Chapter 468: Breaking Ground
Chapter 468: Breaking Ground
“Impressive.”
Zuo Meng remarked after realizing why he couldn’t access the Creator’s rank earlier, and why his memories kept fading. The only usable power remained the Origin Rules—a primal force accessible even through mere consciousness. He speculated that Origin-level Creators lacked fixed forms, existing everywhere simultaneously. This perfectly matched the nature of the Origin Rules.
Placing the bamboo scroll aside, Zuo Meng studied the room’s other objects.
He avoided touching anything this time. These mundane-seeming items might conceal traps like the scroll had. Each object was a world—infinitely vast or infinitesimally small! Such was the Great Dao’s truth.
“This entire structure is a compressed universe.”
Circling the room confirmed his theory. Every item here represented a condensed world. Smaller realms beyond his perception might exist, but those required higher-level powers currently beyond his grasp.
Finding nothing else, Zuo Meng turned toward the opposite side.
Western-style architecture stood there.
He reasoned different individuals had designed these areas. One’s creations reflected their perception—had he built this, it would’ve been Eastern-styled, as he considered the East more potent.
‘Xiao Meng, Xiao Meng…’
The echoing call persisted.
The woman from the bamboo scroll world hadn’t been real, just a book character with fabricated memories. Approaching the Western buildings, Zuo Meng heard the same summons.
He passed through a desolate temple into a church.
A sun-shaped deity effigy loomed above a preacher’s pulpit. Below lay worshippers’ benches flanking a central flowerbed.
“Divine Decree?”
Zuo Meng ascended the platform to find a thick sheepskin book.
Its closed cover hid contents and the deity’s identity.
“Another book as the sound’s source?”
The East had its bamboo scroll; the West offered this tome.
Zuo Meng inspected the book without opening it. Like the dormant scroll, it appeared ordinary until activated.
“An invitation to enter?”
He grasped the implied challenge. To uncover truth, he’d need to venture inside—the door owner’s unavoidable test. Retreat meant abandoning his quest to remain a mere Creator in chaos.
“No turning back now.”
Retreat solved nothing. Postponement risked future helplessness. Better to confront dangers while choosing the time and place. The mysterious call kept urging him onward.
“Show me your secrets, Divine Decree!”
Decision made, Zuo Meng opened the book’s first page…
Darkness. Dampness.
He tried stretching, only to thump against wood. Nailed shut from outside, the planks resisted his shoves. A swift assessment confirmed it—
He lay trapped in a coffin.
“This…”
Zuo Meng was completely baffled. This situation was even worse than his last beginning.
At least during his previous vegetative state, he’d had family to care for him. After waking, he’d quickly understood everything through those around him. Now he’d become a literal corpse. The burial seemed long completed. His only luck was that the body hadn’t decayed – becoming a skeleton would’ve been worse.
“Ancestor! The Aige Family is doomed!!”
Just as Zuo Meng planned his escape, anguished cries erupted outside. The pitiful wails could make anyone weep.
“Our Aige Family… since you drew the Divine King’s Sword nine centuries ago…” The voice outside kept recounting family glory during ancestor worship, first boasting past achievements before lamenting current decline.
The cliché story only partially registered with Zuo Meng.
Apparently, this corpse belonged to Aige Family’s founder who rose from poverty during chaotic times. After claiming the ‘Divine King’s Sword’, he supposedly conquered the world. The legend sounded like minstrel tales – who knew the truth?
Royal family?
Zuo Meng couldn’t grasp how royals fell so low. Overthrown? Disgraced former rulers?
As he pondered, familiar mysterious energy enveloped him.
“Memories of being Creator fade again.”
The sheepskin book contained world-power like the bamboo scroll world before. But escaping that realm gave him slight resistance now. Instead of losing power, his cultivation became Distorted to match this world’s standards.
Name: Aige
Note: Only you deserved this name while living.
Cultivation: Morning Star (1,200 years)
Zuo Meng didn’t know what Morning Star meant, but 1,200 years clearly indicated millennium-level strength!
“Twelve centuries of power can’t break this damn coffin?”
Though lacking Creator memories now, his cultivation remained formidable. After adjusting, he focused energy into his arms and shoved upwards.
Invisible resistance pressed against the coffin lid.
“Huh? The magic circle’s glowing?”
Outside, weeping descendants noticed the anomaly.
CRACK!
As they leaned closer, the grave split open. A pale hand thrust through the soil…