American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Chapter 360 Ha! You go and insult him to attract attention, I'll go clean up the mess!

"Junkyard, huh?!"

Shuen surveyed the boundless void composed of countless remnants of time and came to a similar conclusion as Lucifer.

"That guy just sat there staring blankly?"

He raised his finger and pointed to the gray figure sitting on the obsidian throne in the distance, as if it were a sculpture.

"Yes, based on what Bruce said before and my observations, that should be the case."

"He just sits there staring at the corpse of time, for countless years. How boring. So, our mission is to disturb an autistic person who's contemplating the meaning of life?"

Xiu En felt that he was familiar with this job.

Lucifer also revealed a knowing smile.

"So, we'll approach slowly, concealing our presence, and then unleash a powerful attack?"

"Oh, no, no, no."

Lucifer immediately waved his hand.

"Such petty theft is beneath the dignity of the King of Hell. We tried to do it last time but failed, and I think he already knew we'd entered this place the moment we stepped in."

"Okay, that settles it then."

Xiu En shrugged.

"Since our mission is to attract Shen Jun Kang's attention, let's greet him in the most attention-grabbing way possible, shall we?"

After he finished speaking, his entire body burst forth with a dazzling golden light!

A golden sun appeared, deliberately trailing a long tail that could illuminate the entire time zone, and charged straight toward the throne in a high-profile manner that was almost a declaration of war!

Lucifer looked at the golden light that pierced through the grayness, shook his head helplessly, but a smile remained on his face.

"Okay, okay, a simple and direct opening can sometimes be quite effective."

With a flicker, he transformed into a black streak of light and followed behind the golden sun.

The golden sun finally hovered before the throne.

Shuen dimmed his light and floated in the void alongside Lucifer, who appeared beside him, gazing at the silent figure on the throne.

The divine ruler Kang still maintains his eternally unchanging posture.

It was as if his grand entrance, which had shaken the entire universe, was nothing more than a slightly brighter speck of dust drifting past him.

Just as Lucifer was about to say something, a voice seemed to come from the end of time, ringing out directly in their minds.

Another cycle begins —

The new variable has appeared within the old constant.

You come from that growing trunk, carrying with you a vibrant aura of possibilities that doesn't belong here.

]

Your arrival may be meaningless. Your struggle may also be meaningless.

No matter how big the waves you create, you will eventually be pulled into eternal silence.

He seemed to be saying something to time itself.

Xiu En and Lucifer exchanged a glance, then Xiu En scratched his head and said, "Can you speak like a human being? I don't quite understand. You're that guy called Shen Jun Kang?"

【————】

The divine lord Kang raised his head slightly from the depths of the gray hood. In the shadows, it seemed as if two dim starlight fell upon Xiu En.

"interesting."

Lucifer chuckled softly from the side, while Shuen gave Lucifer a look that urged him to quickly mock him and get his attention.

Lucifer nodded to indicate that he understood.

"My friend, you're asking me a question."

Lucifer added in a polite but sarcastic tone.

"We are real estate appraisers from the multiverse. We heard that you have monopolized such a large and beautiful cemetery plot by yourself, so we have come to visit you to see if you have obtained a legal property certificate."

"If not, then we may have to represent all the trash you've thrown in and forcibly remove you."

"6

【————】

Even the divine lord Kang was at a loss for words for a moment.

Clearly, these two noisy flies from this timeline successfully provoked a slight displeasure from him, the eternal observer of the past.

His withered fingers, which rested on the armrest of the throne, twitched.

In an instant, the countless floating, long-dead stone gears in the void surrounding Shuen and Lucifer changed their trajectory! They surrounded the two in an array that subtly conformed to some kind of time paradox!

A cage made of the corpses of time is taking shape.

The cage slowly closed. Every floating boulder, every broken gear, exuded the deathly stillness of ending. The trajectory they formed seemed chaotic, yet it contained a kind of time paradox that could not be understood by conventional logic.

"Tsk tsk tsk."

Lucifer looked around and clicked his tongue in disapproval.

He turned to look at Xiu En and said with a regretful tone, "See? This is a typical academic work where form outweighs content. It looks grand and complex, full of all sorts of pretentious techniques, but the core is completely empty, only old and rotten."

He pointed to a stone gear the size of a continental plate and said, "Look at that one. Although it's huge, its wear marks and fracture surfaces are full of repetition and monotony, offering no surprises whatsoever. It's like a third-rate poet who can only pile up his pitiful poems with the words 'darkness' and 'loneliness'."

Then, pointing to another nebula composed of countless tiny clockwork parts, he said, "And that one, which looks intricate, but its arrangement is a complete copy of the cyclical model of the Eternal Serpent. Good heavens, I've seen this thing countless times in the junkyard of the early universe!"

He spread his hands, looking down at the divine ruler Kang on the throne, and made a condescending assessment: "Your Excellency the Tomb Keeper, is this the trick you devised over billions of years to entertain guests? A cage built from a pile of ancient, stale garbage?"

His face wore a devilish smile full of insults.

66

With all due respect, your artistic taste, like your social etiquette, needs improvement.

Amidst Lucifer's barrage of extremely unfriendly comments, the voice from the end of time resounded in their minds once more.

[Noise—]

[Meaningless, fleeting noise]

Language is a prison of thought. To attempt to describe infinite eternity with a limited vocabulary is itself a form of arrogance.

"Arrogance? Oh, I like that word."

"But I prefer to call it confidence. At least, my confidence is built on aesthetics and taste. As for your eternity, all that remains is a soporific repetition."

Repetition is the cornerstone of order. Change is the root of chaos.

"Come on!"

Xiu En finally couldn't help but chime in; he simply couldn't stand these two arguing anymore.

"So, according to you, the Big Bang was a huge mistake, and everything should have stayed obediently in the singularity; that's the most orderly state, right?"

Xiu En's rebuttal silenced the conversation once again.

"Alright, stop wasting your breath on him."

Shun waved his hand at Lucifer. "I'll handle this mess. You go on, he won't have time for me."

"Extremely happy to."

Lucifer bowed, once again casting his provocative gaze toward the throne.

Xiu En closed his eyes inside the ever-closing stone cage.

From the corpses of those times, he sensed a kind of obsession filled with resentment and sorrow, similar to that of the billions of vengeful spirits in the Slaughter Sector.

They don't want to be trapped here.

They want to return to their own timeline, which had long been severed, to complete their unfinished mission.

Shuen: "Before you became ruins, you were the cornerstones that supported the operation of a world."

Ivy: "Before you turned to dust, you carried the laughter and tears of countless lives."

A wisp of golden crow fire, imbued with the concepts of life and origin, emanated from them like a warm tide.

"Your mission is over, and your story should come to an end."

"They should no longer be imprisoned here, becoming meaningless decorations under someone else's throne."

Golden flames enveloped them.

Under the illumination of the divine fire, the corpse of time began to undergo strange changes.

On the ruins of a floating island that once belonged to a magical world, countless firefly-like lights lit up, gathering into illusory flowers, as if paying homage to the sun god.

Inside a massive, shattered mechanical gear from a cyberpunk world, a faint rainbow light shone from the long-dormant pipes. Within that light, one could almost hear the once-bustling clamor of millions of citizens.

A scorched fragment of earth from some abyssal plane, tainted with dark energy, slowly had its black, curse-like patterns fade under the purification of golden light, revealing its deep red soil. A roar from an ancient demon flashed through the void.

They are at rest.

They are saying goodbye.

They were telling their untold stories to this strange sun that was willing to listen to their deaths.

The time prison set up by the divine ruler Kang collapsed on its own after its very foundation was fundamentally liberated.

The purification ritual is still ongoing.

Xiu En's Golden Crow Divine Fire painted this gray graveyard with the golden hue of life. And Ivy, the sunflower that had been perched on his shoulder, joined this solemn concerto after sensing the natural breath of each world contained within those time-corrupted corpses.

A vibrant, emerald-green halo emanated from the sunflower's body, intertwining and merging with Xiu'en's golden light.

If Xiu En's divine fire is a eulogy that allows these corpses to rest in peace, then Ivy's divine power is a floral crown woven for these departed souls to return to their homeland.

Under the glow of gold and green light, even more miracles began to occur.

Clumps of tenacious moss even grew on that giant gear from the cyberpunk world.

After the floating island ruins from the magical world revealed illusory flowers, a clear spring of magical water gushed forth, forming a miniature waterfall in the void.

They are not only being purified, but also, under the catalysis of Ivy's divine power, they are blossoming with the life brilliance of their own world.

"A futile funeral."

Lucifer, who was watching from the sidelines with his arms crossed, shook his head.

"I really don't understand you gods who love life. What's the point of expending so much energy on something that's already dead, other than satisfying your own pitiful compassion?"

【significance?】

Just then, that ancient voice rang in their minds once again.

This time, it was King Kang on the throne who questioned Lucifer's words.

For eternity, the existence of a moment is utterly meaningless.

The compassion you speak of, the life within him—these are merely chaotic sparks ignited in the process.

"Oh? So, in your eyes, as an eternal observer, what truly matters?"

【return.】

Let everything return to its rightful place. Let all variables ultimately converge to an unchanging constant. Let all stories share the same ending: the conclusion.

This is the only meaning.

"Ha! What a unique meaning!"

Lucifer felt as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

"According to you, all the climaxes in a play should be cut, and we should jump straight to the actors' curtain call! All the cadenzas in a musical piece should be erased, leaving only the final chord! All life should give up the struggle and just lie down in its coffin, because that's the final ending!"

This time, God-King Kang is prepared to prove himself through action.

On the throne, the gray figure raised his right hand.

He made a guiding gesture towards the void.

As Xiu En was purifying those time corpses, he sensed a vast and pure power of the laws of time, as immense as the universe itself, intervening in his ritual!

This force, like a supreme guide, began to direct the direction of his divine fire!

A series of translucent golden archways opened up before the purified dust of time!

On the other side of each archway lies a unique, fragmented dimension that has long been removed from the main timeline!

The remnants of gears from the cyberpunk world, after being purified into countless data points, were drawn by a force and thrown into one of the archways. On the other side of the archway lay a futuristic city perpetually shrouded in acid rain.

The floating island of that magical world, after transforming into a shower of flowers and streams of magic, also entered through another archway. On the other side of the archway lay a withered branch of the World Tree floating in a sea of ​​stars.

Go home.

These time-bound corpses, imprisoned through countless reincarnations, finally returned to their long-lost homelands under the guidance of Xiu En and Ivy, and the divine lord Kang, to find their final rest.

Shen Jun Kang, the god of time who seems to be an enemy, is actually helping Xiu En complete this funeral?

'

Lucifer's eyes revealed a look of utter bewilderment, as if he had seen a ghost.

He looked at the figure on the throne, then at Shuen, who was clearly surprised by the turn of events and was working with all his might. Lucifer fell into deep thought.

It's like a boxing match that should be a fight to the death, but halfway through, your opponent suddenly starts handing you a towel, feeding you water, and even giving you pointers on how to land your next punch to knock him down!

"Hey, Shuen, Sun God! Tell me, am I dreaming? What is this old relic doing? Is he helping you sort and recycle this garbage?!"

"That seems to be the case."

Xiu En's voice also carried a hint of strangeness.

He could sense that the power of the Divine Lord Kang was merely guiding him, and was even saving him a great deal of divine power that he would otherwise have used to find these timeline coordinates.

"Why?! Why would he do that? Doesn't he know that once all these things are cleared out, his broken cage will be completely useless? Was he swayed by your elementary-level lecture? That's impossible!"

"Damn it, you're the one who's a primary school student!"

The commotion has ended.

Just as Lucifer was caught in the philosophical dilemma of self-doubt, the voice of the god-king Connor rang out again, revealing part of the mystery to him.

A corpse should remain in its grave.

The very act of piling them up here is itself an anomaly.

That gaze fell on Xiu En.

Your actions are correcting this mistake.

What I'm doing is simply making this correction process more efficient.

As for you————

That gaze then turned to Lucifer.

Your words are meaningless compared to this purification.