I, the mortal, come from the great world of Xuanhuang

The old man left. He was practically driven away by Fang Yu's scolding. Well, it wasn't really scolding, more like an argument. After all, the old man could only be awake for a short while. He would need to go back to sleep after a while because it wasn't time for him to be fully awake yet, or rather, he couldn't be awake yet. He was forced to wake up under duress, and then tried to use his identity to force Fang Yu to leave. But Fang Yu didn't give him that chance at all. He could just stay here and wait. Anyway, it wasn't a difficult thing for Fang Yu.

For Fang Yu, the old guy could only stay for a short time at most, while he had plenty of time to slowly wear down whoever he wanted. In terms of strength, he might not be a match for the old guy, but he could stall for time. Once the time was up, the tiger would have no choice but to fall into a deep sleep. Under these circumstances, Fang Yu didn't need to worry about anything.

It was just a matter of time; Fang Yu was curious about which old guy would arrive next. If it was the same group of old fogies, he wouldn't mind continuing to wait. However, when the old guy left, his younger brother arrived.

His younger brother heard everything they said clearly. Zhang Ruochen somehow managed to eavesdrop on their conversation, which was quite impressive. It was obviously taught to him by the big black cat.

"You should have heard what I just said. Since you have, you should understand what I mean. If you want to follow the path those old fogies have laid out for you, then go ahead and do it. I won't interfere anymore. If you're worried that I'll take away your future resources, opportunities, and benefits, then you can continue to worry about those things. I'm definitely going to get them. I might slap you to death, or at least beat you half to death, because you'll be following those old guys' steps and doing what they've arranged. To be honest, regarding those old fogies, I..." I have absolutely no goodwill towards them. Everything they've arranged for you, while it may make you stronger and more capable, will cause you to lose many of your close friends and family. They will leave one by one, gradually departing from your side until they disappear completely. You will become truly alone, a complete and utter loner, someone who loves and dislikes no one. Because no one loves you anymore, only fear remains—endless fear. Perhaps some may admire or respect you, but that's not love. True love is... You'll lose all the love and affection of your parents, your relatives, and your friends. You'll have nothing but absolute power and absolute authority. Is that really what you want? If that's what you want, then let's see if you can ultimately get it. But if you want it, you have to follow those old guys' arrangements. I truly despise those old guys' arrangements. To be honest, I especially despise those old guys. They have no good intentions whatsoever; I'm certain of that. Those old guys have never had any good intentions towards you from the beginning. They just want to use you, to get what they want from you. But are you willing to be used by them? If you were, you wouldn't be here in front of me; you would be going to that old man. Only by finding that old man can you have the power to fight me, or rather, you want to take everything you lost from me. But I can tell you, you can't do that, because those things weren't taken from me; they are things I must have, not things I took from you. Those things are not something you can have. If you had them, you would lose your mother now.”

"You will lose your current mother, do you know that? If you try to force yourself to have her, if you really want her, then your mother will disappear from your world and become something else, someone who isn't even human. She wasn't human; she was once someone very close to you, but one thing is certain: sooner or later she will leave your side, completely and utterly. Are you sure you really want that then? I think you probably won't. If you are, you can compete with me now, you can fight me for these things. As long as you have the strength, you can fight me for them. It doesn't matter. As long as you have the strength, you can fight me, confront me, battle me, and clash with me. In this way, you can become stronger, incredibly strong. Only in this way can you have everything you want, but you will also lose everything you cherish. This is what you have to face now, what you have to gain, what you have to bear and endure. You have no other choice but to accept this."

"If you insist on doing this, as your elder brother, as your royal brother, I will not stop you, but I will kill you. Because at that time, there will inevitably be a great battle between us, and the outcome of this battle will determine whether you live or I live, or you die. So I don't want such a thing to happen to us brothers. Really, I truly consider you a brother; otherwise, I wouldn't have kept you alive until now, nor would I have given you this way out. This is already my merciful side. If I didn't have enough mercy, do you think you could have survived until now? You would be dead long ago. Don't think I haven't killed you because I'm keeping myself alive. In fact, you are not their only choice. In fact, they have many, many, many choices. You are just one of them, a choice of your world. Other worlds have the same choice. Those old fogies not only chose you, but also those from other worlds. Those people's status and position may be higher or lower than yours. In short, each one is a choice, and you are just..." One of them is that you are merely a choice made by your world, or rather, by our world. If you fail to grow, this world will be destroyed; if you do grow, there will be a glimmer of hope. You could be the savior of this world, but you might not be the savior of this universe, because they have many choices—those immortal beings have far too many choices. There are many worlds, not just ours, but others as well. In this situation, what choice can you make? You simply possess a divine mark far superior to others, something given to you by the gods, something given to you by that old bald monk. You must safeguard what that old bald monk gave you. If you don't safeguard it properly, it will bring you no benefit. You must safeguard it well. Only by safeguarding it well will your future have hope; if you don't, then your future will truly have no hope whatsoever. I am certain of this, and I am absolutely certain of it.”

"How can I tell if what you've said is a lie, a trick to make me give up everything I have now? And if I give up everything I have now and follow your plan, not only will I not become stronger and be able to take revenge, but I might also be killed by those old masters you mentioned, right? Because I didn't follow their plan, I only followed yours, right? So I hope you can give me a definite answer, an answer that concerns our lives and our future. I hope you can give me an answer that satisfies me and that I can believe, instead of wasting my time talking nonsense with me like this, because it's meaningless."

Fang Yu was taken aback by Zhang Ruochen's question. He hadn't expected Zhang Ruochen to ask such a question, but it was understandable.

"Looks like your head didn't get squeezed by the door. That's good, as long as your head didn't get squeezed by the door. Since your head didn't get squeezed by the door, I can confidently tell you everything you want to know. Actually, most of what you want to know is as I just said, but the details are different. Because I can't tell you the details. I can't tell you what the future will be like, because I can't see the future clearly either. The future has countless possibilities. They want you to save the world, to save the entire universe, because they want to become more powerful. They use you as tools because they know that if they don't make good use of you, they won't be able to get what they want. Why don't they do it themselves? Because they're not getting along harmoniously with each other. On the contrary, their struggles are more frequent and more troublesome. So they're in a state of balance, each wanting the other to die, or for the other to make the first move, so they can unite with others to kill the other. That's his..." Their shared thoughts meant they were all in a state of mutual restraint, rarely making a move—virtually none at all. Even when they did, it was merely a probing attack, testing how long the other had to live, how much strength they possessed, and how much they had left to breathe. This was what they frequently did, and it was precisely this frequent action that kept the universe temporarily stable, in a special state of equilibrium. As for me, I don't come from this universe; I come from another universe, very, very far away. I don't even know how far, but I come from another universe. But I want to change all of this because I know that to become stronger, I can only seize what I want from all of this—your original opportunities, or rather, the opportunities chosen by those old guys. These are all good things, things that are impossible to give up, things that are simply impossible to give up. I can't give up either, and I believe you can't give up either. But I believe you can give up because you don't want your loved ones to die in front of you, so you must give up. If you don't give up... If you give up, your loved ones will ultimately die before your eyes. Really, if you don't give up, your loved ones will ultimately die before your eyes; there's no other choice. So I hope you understand what you want. If you want power, you can continue. If you don't want power, then simply give up everything. As for life, it's not that important to you, is it? If you want revenge, rest assured, I will definitely avenge you in the future, absolutely. I will bring the Empress to your grave and tell you that we have avenged you. Of course, actually, I don't want you to seek revenge, because revenge doesn't exist. There's actually no hatred between you two. All of this was arranged by those old guys. Actually, I shouldn't have revealed this, but now it seems I have no choice but to tell you. I must tell you this, because if I don't, the consequences will be severe. Because if I don't tell you, you might misunderstand that Empress for the rest of your life. The consequences would be unimaginable. Those old fogies have been exploiting this, manipulating your hatred for her. Hatred makes you stronger, as I've already explained before. Hatred makes you stronger, makes you forget pain, forget life, forget everything around you, focusing solely on revenge, retribution, and becoming stronger. That's what you should be doing. In their minds, what you should be doing is following their orders, doing what they arrange, becoming stronger, satisfying them, making yourself stronger, becoming the savior of this world. That's what they want, because only then can they gain enough benefit from you. As I said before, everything they do is to use you, to get you to do things they can't do themselves, or rather, you are just pawns in their game. They only want their pawns to win; that's their true purpose. I hope you understand. If you don't, that's okay too. (End of Chapter)