Swallowed Star: Lord of the Wolf

These words were like a thunderclap, pointing directly to the true intentions hidden deep within Gu You's heart by the "Disaster of the Beasts"!

Who can resist the allure of the ultimate realm of the God King?
Controlling a Beast with boundless potential is like controlling a shortcut to the pinnacle. Qing Teng Hou keenly sensed the unusual focus on the "value" of Beasts deep within Gu You's words.

Gu You felt a chill in his heart, but his face remained calm. However, the black robe seemed to be fluttering even more dramatically without any wind.

He didn't directly deny it, but instead followed Qing Teng Hou's lead, playing along with his words, revealing a hint of embarrassment at having his thoughts exposed, coupled with a deeper curiosity: "Qing Teng Hou has keen insight. However, if I may be so bold as to ask..." His gaze was intense, filled with inquiry, "The Mother River has a profound foundation and dares to contend with the Yan Feng Ancient Kingdom, so it must also possess the 'Reverse Passage' method. With this method, and given the Mother River's unparalleled divine might, why... is it that the Mother River secretly cultivates World Beasts for its own use? If it could gain the assistance of an Ultimate God-King, wouldn't it be even more capable of shaking the foundations of the ancient kingdom?"

This cleverly throws the question back, both concealing the true purpose and firmly focusing the topic on the "reverse channel" itself, while simultaneously testing Qing Teng Hou.

"Hahaha!" Upon hearing this, Qing Teng Hou burst into laughter, but there was little joy in his laughter. Instead, it carried a trace of world-weariness and a faint mockery. "Guardian Gu You, your thoughts... are still too simplistic! Or rather, you underestimate the supreme rules of this world, and you underestimate the insurmountable chasm that lies between the Origin Continent and the Three Thousand Dimensional Universe Sea!"

His laughter subsided, his expression turned solemn, and his voice deepened, as if he were telling a secret: "Do you know how many beings, throughout the countless eras of the entire Origin Continent, can truly 'do as they please' and freely traverse within and outside this cage, treating dimensional barriers as nothing?"

Gu You remained silent, already having found the answer in his heart.

Qing Teng Hou asked and answered himself, his tone filled with boundless awe: "Only the ancestors of the ancient kingdoms, only those few who have long since transcended the shackles of the cage and roam the endless void... super beings, they may descend upon any cosmic sea with a thought, or they may no longer care about this small place within the cage."

He abruptly shifted his tone, pointing to reality: "Even someone as powerful as my Mother River Lord, Master Zongfu! With the body of a second-level God-King, he defied the Emperor and shook the Origin! Yet..." Qing Teng Hou's voice carried a hint of helplessness and deep apprehension, "Even for Master Zongfu, descending from the Origin Continent to a certain cosmic sea is by no means an easy task! The price he needs to pay... is high enough to make any God-King hesitate!"

"The price?" Gu You's heart tightened suddenly; this was exactly what he wanted to know.

"This is the price!" Qing Teng Hou said heavily. "The order of ascension set by the supreme rules is no child's play! It is a one-way street, an ironclad law by which the supreme will maintains its own stability and guides the upward leap of energy and life levels! To go against it is to defy the rules themselves!"

A deep awe was evident in his eyes: "This 'cage,' this insurmountable barrier, is not a simple spatial barrier. It is the manifestation of the supreme rule's will. Forcibly breaking it, wanting the original body to descend intact into the cosmic sea? The resulting backlash from the rules would be enough to instantly annihilate a god-king's divine body and disintegrate his divine heart. Even Lord Zongfu would have to suffer unbearable damage, and it might even shake his foundation."

Upon hearing this, Gu You's mind was instantly filled with memories of the old days of the God King of Jin!
Back then, the three Divine Kings of the Food Kingdom were incredibly ferocious, relentlessly pursuing the Divine King of Jin until he had nowhere to run or escape, almost to his wits' end. However, when the Divine King of Jin finally escaped into the cosmic sea at some unknown and terrible cost, those three ferocious gods actually stopped outside the dimensional membrane and gave up the pursuit!

At the time, I didn't delve into it, but now, considering what Qing Teng Hou said... it's probably because the three god kings of the Food Kingdom knew that the price to pay for "reverse descent" far exceeded the gains from killing a heavily injured, fleeing god king!

Not worth the candle!

Seeing the changing expressions on Gu You's face, Qing Teng Hou knew that he had grasped something, and continued, "So, it's not that Mother River doesn't want to, but... it can't! Or rather, it's not worth it! To gamble with the severe injury of a God-King or even the risk to one's cultivation path for a World Beast embryo that has not yet grown, is full of variables, and may attract the joint attack of all the God-Kings in the world? This is absolutely not a wise move!"

He leaned forward slightly, lowered his voice, and spoke with a solemnity as if revealing a secret: "Then, if a God-King is truly willing to pay any price to descend into the cosmic sea in his true form, is there absolutely no way out?"

Gu You held his breath and concentrated.

"Yes!" Qing Teng Hou said decisively, "The price is—to bind one's own hands and feet, to sever one's own cultivation, and to crawl weakly under the rules to cross that narrow loophole!"

"Tying your own hands and feet? Severing your own cultivation?" Gu You's pupils constricted slightly.

“Not bad!” A complex light flashed in Qing Teng Hou’s eyes, seemingly regretful yet fearful. “Since one cannot transcend the cage, then to find a loophole, one must bear its weight and be bound by it! The core of this method is to actively ‘surrender’ to the supreme rules, and in a way that is almost ‘self-destructive,’ forcibly suppress one’s own level of existence and the essence of power to… the limit that the cosmic sea can contain!”

He held up three fingers, his tone growing heavier with each point he mentioned: "First, the shackles of cultivation. Divine body, divine power, control over the laws of chaos... all power originating from the Origin Continent and exceeding the upper limit of the rules of the Cosmic Sea will be restricted. This means that an invincible God-King, upon entering the Cosmic Sea, will have his divine body strength and the power of his laws suppressed! Facing the greatest danger within the Cosmic Sea—the released primordial universe—he could very well... capsize unexpectedly!"

Gu Youxin understood that this was the reason why the God King of Jin was killed by the Primordial Universe and even his corpse was treasured.

When the God-King entered, it was as if a dragon had cut off its claws and teeth, or a tiger had its sharp teeth pulled out.

"Secondly, the will must be isolated. The heart of a God-King can create and destroy stars with a single thought, and its will can encompass billions of light-years. However, if such a vast will were to descend upon the cosmic sea, its very existence would be a tremendous shock and pollution to the fragile laws of the cosmic sea and the original cosmic will, easily provoking a frenzied backlash from the original cosmic will. Therefore, the descendant must isolate and seal their own God-King will, retaining only a wisp of 'divided thought' to control the descended body. This wisp of thought is extremely fragile compared to the main body. Once destroyed, although it will not cause the main body to perish, the descended body will certainly suffer."

Will sealing is more terrifying than power suppression!
A god-king who loses the insight, deduction, and absolute control of the god-king's will is essentially crippled in the unfamiliar and hostile cosmic sea, and the risks increase exponentially.

"Thirdly, the karmic consequences of evil. This is the most hidden and heaviest price!" Qing Teng Hou's tone was chilling. "The supreme will values ​​balance above all else. Forcibly descending in reverse is itself a desecration and theft of the rules. Every time the descendant unleashes power beyond its 'suppressed level' within the cosmic sea, every time it interferes with the causal operation of the cosmic sea itself... especially large-scale killings and altering the trajectories of important lives, it will accumulate 'evil' invisibly! This 'evil' is formless and intangible, yet it is like a maggot clinging to a bone, deeply rooted in the causal origin of the descendant! When it returns to the Origin Continent, reopens the seal, and restores the power of the God-King..."

Qing Teng Hou's voice was as cold as the wind from the deepest hell: "This accumulated 'evil' will transform into the most terrifying 'causal tribulation fire.' Perhaps it was a defeat in a battle with an enemy, or a mishap during a period of seclusion... In short, it will inevitably lead to disastrous consequences. The deeper one intervenes in the Cosmic Sea, the more terrifying the accumulated 'evil' will be, and the more deadly the returning tribulation fire will be! This is a sword hanging overhead; one careless move and one will face certain death!"

"Such situations are not uncommon in the history of the Origin Continent. Of the powerful figures who ventured into the cosmic sea in ancient times, seven or eight out of ten who eventually returned perished or were reincarnated."

Shackles on cultivation!

Willpower isolation!

Cause and effect, evil karma!

The three obstacles, each heavier and more deadly than the last, are like three inescapable nooses, tightly strangling the necks of every god-king attempting to descend against the tide.

Enough to cast the lofty god-king down to the mortal realm, shackle him, burden him with evil debts, and subject him to a life-or-death struggle. The courtyard was deathly silent.

The sound of the flowing spring of life seemed to be frozen by this heavy truth. Gu You sat upright on the jade stone, his body under the black robe turned into a cold statue. Only in the depths of his deep eyes, it seemed that a chaotic storm was silently roaring, tearing, and weighing.

Qing Teng Hou looked at him but did not urge him.

He knew all too well what Gu You was thinking.

This is a high-stakes gamble on the future, risking a momentary adventure for an eternal future!

This price is enough to deter 99% of the God-Kings. Back then, the God-King of Jin was probably forced into a true desperate situation, facing the calamity of national destruction and death, which forced him to choose this deadly path of drinking poison to quench his thirst.

After a long while, Gu You slowly raised his head, his voice somewhat hoarse, yet carrying an almost obsessive calm: "Even so... it's not a complete dead end, is it? Since Lord Qing Teng knows so much detail, surely... there must be a specific way to perform this method within the Mother River?"

Qing Teng Hou stared intently at Gu You, his emerald eyes filled with complex emotions.

There was a touch of admiration for Gu You's unwavering dedication, a deep fear of the terrifying price to pay, and an indescribable sigh, as if witnessing a moth drawn to a flame.

He remained silent for a moment, as if making a difficult decision.

Finally, he sighed softly and slowly, "Ah..."

With a sigh, Qing Teng Hou's hand, as if carved from the finest jade, slowly reached into the void beside him. The space rippled like water, spreading out in concentric circles of emerald green. His hand seemed to have entered another dimension, before slowly withdrawing after a moment.

When he opened his palm, a jade slip lay quietly in his palm.

This jade slip has a grayish-white color that appears as if it were in a state of primordial chaos. It is made of neither gold nor jade and has an exceptionally ancient and simple appearance.

The surface was devoid of any ornate patterns, only a few deep, seemingly naturally formed engravings that appeared to contain endless mysteries, faintly forming an extremely simple, shackle-like pattern. The jade slip itself did not emit any powerful energy fluctuations; instead, it was extremely restrained, exuding a heavy, ancient, and even slightly ominous aura.

It was as if it carried not knowledge, but a heavy cursed contract.

Qing Teng Hou's gaze fell on the jade slip, carrying an indescribable solemnity, as if he were carrying a thousand-pound burden. He slowly pushed the jade slip towards Gu You.

"This scroll contains the... method of reversal," Qing Teng Hou's voice was deep. "It contains no fancy secret techniques, only the cruel method of constructing those triple shackles, and... some ancient experiences on how to maximize one's own survival and avoid the hostility of the primordial cosmic will under the fragile rules of the cosmic sea. As for the method of constructing the 'reverse passage'... for those in the Chaos Realm, as long as they are willing to pay the terrifying price of tearing apart the dimensional membrane and endure the first wave of impact from the supreme will, the method itself is not the most crucial difficulty. The core issue lies in how to 'survive' and 'be allowed to exist' afterward."

He stared intently at Gu You's hand as he received the jade slip, his tone more solemn than ever before, carrying the admonition and warning of an elder: "Guardian Gu You, this path is perilous, a near-death experience, and the return journey is fraught with calamity! For a World Beast... even if its potential is limitless, is it worth risking your path to Godhood, everything you've gained through countless years of arduous cultivation, even... your future? I urge you... to think it over! Think it over again! Unless absolutely necessary, never embark on this path!"

Qing Tenghou's words resonated like a great bell in Gu You's mind.

The grayish-white jade slip felt icy cold to the touch. The simple shackles and engravings seemed to come alive, transforming into invisible chains that wrapped around his soul, bringing a heavy sense of suffocation.

For a Beast of the Realm?
A slight smile appeared in Gu You's heart.

Beasts of the Realm? That's just a smokescreen to cover up his true purpose. What he really wants is that door, the supreme opportunity left behind by "Yuan"!

It is the ultimate possibility to transcend the cage and overlook the primordial chaos.

Compared to the "Gate of the Void Realm," what are world beasts? What is the path of the God King? Even the billions of years of foundation of this Origin World are nothing more than disposable bargaining chips in the face of the opportunity of "Yuan."

The path of cultivation is inherently defying the heavens and fighting against fate!
If you dare not take risks or gamble big, how can you seize that one in a million chance to escape the cage?
Moreover, he has a cheat code to help him, and a perfect divine body that is allowed to exist even by the supreme rules... He even received a reward from the supreme will in the past. In a sense, he can be considered half a favorite of the supreme will.

Given such an opportunity, of course he should try to seize it. Otherwise, the two ancient kingdoms and various forces on the Origin Continent have long been guarding the opportunity left by Yuan. How could he possibly get a share of it?

Of course, Gu You didn't show these expressions on his face; he was also very grateful for Qing Teng Hou's advice.

His face perfectly conveyed struggle and fear of the consequences. He gripped the cold jade slip tightly, his knuckles turning slightly white, as if he were engaged in a fierce internal struggle.

After a long pause, he bowed deeply to Lord Qing Teng, his voice low and deep: "Lord Qing Teng's kindness in resolving my doubts and bestowing upon me this book today is something I, Gu You, will never forget! The implications of this matter are truly as powerful as thunder in my ears. Allow me... to go back and carefully consider and weigh the matter thoroughly."

He did not give a positive answer.

"Protect the Dharma with caution." Lord Qing Teng nodded slightly, saying no more. He had said all that needed to be said; the path lay before him, and the choice was his own. A deep glint flickered in the depths of his emerald eyes, as if he were deep in thought.

"Gu You takes his leave." Gu You bowed again, no longer lingering. His long black robe fluttered without wind, and his figure rapidly faded and blurred in a deep, dark light, finally disappearing completely from the Life Spring courtyard of the Myriad Vine Palace, leaving only the cool jade stone and the still-unsettled ripples in the air. (End of Chapter)