Above Destiny

Chapter 543 The Final Phase of a Myriad of Phenomena
New sorrows and old grievances come one after another.

One after another, like flies, you swat one down and another pops up, it's endless, so annoying!
Even though I've already made concessions time and again, why won't you even let me finish a good dream?

Wen Sheng opened his eyes.

Everything that had vanished into thin air was reassembled, and the consciousness and soul that had been completely annihilated reappeared from the void.

It's like time has reversed.

Everything that was annihilated, erased, and utterly destroyed has come together once more.

No, it's not just that...

For a fleeting moment, the world seemed to crumble, dissolving into a phantom and revealing its true form. Beyond this endless dream, colossal skeletons, as large as mountains, surrounded it.

That was a three-headed serpent!
Countless moths rose and fell upon the corpses, gnawing at the rotting flesh and exposing the bare bones, constantly surging about, and between the opening and closing of their phosphorescent wings, human faces appeared on the wings...

They all look exactly like Wen Sheng!
Those self-natures, conceived and completed from the souls of believers, transformed into moths, devouring their past selves and simultaneously forming their present selves!

This is a cycle.

Surrounding the remains of Huang Liang, an endless cycle of death and resurrection, with bones and moths constantly transforming, Wen Sheng is able to remain on the edge of death and life, existence and nothingness, experiencing endless pain and torment, and thus sublimating and transforming!

The entire foundation of the Illusionary Dream is built upon Wen Sheng's remains!
Perhaps, this is the complete face of the Holy Spirit!

"Now, you don't need to regret it, Sister Wen."

Ji Jue sighed softly and said slowly, "Back then, you did indeed kill Wen Sheng, turning his bones to ashes and leaving no future troubles."

Wen Sheng, as he was before, is indeed dead.

But the lingering resentment and hatred relentlessly coalesced into a broken and frenzied remnant spirit. With this obsession and hatred, it forcibly rose to prominence, undergoing countless trials and tribulations of its own nature, and then reconstructed its current form!

Since the soul is shattered, let's piece it back together; since it has been reduced to ashes, let's gather the ashes together again.

Hatred and obsession transcend death.

Through countless souls and selves, the 'self' is reshaped!

And so, rebirth.

And so, they were resurrected!
The Ship of Theseus has had its last plank replaced, but it is still Theseus, and it is still the same as it was before.

Now, even if Ji Jue and Wen Wen were to grind him to dust, it would be useless. The entire illusion was built upon the remains of the Holy God, and the entire illusion was under the Holy God's observation.

The countless Wen Sheng self-natures that transformed into moths observed each other, and ultimately formed the strongest observer, the Holy God.

In the Holy Spirit's observation, even if a constructed soul is destroyed once again, it can still be reborn in an instant.

To break this mechanism, one must first break the observation of the Holy Spirit, and the prerequisite for doing so is to first destroy this illusion, but this illusion itself is based on the Holy Spirit...

A closed-loop system has been formed!

Without external intervention, Ji Jue could find almost no way to break the cycle from within.

Even the traces left by Chun Jun were completely erased the moment they were noticed.

"If a person wants to understand his or her true self, he or she must look inward."

A gentle voice rang out, echoing between heaven and earth, like a sigh and a lament: "The more you look inward, the more you have to give up and relinquish."

At the same time, the more clearly one understands what "I" truly are.

Finally, in the moment you truly see yourself, you will understand what love, desire, ideals, sorrow, despair, and hope are all about...

Everything is nothing but insignificant dust!

In that instant, Wen Sheng's figure reappeared before their eyes as the world changed.

"It's been a long time, Wenwen, I'm back."

That calm face slowly rose, turned to them, and smiled slightly: "Thanks to you all, my 'Foundation of Heaven and Man, Myriad Final Forms' is now complete!"

Is it really just the foundation of heaven and man?

Ji Jue raised his eyebrows, carefully observing everything before him, pondering and speculating in his mind: "No, such a grand scheme, besides the foundation of heaven and man, must also contain the prototype of the [doomsday theory] in this dream, right?"
So that's how it is! Such ambition and boldness are truly astonishing!

Ordinary people have already exhausted all their efforts to achieve the status of a celestial being, and have no time to spare for anything else.

Despite experiencing so much pain and torment, Ke Wensheng still had the energy to plan and consider higher-level fields.

They've even envisioned reaching the realms of sages and dragons!
Even from the perspective of doomsday theory, this dream is too small to be considered a prototype, but it has already laid a crucial foundation for the future!

Next, it was a matter of proceeding step by step, adding bricks and tiles...

"..."

Wen Sheng's smile froze for a moment.

Unexpectedly, Ji Jue noticed the key point as soon as only a trace and structure were exposed!
Despite not having exceptional perception, his insight and instincts were far too extraordinary.

Even now, in such a dire situation, she is still instinctively analyzing everything around her, chattering on and on.

"However, the problem is that the path of ascension is clearly closest to that of sages, right? Why turn to the dragon?"

Ji Jue was puzzled and asked in confusion, "Abandoning the orthodox origin of creationism and adopting the apocalyptic end of divine aberration? Isn't that completely counterproductive and just asking for trouble?" Among the Twelve Supreme Virtues, the Desolate Ruins are the closest to the 'Dragon' representing destruction, while the essence of ascension and transformation, which is opposite to the Desolate Ruins, is closest to the sages representing the origin!
Admittedly, sages and dragons represent the origin and the end, respectively, and creation and destruction are not inherently superior or inferior. However, Wen Sheng's choice is almost like Ji Jue giving up Tianmen University, which is right next to his home, and his strongest major, mechanical engineering, to go to Nanjing Forestry University to study humanities... What's the point of asking for trouble?!

"Yeah, why?"

Wen Wen knew perfectly well what was going on. She glanced at her brother, making no attempt to hide her mockery, and asked knowingly, "Perhaps it's because he's a child who lacked love since childhood and still harbors unrealistic fantasies?"

"Oh? What do you say?"

As if out of curiosity, Ji Jue produced a handful of nuts and started cracking them open.

Before Wen Sheng could even speak, he saw the two of them huddled together, whispering and pointing at him, laughing and chatting, leaving sunflower seed shells and nut shells scattered all over the ground.

In the brief silence, that face remained unchanged from beginning to end, only growing increasingly indifferent.

I can no longer tolerate those two repulsive faces appearing before my eyes!

Ultimately, it's hopeless—

That disdainful face slowly rose, and magnificent doors appeared behind him, with countless reliefs moving and changing on them, dazzling and mesmerizing.

It was like the gates of heaven.

But that wasn't a door... it was the gaping maw of a giant serpent's skeleton hanging down!
The realm of bliss opens here!
As the first drop of water slowly seeped out from behind the door, it made a crisp echo; as the first ray of light flowed like spring water, it revealed a dreamlike rainbow.

But the boundless torrent, like the seven seas bursting their banks, gushed out and in an instant, covered the sky, covered the earth, and filled everything!
Countless inverted fantasies, inextinguishable mad desires, and endless distorted phenomena.

It is not some beautiful, dreamlike thing, but rather the delusion and madness extracted from the countless souls who have been immersed in bliss throughout the entire dream of the Yellow Millet, and the poison of the soul bred from endless thirst!
There was no room for maneuver, no room for retreat.

Even a single drop is enough to corrupt all resolve, rot consciousness, and dissolve the soul...

At this moment, the scale before Ji Jue's eyes was boundless!
Over such a long period of time, how much brutal extravagance and revelry did the paradise witness, and how many souls were twisted beyond recognition in the indulgence?

This torrent is the answer!

Before the Age of Chaos, ancient texts described a time when the world was corrupt and sinners roamed freely. The gods would send a devastating flood to cleanse everything, drowning all heretics, while the righteous, led by prophets, would overcome the disaster and usher in a new era…

But now, there are no righteous people, nor are there any prophets.

Only a destructive torrent, overwhelming and roaring in!

A cataclysmic flood descended upon this place.

It devoid of distinction between friend and foe, engulfing everything.

"Holy crap—"

In a corner of the dream, on the broken earth, Old Deng, who was still secretly slacking off and eating melons, was stunned. He looked up and stood frozen in place.

stunned.

No, I only touched it for a little while, just a little while!
The foam on my lips hadn't even dried yet, how did things get so complicated?!

His vision blurred in waves.

My claws started to feel numb.

Logically speaking, from a craftsman's moral standpoint, he should have made a clean break and left immediately. But... he finally found a buddy he liked, and before he could even start developing his network, things just...

But damn it, he's a Mohist!
Yes, Ji Jue wouldn't admit it. This bastard never had that awareness; he just found it troublesome. But with Fei Gong in hand, having accepted mercury, and having been taught fluid alchemy, to say you're not... isn't that a bit of a lie?

It's just a matter of completing the formalities!
The Mohists are kind to one another and love all things.

This compassion is not divided by self or others; the Mohists of the past achieved this through it. And this precept of mutual respect among companions is the true, inviolable, and unbreakable connection.

"Damn it, we lost a fortune!"

After a moment's hesitation, Old Deng bared his teeth, stomped his foot, picked up the snake hat in his arms, pried open the snake's mouth, reached inside with his palm, ignored the snake's gagging and angry stares, and went all the way in, gripping the trump card at the very bottom of the box.

Unfortunately, they were unable to pull it out...

His movements stopped.

Trembling.

In that instant, right before him, an invisible darkness slowly rose, transforming into a faint eye.

From above.

With just one glance, Bao Dacai—no, the master expelled from the association, the Mohist Fan Qian—gave up all hope and resistance.

He smiled bitterly and sighed.

Is that so?
"...We're too busy taking care of ourselves to worry about anything else."

Immediately, they were swallowed up by the overwhelming darkness.

Finally, all that remained was to look up at that distant and tiny figure in the sky.

You'd better wish yourself good luck, kid...

(End of this chapter)