Chapter 519: The Sunday of the God (Part 2)

mayiwsk

In the blood-red desert, beneath the great tree where light and darkness intertwine.

"Old friend, honestly, I thought you'd be furious and burst out of your little tree hollow to punch me."

His voice carried a kind of magic, making one unconsciously feel at ease: "You know I'm actually a good person, but I just can't help it—back then, blowing up Archivili's train was the same thing. Living quietly is just too hard."

"Why be angry?" Su Lin's voice emerged from within the trunk of the light-dark tree, devoid of emotional fluctuation.

Star God Aha would come here roughly every so often.

He rarely cared whether Su Lin responded, instead rambling on about his latest amusement, like a well-meaning neighbor who couldn't stop talking.

And today's amusement

was the internal collapse of a church that had once defeated calamity and fate.

"When time flows again and the stagnant spacetime returns to its origin, carrying change toward the land pointed to by hope—what a pity, no matter how long the dream endures, it can never become reality; it's always just a little short."

He said, delighted and proud: "And the architect of all this? Me—your old buddy Aha."

Along the single branch that stretched endlessly from the treetop, Su Lin had naturally seen that extraordinary manipulation of events.

Like in poker, there are two jokers—one colored, one colorless.

Shou Zhou, who hadn't seen the divine descendants in decades, had already fallen in the underground ruin on the very first day Su Lin and the others teleported in, while Aha had assumed his identity and been captured by the Velez Army.

No wonder both Midnight Star and the later-arriving Cloud Cavalry were stunned by Shou Zhou's miraculous survival—because when Shou Zhou had fled with the group, he'd already suffered grievous wounds.

When attention is fixed on Giovanni's face-up card, the hidden card he prepared is ignored.

Su Lin sighed: "The world truly teems with heroes."

That is to say.

It was this bastard who sent the coordinates to the Patrol Hunters.

"Impressive—you're not even bothered?!"

Aha, laughing loudly, juggled a series of masks with different expressions like a circus performer:

"A meticulously planned betrayal, a black spot in a pure white future, an extra name added to the list of survivors—a ghost.

Making a hopeful dream shatter once more—I'll admit, even I think I went too far, like some evil villain from a script."

Yet, faced with these words, Su Lin showed no anger whatsoever—he began humming a tune.

"Never will I abandon you, never will I depress you, never will I leave you, never will I make you cry, never will I say goodbye, never will I hurt you with lies."

"Why does this sound so familiar?"

Aha asked, puzzled: "You're really not going to act? If you step out of your cozy little tree hollow, you could change this tragedy."

Ignoring him, Su Lin paid no heed, and soon even his humming faded away.

"Don't be like this—you can't let those two bad women trick you into staying forever in this nurturing softness. Pleasure is your eternal friend.

Come out! Smash Aha's masks with your fists full of friendship—hit him, yell 'Ola!' or 'Muda!'—whatever, just beat him up!"

"Then I'll repent, I'll weep bitterly, I'll regret my deeds beneath the revolving lamp, and from now on become the moral exemplar of all the stars in the universe!"

"Buddy, are you really not going to care about them anymore?! Then what's the point of everything you did before?"

Wrapped in his blanket, Su Lin this time buried his head completely, ignoring all the noise from outside.

"Damn it, why did pleasure come after me?"

In the tangible ocean of imaginary numbers, he followed the link to the tip and arrived inside a world bubble.

Here, sunlight shone brightly, spring lasted all year round; though civilization had perished, nature still endured.

Crimson-tinged yellow maple leaves swayed gently in the autumn wind; stepping across the golden, shimmering waves on the ground, Su Lin walked toward a solitary house perched on a tree deep in the forest.

This world, reshaped by omnipotent imaginary energy, was entirely drawn from the memories of a certain witch.

"Back already?" A girl in a black robe and triangular hat, carrying a wooden picnic basket, smiled charmingly: "Want to eat together? I made mushroom stew myself."

"Why are you wearing Yi Leina's clothes? Never mind—I've got things to do."

Su Lin passed a neet exploring this world, opened the magically ornate treehouse door, and arrived beside the sleeping woman with gray hair.

He reached out, severing her connection to imaginary energy; the world, moments before a paradise beyond this world, shattered instantly—darkness writhed and surged within flowing time.

"Is it time?" Yi Leina rubbed her eyes and asked.

Su Lin said: "Not yet—still about a few thousand years."

"Haaah," Yi Leina yawned, closed her eyes, and murmured: "I'll keep absorbing imaginary energy. Wake me when the time comes."

"Am I your mom?!"

Su Lin sighed; six pure white wings emerged behind him as he stepped into the darkness, a taint of fallen gray beginning to spread.

"To go out now would mean forcing me to oppose history, to disrupt the flow of time."

In Su Lin's eyes, past, present, and future time nodes surfaced; in that instant, the boundary between light and dark inverted: "I'll play along."

The fictional history, never aligned with the wheel of fate's years, still lingering outside spacetime, began its decline toward Yarilo.

The decaying Church of Destiny's towering, colossal white cross turned pitch black.

The earth cracked; storms and frost descended; the eternal night, not yet faded from living memory, once again veiled the heavens.

Countless dust rose softly; light gradually lost its color; darkness surged back, swallowing Midnight Star, lifeless at the church's doorway, swallowing the three warring factions and all living beings.

The long-dead ancestral homeland, drawn from flowing memory essence, turned everyone once more into shadows of memory.

Aha, in the guise of Shou Zhou, carried three newly picked-up, abandoned God Keys onto the carriage of Thousand Realms One Ride, still smiling—then froze as he turned his head.

"Whoa, bro, you're a bit extreme."

Boom—!

The world fell abruptly silent; all things were gradually buried beneath falling snow.

The entire world sank.

"We, the Masked Fools, hold no responsibility for any actions of Star God Aha." Giovanni lifted his chin, straightened his back, and stood with an unyielding, defiant posture.

"Why do I, Old Sangbo, have to suffer this?! I haven't been a Masked Fool for years!"

Sangbo was bound to a cross, his brow filled with helplessness and grievance: "Come on, where the hell did you get this info? From beyond the fourth wall?"

"Didn't expect you to be a Masked Fool too." Bronya bit her thumb lightly and said: "As a resident of Belobog, if you have any important intelligence, you'd better confess it honestly."

Sangbo shook his head, took a deep breath, and groaned: "What am I supposed to confess? Haven't I already told all you folks everything I know?"

"Sangbo boss, didn't you once say in the tavern that you smuggled artifacts from the upper district to sell for cash?" Giovanni asked: "Did this finally come to light?"

Sangbo froze, staring at Giovanni in shock: "I said that while drunk?"

"Oh, maybe I remembered wrong." Giovanni looked apologetic.

"You—" Sangbo's face twitched; he sensed a shift in the atmosphere and immediately turned to shout:

"I confess! There are Masked Fools everywhere! The Jester God made us collect the Divine Keys and fire them into the Void IX!"

Topa, while taking notes, asked: "Why?"

"Because that bishop is about to become a Star God."

Sangbo said earnestly: "He saved an ancient civilization for those two lovers, then inexplicably destroyed the same ancient civilization that came to Ylvel, posing a grave threat to the entire universe. That's all I know, truly."

"Star God."

Jingyuan and Walter personally relocked the shackles on Rosha.

Rosha: "."

Don't you consider the possibility that he's lying?

"That's normal." Walter exhaled and said: "That's exactly the kind of thing this man would do."

Rosha: "?"

At this moment, Star arrived with the chat group members.

"Excuse me, everyone," Kleine spoke up:

"We will take the Divine Keys and open a passage to the Tree of Imaginary Numbers."

"In exchange, we guarantee the safety of everyone present, so we ask you all to hand over the Divine Keys you've collected for our use."

This move came too suddenly—or rather, no one expected these "Envoy-class" beings to act so decisively.

And from their tone, it didn't sound like a negotiation.

Star nodded, hands on hips: "That's it. I advise you not to be ungrateful."

All eyes turned to Star—even Kleine hadn't expected him to be so blunt.

March 7 asked: "Which side are you on…?"

Star: "Both."

While the Company and other factions were still weighing their options, Xianzhou immediately declared its stance.

Jingyuan said: "I have no objections. The two Divine Keys collected by Xianzhou are yours."

Bronya exchanged a glance with Star, then also expressed agreement.

"I was fortunate enough to collect one Divine Key that still suits me well."

Giovanni said with visible distress: "I originally planned to keep it for myself, but given this situation, I'll add it too—could you please let me down first?"

"Sunday" said: "Our family came here solely as expert guides to the Memory Dream Realm of Penacony, with no involvement in this matter."

"Memory Dream Realm guide…" March 7 glanced at the now-transformed Memory Realm, where a black hole hung overhead, tempting one to abandon everything, her expression odd:

"Your side wouldn't also be filled with conspiracies, historical riddles, shadows, bugs, Envoys, Star Gods, and other dangerous elements, would it?"

Sunday smiled: "Of course not. Penacony is a remarkably safe Dream Realm—we take full responsibility for every guest."

"." Topa paused, then smiled: "In that case, I'll take the liberty of handing over the two Divine Keys acquired by the Interstellar Peace Corporation to you all, hoping they'll protect all players' safety."

"But we only have eight Divine Keys so far—even adding the recently fallen train, we still haven't gathered them all."

Xianzhou's side seemed to have an unusual rapport with this group of Envoys, and harbored no hidden agendas—so why not go with the flow?

"As for that," Jingyuan turned his gaze to Rosha and smiled:

"We'll naturally need our bishop's help. I hear these shadows protect you? Why not give them an order and see if they'll voluntarily bring the scattered Divine Keys to us?"

Rosha felt this had no basis.

Moments later.

The entire world's dark shadows, along with their progeny, surged forward like Qianshan guarding in formation.

"After this, I need an explanation." Jingliu brushed past Rosha.

Rosha gazed at the sky, his eyes filled with confusion.

Had he truly lost his memory?

"One Dominion Key is missing."

But this time, long passed, and the missing Dominion Key never appeared.

"Could someone have secretly kept one?" Shajin pondered, then called a staff member: "Tell them—double the pay."

Time ticked away second by second.

"This looks a bit like my family's Xuanyuan Sword…"

A dazed voice spoke up.

Star turned to Li Sushang, who was barely holding up an ancient sword, her wise eyes studying the differences between the Memory Bubble images and the real object.

"Family heirloom…"

"Yes, a family heirloom—from my hometown, Yaoqing. I'm even a fellow townsman with these dozen-plus Tianming Church Cloud Riders."

Li Sushang said proudly, utterly unaware that others were looking at her strangely.

Bright light flared across the massive steel construct.

A roar erupted from within; the thinning clouds and rapidly flowing scenery followed one after another.

Next stop.

Giovanni, wearing a white mask and the same conductor's uniform as Pam, stepped out of the cab, holding a microphone: "Nothing matters, Pam!"

"Strange Pam, aren't we short a passenger?"

"Never mind Pam, we've arrived, everyone! You seem to be home, Pam."

Huang Quan, expressionless, stepped off the train, carrying a long blade.

Snoring—hrrr hrrr—uh.

A sound of deep sleep came. Li Sushang wiped away drool, removed his eye mask, and asked: "Are we there?"

"We just got on." Walter turned his gaze toward Kleine nearby.

Kleine walked over with Li Huowang and said: "I have an ability—I can divine the cosmic coordinates in Walter's memory and open a spacetime portal."

"Amazing, Chief Kleine." Li Huowang praised: "You've already become an Ancient?"

Kleine, expressionless, replied: "No, but this is an ability I developed during my travels across countless worlds. Hurry up, Conductor—wait for me to collect the God Keys."

"An impatient passenger, Pam."

Pam turned and walked toward the cab.

"I don't quite understand."

Aha's voice sounded confused: "After you return to normal time, without those twelve God Keys that alter reality and anchor truth, you'll always disrupt history and the present when you return—why aren't you in a hurry?"

"Here we go again." Su Lin yawned, wrapped in his blanket, walked to the tree hollow, and sneered: "I've already gone through the motions—this isn't even fixed. Why are you fixated on me?"

"Life is a game—there's no true win or loss."

"Life is an illusion, fleeting as dew. If you believe you're right, then you're right—what's the rush? Better to just chill."

After saying this, silence fell outside.

He felt something heavy on him. He lifted the blanket and saw the old housewoman asleep on the trash witch's body—both of them, with zero sleeping posture, had wandered from the small world outside and were now pinning down one corner of the blanket.

"Perfect opportunity."

Su Lin slowly pulled the blanket free, then wrapped it tightly around himself.

"Much better now."

Just as he thought the person outside might finally leave, and he was about to nap again, he heard a low chuckle—then it grew louder.

"It's hilarious coming from you."

"You wanna fight?" Su Lin asked.

Star God Aha put on a mask, transformed into Giovanni's form, and stepped forward, crossing spacetime to lock eyes with Su Lin inside the tree hollow.

He shook his head, laughing with trembling mirth: "Hmm, let's change the subject. If the end is all void, why bother enjoying the present?"

"After being exploited for most of your life's surplus value, can't you enjoy yourself a little?"

Su Lin didn't really want to get into philosophy with this guy, but the piercing laughter had jolted him awake. He asked offhandedly: "So what do you actually want? Go through all this trouble just to send me into the void?"

"The movement of origin, the sacred affirmation—in short, I want to run an experiment."

Aha's high-pitched laughter faded, replaced by an unexpectedly mocking tone:

"The universe is magnificent, Star Gods are revered, oh—and by the way, beyond the universe lie countless other worlds."

"But all these things, like the Star Gods themselves, are unimportant."

"My friend, you understand me—most philosophical meaning holds no weight for individual life."

Then his voice took on a haunting, tragic cadence, as if performing a play:

"Life alone is unique. If all existence must yield to void—oh heavens, how profoundly tragic that would be!"

Su Lin glanced outside, staring at the figure in formal attire—the Joyful Star God. Joy's essence is the dignity of life; void stands opposite all existence, rendering everything meaningless.

"So you destroy the second life I gave others to prove the meaning of existence?"

"Strictly speaking, they aren't life—just a bit of active memory residue."

Aha said solemnly: "They became beings with dignity the moment you were born."

"Ha." Su Lin laughed, then understood what the other wanted: "You want me to fight void?"

"We're all a loving family—why resort to violence?" Aha countered. "I want you to be born inside Him, change your birthplace registration, keep your birth time unchanged, and then—"

"Gain an answer."

"By the way, if you're this slow-witted, how will you ever date someone? Sorry, I didn't mean to pry into your private life."

The last sentence was unnecessary.

"You don't even pay me a salary."

Su Lin stretched his body: "Fine, whatever. I'm not going. When time's up, I clock out and go home."

"But I already have the God Keys." Aha lifted his head; his mocking laughter drowned out the wave of meaning-deprivation above: "You ignored your old friend so much—I was growing strong while you were offline."

"Alright, buddy—let Aha celebrate your birth with fireworks!"

He looked forward to the moment when void and hope (existence) would collide—what would this cold, false universe become?

"Maybe it'll reboot the universe—ha ha ha ha ha—!"

As streamers and fireworks burst from the void, a cheerful tune began to play.

The space, constructed from solidified numinous matter, began to collapse. The tip of the Numen Tree where Su Lin and others stood was being uprooted; the spacetime vessels drew numinous energy, which leaked everywhere.

The eternal sands of the Quantum Sea seemed caught in a sucking tornado—rising upward, carrying the energy of countless parallel universes into the ever-nearing black hole.

Su Lin propped his chin on his hand, sat cross-legged, watching the Star God dancing and laughing outside the golden crystalline wall.

They were both pulled into an inverted vortex, sucked into the void of Heaven IX.

"Uh…" Su Lin spoke up: "Have you ever heard of proxy gaming?"

Aha's movements and laughter froze. As He turned to look at Su Lin—

"No way—you don't actually play games all by yourself as a Star God, do you?"

Su Lin's lips curled upward as the branches extending from the Tree of Virtual Numbers suddenly plunged into an abrupt, unexpected slit appearing within the Void IX body.

They spread rapidly, grew stronger, their history and reality aligning.

Ripples surged across the cosmos.

Then came the sound of celestial drums, stars falling, amid agitated beats and melodies.

Within the mist, a colossal form—seemingly forged from the convergence of countless dusts—wielded a hammer emitting an unbearable screeching sound.

It was as if a grand procession had suddenly begun, amidst clamor and revelry, ten thousand pairs of eyes gently lowering their gaze at once.

"Star God."

A strained voice issued from somewhere, its tone distorted by uncontrollable shock.

Yet that voice stirred a titanic wave within every mind frozen in stupor.

"Amber King!"

"Mother of All Stars!"

Everything halted with a sudden *whoosh! *

This perception struck every living being's mind—in an instant, frost filled their eyes, and from a flickering point somewhere in the universe, a prism-like face flashed from a condensed origin point!

This time it was—

Memory Star God Fuli!

From the farthest edge of vision, tangible darkness surged forth—from sky, ocean, earth, the deepest core of this planet—converging into a towering black tree.

Vast virtual energy flowed along its trunk; its branching limbs gave birth to worlds, its leaves represented planets, each world-bubble nurturing one, two, three…

Until an uncountable horde of ancient beasts took shape, each forged from the darkness of an entire world.

"How could this be?!"

Dusk Ancient Beasts—no, not that?!

Those shadow-beasts devoured one another, gradually transforming into creatures with predatory fangs and antennae, necks like mountains of quivering flesh, purple flames leaping across their undulating meat.

A graceful voice arose, like redemption soothing anxiety, luring one to be consumed by it.

"Tan Tan Tao."

It began actively devouring the world, opening one of its colossal mouths.

Suddenly, daylight burst forth—a colossal figure emerged from a tear in the starry sky, and the flesh-mountain was pinned immovably among the stars by an invisible arrow.

The ultimate stars were stirred by the wind; one could see the heroic figure raising a longbow.

"Emperor Bow, Confused Siming." Jing Yuan's eyes trembled; he lowered his array-blade slightly.

Within moments, several Star Gods had arrived here.

People seemed to forget how to breathe, unable to think—this unprecedented, grand spectacle, hadn't appeared since the War of Birth and Fall?!

The entire universe sensed the anomaly here.

*Clank-clank*

A long red train, its orange lights flashing, leapt across the heavens like a golden meteor.

"What's happening?!"

Some began noticing their vision distorting; others found their bodies stretching, yet touching themselves revealed no abnormality.

Earth and sky dimmed; a pure white storm of light was born and spread outward.

It devoured all color; all light peeled away from objects—first from a person, then a city, gradually becoming an entire planet, as if a black hole were swallowing everything.

Centered on Arylo, all light in surrounding star regions vanished; the universe now bore a dark vortex devouring all.

Until finally, the entire universe plunged into utter blackness.

No light remained, yet strangely, heat did not vanish; all living beings felt as if fallen into nothingness, stripped of sensation, overwhelmed by extreme negative emotions.

Every experience endured by lifeforms replayed within this darkness.

Suffocating despair like a tide, heart-rending grief, the crushing sense of one's insignificance, the sorrow of love unattainable and longing unfulfilled.

Trust and doubt, joy and sorrow, courage and fear—all entangled, until at life's end, beneath the cold, unyielding laws of the universe, all dissolved into dust, returning to nothingness.

This moment felt eternal.

Only "self-existence" was crystal clear—but what meaning did that hold?

The instant this thought arose, he plunged into a freezing river, drowning within it.

Struggling, resisting, surviving—these were the primal instincts of life.

To breathe, to live, to prove—even in this directionless, dark void—he wished to see, to possess.

Let there be light.

All beings yearned.

He answered the beings.

Countless visions converged into a single singularity; in an instant, within this eternal darkness and silence, faint lights ignited—not from "one," but from "ten thousand," glowing from all things.

They were weak, yet grew steadily, becoming the collective yearning of billions, until they illuminated the path ahead.

That was the first light.

"Aren't you curious why I made history take that form?"

Normally, this would be the end.

The countless beings swallowed and concealed by Su Lin's darkness would be corrected into relics of the past, beneath the wheels of history—mere ripples in the river of time.

Su Lin gazed at the humanoid figure standing still within the void-darkness, opened his arms, and solemnly proclaimed: "By my Dao, I forge the myriad forms of heaven and earth!"

At the moment when time and eternity synchronized, the selves split off by the One Qi Becomes Three Pure Ones began to act—Lord Haotian vanished from the Heavenly Court, God withdrew from the root; in the harmonized resonance of all laws, they merged into one.

"The time of return has come."

He raised his arm, pointing at a gate emerging from the cosmos, extending his index finger as if to touch it.

I am One, and I am Ten Thousand.

I am light, I am darkness.

I am the beginning, I am the end.

Night and day, chaos and order, divinity and corruption—all are realms I have created.

A hand of unimaginable size, flowing with all laws of existence, descended from the gate, as if countless universes were reflected within it!

I am who was, who is, and who shall be forever.

Hyperion, the Mother of Stars, the Harmonious, opened her eyes; upon her body, formed like a mosaic, one fragment turned pure white and flew uncontrollably toward the other.

The Primordial God!

In the instant their index fingers touched, a sound like a cosmic bell rang through the universe.

In the beginning was the Dao; I have given you all wings of hope, to fly toward the future!

He became the sole existence within the entire universe, boundless light and laws swirling around His incomprehensible form.

Within the Memory Realm.

The memory bubbles and shadows on their bodies bore the mark of light feathers, and before all astonished eyes, they began to ascend toward the sky.

Sunday's eyes trembled; within them appeared the mark of a light feather—he seemed to sense a gaze and froze in place, while the others were lost in the splendor of the miracle.

Time seemed to reverse; the world seemed to reset.

Only that being, existing beyond past, present, and future, remained eternal and unextinguished.

Hum—!

A resonance.

Countless memory bubbles and shadows shattered and ascended in an instant.

Under Su Lin's gaze, a torrent of light surged into the tip of the Imaginary Tree; history was corrected at this moment, and only the figure of 'Shouzhou' was erased.

Sister.

Midnight Star awoke from her dream, as if she had suffered a nightmare.

Look at this.

Feeling the tugging, she reluctantly looked at the girl slumped beside the bed.

You're thousands of years old and still acting like this—it's Sunday today.

No, look— isn't this planet Aylil the same one we moved to during our second relocation, only later lost because of all those star-core obstructions blocking the interstellar routes?

The Fire Demon held up her phone, excited: "And look, the Archbishop's name is on the news!"

Archbishop?!

Midnight Star sprang up instantly and checked the phone—it described an ancient ruin discovered on Aylil by the Aether Front.

Before she could examine it closely,

a pop-up window flashed open.

The God of Hope, Otto Apocryphal, was born on the 2158th year of the Amber Era, today.

(End of Chapter)