Chapter 978: Unchangeable fate

Zhou Fang and that woman reached an agreement, so they supervised each other and began to try to eliminate all misfortunes and prevent all disasters with just the two of them.

How much destruction has this Universe experienced due to conflicts caused by the fragments of the Evil God?

It's simply countless.

How many fragments are there? Unknown.

How many conflicts will a fragment trigger in its lifetime? Other fragments don't know, but Zhou Fang knows his own.

The total was nine billion five hundred sixty-eight million four hundred sixty-one thousand nine hundred ninety-four times.

This is the count of every major conflict he's had since he advanced to Fourth Rank, and it only includes the larger ones with fragments; minor disputes are not included.

In other words, at the most conservative estimate, there are at least tens of billions of fragments, and these fragments will also fight among themselves.

Moreover, most fragments possess talents exceeding the Child of Destiny level; they can naturally rise to high positions within their own civilizations. If a civilization is below Fifth Rank, it's as simple as drinking water and eating for them to become the top existences within their civilization.

The resources they mobilize will also increase as a result.

So... how many great wars have been triggered because of this?

The turmoil caused by the Evil God fragments was the most chaotic and terrifying disaster Zhou Fang had ever seen.

He heard that there was once a terrifying war called the 'Dao Struggle'; presumably, only such a war could compare to the turmoil brought by the Evil God.

Therefore, as one of the fragments, Zhou Fang's first half of his life was spent fighting those deities, wanting to carve out a path for Mortals, and his latter half... he began to fight the Evil God within him, because he realized he was also a Mortal.

He collaborated with that woman; they began to work together, analyzing the nature of the Evil God, searching everywhere for knowledge about the Evil God, and seeking the power of those high-rank existences.

They began to divide their respective tasks, but this process was not peaceful. They argued incessantly about the nature of the Evil God. In the initial period, verbal battles erupted wherever they were, and almost all their time together was spent arguing and quarreling, with smoke billowing and spittle flying.

After all, the panic and quarrels caused by the Evil God erupted again.

Not only where they met, but the two simply traveled together, staying together, because their arguments inevitably fell into a deadlock. They repeatedly threw out different logical chains of reasoning, taking out all sorts of data for repeated testing, hoping to find new possibilities and interpretations.

Unfortunately, in the end, they always came to the same conclusion: the Evil God itself and its derivatives cannot be determined whether they are products of two parallel lines.

Now, they initiated a brainstorming session, with various theories and ideas flying around, dazzling the eyes.

But eventually, both of them grew tired.

They couldn't imagine how to defeat such a terrifying existence; they could only maintain their own state while the opponent remained in a state of death, ensuring the opponent could never awaken.

However, such arguments made the two of them increasingly familiar with each other.

Finally, they actually got together.

Perhaps this was also part of Destiny; Zhou Fang and this woman got married, though there was no ceremony, only a mutual agreement between the two of them.

After they married, they also had a child.

Fortunately, the child did not have a fragment.

But after a period of rest, the two of them continued to devote themselves to their original work.

They traveled through the Myriad Worlds, traversed various galaxy clusters, and sought guidance from wise ones in different Observable Universes and different inflation ranges.

They even received direct guidance from a great existence, whose name was Yun Fang. They found him at a wonder, a very gentle hidden existence, and he offered many suggestions in this regard.

The two gained a lot.

However, there was a problem...

Everyone they visited was very powerful, as if everything they said was correct.

The couple naturally knew that everyone they found was capable, and there was absolutely no reason to doubt them. If one of them suddenly said he had found a way to kill the Evil God, the couple would also believe that he was most likely correct.

However, these people were all correct, but their statements were even contradictory and conflicting.

Therefore, the couple believed that the current conflicts arising from various statements must be at the very bottom of the problem.

They shouldn't try to prove one side right and the other wrong, as that would completely miss the point and be the act of a fool.

In the labyrinth they currently encountered, there must be a fallacy, and this fallacy is hidden in the most fundamental place, so much so that no one has ever thought of questioning its correctness.

Perhaps regarding the Evil God, they made a very natural assumption, but it seemed like such an obvious fact that no one realized it was just an assumption.

The couple came up with a method: they must examine the core points of each wise person's statement, re-evaluate the foundation of these theories, and find that one fallacy. Then, the current predicament would resolve itself, and all the difficulties that people have been arguing about would be easily solved, and the various fragments would eventually form a complete picture.

Zhou Fang had been striving for this, his entire life striving for this.

Now...

On a barren rocky planet.

Endless plains, mountains, cliffs, and hills are distributed across the surface of this planet, but it is a planet without an atmosphere, so everything is a grayish-white desert, with no life present.

However, there is an unusual scene here.

Near a large plain in this place, many buildings are constructed, densely packed with various special geometric shapes of silver-gray metal buildings, extending outwards for thousands of miles.

Chaotic pipelines, beams, power towers, and antennas are interspersed between these buildings. On top of the high towers, antennas continuously rotate, scanning the sky again and again.

On the ground, tall and slender signal transmission and reception towers, like utility poles, stand erect, like eyes, gazing unblinkingly at the sky, sending and receiving various information.

In the sky, there are many invisible satellites in the planet's circumlunar orbit, continuously communicating with the base computer and calculating a large amount of data.

This is the computing base established by Zhou Fang, but it is only a receiving and transmitting station. The real computing device is a phased array composed of fifteen star systems around this planet, which communicate with each other through signals and jointly calculate the massive amount of data.

But today...

Zhou Fang felt something was off.

His wife was processing data next to him, when she suddenly turned her head and found Zhou Fang in a daze.

"What are you doing?" his wife asked.

Zhou Fang shook his head: "You say, if we start from this perspective, look, here." He pointed to some of the data.

Then, Zhou Fang said, "There's a problem here. If I were to create a Divine Ability based on this data..."

Zhou Fang moved his hand lightly, and suddenly, a timeline appeared in his hand.

That's right, an independent, spontaneously generated space-time!

His wife's pupils immediately widened, staring intently at Zhou Fang.

Zhou Fang, however, seemed oblivious. In his hand, one could see the number of lives continuously increasing, time accelerating, movements becoming more intense, and one star after another surrounded by orbits, with worlds on the orbits radiating spiritual brilliance like bright pearls. One constellation after another also had artificial planets, and finally, in his hand, an independent space-time, an independent 'Myriad Heavens', was filled with countless worlds, full of vitality.

Each world has a unique race, sensitive and intelligent, unified into a true community, possessing a common spiritual world, and each world is a living organism.

Many worlds together form a system, and this system becomes a World Community.

Then, within this Myriad Heavens, countless civilized communities are tightly connected through a special telepathic network, becoming an intelligent, fervent entity, the collective spiritual world of the Milky Way. This 'one' is the collection of countless diverse, ephemeral individual lives.

"Look, if we do this, can't we deduce a bit of the Evil God's nature?" Zhou Fang happily looked at his wife.

But his wife's eyes were filled with terror.

"When did you learn this Divine Ability?" his wife asked.

Zhou Fang was stunned.

Huh?

Wait, he seemed to have done something extraordinary just now.

Creating the Myriad Heavens, this is the ability of 'Opening Heaven', the mighty power of a Third Rank, he shouldn't know this move.

But at this moment, he used it so skillfully.

Only then did Zhou Fang suddenly realize something, and he was greatly startled.

"Have you noticed that you've been... much smarter lately?" his wife said to him.

Zhou Fang began to review recent events.

Recently... he suddenly fell in love with reading.

Recently, he had become much more peaceful.

His wife used to always say he had no romantic flair, but a few days ago she praised him for knowing how to give gifts, having hand-carved a hairpin for her.

This isn't right!

He wasn't born in this world at all, so small ornaments originating from this world shouldn't be his first choice.

If he were to give a gift, it should be an ornament from his own civilization! How could he give a hairpin!

He immediately pulled the hairpin from his wife's head, then broke it in half, and with a distorted face, slapped himself, roaring furiously, "Come out! You come out for me!"

He raged incessantly, expelling all his thoughts, but found no abnormalities.

But the abnormality had already appeared.

"I'm leaving the data here with you; I'm going to the prison," Zhou Fang immediately said to his wife.

His wife also nodded seriously, her face full of worry.

He went to the prison, locked himself in, let the hooks made of immortal iron pierce his shoulder blades, sealed his cultivation, and waited quietly, analyzing every one of his thoughts.

"Who are you?"

"I know, you're Li Qi, right?"

"You come out for me, you can't fool me!!"

He roared inwardly, trying to find traces of the Evil God.

Doing so was clearly useless; even he himself felt so.

How could it be useful? The Evil God he was fighting was a Second Rank... If the opponent really awakened...

No, if the opponent really awakened, then what would his own consciousness be? What would his thinking organs be? So as long as he is still thinking...

As long as Zhou Fang is still thinking, Zhou Fang still exists.

To think is to prove existence.

As long as one maintains thought, one is resisting the Evil God.

So, do the problems, think.

He thought so.

Thus, Zhou Fang began to think, never stopping for a moment.

As he thought and thought, he suddenly found someone else beside him.

It was Yao Ji.

"I say, like this, aren't you just tormenting yourself?" Yao Ji said.

"Haven't you been gone for a long time... why are you back, and also, this is a prison that isolates space-time Karma, forming its own realm. How did you get in?" Zhou Fang asked.

Yao Ji smiled: "Don't worry about how I got in. I have a way to completely sever your connection with Li Qi. Do you want it?"

"What?" Zhou Fang asked.

"Li Qi has a wife, a Master, an apprentice, and a daughter. These are pretty much the people he cares about most. Why don't you try going to see his wife and daughter? If there's a problem, kill them both. If you truly still have Li Qi's consciousness, you definitely won't be able to do it."

"If you don't have Li Qi's consciousness, doing it yourself can also sever your connection with him, right?" Yao Ji said.

"His wife? Someone will definitely protect her, right? I don't believe Li Qi wouldn't have friends," Zhou Fang said, staring intently at Yao Ji.

"I'll help you. I'll block his other things for you. You just need to be responsible for killing," Yao Ji smiled, looking confident.

Zhou Fang was silent for a while, his thoughts never stopping.

Then, he said, "You are not Yao Ji."

"How perceptive. You're right, I'm not Yao Ji," that person said. "But I can indeed help you."

"Do you have a grudge against Li Qi?" Zhou Fang asked.

"You should ask yourself that, shouldn't you? I am 'you'," that person said.

When she finished speaking, Zhou Fang felt...

Turns out, he was just talking to himself.

Was it talking to himself? Then it should be his own thoughts, right?

Is he Zhou Fang?

Or Yao Ji?

Or... is he Li Qi?

No, there are too many fragments in his body.

He is 'Reboot', he is also 'wife', he... she...

'I', after all, am...

Memories flooded in.

Zhou Fang had devoured countless fragments, and also had the memories of others, but he had never been so confused.

So, why was he confused at this moment?

As he thought this, he suddenly realized that he had involuntarily walked out of the prison.

Outside the prison, his wife had long turned into white bones.

Ah.

Right, he remembered.

When he was raging, he killed her.

All the fragments had actually merged into one long ago; he had just forgotten.

This is also Destiny.