Chapter 1877: The Chancellor’s Fate |
With a single thought, Wang Wei accessed the terrifying power of his array, then converted it into the purest form of Death Energy and injected it into Dugu Baitian's body, resulting in a sudden, drastic increase in Dugu Baitian's aura.
The Grand Chancellor stopped his madness and sensed the change in his body. In just a matter of seconds, his strength increased from 1-pillar to the peak of 2-pillar, and it wasn't stopping. However, he was not happy — far from it. His opponent was not stupid; on the contrary, he was known for his wisdom and intelligence. So, what was his purpose?
"Damn it, he wants to overfeed me," Dugu Baitian swiftly realized. His Saint Path — if it can be called as such — was a crooked method, full of flaws and issues. For example, although he had the strength of a Saint, he lacked a Saint Will, a Saint Dao Heart, or any other unique abilities or authorities. At his core, he was just an [Immortal] who had used a forbidden secret technique to raise his strength, which means that if he were fed too much Saint power, his body and soul would collapse.
Dugu Baitian took one last glance at the shield protecting Wang Wei before sitting cross-legged in the void and entering a deep state of meditation to control his body's instincts; he needed to reject the feeding process. Meanwhile, Wang Wei internally shook his head. How could his plan be so simple? He knew perfectly well that even if he overfed Dugu Baitian, the latter wouldn't die permanently; Instead, he'd die and revive after reaching his limit.
His plan was more ingenious than that. As he had theorized, the Beyonder's power should be able to assimilate other powers, and that's his true target. The pure death power he injected in Dugu Baitian's body only looked pure on the surface; Wang Wei added many other subtle powers, including the one with the highest essence — the power of nothingness. Now, all he has to do is wait for the assimilation characteristics to manifest.
Time passed, and Dugu Baitian continued a desperate resistance. As someone who had lived for so long, the Grand Chancellor had many trump cards hidden under his sleeve. Sadly, they all fail, as evidenced by the signs of a thirteenth pair of black wings growing on his back. Such an outcome was to be expected since he was dealing with Saint Tier powers, but all of Dugu Baitian's trump cards still belonged to the [Immortal Realm].
While he was desperately trying to survive, Wang Wei remained calm, analyzing every ounce of the Beyonder's power, waiting for the right moment to strike. He was dealing with a higher source of power. Although it had been diluted by Death Reverence, it was still a power of a higher echelon than his.
"Now," Wang Wei suddenly thought. Some powers were harder to digest or assimilate; as such, the Beyonder's power left them for last, probably because it still needed to analyze them. So, as soon as it was prepared to digest that part of its meal, Wang Wei began his plan, which,, to Dugu Baitian's horror, meant he had lost control over his body.
"What have you done to me?"
"You!"
"Alright, don't waste the last bit of strength you have left, "Wang Wei stated. "As respect for a fellow cultivator, I will allow you to state your last words."
Dugu Baitian opened his mouth, but closed it immediately afterward. As he looked at those calm, silver-grey eyes, something finally dawned on him: his cultivation journey is about to end here, today, and even in the next few minutes — maybe seconds. His mind suddenly flashed to everything he had experienced in his life: his mother's death, the burning of the Dugu Clan, meeting his teacher, Strong Arm, his rise in the main Dugu Branch, killing his father, and his glorious deed during the Golden Age.
"I have lived my life to the fullest. I have fought the fiercest enemy, conquered countless worlds, slept with the most beautiful women, and built the most powerful faction in the Eternal Ascension World," Dugu Baitian's powerful voice echoed, followed by a deep sigh.
"Looking back in my life, I only have three regrets: first, it was my teacher's betrayal. Although I didn't show it, the pain was truly unbearable. I am a conqueror, meaning my path was destined to be lonely. However, I thought that no matter what, there was one person I could always rely on, but even he was not trustworthy. How laughable."
A wry smile was etched on Dugu Baitian's mouth.
"My second regret is that I never glimpsed the True Saint Path — to conquer the pinnacle of the cultivation path. Well, I guess this horrid form will have to do."
Wang Wei calmly listened to him. A part of him respects this domineering man. Even in this desperate time, he was still trying to find a way to survive. However, Wang Wei needed time to finish his plan, so he allowed the latter to buy time by talking; the result would not change.
"My last regret is the Grand Sect Alliance. I don't care about the faction itself, but what it represents. I defied fate and took one of the Overlord Positions, forcing Heavenly Dao to alter its plan. Then, I built the most powerful faction in the world, forever altering the fate of the Eternal Ascension World. This is my legacy — an eternal legacy that no one can erase."
"Eternal is a strong word," Wang Wei thought, but he did not utter them. Most of the history before the Golden Age was erased, so why did he think the same thing couldn't happen again? Wang Wei secretly shook his head, deciding not to argue with a dying man.
Dugu Baitian suddenly became calm, serene might be the better explanation. "Any chance you would spare some of the Dugu Clan's bloodline?"
"No, but I can give them a painless death."
"How kind of you," Dugu Baitian sneered.
"Is that it?" Wang Wei asked.
"One last thing: I didn't kill my father. Instead, I imprisoned a small piece of his soul in a hidden dimension to forever kneel at my mother's grave. I don't like the idea that he is still alive while I'm dead. Do me one last favor and kill that bastard for me."
"No problem," Wang Wei nodded.
"One more thing: Qiyuan owed —" His mouth suddenly stopped working.
"Your death will wash away all karma," Wang Wei stated before proceeding with the plan. With control of Dugu Baitian's [Existence], his next step was simple: feed it to the Necromancer's power. The Beyonder's power can determine what to assimilate and what to fuse with, but while it's distracted assimilating the [Power of Nothingness] and all the other things it was fed, Wang Wei sneaks in Dugu Baitian's [Existence].
The subsequent changes were thought-provoking. Dugu Baitian's body slowly shrank until only an unknown rune remained. Wang Wei had seen countless runes in his life, and with Ai's existence, he also had partial knowledge of his wife's understanding or access to runes, but he had never seen this one.
With a quick analysis, he realized the very structure or logic of this rune was fundamentally different from this world — from the current Chaos Universe. All Chaos Worlds or hidden dimensions have their own rules, but on a fundamental level, they are the same; they have the same operating logic, and their differences are just manifestations of this logic in different forms.
"I'm now even more convinced of my theory," Wang Wei thought. "Hm?"
The rune suddenly turned into an eye; a regular eye no different from a human's, but Wang Wei's heart skipped a beat after it appeared. The eye glanced at him for a few seconds before disappearing. Nothing much happened, but Wang Wei felt a sense of foreboding.
He immediately checked his body and did countless other tests, but he found nothing. For a moment, he considered the source of the danger might be something else, but a quote from Earth suddenly popped into his mind: "When you gaze at the Abyss, the Abyss also gazes back." In context, this quote is about turning into the very things someone is fighting, such as evil or tyrannical rule; a similar principle is that the dragon slayer will become the dragon.
However, in this scenario, Wang Wei felt that his peeping into the essence of the Beyonder's power was detrimental to his being, detrimental to his very existence. "Ai, disconnect the River of Time from this node world."
"Don't worry, sir, it's one of the first things I did as soon as you changed the battlefield."
"Excellent," Wang Wei's avatar stated. "I'm going to send my memory, some crucial information, and task you with a Priority S project. Do not let my main body come in direct contact with the information or the task. To be safe, you also shouldn't come into direct contact. Instead, use the Spirit Particle Technique to create proxy servers to deal with the information."
"Give me a moment, sir," Ai said, and a few seconds later, she stated, "I have created 1.269 trillion proxy servers. Although they still need soul energy to reach maximum power, they are now usable. Do you wish to transfer the information now?"
"No, not yet. I still need to do one last thing," Wang Wei replied. With a thought, he gained absolute control over this artificial River of Time and began accelerating time at an alarming rate. Trillions of years passed in a matter of seconds. Under normal circumstances, such rapid manipulation of time would have severe repercussions, but without Grand Dao's presence and with all the rules of the timeline having been turned into Death Rules, Wang Wei — and most powerful cultivators — no longer had any limitations on many matters.
With such intense and rough use of time, even Wang Wei's immortal essence could not withstand it; it also did not help that he wasn't trying to resist in the first place. His objective was clear: destroy this avatar and, more importantly, wash away any potential hidden issues in the information he had gathered about the Beyonder — especially regarding that final rune.
Despite all that, Wang Wei felt it wasn't enough. So, he went above and beyond. He used his technique [Purpose Manipulation] to transform the River of Time into the River of Nothingness, drawing on this power of the highest echelon to continue his work.