Chapter 370: The Past Is Gone

"Therefore, that was merely an inevitable result originating from within. I imagine the True Monarch saw this point, which is why she likely did not take further action afterward, and you indeed, as she wished, ultimately suffered a total collapse."

Du En said this calmly, his gaze like the quiet night, neither flickering nor wavering because of his own conclusion.

The voice of obsession vanished as a result.

Everything was punctured like a bubble.

Before his eyes, things flickered; when he came to his senses, Du En and the small stone statue were already in a boundless void.

Here, it was even more empty and secluded than that deep abyss, with only a few scattered floating stones to serve as footholds.

He stepped through the air, lifting his eyes to look ahead.

A massive core crystal was floating there all alone, long since mottled and dim, turbid and unbearable; one could faintly see, inside it, twin young girls gently leaning against each other.

It was just that, looking from the outside at this moment, it was as if they had long since stopped breathing; they were two corpses that, judging by their blurred outlines, still possessed the slender grace of their youth! Two emotionless voices blended together, drifting out from within.

"To be able to see through our Empty Dream so easily, and without the slightest wavering or hesitation—outsider, you have passed the test."

"A test?"

Du En spoke in reply; at this moment, he knew without looking that the mechanical soldiers he had obtained earlier were also illusions, and even the refined steel he had used was actually as good as new.

Everything he had just experienced was merely a frozen dream, frozen at the moment when the people in the city had all died.

And he had not actually noticed it at the beginning; after stepping into that city, he had only thought the city was frozen in a fragment of destruction.

But it was not until later that he saw some things that were not quite right from some extremely obscure details.

Now, pondering it in reverse, he suddenly felt a sense of realization.

Empty Dream, Empty Dream—it is a dream, yet it is not a dream!

"Exactly. You were not wrong about one point just now: even that kind of possibility of collapse was within the assumptions of Mo Ju."

The twins in the core gave their answer, their voices sounding blended and overlapping, more like the distorted, raspy noise emitted by a malfunctioning machine, and for this current dialogue, it still carried a sense of rigidly reading from a record.

"Those who forge ahead must be those who, in times of crisis, turn the tide and ultimately interrogate the existing disharmony."

"It is just that, in the end, we are not him. We are only able to become the hub imprint of Mo Ju because we are natural twin Dao-fetuses, which allowed us to replace him after he had fought with the Outer Gods and could no longer serve as the operator of Mo Ju."

"We have already tried our best; we can no longer wait; we have long since been disappointed, long since been in despair."

Facing the echoes of these "deceased" voices, Du En still had no change in expression, only asking very calmly: "What are the specific circumstances? If it were not truly impossible to maintain, you shouldn't have chosen self-destruction, right?"

"Three thousand years."

"In three thousand years, the internal collapse of Mo Ju has occurred three hundred and seventy-one times, with each interval becoming shorter and shorter. That Planting Law Dao technique can be said to be the root of everything; he planted cultivation into the bodies of the tribe, slowly mutating them, ten thousand generations as one."

"It saved the people of Queguang, but it also confined the people of Queguang. Naturally, there have been those who denied this innate existence, and there have also been those who chose to step upon it to forge ahead. But regardless, in those many repetitions, one simply could not see the appearance of anyone capable of truly turning the tide; in the end, it was just constantly repeating the known result."

"It was wrong, it was erroneous; his vision was not achieved, and the true successor did not appear."

"Or perhaps, we have actually died without knowing it, becoming a part of that rigid, deteriorating, and disharmonious status quo."

The hollow, blended voice only then revealed a faint trace of emotion.

The twins in the core crystal seemed to look up at this moment, looking above the void, as if gazing at the underground outside the void, the ground above the underground, the sky above the ground, and the starry sky beyond the sky.

The world was clearly so vast, yet in the end, they could only be buried in the most empty and dark place, rotting alone, dying without even knowing it themselves.

They asked Du En.

"A genius only sees the threshold of despair, and a heaven-gifted talent would be helpless in such a situation. Even with the supreme stature of the mortal world, how is one to cook without rice?"

"..."

Du En only responded with silence.

Just as the twins thought he had no answer, he spoke in a steady tone: "The land of Queguang seems to be a dead end, but it is not necessarily so. If one uses the surviving Mo Ju as a stronghold, one can secure the basics, and then seek traces from the anomalies of the Spirit Mother to spy out opportunities. After all, the True Monarch outside cannot watch this place at all times."

"Then, starting from the minute details, gather the wisdom of many talented people, rely on the remaining resources, rapidly step into the realm of Spirit Transformation, and then take over the city of Mo Ju. Use the Empty Dream to cover oneself, secretly repair it, and even absorb the flesh of the stars as a power reserve. Then observe the situation of the enemy cultivating the fruit, perhaps secretly promoting it or working hard to hide, until the Spirit Mother matures."

"This place seems to be the domain ruled by the True Monarch, but there is not only one True Monarch. One can boldly hypothesize—and there is actually a basis for this, which is the many outsiders hanging on that tree—that during the period when the Spirit Mother matures, the interfering factors, both overt and covert, will actually show signs and precursors."

"In the event that everything goes smoothly, or if one cannot consider it so smoothly, one should have the heart to stake everything on a single throw. In the worst case, directly disintegrate the stars, use the collapse of the star realm as a stepping stone, rush out of this confined place, reach the starry sky, crash into the deep layers of space, and begin to wander in the desolate universe."

"Even if that is just jumping into a much larger pond, the limitations are much smaller after all, and one's cultivation can continue to rise. One only needs to rack one's brains again and repeat a similar experience; whether it is faking death or abandoning the city to disguise oneself, in any case, there will eventually be a possibility of being completely out of the pond."

Du En said a great deal all at once, making the twins in the core crystal fall silent, with a faint sense of trembling.

Because he calmly provided a theory.

"Your constant failures, in the final analysis, are still confined within the gravity of civilization and homeland. If you truly want to gaze at the starry sky, you must be prepared to turn everything into a ladder to ascend."

Looking again at his own raised hand, he added: "That Dao technique is actually quite good. At the very least, the theory of spiritual roots has been largely dismantled here; even those without spiritual roots can possess the cultivation of Foundation Establishment. In subsequent cultivation, it can be said to depend entirely on individual talent!"

"Moreover, through this, I have seen some truths about the hegemony of the Immortal Sects..."

To his final murmur, the twins did not react.

They seemed to withdraw their gaze and look directly at Du En, continuing to state in a rather mechanical manner: "Regardless, at that time a hundred years ago, we chose to self-destruct and chose to let this place completely turn into the past."

The overlapping girl voices echoed ethereally in the void, dully recounting the end of despair.

The constantly repeating crisis and result had long been assimilated before many crises... therefore, a choice should have been made, a choice to abandon the framework set by Mo Ju.

Thus, when people once again killed the aliens mixed among themselves, everything inevitably slid into the abyss, and the core of Mo Ju, the twins, also waited here without a word for their demise.

At this very moment, this once-great city was like the living corpse of a tribal civilization, and its mottled, impure core also manifested the potential crisis that would eventually become a poison to the underground.

But listening to Du En's description of the grand plan, they also seemed to be breaking away from the original framework, with other still-vivid, surviving things flowing out from their state of death.

Thus, they continued to speak: "The act of stepping on stars, digesting one's homeland, and advancing into the starry sky sounds very crazy and makes one's heart race... I cannot help but think of the past; Mo Ju, the Great Cultivator, actually had such madness too."

"It is just that he did not implement it in the end, though he did leave behind relevant sparks. Of course, what we want to say now is actually very simple: the reason we could not hold on, could not persist for another period of time to wait for someone like you who could be called a successor, is merely because we two are also human."

"So, we couldn't wait any longer. We just thought of companionship, and so the void in our hearts grew larger and larger, seeking the fulfillment of human nature."

Facing these words that departed from the grand narrative, Du En's expression seemed to change slightly. He did not deny it, only asking quietly in return: "Isn't that quite good?"

"..."

"Dust to dust, earth to earth."

"It is too tiring, it is too bitter."

They spoke thus, and the core crystal also sank downward.

The voice seemed even more vivid, and it also knew the initial reason why Du En had come here.

Thus, a spatial fulcrum was handed before him.

Ink-colored chains were tightly coiled, trapping a pale hand within them.

"You can use it to kill it."

"A lump of flesh clinging to grievances is not an enemy of the rules forged into steel."

Mentioning matters related to the Mo Ju, the tone of the Twins rose much more noticeably.

"Then giving you what he left behind, in this way, our remaining mission can also be completed, and his vision will also be realized in a form beyond his own imagination!"

"Oh? Stubbornly remaining here, risking the danger of being captured, just because you still want to hand over his inheritance to others? But why would it be an outsider like me?"

"Because you are truly very similar, and, actually, it shouldn't be said that we are giving you his inheritance, it is just the Mo Ju Essence Technique, or rather, giving you the remnant shell of the city."

"That is really quite trivial."

Du En commented without any courtesy.

"Hehe, this is already enough."

"What the world needs is not a second him."

As the Twins spoke, they sank completely into the void.

Pop—as if completely piercing a bubble, the scenery in Du En's eyes changed once again.

The true Mo Ju City came into view.

Bones turned to sand, desolate as a desert.

Overall, there were no longer traces of people living there; all the colors of the ancient civilization had gradually perished and vanished along with the initial collapse.

What remained was only the skeletal remnant of Mo Ju City, which was the Mo Ju Essence Technique.

"Actually, the Twins' choice must have also taken into account True Monarch Huiqing; only when Mo Ju City is in the hands of an outsider like me and taken away from the Queguang Star Realm can it avoid being used by them, and can the problem of 'possessing a jade ring leads to a crime' be removed."

"They are actually quite helpless and need to stake everything on one throw, because the changes in the Spirit Mother have clearly progressed to a very dangerous point; even if this Mo Ju Prison Chain is still a cut above, it has long since stagnated, and even, when the Spirit Mother molts and emerges, she will probably surpass it."

"Pondering these two carefully, one can also find similarities; using obsession as a tool might be an inspiration True Monarch Huiqing obtained from the Great Cultivator of Mo Ju."

"In short, after going back, let the Resolution help me repair this city."

Scanning the incomplete frame, then glancing at the fulcrum in his hand.

Du En decided just like that.

After all, for him to repair Mo Ju City himself, even if he could really conjure up a proficiency level, the time consumed would be incalculable; rather than that, it would be better to let Meng Changqing do it.

Anyway, their realm is higher, they are a true peerless talent, and they have enough material resources, so it should be quite fast.

Besides, like this now, it is actually just swapping the mechanical soldiers for Mo Ju City; the matter is still the same matter, and the original plan has not changed at all.

Thus Du En waved his hand, and this majestic city, which had quietly completed its handover just a moment ago, immediately shrank, turning into the size of a seal, and hung at his waist.

The fickle nether wind blew, carrying the last remaining trace on the spot completely into the bottom of that nether abyss.

With this, there were no more traces left in this northern land.

The four fulcrums of the Spirit Mother's self-sealing gate were also considered resolved.

Du En did not hesitate in the slightest and headed south without stopping.

In a few blinks, he had already arrived at the edge of the northern land, before the blocked path heading south.

Raising his hand, he cleared it, and the ten-mile-long blockade was easily dismantled.

The narrow cave passage was very primitive, unlike those tunnels where the excavation technology was clearly higher.

It was extremely narrow at first, then gradually widened, only there was no light to be seen, only pitch-black, which was the eternal keynote of this underground.

Du En's pace was fast; even with a little tail, he quickly finished this stretch of road and arrived at the brightly lit northern main tunnel.

North of this central camp was a completely uninhabited area, with only a very crude tunnel existing as a reserve, and there were not even any Holy Crusade soldiers of the Queguang Sect stationed there.

Forgotten, abandoned, intentionally distorted...

Those who chose to flee Mo Ju City back then were all people who detested it deeply, yet they also had deep dread, fearing the collapse they could never understand, and fearing that it would spread over again, causing the people who escaped to suffer the same thing.

"The asymmetry between what is known, what is heard, and what can be endured."

It was a rather cliché situation; Du En only let this slight trace pass through his mind and did not care about it.

The reason for acting in such a hurry was actually because the tentacles trapping the Spirit Mother were having strange reactions, making it seem like that side was about to molt its old shell and welcome a new life.

"It could also be a trap; after all, the four-fold predicament arranged by the True Monarch has all been broken by me one by one, and the real cards in her hand should be played now."

Du En only felt this was a matter of course and did not feel the slightest thrill.

Nor did he have any thoughts of retreating, only moving forward.

(End of chapter)