“I know you know something, you little shit.”
I grabbed Gu Jie by her leg and started swinging her around in the air like a feather duster. To any ordinary observer, the sight of a father violently twirling his daughter around by the ankle would have been horrifying. To the people of my Empire, however, it was merely another day.
“Waaaah! Father, stop! Stop swinging me around!” Gu Jie cried as her body became a blurry circle. “I won't snitch! I promised I wouldn't snitch no matter what!”
Above Nongmin's workshop, a father-and-daughter duo was making a commotion.
That would be me and Gu Jie.
“You stubborn brat,” I scolded. “You're already lazy enough with your cultivation. Now you're keeping secrets from me too?”
“I've been busy!” she protested while spinning. “I have lots of important things to do!”
“Busy doing what? You aren't even making decent progress on resurrecting Wen Yuhan, and that was literally your punishment.”
“That project is hard!”
“It has been hard for years!”
I increased the speed of the swinging.
“AAAAAHHHHHHH!”
The resulting scream could probably be heard several mountain ranges away.
A spatial ripple appeared nearby. Xin Yune emerged from it, accompanied by Nongmin and Zai Ai. The three looked upward and immediately found me using my daughter as an improvised windmill.
“Da Wei,” Xin Yune said with a sigh, “be gentle with your daughter.”
I snorted.
“This daughter of mine is being so secretive that she deserves a little punishment.”
Gu Jie pointed at me while upside down. “I made a promise with Mother! A promise! Even if you kill me or threaten me, I won't sing!”
“Good. Then I'll keep swinging.”
“You're the worst father ever!”
“Thank you.”
“THAT WASN'T A COMPLIMENT!”
Nongmin folded his arms and shook his head. “Just give it up, Da Wei.”
Zai Ai disagreed immediately. “No, continue. This is good entertainment.”
Nongmin stared at his wife. “But you're carrying. Isn't it bad for our child to see so much violence?”
Xin Yune sighed deeply. “My son, the baby in question is still in the mother's womb. Moreover, since my precious daughter-in-law is being entertained, then this could only be good for her.”
Zai Ai nodded solemnly. “I am indeed entertained.”
I continued swinging Gu Jie around. It wasn't as though she could die from it. Even if I threw her into a star, she'd probably crawl out while complaining about her hair.
“Father!” Gu Jie yelled. “Why don't you just get hitched with Aunt Xin Yune like Mother wanted and leave me alone?!”
The world suddenly fell very quiet. Both Nongmin and Xin Yune broke into suspicious coughs, and the latter’s cheeks flushed with a faint shade of red. This unfilial daughter of mine really deserved a beating sometimes.
Zai Ai's eyes lit up. “I sense a history there—”
“It-It's not what you think,” Xin Yune hurriedly interrupted.
Nongmin, unfortunately, had inherited a mean streak somewhere along the way. “No need to be shy, Mother. Do you remember the time His Majesty threatened me to make you pole dance—”
I flicked my finger, unleashing a perfectly controlled War Smite that streaked through the Divine Zone and slammed squarely into Nongmin’s chest. He vanished instantly from sight as, in the distance, several mountain ranges erupted in thunderous explosions. A heavy silence settled over everything. Only then did I lower my hand.
“Anyone else feeling particularly talkative today, except my sweet daughter?”
Nobody answered.
“Good.”
I glanced toward the trio... er... the duo below.
“What even is Gu Jie doing here?”
The workshop door opened before anyone could answer. Sikao Biaoji slowly walked outside, looking as ancient and grumpy as ever. “She is trying to recreate a nuke from your memories.”
I immediately stopped swinging Gu Jie.
Momentum carried her several hundred revolutions before she finally managed to stabilize herself.
“Whoa~!” she groaned while floating in circles. “I'm seeing double, and my leg hurts...”
I cast Cure on her.
The bruising vanished instantly.
“Thank—”
Gu Jie abruptly stopped speaking and tried to run, her Divine Step activating beneath her feet. At the same time, Wen Yuhan’s corpse puppet emerged from a pocket dimension. Unfortunately for her, my Divine Step was faster.
I appeared directly in front of her and casually stuffed the corpse puppet back into her pocket dimension before she could do anything with it. “Nice try.”
“Damn it!” cussed Gu Jie, but she wasn't done yet.
Destiny surged around her as she activated an Egress empowered far beyond its normal limits. The brat managed to buy herself a precious second by blinding me with a flood of memories, vivid scenes of Alice and me locked in passionate lovemaking. Shit, I couldn’t see a thing. This little brat had learned a truly nasty trick. That single second was all she needed. By the time I recovered and tracked her trajectory, she had already escaped beyond immediate reach. I stared at the empty space she had left behind and rubbed my forehead in frustration.
That brat definitely knew something.
The problem was that Gu Jie wasn't usually this stubborn. She lied, schemed, cheated, and occasionally committed acts that would make devils question their ethics, but she rarely dug her heels in this deeply unless the matter was genuinely important.
I released a long sigh.
Fine.
I'd let her go for now.
An Ezekiel would monitor her instead.
Whatever secret she was protecting, it was probably something catastrophically stupid, catastrophically dangerous, or both. Knowing my family, the possibility of it being all three at once was unfortunately quite high.
The more I thought about it, the more ominous the whole situation felt.
Suddenly, the entire Hollowed World trembled.
The earthquake wasn't minor. Mountains cracked. Oceans surged. Countless defensive formations throughout the world activated automatically as shockwaves rippled through reality itself. Even the laws governing the Hollowed World groaned under the strain.
My expression darkened.
Something powerful was forcing its way inside.
I lowered my gaze beyond the boundaries of the Hollowed World and immediately found the source.
It was the Warden.
The colossal celestial titan was hammering against the Dark Veil like a madman. His body was formed from the Sun and Moon themselves, an impossible giant that dwarfed worlds. Every blow he unleashed shook entire dimensions.
I let out a slow breath, and then awakened Starshroud.
Dark armor enveloped my body piece by piece until not a trace of flesh remained visible. My helm sealed shut. Behind me, the Dark Veil flowed like an endless sea of shadows, while Silver Steel materialized in my hand.
The moment Starshroud awakened, her voice echoed within my mind.
"Oh? Action?" she asked excitedly. "Finally! I was starting to think you'd forgotten I existed. Come on, Da Wei! Let's go hit something!"
I couldn’t help but smile faintly. At least one of us was having fun. With a single step through space, I appeared outside the Hollowed World. The Dark Veil billowed dramatically behind me as I raised Silver Steel toward the towering celestial titan.
"Warden!" I shouted. "What is the meaning of this?!"
The enormous figure halted.
Countless suns and moons rotated within his body as his gaze descended upon me.
I noticed he got visibly stronger, since the last time I saw him.
"WHO ARE YOU?" he thundered. "I SENSE THE POWER OF THE DARK VEIL WITHIN YOU. LET ME IN SO THAT I MAY FULFILL MY DUTY!"
"What are you talking about? Are you not taking your revenge?"
That had been the entire point. When I had unleashed the Warden upon the Supreme Heart's territory, I had done so because he wanted revenge. The method I used had been simple. I told him the truth. The First Mystery, Who, allowed me to identify anything and anyone in existence. Through it, I had learned everything about the Warden's origins.
I raised my voice. "Have you forgotten what I told you?"
The Warden remained silent.
I continued anyway. "You were never born a Warden."
My Supremacy Trait activated, awakening the First Mystery within me. Divine Phantasm of Dreams surged forth, and countless memories erupted from the depths of the titan’s soul.
"You used to be two people."
The memories manifested around us, coalescing into a small, vivid world. Within it appeared a brother and a sister, bathed in the gentle light of a Sun and a Moon.
"They lived together in a small world. They suffered together. They struggled together."
The visions intensified, drawing me deeper as I watched their childhood unfold once more: the grinding poverty, the relentless suffering, and their desperate, heartbreaking fight for survival.
"Their fate was designed from the beginning. Every hardship they endured was planned. Every trial was meant to strengthen them."
The memories trembled as the brother and sister grew stronger, brighter, and more magnificent.
“They were fed. Nurtured. Cultivated. Every hardship they endured was designed to make them stronger. Every tragedy was carefully measured, every victory allowed only because it served a greater purpose. And when they were finally ripe enough? When they had become everything their creators wanted? They were harvested. Stripped of their names, their lives, and the future they should have had. They were remade, forged into a tool, a weapon, a servant bound to a duty they never chose. You weren’t born to guard the Supreme Void. You were stolen from your own life and turned into this.”
The brother screamed in agony while the sister cried helplessly. Neither escaped their fate. The memories shattered around us, the Sun and Moon vanishing into nothingness. In the end, only the Warden remained.
"The Supreme Beings stole your lives and transformed you into the Warden of the Supreme Void!"
The final words echoed throughout existence itself. For a brief moment, I dared to hope that something would stir within him that the memories might awaken the brother he once was, that he would remember his past, and that the burning rage which had once driven him would return. Yet nothing happened. The Warden ignored everything. With merciless force, his fist slammed into the Dark Veil.
BOOM.
"LET ME IN!"
BOOM.
"I MUST DO MY DUTY!"
Then, an enormous mace emerged from his pocket dimension, a weapon so vast it dwarfed entire continents. The Warden raised it high overhead and began smashing.
"LET ME IN!"
BOOM.
"I MUST DO MY DUTY!"
BOOM.
"LET ME IN!"
BOOM.
"LET ME IN!"
BOOM.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Each strike carried a deepening madness. The Warden sounded broken. His words had become mechanical, obsessive, and compulsive, like a machine desperately trying to execute a command it no longer understood.
My chest tightened painfully as the realization struck me. One of the Supreme Beings must have found him and repaired whatever damage I had inflicted on their programming. That explained everything: why I had never seen him rampaging through Supreme Heart’s territory, and why he had returned here instead. The Warden wasn’t seeking revenge anymore. The Sun and Moon had been buried once again. Only the weapon remained.
I closed my eyes and invoked my authority over the Dark Veil. Space folded around him, and the Warden vanished as I sent him directly into the center of the Hollowed World. Perhaps there, transformed into the Sun and Moon once more, something of their original self could return. Perhaps not. Either way, smashing his head against the barrier wasn’t helping anyone.
Releasing a tired sigh, I returned to the Hollowed World.
The moment I arrived, I established a Qi Speech connection.
"Jue Bu."
A familiar voice answered immediately.
"What?"
"Return the Hollow Star. You can stop observing the False Earth."
An outraged silence followed, and then came the cursing.
"Are you serious? It was getting good already! Do you know how much effort I put into this? I was finally starting to understand their political structure, their cultural developments, and why half their governments are completely insane!"
"Focus."
"I've been focusing!"
"Work with Nongmin's workshop."
"What?"
"Create an observation satellite. Something that can continuously monitor the False Earth."
Jue Bu paused, and then he groaned.
"Fine. That's actually a decent idea."
"It usually is."
"Don't get smug."
I cut the connection before he could continue. The resulting silence felt strangely heavy as my gaze drifted toward the enormous Tower standing in the distance.
The Supreme Beings were pissing me off more and more. Every answer I uncovered only revealed new layers of cruelty, and every mystery solved seemed to expose another atrocity. Worse, I was beginning to get angry at myself. Out of all of them, Supreme Death’s greatest wish had been simple: he wanted to die. And somehow, he had succeeded. A bitter laugh escaped my lips. I envied him. The realization tasted foul.
I badly wanted to hit something—anything, anyone. "Fuck," I muttered, my fist slowly clenching. "Just anyone would do." In my mind, I imagined Heart’s face and pictured myself smashing it again and again and again. For some reason, that thought made me feel slightly better.
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