Chapter 629: First God's Self-Destruction |
The smile on Ah Nan's face gradually faded away. In the end, he chose not to make a move. Divination is one of my trump cards, and I never miscalculate, so how come the outcome remains the same? What does that mean? It means that there's an unknown variable that I have failed to take into account, but what variable is capable of eluding my divination?
Ah Nan was silent. He didn't make a move back in the First God Paradise, as he had divined that he would have died if he had made a move at the time.
He hadn't seen how he would have died; he only knew that he would have died if he had made a move.
Ah Nan was both puzzled and shocked by the revelation. He was practically invincible, and no one could kill him except for some hidden Great Gods and perhaps the First God's reincarnation. Did Master leave behind a contingency plan?
Ah Nan frowned deeply. He couldn't rule out that possible.
After all, Ye Guan was his master's successor, so it was only normal for his master to protect Ye Guan. In addition, Ah Nan couldn't think of anyone else strong enough to kill him.
After a moment of silence, his figure turned blurry, and he suddenly found himself in the Time River. However, he decided to explore the future instead of going against the flow of time.
There was a myriad of tributaries before him, and it was all because the future was always uncertain. Many things could happen in the blink of an eye.
Ah Nan searched for Ye Guan among those tributaries, but he couldn't find the latter at all.
Ye Guan doesn't exist in the future? Ah Nan pondered silently. There were only two explanations for this bizarre phenomenon: first of all, Ye Guan was so strong that he was capable of transcending everything, including the Great Dao. In other words, he was an existence beyond all existence. The second possibility was that Ye Guan would die in the current timeline, which would explain why he had no future.
Ye Guan couldn't possibly be an existence beyond all existence. He wasn't strong enough to transcend the Great Dao, after all.
So he's going to die in the current timeline? Ah Nan frowned. After a long while, he shook his head. It was a pity that he didn't have his Divination Shell with him, as he could have divined the identity of the unknown variable itself.
Just then, a divine light suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Ah Nan, by order of the Divine Lord, you are to return to the Daoist Temple at once without any delay." A voice echoed from the divine light, and it disappeared shortly afterward.
Ah Nan's frown deepened, but he pushed aside his thoughts and disappeared at the distant end of the Time River.
***
A white-robed woman arrived at the entrance to the God Realm. A radiant divine light shrouded her as soon as she got close to the entrance, and a cold voice echoed afterward. "Mortal, halt."
The white-robed woman shook her head and waved her sleeve.
Boom!
The divine light shattered, and the entrance to the God Realm was erased.
"Hmm?" An ancient voice suddenly echoed from inside the God Realm. Then, a burst of divine light shot out that aimed straight at the white-robed woman.
The white-robed woman stared nonchalantly at the divine light and said, "Shatter."
Boom!
The divine light was shattered.
"Huh?" A surprised gasp echoed from within the God Realm. The next moment, a middle-aged man wearing a divine robe emerged from the entrance and descended before the white-robed woman.
He stared at the white-robed woman and asked, "Who are you?"
The white-robed woman walked slowly into the God Realm. When she passed by the middle-aged man, the middle-aged man frowned and got ready to make a move.
However, the white-robed woman looked blandly at the middle-aged man and said, "Kneel."
Boom!
A myriad of karmic threads converged on the middle-aged man, and he fell to the ground on his knees before he could react.
The middle-aged man was so dumbfounded that he fell into a daze.
The white-robed woman glanced at him and mocked, "What a weak god."
The middle-aged man's face was filled with horror. "Who are you?!"
However, the white-robed woman ignored him and walked straight into the God Realm.
Soon, the white-robed woman arrived at a divine hall with a faceless statue. It was a statue of the First God.
The white-robed woman glanced at it before walking toward the great hall.
Just then, an old man walked out of the great hall. He was dressed in a torn and tattered Daoist robe; his back was slightly hunched, and his feet were bare.
The white-robed woman stared calmly at the old man.
The old man in the Daoist robe looked back at her with a complex expression in his eyes as he said, "Ninety percent divinity."
Those on the path to divinity would inevitably become even stronger the more "divinity" they possessed. The white-robed woman had ninety percent divinity, and her divinity was pure, to boot.
The man in the Daoist robe bowed slightly to show respect.
The white-robed lady didn't even acknowledge the old man's gesture as she walked into the great hall.
There wasn't anyone in the great hall except for a single, lone figure sitting at the far end of the great hall.
The figure belonged to the Divine Lord.
The white-robed woman frowned, looking somewhat surprised.
The Divine Lord smiled at the white-robed woman and said, "Clan Leader Jing."
The white-robed woman remained silent.
The Divine Lord got up and slowly walked up to her. "Shall we have a chat?"
"Sure," the white-robed woman said with a slight nod.
The Divine Lord waved her sleeve, and the two were instantly transported somewhere deep in the cosmos. The stars shimmered around them, and they saw quite a few shooting stars in the distance, creating a breathtaking scene.
The Divine Lord pointed to a thatched hut not too far away. There was a lounge chair in front of the hut, along with a small wooden table. An ancient-looking book and a teapot were on the small wooden table.
"Master would often bring me here when I was young. He'd lay down there on the lounge chair and contemplated silently over some affairs while staring at the stars up above. I often found myself wondering about his thoughts?"
Clan Leader Jing remained silent.
Suddenly, the Divine Lord reached out with her finger and tapped lightly in the air. The tap was like a pebble falling into a pond, which sent ripples across the cosmos. Then, a man suddenly appeared on the lounge chair.
It was the First God and an old man dressed in a black robe was standing next to him.
Time had rewound.
The old man looked at the starry sky with a curious gaze. "Master, you've been coming here pretty often lately. What are you staring at up there?"
The First God smiled and replied, "I want to see someone that I like a little longer."
The old man looked at the First God nervously and asked, "Master, are you leaving?"
"I want that girl to take care of this place for me in the future…"
The old man was about to speak, but the First God shook his head and said, "No, it's too hard. I don't want her to suffer too much…"
Tears welled up in the old man's eyes as he seemed to have sensed something.
The First God smiled slightly. He turned and stared at the empty space, but his gaze seemed to transcend even time itself as he asked, "I never thought that we'd meet like this, Clan Leader Jing."
The white-robed woman stared at the First God and asked, "What is it like to have one hundred percent divinity?"
One hundred percent divinity... the First God was the first one to have obtained a hundred percent divinity.
The First God chuckled. "Actually, it's 99.5% divinity."
The white-robed woman frowned.
"Does Clan Leader Jing know how one can achieve a hundred percent divinity?"
The white-robed woman was silent.
"I'm sure you know. It's easy to reach a hundred once you've reached ninety percent. It's just a matter of whether we want to do so or not. After all, extinguishing our obsessions is a simple feat for us, but it's also the most difficult thing to do ever."
Indeed. One just had to extinguish one's obsessions to reach a hundred percent divinity. The First God looked up at the starry sky and said softly, "There is a lady that I like. I really, really like her… However, too much time has passed that my humanity was slowly transforming into divinity without me realizing it. To make matters worse, I was slowly detaching myself from everything, including that lady. It makes sense; how could someone like me, who has seen countless ages come and go and has become accustomed to the cycles of life and death, still cherish love and relationships as if I were a youngster?"
"I realized just then that as everyone ages, everyone will eventually become like the people they used to despise when they were still young."
The white-robed woman was silent. She had chosen not to take the final step, but it wasn't because she couldn't do it. She just didn't want to extinguish her obsessions. What was the point of becoming invincible if one no longer had any obsessions or aspirations? In addition, the white-robed woman didn't want to become like the people she despised.
The First God chuckled, "Actually, it's all because our lives are extremely long. Anyone is bound to experience many different things as they live, and in the face of what seems like eternity, everything is insignificant. Life is only precious when it's fleeting, so...
"Can you let me have one last look at you?"
The white-robed woman followed the First God's gaze and saw that a fabric of spacetime had ripped open in the distant starfield. A purple light seeped out of the rift, and a lady dressed in red robes with a bed of white hair emerged from the spacetime rift. Her gaze was cold as she regarded the First God without saying anything.
The First God smiled the moment he saw her, and the life within him drained away without any reluctance, unwillingness, or regrets.
He had chosen to self-destruct.
These were the First God's final moments, but only the old man was around to witness it. Of course, Sifan Jing and the Divine Lord were there to witness it, too, albeit belatedly.
Upon seeing the First God's self-destruction, the red-robed lady could not help but ask, "Why did you not take that final step? You would have surpassed all ancient beings and transcended your predecessors."
The First God smiled faintly and said, "I don't want to forget you…"
"But I don't like you," the red-robed lady said in a matter-of-factly way.
"It doesn't matter," said the First God. Then, he closed his eyes as the final vestiges of his aura disappeared into nothingness.
Since I can't suppress my divinity with my humanity, there's no way around it other than to self-destruct.
I was still that young man when we first met. Now, I'm about to die, but I'm still that young man long ago.
I like you—and that has never changed.