When he heard that the Desolate King, the true god, had descended, He Li showed no particular expression, as if it were only natural, like the grand finale always being the last to appear in a play.
He Li looked at the Desolate King. He was unremarkable, not tall, not robust or strong. If not for the desolate divine power he exuded, capable of shattering space, he would have seemed like just another ordinary person in the crowd.
"Why are you doing this?" The Desolate King was the first to break the silence. He asked He Li for the reason behind his actions. Everyone, including gods, needed a reason.
The Desolate King continued, "You are merely the humanity of Xia Peishu. All karma should have been borne by Xia Peishu. But he was a coward. He dared not face the responsibility bestowed upon him by the previous epoch and chose self-annihilation, pushing you out. You should have had a better life, not fighting on the battlefield, and now facing me."
He Li listened quietly. The moment the Desolate King finished speaking, he burst into laughter. Leaning on his blood-red great saber, he bent over with laughter, coughing uncontrollably and spitting out blood. His internal organs had been injured in the previous battle and had not yet fully healed.
"What reason? What reason do I have!"
He Li retorted with a sneer, "What cultivation, what heavenly gods, what Barbarian Ancient Yan Clan, what Spirit-Taming Remnant Tribe, what war between the two races – to me, they are all bullshit."
He Li suppressed his laughter, wiped the blood from his lips and chin, and said calmly, "Desolate King, you don't need to try to break my will, nor mock me. My will is as strong as gold and iron, unchangeable."
Then,
He Li smiled and asked back, "Then you and the Divine King destroyed the Barbarian Ancient Epoch and jointly established the New Divine Epoch. In this New Divine Epoch, you have fought for millions of years. What was it all for?"
"You sit on that divine throne, establishing the Divine Realm and the Desolate Realm, and then you make your people fight. Are you afraid?"
He Li's face showed mockery, and he sneered, "When ordinary people do something wrong, they live cautiously and fear retribution for the rest of their lives.
Are gods any different?"
"The Divine King feared his people would have ulterior motives. His Highness the Divine King suppressed the Mountain of Seeing Gods. With the Mountain of Seeing Gods, divine nature came first, always suppressing human nature. When the Mountain of Seeing Gods collapsed, the Divine King gained emotions and was no longer a puppet to be manipulated.
And you, Desolate King? Your divine palace is inscribed with the sacrificial texts of the Desolate Clan, and there are eight battle banners. You are so ruthless that you directly erased the three natures of your people, cultivating only physical strength and divine power."
"For millions of years, the Divine Lords on the battlefield could not see the Mountain of Seeing Gods, and their human nature gradually emerged, leading to great advancements in cultivation. The Divine King was eager to eliminate dissidents. Sian was like that, Yu Qiang was also like that. Xia Kuduo hid his strength for millions of years, but he could not escape the fate of being exiled to the river of time.
When the old dog Xi Ming had ulterior motives, you went with the flow, allowing him to awaken the Yan Calendar, draw me out, draw out Xia Kuduo, and use Xia Kuduo's desire to protect me to make him fight the true gods of the Barbarian Ancient Era, thus eliminating Xia Kuduo, a variable that could threaten both of you."
"Heh... what a brilliant scheme, what a meticulous plan. I walked step by step, seemingly smoothly and with proper planning, but in reality, it was all under your watchful eyes."
The Desolate King listened quietly to He Li's words. His gaze towards He Li changed. He looked at He Li with admiration and couldn't help but ask, "How do you know these things? As far as I know, although you are intelligent and highly talented, you are not skilled in strategy."
He Li smiled self-deprecatingly and murmured, "By the time I knew, Xia Kuduo had already left. What difference does it make whether I knew or not?"
In an instant,
His thoughts raced, and he thought of many people. They flashed through his mind like slides, but he couldn't see their faces clearly.
He Li felt incredibly lonely. At this moment, he truly understood how tiring it was to be the pillar of a family. Everyone in the family was watching him. He dared not fall, dared not waver, and dared not even complain of fatigue, bearing all the pressure and responsibility.
If he were not standing here but on Earth, decades later, he would be old and frail, half-lying under an old banyan tree, half-drunk, his old eyes cloudy, his body hunched. Looking back over the years, he would sigh, his sighs scattering in the autumn wind. Occasionally, he would tell his grandchildren his stories. They might not like to listen, or they might listen patiently even after hearing them dozens of times.
Perhaps, they had already left home, and he wouldn't see them even once a year. Would his old wife be Huai Xi? It was unlikely.
He Li withdrew his thoughts, looked up at the Desolate King, raised his hand to pat his chest, and smiled brightly, saying, "My injuries are healed."
The Desolate King was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter, "You rascal, so you were talking to me to stall for time and heal yourself."
He Li gripped the blood-red great saber tightly, ready for battle, "Otherwise? What is there for me to talk about with you? I don't have the habit of confiding in my enemies. Standing here, it's either you die or I die. The outcome is already decided, so why say useless things?"
"You are absolutely right. Everything must have a reason, a purpose. It's the same for me. For example, these words I'm saying now are to buy time to mobilize the Golden Bell and Golden Cauldron."
As He Li finished speaking, a golden bell rose from behind him into the sky. In an instant, it transformed, becoming tens of thousands of feet tall, covering the entire battlefield. The colossal golden bell enveloped the eight bone gates and the eight battle banners.
Below, a golden cauldron covered the entire battlefield. The golden bell and golden cauldron enclosed this independent space, this battlefield.
At this moment, the battlefield turned golden, purifying the black desolate divine power emanating from the bone gates and battle banners. No matter how powerful the desolate divine power had been before, it could no longer shake the golden bell and golden cauldron. The ancient seal script on the bell and cauldron flowed with golden divine radiance, like golden pythons swimming.
The Desolate King watched He Li in silence, his expression turning grim. He casually raised his hand, clenched his fist, and sent a punch into the void before him. The punch was light, but after it landed, a vast, abyss-like black desolate divine power erupted, forming a black curtain that struck the golden bell and golden cauldron from above and below.
Boom!
Dong!
The bell and cauldron shook violently. Although not shattered, they swayed precariously.
The Desolate King's strike was terrifyingly powerful. Endless desolate divine power permeated the battlefield, dark, cold, and with astonishing divine power fluctuations.
He Li shot up into the sky and fiercely swung his saber, confronting the desolate divine power that covered half the battlefield. With a hum, the black curtain-like desolate divine power was split in the middle. Countless white light threads flew out from behind him, piercing space and heading towards the depths of the universe to draw in star divine power.
The Desolate King narrowed his eyes and looked at He Li.
He Li held his saber, suspended in the sky, and sneered at the Desolate King, "What are you waiting for? Waiting for the Divine King? After I kill you, I'll go to the Divine Realm to send him to meet you."
"Boasting." The Desolate King shook his head, then moved his body, appearing before He Li. He reached out his hand towards He Li, intending to grab his shoulder.
He Li did not dodge.
Strangely, the Desolate King's hand stopped in front of He Li, unable to advance. The Desolate King's hand visibly wrinkled, aging considerably.
"Law of Time?"
The Desolate King abruptly withdrew his hand. Black desolate divine power, like sticky liquid, adhered to his hand, repairing the damage.
He Li took a deep breath, not looking at the Desolate King standing before him. Instead, he extended his left thumb and drew it down from his right shoulder to his wrist. A large wound appeared on his right arm, but it did not bleed. The wound emitted a white light.
Suddenly,
From the white light of the wound on his right arm, an arm emerged. The hand grasped the Desolate King's neck, holding him tightly.
The Desolate King's eyes glowed as he activated the divine power of the Divine King Realm to break free from the hand's restraint, but it was useless.
"You dare to cross time and space to look into the future!" the Desolate King exclaimed in amazement. At this moment, he understood. This was He Li's trump card.
He could not defeat him, so he did not hesitate to merge himself into time to find his future self. Even summoning a single hand was enough to restrain him.
He Li held his right arm level, still holding the saber in his hand. Blood gushed from his seven orifices, but he was smiling, his face covered in blood, his smile ferocious and terrifying, "How about it? My future self is very powerful, isn't he?"
"You are courting death. Past, present, and future are mutually causal yet do not interfere with each other. You actually sought out your future self and summoned your future self.
A future that does not belong to the present has changed the present, so what will your future self be like? He Li, you have lost, and you cannot kill me."
"Hmph!"
He Li snorted coldly, summoned the Golden Cauldron, and suppressed the Desolate King beneath it.
"Seeing my past self feels rather strange. I feel like I'm more handsome now."
A somewhat comical, flippant voice pierced through time and space, echoing in He Li's ears across the river of time. His future self was speaking to him, and he even said something utterly nonsensical. It was truly his style.
That voice never appeared again.
A moment later,
He Li smiled and murmured, "I'm 24 years old, in the prime of my youth, the most handsome time of my life."
There was no reply.
This conversation across the river of time, between himself and himself, finally ended in this manner.
Then,
He sat down cross-legged. Countless white light threads behind him continuously supplied him with star power, converting it into star divine power to heal his injuries.
At the same time,
A new change occurred on the central battlefield.
...