Eternal Night.

Chapter 920 Fish and Butterfly, Dream and Reality

You remember a story, a little story hidden deep in your memory.

One day, a young man named Zhuangzi, known for his joy, had a dream in which he became a butterfly and experienced the life of a butterfly. After waking up, because Zhuangzi was so joyful, he couldn't think straight and began to ponder a question: was he a human dreaming of a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of a human?
Is he currently dreaming, or has he already woken up?

Between the human and the butterfly, who is the real one?

Or perhaps... it's all an illusion, and all of this is nothing more than a dream of a higher being, or words written by that being?
Who is right? Who is wrong?
True or false?
Dream or reality?
What do you think?

Don't you feel that this place is strange, and what's in your hand... what's in your hand?
You are confused.

A butterfly flew towards you, landed on the tip of your nose, and smiled as it asked, "What you think is a hand, is it really a hand?"

You suddenly realize, "Oh yeah, you are..."

A patch of water appears, and a fish blows a bubble at you. The bubble bursts, waking you from your sleep. The fish is very unhappy. "Your bait is strange. It's not afraid at all and dares to sleep."

You're probably wondering the same thing. You were playing with the fish, so why did you fall asleep?

The fish laughed, and you laughed too...

Wu Pifu stumbled forward, crashing into a massive palace and creating a huge mushroom cloud. Within this cloud, countless utterly twisted and deformed souls howled and wailed. Their forms resembled some abstract paintings from Wu Pifu's memory, such as the figures in Van Gogh's abstract painting called "The Scream," with empty pupils, huge, pitch-black mouths, twisted arms, and shrill screams of terrifying wails.

Everything in the entire Heavenly Court was screaming, and they all turned into countless twisted souls looking towards Wu Pifu.

All of this did not frighten him; it only fueled his murderous intent.

What truly terrified Wu Pifu was the "thing" behind him—a fish, and... another unknown, inexplicable, and unbelievable thing!
This is absolutely unbelievable! One fish was enough to shatter Wu Pifu's entire worldview, but he actually found another similar thing in this Heavenly Court...

Do not!
That doesn't belong to the Heavenly Court!
Wu Pifu immediately confirmed this guess, because if such a thing existed, the Heavenly Court would not have been able to exist stably at all, and that thing came from... that inexplicable voice, the voice of the being that called himself Qing.

"What exactly are you!?" At this moment, outside a collapsed palace, several sublimated beings with extremely strong auras were wailing with severed limbs. Their bodies were rapidly deforming and decaying, and their entire existence was being rapidly corrupted.

This is... a divine general!
In the Heavenly Court system, Heavenly Soldiers, Heavenly Generals, and Heavenly Masters are ranked in order of seniority. However, some beings have been with the Heavenly Court for a long time and have surpassed the strength of Heavenly Generals, but they are unable to reach the level of near-origin or advance to the level of Ascension. These beings are known as Divine Generals by outsiders and are one of the Heavenly Court's strengths in its external wars. Every Divine General can sweep away countless second-level Ascension beings when they are out in the world, but at this moment, they die less than a dog.

Wu Pifu remained silent, not even glancing at the incomplete divine generals, and simply stepped over them, continuing straight towards the higher levels of the Thirty-Three Heavens.

"No!! Kill me, please kill me, kill me..."

The sound abruptly stopped. Wu Pifu didn't even dare to turn around and look at the fate of those crippled divine generals. Whether they were swallowed by fish or transformed by something else, their fate was far worse than death...

If viewed from the outside world at this moment, from a higher and farther perspective, one would see that the Heavenly Court begins to become incomplete from the South Heavenly Gate.

Although the entire Heavenly Court is located in the Outer Heaven of the Thirty-Three Heavens, it belongs to the most ancient transcendent level of the Great World. It is enormous, far exceeding almost all dream worlds. Its size is vast and endless. In particular, the expansion and management of the Heavenly Court over countless eras may even be a whole order of magnitude larger than the Ancient Insect Realm.

But at this very moment, starting from the South Gate of Heaven, a huge, incomplete void appeared...

At the same time, the "disappearance" of more than a dozen Supreme Realm Ancestors shocked many civilizations in the Dream World in the shortest time. Even several ancient civilizations that were secretly observing all of this were shocked by this, so they all activated the artifacts of their respective ancient civilizations to observe, explore, or study, in order to find out what exactly happened.

While attacks on the Heavenly Court are rare, they have occurred throughout countless eras. Sometimes it's due to civilizations using their advanced technology or unique supernatural abilities to try and take over, or perhaps a newly born ancient civilization feels invincible. Other times it's due to civilizations being hunted by the Heavenly Court fighting to the death. Such incidents have happened many times throughout countless eras.

But that was the Heavenly Court. The ancient civilizations, those surviving civilizations that were close to the ancient civilizations, all thought Wu Pifu was crazy. This new era civilization was too arrogant. In fact, they were more amused by the situation.

However, the disappearance of more than a dozen Extreme Realm Ancestors is not such a simple matter.

Don't be fooled by the mere one-level difference between the second and third stages of the Ascension Body; the gap between them is incredibly vast. It's possible that out of a million second-stage Ascension Body cultivators, not even one might reach the third-stage Extreme Realm. And these dozen or so Extreme Realm Ancestors represent an immense and terrifying force, even more powerful than a single ancient civilization. Yet, they vanished without a trace!

They didn't go to the Heavenly Court, nor did they see any signs of the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court taking action, and no major battle broke out. They were merely observing the battle from afar, yet they were caught up in it just because of their "observation".
There wasn't even a trace of struggle; it vanished in an instant.

Only the goddess Daiyu seemed to have survived, but she decisively used her karma with Wu Pifu to escape to the Absolute Truth Layer. For a time, no one could find her, so no one knew what had happened.

Ancient civilizations such as the New Testament Angels, the Demon Court, New Olympus, and Molten Fire... all opened their respective civilization realms at this moment. The brilliance condensed from the artifacts of these ancient civilizations illuminated countless worlds. Among them, the most reckless Molten Fire civilization immediately set its artifact, the Heart of Molten Fire, towards the Southern Gate of the Heavenly Court.

This is an incredibly powerful ancient civilization that once opposed the Heavenly Court in a certain era, and managed to escape unscathed. Although it closed its realm and fell into slumber as a result, it is still one of the most renowned ancient civilizations. Within this civilization, five entities, each representing a source of energy, are observing the Heavenly Court's situation with a mixture of anticipation and malice. They have seen…

What are you expecting?
What weapons are we looking forward to seeing? What battles? What rivers of blood?
Fish dislike the smell of blood, and clear water should not be stained with blood.

You agree. The water is clear, and you can see the deepest darkness. In that darkness lies a cave. Your gaze falls upon the cave, and you see the deepest secret.

How wonderful! You all exclaimed in amazement, smiling at each other, having let down your last defenses and lowered your greatest guard. Finally, you broke free from all the shackles of existence and non-existence, diving into the deepest darkness beneath the surface. Here, you will transform, transform, transform…

In a fleeting moment, in an instant, or perhaps after an infinitely long time, you...

Butterflies fluttered in, their dreamlike colors almost unreal.

You awoke as if from a dream, or perhaps you truly entered a dream; you saw each other, but you couldn't tell if it was real or not, a dream or an illusion...

You are confused. Are you dreaming or awake? No, or is this just a small fragment of your countless illusions? You may be a butterfly, a blade of grass, or a wisp of wind. But at this moment, you dream that you are some other being, such as some insignificant source.
Yes, it was all a dream. You smiled and laughed, deciding to continue sleeping… A fish leaped out of the water, the surface engulfing you, and you awoke with a start. Yes, you were about to delve into the deepest secrets…

The dream shifted, and it seems you dreamt of something insignificant again...

water surface……

Dream...

fish……

butterfly……

water……

Dream……

"The Molten Civilization has vanished!!"

"...What civilization?"

"...Civilization has vanished...What am I saying?"

Something's not right!! Something's not right!

"Unobservable! Unexplorable! Unknowable!"

"Suppress all direct and indirect exploration of the Heavenly Court region! Use only the Root Radiance and the attraction power of the Transcendent Great World as observation points!"

"Yes, using math to measure... water, fish..."

"butterfly……"

Countless messages echoed throughout the dream world. Every ancient civilization had countless incomplete branches, or individual civilizations or small teams left behind. When they opened their realms and revived, these branches, individuals, and small organizations would immediately contact the mother civilization of the ancient civilization, or even set off directly to return to their respective mother civilization's realm.

But soon, one ancient civilization after another fell silent, especially the territories of several ancient civilizations that simply disappeared.

A huge uproar!

This is a scene even more terrifying to countless beings than Wu Pifu single-handedly storming the Heavenly Court!

In their eyes, the ancient civilization, so powerful that it could traverse countless eras, had no natural enemies, not even the source of pollution could overcome it. But at this moment, they suddenly realized that the terror of the dream world far exceeded their imagination. The so-called pollution, the so-called strangeness, the so-called nightmares were not even worthy of carrying its shoes in the face of such great terror...

As for everything outside, Wu Pifu was completely unaware of it, and unable to even imagine it, because he was frantically running for his life. The extraordinary crystal in his hand had shrunk to one-third of its original size, and he didn't know how many more times this thing could save him...

The most terrifying thing was that the two Roots were fleeing forward simultaneously on his left and right sides. One of the Roots was missing an arm, and it was the one that had just attacked him.

"...Why did you turn into a human?" Wu Pifu asked curiously as he rushed forward.

This source did indeed retain its human form. As it ran, it roared at Wu Pifu, "What exactly are you? What are those things behind you? One-fifth of me is gone, completely gone! You're still in human form because you, a human, actually escaped from those things. Why? By what right?"

Wu Pifu let out an "oh," realizing that the root cause was that it had escaped in human form. Naturally, he couldn't answer that question and simply ran straight up.

As it ran, the source roared, "Save me! I will repay you!"

Wu Pifu asked in surprise, "You are the origin, yet you can reach the ends of the earth in a flash. The Thirty-Three Heavens couldn't possibly be that big for you, right? It's one thing for you to become human, but why do you need to run?"

Suddenly, the source tore off a leg, which vanished completely. It then hopped forward on one leg, surprisingly at a remarkable speed, roaring in terror, "Distance, time, causality, concepts, existence, non-existence… this thing encompasses everything! You're just a mortal; you can't perceive it. I'm only running like this to talk to you! Please, save me! I am the Heavenly Emperor of Heavenly Secrets, the ancestor of the Panshan Civilization captured by the Heavenly Court. Just now, the restrictions placed upon me were lifted! I am also an enemy of the Heavenly Court. Save me, and I will help you fight against the Heavenly Court!!"

Panshan Civilization?

Wu Pifu's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't retrieve the Panshan Civilization's sublimated form from the extraordinary crystal. He simply said, "I can't fight the fish and that other thing either, so..."

"Fish?" The Heavenly Emperor was taken aback. He...

You paused for a moment, and the fish seemed delighted because you had chosen it. The fish circled you, blowing bubbles, and you happily held one in your hands. But then, vaguely, you felt that this bubble looked somewhat familiar…

Is it a bubble called the Heavenly Emperor?

Bang.

The bubble burst.

You are smiling happily.

(End of this chapter)