From the end of the world

Chapter 770 Another Universe

“That’s right,” the Divination Master said solemnly. “After pushing open the second door and becoming the Great Impermanence, the Old Fist God’s soul influence unfolded in the form of the Law of Heaven and Earth, possessing the power to cause the humans in his area, and even all life, to exhibit berserk symptoms.”

"Not only animals, but even plants will inexplicably exhibit carnivorous behavior, preying on any life form that enters their range. Even microorganisms and bacteria will become more vicious, mutating into terrifying invasiveness, infectivity, and lethality."

"When they can observe the Old Fist God, all these berserk creatures will attack him; when they cannot, they will fight each other in pairs. Couples who were just expressing their love for each other will tear each other's throats without hesitation; even parents will become bestial and bite their infants with their teeth."

"Even tigers don't eat their cubs... This is merely human nature, but it doesn't apply to the world of the Old Fist God. He's a madman who would beat his own daughter, whom he had painstakingly raised and taught, to death on a whim."

"This kind of crazy impulse and emotion, perhaps the old boxing god himself can restrain in his daily life, but it is basically impossible for others to do so. Once this fluctuation is allowed to spread unchecked, it will immediately turn the society in which one lives into a real hell on earth."

“Similar situations have occurred more than once in the last century, and some of them were the result of the old boxing god’s own actions.”

After thinking it over, he continued, "...Now that I think about it, the old Fist God's magic power wouldn't have disappeared because of the Mountain Yin-Yang's plunder of the seed. Perhaps it had already shown signs back then."

"His soul's infectious power was evident even before he awakened his magical power, and it did not change direction after he awakened his magical power. After becoming the successor of Yin and Yang and sublimating into the Great Impermanence, the Dharma of Heaven and Earth continued in this form, rather than the Five Elements form that a successor of Yin and Yang should have."

The reason why the old boxing god's power did not disappear after his power seed was taken away can be re-examined now, and the reason is probably very simple and easy to understand.

Considering that he immediately retaliated against Yama Ryougi after his power seed was taken away, it is very likely that he had already opened the third door at the time when his power seed was taken away.

The power of the Third Gate, the Great Impermanence, will never truly disappear in any universe, or even in any time and space. The mere fact that "the foundation of power has been dug up" is simply not enough to render the Old Fist God, capable of distorting the laws of the world, powerless.

This extraordinary quality might even manifest itself in some signs in the past incarnation of the old boxing god.

Old Fist God was probably the first among all the successors of the Two Elements to open the third door, so Mountain Two Elements probably couldn't have predicted this unprecedented development in advance. However, since he had suffered a heavy loss at the hands of Old Fist God, he would definitely remember this painful lesson.

Unfortunately, his attempt to determine whether I, the successor of the Vermilion Bird, would open the third gate through the Dharma of Heaven and Earth is likely useless. Because once I open the third gate, the Dharma of Heaven and Earth will likely be able to transform into any form, and things like soul influence can be freely customized, so it won't conflict with the past Vermilion Bird seed.

"After pushing open the third door, the Old Fist God never unleashed his Dharma of Heaven and Earth again," the Divination Master continued. "According to my observation, it wasn't because he learned the proper measure, but simply because he became able to control his infectious power at will and lost the need to actively unleash the Dharma of Heaven and Earth."

"He didn't want to turn the world into a living hell; he just wanted everyone to challenge themselves. After becoming a true transcendent being, he knew that even the entire world combined couldn't pose a threat to him, so he stopped doing things that yielded no benefit. Therefore, I don't know what nature his current Dharma Celestial Phenomenon has changed."

I speculated in that direction, "So, what if he pushes open the fourth door..."

The divination master said, "I don't know exactly what kind of world the Old Fist God is hoping for, or what kind of world his power will bring, but at least one thing is certain: if his plan is to use the power of the Fourth Gate to change the worldview of this planet, regardless of whether everyone will become a powerful being who can threaten him as he wishes, what will eventually descend is a bloody hell where everyone is killing each other in madness."

Could this also be related to the Old Fist God's special abilities? I tried to think about it that way. But I heard that the Old Fist God's special abilities only manifested after he became the most powerful Impermanence in Luoshan, while his soul-infecting power was evident from the very beginning. Would it be a bit arbitrary to connect the two?
Then, I thought of something else.

“But… it seems the Seal of Manifestation has nothing to do with this,” I pointed out. “The Seal of Manifestation came to Old Fist God through the power of wish fulfillment at the Third Gate… so the existence of the Seal of Manifestation should be something that ‘helps Old Fist God’s wishes.’ If simply opening the Fourth Gate can achieve all the goals, wouldn’t this item be completely unnecessary?”

"..."

The fortune teller fell into a brief moment of thought, but I felt that he wasn't re-examining his reasoning because a flaw had been pointed out, but rather that he was considering whether to continue speaking.

Then, he spoke again, saying, "If the Old Fist God wants to use the power of the present world's divine seal on top of opening the fourth door, then it can only mean that he is pursuing a more complex world."

"Complex?" I asked.

"The first gate, the second gate, the third gate... your gradual strengthening and the impact on the world are all traceable. Although I have never seen a powerful figure who has opened the fourth gate, based on the strengthening trajectories of the first three gates, we can perhaps make some judgments about the nature of the fourth gate," said the Divination Master. "First of all, although the power of the fourth gate may very well be able to completely change our worldview like a divine seal, it should not be able to change whatever it wants like a divine seal."

"Your distortions of the world always conform to the shape of your own souls, reflecting your personal worldviews. Suppose Old Fist God pushes open the fourth door, he could probably turn the world into a hellish place of conflict and bloodshed, but he most likely couldn't create a paradise where all life coexists harmoniously—that wouldn't align with the essence of his soul. "Therefore, if he insists on combining the divine seal of the present world to achieve his desires… this approach could lead to a world he knows the general direction of, but cannot clearly define."

"For example?" I felt that the fortune teller might know the answer.

"The Old Fist God once said that before awakening his magical power, he dreamed that he entered a city that didn't exist anywhere in the world, where he debated martial arts with a strange young man," the Divination Master said slowly. "The young man displayed the martial arts he had always dreamed of. After waking up, the Old Fist God tried his best to restore it, but at the very last moment, due to the Yin and Yang of the Mountain, he awakened his magical power, missing his ideal martial arts realm..."

I've heard about that too. It's quite a coincidence that both Old Fist God and I had strange dreams before awakening our magical powers, and then awakened our powers through the Yin and Yang of the Mountain, thus missing out on the "growth" we were pursuing.

I have now taken that crucial step, and the old boxing god is also pursuing the goal he once missed in his own way.

"The old Fist God is now unable to escape his own magic power; nothing he does will work, that's an absolute fact. But... he might want to meet that boy again and get some kind of answer from him," the Divination Master said.

"Does he want to go directly to the world he dreamed of?" I asked.

Dreams are incredible things. The world we live in may well be a dream of the Great Spirit. At the same time, when people dream, they may also wander into other realms of existence, encountering clues to the past or future, or even dreaming of different times and spaces. "Dreams" are also frequently used as elements of prophecy and divination, demonstrating that they are not entirely products of illusion and chaos.

Therefore, what the Old Fist God dreamed of might not have been his imagination, but rather another real universe. The mysterious young man who discussed martial arts with the Old Fist God might actually be a real person from another universe.

In fact, the martial arts that the Old Fist God encountered in his dream were clearly not entirely fictional, but rather divine skills that could potentially be replicated in the real world. Even the Great Impermanence Qilin has discovered astonishing moves in her attempts to recreate them; her skill of accelerating herself to more than one-tenth the speed of light seems to have been adapted from these techniques.

The divination master smiled and said, "The number of other worlds is as numerous as the stars in the sky. Even Shan Liangyi, who controls the power of reincarnation, may not be able to freely choose the next world to be reincarnated in. If the target is another world that one has never been to before, it will only be more difficult."

"Old Fist God's goal might be to create the unknown world he once dreamed of directly in the world he lives in. Although this idea is quite absurd, as long as he has the power of the Fourth Gate and the Divine Seal of the Present World... if he combines the two, he has a chance to achieve it."

"Of course, whether this behavior is essentially a 'creation of the world' or a 'shift in the timeline' is still somewhat open to debate."

“This sounds much better than the previous hell on earth,” I said.

The fortune teller asked seriously, "Is that really so?"

Upon hearing this, I recalled that the Divination Master initially said he wanted to stop the Old Fist God's attempt because he, as the Great Impermanence who could foresee the future, had a premonition of a very terrifying future.

If what the old boxing god wants to realize is indeed the world where the boy in his dream lives, then it means that it is actually an extremely dark and twisted world.

“Originally, when the old Fist God was the target, the prophetic ability could not function properly. I was able to barely obtain this vague premonition because no one in this world can surpass me when it comes to predicting the future... I possess this level of power,” the Diviner said. “However... Yama also received the same premonition.”

"He is not a master of foreseeing the future, but he is particularly sensitive to 'death.' In the belief systems of many witchers, the Great Impermanence is always regarded as a symbol of death, and Yama is especially prominent in this regard. In the myths that have been passed down in the common world, Yama is often portrayed as the 'first dead' because of this kind of tradition."

"Since he had the same intuition as me... that means the world that the old boxing god dreamed of was very likely a 'world overflowing with death'."

"For example... it could be an 'apocalyptic world' where neither an ancient civilization nor an afterlife has ever existed, where the death of the earth's core accumulates without restraint, eventually giving rise to a withering god that destroys everything, perhaps far more malevolent than our own."

Midway through the conversation, I noticed a suspicious point in the fortune teller's words, but since he was willing to reveal it, I didn't ask about it.

I then asked, "Pushing open the fourth door is no easy task. How do you think the old boxing master will complete this challenge?"

“He probably still wants to pursue the ‘great abandonment’ as always, but it’s obvious that he can’t do it on his own,” the divination master said. “So he has to seek out incredibly strong external pressure to force himself to make the final decision. This ‘external pressure’ is probably a powerful enemy like you and the Mountain Two Elements.”

(End of this chapter)