Splendid phantom light surged within the roar of the tide, blotting out the sky and sun as it rolled in like an overwhelming deluge.
When Ji Jue raised his hand, the sound of splintering rang incessantly in his ears. The mere splash of shattered fragments tore straight through his spiritus barrier.
What appeared to be a flowing river of illusory light was in truth a city of dreams potent enough to dissolve all souls and consciousness.
No matter how Ji Jue constructed dikes and defenses, they were flimsy as paper, unable to hold for even an instant against the torrent of countless self-natures falling into ruin and dissolution.
Worse yet, they were eroded in turn...
An unprecedented hunger and thirst welled up from the depths of his heart. His breathing grew ragged, crimson creeping into his eyes. Even though he was in a state of absolute focus, he could not suppress the stray thoughts and hallucinations that kept bubbling to the surface.
*Damn it, Heart Pivot!!*
No, it should be called Weiyang.
Having dissolved the unrestrained desires and debauched dregs of who knew how many spirits, the surging Weiyang Tide—kaleidoscopic, shimmering, and ever-shifting—came crashing directly into his face with magnificent fury.
Ji Jue suppressed the urge to roar, yet abruptly realized that from the very second he needed to suppress it, his emotions had already begun to spiral out of control, making calmness impossible.
His movements warped. His consciousness grew dull and confused.
In the face of the oncoming tidal wave, he even lapsed into a daze...
Amidst his distraction, Ji Jue felt a hand press down on his shoulder.
Someone stepped past him from behind and walked forward.
Wen Wen!
"Don't—"
Ji Jue grabbed her instinctively and parted his lips to speak, yet he saw her eyes once more, and her smile.
"Leave it to me."
She smiled. It was a smile just like back then, without a single shadow of gloom. "Just leave it to me!"
If they backed down and dodged now, the runaway flood would saturate everything. When that time came, all souls would completely dissolve within the tempestuous tide.
Within this entire illusory dream, all who resisted would be twisted beyond recognition.
Then what would be the point of everything they had fought so desperately for all the way here?
Perhaps the vast majority of them had died long ago, and no matter how much they were redeemed, it would hold no meaning. Yet when facing hell, why turn away and flee?
Just as she had once stood in front of Ji Jue to block Lawrence, she stepped forward once again, advancing against the boundless deluge.
Without a single regret.
*Since someone has to stand up...*
*Then why can't that person be me?*
That tiny figure was swallowed up in an instant by the sky-covering flood.
Immediately following that, an earth-shattering boom reverberated.
*Boom!!!*
The True Essence of the Desolate Ruins unfolded from the gleam of crystal.
When she reached out her hand once more, an invisible precipice took shape directly before her, revealing an eternal cruelty and an indelible, stubborn nature from within.
The iridescent phantom light rushed forward, battered against it, and then collapsed!
The tsunami formed of near-infinite desire and madness, of countless delusions and depravities, slammed into the wall of the Desolate Ruins. The surging assault hissed and sizzled like boiling water.
Yet it could not advance an inch!
It held!
Even as fractures spread continuously.
Time was short.
Yet before that, the moment Wen Wen had stepped forward, Ji Jue had already remade Pan Ying. Holding it in reverse, he drove it straight into his own body. The Poison of Frenzied Slaughter spread from his soul, bringing tearing agony like death by a thousand cuts and unending madness, expelling all stray thoughts and delusions in their entirety.
The Swarm burned like fire from within his soul, melting the rust of desire clinging to the Spirit of Ascension in an instant. Spurred by that intense agony, his consciousness grew clearer and clearer, his spiritus purified.
His other hand clenched tight and thrust forward. Remaking commenced!
In an instant, the earth trembled and the firmament shattered. The light of the ley lines surged upward while starlight descended from above. The moment they fused, they adhered to the defense Wen Wen held up, bringing the spread of cracks to a dead halt.
Connecting to the ley lines below and answering the morning stars above, Juque of the Nine Forms was crudely replicated. Following his superficial understanding, he pushed it through step by step, forcing it together mechanically, achieving at least its most fundamental effect.
All destruction was evenly guided and distributed to every corner of the illusory dream. To preserve one was to preserve all; to harm one was to harm all!
Simultaneously, the shadow of Chixiao re-emerged. The heavenly gates threw wide, and heavenly light shone across all creation. Everything turbulent within the illusory dream calmed once more, brought back under the sway of order.
High in the heavens, the omnipotent 'God' underwent a drastic change of expression.
He bent over uncontrollably, vomiting blood!
A phantom dagger, flickering between existence and nonexistence, materialized out of thin air directly over his heart. Immediately following that, a piercing, tragic vision flashed before his eyes—a white rainbow piercing the sun, a comet's edge tearing through the bright moon!
Yuchang!
Under the projection technique replicated by his spiritus hand, Yuchang appeared from nothingness, effortlessly piercing through layer upon layer of defense to strike dead center on target!
Beneath that blade of nothingness, an unstoppable withering began, spreading outward.
Even if a forcibly forged copy of the Nine Forms lacked true spiritual intent, the Supreme Goodness here was something he had handcrafted himself. What was wrong with piggybacking a few programs onto it?
Just tell me whether the code runs or not!
Now, obliteration was right at hand.
Yet creation and destruction hung on nothing more than a single thought. Wen Sheng did not care in the slightest, completing his resurrection and regeneration in the blink of an eye. What truly infuriated him was that during a mere instant of negligence, the suppressed system of Supreme Goodness had actually broken its seal again?!
There was no helping it. During the period he had slept, the rules laid down and created by Ji Jue had already been engraved into the foundation of the illusory dream, faintly even destabilizing the Holy God's stability and observation.
Even with such a massive first-mover advantage and monopoly, a single moment of carelessness was all it took... to be instantly shaken at his very core by a vicious, tailor-made barrage!
Disgusting! Absolutely vile!
*Cheater!*
At this moment, the second their eyes met, the contempt and gloom in their gazes were cut from the exact same cloth: *You hacked first!*
In that case...
Wen Sheng clenched his fist violently. The pervasive contamination of Weiyang was thoroughly ignited, detonating like a dirty bomb.
Right as the precipice cracked and Supreme Goodness wavered, the gates of the Realm of Ultimate Bliss abruptly expanded.
The colossal serpent bones opened wide into a gaping maw and descended from above, swallowing everything before it—including Ji Jue and Wen Wen—completely into its belly, snapping shut with a brutal snap!
Transforming the entire Realm of Ultimate Bliss into a cage, he would isolate the cheating player into the penalty box first!
Sever his sphere of influence first. Once Ji Jue was dealt with, erasing his influence would be as easy as turning a hand, wouldn't it?
In an instant, inside and outside were completely sealed off.
It went so smoothly.
So smoothly that it left him bewildered.
Not a trace of resistance?
Immediately after, his face soured...
The moment the serpent's mouth representing the Realm of Ultimate Bliss swallowed them, the wreckage of Limbo outside unexpectedly collapsed and disassembled with a roar.
Then, through the commands Ji Jue had left behind and the turning cycle of Supreme Goodness and Great Sin, it reconstructed itself once more, wrapping and blanketing the exterior of the Realm of Ultimate Bliss like shackles!
Right as the Realm of Ultimate Bliss sealed away Ji Jue and Wen Wen, the rising Limbo and Supreme Goodness sealed Wen Sheng and the Realm of Ultimate Bliss inside as well!
Completely closed.
Now there were two doors, two walls... and two locks!
Surprised? Shocked?
The moment realization struck, Wen Sheng caught sight of Ji Jue's smile.
While Wen Sheng had sought to lock Ji Jue into the Realm of Ultimate Bliss, what Ji Jue had seen was a precious opportunity to lock Wen Sheng inside Limbo along with him.
If we turn on the cheats, we both do. If we get locked up, we both get locked up!
Let's all serve time together!
Now, separated by Limbo and the Realm of Ultimate Bliss, everyone was locked inside, like prisoners trapped at the bottom of a well tightening the nooses around each other's necks, refusing to let go.
Like cornered beasts in a cage...
The moment he realized their predicament, Wen Sheng wiped the fury and wavering from his heart, returning to calmness once again.
Nothing more than a deathbed struggle!
Even if he was sealed by Limbo and isolated from the outside world, the Huangliang Relic remained under his control. With him walled off, the Holy God's observation still existed; his power was merely restricted.
But with Ji Jue cut off, everything Ji Jue had created would completely lose control... And on the inside, with their authorities wrestling against each other, Ji Jue could accomplish nothing.
"Drinking poison to quench your thirst!"
The instant he sneered, his vision suddenly went black.
The last sight he beheld was a fist rapidly enlarging in his pupils—expanding, expanding, expanding further, until it blotted out the sky and sun...
*Boom!*
Wen Sheng's head exploded violently!
Before he could even regenerate, it was ground into powder!
"I've finally gotten my hands on you, you mongrel."
Wen Wen took a deep breath and clenched her fists. Through Ji Jue's alterations, her heavy lance had already transformed into a pair of savage, angular brass knuckles emitting an ominous black light.
Before Wen Sheng could react, another punch landed!
Just as she had once reduced him to ash and bone, the exact same brutal scene played out once more.
Only now did Ji Jue's laughter ring out.
Losing the amplification of Supreme Goodness?
I couldn't care less!
You didn't really think I couldn't handle you without Supreme Goodness, did you?
Well, alright, that's true—I really couldn't.
But that doesn't matter. I just needed to make sure you couldn't run away...
Who told my ally to be a golden thigh of the Desolate Ruins, immune to all dream buffs and debuffs, punching straight to the meat, dropping an Ascension per punch, a Heart Pivot per strike, and trampling an Ether user to death with a single stomp?!
"Oh my, Sister Wen, I feel so weak."
Ji Jue hid behind Wen Wen like a fragile willow swaying in the breeze, peeking his head out to admire the sight of Wen Sheng being beaten to a pulp, pleading delicately, "I'll have to rely on you to protect me now."
"Yeah! Leave it to me!"
Amidst her crisp voice, Wen Wen's fists collided, the knuckles grinding together as sparks flew.
So delightfully pleasant.
She never imagined she would have another chance to relive the old days.
A long-lost fighting spirit surged within her!
*Boom!*
Another punch, and then another!
Directing her greetings without reservation straight at that loathsome face, domestic violence was staged without mercy once more after all these years!
She gave Wen Sheng no opportunity, no time at all. A tempest without the slightest pause ground that face into mincemeat over and over, dragging him through the shadows and torment of days gone by.
Wen Sheng's body reconvened, letting out a cold scoff: "Meaningless!"
*Boom!*
"In vain..."
*Boom!!*
"You simply can't..."
*Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!*
Unbroken deaths and unbroken regenerations. That True Essence of the Desolate Ruins, capable of crushing all dreamlike illusions, battered his soul repeatedly.
Only at this moment did Wen Sheng realize he had fallen into a quagmire, sinking deeper and deeper...
As long as that mongrel Ji Jue existed, the dream's authorities would remain split, neither able to overcome the other. And as long as the monster Wen Wen remained, an immovable foreign object would always linger within his self-nature cycle, preventing its complete realization!
The Holy God could not become complete.
The flaw within the Celestial-Human Foundation: Myriad Final Aspects still persisted.
Even if he held a ninety-nine percent advantage, the final success remained hopelessly out of reach.
Unless he made a ruthless decision.
Then...
—Break it down and build it anew!
*Crack.*
At that instant, the sound of splintering rang out with startling clarity.
From the void behind Wen Sheng, the phantom of an eerie pocket watch materialized. Immediately afterward, the deafening roars ceased abruptly.
The fist of the Desolate Ruins froze right before Wen Sheng.
It had been caught.
Gripped tight!
That mangled, bloodied face slowly lifted, sneering at the astonished Wen Wen: "After so many years, you truly... haven't improved in the slightest!"
Ascension's Revision Negation, Ether's Phenomenon Distortion, and Heart Pivot's Reality Contamination—three entirely different arts now overlapped and flashed from Wen Sheng's hand.
As if unlocking shackles.
Right before her eyes, Wen Sheng's silhouette shuddered violently. The three overlapping faces of an old man, a young child, and a middle-aged man slowly split apart.
One divided into three!
The power that had previously synthesized and nearly fused Ascension, Ether, and Heart Pivot into a single entity was once again dismantled, made mutually independent.
Having thoroughly dismantled his flawed Celestial-Human Foundation, abandoning future potential to start anew, the auras of the three did not diminish in the slightest. Instead, they grew ever stronger!
In stark contrast to them was Ji Jue.
He was rapidly weakening!
He could feel his authority plummeting, waning, losing external support, even being battered back to its original form!
Even giving everything he had, he could barely maintain Limbo's seal, unable to produce any further changes.
No, it was his system of Supreme Goodness...
He realized in shock that everything he had constructed in the illusory dream had been wiped clean!
What had Wen Sheng done?!
At that moment, an icy smile appeared across Wen Sheng's three faces.
With just a snap of his fingers.
Amidst the crisp sound, the iridescent Realm of Ultimate Bliss rapidly turned transparent, projecting the outside scene within.
Yet there were no mountains, no oceans, no Tiancheng and believers, nor heretics and devils.
Surrounded by the skeletal remains of the giant serpent, there was only the primordial chaos and void from the dawn of heaven and earth, along with a vast sea formed of countless converged souls...
Wen Sheng had done nothing.
He had merely undone all the shackles, thoroughly resetting the entire illusory dream. Having cleansed everything that had transpired, it returned to square one—the moment this dream had first begun!
Back then, the Holy God had created heaven and earth, bestowing sweet dreams upon all living beings, without the slightest trace of Supreme Goodness or Great Sin.
Everything returned to the original starting line.
A fresh game.
Everything remained under the Holy God's control, but this time, Ji Jue could no longer interfere with the outside world...
And time—time was accelerating rapidly!
Ji Jue could see that everything he had left behind was swiftly turning to dust within the accelerated current of time. The faith converging toward him was gradually cut off.
And those souls that still remembered him were rapidly forgetting everything...
Perhaps this was the most terrifying thing in the world: the shifting of seas into mulberry fields, the ruthless march of time!
Time would mend all things; time would bury everything. Within dream-time accelerated to the absolute limit, a brand-new illusory dream would overwrite the old world.
And within this dream with no end in sight, everything that had once happened would gradually fade into oblivion.
Including the Order's cruelty, including the resistance of heretics and demons.
Only the Holy God's Mercy would endure forever.
"Look, this is what so-called mortals are like—forever hesitating, forever wavering, never able to see clearly what they truly want. No matter how much guidance you provide, it is wasted effort in the end."
Wen Sheng's voices overlapped, the exact same contempt and mockery appearing across all three faces: "As long as you are a little generous and grant them an illusory dream, they will plunge into it impatiently... When that time comes, who will still remember you?"
Now, between heaven and earth, within the void, nothing remained but dreamlike neon light.
Countless souls fell into slumber once more, bathed in the Holy God's radiance, pooling into an ocean that brimmed with happiness and beauty, yet was indistinguishable from hell.
This was the true surface of the Sea of Bitterness!
The distance was far too vast.
Even if Ji Jue wished to change it, it remained out of reach, and he had no further opportunities.
The moment Wen Sheng resolved to discard a distant perfection and start anew, all their efforts had returned to zero. No, more than that—things were far worse!
A long-lost grogginess and fatigue gradually surfaced within his consciousness.
His body began to feel heavier and heavier.
As if he were sleepy.
"Sister Wen, catch—"
The instant he noticed this, he raised his hand without a second thought, taking off the Lord of the Flies Crown from his head. Entrusting all the remaining strength of his authority and control over Limbo's seal into it, he hurled it toward Wen Wen!
Silver radiance shifted and flashed across the space, sinking into Wen Wen's brass knuckles to form a final protection and safety lock.
Yet Ji Jue did not even get the chance to witness it.
Before that, his body had already taken on an ash-gray hue once more. Petrification spread, turning him into a damaged stone sculpture.
His consciousness had sunk into absolute silence.
Plunging once more into an endless illusory dream.
"Don't worry, I didn't do anything."
Wen Sheng smiled, letting out a rueful sigh: "After all, his soul and the Huangliang Relic attract each other. I didn't need to do a thing... Returning the sweet dream that originally belonged to him is more than enough."
It was no longer the hasty cage and isolation of before. This time, he chose to mobilize the power of the Huangliang Relic with everything he had, awakening the bubbles of illusion once entrusted to it by the Lord of Huaxu. What welcomed Ji Jue was an infinite dream that even a Celestial-Human could hardly break free from!
Now, one of the crucial threats had been temporarily eliminated!
Only the last one remained before him.
At this moment, three silhouettes, three faces, and three pairs of eyes looked toward the final enemy. Ascension, Heart Pivot, and Ether—a trinity—demonstrated transformations that flowed like water across the divide of virtue and sin.
"The game of playing house is over, Sister!"
***
Just a momentary daze.
The hum of cicadas buzzed in his ears. Beneath blazing sunlight, dappled tree shadows fell across his face as beams of midday sun shone down through tender green leaves.
Everything became so vivid and glowing.
When he came to his senses, Ji Jue found himself standing in front of an apartment building. The weathered entryway was plastered with locksmith advertisements, so decrepit it didn't even have an elevator.
Across the bushes of the green belt, outside the residential complex's railing, traffic flowed like water and voices buzzed in the bustling street.
Everything was so familiar.
As if he had seen it somewhere before...
Just a moment ago, he had been locked in a life-and-death struggle with a so-called god, yet in the next, he had arrived here. Everything in his memories felt like the absurd daydream of a wandering mind, impossibly bizarre.
Yet Ji Jue was entirely certain—he had fallen into a dream once again!
Fortunately, he still retained his past arts and maintained his mental defense and clarity, not assimilated by the dream.
Then what he needed to do next was very simple.
He looked up at the old residential building before him. Nine stories, a drop of about thirty-odd meters. A bit low, but enough—as long as he stayed resolute and avoided wavering, falling from such a height would be enough to speedrun this so-called sweet dream, waking up through death.
Yet the moment that thought surfaced, his chest tightened suddenly.
In his hurried inspection, he hadn't even checked the surrounding details carefully. But around a distant corner, footsteps sounded. A gaunt, sweating man was carrying a plastic bag full of groceries.
With age, he had grown thinner, his hair somewhat sparse.
On such a sweltering day, he still wore a collared shirt and leather shoes, so conservative he refused to unbutton even a single button at his collar or cuffs, already nearly soaked through with sweat.
Panting for breath.
Looking up, when he saw the young man hesitating in front of the apartment entrance, he froze, looking taken aback.
"... Yao'er?"
Ji Jue stiffened where he stood. With great difficulty, he turned his head and looked at that familiar face.
After a long time, he let out a bitter laugh.
Now, he finally understood why the scene before him was so... familiar.
Room 201, Unit 1, Building 3, Changqing Yuan, No. 8 Jiande Lane, Jinhua District, Jincheng, Shuzhou.
Amidst his dizziness, Ji Jue looked at everything around him.
He felt it hard to breathe.
This was his home.
"Feeling unwell?" His father set down the grocery bag and stepped closer. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"
"No, it's nothing. Just..."
Ji Jue took a step back instinctively, lowering his head to dodge his gaze. "Probably... just got sand in my eyes."
"Then wipe it off. Help me carry this, be careful, it's heavy."
His father handed over one of the bags filled with vegetables. "Your mom got lazy at noon. If she'd known you were coming back, the ribs might already be stewed."
Ji Jue passively took the heavy bag. Seeing that his father had already stepped onto the stairs, pulling a key from his pocket, the older man looked back at his son lingering in place and waved:
"Let's go. Head inside first."
"Okay."
Ji Jue closed his eyes.
In a daze, he seemed to hear the sound of his resolve shattering.
He could no longer manage to be free of hesitation and longing...
Chapter 542