Chapter 4247: The Great Finale (Part 1)
Lin Ke swept his long sleeve.
"Whoosh!"
A dazzling ancestral light streaked out, plunging into the whirlpool of the Eternal Divine Sea.
The ancestral divine qi within the divine sea was split apart, revealing a path that extended toward the center of the whirlpool.
Many cultivators held their breath, their expressions solemn as they retreated into the distance.
No one knew what state Imperial Dust was in now. If the streak of light Lin Ke had drawn provoked him, it would inevitably trigger an ancestral war.
Lin Ke prepared himself to engage Zhang Ruochen, but seeing him sitting alone at the center of the whirlpool without making a move, a warm smile appeared on his face. "His humanity has already awakened. There’s no need for you to rouse him."
Cihang Venerable gazed at the divine figure at the center of the whirlpool. "Imperial Dust truly lives up to his name."
If the Heavenly Dao had been provoked like this, how could it remain so calm as it did now?
Heavenly tribulations and punishments were bound to descend.
This calmness itself proved that Imperial Dust’s humanity had returned.
"Whoosh!"
Chi Yao, like a shooting star, flew across the Eternal Divine Sea and landed before Zhang Ruochen.
Within the chaotic divine clouds, Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged, countless rules swirling around him, his long hair falling naturally. He seemed to be muttering to himself: "It feels like I’ve fallen into an endless dream. Sometimes I soar like a bird above the clouds, sometimes I move like a star through the universe, sometimes I transform into flowing water, passing through a thousand mountains and entering the sea."
"Chen Ge!"
Chi Yao reached out a hand forward.
But her fingertips could never reach Zhang Ruochen’s face.
Though he was right before her eyes, he seemed to exist in another time and space, untouchable.
Zhang Ruochen lifted his handsome, youthful face. Within his pupils, various Dao scenes were born and annihilated. He asked, "How long has it been?"
Chi Yao realized Zhang Ruochen’s state was abnormal—half human, half divine. She withdrew her fingers, her expression complex. "It’s been half a year since the cycle of reincarnation was established."
He sighed faintly. "Time here is chaotic. I thought tens of thousands of years had passed."
"It seems you still need a long time to recover. The wounds inflicted by time and causality are too severe. Only when your injuries heal can your humanity fully return."
Lin Ke walked over leisurely, his aura restrained, unwilling to clash with the Heavenly Dao of this universe.
Behind him followed over a hundred figures.
Among them were stunning divine consorts, faint remnants of souls, and aged heavenly venerables.
Zhang Ruochen stood up, like a lone pine or an eternal green mountain. "Why must humanity return? Humanity inevitably has its selfish side. By abandoning humanity, one can achieve absolute fairness—fairness toward all things in the universe. Only then can one truly embrace all rivers and encompass all phenomena."
These words carried no emotion, causing everyone present to change expression.
The Imperial Dust before them seemed less like a being of flesh and blood and more like a divine Buddha statue.
He inspired awe but could not be approached.
"Father, my brother has fallen in the divine realm and is about to enter reincarnation. Are you going to leave us too?"
Chi Kongle’s eyes glistened with tears as she stepped forward, passing Chi Yao, Lin Ke, Void Heaven, Old Wine Fiend, and others, reaching out to grasp Zhang Ruochen’s hand.
Since being possessed by Xiu Chen Heavenly God and having her soul tainted by Shura’s baleful qi, Chi Kongle had not shown such emotion. She was as fragile as when she first learned in Xumi’s sacred grounds that Zhang Ruochen was her father.
Back then, she was only eleven or twelve, raised in hatred, experiencing the warmth of a father’s love for the first time. It was Zhang Ruochen who taught her, stroke by stroke on the ground, how to draw inscription patterns.
It was also then that Zhang Ruochen told her the origin of her name. He promised to take her to Kongle Mountain to see the myriad lights and the great rivers and mountains.
To save her, Zhang Ruochen had faced the armies of the Hell Realm alone and died in battle in the Kunlun Realm. Only Xue Hou’s soul-summoning had brought him back to life.
Later, in the perilous Hell Realm, it was just the two of them, father and daughter, relying on each other through the hardest times.
Chi Kongle was truly afraid that Zhang Ruochen would transform into the heavens and vanish from the mortal world.
Zhang Ruochen looked at Chi Kongle’s hand. He was somewhat slow, but he instinctively reached out and grasped it, gazing into her tear-filled eyes.
His gaze shifted from calm and lifeless to gradually showing a faint smile. "Kongle, you seem to have become the little girl you once were. Why are you crying?"
Feeling the warmth of Zhang Ruochen’s broad hand and hearing his gentle voice, Chi Kongle said, "Father, I want you to be only my sky, not the sky of all the world. I hope you can be a little selfish! The universe and all things have their own ways of survival. What does it have to do with you? The world seeks fairness, but I only ask that you be well. Our family cannot lose you. Promise me, okay?"
"Okay!"
Zhang Ruochen nodded without hesitation.
Chi Kongle was overjoyed, nearly sobbing. "I promised you I would take care of all my younger siblings, but Chuanzong fell on the ancestral battlefield."
"It’s not your fault," Zhang Ruochen said.
Chi Kongle clung tightly to the fragile thread of humanity within Zhang Ruochen and quickly added, "Yuyan and Nicai are already married. Their husbands and children have all come. Won’t you see them?"
Zhang Ruochen gently shook his head. "It’s better not to see them… You are Kongle. Kongle, what did you just say? You’re getting married?"
At that moment, Zhang Ruochen’s eyes underwent a sudden change, becoming bright and expectant as he looked at Chi Yao beside him. "Who is her husband? What kind of person is he? Why didn’t you bring him for me to see? I need to judge him myself!"
He fired off several questions in a row. Chi Yao hadn’t expected Zhang Ruochen to care so much about Kongle’s marriage. She chose her words carefully. "Of course, her husband needs your personal approval."
Zhang Ruochen seemed to be recalling something, squinting his eyes. "I’m in a slightly better state now. My thoughts have been fragmented. Kongle, if you ever find someone you love in the future, be sure to tell your father. I will come immediately to see him."
"Father, Kongle will never marry!"
Zhang Hongchen secretly transmitted a message to Zhang Nihe and Yan Ying’er: "See that? The favoritism is so blatant. No wonder I criticized him back then. Chuanzong and mother are nothing but remnant souls, and he didn’t even ask about them."
Zhang Ruochen looked toward the crowd and asked, "Hongchen, what did you criticize me for?"
Nihe and Ying’er immediately lowered their heads, stepping away from Zhang Hongchen.
Others also consciously moved aside.
With Zhang Ruochen’s current cultivation and aura, even a casual question carried enough authority to make even an Indestructible Infinite tremble with fear.
"No, nothing, Father. Did you mishear?"
Zhang Hongchen’s eyes were innocent and naive, looking very confused.
Zhang Ruochen said, "You’re not young anymore. Why can’t you learn from Yuyan and Nicai? You’re still so troublesome. If I weren’t here, would no one be able to control you?"
Laughter arose from the crowd.
Everyone could see that Zhang Ruochen’s condition was improving, his humanity returning more, and emotions beginning to emerge.
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze swept over the crowd, finally landing on Zhang Nihe. His tone carried a hint of accusation. "Nihe, where is your mother?"
"Ah?"
Zhang Nihe hadn’t expected to be called out. She said, "My mother is missing. You’re asking me? She’s your wife, not mine."
Seeing that Zhang Ruochen had almost fully returned to normal, Chi Yao seized the moment. "Chen Ge, many people are about to enter reincarnation. They’ve come to bid you a final farewell. Some have lost their divine sources, others are mere remnant souls. Among them are Kongle and Hongchen."
The words "lost their divine sources" instantly reminded Zhang Ruochen of Jie Tian, and deep pain surged in his eyes.
After a long pause, Zhang Ruochen looked at those who had lost their divine sources: Chi Kongle, Zhang Hongchen, Yuan Sheng, Bai Qinger, Yu Chenjing, A Le, Xuanyuan Lian, Shang Tian, Five Dragon Divine Emperor…
Too many.
Back then, by the River of Time, to help him perfect his Dao, almost all martial deities had offered their divine sources.
Memories flooded Zhang Ruochen’s mind like a tide, and his eyes grew sharper. "So what if you’ve lost your divine sources? Why go through reincarnation? I will help you reforge them!"
The ancestral divine source of Truth Great Emperor flew out from the void behind Zhang Ruochen.
It was bright and blazing like a divine sun.
At the same time, the rules of heaven and earth in the universe boiled, surging toward the Eternal Divine Sea.
"Crack!"
The ancestral divine source shattered, turning into crystalline source stones.
After absorbing the rules of heaven and earth, these ancestral source stones flew toward the deities who had lost their sources, entering their divine seas.
"Guard your minds, absorb the ancestral divine qi in the Eternal Divine Sea, and use the source stones as a foundation to condense new divine sources. How much ancestral divine qi and heavenly rules you can absorb depends on your own cultivation realms!"
All the deities who had regained their divine sources were overjoyed. Truly, after great calamity came great fortune.
They sat cross-legged in the Eternal Divine Sea, beginning to reforge their divine sources.
As for those who were only remnant souls, Zhang Ruochen had no better solution. Reincarnation was the best path.
"Father!"
"Master!"
"We’re leaving. Take care of yourself!"
The remnant souls of Chi Kunlun, Zhang Chuanzong, and Ye Luochen stepped forward, bowing and kowtowing to Zhang Ruochen.
Xiao Hei couldn’t bear this separation. "In the next life, Uncle Hei will personally come to pick you up!"
Chi Kunlun shook his head. "Uncle Hei, reincarnation is a rare opportunity for cultivation, a chance to experience the mortal world and all things. I don’t want to return in just one life. Even if I do return, I hope it’s through my own fortune and with the greatest perseverance to re-enter the divine realm."
Ye Luochen said, "Brother Chi is right. That’s my thought too. Wouldn’t a single life waste this rare opportunity for enlightenment through reincarnation? A hundred lives, a thousand cycles of rise and fall, after long sedimentation (chen dian), perhaps I can go further when I step into the divine realm in the future."
"How can I not be gratified by such ambition?"
Zhang Ruochen nodded gently, then looked at Zhang Chuanzong. "Chuanzong, what do you say?"
"Every man of the Zhang family should have the boldness of Big Brother. Father… Mother, I want to try too. Even if I have to reincarnate ten thousand times, even if I might scatter my soul, I want to walk my own path in the future," Zhang Chuanzong said.
Yu Chenjing couldn’t hold back her tears. She wanted to scold him but restrained herself, just nodding vigorously.
"Mother, your son is unfilial. This life ends here."
Zhang Chuanzong kowtowed to Yu Chenjing, then followed Chi Kunlun and Ye Luochen toward the River of Forgetfulness.
"I’m leaving!"
Ling Feiyu’s remnant soul said only this before turning to go.
"You can’t go through a hundred or a thousand cycles of reincarnation. In the next life, I’ll come to the mortal world to pick you up," Zhang Ruochen said.
Ling Feiyu didn’t look back. "Whatever. It’s not like it’s the first life."
Feng Yan, Feng Xi, Han Qiu, and the Sword God all left behind remnant souls, bidding farewell to Zhang Ruochen one after another.
One by one, their figures disappeared into the River of Forgetfulness, merging with thousands upon thousands of soul shadows, swallowed by the gray mist.