I Am the Fated Villain

Chapter 1829. The Ideals of the Three True Ancestors, and the Power of the Hearts of All Living Beings

The Pool of Creation was brought back to the Heaven-Felling Alliance, and all those who had accompanied Zhu Xuantong on the journey returned as well.

The girl named A’Li, who wore a veiled bamboo hat, did not return with Zhu Xuan. Instead, after confirming on the way that there was no longer any danger, she departed on her own.

According to Zhu Xuan himself, A’Li had helped him many times. It was also thanks to the demon-breaking arrows in her possession that they had ultimately managed to return to the Pan Clan’s ancestral land and safely retrieve the Pool of Creation.

As previously promised, Gu Changge rewarded everyone involved and helped the indigenous inhabitants of the Floating Continent settle down within the Heaven-Felling Alliance. He knew the true origin of the girl named A’Li, but he had not exposed her at the time and had instead continued to allow her to remain by Zhu Xuan’s side.

According to her original plan, she had intended to seize the Pool of Creation midway through the journey. However, Gu Changge knew that Wu Yue had certainly informed her of the relevant matters. Otherwise, Zhu Xuan’s retrieval of the Pool of Creation could not have proceeded so smoothly.

As for whether Zhu Xuan knew about A’Li’s plans, Gu Changge did not care.

Zhu Xuan was merely a casual chess piece he had left behind. Even if Zhu Xuan had failed to bring back the Pool of Creation, Gu Changge still had other means of recovering it.

From the outside, the Pool of Creation appeared to be nothing more than an ancient bronze pool. A hazy mist lingered within it, and streaks of flying-immortal-like substances continuously emerged from its depths. It resembled a primordial Immortal Ascension Pool, yet it contained an incomparably profound intent of creation.

Cultivators who entered it could alter the fundamental nature of their physical bodies, reverse themselves back to an innate state, obtain flawless acquired foundations, and greatly increase their chances of stepping into the Dao Realm in the future.

Gu Changge placed the Pool of Creation at the center of the Heaven-Felling Alliance and refined it with his mana.

The immense and ancient pool radiated rust-like light, illuminating all worlds. It resembled a colossal cauldron used by an ancient Human Emperor to offer sacrifices to Heaven. Vast divine radiance surged endlessly from it.

As Gu Changge continuously poured his power into it, the Pool of Creation seemed to come alive.

All the upper echelons of the Heaven-Felling Alliance clearly sensed the alliance’s destiny and fortune gathering toward it like an ascending dragon.

This power expanded rapidly, instantly passing through one True World universe after another until it covered every territory under the Heaven-Felling Alliance.

“So this is the power of the Pool of Creation?”

Many Ancestor Dao Realm beings were astonished. From it, they perceived subtle changes in people’s hearts and destiny, secretly shocked by what they sensed.

“The Pool of Creation contains the Origin of Creation. Through offerings, one can obtain its blessings in return. The more devout one’s faith, the greater the blessings received…” Gu Changge casually explained.

During the refinement process, he slightly altered some of the laws inside the Pool of Creation, making many originally crude imprints more complete.

Strictly speaking, this was not sacrifice but rather worship. This form of worship could take many forms, much like descendants offering incense to their ancestors and praying for protection over future generations. The key factor in such worship was the sincerity of the worshipper. This was because Gu Changge deliberately intended to use this method to condense and extract the power of human hearts.

According to the original plan and the collective decision of the Heaven-Felling Alliance’s high-level officials, half a month later a grand assembly was held within the Hall of Deliberation.

Suitable envoys were to be selected and sent to the Black Darkness race’s stronghold in order to formally convey the Heaven-Felling Alliance’s stance.

Such an undertaking was equivalent to venturing directly into a tiger’s den. Even many high-level officials who had initially supported the proposal changed their expressions.

In the end, only a few courageous and steady-minded individuals dared to take such a risk.

At the same time, they trusted Gu Changge and believed that since the Black Darkness race had not dared attack the Heaven-Felling Alliance directly, they must harbor certain fears and would never act recklessly.

This envoy group was led by the Ethereal Sacred Ancestor, accompanied by several Ancestor Dao Realm experts.

After the assembly ended, they departed immediately for the Black Darkness race’s stronghold.

Gu Changge had originally considered all of this unnecessary. After all, Jing Tianyuan was still within the Nightmare Demon Domain, and he could have simply conveyed his intentions directly to Wu Yue.

However, in order to reassure the Heaven-Felling Alliance’s upper echelon, he had gone through the trouble of holding such a conference and personally drafting an imperial decree.

Now that the grand unification of the Boundless Expanse had become an established fact, the Heaven-Felling Alliance’s envoy group naturally attracted widespread attention as they traveled.

Every True World civilization was watching.

Soon afterward, the Black Darkness race responded. They expressed their willingness to accept. At the same time, one of the Sacrificial Priests appeared.

The Fourth Priestess, Qiluo, dressed in a seductive red gown, arrived together with numerous high-ranking members of the Black Darkness race.

They likewise journeyed to the Heaven-Felling Alliance, expressing their willingness to coexist peacefully and declaring that from this day onward neither side would interfere with the other.

Many had already anticipated such an outcome.

Unless both sides truly intended to fight to the death, a peace agreement was inevitable.

The Heaven-Felling Alliance would not interfere with the Black Darkness race’s Great Dark Sacrifice, and the Black Darkness race would not set foot within Heaven-Felling Alliance territory. As for how long such an arrangement could last, no one could say.

After the Heaven-Felling Alliance and the Black Darkness race formally reached their coexistence agreement, the remaining True World civilizations throughout the Boundless Expanse sank into despair and panic.

Previously, many had still held onto hope. They believed the Heaven-Felling Alliance would never truly ignore the fate of other civilizations and simply allow those worlds to be sacrificed by the Black Darkness race.

After all, doing so would only strengthen the enemy and allow the Black Darkness race to grow even more powerful.

Once the Black Darkness race returned to its peak strength, it certainly would not spare the Heaven-Felling Alliance. Yet no one expected that the Heaven-Felling Alliance would adopt a complete “sweep only the snow before one’s own door” attitude.

As a result, during the years that followed, the Black Darkness race turned its attention entirely toward those scattered civilizations and races.

The various civilizations, sects, and races within the Heaven-Felling Alliance, meanwhile, entered a comparatively peaceful and stable era.

Time flowed onward. A thousand years passed in the blink of an eye since the opening of the Great Dark Sacrifice. For ordinary mortals, a thousand years might encompass dozens of generations. But for many cultivators, it was merely the flick of a finger.

Within the Land of the Source of Darkness stood a magnificent altar, drenched in blood-red light that obscured heaven and earth. One enormous pillar of bloody light after another pierced through reality and connected directly to the outside world.

Each passing day made the bloodlight denser.

Before the eyes of countless civilizations and True Worlds, the Land of the Source of Darkness had already descended toward the Boundless Expanse and begun merging with the Black Darkness race’s homeland.

The original essence and life harvested during this thousand-year-long sacrifice surged there like vast rivers and seas. The amount was sufficient to fill world after world, universe after universe.

Guided by the Four Chief Sacrificial Priests, it gathered continuously into the altar like towering columns of smoke. Meanwhile, within the Black Darkness race’s homeland—the Nightmare Demon Domain—Before the Hall of Acting on Heaven’s Behalf, the World-Burying Coffin continuously trembled with deafening roars.

Terrifying dark matter boiled around it in layer after layer, resembling black clouds and glowing mist.

As it surged outward, endless voids split apart, producing crack after crack of black fissures.

Within them existed a mysterious power that seemed to be guiding the arrival of the Land of the Source of Darkness. Countless Black Darkness race members knelt before the Hall of Acting on Heaven’s Behalf, continuously kowtowing and chanting ancient scriptures.

A mass wrapped completely in endless dark matter could be seen projecting outward from within the coffin. It seemed like flesh and blood, yet also like a vague and indistinct figure. The myriad races and civilizations throughout all worlds closely monitored the Black Darkness race’s condition, their hearts filled with dread.

Within the Heaven-Felling Alliance—Seeing that so many years had passed without any further developments throughout the Boundless Expanse, Gu Changge altered his original plans.

Initially, he had intended to overturn the entire table. But faced with the current situation, he could only change his approach.

After all, those people no longer cared whether the table remained standing. Even if he overturned it, it would accomplish nothing.

Thus, he decided to act from another angle.

If those hidden figures did not care about the state of the Boundless Expanse, what about the Sea of Destiny?

Looking from the destiny rivers of every world, one could see the destinies and fortunes carried by countless living beings. Some possessed much, some little.

Whether the destiny river belonged to a small world, a great realm, or even a multiversal world, all ultimately converged into the Boundless Expanse and formed the vast ocean known as the Sea of Destiny.

Those who believed they had escaped the River of Destiny merely became tiny creatures within an even greater sea.

This ocean was so immeasurably vast that even Gu Changge, in his current state, could not fully perceive it.

Unless he employed the power of a True Ancestor and personally ventured in to investigate. And it was precisely because of this vastness that the deeply hidden giant fish and enormous creatures could continue concealing themselves to this day.

Although he could not observe the entire Sea of Destiny, he could still use changes in destiny and fate within it to deduce the locations of individual beings.

The method, however, was extremely troublesome and required immense amounts of time. It was like observing a silent pond.

One had to infer the movements of fish from tiny ripples and traces. Unless one possessed extraordinary patience, spending centuries, millennia, or even longer on such observation would be meaningless.

As long as a being existed within the Boundless Expanse, it could never truly escape the Sea of Destiny. Whether minnow, shrimp, giant whale, or true dragon, all remained constrained by destiny.

A hidden true dragon possessed an incomparably enormous body. Even opening its mouth could create world-shaking waves.

Now Gu Changge intended to throw several lively catfish into this long-stagnant pond. These catfish would  devour the smaller fish and shrimp, continuously growing stronger.

Eventually, they would stir the true dragons themselves, forcing them to move.

“Since the opening of the Great Dark Sacrifice, more and more worlds have collapsed and perished.”

“And the amount of indestructible matter born in the process has likewise increased.”

“However, an ordinary small world has only a one-in-ten-thousand chance of producing such matter during destruction.”

“Even when a world’s origin completely disintegrates, a single trace may not appear.”

“Only True Worlds—even newly formed ones—can reliably produce considerable amounts of indestructible matter after their destruction.”

“And as the Great Dark Sacrifice continues, more and more of this matter will emerge.”

“For now, these indestructible substances can be used for my purposes.”

From small worlds to greater worlds, great realms, multiverses, and ultimately True Worlds, the progression resembled the evolution of life itself.

Within the Boundless Expanse, worlds could also be regarded as individual entities. From the moment they emerged through collisions within chaos, they possessed their own destiny and fortune.

During this period, Gu Changge was also focusing on refining both Indestructible Matter and Creation Matter. All substances throughout existence were fundamentally composed of endless recombinations of these two substances. They represented concepts such as chaos, faith, destiny, fortune, and more.

When universes shattered and True Worlds collapsed, these two substances could emerge amidst the destruction and explosions. Indestructible Matter could evolve into opportunities and fortuitous encounters.

Creation Matter could transform the level of life itself. When ordinary living beings came into contact with these two substances, limitless changes would unfold within them. They would gain miraculous opportunities and “golden fingers,” becoming what was commonly known as protagonists.

Even Dao Realm experts, in their pursuit of understanding the Dao, were essentially exploring the countless transformations of Indestructible Matter and Creation Matter.

Previously, Gu Changge had granted Creation Matter to the Spirit Emperor and others, allowing their cultivation and strength to advance rapidly. Though they could not comprehend the true essence of these substances, they could refine them and increase their Dao Realm cultivation.

Today, the Heaven-Felling Alliance’s War Merit Hall contained substantial quantities of Creation Matter.

Anyone who accumulated enough merit could exchange for it. Even figures such as Demon Ancestor Emperor and the others who had survived eight Heavenly Decay Tribulations coveted it greatly.

The bottle of substance that Gu Changge had once instructed Demon Emperor Dikun to deliver was precisely Creation Matter. It was because of this that Emperor Huang had chosen to serve the Heaven-Felling Alliance. However, extracting Creation Matter and Indestructible Matter was not easy.

Gu Changge accomplished this by transforming the Sphere of Grand Aspirations into the World Sphere and gathering pure faith power. From that faith power, he extracted Creation Matter.

This was one of the most stable sources of Creation Matter in existence. Because the faith of living beings fundamentally represented the power of their hearts.

The power of the heart was limitless. It could endlessly create, imagine, and generate all manner of forces. Even mortals could use the power of their hearts to dream of immortality, flight, and supernatural abilities.

The power of a cultivator’s heart was even more terrifying. Thus, faith power had become one of the sources of strength Gu Changge valued most.

As for Indestructible Matter, its source lay within destiny and fortune. Every living being possessed it from birth.

The only difference was the amount. Therefore, in order to obtain greater quantities of Creation Matter and Indestructible Matter, Gu Changge instructed the Heaven-Felling Alliance’s upper echelons to begin propagating the grand cause of Heaven-Felling.

They discussed methods of defying heaven and changing destiny.

Declaring that Heaven itself was unjust, the Heaven-Felling Alliance would act in Heaven’s place. Its doctrines and teachings were spread widely across countless small worlds, greater worlds, multiverses, and True Worlds.

At the same time, Gu Changge personally created a cultivation method. He transformed the ideals and faith of the Heaven-Felling Alliance into a scripture and cultivation art.

It was named “The Summoning Scripture” (Huanjing).

Believers of the Heaven-Felling Alliance could strengthen and stabilize their faith by reciting the Summoning Scripture. As long as they called upon the Heaven-Felling Alliance’s Alliance Leader within their hearts, they would receive a response, and their faith would become more stable.

At the same time, the Summoning Scripture was also a genuine cultivation path. Believers could use it to temper the power of their hearts and unlock the latent potential hidden within their own souls.

Such a cultivation system had never before appeared. Even many Ancestor Dao Realm experts secretly marveled at it.

Though unwilling to abandon their own cultivation paths, they used the opportunity to verify and compare their own understanding. They believed Gu Changge could not have created such a cultivation method without reason.

The source of his overwhelming strength likely had something to do with his cultivation system.

At the central region of the Heaven-Felling Alliance, Gu Changge once again refined the World Sphere. Originally, it had been condensed from the Sphere of Grand Aspirations.

Later, he had used it to suppress and stabilize the Heaven-Felling Alliance’s fortune.

Now, however, the alliance’s position had become unshakable. No one within the Boundless Expanse could threaten its supremacy. Thus, Gu Changge refined the World Sphere into the World Cauldron.

Inside the cauldron, faith power swirled endlessly like rivers and seas, vast enough to fill several universes. Within the World Cauldron, Gu Changge further refined countless worlds. Each world functioned as a container. The purified Creation Matter was stored within them.

What was the true essence of the Epochal Great Calamity?

Even among the countless living beings of the Boundless Expanse, including many beings who had reached the end of the path, understanding remained incomplete.

Why did the Boundless Expanse experience Great Calamities?

Why did cyclical harvests occur?

Everyone possessed different interpretations and conclusions. Some believed the Great Calamity was connected to the Real Land. The Real Land resembled a vast and more complete world whose inhabitants refused to allow any force capable of threatening them to arise within the Boundless Expanse.

For a long time, this had been the widely accepted explanation. But as one of the Three True Ancestors of Origin, Gu Changge knew clearly that this assumption was completely opposite to the truth.

The existence of Indestructible Matter and Creation Matter had both originated from the True Ancestor known as “Shen” (God/Divinity).

Even the laws governing the Great Calamity had been established by Him.

The Three True Ancestors already represented everything: all time and space, all existence, all power, all causality, all laws, all worlds, and the ultimate limit that any life-form throughout the past and future could possibly attain.

Yet despite standing at such an inconceivable height, the Three Ancestors still sensed that an even higher realm existed—a realm beyond description and imagination.

Thus, three different philosophies emerged.

“Xuan” acknowledged only the self.

Xuan believed that the problem lay in not being powerful enough. Therefore, Xuan constantly sought new paths within itself. It attempted to derive methods of becoming stronger through endless self-exploration.

At every moment, Xuan was calculating, creating, evolving, and searching. “Shen”, on the other hand, believed that the very heavens and worlds in which they existed were incapable of containing power beyond their current level.

Shen believed that even the Real Land itself was incomplete…