The Lord of Dead Spirits merged into the river, towering death qi surging outward!
This group of figures was currently contending for control of the River of Time, each seeking to devour it.
Whether it was the Heavenly Gate, the Earth Gate, Lan Tian, or the Lord of Dead Spirits, all of them were vying for mastery over the river at this very moment.
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Gate chuckled faintly. "Devouring the river is not quite that simple!"
Su Yu paid him no mind.
He watched in silence, observing for a while before suddenly speaking up: "The Book of the River hasn't even shown itself yet. What the hell are all of you fighting over?"
Every heaven and earth possessed a book!
The Human Ancestor had one, and the Prison King had one as well.
It was just that Su Yu had shattered them directly; once a heaven and earth collapsed, its book was destroyed along with it.
Right now, the Book of the River had not even appeared. Did these people truly believe they could seize the river merely by wrestling for it like this?
Having said his piece, Su Yu turned his gaze toward the newly descended Human Gate. Sacred and towering, it stood immense. Su Yu smiled. "Who exactly is the Human Gate? Is it this physical gate, someone else entirely, or... Ji Tian, or perhaps Mansion Master Wan?"
Ji Tian was genuinely a strong possibility.
Back then, what had the Lord of Time truly intended to seal away?
Was it the flowing origin itself?
The malice within the origin?
Su Yu did not know for sure, but he knew Ji Tian was a being born within the Human Gate, an existence forged from the confluence of the myriad Daos' origin. Was this fellow the Seventh of the Human Gate?
"We've already reached this point—do you still intend to hide?"
Su Yu's voice rang like a great bell, reverberating across heaven and earth!
He shouted clearly, "Now that things have come to this, where is the Book of the River? Where is the Human Gate? Don't try telling me this physical door is the true Human Gate!"
The person he spoke of did not appear.
Instead, Ji Tian's voice echoed out from within the Human Gate, tinged with a faint smile and playful amusement: "This door is merely what seals the existence everyone refers to as the Human Gate! So this door truly isn't the Human Gate... Su Yu, didn't you once say that the Human Gate resides in one's heart?"
Standing beneath the river, Su Yu wore a radiant smile. "The Human Gate is in one's heart? You aren't about to tell me that no such thing as a Human Gate actually exists in the myriad realms, and that the true Human Gate is merely the malice harbored within our hearts, are you?"
Su Yu spoke, then suddenly shook his head. "No, I don't believe that! When I said the Human Gate is in one's heart, I was only speaking for myself! If a Human Gate truly exists in the myriad realms, it might be the Lord of Time's malice, or perhaps his malevolent thoughts birthed the Human Gate! That was why he chose to seal it!"
"Ji Tian, old classmate, have we not reached the stage where you can drop the deception?"
Su Yu laughed heartily. "Whether you are the Human Gate or not, don't you know best yourself?"
"I truly am not!"
Ji Tian chuckled. His voice drifted from within the gate, mingled with bouts of wretched, desolate screams—not his own, but the cries of all the origin-formed spirits he was slaughtering within the Human Gate.
"Su Yu, you are very clever... but cleverness doesn't equal strength!"
Ji Tian's smile grew bright. "I am not the Human Gate everyone speaks of. I am merely some leftover origin essence that remained after the Human Gate broke free of its seal and fled!"
With that, he added with a chuckle, "Su Yu, do you know what truly lies behind the Human Gate?"
"I don't. Please enlighten me, old classmate!"
Ji Tian laughed, remarking softly, "Put it this way: the entire myriad realms were created by the Lord of Time specifically to seal what you call the Human Gate! In truth, it wasn't strictly a seal, but a form of... deliverance!"
Su Yu revealed a look of doubt. "Deliverance?"
"Indeed! Deliverance!"
Ji Tian's voice resonated through heaven and earth. "Using the myriad Daos of all living beings, using the Seven Emotions and Six Desires, to deliver the Human Gate! The Human Gate is emotionless, heartless, and born as malice incarnate! Therefore, it required cleansing; it needed the river to gather the power of the myriad Daos to wash over and purify the Human Gate!"
"The Human Gate you see before you is merely a treasure left behind by the Lord of Time!"
"I know you want Wan Tiansheng to inherit this treasure... Sacred and towering, it is indeed a rare find!"
"And this treasure possesses a singular function: to amplify the Dao of Seven Emotions and Six Desires. The tone and very core of the entire River of Time were fundamentally based upon this gate, and this gate's primary purpose was to deliver and reform the true Human Gate!"
Su Yu displayed curiosity. "In other words, the true Human Gate was so wicked or completely devoid of feeling that it required the Seven Emotions and Six Desires of the myriad realms to deliver him, to move him, and to turn him into an existence of flesh and blood?"
"Precisely!"
Ji Tian's laughter rang out. "And beings like us—the existences within the Human Gate—were originally nothing more than embodiments of emotion. Our original purpose was to influence and reform that entity; it was impossible for us ever to become true people or true spirits! But that entity escaped..."
Ji Tian burst into hearty laughter. "Even the Lord of Time was not truly omnipotent or omniscient! He never anticipated that the river he left behind to deliver the Human Gate would eventually birth a spirit of its own! Such is destiny, such is the Heavenly Dao! Anything can attain spirit! And once the river birthed a spirit, it naturally yearned to become a true spirit, a true living being. Naturally, it was no longer content to serve as a mere tool to deliver the Human Gate..."
"Thus, the Spirit of the River began to stir with ambition, even deliberately withholding portions of the myriad Daos' power. As a consequence, flaws appeared in this sealing gate, allowing that entity to flee..."
"To make up for its mistake and to preserve its own longevity, the Spirit of the River chose to seal that entity away once more!"
Ji Tian's voice continued, "You must understand: delivering that entity was the foundational premise for the river's existence. Once that entity fled, remaining undelivered, or departed from the river, it would mean the task had reached its conclusion, and the river's purpose would cease to exist! Therefore, the Spirit of the River could neither kill that entity nor easily seal him—doing so was as difficult as ascending to heaven..."
Su Yu smiled. "Fascinating. Complementary and codependent—is that what you mean?"
"More or less!"
Su Yu chuckled. "Then I am even more curious: how did you get so frightened that you split off Jingtian? And since you wished to become a true living being as well, weren't you afraid of being slain by the two of them?"
Ji Tian chuckled softly. "I knew you would be curious! As for being frightened, that was because I uncovered certain secrets that truly gave me a fright. Of course, the Human Gate also needed a Jingtian, so Jingtian came into being..."
"Secrets?"
Su Yu inquired with interest, "What secrets? Do you mind sharing? Since you've already laid out this much, what else is there to hide?"
Ji Tian laughed. "True enough. It isn't really some grand secret anyway!"
Ji Tian's voice carried over: "The secret I discovered was actually..."
"Allow me to speak!"
Just as Ji Tian was about to explain, the Earth Gate suddenly chimed in. At this moment, this supreme powerhouse shouldering the river appeared remarkably calm. "Ji Tian, beating around the bush and dragging this out for so long—aren't you merely trying to buy a bit more time?"
Su Yu looked intensely curious, his eyes wide. "Earth Gate, you know as well? Then hurry up and say it!"
Laughter rumbled from the Earth Gate. "Su Yu, do you know why the river has an end?"
Su Yu froze, genuinely caught off guard for a moment before remarking, "Because the two gates plug both ends of the river, so naturally it has an end..."
"Su Yu, you are a clever man. Have you never wondered: the Heavenly Gate clearly came into being much later, so could it naturally have blocked the river from the start?"
The moment those words landed, Su Yu plunged into deep thought.
The Earth Gate chuckled. "Su Yu, the river was not born with an end. When the Lord of Time pioneered the river back then, it only had one terminus; the other end stretched out infinitely! Do you understand?"
Pensive, Su Yu nodded. "Makes sense! The Heavenly Gate only emerged much later. Does that mean the river initially had no end, and only gained one afterward?"
"Indeed!"
The Earth Gate smiled. "Do you know the purpose behind the Heavenly Gate's existence?"
Su Yu pondered for a moment, then took in the surrounding scene before finally answering, "To seal off the River of Time so it wouldn't spread further, and also with the aim of compressing the river!"
"Correct!"
The Earth Gate laughed. "If the river kept expanding indefinitely, sealing and compressing it would have been utterly impossible. The River of Time might truly have turned into an eternal existence, never to dissipate! Thus, in order to allow the River of Time to be compressed... the Heavenly Gate was born!"
Su Yu's eyes narrowed!
He looked toward the Earth Gate, toward the existence among the Three Gates that had seemed the simplest, most direct, and most transparent.
At this moment, he suddenly realized he might have fundamentally miscalculated certain things.
This fellow... was far from simple!
The Earth Gate continued, "Su Yu, do you know the true nature of a gate?"
Su Yu raised an eyebrow. "The true nature of a gate..."
"Yes, do you know?"
"A seal!"
Su Yu stated, "To seal the Human Gate, to seal eras..."
"Wrong again!"
The Earth Gate laughed. "How could the essence of a gate be a seal? Were we born merely to serve as existences that seal others away? The true nature of a gate is actually to enclose a territory..."
Su Yu remained stunned, listening on somewhat dumbfounded.
"Enclose a territory?"
The Earth Gate nodded with a chuckle. "Indeed! To cast out what isn't needed, shut the door, and rule one's own domain! And along the way, to swallow everything within the gate. You believed the eras behind us were inside the gate... but you were mistaken. Why wouldn't the true 'inside of the gate'... be the myriad realms?"
He laughed, "Look around. Take another look right now. At this moment when the Three Gates converge, aren't the myriad realms the very domain shut behind closed doors? The void is what lies outside the gate, and the old, decaying eras are outside the gate as well! Inside the gate is where the new era resides!"
The myriad realms were inside the gate!
Inside the Three Gates!
Su Yu's eyes flickered as he looked in all directions. Indeed, right now, everything outside the myriad realms was beyond the gates, crumbling into ruin!
Only the myriad realms remained safe and sound.
Su Yu let out a breath. "I'm beginning to understand. So the Heavenly Gate emerged later! While the Earth Gate... perhaps wasn't sealed at all, but blocked outside!"
Su Yu asked in a heavy voice, "Is that what you mean?"
"Brilliant!"
The Earth Gate chuckled. "You truly are sharp. Put that way, you understood immediately!"
At this point, the Human Sovereign and the others underwent slight changes in expression.
Only Qiong remained utterly lost, growing impatient and irritated. "What does that even mean?"
"Qiong... with that intellect of yours... you truly are foolish!"
The Earth Gate laughed, instantly enraging Qiong.
The Human Sovereign exhaled and said softly, "Still don't understand?"
Qiong looked utterly exasperated. Understand what? I don't get it at all!
The Human Sovereign said slowly, "He is on the outside, and we are on the inside! Put it this way: why wasn't the Earth Gate in the myriad realms, but rather in the Upper Realm?"
What kind of nonsense is that? How should I know? The Earth Gate has always been in the Upper Realm!
The Human Sovereign was speechless, forced to elaborate once more: "To put it even more plainly, when the Lord of Time opened the heavens back then, he must have designated a specific group allowed to enter, rather than letting anyone come and go as they pleased! And the Earth Gate was an existence excluded from the start... Thus, he racked his brains and tried every possible method to infiltrate!"
The Earth Gate cut in with a smile: "It wasn't that 'not anyone' could enter... rather, anyone of the human race could enter this world, while non-humans were barred entirely!"
The Earth Gate laughed, "Therefore, all ancient beasts were excluded! Myself included!"
Yet Qiong grew increasingly bewildered.
Su Yu and several others sighed in unison.
King Wu felt that even he had managed to grasp it, and chimed in to explain, "Still don't get it? When the Lord of Time opened the heavens, anyone who was human could enter! But this fellow wasn't human and couldn't get in. So to force his way inside, he kept infiltrating, stubbornly refusing to leave. It wasn't that the Lord of Time sealed him away; this bastard simply refused to clear off and had his sights set on the myriad realms all along!"
"Crude words, but the reasoning holds!"
The Earth Gate laughed. "That is precisely the case. The Lord of Time was a peerless figure; even a world he opened casually possessed complete myriad Daos and boundless might! Therefore, I was unwilling to leave, refusing to depart! What people call being sealed in the Chaos Era... was no seal at all. I merely sought to forcibly smash through certain barriers, tear open rifts, and prop them open by force so that some ancient beasts could infiltrate the myriad realms... Over the years, I've had decent success!"
At this moment, Su Yu was genuinely astonished. "So you are the ultimate mastermind behind the scenes?"
"Not quite!"
The Earth Gate smiled. "I merely wished to devour the river and swallow all of you. Yet the myriad realms possess their own defenders, so aren't I still striving for it right now?"
Qiong finally caught on, his expression turning odd. "Wait, that's not right. Didn't Shi and the rest enter the myriad realms freely?"
"That is different!"
The Earth Gate chuckled. "Shi was a stone birthed within this world. You were the Lord of Time's sword. As for Kong, he was an ancient beast that I expended considerable power to slowly smuggle into the myriad realms... Unfortunately, I am far stronger than Kong. He could pass through the rifts I tore open, but I could not! In the early years, I smuggled large numbers of ancient beasts inside, only for them to be repelled and slaughtered every single time. A pity!"
Qiong stood entirely dumbfounded.
Su Yu also sighed with emotion. "So the Heavenly Gate was arranged by you? The so-called era of extinction was actually meant to weaken the river's power, allowing a portion of the river to decay so that you could send more of your strength into the myriad realms?"
"Correct!"
The Earth Gate smiled. "I have also been extracting portions of the origin power—the origin power of the myriad realms—to weaken it! That is the greatest difference between the Earth Gate and the Heavenly Gate: within the Earth Gate, there are no Yin Daos, no complementary Daos!"
The Human Sovereign said coldly, "So the destruction of the eras was orchestrated entirely by your hand?"
The Earth Gate laughed again. "No, no, no, I was only one of them! The other was the Human Gate who wished to flee this place. He wanted to escape, and I wanted to enter... Thus, we reached an accord! He didn't care whether the myriad realms would be devoured by me, and I didn't care whether he escaped... Hitting it off immediately, we cooperated with one another, eradicating the Heaven-Opening Era solely to weaken a portion of the river's power... And if this era is eradicated once more, the river's strength will be reduced to a level where I can devour it!"
The Earth Gate smiled. "Ji Tian, what you wanted to say was precisely this, wasn't it?"
At this moment, before Ji Tian could reply, Qiong clutched his head in agony. "Let me sort this out! I think I get it now! After the Lord of Time opened the heavens, he left, sealing the Human Gate here. Meanwhile, you coveted the river's power and wanted to enter... but you couldn't get in? So you kept watch outside the entire time, even stationing yourself above the myriad realms to observe, waiting for the right moment to destroy the world—is that it?"
The Earth Gate chuckled. "You've finally wrapped your head around it!"
"Then the Heavenly Gate..."
He pointed toward the Heavenly Gate. "Is he someone you planted?"
The Earth Gate laughed again. "No!"
Qiong let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that's something. Otherwise, I would have lost my mind!"
The Earth Gate suddenly smiled. "The Heavenly Gate is my clone, so naturally he isn't someone I planted!"
"..."
Qiong was thoroughly struck dumb!
The Earth Gate smiled. "My power was too vast and suffered intense rejection; entering directly was out of the question! Therefore, I severed a portion of my origin essence, having it slip inside alongside Kong and the others when they entered. Ultimately, it manifested as the Heavenly Gate, wiping out the Heaven-Opening Era and drastically weakening the river's power!"
The Earth Gate added with a chuckle, "Furthermore, the purpose of the Heavenly Gate's existence was to prevent the river from growing any stronger, blocking it so that it could no longer spread infinitely!"
He looked toward the crowd, sighing with emotion. "You do not understand! The Lord of Time was simply too powerful! He was an unimaginably terrifying existence! He visited this place once, and his next arrival might be countless years later... Therefore, before he returns, I must devour this place and leave. Otherwise... encountering him again would be perilous in the extreme!"
"Back then, the Blood Ancestor, who dominated this region, was easily executed by him merely for offending his path... He was a terrifying being!"
Su Yu's eyes flickered slightly. "The Blood Ancestor?"
"You must have obtained his broken world, yes?"
The Earth Gate smiled. "The Blood Ancestor was immensely powerful as well. In your terms, he possessed roughly forty-five Daos of power—a formidable existence! Yet upon encountering the Lord of Time, he stood no chance whatsoever and was slain with ease!"
"Thus, I dared not provoke that existence lightly... I could only choose to infiltrate step by step, gradually eroding the river's power before seeking a way to devour this place!"
The Earth Gate sighed with feeling. "Ancient beasts have it too difficult! Unlike you humans, who advance with rapid speed, cultivating for us is harder than scaling the heavens! Reaching a level like mine, opportunities are exceedingly rare... The River of Time is my opportunity!"
By this point, Qiong was utterly shocked out of his wits. Still dwelling on the prior revelation, he stammered, "You... you're saying... the Heavenly Gate... is also you?"
The Earth Gate chuckled helplessly. "Was I not clear enough? The Heavenly Gate is me. I have always been here! Observing the myriad realms, devising ways to make the myriad realms strong, and devising ways to make them weak!"
"Im... impossible!"
Qiong said in shock, "If you are so strong... and even the Heavenly Gate is you, why didn't you just wipe out the myriad realms directly?"
"Fool!"
The Earth Gate could not resist cursing. "As that venerable one's sword, how can you be so foolish? Did this seat not already explain? What I needed was not to eradicate you outright, but to make you strong—yet within a controllable threshold—and then have you devour the river's Daos, weakening and decaying the river..."
"Only by doing so would I possess the strength and opportunity to devour the river. Do you understand now?"
He added, "Furthermore, without the Heavenly Gate flowing down along the river, did you imagine I could forcibly unite the Three Gates? That was impossible. I could only wait, waiting for the Heavenly Gate to drift down gradually. Only in that manner could the river be naturally compressed; I could never have forced the river to compress to this degree on my own..."
With that, he smiled, "For this, I must extend my thanks to Su Yu and the rest of you! An abundance of Heaven-Openers was actually a boon for me. By repeatedly stripping away the river's power, you allowed the River of Time to gradually converge. Had you not peeled away so much of the river's strength, it would have been difficult even for me to compress the River of Time to its current state!"
Su Yu chuckled faintly. "So you believe you have us completely cornered?"
"Do I not?"
The Earth Gate smiled. "Naturally, one only acts when certain of victory! Su Yu, as I said, you are a clever man, yet at times not quite clever enough! You may have deduced the existence of the Spirit of the River. You devoured your so-called future self to strengthen yourself, yet you remained on guard against the Spirit of the River the entire time, did you not?"
"Your vigilance was reasonable, yet also unfounded! Your ability to easily devour such immense future power was willingly provided by the Spirit of the River, precisely because it wanted you to obstruct me. Alas, the Spirit of the River is pulled in too many directions... On one hand, it must deal with what you call the Human Gate; on the other, it must resist my invasion... How could it possibly manage both!"
Su Yu nodded, drawing breath continuously. "Impressive! So Senior Earth Gate, who appeared so plain and unassuming, is the true mastermind and ultimate victor! Put that way, I understand completely! The myriad realms have three truly top-tier existences: Senior Earth Gate, the Seventh of the Human Gate, and the Spirit of the River! Senior Earth Gate joined hands with the Seventh of the Human Gate—one seeking to escape, the other seeking to swallow the myriad realms—while the Spirit of the River sought to control the myriad realms on one hand while keeping the Seventh of the Human Gate from fleeing on the other... Thus unfolded a grand drama lasting countless years. Eras were wiped out and countless figures died in battle, all because the three of you were fighting over the ownership of the river, isn't that right?"
"The Seventh of the Human Gate?"
The Earth Gate paused, then soon laughed. "That name... is rather well chosen!"
Though slightly insincere!
The Earth Gate nodded faintly with a smile. "You could say that!"
Su Yu laughed. "Then I find myself somewhat puzzled. What on earth has Ji Tian been scheming all this time?"
"Ji Tian, did you already know that the Earth Gate and Heavenly Gate were one and the same?"
Su Yu threw out the question. Was this the secret Ji Tian had mentioned?
At this moment, more agonized wails of living spirits drifted from within the Human Gate, soon followed by a round of laughter. Ji Tian's voice sounded: "Senior Earth Gate truly is candid! You could say that! Su Yu, you should know that when I discovered the destruction of the eras and realized the so-called Heavenly and Earth Gates were one, I was indeed profoundly astonished!"
Yet Su Yu smiled. "Not necessarily! Ji Tian, we're old classmates—don't try to deceive me! The time you split yourself must have been before the destruction of the Heaven-Opening Era, wasn't it? Did you know back then? And that's why you fractured?"
"Indeed!"
Ji Tian sighed with emotion. "Otherwise, what did you think? What purpose did you think Zhou served? Zhou's greatest function was actually to siphon away a portion of the Heavenly Gate's providence, preventing him from truly absorbing too much of the myriad realms' power... Of course, the Heavenly Gate also required Zhou's existence to lead the human race to rise once more. Without their rise, without their drawing upon the river's power, how could it be weakened?"
"It was precisely because I uncovered all this back then that I chose to cooperate with Zhou, and through Zhou, cooperate with Senior Earth Gate. Cooperation carried benefits—see, hasn't the Human Gate become mine? Without cooperating... how could I have ever had this chance! What a pity, Su Yu, that you, my old classmate, insisted on standing in my way. Look at me now, stuck in an awkward middle ground. Why don't you just let me devour Second Grandpa! Senior Earth Gate won't be easy to handle!"
At this juncture, the Human Sovereign and the others suddenly felt somewhat dejected.
The Human Sovereign sighed softly. "So all these years, you each knew one another's objectives, while we were merely tools used by you to weaken the river, were we not?"
The Earth Gate smiled faintly. "Not entirely. In this heaven and earth, the human race reigns supreme! If you didn't rise, another human would have risen sooner or later; it had nothing to do with who you were! Xingyu, do you understand now? For example, in this era, even if Su Yu hadn't risen, another human would have been destined to rise! Because the very essence of this world places the human race above all! It is only a pity that every rising human never seemed to be someone I nurtured..."
With a touch of regret, he added, "Such as the Lord of Dead Spirits in the previous era, and Su Yu in this era—most regrettable! Yu and Zhou were both backup candidates; I originally thought they held promise, but in the end, they proved hopeless! Otherwise, things would have been far easier to handle!"
The Earth Gate shook his head, sighing with a wistful look.
Su Yu, however, chuckled. "Then I am curious: since you could forge a Heavenly Gate in the previous era, did you place all your efforts on Yu and the others in this era? Why didn't you sever another clone to see if you could guide the human race once more and make them your chess piece?"
"I wished to!"
The Earth Gate sighed. "Severing the Heavenly Gate in the previous era had already left me gravely wounded... You didn't truly believe I spent all these years quietly watching and deliberately slumbering, did you? That was hardly the case... The Heavenly Gate's existence required constant resistance against the will of this heaven and earth. Over the years, I truly was injured..."
The Earth Gate smiled, "I had no choice but to choose slumber, joining with the Heavenly Gate to withstand the myriad realms' inherent resistance, while simultaneously recovering from my injuries! As I said, the Lord of Time was too powerful. Since the world he left behind forbade outsiders like us from entering, entering naturally demanded a price!"
He sighed with feeling: "Alas, this world was not opened by an ancient beast. Otherwise, it would not have been so troublesome! The human race... truly exists across the vast universe, ubiquitous and supremely powerful! I wonder: if I devour this river, can I take another step forward, walk out of this dark chaos, and step into a new world?"
Su Yu's eyes flickered. "Where exactly did the Lord of Time come from?"
"From where?"
The Earth Gate laughed. "A place teeming with countless powerhouses... Of course, that has nothing to do with you, nor with me! The world he opened was merely a realm he casually left behind. Neither of us can control it, so why bother getting to the bottom of it?"
Su Yu nodded slightly, then asked, "One more question: where did Ming, among the eight tribe leaders, go?"
He had seen seven of the leaders, but Ming had remained unaccounted for, leaving Su Yu somewhat curious.
"Ming?"
The Earth Gate laughed. "You truly love getting to the bottom of every detail! What use is there in knowing so much?"
He continued with a chuckle, "Since the Seventh of the Human Gate and I wished to weaken the river's power, the Spirit of the River naturally would not agree! Ming was the Spirit of the River's chess piece back then. Ming's sole mission was to prevent us from obliterating the Heaven-Opening Era. At the cost of his own demise, he pried open a rift within the Heavenly Gate... allowing the Lord of Dead Spirits to enter. The presence of the Lord of Dead Spirits caused many of my arrangements to come to naught... You still haven't seen through it; had you seen through it, you would realize that the Dead Spirit Realm forged by the Lord of Dead Spirits—bringing the dead back to life—was actually plundering origin essence, wrestling origin power away from me!"
The Earth Gate said with emotion, "In this world, I was plundering the origin of the myriad realms, Ji Tian was doing the same, and so was the Lord of Dead Spirits. All of this was the Spirit of the River's scheme to keep me from plundering more origin and drastically eroding the River of Time!"
The Lord of Dead Spirits was capable of collecting origin essence; otherwise, he could never have forged the Dead Spirit Realm and gathered such an immense host of dead spirits!
Not only within the myriad realms, but within the Heavenly Gate as well, the Lord of Dead Spirits had amassed a massive force of experts and led them back into the myriad realms.
Through this, the Lord of Dead Spirits had achieved thirty-nine Daos.
"So back then, the Lord of Dead Spirits entering the gate... was Ming's doing, tearing open a rift to let him inside?"
"Indeed!"
The Earth Gate said indifferently, "My consumption was too severe back then, forcing me into slumber. That fellow seized the opportune moment; otherwise, I would never have permitted him to enter and cause trouble!"
Su Yu nodded, then added, "One more matter I must ask Senior to clarify: why were we able to cultivate the Heavenly Gate? Wasn't the Heavenly Gate your avatar? In that case, why not seal it off entirely and bar our entry, rather than granting us the opportunity to enter?"
The Earth Gate smiled. "As I said, this heaven and earth belongs to your human race! Behind the gate also lies territory covered by the River of Time; sealing it completely was impossible. It could only be restricted to the greatest extent possible to prevent your entry! How many people could actually cultivate the Heavenly Gate? Certain things could not be avoided. This world, after all, does not belong to me; in all matters, a sliver of vitality would always be left for your human race... This was also an unavoidable compromise!"
"Then I understand!"
Su Yu nodded, calculating for a moment before looking at the Earth Gate. "Senior explaining everything today—does this mean you believe success is at hand? Can uniting the Heavenly and Earth Gates truly devour the river?"
"I am very confident!"
The Earth Gate nodded, appearing exceptionally genial. "Now that the Human Gate has descended, my confidence is immense! Especially since you disrupted Ji Tian's calculations. Ji Tian originally intended to inherit the Human Gate, but now you've had Wan Tiansheng inherit it... which makes my confidence even higher!"
At that exact moment, the sacred Human Gate shook violently!
Upon the surface of the Human Gate, a face seemed to emerge—one that resembled Wan Tiansheng.
At this, the Earth Gate smiled. "Had Ji Tian inherited the Human Gate, I might still have harbored some apprehension. Wan Tiansheng, after all, falls short by a notch. As such, my certainty is all the greater!"
At this moment, the Human Gate trembled violently, and Ji Tian's voice drifted out with regret: "Su Yu, you ruined my plans. This time, you will pay the price! You brought this upon yourself!"
Su Yu chuckled. "Listen to you, speaking as if you were the good guy! Drop the act! You grew strong on human origin and emotional power—fear, terror, extinction, all of it serves as nourishment for your advancement. You couldn't care less whether the humans of the myriad realms perish or not. You are all birds of a feather, so what are you pretending for!"
Su Yu sneered, "Ji Tian, so put this way, you and the Spirit of the River are in cahoots, while the Earth Gate and the Seventh of the Human Gate are together?"
Ji Tian laughed. "If you insist on putting it that way, it isn't entirely inaccurate! In essence, neither the Spirit of the River nor I wish for the myriad realms to be destroyed. If the myriad realms fall and humanity is wiped out, that would be no good for me... Without humans, who would supply me with powerful emotions? Therefore, the ones who truly want to wipe out the myriad realms are the Earth Gate and the Seventh of the Human Gate. From the look of things, you and I are still on the same side, aren't we? Su Yu, what do you think? If you let me devour Second Grandpa and allow me to inherit this sealing gate, I believe I could handle things a bit better!"
He added, "Uniting the Heavenly and Earth Gates yields at least forty-two Daos of power, perhaps even forty-three! Once he devours the myriad realms, he might reach the absolute peak of the myriad realms, attaining forty-nine Daos of power! At that point, he will become truly invincible..."
"Su Yu, how could you possibly match him?"
Ji Tian's voice sounded again: "Right now, the myriad realms have reached their final hour. Su Yu, the only one capable of saving the myriad realms at this moment might be me..."
Before Su Yu could even respond to this, Qiong roared in fury, "All of you, shut your mouths! Since when did this heaven and earth belong to you lot? This heaven and earth belongs to me!"
"..."
Silence fell over the surroundings!
Qiong raged, "What? Does none of you take me seriously? This heaven and earth was opened by the Lord of Time! I am his divine character, I am his sword! What right do you have to devour or inherit it? According to the line of succession, this world ought to go to me! What the hell are you all fighting over!"
"..."
It sounded astonishingly reasonable!
Even Su Yu laughed. "That... doesn't seem wrong at all! Speaking of who is most qualified to take this world, it is naturally Qiong. As I've said, Qiong is the true boss of this world, no question about it!"
Qiong snorted, saying coldly, "Every one of you scheming this, scheming that, toying with people's hearts... do you really think so highly of yourselves? So what if it's forty-two Daos or forty-three Daos? Do you genuinely believe you're invincible? I already know where Cang is!"
Su Yu was surprised, turning to look at him. You know where Cang is?
Even I don't know!
Even the Earth Gate and Ji Tian might not know; otherwise, wouldn't they have seized him long ago?
Seeing Su Yu looking over, Qiong stated, "Cang is in the sword!"
Su Yu froze. Cang is in the sword?
The Heaven-Opening Sword?
Su Yu had examined it earlier and sensed nothing out of the ordinary. Qiong had also merged into the sword body; had Cang truly been inside, he should have discovered it long ago.
Qiong sneered. "Right in the sword! Su Yu, your eyesight is terrible!"
Su Yu was stunned. You're saying my eyesight is terrible?
Qiong said crossly, "What are you staring at? Are you blind? Can't you see that this compressed river is a fucking sword?!"
Su Yu was taken aback!
The others were equally jolted, all turning their gazes toward the river. At this moment, even the Earth Gate looked toward the River of Time.
The compressed river... truly... resembled a sword!
No one had paid it much attention before. Only Qiong had been staring at it intently, as if discovering something. Now, Qiong genuinely felt it was a sword. Before he spoke, no one had perceived it; now that he mentioned it... everyone felt it bore an uncanny resemblance!
Qiong snorted. "Now I finally understand why the Cangqiong Sword shattered—because this heaven and earth was transformed from the Cangqiong Sword... I am merely the remnant debris, while Cang... might just be the Spirit of the River you speak of!"
Su Yu had speculated about this before, but looking at the compressed river now, he suddenly felt it was truly plausible.
Cang might genuinely have transformed into the Spirit of the River!
And Qiong was likely just some leftover shattered fragments after all the power was exhausted, ultimately giving rise to Qiong. The Lord of Time's sword had been unimaginably formidable!
"A sword..."
At this moment, the Earth Gate murmured as well, muttering softly, "Was this transformed from the Cangqiong Sword?"
Even he was not entirely certain. At the moment the heavens were opened, he had not dared approach in the slightest—anyone who drew near died!
At this moment, everyone present sank into deep contemplation.
Chapter 972