Chapter 1869: The Gambler & Fate Cage
Chapter 1869: The Gambler & Fate Cage
"He must have prepared this escape for a while," Death Reverence thought. Most of the Anti-Dao Matter was annihilated after the Lost Timeline, leaving only a few scattered pieces throughout the Infinite Trichiliocosm. As someone with the authority of [Heaven], the Heaven Cardinal is one of the few people who would know the location of the few remaining pieces.
However, for him to acquire it, a few things must have occurred. First, he should have hidden the truth from Grand Dao. From what Death Reverence knows, all individuals who have acquired Anti-Dao Matter must hand it over to the cardinals in exchange for a reward. If they don’t, they will be hunted down. The second step is to acquire the material quietly and even utilize it while under Grand Dao’s nose.
"There are only a few individuals capable of refining Anti-Dao Matter without killing themselves," Death Reverence analyzed. This material is highly volatile, and if mishandled, even a second-step Saint will have their Dao erased.
"Of these people, only two of them visited the Infinite Trichiliocosm in the past few hundred million yuan epochs, but only one person had ample time to return and craft that Anti-Dao Cube — Heavenly Book Paragon," Death Reverence pondered. "So, your accomplice is that gambler? You really like to play with fire."
Death Reverence sighed. In many ways, Heavenly Book Paragon was the best vessel for his Lord. At least in terms of strength and foundation, he was much better than Wang Wei; their intelligence was part of it as well. However, he ultimately chose Wang Wei for three reasons. The first is the Death Dao, which will make it easier for Deathbringer to cultivate in a higher realm.
The second reason is that Wang Wei has a special destiny connected to a [True Transcendent]. Lord Deathbringer has been pursuing that realm for too long, and as such, he will not miss any opportunity to improve his chances of success. Lastly, Heavenly Book Paragon was too difficult to deal with. The latter was an Old Paragon, born during the era in which Grand Dao first introduced the Emperor Path.
Heavenly Book Paragon was one of the earliest Great Emperors, Empyreans, and even Paragons in existence. He is responsible for creating the Orthodox Nine Extremity Foundation, which is the only reason he was not the first person on the Emperor Path to become a Primal. However, he was still the first in that Path to condense all Three Saint Foundations, and the first to condense a Saint Trait. The man could have been sanctified long ago, but his personality forced him to walk such a treacherous path.
With his old age and superior intellect, Death Reverence could fathom how many trump cards he has in his sleeve. So, after weighing the pros and cons, he selected Wang Wei as the vessel instead. Anyway, he was the best fit, and the fact that he was the easier target was a bonus.
"Hmm?" Something new had occurred. A white crystal with an extremely complex rune design flew out of the Heaven Cardinal. The crystal trembled, and the cardinal immediately began grunting in pain.
"Not only do you want to escape your status, but you also want to keep your strength and authority? No, we can’t have that," Death Reverence muttered. The only reason he helped the cardinal was because of the [Heaven Authority] the latter held, which Death Reverence planned to offer to Lord Deathbringer. But now, the cardinal was being greedy, which was unacceptable.
Without hesitation, Death Reverence began chanting a strange incantation; the language was unique, as if it were the language of death itself. However, that’s not even the most distinctive aspect of this language — its true secret, its true source of power, is that it originated from another Chaos Universe.
After a few seconds of chanting, a terrifying power of death spread to every corner of the universe. The interesting thing is that it was subtle, with only a few people sensing something was wrong. Using the power of death as a guide, the souls of countless people who have died in this timeline slowly gathered before fusing into this abomination of a creature.
"Peak First Step? That won’t do," Death Reverence muttered. He chanted a second incarnation, and soon after, a mighty soul was summoned: the Nine Spirit Lion Saints. Using it as the final ingredient, the Soul Revenance was finally created.
"Go deal with the greedy cardinal," he ordered. Typically, such an act would be considered rash. After all, the Heaven Cardinal still had the Anti-Dao Cube, which is a powerful item capable of suppressing anyone without their own Dao Source. However, Death Reverence would not make such a mistake; he had purposely used the Morterem Language because its source of power was another Chaos Universe.
After seeing that the Soul Revenance was more than capable of executing his orders, Death Reverence’s gaze shifted back to the rest of the timeline. He frowned as he noticed a new player had entered the game, and their target was also the underworld. "Some of these pawns have too much time on their hands, so let’s up the stakes of the game."
Heaven and Earth Origin Cycle Array, Commander Wang’s headquarters:
Wang Wei calmly watched the vision of a Saint’s Death while sighing to himself. He remembered how terrifying and intimidating the Saints were to him when he faced Supreme Unity. But now, a second-step Saint was easily annihilated right in front of him.
"In this world, maybe only True Transcendents can say they have control of their fate," Wang Wei sighed. "No, even they may not be completely free."
As he was lamenting his fate and the state of the world, a white light appeared in his room. He calmly closed the entrance behind the intruder before asking: "How did it go?"
"Everything is proceeding smoothly. He’s currently dealing with the aftermath, and as you predicted, Suiji also made her move," the Erudite Duchess explained. "However, I don’t think he will be occupied for long."
"That’s to be expected," Wang Wei nodded. Suiji only wants to recuperate, meaning she will not attend class with Future Reverence. Meanwhile, the time traveler will eventually find a way to stabilize the collapse of the Six Paths Samsara and cut off Suiji’s access. Once that is dealt with, his hands will be free again.
"I have my way of prolonging his delay," Wang Wei stated. "Our current priority is your part of the plan. How confident are you?"
"My confidence is contingent on how much time I have; the longer I can go without being interrupted, the higher my chance of success."
"You make it sound so easy," Wang Wei sighed. There are too many variables involved, and, more importantly, he lacked sufficient information. Without knowing some things, he is powerless to plan or even deduce the enemy’s next step.
"Were you able to detect what the Qi Cardinal was doing?"
"No, but I have an educated guess," the Duchess revealed. "If I’m not mistaken, she must have headed to the Prime Source — it’s the only thing I could think of that Grand Dao would prioritize over even the descent of the Beyonder."
"Prime Source?"
"You’ve heard of World Source? Well, the Prime Source is the Energy Center of the entire Infinite Trichiliocosm," the Erudite Duchess explained. "There are two hidden constructs that Grand Dao would protect at any cost: the Highest Firmament, which is considered its home, and the Prime Source. Anyone who dares even think about them will receive Grand Dao’s wrath, but that’s exactly the kind of thing that the Beyonder would be interested in."
"Highest Firmament? Prime Source? If those things are so crucial, they must have the highest protection. How could the Beyonder find a way...The Chaos Origin Realm — Grand Dao must have used a lot of energy for that elaborate plan. And in the process, it must have left some traces that the Beyonder followed to find the Prime Source."
"That’s also my conjecture," the Erudite Duchess nodded.
"No, this theory is flawed," Wang Wei suddenly said. "Never assume Grand Dao is stupid, nor would it make minor mistakes. With such a tactical mind, wouldn’t it have known the Chaos Origin Realm would leave behind traces? So —"
"Why allow the Beyonder’s ambassadors to participate in the expedition?" the duchess finished his sentence.
"Yes, his existence is the piece of the puzzle that does not fit."
"I can only think of two explanations," the Duchess frowned. "First, Grand Dao had no choice in the matter: whether it was because the Beyonder forcefully put his people in the expedition or the two had some kind of agreement, the result was that the ambassador had to participate in the war.
"The second explanation is that everything is —"
"A grand scheme," Wang Wei continued. "Grand Dao allowed his participation because it’s planning something major — something so crucial that it’s willing to use the Prime Source as bait."
Wang Wei gazed at the array screen showing the battle between Trinity Venerable and the Infinite Divine Court, his hands clenched tightly. The wall began to shrink around him, the room suddenly feeling hot and stuffy. Then, in his eyes, everything turned into a cage of strings.
"I’ve survived the death game created for me, but even my survival is taken into account and used as a chess move for an even higher chessboard."