Chapter 3090: No Right or Wrong
Yu Shenwang's surroundings had been shrouded in divine mist, illusory and chaotic, but now his true body emerged from the divine mist, extremely shocked. "How could it be you? How could you still be alive?"
The River of Time that had pressed down on the golden carriage had already dissipated.
Jie Zunzhe tucked his hands into his sleeves, chuckling. "This venerable one is blessed with great fortune; how could I die so easily? Give up. Your plan cannot succeed."
The shock on Yu Shenwang's face vanished. Holding the bone flute, his gaze was deep and heavy. "You want to stop me?"
"No, no, you misunderstand. This venerable one is merely a false god. How would I dare stop a Boundless Realm Divine King?"
Jie Zunzhe spoke in a refined manner. "As the saying goes, a gentleman uses words, not fists. I am here to advise you, lest you fall deeper into the clutches of the Hell Realm in the future."
First, Feng Qi had contacted the Hell Realm deities. Then, the great world of Heavenly Beginning Civilization had been collected into Yu Shenwang's Divine Sea and retreated behind the Starry Sky Defense Line. Even if all this succeeded, Yu Shenwang's leverage would fall into the hands of the Hell Realm.
Afterward, how could the Hell Realm not realize that the breach of Heavenly Beginning Civilization's world-protecting divine formation was Yu Shenwang's deliberate act?
With this leverage, they would surely threaten Yu Shenwang in various ways to secretly work for them in the future.
How could Yu Shenwang regard Jie Zunzhe as merely a false god?
Upon seeing Jie Zunzhe, he knew his plan had truly failed at the last moment. His emotions surged violently, and he said passionately, "You simply don't understand. This war truly cannot continue!"
"Do you know how much it costs to maintain the Starry Sky Divine Formation for the great world of Heavenly Beginning Civilization? Forget the divine qi, saint qi, and spiritual qi needed for cultivators to train. Even now, the soil in some places has become so barren that crops cannot grow. The number of mortals who have starved to death is incalculable."
"Due to the chaos of heaven and earth's rules and the loss of life essence, the various races cannot even produce the next generation. We are on the verge of extinction!"
"Just today, because of the Hell Divine Tide, the space within the great world was damaged. The Hell army broke in, and the mere aftershocks of battle annihilated over a trillion living beings. They too had families, parents, children... but now, nothing remains!"
"If such a divine tide comes two more times, ninety-nine percent of the living beings in Heavenly Beginning Civilization's great world will die. And they die before my very eyes. I can hear their cries and pleas, hear them kneeling before divine statues, begging for the gods' protection. Those statues are of me, not of you. They beg me, not you."
"You cannot hear them, so you can pretend to know nothing, nor can you feel the pain of having the will but not the power."
"So-called Divine King, cultivating for hundreds of thousands of years to reach the Boundless Realm, yet unable to save even a single world's mortals—how pathetic is that? What meaning is there in cultivation?"
Tears of divine light fell from Yu Shenwang's eyes. In his deepest sorrow, he said, "Do you know that when the Eon Calamity struck, the old Heavenly Lord was severely injured? After the war began, he fought in every battle, and his injuries have worsened to an unknown degree."
"In this war, could he, the elder, refrain from fighting? No! This is the Heavenly Beginning Civilization battlefield. If the deities of Heavenly Beginning Civilization do not fight and instead stay in the great world to heal, would the deities of other great worlds give their all? They would not think the old Heavenly Lord is healing. They would only think the deities of Heavenly Beginning Civilization are cowards, hiding in the great world, afraid to fight."
Jie Zunzhe glared at him. "I don't understand? Why the hell wouldn't I? One hundred thousand years ago, when the Hell Realm attacked from the direction of the Kunlun Realm, did the deities of the Kunlun Realm retreat even half a step?"
Yu Shenwang said, "And what was the result? Wen Tianjun died, his blood staining the stars. The Saint Monk had just achieved Buddhahood through the Ten Thousand Buddhas' Homage when he turned into golden light. The Island Master was imprisoned in the Destiny Temple for one hundred thousand years, suffering a hundred thousand years of misery. And the deities who died—they turned into piles of white bones, unable to be buried in their homeland."
"You stopped the Hell Realm, even making them pay a heavy price. But what was the result? One hundred thousand years later, when the Kunlun Realm reopened, it suffered plunder and bullying from the various great worlds of the Heavenly Court. Did they remember any of your kindness?"
"So, I have seen through it all. In this devouring world, one should not take everything too idealistically. There should not be people like the Saint Monk, Wen Tianjun, or the Island Master. One should be selfish. If one is not for oneself, heaven and earth will destroy them."
Jie Zunzhe seemed to recall his old friends and lovers. His gaze darkened, his thoughts heavy, and he could not refute Yu Shenwang.
A long silence followed.
From within the golden carriage, Xuanyuan Lian sighed deeply. "The Heavenly Venerable has always remembered the Kunlun Realm's sacrifice back then. However, after all, the Western Universe is dominated by the Paradise Realm. To minimize internal conflicts, there are many places where the Heavenly Venerable cannot easily intervene. But if not for his partiality, when the Female Saint Emperor entered the Heavenly Court as a lower-ranked deity to seek a place for the Kunlun Realm, she would likely have been silently killed by the Paradise Realm's deities."
"Ten thousand great worlds have ten thousand different thoughts."
"A trillion cultivators have a trillion different ideas."
"Who can be completely impartial? Who can satisfy every cultivator's thoughts? Who can make every cultivator upright, selfless, and pure of intention? No one can."
"This young master can understand the Divine King's actions and sympathize with Heavenly Beginning Civilization. But if Heavenly Beginning Civilization flees like this, next will be Blazing Sun Civilization, Hidden Ruins Civilization, Giant Spirit Civilization... The first Starry Sky Defense Line will collapse in an instant. By then, the Shura Star Pillar Realm and the Hell Realm's army can charge straight in, attacking the second Starry Sky Defense Line, which has not yet been fully established."
"At that time, it will be a catastrophic disaster for the entire Ancient Civilization Faction."
"There is no choice. Who can blame the Hell Realm for launching its attack from the direction of the Ancient Civilization Faction? You have no choice, and neither do we."
"We can only fight, not retreat."
"As for today's matter, this young master can pretend to know nothing. I ask the Divine King to think twice before acting in the future. There will be no second chance. In the entire battlefield between the Heavenly Court and Hell, a single great world like Heavenly Beginning Civilization can be destroyed by the Hell Realm or by the Heavenly Court. After its destruction, at least it can deter other civilizations."
"Hua! Hua! Hua..."
Divine shadows condensed before the golden carriage and sped away, heading toward Doulv City.
Yu Shenwang did not stop them. It was meaningless. He became dejected, his spirit and energy dissipating, losing the might of a Divine King, like a decrepit old man on the verge of death.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Divine King, why be so pessimistic? Who knows the outcome until the last moment?"
Jie Zunzhe's gaze cleared, and he turned to glare at Zhang Ruochen. "Why haven't you left yet? Is this matter something you can meddle in? Do you know what your most important task is? Do you know what you bear?"
Four consecutive questions!
Other cultivators might think Jie Zunzhe had high hopes for Zhang Ruochen, hoping he would become a towering figure like the Great Venerable in the future.
Only Zhang Ruochen understood him, so he said nothing and turned to leave.
The situation at Tianzhu Mountain was indeed worrying.
"Wait."
Jie Zunzhe called Zhang Ruochen back, pulled out a bead, and said seriously, "The situation over there is a bit complicated. If you encounter difficulties, use this bead. Once activated, it can suppress a deity's rule divine patterns and divine qi, temporarily stripping them of combat power. Remember, use it sparingly."
Zhang Ruochen did not overthink. He put away the bead and, together with Chi Yao, transformed into two beams of divine light, flying toward Tianzhu Mountain.
How complicated could it be?
With Luo Sha and Luo Ji, Zhang Ruochen was confident he could handle them.
Chi Yao said, "Actually, there is no need to worry. Tianzhu Mountain is the cultivation ground of the successive Heavenly Lords of Heavenly Beginning Civilization. Even if only a single lower-ranked deity activates the divine patterns and formation inscriptions there, it can make even a Great God retreat in defeat."
"How could Luo Sha not have thought of that? She must have a way to enter Tianzhu Mountain," Zhang Ruochen said.
...
Tianzhu Mountain was an island in Yunlai Sea, where four divine veins converged underground. The divine qi was dense, and the rules of heaven and earth were active. It complemented Doulv City ten thousand miles away, gathering the qi and fortune of the entire great world of Heavenly Beginning Civilization.
Though an island, it was vast. The mountain peak rose hundreds of thousands of zhang high, thousands of times larger than ordinary mountains.
On the island, divine soil was everywhere, sacred springs abounded, and exotic flowers and fruits could be seen at every turn.
The one billion sparks of Heavenly Beginning Civilization had already been selected and were staying on Tianzhu Mountain. They were elites from every race and realm.
Although the Heavenly Court allowed ancient civilizations to keep sparks, there were strict limits on the number of sparks. The number of Saint Realm cultivators was restricted, as was the number of each race.
After the destruction of Hanhai Civilization, Princess Yinglian had followed Luo Ji to Heavenly Beginning Civilization.
Though decades had passed, she had only grown a little, looking like a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl. A seashell hung from the ends of her hair, and light mist flowed from her locks.
Carrying a tripod filled with sacred spring water she had just drawn from the Dao Lake, she ran into a Daoist temple. "Master, Senior Sister, I can sense the sacred essence in the spring water rapidly decreasing."
Luo Ji wore a sky-blue cloud robe and a veil, with long sleeves trailing to the ground. A white jade belt cinched her slender waist, accentuating her figure.
She stood on an observation platform in the temple, gazing at the sky and watching the breathtaking battle phenomena.
Li Miaohan stood behind her, taking the half-chi-tall bronze tripod from Yinglian. Her face was full of worry as she presented it to Luo Ji. "Master, look!"
"No need to look. With the Hell Divine Tide erupting and the Starry Sky Divine Formation and world-protecting divine formation pushed to their peak states, it naturally accelerates the consumption of the great world of Heavenly Beginning Civilization," Luo Ji said.
Li Miaohan said, "At this rate of consumption, I'm afraid that in at most thirty years, Heavenly Beginning Civilization will become a wasteland, split apart, and turn into dead stars in the starry sky."