Chapter 719: The Darkest One Has Arrived (5000 words, please refresh)

The group chat was still arguing over the real and fake Xiao Huowang, and Song Shuhang had somehow gotten hold of a pile of important news — but to Su Lin, who had left the dumpling shop and stepped onto the street, none of it mattered.

He tilted his head back to glance at the birds flying across the sky, swallowed the urge to ask, and instead looked at the silent street, asking in a troubled tone:

"Um, you guys aren't planning to devour this universe too, are you? I didn't even get to vote."

"I've never once enjoyed being a Devourer."

As if submerged in the sediment of an endless stretch of time.

A red-haired youth with a single ponytail, dressed in a long brocade robe patterned with white clouds, strolled over slowly. Cradled on his left forearm sat a barefoot white-haired girl; she clung to his neck with easy affection, their breaths mingling together.

"Let's be reasonable about this."

Unlike the surrounding contestants, whose faces were slowly filling with terror as if they had seen something beyond belief, after observing for a while Su Lin launched into a discussion of the Forbidden Zone series' plot and the rigor of its CP pairings.

"She is the Yi Emperor who reigns supreme over all ages, her brother is the Harem Weigong Shilang, and your little sister should be the Holy Maiden of the Church of Light — you two are siblings from different world-lines."

Su Lin earnestly tried to persuade them: "Substitute-meal literature hasn't been trendy for a couple of years now."

Unfortunately, the two over there couldn't take any of it in. Their eyes carried a sorrow and joy that couldn't be dissolved, and they stayed not far off, holding each other, quietly savoring the stillness of this moment.

Forget it.

Limited conditions, but still shippable.

"There's really a Supreme Sword Sect and an Yi Emperor?!" one of the National Fortune game's resurrectors said with a solemn expression.

The light and shadow of the All Heavens Golden List played across the faces of these resurrection-match contestants. Whether they were once supernatural beings from beyond the world, reborn ones, or transmigrators carrying one or two golden fingers, all fell silent.

"Was everything I read before fake?"

"It was just a ritual held on one planet — how does that make someone reign supreme over all ages?!"

"That person looks a bit like Gu Yue Fang Yuan… no, wait, Gu Yue Fang Yuan has already been—"

When they saw the 'Emiya Shirou' and 'Illya' over there, and then caught sight of Su Lin's face, connecting it with what had been exposed earlier, a chill ran down their spines and their hair stood on end.

The existence that refined Gu Yue Fang Yuan is—

"Mr. God."

Wearing top hats, dressed in vests, with a monocle carved from crystal set into their right eye socket — the 'Fools' who had only just appeared not long ago stepped out of the air and gave Su Lin a slight nod.

"Would you mind stepping aside from here?" the Merlin-Hermes-looking 'Fool' said with a faint smile. "His Majesty and we all need Lord Taiyin."

Although he knew diviners had a reckless-cowardly duality, he hadn't expected this one's nerve to be that big.

Su Lin looked at the 'Fools' before him and couldn't help grumbling inwardly.

"Azathoth?!" someone cried, shrinking back.

Thud.

Even though they had all died once, there were still people whose eyes rolled back and who fainted on the spot.

'I'm playing a resurrection match against these beings?!'

The thoughts of the remaining people went blank. Even though they were protected by the rules of the 'Spell Card' game, an overwhelming sense of despair welled up — unstoppable, unimaginable.

Until the 'Circle God,' who had burned away the histories of countless multiverse civilizations, brought down the final end; nightmare collided with nightmare, and the last flicker of struggling consciousness in a drowning person surfaced—

Can the rules set by the organizers hold?

Accompanying this thought — zzzt—!

Brilliant, pure light, light pushed to its absolute limit, rippled within the fiercely burning holy flame.

"Don't tell me it's that Tony Su thing," Su Lin narrowed his eyes, but in an instant those lights abruptly contracted.

The image on the All Heavens Golden List didn't disappear — it was merely shrouded in a ball of pure-white, hazy mist, accompanied by the rising and falling sound of crashing tidal waves.

【Gensokyo's Top Ten Incidents #1 — 'Catastrophe of Ruin,' Protagonist: Lord Haotian, the Emperor of Heaven (Reversed)】

The image reflected a figure in imperial robes, with countless illusory wings layered behind, face indiscernible.

His long hair flowed down his back, he wore imperial robes, his eyes were slightly closed, and in an inverted posture he was bound by thorns to a pure-white inverted cross. Drops of divine blood trickled down from his wounds, gathering into a sea, reflecting billions upon billions of worlds.

"As expected of you."

Now that the truth was out, Su Lin couldn't help but applaud the commotion the First Firmament had stirred up.

Unexpected yet reasonable — him taking first place wasn't anything worth being surprised about. That said—

Why couldn't he feel any causal connection at all, and why did this look ring no bells? Had a few movies ever filmed this scene?

Huh?

How did it come back to life on its own?

Su Lin slowly stopped applauding, frowning as he sank into thought.

The whole world was so still it seemed forgotten, isolated outside the torrent of time.

Half void, half gloom, the two facing off here exchanged no words, simply waiting for the changes within Gensokyo and the final fallout.

Holding a parasol, eyelids slightly lowered, the Sage of the Youkai sat on a crescent-shaped gap in the rift, voicing puzzlement and confusion:

"Excuse me… what are you doing?"

She wasn't asking the Dragon-eyed Maiden who shared this place with her — she was looking at the guest who absolutely should not have been here.

The radiance of cherry-colored magic coiled around a spiraling arrow, piercing through time, space, and the surface of the world to fall upon this place. The 'Circle God,' whose gaze was gentle yet slightly hollow, stood quietly and obediently to one side.

A red-and-white maiden bearing sword wounds, like a replica, merged with the Dragon-eyed Maiden, while the black-haired, black-eyed Emperor stepped out from within the All Heavens Golden List, and 'Father Amon' maintained the grafting of time and space.

"Need you ask?" Su Doupo Cangqiong's voice was like a whisper rising from the abyss, filled with an authority that brooked no refusal:

"Seeing a creator god having her power endlessly drained and her authority carved up by her own creations — unable to choose her own life, unable to choose her own death…"

"It reminded me of the past — those garbage creations always running around in tight suits, the aesthetically challenged lord of all things. So—"

"I felt compassion for her."

Ignoring Yakumo Yukari's grim expression, a pill wreathed in rising violet-black strange fire, guided by the black-haired, black-eyed Su Doupo Cangqiong, flew into his hand.

"Compared to the Hakurei Maiden, it's the Hourai person who possesses the power of eternity, or one's own bloodline, that makes the best vessel to bear the Dragon God's power."

Su Doupo Cangqiong raised both hands, stepped before the Maiden, tilted her chin up to meet her gaze, and said with a light laugh: "You must have tried it already — relying on those memory lives, you can't snatch them away from 'me.'"

"I'll help you."

The Dragon-Eyed Miko did not resist either; while gazing at Su Doupo Cangqiong, she let him pry open her lips with his fingers and stuffed that pill into her mouth.

A soul from Gensokyo, even if it were only an illusory remnant in overlapping spacetime, still caused her aura to swell by a fraction, making the dim, shadowy gaps around her tremble.

"You took Gensokyo into the gap, preventing Him from returning and preventing Him from leaving, waiting for this resurrection tournament to end."

Su Doupo Cangqiong wrapped an arm around the Miko's shoulders and pushed her toward Yakumo Yukari's direction: "Not a bad idea."

The void that symbolized destruction was unleashed once more; the dragon-god power that had originally been suppressed by Yakumo Yukari, nourished by soul power, showed a faint tendency to rise up in resistance.

"One more pill~ good girl. Once I return to the Abyss and complete the ritual, you and this world can join the Abyss Heavenly Court too, and I'll form a mythological ultimate squad with you."

While feeding her those pills one after another, Su Doupo Cangqiong could not help but ask: "Why hasn't that Yan-di come back yet?"

'Father Amon' spread his hands and shrugged.

"Does Your Majesty prefer the Miko over the Moon Princess?" Yakumo Yukari opened her folding fan to hide her expression: "I expected there might be some unexpected situations, but I didn't expect it to be you."

"Ha~" Su Doupo Cangqiong gave a contemptuous laugh: "You still think this Su is that guy? Enough. Once this resurrection tournament ends, I'll be free immediately."

As he spoke, his voice unconsciously rose a little.

No matter what sins he had committed in the past, no matter how many Marvel universes he had destroyed, ever since meeting Su Lin — the fool who had reached the ultimate sublimation, Su Lin the madman who had fused every law of the Eternal God Race — it all counted as repaid.

His gaze swept over the Dragon-Eyed Miko; once she reclaimed the authority of this world, the Eternity and Moment with their indestructible properties would serve as his reward.

It was just right to maintain the integrity of existence, and then keep the madman in the position of Abyss God that the fool had sublimated to the utmost.

"Mm?"

His reverie interrupted, Su Doupo Cangqiong turned his head and looked toward the other side.

A pitch-black cloak stirred without wind, countless wailing souls within it.

Such a gloomy style almost made him think Yan-di had come back.

"The contents of this inventory are quite interesting, almost made this sovereign forget the main business."

The newcomer's face was shrouded in shadow; only two points of ghostly blue flame flickered in his eye sockets — the karmic fire that never extinguished in the deepest part of the Underworld.

"The inventory is nearly done, but have you thought about how you'll bear the price of sabotaging the tournament?"

A chilling, faintly mocking smile echoed; if any living being heard his voice, in the very first instant they would walk toward the fate of rest and ending.

"As you can see, I'm not the only one breaking the rules."

Yakumo Yukari curved her lips, closed her folding fan, and said sincerely: "If you can mete out impartial punishment, this life is yours to dispose of, Your Honor; I have no objections either."

"Overturning the direction of historical progress, causing the spacetime of the resurrection tournament to fall into chaos — was that to lure this sovereign over, you interesting little youkai?"

Wherever the gaze beneath the cloak passed, all vitality withered completely; looking down, even the universe itself would meet its doom:

"And you, who used some interesting tricks and didn't play the game according to the resurrection tournament's rules — after the resurrection tournament is held, the souls of the losers will be absorbed into the Primordial Underworld. How dare you lay a finger on them?"

Lord of the Primordial Underworld

Opposite him, Su Doupo Cangqiong held the Miko and slowly sat down, as if a dragon throne formed from solidified darkness emerged.

His appearance flickered back and forth between his primordial universe form and a black-haired, black-eyed human.

Vast, boundless nebulae formed his body; every grain of dust was a universe on the verge of annihilation, only those universes flickered unsteadily within the nebulae, like the final gasps of a dying man.

Su Doupo Cangqiong tilted his head slightly and glanced at the Lord of the Primordial Underworld, asking in puzzlement: "Who gave you permission to speak to this sovereign like that?"

A jet-black rune condensed; those laws that could be created by mere words, gaze, or will crashed against a dam like a surging river and sea.

The sound of countless universes collapsing simultaneously was deafening.

"Heh heh, so it's something from the Abyss." The Lord of the Primordial Underworld's voice was like ten thousand souls speaking at once, carrying a terrifying echo, "Life and death have their bounds, reincarnation has its order — you have overstepped."

"Bullshit. If there's order, why are you still holding a resurrection tournament?" Su Doupo Cangqiong gave a cold laugh.

Faced with this sudden burst of fragrant abuse, the Lord of the Primordial Underworld was briefly stunned, then seemed as if some switch on his body had been flipped.

"Fuck off! I say you've overstepped, so you've overstepped! Even a stupid thing that died and came to the resurrection tournament — what right does it have to sit and talk with this sovereign?!"

The blocked divine light of laws suddenly shattered, transforming into countless black chains, each wrapped in endless Underworld aura, charging straight into the Abyss dimension covering Su Doupo Cangqiong's vicinity.

In a layer undetectable to others, two forces brewed and collided; in the end, there was even a tendency to pull and curl all things within.

Su Doupo Cangqiong's expression began to show some changes; if he were currently the Abyss God, naturally he would not fear, but the origin had already been modified

"That's it? This sovereign hasn't even exerted any force yet."

"A useless piece of scrap hiding in the Abyss and clinging to life just won't do!"

Beneath the cloak, it was as if ten thousand mouths were each uttering the civilized essence and greetings of different languages.

Although the Lord of the Primordial Underworld was toying with him, he was also puzzled in his heart — the rank and state of the one opposite were extremely strange, yet he could still stall for time within the Abyss.

Anyway, this guy had already violated the rules; he could be captured and taken back for study.

Having made up his mind, an even more terrifying will descended.

The surrounding spacetime fell into chaos, like a rusted wheel being cranked, tearing open invisible rift after rift, each rift churning violently with hundreds of millions of wailing souls.

And at this moment, within the space of the Golden List of All Heavens, the inventory screen emitted light.

Ripples spread outward in rings; within the invisible and illusory, extreme light burst forth, and under Su Doupo Cangqiong's anxious gaze, it transformed into an emperor-robed man hung upon a cross.

Good thing it wasn't that ultimate-sublimated stupid thing.

"Hooked." Su Doupo Cangqiong glanced at Yakumo Yukari over there, then looked at the noisy Lord of the Primordial Underworld.

Did he really think I hadn't planned for this?

This was exactly what I was waiting for.

"Hooked? What's being inventoried... Lord Haotian the God-Emperor, or the Reversed? Hahahahahaha!"

Within the Golden List, as it narrated the time when all realms were being destroyed, Haotian and the God-Emperor were gravely wounded; to counter the influence of the Reversed, they fused into the Fallen God-Emperor, and from then on abided by the precepts from before the Reversed, guarding the ruins of Penglai and slaughtering every awakened god and demon.

The person who made this thing must be out of their mind?

The two points of ghostly blue flame symbolizing the Lord of the Primordial Underworld's eye sockets wavered amid laughter, and he mocked:

"So what if I let you create one more living being with empty characteristics?"

With a thunderous rumble, a colossal gate of the netherworld slowly swung open its doors. From within the endless darkness of the netherworld, a skeletal hand reached toward this place. "Dead ones, come with me to the netherworld of the underworld."

The soul-body of the National Fate Game, along with a fragment of a sage's soul from a Reincarnator, fell onto the trembling Golden List using the same method as before.

On the screen, Lord Haotian God upon the cross — the beaded curtain of His twelve-strand crown glimmered with the faint light of the primordial chaos. Drops of blood-tears imbued with boundless radiance slowly trickled down, and divine blood gathered along the thorns beneath the cross.

They converged into an ocean that contained every color, and within the Tiangong reflected in that ocean stood twelve heaven-devouring giant dragons coiled around the palace pillars.

"By the stars of the Zhou heavens as witness."

"By the words of creation as oath."

"In the beginning was the Dao, and the Dao became Lord Haotian God."

As if the voice of an oath from before the primordial ages echoed back, the thirty-three heavens within the ocean and Paradise trembled at the same time.

He opened His eyes, looked beyond the Golden List of All Heavens, and then slowly walked out.

"You are the One, and You are the All."

"You are the Beginning, not the Eternal Dao."

"All phenomena are real; to see all phenomena as not-phenomena is to see Lord Haotian God."

Paradise and the Tiangong, the morning bell of the East and the evening drum of the West sounded together, and waves of sacred hymns surged forth.

At once, tentacles that blotted out the sky and sun probed forth from illusory wings of light. Countless brass eyeballs reflected the marks of reincarnation. The instant He appeared, the eyeballs upon the tentacles each glanced toward different dimensions, and His authority shone forth along with them. This was the beginning.

"The netherworld? Something even darker is coming!"

Su Doupo Cangqiong was laughing — no one understood Su Lin better than he did!

By his calculations, even if the Lord of the Primordial Netherworld were not affected, he would still be entangled by that complex law of creation. Combined with the connection between himself and Su Lin, the two would inevitably erupt into conflict.

Su Lin would surely spare no effort and employ the authority of Eternity and the Instant. He himself had already altered the origin, so his position as the Abyss God was also incomplete. Estimating—

This Lord of the Primordial Netherworld was still reasonably strong, and could buy him quite a bit of time.

The gap within that was more than enough for him to complete all his plans!

Sure enough, the instant 'Lord Haotian God' was born alive using the foundation Su Doupo Cangqiong provided, the netherworld fire in the eyes of the Lord of the Primordial Netherworld suddenly exploded and then contracted to a scattered size.

At the same moment, the billions upon billions of dead souls within those fissures erupted with a thunderous roar into a brilliant light that tore everything apart.

"Lord—!!!"

Shrieks and sacred hymns overlapped, life and death inverted, all worldly glamour was washed away, light wove like cloth, the Dao transformed into Buddhahood, and the twelve-winged Blazing Heaven fruit-position was attained!

Storm!

Within the sacred storm of light, the fissures were expanding, stretching all the way to the Primordial Netherworld beyond the endless void. Suddenly came the sound of glass shattering.

"What the hell is this?!!!"

A towering tide of deathly aura surged from within the netherworld gate. Wherever it passed, the river of time became the River Styx, and even the void began to rot. The figure of the Lord of the Primordial Netherworld flickered in and out within the deathly aura, laws interweaving as he struck forward to kill.

'Now!'

Su Doupo Cangqiong grabbed the arm of the Dragon-Eye Shaman Woman, withdrew the covering Abyss, and was just about to leave when — BOOM!

Space shattered, time dissolved. The Lord of the Primordial Netherworld was sent flying backward, slamming into the netherworld gate. The netherworld fire in his eyes abruptly went out, and that skeletal hand began to grow flesh and feathers, struggling desperately.

The hand tried to retract, but the flesh that had grown turned into countless hands that dragged at the bones of the hand.

Su Doupo Cangqiong: "?"

He froze in place, slowly turned his head, and saw the faceless 'Lord Haotian God' tilt His head at him.

A similar yet different aura rolled forth — just as the Abyss Hun Tian Di could gather the concept of 'Hun Tian Di' over all dimensions and worlds within the Abyss—

Yet the other party was in the void, and there was no Abyss around.

Void Hun Tian Di?