Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

He saw the Central Continent Team growing stronger, and his own voice becoming increasingly influential. He saw his own beliefs silently shifting under the influence of this environment. He saw himself becoming more and more of a "saint."

'Self' is changing, it is becoming another 'thing'.

And just when everything was about to reach a critical point, that exploration—this exploration—this battle sparked by encountering his past life in the world of gods and demons, finally came fully into his view.

Section 57 Zheng Zha, Part 4

Same stage, different experiences.

Amidst the diverse seas, Zheng Zha calmly observes the various performances of 'another self' on this similar stage.

He saw that 'himself' had easily gained control of the team and become the undisputed leader.

He saw his concept of 'himself' gradually shift and reorganize in battle after battle. What started as simply wanting to live gradually transformed into wanting to protect the world. And later, the scope of this desire to be protected kept changing, and soon it included all 'human beings'.

Unbeknownst to them, they came to believe themselves to be the guardians of humanity, taking this belief for granted. This ideology, however, silently eroded the vast majority of the team members, leaving them unaware of their own actions and turning them into puppets in a game of manipulation.

Ah…that’s right. In that record, the Central Continent Team there was definitely more united than the current Central Continent Team. All the members were closely clustered around him, the captain. And all strategies and tactics would change according to 'his' own will.

His word is law, and he is indispensable.

The Central Continent Team can do without anyone else, but it can no longer function without 'him'.

So, is this a good thing?

Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't. Depending on one's perspective, the concepts of good and bad, right and wrong, will also be modified and changed. For the other Zheng Zha on stage, 'he' might very well appreciate this development. Because in this way, he can better protect all his companions and ensure that any problems that his companions cannot handle can be resolved through his own efforts.

However, for Zheng Zha at this moment, for Zheng Zha who had traveled all the way here with Alice and the others, he despised himself for developing in this way.

He would not respect the ideas of another version of himself, because for every mature transcendent being, any viewpoint outside of themselves is considered heretical. Furthermore, he himself yearns for the prevalence of the 'Path of Opening Up'. For him, the best future for the team is when everyone has their own path to follow.

He gives people fish, but he doesn't teach them how to fish. He paves a path, but whether others walk it or where they end up is entirely outside his consideration. The current harmonious yet diverse state of the Central Continent Team is precisely because his philosophy is tacitly approved, and even promoted.

This is completely different from the other possibility of him.

Because while his other self wants to protect everyone, he also wants to control them all. This other self will certainly pave a path for his friends, but he will also forcefully arrange or guide his companions to follow his own ideas.

Zheng Zha noticed that this 'other self' utterly loathed the breeding team. Since there was no concrete reason, 'he' gave himself an excuse: it was because he hated everything associated with the clone after hearing its story.

However, in the predicted possibilities, while the entire Central Continent team appeared harmonious, their resource allocation was actually worse than that of the breeding team—the breeding team would at least keep a small portion of their income to ensure that the oppressed newcomers had some means of self-defense. But within the Central Continent team, the allocation of all members' resources and the use of reward points required the approval of 'him,' the captain.

He could tell that when 'he' was so harshly criticizing his companions, not a single selfish thought crossed his mind. 'He' genuinely wanted to strengthen the team's overall capabilities, even if it meant paying out of his own pocket to make up for any shortcomings, to ensure that every member could survive intact while making the best use of resources.

But he understood even more clearly that what 'he' did was, in objective reality, to put invisible shackles on the other members, ensuring that their growth progress was always under his control.

He is the leader, and he wants to become the dragon's head.

He hopes that everyone can be like a dragon, or even surpass a dragon.

So……

Zheng Zha lowered his eyes, watching the unfolding of the script within this closed universe. He watched the Yellow Turban Warriors' tricks, watched another version of himself open the portal to the treasure. He watched the battle between 'himself' and the 'Emperor Unit 1' that looked like an EVA, watched the victory, watched 'himself' step into the treasure pavilion.

“I am not you.” Zheng Zha repeated this sentence for what felt like the umpteenth time. But this time, as he said it, he happened to see another version of himself take a delicate little clock from the treasure.

“I am completely different from you.” And the instant those words left his lips, he clearly saw the entire nascent universe, trapped within the script, cease to function.

The universe has reached its limit because the script sets the Eastern Emperor Bell as an innate spiritual treasure, and in this fictional story, it is obviously impossible to obtain such a genuine artifact.

However, the universe had already completed its mission. Because when the 'Zheng Zha' in the script touched the Eastern Emperor Bell that shouldn't exist there, outside the universe, another real Zheng Zha, observing the script's operation, clearly sensed something unknown detaching from him.

He knew what it was; he was pleasantly aware that his abnormal intelligence was slipping away from his mind along with that unknown thing. He knew perfectly well why this was happening. Because in his judgment—

"The 'he' now is more suitable to be you than I am. Gu."

As expected, there was no response after the words were spoken.

However, the lack of response itself is also a response. Especially when the person in question is present, it signifies a silent invitation and greeting.

Zheng Zha sensed and understood the invitation, and he accepted it with pride, then stepped into the ruined universe without hesitation. On a shattered earth where all things rose and fell in a whirlwind, he finally saw his adversary face to face.

He finally took this crucial, and also most troublesome, step.

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

"I am not Gu." — The man with a face similar to Zheng Zha looked at him dejectedly, the emotion in his eyes was hard to tell whether it was frustration or anger — The man explained, "Gu hasn't woken up yet, not at all. I am just the influence he had on you, just the residue he left behind in this trial."

“I know.” Zheng Zha nodded. “But I think it’s still okay to call you Gu, because you are, after all, derived from him, and your connection with him is deeper than anyone else’s.”

The man, who looked just like Zheng Zha, shrugged casually, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Zheng Zha nodded. He took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and tossed it, along with a lighter, to his opponent. The latter caught it immediately, took a satisfying drag, and revealed a look of ecstasy.

He is Gu, and also Zheng Zha, because Gu did not smoke, and tobacco was not a pastime in the prehistoric era.

Zheng Zha hesitated for a moment.

“If I fail, will I end up like you?” he asked.

"What do you think?" His interlocutor shook his head, taking the cigarette butt from his lips and crushing it into powder. "Gu never intended to awaken in this era. Because now is simply not the right time; humanity doesn't need him at this point in time. And he only intends to use influence to make you his representative or deputy."

"If you fail, you will not lose your will, nor will you lose your partners or friends. The ancient legacy, the Eastern Emperor Bell, will be entrusted to you, along with its fortune, for your use. This will be enough to allow you to ascend to the level of a quasi-saint in a very short time, and you may even go further and become one of the few supreme immortals in this multiverse."

"And the price is abandoning my ideals." Zheng Zha sneered. "Can a transcendent being that has lost its ideals still be considered an independent being? It's nothing more than a puppet, a fake. A pawn that might be of some use, but will be discarded without hesitation when the time is right."

Zheng Zha's voice was cold, his tone as still as an ancient well. He had originally thought that what followed might be the moment when they would tear off all pretenses and fight each other. However, he did not expect to receive an unexpected reply before the battle even began.

"You don't need to abandon your ideas, you just need to make a slight change within your means."

“Even a little bit is giving up.” Zheng Zha looked at him as if… no, as if he were looking at a fool. “I don’t know how many levels of existence you are above me. But at least at my level, my ideals are who I am. Changing my ideals is not much different from stabbing myself in the throat as a mortal. And you’re telling me it’s just a little bit?”

"A knife to the neck doesn't necessarily mean death." This can be answered using the self-proclaimed ancient perspective: "Moreover, no matter what you think, there are some things you just have to admit."

"You were born of humankind, you have human blood in your veins, you grew up under human education, and you have always been using human power."

"So?" Zheng Zha tilted his head slightly, sizing up the guy in front of him.

"When humanity faces a crisis, shouldn't you offer some support and do your part?"

“Of course I will help.” Zheng Zha’s gaze shifted from questioning to surprise. “My philosophy is to open up new paths. I will pave a way for everything that is in trouble, whether it is human, alien race, or any other strange thing. My philosophy has always been this way, it is this way, and it will be this way in the future—why do you think I won’t help?”

"Don't you think you can do more?"

“I think that’s enough. The path is already under their feet. Do I need to teach them how to walk it step by step? This is something they should solve themselves. Whether they can walk this path and whether they can surpass it depends on themselves and they don’t need any extra help.”

"Many will stumble and fall on the path you have paved. Many will encounter natural disasters and wild beasts on their journey. This will cause great losses to humanity and to your fellow human beings. And all of this could have been avoided."

“To grow, you always have to pay a price. To move forward, you always have to put in effort.” Zheng Zha looked around and assessed the extent of the universe’s collapse before continuing, “I will carve a path through the towering mountains. But I don’t intend to turn this endless mountain path into an escalator.”

"With great power comes great responsibility."

"Who made that rule? You?"

"This is universally accepted morality. Don't you intend to follow it?"

Who defines morality? You?

"You are so cold-hearted! Millions of your compatriots are about to die because of your momentary lapse in judgment, and you remain unmoved!"

Zheng Zha vigorously rubbed his head.

“I’ve noticed that you guys always like to think you’re so clever, and you always like to presuppose others’ positions. You define ‘cold-blooded’ and ‘cruel’ on your own. You think that mortals can’t move without you. But I think your very existence is the key element that mortals face in this predicament.”

He lowered his hand, sighed, and then summoned his familiar Destruction Greatsword.

He stared at his adversary, who bore the same face as him.

"Let me be frank, your ideas are worthless to me. Your idea of ​​paving a path for mortals and then guiding them to ensure they don't go astray until they take the final step is utter nonsense to me. I only want, and intend to, give them fish, and whether they can learn to fish is their own business. If they can, then so be it. If they can't, then they deserve to die."

"You truly have no mercy."

“My compassion will not be reserved for the useless. It’s a good thing if the unambitious, the misguided, and the half-hearted die out. It’s beneficial for the metabolism and use-or-lose principle of the entire group. And such a group can move freely without a leader like you who was sent from the heavens.”

"Human life should not be divided into noble and lowly; the life of every member of our clan is precious."

"That's why the primordial world was shaped into what it is today by you and your successors. You want to be a babysitter, but I'm not like you."

“I am not you,” Zheng Zha snorted coldly. “I will not be like you, valuing humanity above all else and treating them all the same. I will only open up a path, and whether they take it, whether it is passable, and where it will lead are all their own choices, and I will not interfere.”

"I am completely different from you!"

His words were met with silence from those he was speaking to.

And a few seconds later...

"It seems we have no choice but to resort to a rather crude method to solve the problem."

“It should have been like this from the beginning.” Zheng Zha snorted softly, and as he gripped his broadsword, he clearly observed a small golden bell floating above the other’s head.

Thus, this universe, which was already barely clinging to life, rushed rapidly toward its end in the sudden battle between the two sides.

—In the end, the battle of words still depends on the strength of each other's fists.

Section 58. Zheng Zha. Part 5

Same move, different sword.

Same methods, different approaches.

The moment the crimson longsword, born from the carnage of the Apocalypse, and the Tiger Soul Blade, born from the War God Chi You, collided silently, the small foothold beneath their feet shattered and vanished in an instant. A tidal wave of destruction swept outwards in all directions, and even as the universe itself approached its final twilight, the raging flames of war illuminated this galaxy.

“Your understanding of the primordial era is very interesting. This is the first time I’ve heard of such a usage for ‘creating the world.’”

After shattering an ancient star, Gu's form stabilized. Part of his body writhed and rolled under the cutting of crimson blade energy, giving rise to countless indistinct little figures. Each little figure roared and howled, trying to break free from his body, yet all were subdued under his gaze.

He could sense that most of the cells within his body—the very body that constructed this physical form—had shown signs of activation after that single strike. They became independent individuals, constructing unique lives within a minuscule period of time, almost nonexistent. They even recognized each other, sharing feelings and hatred. And each of them possessed the physical characteristics of an independent organism!

They live only a short time.

They all died.

In the midst of death, Zheng Zha's figure emerged from the light and shadow of the collapsing star.

"You just don't need to resort to such methods. After all, you want to be a good nanny, and you don't expect this kind of independent and free development." — Zheng Zha was unharmed, and the second blade immediately slashed towards Gu's eyes!

"I don't deny that. I certainly don't expect such scattered and disorganized power." The distortion on Gu's body completely faded away. At the same level, with the same methods, he easily blocked Zheng Zha's second strike and launched a counterattack. His sword, like its Dao, was pure and condensed, without any fancy techniques, possessing only pure, immense, and overwhelming single power.

A powerful force can overcome all obstacles.

Zheng Zha parried the attack, and amidst the distorted sensation of spacetime breaking, he was blasted into a burning star. An out-of-control fusion reaction immediately occurred, and the gravitational tides caused by the simple physical phenomenon caused the star to undergo changes on the eve of a supernova explosion in an instant!

However, the next moment, this star, roughly the size of the Sun, was cleaved in two. Its out-of-control core, outer core, and even its corona were exposed clearly and completely to the vastness of space, like a sliced ​​salted duck egg. The intricate ritual that Zheng Zha had entrusted to the killing blade, which would have coalesced upon the supernova explosion, collapsed instantly under this sudden slash. Star matter was then ejected in vast quantities, turning a region of space with a radius of one light-year into a boiling, chaotic mess!

This was Gu's third strike, which cut off Zheng Zha's counterattack and completed the suppression.

At the moment the fourth strike landed, every cell in Zheng Zha's body was purified and fused, eliminating all internal molecules, atoms, and even quark and string structures, and was thus directly reduced to pure energy!

He was cast into the Abyss of Death, and then immediately returned from it. The destruction of the material world could not cause him any real harm. In the blink of an eye, he reached out his hands from a neutron star and used the extremely compressed stellar matter to construct a new body!