“…You interrupted my exploration and forced me to return…”

The Heavenly Emperor said indifferently.

Gu Qing Shan replied: “You’re the one who tried to attack Star Gazer city first, and what do you want, saying something like that now?”

“Die” the Heavenly Emperor curtly said.

As soon as he said that, the void of space around them started to tremble.

A completely new world manifested.

Gu Qing Shan noticed that there were numerous pipelines all around them.

—–these pipelines covered every single direction of this world, connecting heaven and earth together, they reached endlessly deep into unknown directions and were made of unknown materials.

Gu Qing Shan cautiously muttered: “This place is…”

“Where you die” the Heavenly Emperor replied.

He lightly waved his hand.

Dozens of thin long tubes shot out from the surroundings towards the Star Gazer Deus Machina.

As they ran into the tower shield in front of the Star Gazer Deus Machina, they moved around it almost as if they were sentient.

Then swiftly attached themselves deeply into the Star Gazer Deus Machina.

“Once all the Samsara Origin Power is sucked dry, I assume you won’t be able to control this city anymore” the Heavenly Emperor said with his hands still clasped behind his back.

Gu Qing Shan was shocked.

Without waiting for him to react, the tubes immediately began to absorb the Star Gazer Deus Machina’s power.

The Star Gazer Deus Machina was rendered immobile almost instantly.

It seemed to have run into some sort of unsolvable error.

After that, all the tubes pulled back in unison with considerable force——

The giant mech was swiftly dismantled into hundreds of components, which followed the tubes back into the pipelines where they originated from.

Gu Qing Shan blankly stood still.

Everything happened so suddenly that he appeared to be stunned and was unable to process what was happening at all.

The Heavenly Emperor calmly spoke: “You have one last chance to save your life, pledge your allegiance to me”

A mystical rune manifested in front of him.

The rune then hovered towards Gu Qing Shan without a sound.

“Imprint your real name within the rune, then pledge your allegiance to me. In consideration of the fact that you possess a Saint realm technique, I won’t torture you” the Heavenly Emperor replied with an ultimatum.

He then turned around, seemingly uninterested in Gu Qing Shan’s choice.

——–it was as if everything had already come to an end, and nothing unexpected could possibly occur.

After remaining silent for a few moments, Gu Qing Shan spoke: “I refuse”

“So you want to die? No, I’m going to inform you that that will be impossible—— I will extract your soul and leave it here in my world so that you would undergo a million years of unceasing torture” the Heavenly Emperor casually said.

Gu Qing Shan replied: “Defeat my Star Gazer city first, then speak”

——-wasn’t Star Gazer city already destroyed?

Gu Qing Shan stood still, completely empty-handed, yet he still said something so strange.

Even stranger was that the Heavenly Emperor didn’t refute his words.

“A very interesting person, one rarely comes by” the Heavenly Emperor muttered.

“This is also quite an interesting occurrence” Gu Qing Shan also commented.

The two of them fell into silence.

As if to confirm something——–

After a few more moments, the Heavenly Emperor asked: “How did you find out?”

Gu Qing Shan replied: “I am the City Lord of Star Gazer city, if the city gets so much as a tiny scratch, it will ask me to mobilize the Merits of its Chosen Saints to repair it”

“But it didn’t use any Merit just now?” the Heavenly Emperor asked.

“Indeed” Gu Qing Shan replied.

The Heavenly Emperor nodded.

At the very next moment.

The pipeline world vanished completely.

Gu Qing Shan found that he was still on top of the Star Gazer Deus Machina’s control platform.

A mass of light was draped around his body, constantly reading his motion so that he could control this mothership-level mech.

——–it turned out everything that just happened was an illusion.

Without a sound or warning, Gu Qing Shan’s senses had been deceived and led him to believe that he was unceremoniously defeated.

If he hadn’t noticed that the Star Gazer Deus Machina didn’t give any response at all, Gu Qing Shan would have believed that he was actually defeated by the Heavenly Emperor.

“If not for this Samsara city, you would have lost” the Heavenly Emperor commented.

“I’m sorry, but this is a Samsara city” Gu Qing Shan shrugged.

“I’m starting to truly feel intrigued with you, this time, you can really become my subordinate” the Heavenly Emperor said.

“But why do you refuse to fight me?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

The Heavenly Emperor didn’t answer.

“Wouldn’t everything be resolved with a fight? What we’re participating in is the Samsara Clash for Supremacy, wouldn’t a battle be the quickest way to victory? What are you so wary of?” Gu Qing Shan pursued the question.

The Heavenly Emperor looked straight at him and replied with a slightly more solemn tone: “I merely don’t want others to be the oriole”

“The only cities here are ours, who else are you afraid of?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

The Heavenly Emperor didn’t continue to answer.

Gu Qing Shan slowly understood.

——the living beings of the Huang Quan and the Asura realms aren’t participating in this great tomb exploration either.

Could the Chosen Saints of these two Samsara realms be watching things play out from the sidelines?

No, that definitely should not be the case.

There must be a lot more that I don’t know about.

While Gu Qing Shan was thinking this, the Heavenly Emperor reached his hand out and tapped the void of space.

“Young lifeform, perhaps you do not know what the world truly is like” the Heavenly Emperor said.

“I’m all ears” Gu Qing Shan replied.

As they spoke, a completely new world manifested around them.

This was a Magic-type world.

With a flash, the world turned into a Technology-type world.

Before Gu Qing Shan could clearly see the city and the people inside, the world flashed again.

This time, a Savage-type world appeared.

As Gu Qing Shan saw several barbarians holding bone clubs in their hands, the world flashed again in front of his vision.

A gloomy dark world appeared all around him.

Within the cold frigid water, various shadowy creatures silently moved back and forth.

Numerous worlds were flashing in front of his eyes at dizzying speeds.

The Heavenly Emperor spoke: “In the beginning, I created life and civilization merely to pass the maddening long flow of time”

He gently traced his finger through the void of space.

A child manifested.

As the child landed on the ground, an entire world rapidly unfolded around him.

With time seemingly sped up, the child quickly matured and became an adult, living a happy life with others similar to him in this world.

“But very quickly, I discovered the limitation of living beings” the Heavenly Emperor continued.

“What’s the limitation of living beings?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“Like this man here—— whenever I write certain encryptions onto his genes, his body would reflect the corresponding changes, he would become prone to outbursts, easily angered, being unfocused, easily distracted, and easily lose control”

“His body creates his thoughts, and his thoughts hold his entire life in their hands”

As he spoke, the man suddenly got into an argument with a stranger in a diner where he was eating.

He killed several people.

The vision flashed forward.

He was being executed.

With a wave of the Heavenly Emperor’s hand, everything around them disappeared.

“That was only a relatively unorthodox example, I merely wanted to say that such is the sorrow of living beings, everything they are is under my control, as dictated by their fates”

“Did you also create the living beings of the Samsara?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“I also tried creating a few of them, but after the Samsara placed them through reincarnation once, I would usually lose my absolute control over these living beings——- this was greatly interesting. No one has ever been able to cancel the destinies that I personally established within living beings, but the Samsara could”

“For that reason, it is my supplement, a part of me—— my weapon”

“And so?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“Gu Qing Shan, you are the combination of living beings and Apocalypse, I’ve already put you through a test, and you’ve just proven yourself adequate” the Heavenly Emperor replied.

He gave Gu Qing Shan a profound look and continued: “Come with me, and I will tell you every secret in existence. Whatever you wish to know, I can answer it, as there are no secrets above my knowledge within the Boundless Void”

Gu Qing Shan’s heart started to beat faster.

Secrets.

He couldn’t help but think back to that day in the rain, when the Heavenly Emperor killed three envoys of three Sequences using a single secret.

—–if I was told that killing secret, how should I deal with it?

If the Sequence seals off my senses again, the Heavenly Emperor would definitely notice.

The other Sequence envoys couldn’t even attempt to resist.

If I manage to survive that secret, the Heavenly Emperor would feel even more interested in getting rid of me.

Not good…

The difference in strength is too great, there’s no way to actually fight him.

This monster who has lived through countless years——

This Heavenly Emperor——-

Was in fact a Creator Entity ¹of the Boundless Void! 

…

At another location.

The Human realm.

“There’s a restaurant called Green Building, rumored to be the best in the world at spirit cooking” a lively female voice commented.

“But this restaurant is very far away from us, I feel like we shouldn’t try to go there just yet, after all, it’s more important to search for our senior brothers and senior sister” a different, gentle female voice said.

“Wan Er, are you sure… that it was called the Green Building?”

An immature female voice called out, carrying with it a sense of doubt.

“Yes I am, Shifu. It’s really strange right? I also felt that it was strange when I heard it” the lively female voice answered.

A few moments later.

The immature female voice suddenly said:

“Let’s go, we’re heading to the Green Building right now”

“Shifu, we should really look for the senior brothers before anything else” the gentle female voice helplessly complained.

The immature female voice replied: “The two of you joined Bai Hua sect quite late, so it’s natural that you don’t know some of the older stories… if my guess is right, one of your senior brothers is definitely at the Green Building right now!”

“”WHAT!?”” the two female voices exclaimed.