CHAPTER 838: SEED OF DOUBT

Hearing the question, the old man showed a confused expression.

"What do you mean I did something without your knowledge? Why do you think that?" he asked.

Tarius did not answer immediately. His gaze remained locked on the old man’s eyes as if he wanted to see whether his reaction was genuine.

After a few seconds of silence, Tarius finally spoke.

"Well, it’s nothing. The recent mess in the First Heaven made me think, and after I thought it through, I couldn’t help but feel that there was something strange in the First Heaven. Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I wanted to make sure."

The old man raised his eyebrows.

"What kind of strangeness? And why am I being suspected by you?"

Tarius did not answer the question and instead asked,

"Where is your apostle?"

"My apostle? He’s in the Eighth Heaven, of course. He’s still doing his job spreading my influence," the old man replied without hesitation.

Tarius kept looking at the old man.

"Is that so?"

The old man narrowed his eyes.

"Of course. Seriously, why are you suspecting—" he suddenly stopped mid-sentence and frowned deeply.

Seeing the old man’s sudden change of expression, Tarius asked,

"What is it?"

"I... I lost control over a part of the heaven near the Ancient Blue Gate World. It’s the Akares Star. I can no longer affect the law of causality in that world."

"What? Again?" Tarius said in astonishment.

This was the second time it had happened. The first time, they had lost the entire Ancient Blue Gate World. They could no longer weaken the law of causality in that region of the heaven. They could still sense something from that place, but they could not interfere in any way.

One of the main purposes of the gods in weakening the law of causality there was not only to weaken the "border law" that separated the higher and lower heavens but also to allow the responsible god to completely control the entire heaven along with its heavenly laws.

They could even impose their own heavenly law if they wished, although the process was not easy. They had to weaken the entire heaven’s law of causality as much as possible until they could take over that heaven—in this case, the First Heaven.

The god needed to "become one" with the heaven to control it completely.

However, there was a catch. If they lost control over even a small part of the heaven, it would become impossible to make the entire heaven their own. And that was exactly what had happened at this moment, they had lost control of parts of the First Heaven.

This was also something that had left Tarius confused in the past. The only one capable of pulling off such a feat would be a god who had already reached the level where they could control an entire universe.

The old man nodded seriously.

"Yes, you can sense it yourself. This is really strange. Did those rebel gods make their move? But if they were the ones who did it, how could we not detect it?"

Tarius did not answer. His silhouette slowly dissipated.

"Well, who knows," he said before disappearing completely.

Seeing that Tarius had vanished, the old man frowned even deeper. He was truly surprised that he could not control the part of the heaven around the Akares Star. But he set aside that strangeness and instead thought about Tarius, who had come to question him.

’What does Tarius have in mind, coming to me like this? What did he find?’ he thought. Since Tarius already seemed to suspect him and had even asked such a question, it was clear that Tarius had already caught a trace of another god’s schemes behind him.

Although Tarius still seemed unaware of his apostle’s involvement, which meant he had found no proof of it, this was already a bad sign for him. With Tarius seemingly catching onto something that made him suspicious, Tarius would act accordingly and strengthen his surveillance in the future.

The old man sighed once again as he found it a truly troublesome situation. His apostle and any of his followers in the First Heaven would now have much more limited movement.

’Well, at least for now, my apostle can use that singularity to keep Tarius busy and divert his attention from this matter.’

The old man closed his eyes and continued his meditation. He would try to solve the mystery of the phenomenon in the First Heaven first.

In another place, Tarius’s body sat within his own realm. He was in a meditative position, and after a few moments, he opened his eyes. He had just sent a part of his consciousness to the old man.

After opening his eyes, he showed no expression, though his thoughts drifted to what had just happened.

’He doesn’t seem to have lied, but he’s still suspicious and remains on my list.’

Recently, after he sensed that his connection to many of his followers in the First Heaven had been severed—which meant they had died within a short span of time—he began to think that something was wrong.

Most of the followers he lost contact with were from the area of the Central Star Cluster, followed by those from the Fallen Star Cluster, and even some from the central region of heaven. He had now lost influence over the entire Ancient Blue Gate World and lost many of his powerful followers in the First Heaven.

He was certain that it was the work of that mortal. But then although that mortal was certainly capable of such a thing, the question that arose was how that mortal could do it so effectively.

That mortal might be an apostle of one of the rebel gods, but that still did not explain how he could pinpoint every single one of his followers with such ease and kill them. He was like a reaper to his followers with that level of efficiency.

This made him to think about everything that had happened recently, as well as certain events in the past.

He realized he had experienced something similar before, though not on the same scale.

In one of the worlds within the Central Star Cluster, he had slowly lost his influence until eventually losing all of it entirely.

What he found strange was that it had happened suddenly, out of nowhere, and even to this day that world remained off-limits from his influence.

Usually, his followers from other planets would continue spreading his influence despite losing one world, but this particular world seemed to have an incredible defense.

They seemed to know whenever his followers arrived and would eliminate them, which made that part of the Central Star Cluster completely free from his influence.

All this time, he had believed that the world might possess a rare genius capable of holding off his followers. He planned to eventually overwhelm that world once his avatar descended, and then the First Heaven would finally fall.

However, the appearance of that singularity destroyed all of his plans. His avatar was destroyed, and many of his followers perished. He believed that mortal was the strongest he had ever encountered, most likely an apostle of the rebel gods.

He also thought that the mortal was almost certainly the reincarnation of some unknown god from the past. That mortal’s comprehension and technique were things that a mortal without knowledge as a god should not possess. Even if that mortal had a system, it still left many things unanswered about what happened to him.

Many things did not make sense and his knowledge did not seem to apply to that mortal!

But then, despite the absurdity of this mortal, he tried to think positively—that perhaps this mortal was truly special.

In the span of the cosmos, there must be inexplicable beings like this mortal, things even gods would witness for the first time. The endless cosmos could still conceal many mysteries unknown even to all gods.

However, not long after, he could no longer sense any connection with the followers in the Ancient Blue Gate World, and soon after that, he also lost control over that part of the heaven. Following that, he lost millions of his followers within a short span of time, which immediately raised his alarm.

He knew that such a thing could only be done by a god—a god who had already reached the level where they could control an entire universe. There were several beings of that level among the rebel gods of this universe, so it would not be surprising if this was their doing.

Forget about that mortal. Even if he had been a god in his past life, he was still a mortal right now.

The problem was, they had detected no movement from any of those gods. They could not sense what had been done to the heaven that caused them to lose control. It was as if, in that region of heaven, the heaven itself had suddenly closed off from all outside influence.

His followers kept dying in quick succession, as if that mortal knew exactly where they were. The heaven had suddenly closed itself off from their influence. Those circumstances made him think of one god, the one that helping him weaken the law of causality in the First Heaven, the old man.

That old man and he had been working together to complete the conquest of the First Heaven more efficiently and quickly. The old man’s role was to assist Tarius in weakening the law of causality until Tarius could take over the entire First Heaven.

Logically, that old man was the most suspicious person who could have caused all of this without being detected. With the help of his apostle, such a thing might even be possible, and that was why Tarius had asked about the old man’s apostle.

However, he still had no solid proof of the old man’s involvement, which kept him from making any excessive moves.

’However, if he really is involved in this matter, then—’ Tarius’s eyes glistened dangerously.

Unbeknownst to Aldrian, even without him taking any action, the seed of doubt had already been sown among the invaders.