Brain King nearly got shaken by Yang Hao. How noble his status was! Even the emperor of the Empire would approach him respectfully. Now, however, Yang Hao had labeled him a peeping old pervert—it was simply too humiliating.
He tried hard to maintain a lofty demeanor, hoping to restore his noble and ethereal image tarnished by the accusation of voyeurism. “What do you want from me? Is there something you need guidance on?”
But Yang Hao was completely unimpressed, scoffing disdainfully, “Who has time to come find you? Wasn’t it you who sent your little brain assistant to find me? You even said you’d tell me about the value of life. Please, in this day and age, could you at least stop using such outdated phrases? If others hear it, they’ll think I crawled out from some backwoods.”
“Outdated, huh?” Brain King rubbed his nose, his voice humming, “All my life, I’ve been guiding others on the value of existence.”
“You still dare to teach others?” Yang Hao shot back bluntly, “Why don’t you figure out your own value first? Have you lived this long just to become a demon?”
“At least I’m better than you,” Brain King finally snapped, matching Yang Hao’s tone, “You little brat, you can’t even control your own wife, and you’re still trying to help the gods lift their seals? You even want to assassinate the Sovereign? Are you just tired of living?”
“You actually know all that?” This time, Yang Hao was genuinely stunned, “You even know about the divine realm’s affairs?”
After Yang Hao was sent to the divine realm, the events that transpired between him and the gods had become his most closely guarded secret, one he had never shared with anyone. He had always believed that only he and Hunyuan knew about the task of lifting the gods’ seals.
Yet here was Brain King, casually revealing it all as if it were a joke.
Brain King, triumphant in this verbal duel, smiled smugly while stroking his beard. Pointing at the sky, he asked, “Boy, tell me, what do you see up there?”
Yang Hao didn’t even bother to look up, “Fireworks?”
The old man’s face twitched, but he restrained his temper for the sake of his dignified image, merely waving his hand lightly. Instantly, the clear sky underwent a dramatic transformation. The blue sky and white clouds vanished, replaced by a miniature cosmos of countless stars and galaxies, reduced to a fraction of their actual size, now hovering directly above Yang Hao’s head.
Galaxies of all kinds, stars of every shape and size, glowing spiral arms of the Milky Way, stars radiating light and heat, and even newly exploded supernovae—all revolved above Yang Hao in a wondrous cosmic dance.
Yang Hao stared up in awe. He had seen the universe many times before, but never in such a miniature, yet perfectly ordered form.
The sky shimmered, starlight illuminating the dark backdrop. Within this celestial order, Yang Hao could see some galaxies already fading into grayish black—those were the ones that had died out in the past century.
“Do you see it?” Brain King’s voice now sounded ethereal, “This is order.”
“Order?” Yang Hao inhaled deeply, feeling like he was touching the essence of something profound.
Throughout all this time, Hunyuan had been driven by vengeance, the gods by the desire to lift their seals, and the Anti-Empire Alliance by the need to survive. But Yang Hao had never figured out the fundamental reason why he fought so hard.
He always felt there was some mysterious force pushing events forward from behind him. Similarly, all events in the universe seemed connected to this same force.
“That is order,” Brain King said. “Yang Hao, do you understand this universe’s order?”
Yang Hao shook his head. Of course he didn’t understand. How many people in the world could truly grasp the universe’s deepest secrets?
“It seems…” Brain King’s expression darkened, a cold smile forming, “The gods haven’t told you the truth. Everyone has selfishness—even those great gods are no different.”
“What truth?” Yang Hao asked, puzzled.
“Our universe has already gone through three Orders,” Brain King said solemnly, gesturing for Yang Hao to sit across from him, like a teacher about to impart wisdom, “Three Orders, representing three different powers that governed the universe, three different forms of order.”
“Three Orders?” Yang Hao frowned. This was clearly something the gods had never mentioned.
“The First Order began billions of years ago, when the Creator formed the universe and gave rise to life, establishing the laws that govern its operation. Life emerged on various planets, and to manage these life forms, the Creator created the gods, who were entrusted with overseeing intelligent beings across the stars.”
“We’re like sheep, and the gods are shepherds,” Yang Hao recalled the metaphor, “Then the Creator is the master—the ultimate master of everything.”
“Exactly. No one knows how long the First Order lasted, but under this order, the universe developed steadily, and intelligent life flourished in the most stable period imaginable. Until one day…” Brain King paused, his voice trembling slightly, “The Creator vanished.”
“Vanished?”
“All the gods discovered that their ruler—the master of this world, the Creator—was gone. At first, the gods were thrown into chaos, living in fear and uncertainty. But soon, they realized that with the Creator gone, the old order would collapse, and the Second Order—the age of the gods—had quietly begun.”
“What was the Second Order like?” Yang Hao asked.
“It was the world you’ve experienced,” Brain King pointed at Yang Hao’s belly, smiling faintly at the invisible Hunyuan, “In the Second Order, the gods ruled the universe with their divine powers. They used their strength and their followers to wage wars against one another. Divided into light and dark factions, the gods fought across every corner of the cosmos, causing immense suffering to intelligent life on countless planets. Over half of all intelligent species were used as cannon fodder and perished during the divine wars. But the gods also did some good—they taught certain intelligent species divine arts and cultivation techniques.”
Yang Hao nodded. He recalled Hunyuan once telling him about the origins of human cultivation—two siblings named Nuwa and Fuxi, who taught ancient humans the arcane methods of cultivation. These two were undoubtedly members of the divine race. Perhaps their original intention was to help humans avoid the chaos of divine wars, but they never anticipated that, after countless millennia, even the gods themselves would fall to cultivators.
Brain King was indeed about to mention this, “The divine wars lasted for thousands of years, with the endless conflict between light and darkness weakening the gods’ overall power. At the same time, a great figure emerged on Earth.”
Although Hunyuan remained silent, he stirred slightly within Yang Hao at this moment.
“The Sovereign?” Yang Hao understood.
“Exactly—the Sovereign,” Brain King spoke the name with no trace of disrespect, “Back then, the Sovereign truly was a great man. From the very beginning, he saw through the essence of the first two Orders, so he vowed to create his own order—a world ruled by intelligent beings.”
“So he sealed the gods.”
“It wasn’t that simple,” Brain King waved his hand, “There are things even the gods themselves don’t fully understand. Yang Hao, and you inside him—have you ever considered why, in a world without gods, there are also no immortals? How many cultivators have ascended to immortality over the past few thousand years? These immortals possessed power rivaling the gods—why did they disappear?”
“Why?” This time, both Yang Hao and Hunyuan asked together.
Brain King began his explanation, “The Sovereign vowed to create his own cosmic order. First, he unified all cultivation sects on Earth. Naturally, there were killings involved—grudges that have accumulated to this day, perhaps even beyond what the Sovereign himself could have imagined.”
Yang Hao snorted coldly. Why the Sovereign destroyed the Dan Ding Sect was not important to him or his master. What mattered was that this grudge would never be forgiven, no matter how many years passed.
“Then, with Earth as his center, he unified all cultivators in the Milky Way, establishing the Elder Council and becoming its leader himself,” Brain King smiled slightly as he raised his palm, “Others thought the Elder Council was merely meant to control cultivators, but the Sovereign’s brilliance lay in doing what no one else dared—he used the Elder Council to control the immortals who had ascended from various cultivation sects throughout history.”
“Wow!” Yang Hao exclaimed in surprise, “Right! If the apprentices were controlled by the Elder Council, the immortals naturally had to protect their disciples.”
“With the help of these immortals, the Sovereign’s power grew significantly, giving him the leverage to negotiate with the gods,” Brain King continued, “From scattered immortals to celestial immortals and golden immortals, they all possessed powers close to the gods. The divine war between light and darkness had reached its most critical stage, and the gods had no choice but to negotiate with the Sovereign, seeking the Elder Council’s support.”
“The Sovereign used ten divine artifacts to betray the gods!” Yang Hao already knew this part.
“It wasn’t just the gods who were betrayed,” Brain King patted the ground, his expression showing lingering fear, “The immortals were sealed too—just like the gods.”
Yang Hao was shocked, yet the revelation made sense in its own twisted logic, “No wonder, no wonder. With both gods and immortals sealed, there were no divine beings left in the world—only the Sovereign himself remained as the most powerful being in the universe.”
“That was the order the Sovereign wanted,” Brain King concluded, “The Sovereign controlled the Elder Council, which in turn controlled the Empire. The Empire conquered the entire universe, eliminating all cultivators, so no one could threaten the Sovereign’s position.”
“That’s why the Galactic Empire forbids unauthorized cultivation,” Yang Hao finally understood, “To prevent anyone from surpassing the Sovereign and becoming a new immortal. That’s why only basic techniques are allowed, why all cultivators must belong to the Elder Council, and why only a handful in the entire Empire can reach the level of Sword Saint.”
“We are now in the Third Order—the Sovereign’s order—which has lasted a thousand years,” Brain King suddenly fixed Yang Hao with a piercing gaze, his eyes filled with wisdom and depth, “Let me tell you this—the order is deteriorating. If things continue like this, the entire universe will be destroyed.”
“Why?”
“Whether it was the Creator or the gods, they governed the universe through their own abilities, so the universe functioned normally under the First and Second Orders. But the Sovereign is different. He doesn’t possess the same ability to control everything like the higher gods. Instead, he eliminated anyone stronger than himself, making himself the ruler of a world without powerful beings. This created a major problem—the Sovereign can rule intelligent life, but he cannot control the universe itself.”
“The universe?” Yang Hao seemed to grasp the issue, recalling what he had just seen—how the rules of the Brain Star System had changed to resist the power of Star Transformation. Destroying established laws was easy, but creating new ones was beyond ordinary beings.
“The Sovereign can destroy the universe’s rules, but he cannot create new ones,” Brain King sighed, “He hasn’t reached that level of power. So he could only rely on the Elder Council to exploit the universe’s resources to boost his strength. But it’s already too late.”
“The universe is dying, Yang Hao. You must have sensed it too. The Milky Way has already died. The simple rules that still exist in the galaxy now are all reconstructed by my brain system. But even reconstructing a single star system has consumed most of my computational power.”
Brain King paused, looking exhausted, “Let me tell you a secret known only to a handful of people. The northern half of the universe is completely dead. Nearly a quarter of all galaxies in the universe have already perished. Within a few hundred years, our entire universe may become a stagnant void, and all life will perish completely.”
“So… then…” Yang Hao, hearing the gravity of the situation, grew anxious, “What about the Creator? Isn’t he the true master of this universe? Where did he go? Did he just run off to have a mistress and soak in hot springs?”
“This is the root of everything,” Brain King said gravely, “Both the gods and the Sovereign know one thing for certain—the Creator is dead.”
“Dead?” Yang Hao exclaimed in shock, “Even the highest god can die? Then what’s the point of anything? We might as well all go home, hug our wives, and make babies.”
Then Brain King spoke words of profound philosophy, words that overturned even the universe’s fundamental laws.
“Gods create order, and order creates gods,” he said, “This truth is unshakable—it will never change, no matter how many trillions of years pass.”
“What order? What law can create gods?”
“The cycle of life and death,” Brain King pointed his pale finger at Yang Hao’s forehead, “All life is born and dies—even the Creator god is no exception. Energy shapes the gods, and when gods die, they return to energy.”
“So you’re saying the Creator has become just a pile of energy?”
“The universe is the Creator,” Brain King withdrew his finger, gazing at Yang Hao, “The energy of the Creator’s death is within this universe. Even the power you feel from the stars is a tiny fragment of the Creator’s energy.”
“That immense divine energy is waiting for a savior to appear,” he continued, “This savior will become the new god, the new Creator, the new Supreme Being. This new god will reshape the order and lead the universe into the Fourth Order.”
Perhaps fearing that the noise of pounding on the door from outside might actually damage the shop sign, a narrow window on the third floor of the Dan Ding Chun Pharmacy opened, and a large amount of accumulated snow fell down with a muffled thud.
A teenager dressed in the uniform of the Dan Ding Sword Sect stuck his head out and shouted in a dull, muffled voice, “The owner is celebrating a happy occasion; we are closed for business for a while.”
It would have been better if he hadn’t appeared at all. His presence only further enraged the already angry crowd.
A leader among them pointed at the boy and roared, “What happy occasion? Looks more like a disaster to me. Your boss dared to assassinate the emperor himself and now his head is practically on the chopping block. How can there be anything to celebrate? One more celebration and he’ll be executed.”
The crowd around clearly already knew about the matter and began cursing and shouting at the boy.
The boy who had opened the window was one of the orphans Yang Hao had brought from Lamon Star. He had always been deeply attached to Yang Hao, and his eyes were still red and swollen. Hearing these people cursing his boss, he angrily shut the window and ignored the continued shouting outside.
The swirling wind and snow danced gloomily through the streets, scattering snowflakes like powder everywhere.
Outside the entrance of the Dan Ding Group, more and more people gathered. Previously, they had feared the might of the Dan Ding Sword Sect and dared not cause trouble. But now that Yang Hao had been sentenced to death and the entire empire knew he was as good as gone, what did these nobles have to fear anymore?
The excited crowd grew increasingly rowdy, nearly ready to tear down the entire chain of stores.
Perhaps fearing that the commotion outside might actually damage the signboard, a window on the third floor of the Dandingchun Pharmacy creaked open, sending a flurry of snowflakes cascading down.
A young man in the uniform of the Danding Sword Sect poked his head out and muttered gruffly, “The proprietor is celebrating. We’re closed for now.”
His appearance only fueled the fury of the already enraged crowd.
A ringleader pointed at the youth and roared, “Celebrating? More like mourning! Your boss dared to assassinate the Emperor—he’s as good as dead. What’s there to celebrate? The only celebration left is his execution!”
The crowd, clearly already aware of the situation, erupted into curses, hurling insults at the young man.
The one who had opened the window was one of the orphans Yang Hao had brought from the Thunder Star. His bond with Yang Hao ran deep, and his eyes were still red and swollen from grief. Hearing the crowd’s vicious insults against his master, he angrily slammed the window shut, ignoring the clamor outside.
A blizzard swirled through the lifeless street, scattering snowflakes like dry powder everywhere.
The crowd outside the Danding Group’s headquarters grew larger by the minute. Previously, they had feared the might of the Danding Sword Sect and dared not cause trouble. But now, with Yang Hao condemned to death—an outcome known across the empire—what did these nobles have to fear?
The mob grew increasingly rowdy, their fury threatening to tear the entire store apart.
But before they could break through the door, a synchronized march echoed from the distance—like an approaching army. All eyes turned to see a squad of golden-armored swordsmen wielding cruciform swords advancing in perfect formation.
Leading them was none other than Haike, the commander of the Divine Mercy Sword Corps, who had been humiliated and forced to retreat by Yang Hao in the central square. Now, his demeanor was entirely different—his face twisted with malice and smug triumph.
At the sight of the Divine Mercy Swordsmen, the opportunistic nobles immediately scattered to the sidelines.
They all knew the irreparable enmity between the Ten Sword Schools and the Danding Sword Sect.
Haike stood before the entrance of Dandingchun Pharmacy, a cold, ruthless smirk playing on his lips.
He had waited for this day for a long time. Over the past year, Yang Hao had relentlessly pushed the Ten Sword Schools to the brink, even killing the arrogant deputy commander of the Divine Mercy Sword Corps with a single strike. Today was the day of reckoning. The Senate and the Ten Sword Schools had long conspired—while Yang Hao awaited execution, they would first sever his wings.
As for the Merchant Guild, those old foxes always knew when to emerge and claim the spoils—and when to retreat into their dens and stay silent.
Leading them was none other than Haik, the commander of the Divine Vengeance Sword Group, who had been forced back by Yang Hao in the central plaza that day. The man now radiated a completely different aura—malicious and smug.
As soon as the Divine Vengeance Swordsmen arrived, the fickle nobles who bullied the weak and feared the strong immediately scattered to the sides.
They all knew well that the Ten Sword School and the Dan Ding Sword Sect harbored deep, irreconcilable hatred toward each other.
Standing at the entrance of the Dan Ding Chun Pharmacy, Haik’s lips curled into a cold, cruel smile.
He had waited for this day for a long time. Over the past year, the Ten Sword School had been pushed into a desperate situation by Yang Hao’s relentless pressure. Even the highly respected deputy commander of the Divine Vengeance Sword Group had been killed in a single move by Yang Hao. Today was the day for revenge. The Senate and the Ten Sword School had already conspired, taking advantage of Yang Hao’s imminent execution to eliminate his supporters first.
As for the Merchant Guild, those sly old foxes always knew exactly when to step forward and reap the rewards—and when to hide quietly in their dens without uttering a sound.
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