The Utterly Cruel Truth, Returning to the Beyond
The Utterly Cruel Truth, Returning to the Beyond
Gu Changge was dressed in white, all of his aura retracting and settling, becoming simple and unrippled. His features were handsome and refined, his eyes deep and tranquil, his hair lustrous with interweaving light—truly otherworldly.
He walked out from the depths of the Resplendence Universe, returning to simplicity and authenticity. No immortal light radiated from him; he looked entirely natural, yet the entire universe seemed to pulse in rhythm with his breathing.
“Qianbei... has he become an Immortal?”
In the land of the Gods’ Ruins, the Tree of Epoch still spewed divine light, rumbling loudly, but it no longer carried the Great Dao fluctuations from before—because the Epoch Dao Fruit had already been plucked by Gu Changge.
Empress Huang Yu stared at all of this in shock, hardly able to imagine that one day she would personally witness such a soul-stirring scene of ascension to Immortality.
Tao Yao, however, was much calmer, for she had long anticipated it. She knew that with Gu Changge’s methods, he would never tolerate failure.
All of this had been destined from the very beginning; there would be no accidents whatsoever.
Gu Changge nodded slightly, glanced at the two of them, and said nothing more. Then, with a wave of his great sleeve, he took the Tree of Epoch into his Inner Universe. For his Primordial Spirit to become an Immortal was, to him, not much different from truly becoming an Immortal.
With matters here settled, he would return to the Beyond and begin purging everything.
At the same time, with a single thought from him, the Resplendence Universe before his eyes rapidly shrank, as if some supreme power had appeared to pluck this universe out of the void.
He took the Resplendence Universe with him, simultaneously erasing all traces of this place, as if this stretch of heaven and earth had never existed, and he had never appeared here.
Except, of course, for the Ancient Battleship wreckage scattered beyond the Resplendence Universe.
These sights were far too astonishing. Countless Cultivators and living beings in distant universes felt deeply shaken and horrified.
After the light of Immortal Ascension burst forth from the Resplendence Universe, the surrounding space rapidly collapsed, as if this place had fallen into an eternal black hole—all matter and all laws were annihilated.
Now even the Resplendence Universe itself had vanished, thoroughly erased from this world.
Such methods left them feeling terror and dread. Only a true Immortal could accomplish something of this magnitude.
Without question, an Immortal had been born. That vast and boundless fluctuation spread throughout All of Heaven and Its Thousand Worlds; nearly every Cultivator felt it—a supreme heavenly law of the world, permeating every inch of space, spreading through every universe.
The first Immortal born in the world since the Forbidden Epoch—no one knew his origins. They only knew that this place had buried countless living beings, far too many to number.
Even True Daoists had served as cannon fodder, dying crop after crop like leeks being harvested. Dozens of foundation-level figures perished miserably, like clay oxen sinking into the sea—after charging into that Celestial Gate, they vanished without a trace.
What happened here would absolutely shake All of Heaven and Its Thousand Worlds. Even the other ancient worlds beyond the Beyond would tremble in horror at it.
The curtain had fallen on the light of Immortal Ascension, but the Beyond was anything but peaceful now. Of the great armies that had rushed to the Resplendence Universe, those who managed to return to the Beyond reported what had happened there at the first possible moment.
The Beyond, already in great turmoil, erupted with a boom as if ignited, unleashing unprecedented monstrous waves.
No orthodoxy or force could sit still at a time like this. Even the most ancient existences within the Forbidden Areas trembled, feeling boundless fear.
The Opportunity to Become an Immortal had been a deception—it was never truly manifested.
The Epoch Dao Fruit was merely bait.
All the orthodoxies, forces, and foundation-level existences that rushed there became big fish, buried within it.
The one who became an Immortal was not any of the foundation-level existences who went—it was another mysterious figure.
He was the Greatest Villain behind the epoch’s transition, the ruthless man who schemed against All of Heaven and Its Thousand Worlds.
This was the utterly cruel truth. When many learned of it, they cried out, unable to accept it. Some even fainted on the spot, endless grief filling their hearts.
Perhaps to confirm the truth of this news, strange phenomena appeared in the skies above the ancestral lands of certain orthodoxies—torrential rains of blood accompanied by wailing, stretching across entire star territories. The sight was horrifying.
And the Mystic Mountains, where remnant wisps of Dao souls of foundation-level existences had been left to stand guard, collapsed and exploded at the first moment, shattering into pieces.
From within came the lament of all living beings, blood scattering in disarray, as if reflecting what had occurred in the Resplendence Universe—lives as vast as the Great Dao fading away, perishing one after another.
Each Great Dao-like life that drifted away signified the fall of a foundation-level figure.
This was a grief the Beyond could never have imagined—a true calamity of mourning, the most unbearable loss for every orthodoxy.
Beyond the passing of foundation-level figures, the Immortal Grade Artifacts of those forces and orthodoxies were also lost in that battle, their whereabouts now unknown.
This was an unbearable, terrifying pain. Without foundation-level figures to hold the line, without Immortal Grade Artifacts to suppress their Fortuity, in the currently chaotic Beyond, they might not even need a hundred years—within just a few short years, they could be utterly erased from the long river of history.
This was the price of staking everything on a single throw.
Of course, in the currently chaotic Beyond, the forces and orthodoxies perishing every day were as numerous as carp crossing a river—only, those orthodoxies were far less ancient than the immortal orthodoxies.
“This is a catastrophe... nearly everyone who went to seek Immortality has died.”
“A ruthless man has been scheming against the Beyond for countless years. From the moment the Tree of Epoch was stolen, the calculation had already begun. He hid like a shadow behind the River of Time, waiting until this moment to finally reveal his true face.”
“That Dark Heaven that suddenly appeared recently—perhaps it was established by that ruthless man.”
“Before, no one could guess the origins of this Dark Heaven. But thinking about it now is terrifying, because the master of this Dark Heaven... is a True Immortal.”
Many foundation-level existences who had not participated in this Opportunity to Become an Immortal felt chills run through their entire bodies, feeling incomparably fortunate.
Yet they were also gripped by lingering fear—if they had failed to hold back earlier, they too would likely have perished by now.
The foundation-level figures who had returned from the Resplendence Universe were even more frightened and uneasy, worried they would face that ruthless man’s reckoning. Although they had escaped in the end, in the eyes of an Immortal Dao existence, whether one fled or not made no difference at all.
From this day onward, the Beyond was shrouded in an atmosphere of extreme terror and unease. Everyone feared for themselves.
In the Mortal Palace, within a magnificent palace hall, the clear-featured Jiang Chuchu gazed at the distant starry sky and murmured softly, “Did you succeed?”
Although Gu Changge had never told her about this matter, she knew very well that the one who had schemed and plotted against all the heavens was Gu Changge.
The Mortal Palace stood aloof from worldly affairs. Though the Beyond was in great chaos during this time, it had not been affected.
Moreover, because of Gu Changge, the Mortal Palace was under protection and remained transcendent.
But Jiang Chuchu was haggard. Although she knew that what Gu Changge had done was an evil deed that brought calamity upon all the heavens, she could not help but worry.
For this matter involved far too much—so many foundation-level figures had emerged. How was he going to face it all?
At the same time, her heart was tangled and lost.
As the Saintess of Mortal Palace, she could not save the countless living beings of the world. The teachings of the Mortal Palace seemed utterly feeble at a time like this.
In the end, she accepted it with equanimity, feeling that what Gu Changge said was right—in this life, living for oneself was the correct path.
“You should come see me... you promised me.”
Jiang Chuchu wore a faint smile, gazing at the boundless starry sky, waiting for Gu Changge to return.