“As I thought, you couldn’t do it.”
The third party was a man in his pri, around the sa age as Tianyi. Unlike Tianyi, he had sword-like brows, gray hair that shone like steel, and silver eyes that reflected a sword’s sharp glint. In his hand was a plain sword, with its only noteworthy feature being its color: cyan.
His presence seed natural, yet unnatural.
Only souls could enter this place, and even divinities were subject to this rule, which ant that the sword divinity was in his soul form. Everything in this space was composed of soul essence, and divine artifacts could not appear inside; otherwise, Tianyi would have summoned the real Four Immortal Extermination Swords.
Yet, the cyan sword in the sword divinity’s hand was undoubtedly a divine artifact.
Both Tianyi and Pangu were puzzled, but they could not spare their attention, since any lapse in judgnt would result in a large opening their foe could capitalize on. The stalemate didn’t last long, as the third party took action.
“Pangu, for everything you’ve done, take my sword!” The sword divinity rushed forward, his sword poised to pierce Pangu’s head.
Tianyi didn’t know who the sword divinity was, only that he felt a vague sense of familiarity. Whoever he was, the sword divinity was undoubtedly an ally at this mont, and he created a chance that Tianyi would be foolish to pass up.
Pangu wouldn’t sit idly by either. For the first ti in their bout, he actually retreated. Clearly, the danger the sword divinity brought him was much greater than Tianyi's, so much so that he allowed Tianyi’s Immortal Genesis Sword to slash him several tis in the process of his retreat.
His sacrifice should have allowed him to escape the sword divinity’s cyan blade—keyword being should. Disregarding space and ti, the sword continued its trajectory. It should have missed Pangu’s body, yet it pierced Pangu’s chest.
The attack forced Pangu onto his knee. He only had one complete leg left, but he still stood. In this soul space, only reactions could force one onto their knees. Clearly, the cyan sword had accomplished just that.
The sword divinity took no further action after that, except one: a smile so slight it would have easily been mistaken for a hallucination on his perpetually glacial face. Simultaneously, cracks appeared, starting from his feet. The cracks turned to dust and dissipated.
This was a realm of souls. If a soul left, it would simply vanish. The phenonon occurring to the sword divinity certainly did not reflect that. Everything here was composed of a soul; for his body to turn into dust ant his soul was fracturing, dying.
Even so, the sword divinity showed no regret. The dust that his body transford into did not disappear, but funneled toward the cyan sword, and in response, the sword emanated a faint but enduring glow. It was not just a costic difference, as Pangu felt his soul chained by it.
Tianyi himself did not know how to feel. While his mories did not contain any information about that divinity, his heart recognized him. At the very least, he had a conjecture as to why the man could bring a divine artifact into this soul space. The sword was not only a divine artifact, but a lifebound artifact.
Lifebound artifacts could only be created when a cultivator was weak—when they transcended their Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation and ford their spiritual core.
Regardless, Tianyi could not ponder unnecessary doubts right now. He had only one goal, one mission.
Tianyi pursued Pangu, his Immortal Genesis Sword flashing dangerously. Pangu tried to defend, but with the cyan sword embedded in his chest, his actions were severely impeded. For the first ti since they ca to this space, the rate of disappearance of Pangu’s body exceeded Tianyi’s.
Pangu wanted to deal with the cyan sword, but Tianyi would not give him the ti. Thus, he could only continue his duel with Tianyi. Both sides did their utmost to destroy the other while preserving themselves.
He didn’t know what Pangu lost, but Tianyi knew that he had lost a lot of himself. He rembered having a steward. Compared to his hundred thousand-plus years of life—or was it over a million? Tianyi couldn’t rember—the steward only occupied an incredibly small portion, but Tianyi knew he was important. Now, he couldn’t even rember the steward’s face, much less his na. He couldn’t even rember what the steward had done for him.
That wasn’t the only thing. He could recall that he had four disciples, but except for their appearances, Tianyi couldn’t recall their nas. He also rembered that one of his clones was responsible for accepting a disciple, but he didn’t know which one.
Maybe the monkey disciple? No, Tianyi felt a rather positive view of that disciple. He should hold a far more complicated feeling toward the disciple his clone accepted for him.
Tianyi didn’t have ti to reminisce, as Pangu’s axe ca again. He retaliated with his sword. At this point, both sides had already revealed all their cards, including Pangu. Even if Tianyi suspected Pangu had a hidden hand, he could not do anything about it, nor would he guard against it.
The fracturing and destruction of the soul left him with many inconsistencies in his mories. He was doing his best not to allow this state to affect him. He knew his mory would deteriorate, but he also knew that stopping was not an option. If he stopped, Pangu would destroy him, leaving nothing behind.
Rather than complete cessation, he wanted to destroy Pangu and have sothing left over. So he continued to fight. As the fight continued, he unconsciously reminisced about his missing mories despite his best efforts to focus on his opponent.
Tianyi forgot the na of his wife. He knew only that she was extrely beautiful, and that they had a peaceful life together. They had a child—boy or girl, Tianyi didn’t know. However, he could recall that he felt guilty toward his child for so reason.
However, Tianyi also discovered that he had contradictory mories. He could no longer recall the appearance of his mother, only fragntary information. His mother was a princess. No, his mom was a divorced single parent who raised him from birth. His mother had trouble expressing love and other emotions. His mom loved him dearly and wished him the best, never shying away from expressing it to the point of annoyance.
Tianyi did not know how these two contradictory mories appeared in his mind, but they only strengthened his resolve. He only had his hand and half his head left. Ninety-nine percent of his mories had disappeared. It should have caused him to stop in his tracks, to give up and accept death, but there was a voice telling him to continue, to defeat the opponent in front of him. This single-minded determination condensed his willpower beyond diamonds and caused it to explode with a powerful force.
Who was his opponent again?
If Tianyi only had part of his head and hand left, his opponent was no better. And it would only get worse for them. The two soon lost their hands and could no longer conjure any weapons, but the battle did not die down because of this. No, it continued.
The soul space seed infinite, containing their remaining bodies and expanding forever. Simultaneously, it was incredibly small, able to contain only what was left of the two heads.
Finally, the battle ended, and only one will remained in the soul space. The winner was left with only a single eye and the surrounding skin, but even though it was only half a pair of eyes, anyone who saw the bedeviling eye would be unable to look away and would be srized.
For a mont, nothing happened. The lone eye just stared in a daze.
Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I doing?
The three classic questions of existence popped into the being’s mind. The questions were soon answered.
“Yes, I am the Heavenly Will, and I have an unfinished mission.”
Inside the Three Purities Temple, Founder Confucius sat rigidly. His chest did not move, and anyone who entered could easily mistake him for a statue. Sitting next to him was Divinity Qingping, or Bao Ling, as Tianyi knew him.
Previously, the Nine Heavens Universe’s descent had shocked him. He couldn’t help but think it was a pity that it was in Tianyi’s hands. If he had the sa foundation, he would have already defeated Pangu. Unfortunately, even if Confucius wanted to, he could not replicate Tianyi’s miracle.
Due to Bao Ling’s request, Confucius had driven the Three Purities Palace rather close to the Pangu System, but it was still far enough away that he should have been able to flee at a mont’s notice. At least, that was the case. When the Nine Heavens Universe descended, it directly encompassed the Three Purities Palace. The palace could withstand the buffeting waves resulting from the clash of the materialized universe and the original system.
He saw countless realms shatter from the collisions. New worlds erged out of phantoms, only to fragnt into dust imdiately after. At the core of the Pangu System, nine celestial bodies appeared: one solar star orbited by eight worlds.
Of course, they didn’t remain unscathed either. However, whenever the planets fractured or split, an invisible force would pull them back together. Even when they were knocked out of their orbit, they would eventually return to their original trajectory. The only permanent change was the solar star’s brightness. As ti passed, it would dim, which affected the eight planets and caused their orbits to slow.
Although Confucius had only seen the nine celestial bodies for the first ti, he could discern at a glance that they were the core of the Nine Heavens Universe. As such, they reflected Xi Tianyi’s state. The weaker they were, the weaker Tianyi had beco.
Thankfully, it wasn’t only Tianyi who was weakening. The Pangu System also showed signs of weakening, but at a lower rate than the Nine Heavens Universe. Although the Pangu System’s weakening was increasing, the Nine Heavens Universe would still be defeated first.
That was when Qingping took action. Confucius finally opened his eyes.
“In the end, you still chose to act this way, Old Friend,” Confucius uttered. He said no more and closed his eyes again.
He could no longer sense Qingping, but he knew in his heart that his old friend would likely disappear forever. Unlike him, Qingping’s tethers to the Pangu System were far deeper. At least it wasn’t a pointless sacrifice, as the Pangu System weakened dramatically. And now, at the rate at which both systems weakened, even Confucius didn’t know which one of them would fall first.
For the first ti in eons, Confucius felt his heartbeat quicken. How long had it been since he felt like this? Was it at the end of the primordial era? But that technically wasn’t him, so it could be considered the first ti in his life he felt such tension.
Finally, the Pangu System and Nine Heavens Universe resembled embers in the wind. A second later, the Pangu System’s aura disappeared, but Confucius did not let his guard down. What if a reversal happened? He was prepared to flee far away to safety before planning again if this failed.
Even if Confucius knew that regaining what he had lost was almost impossible, he would continue to try until his death. For this was related to his way, and everything was for the Dao.
“This?” Confucius opened his eyes again.
An illusory figure manifested at the heart of the Nine Heavens Universe and the Pangu System. The figure had no features except for its bedeviling right eye.
Although Confucius recognized the eye, he was still wary. He could not detect the familiar aura on that figure. If anything, the figure was too pure, like a blank slate. It wasn’t until he felt what he had lost return to him that Confucius finally put down the stone in his heart, and a small smile graced his lips. “It should no longer be called the Nine Heavens Universe or Pangu System, but the Nine Heavens Universe System.”
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