"Daddy," Tang Nianxue suddenly looked up, blinking her big eyes and asking, "Will that bad thing come back?"
Tang Wulin gently stroked his daughter's hair, thought for a moment, then answered seriously: "Maybe, maybe not. But whether it comes or not, we will be together, eating Grandma's porridge together, watching the Divine Realm's stars together, living through every tomorrow together."
"Then if it comes, will Daddy beat it away?" Tang Yilin also leaned over to ask, her eyes full of childlike trust.
"Daddy might not be able to beat it." Tang Wulin said honestly. Before the children's disappointed expressions could appear, he added with a smile: "But Daddy will reason with it, tell it that there are many beautiful things in this world worth existing for. Like Grandma's porridge, like Mommy's smile, like each of your laughter."
Tang Nianxue nodded as if she half-understood, then broke into a big smile: "Then I want to reason with it too! I want to tell it, I love Daddy the most, so Daddy must be well!"
The childish words made everyone laugh.
Qian Renxue leaned against Tang Wulin's shoulder, watching this warm scene, her heart filled with peace. She suddenly remembered long ago, on the Douluo Continent, in Spirit Hall, when she was still that lonely and proud Pope—she had never imagined she would possess such ordinary happiness.
"What are you thinking about?" Tang Wulin asked in a low voice.
"Thinking about the past, the present, the future." Qian Renxue answered softly, then looked up into her husband's eyes, "Wulin, promise me, no matter what happens, we will be like this now, together."
"I promise you." Tang Wulin said solemnly, then lightly kissed his wife's forehead, "I swear by Tang Wulin's existence—no matter how the seas change and lands shift, no matter how the universe cycles, I will find you, hold your hand, and tell you that I am here."
A very clichéd vow, yet it made Qian Renxue's tears gush out. She nodded forcefully, buried her face in her husband's embrace, and sobbed uncontrollably.
Xiao Wu wiped the corner of her eyes and said softly to Tang San: "Look at them, how wonderful."
Tang San held his wife's hand and smiled, nodding: "Yes, how wonderful."
The God of Destruction watched this scene and suddenly said to the Goddess of Life: "Perhaps, the strength we have always pursued is not merely the strength of power."
The Goddess of Life nestled in her husband's embrace and smiled gently: "But also the courage to exist, the power of love, and the determination to protect. These, perhaps, are the true weapons against nothingness."
...
...
Seven days after that silent confrontation before the Abyss Gate, the Divine Realm returned to surface-level peace.
But all the gods knew that beneath this calm lurked greater undercurrents. Though the Eye of Annihilation had temporarily retreated, the crack it left behind—that trace "assimilated" rather than "destroyed"—stubbornly remained on the Tree of Life's barrier. It no longer seeped black substance, yet it also didn't completely heal, like a faint scar reminding everyone of the crisis's reality.
The God of Destruction and the Goddess of Life laid seven layers of seals around the crack—from destruction laws to life laws, from time imprisonment to space severance—employing almost all known sealing methods of the Divine Realm. Tang San's Sea God divine power daily nourished the Tree of Life, while Xiao Wu used the natural power inherited from the Soft Bone Rabbit clan to assist in repairing the barrier's damage.
Yet that hair-thin crack stubbornly persisted.
"It's 'learning.'" The God of Destruction stood before the crack, purple eyes flashing with complex light, "The Eye of Annihilation is using this crack to understand the composition of our laws. Every time we apply a seal, it analyzes; every time we try to repair, it observes."
The Goddess of Life gently stroked the Tree of Life's trunk. She could feel the faint "discomfort" transmitted by this ancient tree that sustained the Divine Realm's foundation—not pain, but a deeper, nearly "logical contradiction" confusion. The Tree of Life represented existence, growth, continuation, while what came from the crack's other side was the nothingness that questioned existence itself.
"Where is Wulin?" the God of Destruction suddenly asked.
"Resting in the Garden of Tranquility." The Goddess of Life answered, "His physical condition is still very poor, but on the spiritual level... I can sense some change is occurring. Very subtle, like a seed brewing to break through the soil."
The God of Destruction nodded thoughtfully: "That path, has he decided to walk it?"
"He didn't say, but I can see he is already walking it." The Goddess of Life turned, gazing toward the direction of the Garden of Tranquility, her eyes carrying expectation and a trace of imperceptible worry, "It's just that this unprecedented path—how far it can go, where it can lead, no one knows."
In the Garden of Tranquility, Tang Wulin was not recuperating in bed as the gods imagined.
He sat on a stone stool in the courtyard, a blank book spread open before him, a pen in his hand, yet for a long time he didn't write a single word. Qian Renxue quietly accompanied him, draping an outer garment over his shoulders, not disturbing his contemplation.
"I was thinking," Tang Wulin suddenly spoke, his voice very soft, as if talking to himself, or as if confiding in his wife, "Traditional cultivation systems—whether it's a soul master's soul power, soul rings, and soul techniques, or a god's divine power, divine position, and laws—are essentially 'accumulation' and 'control.'"
He raised his hand, palm upward, and a wisp of faint soul power emerged—that was all the cultivation he now possessed, roughly equivalent to a twentieth-level Great Soul Master. The pale golden airflow swirled in his palm, weak yet pure.
"Accumulating the energy of heaven and earth, transforming it for one's own use; controlling the authority of laws, wielding power. This is not wrong—for hundreds of millions of years, countless powerful beings have walked this path. But that day, facing the Eye of Annihilation, I suddenly realized a problem—"
He clenched his fist, the soul power dissipating: "When my power is completely lost, when my divine position is shattered, when everything I 'accumulated' and 'controlled' is stripped away, what remains of 'me'?"
Qian Renxue's heart tightened, and she grasped her husband's hand.
Tang Wulin returned her grip and continued speaking, his gaze drifting into the distance: "The answer is: memories, emotions, choices, bonds—those things that constitute 'why I am me,' those 'existences' that cannot be measured by power, cannot be stripped away. The Eye of Annihilation can erase my power, can destroy my divine position, but it cannot make 'Tang Wulin loves Qian Renxue' never happen, cannot make 'Tang Wulin is Tang Xuanyu's father' become false."
"So Senior Destruction was right," he slowly said, clarity gradually emerging in his eyes, "I shouldn't be obsessed with restoring my former power, shouldn't try to walk back to the peak along the old path. That path might let me become Golden Dragon Moon Song again, let me possess God King-level combat power once more, but that would still be 'accumulation' and 'control,' still facing the same problem when facing annihilation next time: if these are stripped away again?"
Qian Renxue understood. She asked softly: "So you want to walk a path... that cannot be stripped away?"
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