Absolute Destiny Game.

Chapter 611 The Truth of the Great Thousand Worlds

Xiao Jie leaned back in his chair with a leisurely air, his gaze calmly fixed on the Celestial Venerable opposite him, whose expression had suddenly changed. Like a patient angler, he quietly awaited the fish's final struggle and confession. The air in the restaurant's dreamlike atmosphere seemed to freeze, with only the illusory background sounds of the city outside the window flowing silently.

The astonishment on the Celestial Venerable's face lasted for several seconds before gradually transforming into an incredulous confusion. "Brother Suifeng... where... where did you hear that? You actually know about 'Immortal Puppets'... wait a minute!" He shook his head violently, his brows furrowed. "Logically speaking, I should be the only one who has reached the Great Thousand World in the entire game so far! And 'Immortal Puppets' are monsters and features unique to the Great Thousand World, so players in the Nine Provinces World shouldn't be able to come into contact with them... This, this is truly inexplicable!"

He racked his brains, seemingly trying to find any possible leaks from the corners of his memory, but ultimately came up empty-handed and could only cast a puzzled look at Xiao Jie.

Xiao Jie remained calm and composed, offering no explanation for his source of information. He simply gazed back at the Celestial Venerable with eyes that seemed to see right through people, waiting for him to reveal the mystery or, perhaps, expose more flaws.

"You don't need to bother guessing about that. I naturally have my own sources of information." Xiao Jie's tone was calm, but it carried an undeniable certainty. "So, don't think you can easily fool me with those embellished lies—especially about the 'Immortal Puppet' and the truth of the Great Thousand World."

"Damn! I'm really impressed by you!" The Celestial Venerable slapped his forehead, speechless, with an expression that was both funny and exasperated.

"Your statement is too ridiculous and outrageous! Players cannot be transformed into celestial puppets at all! We have system rules to protect us; this is the underlying mechanism! Only the ancient, old-version, native immortals born from the world itself can become celestial puppets because they cannot resist the Demon Lord's corruption. This is part of the background setting! You doubt that I am a celestial puppet... are you kidding me?"

"I know," Xiao Jie replied, his response still concise and calm.

"You know?" The Celestial Venerable was stunned, thinking to himself, "You know, so why are you talking to me about this?"

"Of course I know."

"Then why did you ask that? Were you trying to scare me?" The Celestial Venerable was somewhat exasperated.

“Although I know that players will not be transformed into celestial puppets,” Xiao Jie’s lips curled up slightly, revealing a subtle, all-knowing smile, “I am not sure if the Great Thousand World is really as you say, a place where one can come and go freely. Or rather, I cannot be sure whether one can easily ‘come back’ after going there.”

He paused, looked into the Celestial Venerable's eyes, and slowly said, "But now, based on your reaction... I can be basically certain."

Xiao Jie certainly wouldn't arbitrarily identify the other party as a Celestial Puppet. Such a notion is illogical. In the world of Kyushu, various forms of undead beings and controlled puppets transformed from native inhabitants also exist, but player character templates are unique, inherently immune to such permanent, destructive negative transformations that overturn player control. No mature game mechanics includes a design that directly turns player characters into uncontrollable monsters; that would be tantamount to stripping players of their core experience.

The worst outcome for a player is simply dying.

Since the Great World is an advanced expansion pack for "Old Land", it must follow the same underlying game rules, and theoretically, such a mechanism is impossible.

The reason he threw out the sharp and serious accusation of "immortal puppet" was essentially a conversational tactic, a cover for the first question he really wanted to ask—"If you go to the Great Thousand Worlds, can you never come back?"

When faced with two accusations at the same time, one particularly serious and absurd (you are a celestial puppet), and the other relatively minor but closer to the truth (you concealed the truth of an irreversible return), people's subconscious reaction is often to rush to refute the more serious accusation in order to prove their "innocence".

As for the less serious but real accusation, unless the accusation is completely unfounded, in the rush to clear the main grievance, people often subconsciously ignore rebuttals, or even tacitly agree to it to some extent. This mindset is very common when interrogating criminals—criminals may be eager to deny the serious crime of murder, but may inadvertently admit to lesser crimes such as theft or assault.

The Celestial Venerable's reaction perfectly confirms this. He vehemently refuted the absurd accusation that he was a "celestial puppet," but while he tried to downplay the point of "being unable to return," he did not completely and resolutely deny its existence.

"It seems that the other party has indeed concealed this crucial truth." Xiao Jie realized, "The vast world is most likely a... one-way ticket world with no return."

Upon hearing Xiao Jie's analysis, the Celestial Venerable was initially taken aback. His mind raced for a moment before he fully grasped the deeper meaning behind Xiao Jie's words and the fact that he had been tricked into revealing information. A look of relief mixed with intense annoyance and a wry smile appeared on his face.

"Damn! You little brat...you're too cunning!" The Celestial Venerable pointed at Xiao Jie, his tone complicated. "I'm starting to doubt whether inviting you to the Great Thousand World was the right decision. You're just too shrewd!"

Xiao Jie laughed, his smile radiating confidence and composure: "Of course it's correct. If what you say is true, that there are many small groups of players from different 'newbie villages' in this vast world, with fierce competition, then someone like me, with brains and strength, could at least become a reliable ally for you, helping you deal with players from other worlds and compete for resources. That's much better than fooling a 'fool' who's easily deceived and will only hold you back, isn't it?"

He changed the subject, his tone becoming serious: "However, to truly convince me, deception and concealment will absolutely not work. I'll take all your previous talk about how wonderful the Great Thousand World is as boasting; I've never heard of it. Now, let's be frank and tell me... what the Great Thousand World is really like." Xiao Jie leaned forward slightly, his tone unusually serious: "Let me make this clear first: if I suspect you're still trying to deceive me, I absolutely will not go. Suspicion only breeds vigilance, and vigilance inevitably leads to wariness. Once I'm wary, I'll only imagine the worst. So, you might as well tell the truth, clearly explaining the pros and cons, the risks and opportunities. I will naturally make a judgment on whether to go to the Great Thousand World based on the information you provide."

Seeing the unwavering determination in Xiao Jie's eyes, the Celestial Venerable knew that further trickery was pointless and might even lead to the complete loss of this potentially invaluable ally. He sighed helplessly and nodded.

"Okay, okay... you win. I'll tell you the truth." He rubbed his face, trying to appear more sincere. "Actually... what I told you before was pretty much the same, except... I deliberately ignored or embellished some key 'details'."

As he spoke, the Celestial Venerable seemed to have let go of his burdens and began to tell Xiao Jie his story. Perhaps to truly gain Xiao Jie's trust, or perhaps because he had been struggling alone in the vast world for so long, accumulating too many unspeakable secrets and pressures, he had finally found someone he could confide in and who understood his situation. Once he started talking, the Celestial Venerable couldn't stop. This mysterious and powerful number one player was now like a chatterbox, recounting everything in detail, starting directly from when he first entered the game.

According to Tianzun's description, he was indeed one of the earliest players in the open beta of "Old Land". Like most players, he initially stayed near a newbie village, using crude weapons and carefully fighting the lowest-level monsters, accumulating experience and copper coins little by little.

Later, after gaining some strength, I went to a nearby town in the system and teamed up with a group of friends I met online. We enthusiastically explored more remote wilderness maps, filled with longing for the unknown world.

"And the result?" The Celestial Venerable chuckled self-deprecatingly. "My luck was 'extraordinarily' good. I ran into a high-level area patrol demon king BOSS in the wild, and the whole team was wiped out instantly. I was the only one left, relying on a bit of luck and the survival skills I had learned at the time, and I scrambled and crawled into the deep mountains and forests. It was truly miserable. I was out of ammo and food, my health was almost gone, and the BOSS's minions were chasing me. It seemed like there was no hope of survival, but because I was in combat, I couldn't log off directly. I was utterly desperate..."

“Just when I thought I was about to confess everything,” his tone became somewhat strange, “I encountered an old man with a white beard in a secluded valley—yes, just like you think, a hermit immortal.”

What followed seemed rather "cliché" in the Celestial Venerable's account. It was nothing more than following this immortal in cultivation, relieving his boredom, and performing a large number of tedious and even bizarre daily tasks to increase his favorability. During this time, with the addition of some fortuitous encounters and the triggering of hidden quests, he finally succeeded in obtaining the destiny of immortality, embarked on the path of immortality, and ultimately met the conditions to "ascend" to the Great Thousand World.

Listening to this, Xiao Jie thought to himself, "This guy's luck is truly incredible. To escape from a desperate situation and directly encounter a hidden immortal—the probability of that is probably lower than winning the lottery. No wonder he can become the number one immortal among the players."

However, this fortuitous encounter coincided with Gu Feiyu's theory.

"Alright, that's about it for the backstory." The Celestial Venerable finished his recollection, his expression turning serious again. "Now let's talk about the true situation of the Great Thousand World."

"First, regarding safety." He carefully chose his words, "In this vast world, generally speaking, if you're willing to play it safe and only stay in the outer areas, fighting ordinary monsters, then it is indeed relatively safe. Even if you accidentally die, you can revive just like in the Nine Provinces world, but you will be in a 'weak' state for a period of time and lose some of your current level's experience points or 'cultivation points'."

“But—” he emphasized, looking directly at Xiao Jie, “if you are not satisfied with this and want to quickly improve your cultivation, enhance your strength, and obtain truly powerful forces, top-tier treasures, and immortal techniques, then you must take risks.”

"In this vast world, there are many instances known as 'secret realms'. These secret realms produce some of the best treasures in the current version. Among these secret realms, there is an extremely special type of instance that appears occasionally, which spawns randomly and is extremely rare and hard to come by. It is called the 'Origin Secret Realm'."

The Celestial Venerable's face revealed an expression mixed with awe and longing: "The monsters in these 'Primordial Secret Realms' are called [Manifestations of Laws] or [Conceptual Manifestations]. Not only are they ridiculously powerful, far surpassing ordinary secret realm monsters of the same level, but more importantly, they possess the power to touch the very origin of the world, having the terrifying ability to truly kill immortals, annihilating them completely!"

“Once a player dies in this kind of secret realm…” The Celestial Venerable made a throat-slitting gesture, his expression solemn, “then it is very likely that they are truly dead. Even if we possess the immortal qualities of immortals, it is difficult to survive under the impact of that primordial power. That is permanent death, character deletion, everything reset to zero.”

"But!" He changed the subject, his eyes blazing with fervor. "High risk means high reward! Once you successfully open the 'Origin Realm,' you can obtain the legendary 'Origin-level' treasure, which can directly elevate your life level, touch the root of the Great Dao, and even grant you partial world authority! These treasures are often unique, containing incredible power. They are the keys to the highest realm, and the ultimate pursuit that all top players dream of and are willing to risk everything for!"

“However, this kind of thing…” The Celestial Venerable’s tone lowered again, and he shrugged. “I’ve never succeeded in doing it. It’s impossible for one person to clear it alone. The mechanics there are complex, and the monsters are insanely strong. You have to rely on a team that works together closely. If I join another small group, I’m likely to be betrayed by my teammates at crucial moments, or even deliberately killed to steal the loot. So, I can only go it alone, staying far away from those places, which naturally means I’m out of luck when it comes to these top-tier treasures.”

Xiao Jie nodded thoughtfully. The Celestial Venerable's description sounded much more reasonable and aligned with his understanding of high-risk, high-reward games. Lone wolves are helpless against top-tier team dungeons—this is a universal truth in the online gaming world.

However, based solely on the Celestial Venerable's description of risks and rewards, Xiao Jie still couldn't gain a clear understanding of the overall background and atmosphere of this "vast world." He needed a more macro-level understanding.

"So, what is the game's background in this vast world?" Xiao Jie asked, changing the subject. "What is its world-building structure? Is there a clear main storyline? Please give me a detailed introduction."

The Celestial Venerable nodded, seemingly happy to share this information, as it made him appear more sincere. He cleared his throat and continued his explanation.

(End of this chapter)