CHAPTER 1156: CHAPTER 878: COSMIC GAMEBOARD

Gu Jinlai shattered the Divine System of Emperor Jin Yao, accumulating a massive amount of Qingguang, which he hadn’t used all this time.

Because he had already seen through it.

Qingguang is the power distributed from the Creation Divine Artifact of the Creation Immortal Emperor.

It is also the reason for the primordial growth, embedding itself deeper within him.

He himself is like a converter, using the oldest form of "destruction," such as slaughter, to reactivate the power of Creation Immortal Light lost by the primordial after the Creation Divine Artifact’s disappearance.

Just as destruction on one end would inevitably accompany birth on the other.

This transformation manifests as Qingguang.

In this continual transformation of destruction and birth, his assimilation with the primordial deepens...

To be precise, the Qing Lian, which the primordial has transformed into, is embedding itself deeper into him, and by now, he can no longer remove Qing Lian.

Reusing Qingguang will continue to enhance their assimilation; however, now...

He couldn’t afford to care that much.

At this thought, a massive amount of Qingguang was used by him once again.

The sensation of thought being peeled away quickly surged.

This time, he directly appeared at the core of the Heart of the Cosmic.

Since he had already reached close to the core of the Heart of the Cosmic, its clarity in his perception was vivid.

Not only could he feel the Three Thousand Great Dao intensely bombarding him, but he could also see those three thousand majestic figures at the core of the Heart of the Cosmic.

"Daoist Ancestor!"

Gu Jinlai’s expression was serious.

The position of the Three Thousand Tao Ancestors radiates an indescribable terror.

Like the fiercest flames, or a mortal gazing at the Sun in the Sky Dome, it’s a tremor born from the instinct of Life itself.

But at this moment, Gu Jinlai recalled his approach to the core of the Heart of the Cosmic at that time, that kind of...

Call!

As if the Daoist Ancestors, or another existence, were calling to him, beckoning him to enter the core where the Three Thousand Tao Ancestors resided.

And almost as his thoughts drifted to this point, the Qingguang within him seemed to sense his thoughts.

The next moment, he leapt up, like a moth to a flame, flying toward the core of the cosmos where the Three Thousand Tao Ancestors resided.

However, almost as he stepped into the core of the cosmos, a radiant light of extreme splendor, intertwined with the enactment of the Three Thousand Great Dao, formed a world that descended.

He seemed to fall into a world-formed bubble.

Before he could discern the shape of this bubble, it burst and shattered.

As if enacting an unprecedented cosmic explosion, it erased all life within, from matter, energy, and Spirit, even to the Law of Dao level.

Gu Jinlai’s Divine Sense was violently shaken.

He was forcibly ejected from the Super Boost State of thought brought by Qingguang.

"This kind of power..."

The thought of the ancient Evil Gods like Yuan Huang, Ancient Desolation, Firewood, confronting the Creation Immortal Emperor and other Great Powers, with their clashing and annihilating forces, instantaneously filled Gu Jinlai’s mind.

Though he was within the body of the Evil God at that time, he could still witness the battle.

Now, in the Clear Light State, when another "he" entered the cosmic core, he was subjected to an almost identical attack?

The difference is, that such phenomena arose when Great Powers wielding Creation Divine Artifacts battled the Evil Gods, but now...

These visions play out incessantly at the cosmic core.

Any outsider would suffer attacks equivalent to the forces of birth and destruction, plunging into ultimate destruction alongside scenes like a cosmic explosion.

Being erased from the material layer, energy layer, soul layer, and Dao layer utterly.

Even Great Powers in the Silent Annihilation Realm cannot withstand it head-on.

"Three Saints Realm, a trinity governing destruction and birth in a non-living, non-dead state."

Gu Jinlai muttered to himself: "And I, as the Cosmic Oddity containing the power of non-life and non-death, inherently hold power of the same kind..."

At this moment, he seemed to suddenly understand something.

Destruction, rebirth!

"Destruction..."

Gu Jinlai’s gaze suddenly fell onto a Meteor Star opposite him.

In a thought, the Meteor Star was destroyed, turning to powder.

When this Meteor Star was utterly destroyed, Gu Jinlai clearly sensed a change within himself.

For a moment, he realized something: "The change isn’t from myself but from... karma!"

Then, with a step into the Void, accompanied by Space Avenue power scattering, his form seemed to cross several light years, arriving beside a Constant Star System.

After confirming there was no life in this Constant Star System, he extended his right hand, reaching toward this Constant Star...

The energy inside this Constant Star instantly froze.

Then the internal degeneracy pressure was broken, rapidly collapsing, this collapse further mirroring a Supernova Explosion, seemingly intending to release endless light and energy.

But all this converged as Gu Jinlai closed his right hand’s five fingers.

In just a moment, a Constant Star compressed to the extreme, reduced to half a meter or so, appeared before him.

Compressing a Constant Star to this degree inevitably involves the use of Devouring power, causing all surrounding light to be engulfed, so in others’ eyes, this Constant Star has turned into a Black Hole.

In reality, it indeed belongs to a Black Hole.

When Gu Jinlai clasped his five fingers tightly...

"Buzz buzz!"

Pure Power of Destruction erupted from that Black Hole, obliterating all matter, energy, even eradicating the Devouring Dao completely.

Within less than ten breaths, a Constant Star in its prime was thus utterly erased from this Cosmic Starry Sky.

As this Constant Star was erased, Gu Jinlai keenly felt the surging of an invisible force.

"Karma, reincarnation, fate..."

He carefully sensed.

After a long time, he suddenly realized the most crucial point.

"Assimilation!"

He abruptly came to his senses.

Assimilation!

This power ultimately leads to a characteristic that turns out to be the assimilation of Void Projection Technique!

Or perhaps, all systems are like this.

Whether destruction or creation, both are the results of compatibility and assimilation.

This product...

It’s as if he originally mastered the power of destruction and creation, but to adapt to the local customs, the cycle of destruction and creation was simplified into cause and effect, reincarnation, fate... and the Three Thousand Great Dao.

Because the simplification is from high to low, it’s easy to assimilate powers that are lower than one’s own.

"Although adults have normal reading and writing abilities, they have forgotten almost all the phonetic alphabets they first learned. In a world entirely in phonetic letters, they have to conform and relearn these letters."

This ability, as manifested, is what he understood as the power of "assimilation."

It’s also the so-called state of neither being alive nor dead as described by the Primordial...

"No! There must be a deeper reason!"

Gu Jin Lai said.

He glanced at the number of Qingguang in the spiritual world and unhesitatingly consumed these Qingguang one by one again.

In an instant, his cognitive awareness once more detached from his body, heading toward the cosmic core.

His cultivation starts from this moment; when he realized he might possess complete powers of destruction and creation...

Or perhaps the power to evolve worlds and universes, when the Daoist Ancestor once more enacted a world to counterattack, his understanding of this power became even more profound.

This time, he not only withstood the Power of Annihilation from the first round of the cosmic big bang, but...

Saw the world hidden behind the cosmic explosion.

It was...

The starry sky!

A magnificent and boundless sparkling starry sky!

No words could describe the vastness and greatness of this starry sky.

"Is this... the other universe!?"

And just when Gu Jin Lai "saw" this cosmic starry sky, this grand starry sky, seemingly no less than the entire universe...

Came alive.

He distinctly felt the call of this universe to him.

All along, it was this universe calling him, longing for the wanderer’s return.

Meanwhile, his gaze traversed the confines of endless time and space, as if he "saw" the unimaginably long past of this universe.

In that past, this universe seemed to have undergone an unprecedented great battle.

The scale of the battle went beyond the comprehension of any words that Gu Jin Lai could grasp.

No matter how brilliant the cosmic spectacle was, it couldn’t describe a tenth of that great war.

He only knew that one day, the consciousness of this universe suddenly perished.

Then, merely following the instincts of its operation, it drifted day by day in the Chaos and Void, and in the process of drifting, continuously collapsing and annihilating.

Unknown how much time passed...

In cosmic terms, milliards, ten milliards, a hundred billion years might all be insignificant.

Finally...

In some year, some day, it was captured by another universe.

It was a newly formed universe that naturally emerged.

A universe where many powers manifested, yet hadn’t even truly birthed a unified consciousness.

This newborn universe saw a direction for development in the old universe’s "body," quickly captured it, and began to devour it.

To a certain extent, even though this ancient universe was originally incredibly powerful, at this moment, it could not withstand the newborn universe.

Perhaps it was an unwilling struggle against being devoured, or maybe it was some innate defense mechanism of this universe.

Facing this predicament, this universe consolidated its remaining "vitality," transforming into thousands of dazzling lights, attempting time and again to immerse into the newborn universe.

Since all this vitality came from the same universe, though invested into the newborn universe at different times, under some special circumstances, these vitalities would have a sense of harmony with each other and could take in each other’s growth experiences for mutual reference and assistance.

This vitality not only represents the unyielding determination of this ancient universe against being devoured but also embodies the hope for revival from death to life.

Hope that some vitality might "smuggle" across this world and form Life, assimilating the power of the Great Dao of this world, so that when the newborn universe devours the ancient one, it could use the assimilated power of the Great Dao to turn the tables, devour this newborn universe, supplement itself, and rejuvenate the dying ancient universe.

For countless years, the continuous incoming vitality has mostly been worn down by the Power of Dao Authority, that is the Daoist Ancestor.

A very small portion remained entering this universe.

Those relatively complete became Creation Divine Artifacts, evolved from the rules of the newborn universe.

Severely lacking ones were termed Cosmic Oddities.

"I am such a Cosmic Oddity."

Gu Jin Lai murmured to himself.

Seeing the information left in this universe clearly, Gu Jin Lai suddenly found it immensely ironic.

Because...

He succeeded.

The Primordial laid plans with Creation Immortal Light, powers neither alive nor dead, then fused the Evil God Power, attempting to create a trinity of the Three Saints Realm, unaware that Cosmic Oddities and Creation Divine Artifacts were originally one.

Perhaps...

Even the so-called trinity of the Three Saints Realm was a flash of inspiration birthed from wielding the Supreme Treasure of Creation Immortal Light over the years.

The purpose of these inspirations was to guide cultivators in the newborn universe onto the path of the Three Saints Realm.

Finally, he succeeded.

He now, with the help of the Primordial and Qing Lian, comprehending the mysteries of the Three Thousand Great Dao in his Great Power form, discerned all the operational rules of the Great Dao in this universe.

Everything became clear upon seeing the past of this ancient universe.

At this moment, Gu Jin Lai suddenly laughed.

"Schemes!? Schemes!? Is this the scheme of you, the most ancient and powerful Primordial!?"

Laughable.

Strategies of life spanning tens of billions, hundreds of billions of years!? The schemes of the Great Power are fleeting across a few million years, equivalent to the entire lifespan of many Immortals.

But the scheme of an ancient universe effortlessly transcends tens of billions, hundreds of billions of years, equivalent to the entire lifespan of the oldest Great Power in this universe!

"The universe as the board, all beings are mere pawns, and we are just pieces after all."