Chapter 541: Ancestor of Tainted River (2)

"What are you doing, Devil!?"

Miaomiao was helpless against the divine pressure of the Devil. His strength surpassed Lilim, and it was about to crush him into a meat paste.

'Answer my question, brat! What did you do to Lilith?!'

"I didn't do shit!"

'LIAR!'

BOOM

Suddenly, Miaomiao's four limbs were crushed while he was at the bottom of the Blood Sea.

Miaomiao gritted his teeth, enduring the excruciating pain.

'Confess, and I'll let you live! I can read karma, and I know that you were responsible for her injury!'

"Bullshit! If you know it already, you wouldn't need to interrogate me! I'm saying this again, I didn't do shit! Do you think I can suddenly become OP and injure a fucking god? How long have I been in this world, you fucking idiot!"

'...'

BOOM

This time, Miaomiao felt that something hit his spinal cord, and it was broken. Moreover, the seawater seeped into his body through the wounds, and the mysterious will of an almighty creature started to mess with his mind.

"HONK!!"

Miaomiao could no longer control his vocal cord and his mouth. He started honking like a goose.

Even though Miaomiao wasn't in the state to answer Devil's question anymore, the latter slowly crushed Miaomiao's innards, leaving only his dantian and heart intact.

'TALK! DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME! IF YOU DON'T ANSWER ME IN FIVE BREATHES, I'LL START KILLING YOUR WIVES FOR EVERY SECOND YOU KEEP QUIET!!'

"HONK!"

Even if Miaomiao could talk, he wouldn't say anything. After all, he couldn't afford to let Devil learn about Xie Tian's existence.

If Devil were to learn about Xie Tian's time-traveling incident, he would have killed Miaomiao and everybody on the spot.

BOOM

Miaomiao sensed his body shooting upward to the surface of the sea. As soon as his body got out of the sticky water, he found an archangel, hovering over the sea and glaring at him.

Devil was there in a flesh.

"I guess I have to extract the memory from your brain, eh?"

Devil grabbed Miaomiao's head. He dispelled his transformation and revealed his true appearance.

He looked the same as Miaomiao when he first arrived at this universe. The only difference was, his aura was more terrifying and domineering.

Miaomiao, who still looked like a purple demon, sneered at Devil. He drove off the will of a strange goose out of his body, yet he honked at Devil to mock him.

"Honk, Honk, motherfucker!"

Devil narrowed his eyes, "I've made up my mind. I'll brainwash you and turn you into a sacrificial pawn as I had initially planned when I created you!"

Despite being threatened to be brainwashed, Miaomiao was calm. He had faith in his ultimate plot armor since he already agreed to take the path of a protagonist.

Also

Ding

[The Heavenly Dao of Zenith Heaven has prevented Devil from interfering with your feud.]

[Two almighty beings are watching you.]

[The almighty beings are holding the karma string of Devil and your existence. They are making an important decision.]

Miaomiao smirked. He turned to the Devil and attempted to buy time, "You hypocrite. I knew that you never protected me for no reason. So, I'm your clone, ain't I?"

"Hah! Now, you've become smart! I was wondering why my stupid clone was so stupid. So you must have been playing dumb, eh?"

"Nah, it's the original of me that's originally mentally crippled, and my existence copies your retarded DNA when I was born. If you want to blame it on someone, blame it on yourself for being stupid. Get your IQ and EQ test when you have time, Devil, no ... Mao Miaomiao!"

Devil scoffed at Miaomiao's mockery. He didn't care if Miaomiao had discovered his true identity since he held the lifelines of every clone.

With just a finger snap, Miaomiao would have been erased.

However, Devil needed this pawn in his chess game. He couldn't afford to kill Miaomiao after all the preparation.

"Whatever. You will forget this entire conversation soon. Goodbye, myself."

"Yeah, fuck you, too."

Devil's Providence Qi entered Miaomiao's brain. However, countless karma centipedes rushed to the brain and devoured the Providence Qi as if they were hot steaks.

Miaomiao's soft brain was unharmed, but the Providence Qi couldn't touch any brain cell.

"You..."

Devil's face turned dark. He was frustrated, envious, and angry at Miaomiao.

He always wanted to learn Lilith's secrets. He had never succeeded in cultivating negative karma and the related Dao. Even now, he had to constantly pull out karma centipedes from his body before it grew too big.

Sensing a thousand grown karma centipedes living in harmony inside Miaomiao's body, Devil had the urge to extract Miaomiao's knowledge and steal it.

Devil clicked his tongue, "Brat, I'll give you one last chance. Tell me who injured Lilith, and I'll make you a deity. I'll give you every cultivation resource you've ever never dreamt of. Whoever you want to fuck, I'll brainwash them and give them to you on a silver platter. If you want Lilith, Lilim, or whoever it is, I'll make them your sex slaves."

Now, Devil played a good cop even though he had just revealed himself as a bad cop.

"Will you believe me if I tell you?"

"I believe in you, always."

"Hah! That's rich coming from a villain... or should I say, a protagonist?"

"You..."

"I can tell, Devil. After I assemble the time-and-space murals, I can see a hidden karma string between me and you. This never appeared before, but it instantly shows up when I learned the power of time and space. You must be the creator of the murals, yes? If you can create murals of time-and-space, that means, you can time-travel, too! Doesn't that make you a time-travel protagonist? Hehehehe!"

"..."

Devil glared into Miaomiao's eyes. His hands trembled as he pulled Miaomiao closer to his face.

"You know, I hate smart kids. I'd rather prefer you to be stupid. But alas, you're too smart for your own good."

"You sound like you're going to kill me."

"You know too much. Now, since I can't brainwash you, imprison you, or control you, I need to erase you!"

"Pfft. What a cliché line. Kill me, then! Don't regret it after you know the TRUTH! HAHAHAHAHA!!"

"BASTARD!"

Devil threw Miaomiao to the sky and narrowed his eyes.

RUMBLE

The Golden Heavenly Goose Planet shook as a gigantic black hole at the size of the Solar System's Sun appeared above the planet. The ultimate gravity of the black hole started pulling the entire world toward it.

Devil gave Miaomiao a middle finger, bidding him farewell.

But before the black hole could devour Miaomiao and everyone on the planet, everything in the universe was frozen. All power, movement, and the flow of time were paused.

However, time cultivators were conscious of this phenomenon. Miaomiao and Devil could still move their eyes to look around, but they couldn't move their bodies.

...

[How many times has it been, Devil?]

A mysterious archaic voice resounded. Devil's eyes rapidly shifted as he knew who it was.

Unfortunately for him, he couldn't even exclaim. He stared upward, looking at the uninvited guest.

A wooden boat slowly flew toward Devil. The faceless boatman in a grim reaper robe held a long oar, rowing the boat forward.

Miaomiao and Devil couldn't sense this person's aura. It was as if they were looking at a ghost, who could stop time.

[Devil...]

Devil glared at the boatman. He suddenly activated the power of Chrono Element to break free from the time restraint.

As soon as he could move, he cupped his fist and knelt on one knee, "War Marionette, Code Name Devil, greets the Steward of the Tainted River."

[Devil... How many times has it been?]

The boatman, aka the steward of the mysterious tainted river, turned his faceless face to Devil.

Suddenly, a third arm emerged from his face and extended toward Devil. The boatman seized Devil's neck and pulled him closer.

[Great Ancestor Minghe has heard everything. He has summoned you to the Tainted Land for a trial.]

"A-A trial? Again?!"

[Yes. He is curious why you meticulously created so many clones and allowed them to learn the law of time and space. You didn't even attempt to comprehend the Great Dao or gain Heavenly Dao Merit. Why are you spreading the time-and-space laws to your clones? Now, come with me. We'll visit the Ancestor together.]

This was not the first time that Devil was arrested by Minghe's steward. In his previous timelines, he lost count of how many times that the sages killed him when his plans were discovered.

One of the main reasons for his previous arrests was the first-generation war droids and his identities. As soon as the sage discovered that they were Devil's clones with time-and-space brands, everyone was always summoned to the Tainted Land for a trial.

Most of the time, Devil was imprisoned in the Tainted River until the timeline was destroyed by Kishin Douji, Xie Tian, or others. Even when his plans almost came to fruition, Ancestor Minghe always discovered Devil's schemes and ended them.

This was the major reason for Devil's repeated failures. He could own Kishin Douji any day. However, whenever he successfully killed Kishin Douji and stop his regression abilities, he offended Ancestor Minghe.

Kishin Douji's race, the Oni Race, was a distant relative of the Asura Race, which was created by Ancestor Minghe.

And if Kishin Douji were to die, all his Oni people would perish along with their god. The death of the Oni Race would affect the Asura Race's karma, and Ancestor Minghe never approved that!

Therefore, Devil had to get rid of Ancestor Minghe before or after he killed Kishin Douji.

But endless problems came after this.

Every time Devil focused on cultivation and kept a low profile, aiming to catch up with Minghe's strength, Xie Tian always killed Kishin Douji first and reset the universe.

Every time Devil killed Xie Tian first and resumed cultivating, Clem, Lilith, or other protagonists always showed up and ultimately killed Kishin Douji, resetting the timeline again.

Every time Devil tried to kill everybody before they could kill Kishin Douji, the latter suddenly remembered his previous timeline experience and killed every being in the universe, including Devil!

Every time Devil tried to dominate the universe and stop Kishin Douji, the outer gods and fellow Prototype War Droids, such as Eve, Adam, Gaea, or Uranus, always appeared and interfered with Devil's plans. And in the end, Devil and Kishin Douji were both killed.

Every time Devil tried to manipulate and kill every Dao God while he allied with Kishin Douji, Other sages sent this steward to capture and kill him.

Every time Devil submitted to Ancestor Minghe to get his protection and kill Kishin Douji, other sages descended and killed him before he could become a sage under Minghe!

What could he do?!

Cultivate hard and become a sage to kill other sages first?

But he didn't have enough time! Xie Tian, Kishin Douji, or others always messed with the timeline before he could even become a sage!

Kill them all and cultivate hard? He would have wasted too much time, and the sages would kill him before he could get too strong!

He always ran out of time even though he had the power of time! What was this irony!?

Devil wanted to scream out loud. When would these long loops end?!

Sometimes, Devil just wanted to die and ended this eternal torture, but he couldn't. He even complained to the archangels, telling them that his true salvation was his permanent death.

When Devil accidentally sowed a soul fragment of himself and grew Miaomiao on the home planet of Xie Tian, he was so glad that he might finally find a loophole that he could use to escape from this endless loop.

Unfortunately, Miaomiao rebelled.

And ultimately, Minghe summoned him again.

"This is not fair, Steward..." Devil shed tears of despair and pain.

[Then, explain everything to the ancestor. He might understand your pain.]

"Yeah. I'll tell him to just kill me and erase my identity for good. I'm tired."

[Ancestor Minghe is merciful. He will not harm you. He might know a way to encourage you to live on. We have seen how hard you worked to protect the universe, and we understand your pain. We even saw you when you showed mercy to Kishin Douji while you could have killed him. You know, Lord Ancestor likes you a lot. He won't treat you badly.]

Devil was slowly pulled to the wooden boat, and the boatman rowed the vessel away.

Before they left, the boatman turned around and cut a karma string with an invisible scissor. Then, the black hole near the Golden Heavenly Goose Planet disappeared as if it never existed.

He also looked at Miaomiao, who had been observing everything from afar.

[Devil's clone. I know that you can sense the Will of Zenith Heaven Dao since it has been protecting you. This is a warning as a senior. Do not abuse the Will of Zenith Heaven Dao for your personal gain! If you take advantage of the Heavenly Dao, we shall come for you.]

"..."

[Also, I advise you not to use negative karma as a tool even though you can kill deities with it. This power belongs to the sages, not the non-entities! Ancestor Minghe might overlook this, but other sages won't! Other sages will never forgive you if you accidentally kill their subordinate deity with Karmic Law. Even I can't guarantee your safety if they start moving. Don't expect the Heavenly Dao to protect you when they come because they are the Heavenly Dao itself!]

The boatman left the warning and disappeared.

The time was slowly reversed, but Devil and the boatman never returned. Everything fell back to Heavenly Goose Planet.

Even Miaomiao's limbs regrew. However, the freezing cold blood in his veins turned his purple face white.

That encounter was scary, TOO SCARY!

Miaomiao felt like his life was in that boatman's hand. If he wanted to, that mysterious person could have erased his existence forever without triggering the time curse.

'Do they know that Devil has looped for so many times?' Miaomiao consulted with Xie Tian.

'I think they know, but they are pretending that they don't know. Those sages transcend time and space, so they should be able to freely cross dimensions and timelines. If not, they wouldn't brand us as non-entities.'

'... Right.'

The world of cultivation was profound. However, it hid scary parts behind the scene as well.

Unless he could become the top of the food chain, aka an entity or sage, he was still a speck of dust in the universe.

'Tell me more about sages, Xie Tian.'