Chapter 657: Are You in Love?

After eating and drinking their fill, Heracles paid the bill and the two walked out of the restaurant.

The streetlights were on, orange-yellow light spread across the sidewalk, stretching pedestrians' shadows long.

Heracles had his hands in his pockets and let out a loud belch.

Yu Lin stood at the restaurant entrance, looked up at the sky.

"Then I'll go first; let me know when you have good news."

Heracles nodded.

"Sure, when you come back I'll take Li Ya out to eat with you."

"Hmm." Yu Lin's form turned into a Light Dot and scattered.

The Light Dot rose upward, passed through the clouds, and vanished into the night sky.

Heracles stood where he was for a moment, then walked into the crowd.

In the beginning of Greek myth, creation was a pure void of darkness.

It was not the darkness of night, which still has stars, the moon, and distant city lights.

Here the darkness has no boundary, no layers, no texture.

It is everywhere, penetrates everything, and devours all.

No light, no sound, no temperature, no wind, nothing perceptible.

Space does not exist, because there is nothing to mark a position.

Time does not exist, because there is no change to measure its passage.

Here there is only void, silence, absolute nothingness!

Yu Lin appears here.

He did not come from somewhere; he coalesced out of nothing.

A faint glimmer lit up in the void, very dim, very weak.

That light scattered into countless tiny strands, spreading in all directions, then in the blink of an eye contracted back and coalesced into a humanoid shape.

Yu Lin stood in the void, with no solid ground beneath his feet and no dome above his head, yet he stood firm, as if on solid ground.

His robes fluttered lightly in the void, though there was no wind, they still swayed.

His gaze fell forward.

In his eyes, the void ahead was not truly empty.

There was a cluster of light high above, so high it could not be reached, so high it could not be gazed upon.

Formed from countless mingled great Dao laws, they intertwined, coiled, and stacked, constituting an indescribable form.

That cluster of light had no emotion, no intent, would not intervene in anything, would not evolve anything.

It simply existed, from before eternity to after eternity, from within nothingness to beyond nothingness.

If one must describe it, it can only be called pure Divinity!

It has no face, no name, no story, needs nothing to define it!

Beneath that cluster of light, three more clusters of law exist.

The left cluster is heavy and steady, like rock solidified over millions of years, like magma squeezed from deep within the earth and cooled.

Its aura weighs down, pressing the void to sink slightly, squeezing the surrounding darkness outward, forming the first perceptible dip in this void.

The right cluster is deep and gloomy, like an endless abyss waiting to be filled, like a bottomless pit that has gaped since the birth of the universe, ready to devour.

Its aura flows downward, ever downward, passing through this void, through Yu Lin's perception, beyond the limits that concepts themselves can reach.

Slightly below center, farther from them, is a cluster that is active and restless.

Its aura flickers bright and dim, strong and weak, like some unformed life struggling to take shape.

Unlike the first two clusters, it is not placid; it moves, twists, tries to spread outward, only to be pulled back by some unseen force!

Yu Lin gazed at the four clusters of law, stroking his chin.

"These four must be Chaos representing the void, Gaia of the earth, Tartarus of the abyss, and Eros of primal desire and life."

"As things stand, the first three remain pure Divinity, with no urge to create... so we must let Eros act, influencing them."

"Hmm, just like that."

He walked toward the source of Eros.

The restless cluster of law jerked violently as he approached, like a startled animal.

It did not know what Yu Lin was, but it sensed that he carried something unfamiliar, something not belonging to this void nor to the world not yet begun.

Yu Lin stood before it and reached out his hand.

His consciousness touched the cluster of law, meeting no resistance.

Or rather, the law has no consciousness, so it does not know what resistance is.

It simply sat there, was touched, rebounded, then touched again.

"Come, learn."

Yu Lin transmitted a portion of knowledge to it.

That knowledge concerned creation, life and death, heaven and earth, everything that could possibly exist in this world.

The source of Eros began to change, ripples spreading outward from within, like a stone tossed into a still lake.

The ripples expanded wave after wave, pushing the surrounding darkness back.

But Divinity is too strong, wrapping Eros's source and preventing it from breaking free.

The vibrations gradually subsided, the ripples faded, and the darkness surged back!

"Hmm, still a bit tricky."

"Then there's nothing to be done..."

Yu Lin reached into his pocket, rummaged, and pulled out several pills.

Hmm.

Lao Jun's whimsical pills were just picked up casually.

Besides the pills, there was a stack of books—cultural volumes treasured by the Jade Emperor—also picked up.

Never mind how they were obtained.

In any case, they're useful now.

He crushed the pills, scattering the powder onto Eros's origin, and tossed the books as well; the pages unfurled in the void, and the words about life, about propagation, about love drifted from the pages, turning into countless tiny Light Dots that merged into Eros's origin.

Eros's origin began to fluctuate violently.

This time the fluctuation was thousands of times more intense than before, like water splashing into oil heated to its limit!!

Light burst from the interior of the origin, spewing outward in all directions, illuminating the entire void as bright as day!

The thick, invisible Divinity shell developed a crack, extending from the top all the way to the base!

The origin began to coalesce; all the outward‑spraying light was drawn back in the same instant, completely, leaving not even a single Light Dot.

It condensed into a tiny point, invisible to the eye, yet heavy enough to make the entire void tremble!

Then it exploded!

Light surged from the point, brighter, fiercer, more frantic than before!

It was no longer a mass of Chaos law; it split into two clusters.

One cluster retained the form of the Origin Law, floating calmly in the void, much the same as before, only a bit smaller and far quieter.

The other cluster coalesced into a shape.

It could not be described in terms of male or female, not even as a species.

It evolved into various forms with each passing moment.

Finally, it condensed into a human shape.

Standing there, naked, with pale skin and features exquisitely refined beyond belief.

Its hair was dark brown, slightly wavy, hanging over its shoulders.

Its eyes were amber, deep and bright, like two pools of melted honey.

Its lips were slightly parted, the corners bearing a faint, almost imperceptible smile.

Its body was sleek, with few muscles, yet every inch was perfectly proportioned—any more would be excess, any less would be weak.

Just by standing there, its mere existence revived this dead, silent void.

Its eyes fell upon Yu Lin.

In those amber eyes, Yu Lin's figure was reflected—clear, focused, and...... gentle.

It opened its mouth, its voice soft:

"Are you my lover?"

Yu Lin: "................"

"No."