Chapter 2567 [Extras] |
The Divination God floated high in the sky, watching down as Alex was teleported away. Once again, he had to watch the young man leave for another world.
Unlike last time, however, things weren't as simple as the ascendance of a new Immortal.
The path before the Divination God seemed so clear now. He could see how the future was going to proceed and how he could make the smallest changes to affect something big far in the future.
Once again, he was cursed with the knowledge of everything that was going to happen.
'Both of them are gone,' the Divination God thought.
Alex had gone to a place where he couldn't follow. And soon, Shumi would go to a place where he had difficulty following as well. And without either of the two present, the Divination God simply couldn't hide the futures from himself.
There was but a single thing he could do to maintain his curse. He could go into outer space, where the visions of the futures wouldn't be as harsh. But he couldn't leave just yet.
There were two that would come to meet him any moment now.
The Divination God turned as the Winter God and the Storm God arrived in the sky before him.
"You've finally decided to show yourself," the Winter God said. "How long were you intending to hide?"
"I didn't hide," the Divination God said. "I was merely busy with some other things."
"Screw that," the Storm God said angrily. "Tell us if the future has changed or not. Did anything we do matter in the end or not, or is our doom inevitable?"
The Divination God thought for a moment. "You did the best you could, given what little knowledge you had. I expected nothing less of you in this matter."
"And? What about the future?"
"The future… has not happened yet. When it does, you will know whether you failed or succeeded here today," the Divination God said.
"You… bastard!" the Storm God said angrily. The sky shook around him, with dark clouds gathering all around. His two axioms covered the entire 100-kilometer area around him.
In the presence of the Storm God, no other thing in nature held as much power as a bolt of lightning, and only light was faster than a lightning bolt. Great power surged in the Storm God's palm, something not meant to be used as an attack but merely as a form of intimidation.
The Winter God frowned. She did not want any conflict here.
The Divination God simply watched, his expression unamused. At this moment, the Storm God was stronger than him—far stronger since he had more than just the power of his cultivation base on his side.
"Do you wish to strike me, Half-God?" the Divination God asked.
The Storm God's power raged for a good few seconds before it died down. The storm cleared, and the energy dissipated.
It had been a while, so he had forgotten just how useless it was to threaten the Divination God. He saw through every fake threat and knew every real attack that was coming.
The fact that he had waited for them here meant that he knew he wasn't in danger. There truly had been no point.
The Divination God looked at the two of them and said, "My job here is done. I have done what I needed to do, and you have done what you needed to do. Rest assured that with your actions today, you have saved our existence."
"So we are no longer doomed?" the Winter God asked.
The Divination God didn't answer. The middle-aged man simply bowed and flew away, leaving the two by themselves. He flew up into the sky, outside of the heavens, where knowledge of the future would be ever present in him.
As for where he would have to go next, the Divination God sadly already knew. There was nothing about his future he didn't know.
How many more years before this curse of his would be lifted?
"There's still some time for me to suffer," he thought to himself. "But I will get there. I will be free."
Thinking as much, he flew into space, making his way to a destination that would hold no surprises for him at all.
* * * * * * *
A middle-aged man with brown hair, longer on one side and shorter on the other, sat in a tea shop, sipping on his tea. The tournament on the screen had ended a while ago, and people were beginning to leave the place.
Since the tournament wasn't the reason why he had come to the Medicine World, he had reasons to stay behind, unlike others. He brought out a small bundle of white cloth, which he unwrapped to reveal a bunch of red text written on the inside.
Each of the texts was only a few lines long. The man scoured through the texts, coming down to the one he brought the cloth out for.
Now that the tournament was over, the billions of people would finally be free to pay attention to something else. Because of that, they would be there to witness him when he finally did it in this world.
'I hope most of them haven't forgotten the words to it,' the man thought. He had prepared just the right items for it, after all.
To stir the heavens, he could just do it himself. To give birth to one that didn't exist—that had been slightly difficult—but he had managed to get two different beasts of very different species to have a child, a combination that likely had never existed in nature before.
'Pain is all that showers… is that blood or scream?' the man wondered. 'I should do both. As for seeing stars, I should get the clouds out tonight so no one sees the stars. Will they be haunted by it?'
Everything was ready, more or less, but there was one part of the text that did not fit for now.
'The day is his…' the man thought. 'With that new alchemist, it's more like I will have to share the day. It might be better to do it tomorrow morning when the sun rises.'
Today wasn't for him. It was the Alchemist's day, after all.
As the man thought that, he frowned a little. 'He did stir the heavens,' he thought. 'And the Heavenly Principle, his axiom might count for…'
As the man began thinking along that line, he began to worry.
Had someone done it before him? Surely not. Why would they do it? But then… what if it wasn't intentional?
'No, that can't be it,' the man thought, placing the cup back down. He looked at the text on the cloth once again, reading the two halves once more. The first half matched with what he saw today.
As for the second half, could it have matched?
'I need to find out.'
The man stood up from his seat and quickly paid some spirit stones to the owner before rushing outside. He needed to find out what else had happened with the alchemist after the tournament was over.
It was crucial that he find out the truth right now.
* * * * * * * The Interrealm Teleportation Receiving Formation in the Threeflower continent came alive as it accepted a group of newcomers. Among them, one of the men, wearing sky-blue armor, made his way past the others and immediately headed for the other teleportation formation.
Anyone who recognized the armor did not dare stop the man at all. The man sped through the streets of the city, making his way to the other teleportation formation that would take him to God's Domain.
Upon reaching there, he found the courtyard where the representative of the Sky God was staying.
The representative was an outer disciple of the Sky God, who immediately welcomed the guard upon realizing they had come there in a hurry.
"Come on in, you have come with quite a hurry," the man said.
The guard walked in and greeted the man. "Her Brilliance has sent an urgent message for you, senior. She says that it needs to be read by you." He pulled out a talisman and handed it over to the man.
The Sky God's disciple became curious why his master would send an urgent notice. Had something bad happened perchance? Had his senior disciple escaped the prison?
He hurriedly opened the letter and read it. After reading just a few sentences, the man's face paled. "No… this can't be…"
"Senior?"
The Sky God's disciple grabbed his head as he realized what they had done.
"Master is going to kill me now."
* * * * * *
The Alchemy God wasn't sure how to react to all of what had happened today. His tournament had ended in a spectacular fashion, and somehow, everything had been turned on its head at the end.
The one alchemist that had the talent and drive to surpass him had been taken away from him so suddenly. He had so many plans for him, so many ideas on how he could help him improve.
Alex would've been an incredible aid for the humans during the upcoming days of war. And yet… he was sent to hell, a realm where no one returned from—at least not without them reaching the Celestial realm beforehand.
He looked to the side where Starsight and Sword God conversed among themselves. He regretted ever asking for their help on this matter. Had she not been here, everything would've been so much different.
In the end, the fault lay on him for Alex being sent to hell. Had he not been so desperate for those books, so greedy, Alex would not have been discovered as the one to lead them to ruin.
'Whether he lives or he dies, it all ends the same,' he thought. 'And yet we sent him to a place where we will never know what would happen to him.'
It wasn't necessarily a bad plan. If one wanted to cut off someone's influence from every other realm, the only place to send a person was hell. Its unique situation made it impossible for people to escape.
'And still… for a simple divination, we so easily threw away the best alchemist to perhaps exist since before the start of the Eternal War,' he thought. 'All for a simple…'
His eyes narrowed. 'Divination?'
He remembered something, something from the past. The divination left behind by the Divination God so long ago. Its words were vague, hardly something that made sense on its own.
And yet, as the Alchemy God began going through each part of the prophecy, his heart beat faster and faster as he found each one coming true.
'How… how is this possible?' he thought. 'He fits every single one!'
The Alchemy God was stunned at the revelation. Starsight had called him the Destroyer, but the Divination God had called him something entirely different in his prophecy.
He had called him the Savior.
And these people had just made the decision to send their Savior to hell.
The Alchemy God couldn't help but laugh half-heartedly at that thought. 'At this point, if doom is to come, then we surely do deserve it.'
* * * * * * *
Starsight and Sword God spoke with their Divine Sense, letting no one else intrude on their conversation.
"You should have let me kill him," the Sword God said. "That damn Godslayer remembers me being there with the other Slayers. He might even remember you being the one who sent one of us there to keep an eye on him."
"I… I didn't realize he knew that," Starsight replied. "I was merely focused on the images of what I saw."
"Good thing I managed to stray these gods our way and have them send the alchemist to a realm they will never visit. Godslayer will die with him, and so will the knowledge of the Slayers."
Starsight nodded simply.
"Speaking of which, can you divine now?" he asked. "I need you to see if I will have any trouble in the future. See if anyone caught onto the Slayers."
"I was aided earlier by the Divination God. It wasn't my own divination that—" Starsight paused. "Wait, I can divine now. The veil is lifted. I can see things clearly."
The Sword God nodded. "Alright, divine for me then."
Starsight closed her eyes and tapped into the heaven, which let her see the future it held. She touched onto the essence of Purplerain, tugging on it to see the future.
What she saw was unclear, as if looking through water. This used to appear so clear to her in the past, and just after two instances of seeing through the Divination God's eyes, she realized just how vastly inferior she was to him.
It was clear before that she did not deserve the title of the Divination God, but now, even Divination Sage was something she didn't dare feel worthy of anymore.
Still, she went through the vision, searching for the threads linking to the Sword God, seeing what came up in his future. His immediate future was simple and straightforward.
He would leave this world soon, along with her, to go to the homeworld of the Fatekeepers, where he would lull around for many years, waiting for the war to begin.
However, long before the war started, he would leave her side to go and hide.
She tried to reach for more information, but the further into the future she went, the more difficult it became to see what the issue was. She tried and tried and tried and finally saw an image of something.
Next to a mountain-sized humanoid body of a dead Primordial, she saw the Sword God standing with his purple sword in his hand. And before him stood another cultivator.
Starsight tried to get a closer look at the figure, piercing through the veil of blurriness that surrounded her vision. She cursed her own inability to see anything as clearly as the Divination God did.
As she continued pushing herself to the limit, she finally saw the figure.
Her senses snapped back as the heaven retracted from her, leaving her with the final image. Seeing the image, she went pale with fear as she realized who it was.
Her lips quivered as she told the Sword God.
The Sword God shook with fear too.
* * * * * * * *
Silvermist held onto the crying Momo, who wept into his embrace. With Alex gone, likely to die, she could not control her tears.
His final words to the world still rang in his ears, something he was unable to believe. His daring disciple had cursed the Storm God himself. Somehow, in the mountain of sorrow and anger he felt pressing against his chest, a spark of pride lit brighter than a thousand suns.
Grimsight came limping next to him, watching the two of them. He was held up by Killshot, who was helping him.
"You need to rest. You are hurt, and pills don't work on you," she said.
"I'm fine," Grimsight said, but it was clear he was still hurt. It would take many days before he was fully healed.
"What do we do, brother Grimsight?" Silvermist asked. "Is there a way to save him?"
Grimsight shook his head. "I am afraid there is no way to get someone out of that place. And we never know just what is happening in that place."
"Then what do we do? Just leave him be?" Silvermist asked.
Grimsight nodded. "There is nothing we can do that can help him now," he said. "But… he is a talented young man, far more talented than anyone else realizes. Trust in your disciple. He will definitely make it out of hell."
Silvermist took a deep breath and nodded.
Even though hundreds of emotions ran rampant in his heart, he knew this much at that very moment. No matter what, he would trust his disciple.
"Brother Silvermist, I… I have made a decision," Grimsight said. "I want to leave with Killshot."
"Leave… leave for where?" Silvermist asked.
"I'm not certain just yet," Grimsight said. "I have planned this for a while now, and… I felt this was the right time to…"
"The right time to tell me?" Silvermist asked. "When my disciple was just taken away from me?"
"Not tell, ask," Grimsight said. "Will you come with me too?"
Silvermist frowned. "Where exactly are you going to go?" he asked.
Grimsight looked toward Killshot, who nodded. He turned back toward Silvermist then.
"To try and stop the upcoming war. To help the resistance."
Silvermist's eyes widened slightly. "To stop…"
The memories of the war were still fresh in his mind, even after nearly 90 thousand years had passed since its end. He remembered the chaos, the constant battle, the deaths.
He remembered the broken Grimsight who stood in the blood of all those he killed, wanting nothing more than to kill himself for his sins.
A sense of responsibility came upon Silvermist at that moment. He feared it might have been a way for him to divert his emotions to something else in the absence of his disciple, but it was a responsibility he felt, and he was going to do something about it.
"We will have to let Nurei and the others know first," he said. "And then there's the matter of…"
He looked down at Momo, who still sobbed in his embrace. The young girl had known no one but her master since she was a child, barely 16 years old. The majority of her life had been spent with him, being taught by him.
She knew no parents of her own, so to her, her master was no different from a father. It pained him to see her that way.
"Momo, how long are you going to cry for?" Silvermist asked.
"Grandmaster?" she looked up.
"Tears won't help your master now. Only actions will. We need to be stronger, Momo, for him, for us," Silvermist said. "If you don't want to lose anyone else, you need to become stronger. You want to do what he told you at the end, don't you?"
Momo took in a deep breath and nodded. "I will do it, Grandmaster. I will be the greatest Alchemist in Master's absence, perhaps never as good as him, but I will try my hardest."
Silvermist smiled. He could see the burning motivation in her eyes. The girl was going to do something great soon enough.
"Good, but you won't be able to do that on your own," Silvermist said. "You will need some help. Now come."
Silvermist took Momo over to the side where the Alchemy God stood on his own, simply taking in everything that was happening around them.
"Your Majesty?" Silvermist called.
The Alchemy God turned around. Only then did he realize it was Silvermist and bowed slightly. He had never bowed to another Alchemist for a long time since becoming a God.
"I'm sorry, Brother Silvermist. I was too weak to stop them from doing what they did."
Silvermist nodded. "What has been done has been done. There is no reverting time," he said. "Instead, I hope you will help us with something else."
The Alchemy God nodded. "Go on, what do you need?"
Silvermist pushed Momo ahead. "Will you look after my Grand Disciple, teach her, and help her fulfill her potential to become a great Alchemist like her master was?"
* * * * * * *
Nothing had changed for Aethersage.
The world was different. The culture was different. The people were different.
And yet, nothing had changed.
'Whether this life or the last, I am always helpless against the strong,' he thought. He had gotten this incredible tool to help him in this life, and even then, all he could do as his friend was punished for a crime he never committed was just stand around and watch.
He was far too weak.
He looked at the holographic screen that appeared before him, detailing all of his skills and current status. He looked at the mission he had. He had to create a 9-veined pill without any aid to receive an amazing pill-forming technique.
'Pills, formations, artifacts, none of them matter in the end,' he thought. 'The only thing that matters is true strength.'
He looked up.
"I have wasted far too many years of my life spending time on these stupid missions," Aethersage told himself. "What I needed to do was gain true strength. I need a higher cultivation base. I need to make sure that no one, not a single other person, can ever make a decision about something that is important to me. I cannot give them that right."
Aethersage took in the understanding he had come to at that moment.
True strength triumphed over everything else.
Now that he had come to this thought, it would only take him so long before it morphed into a true belief of his.
Soon, that would become his Axiom.
* * * * * * *
The Beast God stood before a young man as she asked him something.
"I can understand the Alchemy God, and I can understand the Artifact God. What I cannot understand is why you would vote to save the young man, Weapons God."
The young man, the Weapons God, took a moment to think through his answer.
"There was something that young Alchemist told me that made me believe that he wouldn't be our doom."
The Beast God became curious. "What did he say?"
"That he had the capacity to become our doom. That, if given the time, he would surpass us all, whether he wants to or not."
The Beast God scoffed. "That young man doesn't understand the difficulty of cultivation. You wanted to save him because he boasted to you?"
"No, because of what the Divination God once told me."
The Beast God's eyes narrowed.
"What of the Divination God?"
"I once met the man long ago and asked him to do a divination for me. He was kind enough to do it for me," the young man said.
The Beast God couldn't bear her own curiosity at that point. "What did he say?"
"That I would one day meet a man, cursed to go to hell. That the whole world would be against him. The world would need him, but we would shun him instead. We would fear his power to destroy, unaware of his power to protect."
"That I would witness tragedy and miracle on the same day and watch as the world condemned the one who is to be our savior."
The Beast God's face went pale upon hearing the words. "S-Savior? THE Savior?" she asked.
The Weapons God shrugged. "I thought this was it, which is why I chose to vote to keep him."
"But… no, that can't be. Why didn't you say anything?"
"What more could I say?" the Weapons God asked. "As soon as I heard the plan to send him to hell, I realized who he was and knew at that moment that he would be cursed to hell. I did what I could to stop it, but as I was told all those years ago, he was cursed to go to hell."
The Beast God shook, still finding it hard to believe.
"How can it be?" she asked. "How could he be the savior when the prophecy has already been long since fulfilled by someone else?"
* * * * * *
Shumi stood at the peak of Skysummit, the mountain peak that was the tallest in the Eclipsing Heaven realm. She was next to Fairy Xin, both of whom were feeling the decreasing gravity as the Everdark realm began to approach their zenith.
* * * * * *
Shumi stood at the peak of Skysummit, the mountain peak that was the tallest in the Eclipsing Heaven realm. She was next to Fairy Xin, both of whom were feeling the decreasing gravity as the Everdark realm began to approach their zenith.
When the time was right, they left.
Fairy Xin had a ship, which they used to fly to the realm. The many people that flew alongside them looked around in confusion, as that was not how someone tested their strength against the Everdark realm.
Shumi sat at the front of the ship, watching the darkness above her expand to cover more of the sky.
Soon, that darkness would devour the moon that was behind it.
After flying for more than half a day, they finally arrived at a distance where the coldness of the Yin that came off the Everdark realm would be a trouble to them.
Shumi got out of the ship and stood among the encroaching coldness. She was like a butterfly in the wind. This couldn't stop her.
Shumi turned to look at Fairy Xin. "Will you follow me?" she asked.
"As far as I can," the woman answered.
Shumi nodded and started making her way toward the Everdark realm. People looked around at her in shock as she easily went past them, even though she shouldn't have been that strong.
She went past even early Divinities, who could only watch in shock.
Fairy Xin, despite her own Yin Dao and physical constitution, had to start slowing down the closer she got to the realm. And yet, Shumi was unstoppable.
Divinities watched in awe as the two veiled women went past them at great speed. They could not imagine how they were doing it.
After some time, there was absolutely no one around them at all. They had come so close that anyone without an affinity to Yin would have long since stopped.
Even with an affinity, Fairy Xin could see the limits of her own power. She looked toward Shumi. "Are you sure you can handle it?" she asked. "I cannot be there to protect you."
"Do not worry, Sister Xin. I can do it," Shumi said. "I can do it with great ease."
The woman nodded. "Remember, if anything happens, you must contact me immediately. I will wait here for you for as long as you need."
"I do not know how many years it will take," Shumi said. "But when I return, I promise you that I will have gone beyond the Immortal Transcendent realm and formed my own spirit."
Fairy Xin smiled. "Good. Once you do, we can finally head to Sun's Talon. I had failed a long time ago, but you may have more luck than me and be able to acquire that flame."
Shumi nodded. "I cannot wait," she said and turned to look at the darkness that was pulling on her. "For now, I must depart. I will see you in many years."
Shumi flew toward the Everdark realm and soon reached it. The land was frozen, completely covered in ice and a layer of thick black mist, made entirely of Yin aura.
This world, despite how dead it was, still held some life. Plants that could only grow when Yin was around were available in certain places. Other than that, most of the landscape was devoid of anything at all.
Shumi could feel the Yin, but her Moon Goddess's Celestial Yin body made it so that none of it affected her. Not the coldness, not the corruption.
She sat down at a random spot with a thicker concentration of Yin and began cultivating her technique. Soon, the thick black aura gathered around her, flowing into her body.
Shumi could feel the speed at which she cultivated here. At this rate, it would take her no more than a century at best.
And yet, she could never realize, for none other than a very few select people even knew, that the concentration of Yin in this world had caused a temporal dilation.
While she would only be here for a few years, many more years would pass in the outside world.
* * * * * * *
"YOU SENT HIM WHERE?!"
The Sky God's voice shook the ornate furniture in the Sky God's hall where she had received her disciple.
The man had hurriedly returned from the Medicine World to report to her what had happened.
"It was not just my doing, Master. I made the decision based on what seemed right. Forgive me, I made a mistake," the man said in a hurry.
The Sky God slumped back on her chair with her palm on her face. When she had seen the image of the young man on the screen back then, she had been so happy to have finally found him.
She was happy to learn that the knowledge of his death in the 3rd Major Spirit realm was, in fact, false. With him here, she could use the trees to her advantage once again.
And yet, when her disciple returned from the Medicine World, not only did he not come back with the young man, he instead came back with the news that the young man had been sent to hell.
Hell was not a place that even she dared to enter so easily.
"Explain everything to me. I do not want you to leave out a single instance of detail."
The man nodded and explained everything from start to finish. As she listened to it all, the Sky God was shocked. She had thought she knew everything about the young man and had even thought at times that Yang Renye over-promised on what he was capable of.
However, upon hearing everything, she now understood that even Renye did not know the extent of the young man's powers. He had never told her about Godslayer, nor had he told her about the Undying God's physique.
Neither of these two were simple matters.
As the man continued to explain, she began to understand why the gods had done what they had done.
In fact, she would have likely done the same thing as well.
Hell was indeed the perfect place to take a person out of the universal equation. Nothing anyone did in that world would ever affect anyone in any of the other realms.
And yet, she was still frustrated by the news.
"Is… is that young man truly Sister Ronron's father?" the man asked.
"Yes," the Sky God said, feeling lightheaded. "But do not tell her or any of her other family members. Not now."
"But we have to tell them, right? They will find out soon enough," the man said.
"We will," the Sky God said. "But in some time. Ronron is mere paces away from becoming an Immortal. She cannot learn of this news until that moment."
The man understood and nodded. "That is wise, Master."
The Sky God stood. "Leave me now. You have done all that you could."
* * * * * * *
Rosemist waited for her friend to visit her, but he never did. And yet, she still believed in her friend.
She would wait for him no matter how many years passed.
There was nothing else for her to do but wait.
This was the only place she could stay where she would be safe, so here was where she would stay forever, until the day her friend came to visit her again.
* * * * * * *
A young man stood before a giant brown serpent, its eyes glaring down at him. He was afraid, but a warrior never ran away, even from certain demise.
He lifted the spear, ready to attack, when the snake suddenly split in half, the halves falling on either side of him.
The young man smiled in relief. He was safe.
His smile faded when he saw what it was that killed the snake. It wasn't another warrior.
The young man stared at the figure atop the dune and knew that no true warrior would dare fight it.
He would go back to his tribe today, having escaped with his life, and he would tell them the truth of what had happened.
He had looked Death in the eyes and ran away.
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