Volume One, Chapter 57: Delightfully Engrossed in Playing Marbles
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That was not a warship, nor a weapon, but the most forbidden creation at the heart of the God-Devouring Civilization. It was forged through countless epochs, devouring the "paths" and "fortunes" of over a thousand god-level civilizations—a purely conceptual weapon.
Its purpose was singular—to sever causality and anchor to the void.
It could transcend time and space, bypass defenses, and directly affect the very foundation of existence for a civilization, a species, or even an entire world. Once anchored, the target’s "fortune," "destiny," and "meaning of existence" would be forcibly stripped away, dragged into eternal nothingness.
From an outsider’s view, the target showed no visible harm, yet they inexplicably began to wither. Geniuses died young, the powerful fell into madness, legacies were severed, bloodlines withered, and over endless years, they quietly self-annihilated.
This was an annihilation from the root, insidiously cruel to the utmost degree. However, its use came at a tremendous cost, consuming vast fortunes accumulated by the God-Devouring Civilization itself each time. It was originally reserved as their ultimate weapon against truly top-tier civilizations that crossed the chaotic seas.
“Master Sovereign, is it worth it for a declining Gu family?” a commander mustered the courage to advise.
“Declining?” The Sovereign sneered coldly. “A family that caused three of my fleets to vanish without a sound, you call that declining? Now, it’s no longer about whether we want the Gu family's ‘Divine Weapon.’ It’s a matter of one of us—either we or the Gu family—must utterly disappear!”
He already regarded the Gu family as the greatest existential threat to their civilization.
“I want to see if their ancestral iron turtle shell can withstand an attack from the level of ‘fate’!”
The Sovereign’s will was absolute.
Soon, deep within the moving fortress, atop an altar constructed from the tormented souls of countless civilizations, a black spectral anchor formed from pure “nothingness,” so dark it seemed to warp even light itself, slowly materialized.
It did not lock onto the Tianxuan Grand World nor the Gu family courtyard. Instead, it locked onto a dazzling river of fate that stretched across past, present, and future—belonging to the Gu family.
...
Meanwhile, in the Tianxuan Grand World.
Three Gu elders and countless cultivators stared blankly at the sky, now restored to a clear blue, as if trapped in an absurd dream.
“Elder... what was that just now?” the Second Elder’s voice trembled.
“I don’t know...” The First Elder shook his head, bewildered and stunned beyond words. Having lived for ages and thought himself wise, the events of today shattered his understanding utterly.
“Was it... the main lineage intervening?” the Third Elder guessed. “But we never sought aid, and the main lineage is so far away. Even if an immortal king acted, it couldn’t have been so silent...”
They racked their brains but couldn’t find a plausible explanation.
Finally, the First Elder took a deep breath and decided, “This must be reported to the family immediately! I will personally compose the jade slip. You two will protect me and imprint everything that happened just now with your divine sense—without a single mistake.”
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He produced an ancient jade slip flowing with chaotic energy—a communications treasure reserved for the Gu family’s highest elders. Immersing his divine sense within, he began to record the cataclysmic yet fleeting strange scene with the most reverent and fearful tone.
...
In the Gu family courtyard.
Gu Changsheng was gleefully playing marbles.
He used a beautiful "glass marble" as the mother ball, striking the colorful "world prototypes" in the circle, playing as if he were a three-year-old child.
Fubo stood by, his face wearing a kind yet fanatical smile.
Just moments ago, a humble jade pendant at his waist emitted a faint heat—an urgent secret report from the three elders of Tianxuan Grand World. A sweep of his divine sense revealed all that had transpired.
Inside, he felt no ripple of emotion—only a faint inclination to smile.
Three fleets? God-Devouring Civilization?
To the Progenitor Lord, these were likely less important than a bothersome marble.
Fubo’s gaze landed on the marble box in the young master’s hand, then on the “world prototypes” scattered on the ground like toys. A startling new realization surged within him.
The Progenitor Lord was... not playing.
Previously, the Progenitor Lord evolved the “Path of Creation” out of boredom.
Now, he played with these “world prototypes” again because he was bored once more.
The clarity and horror of this logic were overwhelming.
Creating a world was like gardening to him.
Toying with a world was like playing marbles!
Fubo watched as Gu Changsheng flicked his finger, the “glass marble” precisely striking another, sending it flying out of the circle.
To him, this was no mere physical collision.
What he saw was the Progenitor Lord, through a game incomprehensible to mortals, redefining and demonstrating the universe’s most fundamental laws!
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That strike was the absolute direction of causality!
That collision was the ruthless judgment of fate!
The marble flung out of the circle represented a world, banished from “order” into “chaos”!
The Progenitor Lord was... using this method to tell all heavens and worlds, to those petty beings, that whether creation or destruction, order or chaos, all rested on a single thought of his!
Understanding this, Fubo felt his soul ascend. His gaze toward Gu Changsheng transcended reverence—it was a devout worship of the Way itself.
At that moment, in the corner of the courtyard, two long-dormant energies erupted like volcanic blasts!
Boom! Boom!
Two utterly distinct yet equally incomprehensibly powerful auras soared skyward. One pulsed with life’s rhythm and the mystery of creation, as if it could revive dead wood and awaken all things. The other was razor-sharp, a sword intent piercing the heavens, seeming capable of severing time and space and destroying all laws!
Ye Qingxian and Ji Ruxue awakened simultaneously from their enlightenment.
Ji Ruxue slowly opened her eyes. Within them spun the birth and death of billions of souls. The Yaochi Heart Sutra within her had fully transformed into a higher art she could not name. She could clearly "see" the life trajectory of every blade of grass, every ant’s survival instinct, and even sense the “meaning” of dust particles in the river of time.
Her realm had transcended the so-called Imperial level, stepping into a new domain founded on the “rules of life.”
Meanwhile, Ye Qingxian’s aura was more restrained. She stood quietly, yet her entire being resembled a sheathed divine sword. Where her gaze landed, the structure of space and the patterns of law manifested clearly in her perception.
She had realized.
From Gu Changsheng’s seemingly casual “gardening,” she had grasped the third realm of the sword path beyond “protection” and “destruction”—“Creation.” Yet now, she saw something even deeper from that enlightenment.
Creation was not the end.
The true pinnacle was “Non-Action.”
It was the absolute transcendence that regarded creation and destruction as equal, treating all things as mere straw dogs.
Just like the young master before them.