Start from a baby to become a Taoist

Chapter 505 The Fingers Beyond Dimensions

Chapter 513 The Fingers Beyond Dimensions
A finger, crystal clear and flawless, seemingly not belonging to this world or any dimension.

That finger, just gently, moved forward a little.

There was no sound, no light.

However, the "hand of annihilation" reaching in from outside the universe, along with the enormous shadow behind it and that cold will, were all "paused" in that instant.

Time, space, cause and effect, existence, nothingness... all concepts lose their meaning in the face of this one finger.

Then, the "hand of annihilation," starting from its fingertips, vanished inch by inch. It wasn't annihilation, nor was it reduced to nothingness; rather, it was a more thorough "disappearance." It was being eliminated from all "possibilities."

Xu Ran's body, too, began to crumble under this force. But he was laughing, laughing with unbridled joy.

He succeeded.

He used the resentment of a civilization to pry open the deepest part of his soul, the "true identity" that he himself had almost forgotten and that had been sealed away layer by layer.

He is neither a "guardian" nor a "model".

he is……

After erasing the "Hand of Annihilation," that finger did not stop, but continued forward, pointing beyond the membrane of the universe, towards that truly unknown realm.

The next moment, the entire dying universe heard a scream that was so shrill it was indescribable, coming from beyond dimensions.

Immediately afterwards, it started to "rain".

It wasn't real rainwater, but rather the "blood" of some higher-dimensional "being." It displayed a strange, flowing rainbow of colors, and each drop contained vast amounts of information sufficient to create or destroy a world.

The Cleaners... have fallen!

After doing all this, the crystalline finger slowly retracted from Xu Ran's brow. The sigh also dissipated.

Xu Ran's body had deteriorated to its limit; his newly formed "Dao Bone" was completely shattered, and even his consciousness began to become blurred again.

He paid a heavy price, but a victorious smile graced his face.

He finally confirmed the existence of the enemy and sent them his "greetings".

He knew this was just the beginning. An even more terrifying enemy would soon arrive.

But he is not afraid.

Because he finally knew who he was.

"So... that was my real name..."

Before his consciousness completely plunged into darkness, two ancient and forbidden syllables surfaced in Xu Ran's mind.

He slowly closed his eyes, letting his mangled body float in this desolate star field stained with "divine blood".

He needs time to process the information he has just received, to truly... begin his "recovery".

And in this star field that has just experienced a superdimensional war, the "divine blood" that fell from the sky is perhaps more precious to him than any rare and precious treasure... nourishment for reshaping his holy body.

The shadow of the Great Cataclysm still looms over the entire universe, but a new spark has been rekindled in this ruin and desolation.

Divine blood fell like rain, scattering across this desolate star field.

That was not blood in the ordinary sense; each drop was like a flowing rainbow nebula, containing the complete information imprint of a higher-dimensional life from birth to death. They were the remnants of "Tao," the corpses of "rules," and alien objects from beyond the universe.

This star field, temporarily freed from the absolute rule of the "Dust of the End" due to the death of the "Cleanser," has been met with another, even more bizarre, "contamination."

Xu Ran's mangled body floated silently, letting the bizarre rain of divine blood drench upon his cracked form. His consciousness sank and floated in the dark abyss, like a lone boat that could capsize at any moment.

"shortage……"

An ancient, desolate syllable, seemingly bearing the weight of eternity, echoed in the deepest recesses of his consciousness. It wasn't a name, but more like a "code name," a "definition," a coordinate representing his most primal and fundamental "existence."

He was not Xu Ran. Xu Ran was merely a disguise, an identity, that "Huang" wore in this era to carry out the "Watcher" mission. And now, this disguise, along with his sense of mission as a "Watcher," had been completely torn apart by that earth-shattering finger strike.

The price was devastating. He sacrificed the last resentment of a civilization and the remnants of the Heavenly Dao, forcibly prying open a corner of the "Zero" seal, almost completely exhausting the very foundation of his existence. At this moment, he was even weaker than when he slept in the Ruins of Return, as if a gust of wind would cause him to completely dissipate, leaving not even a trace of his existence.

However, it was precisely this extreme weakness that allowed him to resonate with this desolate universe in an unprecedented way.

Divine blood dripped down, touching his broken body.

"Fuck-"

Two completely different "Dao" are colliding. One is the lofty principle of "annihilation" and "cleansing" from outside the universe, and the other is the ancient and domineering foundation of "existence" within Xu Ran's body, originating from the "desolation".

Any living being tainted by this divine blood will suffer only one fate—its soul will be overwhelmed by the vast torrent of complex information contained within, and it will be assimilated by the fragments of the higher-dimensional Dao principles, becoming a walking corpse, a "puppet of the god."

But Xu Ran is different.

"Feeding on endings, fueled by death... is this... the way of 'desolation'?"

His remaining consciousness began to operate instinctively. It was an instinct that even he himself found unfamiliar, as if it were imprinted on every tiny particle of his being.

His dilapidated body had transformed into a greedy vortex. The divine blood that would make even an Immortal Emperor tremble was forcibly stripped and crushed upon touching him, turning into the purest "nourishment" to repair his riddled body.

This process was fraught with unspeakable danger.

Xu Ran's consciousness seemed to be dragged into the life of that "Cleaner." He saw the cold torrent of data, saw universes being generated, run, and then marked as "failures" like code. He saw the world behind the "Cleaner," a "high-dimensional matrix" that could not be described in words, a terrifying civilization that viewed all worlds as petri dishes and all living beings as experimental data.

They have no emotions, no pity. In their eyes, the birth and death of the universe is like the start and shutdown of a program, and the "dust of the end" is the instruction to format a hard drive.

“Sample…Gengchen Universe…Illegal aggregation…”

Cold words flashed through Xu Ran's mind—fragments of information gleaned from divine blood. He finally understood that in the other's archives, his universe held a cold, impersonal number. And he himself, this "watcher" who had struggled for countless epochs, was merely a "sample" worthy of observation.

How ironic! How tragic!

"What...do you take life for?!" A silent roar surged through his mind, creating a monstrous wave. This rage transformed into the most powerful driving force, accelerating his absorption and analysis of the divine blood.

He is not just absorbing energy, but also "stealing" the enemy's knowledge!

The principles of "cleansing," the rules of "annihilation," the methods of transmitting high-dimensional information... the secrets belonging to that super-dimensional civilization are being forcibly deciphered, absorbed, and then transformed into his own little by little.

His body, nourished by divine blood, began to undergo strange changes.

The shattered "Dao Bone" was reconnected, but it was covered with a strange rainbow-colored halo. The dried flesh and blood began to regenerate, but the new body was no longer pure Dao principles and divine metal, but mixed with a kind of "alien substance" from outside the universe.

This body is no longer a pure "furnace of ten thousand paths," but more like a monster pieced together from the remains of a god and its own fragments!

"A body of divine remains..." Xu Ran defined his newly formed body. It was filled with ominousness and eeriness, yet it also contained unprecedented potential. It allowed him to better understand his enemies, and even... simulate their power!

After an unknown amount of time, when he had absorbed the last drop of divine blood in this star field, Xu Ran slowly opened his eyes.

Those eyes were even more profound than before. The scene of the universe's birth and death in the left eye had gained a touch of the coldness of data flow; the desolation of the end of all things in the right eye was tinged with a high-dimensional, indifferent cruelty.

He clenched his fist lightly.

Click!

The void around his palm shattered like a mirror. This was not merely a matter of power, but rather a manifestation of his understanding of the rules of space, which had reached a new level—a level that could be "edited" and "deleted."

"Still too weak..." Xu Ran murmured.

Although the divine body was strange and powerful, it was ultimately a tree without roots. His essence was still depleted. Moreover, absorbing divine blood also meant that he was marked even more deeply by that "high-dimensional matrix".

He could sense that beyond the cosmic membrane, more and more terrifying "gazes" were slowly beginning to focus on him. His time was running out.

"We must rebuild a true sacred body and flesh as soon as possible, and completely transform the power of this 'divine remains' into our own!"

His gaze once again fell upon the ancient nebula that was undergoing a "great collapse".

There, he found the "chaotic energy" he needed, the most fundamental materials for forging his sacred body.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Ran's figure transformed into a stream of light, merging into the void and leaping towards the "wounded" land of that universe.

……

Collapsed nebulae are the millstones of the universe.

The gravity of a supermassive black hole warps spacetime and tears everything apart. Stars, galaxies, dust, light—everything is crushed here, reduced to its most primal and chaotic form of energy.

This is a boiling sea of ​​laws, a graveyard of order.

Even a Celestial Emperor, upon entering this place, would have their internal Dao cycle instantly destroyed, assimilated by the raging chaotic energy, and ultimately swallowed by the black hole.

However, when Xu Ran descended to the edge of this nebula, what he felt was not destruction, but a kind of... "familiarity"?
"Chaos...the beginning of all things, and also the end of all things. It is somewhat similar to the Dao of 'Wilderness'."

He took a step forward and walked into the energy storm that was powerful enough to tear apart an immortal emperor.

The raging chaotic energy, like countless celestial blades, frantically slashed at his divine body. However, the eerie rainbow-colored aura flowing around his body actually "analyzed" and "nullified" most of these chaotic energy attacks.

Meanwhile, the "Dao Bone" within his body emitted bursts of roaring sounds, greedily absorbing the pure, unrefined primordial energy.

He walked through the storm of destruction as if it were flat ground.

The deeper one goes, the more severe the distortion of spacetime becomes. Here, up, down, left, and right lose their meaning, and the past and future seem to overlap. Xu Ran even sees countless fragmented scenes: ancient behemoths being born from chaos, and future stars prematurely annihilating here.

Suddenly, his steps stopped.

In the heart of this chaotic and violent region, he sensed a unique aura.

It was neither the rage of chaos nor the deathly stillness of a black hole.

That was a feeling of... sadness.

A vast, timeless sorrow, large enough to engulf the stars.

"Is there...something else here?"

Xu Ran frowned slightly. His divine sense pierced through the layers of energy storms, probing towards the source of the sorrow.

Soon, he saw it.

At the edge of the event horizon of a supermassive black hole, in that ultimate place where even light cannot escape, there floats an ancient stone coffin!

The stone coffin, made of an unknown material, had a hazy, grayish stone appearance and was covered with ancient, chiseled marks. It floated there silently, unmoved by the terrifying gravity of the black hole and the frenzied erosion of chaotic energy, as if it existed independently of this space-time.

The sorrow that moved even Xu Ran emanated from this stone coffin.

"At the end of an era, in the tomb of the universe, there is still such a coffin..." Xu Ran's eyes became solemn.

He could sense that the sarcophagus was far older than any era he knew. It did not belong to this universe, nor even to any "failed" universe sample he knew.

It seems to come from... before the "beginning" of everything.

Just as Xu Ran was trying to investigate further, the stone coffin suddenly trembled!
A powerful will awakened from the stone coffin.

"Woo——"

A mournful cry echoed throughout the collapsing nebula. It was not a sound, but the wailing of a will. Beneath this cry, the boiling chaotic energy instantly subsided, and the distorted spacetime seemed to be smoothed out by an invisible hand.

Immediately afterwards, a phantom slowly rose from the stone coffin.

It was a humanoid silhouette formed from endless starlight and sorrow, towering billions of feet high, as if it could support the entire world. It had no facial features; its face was a blurry nebula, but Xu Ran could clearly "see" two lines of "tears" made of stars slowly sliding down its cheeks.

Each tear is enough to crush an entire star field.

(End of this chapter)