The gods within the Great Universe felt the presence of gods above gods and grew a little bewildered. To them, the last time they had sensed such divine pressure was during the Assembly of the Gods.
They had no idea what was happening.
Still, even though they couldn't figure it out, they didn't worry. In the world of Teyvat, it was unheard of for higher gods to suddenly start a fight and drag the others down with them.
Before long, eight gods above gods and four sovereigns wielding the Pseudo Star Map Creation appeared at the edge of the cosmic barrier.
Though called the cosmic barrier, crossing through it here would only lead to the other side of the universe. The universe itself was a space forged into a single continuum.
Only beings above Supreme God level—those who had touched upon Truth—could leave the Teyvat Universe. Otherwise, no matter what, they simply could not get out.
Venti, Buer, and the other Supreme Gods followed closely behind.
Lumine too had, in these past few millennia, successfully reached the level of a Supreme God.
However, when she saw one of the eight gods above gods, her expression twitched.
Even after all these years, she couldn't forget how she'd once been slapped so hard by that one that she was sealed for five hundred years. The memory was burned into her soul.
She had once sworn she would grow stronger than that god and give her a taste of her own medicine with a slap in return.
But the other party was the Sustainer of Heavenly Principle, her strength directly bound to Noah himself. That was just cheating.
It seemed that dream would never come true in this lifetime.
Noah's golden eyes pierced through the cosmic barrier, spotting Aha just outside—humming cheerfully and laughing while shaping the power of Path into a chisel and hammering at the cosmic wall.
And hammering fast—at this rate, he'd break through in just a few minutes.
That ridiculous clown mask of his was practically touching Noah's face.
"Let him keep hammering. The moment he breaks through, everyone strike at once. Ideally, we'll severely wound him in one blow—make capturing him easier."
Aha was no ordinary single-universe level being. After all, he wielded a Principle—essentially, he was a Principle incarnate. His lifeform had already become Principle-structured. Unless he went against his Principle, not only was killing him out of the question—even injuring him would be difficult.
At present, within the Teyvat Universe, the only ones who could hold an advantage in combat against Aha were Phanes, Mio and the two Dragon Gods.
Asmoday, Baal, Istaroth, and Paimon were single-universe level as well, but there was still a significant gap compared to someone who wielded a Principle.
Of course, this gap referred to the nature of their existence, not their outward display of power. An Aeon's display strength might only match a standard single-universe level, and if their Principle was weak, they might only rank as a low single-universe.
And the Sustainers of Heavenly Principle hadn't even borrowed Noah's power yet. If they did, they could temporarily burst into strong single-universe level, and if Noah willingly split half his power with them, they might even touch the edge of super single-universe level.
As for the Pseudo Star Map Creation holders, if they went all out and fully unleashed their Cosmology, they could temporarily reach single-universe level. In terms of performance, that put them on par with Aha.
But that was only surface-level performance—their essence remained high-power but fragile.
Still, with this many added up, there were twelve full single-universe level powerhouses ganging up.
Aha's face… would be ruined in the Tree and Sea after this.
Phanes' expression was cold. Raising her hand, the power of Pan-Human History gathered in her palm. All of Pan-Humanity stirred with her, allowing her to annihilate any supercluster within the Great Universe with a flick.
If she went all out, she could even destroy all timelines at once, reverting the universe to its original primordial chaos.
However, she couldn't break the Great Universe itself—because she was part of its very power. How could one shatter what one was part of?
God cannot create a stone too heavy for him to lift. That was the idea.
It was also Teyvat Universe's version of an omnipotence paradox.
"Foolish invader. To think a mere single-universe level, just because you wield a Principle, dares to offend our Teyvat… utterly laughable."
Mio's body radiated divine brilliance as a wedding-dress-like divine garb appeared on her. The sacred light of Kabbalah enveloped her, and a phantom of the Tree of Life rose behind her—like God descending upon the world.
"That's right. This is the paradise Noah painstakingly created. I won't allow anyone to destroy it—especially not outsiders. Mio is angry now."
To Mio, the entire universe was Noah's private domain. This blatant lock-picking was nothing less than a robber trying to break in and loot the place.
Ophis gazed forward calmly. As the incarnation of Ouroboros, she was half a rank above a Principle wielder—she didn't regard the intruder as a threat in the slightest.
"Merely single-universe level, lacking strength greater than ours, and yet you dare provoke us? To challenge me, you'd at least need Noah's power."
The space within Teyvat's barrier was the Dimensional Gap—her and the Red Dragon God Emperor's home. To disturb their rest? Utterly rude and laughable.
The golden vertical pupils of the Red Dragon, measured in light-years, shone with dreamlike divine radiance. Its dragon mouth parted slightly, forming a breath of dream-forged power.
Paimon puffed her cheeks, gripping a staff forged from the Rule of Death and cosmic aura. "That rotten invader! This is my vacation! Xiangling finally had time to cook for me—Paimon is gonna whack that guy real hard!"
Istaroth waved her hand. "Relax, Paimon. Once we catch him, we'll all get to give him a good beating."
Baal: "Exactly. A thorough beating. I'm taking the second swing."
Asmoday, expressionless: "We can't give him any time to react—he is a Principle, after all."
They had already begun the process of elevating their own core Laws. Slowly, yes—but steadily.
Their master had already planned it: once internal affairs were settled, they'd begin executing the strategy against the Star Rail Universe.
Once they broke through it, they could seize the core that enabled the ascension from Law to Principle.
But unexpectedly, a Principle had come knocking on their door first.
Could this mean that by devouring the intruder's Principle, their master might deduce the full method of elevation?
In Zhongli's palm appeared a celestial sphere. He took a deep breath and said, "All Pseudo Star Map Creation holders—activate your Star Maps at full power. Trap the intruder within our Cosmologies."
Raiden Makoto answered coldly, "Naturally."
Hu Tao gulped, cold sweat beading on her forehead. "A scene like this… this is my first time. I'll do my best."
Venti, Buer, Aether, Lumine, Furina, Neuvillette, and Azhdaha all held their breath.
"He's coming!" Noah declared.
Just as the words left his mouth, a clear burst of laughter rang out from beyond the cosmic barrier.
Ahahahahaha…
Lumine suddenly remembered the moment she tried to leave Teyvat.
This scene—honestly, it was kind of funny.
And in that moment, she imagined Asmoday shouting out the words—
"Outlander, your journey ends here."
Crack, crack, crack...
The sound of shattering glass echoed—it was the cosmic barrier being breached from the outside.
The damaged area wasn't large—barely the size of a single planet. For a great universe, such a minor rupture was utterly insignificant. It would recover on its own in less than a microsecond.
Hummmmm...
Twelve bursts of brilliance, each like the Big Bang itself, erupted in succession.
Aha had no idea he had already been discovered—nor did he know what was waiting for him inside the cosmic barrier.
He'd jumped from universe to universe so many times. Every universe had its own cosmic crystal wall, but he'd always slipped through easily.
To date, he had never encountered a universe with beings stronger than Aeons.
After all, the universes were birthed on the Imaginary Tree, the source of all Laws and Truths. And his very existence was directly connected to Truth itself—so he could travel to any world anchored to the Imaginary Tree.
"Here we go! Aha has been chiseling and chiseling—and finally, I'm almost through this cosmic barrier. So exhausting!"
The gray silhouette, shrouded in clown masks and game props, hummed a jester's tune. The power of Elation turned into a chisel, and he pounded it endlessly.
Chunks of the crystalline wall broke off from the barrier—but Aha didn't notice that the fallen shards were immediately reabsorbed. Only the hole remained unhealed.
Relying on past universe-traveling experience, he assumed this was simply a quirk of this newborn great universe that had emerged within the Dimensional Realm.
"A newborn great universe, birthed in the newly-formed Dimensional Realm... Could it be nourished by the entire Dimensional Realm's power?"
Curiosity bubbled within him. The power of Elation flowed endlessly with his arrival, cascading from the Imaginary Tree like weeping willow tendrils brushing the surface of water.
"Ahahaha, how extravagant, how wonderful—Aha is thrilled!"
"The Dimensional Realm wholeheartedly nurtures this universe. That's why it's become a perfect great universe—able to grow infinitely stronger, with no end, no entropy. Eventually, even all the other great universes on the Imaginary Tree combined won't compare."
"This is true immortality. Compared to this universe, that suicidal 'Permanence' fellow looks like a joke. Hahaha! Even more clownish than me, and half the Aeons would look like Aha here! Ahahahaha!"
Aha's joyful voice echoed across the Dimensional Realm.
"Almost there, almost there! Aha's finally about to break through the crystal wall!"
"Let Aha see—let me see what's inside this perfect great universe!"
"Because Aha has felt it! I've felt it!"
Crack! The sound of a mirror shattering.
With one final strike, the cosmic barrier crumbled.
In that instant, brilliance akin to a cosmic singularity explosion flared before Aha's eyes. His clown mask just barely peeked through—and before he could even inject the power of the Path of Elation—
He was instantly engulfed by twelve Aeon-tier powers.
"Ah?"
Aha froze. Twelve powers, each comparable to a universe-ending singularity explosion, bore down on his very existence.
In the next microsecond, he saw it clearly—twelve Aeons were unleashing their full might upon him.
And the entirety of the Great Universe had locked onto his being. Even his thoughts were frozen. He couldn't even react on instinct.
He had no idea what had just happened.
All he felt was his consciousness plunging into an unprecedented shock. Multicolored cosmic energies—like quantum tides erupting from a Big Bang—completely swallowed him.
BOOM—
The pillar of light that shook the entire Teyvat Universe erupted from the breach in the cosmic barrier. Twelve single-universe level attacks converged at that tiny hole—no larger than a planet.
They combined into a pillar of multicolored light, twisted together like a braided rope, centered around a Cosmology governed by Truth. The beam blasted out of the breach into the void beyond the universe.
Not only did it shake the entire Great Universe, but it stirred tides of dimensional force throughout the Dimensional Realm—a region large enough to contain thousands of great universes.
From Noah's perspective:
In the instant the cosmic barrier shattered, the incarnation of the Principle of Elation surged in, carrying the descending force of the Imaginary Tree.
But it hadn't even penetrated a millimeter before Phanes led the charge. Everyone launched a perfectly synchronized strike with all their might.
That strike became a genesis light beam aimed squarely at the Principle Incarnation's shadow.
Before the shadow could react, it was locked down and suppressed—forced to take a blow that could annihilate any ordinary single-universe level being directly to the face.
Not only that—the strike shot straight out of the universe.
From Noah's viewpoint, the multicolored genesis light beam extended across a distance of hundreds of trillions of light years.
Within its wake, massive dimensional tsunamis surged across the Dimensional Realm. Countless small universes and great worlds were born in the chaotic, steaming dimensional force.
At the beam's far end, a weak single-universe-level world was directly obliterated. It had no cosmic foundation and collapsed within a microsecond of forming, returning to dimensional energy.
The next second—
Twelve beams of light burst through the cosmic barrier's gap, continuing their assault on the black shadow.
Now outside Teyvat's range and no longer locked by the universe, the black shadow's suppressed consciousness abruptly returned.
But in that instant, Aha had already suffered grievous injuries.
The clown masks and game props surrounding the gray humanoid silhouette were all in battle-damaged form. Cracks covered the figure like a shattered porcelain doll hastily glued back together.
Magenta light, like molten lava, seeped from every fracture and scattered throughout the Dimensional Realm.
"AaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH—!"
The Aeon's agonized scream echoed across the entire Dimensional Realm.
Consciousness only just reactivated—but there wasn't even time to mount a defense.
Twelve different palm imprints formed instantly around him.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM—!
An endless barrage of cosmic slaps rained down on every single clown mask.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Originally just battle-damaged, the clown masks were now reduced to complete fragments.
An uncountable barrage of single-universe-level strikes—the great cosmic beatdown—smashed into Aha before he could even react.
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