Chapter 1153: History's Great Wheel

Chapter 1154: Final

Author: The Smile of 300 Jin

Category:

Last Updated: July 19, 2020

Chapter Word Count: 4482 characters

On a planet, life was being reborn, and a wild, ancient aura permeated everything.

This was a planet developing at an exceptionally rapid pace. Black monkeys appeared, leaping through trees, settling in treehouses, and even developing their own language and starting to practice cultivation. Originally, they couldn't have emerged from ignorance so quickly, but saints from ancient dojos dispatched disciples to educate the inhabitants, helping this land accelerate its recovery.

In a vast grassland, under the setting sun, the golden light was exceptionally warm and radiant. Young monkeys, in small groups, were learning to read and write here, following the teachings of their elders, beginning to cultivate, receiving enlightenment, and forming a small, primitive sect.

An elder monkey was giving a sermon from a high vantage point, while the students below discussed animatedly.

“Before the chaotic heaven and earth separated, life emerged in a murky world. The ancient gods and demons, led by Yi Mang, split the heavens and earth apart and then preached. It was truly magnificent!”

“Yes, He led three thousand demon gods in opening up heaven and earth, and then they fell, becoming part of the universe's rules. They were so great! They were immortal, yet they chose to fall for the sake of our later generations. It is because of these ancient gods and demons that we, the acquired gods, exist.”

Yi Mang’s deeds were almost completely obscured. The surviving enlightened saints didn’t know how to recount the cruel truth. They still held Yi Mang in high regard, burying the unpleasant aspects and only preserving the ancient story of their sacrifice for the entire world and their enlightenment. In the eyes of those surviving saints, no matter how bloody, enraged, or bloodthirsty they became in the end, they were all simply pure young beings, the most ancient in the chaos, who once laughed together.

“What’s there to admire?” a monkey sitting by a distant pond suddenly scoffed.

A few students glanced at him from afar. The students approached him, looking at him with a mix of awe and admonishment. “Crazy old man, those were primordial ancient gods! You must not disrespect them!”

The monkey listened quietly to the stories, took a silent sip of wine, and glanced at them from the corner of his eye. “What was so powerful about the primordial gods and demons in the chaos? They were the simplest, first batch of life, coincidentally gaining sentience from ‘substance.’ Acquired beings, on the other hand, were perfected and belong to the truly powerful group. If those primordial beings were truly strong, they wouldn't have been eliminated and extinguished by their era.”

“Now, this is the era of acquired beings.” He smiled, looking at these creatures. “Given time, why would you need to envy them? You are destined to surpass them.”

“Crazy.”

“How can acquired beings compare to primordial ones?”

The students were annoyed and ignored him, walking away.

The monkey merely smiled. The bloodlines of these acquired beings were already too powerful and perfect compared to his own race of primordial ancient gods, surpassing them in countless ways. Their biological structures were intricate, complex, and even at a microscopic level, they were unimaginably perfect and delicate. Nu Yi had done an excellent job. These acquired beings were, in the unseen scheme of things, the favored protagonists of heaven and earth.

And so it was. Life born from raw essence—ordinary sand, dirt, or wood spirits—possessed incredibly common bloodlines. In the mature universe of later generations, no one would even notice them. In the distant future, the bloodline talents of plant and tree spirits born from 'raw essence' were mostly extremely mediocre.

“In later eras, rules are constantly being perfected, and the times are continuously progressing. How can being more primitive make you more powerful?” Yi Mang shook his head. This principle was simple, yet it had been mythologized by ancient stories, elevating them to unimaginable heights. They were merely a group of pathetic beings.

Facing the afterglow of the setting sun, he felt the cool breeze. The students' departure did not bother him.

His second great limit was approaching. Even with greater power, it only allowed him to resist the universe's assimilation for a little longer. However, this second period of aging had transformed his initial unease and fear into a profoundly calm state of mind. He knew there were no more means for him to resist the universe's assimilation.

“Unconsciously, I accelerated time again, arriving more than two hundred thousand years into the future,” he murmured. “As expected, I found no way to alter my destined death.”

“This world is truly beautiful.” He sat on the edge of the pond, looking up as twilight descended, observing the shimmering, brilliant stars. “But suddenly, I also feel a sense of bewilderment, as if I’ve entered another time and space, where everything I knew is fading away from me.”

He paused, recalling the era of cosmic sculpture, created by joyful, vibrant beings, an innocent time when the entire universe was a sculpture, and everyone laughed together, arms around each other's shoulders. In his final moments, he suddenly longed immensely to return to that time, for his fallen god-demon kin to be reunited and laugh together, even amidst the chaos.

“Once, we all clearly detested those days—day after day, monotonous and dull—but now, those days we once disliked are gone forever.”

As he reflected on his life, he suddenly murmured, “Over these two hundred thousand years, I hoped to find a future path, a new future, to atone for my mistakes. But after a hundred thousand years, I discovered that beyond the tenth tier, there were no more realms to achieve. For the next hundred thousand years, I abandoned the pursuit of life and began to deduce the future of the entire universe, wanting to do something for it to make amends for my errors. The universe began to hold no more secrets before me, except for that initial mysterious figure. Yet, through my deductions, I uncovered a terrifying truth: this universe has no future.”

“And now, I am going to give this universe a distant future.”

A faint, long-absent smile played on his lips. “I wonder if, in this final moment, I can make amends for everything…”

He looked up at the vast expanse of the cosmic firmament, as if recalling his very first thought: “I want a magnificent death!”

He suddenly stood up and stepped into the sea of stars. He would embrace a magnificent end, heading towards the final moment of his life.

Suddenly, he trembled. From behind him came a voice he had long yearned for, a voice he had awaited for countless days and nights, yet it had never appeared until now.

“What do you intend to do?”

Yi Mang turned around to face that presence. It was a vague, indistinct male figure. His eyes flickered with clear light, carrying an unimaginable sense of primordial antiquity.

In that moment, the aging hero no longer felt fervent excitement. Instead, his complex expression smoothed out. He seemed to greet a long-lost friend, his life's final wish was fulfilled.

“It's you, fellow Daoist. We meet again.”

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