Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

The landing point he chose was about 100,000 light-years away from the area where the previous battles had taken place.

However, the instant his form was completed, the ancient fifth slash appeared before his eyes along with the space-time torn apart by brute force. It then proceeded to destroy and purify the second body he had constructed!

The stellar matter was reduced to clumps of mass, and the neutron star, as the source, was directly decomposed by the aftershocks of the blade, dissociating into pure energy.

Then, Zheng Zha's third burial body was created. This time, Zheng Zha used light to construct the body.

His form emerged from the scorching, boiling core of the galaxy. As he descended, the overall brightness of the unknown galactic core, which he had used as the raw material for his body, slightly decreased!

The light could not be purified again. Ancient tore through the space and the sixth blade, which came flying through the void, failed to penetrate his pure light body, which was as long as a day.

His counterattack was swift; the next moment, the brightness of the entire unknown galaxy decreased by nearly one percent. And that one percent of light converged into a river!

The river of light has submerged the ancient past. And hidden within this river is the change in the total number of photons within it.

This almost immeasurable change acted like a radiation source, violently eroding and assimilating Gu's body. At the very moment of contact, boundless light erupted from within Gu's body!

"An interesting method that activates all the 'light' within me, allowing it to detach from my body and exist independently. This technique is quite different from the Primordial Series I developed." Gu's voice was filled with admiration. His body dimmed and disintegrated in this vast river of light, while his voice continued to echo in the cosmos.

Sound became his new medium.

Within this vessel, a new body of flesh and blood was born—wielding the Tiger Soul Blade, he clashed with Zheng Zha's destructive greatsword tens of millions of times in an immeasurable span of time. And the instant those tens of millions of strikes converged into one, infinite darkness replaced all light.

Light cannot be purified, but it can be driven away. Light can drive away darkness, and darkness can replace light.

Gu severed all light within this light-year battlefield, and all radiance except for his own flesh and blood was expelled from this area.

Without the light, Zheng Zha also lost his physical form.

However, he was not banished to the Abyss of Death a second time. Instead, he chose a new medium and reconstructed a new body for it!

This time, the medium he chose was—

—Power!

Gu's seventh strike ultimately failed to achieve any results. Although his unified slash had driven away all the light, the power carried by the strike itself had constructed Zheng Zha's new body. And when Zheng Zha's formless yet substantial new body, composed of complex energy, triggered the gravitational tides of the galactic core and struck down the energy blade that covered forty days of light, Gu's newly formed flesh and blood body disintegrated and disintegrated into hundreds of millions of different types of energy.

"Is this considered pioneering?" A third flesh and blood body emerged from the darkness, blocking Zheng Zha's slash that had compressed the gravitational tide of forty days of light into forty meters.

The blades clashed once more, and the exchange between the Daos continued.

“This can be considered a breakthrough.” Zheng Zha’s powerful body was compressed to the size of an ordinary person, and the gravitational tide caused by the compression of his body simultaneously attracted the expelled light and submerged all the darkness. The light and power then intertwined, and in the battle between the two, two completely different things created immeasurable changes.

A new life form was created, with force as its bones and light as its shape. In the clash between Zheng Zha and Gu, they imitated the two combatants, creating independent forms for themselves. They gathered in swarms, piecing together a new civilization within a timescale that conformed to light and force. A second for mortals felt like an eternity to them, while within tens of seconds in the macrocosm, they nurtured a vast ocean of light!

The battle between Zheng Zha and Gu continued, both tacitly transforming their physical combat into a conflict constructed by the Dao Erosion phenomenon. A spherical expanse of space with a radius of one light-year, centered on the two warring parties, was sealed off by their wills. This operation, resembling the construction of a new universe's embryonic form within the remnants of an old one, naturally triggered the humanistic protagonist mechanism within the multiverse. When darkness transformed into land beneath the ocean of light, giving birth to all things, the image of mortals was also born from the darkness.

Is this a mechanism of humanistic protagonist, or a phenomenon of Dao erosion caused by the ancients?

Ah, that's not important. The point is that mortals appeared on this continent, and they thrived under the ocean of light.

An ocean of light, an earth of darkness.

The People of Light do not need the earth, nor do they need any of the earth's resources or power.

Humans, however, always yearn for light. Their very being dictates that they need to herd livestock, cultivate the land, eat, and enjoy life. Unless they break free from the shackles of humanity and cease to be human.

"Then, what is a human?" Zheng Zha asked. He transformed into the sun high in the sky, ignoring both the people of light and the children of darkness. He simply showered down his light, letting his radiance illuminate the earth.

"Those who achieve immortality through genetic engineering, are they considered human?" he asked.

"Is someone who, through spiritual engineering, allows their will to endure in the world considered human?"—he asked.

"Is someone who can use time-space interference to keep their own time permanently stuck in a loop of fragments considered human?"—he asked.

It transformed into the ancient, silent whispers of the dark earth.

"Of course it's a person, naturally it's a person, and it's only right that it's a person."

And the sun asked another question.

"So why should they be protected by you? They are capable of handling their own problems and achieving independent development on their own. They don't need you at all."

On Earth, human civilization flourished. They had no conflict with the People of Light, because there was no overlap in their interests or areas of activity.

Humanity quickly transitioned from the primitive era to the Middle Ages. With the worship of a few Lightbringers, they slowly but surely reached the Industrial Age and built a complete industrial system. Their innate dark influence significantly aided the advancement of civilization. This allowed them to quickly move beyond the basic needs of survival and instead explore technologies more conducive to enjoyment and pleasure.

They developed biological genetic technology, which allowed them to maintain a human form while achieving a lifespan of nearly a thousand years.

They deciphered the questions of divinity and faith, making contact with, capturing, and studying the structure of the People of Light. This allowed them to alter their own consciousness and souls, enabling them to transfer their spirits into new bodies even as their physical bodies decayed.

Then, they finally made enough contact with the People of Light... and a conflict that could brew into war.

"They are not ready; they may still make mistakes." — The earth finally answered the sun's question. Amidst the uncertainty of war, its will guided the mortals of this land.

The smooth progress of ordinary people's technological research and development is inseparable from his guidance behind the scenes. Many detours and dead ends were easily bypassed through his hands, thus enabling the development to reach such a scale.

—And war is imminent.

The sun has never disturbed the civilization of the people of light in the slightest.

"Aren't you going to guide your kin?" the earth asked. "War is imminent."

“I told you, I am completely different from you.” — But the sun’s reply was unexpectedly cold. “I am not you, I will not be a nanny afraid that someone will fall down. I have given them light, how they use it is up to them.”

"But you also gave light to mortals who originated from darkness." — The earth posed another question.

"Why can't I give?"—and the sun responded with a rhetorical question: "Do you think my 'opening up' is limited to a specific group or a specific thing? You are wrong. I treat all groups and all races equally. Even if they regard me as an enemy."

"...How dare you call me a saint?" — The earth fell silent.

Thus began the war between the Children of Darkness and the People of Light.

The reason is not important; if one had to find one, it would be that the two sides developed a competition for interests as their scale expanded. The outcome of this battle was already decided the moment it began, because Zheng Zha never interfered, which allowed the mortal civilization secretly guided by Gu to smoothly suppress the Kingdom of the People of Light, which should have been much stronger than them.

Humans triumphed, with only a very small number of the People of Light remaining.

then……

That was the end of it.

The chessboard was abandoned, and the closed boundaries were immediately opened. However, when Gu shifted his attention from the mortal civilization and refocused on his confrontation with Zheng Zha, he discovered that the mortal civilization he had guided had quickly vanished into the old universe after the protagonist's intervention was removed. Yet, beyond this, a ray of light still remained.

The surviving Lightbringers lived on in the dark universe, while the flourishing mortals vanished in the erosion of time—something that would happen tens of millions of years from now, if the universe continues for tens of millions of years. But for the two warring parties, the future tens of millions of years from now is now.

“Healthy flowers cannot be grown in a greenhouse.” Zheng Zha reached out and touched the wisp of light entwined around his fingertips. His tone was calm and resolute. “You cherish mortals too much. You value them more than anything else, and that makes it impossible for them to achieve anything after leaving you.”

"I can keep this universe a greenhouse forever." Gu snorted, stretched out his hand, corrected a segment of the future and the future of the future, and pulled the mortal civilization that should have disappeared in the universe back to the present world.

"So that's why you came up with the Humanity's Destiny Resonance Project, and that's why you chose to divide the Dao into three parts after the creation of the world?" Zheng Zha looked at him quietly, without making any move to interfere.

“Exactly,” Gu replied. “Human beings should be the eternal protagonists; nothing can be superior to them.”

Even a saint?

“Saints are also human.” Gu snorted. “Saints are not saints, nor are they ancient innate demons. In the genetic lock I have constructed, in the cultivation system that my inner universe will build, even saints can retain the seven emotions and six desires that humans should have, and can live like a powerful mortal.”

"So, as long as the protagonist is a human, then it's okay no matter how the story turns out?"

"The meat will be perfectly tender in the pot, then there won't be any problems."

Zheng Zha sighed softly and raised the Destruction Blade in his hand.

“I retract some of my previous accusations against you. You… the body you possess, when you were still Zheng Zha, did not turn the Central Continent Team into a different kind of breeding team. You simply believed that others needed protection and help, and that as the strongest, you had an obligation to shoulder everything for them… Is that right?”

"Why are you asking such a meaningless question?" Gu, with Zheng Zha's face, tilted his head slightly in confusion. "Everything I do is for humanity, for the innocent, for the weak, for my teammates and partners. I have always been like this, no matter what era I am in. I can do anything for them, make any sacrifice... because I am Gu, and I want my friends, my people, to be people who will not be oppressed."

“I see… But I’m different from you.” Zheng Zha lowered his brows slightly. “You took too good care of them, and that made them utterly useless once they left you—”

"—I have arranged a successor. I have arranged an instrument that can inherit my will." Gu interrupted him.

“Like Fuxi?” Zheng Zha retorted without holding back. “You should know the premise that I can stand here and confront you in this manner.”

His words made Gu Meng pause.

“You’re very smart,” Gu Qing took a breath. “So smart it’s almost unbelievable.”

“I was never you,” Zheng Zha replied. “I will forge a path, but I won’t care where others end up. You… are still Zheng Zha, perhaps proud of having a united team. But I’m different. I prefer this harmonious yet diverse Zhongzhou team. I may have led my friends here, but even if I die here, my teammates can live independently according to their own beliefs!”

"Is everyone like a dragon?" Gu let out a sigh of the same nature as Zheng Zha's earlier, and once again raised the black and gold tiger soul in his hand.

“No, people don’t need an emulation or a role model; people should surpass the dragon.” Zheng Zha uttered his last words before the war.

"We don't need saviors, nor do we need god emperors. The path of all beings, the path of mortals, the path of friends, should all depend on their own struggle and effort!"

Section 59. Zheng Zha. VI.

"My own struggle and hard work...?"

Gu chewed on these words, his originally calm and composed face gradually becoming ferocious and distorted. The Tiger Soul Blade he held emitted mournful cries under the invisible pressure, and the blade shattered, instantly transforming into the shape of a battle axe.

"Many years ago, we naively believed that we could do it on our own and that we could take control of our own lives through our own efforts. We once thought that we could become part of all races, and we once thought that mortals and races other than mortals were not irreconcilable enemies."

He suddenly raised his battle axe—

"I once believed in hard work and perseverance!"

The next moment, the entire world, the entire universe, shattered before Zheng Zha's eyes. The four dimensions collapsed, destiny was cut short, and the entire cosmic system instantly disintegrated into pure earth, water, fire, and wind, then degraded again from earth, water, fire, and wind into primordial chaos. The body he used in battle was completely destroyed the instant the universe collapsed—he was banished into the Abyss of Death, and Gu Xuan, wielding the axe, immediately followed him into it!

—Within the Abyss of Death, all things are mortal.

Having come to see the Abyss of Death as a modern metropolis, Zheng Zha witnessed the 'buildings' before him collapse with a deafening roar. Gu Xuan, wielding a battle axe, then burst forth from the ruins!

He stepped back, and the street scene behind him instantly transformed into another pristine universe. He rebuilt his body, but the battle axe appeared above his head the very moment he raised his sword to parry!

Without a sound, the battle axe sliced ​​through the crimson killing blade as easily as cutting through a piece of wood.

Without hesitation, the axe cleaved his body in two with precision, even tracing the interference back to his source world line!

He is a transcendent species, and transcendent species can have many source world lines.

When he took that step, sharing information about the transcendent species with Alice, he instinctively projected his own traces into many unknown alien universes, extending his source worldline into numerous corners of this multiverse!

He should have been immortal, for in many source world lines, he had left his mark on their histories, becoming a hero etched in the universe or an immortal god or demon.

However, the moment the axe fell, Zheng Zha's hundreds of projected source world lines also collapsed in that instant!

In a universe themed around medieval warfare, 'Zheng Zha,' who will one day dominate the world, end the chaos, and become the first unified emperor, is cut in two by a cesarean section knife that is accidentally knocked away by the midwife when he is born as an infant.

In a universe where martial arts clash, there is a man named Zheng Zha who will awaken from his madness as a beggar and become a martial saint. Before the moment of his personality change arrives, he is drawn into a sudden martial arts battle and, in a daze, is cleaved in two by a horizontal blade of energy.

In a universe themed around interstellar war, Zheng Zha, who is about to become the captain of a starship and embark on a legendary journey, suddenly has his guards' weapons go off malfunction the moment he takes control. The out-of-control ion jet splits him in two along the central axis.

In a universe themed around urban business warfare, college student Zheng Zha, having just earned his first pot of gold and confidently planning his next move, is suddenly involved in a car accident. Half of his body is severed by a high-speed piece of metal that shot out during the accident!

The thousands of origin world lines that transcended species were thus severed.

But real death followed...