Aldrian, who viewed Zhang Haoran’s mories from a first-person perspective, did not change his expression.
Although he knew that Zhang Haoran had a harsh and cruel past, that kind of experience was not sothing unique to him.
Just because Zhang Haoran had suffered a cruel fate did not an Aldrian had to feel sympathy for him, especially after everything Zhang Haoran had done to the continent.
He wanted revenge? Fine. But at the cost of other people’s lives? No. That would make him no different from the villains who once victimized him.
Aldrian understood that Zhang Haoran hadn’t had much of a choice either, as Tarius’s power had co at just the right ti, and he needed it for his revenge. So Aldrian did not bla him.
Unfortunately, fate dictated that Zhang Haoran would et Aldrian on this continent. Aldrian, who carried his own responsibilities on his shoulders, would of course do whatever it took to fulfill them.
Like Zhang Haoran, he also had his own revenge. He truly wanted to kill all those invaders who had killed so many of his followers.
However, revenge was not his only purpose. He had a broader goal in mind. He needed to return to what he once was, to reclaim his forr strength and glory, to restore order to this universe and even beyond.
There was still much to do, and he would not allow anyone to stop him on his path of return.
Aldrian took his ti as he looked through Zhang Haoran’s mories, because he wanted to understand every detail of how Zhang Haoran beca what he was now. About Tarius, about the system, anything he deed important.
Looking at Zhang Haoran’s past, he couldn’t help but rember his own past life, or more specifically, one of them. Zhang Haoran was a human from a planet called Earth, and to Aldrian, it felt familiar. He recalled that in one of his visions, he had also lived in that place for so ti.
A planet filled with mortals, without cultivation. Seeing how Tarius, or those gods had already spread their influence even to a place like that, the First Heaven seed to have infiltrated so deeply that even a distant world like Earth had been affected.
But he set that aside for now and continued looking into Zhang Haoran’s mories. He wanted to see if there was anything he could use to face Tarius, or any secret that might prove useful to him.
He kept observing the mories of Zhang Haoran’s ti in the Barisan Continent. Zhang Haoran had not actually been reincarnated into a new body, as Aldrian had once assud. Instead, his soul had taken over the body of a low-level devil cultivator who had just died at the hands of a cultivator from the Doria Empire.
Tarius had slipped Zhang Haoran’s soul into that body, and Zhang Haoran’s journey on this continent began from that mont. He climbed from the lowest ranks of the devils to beco a Devil Lord, thanks to both his own abilities and the system that played a major role in his rise.
He had overco every kind of struggle and obstacle to reach that position. And once he beca a Devil Lord, he began planning the opening of the portal that would allow Tarius to descend.
This was the part that Aldrian truly wanted to know.
He wanted to know what Zhang Haoran had planned at the ti, and more importantly, how the portal to the higher heavens worked. The thod for opening the portal was listed as the ultimate mission in Zhang Haoran’s system, and the instructions appeared only after he beca a Devil Lord. As Aldrian examined it, he frowned.
Opening the portal required many components, but there was one detail that stood out to him: in order to open the portal, Zhang Haoran had to help Tarius weaken the law of causality that prevented higher beings from descending into the lower heavens.
Weakening the laws of causality was no trivial matter. These laws were part of the natural order of the universe, forces that had maintained balance since primordial tis. Only a few beings had ever been capable of affecting them, and all of them possessed strength on the level of those who had mastered the universe.
To interfere with the law of causality required not only imnse strength, but also a profound comprehension of it. Even then, it would take an extrely long ti to cause any noticeable effect on such fundantal laws.
However, Tarius and the other invaders had actually done sothing quite clever to accelerate the weakening of the law of causality in each heaven. They sent their apostles into the lower heavens to act on their behalf, sabotaging them from within to speed up the process.
The invaders operated from the higher heavens, while the apostles worked from below.
The primary force behind weakening the law still lay with the gods themselves, but with their apostles carrying out missions in the lower heavens, the gods above would have a far easier ti eroding those laws.
With this two-sided "attack," the law of causality which was the barrier separating the heavens, would weaken much more rapidly.
As a result, higher beings could more freely extend their power and influence into the lower realms. Even descending into the lower heavens for a short ti might beco possible for gods, though they would still be greatly weakened in the process.
So how did the apostles help weaken the law of causality for their gods?
From observing Zhang Haoran, Aldrian could only understand how he did it, at least, this was the thod used by the god Tarius. And that was—
By spreading negative energy across the continent as densely as possible.
But how could negative energy be spread to that extent?
Aldrian kept observing, and as ti passed, his expression grew darker, until it finally shifted into a look of realization.
Why had Zhang Haoran orchestrated the devil infiltration?
Why had he sparked wars without any clear purpose?
Why had he planned so much destruction?
Everything had been done to weaken the law of causality in this part of the heavens, specifically, in the Barisan Continent.
To spread negative energy as densely as possible, Zhang Haoran had chosen the most effective thod: widespread destruction, fear, death, and every form of suffering capable of generating the energy needed. All of it served one goal, to accelerate the weakening of the laws.
The system had even given him a threshold: a minimum density of negative energy required before the portal-opening process could begin. Once that threshold was reached, he could start.
His plan for the devil infiltration in the past had been aid at causing as much widespread damage and death across the territories as possible.
He had also enticed many cultivators throughout the continent to join him and beco devil cultivators. On top of that, he waged purposeless wars, like the one against the Doria Empire, simply to accelerate the spread of negative energy.
If his plan had gone smoothly without Aldrian’s interference, the continent might have already fallen into chaos, with destruction and death everywhere. And with that destruction, the negative energy would have surged in a short ti, reaching the threshold set by the system almost imdiately.
Had everything gone according to Zhang Haoran’s plan, the portal wouldn’t have taken nearly as long to open. Unlike the current situation, where it required nearly a month, the portal might have opened in just a day, fueled by the overwhelming amount of negative energy created through all the devastation.
He did not want to repeat the sa mistake made during the Great War three million years ago, when the devils t with divine power near the central region of the Everlasting Silent Forest. All that death and destruction had been in vain, as the apostle at that ti was killed due to his own recklessness, attacking the heart of the forest without understanding his limits.
Today’s situation was different. The devils were far weaker than they had been back then. Zhang Haoran had to rely on cunning and precision, choosing a cleaner, more calculated approach to achieve his goal as effectively as possible.
However, in this era, the appearance of Aldrian had greatly disrupted Zhang Haoran’s plan. Because of that interference, he was forced to alter his strategy. His purpose shifted, from pursuing the most efficient way to open the portal, to simply ensuring that the portal could be opened at all.
As long as he t the threshold, he could begin the process of opening the portal. With Aldrian’s unexpected appearance, Zhang Haoran knew he could no longer rely on the most effective thod to reach that threshold.
What he could do, however, was adapt to the situation. He simply allowed Aldrian to run rampant, killing many of his devil minions and anyone associated with them.
Although this approach would make the portal-opening process take much longer, it was still better than failing his mission altogether. Every ti large-scale chaos and destruction erupted across the continent because of Aldrian, it contributed to the buildup of dense negative energy, bringing Zhang Haoran one step closer to the required threshold.
Once that threshold was finally reached, he could begin the portal-opening process, marked by the appearance of the black pillar. And once the portal had entered the creation phase, he would have to sacrifice everything to accelerate its completion.
And how could it be accelerated?
Through more death and destruction, of course.
War was the perfect dium for both. With each death and every act of devastation caused by all sides, the portal-opening process would quicken.
The portal’s size also had its own threshold, and once that limit was reached, Tarius’s descent would beco imminent.
Aldrian gritted his teeth in frustration as the truth beca clear. He felt like a fool. He had been taken advantage of by Zhang Haoran this entire ti.
Unknowingly, he had contributed to the opening of the portal through the very chaos, death, and destruction he had caused over the years.
But then, all of it had been inevitable. There was no way he could have moved forward without killing many along the way. It was impossible to avoid bloodshed or destruction, not when facing devils or anyone tied to them.
He continued observing Zhang Haoran’s mories until the mont he finally encountered him. Then, Aldrian stopped.
In the real world, he opened his eyes, and gritted his teeth. Unconsciously, all this ti, he had also contributed to accelerating the portal-opening process.
But this revelation led him to a conclusion: in the end, whether the threshold of the portal was reached or not, this war was bound to happen. That black pillar would still appear. The war would still break out.
He looked at the black pillar and stood up, intending to destroy it before the portal reached the required threshold. He knew the threshold was already dangerously close, and he hoped he wasn’t too late.
But then he froze.
As he turned his gaze toward the sky, he saw a thin spatial crack slowly spreading across it. His eyes widened, and a chill ran through his chest.
Then, from behind him, a weak voice spoke.
"You... are... too... late."
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