Chapter 280 — The Creed of Reincarnation, Hua Ye's Betrayal

A white-haired old man appeared before Wang Xu.

He was the current headmaster of the Super Seminary, the God of Time, Kilan.

Kilan's gaze drifted between Wang Xu and Hua Ye for a moment, as though he had grasped the whole chain of cause and effect.

His expression turned grave, and his voice was heavy: "I beg you, stop this experiment. It has already touched the limit permitted by the multiverse."

Kilan, who had once witnessed the "Ultimate Terror" with his own eyes, had developed an inexplicable dread of the "scientific critical point."

Wang Xu merely shook his head and turned his gaze to the other side.

Hua Ye, the old Angel King, and Kilan alike followed Wang Huai'an's line of sight.

There was nothing there.

A moment later...

A human form gradually coalesced.

Male, of indeterminate age—neither fully grown nor a child—short of stature, and what left the deepest impression was the enormous head perched atop him.

If a larger brain-to-body ratio meant greater intelligence, then this suddenly appearing figure, Jia Mingyuan, must surely be among the supreme intellects of the cosmos.

"Dingge Hei!"

Kilan recognized who it was.

This was the very first man to propose the concept of "Super God Genetic Engineering"!

Even Kilan himself had been fashioned by Dingge Hei's own hand!

"You... aren't you dead?"

Headmaster Kilan remembered it with perfect clarity.

Many years ago, Dingge Hei had hoped to mobilize the star systems of the universe that approached the "known cosmic civilization level," uniting them to vault over a certain unobservable scientific barrier.

Yet just as the Super God Project was about to be implemented, for reasons unknown, within the star system serving as the laboratory, every star and planet suddenly accelerated into fusion!

At the final moment, Dingge Hei had both the opportunity and the ability to flee.

He did not.

He chose to be annihilated together with the Shenhe Star System, becoming a myth buried in the long river of cosmic history.

Now, the great inventor Dingge Hei, who should have perished ages ago, stood once more before everyone's eyes.

What did this mean?

Hua Ye and Kilan cast unobtrusive glances at Wang Linchuan, their thoughts churning through a thousand turns.

...

At that same moment, within the Super Seminary.

Ryze, the Rogue Mage, suddenly lifted his head and gazed into the far distance, as though somewhere in the remote void, something was unfolding that set his heart aflame with longing.

Beside him, Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, made a similar motion.

"Great Sage, what is it?"

Jin Mucheng asked softly.

Sun Wukong's brows knitted tight, and unconsciously he gripped the golden cudgel in his hand: "This plane is approaching a critical juncture of transformation..."

After a moment, his lips moved, and he added three words: "Very dangerous."

As a Reincarnator, he had roamed countless planes, deliberately spending reward points and Fate Gems to take on extra missions in pursuit of tempering.

Having weathered dozens of missions, Sun Wukong had never encountered a situation like this.

What he felt now was like an ordinary mortal facing a natural disaster—no room to resist, only passive acceptance, only resignation to fate.

The Super Seminary plane was a multiverse linked to many space-time tracks; once annihilation occurred, they might not even have the slimmest chance of fleeing back to the Main God Space.

Jin Mucheng seemed to sense the gravity of the situation as well.

A fierce wind swept past, his soft white hair brushing his ear, yet the corner of his mouth curved into a faint smile.

"To a Reincarnator, death is merely a special kind of trial."

"Great Sage, you need not worry about such things."

Jin Mucheng had long since prepared a complete set of contingencies within the Main God Space.

Arima Kishou, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, and Rock Lee—these four were all his "safety men."

Should he fall, they would expend reward points and Fate Gems to resurrect him.

The body destroyed, the soul annihilated...

To a Reincarnator, none of this amounted to much.

The authority of the Main God surpassed the limits of human imagination.

Even a soul annihilated could be re-derived from the True Spirit Imprint.

For a living being, flesh, appearance, talent, power, spirit, soul—even belief—none of these could represent its existence.

The True Spirit Imprint—that unobservable, invisible entity—was the manifestation of each living being's uniqueness.

Across the endless planes and the billions of worlds of the heavens, every life's True Spirit Imprint was preserved within the long river of time.

Even measured in units of "zettayotta," one could not calculate a billionth of them.

True Spirit Imprints could also be extinguished.

Yet as Reincarnators, at the very instant they concluded the Reincarnation Contract, their True Spirit Imprints were fished out of the river of time by the Main God, leaving behind a breath that was imperishable, undying, indestructible.

Jin Mucheng had only spoken half of it.

He had a deeper meaning he did not voice directly—

If Sun Wukong were to fall in this plane, once Jin Mucheng was resurrected, he would find a way to bring him back as well.

The Great Sage Equal to Heaven gazed intently at Hatake Ken.

He cupped his hands and said: "Your kindness—I accept it."

Sun Wukong, tempered by countless trials, was no longer the simple, unworldly wild monkey of old.

To him, death was not frightening.

What was frightening was being unable to carry out one's own convictions.

The Great Sage Equal to Heaven did not believe in freedom.

His Reincarnation Creed was "choice."

The monkey wanted those across the endless planes who were imprisoned in the cages of their own fate to break free of the mold, kick over the prison walls, and possess a true choice of their own.

...

The Super Seminary plane.

At the core space-time node of this multiverse—the Valoran Star System.

Wang Xu's eyes flickered, dim and bright by turns, and he uttered five incomprehensible words.

"The Truman World."

Wang Xu finally understood what the so-called Ultimate Terror was.

It was not the Void race mentioned in the history of the dark energy information network.

It was this great inventor standing before him.

He was the embodiment of the plane's will.

"Morello," "Dingge Hei," "Aurelion Sol"...

These were merely some of the other's identities.

He always appeared in the posture of the strongest.

Whether in intellect, in power, in status, or in authority...

In short, He would always self-annihilate at the highest point, warning the other living beings where the limit of this plane lay.

Having set the critical point Himself, no variable beyond His own control could ever emerge.

"You cannot stop me."

Wang Xu regarded Dingge Hei with an indifferent expression, his tone faint and lingering.

Dingge Hei sighed: "That is true."

Their exchange was exceedingly brief, and not a single clash erupted.

Two void particles once again merged into the body of Hua Ye, the old Angel King.

Life reversed, transformed.

Was the fourth-generation divine body the limit of the Super Seminary plane?

Clearly not!

Hua Ye's outward form underwent a tremendous change.

The beard on his face gradually vanished, and his tousled blond hair grew soft and sleek; his whole being radiated an indefinable allure.

"I... am the one and only god in this world!"

Swollen power gave Hua Ye a swollen sense of self.

He fixed Wang Xu with an icy stare, and with a sweep of his great hand, he meant to wipe Wang Xu from existence.

Humanity had used science to forge nuclear weapons, yet could not use science to withstand them; all they could do was cling to life through the choice of genetic potential, surviving only by the grace of luck.

Wang Linchuan's own hands had forged the man he was now, yet he was by no means certain to be this man's match today.