Super God Academy: Kabuto

The ruins of the Shenhe site are no longer recognizable.

The rift that tore apart the boundary between reality and the void now hovers at the core of the original ruins, like a slowly opening vertical pupil flowing with eerie light. At the edge of the rift, the laws of reality and the void intertwine, clash, and annihilate each other wildly, bursting forth with visible spatial ripples—wherever those ripples spread, even light is distorted and swallowed, leaving behind patches of chaos that cannot be looked at directly.

On this side of the crack lies the known universe, which is being slowly eroded.

On the other side of the crack lies an eternal, churning void, deeper than the abyss.

Right in front of the rift, three enormous figures, large enough to obscure the stars, floated silently.

Around them, millions of Void creatures were busy at work. Zerg engineers traversed through massive amounts of biomass, reinforcing the Void energy nodes at the edge of the rift; Naraka priests formed enormous magic circles, chanting spiritual resonances to maintain the stability of the rift; and royal colossi, like moving mountains, filled the bottom of the rift with chunks of matter dragged from the depths of the Void—those distorted "things" that could not be described by known physics—as anchors to the dimension of reality.

But all of this had nothing to do with those three figures.

Their gaze was fixed only on the unfamiliar, fresh, and alluring universe on the other side of the crack.

"Kunxu."

A deep, resonant sound, like the rumbling of the earth's crust, resounded. The source of that sound was a creature of unimaginable size—resembling a coiled serpent, yet possessing countless pairs of thick limbs, each pair ending in a claw powerful enough to tear stars apart. Its body was covered in constantly flowing, dark yellow rock armor, from the cracks of which shimmered with a magma-like light. Its head was like a mountain peak, with a single, enormous eye ablaze with earthen-yellow flames on its forehead.

The patriarch of the Earthly Royal Family—Hui.

At this moment, its single eye is staring straight at the crack, reflecting the dazzling starlight of the opposite universe.

"Do you want to try? See if you can get across?"

The serpent's voice carried an undisguised longing, and a cautious probing that only it knew. It had had enough of that crowded, resource-scarce void world. It yearned for new territories, for planets teeming with life, for imprinting the totem of the Earth's royal family onto those fertile soils.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a sharp, mocking laugh came from another direction.

The laughter was like an ice needle piercing the snake's nerves, causing its massive body to tense slightly.

"Hey, you big oaf, you've got quite a few tricks up your sleeve."

A languid yet dangerous female voice rang out. The source of the voice was entirely different from the enormous size of the serpent—it was a slender, almost eerie silhouette. The upper body was that of a bewitching woman, her skin a strange dark purple, her features exquisitely sculpted, but her eyes held only coldness and cruelty. Her lower body was that of a gigantic spider, its eight segments covered in dark hairs moving gently through the air, each movement leaving tiny, unhealable cracks in the space.

The chieftain of the Void Insectoids—Youluo.

At this moment, she was looking at Hui with those cold and eerie eyes, a mocking smile playing on her lips.

"Why don't you go yourself? You're just trying to get others to go? Are you afraid your bulky body will get torn to shreds by the cracks?"

The serpent's single eye suddenly contracted, and the earthen-yellow flames leaped and burned even more fiercely. Its massive body turned slightly, and its countless pairs of appendages simultaneously adjusted their direction, aiming its mountain-like head at Youluo.

"Youluo, what do you mean?"

Its voice grew deeper and more dangerous, each word like thunder from the earth, causing the surrounding void to tremble slightly. The busy royal elephants stopped what they were doing and looked up at their leader—a signal that battle was about to break out.

Youluo remained completely unmoved.

She even laughed, a laugh that sounded like countless insects chirping simultaneously, sharp and piercing, yet strangely alluring.

"What, you're not happy about it?"

She slightly raised her chin, her eyes growing even colder, and her eight limbs slowly unfurled, each tip emitting a faint, eerie light—a void toxin powerful enough to corrode everything.

"How about we have a fight first? Let's see if your broken shell is tougher, or if my poison is more potent. Perfect timing, I haven't stretched my muscles in a long time."

The two auras collided suddenly.

On one side was the imposing and ferocious aura of the Earthly Royal Family—around the serpent, space began to distort and compress, forming visible gravitational ripples, the natural outflow of its vast power. Its countless pairs of appendages simultaneously opened their massive claws, their tips gleaming with an earthy-yellow light, each ray powerful enough to tear apart a small asteroid.

On the other side lay the Zerg's eeriness and lethality—Youluo's figure grew even more blurred, seemingly existing between reality and illusion. Her eight segments vibrated at extremely low frequencies, each vibration scattering tiny spores almost invisible to the naked eye into the space. Once these spores touched any living organism, they would hatch instantly, devouring the host from within.

The surrounding void creatures retreated, clearing a vast airspace. Zerg and sea creature units kept their distance, and the royal mammoths moved slowly, making way for their chieftain. For these creatures, raised in a world of brutal competition, clashes between the strong were perfectly normal.

The air—if there is air in the void—was frozen to the extreme.

A major battle is about to break out...

That's enough.

An old, deep voice, like a deep-sea tsunami, rang out.

The sound was not loud, and could even be described as gentle, yet in an instant it overwhelmed the low growl of the serpent and the cold laugh of the nymph, overwhelmed the clamor of millions of void creatures around it, and overwhelmed the spatial ripples that kept bursting from the edge of the crack.

Kunxu.

The emperor of the Void Sea Clan.

It hovered there silently, neither participating in the dispute between the serpent and the youluo, nor even glancing at them. Its form was distinctly different from other sea creatures—unlike those translucent, azure ethereal beings, or those menacing combat units. It resembled a colossal whale slumbering in the deepest reaches of the universe, immeasurably large, its entire body covered in deep blue, seemingly ever-flowing scales. With each breath, invisible ripples emanated from its body, spreading across the entire sky and calming the raging void energy.

Its eyes—if those two bottomless, deep blue vortexes can be called eyes—are always fixed on the universe on the other side of the rift.

"I've already tried."

Kunxu's voice rang out again, calm as if stating a fact unrelated to himself. But beneath that calm, both Hui and Youluo could feel the heavy, irresistible majesty.

The serpent's single eye flickered, and the earthen-yellow flames subsided somewhat.

Youluo's eight limbs slowly retracted, and the mockery at the corner of her mouth subsided, replaced by a thoughtful expression.

"You tried it?" Hui's voice held a hint of surprise. "When? How come I didn't know?"

"Just as that little bug in red appeared," Kunxu said slowly, his deep blue, swirling eyes shifting slightly as if recalling something, "I tried to probe that universe with a wisp of my consciousness. But the moment I made contact, I was repelled by a powerful force."

"Power?" Youluo raised an eyebrow. "That guy in red? He's a bit odd, but he shouldn't be able to stop you, right?"

"It's not him." Kunxu shook his head—the movement was extremely slow, yet it caused the surrounding void to tremble. "It's the 'rules' of that universe itself. Or rather, it's some kind of will that protects that universe."

Both Hui and Youluo fell silent.

They all knew what Kunxu was talking about. In the void world, there was an ancient legend—every mature universe would give birth to a certain "self-protective" will. That will was not necessarily life, not necessarily consciousness; it could simply be a set of rules, a program, an instinct. But its existence was precisely to resist invasions from other realms.

The strength of that will that was able to withstand Kunxu's probing consciousness had exceeded their initial expectations.

"Then what do we do?" the snake said in a muffled voice. "Just wait and see? Wait for that will to fade away on its own?"

"Wait, of course we have to wait." Youluo's voice carried that familiar sarcasm again. "But some people don't even have the patience to wait. They can't wait to rush over right now, and what's the result? They get a cold shoulder."

"you……"

"alright."

Kunxu's voice interrupted them again. Its massive body shifted slightly, turning towards Hui and Youluo.

Something seemed to be shimmering in those deep blue, swirling eyes.

"The rift isn't stable enough. The will of that universe is reinforcing the barriers of the real dimension, trying to keep us out. But..." It paused, and for the first time, a faint, almost imperceptible smile appeared in its aged voice, "...it won't last long."

The viper's single eye lit up: "You mean...?"

"I have already had the priests set up a 'Void Resonance Array' deep within the rift," Kunxu said slowly. "That array will continuously erode the boundary between reality and the void, gradually weakening the will's defenses. In a dozen or so standard days at most, the rift will completely stabilize."

Youluo narrowed her eyes, a thoughtful glint in her cold gaze: "A dozen or so standard days? Those insects in that universe, they won't just sit here and wait to die, will they? My people have already detected that they are gathering their forces."

"Let them assemble," Kunxu's voice remained calm. "The more concentrated they are, the easier it will be for us to eliminate them all at once."

It paused, then turned its deep blue, swirling eyes toward the dazzling sea of ​​stars on the other side of the crack.

"Let them prepare. Let them gather all their strength. Let them believe they still have the power to fight."

"Then……"

For the first time, a hint of coldness, befitting its status and emanating from the depths of the abyss, was revealed in that aged voice.

"In the past, we offered all of this as a sacrifice to 'He'."

A fanatical flame burned in the serpent's single eye. A cruel smile curled at the corner of Youluo's lips.

On the other side of the rift, that universe remains dazzling, vibrant, and utterly unaware of its impending fate.

On this side of the rift, the emperors of the three races have reached a consensus.

The wait is about to end.

Deep within the rift, the unseen void resonance array was slowly operating. Each pulse pried open a barely perceptible crack at the boundary between reality and the void.

And something is seeping in from those cracks.

It is not energy, not matter, not even information.

It is some kind of older, more essential... gaze.

As if responding to that gaze, in the deepest part of the void, on the altar sealed by gray-white runes, a sleeping being seemed to stir slightly.

It was just a slight movement.

But the entire void trembled.