Gazing at Huang Tian, the Lord on High, who stood before him wearing a kindly smile, Xie Yuan felt his heart sink, and a deep despair welled up.
The stray dog he was parasitizing slowly backed away, and as it retreated it said, "There was never any grievance between us. Can't the road be wide enough for each of us to go our own way?"
At those words Huang Tian only smiled, too lazy to say more. With a thought, an orange-red fireball formed out of the void and drifted swiftly toward Xie Yuan. The latter let out a terrified low growl and hurriedly turned to flee for his life, but in the space of an instant the fireball landed on his body.
Whoosh—
From the fur on his back the fireball spread all at once, and in the blink of an eye it burned over his whole body. Xie Yuan gave an agonized howl. His entire body rapidly turned to flying ash, and a gust of wind sent it drifting and swirling through the air.
Ding-ding-dang—
Where he had been, an oddity ring fell, rolled a few turns on the ground, and gave off a clear, crisp sound.
"So this must be the oddity he possessed—its trait should be that it grows by devouring flesh and blood, and that after the true body dies, it can revive once upon some piece of its own flesh."
Huang Tian did not pick up the oddity ring at once. He waited a while, and only after about five minutes, seeing that nothing unusual had occurred, did he split off a spiritual-power avatar. The avatar raised a hand and beckoned, drawing the oddity ring into its grasp.
Thirty seconds after the oddity ring entered the avatar's hand, it turned into a point of light and drifted into his body.
Huang Tian nodded in satisfaction. In the next moment he shot into the sky like a streak of flowing light, flying toward Changnan City and sweeping the cities along the way with his divine sense as he went.
He saw that in every major city, countless people were in an uproar over the great battle between Huang Tian, the Lord on High, and the Master of Flesh and Blood. In the streets and alleys, online and offline, people were all talking at once.
"We want the truth! Don't hide it from us!"
"What exactly is Canxing hiding? Officials, please announce it soon. We don't want to be fools toyed with in the age when the extraordinary arrives!"
"Cultivation for all! The extraordinary for all! Every person a dragon!"
"A great era is coming toward us. We must keep pace with the times and become cultivators and special-ability users!"
"The world is changing too fast. Just yesterday I was still excited about finding a higher-paying job, but now—work? Work doesn't mean a damn thing! I want to cultivate, with power beyond measure!"
"I think we know too little about the age of the extraordinary, and we've learned it too late. Other extraordinary beings are already calling themselves gods, holding thunder in their hands, or standing dozens of meters tall, stronger even than the Superman in the movies. We haven't even taken the first step.
Fall one step behind, and you fall behind at every step. From my experience reading novels, people like us who start late are just cannon fodder in the age of the extraordinary, nameless background extras. Sigh, if only I had caught the first wave—"
"Don't be discouraged, brother. People like you and me could never catch the first train in any era. Even eating shit, we couldn't get it while it was still warm. But it doesn't matter. Isn't cultivation all about innate talent, comprehension, spiritual roots, and a spiritual body? What if we're geniuses, one in a hundred million?"
"You've read too many novels. Who says that if there's a cultivation system, there have to be spiritual roots and a spiritual body?"
Huang Tian was not surprised by the people's excited talk and arguments. Who didn't like the extraordinary?
An age of the extraordinary meant a chance at eternal life. For countless living beings, one of the things they yearned for most was to live and never die. Once one's lifespan was without limit, one could then pursue endless enjoyment, or explore eternal truth.
Of course, some would say that an age of the extraordinary represented not only evolution, but also chaos. Not everyone could smoothly become an immortal or a patriarch. There would certainly be no shortage of people taking crooked paths and deviant ways, treating a Myriad Souls Banner as a Human Emperor Banner.
But it didn't matter. In a great river, swimming fish were beyond counting, and everyone could strive to cross and leap the Dragon Gate. That was the greatest fairness. Even dying at a demon's hand was better than muddling through a few mediocre decades and in the end becoming a handful of yellow earth that no one remembered—
He had flown for a short while when, suddenly, the cities below that had been in an uproar fell silent for an instant. Then all the people scratched their heads, astonished and full of doubt.
"I—I seem to have forgotten something. Hiss. Getting old, you just get forgetful, huh."
"Hai, same here, same here. These days, old or young, everybody's memory is bad. Some young people's bodies are even worse than old folks'. Ask them to run two or three kilometers and it's like demanding their lives."
"What did I click into the forum to do, again?"
"Holy shit, shouldn't I be catching up on sleep at this hour? How did I end up outside, dressed all neat and proper? I didn't sleepwalk, did I?"
"It's lively downstairs. So many people gathered together—what happened?"
"Huh? What are so many of us gathered for? Getting ready to dance in the square? And nobody even brought a speaker—"
Flying through the air, Huang Tian's figure paused, and his brows lifted slightly. "Everyone's memories have been erased. It seems the Oddity Management Association has brought out some special oddity—"
He pondered for a moment, then called, "Little Light!"
The Brain of Light answered at once. "Master, I am here!"
"Do you still remember the battle that took place a few minutes ago on the eastern outskirts of Qiju City?"
"Sorry, Master. I have no related memories."
"Then search the whole net for this matter now, and see whether you can find any record of it."
"All right—sorry, Master. No related information was found."
At those words Huang Tian looked thoughtful. "As expected, information and memories online and offline have all been erased. Even the intelligent life I created could not avoid it. This oddity's trait is truly domineering.
"Yet my own memories were not affected. Why? Is it my Daluo nature? Memory has always been tied to the soul. Although this body of mine has not yet become an immortal, a trace of soul comes from my true body, and so there flows through it a Dao principle, eternal and unextinguished, that the myriad laws cannot invade. Oddity traits of the sort that affect or twist the soul and the will cannot act upon me—"
Having thought this through, he gave a slight nod. This world was indeed very special—so special that it was extremely likely connected with what lay above Daluo, and with the root of special abilities. Its various oddities were absurd and bizarre as well. But his true body was, after all, a Daluo existence. Although the world's special nature meant his true body could not descend directly, a trace of eternal, undying soul was not something an ordinary oddity could affect.
What he needed to deal with in earnest were only those oddities that were not of the soul-and-will kind. After all, this body was still a "mortal body." Faced with many absurd traits that acted upon the body, he would still be affected.
"Still, there is no need to worry too much. The higher my realm, the smaller an oddity's influence.
"Say some oddity's trait is to ignore realm and make a person's heart explode. For the vast majority of people on Canxing, that trait would be certain death. But for me, a mere exploding heart is nothing—
"The higher the realm, the fewer the weaknesses.
"Now that I have Yang Chen's One-Tenth Exchange Box, resources for cultivation should not be lacking. Soon my realm can surge forward again. Great Ascension is at hand, and True Immortal is very near. Once I become an immortal, across all of Canxing there will be almost nothing I need be wary of—"
He thought for a while, then continued flying toward Changnan City. His divine sense still swept the land, so that he might search along the way for wild oddities and oddity organizations.
In the information age the Brain of Light could well be called vast in divine ability, but there were always places it could not reach. By comparison, one sweep of divine sense, and no matter where you hid, nothing could escape.
Thus, every time he flew, he would sweep the four directions with his divine sense, to see whether there was any unexpected gain.
After flying for a while, Changnan City came into distant view. He had thought this time would be like all the others, with nothing gained, when his figure suddenly stalled. He looked down at a small path in the countryside. Upon that path, a magnificent glazed bottle had appeared out of thin air.
"This bottle appeared all of a sudden—an oddity? I didn't think I'd actually run into one!"
With a thought, a spiritual-power clone dropped onto the path below. It stood beside the glazed bottle and reached out. The instant it picked the bottle up, a puff of pale-blue mist sprayed from within.
An old man in a tall crown and broad sash, his form illusory, floated in midair. His face was kindly, and he said amiably, "Ah, young child, I am the bottle god of the Peacock Bottle. I am omnipotent, and I can grant you three wishes!
"Whatever regrets you failed to undo, whatever treasures you longed for and never obtained, whether you wish to become the ruler of the world—you may tell me all of it, and I will fulfill your wishes!"
Huang Tian studied this old man called the Peacock Bottle Lamp God and did not speak. He first let go of the bottle, lest it be absorbed at once.
Though the bottle god did not understand his intent, he still waited with a kindly smile and did not press him.
Ten minutes passed before the bottle god finally could not help himself. Urgency in his eyes, he said, "Child, are you dull in the head? Don't you have a wish? Even if you have no wish, don't you have desires?
"Don't you want to taste every fine food in the world, look upon beauties by the tens of thousands, hold the power of life and death, and experience the mighty power of the extraordinary?
"Say it!
"Say it, and I'll make it real for you. This is a chance countless people can only long for and never obtain!"
At those words Huang Tian smiled. "Are you truly omnipotent?"
Seeing that he had finally spoken, the lamp god's smile grew even broader, and he said with smug satisfaction, "Of course. I am a god! How could you mortals understand the power of a god? You need only know that I can fulfill all your wishes. Now, speak boldly!"
Huang Tian nodded. "In that case, I'll say it—my first wish is to ascend to the realm above Daluo. If that truly cannot be done, then letting me glimpse a thread of the mystery above Daluo will do."
The lamp god froze.
What the hell was above Daluo?
No—what even was Daluo?
Did the cultivation system have such a realm?
Huang Tian wore a look of doubt. "You wouldn't happen not to know what Daluo is, would you?"
The lamp god coughed twice. "How could I not know—"
He put his left hand behind his back and began to calculate a divination.
But the more he calculated, the more it was "empty." He could divine nothing at all, like an ant peering at the sky, vainly asking just how vast heaven really was.
How could this be?!
He refused to accept it. He exhausted every means to calculate more deeply, and still felt only a vast blank emptiness. And then—
"Aiyo—"
Sweat seeped from his forehead. The lamp god seemed drained of spirit, and could not help staggering back a step. Fortunately his form was illusory to begin with, so there was no fear of him falling, but this disgrace also turned the atmosphere awkward.
Huang Tian: "?"
The lamp god: "—"
The two of them fell silent.
In their ears came the rustle of wind through leaves, and the lowing of cattle in the countryside. Far off, a car horn sounded, empty, distant, and long.
The lamp god's face flushed red, then went white, changing color several times before he said, "Above Daluo—cough, cough—this realm is mystery upon mystery. Although I have already divined it, it is very hard to make clear in words."
He looked at Huang Tian and gradually steadied himself. "It isn't that I won't help you fulfill this wish. It is that you are a mere mortal, and cannot bear to hear the words of the Great Dao. Even if you heard them, you could not understand. Therefore—"
He shook his head lightly and sighed. "How about this. I won't deceive you either. This wish doesn't count. Change it for another wish, all right?"
Huang Tian pondered a moment, then slowly nodded. "Fine."
The lamp god smiled, gratified. "Then speak! Let me hear your new wish!"
Huang Tian said, "I want to know the most fundamental secret of this world."
"That's simple!" The lamp god laughed brightly. A small world—what great secret could it be hiding? A casual divination, and it would come right out, wouldn't it?
His left hand swiftly began to calculate. Only, just as before, it was still a stretch of "emptiness." He could calculate nothing, and see nothing clearly.
"How is that possible!"
Disbelief surged in his heart. This was clearly an utterly ordinary planet. How could there be a secret he could not calculate?
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Anger flared in his heart. He forced the calculation. The more he calculated, the more muddled his mind became, the dizzier he grew, until at a certain moment he felt heaven and earth spinning.
"Oop—" His body toppled backward beyond his control. He reached out, wanting to grab hold of something, but in the end he still fell over in midair, turned into a puff of mist, and scattered.
About five seconds later, another trail of mist flew out of the Peacock Bottle, and the old man floated in midair with a somewhat embarrassed look.
Huang Tian: "?"
The bottle god forced a smile. "Hahaha, old, I'm old, my energy's failing. Pay it no mind, pay it no mind."
"Aren't you a god? How can you still grow old?"
"Th-this—humans have birth, aging, sickness, and death, and gods have certain special circumstances too. Cough. Let's not talk about that. Back to the secret of this world.
"This secret, ah, is very important, very precious, but it isn't suitable for you to know now. Knowing it early will do you no good. When the time comes that you ought to know, you will know. In short, although I already know it, you had best not inquire. I am doing this for your own good."
"Truly?"
"Of course it's true. Would this old man deceive you?" The bottle god huffed and glared, beard bristling. "Enough, enough. This wish doesn't count either. Ask another, and I'll fulfill it for you!"
"Mm. Then I'll ask one more."
"Ask, ask!"
"I want—" Huang Tian thought for a while, then finally shook his head. "Forget it."
The bottle god first went blank, then flew into a rage, beard and hair flying. "Forget it? What do you mean, forget it? You don't believe me!
"I am the great Lamp God—"
A whole string of words poured out. Huang Tian only watched in silence. After the other stopped, he ventured a guess. "So long as you fulfill one wish of mine, you can leave the bottle, and I become the new bottle god, trapped inside? Or is it that you will swallow my soul and take possession of my body?"
The bottle god's expression changed sharply. He gave a hollow chuckle. "How could that be, young child? You're thinking too much—"
Huang Tian only sighed. "I really did think you might know something. A pity. Utterly useless."
At the words "utterly useless," the bottle god finally could not endure it. His face flushed crimson. "You are humiliating a great god! You vile, ignorant, stupid mortal—to disrespect a god is to fall into Avici Hell! You, you, you—"
"You're flustered."
"I'm flustered? You're the one who's flustered—"
Seeing the bottle god turn shame into fury, Huang Tian expressionlessly picked up the Peacock Bottle from the ground.
One grasp—and he refined it in an instant!
Chapter 240