Chapter 622: Life Is So Difficult

For Salu, his memory was still stuck a few months ago, in the era when he had just begun a life-or-death battle with Zach. He had lost, despite it being a situation he was sure to win; he had lost to fate.

But did he really lose to fate?

Yes.

He truly lost to fate.

For fate itself was the omnipotent All, the very concept of the Creator.

He saw an invisible hand smoothing the wrinkles of the river of time, favoring another group of races.

He saw that man, who was supposedly his parent, yet seemed to disregard him...

He had a thousand words: admiration and joy for the one who created his parents, awe for the power to create worlds and observe time, and despair at his own cold indifference. These emotions intertwined into a complex feeling...

"Salu, why do you wish to see me?" a deity with delicate white porcelain skin, short black hair, and a white robe spoke in a calm voice.

"Lam!"

"Lam!"

The most primitive natives on this planet knelt.

Filled with reverence, they surrounded the stone statue they worshipped and the deity who descended from the sky, continuously kowtowing and shouting their most primal chants.

"Creator God... our parent, the parent of this entire world, you have finally come." Salu's voice was hoarse but incredibly agitated and angry. "I want to know, why! Why!..."

Xu Zhi stood before Salu's fragmented body. After a journey through space, he had arrived on this planet, still covered in cosmic dust, appearing like a statue curled up with his legs hugged, head turned to the side.

Yet, having integrated the genetic traits of all life on the Stone Planet—the powerful genes of Frost Demons, High-Green Planet people, Red Beetles, and Androids—still made him the sole being to transcend all others.

He was unique, possessing even the potential to surpass everything.

As the optimal product of the Great Unification Virus, an anomaly derived from countless world lines, he even held irreplicable potential.

"You want to ask why?" Xu Zhi smiled. "Why what?"

"Where did I come from? Am I your child?!" His voice was hoarse, filled with jealousy and rage.

Xu Zhi's hand passed through his head, creating ripples of white, fluid-like substance, took out a demon core, and then put it back.

The demon core was sufficient proof of a life system originating from the Great Unification Virus.

"Since I am your descendant, and the same talents flow through us, why is it like this?! Why is it like this?!" He erupted from his silence. "Since you gave birth to two children, why did you interfere in their war?!"

"Because your name is Slaughter," Xu Zhi said.

"Slaughter?"

He was suddenly stunned.

Slaughter was indeed an innate instinct for their race.

From the moment he gained consciousness and rose to become a Zombie Tyrant, his zombie mind was filled with mad slaughter, destroying everything, eating, eating, eating.

Was it because... he was slaughtering?

Was he trying to destroy the planet and creatures his parents created?

But if he was destined to cause revulsion, then why was he created? Why did he come into this world?

He shouldn't have been born at all!

What was the meaning of his existence throughout countless world-line cycles, during that period of time?

From long ago, seeing this mysterious Creator God watching era after era across various world lines, he had wanted to ask why their successes were repeatedly overthrown. It was too unfair!

Day by day, intense resentment and anger accumulated in his chest.

"Have you forgotten? You are no longer a Slaughter Tyrant, no longer a terminator that destroys and infects everything... You have transformed from Slaughter into Salu," Xu Zhi spoke with a smile.

This was not Cell from Dragon Ball, but a truly independent and special life form.

He looked up at the starry sky, where shining stars revolved. One of them was the dark green Stone Planet. "Not only have they undergone a metamorphosis, but you have too... haven't you, Salu?"

Salu looked at Xu Zhi, his body trembling, indeed shaking. "So, that's how it is?"

Xu Zhi said, "You have gained self-awareness. No longer solely driven by slaughter, you possess kindness, doubt, greed, and even compassion. You have become 'complete,' drawing closer to our true nature. You are becoming a complete being."

"I'm complete?" He almost lost his voice. "I'm becoming... All?"

"All things in the world are our people, and you are no exception," Xu Zhi said with a smile. "It may seem like I was helping the Stone Planet, but in reality, I was also helping you, allowing you to transition from an incomplete to a complete life... From now on, you have become the All, and I will no longer interfere with the world's progression. You can do as you wish."

Salu suddenly fell completely silent. He looked at Xu Zhi's white porcelain body, delicate and mysterious, the most powerful existence in the world. "I can do as I wish? Even if I want to become you?"

Xu Zhi was momentarily stunned.

Salu suddenly shouted, "From my long journey through the cosmos, that defeat, and nearing death, I understood: victory and defeat are fleeting. Only you, only the deities, are eternal. I want to take steps like you, I want to become you!"

"Become me??"

"That would be truly interesting."

Xu Zhi chuckled, rendered speechless. He saw that Salu had not lost his essence; even with a complete personality, he remained greedy, evil, and held extremist ideas.

But...

Which child doesn't aspire to be like their parents?

Xu Zhi had no intention of correcting him or playing the saint, persuading him to be kind and become a noble hero. There was no need for grand unification in this world; it was precisely these diverse forms of life that made the world wonderful.

"Child, no one here will stop you from doing what you want. No one will restrain you."

Xu Zhi smiled, turned, and left. "Even if you wish to replace me, then go pursue the power you desire, if that is your lifelong wish!"

"No! You can't leave yet!" Salu roared.

He watched the vanishing figure, filled with hysteria. The natives worshipping him nearby were swiftly thrown back, and the ground, littered with shattered rocks, exploded from the impact.

"No! You can't do this!"

"I will defeat the entire world, and I will defeat you!!"

He was like an angry child who had lost a toy, frantically smashing things in a room.

Bang bang bang bang!

The entire meteorite, centered around this statue, transformed into a storm of destruction.

After a long time, he suddenly fell silent. Though severely wounded, his descent into madness had completely drained the last remnants of his recently recovered strength, and he plunged back into slumber.

In the dark haze, there was a ray of light.

He returned to the time when he had gone back to the Tenkaichi Budokai, sucking power from strong individuals everywhere, intending to restore his perfect form.

He passed a small house and looked through the window.

"Dad, is this a birthday cake?" A small High-Green Planet person asked, his face full of joy.

"Yes, it's your cake," his parents said gently from the table.

"Daddy is so good."

"No matter how the world treats you, your parents will never treat you badly."

*Crack.*

The entire small house shattered, buried in the sound of an explosion.

Ridiculous.

He turned and left, looking at the martial artists who were pursuing him.

"Why, why wasn't I born into an ordinary family? Why was I born to be despised, a being of slaughter? Why, even though you are my parent, do you treat me this way, repeatedly altering my victorious fate? My opponent was so weak... you even forced me into a final gamble, returning to the past for a decisive battle! I will slaughter this entire planet, kill Zach, your beloved child, and then I will defeat you!"

After an unknown amount of time.

He opened his eyes again.

The planetary natives were still surrounding him, shouting and worshipping.

"Earlier, you asked why I chose this planet without any talent? I didn't answer then because the appearance of this race resembles you the most."

His vision blurred, and he looked up at the sky.

Even having understood the cause and effect, he still chose to defeat his opponent.

The starlit sky was brilliant.

Xu Zhi knew clearly that this era was truly coming into its own.

Two hundred years of foundational time had passed. The Stone Planet and Cybertron were now in a period of rapid development.

And the Pixel Planet had the assistance of advanced technology from that group of players.

As for Lam Planet, the weakest and seemingly least promising one, it now had Salu's help.

Four planets? An era was dawning.

Since cultivating on Mercury, his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds. By planting Bodhi trees and harvesting them regularly, creating waves of artificial extinctions daily, the energy from these sandbox worlds was no longer his sole source of reliance.

Now, they not only provided energy for cultivation but, more importantly, enabled the deduction of systems and the advancement of civilizational eras.

What defines a strong individual?

A strong individual is one who accumulates endless knowledge.

For example, breaking through to the ninth tier requires a strong civilizational foundation. The civilization systems Xu Zhi had accumulated were rapidly developing in this direction.

The ninth tier, perhaps it was about to appear?

Who knew.

At any rate, Di Qi, Ermin, Phoenix, Caroline, and a series of others had already entered the peak of godhood, having lived for several millennia.

As for lower-tier deities, their numbers had relatively increased over the years.

With immense incense offerings, people in the Three Realms had successively attained godhood. There were already over twenty lower-tier deities. Did they still think the area was as confined as before?

It was no longer so.

Although the Mortal Realm and Demon Realm were still each about 100 *mu*, the Immortal Realm was vast and boundless, and the Underworld was even more immense; their areas had expanded incomparably!

The Ancient Lava Land now boasted over forty deities.

The Three Pillar Gods still secretly influenced the overall trends as the fate-movers of the era. Their chess pieces—the Daughter of Prosperous Forest, Subaru, and the newly born human Corpse Swordsman Du Xue—the leaders of the three races, were all nearing breakthroughs to higher godhood...

The deity realm was truly no longer novel.

Compared to before, it was now a mature era of deity civilization, capable of mass-producing deities.

It had even reached a transcendent high-level world where even the casual death of a deity would not cause significant harm.

Although these worlds had stabilized in recent years, there were no major transformations or significant epochal changes, so Xu Zhi was less inclined to watch them.

He had now discovered a pattern.

Once a world's cultivation system was fully mature, it was fundamentally impossible for an era to be overthrown internally; progress was gradual, without major upheavals.

Dramatic changes in an era often occurred at the very moment a newly emerged world system was forming and progressing!

Therefore, Xu Zhi was currently focusing mostly on new sandboxes.

In such a mature system, with an era of so many deities and even more powerful individuals at the lower levels, even the natural cycles of birth and death still amounted to a great extinction. The energy from these two large sandboxes accounted for sixty percent daily, while the Mercury power plant accounted for forty percent.

Perhaps, it was time to fully look towards the Ninth Tier! Given this situation, with the stable output from the Three Realms, the Lava Land, and Mercury, he would break through to the advanced Heavenly Emperor rank in another half month, and begin accumulating for a breakthrough to godhood...

And in these two worlds, once they were stable and mature, their ambitions could no longer be suppressed. Their deities had already begun to cooperate, devising ways to break through world barriers and contact other worlds...

Xu Zhi pondered.

This was a challenge, but also an inevitable path, because for these mature worlds, they would likely only usher in new eras and generate intense sparks by contacting other worlds...

They were now trapped in a cage, stagnant, having hit a ceiling, unable to see the path forward.

All Heavens and Myriad Realms?

But connecting them all was still somewhat difficult to achieve right now.

He clutched his forehead, lost in thought.

Connecting every world sandbox to form a true All Heavens and Myriad Realms, allowing them to become free-flying birds, was indeed his idea. But right now... it felt like it was still a bit premature. He couldn't yet offer them a new path forward, because the current path was still blocked, with no All Heavens and Myriad Realms. Yet, they were growing impatient.

Anyone would be impatient.

Ermin and Medusa were already on the verge of madness.

Ermin's lifespan was nearing its end; she would likely have to enter slumber to forcefully prolong her life...

Hadn't he noticed that the Great Alchemist Emperor was already panicking?

He had already begun re-evolving spore life in the sandbox, expending immense effort on some grand project whose purpose was still unknown, likely to save his beloved disciple Ermin!

If the Great Alchemist Emperor's new species appeared...

...who knew what terrifying super-lifeform it would be.

As for the Three Pillar Gods, ever since Xu Zhi shattered the humanoid Pillar God's dream, they had formed a perfect triarchy, no longer giving each other a chance to be defeated. They too were driven mad by the stalemate, desperately trying to find an external path, to open a way out!

Both sides were frantically trying to break through the world's barriers.

"Forget it, I'll ignore them for now."

He needed to use this era's sandbox to truly explore and discover the path of a Ninth-Tier powerhouse first!

Xu Zhi organized his future world plans. After returning from Salu's Lam Planet, he realized Caroline hadn't returned from Cybertron yet.

He was quite curious about Cybertron's mechanical sci-fi civilization, so he decided to go there.

*Swish!*

Walking across the land, Xu Zhi easily found Caroline.

She had just finished everything, so she and Xu Zhi went to visit a nearby mechanical shop, filled with various magical high-tech weapons and fire-seed weapons.

It was filled with a strong magical aesthetic.

Caroline had finally finished her tasks and was free. She began to introduce the civilization system of Cybertron to Xu Zhi.

As she introduced, she asked a question: "Those Asura Path warriors, are they actually players from a certain game?"

Xu Zhi: ......

He felt a headache, thinking how difficult his situation was.

He had just dealt with the players' disturbance and Salu's trouble, and now the Three Realms sandbox was still in turmoil, with a group of deities trying to break through world barriers.

The Ancient Lava Land was also researching methods to travel to other worlds, frantically developing spatial technology.

Even the usually peaceable Caroline was starting to cause trouble.