Sealing

The moment the words left his lips, the surging chaotic energy suddenly shattered into ten thousand particles.

The purple youth's expression turned to one of absolute terror.

He could clearly feel that he was losing control over the abyss. His divine power and his divine status were all slipping away from him at this very moment!

He was turning into an ordinary person!

The purple youth had seen this kind of rule-based ability once before on someone else—Lu Xun.

However, while the ability was clearly the same, the purple youth felt that the power of the rules this time was even more overbearing. He had no chance to resist at all; the moment he was touched, he became an ordinary person without a shred of divine power!

What a god-tier ability!

But what terrified the purple youth even more was the stranger's final words.

This unknown god called himself Xun Shen!

Xun Shen?

Then who was the guy kneeling on the ground across from him, looking so pathetic and disheveled?

Two Xun Shens?

A sense of profound sorrow inexplicably welled up within the purple youth.

“Xun Shen?” Lu Xun stared blankly at the figure shrouded in black robes. Although he couldn't see the man's features, Lu Xun felt like he had seen this outfit somewhere before.

Then he remembered. He had seen this person in the background image of Grinya's Life Star awakening!

He looked exactly like the figure in that image!

And if Lu Xun remembered correctly, he had felt a strange sense of familiarity toward that figure back then. He had found the feeling a bit repulsive at the time, but if he considered that the guy might actually be himself...

It was even more repulsive.

The purple youth hadn't given up yet. He suddenly spun around and swung a fist at the black-robed man behind him.

But without his divine power or divine status, his physical strength couldn't even match that of a weak college student. His fist was caught effortlessly by the man in black.

“It's time for all of this to end,” the black-robed man said.

The moon above them drew closer and closer.

Lu Xun looked up and nearly jumped out of his skin.

His entire field of vision was now occupied by the surface of the moon. This was the closest he had ever been to it; it felt as if he could touch it just by reaching out. An indescribable sense of eeriness and dread washed over him.

“It won't end like this! I won't let it end like this!” the purple youth roared in futility.

The moon crashed down with a thunderous boom!

Lu Xun clutched his head.

But the moon wasn't aimed at him. His body never made contact with the massive celestial body, as if it were merely an illusion, yet the dull roar of its descent was incredibly real. Lu Xun felt as though his eardrums were about to burst.

This was surely the kind of sound only two planets colliding could produce.

Lu Xun opened his eyes, only to find that the spectacular scene he had imagined hadn't occurred. He was standing on a patch of dark gray soil. The gravity was very light; a small hop could send him soaring several meters high. Several massive craters in his line of sight caught his attention.

They looked somewhat familiar, yet also strange.

He turned around and suddenly froze in place, sinking into a state of profound shock.

An azure planet hung quietly in the darkness, its bright blue light reflecting off the ground beneath his feet, turning it white.

That was... Earth.

Then the ground beneath his feet was... the moon?

He was stunned. Even with his mind racing, he couldn't comprehend the scene before him.

How had he suddenly gone from the abyss to outer space?

“Because the abyss is, in fact, outer space.” Someone suddenly walked up beside him, gazing out at the beautiful blue planet with him.

“?” Lu Xun stared wide-eyed at the black-robed man.

The man reached out and slowly pulled back his hood, revealing a face that was identical to Lu Xun's.

“You!” Lu Xun was even more shocked. Even though he had guessed it earlier, seeing that face for himself still felt utterly absurd.

“Yes, I am you—you from the future,” the man said. “I imagine the fact that the abyss is outer space is a hard thing for you to believe, but that is the truth.

Order and Chaos are gods born at the very beginning of the universe's creation, and the abyss is the cradle that birthed them. That is why their power is nearly infinite here.

However, because order has been lost here and it remains in a state of disordered chaos, the abyss you see is different from what you imagined.”

“The abyss is outer space... so what about space radiation?” Lu Xun asked.

The man nodded. “Radiation is actually one form of corruption. Outer space has been influenced by Chaos for too long; this corruption is deep-rooted and can no longer be purged.”

Lu Xun was speechless.

He still found it difficult to connect the things he knew with strange, supernatural evil forces.

“And Source Crystals are actually just metallic chunks with nuclear radiation. They can alter atomic structures, and under the influence of alchemy, they can transform one substance into another of equivalent value.”

“Wait, Source Crystals are radioactive metallic chunks?” Lu Xun was incredulous. “That means...”

Before he could finish, the man answered for him, “Yes, uranium is also a type of Source Crystal.”

Lu Xun: “...”

The amount of information was too much; he was having trouble digesting it all.

“So, was all of this planned by you—by the future me?” Lu Xun asked the question he had been dying to know.

The man nodded and admitted it.

“We had to make sure you also set out on the path of god-hunting. This is a destiny that no Lu Xun can escape.”

“Heh, that damn fatalism again. I'm tired of hearing it. Wait!” Lu Xun paused. “Every Lu Xun? What does that mean?”

“It might sound a bit complicated. First, you must understand that true gods are not affected by time. They can appear in any point in space-time—past, present, or future. Simply sealing them in one place is meaningless because a god in a single timeline is not affected by other timelines. Take Chaos as an example: even though I have sealed it now, if any version of Chaos in another timeline is not successfully sealed, then everything we've done will be in vain!”

“Are you saying Chaos might still be resurrected?” Lu Xun said in alarm.

“Exactly. So that is your task: return to the worlds of the past Eras, exile all gods from the world, and then guide the next Lu Xun onto the path of god-hunting.”

“Don't make it sound so easy, you bastard!” Lu Xun said irritably. “And where am I supposed to find the next Lu Xun?”

The man looked at him and said, “When you return to the past, you will naturally encounter the Lu Xun of that timeline, just as I encountered you. The reason your world is peaceful and unaffected by divine corruption is because I returned to the past Eras and exiled all the gods. Now, you must inherit this karma and do what I have already done.”

“I am your future, and I am also your past.”

“But we are not the same person. I am not you, and you will not become me. You will have your own choices and your own story.”