Chapter 616: The Origin of Evil
With the Divine Core shattered by the rays, Oscar’s avatar, unable to sustain itself, naturally collapsed completely. Donald gathered the scattered fragments of the Divine Core with a wave of his hand. Though their value had diminished greatly, as remnants of an avatar belonging to a once-high-ranking god, they were still no less valuable than the fragments of ordinary totem gods! For a being like King Oscar, who encountered undead creatures during this expedition, this was precisely why Donald had hidden his true strength from the start by using the Destroyer Avatar. As a culmination of knowledge from advanced puppetry techniques from two universes, the Destroyer Avatar excelled at this task, allowing even a powerful being like Oscar to detect nothing amiss.
“The King of the Undead would leave such a hidden passage in the main world and assign an avatar to guard it—there must be some major secret hidden in this realm. But where exactly is it?” Donald couldn’t figure this out either, as he had scanned this realm several times, especially the area where the city stood, with no abnormalities found. “Could it be that Oscar is simply bored and hiding an empty demi-realm as if it were a treasure?” Donald didn’t believe this. While a demi-realm might be valuable to a high-ranking god, it wouldn’t warrant such secrecy. There must be some hidden truth he hadn’t discovered yet!
Among all the demon gods and demon lords, none harbored as much hatred as Oscar. Even entities like the Destroyer Lord, who embodied chaos and destruction, paled in comparison. Oscar hated all living beings, death, immortality—and himself. Yet, this mad king wasn’t like Osthadius, a madman who existed solely to destroy everything. Oscar’s actions were largely rational and planned, though some of those plans might seem eerily insane to ordinary people. It was precisely because of this that the King of the Undead earned the faith and worship of many evil creatures.
Among all the demon gods and demon lords, only Flora, the Spider Queen, had more worshippers than Oscar. Even among the Destroyer Lord and the Fallen Lord—two beings as ancient as Oscar—none had such widespread followers as the King of the Undead.
In many ways, Oscar’s admirers regard him as an idol, engaging in countless despicable acts and schemes. The “immortal” priesthood of Okus further encourages him to promote murder and curses. So if someone told him that such an Oscar would do meaningless things just for fun or boredom, Donald would never believe it! If he wasn’t mistaken, Oscar not only sealed off this half-plane but also hid it deep within the lower realms, which is why the Will of the Abyss exists here. Since it never truly developed into a complete Abyssal plane, the suppression exerted by his true divine avatar here is not so strong! No one would believe that there are no secrets hidden in this half-plane with such actions! “It seems I still need to look for clues in the city!” Next, Donald thoroughly searched every inch of this desolate city, even checking underground areas. Finally, after this scan, he made some discoveries. Where the Oscar statue used to stand, there was actually a sealed-off narrow passage beneath it, completely disconnected from the surface. It was blocked by thick soil and rocks for at least dozens of feet. The location of the passage was so inconspicuous that even a true god might overlook it if not careful. Donald’s divine willexploreded down the passage and eventually discovered an underground palace deep beneath the ground. This extremely sturdy palace, stretching thousands of feet underground, remained intact despite the intense battles above. Realizing he might have discovered Oscar’s hidden secret, Donald immediately ordered his Destroyer Statue to open the secret passage and descended into it himself. The thousands-of-feet-deep underground passage posed no obstacle to Donald, and he soon arrived at the palace. It was like a large plaza on the surface. Looking around, Donald found no decorations or carvings, clearly indicating it was built in haste. The King of the Undead didn’t have the leisure for architectural art, nor did he have followers to build him magnificent palaces. From this, it can be inferred that this place was likely constructed around the time Oscar faced crisis—only under such circumstances would a demonic monarch give up on the vanity of being praised by his followers.
Stepping into the empty underground space, he arrived at its center. Donald immediately spotted a small altar that resembled the bottom of the Withered Canyon, but this altar was not meant for worship or to provide power—it was there to seal something away.
Above the altar, surrounded by layers of seals, floated a pitch-black glow that pulsed and shifted as if it had a life of its own.
“This is…”
Seeing this, Donald felt a sense of familiarity, yet he couldn’t recall where he had encountered it before. He stepped closer. For a master of alchemy and magic like Donald, breaking the seals on this altar was not difficult. Aside from a few ancient and evil magic arrays that took him some time, he managed to analyze all of the altar’s seals.
Since these seals were designed to protect something from the outside world, they were easy for him to break. After unlocking the outer seals, Donald released a divine light and began using the Book of Truth to explore what lay inside.
Yet as soon as the outer seals were removed, instability arose within. The inner seals seemed on the verge of collapsing under the intense pressure. Seeing this, Donald immediately used the Book of Truth to stabilize the seals. But the moment the book’s divine light touched the edge of the black glow, its golden light was instantly stained black-golden, as if a white cloth had been dipped in ink. At the same time, Donald, as the master of this divine artifact, felt an extremely evil and corrupting force attempting to invade the artifact through that light.
The moment this evil force appeared, even Donald was filled with sinister thoughts deep in his heart.
Fortunately, as a high-tier divine artifact, the Book of Truth possessed rules so powerful that even ordinary higher gods could hardly defy them. Moreover, as a divine artifact, it lacked some of the weaknesses of true gods. So, before Donald lost his sanity, the book automatically severed that contaminated light and isolated the evil force.
Otherwise, Donald feared that even brief further contact with that force would quickly corrupt his will, turning him into a monster who only knew how to commit atrocities.
Seizing this opportunity, Donald quickly repaired the original seals, restoring the altar to its normal state.
Even the experienced Donald was shaken to the core by this ordeal. Shaking with fear, he said, “This is a serious problem!”
At this moment, through his intuitive perception, he already knew what existed behind the seal before him.
“I never expected Oscar to be capable of finding a part of the Evil Origin. Such power could even infect even the highest gods if they’re not careful. It’s one of the most powerful forces in the laws of humanity. Although it’s not a fundamental law, mastering such divine power would make it comparable to the supreme laws!”
The Evil Origin was extremely dangerous even in the hands of the highest gods!
It had appeared once in the universe where the former owner of the Book of Truth lived. That incident triggered a great war between good and evil, with the flames spreading across the entire universe. Even the neutral factions were not spared, and countless gods perished in that war. Nearly 70% of the godly beings in the universe were lost. The ultimate cause was that many powerful beings had their wills corrupted by the Evil Origin!
It was because of this experience that Donald found this mass of Evil Origin to be eerily familiar.
The universe values balance—balance between space and time, between order and chaos.
Justice and evil are also relative; absolute justice or evil will bring disaster!
If this Evil Origin were destroyed, it could likely cause massive upheavals across the universe, even leading to a catastrophic disaster.
But if kept and handled for a long time, even the most righteous highest gods might be corrupted by evil wills and change their allegiance—something Donald didn’t want to see.
It couldn’t be destroyed, nor could it be used for one’s own benefit. So, only one solution remained!
That was to find a hidden place to seal it permanently, preventing other beings from discovering its existence!
“Fortunately, I brought the Book of Truth this time. And what exists here is only a small part of the Evil Origin!”
Donald thought with great relief.
He immediately took out the few faith gems he had brought to prevent accidents, using them to restore his depleted divine power and heal his injuries. Previously, using the power of the Kingdom of Truth to absorb a being as powerful as the King of Undead had nearly destroyed this avatar. Such injuries were difficult for a true god to recover from; he would have to create a new saintly avatar upon returning.
Fortunately, he currently has divine power at his disposal, along with the Destroyer Avatar, so he doesn’t need to take action himself whenever problems arise. This avatar can also hold on long enough to return to his true form. Otherwise, he would have to abandon his body and transfer his divided consciousness into the Destroyer Avatar!
Having recovered some of his strength, Donald then used part of it to create a small semi-plane with a stable spatial structure through the Book of Truth. He then transferred the entire existence, including the altar, into this semi-plane using the Book of Truth.
Still feeling it wasn’t secure enough, he set up layers of seals outside this semi-plane, thereby containing it outside the Land of Truth. With the support of a powerful higher god’s realm, he could sense anything that happened at any time!