Endgame

Wan Shi was different.

He devoured everything—regarding all living beings as food and all worlds as nourishment.

In his eyes, every existence in the universe had been born solely to be devoured by him, just as the stalks of wheat in a field grew only to be harvested.

He devoured the vitality of living beings, the foundations of worlds, and the source of the laws. With each act of devouring, his power grew stronger and stronger—until it became sufficient to threaten the order of the entire universe.

Heng Yin stood between the two.

She had never favored either side, nor had she ever intervened. From beginning to end, she had remained a bystander.

Tai Sheng and Wan Shi eventually fought.

That battle between them was unavoidable.

The conflict between the two Divine Emperors stirred countless worlds and threw countless living beings into turmoil. The Dao Venerables beneath them chose their respective sides one after another. Some did so for the sake of the order they believed in, but more chose for a far simpler reason.

They hoped the two Divine Emperors would suffer mutual losses in the war, or that at least one of them would fall. Only then would the position of Divine Emperor become vacant, giving them a chance to cross that threshold.

The Emperor had once been one of Gu Changyuan’s following Dao Venerables, but during the final stage of that war, he chose to betray Gu Changyuan alongside several other Dao Venerables.

Their defection caused a critical shift in the battle and gave Wan Shi an opening. He successfully devoured Gu Changyuan’s future.

At the final moment before his death, Gu Changyuan exhausted all his power to sever his own future. He chose to be reborn and to create a new future.

The system’s mechanism had been established with the last of his strength.

He could not rapidly infuse himself with cultivation, because such fluctuations would be detected by the Heavenly Dao and sensed by Wan Shi. That would mean facing an enemy he was not yet prepared to confront before he had made sufficient preparations.

The system’s mechanism had been designed precisely to evade the perception of both the Heavenly Dao and Wan Shi.

If he had directly and rapidly restored his cultivation, he could have recovered within a hundred years, but that abnormal surge of power would have been discovered by the Heavenly Dao, which would then issue a warning. Wan Shi would immediately have been able to locate him.

At that time, he would have been far from possessing the strength to contend with Wan Shi.

The system’s mechanism, however, operated perfectly within the rules of the Heavenly Dao. The cultivation it returned came from the growth of his disciples and would not attract any attention.

Both Wan Shi and The Emperor were searching for Gu Changyuan’s whereabouts.

The Emperor found the Myriad Domain Immortal Realm, but he did not know where Gu Changyuan was. Thus, he established the Imperial Court, took control of the Central Continent, and sealed the Immortal Path, hoping to search for the reincarnated Divine Emperor by controlling the entire immortal realm.

Wan Shi, meanwhile, wandered through the depths of the universe, devouring everything in his path. The fragments of karma Tai Sheng had planted were scattered throughout the void like shattered mirrors flung into every corner of the universe, preventing him from determining the correct direction.

Tai Sheng’s final mutual destruction had severely wounded Wan Shi. He had left a mark within Wan Shi.

That mark was like a wound that could never be healed. It was also why Wan Shi had been so easily banished when he encountered the Myriad Domain Immortal Realm.

Part of his power had been diverted by that mark, preventing him from devouring everything as effortlessly as he had at the height of his power.

Gu Changyuan finished digesting everything and opened his eyes.

The silver light surrounding him had become clearer and more translucent, yet also more restrained.

His gaze swept over the Immortal Emperors who were regrouping nearby. His voice was not loud, but it rang clearly in every person’s ears.

“Return for now. I still have some matters to attend to.”

He offered no further explanation and did not wait for anyone to respond.

The instant those words fell, his figure vanished from where he stood.

In the next moment, he was already standing beyond the boundaries of the Myriad Domain Immortal Realm.

There, a gigantic figure was approaching.

It resembled the outline of a moving black hole, larger than anything Gu Changyuan had ever seen—so enormous that it distorted the space it passed through according to some peculiar pattern.

Gu Changyuan did not retreat.

His gaze settled on the approaching figure. The black sword in his hand tilted slightly in the void, and he took another step forward.

Wan Shi stopped.

The enormous figure hovered in the void several thousand zhang away from Gu Changyuan.

Then a voice echoed within Gu Changyuan’s mind.

“I’ve finally found you, Tai Sheng.”

Gu Changyuan’s eyes were cold as he stared straight at him.

“Unfortunately, you’re too late. I’m stronger now than you are.”

“Arrogant!”

Wan Shi roared. The void where he passed rippled visibly, while the distant stars flickered erratically beneath the force of his voice.

Then endless blackness peeled away from Wan Shi’s body, transforming into countless black torrents that poured toward Gu Changyuan from all directions.

They surged in from every side, sealing off every path of retreat and leaving not even the slightest gap.

Gu Changyuan remained calm. His expression did not change, and his eyes did not waver. It was as though the black torrents, powerful enough to swallow an entire domain, were nothing more than a breeze blowing toward him.

He had already reached this point.

His opponent had lost.

Neither The Emperor nor Wan Shi had managed to find him—or rather, by the time The Emperor finally found him, Gu Changyuan had already established himself within the Myriad Domain Immortal Realm.

And when Wan Shi finally locked onto his location, Gu Changyuan had already reached the realm of the Dao Venerable. Through the Primordial Qi hidden within the divine consciousness of his avatars, he had returned to the ranks of the Divine Emperors.

The karmic lines he had once laid out for himself, the contingencies he had scattered across countless domains, and the new futures he had extrapolated countless times had eliminated every possible threat one by one, sending him to a position the others could no longer hope to reach.

He moved.

Silver-white light surged from within him, illuminating the space across a radius of several thousand li.

Under the radiance of that silver-white light, the blackness melted away like thin paper being scorched, shrinking, retreating, and dissipating inward from the edges.

Wan Shi let out a dull, immense sound, as though it had come from the very end of the universe.

When Gu Changyuan’s figure drew close enough, it suddenly accelerated, thrusting straight toward the core of that black outline.

He saw inside Wan Shi.

Behind the flowing blackness, at its core, he saw something ancient beyond measure.

A barren starfield remained. Only dried-up rivers, shattered mountains, withered trees, and the outlines of things that had once been called “living beings” could be seen.

Most of those outlines had already blurred, like a mural eroded by countless years of wind and rain. Only their vague shapes remained discernible.

Gu Changyuan’s gaze lingered on that scene for a moment before he withdrew it.

His sword continued forward. It pierced through the flowing blackness, through the dissolving outlines, and through every defense Wan Shi attempted to raise. Then, with unerring precision, it drove into a certain point deep within that outline.

For a thousand years, the divine-consciousness avatar Gu Changyuan had left in his sea of consciousness had been doing one thing:

Deciphering Wan Shi.

If the enemy was Wan Shi, then let enough “life” surge forth within its body until it could no longer bear it.

He had been analyzing its structure all along, searching for that one most critical point.

Wan Shi was devouring.

Its very existence was rooted in devouring. It grew stronger by consuming everything, transforming all things in the universe into its own power.

If the enemy was a devourer, then let enough “life” emerge within it until it could no longer endure.

Gu Changyuan’s sword continued to drive forward. Light gathered, compressed, and erupted at the tip of the blade.

A surge of vitality began at the sword’s tip and spread outward along Wan Shi’s “veins.” Every fragment of law that had once been devoured began to stir anew within that radiance, redefining the way it existed.

They began to resist Wan Shi’s instinct to devour. From within, they began to dismantle its structure—like seeds swallowed into a stomach that were not digested, but instead took root in the stomach wall, sprouted, and grew.

The powers Wan Shi had devoured over countless millennia began to pour outward from within it.

Wan Shi’s outline began to swell violently.

Crack after crack appeared across its surface, silver-white radiance shining through each opening.

Gu Changyuan withdrew his sword.

The enormous dark silhouette before him slowly expanded to its limit before beginning to collapse from within.

Its fragments drifted slowly through the void. As they dispersed, each fragment grew fainter and more translucent, until at last they dissolved completely into the void.

Gu Changyuan raised his right hand, controlling the Primordial Qi within his grasp.

He gazed across the vast universe, pausing for only an instant before his eyes returned to the Heavenly Court above the Myriad Luo Immortal Realm.

Once, he had only observed, never allowing himself to become involved.

But now, he had met many people and experienced many things. He no longer wished to remain the solitary observer he had once been.

With a flash, Gu Changyuan returned to the Myriad Luo Immortal Realm.

“It’s over. Time to go home and lie down again.”