The Book Soul Chronicles: Godslayer

Yu Bingwen broke the silence first, asking, "If the power of the laws disappears, will you also perish in this world?"

Li Minghan said seriously, "Of course! The disappearance of the power of the laws proves that there is a problem with the cycle of this world. In other words, this world no longer exists. In order to maintain the normal operation of different worlds, the forbidden land, also known as the Ruins of Return, will destroy all the bound living beings to prevent dangerous things from escaping and harming other worlds."

Qingwu frowned and said, "In other words, the Ruins of Return are an existence that transcends the Heavenly Dao. The Ruins of Return contain many terrifying things capable of destroying this world. Once this world is threatened, ceases to function, or is even destroyed, you will perish along with it. That means those who are trapped alive will be trapped even if they die. Then you're doomed!"

Li Minghan fell silent; it was indeed so.

Li Minghan glanced at Qingwu again, really not wanting to hear her smug tone. He couldn't get out, and she seemed to be gloating.

Unable to hold back any longer, he slowly said, "I am immortal. If I were to die, you wouldn't be able to live either; you would have to die with me!"

Hearing his words, Qingwu glared at him for a while, then realized that she couldn't beat him, and glaring at him wouldn't hurt him. Although she adhered to the principle of not losing face even if she lost, waiting for him like this was actually quite tiring. Then, as if all her strength had been drained, she slumped down.

So he changed the subject and asked with some curiosity, "Hey, are all of you... people who are terrifyingly powerful, like you, sealed off?"

Li Minghan's face darkened, and he said, "I don't have a name! I have a name, my name is Li Minghan."

After refuting her claim, Li Minghan immediately answered her question.

"They are all trapped in the Ruins of Return, bound by the power of the laws, eternally trapped within, unable to escape!"

Yu Bingwen then asked, "So how did you escape?"

Li Minghan laughed sarcastically. "Escape? You can't escape from there. The reason I'm here is because I've never been captured or trapped inside. How can I escape?"

Qingwu and Yu Bingwen exchanged a glance, their confusion deepening. They then looked at Li Minghan in unison, as if to say, "Continue."

Li Minghan also noticed the tacit understanding between the two, but he was no longer in the mood to laugh. He then explained, "The reason I was divided into two parts is because I am the new Heavenly Dao Lord."

After he finished speaking, Yu Bingwen and Qingwu were both stunned. If they didn't know that the person in front of them was amazing, they would have thought he was just joking.

"In fact, the Heavenly Dao is like an agent of the laws, only having the authority to exercise a small portion of the power of the laws to solve some potential problems and ensure the normal operation of this world."

"But in order to maintain its absolute rule, the laws bind each Heavenly Dao with the purest power of the laws from forbidden lands. While gaining immortality and power, one is also bound by the laws."

"Furthermore, in order to prevent the existence of beings that exceed the laws, the laws will give rise to a new Heavenly Dao Lord to replace the original Heavenly Dao, while the original Heavenly Dao will be dragged into the forbidden land, trapped inside by the power of the laws, never to emerge again."

"Unexpectedly, the previous Heavenly Dao, in order to avoid being replaced by me, not only found something that could destroy everything that had escaped from the forbidden land of other worlds, but also reached a cooperation with it. I don't know what method it used, but the forbidden land almost dragged me in. I had no choice but to split myself into two parts."

"When their strength weakens, the laws perceive them as no longer a threat and can thus escape their capture. Some are bound here with their weakened power, while others escape to find a solution and uncover the truth."

"I just didn't expect that my power would be dispersed, with only about a third of it remaining. It couldn't even escape the Heavenly Dao's investigation and may have already been annihilated."

"Now I have two-thirds of my strength, but in order to suppress the power of the laws within me and avoid being detected by the laws and discovered by the Heavenly Dao, I can't use most of my strength."

Despite the serious topic, Qingwu seemed to have heard some good news upon hearing this, her face beaming with joy and her tone revealing excitement.

He said, "Then you can't kill us now, right? That's great!"

Li Minghan immediately retorted, "How do you think those puppets appeared?"

One sentence silenced Qingwu, who was initially happy. It was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over her. Her body wasn't cold, but her heart was.

Qingwu pouted and whispered, "The Forbidden Land is so powerful, but it still managed to escape, didn't it? If he could escape, why can't you?"

Upon hearing this, Li Minghan immediately became furious. "Why don't you go ask him how he escaped? I can also go and learn from him."

Qingwu, you should argue your point. We only recognize that we can lose in terms of strength, but we can't lose in terms of words. You said, "Why can't we? He was able to get out of there, let alone you who hasn't even gone in yet. There must be a way!"

Looking at his resolute expression, Li Minghan took a deep breath and thought to himself, "I won't hold it against him! I can't hold a grudge against a woman! I especially can't hold a grudge against a shameless woman! I'm not angry."

In fact, Qingwu was right, and he knew that too. That's why he felt he had a glimmer of hope. But the problem was that Tiandao, that old scoundrel, had seized the initiative and cooperated with the other party ahead of time. Moreover, he had become their enemy. That was what troubled him the most.

What's even more serious is that the other party's ability to escape from the forbidden land is definitely not simple, and they must know something that the other party doesn't know. If the other party uses this unknown information against me, the danger to me will double.

He might not even know who the other person is before killing him. He has forbidden power within him, and although he is immortal, he can only live and die with the forbidden power forever. There are always people more powerful than him, and there is always something beyond his reach. Maybe the other person knows something that could make him disappear forever.

However, since he was able to escape from the forbidden land, and he clearly had the ability to destroy this world, why didn't he act directly? Instead, he went through such a long and complicated process, using the selfishness of the Heavenly Dao to destroy this world.

He couldn't figure these questions out. If one day he could be sure, it would be that the other person was also evading the search of the laws, and he was afraid of being caught and taken back to the forbidden land. As for everything he was doing now, it was probably related to that.

Qingwu and Yu Bingwen could also guess what Li Minghan was thinking. After all, Li Minghan had just said that he was immortal and indestructible, and they could guess that it must be related to the power of the law. So the two of them were not worried about the person who escaped for the time being. The most important issue at the moment was how to let Li Minghan evade the search and get out.

Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, Yu Bingwen immediately changed the subject, "In other words, the Heavenly Dao is now hostile to you. That person is on the side of the Heavenly Dao, and the probability of you getting out is basically zero."

Li Minghan replied, "You could say that!"

However, he also wanted to drag Yu Bingwen and Qingwu into the mess, because he couldn't be the only one who was sad; they should be as unhappy as he was.

He said, "To be precise, they are hostile towards all of us! They're targeting you, in addition to me."

Yu Bingwen looked completely bewildered and asked in confusion, "Me? Why?"

Li Minghan glanced at him and said, "Are you practicing the Dao of All Living Beings?"

Qingwu, sitting to the side, asked in confusion, "He hasn't even established his Dao foundation yet, how did you know?"

Yu Bingwen was also puzzled. How could one or two people see through his cultivation of the Dao of All Living Beings? He also said, "Logically speaking, without establishing a foundation for the Dao and without opening the Great Dao, there is basically no possibility of ascending to immortality. Even if one's cultivation is high, it will only increase one's lifespan. Although one's strength will also improve, there will always be some limitations."

"I haven't successfully established my path yet, so how do you know I cultivate the Path of All Living Beings?"

Li Minghan calmly explained, "In this world, there are only two kinds of people who can make us unable to see through fate: one is those whose cultivation is higher than yours; the other is those who cultivate the Dao of All Living Beings."

"Clearly, you belong to the second type. Cultivating the Path of All Living Beings means that one's fate is in one's own hands, not in the hands of Heaven. One can freely interfere with cause and effect and change the fate of others. Therefore, you are a variable, and how could Heaven allow you to grow up?"

"What if you find out the truth someday? Are you going to turn around and kill him? Although your final fate will be the same as ours, we can't rule out even the slightest possibility!"

After Li Minghan finished speaking, everyone fell into a long silence.

Yu Bingwen's expression was extremely solemn. He thought to himself, "The more I know now, the more terrified I become. I never expected that the Heavenly Dao they respected would turn around and try to kill them. They are basically just playthings that can be discarded at any time."

"And those powerful individuals who transcended worldly affairs, their ultimate fate was to be forever trapped in the forbidden land—the Ruins of Return. This was their destiny too; this feeling is truly awful!"

"Even if I am a cultivator, I am no different from a mortal. The lifespan of a mortal is like morning dew, fleeting in an instant. From birth, one goes straight to death, without stopping and without reversing."

"I had barely managed to snatch a sliver of hope, thinking that as long as I ascended to immortality, I could live as long as heaven and earth, and never perish. But I ended up knowing my ultimate fate, yet I was powerless to change it and had to continue down this dark path."

"To be honest, he really wanted to fool himself, that maybe there was still a chance, after all, he was a variable. But even he himself felt that this thought was unreal. How many strong people have emerged in this world? They must have thought about it and had this mentality, but in the end, none of them escaped it."

"I am just like any other mortal. I know the ending, but I still have to keep moving forward because I have no choice! Either I become stronger and compete with the Heavenly Dao, but even if I succeed, I will be imprisoned forever. Or I choose to escape and wait to be discovered and eliminated by the Heavenly Dao, ending my fate as a useless pawn."

As Yu Bingwen pondered this, a bitter smile appeared on his face.

Qingwu thought to herself, "I never imagined that this world actually lives in a huge lie, where everyone is a puppet, controlled by the Heavenly Dao. And everyone, including the Heavenly Dao, is just a pawn, existing to maintain the operation of this world and to maintain the existence of the laws."

"This is all too terrible! The price of living as long as heaven and earth is eternal imprisonment. What's the point of cultivating immortality then?"

Looking at the two of them, Li Minghan felt disbelief and absurdity, realizing that they were exactly the same as he had been when he first learned the truth. He felt like he had been living in a lie all along.

For the sake of the ascension people talked about, for the legendary lifespan of heaven and earth, he schemed and fought among his own kind, but in the end the result was so ridiculous. Perhaps he went mad from that moment on!

Indeed, everything in this world has a price tag. The purpose of this journey is to find out the price of certain things and what price one must pay to obtain them.

He sneered inwardly, "Finally, I've seen someone like me! I won't be so lonely anymore!"

Everyone in the room was preoccupied with their own thoughts, and no one spoke a word. The silence was eerily quiet, and the atmosphere was extremely oppressive.

After a while, Yu Bingwen suddenly spoke up, "Even so, I'm going to take a gamble for myself!"

Qingwu and Li Minghan looked at him with surprise.

Yu Bingwen's eyes were full of determination as he looked at them and said, "You said it yourself, I cultivate the Way of All Living Beings, and my fate is in my own hands, not in the hands of Heaven. If the seniors have not explored the path, I will. If I cannot do it, then other juniors will. There will always be someone who can find a completely new path and method."

"Everything in this world is interconnected and interdependent. There will always be a way. We must explore it. Even if we don't succeed, we should leave our experience for future generations so that they can stand on our shoulders and continue to move forward."

Qingwu wholeheartedly agreed. She cultivated the Great Dao to Heaven and was naturally stubborn, never easily admitting defeat. These words struck a chord with her.

He said, "You're right, kid. As long as there's a glimmer of hope, we should never give up until the very last moment. Since we're already in a desperate situation, let's try to find a way out."

Li Minghan was quite surprised. He didn't expect the two of them to accept it so quickly. He wondered how long it would have taken for others to accept it, and they might have even gone mad because they couldn't accept the shattering of their Dao Heart.

Yu Bingwen looked at Li Minghan and said, "Senior Li, you split yourself in two back then and gave the other one away. Doesn't that prove you can split yourself again?"

Li Minghan said seriously, "Of course! But the risk is very high. If I fail, I will suffer a very serious backlash for the rest of my life. Even if I succeed, the strength of my split body will be greatly reduced, and this body bound by the power of law may not be able to be suppressed. If the law discovers it, I will eventually be dragged to the forbidden place."

Yu Bingwen said, "Who told you that people who split off must have power? And they don't necessarily have to split off."

Li Minghan understood the first sentence, but he didn't quite understand the second.

Qingwu immediately understood and couldn't help but admire this guy's extraordinary abilities. Although it was a bit far-fetched, how would he know it couldn't be done if he didn't try?

Qingwu glanced at Yu Bingwen, who was looking at her, and gave him a look that indicated to her, as his senior uncle, that he understood her thoughts. The two of them turned to look at Li Minghan at the same time.