CHAPTER 1157: CHAPTER 879: REFINING VOID AND UNITY

War.

Gu Jinlai’s thoughts gradually returned to place.

At this moment, he finally understood what kind of situation he was truly in.

The war of two universes!

This newborn universe intends to devour the ancient universe to become more complete, to reach a more perfect state.

And that ancient universe is unwilling to collapse and perish just like that, hoping to refine this newborn universe to replenish itself, so as to revive its own vitality.

"I was introduced into this newborn universe as a ’seed’ with the original purpose of using my high realm traits to learn the operational rules of ’assimilation’ in this world, which are the Three Thousand Great Dao. Just like the Evil God needs to learn before degrading the Three Thousand Great Dao, the war between universes has similarities in some ways."

Gu Jinlai gazed towards the end of the starry sky.

Over there...

is where the Cosmic Core is located.

The Cosmic Core is the point of contact between this universe and the ancient universe.

In the early stages of this universe’s birth, possibly hundreds of billions or even trillion years ago, there were no concepts of immortals or great powers.

It is because this newborn universe began to devour the ancient universe, causing the beings in this universe to thrive and letting the cultivation system flourish.

Numerous beings benefitted from the changes brought by the universe’s devouring, riding the wind and embarking on the path of cultivation and evolution.

But for the Three Thousand Tao Ancestors, who wield the authority of the universe, their ultimate purpose in devouring the ancient universe is for their own ascendancy, not to nurture parasitic-like cultivators.

So, to avoid too many "parasites" from interfering with their growth, they continually purge batches of cultivators.

This is the truth faced by the immortals.

And the great powers, labeled as "parasites" by the Tao Ancestors, are unwilling to perish in these purges, trying repeatedly to change themselves, evolve themselves, hoping to become individuals comparable to the Tao Ancestors, or even surpass them.

By a stroke of luck, the ancient existence known as Primordial, who has survived for unknown billions of years, obtained this cosmic oddity.

Thus, he meticulously plotted.

Hoping to leverage the power of this cosmic oddity to carve a path comparable to the Tao Ancestors, or even beyond.

The result...

Benefiting from the Lucky Qi of this native great power, Primordial, the Power of Authority of the Tao Ancestor overlooked his existence, ultimately failing to cleanse and erase him like other cosmic oddities.

Then...

he won without effort.

Primordial’s countless schemes and calculations ultimately only achieved greatness for Gu Jinlai himself.

With the identity of a not so top-tier cosmic oddity, he accomplished things that many cosmic oddities, which managed to resist the Great Power of Dao and transform into Creation Divine Artifacts, could not.

"No wonder, when I denied being Primordial, everything suddenly went wrong. This is targeted hostility from the universe’s unseen force..."

Gu Jinlai looked up and gazed around.

Even though there shouldn’t be any up or down, left or right in the cosmic starry sky, he still habitually looked upward.

"Luckily... this universe is not long-born and has yet to conceive a unified consciousness. Otherwise, the cosmic will would have undoubtedly noticed when I denied my identity as Primordial, and I wouldn’t have had the chance like now to uncover all these truths."

After a while, he retracted his gaze.

His expression gradually calmed.

He stretched out his hands slowly and began, "Dao begets One."

"Buzz buzz!"

An invisible chaotic power surged, gradually evolving into a bubble-like prototype of a universe.

"One begets Two."

With a thought, the chaos in the bubble-like universe quickly split into two.

In his left hand, the Power of Destruction roiled endlessly.

In his right hand, the Power of Nurturing gradually evolved.

"Two beget Three."

The powers of destruction and nurturing began circulating and rotating around him, endlessly.

This most stable structure made this seemingly ready-to-collapse bubble stable.

"Three begets all things."

And the stabilization of the bubble-like universe also granted it the qualification for further evolution.

Ultimately, therein the Power of Authority emerged.

The Three Thousand Great Dao appeared one by one.

With the appearance of the Three Thousand Great Dao, it seemed as though the universe had found its foundation, generating and nurturing all things.

Finally...

A true universe formed.

Gu Jinlai looked at this simulated universe in his hands, constantly changing, extremely fast. He had a premonition that if his own power could truly reach this level, he could completely make this bubble-like universe materialize, becoming a true universe existing in the vast, boundless chaos void.

Just like...

The ancient universe that first nurtured and birthed him.

In terms of realm, he was already close.

At least surpassing the Three Thousand Tao Ancestors.

Leveraging this realm to guide the cosmic power into great destruction, great powers and Evil Gods would have no distinction in front of him.

Just like if the Tao Ancestors took things seriously, they wouldn’t care whether the target is an Immortal Golden Immortal or a great power.

"I and those cosmic oddities are all part of the vitality that split from that ancient universe, belonging to that universe’s descendants, progeny, inheritors... to put it simply, the children of the cosmic..."

Gu Jinlai vaguely remembered that individuals like them, if they were lucky enough to acquire sufficient vitality from the "oddities" to transform into a life form, were often called Chaos Life.

But this is just the initial Chaos Life.

Or rather, it merely possesses the traits of Chaos Life.

Yet...

This alone laid an imposing foundation that countless people wouldn’t even dare to imagine.

"The Three Thousand Great Dao of this newly born universe allowed me to comprehend the mystery of ’Three begets all things’; this counts as one layer of realm. The original realm of San Sheng made me understand what ’Two begets Three’ means, which counts as another breakthrough. And as a child of the cosmic myself, attaining enough vitality to form into a being known as Chaos Life, I inherently have the aptitude of ’One begets Two’, which equates to another layer of realm overlap..."

Gu Jinlai understood in his heart.

In this way, it’s equivalent to being in the Third Level of the Chaos Life realm.

"Next, I merely need to take one more step forward, to truly enter the realm of ’Dao begets One’, also known as... Harmonization with the Dao!"

Harmonization with the Dao!

Refine essence into energy!

Qi Refining and God Transformation!

Refining God Returning Void!

Refining Void and Unity!

This is the most challenging step!

It will directly transition from a calm harbor into a stormy ocean.

Many lives at the Third Level of the realm may be shredded to pieces by external storms as they take this step.

It’s like navigating a small wooden raft on the turbulent sea.

Annihilation would be their only destiny.

But Gu Jinlai was different.

The ancient universe he belonged to was "dead".

"At this moment, as I return to that ancient universe with the power of the Three Thousand Great Dao of this universe, I can master that ancient universe, becoming the new master of the universe... Like taking command of an unmanned giant ship with a crew, and even the ship itself wishes to welcome the crew, to restart, transforming from drifting scrap metal back to sailing across the grand ocean."

After Gu Jinlai understood all of this, only one thing remained.

That is, to use the cover of the "Primordial" identity to see if he could evade the attacks of the Three Thousand Tao Ancestors, rush into that ancient universe, and master the power of that universe to "harmonize with the Dao" in a stroke and become the universe’s master.

"Sooner or later, I have to awaken the Primordial... and also make another journey to the Cosmic Core."

Gu Jinlai said.

After pondering for a while, he thought of taking something out of the Storage Immortal Artifact.

But when he reached out, he remembered that he had already discarded all the Jade Talismans used for communicating with the outside world from the Storage Immortal Artifact.

This was to prevent a Great Power from locating his position through the Divine Sense imprint on the Communication Jade Token.

As one of the Great Powers himself, he understood that what might seem unbelievable to an Immortal Golden Immortal was not difficult for those called "All-knowing and All-powerful" Great Powers.

"The road of Great Powers clearly leads in another direction, but some abilities are still quite useful."

Gu Jinlai took a step into the void, heading straight for the New Fire Star Sea.

With his current perspective on the realm of Great Powers...

This realm seemed somewhat superfluous, unnecessary.

If one truly wants to refine Void and Unity, having strong enough computation power and comprehension is enough. Silent Annihilation? That’s just a means to evade the cleansing by the Dao Ancestor, an incidental product.

Moreover, the difference between Sixteenth Rank and Eighteenth Rank Great Powers is very small.

In a one-on-one situation, a Sixteenth Rank Great Power, even if not as strong as an Eighteenth Rank, could still easily preserve their life.

Furthermore, the strength gap between these two levels is not in the realm itself, but in their accumulated power.

Theoretically, a Sixteenth Rank Great Power who lived for a hundred billion years could totally compete with an Eighteenth Rank who had only lived for a billion years.

It’s just that achieving Eighteenth Rank takes tens of billions of years, whereas, in comparison, Sixteenth Rank Great Powers are usually Great Immortal Venerables who broke through after living billions or even tens of millions of years, with a shallow foundation, making them seem weaker than the Eighteenth Rank.

"But Evil Gods don’t need to spend so much time ascending."

Gu Jinlai thought.

Now he has already reached the "Chaos Third Level" in his realm.

Mastering the universal power of "One begets Two, Two begets Three, Three begets all things", this power’s subtlety is even beyond that of the Dao Ancestors.

The sole difference is that Dao Ancestors have the endless backing of the universe, whereas his power was limited.

In direct confrontation, he couldn’t match the Three Thousand Dao Ancestors occupying the home ground.

All he could do was use the identity of "Primordial" to enter the Cosmic Core, approach the Three Thousand Tao Ancestors, then launch a surprise attack, using the power of cosmic annihilation to shatter the Three Thousand Tao Ancestors before his power was exhausted, breaking through to return to his universe.

"This time, I really need to have a good talk with those Evil Gods and Great Powers, about the possibility of peaceful coexistence in the future..."

With this thought, Gu Jinlai wandered continuously through the void.

With Great Power’s understanding of the Space Avenue, every time he traversed, it was as if he was creating a Realm Gate out of thin air, able to cross vast distances in an instant.

In less than half a month, his figure had appeared relative to the edge of the Cosmic Heart, toward the Yanhuang Star Domain.

But when his Divine Thought swept toward the mansion of the Yanhuang Star Domain Master, Qin Yuyan, he found she wasn’t there.

Not only was she absent, but even Wei Qingqing and the others were not in the mansion.

Gu Jinlai quickly thought of something, his expression changed, and his figure swiftly descended to where an Immortal Golden Immortal was located in the Domain Master Mansion.

Before he arrived, his Divine Thought reached first.

"I am Gu Jinlai, contact Emperor Xi for me."