Chapter 338: Ascension in One Step

Lu Yan wasn’t the least bit surprised by the outcome.

Heaven was the cornerstone and foundation of the entire God Mythos System. Now, that sacred world had been forcefully dismembered by the sudden appearance of the Heaven’s Dao Ring. Worse still, billions of souls that were originally meant to ascend into heaven had instead been cast wholesale into the newly born Underworld World.

This move fundamentally destabilized the credibility and integrity of the God Mythos itself.

In such a devastating scenario, akin to pulling the rug from under its feet, it was only natural that the Intelligent God—once crushed under the overwhelming might of the True God—would seize this chance to reclaim a portion of its lost authority and power.

More importantly, the fate of the Intelligent God had, at some point, unknowingly become tightly interwoven with Lu Yan’s.

The Intelligent God knew full well that if it didn’t intervene now to stop the True God from mending the cracks in Heaven, then once the latter succeeded in restoring order, the dreaded assimilation process would resume—and that would mean the end.

So from Lu Yan’s perspective, the Intelligent God’s intervention at this critical juncture was all but inevitable.

Of course, Lu Yan was well aware that the Intelligent God had no intention of helping out of goodwill. Its true motive was survival.

If the God Mythos was truly shattered and the True God successfully driven out of the cyberpunk version, then the Intelligent God’s greatest threat would immediately shift—from the invading True God to Lu Yan, who had orchestrated everything.

Thus, Lu Yan had no intention of helping the Intelligent God completely expel the True God. What he truly needed was to use the window of opportunity while the two supreme beings were locked in a standoff—to swiftly solidify and complete the construction of the newborn Underworld World.

He needed to convert every bit of power and benefit he had carefully orchestrated into a foundation and strength he could control.

With the Heaven’s Dao Ring successfully severing a portion of the Heavenly World, the relatively intact fragments—along with their vast energy and governing laws—began to pour continuously into the Underworld World birthed by the Human Emperor Banner.

In an instant, the Underworld World expanded and evolved at a breathtaking rate.

Previously, the Underworld was no more than a decent cultivation foundation, comparable to a minor blessed land in a typical cultivation system. Though it held promise, it fell far short of a true miniature world and relied heavily on the unique system of the Divine Court of the Heavens.

But now, fueled by the immense influx of billions of soul essences and the primal energy of Heaven, the Underworld World rocketed skyward—ascending directly to the realm of a true miniature world.

Its boundaries ballooned from a mere 400 kilometers in diameter to a staggering 5,000 kilometers—and the expansion showed no signs of stopping. The world continued to stretch outward, swallowing unknown void with an insatiable appetite.

Endless soul computation power, blended with the unique laws of order and reincarnation, collided, intertwined, and evolved within this new world.

The result was a vast, ancient black land and mountain ranges that pierced the heavens.

In the skies above, the black sun—still not yet fully formed—radiated a cold, deathly aura. Its light grew brighter and deeper with each passing moment.

The dark radiance spread to the farthest reaches of the world, pushing back the void and chaos.

At the center of the Underworld lay Fengdu City. Thunderous roars echoed from it like peals of divine thunder.

As the core hub of the Underworld and the future operational center of the Divine Court of the Heavens, this ancient and awe-inspiring ghostly metropolis was evolving alongside the miniature world itself.

Mountains that were already majestic and black now towered even higher.

Faint silhouettes of divine spirits began to manifest on their surfaces, radiating overwhelming majesty—like the mythic Buzhou Divine Mountain that upheld the heavens.

Meanwhile, the billions of souls that had fallen into the Underworld from Heaven, once chaotic and bewildered, gradually began to adapt to the new order.

Living in this cyberpunk world of science and spiritual energy, most had encountered spiritual cultivation to some degree. Especially in recent years, the Universal Mega-Corporations had relaxed restrictions to better promote the God Mythos.

Among these billions, at least tens of millions had already become spiritual energy users in life. Their souls were naturally far more potent than those of ordinary mortals.

The moment they made contact with the rules and order of the Divine Court of the Heavens, it was as if they received a divine summons. Under the influence of the divine system, they became the foundational members of the Underworld Sequence.

In just a few hours, the previously empty supernatural framework of the Underworld was suddenly flooded with tens of millions of Sequence Nine Wandering Souls.

This massive influx of new blood greatly reinforced and expanded the very roots of the Underworld system.

And among the key players who had orchestrated this transformation was none other than Anna.

When she reentered the familiar realm of the Underworld, the technological and digital aura that marked her as a Cyber Holy Spirit began to fade visibly.

In its place emerged an older, purer, colder power—one perfectly suited to the rules of the Underworld.

It was as if she had returned to the mysterious and eerie Gothic Version from before, once again fusing with the divine system crafted by Lu Yan.

Back then, in that Gothic Version, Anna had already reached Sequence Six: Warden of Impermanence.

Now, with the tidal influx of souls into the Underworld, and the subsequent growth of the system…

As the nominal head of the Underworld Path, Anna received the most direct and abundant empowerment from the surge.

Her sequence ranking began to skyrocket at a pace that defied logic.

Sequence Five: Karma Judge!
Capable of summoning red lotus karmic flames to incinerate all sin, judge all souls, and reverse cause and effect.

Sequence Four: Register of Reincarnation!
Capable of manipulating life and death, altering mortal destinies, opening the Gates of the Underworld, and summoning a parade of spirits.

Sequence Three: Deputy Yama!
Capable of wielding partial divine power of Yama Kings, appointing Earth Gods and City Gods, commanding underworld jurisdictions, and severing or redirecting fate.

Eventually, her surging aura stabilized at the peak of Sequence Three: Deputy Yama.

She was now just one step away from claiming her rightful position as one of the Ten Yama Kings.

Even now, as Deputy Yama, she had the full authority to temporarily wield part of a Yama King’s divine power—making her one of the most influential figures in the Underworld.

Though Anna was one of the biggest beneficiaries, she was far from the only one.

Within the original Underworld structure, there were still five powerful Ghost Gods and 6,600 elite ghost soldiers.

In this unparalleled ascension, the 6,000 lower-ranked Yin soldiers—previously Sequence Six Warden level—were all elevated to Sequence Five Karma Judge, on par with Golden Core cultivators.

The 600 more formidable Ghost Generals advanced further, stepping directly into Sequence Four: Register of Reincarnation—comparable to Nascent Soul elders.

And the five original Ghost Gods all broke free of their prior limitations, ascending to Sequence Three Deputy Yama alongside Anna.

With these five holding temporary Yama Thrones and Anna as a newly risen Deputy Yama, six seats of the Ten Yama Kings had now been filled.

Only now did the Hall of the Gods—the highest authority of the Divine Court of the Heavens—begin to exude the true majesty of a sovereign realm ruling over the myriad heavens.

But if one had to name the ultimate beneficiary of this seismic ascension, it could only be the man who masterminded it all: Lu Yan.

The feedback from the system was unimaginable. An overwhelming surge of power poured into his body like a dam bursting.

The tens of millions of new Sequence Nine souls, the 6,000 Karma Judges, the 600 Registers of Reincarnation, and the six Deputy Yamas…

These forces formed the spine of the entire supernatural Underworld system.

As the master of it all, Lu Yan—whose personal cultivation had once seemed his weakest aspect—now ascended as if launched by a rocket.

His cultivation, previously stalled at the peak of the Golden Core stage, pierced through the bottleneck of Nascent Soul Realm in the blink of an eye.

But it didn’t stop there.

Within seconds, he soared past the peak of the Soul Formation Realm.

That seemingly insurmountable gap—the divide between Soul Formation and Void Refinement—was reduced to mere dust before his titanic foundation.

Almost without resistance, he shattered the barrier and charged directly into the middle stage of the Void Refinement Realm.

Only then did his cultivation finally slow.

For a typical cultivator, even consuming an entire miniature world might not be enough to break two major realms. Often, just reaching the Soul Formation stage would be a monumental task.

But Lu Yan was anything but ordinary.

He hadn’t just elevated the Underworld to a small world.

The billions of souls integrated into the Underworld were native to this Cyberpunk Version. They weren’t artificially created by the Main God’s domain—they were real.

That meant when this version concluded and transitioned into the next, those souls would also be updated and carried forward.

Normal powerhouses—no matter how strong—couldn’t carry their influence into the next version. That was the rule of version updates.

But Lu Yan was different.

As the only unchanging existence across infinite versions, one who could rewrite and bend version fate, he wasn’t bound by those rules.

Just like when Anna, with his help, had evolved from an ordinary being in the Gothic Version into the sole Cyber Holy Spirit of the current world…

So too would the Underworld System he forged now echo into future versions.

These billions of souls, this foundation of the Underworld, would become an eternal mark—etched into the fabric of all future updates.

Even mighty forces like Heaven or the Celestial Court couldn’t replicate such a feat.

Now, the number of intelligent beings dragged into the Underworld accounted for nearly a tenth of the total population of the Cyberpunk World.

It was a number so vast, it had shaken the very foundation of the version itself.

This meant that once the version updated, the imprint of the Underworld would be immortalized—eternally mapped across infinite versions, immune even to version rule disruption.

Lu Yan slowly raised his right hand and placed a long, slender finger against the center of his brow.

Some unknown divine sense… was beginning to take form.

(End of Chapter)