Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

The river rose from an unknown land, sweeping across the many seas and immersing every mortal within it. At its end, it converged around itself and the ancient one.

This river is not visible to ordinary people.

Even ordinary sages cannot see it; only true saints can perceive the slightest clues. And to take in the entirety of this river, one must become an emperor, become part of the inner universe, or possess a special status.

"Gu, we're moving too fast."

“I know.” Gu Jiang’s axe fell to the ground, hovering in the air, his fingers gently combing through the surging crimson river around him. “The time we spent going from a transcendent species to a quasi-saint is billions of times longer than the time it took us to advance from a quasi-saint to the inner universe. We were propelled up by these external forces. We skipped the stages of accumulating resources and undergoing spiritual transformation for sainthood, thus arriving at this realm with complete humanity.”

“We cheated, and we have to pay the price, which is everything we have.”

"Don't you regret it?"

"Why regret it? Before we embarked on this path, when we were as weak as dust, didn't we already decide to give everything for the rise of humanity? Jun, will you forget your identity as a human being just because you've become powerful?"

"I see." Jun nodded. He neither objected to nor agreed with Gu's question.

“Then, one last question.” His expression became unusually serious—though he had no need to show any emotion, she chose to appear earnest—he looked directly into Gu’s eyes, into those dark pupils. Then, he asked.

"Do your ideals and beliefs belong to you, or to this river?"

Gu did not respond immediately.

He pondered for several seconds—a period equivalent to several eons in this metaphysical space. Countless complex messages surged around him—he meticulously calculated and verified his destiny from the moment of his birth. Then, he lowered his eyelids slightly.

His voice became slightly dry.

"Perhaps, the reason I was chosen by this river is because I have this wish—to pave a path for my people. And..."

Jun didn't keep him in suspense for too long, but went straight to the point.

"...Are you still planning to personally guide them until they reach the end of the road?"

“You could think that way too,” Gu nodded in agreement. “Do you have any other questions, Jun?”

His companion gave him the negative answer he had been hoping for.

“There’s no need for that anymore, Gu.” Jun took off his glasses and casually tossed them into the oceans of the multiverse. Then, he gave Gu his final answer.

"Let's end all of this once and for all, just as you've said."

Jun accepted Gu's ideas, reasons, and excuses. The jade tablet he held in his arms began to glow, and the giant axe in Gu's hand also emitted the same color.

Immediately following, as the two figures disintegrated, this dazzling radiance swept across the entire multiverse.

—Only at this moment did mortals realize. They realized that although the war had been won, their leaders had perished. A new era was born, and mortals soon discovered the many continents beyond the primordial wilderness, discovered the script memes, and discovered that they... had become the masters of this era.

Human history has now entered a new chapter.

And the story of creation ends here.

................................................

And so, on a nameless land whose top and bottom were unknown, Zheng Zha opened his eyes.

He knew everything, he witnessed everything, he understood everything. And now, it is his turn to decide everything.

Is it identification? Is it subordination? Is it understanding and conforming to the ancient principles of creation, integrating oneself into them? Or perhaps...?

Zheng Zha looked up at the vast, empty sky, where there was nothing, not even the 'sky' itself.

Then, a low growl burst from his throat!

"I am not you."

"I am completely different from you!"

..........................................

Um, please consider any differences between this story and the original setting as supplementary material...

Section 55. Zheng Zha, Part 2

Sound has power, power that is enough to redefine the entire world.

When Zheng Zha roared to the sky, unleashing a lion-like fury at the empty heavens, his will redefined the void he inhabited into a new form.

Skyscrapers rose from the ground, steel and concrete materializing. The sky transformed from 'nothingness' to 'blue,' forming fluffy white clouds and mist. The streets immediately bustled with people and traffic. In just a moment, centered around Zheng Zha, he had constructed a modern metropolis that perfectly matched his memories of his youth.

He defined the world and, based on his own understanding, determined how the world manifested.

In this multiverse, there is only one place where one can determine the evolution of space through self-awareness, without needing or using any power.

Alice called that place the Abyss of Death, while the sages and transcendent beings of the universe called it the Seas of the Void. Although Zheng Zha had long known that he had the ability to reach this place, this was his first time visiting it.

He turned around and saw an Egyptian-style office building behind him. He saw many unfamiliar faces that gave him a sense of 'familiarity' moving around inside. In an instant, he knew that he had just escaped from that 'building'.

The building is the universe, and the universe is Anubis's testing ground.

He turned his head and saw a construction site on the side of the building, with another building on top, seemingly planning to connect with Anubis's training ground.

“Sehmed,” Zheng Zha said instinctively when he saw the building. Then, the unfamiliar building on the adjacent land became clearer in his view. He found that this new house also had Egyptian-style decorations, and in the building, a woman who gave him the feeling of a 'lion' was casting an inquiring glance at him.

Their gazes met only briefly before the doors of the building where Sekhmet was located suddenly opened before him. It seemed like an invitation from a foreign land. However, Zheng Zha had no intention of stepping inside.

Stepping into someone else's building is like stepping into their universe. In someone else's universe, you need to follow their ideas and rules.

Zheng Zha had no intention of going in, so the opened door closed again. As the lion-like female figure withdrew her gaze, Zheng Zha noticed that Alice was standing at the end of the passage built by Sekhmet, holding a scroll and a cement hammer for breaking through walls, but blocking the crack in the wall of the Anubis Trial Grounds.

Alice winked at him.

He witnessed the annihilation of galaxies and the withering of all things. Countless mythical legions clashed and perished at the edge of the two realms. All the wars were manipulated within a scroll held by Alice—a scroll that acted as a wall, blocking Sehmed's path into the trial grounds. If Sehmed attempted to force his way in, he would be bound by the rules and regulations described in the scroll.

Zheng Zha withdrew his gaze.

Sehmette wants to infiltrate Anubis's testing grounds; her target is us, or one of us.

[Margot Lloyd foresaw, or calculated, her point of entry. She then prepared a ritual and gained the upper hand just before Lloyd's success.]

Now, Sehmet only has two paths to choose from. Either charge in with brute force, but he'll certainly stumble badly under Margot's preparations and calculations; or he can integrate into the rules set by Margot, abandoning his home-field advantage and fighting her at a weakened state.

In an instant, Zheng Zha grasped the entire situation. Then, he realized that he shouldn't have joined the battle at that moment.

"You should sort out your own problems before you come to help."

—'Because the current situation is under my control, and it doesn't have any major vulnerabilities that would cause a significant collapse of the entire market, at least in the short term.'

This was the message Alice had conveyed to him in that fleeting blink. And he, Zheng, had undoubtedly and clearly interpreted this information. He now knew that he still had time and the ability to resolve the shortcomings he needed to address.

What is a leak/error?

Is it an ancient problem? Is it an ancient concept? — Perhaps. But the other party has not yet taken any action.

His desire to defeat me, devour me, and be reborn within me didn't seem particularly strong. He seemed to simply want to present his experiences, his past, to me, rather than directly overwhelm me with his immeasurable wealth.

Did he regret it? Did he regret shaping humanity into what it is today? Or was it...?

[...He can't do it?]

As his thoughts raced through his mind, Zheng Zha, after a brief analysis, chose the most likely possibility among many. That was the ancient being who had achieved the Threefold Daoist Understanding, and could not be easily resurrected. This was because his death was too complete, and more importantly, because his death had attracted the attention of many adversaries.

He couldn't survive; he didn't even wake up. Everything he had experienced before was all that Gu, who hadn't woken up, could do.

“I am not you, I am completely different from you.”

Zheng Zha whispered to himself, but received no response. He knew, however, that he would not back down, for if he chose to give up, then Gu, no matter how deeply he had died, would be resurrected.

—But if you don't give up, you won't lose.

He turned his head and glanced again at the Anubis Trial Grounds building behind him. This time, along with the building's outline, he also saw the sphere of light from the main god floating atop it—an anomaly that even his understanding could not distort, and the radiance emanating from the sphere firmly sealed off the entire building.

"My own" body remained within the building, residing in an attic as a mad beggar. From the outside, it appeared as a cubicle. But upon entering, one could observe the current state of that enclosed star cluster—those arrogant beings, resembling reptiles from the outside, were fighting against another group of foreign reptiles. This united them and led to moral and intellectual growth.

"Crawler" is not a derogatory term, but a description of relative volume. If that star cluster were a house, then the mass occupied by "itself" would exceed the sum of all the masses outside itself. This is a truth that can only be observed from the outside; if one were inside, one would inevitably be misled by appearances.

Zheng Zha then looked away.

No one can enter this building, this universe, without special permission. Sehmette is clearly a permitted individual. However, to reach her destination, she still needs to follow special procedures.

She should be the only one. Otherwise, this trial ground universe would have been completely surrounded long ago. After witnessing Gu's experiences, Zheng Zha could fully imagine the extent of changes Gu's presence would cause in these multiverse seas. And such developments were certainly under the control of the Supreme God.

The Supreme Deity's stance is neutral; it neither supports the ancients nor opposes their revival.

The supreme deity favors humanity, and the power it possesses is definitely above the level of a true saint.

So, without adding any additional entities...

He stared at the orb of light from the supreme god. In a daze, he seemed to see the outline of a person inside the orb.

[The ancient inner universe, the Human Emperor… the mastermind and interferer behind the scenes of the Supreme God. Is that you? It seems you, like me, though originating from antiquity, do not wish to be bound by ancient ideologies.]

Is that so, Lord God?

He didn't speak, and naturally, he received no reply. The sphere of light from the Supreme God remained steadily suspended above the Anubis Trial Grounds. However, at the same time, Zheng Zha gained a deeper understanding of this alien land. He discovered that while the Supreme God's radiance covered the Anubis Trial Grounds, it also spread to a large surrounding area. And within this area enveloped in light, there were tens of thousands of scattered buildings.

Tens of thousands of buildings, tens of thousands of universes. The area where movement is possible is clearly within this radiant coverage.

The end of the radiance was somewhat blurry, and Zheng Zha had no intention of stepping in that direction.

So……

"Let's go find Chu Xuan first." Zheng Zha made a quick decision. And since he had mastered the way to travel through the seas without any instruction, he naturally waved to the street.

A taxi pulled up in front of him. The door opened, revealing only a blurry outline of the driver. Zheng Zha knew the driver wasn't actually there, but he nodded in greeting anyway. Then he stated his destination.

“Go find Chu Xuan,” he said.

So the taxi started moving. It drove at a moderate pace and stopped when Zheng Zha felt it was time to stop. But when Zheng Zha got out of the taxi, he discovered that his destination was the building to the right of the Anubis Trial Grounds.

[Distance is meaningless...] Zheng Zha thought to himself.

He looked up and scanned the building from top to bottom. As he observed it, the building's outline changed into a shape that better matched his perception.

He saw a tower, a tall tower, a tower that pointed straight to the sky, but it was broken and incomplete.

He immediately learned the identity of the tower.

“A fragment of the Tower of Babel,” Zheng Zha uttered the name. As he spoke, the tightly closed door at the base of the tower swung open. He only needed to take one step forward to enter, and then he could easily find Chu Xuan's whereabouts. However, just before he was about to recklessly rush in, he abruptly stopped in his tracks.

In the past, he would never have stopped. Because he believed he could do it, even if there were many dangers ahead.

However, he stopped there.

Zheng Zha knew what this meant, but he still stopped.

Then, he cast an inquiring glance into the open doorway.

From the outside, he could only see two forces of the same origin, yet similar in nature, vying for dominance within the building. He saw scholars from two factions debating each other inside the tower—he knew this was the essence, but at this moment he preferred to see the appearance. And he felt he should be able to see it, because he had had extensive contact with this Tower of Babel world in the past.