"Don't overthink it."
As if sensing Bi'an's thoughts, Kong Tai put down his wine gourd, patted Bi'an's shoulder, and smiled, "I am not some creator god, nor a father god. At this moment, I am just Kong Tai, nothing more than the Kong Tai before you."
Bi'an looked at Kong Tai, stunned for a moment, then silently nodded.
No matter who Kong Tai was, he would only be by Kong Tai's side from now on. Why think so much? As long as Kong Tai was more powerful, he would be safer and grow faster.
Perhaps one day, he too could surpass reincarnation and reach the realm of the Space Dragon.
"You still haven't told me about the palace within your body," Kong Tai asked, retrieving his hand and raising his wine gourd again. He took a large gulp, then his gaze fell back on the Space Dragon. "And why are you so fixated on faith power?"
"The palace," the Space Dragon extended a dragon claw, reaching forward. The claw pierced through the void, entering a world that everyone felt familiar with. Then, he retracted his claw, and the castle world they had just experienced was now floating above the Space Dragon's claw. It was merely enclosed in a layer of space, appearing very small.
Before anyone could ask, the Space Dragon began to explain. "The owner of this castle was a..." He paused here, glancing at Bi'an, and continued, "a reincarnation stage expert from your world."
"So it was indeed the reincarnation stage?" Looking at the castle on his claw, everyone showed a look of sudden realization.
"Then how did he disappear?" Bi'an asked, looking up at the Space Dragon. "Although the reincarnation stage has not surpassed reincarnation and cannot achieve immortality, they are still top-tier existences in this universe. Such a powerful being couldn't have just vanished like that!"
"He didn't exactly vanish directly," the Space Dragon nodded, returning the castle to the space before him. He waved his dragon claw and continued, "In your terms, he experienced the tribulation of reincarnation and died in true reincarnation."
"I see!" Bi'an nodded, his confusion cleared.
"As for faith power..." At this moment, the Space Dragon extended his right claw and drew a stroke in the void. Before them, an image materialized out of nowhere. In the image, a Space Dragon, identical to the current one but with eyes lacking its present intelligence, instead filled with simplicity, even dullness, was aimlessly traversing the dark, cold universe.
At this point, the Void Dragon also slowly began to explain why he pursued faith power, why he fell into slumber, and why even his projection had no resistance to faith power.
"Faith power is just your gods' term. In my view, that kind of power can be considered the condensation of the spiritual light of all beings."
"Father God created me but did not bestow upon me the most basic intelligence of living beings. When I encountered the world and began to understand it, and gained the most fundamental wisdom of life, that instinctual pursuit of wisdom from living beings led me to this power."
"Since I had no followers, even if I appeared in the outside world, I couldn't truly imprint myself on the minds of beings like you, so I couldn't simply absorb this power. It was then that a god found me. He gave me faith power, and in return, I only needed to send them to various parts of the universe. This mutually beneficial transaction was thus easily concluded."
"As more and more gods joined, I gradually gained my own intelligence through the spiritual light of all beings. It was the emergence of this intelligence that gave me the desire to seek out Father God."
"Afterward, I traveled the universe, forging contracts with the gods in various worlds. This is probably the origin of the Void Worm Beast legend!"
The Space Dragon paused here. At this moment, the dragon in the projection, after absorbing countless amounts of faith power, had become identical to the Space Dragon in reality. The two dragons looked at each other, their gazes seeming to transcend illusion and reality, each seeing the other. Then, both dragons let out a low growl, and the projection vanished as if it had never appeared.
"The Void Worm Beast, rather than being my afterimage, is more of a product of the spiritual light of all gods, a product of their imagination."
Recalling his gaze, the Space Dragon's body gradually began to become ethereal. To the astonished gazes of the three, the Void Worm Beast they had first encountered gradually separated from the Space Dragon's body.
Extending a dragon claw, the Space Dragon stroked the Void Worm Beast's head and turned to face the astonished gazes of the three, continuing, "The spiritual light of all beings can nourish gods, so the spiritual light of gods can certainly nourish higher beings."
"During the countless eons I slept and disappeared, perhaps due to missing me too much, this spiritual light of the gods was gradually sensed by the aura I left in various worlds and the depths of the void, thus condensing into the Void Worm Beast."
"Just like me, the instinctive pursuit of wisdom by living beings makes these Void Worm Beasts, condensed by my aura, instinctively chase after faith power."
"This is all I know about the Void Worm Beast and faith power."
With a wave of his hand, the Space Dragon tossed the Void Worm Beast in his grasp into the depths of space. He then turned to look at the three who seemed lost in thought, a smile appearing on his draconic face.
"They can be considered an extension of my body, or they can be seen as independent lives. Because they possess my aura, they are immortal. As long as they experience enough time and absorb enough spiritual light, they will eventually, like me, develop true spiritual light and become a truly intelligent being."
"Therefore, I will not bind them."
After hearing the Space Dragon's words, Bi'an and Gu Yina were unable to snap out of their daze for a long time. Kong Tai had already made his own conjectures about faith power and the Void Worm Beast, so he was not particularly surprised at this moment.
"Alright, we've learned what we needed to learn," Kong Tai waved his hand, looking at the Space Dragon. "You'll be following me from now on, and you can't always be called Space Dragon. Do you have another name?"
"No," the Space Dragon shook its head. "I don't even know what my name is myself." It then looked at Kong Tai with a trace of expectation in its eyes. A name was a symbol of an intelligent being, and it naturally desired one, but in this world, only Father God had the right to give it a name.
Meeting the Space Dragon's expectation, Kong Tai rubbed his chin with his right hand, thought for a moment, then looked up at the Space Dragon's star-filled body and smiled, "From now on, you shall be called 'Xing Kong' (Starry Sky)! After all, you look just like the starry sky in the night, don't you?"
"Xing Kong..." The Space Dragon's eyes lit up, then it nodded joyfully, "From now on, I am Xing Kong." It actually didn't care what it was called; it only cared about who gave it the name.