Chapter 332: Disaster Will No Longer Belong to Mortals

Xu Zhi smiled, looking at her.

Meng Mei had been secretive for so long; what was she truly plotting behind the scenes? She had previously hidden things from many people and made many small moves. "She wants Bai Xiaosheng to become Hermes, the God of Wisdom?" It seemed to be getting interesting. Xu Zhi even thought he could listen to her plan. He had wanted to experience a harsh lesson from society before, but it hadn't happened. Perhaps the opportunity lay with Meng Mei, with her desire for Bai Xiaosheng to become Hermes? Was this an opportunity? He vaguely had this premonition.

Meng Mei pursed her lips and continued, "You are a new life, no longer the God of Wisdom from the past. You shouldn't dwell on the past but become an independent individual. The wise Bai Xiaosheng, who once belonged to the God of Wisdom, you can entrust him to me. He possesses the ability to save the entire world..."

"I can entrust him to you." Xu Zhi interrupted her. With that, Xu Zhi opened his inner dantian and sea of consciousness, and a faint figure appeared before them: Bai Xiaosheng, who was always reading.

"It really is the bookworm!" Little Fox Hu Haihan exclaimed, her small face radiating extreme joy. For a while, she had felt an emptiness, as if something was missing, ever since she lost the dull, reading scholar.

"You..." Meng Mei also looked at him in shock. That was Bai Xiaosheng, possessing endless wisdom. Even Medusa desperately wanted him, and the premature war between the two worlds was precisely because of him. He just handed him over so easily?

"Thank you, Lord Emperor Messiah! I thank you on behalf of all beings in the world!" She quickly regained her composure, immediately took Bai Xiaosheng, pulled her apprentice along, got into a carriage, and departed.

The carriage quickly rolled away, leaving the Blood Domain Great World, while the Celestial Emperors behind them continued their fierce battle. "So it's true, I don't need to explain... he already knew my plan." Meng Mei showed a look of shock, turning her head to see the black-haired, black-eyed young man still quietly observing the battlefield with a Hila.

Xu Zhi watched her leave. In reality, Meng Mei was overthinking; he didn't actually know her plan. The intelligent sub-brain wasn't omnipotent. It couldn't monitor or read every being's thoughts, nor could it control their actions. Even monitoring was selective; for instance, it usually monitored people like Armin, Medusa, and Emperor Qi. Naturally, it also monitored Meng Mei now, but in the monitoring, Meng Mei appeared calm, simply developing her territory, expanding the Church of Light, and spouting golden phrases. Her actions were very ordinary, making it hard to know what she was truly thinking.

"Things seem to have become a bit more interesting. If she wants Bai Xiaosheng, I'll just give him to her. Anyway, with Bai Xiaosheng in her hands, I'll know immediately what she plans to do, and I can retrieve him anytime." Xu Zhi was calm.

The sky was tinged with a faint crimson. The Blood Domain Great World gradually receded, giving way to lush forests and trees.

"Master, aren't we going to watch the battlefield anymore?" Hu Haihan asked, worried.

"There's no need to watch. Their strength is balanced, so it must be a stalemate. After all, that isn't the real Emperor Qi; a being formed by the gathered wishes of sentient beings has significant limitations and isn't a true living entity." Meng Mei closed her eyes slightly. She looked at Bai Xiaosheng, now back by her side, surprised by how easy it had been. "It should succeed." She continuously whispered, bolstering her confidence, "The reason I traveled the land to establish the Dragon Vein Incense system was to protect the lowest-level beings. The powerful elites can fight, but they shouldn't slaughter innocent common people."

"But the common people are precisely the targets for powerful individuals to slaughter," Hu Haihan couldn't help but say. "In the era of universal cultivation, even though most of them are only first-tier cultivators, their sheer number means that if they accumulate enough, they can enable someone to break through and become a god." In every great extinction, every cosmic catastrophe, it was the mortals who died the most, often wiped out by seventy or eighty percent. Because they were the weakest and provided ample energy, sacrificing all the mortals in a world, plus a few Celestial Emperors, was usually enough to allow someone to become a god.

"That's why I need to establish the Incense system to protect mortals," Meng Mei said with a smile. "Look at the current Ancient World; the powerful are desperately protecting mortals, safeguarding all beings. If this were the Western Epoch... would the Celestial Emperors protect mortals?"

Hu Haihan thought seriously for a moment. "No." It was a very realistic answer. Mortals were too numerous, like weeds, with a strong reproductive capacity; harvest one crop, and another would grow. This was Emperor Qi's philosophy, and many powerful individuals shared similar ideas. At their level, the lives and deaths of mortals were regarded with indifference.

Meng Mei said, "Back then, only my foolish apprentice, Dao Changsheng, would have acted that way. Even the Celestial Emperor of Severance wouldn't protect all beings. His reason for stopping the ancient Celestial Emperors was to protect the future of the strong. Individual powerhouses only fought for their own time; he wasn't doing it for the ant-like mortals among the masses." The little fox remained silent.

Meng Mei said calmly, "If I'm not mistaken, the Land of Potions will also experience a great calamity! Those Lord Emperors, currently obstructed on our side, after several setbacks, will inevitably have one or more of them unable to resist turning around and slaughtering all beings in the Land of Potions, aiming to absorb the mortals of an entire world to become gods." The little fox suddenly felt her blood run cold! She knew her master's reasoning was inevitable. Just like the aging Twelve Ancestral Witches who left the Grand Luo Heaven, preparing to slaughter all beings... Aging Celestial Emperors, fearing death, could make them disregard everything, even the lives of mere mortals... Had her master already thought to this level?

"So, Master intends to create an era for mortals in the Eastern Epoch?" Hu Haihan said. "A perfect transcendent world right before our eyes? In our world, no one will slaughter beings to become a god!" Hu Haihan continued, "Whereas in the Age of Potions, there will inevitably be a massacre of beings. They will fall into internal strife, and a great calamity will soon descend upon their world, while we have nothing."

Hu Haihan immediately grew excited. "Master, you are like a hero! You want to sever the past and future, just like the Celestial Emperor of Severance, to cut off past cosmic catastrophes and prevent the common people from being affected, from dying in these cataclysms. We are sure to win!"

"I'm not that great; I just want to do a few things," Meng Mei said, stroking her apprentice's hair. "And do you know why I managed to persuade Lord Emperor Messiah?"

Hu Haihan was puzzled. Indeed. The other party should not have been persuaded no matter what, yet he handed over Bai Xiaosheng, the most precious treasure, to their adversary's leader.

"Because he is omniscient and knows my plan, he entrusted him to me." Meng Mei explained, "My plan is to establish Dragon Veins in the Land of Potions as well, making the strong here immortal! They can absorb incense, and even fight among themselves for immortal divine positions, vying for followers and faith... This way, with their top echelons embroiled in internal conflict, the common people at the bottom of that world will not suffer the terrifying catastrophe of death." The little fox's eyes sparkled; she admired her master immensely.

Meng Mei chuckled, "As for those scoundrel powerhouses? Let them fight! Let them kill each other and vie for divine positions... As long as it doesn't affect civilians. And, the few who eventually obtain divine positions will be immortal, able to continuously fight and revive, killing their opponents to gain energy. After all, a cosmic catastrophe, the slaughter of lives, is a one-time plunder, whereas incense provides a continuous and unending supply. This way, in both our worlds, the common people will not die. Even though the world war continues and the Celestial Emperors on both sides are still battling, their deaths are their own, and the common people in both our worlds will suffer nothing."

"Disaster will no longer belong to mortals." Meng Mei smiled, "If they want to become gods, they must pay the price, and they might die, but their deaths are their own... While we mortals just have to watch the gods fight in the sky."

"Master, is this arduous plan of yours because of Big Brother Dao Changsheng's... death?" Hu Haihan asked.

Meng Mei froze for a moment, then fell silent. Only she knew that Dao Changsheng had truly died. Dao Changsheng, or the Heavenly Dao, with the same memories and combat skills, formed from the collective will of sentient beings, was merely another similar flower, another battle god akin to Bell. Formed by the masses, not his true self.

"That foolish boy... If it were me, I absolutely couldn't be so selfless. I'm just a lazy person." Meng Mei recalled this, her mood becoming unusually serene. "If I could have stopped him, I would have certainly slapped that disobedient child hard twice, then locked him in his room, not letting him go out. To hell with protecting all beings!" Little Fox Hu Haihan was stunned, completely unexpecting her master to use such language. Only Meng Mei herself knew that she had lost the most back then. Three Celestial Emperors had died, two of whom were her beloved ones: Dao Changsheng, the clear-eyed young scholar whom she had personally raised as her child, and her gentle and harmonious "Brother Qinglian." Losing these two closest people, with whom she had spent decades, in an instant, was a brutal stab to her heart that left her gasping for breath, plunging her completely into self-reproach and grief.

"At that time, I felt the same way as your father, Mu Yuancheng." She said softly, reminiscing, now somewhat resigned, "I suddenly felt truly lost, like I was the only one left in the world, walking on unfamiliar ground, looking at the people of a new era. I ran desperately, trying to find everything that was once familiar."

"Everything familiar was rapidly leaving me." She watched the lush, dark green trees flash by. "At that time, I was too old and truly felt like ending it all, until I met your father, Mu Yuancheng. It was as if I met a kindred spirit. That persistent man, who had lost his wife and daughter at the last moment, still held onto his obsession, struggling to protect the two of you... He earned my admiration and encouraged me. After I adopted you two, I gradually regained my vitality and became a living, lazy person again." After all, not everyone can be heartless and calmly face the death of their loved ones.

"Speaking of which, my luck has always been good since childhood. I always achieved things without effort, but I gradually realized that was a curse: everyone around me would die, and only I lived the longest." She laughed, "Truly like a thousand-year-old tortoise, ten-thousand-year-old turtle."

"Master..." The little fox took her master's hand.

"Don't worry, your master has always been very lucky. I used to do nothing and still lived smoothly and safely to this day, reaching the peak. Now, not only am I lucky, but I'm also working hard, so I will definitely succeed!" Meng Mei said seriously, patting her head.