Are you not going to listen to his final message?
"Mingyin, who had just heard Po Ming staring directly at him, shook his head as he looked up."
We cannot mourn over my future self dying. It will still be the same when we part ways... and I didn't truly trust him."Po Ming's eyes widened at those words.
He looked at Mingyin with a confused expression that lingered for a few seconds before he parted his lips to retort.
"Sir Mingyin, what are you talking about? He gave his future knowledge to you and died for you... I know that is what every future version of us would do so our past self wouldn't make the same mistakes.
"Mingyin, however, turned a deaf ear to his answer. He shifted his focus to the left, deep in thought about the precarious situation he was in.Mingyin and Po Ming have been alone this entire time, and they have a plan up their sleeve.
Can I truly even trust my future self? He could just be the other corrupted half of my future persona.Po Ming would only be a burden. I need all of those artifacts for myself to level up. I could even bypass some of the heavenly layers and knock on the eighth heaven, but... no!
How can I abandon the mortal world? I never go back on my promise. And if what Mingyin said here in this debris is true, I cannot even trust my own thoughts anymore... this is bad!
Po Ming has to die.
He simply knows too much about me, and I cannot trust that Mingyin who died either.
Even if Po Ming is useful, keeping him around will only delay my venture toward peace. I cannot hesitate anymore.
Should I kill him?Will that even accomplish anything?
What are the consequences?
No, he has to die. It won't be unprovoked; he will die right now!
Mingyin clutched the artifact left behind by his future self, realizing with a start that Po Ming was two stages higher than him!
Yet, empowered by Mingyin's artifact, he stood a fighting chance.Aren't human beings important?
Don't listen to that side of your conscience.
Think of your own safety.Mingyin was struck by the irony of the question, and he hesitated.Then, he shook his head and walked slowly forward.
I would rather be struck by the painful truth than embraced by a comforting lie.No, if I kill Po Ming, it makes no sense. What I just realized is that I have gained control over 98 percent of this realm.
That means I can seal other immortals hunting me here?That means they won't find a way to escape!That is good. Later, if I weather the heavy tribulation, I will land on the first heaven.
From there, if I survive the climb from the first to the seventh or sixth heaven, I can enslave them. Then comes my ascension to the peak of immortality!Right now, I possess all the artifacts in my realm!Po Ming can keep watching over it.
He can be the designated overseer of this domain!
Now that he is no longer a threat and remains useful for my survival, I can finally feel a sense of trust!But now, it is time to show this world who I am.Mingyin floated in the air as every artifact rose with him, swept away by a rising wave of soul energy!
He gripped a massive tree trunk and poured a surge of soul force into it.Mingyin gave me the knowledge of how to use this specific one.
Floating around Mingyin was a scroll detailing the function of each relic, and he determined this tree artifact was the best choice!He spoke aloud
:"[Tree of Connected Self-Curse]"
Suddenly, he sat atop the tree as its roots burst from the ground. Po Ming stood near as the roots raced through the labyrinth, blanketing it in bark, leaves, and rich soil, spreading outward until ripples warped the air itself.The roots plunged into the ripples, crossing into an expansive, stretching domain that soon covered an entire galaxy.
Yet, vast as the galaxy was, nothing could escape the reach of the tree's roots.Abruptly, all falling meteorites froze mid-air, locked in time!A spatial ripple tore open, pulling them into a wide, open plain of grass.
The roots surged toward massive cracks in the ground shaped like bottomless pits.
Suddenly, Odin-shin and Anguished were sent flying, knocked off their feet as gigantic human-shaped castle structures leaped forward alongside robotic counterparts. Phantom knights materialized overhead alongside the castles' own weapons—spears and swords—crashing down violently.
Odin-shin pushed his fists upward, unleashing a shockwave that blasted a hole into the chest of a castle. But as Anguished scrambled to his feet, a thick tangle of roots swallowed him whole, freezing him mid-expression!
Odin-shin froze too, his frantic movements halting as the roots fused into his body, matching the fate of the robotic citadels and phantoms.
The growth devoured every corner of space, spreading into unknown realms!A massive desert swallowed by a family of whale-like entities, every beast restrained by the roots.It crawled into uncharted dimensions—some resembling the frozen expanses of Antarctica, others vast arid lands dominated by towering spires shadowed by twin moons.It covered everything.
Then, Mingyin froze.He saw something he was never meant to see—something he would endure a thousand deaths to unsee. It was colossal.The body of a creature over six hundred feet tall, covered in pitch-black skin and four arms.
A three-eyed vortex.Embedded blossoms.It was none other than a version of Mingyin himself, lying in a vast sea of thick, pooled blood stretching as far as the eye could see.
But what truly shattered Mingyin's composure was that the future Mingyin—the one who had tricked his other future half—lay like a tiny fly next to a mountain of skulls millions of feet high, shaped like a dragon's skull split by a massive hole in the center.
Fifty-six percent of that blood-sea was choked with petrified skeletal structures resembling an ancient, preserved dinosaur, scarred by deep claw marks.
Mingyin froze because the roots of his tree, which had conquered the bone of this insane giant dragon, completely failed to touch that other future Mingyin's corpse.
That realization terrified him to his core.If the roots couldn't touch that twisted future self, it meant that specific version of Mingyin could easily resist the magic—meaning whoever had slain that future Mingyin was infinitely stronger than him.
Mingyin did not want to hear it!
He did not want to see it!
How many secrets does my future self hold? What happened to me, and what kind of monster did I drag into my realm that terrifies my future self even more than death itself?
Mingyin's cascading thoughts finally settled as he summoned a massive crimson moon into the sky.
Po Ming needs to die, if only to be spared a far worse fate.