Chu Tian felt a surge of emotion at what was happening before him.
Although he had altered much of history and even accelerated its pace, he had never anticipated that Jue Sha would die at the hands of his own boss.
He mused whether, in his past life, Jue Sha would have met the same fate at the hands of Hei Sha. Perhaps here, he had simply hastened his demise.
As this thought occurred to Chu Tian, cold sweat beaded on his brow.
What about his past-life self? Was he still living like a dog, or…
And Luo Luo?
Zhang Chengcheng, Chen Yuer…
His brothers beside him… Wouldn't each of their lives be different?
Thinking of this, Chu Tian's heart felt as if it were being twisted by knives.
Scenes from his past life flashed before his eyes. Spending days curled up in a tin shack on the rooftop, earning meager gold coins by mining and gathering in the Heavenly Dao world. Exchanging these coins for essential living supplies. The excruciating pain in his broken leg before and after the wind and rain.
And then, the thought of Luo Luo not being by his side. Zhang Chengcheng would never know him. Chen Yuer would have even less interaction with him. Gao Kai and Jing Kaiyu would also die in their mercenary careers. Gao Kai wouldn't marry Qi Xi. The Luo family would be wiped out, and Luo Luo would either be married off or wander to a foreign land. Zhang Chengcheng would become someone else's cultivation vessel, perhaps Zheng Enlai's concubine? Given Chengcheng's personality, would she commit suicide afterward? Chen Yuer would likely live a normal life, falling in love, getting married, and having children.
It seemed all of this had changed because he had been reborn.
But… The thought of all of them leaving him made Chu Tian's heart ache. If he returned to the space of his past life, spending his days only entering the Heavenly Dao world and lying on his bed, staring at the tin roof, he felt an extreme sense of resistance. His heart was filled with immeasurable pain, and he couldn't escape this state.
"What's going on?"
Chu Tian suddenly realized that the heartache and suffocation had vanished. The area before him was dim. Upon closer inspection, he found himself within his own spiritual platform.
"Something's wrong! Why has it become like this? Yueyue, Shoushou, Fengfeng, Wangwang, Shuishui…"
Chu Tian found his spiritual platform to be enveloped in darkness. Although it had never had sunlight, it had always been incredibly bright. Now, it was in a state of ruin. The small islands in the four directions were dilapidated, as if they were about to sink beneath the Divine Origin Water.
"Yaya… No, Yaya isn't here; she's still on Ascension Island."
Chu Tian called out to Yueyue and the other children, but received no response. He looked towards the center of his spiritual platform, where the formerly verdant canopy of the Tree of Life stood. It was now completely withered, leaving only branches that looked as if they would crumble into dust.
"Caw caw… Stop calling. If she weren't absent, how could I have gotten out?"
A familiar voice emerged. Chu Tian's heart turned cold as he turned to look. Standing behind him was a person. The familiar voice emanated from his mouth. The reason it was familiar was… it was his own voice.
Chu Tian turned and looked at the person. He… rather than standing, he seemed to be floating. This was because his legs, from the knees down, were completely gone. The clothes he wore were also incredibly familiar. His face… was identical to Chu Tian's. However, his eyes were filled with resentment. His face had no flesh, his cheekbones protruded, his eyes were sunken, and his lips were dry and cracked. His arms and fingers resembled chicken claws. Seeing him, Chu Tian felt as if he were looking at himself in a mirror from his past life.
"Who… are you?" Chu Tian hesitated before asking.
"Who am I? Caw caw… I am Chu Tian… Who are you?" The figure before him let out a strange laugh.
"You are Chu Tian! You are Chu Tian! You are Chu Tian!" Hearing the figure's words, Chu Tian repeated them three times in his mouth. At the same time, he questioned himself, "Who am I?"
At this moment, looking at the figure, Chu Tian dared not deny it. He had a feeling that the other person was indeed Chu Tian. His past self… and he was the Chu Tian who had suffered all sorts of torment, the Chu Tian before his rebirth. Chu Tian, as if influenced by the environment and the sight of his past self before him, was filled with guilt.
"You are enjoying yourself. Have you ever thought of me?"
"Everything you have now was earned by me, through three years of struggle, mining life crystals in endless dark mines."
"The wealth you possess should have been mine!"
"Heh, who gave you the title of God of Virtue? Without the experience I left you, you are nothing."
Chu Tian listened to these words, each one like a mantra from a Buddhist scripture. He stood there in a daze, his eyes shifting from clarity to dullness, slowly dimming. The Chu Tian with half a leg before him, seeing this, curled his lips into his signature smile, one with a hint of vulgarity, a touch of insolence, and a trace of coldness. Simultaneously, the legless Chu Tian slowly floated forward, his provocative words not ceasing.
Just as he was about to reach Chu Tian, a large hand, without warning, shot out and grabbed him by the neck.
"You…"
*Bang…*
The legless Chu Tian was startled. Before he could utter a word, a muffled explosion sounded from his neck. His half-crippled body instantly exploded into a mass of black, ashen mist.
"You… shouldn't have mentioned the names of those three!"
The mist transformed into a torrent that drifted into the distance, and in an instant, the miserable Chu Tian reappeared. The preceding words were not spoken by him. They were spoken by the real Chu Tian. His black hair fluttered, his robes rippled, and in this windless, waveless soul space, they moved as if stirred by a breeze.
"How is this possible? Your will was about to dissipate just now!" The figure from his past life, now slightly fainter than before, stared at Chu Tian with a look of shock.
"Heh, I told you, you shouldn't have mentioned the names of those three. You were right earlier; I owe you. I'll repay you… It doesn't matter… But the way your lewd, obscene voice spoke their names… If you want to lay your hands on them, go die!"
As Chu Tian uttered his final words, his body suddenly expanded. In this soul space, his body seemed like a god. Simultaneously, a colossal palm slammed towards the figure from his past life.
"Impossible, impossible! Here, how can you still break through?" The figure wore an expression of disbelief, its voice filled with madness.
"This is not your spiritual platform; this is… the realm of inner demons! Even if you break through, you will still die! It will just be more troublesome!"
At this moment, the figure from his past life also began to grow wildly. A gray palm collided with Chu Tian's hand.
*Boom…*
With a deafening roar, the heavens and earth changed color. The originally gray, hazy world instantly transformed. A blood-red hue appeared.