"Since that's the case, you shall remain in this state."
Fang Ming placed the gentle-faced Nannan beside the fierce-faced Nannan. He didn't want to force Nannan to make a choice. Perhaps one day, the two might reunite as one?
"Fang Ming, where are you… going?" the fierce-faced Nannan called out to Fang Ming, who was about to turn and leave. Her eyes were filled with reluctance.
Fang Ming smiled, "Of course, I'm going to do what I need to do."
He, Fang Ming, was also the other side of Chang Sheng. He was separated when Chang Sheng used the rune array, then adopted by Fang Daolong and raised until his strength was restored to its peak.
Now, it was time to do what needed to be done.
"Won't you stay?" the fierce-faced Nannan asked tearfully. She had already guessed what Fang Ming intended to do. Although she didn't know the specifics, she knew that if Fang Ming left now, he might never return.
"Silly Nannan," Fang Ming crouched down and patted Nannan's head. "I will definitely come back. I'll take you both to live a peaceful life then."
"Don't lie to me."
"How could I lie to you? I couldn't possibly lie to you even if I lied to anyone else," Fang Ming smiled.
"Then… pinky promise."
Fang Ming hesitated for a moment before extending a hand.
"Pinky promise, sealed with a vow, never to change for a hundred years!" the fierce-faced Nannan said, starting to cry. She knew she was deceiving herself, or rather, giving herself some psychological comfort.
"Yes, never to change for a lifetime!" Fang Ming smiled.
He remembered the first time he and Nannan pinky promised. When he said a hundred years, Nannan had actually rejected it. He hadn't expected Nannan to make the same mistake as him now.
"I'm leaving now. I'll wait for my return."
Fang Ming stood up and walked towards Chang Sheng.
Nannan stared intently at his retreating back, wanting to etch it into her memory.
"Let's go," Fang Ming said to Chang Sheng.
"Are you truly determined?" Chang Sheng asked with a faint smile.
"If we don't go, who else in this world can?" Fang Ming spread his hands.
"What do you intend to do?" Fang Daolong asked. After all, Fang Ming was like a son to him; he couldn't help but be concerned.
"Let me explain," Fang Ming interjected.
"The runes you now possess are actually things I brought out from a subordinate world called the Soul Realm. Chang Sheng should have told you about the incident a thousand years ago; that monster came from the Soul Realm."
"After entering the Soul Realm, I encountered the strongest monster in that world. Its power far surpassed the Chang Sheng realm. After fighting it, I was forced to flee."
"Then, I used the runes I brought from the Soul Realm to split myself into two. The stronger half remained in the Chang Sheng Realm to monitor the Soul Realm's movements, while the weaker half was cast into reality, and I faked my growth through your plans."
"Of course, your entire plan from beginning to end was orchestrated by me. Even the 'Son of God' you believed you cultivated was constantly manipulated by me."
Fang Daolong and the Principal fell silent. So, they were the pawns all along!
"Did you harm so many innocent humans just for your plan?" the Principal asked, his voice filled with anger. He found it hard to accept.
Fang Ming shook his head. "Your school, and the mining accidents in the mines, are not problems from the Chang Sheng Realm. While the Chang Sheng Realm can influence reality, it's not the only thing that can."
"What do you mean?" the Principal pressed.
"Under my control, the Chang Sheng Realm's influence on reality is not significant. However, other subordinate worlds, especially powerful ones like the Soul Realm, have a much more noticeable impact on reality."
Fang Ming continued, "The mining incidents were primarily man-made. The school accidents were caused by activities in other worlds, though I'm not sure which ones specifically. I simply used these events to forge an alliance between you and Fang Daolong, thereby completing my plan."
The Principal: "I don't believe you! You must be lying!"
How could he believe that the person responsible for his suffering was now telling him he was merely a pawn, and his true enemies were others?
"Believe it or not," Fang Ming said, too tired to explain further to the Principal. He felt he had already done his utmost by telling him these things.
"Let's go," Fang Ming said to Chang Sheng.
"Alright."
The two stood side by side, then leaped into the sky.
In the sky, a spatial rift that stretched across the heavens appeared at some point. Fang Ming and Chang Sheng plunged into it, heading for another world.
The Soul Realm.
Was this a world formed by a different byproduct of the real world? It was somewhat similar to the Chang Sheng Realm.
The Chang Sheng Realm was formed by the condensation of endless resentment. The Soul Realm, on the other hand, was formed by the dispersed soul energy of living beings after death.
The beings in the Soul Realm had no physical bodies, or rather, they only condensed into physical forms after reaching a certain level of strength. The larger the proportion of their physical form, the stronger these souls were.
Moreover, and more crucially, these souls, regardless of their strength, had no intelligence!
They only possessed instincts: the instinct to hunt, to find food to sustain themselves. Thus, this world was rife with battles.
If two souls met, it was a fight to the death. The victor would completely devour the loser!
Since they lacked intelligence, this devouring only temporarily burdened their bodies; it didn't affect their minds. This allowed these soul beings to grow stronger endlessly!
Under these circumstances, the Soul Realm eventually gave birth to an extremely terrifying entity—the Soul Demon.
The purpose of Chang Sheng and Fang Ming's journey was to find and kill the Soul Demon!
"The Soul Realm is as chaotic as ever," Fang Ming said, looking down at a pair of souls locked in combat, and sighed.
Each of these souls bore a few runes, precisely the ones Fang Daolong and the others possessed. In fact, the runes that Chang Sheng mastered were copied from the Soul Demon.
"After all, they are essentially mindless monsters. How can they compare to the resentment spirits?" Chang Sheng remarked.
"In which direction is the Soul Demon?" Fang Ming asked. Chang Sheng's primary task while staying in the Chang Sheng Realm was to monitor the Soul Demon's movements and prevent it from breaking through the world barrier to wreak havoc.
"Keep going forward."
Both of them were at the Chang Sheng realm, their speed was incredibly fast.
One day later, a colossal entity hundreds of thousands of meters in size appeared on the horizon! It was the Soul Demon!
This monster was over 800,000 meters long and over 400,000 meters tall. It resembled a slime, entirely blood-red, its surface covered with screaming human faces and monstrous faces. Each face had a rune on its forehead.
Every time this creature devoured a living being, another face would appear on its body. Its body, stretching over 800,000 meters, was almost entirely covered with the faces of living beings, indicating the countless lives it had consumed since its birth! It was at least several hundred million!
"Seeing this fellow again," Fang Ming mused. It had grown considerably more powerful than a thousand years ago.
"Let's first see if the two of us can handle it separately," Fang Ming suggested.
Chang Sheng nodded, and they accelerated their pace towards the Soul Demon.
Although the Soul Demon was mindless, it possessed a sense of self-preservation and a premonition of danger that bordered on foresight!
Sensing the approach of two massive energies, the Soul Demon's body writhed rapidly. Countless giant hands, tens of thousands of meters long, appeared and reached out to grab Fang Ming and Chang Sheng.
"Annihilation!"
Fang Ming looked at the incoming giant hands and pointed. Runes flickered on his fingertip, and a wave emanated, causing the扑来的 giant hands to instantly disintegrate and vanish.
Chang Sheng had a similar experience, easily dealing with the reaching hands.
The initial probing ended with the Soul Demon's complete defeat.
The Soul Demon's extended limbs were disintegrated by the two, and it let out a painful roar.
"Wuuu~" a low mournful cry echoed throughout the Soul Realm.
Following this, the Soul Demon unleashed its full power. Its runes began to flash one after another, increasing the gravity of the entire Soul Realm instantly. Fang Ming and Chang Sheng felt as if they were carrying several mountains, their movements becoming sluggish.
Then, the frequency of the Soul Demon's rune flashes quickened. Beams of multicolored light shot out from its body, each containing deadly peril!
Fang Ming and Chang Sheng dodged frantically, not wanting to test the power of these beams.
Or rather, they had tested them a thousand years ago, and the experience was so excruciating that touching them meant flesh and blood decomposition.
Indeed, these beams were the original version of Fang Ming's "Annihilation."
Even Chang Sheng, powerful as he was, dared not face "Annihilation" head-on!
This attack transcended talent or rules, completely a mixture of various elements in the world, then launched in a state of constantly collapsing balance.
Anything touched by Annihilation, regardless of what it was, would be assimilated by the collapsing state within Annihilation and decompose immediately!
A wave of light swept across the land, leaving nothing but desolation for tens of thousands of kilometers. Some aimlessly drifting souls met an untimely end, not even knowing how they died.
The Soul Demon sensed that the two powerful energy fluctuations had not disappeared and let out an angry roar. Its body began to writhe again.
"Here it comes."
Fang Ming took a deep breath. This was the main event of the battle, the reason Chang Sheng had been routed a thousand years ago!
The Soul Demon's body writhed continuously, a head emerged, followed by limbs, a long tail, and sharp bristles condensed to cover its surface. On either side of its abdomen, two eyes the size of its head opened, gazing at Fang Ming and Chang Sheng.
Its entire form resembled a giant wolf!
As soon as its body took shape, the Soul Demon launched its attack.
Its colossal body was surprisingly agile. With a leap, it appeared before Fang Ming in an instant and opened its massive jaws to bite at him.
Fang Ming dared not let himself be eaten and immediately retreated, narrowly escaping the range of its gaping maw.
The Soul Demon, missing its target, showed no anger. It opened its jaws again and spat out a beam of Annihilation light, ten thousand meters thick, towards Fang Ming's position!
"Oh no!"
Fang Ming yelped and flew directly above the Soul Demon's head without stopping. Only directly above and behind its head were its blind spots for attack!