The world that caught Aldrian’s attention was really a small one, its surface dominated by oceans. Its size was only about a percent of the Ancient Blue Gate World, and at a glance, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about it.

The heaven and earth energy in this world was thin compared to other places, to the point that even those at duke stage would struggle to maintain a proper cultivation life here.

Yet, why was he interested in such a place?

There were two reasons.

The first was that this world was one where he and Sylphia had once spent a past life together. In that life, he lived as an ordinary mortal, while she lived as a noble lady.

A story of a common man and a noble lady. It sounded like one of those classical romantic tales often told by storytellers.

A faint smile appeared on his face as he recalled those moments. That life left him feeling embarrassed. At that time, he had mostly been a burden to Sylphia. His lack of status and power made him an easy target for those who wished to harm him because of his relationship with her.

There was a time when he wanted to give up on their relationship, yet Sylphia remained resolute in holding onto it. Her determination affected him, giving him the strength to keep going, until they finally reached their own happy ending.

’A world called Earth... and what was the city where I lived with Sylphia at that time? Ah, yes. Shanghai, China. I wonder how much time has passed since that life until now.’ he thought.

Another thing that drew his interest to this world was the traces he could sense within it. There were remnants left behind by many immortals, and even by cultivators of the Transcendence Realm.

Some of those traces carried the aura of devils, while others felt deeply familiar, something he recognized from the memories of his past life.

They were traces left by cultivators from the families of his followers.

He did not know why their traces existed in such a place, one so far from the inner realm and relatively barren compared to other places. This should have been the last place that cultivators of that caliber would ever visit.

The fact that their traces remained here could only mean that something had made them stay.

’If their traces are here, then there must be something in this world that drew them in,’ he thought.

He decided to examine this world in greater detail at a later time, as he still intended to inspect other places first.

Spreading his domain sense across the First Heaven, he detected many presences from the higher heavens scattered across different regions.

They were located in various worlds, and he could tell that they were his followers who had chosen to remain in the First Heaven. They were waiting for him to awaken them, something he would do later.

He then shifted his attention to a closer area. As his domain sense swept across the nearby worlds within the central region of heaven, he detected several locations where his followers were meant to establish faith gathering places.

However, what he saw there surprised him.

Those places had already been destroyed.

This was the first time he had seen those locations, once inaccessible to anyone but him, destroyed. Everything within them had been ransacked, leaving behind nothing but ruin.

But after a brief moment of thought, he no longer found it surprising that these devils had managed to force their way into those places through unknown means. With the time they had spent occupying the central region of heaven, they would have found a method to breach them.

Moreover, with many beings from the higher heavens residing in this region, they could have assisted in entering those forbidden zones. With their knowledge and unknown artifacts, it was entirely possible for them to access what the beings of the First Heaven once considered untouchable.

The destruction of these places also explained why his journey through the teleportation gate in the past had failed.

He could now see the other end of the teleportation gate that once connected the central star cluster to the central region of heaven. It was located within one of the worlds in Vargus’ territory.

The portal had already been destroyed, causing his teleportation to fail as the connection broke midway through his path. As a result, he was thrown into the void, where a spatial storm was raging at that time.

He would have died if not for the defensive talisman from Xuanji.

However, he did not complain about it. Because of that incident, he had been able to help another world in its time of need and meet Ling Xiao.

He took a deep breath once more. His connection to the heavens grew much stronger, and he could now perceive the heavens’ intent with far greater clarity. There were many things he could now do that had once been beyond him.

Just as that figure had said, the moment the First Heaven became his domain, his authority over his domain surpassed what it had ever been before.

He could even affect the heavenly laws of the First Heaven!

This was an ability that only a god at the level of a master of universe could wield.

But his ability was far more amazing. He could control the heavenly laws of the First Heaven according to his will, freely and without any burden or backlash!

He had already done so when he rewrote the heavenly laws of the First Heaven. He made the First Heaven inaccessible to the higher heavens and prevented anyone from leaving it.

He ensured that the First Heaven was completely sealed. No outside influence could enter, and no inhabitant of the First Heaven could leave.

That was why those at the peak pseudo immortal stage could not achieve a breakthrough, and why the immortals who remained in the First Heaven could not ascend even after releasing their cultivation seals.

They could retain their strength, yet they could not leave.

Aldrian did not worry about those immortals causing trouble. He was already here as the one who would deal with them.

As a cultivator at Immortal Overlord stage, he was the strongest being in the First Heaven. As the "god" of the First Heaven, he was a special existence. Even as an inhabitant who had reached the Immortal Overlord stage, he could still remain here.

For his first step, he intended to eliminate the devils from the central region of heaven entirely. He could have relied on the heavens, calling down a heavenly punishment strong enough to wipe out every devil within the First Heaven.

But after giving it some thought, he chose not to depend on the heavens for now.

He wanted to do it with his own power.

He also wanted to test the extent of his strength.

He closed his eyes and spread his domain sense, this time focusing on a smaller scale, the entire central region of heaven.

The central region of heaven once had fifteen inhabited worlds before he destroyed two of them.

The devils had occupied these worlds for a long time, and their combined numbers across them were still mind-boggling.

Even though he had already killed trillions of them during his battle near the center of the First Heaven, there were still trillions more spread across these worlds. Most of them were low-ranking devils, with average cultivation at the marquess stage.

There were also many at pseudo immortal stage, though they did not seem as strong as those who had been sent to the center of heaven in the past.

With his domain sense now, he easily scanned those trillions of devils across vast space and multiple worlds without placing any strain on his soul. His powerful soul could support far greater burdens, making this task effortless.

The moment he marked all of them as targets, he decided to strike.

Across various worlds, powerful heavenly lightning suddenly appeared from different layers of space. It emerged from the void itself, without shattering the layers of space, revealing only faint distortions before the lightning descended.

This was Aldrian’s new method of creating heavenly lightning. He formed it behind different space layers, making it far more difficult to detect.

By the time his targets realized anything, it was already too late.

The lightning struck without giving them any chance to react. Because the attack did not suddenly break the layers of space, it carried a perfect element of surprise.

Only those with an extremely high comprehension of space laws could have detected such an attack, enough to perceive changes across different layers of space.

Trillions of strands of lightning descended simultaneously from those hidden layers, striking trillions of devils across various worlds. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

It happened so quickly that they never realized what had occurred. Their bodies turned to ashes before vanishing completely.

No matter where they were, all of them died within three seconds.

Not even ten seconds had passed since the first lightning strike, yet the trillions of devils across those worlds were already gone.

By the time ten seconds elapsed, the central region of heaven had been completely cleared of devils.

For the first time in eons under the occupation of Tarius’ followers, the central region of heaven was finally free!