The Ancient Saint Emperor of the Heaven-shading

Chapter 328 Finale
As Ye Fan's power was eclipsed by a single leaf, he defeated all the progenitors in one timeline, causing all timelines to change as a result.

Reflecting on the heavens and affecting all things, a similar scene appeared in other timelines. Although the processes differed, and the casualties were even more severe, the outcome was the same.

Ye Fan killed all ten of the plateau's progenitors!
"I am the Heavenly Emperor, and I shall annihilate all enemies!"

That was the most audacious declaration on the land of Ereshkigal; he had fulfilled his promise and would personally end this ominous era.

He did it.

At that very moment, the battle across the endless timelines came to a conclusion. The consciousness of the plateau let out a shrill cry: "Did that person leave me behind back then just to pave the way for you? Wang Hongwu, Shi Hao, I'm not reconciled! I'm not reconciled!"

"Wrong, you should call me: Master!" Wang Hongwu's cold voice rang out, completely taking over the power of the plateau's consciousness. His entire being was constantly sublimating and surpassing the Dao of Sacrifice, incorporating the vast plateau into his human worldview, and completely completing the last piece of the puzzle.

The power from the sacrificial path surged within him, granting him the ability to rewrite and restore everything.

With a single thought from Wang Hongwu, the figures of Shi Hao and the Pollen Emperor separated from his body. He stood on the pure white land of Calamity, gazing at the dissipating black clouds and gloom, and slowly raised his hand.

As his first finger fell, the vanished world and the heavens reappeared, regaining their former luster and position.

After his second finger fell, the other timelines disappeared, all the evil lands merged into the pure land beneath his feet, and all the pain of all beings was healed.

After his third finger fell, spacetime stabilized, the past and present continued, and the future flowed again. Only the main worldview remained, while the tributaries dispersed.

After his fourth finger fell, history was rewritten; the departed and the fallen returned.

After he tapped his fifth finger, the depleted universe was reborn and reinterpreted after a great war.

Fragrant flowers bloomed throughout the entire world, and bright light shone everywhere. From the bottomless pit, one ascended to the sacred heaven.

'After the calamity is over, all realms will be at peace, and all beings will enjoy happiness, regardless of status. Pure lands will be found everywhere, and the human world will become a heavenly kingdom, where joy resides under one supreme ruler.'

The magnificent sound echoed, spreading throughout the vast world, resounding in the heavens, and echoing in all the heavens and myriad realms that have been recreated.

"It's all over." Emperor Pollen murmured, somewhat dazed and incredulous. The ominous signs had been ended just like that, wiped out by the combined efforts of Wang Hongwu, Shi Hao, and Ye Fan.

Shi Hao smiled and looked at Wang Hongwu, saying, "What we said back then was indeed correct."

“If we join forces, we won’t go wrong.” Wang Hongwu smiled and embraced him.

After a long and arduous struggle, the last hidden danger has finally been eliminated, everything is over, and we are moving towards peace.

In that newly unified world, Ye Fan, covered in wounds, raised his head and took a deep breath. "An end is also a new beginning."

He retrieved the bronze coffin that buried the Empress and Wushi, and healed Duan De and Qingdi before returning to Earth.

At the foot of Mount Tai, he hadn't paid the parking fee for his Mercedes.

"From this day forward, there will be no more evil lands, only pure lands, transforming the plateau into a heavenly kingdom, and together we will honor God."

Wang Hongwu proclaimed to all worlds that the vast, desolate land had transformed into a pure white paradise, and at its end, a magnificent heavenly palace appeared, filled with countless angels and where all spirits found peace and joy.

At the same time, his complete human worldview formed its own backbone and began to derive parallel world lines.

In these countless new parallel world lines, on the first day, he said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

Separating light from darkness, calling light day and darkness night, marks the beginning of the world from nothingness and symbolizes the start of order.

The next day, he said, “There must be air between the waters, which will separate into upper and lower parts. So the air will begin to flow. The air above will rise to become the sky, and the air below will gather to become the earth. The water will gather to form the sea.”

Then grass and seed-bearing vegetables grew on the ground, and trees bore fruit, each according to its kind. From then on, the earth had the outline of mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, and vegetation began to grow luxuriantly.

On the third day, he said, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate day from night, and to mark seasons, days and years.”

Thus, celestial bodies appeared: the sun governs the day, and the moon and stars illuminate the night; their laws of motion converge, from one universe to another, from countless universes to one realm, from countless realms to one heaven, from countless heavens to a great chiliocosm, and from countless great chiliocosms to a complete worldview, thus forming the river of time.

On the fourth day, he said that all creatures under the frosty sky have spirits and compete freely; thus, all spirits were born in the world, each according to its kind, and human beings became the pinnacle of creation, and were given the mission of managing the world.

On the fifth day, he said that there are laws in the world, which are born from heaven and earth and passed on to all living beings. The way is natural. As a result, countless cultivation paths and systems have emerged and taken root in countless worlds.

On the sixth day, he said, “Joy will be endless, and so will lifespan.” And with that word, beings from countless timelines were granted immortality and eternal existence.

On the seventh day, he said that people should be good and free from illness and suffering, and that all negativity, which manifests as illness, should be reflected in their shadows. Thus, negative emotions evolved into illness and misfortune, and these things formed the shadow of each person, forever present, yet never affecting them.

In the seven days of creation, the worldview within the body was fully formed, and the protagonist of destiny began to be born, as well as the 'Shadow' that expanded into the land of calamity and the plateau.

The Lord of all, the Supreme Emperor, is revered for all ages. He is the Way of Heaven, the origin, the source, God, the King of all demons, the God above gods, and the cause and effect of all things.

He became the origin of everything and built a courtyard in the worldview, his backyard, standing at the end of the plateau.

The shadow that embodied all the negative symptoms lingered in the courtyard, coughing intermittently and displaying ten different symptoms.

After all this was completed, Wang Hongwu's cultivation advanced further. He grasped the key, and his own cultivation had reached perfection. It was time for him to begin his journey towards the path of sacrifice.

Shi Hao sensed something and looked over, only to see Wang Hongwu sitting cross-legged, his body once again burning with the sacrificial fire.

"He still wants to continue the ritual?" Pollen Emperor was surprised. Could it be that after mastering the power of the plateau, God also wanted to try to break into that even more terrifying realm?

“We once possessed a portion of the power above the sacrificial path. He understands this field very well, and such beings do indeed exist. It is only natural that we can advance further.” Shi Hao was not surprised, because they possessed the power of the plateau and understood that part of the great power above the sacrificial path. In particular, Wang Hongwu himself knew how to break through, so naturally he would strive to advance again.

In that grand sacrificial fire, Wang Hongwu sacrificed not only the Dao, but also the past, present, and future, and even himself, igniting all traces of his existence in a desperate act of sublimation.

Originally, this attempt was extremely risky, but he already possessed some of the power above the Dao of Sacrifice, which solidified this point. The so-called Dao of Sacrifice is not about dying in battle, but about completely sacrificing everything and transcending existence and non-existence. This can be understood from the process of sacrificing oneself. This is why the Dao of Sacrifice is not a complete realm, but only half a step beyond the Immortal Emperor.
Because it did not sacrifice everything, but only its own Dao, it is stuck between the Immortal Emperor and the Dao. Only by completely sacrificing everything can it truly take that step. For Wang Hongwu, this may be the greatest advantage of knowing information in advance.

Under the influence of that sacrificial fire, everything about Wang Hongwu was disappearing, fading away, burning into nothingness, leaving only lingering echoes: "If you can control my own destiny, then you can plant a golden lotus in the fire!"

In this vast world, the sacrificial fire is boundless, from which a magnificent golden lotus blooms.

"Is it dawn?"

The golden lotus bloomed and transformed into the rising sun, illuminating the entire world. The people who were revived by this transformation did not know his name or his past; they only knew that such a person existed.

However, soon, memories of these things, of this person, began to fade from people's hearts. All traces of him became blurred. He was gone, completely disappeared and erased from the world, from time and space, from the entirety of ancient history.

Even Shi Hao, the Pollen Emperor, Ye Fan, the Empress, and Wu Shi were the same; they could no longer sense it, and their memories disappeared along with it.

At that moment, all living beings in the world felt empty inside, as if they had lost something, but in an instant, all these feelings vanished, leaving nothing behind.

There will never be another Wang Hongwu in this world.

All worlds have left no trace.

It fades away, as if it had never existed.

In another transcendent realm, Wang Hongwu also exists, existing in a delicate state.

Here, you can't feel the passage of time; it's empty and desolate, as if all worlds have come to an end and returned to their origin. People who stepped in from eternity ago, people who stepped in in the present, and people who will step in in the future—all are visible and all are here at this moment.

This realm is incredibly special.

At the level of the ritual, what is truly sacrificed is not only the Dao itself, but also oneself. Everything becomes empty, everything returns to eternal silence, and then one is revived in the silence, waiting to come back to life and truly transcend everything.

Besides being strong enough, one must also have the corresponding mindset. Even if a Taoist priest wants to ascend to this realm, it is not something that can be done at will. Throughout history, no one has ever seen such a person.

In this special place, all the great principles are like flowing water, which can evaporate in a single thought; fate, destiny, cause and effect, the way of heaven, etc., are nothing but the most fragile bubbles, which collapse before one can even reach out and touch them.

Here, there is no sense of time or space. It transcends the so-called eternity, the Tao, the vast world, all time and space, beyond the universe, beyond chaos, and is omnipresent. From ancient times to the present and into the future, everything can vanish in the blink of an eye for the beings standing in this realm. Wherever their gaze falls, everything withers and everything reappears.

Finally, Wang Hongwu took the ultimate step that all those who performed the rituals had dreamed of.

"This is how it is on the sacrificial path."

With a thought, he returned to his courtyard, where life thrived and the atmosphere was pristine. In the dead of night, the golden moon, round as a plate, hung high in the sky, accompanied by silvery clouds that illuminated the night.

A rustling sound came from the courtyard. The trees along the road swayed gently in the wind, each leaf carrying countless points of light. They were countless worlds being born and dying. The shadows of the trees swayed, and the whole tree was filled with countless glimmers of light.

It once took root at the edge of the eerie plateau and was valued by the ten eerie progenitors. In the distant past, it grew in a person's courtyard, without any particular purpose. A patient would sit under the tree like an ordinary person, enjoying the shade, reading, brewing tea, and sighing.

The lake formed by the sea sacrifice rippled slightly, and the Lotus of Eternal Reincarnation seemed to bloom and wither, taking root in the source of the river of time and the origin of the Great Dao in an instant.

Following this, Shi Hao, along with the Pollen Emperor and the various emperors of the heavens, were invited to the courtyard as guests. The former plateau, now a pure land of heaven, was bathed in light and brilliance, with pure white becoming the dominant color.

The melodious sound of the zither attracted phoenixes to dance. The Flower Emperor sat cross-legged by the lake playing the zither, while the Luo Emperor composed music. The sisters were a perfect pair.

Not far away, Meng Hai, the owner of the three artifacts, was acting as a gardener and sculptor, creating rows of decorations and buildings in the courtyard; the Lord of the Reception Hall had built a cool chair and was resting on it.

Wu Shi borrowed a bronze ring from the Empress, which transformed into a celestial sword. He was carving his own imperial bell onto the Great Dao Tree, adding marks to it. Meanwhile, further away, the Ten Fiends' chief priests were leading Cang Hongyu to destroy the Four Emperors and were carrying out large-scale construction projects.

Shi Hao and Ye Fan played chess beside the blooming flowers, using a large cauldron as a support and the ancient scroll of heavens as a chessboard. Once a move was made, there was no going back.

With each move they made, the sacrificial fire on their bodies intensified, while their presence became less noticeable. After witnessing Wang Hongwu's breakthrough, they also tried to make their own moves, sacrificing themselves in an attempt to transcend.

"A reunion is good too."

Wang Hongwu smiled slightly upon seeing this, and with a wave of his hand, everyone from the Celestial Court appeared here. The Divine Phoenix Maiden flew into his arms, and with the beauty by his side, he rested in the courtyard with the Dragon Maiden, the Golden Heavenly Maiden, the Fire Lin'er, and the Heavenly Emperor's Daughter.

Even the long-absent mount, the Peacock King, has appeared, leading a group of immortal kings from other realms in a tug-of-war with the immortal kings who have broken through from the Celestial Court, trying to prove that he is God's most reliable right-hand man.

Fuxi and Nuwa, the two earliest disciples of the Great Celestial Venerable, are currently entertaining guests from all walks of life, while also having to be wary of a wicked big black dog and a cunning dragon horse.

A gentle breeze blew, and the fairy lotus bloomed in the crystal lake. The rosy clouds soared into the sky, and the Dao patterns intertwined, causing ripples on the lake surface. The fragrance spread with it. Duan De was busy in the medicinal field, holding a jade hoe to dig through the exotic soil and personally planting a branch of Enlightenment Tea, waiting for it to take root and sprout.

"Hehe, I dug up a great tree from the stone, tomorrow I'll dig up a medicinal plant from the leaves, and the day after tomorrow I'll pick a flower from Old Wang. This life is wonderful."

Duan De was envisioning a bright future, a smile creeping across his face, when he suddenly noticed that the Azure Emperor was staring blankly at the Lotus of Eternal Reincarnation in the lake. He couldn't help but ask in confusion, "Little Qingzi, have you fallen in love with the Lotus of Eternal Reincarnation?"

Boom! The response he received was the Azure Emperor's massive fist imprint, which chased him away, causing the Lunar Jade Rabbit, who had come to visit the unscrupulous Taoist, to sigh and rub her forehead in frustration.

"So, you mean I've been stuck on the path to immortality like this, all this time?"

The forgotten Celestial Venerable of Nirvana was bewildered. He pointed to himself and then to the Emperor Venerable, saying, "You and the Supreme Celestial Venerable later became immortals and then immortal kings? He went even further? I don't understand any of what you're talking about, such as Dao Ancestor, Immortal Emperor, and Sacrificial Dao. Have I been abandoned by the times?"

“Indeed.” The Emperor nodded. This Heavenly Venerable was truly pitiful. He should have been born on the path to immortality in Ye Fan’s generation, but unfortunately, the fusion of all the heavens and myriad worlds interrupted the appearance of the path to immortality, causing him to be forgotten from the end of the mythological era to the present.

On the other side, the Holy Prince, Huang Xudao, Yuan Gu and others gathered together, reminiscing about the past and lamenting the present; Shi Yi, the Ten-Crown King, the Immortal, and others were also together, talking about old stories and border battles. Meng Tianzheng watched all this with a smile, and the world was peaceful.

The once extinct and departed Elder Jiang has reappeared, keeping company with Elder Xuan Yin; the fallen and battle-stricken beings of the past have all returned, together composing a glorious era.

However, Wang Hongwu vaguely sensed something. He used the power of the sacrificial path and entered the space-time of history. At his level, every move he made generated endless space-time and causal lines. He didn't need to care whether he disturbed the future, because at this level, what he saw was endless space-time and endless possibilities.

The Great Dao, time and space, have lost their meaning for him.

He returned to the original plateau and saw the scene he had left behind.

In that small courtyard on the plateau, there was a figure that resembled him, yet also resembled the ailing old man from years ago.

Over the long years, everything lost its meaning for him, and he fell into a state of loneliness and boredom.

He felt bored, as if everything had been erased from his mind. From ancient times to the present, nothing existed anymore. Even if everything reappeared in an instant, and his relatives and friends were resurrected, he could not find the original feeling.

Those relatives and old friends, the sincere feelings remain the same, but for a being like him, those people and events are like a fragment of history, a line of text, a piece of information, losing the original meaning that ordinary people can understand.

Having reached a different level of life, he could no longer find that sense of wonder he once felt.

He was tired of it all; everything had lost its meaning for him, leaving only a persistent desire to go further.

Power is limitless, and striving ever upwards was his final obsession.

And so he sacrificed himself once more, going through cycles of destruction and rebirth, to an indescribable degree, endless spacetime, the universe, chaos, the Dao, restarting countless times, being sacrificed again and again.

Finally, during this process, his dull mind, negative emotions, and the power of constant sacrifice combined, resulting in an unexpected event that caused ten terrible calamities to erupt. In other words, he fell ill.

Then, he chose to immolate himself. In the final flames, his skull formed a bowl, almost completely destroyed by the fire. Although it was not as precious as the Lotus of Eternal Reincarnation, it still possessed a trace of mystique, carrying his last shred of obsession and yearning for further progress as he fell into the vast world.

Originally, this obsession would have dissipated and been burned away by the sacrificial fire, but the continuous grand sacrifices by the strange race caused an unexpected turn of events in this process.

Through repeated grand sacrifices, a portion of its remnants was forcibly revived until one day, a being from beyond the heavens was brought here and inherited this unconscious obsession. He knew everything about the future and the appearance of the Three Heavenly Emperors and others. All of history appeared in his mind like a script. However, because the sick old man of the past had lost all his power and sacrificed everything, he was truly just an ordinary person starting from scratch.

If he dies, he will only be Wang Hongwu. If he succeeds in ascending the sacrificial path again and inherits the past, he will be the master of the Three-Life Coffin. Everything still depends on himself.

The remaining ashes were scattered across the plateau, giving rise to the later Plateau Consciousness and the ten progenitors.

"I see." Wang Hongwu saw through everything and couldn't help but sigh. The former master of the bronze coffin had failed in the end, but now he had learned from his experience and would not fail again.

Using the power of the sacrificial rites, he is pushing the Tai Sui system to sublimate, to evolve a new realm of his own system, to elevate it to another level, a non-existent existence, an impossible possibility, a logicless logic, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Of course, this is itself an illogical realm.

Therefore, to reach this level, one must defy logic!

Whether it is existence, behavior, consciousness, or power, it must transcend so-called logic. If something is truly and completely without logic, then it can be omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, going from violating logic to transcending logic.

Subsequently, Wang Hongwu's system, which integrated the healer and the disease, was elevated. So-called diseases and calamities were attributed to 'illogical loopholes', and then further developed into illogical paradoxes, non-existent existences, impossible possibilities, and illogical logic. It then combined all paradoxes into one, and was elevated again, transcending logic.

As he was destroyed and reborn, repeating this cycle endlessly, reaching indescribable levels and heights, he finally found peace. Looking back, he had transcended the past and ushered in a new life.

The countless worldviews within his body changed as a result, and the shadow that gathered ten diseases became the Lord of the Plateau. However, this time, he was not afflicted.

Instead, it transforms into a bottomless pit, absorbing all the calamities, illnesses, and misfortunes that arise in the world, thereby healing the vast world, preserving its light, turning calamities into pure land, and plateaus into paradise, thus illuminating countless world lines.

Everything changed because of this.

"It seems that this is how we've taken a different path." Wang Hongwu nodded slightly. This marked a departure from his former sick old man. At this moment, his perspective continued to broaden, extending beyond his worldview.

During the process, he saw that Shi Hao and Ye Fan had also undergone a complete transformation, taking that step on the sacrificial path, and were nodding to him in acknowledgment.

Everything around me has changed, beyond what I think and desire, beyond logic. It is beyond everything, a foundational place formed by countless variables and possibilities, or perhaps it can be called 'beyond thought'.

Here, he saw a vast 'Origin Trilogy' worldview, from which countless parallel worldviews branched out. Each worldview had a similar history and three Heavenly Emperors. In the outermost parallel worldviews, different 'protagonists' appeared.

They are either figures from the original history or visitors from outer space, all changing the old history and creating new history. This can be called a 'fan fiction worldview', which all derives an origin worldview. The paths may be similar or different, but the scale is the same. There is no distinction between high and low, only between primary and secondary.

Then, Wang Hongwu saw the three figures from the Origin Worldview looking over. They were the original Huang, Ye, and Chu. They smiled slightly and said, "Fellow Daoist, we've kept you waiting."

At the same time, he also understood the changes in these worldviews. In addition to the trilogy, there are all sorts of worldviews. Some transcendent beings, in order to seek more variables and fun, came up with a special method, which is to use the evolution of the origin worldview to outline a parallel worldview of the same magnitude, cultivate the 'self' in it to reach the same level of transcendence, and then merge them into one.

In this process, it is naturally inconvenient for them to interfere, otherwise the derived individuals would be directly assimilated, losing the meaning of growth, and their trajectories must be different from theirs in order to be effective.

In such a situation, there is a lot of uncertainty. Almost everyone will grow along a fixed and similar path, then merge and assimilate without any growth, which is a waste of effort. So some people started to come up with a solution.

It involves using figures like 'time travelers,' 'reborn individuals,' and even 'reincarnators' to guide change and achieve one's goals. In one's own derivative universe, one can transcend and forge a different path. When they reunite, they can effectively add variables, providing both entertainment and opportunities to strengthen one's power.

Wang Hongwu is somewhat like a combination of a time traveler and a reborn person, becoming a brand new variable, another free spirit who transcends thoughts and breaks free from the constraints of worldview.

Here, everything is unpredictable, everything is possible, and everything is in a constant state of transcendence and reversal.

"Fellow Daoist, I've kept you waiting."

He nodded slightly and stood with the three of them, appearing in his courtyard at the same time.

Huang, Ye, Chu, and Wang exchanged a smile, then sat down to pour wine, overlooking the rise and fall of countless worldviews, the birth of one protagonist after another, and their transcendence time and time again.

The bright moon hung high, the night was gentle, and the courtyard was peaceful and quiet. The four people raised their cups together and drank them down in one gulp.

Wang Hongwu's gaze was fixed on the infinite distance. The old history had come to an end, but a new history was being written beneath his feet.

It seems like a new beginning, yet also like a brief end; the process itself is magnificent.

Stories always come to an end, and scenery always fades, but this road has no end yet.

The road has no end, and the path has no limit.

The chirping of insects marks the passing of autumn; we are all on the road.

Complete book.

(End of this chapter)