"Pitiable soul," the Immeasurable True God looked at him with compassion, as if filled with mercy. "Since you've now realized your mistakes, tell me, how were you deceived by the evil gods? I am willing to help you."
Zhao Xing began to sob, tears streaming down his face. "They sealed away my memories and treated me like some piece of merchandise, trading me from one country to another. They even suppressed me beneath a mountain for five hundred years—
Some of them tricked me into learning flawed techniques, tearing my soul apart and nearly driving me insane—
The techniques they passed on to me could devour each other. It was obvious they just wanted to fatten me up before killing me—
Later, they forced me and my family and friends to work day and night in the harsh lands of the Barren Domain, carving out ancient paths for them, and we almost died, trapped in the ancient layers of the Void Path—
Someone even poisoned me with a terrifying toxin called True Spirit Heavenly Poison.
There was another person who wanted to use me as a test subject, trying to refine me into a heartless killing machine—
I only survived by luck, but even then, people tried to rob me of the little I managed to earn in the Barren Domain…
Now they've sent me to a place like the Black Heaven Barren Land. True God, my suffering never ends—"
Zhao Xing painted a vivid, tragic picture of his past. Anyone listening would be moved to tears.
His intense emotions even affected the Immeasurable True God's own thoughts, making him truly believe Zhao Xing's misery.
As for how someone so wretched could still reach the half-god realm, the Immeasurable True God understood—this realm's gods probably just wanted to fatten Zhao Xing up before slaughtering him.
In their world, that was normal—some gods used gentler methods, some harsher.
The Immeasurable True God could tell Zhao Xing's every word was genuine.
He was convinced that Zhao Xing had fully fallen under his divine power, seen through the truth of things, and now hated the high-level gods of this era.
'This is a good seedling. If I can take him away, that'll count as an achievement.'
Zhao Xing kept telling his story, but didn't see the Immeasurable True God do anything, and felt puzzled.
Normally, after expressing loyalty to an evil god, shouldn't he get some sort of reward, and then be sent off to do something?
Why was this guy just listening without offering anything good? Was Zhao Xing's story not moving enough?
After all that complaining, the Immeasurable True God finally spoke: "I can grant you divine power, but right now, you're just an avatar and can't handle it. Your true body must come here."
"Remember to keep this statue safe. When your true body arrives, bring it to the Black Heaven Barren Land and it will guide your way."
So this evil god statue needs the real body to trigger any rewards?
In his previous life, Zhao Xing had seen this kind of mission before. He knew that these widespread evil god statues always had a certain set pattern. Ordinary statues didn't offer much.
The only valuable things were maybe some information—like the location of hidden treasures, or the beginnings of some secret technique, but usually nothing complete.
Getting a sermon statue from an evil god was basically like taking on a chain quest.
You had to finish it step by step to see a powerful divine incarnation, maybe even the real god.
Who knew how far Yun Tiandao had gotten?
As the evil god's image began to fade, Zhao Xing wasn't having it.
You want to order me around and give me nothing?
You better leave me something!
"Divine One, I'm lost and confused about this world. Could you enlighten me?"
The image of the Immeasurable True God flickered instantly.
This statue had its own sermon mode, but it wasn't really set up for someone of Zhao Xing's half-god level.
The highest it expected was someone at Yun Tiandao or Fairy Nifeng's level, maybe a lord at most.
Technically, it should offer Zhao Xing something, but his strength had already surpassed its basic functions.
The evil god started to stutter, like it was glitching, and Zhao Xing could see the statue had a programmed set of responses that just didn't fit his situation.
After a moment, the Immeasurable True God nodded. "Very well, since you sincerely seek the Dao, I shall answer one or two of your doubts."
'Only one or two? Looks like your stock isn't too deep,' Zhao Xing thought to himself.
He was completely in control. He could wipe the mark from this evil god statue at any moment, so he wasn't worried.
As for information, it'd be a waste not to get something.
"Divine One, they say that some gods fled to the past, refusing to face the ruined future. These are called cowardly and selfish evil gods, who even stir up the upper reaches of the river of time, trying to destroy the present age.
But the gods of this side say they're the ones who stayed and protected the present, working to save the future, and that the so-called 'evil gods' of the past created the Barren Domain and the confusion of time and memory.
Followers want to spread your light, but don't know how to refute the believers of these 'evil gods.'"
Zhao Xing had heard Bowe's explanation, heard Gu Luohe's explanation. Now he wanted to hear the ideology from the evil god's camp.
After all, to get so many people to follow them in fleeing to the past, the gods couldn't just rely on brute force—they had to have a logic that made sense.
As soon as he heard this, the Immeasurable True God retorted. If Zhao Xing had asked him to pass down techniques or share secret treasure locations, this statue probably wouldn't have had anything to give.
But questions about ideology were right within his sermon's range.
"This is the true cunning of the evil gods. They reverse black and white, pushing the blame for the Barren Domain onto the righteous gods, and pretty up their own cowardly, selfish acts." The Immeasurable True God immediately branded the gods of the Barren Domain era as the evil ones.
"In all the eras, the gods of the Barren Domain epoch are the most selfish, the most cowardly. They're even more evil than those evil gods who only know how to plunder!"
Zhao Xing could clearly sense the Immeasurable True God's emotions fluctuating as he talked about this.
The Immeasurable True God snorted coldly. "Kid, you've cultivated to half-god as a Shennong, you must know the universe's four great phases. Don't you have even the basic common sense?"
"Divine One, I really don't understand." This time, Zhao Xing wasn't pretending. Why was this coming up now?
"Origin, Source, Myriad Forms, and Silence. These are the universe's four major eras." The Immeasurable True God said coldly, "We, the true gods, did everything possible to travel up the river of time to seek out the Origin Era of the universe, to restart the universe and bring forth new vitality—not just to hide in ancient times for comfort!"
"If you want to save the universe and prevent the Great Destruction, of course you need to take lots of material and leave."
"We are the real saviors!"
Zhao Xing was shocked.
The Immeasurable True God questioned, "Tell me, is it easier to heal a sick person when the illness is new, or when it's reached a critical stage?"
Zhao Xing instinctively replied, "Of course, it's easier when the sickness has just started."
The Immeasurable True God sneered, "So is it easier to restart the universe in the era of Silence, or in the Myriad Forms, Source, or even Origin era?"
Zhao Xing was left speechless.
Restarting the universe, what a grand idea.
Bringing new life to the universe's source—honestly, it sounded more reasonable than Gu Luohe's 'Eternal Realm' concept.
"Divine One, then how was the Barren Domain formed?" Zhao Xing collected his thoughts and kept asking.
"It's just the natural decline of the universe, like mortals aging—skin drying, flesh shrinking, spirit fading."
The Immeasurable True God went on, "As for the chaos of time and memory? Hmph, that's all because of the stupidity of these selfish, cowardly evil gods."
"They just wanted to cling to life in the Barren Domain epoch. We never forced them. They built the Wall of Time, blocking the Dao of Cause and Effect from passing between past and present."
"But what about them? Afraid of death and unwilling to contribute, they still wanted eternal life, so they schemed to steal resources from the ancient past."
At this, the Immeasurable True God grew even more furious. "What a great cause! Using the past as a frontline, to restart the universe, the gods and their soldiers charging forward to clear out the chaos. But the current era just drags us back, and even tries to wipe out the younger versions of ourselves—soldiers on the front line."
"I don't deny there are some traitors in the restart camp, who really did go to the past for pleasure and more power."
"But those are just minor ailments. The evil gods of the Barren Domain epoch are the real threat."
"This endless back-and-forth causes time turbulence and seriously holds back the restart plan."
"Don't you think they deserve to die?"
Zhao Xing was stunned.
The evil gods' camp really did have their own set of logic that made sense.
According to the Immeasurable True God, the Barren Domain epoch gods were actually the truly wicked ones.
But just like he never fully believed Bowe or Gu Luohe's explanations, Zhao Xing only half believed the Immeasurable True God too.
Taking advantage of the god's excitement, Zhao Xing kept asking, "Divine One, some say that during the Five Emperors era, a divine war was waged to hunt down the evil gods who fled to the past. That terrible war caused the fall of the Five God Emperors and led to the Barren Domain's massive expansion—"
"Nonsense!" the Immeasurable True God snapped. "Of the Five God Emperors, three used all their strength, took material, and ascended to the Ancient Era to destroy the source of darkness from the Chaos Era."
"And who says the Five Emperors fell?"
"The god I serve is—" The Immeasurable True God suddenly stopped. "You will know in time."
"Yes."
Even though the answer wasn't finished, Zhao Xing was truly shaken.
If the Immeasurable True God was telling the truth, the Five God Emperors were still alive, and at least three of them supported the 'restart the universe' plan.
Did that mean the Five Emperors were divided?
And from what the Immeasurable True God said, Zhao Xing couldn't find a way to refute him at all.
If the only goal was to suppress rebels, how did all Five God Emperors fall, and how did their entire legacy get wiped out?
Suddenly, Zhao Xing thought of his own experience in the Xuanhuang Realm.
When he led Great Zhou's ascension, he took away a lot of material from the Xuanhuang Realm, and nearly all the top experts, plus most of the divine artifacts.
Though he left many books and a few precious treasures, the native Great Zhou was still much weaker than the ascended one.
He couldn't help but think of the story of the shamans and emperors. Wasn't it the same?
The Five Emperors set out with the power of their entire nation, taking material. Great Zhou's ascension did the same thing.
Great Zhou and the Five Emperors both never returned.
The Five Emperors built a Wall of Time, which was just like the illusory boundary that appeared in the Xuanhuang Realm! The difference was, Great Zhou's case wasn't so severe, since they weren't affected by time turbulence, and at least their memories remained whole.
But what did the Immeasurable True God mean by "ascend to the ancient era" and "Chaos Era"?
Zhao Xing voiced his doubts, wanting more answers, but the Immeasurable True God wouldn't say another word.
"You have too many questions. If you are truly sincere in seeking the Dao, one day, I will guide you myself. But if you remain lost, you'll just decay along with this age!"
After saying this, the evil god's shadow faded back into the statue.
Zhao Xing put the evil god statue away and shook his head.
He felt himself actually starting to believe what the Immeasurable True God had said. He quickly used his Mysterious Soul Power and Vast Abyss Power to clear his mind of these thoughts.
In the end, he took the words of Gu Luohe, Bowe, and the Immeasurable True God, and kept them all as an observer—neither erasing nor accepting these thoughts, just watching them objectively.
After all this, Zhao Xing couldn't help but smile. "These god-level beings really do know how to mess with your mind."
"Yeah, doesn't matter if they're evil gods or not, maybe they're bad, but they're definitely not stupid."
"Enough of that, let's see how Yun Tiandao is doing."
As soon as Yun Tiandao came out of the ancient boat in the Black Heaven Barren Land, Zhao Xing's following clone immediately grabbed him.
A giant black Five-Finger Mountain dropped from the sky, pinning Yun Tiandao hard to the ground.
"Who's there?!"
Yun Tiandao's vigilance was sharp. Clouds swirled under his feet, and his Star Cloud erupted, shooting light in all directions, with his figure flashing everywhere, making it hard to tell where his true body was trying to escape.
"Huh? Before going in, Old Yun was just at Lord level, but after coming out, he's a Third Tribulation Emperor?" Zhao Xing was a little shocked.
Luckily, this clone he brought, even though its materials weren't the best, had a half-god level true soul.
The Five-Finger Mountain pressed down, and none of Yun Tiandao's cloud clones could escape. In a moment, he was pinned on a desolate star continent.
"Swish~"
Zhao Xing tore open a rift in space, dragging both Yun Tiandao and the mountain into the second layer of the ancient path's void.
"Who are you! I, Yun Tiandao, don't know how I offended you, so why use a mountain to crush me? Show yourself if you have the guts! Why sneak around?" Yun Tiandao yelled, frustrated.
Zhao Xing was speechless. Did Yun Tiandao really think the martial way was all sneak attacks?
Well, that kind of stereotype actually made sense. Zhao Xing had met a Fang Shi Lord who loved to smash people with mountains on Extreme Star Island, too.
"Yun, it's me."
When Zhao Xing entered the ancient path, he showed himself.
"Zhao Xing? It's you?" Yun Tiandao froze for a second. "You—you were the one who dropped the mountain on me just now?"
"Yun, don't ask me yet." Zhao Xing's face was serious. "Let me ask you first. Why did you come to the Black Heaven Barren Land? What did you do for that Immeasurable True God?"
Yun Tiandao's expression slowly calmed. "You know everything? So you've been tracking me. That means you already got the statue from Nifeng."
"That's right," Zhao Xing nodded.
"Then, are you here to arrest me?" Yun Tiandao asked, "I'll tell you, but Nifeng has nothing to do with this. Let her go."
Zhao Xing sighed, "Yun, since when did things get so distant between us? I'm not here to arrest you. I was worried about you, so I went to your wife first to ask about you."
"Swish~"
Zhao Xing used distance-free teleportation, another Primordial clone appeared, and then he released Fairy Nifeng from his world ring, moving the mountain aside and freeing Yun Tiandao.
"Yun, I know you're proud and stubborn."
"If you don't trust me, you can leave right now." Zhao Xing handed over a world ring. "As brothers, this is some resources for your escape."
Yun Tiandao was stubborn. He'd been in the universe nearly ten thousand years, never accepting anything from Great Zhou, insisting on relying only on himself. After rescuing his wife and the Xia Emperor, his goal changed—he just wanted to heal them and help Xia restore his nation.
"What you're doing will be discovered sooner or later. That ring has enough for your cultivation. You'd better pass through the demon territory and escape to the Tianze Star Domain." After saying this, Zhao Xing turned to leave.
Yun Tiandao looked complicated, and Fairy Nifeng clutched his hand.
Just as Zhao Xing was about to leave, Yun Tiandao finally spoke. "Zhao, wait."
"It's not that I don't treat you as a friend, or that I don't trust you."
Zhao Xing turned around. "I need an explanation."
Yun Tiandao sighed, "You have a bright future, endless prospects. I'm all alone. What I want to do is taboo, so I just didn't want to drag you into it by telling you."
"But since you already know, there's no point hiding it."