Chapter 236: New Commission, Promotion Ceremony

"Emperor Zou, how does a life form of this level compare to the 'Doomworld Dao Emperor'?" Kleen asked the question lingering in his mind.

Su Tuoni blinked, without hesitation, retorted: "What Doomworld Dao Emperor? What a stupid name—feels like only elementary school kids would like it."

As soon as he spoke, even Zhongli's expression turned slightly odd.

"You never used that cheat?" Kleen mused, then nodded: "So your cheat isn't the same as theirs. That means you never used Wind Spirit Moon Shadow either?"

Honestly, given how absurdly endless Su Lin's hidden cards were, Kleen found it hard to imagine his familiar Su Lin ever turning into Su Tuoni's grim, burdened appearance.

From Kleen's own twenty-plus years of modern-life experience, this guy either had some kind of system, or carried a hidden treasure that could only be unlocked after meeting certain conditions.

The stat-point-boosting route was unlikely, but not impossible—perhaps there were quests that awarded rewards.

The other seemed unwilling to hide anything from them, yet this "I won't tell you, figure it out yourself" attitude made Kleen want to reprise his role as Xia Luoke Moriarty.

"I've used Wind Spirit Moon Shadow," Su Tuoni said. "Every time I couldn't beat a game level."

As he spoke, he realized something was off.

"What did you do in other worlds?"

He had assumed Su Lin merely used his divine essence to harvest points from the other world, and if things went badly, could hide behind the Tianhe Battle Robe.

"Nothing much," Su Lin thought for a moment, then pulled out the Heaven's Way business card and handed it to Su Tuoni. "Consider topping up? I think you've got the funds."

Su Tuoni took the dark-gold card, puzzled: "What the hell is this?"

【Heaven's Way Business Card: Wind Spirit Great World—Sincerely Serving You】

00?

"TF?" Su Tuoni froze, staring at Su Lin in disbelief. "Wait—don't say anything."

He stowed it in his system inventory. Since there was an introduction, it was clearly system-generated—he immediately checked the description.

Under everyone's gaze, Su Tuoni's facial features slowly twisted into a grimace.

Su Lin subtly sensed the other's long blade wavering between himself and the evil cultivators below.

'Calm down, brother—suffering isn't always bad.'

'But he's already rolling in Rolls-Royces.'

Su Tuoni forced a smile, his heart thundering with a thousand galloping horses: "Not bad—not bad. You've got good luck. How many digits?"

He wanted to ask how much Su Lin had spent.

"Five digits," Su Lin answered.

Decided. I'll vent my rage on the evil cultivators below.

"Top up? Top up and you'll grow stronger," Su Lin said seriously.

"The Myriad Worlds have such ridiculous Heaven's Ways," Su Tuoni shook his head slightly. "If you ever enter the Universal System, consider using money to help you cross the final step to Emperor Zou."

"Sorry, you probably won't need it—this world's Cosmic Consciousness should help you."

"What do you mean?" Su Lin asked. "Can't this be a one-time fix?"

Su Tuoni glanced at the evil cultivators below, now entering a critical phase, and chose not to interrupt. He turned to Su Lin and the others with a question.

"Heh. What do you think 'Emperor Zou' means?"

Su Lin thought for a moment: "Frieza?"

"Please, don't meme right now," Su Tuoni felt his old wound throbbing again.

"Stronger than Emperor-level," Kleen analyzed. The ability to return from every single second of one's own experience is even harder to kill than an Outer God.

"Literally, it means ruler of the universe. But based on the traits you've described, it's far stronger than that," Zhongli said.

Emperor Yufeng appeared to be sleeping, but was actually listening intently—he remembered this term appearing in his signed agreement.

"Do you think the universe is weak? I know some of you can destroy a universe with a flick of your wrist. Compared to such people, isn't the universe pitifully weak? If the universe has consciousness—something like a Heaven's Way—isn't it confined within a single universe, right?" Su Tuoni continued.

Su Lin urged: "Stop dragging it out."

In his eyes, this guy was just wildly padding the word count—he hated people like this most.

"What I'm about to say is a universal secret shared by nearly all naturally born universes," Su Tuoni nodded solemnly to the group.

"Mr. Tianhe, don't run. Listening won't drive you mad."

"You there—hand me the Tianhe Battle Robe. I need to play a PPT."

Kleen halted his steps and said: "Sorry. Habit."

Su Lin silently rubbed his forehead. If another underhanded schemer joined the group, future dungeon runs would require planning whether he'd be unceremoniously shoved to the front row.

He pulled out the purple, ornate robe from his system inventory: "Remember to return it after use."

#

Su Tuoni donned the battle robe, took a deep breath, and said seriously:

"Remember Zuo Kete's linear pocket watch? He couldn't return to the true past—when he went back, he merely created another Parallel World."

On the luxurious purple robe, beast shadows emerged; chaos evolved, while gray-white erosion spread, enveloping them all.

"But what I'm saying is: no matter how many Parallel Worlds you experience, no matter how many times you restart, the World Consciousness of every world is the same!"

"He has been watching you from start to finish—whether you travel to Parallel Worlds, return to the past, or leap into the future."

"Except for extremely rare universes, all naturally born universes that have matured fully share this trait!"

Su Tuoni shook his sleeve, and a powerful humanoid entity appeared within the fabricated chaos.

His feet shattered star rivers; atop his head blazed destruction's rainbow light. Six arms each held a bizarre artifact as he stepped forth from the universe—and the moment he stepped out, the universe behind him collapsed utterly.

"The universe was destroyed, yes—but what of its World Consciousness? It remains perfectly intact—in other timelines, other Parallel Worlds, every past, every future."

The scene shifted: overlapping, phantom universes emerged where the destroyed one had been.

"He destroyed only the universe he could observe. In the Gao Gao Tian Yuan, many such beings exist—capable of destroying universes, capable of stepping into the boundless void—yet they themselves cannot grasp the universe's essence."

"You probably don't yet understand the Universal System. But it's not complicated—it's a system the others had already developed and summarized before our world crashed into the Myriad Worlds' grand party."

"They classify all life into several categories: Star-Gazers, Star-Casters, Gao Gao Tian Yuan, Emperor Zou, Doomworld Dao Emperor. Among them, Gao Gao Tian Yuan isn't a realm—it's literal. Between Star-Casters and Emperor Zou lies a Gao Gao Tian Yuan."

Star-Gazing can guide Qi, the spiritual rhythms of sun, moon, and stars, or other energies into the body to refine the physique and forge the soul; fundamentally, it is a path that can be cultivated indefinitely, and after eons of accumulation, it may yet become a means to attain Dao.

Those who reach the Star-Forge realm are the most outstanding lifeforms in their respective universes, their abilities gradually expanding, mastering multiple cosmic laws; the strongest can use their spiritual essence and immense power to birth new artificial miniature worlds.

"And the Abyss? Its composition is far more complex."

The Abyss is the chasm between the strongest beings of countless worlds; the weakest are Star-Forge, while the powerful can destroy every universe they can observe—but their future remains uncertain, limited by the material world they can perceive.

"The Cosmic King is not a symbol of power, but represents freedom from the constraints of one's own created world, perceiving the multiverse's multiple existences, lightly interfering, touching time and the River of Fate. Among them, some are strong, some weak—the weak can even be killed by Star-Forge beings. The Cosmic King signifies their eligibility to advance into a vast future; only when one reaches the peak of this path can one be called the Sovereign who masters all."

"Huh? What's wrong?" Su Tuoni interrupted, seeing Su Lin raise his hand shakily.

Su Lin's voice trembled: "The more I hear, the more absurd it sounds—your Cosmic King isn't some 'Path Beyond Sacrifice,' is it?"

If even one gets away, this damn thing will force us to wander the myriad realms for how many years?!

"Of course not—I'm just getting to it, don't interrupt." Su Tuoni continued: "The Cosmic King realm is a path they discovered through mutual exchange—it could also be called an alternative path."

A majestic shadow expanded endlessly until it merged completely with the entire universe; after merging, countless root-like filaments spread outward, and a faint light traveled along one filament until it reached the "trunk."

Most of the Cosmic Kings were already at the pinnacle, wandering the River of Time, manipulating Fate, altering reality.

By embracing all aspects of the universe, they fused their perspective with the world's consciousness, reversing past, present, and future—creating the future from the past, shaping the past from the future.

Once this condition is achieved, the universe becomes their returning hatching bed; thus, every second experienced within that universe becomes a new anchor point.

Even if the universe is destroyed in the current perception, they naturally overwrite the present with archived pasts—or alter other branches to become the present.

Through this ability, they perceive every possible variation of themselves and draw power from all worlds—though the methods of drawing power vary slightly.

Just as Su Tuoni retracted his demonstration PPT, intending to give everyone time to process it—

"Why are you grabbing me?" Kleine asked Su Lin, glancing sideways.

Su Lin moved like a glitching robot, slowly turning his neck toward Kleine: "Why did you pull out the Cross-Dimensional Rune?"

"I need to go back for a blind date—give me a chance," Kleine said, finding he couldn't pull free from Su Lin's grip, attempting to leap via flame.

Su Lin directly disrupted the space: "How am I supposed to give you a chance?"

Kleine's eyes were numb; he tried to transfer via his puppet but it failed: "I had no choice before—but now I want to go back for a blind date."

Su Lin nodded: "Fine. After I finish what I'm doing here, I'll go with you to the blind date."

"What's a weak little angel like me doing here?" Kleine pushed forward forcefully, but Su Lin dragged him back, causing Kleine's leather boots to scrape grooves into the cliffside.

"Aren't you a Miracle Master?!" Su Lin wished aloud: "My wish is—"

"I don't want to hear it! Just go fight in the Holy Grail War!" Kleine slapped his hand over Su Lin's mouth and shoved him hard to the side: "Go ask the Holy Grail for wishes! If the Weirdness shows up, it'll probably hit you twice—don't come to me!"

Su Lin locked his hand around Kleine's neck: "Relax. Given our relationship, even if a Cosmic King invades tomorrow, I'm dragging you and Lu Mingfei to get yourselves killed."

Su Tuoni watched silently, then asked Zhong Li: "Are they close?"

Zhong Li hesitated, then nodded: "Probably."

Crack!

A crisp shattering sound came from below the cliff, cutting through the chaos above; a shockwave flattened trees and bamboo groves entirely, and a brilliant divine light flashed past—right at Qu Yanping's location, pure immortal spiritual energy appeared.

On his forehead, an eye drawn with the Script of the Dao slowly opened.

"So this little nobody who couldn't even reach Jin Dan in twelve years now has awakened the Heavenly Eye Technique? Impressive," Su Tuoni clapped his hands and laughed.

"Let me think—the origin of the Heavenly Eye Technique in Hengyu Realm is Ju Chang."

"You want to use this guy's vision to observe? That does fit your cautious nature—right now, I bet a whole army of Immortals are watching this world through live broadcasts."

"That guy Taiqing probably left some hidden moves—this confirms other worlds must be stirring too."

Su Lin glanced toward the direction they'd come from; he had not once turned off the Heavenly Will's enhancement and could sense many things: "Someone else is coming—three cultivators, two men, one woman, all at Foundation Establishment."

He directly projected the scene using Floating Light Technique.

"It's Lao Mi," Su Tuoni said, his eyes filled with nostalgia. "Still the same old soup with a new ladle—this idiot actually dares to run this way?"

"Mi Rui Nian?" Su Lin asked. He'd seen that name in his diary—the cultivator who committed suicide after learning the truth.

Su Tuoni gave a slight nod and analyzed:

"We could just kill this heretic outright—but given Ju Chang's style, she'll likely send a Jin Dan, then if that's not enough, a Nascent Soul; if Nascent Soul isn't enough, she'll send a Divine Transformation."

"Given our current situation, unless your authority can be used indefinitely, when they send a Hengyu Jin Xian later, we'll have to scatter—or smile and welcome them."

Luo Shengying smiled faintly: "After all these years, you still know her well."

Su Tuoni didn't mind: "After all, Taiqing once wanted me to be a son-in-law—how could I not know her?"

Su Lin had no interest in gossip; fundamentally, those matters had nothing to do with him. The only thing he needed to decide now was how to instill sufficient deterrence.

From known information, the enemy's high-end combat power remained a constant threat. The two future NPCs beside him—he didn't care about them; they wouldn't use their trump cards until the absolute critical moment.

Even if the Taiqing Immortal Emperor was only a lingering shadow, he wouldn't vanish until after the year 607.

Until then, he must still be treated as real—even an AI would auto-respond and auto-counter.

Su Lin fell into thought; no one else spoke to disturb him. This decision ultimately rested with him alone; under current conditions, others could offer little useful advice.

Moments later, Su Lin clapped his hands decisively: "Alright. All-in."

"Don't just all-in so casually! Did all that thinking you did just go to waste?!" Su Tuoni slapped his own forehead, utterly exasperated.

"Just kidding," Su Lin shrugged, pulling out a monocle from his pocket, wiping it, then turning to Kleine: "Do you have enough puppets for your Rank One Ascension Ritual?"

"Enough," Kleine adjusted his hat and affirmed. "What are you planning?"

Su Lin slipped the monocle into his right eye socket, a delighted grin spreading across his face: "I'm issuing a commission—it won't take long."

"Wait—I'll interrupt." Su Tuoni's expression turned horrified: "Let me ask—have you not been possessed?"

(End of Chapter)