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"It truly is Heavenly Fire…" The Chief Elder slightly changed his expression after seeing the Nine-Flavored Heavenly Fire. He gazed at Su Ping and asked, "Where did you find it? What is happening outside?"

Su Ping was stunned; Diqiong had basically asked the same thing moments before.

"I got it from a powerhouse in the realm of gods. Do you know more about the background of this fire, senior? I want to learn more about it," said Su Ping curiously.

"The realm of gods…" the Chief Elder mumbled, "So, it was truly created in the end?"

"Created?"

"When chaos was split up, the mythical creatures were born."

The Chief Elder stared at Su Ping and told him about the ancient secret. "All living creatures have a certain hierarchy; mythical creatures are no exception. The most powerful mythical creatures called themselves 'sorcerers'! There were altogether twelve powerful sorcerer clans that controlled the world!

"The Golden Crows were among those clans."

The elder continued, "Our ancestor was the Golden Sorcerer, one of the twelve sorcerers! Besides us, the other sorcerer clans were also powerful. Some of them attempted to create other lifeforms. As far as I know, one of the clans intended to establish a race named 'gods'. They tried to separate the godhood imbued in the mythical creatures' bloodlines and with it create pure divine lives!

"I didn't expect that they would actually succeed so many years after that war. I remember that all their initial products ended up in failure; they either went out of control or died too young. The only survivors were not the gods that they intended to create, but monstrous behemoths known as titans.

"Titans had unimaginable power, but they were stupid and knew nothing but destruction. They gradually went extinct."

"The titans?"

Su Ping was shocked by the revelation, suddenly remembering that Joanna's bloodline, according to the system, belonged to the ancient titan gods!

......

The Chief Elder looked at Su Ping and asked, "You obtained the Heavenly Fire from the gods. In other words, the sorcerers who created them should still be alive. Were they caught in a brutal war?"

"A brutal war?"

Su Ping was again mesmerized by the questions. He asked, "Where did they fight?"

"There's no war?" The Chief Elder was stunned. Su Ping didn't seem to be lying, so he said with glittering eyes, "Do you remember the Heavens I mentioned last time? Heavenly Fire was actually a skill of the Heavens; it can burn through all worlds. We secluded ourselves and the clans of chaos split up, all because of the Heavens."

"The Heavens…"

Su Ping immediately remembered the Remains of High Heavens on the list of the system's cultivation sites that he had yet to activate.

The ticket fee to enter that place was astronomical; he hadn't made up his mind to pay it yet.

"What are the Heavens? Why did they wage war against all of you?" asked Su Ping. He didn't ask much the previous time, and the Chief Elder didn't explain, either. This time, though, he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

He thought that he was tapping into the deepest secrets from ancient times; not even Diqiong dared to mention the Heavens directly. There wasn't any information about the Heavens in the worlds of deities and gods. They had to be some terrifying hidden power in history.

The Chief Elder was silent for a moment, while the Nine-Flavored Heavenly Fire was reflected in his eyes. A moment later, he finally said, "The Heavens were born together with us, the mythical creatures. Still, they are different lifeforms, and I don't know the specific reason for their birth. There have been many speculations.

"The first belief is that the Heavens, just like us, were born when chaos was split up. They were lifeforms condensed by another energy. In a sense, they were purer.

"The second idea is that they were born from the assorted power released by the mythical creatures after the rise of the twelve ancestral sorcerers. To put it simply, they were lives based on the emotions of those mythical creatures.

"The third and last speculation is that they could be invaders from outside the chaos. But, if that were the case, it means that there are other spaces beyond chaos."

The Chief Elder looked at Su Ping and added, "Right now, most of us are inclined to the first speculation. It's impossible to confirm the second one; the third speculation is the most unlikely. After all, there are billions of universes, and we can create universes of our own. Our ancestor also mentioned that beyond chaos there's absolute darkness; there can't be any life.

"This world of chaos already contains countless timelines and spaces. Even if chaos is broken, there's nothing but boundless darkness; it's impossible for lives like the Heavens to be born."

"Breaking the chaos…"

Su Ping was shocked by the idea. It was hard for him to imagine what kind of being the Golden Crows' ancestor was.

That was also the first time he heard about those secrets and learned of the unknown darkness beyond chaos.

There was an indescribable emotion in the Chief Elder's eyes. "Back in the age dominated by the twelve ancestral sorcerers, the Heavens appeared out of nowhere and fought against us, all with the objective of destroying us and reigning over chaos. Countless mythical creatures perished in the war; the Heavens suffered heavy losses too…"

He seemed to be both grieving and somewhat afraid.

The elder's eyes left Su Ping in shock, finding it hard to imagine that an Ancestral God would be afraid just by recalling the past.

How shocking and gruesome was that big war?

"While the ancestor fought with all his strength, we reached this place and secluded ourselves from the world. We hate to admit it, but we know that it's impossible to beat the Heavens!"

His words hammered Su Ping's heart with a heavy hand, somehow feeling that his blood was becoming solid for a moment. Then, it flowed in reverse, while boiling and burning again. His feelings were troubled based on the shared information.

"Considering that the Heavenly Fire has reappeared, it means that not all Heavens perished. Some of them are still alive…" The Chief Elder looked at the Heavenly Fire with a conflicted expression. "A lot of ancestral sorcerers died, but they failed to exterminate the Heavens. It seems that this catastrophe has yet to end…"

Su Ping was silent for a moment. He asked, "Senior, why did the Heavens fight you? Just to reign over chaos?"

"Would they need a better reason?" The Chief Elder looked at Su Ping.

The latter was at a loss.

"If the Heavens do reappear, the gods you visited must be in grave danger. It would be for the best not to go there again; the Heavens won't spare you, if they ever saw you. After all, you carry the Golden Crow aura, and your talent… is not bad."

Diqiong looked at Su Ping with concern, and had to reluctantly admit his talent in the end.

The latter was silent for a moment, then suddenly remembered that a war had burst out in the Archean Divinity too; one that almost destroyed the Heaven Path Institute. The institute's experts and the students fought enemies in the wilderness. Were their enemies also the Heavens?

That speculation had some likelihood to it; after all, when tracking down the source of the war, it could be because the different godly clans were fighting over territories.

Alternatively, they were fighting together against an invader. As for that invader, Su Ping couldn't think of a second candidate other than the Heavens that could have the potential to push the Archean Divinity to that extreme.

I should ask the elders of the institute about the details of the war. Elder Chan said he didn't know; I don't believe that the rest of the elders are equally unaware. If there's no choice, I can always search the library… Su Ping's eyes glittered. The matter was of critical importance to him; once confirmed, he had a terrifying follow-up speculation.

"Young human friend, you've come to visit us many times. I am sure that there has to be an unimaginable being protecting you; that being can even hide from the Heavens."

The Golden Crow stared at Su Ping and said, "It's fine for you to control the Heavenly Fire, but you must use it with great care. I will teach you how to control it, and I will also give you a drop of the ancestor's blood."