Supreme Harem God System - Chapter 1981 - 1981: If only I wasn't stuck at the Emperor Stage.
A man, sitting cross-legged, was hovering in outer space, drifting in the distant void that no one knew of, without a care for all the poisonous Universal Energy that surrounded him. Yes, it was the previous Vampire Progenitor, Azriel.
After the Anomaly was dead, he, the Universe’s Child, wasn’t discarded by the Universe. Rather, he once again returned to the edge of the Universe, where no one would disturb him, and he continued cultivating.
In the past year, however, he had only managed to reach the Emperor Stage, barely breaking through Phase One of cultivation. Of course, for others, this progress was nothing short of absurd, but Azriel was different.
For Azriel, understanding his new Cultivation Bridge was never difficult. He barely needed a few hours to understand the next stage, and all he needed to do was absorb enough Universal Energy and break through.
This was also the reason he became an Expert Stage Cultivator from a mortal in a matter of days.
Even now, when he broke through the Emperor Stage three months ago, he had already understood his future path to Sage within six hours, and for the past three months, he had been constantly absorbing more and more Universal Energy but was still far from breaking through to the Sage Stage.
Yes, his cultivation rate had slowed down. The rate at which he was able to absorb Universal Energy had slowed down—drastically at that. Strangely, all of this happened right after the Anomaly was dead.
Weirdly enough, it wasn’t just his Universal Energy absorption rate that had slowed down. His connection with the Universe’s Will was somewhat weakened as well. He was unable to understand its thoughts as clearly as he could before, and because of that, while he still had the power to use the Universe’s help to devour an entity like before, since the communication between them had weakened, he now needed much more time to form that connection and convince the Universe to use its power.
Yes, very weird indeed—almost as if the Universe, even though it had not discarded its child, was trying to slow down his progress. There could be various reasons why that was the case. Maybe the Universe wanted to keep its freedom for a little longer before finally sharing its power with someone else, or maybe it didn’t need him anymore now that the Anomaly was gone.
Of course, Azriel knew all of this wasn’t true. The Universe was his ally, and he was its ally. Their relationship was special. They had no reason to try and sabotage each other. All of these were merely anger-inducing thoughts that he needed to get rid of, and he needed to think of the Universe as his closest ally.
Deep in his heart, Azriel knew all this would stop, that his ally would soon deal with whatever problem was slowing him down, and his usual cultivation speed would return soon.
Actually, he was quite sure about that.
So he continued to cultivate tirelessly, absorbing the Universal Energy, slowly but surely moving towards the next stage. But then,
His brows twitched.
“What…?”
He opened his eyes with a frown on his face.
“But that isn’t possible. I killed him myself. You sensed it as well.”
He answered. His tone sounded like he was trying to calm someone down.
“Yes, I understand that someone stole another Middle-Level World of ours, but I am telling you that isn’t possible! That someone who had the ability to do that is already dead. We killed him together. There must have been a mista—”
Before Azriel could even complete his words,
Bzzzz
The very space around him trembled.
Almost as if the entity he was talking to was enraged and saying,
‘You think I would make a mistake like that?’
In an instant, Azriel turned silent, his expression grim.
“So what you are trying to say is that… the Anomaly is back?
After you killed it yourself?”
Azriel questioned in a solemn tone.
“Is that not absurd? If even you cannot get rid of him, doesn’t this mean he is invincible?”
This time, the Universe didn’t reply. It was silent, and while Azriel still couldn’t understand what it was thinking because of their weakened connection, he, even in this state, knew that his friend and their connection would be back.
After all, strong friendships like theirs were hard to break.
Suddenly, another thought appeared in Azriel’s head.
“What if… he isn’t the Anomaly we killed but another Anomaly?
A Second Anomaly.”
In an instant, the despairing Universe stopped, as if Azriel’s thought had lit up a new ray of hope. In an instant, it gave orders.
“You want me to… go and devour it again?”
Azriel frowned.
“No, I understand that I will be able to tell whether it is indeed a Second Anomaly or not, but…”
The previous Vampire Progenitor thought for a moment and then,
“Alright, I will go.”
He nodded.
He needed to help his friend, after all. That was what friends were for, wasn’t it?
With that thought in his mind, Azriel allowed the Universe to dematerialize and materialize him next to the Middle-Level World that had just been devoured.
The moment Azriel appeared, he stared at the void ahead of him and started looking around.
“I do not see anything.”
He spoke out loud.
“I guess we would need to wait like we did the last time.
It is a team effort, eh?”
He chuckled lightly. He liked the feeling of helping his friend.
Soon, the Universe noticed another disappearance. This time, it was three Transcendent Level Beings from another Middle-Level World.
“Take me there.”
Azriel ordered when the Universe informed him, and the Universe materialized him in the world where this had happened.
There, Azriel’s eyes fell on a shadowy figure, who was holding the World’s Will in his hand. The figure seemed somewhat similar to the Anomaly they had killed before, but their body structure, their face, and even their ability seemed different.
“We were right. It is not the same Anomaly.
He is the Second Anomaly.”
Azriel commented.
“Yes, I will point at him now, and you devour him.”
He spoke, but suddenly, the Anomaly’s eyes fell on his, and just as he pointed at him and the Universe reacted,
The Anomaly disappeared.
“Oh…”
And then Azriel was left hanging, unable to catch the Anomaly.
“I… I was too slow.
If only I wasn’t stuck at the Emperor Stage.”
