Translator: CinderTL
"You want to kill me?"
The Imaginary Dao Venerable gazed at Li Chunjun. "What if you're wrong? Would you kill a being who genuinely helped you?"
"Wrong..."
Li Chunjun stared back at the Imaginary Dao Venerable.
He knew he couldn't answer that question.
Nor could he find a suitable excuse to convince himself otherwise.
But...
It didn't matter.
"Which great figure's path to power hasn't been paved with the accidental deaths of a few innocent souls who didn't know what was good for them?"
A trace of indifference flickered across his face. "Besides, one man's hero is another's enemy. At our level, there are only positions, no right or wrong, good or evil."
Hearing this, the Imaginary Dao Venerable already knew his fate.
"Look at you," Li Chunjun said. "Even though you were imprisoned by the Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling, you remained fiercely loyal to him. Yet, even now, the Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling you swore allegiance to hasn't appeared to save you."
Li Chunjun's mind began to piece together a theory.
Why couldn't he command the Imaginary Dao Venerable, even with the authority over Gui Ling's reincarnated body?
There was only one possibility...
Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling had returned.
He was even within the False God Hall, issuing commands to the Imaginary Dao Venerable.
Though Li Chunjun couldn't fathom why Gui Ling had returned so swiftly, and all this remained mere speculation, it didn't matter.
Fortunately, the Imaginary Dao Venerable himself admitted, "It's merely a matter of choices."
He smiled. "I had hoped to find a flaw in your heart, but I see now that you truly don't care. It's as if... nothing matters to you except resurrecting your sister."
Li Chunjun leveraged the power of the great dao of the soul and the great dao of creation through two Immortal Artifacts.
While the Immortal Artifacts could only tap into a limited portion of the Dao's power, Li Chunjun's profound understanding of the Dao, combined with the comprehensive control granted by the great unification realm, allowed him to refine the Imaginary Dao Venerable with astonishing efficiency.
"Don't be lost, don't panic. Release your attachments and fulfill yourself."
The Imaginary Dao Venerable gazed at Li Chunjun. "In this world, nothing can ever be perfect. Even the Ultimate Powerhouses who stand at the pinnacle of the Cosmos must constantly strive to break free from their shackles. Their lives, too, are likely filled with regrets. You should learn to stop, reconcile with yourself, and let time and the changing tides of fate gradually fade everything away..."
"Well said, but enough," Li Chunjun replied calmly. "Precisely because everything changes over the vast expanse of time, we must strive to achieve the best possible outcome before those changes occur."
The great dao of the soul and the great dao of creation relentlessly eroded the Imaginary Dao Venerable's body, completely engulfing his colossal form, which resembled a celestial star.
"But what if you still fail?" the Imaginary Dao Venerable asked, his voice tinged with curiosity as he allowed the soul power and creation power to ravage him.
"I won't," Li Chunjun declared. "I will succeed."
He repeated with unwavering conviction, "I will definitely succeed."
"And even if you do succeed, what then?"
The Imaginary Dao Venerable asked, "When that time comes, will you still be yourself? Will what you achieve truly be what you desire?"
"I don't know," Li Chunjun replied. "That's why I need to achieve it first."
In the next moment, the Imaginary Dao Venerable was completely consumed by the great daos of the soul and life.
The spiritual fluctuations characteristic of a "living being" were utterly extinguished, replaced by the power of his great dao of the soul.
His colossal body, once as vast as a star, rapidly contracted under the refinement of the great dao of creation, shrinking into a yellow sphere the size of an orange that settled in his palm.
As Li Chunjun refined the Imaginary Dao Venerable, every living being in the False God Realm—billions upon billions—simultaneously disconnected.
The link between the False God Realm and the outside world was severed.
Within the False God Hall, deafening alarms blared as the auras of more than twenty Dao Venerables surged toward the space where the Imaginary Dao Venerable had been.
Yet moments after these auras materialized, they abruptly retreated, as if receiving a command to stand down.
Li Chunjun glanced outward but said nothing, turning his attention back to the Imaginary Dao Venerable in his hand.
To be precise...
It was an Immortal Artifact resembling the Imaginary Dao Venerable.
"Liu Yu," Li Chunjun called out.
"I'm here," a spiritual fluctuation quickly responded.
Before Li Chunjun had gained the ability to manifest the Dao at will, Liu Yu had already stationed a Clone within him. Now, he awakened this Clone and directly infused it into the Imaginary Dao Venerable's "Immortal Artifact."
Soon, the artifact, which had been dimming, regained its brilliance, glowing like an orange-sized sun hovering quietly in Li Chunjun's palm.
"Show me his plan," Li Chunjun said.
Golden light streamed from the orange-sized Immortal Artifact, each ray carrying an immeasurable amount of information. Li Chunjun quietly absorbed it.
Spirit-type life cannot lie.
But they can conceal the most crucial details by omission.
The third plan was both right and wrong.
No one can truly erase all traces of their existence.
Nor can anyone reverse the flow of time.
Once life exists, the Cosmos records it in meticulous detail.
Unless...
He didn't exist.
Completely nonexistent.
Therefore, what he said was correct.
As for why it seemed wrong...
It was because once a lifeform had been completely erased from existence, it should no longer be able to interfere with any matter in the world.
The moment he interfered, he would exist.
Existence leaves traces, and traces would make it difficult for him to successfully reverse time.
This was an unsolvable paradox.
But that wasn't the main point.
The crucial point was that, in addition to this method, the Imaginary Dao Venerable had actually calculated a fourth plan.
He named this plan...
Return to Zero!
To return the entire Cosmos to zero!
Then, restart the Cosmos!
Once the Cosmos had been reset to zero, all traces of his existence would naturally vanish.
At that point, he could restart the Cosmos, using his complete understanding of the Cosmos to guide its evolution, ensuring that the entire Cosmos followed his perceived timeline.
In a sense, this was equivalent to a cosmic refresh.
By refreshing the Cosmos according to his understanding, nothing would change.
He could make adjustments during the initial phase of this refresh, adding or subtracting as needed.
The changes were so subtle that even those who hadn't reached the pinnacle of cultivation wouldn't notice them.
In fact, even the most powerful beings in the current cosmos might not be able to sense them.
However, this refresh process was essentially a cosmic rebirth and destruction.
This was the latest plan.
The plan's formulation stemmed from information provided by Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling, who was suspected to have already entered the great unification realm.
In other words, to execute this plan, one needed at least the power of the great unification realm.
Six months ago, after learning that Li Chunjun possessed the power of the great unification realm, Imaginary Dao Venerable mobilized all his computational resources to devise this plan.
It was a plan with an extremely low probability of success, one he never intended to use.
Or rather, it was a plan that anyone who saw it would bury deep in their heart, never daring to put it into action.
Yet, as Li Chunjun refined Imaginary Dao Venerable and had Liu Yu's subprogram drive this Immortal Artifact, the plan was still presented before him.
"Return to zero," Li Chunjun murmured inwardly.
Based on the third plan, the most feasible fourth plan had been refined.
A plan...
A hopeless hope.
Looking at this plan, Li Chunjun's mind was utterly calm.
He was contemplating its feasibility.
Which was more likely: achieving Life Level 51 or executing this plan?
"Reaching Life Level 51 would take far more than a billion years. The crucial point is that I can't even be certain that achieving that level would truly accomplish my goals. But returning the Cosmos to zero, restarting it, and completing a refresh is simple."
Li Chunjun understood this clearly.
To be responsible, he could use one or more Immortal Artifacts like the Imaginary Dao Venerable to record the transformations of the forty-nine great daos and then re-enact them.
To be irresponsible...
The very process of the forty-nine great daos evolving from nothingness to existence was itself such a transformative process.
In this process, even "random" events would not occur.
As long as he, this unique existence, did not intervene, the Cosmos's historical development would unfold exactly as it had before.
The progenitor divine being era, the innate divine being era, the era of chaos, the dao venerable era, the ultimate powerhouse era, and the human race era.
And now...
The post-human race era.
Achieving this goal was remarkably simple:
Absorb the great daos.
He would create the void great dao, then use its unique properties to devour and absorb all forty-nine existing great daos!
The Cosmos would descend into nothingness. At the precise moment the Cosmos completely returned to void, he would release all forty-nine great daos, shattering the void great dao.
This would complete the Cosmos's transformation from having Dao to having none, and then from having none back to having Dao.
Through this process...
He might even escape the void state of "non-existence," allowing himself to emerge from "nothingness" into reality, into existence, into eternal life.
Li Chunjun studied the feasibility of this plan, as calculated by the Imaginary Dao Venerable, constantly comparing it against his own understanding of the forty-nine great daos.
His final conclusion...
The plan had a very high probability of success.
However, the process allowed for no margin of error. Any misstep would trigger consequences beyond anyone's ability to predict.
But...
This plan offered him a tangible glimmer of hope.
Even...
His gaze fell upon the Human Emperor Banner, his companion treasure.
The more he learned about innate divine beings, the stronger his sense of familiarity grew.
Every progenitor divine being is born embodying a great dao, but the exact form and nature of that dao remain unknown, he mused inwardly, venturing a speculative guess.
My understanding of the Human Emperor Banner is based solely on my own perception. Perhaps its true essence... is the cyclical nature of the Cosmos itself—the eternal cycle of existence and nothingness.
In other words, the Human Emperor Banner was his companion great dao.
Completing the Cosmos's return to zero and its subsequent rebirth was the Human Emperor Banner's, or rather, this great dao's, ordained mission for him.
His only choice...
Might lie in determining the precise moment to initiate this mission.
And the method by which to execute it.
(End of the Chapter)
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