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"Isn't it a bit too direct to jump into this?" Tang San walked forward, examining the figure before him. "I heard you were dead and only left behind a divine consciousness. I didn't expect you to reappear in this form. Quite interesting."
The Eternal Lord smiled, the starlight on her face flickering slightly. She replied naturally, "I thought you'd ask me something like, 'Are you wearing any clothes?'"
Clothes?
Tang San didn't need to ask. The Eternal Lord was indeed naked. Though her figure was quite impressive, her appearance stirred no desire in a normal person.
"Well, since you're expecting it, I'll ask. Are you wearing any clothes?"
Tang San decided to humor the Eternal Lord's wish.
"Sorry, no." The Eternal Lord revealed a mischievous side, before regaining her composure. "Now, let's begin the final trial. If you win, everything here will be yours. It's been tens of thousands of years with no change... it does get rather dull. Come now, bring some excitement to my long life."
Isn't this the kind of speech you'd expect from a villain?
The King Easton, the Holy Dragon, and the Eternal Angel all took their places around the Eternal Lord, each radiating a distinct aura—
The power of nature, carrying the purest essence of life.
The power of sentient beings, representing divine wisdom and immense strength.
The power of the stars, symbolizing the boundless energy of the elements and the vastness of the universe.
At that moment, the three forces transformed into pure energy and were channeled into the body of the Eternal Lord.
Crack!
A fissure appeared on her smooth, glass-like skin, revealing a radiant white light beneath.
Then a second crack appeared, followed by a third…
Until finally, her entire body was covered in web-like cracks, and brilliant white light burst forth, releasing a tremendous, boundless energy that shattered the outer shell into fragments, which hovered in the air above the platform like floating debris.
The dazzling light surrounding the Eternal Lord gradually dimmed, revealing skin that now appeared crystalline and translucent, slowly turning into a pure, snow-white hue, as though it were the skin of an ordinary woman.
A gown of sheer fabric naturally draped itself over her form, and on either side, two orbs floated, attached to the gown's trailing ends.
Above the orbs fluttered two delicate, pale golden butterflies, their wings surrounded by a soft glow, creating a dreamy, surreal scene.
However, the most eye-catching feature was the Eternal Lord's flowing hair—thousands of star-like strands that danced in the air of their own accord. Each strand seemed to be forged from the most brilliant stars of the cosmos.
Was this a woman?
No!
This was a masterpiece!
Upon seeing her, no one could muster the thought of desecration, only a sense of inferiority and shame.
"The God of Creation is a woman after all," Tang San praised.
"Hmph! What's the big deal? I'm a girl too!" Austin Griffin interjected unhappily.
"You're female too?" Tang San recalled that in The Divine Throne, Austin Griffin had manifested as a male, though the interactions with Long Haochen had always felt ambiguously charged.
"That's because I took on Long Haochen's appearance when I transformed!" Austin Griffin snapped angrily. "I never wanted to oppose him in the first place, but that stubborn fool... Ugh, forget it. Enough about him. Now, let me out! I'm going to kill that woman who abandoned me. In exchange, I'll count it as a challenge from me to you. How about it?"
Faced with the Eternal Lord, Tang San had no intention of using the Haotian Hammer. After all, even though the Eternal Lord had absorbed the powers of the King Easton, the Holy Dragon, and the Eternal Angel—the forces of nature, life, and the stars—her strength was still far from what it was at her peak.
However, subduing Austin Griffin was also a necessary task.
"After all, you are one of my abilities," Tang San agreed, but he wouldn't let Austin Griffin fully appear. At most, Austin Griffin would manifest in the form of the Haotian Hammer and the Purple-Gold Nine Heavens Battle Armor. Based on Austin Griffin's earlier description, it seemed the relationship between her and the Eternal Lord wasn't as simple as twin souls.
"Tang San, this is the real me—"
As the Eternal Lord spoke, she raised her white arms, fingers interlocked in a lotus shape. The shards floating above the platform began to form behind her, coalescing into a peculiar halo of light.
This halo was divided into two parts: one vertical and the other horizontal. The horizontal ring enveloped the vertical one, forming a cross-like shape when viewed from the front and the north. It was highly unusual.
Tang San could feel the unique aura emanating from the halo. The horizontal ring seemed infinitely large and infinitely small at the same time, embodying the power of space. Meanwhile, the vertical ring felt like it was filled with the rotation of the sun, moon, and stars, endlessly cycling and renewing.
There was no doubt—it represented space and time.
The horizontal ring encasing the vertical one symbolized that time was born within space and only gained meaning because of space's existence.
"This is the divine artifact I used before I obtained the Eternal and Creation God Seal Throne, before I ascended to the realm of creation. It's called the Wheel of Time and Space."
The Eternal Lord raised her right hand, and the halo—previously over ten meters in diameter—shrunk to about one meter, gently spinning above her palm.
"I wasn't born a God of Creation. I was once human, just like you. The Eternal and Creation God Seal Throne is something I acquired later. I was its first master, you could say."
"The Winged, Beastmen, and Elves—those were the races of the world I was born in. I included them in the Eternal Realm simply because I didn't want to be alone after becoming a god... That was my initial thought, at least, until I discovered the power of faith."
"King Easton, the Holy Dragon, and the Eternal Angel—they weren't always so powerful. When we left the previous plane, the world known as Holy Demon Continent, they were only at the ninth tier of strength—what would be equivalent to a Titled Douluo in your Douluo Continent."
"After leaving that plane and countless years later, they encountered a chaotic time-space vortex and absorbed some of its power. Only then did they break through to godhood. By mastering the forces of nature, life, and the stars, combined with the accumulated power of faith, they finally reached the first-tier god level, as defined by the higher plane of this universe."
"The Holy Dragon wasn't always so mighty either. At first, it was just a lowly ground dragon, but I raised it from a young age, and we developed a deep bond."
"The Eternal Angel was originally one of the Winged People, and though her talent wasn't exceptional, she was my closest companion, always by my side. She saw me as the one she needed to chase, and with my encouragement, she made me her goal."
"As for King Easton... originally, the wielder of natural power wasn't him but the Elf Queen, Ellyss. However, she couldn't bear the pain of eternity and didn't want to bind the freedom of the Elves by forcing them to worship her. So, every once in a while, she'd erase her memories. That's why the power of nature eventually passed to King Easton, her most loyal follower besides Ellyss."
The Eternal Lord wasn't in a hurry to make a move. Instead, she seemed like someone who wanted to share her entire life's story with Tang San. No, her tone wasn't that of an elder—it felt more like a friend.
Tang San didn't interrupt, choosing instead to listen quietly, absorbing every detail of her story.
"Honestly, I'm delighted to see someone walking a path I never imagined," the Eternal Lord suddenly smiled. "If you win, could you take me with you to chase after the realms of the cosmos? After all, I'm merely a fragment of the God of Creation's soul. While I possess all her memories, she has long since passed. I am my own independent existence."
"I don't have evidence, but I feel that I've lost something incredibly important."
"Oh, and Austin Griffin, who resides within your hammer, is much the same. Every time she dies and is reborn, she retains the memories of her previous life. But in reality, after each resurrection, she is no longer the same as the original Austin Griffin."
"Death is a strange thing. Even if one is reborn with the same memories, it's hard to say they are truly the same person."
"This is something you'll only truly understand when you reach my level."
However, Tang San already understood the reason—it was the existence of the undying true spirit within the soul.
In the vastness of the universe, that true spirit might be the real essence of a living being, rather than their memories, because memories can be replicated or even fabricated.
Take the gods of the Divine Realm, for example.
If a god dies but their divine soul and consciousness remain, and those fragments are split and grow separately, each one would become an independent being, all believing themselves to be the original god.
This process is less like resurrection and more like a preservation of memory. In reality, the essence of their being, the undying true spirit, had long fled into the void when their soul shattered. Upon the soul's rebirth, it was simply another undying true spirit entering the new body.
However, a soul can't be treated as something as simple as a soul tool, and the undying true spirit can't be compared to a replaceable battery.
Listening to Tang San's explanation of the soul's shell and the undying true spirit, the Eternal Lord paused for a moment, then gave a self-deprecating smile. "I didn't expect you to have figured that out."
"I merely observed the phenomenon and made some guesses," Tang San replied, denying that he had found definitive proof. After all, just recognizing the existence of the undying true spirit wasn't enough to fully understand its nature or the circumstances surrounding it. He couldn't make hasty conclusions.
"Too cautious," the Eternal Lord sighed.
"It's the only way to keep inspiration flowing and avoid bottlenecks in cultivation," Tang San countered with a different perspective. "In my view, cultivation before reaching the hundredth rank—whether it's mental strength, vitality, or soul power—is all just about accumulating enough to trigger a metamorphosis."
"Seemingly insignificant, yet absolutely foundational."
"Quite a contradiction."
The Eternal Lord smiled. "The world is full of contradictions... It seems we share quite a bit of common ground."
(End of Chapter)