant Beast horde.

That made his gaze sharpen.

As Lu Yuan studied the four Laws Rank Aberrant Beasts, they were studying him in return.

"So you're the one who killed our Descended Avatars and the King of Flesh?"

The King of Corruption looked him over, his voice carrying a viscous, sticky quality. Lu Yuan's Laws Rank aura burned like a beacon in the dark — it had drawn their attention the moment they arrived.

Lu Yuan's gaze swept across all four of them. He smiled faintly. "Since you know your companions died here, you still dare come to throw your lives away?"

"Throw our lives away?"

A bloody light flickered in the King of Destruction's eyes. Green radiance shimmered across his body as his aura locked firmly onto Lu Yuan. He spoke slowly: "This universe only has one Laws Rank cultivator — you. Once you're dead, this universe becomes our meal."

Cold light flashed through Lu Yuan's eyes. Spirit Power surged around him and an overwhelming aura rose — the chaotic energy that had been buffeting his body was pushed back entirely, streams of light dancing across his surface.

Stellar Laws. Life Laws. Mechanical Laws. Spatial Laws. Light Laws. Dark Laws. And Death Laws.

Seven mighty Law Forces, their profound auras interweaving, made Lu Yuan's presence utterly terrifying.

The four Aberration Kings, who had been holding their auras locked on him, froze.

Every eye fixed on Lu Yuan, disbelief written across their expressions.

"One, two, three... seven Laws?!"

The King of Corruption's voice trembled, cracking into a sharp cry.

The King of Destruction and the two Aberrant Touches were equally stunned. They knew Lu Yuan was powerful — anyone who could kill the King of Flesh was no weakling. But mastering seven Laws? That was something none of them had remotely anticipated.

How could such a formidable being exist in such a young universe?

Before their shock could pass, Lu Yuan moved without hesitation. Spirit Power surged, and in an instant the space around all four Laws Rank Aberrant Beasts froze solid.

Feeling the space lock down around them, all four let out low growls. Horrific Aberrant power erupted, Law energy rippling around each of them. The King of Corruption's aura carried a fierce Corruption force, trying to erode the spatial threads and twist them to his will. The King of Destruction was wreathed in terrible destructive power — a bloody tide straining to shatter the spatial threads entirely and break free of the seal.

What surprised Lu Yuan was the two grotesque flesh creatures. One radiated dense frost energy alongside potent poison, while the other emanated a razor-sharp metallic aura laced with a heavy stellar presence.

Each creature commanded two Laws — Frost Laws and Poison Laws for one, Metal Laws and Stellar Laws for the other.

The spatial threads that even the Corruption and Destruction forces had failed to disturb actually began trembling under the two creatures' dual Laws, on the verge of breaking free at any moment.

Lu Yuan's brow furrowed slightly. His strength had grown enormously with so many Laws at his command — but he was using only a single Law for the spatial lock. Against two Laws attacking simultaneously, even he couldn't hold it perfectly steady.

What surprised him most was that these grotesque flesh creatures — Laws Rank entities among the Aberrant Beasts — were actually stronger than the King of Corruption and King of Destruction, each having mastered two Laws apiece.

Cold light flashed through Lu Yuan's eyes, followed by a white radiance.

An instant later, Radiant Fire blazed to life within the sealed space surrounding all four Aberrant Beasts. The purifying flames, dense and devastating, seared into every one of them relentlessly.

The King of Corruption and King of Destruction shuddered and let out roars of pain. Unable to break free any further, they were forced to pour everything into resisting the Radiant Fire's burn.

Even the two Aberrant Touches staggered, forced to divert some of their power to resist the flames — and the spatial threads that had been on the verge of shattering stabilized.

"Damned ant!"

One of the Aberrant Touches let out a voice impossible to place as male or female — utterly alien. The countless eyes covering its body fixed unblinkingly on Lu Yuan.

Caught under that gaze, Lu Yuan's expression flickered. A profound chill ran through him, as though something monstrous had marked him.

He stared back, brow furrowed, expression glacial.

"Even an ant can kill you."

**Boom!!**

Ashen death energy coalesced into a wave of Scythes of Death that cleaved down toward all four Laws Rank Aberrant Beasts. The King of Corruption and King of Destruction, already straining to resist the Radiant Fire, had no hope of evading.

Scythe after Scythe of Death carved through their bodies. Their auras crumbled in pieces, wounds splitting open across their forms — marked everywhere with the traces of death's erosion — their presence fading at a rapid pace. As their auras faltered, the Radiant Fire seized the opening and burned deep into their flesh. Scorch marks erupted across their bodies, dark green smoke curling upward. They could not suppress their low growls, their strength collapsing even faster.

The two Aberrant Touches fared no better against the Scythes of Death — their flesh quaked ceaselessly, wounds opening all across them.

But soon, mouths split open across their bodies. A sinister chanting rose, and beneath it the ashen Scythes of Death shattered one by one while the Radiant Fire was momentarily driven back. Even the spatial threads shuddered for an instant.

At that moment, waves of stellar force came crashing down upon the two Aberrant Touches.

They had been on the verge of making a move. Instead, they were rocked — the countless eyes covering their bodies blasted apart by the stellar force, their bodies cracking open with spreading fissures.

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly, Spirit Power surging as his full strength poured forth.

Moments later, the bodies of the King of Corruption and King of Destruction ruptured. Their writhing fragments were consumed by Radiant Fire and reduced to ash, their screams cut short.

The two Aberrant Touches watched the two Kings die. Green radiance blazed around them, and they let out ear-splitting shrieks.

An instant later, a terrifying force erupted from both creatures simultaneously. In a single moment, every force — death energy, radiant energy, stellar force, spatial power — was swept aside. The two Aberrant Touches writhed and convulsed, then merged into a single being.

A presence far more powerful than before rose slowly into being. Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed, a crack appearing in the calm of his expression.

The merged form had become a colossal flesh creature. Countless tentacles writhed across it, flesh heaped upon its appendages to shape a blurred, monstrous face. Its aura was immense.

All four Laws orbited the creature like obedient lambs.

*Formidable.*

Lu Yuan stared hard at it. But even so, he wasn't worried.

The creature's deep green eyes locked onto him with murderous focus. It shrieked:

"Ant! You dare kill my three most prized children — I am coming for you myself, and I will devour your universe down to nothing!"

Lu Yuan's heart lurched. He stared hard at the creature, eyes narrowing.

"You're the Mother of Aberration?"

The creature did not answer. Instead, all four of its Law Forces condensed into streams of light and shot toward Lu Yuan like arrows. Wherever that dense, dreadful force passed, the chaotic energy convulsed — the entire Chaos Sea heaved with towering waves.

Lu Yuan's expression hardened. His own tremendous Law Forces surged in response, merging into a single massive vortex that shot toward the four Law arrows.

The arrows were swallowed in an instant. The vortex didn't slow — it continued driving toward the flesh creature.

Seeing this, the creature let out a low growl, green radiance flaring around it as it prepared to press the attack.

But in that same instant, an ashen Scythe of Death appeared without warning behind the creature and carved through its body. The creature locked up for just a heartbeat — and in that heartbeat, the Law Vortex closed in. A terrifying pulling force seized the creature and dragged it toward the vortex.

"Damn you!! Ant — just you wait!"

The creature thrashed desperately, Law Forces surging, green light blazing from its eyes, sinister whispers spilling from every mouth. Terrifying power shook through its entire body — but it could not break free.

A Law Vortex forged from seven combined Laws was far more powerful than anything the creature alone could produce. Escaping it was never going to happen.

In mere moments, the flesh creature was pulled entirely inside. Its body tore apart into shreds of flesh — and those shreds, still writhing, were ground out of existence.

Lu Yuan watched the Aberrant aura slowly dissipate and let out a long breath.

Only once it had vanished completely did he release the Law Vortex.

He looked out at the Chaos Sea as it gradually settled. He felt no joy.

The creature just now — he was certain it had been intimately connected to the Mother of Aberration. Before their merging, the two had been separate entities; but once fused, the combined form had almost certainly been the Mother of Aberration's avatar.

If her avatar had perceived his strength, her true body had almost certainly sensed it as well.

He harbored no illusions otherwise.

Even after gauging his power, the Mother of Aberration had screamed that she was coming to devour his universe — which meant her strength likely exceeded his by no small margin.

The thought settled like a stone in his chest. The pressure was immense.

Given her current state — whatever she had been doing before — she was almost certainly already moving.

Judging by how quickly the King of Corruption and King of Destruction had arrived after the King of Flesh's death, the Mother of Aberration at her speed would arrive even faster.

He was running out of time.

In the time he had left, how could he possibly grow strong enough to surpass the Mother of Aberration?

Or was there some other way to buy more time?

Lu Yuan exhaled slowly, a grim frustration settling over him.

*If only I had a little more time.*