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Ch. 332 Establishing a Divine Realm
🕑 Added 2024-03-23 16:00:34 +0000 UTCRussell were unsure when Silver Surfer and Planet Devourer would arrive on Earth. But as the true pillar of the Justice League, Russell couldn't afford to continue "idling away his time" in Hell.
He didn't want to return to Earth only to find the Justice League had fallen.
Although the Justice League currently possessed power surpassing other nations and had Maveth, which served as a backup base, having Maveth could never compare to having Earth.
While ordinary people could survive on Maveth, its environment was much worse than Earth's.
More importantly, Russell had no intention of watching idly as the Silver Surfer and Planet Devourer Galactus destroyed Earth.
Even though he came from another world, it couldn't be denied that he was also a native of Earth.
He had strong feelings for this planet.
When Russell began fervently absorbing the Hell aura, every demon in the City of Sin sensed something unusual. Like Hell's aura permeating every corner of Hell, it flew madly toward Russell.
Then, it was absorbed by the black hole-like Russell.
Although these demons didn't know what Russell was doing exactly, they were certain that his frantic absorption of Hell's aura had an important purpose. Otherwise, he wouldn't be absorbing Hell's breath in such a spectacular manner.
Russell paid no attention to what the demons in the City of Sin might think. Although he was the lord of the City of Sin, he had never considered the demons inside as his kind. He was, after all, human! He simply possessed the Hell Authority.
Countless Hell aura rushed toward Russell, and the once bright sky was quickly shrouded by dense Hell's aura, turning into a black cloud.
In the blink of an eye, the City of Sin seemed completely enveloped in darkness.
Initially, only the demons inside the City of Sin sensed this strangeness. However, as Russell absorbed more and more of Hell's aura and even began plundering the breath within the territories of other demon lords, other demons also noticed something was amiss.
The rapid decrease in Hell's aura, similar to the rapid depletion of air, immediately triggered a significant chain reaction.
Some weaker low-ranking demons or mid-ranking and high-ranking demons who were already heavily injured were in immediate danger of losing their lives due to the rapid decrease in Hell's aura.
At this moment, Russell resembled the Planet Devourer, frantically devouring Hell's aura.
Of course, unlike the Planet Devourer, his consumption of Hell's aura only affected the demons within Hell and didn't completely destroy Hell itself. If he were to truly intend to destroy Hell, even though the will of Hell was currently dormant, it would immediately awaken to stop him.
While most demons sensed the anomaly caused by Russell, they didn't know what he was planning.
The only one who could guess what Russell was doing was Mephisto, who had already reached the level of Skyfather.
At first, Mephisto was curious about why Russell, after obtaining the Hell Authority, didn't leave Hell immediately. He initially thought Russell intended to completely assimilate the Hell Authority before returning to the mortal realm.
However, when Russell began his drastic "reforms" in Hell, Mephisto realized that things were far more complicated than he had imagined.
Whether it was the establishment of the City of Sin or Russell's forced implementation of his own laws, none of it seemed like impulsive actions.
Although Mephisto didn't know much about Russell before, after their encounters and Russell's confiscation of a portion of his authority, he had gathered information about Russell and quickly reached a conclusion.
Despite Russell appearing to be capricious, every action he took was the result of careful consideration. Even though he might seem wild and impulsive, he had hidden plans.
Once Mephisto confirmed that Russell was now establishing a divine realm, he furrowed his brow slightly while maintaining the appearance of an elderly English aristocrat.
Then, he raised his black staff, deciding to lend Russell a hand. He genuinely intended to help Russell rather than use his Hell Authority to make things more difficult for him.
As Mephisto began to mobilize the Hell Authority within him, causing more Hell's aura to surge toward the City of Sin, Russell, who was in the process of absorbing Hell's aura, quickly sensed Mephisto's assistance.
The Hell Authority he possessed had been forcibly stripped from Mephisto.
Although he had completely integrated this authority now, there was still an inexplicable and mysterious connection between him and Mephisto.
This connection doesn't allow them to see each other's every move clearly; it only produces a sensation when the other person uses Hell Authority.
But for beings of their power, even subtle sensations are entirely sufficient.
Russell frowned slightly when he realized that Mephisto had started offering help to himself.
What was he up to?
Russell wasn't the kind of person who would believe someone was good just because Mephisto showed a bit of goodwill.
Those who believed Mephisto was a good person, without exception, all became Mephisto's playthings.
Although Russell couldn't figure out what Mephisto was planning, he didn't waste time thinking about it.
As long as Mephisto didn't disturb him in establishing his divine realm, he wouldn't stop him even if Mephisto intended to sacrifice himself to assist him.
Or rather, he would welcome Mephisto doing so.
Although he wasn't a true devil, he was still very interested in the hellish authority that remained on Mephisto.
On Earth, no one would complain about having too much money.
In Hell, no one would complain about having too much power and authority.
Redirecting all his attention to absorbing the Hell aura, Russell converted the influx of Hell aura into Hellfire.
Unlike before, he didn't let this Hellfire enter his divine power island; instead, he controlled it to cover every corner of the City of Sin with Hellfire.
During the process of Hellfire covering the City of Sin, there were many demons trying to fleece him, attempting to steal the Hell aura he used to cover the City of Sin.
However, as soon as these demons touched the Hell aura and tried to absorb it to strengthen their own demonic power, orange-red Hellfire surged out from within the Hell aura, incinerating these individuals who sought to take advantage of Russell into ashes.
Hellfire originated from the depths of Hell. Although it was a powerful flame born in Hell, Hellfire also had a strong restraining effect on the demons within Hell.
While the way Hellfire restrained demons was somewhat different from the way divine holy power restrained them, Hellfire's restraint was even more dominant.
Simply put, in the face of Hellfire, the bodies of Hell's demons and the demonic power within them would both become fuel for Hellfire, allowing it to unleash even more formidable power.
Hellfire not only could burn the bodies and demonic power of these demons but also had the effect of burning their souls.
Souls burned by Hellfire would experience indescribable agony.
What's even more terrifying is that souls were entirely powerless to resist the burning of Hellfire.
In Hell, there were many high-ranking demons, including Mephisto, who were quite enthusiastic about using Hellfire to burn the souls of humans who had fallen into their hands.
The screams emitted by human souls burned by Hellfire were, for them, more melodious than any music in the world.
After the demons who had tried to fleece Russell's Hell aura were turned into ashes by Hellfire, the other demons instantly calmed down.
While enhancing their own power was tempting, it wasn't worth their lives in comparison.
Demons might be greedy, but they weren't so greedy as to sacrifice their lives to strengthen themselves.
After using Hellfire to deal with those who tried to fleece him, Russell continued to use Hell aura to cover every corner of the City of Sin.
The City of Sin wasn't something he had built on a whim.
When he established the City of Sin, he had already decided to use it as the foundation of his divine realm.
Otherwise, even if he were to seek enjoyment, he wouldn't have expended so much effort to command hundreds of thousands of demons to build the City of Sin.
For the sake of building the City of Sin, countless demons had died during the construction process.
Although this was somewhat similar to ancient times when commoners were forced into labor, Russell felt no remorse because he wasn't commanding humans on Earth; he was commanding demons from Hell.
He's not a demon, so he doesn't care about these things.
Furthermore, even if these demons die during the construction of the city, their souls will return to the River Styx and transform into Hellworms.
Although their ranks have dropped, the number of Hell's demons hasn't decreased.
As the Hell aura continued to cover the City of Sin, Russell began to harness his Sun and Thunder Divine Power to perform the second layer of coverage.
The real City of Sin is the foundation, and the coverage of Hell aura adds some energy properties to it.
And the coverage of divine power can project the City of Sin, which already possesses energy properties, into the legendary astral plane.
The astral plane is not a real world, nor is it a dimension that truly exists.
In simple terms, the astral plane is a special space within dimensional rifts.
Although the astral plane is not a real space and requires the construction of a connection to the real world with divine power, it can carry projections from the real world.
Of course, not every projection can appear on the astral plane.
To make real-world buildings project onto the astral plane, two basic conditions must be met.
First, the real-world buildings must have energy properties.
This doesn't require the buildings in the real world to be entirely composed of energy, but they must possess energy properties.
Pure material without any energy properties cannot be projected onto the astral plane.
Secondly, to have the real-world buildings fully project onto the astral plane and remain stable, the projected buildings must contain divine power.
Only divine power can be sustained in the astral plane for an extended period.
If it's just ordinary energy, although it can be projected onto the astral plane, it will quickly disappear.
What's more, without the blessing of divine power, the projections in the astral plane will be swiftly destroyed by the ubiquitous astral storms.
The only thing that can withstand astral storms is divine power, which is born from natural energy but surpasses it.
Because it's in Hell, and there is a lot of Hell aura to absorb and transform, covering the City of Sin with Hell aura is not a difficult task for Russell.
Even if his own Hell aura isn't sufficient to cover the entire City of Sin, he can convert Hell aura to compensate for the consumption of his Hell aura.
For Russell at this moment, the real issue is divine power.
Although he possesses both Sun and Thunder Divine Power, and each has different authorities, covering the entire City of Sin with divine power is still quite challenging for him.
If it weren't for the fact that Thunder Divine Power had the Hell Authority on it, allowing it to absorb Hell aura and transform it into Thunder Divine Power, Russell's own divine power reserve wouldn't be sufficient to cover the entire City of Sin.
This is the main reason why he insisted on embedding Hell Authority before starting to build his divine realm.
It's somewhat akin to building a house.
If you don't have enough materials, no matter how skilled the builders are, they won't be able to truly construct the house.
In common parlance, it's like trying to cook without rice!
Although Hell Authority can only absorb Hell aura to replenish the consumption of Thunder Divine Power, any form of divine power works for Russell.
The astral plane doesn't care what type of divine power he uses for the projection.
With the power of Hell Authority, Russell continued to absorb Hell aura and transform it into Thunder Divine Power.
Then, he covered every corner of the City of Sin with this Thunder Divine Power.
This wasn't a simple coverage; it was an extremely precise, millimeter-level coverage.
After completing the dual coverage of Hell aura and divine power, he, sitting at the top of the tower, showed a tired expression.
At this moment, he wasn't just physically exhausted but also in a state of extreme mental fatigue.
Layered coverage of two kinds of energies, and both with millimeter-level precision.
Even though he now possessed the power of a quasi-Skyfather and had Hell Authority, it was still not an easy task.
Despite the pain he was going through, he had finally accomplished the dual coverage of Hell aura and divine power.
Compared to those divine power awakeners who could only perform two rounds of coverage using divine power, his workload had become much lighter now.
After all, not all divine power awakeners could, like him, possess both divine power and Hell aura simultaneously.
What's more, he was a dual divine power awakener, and both Sun and Thunder Divine Powers had their unique authorities.
Otherwise, to complete this process, he would have had to expend decades, or even centuries, to expand his divine power reserves to accomplish the most basic astral plane projection.
Once he confirmed that the projection of the City of Sin was fully present in the astral plane, he took a deep breath and began the final task.
Simply projecting real-world buildings onto the astral plane and maintaining them was just the first step.
The real focus of establishing the divine realm lies in the second step.
