Now I am the sect leader of the Dan-Ding Dual Cultivation Sect. This old guy has long passed his prime. Yang Hao pouted, striking a pose as the sect leader, “If someone really wants revenge, how could it be his place to act? Of course it should be me, the young and vigorous one!”
“Besides…”
“Besides, if he could really resolve the problem of the gods’ seal, why would you come looking for me in the first place?” Yang Hao naturally wasn’t stupid and had already figured it out.
Now that things had come to this point, there was indeed no need for further useless talk. Yun Shang, so decisively, simply adopted the dragon clan’s method, condensing his consciousness into a single mass and directly hurling it toward Yang Hao.
Just as Yang Hao had predicted, the gods had long harbored secret intentions, and this plan could only be fulfilled by Yang Hao himself.
Although the gods had originally been tricked into being sealed away, the spell used to bind so many deities was unquestionably crafted by the Creator himself. The sealing barrier formed by ten magical artifacts was likely the most incredible spell in existence, and the greater the power poured into it, the more impossible it would become to break.
Think back then, when all the gods, both from the Light and the Darkness factions, had poured their might into the artifacts, convinced they were sealing their enemies, only to realize too late that both sides had been deceived and trapped themselves. Even now, with the few remaining gods, there was no way they could ever break the seal again.
Unless there emerged a new force, a far more powerful force. A power strong enough to surpass even the combined might of all the gods from back then would be required to break the seal and liberate all the imprisoned deities.
Such a force seemed nonexistent in this world. After all, the gods were already the race with the highest talent, created by the Creator in the most perfect way possible. How could there possibly be something capable of surpassing them?
Yet, such a power did exist. Because this power came directly from the Creator himself. Perhaps billions of years ago, the Creator had already foreseen the gods’ eventual defeat and thus made preparations in advance.
He had hidden all his power deep within the center of the universe.
This was a secret known only to the gods, and especially to the high-ranking deities. One could say that the entire lives of the upper gods were spent searching for this hidden location.
No one knew how powerful the Creator truly was, for this world, this universe itself, had been his creation. No one knew where the hidden point lay either, for the universe was boundless, with no known edges—how could anyone determine its center?
But regardless, all the gods believed that only the one who found that power could save all the deities and completely free them from the seal.
“You think I’m that person? The savior?” Yang Hao exaggeratedly pointed at his own nose. Although he wouldn’t mind being the chosen one, the possibility seemed far too slim.
Yet the gazes of the great gods clearly said: “Exactly. Fate has already chosen you.”
“Why me?” Yang Hao was helpless; he felt as though the weight of the entire world had been placed upon his shoulders.
“Only the one chosen by the Creator can find that power,” said Sa’an, his voice drifting down. “That person shall be struck three times by the Light, and three times by the Darkness. That person’s body shall bloom a brilliant red nebula flower. That person shall lead gods and men alike, uniting all Light and Darkness, and become the sovereign of this universe, the King of all creation.”
“The King of the Universe?” Yang Hao barely dared to breathe. If that title were applied to Sa’an or Yun Shang, he might believe it. But applied to himself? Yang Hao’s palms were already soaked in sweat, and he couldn’t find a single reason to convince himself of this.
“Your task is simple,” Yun Shang said solemnly. “You must endure three strikes of Light and three of Darkness, growing stronger each time until you reach the middle-tier god level—what you call a ‘Fairy Ascendant.’ Then, you must find the power left behind by the Creator. By then, no one will be able to oppose you. You won’t have to worry about your enemies or the gods. You will be the master of this world, and every living being will kneel before you.”
Yang Hao swallowed hard. “Sounds pretty good, I guess.”
“Feels even better when you do it,” rumbled the dragon Kardis.
“Well, I guess it really is pretty good,” Yang Hao said helplessly, unable to think of any downside, so he simply nodded. “The only problem is, how do you prove I’m the one the Creator chose? Even if I did go through one Light and one Darkness transformation, maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe there are plenty of other people who just happened to go through the same thing…”
The great gods fell silent. They didn’t even glance at each other. Garuda and Titan closed their eyes as if in deep meditation, completely detached.
Yang Hao thought he had hit the nail on the head: “You can’t prove it, can you?
I’m just a lucky kid, a disciple of a minor sect, someone with a few grudges to settle for my master. The ‘King of the Universe,’ the Creator, and your gods’ seal—it’s all got nothing to do with me.”
The air began to wail, as if gusts of hurricane-force wind were swirling around, even lifting and flapping Yun Shang’s cloak. Yang Hao was frightened into silence but stubbornly repeated, “You have no proof! You can’t prove it!”
The wind grew stronger, slicing like knives. No one could hear each other anymore. Yang Hao felt a buzzing in his head.
“If you want proof, we’ll give you proof!”
With a shriek, the wind tore through the air, slicing Yang Hao’s outer robe to shreds, exposing his bare upper body. Then, before his eyes, a strange shadow appeared—a mirror image of himself.
A reflection without a mirror—only the gods could accomplish such a feat.
But soon, Yang Hao forgot about the reflection altogether, for he saw something—something shocking, astonishing, beyond belief. The thing appeared on the mirrored body, and thus on his own body as well.
The proof the gods had spoken of was indeed there, clearly visible.
What Yang Hao saw was the back of his own body, where there should have been nothing but smooth skin. But now, inexplicably, there was a pattern.
It looked like a flower stem rising straight up from his waist, ending at the center point between his shoulders, where a flower bud the size of a fist bloomed.
The pattern was a shade of reddish-orange, like fire, like a flower from a dream.
Yang Hao had to summon all his willpower to stop himself from reaching out to touch the mirrored image of his back. But whether he did or not, his eyes clearly saw that this was no ordinary drawing—it was etched into his skin, slightly raised, not covering even a single pore, perfectly flawless.
“The Red Nebula Flower has already sprouted on your body. It is the map to finding that power,” Sa’an’s cruel voice declared. “You have already been chosen. There is no escape.”
“Will this flower bloom?” Yang Hao trembled, his hand reaching toward his back.
“When it blooms, it will form a star map. Follow that map, and you shall become the King of the Universe!” Yun Shang nodded. “Yang Hao, more importantly, you already possess three of the ten legendary artifacts. You already wield three of the divine-sealing weapons. Isn’t that proof enough?”
“The Three Sacred Weapons?” Yang Hao was puzzled.
Yun Shang tossed three swords back to Yang Hao—the three swords he had seized from the Ten Sword Sect.
“The Sword of Immortality, the Sword of Treasures, and the Sword of Gravitation—three of the ten legendary weapons used to seal the gods,” Yun Shang explained.
Yang Hao’s eyes widened. Only now did he understand why the Ten Sword Sect was called the Ten Sword Sect, and why these swords were their most treasured heirlooms, worth fighting and dying for.
It turned out that after sealing the gods, to prevent their return, the leader of the Elder Council had distributed the ten legendary weapons among ten cultivation families. These ten families became known as the Ten Sword Sect, and the ten weapons became their most sacred treasures.
It was laughable, Yang Hao thought. He turned helplessly around. Hun Yuan Zi had already awoken from his brief unconsciousness and had seen the change in Yang Hao’s body. Upon hearing the gods’ words, the thousand-year-old ghost also found it ridiculous. He wanted to laugh but couldn’t.
Whether here or in the entire divine realm, Yang Hao was probably the weakest. At level thirteen, his combat power didn’t even match a fraction of Hun Yuan Zi’s. Let alone the five major deities and over a thousand middle-tier gods outside.
And yet, the task of finding “that power” and becoming the King of the Universe had fallen to Yang Hao.
Yang Hao thought the great gods must have gone mad, and the universe itself must have gone crazy too. Since things had come to this, he might as well stop worrying and start bargaining with Yun Shang and the others. “Since you want me to become this ‘King of the Universe’ and break your seal, you should at least give me some benefits in return.”
“Benefits?” Yun Shang’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected Yang Hao to switch gears so quickly. “Isn’t becoming the King of the Universe enough benefit? What else could you possibly want?”
“No way, no way!” Yang Hao finally regained his usual greedy, fearless attitude. “Like you said, being the King of the Universe is my destiny—it was mine to begin with. What do you have to do with it? Now you’re asking me to break the seal, so naturally, you should pay me a little something!”
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