405 Kills the Cat
Falling for Ru Qiu's provocation would not lead anywhere good. I knew that much instinctively. The Yellow Emperor standing before us was nothing more than a record, an echo pinned to a mont that had already passed. If I was ever going to confront him, I wanted it to be face to face, not through a distorted shadow where truth and interference could overlap. Worse still, if the Supre Void truly lingered within this remnant, then using Divine Possession here would be tantamount to inviting catastrophe.
I had already tempted fate more tis than I cared to count. I wasn't about to do it again.
"I'm not interested," I said flatly.
Golden light flared as I extended my hand. Holy Sword erupted from my palm, radiant and sharp, its presence forcing the cave to tremble as if reality itself had taken offense.
Ru Qiu stepped in front of , brows knitting together. "What are you doing?"
"Killing him," I replied calmly. "Isn't that obvious? You dragged this poor Ancient Soul out of whatever hole he was hiding in. The least I can do is put him out of his misery."
Ru Qiu stared at as if I'd insulted his ancestors. Then he sighed, disappointnt heavy in his eyes, and turned to the trembling Yellow Emperor. "Tell him what you told ."
That explained a lot. Ru Qiu didn't arrive at his conclusions out of thin air.
The Yellow Emperor swallowed, sweat rolling down his face like molten wax. "The Six Supres… they are not unified in belief, nor in desire," he said shakily. "But they are united in one thing. You."
I frowned. That was it? I had expected sothing grander or so elaborate cosmic design, a labyrinthine sche spanning epochs.
He continued quickly, as if afraid I would interrupt. "They are colluding to destroy all champions chosen by the Lost Gods. Not by direct confrontation, but through fate, circumstance, and erosion. Ru Qiu was one such champion." He lifted a trembling finger toward . "And now, it is your turn."
"So what?" I asked.
The words ca out harsher than I intended, but I didn't take them back.
This wasn't news. I'd crossed paths with Supre Beings before. I'd argued with one wearing the skin of a heart demon. I already knew they coveted the Source—Earth—and by extension, . Hearing it stated aloud didn't change the reality of my situation in the slightest.
The Yellow Emperor's voice grew more desperate. "The Six Supres were once champions as well. Chosen by us. Forged from the Source itself. Supre Beings are born from it, beings capable of rewriting reality, and restoring what was broken. You are the sa."
My grip tightened on the Holy Sword.
"You were forged as a weapon," he said, black tears spilling from his eyes. "A weapon ant to destroy the world in order to make it right. All of you resist this truth at first. Every champion does. And like your predecessors, you will seek to sever your destiny and walk free."
I exhaled slowly.
"You're starting to annoy ," I said.
The Yellow Emperor staggered forward, chains rattling as his knees hit the ground. His eyes, once filled with unbearable authority, were now raw and pleading.
"Please," he begged. "Do not follow their path. Do not beco what they beca."
I looked down at him, golden light washing over his bowed form, and wondered how many gods had once begged the sa way.
The Yellow Emperor's tears thickened, turning more pitch-black as they slid down his cheeks. Then he laughed. It was loud, raucous, and obscene.
"Ha—ha—ha—ha—ha—ha—ha!"
The sound scraped against my spine. The dark flas Ru Qiu had wrapped around him sputtered and died as the shadows beneath the Yellow Emperor deepened, stretching unnaturally, as if the light itself was retreating.
"Close it!" Ru Qiu barked.
The black tal prison snapped toward the Yellow Emperor, segnts folding inward, but they corroded mid-motion, eaten away by nothing I could perceive. I didn't hesitate. Holy Sword ca down in a radiant arc as I flooded it with Holy Aura, Divine Smite detonating in a burst of gold ant to erase corruption itself.
Two fingers caught the blade.
"Pretty good acting, right?" the man asked casually.
My breath caught.
"That was shitty," Ru Qiu snapped.
He reappeared at the man's flank, Immortal Art flaring as a dark, fiery sword tore through the air. I never saw the counter. I only felt it.
The world tilted.
I watched my own body fall away from , the left side sheared clean off, blood vaporizing before it could spill. Then everything went dark.
—
I blinked awake.
Spell Resonance triggered instinctively, Divine Word: Raise tearing back into existence. I gasped, half-conscious, weaving quintessence-made robes around myself just to keep so semblance of dignity as my mind struggled to catch up.
The Heavenly Divine Cult was gone.
Not ruined, but gone!
"W-What?"
A massive gorge cleaved through where the complex once stood, exposing raw mountainside and open sky. Sunlight poured down rcilessly. I propped myself against broken stone, head ringing, heart pounding, and stared.
The thing that wore the Yellow Emperor's face had Ru Qiu by the throat.
Ru Qiu didn't look good. He had no arms. No legs. His body was little more than a torso, dark embers struggling to knit him back together.
He'd screwed up badly.
So had I.
If I'd attacked the mont sothing felt off, would it have mattered? I didn't know. That uncertainty burned worse than the pain.
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The man laughed again. "You two are, what, ga-jizzllion years too early to challenge the Void."
I frowned despite myself. "That's not a word."
"Sure it is," he said cheerfully. "Jizz plus gazillion."
Ru Qiu snarled, even now. "Gazillion isn't a real word either."
The Void squeezed his grip.
Ru Qiu's head ca off.
Even for an Ascended Soul, that kind of damage was catastrophic. His vitality flickered, then vanished from my senses entirely.
Ah. Shit.
I exhaled slowly. I was probably about to die. Not the main body, thankfully, but still.
The Void snorted. "Don't look so serious. He'll live. Eventually. Guy's got layers of immortality stacked like bad DLC. Resurrection just takes ti."
I stared at him. "You sound… familiar to him."
He smiled. "Yeah. I got to know another version of him. The one stuck in the False Earth."
Cold crept into my chest.
He knew.
He knew this wasn't real, not truly. This was a record, an echo preserved by sothing far beyond the Hollowed World. And sohow, impossibly, he was watching us from outside it.
"How?" I whispered.
The man tilted his head, eyes glinting with amusent, and looked straight at .
"Da Wei," he said casually. "So… has One Piece finished yet?"
I stared at him, genuinely confused. "What's One Piece?"
The Void recoiled as if I'd just spat on sacred scripture. "You uncultured beast."
I didn't bother replying. My hand moved on instinct, silently lining up buffs—Lion's Cou—
I never finished the thought.
The world inverted.
I crashed into the mountainside hard enough that stone scread. My body tumbled through open air, clipped treetops, and finally buried itself into the forest below. Everything happened too fast and clean. I didn't think even my main body could've tracked that movent.
I coughed blood and forced myself to breathe, casting Blessed Regeneration as my ribs tried to knit themselves back together.
A vague mory surfaced of him flicking my forehead.
"Man, you're durable," the Void said.
He was suddenly there, standing beside like he'd always been. I swung Holy Sword at reflex speed. The blade passed through an afterimage.
The Void was squatting on the tip of my sword.
He leaned forward until our faces were inches apart. "One Piece is the greatest ani of all ti," he said solemnly. "A source of adventure and dreams for countless youths like ."
He tapped my forehead.
Pressure caved my skull inward. My vision went white, then red, then nothing as my head burst apart like wet clay.
—
I woke up again.
Spell Resonance dragged back, Divine Word: Raise forcing existence into a body that didn't want it yet. I lay there staring at the sky, clouds drifting lazily as if nothing had happened.
"Oh good," a voice said cheerfully. "You're awake."
I stood up slowly.
The Void sat on a boulder nearby, completely relaxed, shaving a stick with razor-thin qi. Wood curled away in perfect ribbons until the thing resembled a polished wooden sword. He admired it, turning it side to side.
"Before you," he said casually, "before Ru Qiu, before the other six… there was . The Supre Void."
I stayed quiet.
"I never got along with them," he continued. "The six idiots were too attached to this world. Ru Qiu was the opposite, since he just wanted everything to end." He laughed. "Thought I'd like him. Turns out wanting to die is boring as hell."
He glanced at . "Guy was wild in the False Earth, though. Picking fights with Ancient Souls, escalating everything. Zero chill."
I frowned. "And what does that have to do with ?"
The Void hopped off the rock and faced , wooden sword resting on his shoulder. His grin was lazy, curious, and almost friendly.
"Well," he said, tilting his head, "I'm wondering if you're like all of them."
He paused, and then added lightly, "Or if you wanna be my friend."
"I don't think friendship works that way," I said carefully. "At the very least, our character has to align. Or we share a mutual goal."
The Void swung his wooden sword in a lazy arc, cutting air that scread softly where it parted. He looked amused. "I like how straightforward you are."
He planted the sword on his shoulder and grinned. "My goal is simple. I want to destroy the world. All of reality. Every layer, every story, every piece of nonsense. Then we end it. Cleanly."
I frowned. "Then we can't be friends."
"A pity," the Void said lightly, as if I'd declined tea.
Sothing nagged at . Yuan Shun's smile. Her words. 'Destroy the world with .' The strange distortion I'd glimpsed in her shadow…
I looked at him. "Do you have anything to do with Yuan Shun?"
The Void yawned. "Oh. Her?" He waved a hand. "She's my disciple."
My heart sank. "What do you an by that?"
"I imbued my essence into her," he said casually. "Marked her. Raised her as a Void Disciple." His eyes narrowed, sharp with curiosity. "But the mont you appeared with your people, she severed the connection."
He vanished.
The world collapsed.
I slamd into the mountainside, pinned there as the wooden sword pressed into my chest like a nail through an insect. The pressure was unbearable. Stone cracked around .
The Void lood above, eyes dark and endless. "Care to explain," he asked pleasantly, "why your essence suddenly manifested inside my disciple the mont she saw you?"
"I… don't understand," I gasped.
He twisted the sword.
Pain exploded through as void qi slithered inside my body, cold and invasive, unraveling layers of existence I didn't even know I had. I scread despite myself.
"I've been watching you," he said, voice sharpening. "Through her. I deduced you ca from the future. And sowhere between that future and this tiline, sothing happened." His smile vanished. "Sothing ruined my plans."
The pressure increased. "What did you do?"
Fear swallowed .
Staring into those eyes of pure emptiness and absence given form, I felt a terrifying nothingness. Out of desperation, instinct screaming, I cast Divine Possession.
The world vanished.
I floated in darkness. No mories. No attachnts. No soul. When I blinked, I was standing within the eternal stillness of nothing, and I found myself utterly lost. Accompanying this feeling of lost was a horrifying pull, a desire to turn everything into the sa stillness.
I tore myself back.
The Void clicked his tongue. "Useless."
He leaned closer. "I'll ask again. What did you do?"
"I don't even know your so-called plans," I said hoarsely. "How am I supposed to answer?"
He studied , and then shrugged. "Fair. I don't mind sharing."
He paced, wooden sword tapping the ground. "It started when the Heavenly Demon broke the barrier between past and future. A pathetic attempt at survival." His eyes glead. "I used that opening to exert my will into distorted history."
"The Eternal Undeath Cult," he continued. "was built in the ruins of the Heavenly Demonic Cult. I needed a vessel, but I couldn't move too much. The Warden was watching." He chuckled. "So I chose a disciple instead. Soone to watch over the destined body."
He stopped in front of .
"A body that could see into the abyss," he whispered, fingers tightening on my jaw, forcing my eyes up to his. "And sing to the darkness."
My expression betrayed .
He laughed softly. "Ah."
His gaze pierced straight through my thoughts. "So you do know."
I tried to look away. He didn't let .
"Hei Mao," the Void said, savoring the na. "That was his na, wasn't it?"
I swung my fist.
I didn't even feel the impact, because my arm was suddenly gone.
There was no transition, no resistance. One mont I was moving, the next my limbs were severed cleanly, falling away like discarded thoughts. The pain ca a heartbeat later, screaming through every layer of my being.
The Void stared into my eyes with naked fascination, as if I were a puzzle finally coming apart. He reached out, fingers precise, and picked not flesh, not bone, but sothing deeper, sothing essential.
I shut my eyes.
He laughed.
Then he plucked my head out, spine and all, tearing it free from my body in a single smooth motion. Agony detonated. I scread, soundless and useless, as my perception twisted violently.
"That won't help," he said cheerfully.
I felt a blade of void qi slice across my face. My eyelids were cut away.
"Look at ."
My vision locked onto his.
The Void was laughing now, delighted, eyes alight with revelation. "I finally get it," he said. "That's why I failed."
He leaned closer, voice dropping into sothing almost fond. "Karma really does strike in the strangest places."
His grip tightened. "The twin of my Void Disciple," he murmured. "Stealing my vessel of all things!"
"Enough," I spat with bloodied lips. With what little agency I had left, I gathered holy power inward and cast Divine Smite on myself. Radiance erupted inside my skull. Everything went white.
I should have killed myself sooner.
That was the first coherent thought as my Ghost Soul tore free, drifting in a cold, hollow state. I'd hesitated. And because of that, I'd endangered my disciple.
"Hei Mao."
I reached outward, ignoring the pain, the fear, and the lingering echo of the Void's gaze. Through faith, through bond, through sothing deeper than qi or mana, I felt a faint thread of faith connected to my disciple. It was trembling, but intact.
I followed it, but shortly stopped.
A sick realization crawled up my spine. "What are the chances he's not following ?" I materialized above a still lake, my form translucent, barely anchored. The water below reflected a warped shadow.
My shadow blinked.
Eyes opened within it.
"Well done," the shadow said, voice smooth and amused. "You catch on quickly."
Cold seeped into my being.
The eyes curved into sothing like a smile. "Tell , Da Wei. Have you ever heard the saying that… Curiosity kills the cat?"
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