Evil Emperor Zun

Chapter 2013 Who is he?

To make it easier to stay in touch after leaving, Feng Yi'er left him her communicator.

However, when she returned to the spaceship, the gift she had just given was returned by Feng Wutong.

"How did this end up here?" she asked, quite surprised. "Who gave it to you?"

"What are you talking about?" Feng Wutong seemed even more confused than her. "You left your communicator on the ship before. I was afraid you would get anxious if you couldn't find it, so I wanted to remind you to keep it safe."

How is that possible?
Feng Yi'er once again experienced a state of complete mental blankness due to excessive shock and bewilderment.

If she hadn't taken the communicator with her when she disembarked, she naturally wouldn't have been able to hand it over to that mysterious man in the Lost Galaxy. Was everything she and he had experienced together just an illusion? At this moment, she even doubted whether she had ever truly escaped that deathly wasteland. Was the peace before her eyes merely an illusion, a beautiful dream that would soon be her demise?

Seeing her frighteningly pale face, Feng Wutong assumed it was a post-traumatic stress disorder from the lost star system and gently coaxed her to rest. Day after day, when she finally awoke from the endless night and accepted that she was now in a real world, amidst her joy, a part of her still clung to her old obsessions. She privately asked Feng Wutong several times if she truly remembered clearly that the communicator had always been left on the spaceship.
Feng Wutong said she was absolutely certain, because she had a particularly deep impression of the process of discovering the communicator.

At that time, the fate of the adults was still uncertain. Although most of the pursuers had been temporarily lured away, small groups of ships were still relentlessly lurking behind. It was in this oppressive atmosphere that she accidentally found Feng Yi'er's communicator on the ship one day. The thought that she had left in such a hurry that she hadn't even taken the communicator with her, and that she didn't know if she would come back alive, while those of them who remained on the ship were also facing an uncertain future, filled her with a despair that she could never forget.

Wu Tong had no reason to lie to her. Although completely denying the existence of that mysterious man would leave a crucial link in the whole incident missing—how she actually came out of the Lost Star System, a fact even Baili Ji didn't know—Feng Yi'er could only convince herself, in the absence of any other explanation, that perhaps she was that one in a billion lucky person, spewed out as a complete human being, and just happened to be able to return to her own era.

The lost galaxy is filled with poisonous miasma. Perhaps at some point, she inhaled the miasma and began hallucinating, imagining a story of being rescued by a handsome man. Since she believed the hallucinations to be real, even directly showing her memories to others, including undergoing a soul search, was useless.

The remaining question is, when did she start hallucinating? She remembers the man taking her bracelet, saying, "You don't need it anymore, so you might as well keep it as a souvenir." Now the bracelet is indeed no longer with her. Even if the man's story was a hallucination, was finding the Duxing Royal Court bracelet also a hallucination?
Furthermore, when he browsed his bracelet and saw the early messages in the sent items inbox, he casually remarked, "Hey, this is so close to when I came in." Assuming this wasn't a coincidence, she would eventually get an answer sometime in the future, at the latest, thousands of years later.

Actually—maybe we don't have to wait that long. The man only said he entered the Lost Star System thousands of years in the future, but that doesn't mean he was just born thousands of years later. Someone with such unparalleled beauty and strength comparable to the Solitary Awakening Royal Court, if truly existing, wouldn't have remained undetected for a millennium. Besides, he even claimed to have some connection with you, sir.

"I don't remember ever knowing such a person." Thousands of years later, after listening to her report in the mysterious space, Baili Ji gave this response.

"Completely clueless. My enemies are the entire universe." He lightly touched his temple with two fingers, speaking casually, showing no shame for having so many enemies, but rather brimming with smugness. So many people wanted to make trouble for him, yet not a single one could touch him—that was proof of his success!

As for the Gnawing Clan, whether their mutation was due to radiation or the existence of unknown giant species, as long as they did appear in that place, it proves that Ye Yunyan's conjecture that "they would intentionally avoid the Lost Star System" is unfounded. The problem is that it's difficult to distinguish which of her experiences were real and which were illusions, which is quite troublesome.

To be honest, hearing her talk about memory loss reminded him of his own memories of the Golden-Winged Eagle King, which also ran counter to the timeline recorded in history. And he had absolutely no reason to be hallucinating. Back then, he felt the same shock, resistance, and disbelief as she did, yet was forced to accept it due to the absolute truth. Because of this sense of déjà vu, he decided to treat the information she provided with even greater caution.

The Solitary Awakening Royal Court has invested a massive amount of resources in searching for something, while the upper plane has also recently intervened in the development of Tian Tan in a grand manner, sparing no effort to recruit manpower from various planes and even various time and space. This move is also quite significant.

It is said that the original Astral and Lunar Realms, in their altered and implanted memories, did indeed possess a subconscious desire to "find something," but they didn't know exactly what they were looking for. Since the designers couldn't provide clear indicators, this task could only be temporarily tied to the main quest of "construction and expansion."

Baili Ji believed that even the people of the higher planes didn't know. Otherwise, with their strength, they could easily obtain the item; there was no need for them to use people from lower planes to find it for them. The current situation was most likely that they had learned through special means that such an item would appear in Tiantan. It must be something beyond their current understanding; they had never actually seen it, couldn't describe what it was, or its appearance. Only when the target was found and they saw it with their own eyes could they confirm, "This is what I'm looking for."

This fits the characteristic of "unpredictable cause and effect." Since it can't be done in one step, they can only search inch by inch, and those old guys naturally lack the patience. According to this logic, the players summoned to Tiantan should all be "people of destiny." The reason they traverse various timelines is probably because it corresponds to the time when their destiny was triggered.

The term "fate person" refers to someone with a causal connection to an object that cannot be determined by cause and effect. It involves analyzing the fates of countless others to find that person shares a causal link with the object. However, a fate person doesn't necessarily guarantee finding the object. Some may only provide extremely vague clues, while others might lead you to another fate person. The twists and turns are as unpredictable as a pinball. But regardless, the more fate people you have, the higher the probability of finding the object.

In addition, Yi'er also mentioned that pure souls would be stolen, and the timing coincided with the upcoming holy war.

...No, wait a minute. If we exclude the unexpected factor of Tian Tan, this war should have broken out in the future, after Qin Jia had truly grown up. Now, they've summoned pure souls for the sake of their destined one, causing a temporal and spatial distortion, bringing the Holy War forward. Is this also part of the cause and effect?
As if a hidden string had been plucked, Baili Ji felt a chill seeping into his bones, rising in waves. It was a premonition of impending death, a sense of foreboding he had never experienced before, even when he was driven to his most desperate moments.

There's a horror story that goes like this: A man boarded a train close to midnight and then went around checking the ages of other passengers, getting them right every time. Bystanders assumed he had some kind of special ability—the ability to tell people's ages just by looking at their faces. But when he encountered a 50-year-old woman who said she was 50 and would be turning 51 after midnight, the man's face turned deathly pale.

It turns out that what he was determining by looking at people's faces wasn't age, but lifespan. Lifespan, when aligned with age, indicates that life will end within that year. The woman was about to turn 51, but the lifespan he saw in her face was still 50, meaning she wouldn't live to 51, wouldn't survive past midnight. Even more terrifying, the train still had a long way to go before the next station and wouldn't stop before midnight!

All these signs indicate that everyone on this train perished in a shared disaster, a disaster that is imminent. Soon, this train will be involved in a major accident, and no one will survive.

Applying this to the current situation, if the higher plane and the Solitary Awakening Royal Court are searching for the same thing—if everyone here has a karmic connection with a world-destroying object—if this connection actually refers to destruction itself—wouldn't it mean that when they all gather together, it will be the end of the world?!
If everyone in your car is predicted to die in a car accident, then the car that is about to crash is most likely the one you are in.

The only remaining way to save herself was to force the driver to stop the train. Assuming the driver was someone who couldn't be subdued by force, to get him to stop voluntarily, she had to convince him that the train was heading towards destruction. Before that, she needed to find the mysterious person who suddenly appeared, made the catastrophic prediction, and then vanished just as suddenly, and make him prove his abilities—something Feng Yi'er had been trying to do for thousands of years. Unfortunately, she still couldn't even prove whether that person was a hallucination.

That person—if he exists—should be related to Duxing Wangting, because he knows far too much about the plan to find the "Zero Ball".

After surviving the lost star system, Feng Yi'er contacted several intelligence organizations in the Cosmic Sea, placing long-term orders for information about the Solitary Awakening Royal Court. As the date shown on her bracelet drew closer, she still hadn't received any relevant intelligence. If it was possible that their operations were so secretive that even professional intelligence-selling organizations couldn't detect them, then it certainly shouldn't be something an outsider could easily obtain.

She always remembered his last words to her before they left, his implication that he had killed the previous Pathfinder. That might be true, but internal competition within the same faction was common. Or perhaps he was the Zero Sphere they were looking for, and thus knew someone was desperately searching for him. There was another possibility… While repeatedly studying the information on the Solitary Awakening Royal Court, a conjecture would occasionally surface in Feng Yi'er's mind. Although it was undeniably far-fetched, it lingered on her mind for a long time.

It's also possible that he is the Alone King himself.

The Lone Awakener King is a legend in every aspect. To give just one example, everyone knows he is the mastermind behind the world-destroying plan, yet everyone who has had direct contact with him speaks of him with unanimous praise.

As the embodiment of the laws of heaven and earth, Cain has always refused to directly intervene in worldly disputes. Apart from being close to Baili Ji, he only maintains a close relationship with the chief of the Duxing Royal Court. He also makes no secret of his admiration for him, agrees with his ideals, and believes that he will be the savior.

A big shot known for his eccentric temper had accidentally entered the same secret realm with him. He mentioned many times afterward that he had been well taken care of by him and described him as a very gentle and kind person.

Judging from a series of historical events, he was indeed very detached and pure, with no desire for power or material possessions. It was precisely because he coveted nothing and kept his sole purpose always out in the open that the higher authorities were so troubled by him.

Even after "getting rid of him" proved impossible, they continued to try various ways to negotiate with him. For example, they selected outstanding women to be his partners, hoping to increase his connection with the world. He always responded with gentle politeness; however, no one ever became special to him, no one became his attachment. Instead, those noble ladies who met him were deeply infatuated with him, becoming unforgettable ideals.

In short, whether friend or foe, everyone would sincerely praise him as "unparalleled in his talent and elegance"!
It was these four words that touched Feng Yi'er.

That fleeting, brilliant man—no one deserved those four words more than him. His unparalleled elegance was something she would admire for the rest of her life.

To find him, Feng Yi'er spared no expense. Aside from essential cultivation resources, she poured almost all her savings into acquiring intelligence. As for what would happen if she actually found him, she didn't really have a clear idea. Her actions were more like instinct. Since she had once missed her future, she felt obligated to do something. To stop this train on the verge of collapse, she had to try her best, regardless of success or failure; this was her own karma.

Thousands of years had passed back then, and no matter how anxious they were, they could only watch helplessly. Now, the prophesied day is almost upon us, and the countdown to destruction is also imminent!
***
In the deep, dark expanse of space, a towering spaceship was traveling at full speed. Its majestic and imposing form made it resemble a moving castle, radiating a chilling aura. Layers of mysterious laws surged forth along its path, spreading wave after wave in all directions, as if cleaving through invisible waves.

This spaceship belongs to one of the legendary top powers, the Dark Church.

In the central control room of the ship's cabin, a huge screen was displaying the scene ahead in real time. A man rested his hands on the console, a lazy smile playing on his lips. His pale, slender fingers flicked nimbly across the buttons, switching between different monitoring angles, casting shifting light and shadow on his face.

It was a very beautiful face. His long, layered hair cascaded down to his shoulders, and a single, flowing fringe covered his entire left eye. On the other side of his forehead was a delicate ruby, from which a silver chain hung, swaying slightly with each tilt of his head, like the intoxicating swirling of a fine wine.

A dark blue cloak draped diagonally from his left shoulder, its entire form condensed from the power of laws, with shimmering light flowing across it, outlining a dazzling galaxy, as if a piece of the night sky had been cut out and made into his new attire. Through the uncovered right side of his upper body, one could see another long silver brocade robe, its surface adorned with sparkling sequins. Two colors, two styles, starkly contrasting on the same person, yet not jarringly so; rather, harmonized by his aura, they intertwined to create a stunningly luxurious effect.

If Feng Yi'er were to see him, she would likely notice a striking resemblance between his features and those of the mysterious man she remembered. They both possessed the same long, purplish-black hair and dark, reddish eyes. The difference lay in the fact that the mysterious man's appearance was far more refined and perfect. To put it another way, it was as if the person before her was the initial template, while the mysterious man represented her "upper limit of evolution"—the appearance achievable only after her features and genes had been enhanced to their extreme. The difference between them represented the gap between "a very handsome ordinary person" and "the appearance of a god."

Time passed quietly during the voyage. After an unknown amount of time, a subordinate strode into the control room. A few meters behind him, the subordinate bowed his head, his face full of respect and fear.

“Mr. Daytime, the news has been confirmed. The Holy See of Light will be coming with the Coffin of Sleep.”

The man raised the corner of his lips slightly, slowly straightened up in front of the control panel, adjusted the wide, off-white scarf around his neck with one hand, turned his head slightly, and glanced sideways at the corner of his eye.

It was clearly a gentle, watery gaze, yet as it spread across the gray shadows trailing from the corners of his eyes and flowed through the air, it inexplicably acquired a dangerous aura, reminiscent of a bewitching and beautiful flower that contained deadly poison.

"They even brought out their own ancient artifacts from their coffins just to snatch pure souls."

His voice was also hoarse and effeminate, much like the seductive allure emanating from the abyss beyond.

"If we've made so many preparations, what if we find that the pure soul is long gone? Wouldn't all our efforts have been in vain?"

He turned his head back to examine the screen, gazing at the twinkling starlight ahead, as if admiring a game of chess that only he could understand.

"As long as I devour pure souls, my life level will undergo a complete evolution. Those old relics will definitely regret not having gone to their graves sooner."

The subordinate secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Every time he reported to this superior, especially when the man looked directly at him, he felt as if a cold, slippery snake had crawled into the back of his collar, slithering along his skin, its deadly fangs poised to strike at any moment. But he dared not keep the man waiting too long, so after swallowing hard, he forced himself to add:
"There's still no word from the Lone Awakening King. I wonder if he'll come."

After those words, a bright light instantly appeared in the man's eyes. It was like a flame igniting on the surface of a dark lake, each ripple carrying a fiery glow.

"He will come."

He took off a pure silver bracelet from his left wrist, played with it in his hand for a while, and finally brought it to his lips. His cold lips touched its equally cold surface, but his expression was clearly satisfied, as if he had drawn the warmth he needed from some unknown void.

"How could he bear not to come and witness it with his own eyes? This is what he has been longing for... the end of this world."