Chapter 232: 231, Aren

"Have you ever thought about a question?"

"What question?"

"You're going to die."

In the dark basement, a gaunt cultivator stared at the man who appeared before him; the tone of their dialogue was very flat, yet it gave an absurd sense of horror.

But there was no one else here, only the two of them—a human and a demon.

Or rather, a heretic and a demon.

"Who are you?"

The cultivator quietly looked at Wang Wu and asked.

"I think you probably don't need to know my name," Wang Wu said, "because you're going to die."

"I know, but I want to ask, who are you?"

"I am Wang Wu."

"Ah, I've heard your name," the man said, a look of understanding on his face. "Since it's you, it's not surprising."

"I'm just curious, why did you come here?"

"Because I happened to be here, no particular reason, and I just happened to see you holding an illegal gathering here—it's that simple."

Wang Wu shrugged. "The reason you can still talk to me is that the person outside hasn't found you yet, but your other fellow sect members should have already been killed, leaving only you now."

"So you're here to deal with me?"

"Pretty much," Wang Wu nodded. "If you confess, I might let you die a bit more pleasantly. I wasn't planning to torture you anyway, that's all."

"I think even if I don't answer, you should know what kind of reply I'll give," the gaunt cultivator said.

"Yes, I know," Wang Wu said, raising his hand and thrusting a palm forward.

"I also know the locations of other evil demons and heretics in this city. You may think you're hidden, but to me that concealment means nothing."

Before dying, the gaunt cultivator still heard Wang Wu's words; they were the last sounds he heard. Wang Wu said it deliberately dry, to make himself seem a bit more impressive.

He let him hear, understand, and realize this. Then he let the opponent watch helplessly as his palm struck, slapping him into oblivion, body and soul scattered.

"Ha ha, now you're powerless; everything is over now."

Wang Wu smiled merrily at the corpse on the ground; the body remained, but the innermost thing had completely dissipated.

Annihilation doesn't have to erase the body; striking the soul directly through the body works too.

Of course, even the strongest cannot completely annihilate a life's soul; at most they can revert it to its most primitive state—nothingness, only the concept of "I".

That concept is the underlying logic of all universes, or the multiverse; at least Earth's strongest cannot erase this foundational logic.

Thus, from another angle, all people and all living beings with souls can be considered immortal.

A robot's soul is, of course, also a soul; the concept of "I" can be born, never dying, and infinite births of "I" imply infinite multiverses.

Of course, some robot souls simply reincarnate, and the so‑called "reincarnation" here refers to the most primitive form, without any artificial control, which still has a high probability.

Indeed, the probability of primitive reincarnation is very high; essentially one can be reborn immediately after death. For the already dead, the transition from death to revival is but an instant.

Your world before death and after death are the same; the most primitive soul, the most primitive "self", has no concept of time. When it awakens in a body capable of supporting self‑awareness, that marks the beginning.

Therefore, life—or the soul—always exists only in the "now". Of course, in some universes with special rules, they can exist in parallel.

Past, present, and future coexist. For example, in universes where the timeline can be reversed, time can be turned back and events that have occurred can be altered.

Those are higher‑grade, higher‑tier universes that ordinary people generally cannot access.

To be reborn into such a universe relies on luck, and the most primitive reincarnation mechanism likewise depends heavily on luck.

It has no pattern, pure randomness and probability; perhaps you're human this life, but next life you become an insect, whose brain cannot even sustain self‑awareness.

Yet that most primitive, fundamental "I" the insect still possesses.

Mayflies lack much thinking ability, and their lives are equally brief.

After experiencing the brilliant life of a higher‑intelligence being, if a person can retain the memory of a previous life that happened to be an insect, they would certainly fear such an existence.

Even though an insect's lifespan is extremely short, that brief life is still a torment, a suffering.

Fortunately, not everyone can retain memories of a past life, and the vast majority of souls are extremely fragile, so fragile that after the vessel dies they quickly fade away with time, completely disintegrating.

Only the purest essence remains, melting into the heavens and earth, then awakening from a long slumber to begin a new life.

For some, that is the most terrifying aspect of death: forgetting everything, abandoning everything, with nothing of the previous life remaining, only a void.

And this uncontrollable reincarnation is also what they fear most: this life as a human, the next as a beast, the one after that as an insect.

Even though the number of tiny creatures in the world is enormous, this naturally lowers the odds of rebirth as a higher‑intelligence being.

But for people of this world, that's not an issue, because all living beings have a chance to awaken higher intelligence, commonly called "demonization."

After all, the monsters of this world are the beings closest to the humans of Wang Wu's hometown, and as for the humans of this world… Wang Wu doesn't even know their origins or how they came to be.

But considering that on almost every planet the intelligent life is human, and given the ubiquitous ruins of civilizations throughout the universe, there should also be a primordial civilization in this universe.

Or a pioneer civilization.

Just like Earth in the masters' world, people have conquered the entire universe, leaving traces in every corner.

Then, for unknown reasons, they perished, leaving only the seeds they sowed on those planets.

At present, that pioneer civilization seems even more fanatical than the human empire of the masters' homeland, because there truly are extraterrestrials there, albeit few.

But here…

Uh, Wang Wu hasn't explored this side of the universe, so he shouldn't speak too hastily; that's not good.

His scattered thoughts returned to the cultivator opposite; Wang Wu looked at the opponent's body, which had collapsed to the ground and quickly cracked into ash, and said:

"Now everything is over, and you should re‑enter the cycle of reincarnation, to the place you belong."

"It seems, sir, you have already cleared the evil demons and heretics from this place?"

At that moment, a voice came from behind Wang Wu. Though the dialogue between Wang Wu and the cultivator seemed to take some time, in fact it all occurred within a few seconds.

"Yes, it's already resolved."

Wang Wu nodded, "You arrived a bit late, but I can't blame you, because if it weren't for me, you all wouldn't have discovered this place."

"Then truly thank you, Immortal Wang," the feather‑crown man said with a smile to Wang Wu, "Thanks to Immortal Wang Jun, we can …"

"No, it's not over yet." Wang Wu cut him off, "Your place is swarming with evil demons and heretics; I'm curious—are they cooperating with someone again?"

The moment he spoke, the feather‑crown man's expression grew grim, "Please, Immortal…"

"Of course." Wang Wu interrupted again, "Just follow me; I'll take you there."

Having said that, he walked toward the feather‑crown man, but passed straight through him, with no intention of saying more.

He held a poor impression of the man, so he didn't plan to converse much.

Confronted with Wang Wu's disregard, the feather‑crown man clearly dared not voice any objection and hurriedly kept up.

Without waiting, in the blink of an eye Wang Wu vanished from the feather‑crown man's sight.

That didn't matter, for immediately a series of auras shot up into the sky over the city.

Those were an unmistakably familiar aura, yet also terribly evil and bizarre.

They were the evil demons and heretics.

Just as Wang Wu said, the city harbored a massive number of evil cultivators.

Among tens of millions of residents, the number of these demon‑worshipping followers reached an astonishing near‑ten‑thousand, clearly no small skirmish.

Fortunately, Wang Wu was here, so without much time the city's evil demons and heretics were all located.

As they were found, Wang Wu dealt with them on the spot.

After finishing a heap of tasks, a few thousand lives were added to Wang Wu's tally.

He kills according to his mood; whether the target is truly wicked doesn't matter—his killing is purely instinctual.

If they please him, he spares them; if not, he kills them—simple as that.

"Thank you, Immortal, for removing a plague from my Great Chu; I, the humble one, bow and thank Immortal Master!"

Facing a strongman of Wang Wu's caliber, this great power from the Extreme Heaven Divine Palace behaved extremely humble and obedient before him.

He even brought his mother‑queen over to flatter Wang Wu in hopes of gaining a better impression.

The previous King of Chu wasn't killed by the current King; this succession in Chu is rather unusual.

It's not that the King didn't want to kill his own father; someone simply beat him to it.

The child born to his mother‑queen and another man passed the palace inspection by some means and became the first‑in‑line heir.

In theory he should just wait his turn, but unfortunately the King dislikes this son, so he plans to depose him.

Then this son, unrelated by blood, killed him; thereafter the current King of Chu rashly struck, sending his brother straight into the earth.

As for his brother's identity, he already knew, so he has been gathering strength, waiting to expose the truth after the brother ascends, kill the brother and claim the throne.

Or kill the father first, then expose the matter, kill the half‑brother and ascend.

In short, the father must die; without his death he cannot inherit.

The brother must also die, for he is a bastard, a mongrel.

The palace has no eunuchs, only palace maids, because in this world men and women have no physical difference, and women can do far more in the court.

Anyway, for a ruler that's certainly pleasant.

The current King of Chu's mother‑queen is very beautiful and quite young, only in her fifties.

She married the King of Chu at fifteen, bore a child at sixteen, and now, having two sons and a daughter, is still under sixty.

Indeed very young.

And graceful, with a figure… ahem.

In short, that's irrelevant, but the King of Chu's skill at flattering people is indeed good.

It's called being reluctant to part… can't quite wrap it…

Well, although it didn't quite wrap, it's unimportant.

This morning, Wang Wu opened his eyes, pushed aside the corpse on his body, and then went to the palace.

Afterwards came the current King of Chu's eager flattery.

One can only say the King of Chu truly spares no expense, but judging from those sugar‑coated cannonballs, they seem to enjoy it as well.

That's normal; palace life in this world is indeed decadent.

"How does the Empress Dowager of Chu feel? Must be quite special, right?"

While receiving the King of Chu's flattering attentions, Wang Wu didn't expect to run into Si Tu Jin here.

"What are you doing not working at the Great Zhou Demon Suppression Office? Why run here?"

After hearing the King of Chu's few flattering words, Wang Wu was about to exchange pleasantries, after all he had killed the King's sister and mother, so a bit of courtesy was due.

Before he could speak, he heard a woman's voice.

The next moment, that woman appeared before him.

Tall, peerlessly beautiful, with a perpetual half‑smile on her face.

"What's wrong, not welcoming me?" Si Tu Jin tilted his head at Wang Wu, a smile curling his lips.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came looking for you."

"Looking for me for what?"

"I miss you, so I came to see you."

"Don't you have work?"

"That's my work."

After a few exchanges, Wang Wu simply fell silent.

The woman easily made him blush; one must admit she's a beast among beasts in that regard.

He was simply a living, breathing bastard, a moron.

(End of this chapter)