Rivers of the Night-Chapter 857: White Hole

Ozen stood in silence for a very long while. He had originally come to Heaven in hopes of being the first to breach the top 100 in countless generations. Ever since Alauna took first place, and then Drake just barely lost by a single second due to his own arrogance, those names had been untouchable.

Even those who came close were still a good margin away.

It was said that when Drake originally stepped into the world, he spent a few seconds taking a piss before he started to comprehend in earnest, thinking that there was no way that anyone would be faster than himself.

And how could they be? After all, he was the first in the line of the Tatsuya to inherit their Ancestor's Eyes after so very long.

Many had thought it was impossible for the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils to appear again when Ancestor Tatsuya was still alive. But Drake had somehow gained them.

It was speculated that Ancestor Tatsuya had likely long surpassed the need for his Heavenly Pupils and, as such, abandoned them for something greater, allowing their Karma to appear in the world once more and select someone new.

As such, one could see why Drake would be so arrogant. But he had underestimated the challenge of grasping the secrets of Heaven. He ended up losing by one second due to his hubris, and it was a stain he carried with him to this day.

In fact, there was a spear mark across where his name had been when he attempted to wipe his humiliation from history. He had said he would rather be forgotten for all time than be ranked second to anyone. He felt he had tarnished the Tatsuya name.

Drake had hardly been heard from after he left the Heaven Gate.

Those geniuses who were so close to the bloodline of Ancestor Tatsuya and the Nameless Immortal God were too high up. Ozen had had no aspirations to surpass them, only hopes.

He had thus shot for a top 100 spot and just fell shy of it. As someone so far removed from the main Tatsuya Clan bloodline, this was highly impressive, and it could be said that it was more on his merit than anyone else's.

But he had hardly begun his reign when Theron suddenly appeared.

Just what was this…

31 seconds?

How in the world was that possible?

Even the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils hadn't been capable of that. How was a person completely unrelated to the Tatsuya and Sacharro Bloodlines capable of this?

At first, Ozen thought that Theron had to be related in some way. Maybe this was a rare instance of a Tatsuya or Sacharro woman loving her husband enough to change her name. It was rare, but it did happen.

However, when Ozen tried to feel out the Karma of the Galethunder name, he felt absolutely…

Nothing.

Not a single thing.

It was like the family had no history, no prestige, no recognition on the stage of Existence…

It was like it was screaming from the rooftops that Theron was the very first.

The City of Heaven shook as one genius after another stepped out—some beasts, some human, some elven, some demonic, some Races that hadn't even been foretold of or had long been forgotten.

They all stepped out one after another, and every one of them made the same decision. The same decision that made them worthy of having their own pavilions in the City of Heaven to begin with.

This Theron Galethunder…

They needed to cross blades with him.

And they wanted to do so before he could ascend the Mountain of Heaven.

…

Theron felt his dried and emptied Cores quickly rotating and pulsing. He had never felt his Void Cores react so much at all. It was like he had never truly filled them to begin with.

As though they had never tasted water in their lifetimes, they greedily lapped it up again and again and again. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

However, his cultivation wasn't improving—it was deepening. It felt like his Void Cores were pushing for something, and he was just a helpless passenger in it all. So… he just let them.

As his Void Cores moved, Ayame's sobbing seemed to fade away. But it was hard for Theron to tell if that was just because of the rush of energy, or if it was something else.

He felt his Void Cores pulse again, and they actually grew in size. They were little more than points of darkness before, something that Theron was actually grateful for. If not for how small his Void Cores were, he would probably be a cripple right now.

That said, he had thought it was only natural that Void Cores be so small. After all, they represented the highest concentration there was.

What Theron had neglected, though, was the fact that even black holes had variations in their size… they represented the perfect collapse of material, but the world itself still needed to follow the laws of physics. There was only so much that matter could be compressed. So… when you pushed beyond that limit and broke right through…

Another pulse of light came from Theron's Cores, and suddenly they cracked, growing and growing in size until they burst.

A blinding white light erupted from Theron's Cores, and it felt like he was suddenly expelling more Mana than he was consuming, like his Void Cores had become white holes instead of black holes.

Inwardly, he panicked somewhat, but he couldn't stop the process once it began. But then he seemed to grasp something.

As the last of his Mana was fully expelled from his body, his very limbs themselves becoming completely vacant of all Mana…

He sensed the world more than he ever had before.

And that was when he understood.

This was the ultimate form of a Core. It was beyond the Void, beyond Perfect True Voidwrought.

In a state where all Mana was expelled from him, where his Cores couldn't seem to hold any Mana at all…

There was no differentiation between the outside world and his dantian at all.

The world's Mana was his Mana.

BOOM.

What Theron hadn't yet realized, though, was that so much movement of his Mana was practically like a beacon to the outside world. Even in the volatility of Heaven, such movement was rare.

And now every single one of the people looking for him knew exactly where to go.