Chapter 349: The Death of Satan |
"Things that refuse to die are truly a hassle to deal with."
Chen Mang sat in the train cabin, furrowing his brows as he muttered under his breath. He stared straight ahead at Satan, who was entirely shrouded in black mist, wildly flapping a pair of massive, pitch-black fleshy wings in the air.
Soon.
The patterns on the "Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon" atop the carriage began to slowly emit a white glow, charging up its energy once more.
However...
This time, Satan did not give him time to charge.
In his Future State, Satan possessed strength and speed that far surpassed his past. Moving at nearly the speed of light, he rushed to the front of the Stellar Train at a pace completely imperceptible to the naked eye, throwing a heavy, full-force punch.
The impact sent the Stellar Train flying straight into the high altitude.
The sheer force behind this punch was overwhelming.
Yet...
Soon, Satan's voice rang out in sheer disbelief.
"H-how is this possible?!"
"Even in my Future State, I cannot break your defenses! Just how high is your train's armor level?!"
"..."
Chen Mang naturally had no intention of replying. He simply glanced at the console screen, noting the energy attack range of that punch: Level 1300.
It was incredibly strong!
Was this truly the power a normal Level 4 civilization should possess?
As a Level 3 civilization, the Mechanical Civilization's strongest attack method only reached an energy range of 300.
Yet a casual punch from Satan in his Future State was Level 1300?
It was a perversely terrifying level of strength.
By now, the charging was complete. However, Satan was simply too fast, making it nearly impossible to lock on. But it did not matter; the Level 500 light cannon had a massive coverage area and did not require a perfect lock.
The next moment...
Five Level 500 Akhenaten light pillars violently blasted out in different directions!
No matter how fast Satan was, he would be forced to take at least one hit.
However...
As if issuing a provocation, the moment Chen Mang opened fire, Satan stopped dead in midair. He easily and casually endured the baptism of one of the Level 500 Akhenaten Main Cannons.
It was utterly effortless.
He even split his lips into a wide grin.
"Is this all you have?"
"Then next... it is my turn to perform!"
"Celestial Cage!"
Endless black mist surged from Satan's body, forming countless chains that completely sealed off the entire space.
Suspended in the air, Satan stared fixedly at Chen Mang, his grin widening as he spoke clearly, word by word.
"When you came here last time, your armor was only Level 500. In just a few dozen days, your armor level has reached a point where even I, in my Future State, cannot break through it. I suspect..."
"This is not your armor's true level, is it?"
"Your current armor level is at least Level 1500."
"To raise your armor to such a level in a short time would consume an amount of resources and Murphy Stones that your entire star system could not scrape together even if they sold everything they owned. Inside my Celestial Cage, no one can escape. Once the time limit on this trick of yours expires, I would very much like to know how you plan to deal with me."
"Satan—"
"Cannot be provoked!"
"Only your blood can wash away this humiliation!"
Immediately after.
Satan shot forward violently, grabbing the rear of the Stellar Train with both hands. Wielding it like a whip, he used all his strength to repeatedly smash the train against the ground. Several deeply compacted craters were quickly formed in the earth!
The space shattered wherever the train passed, briefly revealing spatial fragments.
If this space known as the Holy Land was not so incredibly sturdy, an ordinary planet would have been completely pulverized by such battering.
The strength Satan unleashed in his Future State was truly terrifying.
"..."
Chen Mang sat unmoving in the train cabin. Although the train was currently being thrashed around, the existence of the spatial stabilizer kept the interior entirely smooth and stable. Furrowing his brows slightly, he gazed at the console screen.
Wormholes could not be created.
He also could not contact the Refrigerator located outside this region.
He could not broadcast any civilization-wide messages.
The train's radio was rendered useless.
All means of leaving this place or sending messages to the outside world had been severed. Those countless chains formed from pitch-black mist had entirely sealed this space, and his armor's duration was only twenty-four hours.
If Satan's blockade lasted longer than that...
Waiting for death truly would be his only remaining option.
There was only one path left now.
That was...
To kill Satan!
If the Level 500 Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon was not enough, he still had the Level 1000 version!
Without hesitation.
He looked at the component information for the "Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon" and the train's iron ore resource balance.
The train currently held 1,989 trillion units of iron ore.
Upgrading this rainbow-grade component to Level 1000 required a staggering 1,000 trillion units of iron ore.
The price was astronomically high.
It would consume half of the train's entire resource reserves.
But this was no time to be stingy. He had hoarded all these resources precisely for emergencies like this. As long as he won this battle, the spoils claimed from the Extreme Evil Galaxy would more than make up for the losses incurred during this war.
In war.
As long as you win, you never truly lose.
But if you lose, it results in Eternal Ruin, leaving almost no chance of ever making a comeback.
Without the slightest hesitation.
Chen Mang immediately spent 1,000 trillion units of iron ore, instantly upgrading the "Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon" component to Level 1000 and unlocking a new Overlimit Effect.
-
"Level 1000 Overlimit Effect for Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon": Anyone killed by this weapon will be completely and truly erased from the timeline, suffering permanent death. They cannot be resurrected through any means. Their Past State, Present State, and Future State will all perish.
-
"What a brilliant effect."
Chen Mang's eyes lit up. With this effect, as long as he killed Satan this time, Satan would be dead for good.
The only regret was...
If he had upgraded the Akhenaten Main Cannon to Level 1000 from the very start, he probably wouldn't have needed to deal with so much trouble. Satan would have thoroughly died the first time he was killed.
All that nonsense about a Future State would have been left unseen and unknown.
But it didn't matter now.
Doing it now was good enough.
Firing a single shot from the Level 500 Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon cost 100 billion units of iron ore.
But the Level 1000 version—
Demanded a massive 10 trillion units of iron ore per shot!
The price had multiplied a hundredfold.
He could only imagine what its destructive power would be.
Moving swiftly, while the train was still being flung wildly by Satan, the patterns on the barrel of the quietly upgraded Level 1000 Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon began to slowly flicker, gathering an absolutely horrifying amount of energy.
Clearly.
Satan was a bit too arrogant right now. Despite knowing the main cannon was charging, he made no attempt to dodge, merely continuing to relentlessly smash the train into the ground.
One minute later.
Having finally finished charging, the "Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon" unleashed a mighty roar.
The star housed within the train's stellar core cabin began to spin at hyper-speed, visibly shrinking as scorching flames erupted almost instantaneously, completely engulfing the entire Holy Land.
If there had been any survivors lingering in the Holy Land before, this strike wiped them out utterly and completely.
At such close range, an attack like this required no locking mechanism. It covered essentially the entire area, impossible to block and impossible to evade.
Space itself was torn apart.
Countless pitch-black rifts were exposed in its wake.
A deafening boom resounded through heaven and earth.
Countless rays of blindingly hot white light bathed Satan like Divine Punishment. The sheer power of this strike was so horrifying that if all the planets in the Dead End Star System were lined up in a row, back-to-back...
...this blast would carry enough force to pierce through and detonate hundreds of billions of planets across the entire Dead End Star System.
The power of the Level 1000 Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon was not just a hundred times greater than its Level 500 counterpart!
This was not a power meant to be wielded by mortals.
It was hard to believe a spectacle rivaling a supernova explosion could originate from human hands.
Yet...
Perhaps mortals were ultimately incapable of conquering the heavens.
Chen Mang heard Satan's maniacal laughter. Outside the window, all was engulfed in blinding white light. He lowered his head and donned a pair of sunglasses, not daring to look directly at his own attack. But a glance at the Doppelganger Radar told him everything: there were no signs of Satan's life force dissipating.
The laughter was incredibly piercing.
So grating that it made him fall silent.
The enemy had not dodged at all.
Instead, he had taken the hit head-on, and not only was he not severely wounded, he remained completely unscathed!
For the first time, Chen Mang truly felt the despair born from a sheer gap in strength.
It was far more despairing than anything he had felt before.
This time.
He had pulled out all his trump cards, yet none of them worked against his foe. Even his escape routes were blocked. He truly could not win this fight; it was time to start planning an escape.
Chen Mang spoke softly, "Xiao Ai, look through the train's foundation and see if there are any other ways we can escape."
He glanced at the "Chrono-Retrogression" option on the console screen; even that choice was greyed out now. And even if he could escape into the past timeline, he would only be able to stay there for ten minutes before being dragged right back to this exact moment.
It would be of no use whatsoever.
But right now, even that useless method was completely unavailable.
That cage woven from countless chains had utterly sealed this dimension.
Escape was impossible.
"Can the Refrigerator not be used on Water Blue Star either?"
"Biao Zi already tried on his end. It doesn't work. The Refrigerator cannot establish a connection right now; we're cut off."
"I see."
Chen Mang nodded slightly, returning his focus to his available assets. He pondered whether to leak the existence of the Dead End Star System—perhaps he could draw the gaze of the universe and drag Satan down with him?
It was a trump card he had once considered viable.
But...
He felt its effect might be minimal. After all, when he killed that member of the God Race last time, the universal rules had already noticed him and rewarded him. By then, the universal rules should have known everything about him. If that matter was truly a significant issue, the universal rules would have erased him right then and there.
That indicated the matter wasn't considered overly important.
Wait!
He suddenly remembered the Civilization Wonder he had obtained after slaying that God Race entity.
"Divine Silence"!
It was a weaponized wonder, and its effects were...
"Weaponized Wonder: Upon consuming energy to activate, it unleashes a full-powered strike from a deity. The attack range equals the radar range."
"The deity's attack possesses the attributes of 'Absolute Hit' and 'Absolute Defense Break,' rendering it completely unblockable."
-
The power description didn't specify an energy range, only stating it was a deity's full-force blow. If "deity" referred to the God Race, then this was basically a trash wonder. Aside from being hard to kill, he hadn't found the God Race all that powerful.
He had never tested it.
The cost was simply too steep.
A single activation demanded a whopping 1,000 trillion units of iron ore.
Its only advantage was...
It was virtually instantaneous within the "Radar Range." His Doppelganger Radar currently spanned a full one million light-years. That meant if he activated the wonder right now, the "Divine Silence" located hundreds of thousands of light-years away would awaken and launch an attack straight at Satan.
Right at that moment...
The scorching light began to fade. The entire plain was left in absolute ruin, the ground blanketed with granular carbon forged under extreme temperatures. Merely looking at it made one feel as though they could smell the scent of gunpowder lingering in the air.
Satan's laughter echoed through the air once more.
Halting his assault, Satan stood before the train's front windshield. With his arms crossed over his chest, he stared right into Chen Mang's eyes through the glass and mocked, "Feeling powerless, are we?"
"The energy range of that attack was remarkably strong. It far surpasses any method a Level 4 civilization should possess."
"It truly boggles the mind."
"To think a civilization from a remote star system, having only just ascended to Level 4, commands such power. For civilizations like yours that experience massive, explosive growth in a short span of time, the tricks you pull off are genuinely more terrifying than those of veteran Level 4 civilizations."
"It's just a pity."
"You ran into me."
"I might as well tell you: while in my Future State, my defense level is also set to 'Future State'."
"Do you understand what that means?"
"It means..."
"The version of me you are looking at right now exists in the Future State, while the attacks you unleash belong to the Present State. How could an attack from the present possibly harm a being from the future?"
"This is the unique ability of a demon!"
"An ability that can only be used once in a lifetime!"
"You are impressive, forcing me into this stage. Even in death, you should feel proud. Not just anyone has the privilege of seeing a demon's Future State. In this form, I am absolutely invincible."
"Even if the entire star system is annihilated, I will live on, undying!"
"Unless..."
Satan spread his arms wide, grinning as he crouched down and peered through the glass at Chen Mang, who remained seated at the helm. "Unless you can travel forward to find the future me. That is the only way you can kill me, as the power I currently wield is borrowed from the future."
"But it is a grand shame."
"The future is entirely unpredictable, and absolutely no one can travel there—not even a divine-tier civilization. So, how could you possibly achieve it?"
"..."
Looking at the arrogant Satan crouching on the nose of his train, Chen Mang suddenly laughed. "Can this Future State of yours really last that long? The moment it deactivates will be the moment you die."
"I have plenty of time to wear you down."
"Let's see which one of us drops first."
"You will definitely die first."
Satan's laughter only grew more ecstatic. Exaggeratedly clutching his stomach, he practically rolled around on the train's hood. "How utterly hilarious! Do you truly not know? Once a demon from the Demon Race enters the Future State, it lasts for a very, very long time."
"I can sustain this form for hundreds of days."
"Can you?"
"The only drawback is that I'll be stuck using this body forever, and my strength will never increase again."
Right after.
Satan's expression gradually grew ice-cold. Rising from the hood, he fixed a death glare on Chen Mang and said deliberately, "My power has now been permanently locked. Once this state ends, my strength will revert back to my Present State and stay there. Had I waited to enter my Future State at a later date, my power would have been permanently locked at a much greater height."
"This is entirely your fault."
"However..."
"It all ends here. Once you are dead, even if my strength is capped, the power of my Present State is more than enough to rule this region."
"..."
Staring at Satan through the glass, Chen Mang remained silent for a long time before abruptly laughing. "You really are brimming with confidence."
He then slowly pressed a button on the console.
Immediately...
The 1,000 trillion units of iron ore that the train had painstakingly scraped together were instantly reduced to ash. Simultaneously, hundreds of thousands of light-years away, "Divine Silence" was activated.
"Divine Silence" launched.
Satan's current condition was one of Absolute Defense. Forget about the Level 1000 Light Energy Main Cannon; even a Level 2000 version probably couldn't pierce his guard.
As for Level 5000, that was hard to say.
A Level 5000 light cannon might instantly rend this space apart, spawning a colossal black hole. Even if it failed to break his defense, Satan wouldn't be able to escape the black hole's terrifying gravitational pull, leaving him imprisoned in its depths for all eternity.
Naturally, Chen Mang possessed no such method at present.
All he could do was pin his hopes on "Divine Silence" to see which was truly more absolute, more supreme: Absolute Defense Break, or Absolute Defense!
Hundreds of thousands of light-years away.
Inside the Dark Abyss, a void gate resembling a wormhole abruptly materialized out of thin air next to "Divine Silence." A cascading green tide of molten iron ore poured forth from the void gate, flooding over the Civilization Wonder.
The previously dormant "Divine Silence" began to ripple with waves of pink light as it absorbed the deluge.
The myriad streams of pink light coalesced in the void, slowly forming the naked, spectral image of an entity wielding a spear. Though it appeared exceedingly fragile, its gaze seemed to pierce through hundreds of thousands of light-years, falling squarely upon the Extreme Evil Galaxy.
Arching its waist backward slightly...
Its entire body tensed with power. After a brief running start, the entity hurled the energy-formed Divine Spear, instantly shattering the space before it as the weapon rocketed into the depths of the cosmos!
The very next instant...
Within the Dark Abyss, a sky that had remained pitch-black for countless millennia was brilliantly illuminated.
A blindingly radiant white light instantly enshrouded the surrounding regions of the Dark Abyss.
But the light vanished as swiftly as it arrived.
Wherever the spear passed.
Total tranquility remained. There were no spatial fractures and no searing heat; every ounce of power was perfectly concentrated within the spear, without the slightest leak of energy—save for the trailing light.
In mere seconds, it crossed five or six hundred thousand light-years. Such breakneck speed was an extreme rarity across the entire universe. The speed of the starry behemoths modified into Universe Ge Leis was not even worth mentioning in comparison!
What terrifying power this was! This was the might of a deity's full-powered strike!
Meanwhile...
Inside the Holy Land, Satan seemed to sense something amiss. He swiftly raised his head to stare into the distance, hesitated for a fraction of a second, and then turned back to Chen Mang to drop a final threat.
"I shall let you off for today! When my armies descend upon the Human Civilization, that shall be the day you die!"
Immediately after.
With a wave of his hand, he dispelled the "Celestial Cage" and prepared to flee. Clearly, this cage had been sealing Satan in as well.
However.
It was already too late.
Almost in the very next heartbeat.
Satan's body abruptly froze in place, blood bubbling up and spilling from his throat. Looking down, he saw a "Divine Spear" protruding from his chest—he hadn't even realized when it had impaled him. His eyes brimmed with abject terror and shock, as the agonizing pain finally began to wash over him.
He hadn't even seen when the spear appeared.
He hadn't even caught a glimpse of its trajectory.
His divine sense hadn't detected the spear at all. He had only felt a vague sense of unease urging him to flee the area as quickly as possible.
Logically speaking.
He was supposed to be in an invincible state right now. No one in the entire universe could harm him. Even if the Extreme Evil Galaxy were destroyed at this very second, he should still survive. Yet... right here, right now, he could feel his life force rapidly draining away!
His Absolute Defense apparently wasn't so absolute anymore.
Satan's legs gave out, and he crashed heavily to his knees, slumping uncontrollably onto the ground. The terror of his fast-fading life spurred a desperate urge to tear open space and flee, but this normally trivial task was completely beyond his reach, no matter how hard he struggled.
He couldn't even self-destruct to annihilate this space and destroy all his hoarded reserves so that Chen Mang couldn't have them.
He wanted to turn his head to look at Chen Mang one last time, but he couldn't even do that.
He could only lie facedown in the dirt, feeling his life violently ebb away.
Unprecedented dread and utter despair flooded his mind.
A few seconds later.
Satan's pupils gradually dilated and glazed over. His corpse began to shrivel, appearing completely dehydrated.
"He should be thoroughly dead this time, right?"
Fifteen minutes later.
Stepping out of the train, Chen Mang stood beside Satan and nudged the corpse with the toe of his boot. He then yanked the "Divine Spear" out of its back, grasping it in his hand to examine it closely. This spear was bought at the staggering cost of 1,000 trillion units of iron ore.
The price was exorbitantly high.
Holding it felt like clutching a piece of warm jade; it radiated a comforting, cozy heat.
It wasn't rough or prickly to the touch.
Moreover...
He had just witnessed the complete footage on the console screen of that unknown, naked deity hurling this spear. He knew that all of its power had been flawlessly compressed into the spear itself, without a single drop leaking out.
This was an utterly mind-boggling technique.
And right now...
The power of the "Divine Spear" had not yet been fully unleashed. Only when it detonated would its true destructive might be realized. That meant this Divine Spear could be used a second time, and its next use would be even more devastating!
It was the Stellar Train's newest foundation-level killer weapon!
"These 1,000 trillion units of iron ore were definitely well-spent."
Standing in place, Chen Mang weighed the "Divine Spear" in his hand and suddenly chuckled. It seemed Satan truly was dead. Previously, the Doppelganger Radar couldn't detect much in this area because Satan had shielded it, but now, a flood of data was freely popping up on the screen.
This place was akin to a pocket dimension.
It had been carved out by Satan himself.
Over the years, all the resources Satan had pillaged were stored right here. It was an astronomical hoard, initially prepared to bankroll his crusade against the Human Civilization. From the looks of it, he wasn't going to need them anymore.
So, Chen Mang would just have to force himself to accept them.
After all, wasting things was a terrible habit.
With just a passing glance, he knew he had made his money back. In fact, he had struck it incredibly rich!
Mopping-up operations were always tedious yet blissful.
The Holy Land was entirely devoid of people now.
Under Xiao Ai's command, an army of mining robots swarmed the resource stockpiles within the base, laboring like worker ants as they continuously hauled staggering amounts of resources onto the train. These were the spoils of his victory.
Aside from that, there was a heap of miscellaneous items.
Some he could make sense of, and some he couldn't—like various artifacts that distinctly resembled bizarre ritual sacrifices.
None of it mattered, though.
Just haul it all back to the train and figure it out later.
Satan was dead.
The strongest foe he had ever encountered in his entire life, an entity whose most potent attack boasted an energy range of Level 1300—an absolutely petrifying metric—had ultimately perished by his hand.
His greatest reliance had been the Civilization Wonder, "Divine Silence."
He honestly hadn't expected the full-powered strike from this Civilization Wonder to possess such cataclysmic force. His initial hope was merely that it might shatter Satan's Absolute Defense, allowing him to follow up and deliver the killing blow.
The actual result far exceeded his imagination.
This all-out strike, without even fully detonating its true might, had effortlessly slain Satan.
Without breaking a sweat.
From within Satan's palace, he also plundered a significant number of ancient tomes and similar texts. They were all ferried onto the train to help him thoroughly research the Demon Race. This was a brand new species he had encountered; never before had he heard the name of this alien Demon Race.
Inside the train cabin.
Chen Mang sat in his chair, leafing through the intel extracted from Satan's palace.
The Demon Race was quite a peculiar species within the universe.
Every single member of this race possessed three lives.
It was a fundamental racial trait.
These were designated as the Past State, Present State, and Future State. The Past State was the weakest, while the Future State was the mightiest.
Aside from when they were cultivating, demons would appear in their Past State in most situations. After all, utilizing their three lives meant working from the bottom up. If one strutted about in their Future State right out of the gate and got decapitated, they'd be down to one life immediately—so much for having three lives!
The Future State could only be activated once, and a single usage lasted exactly twenty-four hours.
So Satan had been spouting absolute drivel.
Sustaining it for hundreds of days? Pure bullshit.
Furthermore, upon using it, a demon's strength would be permanently locked at the exact level of the Present State they possessed before entering the Future State. This effectively meant they would be devoid of any future potential.
He also discovered something else.
"Satan" had fled his home, albeit by forced exile. "Satan" was an alias he had chosen for himself; originally, he had been the highly esteemed and influential Third Prince of the Demon Race.
For this race to increase their power, they required not only a wealth of resources but also pure and unblemished Power of Faith.
They had no need for Murphy Stones.
Breaking through realms relied primarily on the Power of Faith.
Every ambitious demon needed to massively expand their flock of believers. The greater a demon's powers of persuasion and corruption, the more followers they gathered, and the faster their strength soared.
Satan was somewhat gifted in this regard.
He had amassed an enormous cult of fiercely loyal zealots.
However, the arrogance spawned by his rapidly soaring power made him lose his mind completely. He ended up assaulting and humiliating the Empress, leading to his banishment from the Demon Race. The Demon Emperor ruthlessly tossed him into a randomized, one-way wormhole, which spat him out in the Extreme Evil Galaxy, where he set about cultivating a new base of worshippers.
The civilization of the Demon Race was known as...
The Demon Civilization, a mighty Level 6 Civilization.
Across the cosmos, it stood as a top-tier powerhouse civilization.
"..."
Having rapidly skimmed through all the intel regarding this civilization, Chen Mang sighed softly. If only the Human Civilization had three lives as well. The universal will was far too biased! Why was it that humans, of all species, possessed absolutely zero racial traits?
Even Gophers had their own racial traits.
But humans had nothing.
"Hmm?"
Just then...
Chen Mang stumbled upon a rather crucial piece of intel. The so-called "Faith Components" were birthed through the demons' fusion of faith and train components. Utilizing these Faith Components often allowed for the creation of numerous miraculous devices.
For example...
Resurrecting deceased train crew members.
He had only ever witnessed such a miraculous effect in Faith Components. Though he coveted them, he couldn't use them. Even if countless billions worshipped him and prayed to him like a god, he would never be able to acquire this power.
He lacked the innate ability to gather the Power of Faith, let alone extract and concentrate it.
Such methods could not be learned later in life; they could only be acquired through innate racial traits.
However...
Before fleeing, that bastard had stolen a vast trove of core intelligence from the Demon Civilization, including numerous research data files on components. All of this data was stored in Satan's train's database, which had now been entirely confiscated by Chen Mang.
Armed with this wealth of data, the Stellar Train's component research and development would undoubtedly soar to greater heights.
Yes.
Satan also owned a train of his own. He just couldn't bear to squander resources on upgrading it, funneling every scrap he possessed into strengthening himself instead. He hadn't even bothered bringing it out during the battle.
Upon Satan's death.
The AI inside his train died as well, leaving the contents of its database completely defenseless. Xiao Ai had automatically extracted the information.
That was how they had gleaned so much crucial intelligence.
Much of this information could never have been tortured out of a captive. After all, interrogation required a clear direction to probe, which Chen Mang didn't have. Furthermore, it wasn't guaranteed that Satan would have remembered every last detail.
And within that database...
There was a specific entry that caused his brows to knit together.
-
"The Demon Civilization hails from the Second Universe. They are not a native civilization of the First Universe, but outsiders."
-
The Second Universe.
This was the first time he had ever heard the term.
In human terms, this so-called "Second Universe" was Hell, or perhaps the Underworld.
The universe they currently inhabited was the "First Universe."
Anyone who died in the First Universe, provided their soul remained intact, would fall into the Second Universe to continue their existence. If they were to die within the Second Universe, it would mean true, absolute death.
The grandest dream for many civilizations trapped in the Second Universe was to escape back into the First Universe.
After all...
The competition in the Second Universe was simply far too brutal.
Everyone residing in the Second Universe was free from the constraints of a lifespan. As long as they didn't cross over to the First Universe, they enjoyed eternal life. However, they were utterly incapable of bearing offspring. Consequently, its population vastly eclipsed that of the First Universe, and a larger populace naturally bred far fiercer competition.
All competition stemmed from a dire scarcity of resources.
And the majority of that resource scarcity stemmed directly from the sheer volume of people.
If there were fewer people, there would naturally be enough resources to go around.
The First Universe and the Second Universe were separated like life and death, entirely cut off from each other. Civilizations flourished in the Second Universe as well, and they even had trains, though they were known as "Hell Trains."
Barring extraordinary circumstances, only denizens of the First Universe could migrate to the Second Universe. Those trapped in the Second Universe could absolutely never flee back to the First.
At the very least...
Satan was definitely never returning to the Second Universe.
One could only return if their soul remained entirely intact.
And furthermore—
There was one more crucial piece of information: burning joss paper and offering incense actually worked!
Although the First Universe and Second Universe were forever separated, the inhabitants of the Second Universe were all expats from the First. Consequently, if a loved one passed away, and you sincerely burned paper and offered incense for them in the First Universe...
...your longing would forge an ethereal connection to your deceased relative in the Second Universe. This sentiment would manifest as a certain amount of resources, granting them a modicum of wealth in their new existence.
Though it wasn't much.
It was at least enough to afford a meal.
Of course.
Your loved ones likely wouldn't remember you. Everyone had their memories of the First Universe wiped clean upon arriving in the Second Universe. Only an extraordinarily lucky few managed to retain their memories.
Or perhaps it was a misfortune.
After all, without the memories of a better life in the First Universe, you wouldn't fully comprehend just how agonizing life in the Second Universe truly was.
"Going by this logic..."
Chen Mang murmured thoughtfully, "I've offered incense to quite a few people. It should have been helpful to them, right?"
"Xiao Ai."
"Tally up all those who have died in battle for the train over the years. Have Lao Zhu forge a massive incense stick over on his end and keep it burning twenty-four hours a day."
"Understood. Should I arrange for a batch of people to die early and head to the Second Universe to scout the way, paving the path for our future invasion?"
"Sure, how about you die first?"
"Um... Captain, when an AI dies, it doesn't qualify to enter the Second Universe..."
"..."
Chen Mang rolled his eyes at Xiao Ai. "Don't spout such nonsensical ideas. It's essentially the underworld down there. Resources are scarce, and it's far inferior to the First Universe. I am immortal and deathless; I will never set foot in the Second Universe in this lifetime."
He had no clue how the Demon Civilization had managed to break out of the Second Universe.
But one thing was crystal clear to him.
Members of the Demon Civilization could no longer return to the Second Universe, even in death. The Second Universe simply would no longer accept them.
Aside from actual death, he currently knew of no other method to cross into the Second Universe.
Unless...
...he could figure out a way to chuck a Refrigerator into the Second Universe. No, that wouldn't work. The Refrigerator shouldn't be capable of spanning across entire universes.
He had once entertained fantasies of constructing a Hell Train.
He just hadn't expected that Hell Trains actually existed. He wondered how their components differed from those of his own train, and if—by some unfortunate accident—he did wind up in Hell, would his 0-Level Authority still function?
Second Universe.
Upon a desolate planet covered in crimson-brown soil, a ragged man knelt on the ground. With a dazed expression, he stared at a Past Life Bowl in his hands.
He was dead.
He had appeared here after passing away.
He didn't know how he died, nor did he remember what had happened right before his death. He had absolutely no memories. He only knew that when he materialized in this realm, a man in a uniform had shoved a bowl into his chest.
The man had told him...
This was the world after death. Here, everyone was immortal. As long as they weren't murdered, they possessed infinite lifespans—effectively meaning eternal youth and immortality.
When your relatives back home prepared to burn joss paper, offer incense, or engage in other acts of remembrance, the Past Life Bowl in your hands would light up. Once they completed their tribute, the bowl would convert the energy of their longing into corresponding resources for you to spend in this world.
At first, he felt quite anxious.
After all, he didn't know if he had left behind any relatives, children, or anyone else before he died. What if he had been a lonely old man, or had unfilial offspring? Wouldn't he be completely abandoned to fend for himself?
But soon, his worries were laid to rest.
Before long, the Porcelain Bowl glowed. This meant his loved ones were preparing to offer incense for him. However, the energy failed to coalesce into actual resources, and the light quickly faded away.
After asking around, he learned that this meant his relatives had thought about burning incense for him, but ultimately hadn't followed through with the actual deed.
Understanding this, he resumed his eager, hopeful waiting.
The bowl would occasionally light up, filling him with boundless anticipation. But every time, it would only flicker briefly before dying out, leading to absolutely nothing. Gradually, he spiraled into a pit of bottomless despair, transforming into... a "starved ghost."
No one could starve to death in Hell.
It was a world where dying of starvation was an absolute impossibility.
But...
If you couldn't afford food, even though you wouldn't die, an intense, gnawing hunger would constantly shroud you, inflicting agonizing torment. The pain was so unbearable that he had once ripped out his own innards just to eat them.
But he quickly learned never to do that again.
He had no money to pay a doctor.
No one to stitch him back up.
He had been forced to live clutching his own ripped-open stomach for a very long time before the wound finally knitted itself back together.
Here in this world.
You could earn money by working, but the prerequisite was registering a household status. Doing so required a certain fee—a starting sum typically obtained from the incense offerings of living family members. If you couldn't afford to register, trying to earn enough resources for the fee through other means was exceptionally difficult.
At least, he hadn't managed to do it.
Selling one's backside?
In Hell...
A backside was the most worthless commodity of all. He had seen it with his own eyes in the Market: countless starved ghosts chopping off their own lower halves to sell. They wouldn't die from it anyway. And in Hell, no one buying a backside paid for a single use—that would be a terrible bargain.
They would just buy the entire severed backside to take home and play with at their leisure.
It could be reused over and over again.
It provided entertainment for a very long time.
The cost-performance ratio was simply much higher.
Everyone operated this way. Unless you possessed utterly stunning, sky-high beauty, single-session services were impossible to sell. No one would even spare you a passing glance.
He had tried selling himself once. Someone had taken a liking to him, and he had chopped himself in half right there on the spot.
But it had gone entirely ignored.
Therefore.
In Hell, starved ghosts made up a substantial population. He didn't even know how many days he had gone hungry by now. Everything remotely edible in the dirt surrounding the city had been scavenged bare ages ago. Still, unable to endure the ravaging hunger, he trudged out of the city once more to dig through the soil, hoping against hope to unearth a morsel of sustenance.
Just then...
"Kun Ye."
A similarly trembling voice called out from behind him, feeble and sapped of strength by starvation.
He had forgotten his own name.
He only remembered that he seemed to be called Kun Ye, so he had adopted those two words as his name.
"Stop digging, there's nothing left here. Only this red dirt that makes your whole body ache when you swallow it. Why don't we head to the swamp? I heard there's plenty of food and loads of resources over there. If we manage to dig up some goods, we can register our status and find a proper job. Then we can finally eat a full meal every day."