Chapter 977: Evil God

Zhou Fang felt the world around him become chaotic.

He found a jumbled mess of semi-spherical buildings, trapezoids, spheres, and various indescribable, irregular multi-dimensional geometric structures, like a kaleidoscope, appearing around him.

These were products of the surrounding light being distorted by this high-dimensional chaotic spatial structure; the surroundings were like a constantly shifting mist, a mixture of various light rays diffracting between different dimensions. Within this gloomy and dim mist, danger loomed, making it impossible to distinguish which part was danger, which part was a maze, and which part was a safe world.

If Mortals were to explore it, only the greatest adventurers would be able to reach the end—the shattered dimensions caused Zhou Fang's path here to deviate towards unknown directions.

As he saw it, the high walls of space, which should have been flat and boundless, now had undulations; mountains constructed from fragments shimmering with bizarre colors abruptly appeared in every corner of the world, and further ahead, the world broke apart, with bottomless abysses everywhere.

This was an ominous cage, a room full of cliffs, dark as carbon and brittle as glass—death permeated all directions around him.

What separated Zhou Fang from the surrounding death was only his knowledge and magic.

Although Zhou Fang had cultivated for a long time, possessed extraordinary psychological endurance, and had undergone years of Dao Heart training, the thought of this still made him tremble all over.

“What a terrifying place…” Zhou Fang said, yet, his eyes sparkled with the light of challenge.

Solving this dimensional maze must be very interesting, right?

But just as he was eager to try and prepare to move forward, the dimensional maze disappeared.

Along with it, La Qi and Yao Ji also disappeared.

“Tsk, you really don’t want me to listen, do you? You’ll still have to obediently call me Master later,” Zhou Fang scratched his head and said.

He believed he was the Reincarnation of Li Qi.

Therefore, he would naturally inherit everything about Li Qi later, such as Yao Ji and La Qi.

Zhou Fang thought so.

So, he continued to bury himself in his work.

Ignoring those things, let’s focus on the ruins in front of him first.

After working in the ruins for about four or five days, Yao Ji returned, still as lazy and carefree as before, without any psychological burden.

Zhou Fang didn't say anything; he didn't care much about these things. So, they continued to work, deciphering this civilization, absorbing its technology, and his knowledge and wisdom advanced a step further.

Then, Zhou Fang began his adventure.

He traveled to various parts of the Universe, experiencing all sorts of adventures.

He fought against Heavenly Gods, achieving the feat of slaying gods; he solved problems that had plagued many civilizations, enjoying glory in the eyes of the masses.

But he also encountered many dangers; he was trapped in a black hole prison, tormented by enemies, and finally orchestrated a perfect escape plan, spending six thousand years to successfully break free.

But whether it was displaying his power in front of others or facing difficult circumstances, he always accepted them with joy, never becoming discouraged, because he knew he was special; he believed he was the Reincarnation of a Great Power, a protagonist-like figure.

His future was bound to be bright, and his fortuitous encounters were destined to follow one after another.

And indeed, that was the case.

He lived his life according to his own ideas, living a splendid life.

He suppressed the world sea alone, single-handedly ventured into the Star Officials, and, with Yao Ji, declared war on those devout ‘religions’.

He especially hated those fanatics.

Because he believed that the Heavenly Gods’ doctrines were fake, but the fanatics were serious.

He proclaimed that he wanted to liberate all religions, release all faiths, and make believers sober up, believing that religion was for fooling the people, and once your mind was completely washed, you became their private property.

He did not recognize the protection of the Heavenly God and Di Qi (Earthly Qi), nor did he recognize the source of those Heavenly Gods’ power.

Because, the Heavenly Gods were powerful, truly just because… they were born so strong. The Heavenly Gods were ‘those without Dao’; these so-called Heavenly God and Di Qi (Earthly Qi), their strength was not due to their efforts.

Zhou Fang was very displeased with this, especially after he met Yao Ji; he felt that Yao Ji’s power and attitude were inferior to that of Mortals.

And Yao Ji, of course, opposed Zhou Fang, as she supported the extermination of all Mortals.

But although they opposed each other in this regard, their relationship was unexpectedly good.

After all, at this current stage, they didn't have that many conflicts; they were consistent in exterminating Heavenly God believers, and Yao Ji also couldn't stand believers.

Moreover… Yao Ji really liked Zhou Fang’s mindset of seeing himself as the ‘protagonist’; Yao Ji liked arrogant people, just as she herself had a high opinion of herself.

In contrast, someone like Li Qi, who always wished to appear ordinary, made Yao Ji very unhappy.

During this adventure, Zhou Fang gradually grew, dedicating himself to eliminating faith, removing the interference of Heavenly Gods, and making cultivation power scientific and personal power systematic.

To develop, research, and utilize power as scientifically as possible, to advance power, and to replace the Heavenly Gods’ innate fighting style with a more scientific power system.

The human mechanics of combat, the efficient utilization of energy—these could all be made scientific and standardized.

Allowing one’s own power system to develop in a planned way was more worthy of a future than the pure talent of the Heavenly Gods.

Especially for someone like Yao Ji, who possessed power and was a high and mighty god, but they had been working in isolation until now, and now more powerful systems were developing to eliminate and challenge this god.

It was unrealistic to fight the whole world alone; besides, even a chosen one couldn't compare to thousands or tens of thousands of elites developing and researching together.

Even primitive feudal era Schools had the Legacy of Schools and factions; this was the crudest practical exploration. If it could be theorized, or even systematized, wouldn't that greatly promote the development of the entire cultivation world?

Zhou Fang had been consistently implementing his methods. Thus, millions of years passed, and he defeated many, many other ‘Li Qi’s.

However, as time passed, and as his power gradually expanded, when he reached the Fourth Grade and began to possess initial substantiality…

His worldview was violently impacted.

It turned out… the ‘systematization’ of this world was so fragile.

Zhou Fang began to come into contact with other Fourth Grade Li Qi fragments.

Through his contact with these fragments, he concluded a terrifying fact.

His ‘previous life’ was the very ‘Evil God’ he feared and hated.

It was precisely the death of this Evil God that brought countless endings, and the Evil God’s corpse would give birth to endless terrifying things; a dark, viscous sea of death would gush from his swollen body, and highly toxic, foul-smelling, and flamboyant ‘abominations’ would be born from his corpse.

Undoubtedly, these ‘abominations’ were their ‘fragments’.

These fragments would fight, participating in the struggle for Luck, never knowing peace; guided by fate, they would bring endless chaos.

Zhou Fang initially scoffed at this idea.

But he immediately realized…

He himself was the proof.

The chaotic battles brought by Zhou Fang were by no means few; he was the protagonist, so naturally, there would be countless struggles surrounding him, just as a person of radiance would inevitably cast a shadow.

All living beings had to contend with the fragment catastrophe that arose from the Evil God’s death, which might last for countless epochs.

Until finally, everything dissipated.

And the Evil God himself? He might just be destroyed in nothingness, forever and ever…

Or… some unknown new life?

Zhou Fang finally became afraid.

He realized that he was indeed a part of the chaos, but the root of the chaos was not him.

He already had a feeling; he had already discovered…

Within his body, there lurked the whisper of some terrifying Evil God.

The further Zhou Fang advanced, the more he defeated one place after another under the guidance of fate, the more clearly he could hear that whisper.

He once believed that falling into chaos was due to his protagonist fate, but the ‘voice’ that constantly echoed in his heart was driving him mad.

Whenever Zhou Fang saw something, there would be a voice in his heart that clearly didn’t belong to him, beginning to ‘evaluate’ it, like some kind of ‘narration’.

The judgment of this voice was extremely precise, usually directly pointing to the essence, yet… it was uncontrollable.

A dead Heavenly God was hidden in his heart.

Zhou Fang made up his mind.

He would expel this dead Heavenly God, just as he expelled other Heavenly Gods.

He began to collect Spiritual Artifacts, continued to diligently increase his knowledge and wisdom, filling his arsenal. He was already able to reside above space-time; he believed… substantiality itself could resist that Evil God.

Third Grade, advance to Third Grade.

After the Third Grade, the Evil God’s thoughts would no longer be able to influence him, but at the same time, he had to imprison the Evil God himself.

Because the Evil God didn't necessarily have to awaken from him.

All the fragments, all the ‘abominations’, could be the seeds of the other party’s revival.

He must stop him.

He became more aggressive in collecting other fragments; he had to destroy the root of the chaos, pushing forward again and again. He searched the entire Universe for those born with fragments, then killed them and devoured their fragments.

Only in this way could the Evil God’s revival be curbed.

This was equivalent to sealing the Evil God within himself, a necessary sacrifice.

He took time to visit the Evil God’s Dao field, located at the extreme south of the world. There, he felt intense resentment.

He understood that this place might be where he and the Evil God would ultimately decide victory or defeat.

However, there were too many Patrolling Envoys in the world, so he couldn't destroy it directly. Thus, he could only silently leave and return to the outer regions to collect his fragments.

Yao Ji had always stayed by his side, acting as his assistant.

Until a very, very long time later.

It had been a really long time.

So long that La Qi was already Fourth Grade.

Only one last fragment of the Evil God remained.

The other party, like him, was also a Fourth Grade, having gone through countless tribulations and been guided by fate to devour countless fragments. Her strength was in no way inferior to Zhou Fang’s.

Zhou Fang found the other party; she was a woman.

Zhou Fang launched an attack without hesitation; as long as he eliminated her, the Evil God could be completely sealed within him.

However, the other party stopped him.

That woman told Zhou Fang another possibility.

Zhou Fang wanted to cut off the Evil God’s possibility of revival, thereby ending the chaos…

So, what was Zhou Fang causing? This thought prompted Zhou Fang to constantly kill other fragments; wasn’t this inherently chaos?

This was also influenced by the Evil God; the Evil God merely revealed his existence slightly, and Zhou Fang became his biggest enforcer, inciting countless maliciousness and destruction.

Zhou Fang was stunned for a moment, then asked, “Since you say that about me, how did you gather so many fragments?”

The woman sighed: “I didn’t actively kill them… but they all, like you, desperately wanted to hunt me down.”

Zhou Fang began to deduce and divine the truth of her words.

And the other party was very frank, seemingly not caring about her privacy and past being seen; she did not stop him, allowing Zhou Fang to peek into her past.

This was quite rare. One must know that if one truly saw another’s past through deduction, many private matters would indeed be seen. The simplest point was that their body would definitely be seen completely.

Although for cultivators, the physical body is nothing, they can even change gender and species, for some people, while it might not matter, it is definitely an offense and would make people angry.

Moreover, one might even see things related to one’s life and death, such as the fundamentals of cultivation, the methods of circulating Qi, and even secret weapons.

Therefore, generally, people would conceal their past; as long as they were alive, they could not be easily divined, unless the other party was incredibly strong, like a Third Grade divining a weaker person below Third Grade.

Among those of the same rank, unless the divination methods were from ‘specialized diviners’, such as the Yin and Yang School of humanity, the Si Tian Jian, or the Diviner of the Shaman, it was indeed difficult for divination methods to play a decisive role and they could be stopped.

However, this woman did not stop him, but allowed Zhou Fang to deduce.

Zhou Fang saw her past clearly.

He found that what she said was not wrong…

She truly had never hunted down any fragment; unlike Zhou Fang, who was a violent hunter, she just wanted to live well.

However, bearing the Great Power’s residual fragment meant she was destined to never know peace. Fate entangled her, causing her to be continuously hunted by people like Zhou Fang, and perhaps due to fate’s favor, she always managed to survive.

Despite enduring countless sufferings, she had lived until now.

And today, she met Zhou Fang.

Zhou Fang might be her final tribulation.

So, Zhou Fang put down his weapon and said, “…I will protect you. Let the Evil God’s will end in our hands.”

The woman looked at Zhou Fang in surprise.

He was the first person she had met who was willing to stop.

Thus, the two reached an agreement.

The Evil God’s fragments would be locked here by them, and the chaos brought by the Great Power’s revival would end here! (End of Chapter)