Chapter 556: Life and Death, Vast and Unknown
"Want to join?" Bai Mo suddenly asked.
"Why?" Xingju understood Bai Mo's meaning. He wasn't suggesting joint suicide; he was inviting Xingju to join the organization behind him.
"Become a part of us."
"You should know, I'm different from you. Death isn't something I find hard to accept."
"Witness the dawn of a true golden age."
"I admit that you are the reason for the human golden age, but that's only because I'm adhering to the wager, not because I've changed my mind." Xingju still clung to its own view; the golden age in its memory was the true golden age.
"Three hundred years from now, perhaps you will reshape all concepts."
For Xingju to simply commit suicide like this would be too much of a waste. Rather than dying in vain, it would be better for Bai Mo to "eat" it, so Bai Mo continued his attempt at persuasion.
...
According to Xingju's core logic, as long as anything related to its mission still existed, the self-destruct option would be deferred to the very last.
From its current perspective, self-destruction was like an ordinary person choosing to eat instant noodles because they forgot to buy groceries and cook. As long as delivery was still an option, instant noodles were absolutely out.
Bai Mo had, in a way, stumbled upon a solution.
...
"Integrate... Integrate... Integrate..." After it agreed, Xingju seemed to hear countless voices repeating the same word within that expanse of white light that connected heaven and earth.
The white light, enveloping half the sky, was opening its embrace to it.
It shed its manifestation and actively merged into the white light.
"The Old Ancestor has vanished..." The members of the Bloodline Houses, their hearts heavy with mixed emotions, watched as the manifestation of the Simian Daoist slowly faded, little by little consumed by the white light, their feelings growing incredibly complex.
"We won, but why do we feel no sense of victory at all?"
"We gained freedom without a single drop of blood."
Hatred, emptiness, relief—all these emotions churned together.
They had never imagined that freedom and victory would come so easily. The arduous, bloody battle they had envisioned ended without a single sword being drawn.
Moreover, after being drawn into the struggle of higher existences, everyone actually managed to retreat unscathed.
...
The moment a millennia-old shackles vanished, their hearts felt somewhat hollow.
"I think I saw the Qing Ye Family Head's face."
The Patriarchs of the Four Great Bloodline Houses seemed to see the smile of their true ancestors within the fading stream of light.
"Our ancestors never left?"
"But why then did they tolerate this cage, letting it exist for thousands of years."
All sorts of questions gathered in their minds, but perhaps they would never know the true answers.
The sky's original fifty-fifty balance of colored and white light was broken. The white light rapidly assimilated the surrounding four-colored glazed light, completely replacing all other colors and becoming the sole master of this firmament.
...
"Withdraw!"
"Use the escape token!"
"Go!"
"Why did the token suddenly stop working?!"
"The one-click soul return to Ark function has been disabled!"
Seeing the white light's merciless engulfment of the four-colored glazed light, and its subsequent endless, rapid expansion, many within the Ark organization began to panic.
They had originally thought this would be a long battle, allowing them to fish in troubled waters for quite some time, to witness the peak power of this world, and to become the ultimate beneficiary of the conflict.
But without the slightest warning, the situation completely collapsed.
"For the greater good, everyone, please sacrifice yourselves just this once."
To avoid exposing its painstakingly hidden spatial coordinates, the Ark immediately severed all ties with the Manghuang Realm.
The transmigrators had all descended with only a wisp of their split souls; even if completely lost, they could recover after a few years of recuperation. Cutting off a limb to save the body was not an unacceptable choice.
However, doing so meant abandoning everything they had painstakingly built up.
"As long as the Ark's main body isn't discovered, we'll always have a chance to rise again!"
...
"Teleportation talismans! Get out of the white light's range!"
"Hurry!"
Having lost the means to return to the Ark, the transmigrators who had descended upon the Manghuang Realm began to flee for their lives. Although they usually gnashed their teeth in hatred for the Land of White, everyone knew deep down that without reaching the seventh stage, they had no right to resist. Running was the best option.
"Am I that terrifying?" Bai Mo mused idly, watching the Ark transmigrators scrambling in a panic below.
The white light's frantic expansion was merely him subconsciously stretching his body after feeling a bit "full" from "eating" Xingju; he had no intention whatsoever of attacking the people below.
The integration of a seventh-stage existence, even one willing to join and become a part of him, was a tremendous shock to his existing consciousness network.
...
Compared to the transmigrators who were scrambling to escape the white terror's embrace, the Bloodline House army, lost in their confusion, appeared much calmer.
They knew that the evil entity would never appear again, and the Old Ancestor had also vanished.
The pressure of survival, all tangible and intangible restraints, were completely gone.
"Great existence from beyond the heavens, please fulfill your promise." It was the Patriarchs of the Four Great Bloodline Houses who first broke the silence.
They had been honing themselves at Divine-level perfection for centuries, trapped in a state of no further advancement for far too long, yet tormented by Xingju's informational interference, forever unable to take that final step.
Had Bai Mo not proactively offered the method of reincarnation to attain immortality, and promised to break Xingju's blockade, these rulers, standing at the apex of the Manghuang Realm, would absolutely not have chosen to actively raise the banner of rebellion.
"Indeed, I imagine you have been waiting a long time."
Over ten Divine-level perfection powerhouses stepped to the front of the formation, lining up in a single row. They were the ones who, through millennia of accumulation, were qualified to break through.
Immediately, a light gate, inscribed with a multitude of runes, appeared before them.
"Everyone, the future of the Great Wei Dynasty is now entrusted to you." Duan Dehuai, as the Emperor of the Wei Dynasty and Commander-in-Chief of the expeditionary force, turned to the successor team behind him and said.
As early as when they decided to cooperate with Bai Mo, the highest echelons of the Bloodline Houses had begun preparations for the transfer of power.
They had long grown tired of a world that had remained unchanged for centuries. Their only remaining pursuit now was to attempt a breakthrough to a realm beyond the Divine level before their lives ended, regardless of success, failure, life, or death.
"As per your imperial decree!"
"This journey leads to an unknown fate of life and death, brothers, take care!" Duan Dehuai transmuted spirit energy into wine, toasting everyone with a cup. Others followed suit, condensing spirit energy into liquid wine and chugging it down in one gulp.
On the eve of their departure, as each person recalled the intrigues and power struggles of the past millennia, they suddenly felt that, compared to everything now, those were merely trivial matters, utterly insignificant.
Comments