Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Extra: The Reason
Huge transparent balloons drifted through the air, rising and sinking as they slowly rotated, like planets.
Each balloon held a different scene, and different people lived inside each scene.
Thin, almost invisible strings dangled beneath the balloons, their other ends held in the hands of a crowd of gawkers.
The gawkers hugged their snacks and lounged in every possible pose, the look of people so bored they’d resort to anything for entertainment. There were men and women, old and young.
The only boy there with empty hands was Kong Kong, and he complained for what felt like the thousandth time. “Aunt, I’m grown up now! I can deploy the system!”
The Divine Lord Ye Xi tilted her head, only half listening. “Huh? Oh. Minors aren’t allowed to use the system. It’s dangerous.”
Kong Kong scowled. “It’s just picking someone in the ten thousand realms and giving them a little guidance. I wouldn’t go in person. And you already kicked out all the outsiders who tried to bring that thing in. Something you made can’t be dangerous.”
Ye Xi waved him off. “Flatter me all you want—it won’t work. If you’re so capable, go convince your dad or your mom to hand it over.”
Kong Kong opened his mouth to argue again, but someone on the other side wailed, “Mom, mine’s not working! It’s another apocalypse!”
Ye Xi’s head throbbed. She reached toward a string, but before she could even get a good look at the small world Long Xiao Ye had deployed the system into, Feng Xiao Xi shouted, “Mom! Mine too! They’re trying to fuse into mutants—look!”
The word “mutants” set off a stampede. Everyone—big and small—rushed over. Kong Kong threw up his hands. “What is wrong with your brain? How many times is this now? Are you trying to end the world?”
Ye Xi groaned. “I just watched movies, okay? It’s all fake. Fake. The world consciousness insisted on simulating it—none of it can become real.” She sighed. “Forget it. I’ll handle it.”
This universe rejected true zombie viruses. Those apocalypses and zombies that sprouted were, at best, convincing imitations. They couldn’t grow into anything truly unstoppable.
But that didn’t change the fact that the suffering inside those worlds was real.
“Destroy the realm?” Xiao Bao Bao asked.
“What else?” Ye Xi said. “Let them keep flailing until they cause even more disasters? If they’re going to slowly kill themselves in misery, I’d rather drain the energy at once, extract their soul force, wash it clean, and send them to reincarnate.”
When she acted, even the Heavenly Dao of that small world wouldn’t notice. In an instant, it was release.
Xiao Bao Bao nodded. “I’m just reminding you—if you do this too many times, that person will come talk to you.”
Ye Xi’s headache intensified. She pressed a hand to her temple and started for the exit.
Wu Gui followed. “I’m coming with you.”
They didn’t make it to the door.
A sudden wind roared overhead. The massive roof was ripped clean off, and everyone reflexively looked up—only to see a familiar figure in green descending. In the same breath, they all ducked their heads and pretended they didn’t exist.
Ye Xi went stiff. “Heh… hehe.”
Zhu Zi landed. Not far away, the torn roof slammed down and shattered into pieces.
Ye Xi’s lips twitched. She swallowed whatever she’d been about to say.
Zhu Zi stared at her. “What did you cram in here?”
Ye Xi’s scalp went cold. She forced a smile that tried to be both awkward and warm. “I… I didn’t expect the world consciousness to turn every tiny, ridiculous thought I’ve ever had into reality.”
Zhu Zi snorted. “Thanks to you, I’ve seen every kind of apocalypse imaginable.”
Ye Xi’s smile tightened. Who could have guessed?
She had been formally acknowledged by this universe and become a Divine Lord of the outer realm. She’d even been honest with those closest to her about what lay beyond this universe.
She hadn’t realized that meant the outer realm would also turn everything in her mind—real or fictional, seen or heard or imagined—into living worlds.
Too many movies. That was the real crime.
And every movie apocalypse had its own flair.
She had already dealt with more than a dozen behind Zhu Zi’s back, and new ones kept being born.
Zhu Zi’s voice stayed cool. “You’re a Divine Lord. The outer realm can create small worlds from your thoughts. Don’t you have any awareness?”
Wu Gui bristled. “Ye Xi isn’t a saint. What’s wrong with having a few bad thoughts?”
Ye Xi shot him a wounded look. What bad thoughts did I even have?
Zhu Zi said flatly, “A mess. No wonder the people from your world ran out of road.”
Ye Xi sulked. “Don’t talk nonsense. They’re doing fine.”
Zhu Zi ignored her and strode toward the center, where the balloons drifted like feather-light planets.
Everyone silently made room.
Kong Kong leaned close to Wang Zi Liao and whispered, “Doesn’t he feel stronger than before? If we all teamed up… could we beat him?”
Wang Zi Liao sighed. “He has the merit of saving the world. Of course he’s stronger. And we—don’t embarrass yourself.”
Kong Kong sighed too. Even Ye Xi was a Divine Lord now, and she still had a mountain on top of her.
Zhu Zi’s gaze swept over the balloons. Some were stable. Some were a disaster waiting to happen. His eyes flicked to Long Xiao Ye and Feng Xiao Xi. The two grandsons nearly folded themselves in half, heads buried so deep you couldn’t see their faces.
Not our fault.
With a gesture, Zhu Zi drew one balloon to his hand.
Everyone held their breath.
Feng Tu forced a smile. “This small world is fine.”
Zhu Zi brushed his fingers over the balloon. The scene inside streamed like water being siphoned, and in moments he had seen the entire chain of cause and effect. He laughed, surprised and amused. “They’re all your bloodline. Did you deliberately bring them together?”
The room exhaled as one.
“No, no!” Xiao Bao Bao said quickly. “All coincidence. We only noticed by accident, so we paid a little extra attention. Don’t worry—we’re just watching. We won’t meddle.”
Everyone nodded hard, eager to look innocent.
Zhu Zi glanced over them one by one. “Your descendants are nothing like you.”
They laughed awkwardly. With bloodlines diluted over who knew how many generations, of course they were different.
Zhu Zi added, unhurried, “Much cuter than you.”
Silence fell.
A few people smiled stiffly, faces twitching with the knowledge that if they could beat the old monster, they’d have jumped him a long time ago.
Zhu Zi’s gaze returned to the balloon. “This Hu Qing also came from an apocalypse?”
Ye Xi nodded. “I already sent people to guide that place. It won’t collapse.”
Zhu Zi asked, “Is she related to you?”
“How could she be?” Ye Xi laughed. “I just happened to see her. I gave her—and another pitiful child—a small opportunity.”
Others could reincarnate and leave behind bloodlines. Ye Xi couldn’t.
For one, she had been a zombie mutation long ago, and that path was closed to her. For another, she was a Divine Lord. She could not have her own offspring.
But Ye Xi wasn’t attached to it. No children meant no children. And honestly, weren’t Long Xiao Ye and Feng Xiao Xi her children? Weren’t all beings born from the crystal core of the outer realm her children?
As for Hu Qing and Hu Nuan’s opportunity, it truly had been something she tossed out casually… though the Little Shi head, now the heart of the ten thousand realms, had also played a part.
Zhu Zi nodded. That was enough for him. “Cultivate your heart. Think less nonsense.”
Ye Xi lowered her head obediently. “Yes.”
Zhu Zi’s expression cooled again. “And stop playing with nonsense. Don’t let nonsense slip in.”
His gaze landed, pointedly, on Tun Tian.
Tun Tian trembled.
“Understood,” Ye Xi said, resigned. “Nuwa lectured me too. She even checked and repaired the universe boundary wall herself.”
The boundary wall was vast enough that Nuwa still hadn’t returned. She wasn’t back, but her scoldings arrived regularly all the same—making Ye Xi sound as if she’d committed some unforgivable sin, when in truth the boundary wall was simply thin.
Only then did Zhu Zi leave, satisfied.
The moment he was gone, everyone finally breathed again and crowded around the balloon.
“We thought Zhu Zi was going to wipe them out. Thank goodness.”
“They’re connected to the Immortal Realm now. Not bad, not bad.” Someone’s voice held a strange mix of curiosity and anticipation. “Let’s see how far they can go.”