Chen Zhou indeed could not allow himself to be swallowed by this pressure.
The more critical the moment, the more he had to keep a clear head.
Chen Zhou closed his eyes and emptied his mind, letting the death qi circulate through his body, filling the depleted voids layer by layer.
Half a cup of tea's time was neither too long nor too short.
He planned to rest for exactly this long before moving on.
Wu Gou was holding the line up front anyway; there was no harm in trusting them a bit more.
Chen Zhou sat cross-legged. Death qi was still pouring endlessly from the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm, Su Xue's conversion efficiency proving to be remarkably high.
Wave after wave of death qi flooded into the Ghost Domain, patching up the voids that had been gnawed away by the white beasts.
Chen Zhou sank his consciousness deep into his sea of consciousness once more.
When he had forcibly unleashed Sinful Karma Punishment earlier, the black threads had rioted, nearly activating that brand.
If Dou Mu Xie hadn't used the last of his moonlight to pull him back from the illusion at that moment, he might have been completely finished.
The current state of the black threads was highly unusual.
After the riot, they had scattered, breaking into fragmented segments that lay strewn across his divine soul.
Some were pierced into the surface, some were embedded deep within, and others wriggled along his pathways into even more hidden corners.
Though the broken black threads were not rioting now, they were still slowly burrowing deeper into his divine soul.
Like seeds falling into the soil, they first floated on the surface before gradually taking root downward.
They burrowed deeper and tighter, infiltrating from the outer layers to the inner core with a clear objective and a distinct path.
Chen Zhou traced the path of one of the fragments downward, his divine sense passing through layers of his divine soul until it finally stopped just outside his godhead.
The godhead he had fused with hovered quietly at the very core of his divine soul, sending out rings of grayish-white aura to nourish his cultivation and authority.
And several fragments of the black threads had already touched the edges of the godhead.
The black threads stretched and probed, wriggling continuously as they crawled toward the godhead.
Why did the black threads want to entwine themselves and take root in his godhead?
Chen Zhou was not entirely sure. Even though the black threads had wrapped around his divine soul before, they hadn't affected him much.
But Chen Zhou had a bad premonition. If his godhead was touched by this thing, something highly unpleasant would likely happen again.
Chen Zhou immediately mobilized his death qi, intending to use brute force to push away the black thread fragments that were nearing his godhead.
He condensed a stream of pure death qi, wrapped it around the fragment closest to the godhead, and pulled outward with all his might.
The black thread did not budge in the slightest.
The fragment looked as thin as a strand of hair, limp and fragile enough to snap at a single tug, but once the death qi wrapped around it, it felt like pulling against solid rock—completely unyielding.
Instead, during the struggle, a bone-chilling coldness surged back from the fragment along the death qi, freezing his divine sense so intensely that it trembled and nearly dispersed.
Chen Zhou hastily withdrew his death qi.
He tried a few more times using various methods, but all yielded minimal results. The black thread even began absorbing his death qi in reverse, growing slightly brighter.
Chen Zhou immediately stopped, feeling a bit of a headache coming on.
This thing was attached to his divine soul; he couldn't touch it, couldn't clear it away, and it kept burrowing toward his godhead.
What could he do? He couldn't just stand by and watch it take root.
As he was pondering, he suddenly detected a very faint movement.
Right next to the godhead, there was a small clump of something.
It was extremely tiny, even smaller than the black thread fragments, roughly the size of a grain of rice. It was round and plump, radiating an exceptionally faint golden light.
That little gold grain was currently pressed against the surface of the godhead, hopping along bit by bit.
It hopped to a spot, spun around in place as if inspecting it, and once it confirmed there was no filth, it bounced off toward the next location.
Chen Zhou watched with wide eyes as it hopped over to a fragment of the black thread. It reached out with a pair of appendages that Chen Zhou couldn't quite identify—so he tentatively classified them as hands.
The little gold blob hugged the fragment and yanked upward with all its might, like pulling up a radish.
The deeply rooted black thread fragment was actually pulled out by it.
The little gold grain tossed the fragment aside and hopped off to pull out the next one.
Its movements were swift and highly practiced, as if it had been doing this for a very long time.
It pulled out all the black thread fragments near the godhead and threw them to the periphery.
Once it finished throwing them, it hopped twice, looking quite smug about its completed work.
Chen Zhou frowned slightly. He had been focusing entirely on the movements of the black threads earlier and hadn't even noticed this extra little thing beside his godhead.
When had this thing appeared?
Was it from inside his own body?
What on earth was it?
Chen Zhou cautiously released a thread of divine sense to touch the little gold grain. The moment they made contact, an incredibly familiar warmth washed over him.
Golden Light of Merit.
The essence of this little gold grain was indeed the Golden Light of Merit, a physical entity formed after being condensed and compressed to the absolute limit.
Moreover, this thing felt extremely intimate, as if it were naturally a part of his body. There was no rejection whatsoever, and even a subtle sense of belonging.
It was like a part of himself.
After confirming Chen Zhou's divine sense, the little gold grain visibly relaxed.
It began hopping around again, continuing to handle the black thread fragments that had already been pulled out.
It collected the fragments one by one and piled them in a corner on the periphery of the godhead, stacking them neatly like building blocks.
Chen Zhou watched, somewhat dazed.
Was this thing helping him organize the Heavenly Tribulation's brand?
Did merit actually have such a function?
And it even possessed its own consciousness?
He tried to coordinate his divine sense with the little gold grain's movements, condensing his death qi into hands to pick up the black thread fragments the little gold grain had piled up.
The moment his fingertips touched them, a sharp, intense pain shot up like frostbite, making his divine sense shudder.
Yet when the little gold grain held them, the black thread fragments were perfectly obedient, offering no resistance at all.
The difference was actually this vast.
Refusing to believe it, Chen Zhou tried a few more times.
Every time he tried directly, the repulsive force of the black thread fragments was extremely strong—bone-chilling and impossible to touch.
But as long as the little gold grain acted as a mediator, handing the fragments to him, they became much more docile. Though still cold, they were at least not so painful that he had to let go.
The two of them actually coordinated quite tacitly.
One pulled, one caught, one threw, one stacked. Back and forth they went, busy as could be.
As Chen Zhou stacked the black thread fragments, he suddenly found it a bit amusing.
He was actually picking up trash in his own sea of consciousness alongside a rice-sized ball of golden light.
Yet his hands did not stop.
After gathering and piling the black thread fragments together, he at least didn't have to worry about them continuing to infiltrate toward the godhead for the time being. Although they couldn't be eradicated, they could at least be delayed.
He recalled a question.
When he had used the authority of Sinful Karma Punishment earlier, the black threads had rioted.
But why did the black threads quiet down when he was safe?
These fragments were trying to take root in his godhead, but their methods were stealthy and slow, as if they were afraid of alerting him.
Chen Zhou piled up the last black thread fragment. The little gold grain stood before him, puffing out its chest and hopping twice cheerfully.
The corner of Chen Zhou's mouth twitched slightly. “What on earth are you?”
If it were merely condensed from merit, it shouldn't be this sentient.
The sea of consciousness fell silent for a few breaths.
Then, a mechanical system voice rang out abruptly.
【It's me.】
【^_^】
Chen Zhou: “...”
He had almost forgotten about this thing.
The system's presence had always been quite weak.
Aside from occasionally updating logs on the panel, showing progress, or forcing him to fuse directly with any good resources he obtained, it barely ever took the initiative to show itself.
The last active exchange was after he suppressed Lantao City and slew Bodhisattva Jieyin, when the system had let slip something and then immediately corrected itself, insisting that he become a world-destroying evil god.
Back then, he had already harbored a few suspicions about the system's true identity.
Later on, when he used divination to peer into Nüba's polluted history and was counter-targeted by the Heavenly Tribulation, the system had consumed merit to block the calamity for him.
After that, the system seemed to have suffered heavy exhaustion, falling silent for a long time. The prompts on the panel had also become brief, almost perfunctory.
He had almost forgotten about it entirely.
Yet now, this little gold grain was actually the system?
No, rather, this little gold grain was a manifested form the system had assumed after condensing the Golden Light of Merit?
Chen Zhou stared at the rice-sized gold light, his expression somewhat complex.
“You... are the system?”
The little gold grain hopped once.
【It's indeed me.】
Since a rare opportunity for communication had presented itself, Chen Zhou remained silent for a moment before directly asking the most critical question for him right now.
“Is there a way to completely erase the black threads?”
The little gold grain paused, then hopped over to the pile of neatly stacked black thread fragments and gave them a disdainful kick.
【There is no way for now.】
【This is the Heav... it's its brand.】
【The brand of that kind of existence has already taken root deep within your divine soul.】
【Relying on your accumulated merit, we can at most suppress and delay it, but it cannot be eradicated.】
Chen Zhou frowned, but he wasn't too disappointed.
He had actually already guessed this answer.
Being able to block the Heavenly Tribulation's gaze once had already caused the system to fall silent for so long; asking it to directly clean up the Heavenly Tribulation's brand was indeed asking too much.
He didn't dwell on this issue for too long, switching to a more practical question instead.
“What about the white pollution then? Is there a way to deal with it?”
This issue was far more urgent than the black threads.
In the battles of Qingzhou, the white pollution's counter against him was too severe.
His Ghost Domain, Ghost Servants, bone spurs, Hatred Fire, and Withering Venom—virtually all his abilities were either assimilated or suffered backlash when facing the white pollution.
He was completely suppressed, powerless to fight back.
If he couldn't resolve this issue, let alone dealing with the Western Seven Mansions, just those white beasts from the bronze gate would be more than enough to give him a run for his money.
The little gold grain hopped twice.
【Yes, there is.】
【The white pollution also originates from that thing, but in the end, it isn't that thing's true self, so it's quite easy to resolve.】
【As long as you reach the Non-Existence Rank in cultivation, you'll be able to ignore this pollution!】
Chen Zhou: “...”
He stared at those lines of text for three seconds, then took a deep breath.
“After Siming comes Truth-Usurping, after Truth-Usurping is Void-Returning, and only after Void-Returning is Non-Existence. Correct?”
【Eh? How did you know?】
Chen Zhou was expressionless.
“Do you think I can reach that realm right now?”
The little gold grain was stumped. It spun around in place twice, then hopped onto the neatly stacked pile of black thread fragments and sat down, seemingly deep in thought.
Seeing its serious thinking posture, Chen Zhou almost couldn't resist the urge to pinch it flat.
Asking was as good as not asking.
If he could reach the Non-Existence Rank right now, wouldn't he just pinch Bai Xing to death directly? Why would he need to waste his energy here considering how to deal with the pollution?
Why would he need to be chased all over the place by a pack of white beasts?
The little gold grain clearly sensed Chen Zhou's dissatisfaction. It hastily jumped down from the pile of fragments and hopped in front of him.
【Did you notice that the white pollution is particularly targeted against you?】
【And that it has practically sealed all of your abilities?】
Chen Zhou's eyelid twitched. “You only just noticed?”
【Actually, that's not it at all.】
【It's not targeting you; it's just that there's an issue with your godhead.】
【Your godhead comes from Nüba, who was already completely polluted by that thing, which makes it much easier for you to be targeted by its gaze.】
【And because you rely on Nüba's inner godhead to use your various abilities, you are so powerless against the pollution, which also originates from that same thing.】
Chen Zhou's heart stirred, and he fell quiet.
So that was where the problem lay.
Earlier during the battle, he had felt that something was amiss. He was clearly already at the Five Symbiosis Contracts stage of cultivation, and the range and strength of his Ghost Domain had never disappointed him.
Yet the moment he arrived in Qingzhou and faced the white beasts from the bronze gate, his Ghost Domain was gnawed away, ultimately compressed to only about three feet, unable to block even a pack of small-fry.
He had always assumed that the tier of the white pollution itself was too high, but now he finally understood that the issue lay in his foundation.
No wonder merely performing a divination and peering into a segment of history had caused him to be targeted by the ultimate boss ahead of schedule.
He was using Nüba's inner godhead, which itself had been thoroughly polluted by the Heavenly Tribulation.
When he used this godhead to drive his abilities to combat the white pollution—which also originated from the Heavenly Tribulation—it was equivalent to using power of the same source to fight power of the same source. Naturally, he would be completely countered.
It was indeed highly troublesome. He had already completely fused with the godhead.
If he forcibly stripped it, his cultivation would be severely damaged, which would be even more of a loss. Moreover, he didn't have a spare godhead on hand.
However, as far as the present was concerned, the few godheads Chen Zhou had seen were all inner godheads.
An inner godhead meant that the original owner of the godhead had also suffered from the Heavenly Tribulation's pollution during their lifetime.
In that case, even if he replaced it, it wouldn't make much of a difference.
To be fearless of the white pollution, he would likely need an outer godhead.
As Chen Zhou thought this, the system directly sensed it.
The little gold grain hopped once.
【Your thinking is entirely correct.】
【An outer godhead is a godhead naturally born of ancient deities before they were polluted—pure, primitive, and completely unrelated to that filthy thing.】
【So, theoretically speaking, once you reach the Non-Existence Rank, you can pluck others' godheads and seal your own godhood, birthing your own pure outer godhead.】
【That way, you won't have to fear the power of the same source from that thing!】
Chen Zhou lowered his eyes.
He had come full circle once again.
He looked down at the little gold grain. At the end of the day, this thing's explanations still boiled down to relying on overwhelming cultivation realms.
The problem was that cultivation realms were not like eating or drinking water—one couldn't just raise them at will.
Just as he was about to sigh, the little gold grain suddenly hopped twice in front of him.
【Although theoretically, you need to reach Non-Existence to solve it...】
【...it's not like there are absolutely no shortcuts to take.】
Chen Zhou raised an eyebrow.
【I'll help you!】
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