620 The Secret

[POV: Nongmin]

Nongmin had absolutely destroyed them.

It had not been easy. They had put up a good fight, far better than most would have expected. Their assault had been meticulously planned, and every member of the force had come prepared to kill him. They had exploited every weakness they could find, layered their abilities together, and nearly reduced his entire base to ruins in the process.

Nongmin's robes hung from his body in tatters. Blood covered what remained of the fabric, while both of his arms had been completely severed during the battle.

That, however, was hardly a problem for an immortal.

He drew upon his innate immortality, and the flesh around his shoulders rapidly regenerated. Bones formed first, followed by muscles, tendons, nerves, and finally skin. The process was already astonishingly fast, but Nongmin accelerated it further by casting Great Cure. Divine energy surged through his newly formed limbs, restoring them to perfect condition within moments.

He flexed his fingers, feeling them once more.

His gaze then swept across what remained of his territory.

Calling it a palace was almost laughable now.

The magnificent palace that had once stood at the heart of his base had been reduced to a shattered ruin. Pillars lay broken across the courtyard, entire halls had collapsed inward, and countless fragments of stone and metal littered the ground. The fortress surrounding it had suffered an even worse fate. Sections of its walls had been completely erased, while others had been torn apart and buried beneath the rubble.

The mountain beside his base of operations had crumbled during the battle.

Half of it had collapsed directly onto the fortress, burying entire sections beneath an enormous mass of stone. Jagged cliffs remained where the mountain had once stood, while magma seeped from deep beneath the earth, flowing slowly through the ruins like glowing veins. Scars stretched across the land in every direction, some shallow and others deep enough to expose the burning earth below.

The entire region looked as though a natural disaster had passed through it.

Except this had been caused by people.

Nongmin stared at the destruction in silence.

What exactly had they been trying to accomplish?

He understood the logic behind their attack. Eliminate the head, and the rest of the body would collapse. It was a sound strategy, especially against someone like him. They had clearly gone to great lengths in their preparation, and if he had been weaker, less cautious, or simply unlucky, their plan might have succeeded.

But no matter how good a plan was, reality would always fall short of expectations.

There were too many variables.

And in more ways than one, they had been reckless.

If Nongmin had organized the assault, he would have prepared a backup plan. Several, in fact. He would have established a retreat route, contingencies for the failure of the primary objective, and a method of preserving at least some of his forces if everything went wrong.

They had prepared to kill him.

They had not prepared for what would happen if they failed.

And now they were all dead.

All except Tian Mei.

Nongmin's expression became thoughtful.

She had not been among the assault force.

That meant she was still somewhere out there.

For the first time since the battle began, Nongmin wondered whether he could simply end everything here.

If he could simultaneously end himself and the final contestant of this match, then neither side would win. The contest between Supreme Heart and Da Wei would end in a draw, rendering their bet null and void.

It was, perhaps, the ideal outcome.

The problem was finding Tian Mei.

Nongmin glanced across the ruined landscape.

Where could she be?

“I could always just tell you.”

Nongmin's eyes narrowed.

A figure appeared before him.

Supreme Heart stood amid the ruins as though he had always been there, his expression carrying that same infuriating smile.

“I know you never asked,” Supreme Heart continued. “I believe it’s out of pride. If not pride, perhaps caution. But I am telling you, there was no need for that between family, my son.”

Nongmin stared at him.

“Let me guess. You said the same things to my siblings. And where did that get them?”

His voice became colder.

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“Dead.”

Supreme Heart's smile remained.

“And it’s you who killed them. You stole their immortality to fuel your own. Isn’t that just tragic? Just to win this war.” His expression softened, almost genuinely touched. “Now I’m touched. Most of my children fail even to show true affection the same way you do now. They think they love me. They cherish me. But all they were had been nothing more than slaves to their baser instincts.”

“I don’t love you.”

Nongmin's gaze hardened.

“I don’t even know you.”

“There’s a saying where I’m from. Blood is thicker than water.” Supreme Heart tilted his head. “Do you know what that means? Relationships and loyalties within a family are the strongest and most important ones. And guess what flows in our hearts? What pumps them to life?”

His smile widened.

“I am your life, son. I am you.”

Nongmin remained silent for several moments, until he decided he wasn't. The timing could've been more perfect, though it might be his ego talking. Still, this was the best opportunity he'd have in getting into the Supreme Heart's head.

“I hate how right you are, but there’s something you got wrong. You don’t need to be blood to be family. Isn’t that right, Yellow Emperor?”

The smile vanished in the Supreme Heart's face.

Nongmin had learned the secret after awakening the memories he had once sealed away. Memories he had glimpsed through the Heavenly Eye when he had still been its wielder.

The Holy Emperor, and perhaps the other Supreme Beings, might have believed that the Yellow Emperor had been sealed within the Hollowed World alongside the Supreme Void.

They were wrong.

The Yellow Emperor that existed within the False Earth was merely a projection.

An echo.

The real Yellow Emperor had left behind an existence so convincing that no one had ever suspected the truth. He had created something capable of fooling even the Supreme Beings, allowing the entire Greater Universe to believe that the projection was the true Yellow Emperor.

That was why Supreme Heart could interfere with the Hollowed World whenever he pleased. That was how he could project his consciousness into it. And in extreme circumstances, he could even send Aixin to carry out his will.

The Supreme Heart smiled again, his eyes gleaming with interest. The amusement in his voice disappeared, replaced by genuine curiosity. “You’ve finally come clean, my son. Or should I stop calling you that? Who are you? What’s your real identity? What is your real name? Why does my blood flow within you?”

Nongmin did not answer immediately.

Instead, another thought occurred to him.

It had not been Jue Bu who first conceived the idea of stealing a Supreme Being’s body and actually succeeding. As a cursed and vengeful spirit, Jue Bu's memories had always been blurry and fragmented, but Nongmin knew where the idea had truly originated.

The Yellow Emperor.

The history had been erased when the Lost Gods were imprisoned within the Hollowed World, then buried even deeper when the False Earth was established. Whatever had happened back then had been deliberately forgotten, leaving behind only scattered traces that meant nothing to those who did not know where to look.

But Nongmin had seen enough.

If Supreme Heart was actually the Yellow Emperor, then another question immediately followed.

Where had the real Supreme Heart gone?

Stealing the body of a Supreme Being was an unheard-of development. At best, there had been an isolated case like Jue Bu.

Even that had its limitations.

Jue Bu could share Da Wei's power, but he could not wield Da Wei's Supremacy Trait himself. Nevertheless, he had been graced with the same powers, providence, and divine blessings that the real Da Wei possessed. That alone had been enough to elevate Jue Bu into a higher form of existence and allow him to resist the curse that had once imprisoned him.

But what about the Yellow Emperor?

Unlike Jue Bu, he had achieved something far more complete. He had not merely stolen another Supreme Being's body. He had become so thoroughly intertwined with it that he identified himself as the Supreme Heart.

Arguably, that could also be considered an imperfect possession for precisely that reason. What use was stealing another existence's body if, in the end, there was no difference between who you were and who you had stolen from?

Nongmin turned around.

“I am you,” he said. “And I don’t need your help.”

The words were not merely meant to provoke him.

Nongmin had intervened because he now knew the Supreme Heart's true identity. He had not come here to reclaim something that was supposedly his. He had no grand desire for revenge, nor did he feel some ancient attachment toward an existence he had never known.

He already had a family, and he had too much to lose.

As long as Da Wei remained on the frontlines, Nongmin could return to the life he had built within the Hollowed World. He could pursue his own happiness and, in doing so, honor the happy ending his mother had once wished for him.

That was enough.

The past, and whatever destiny had supposedly been planned for him, had become little more than a long-forgotten memory.

A 'movie' he could watch, but could no longer sympathize with.

Reincarnation could do that to a soul.

It could strip away the meaning behind memories, even if those memories remained intact. Whether someone remembered their past lives or not, they were still someone else. The person who had suffered those experiences was not necessarily the person standing here now.

Nongmin had looked into the past once.

All he had seen was pain.

No more.

He walked away from the ruins of his palace.

Behind him, the Supreme Heart remained silent for several seconds, and then he laughed. It started as a low chuckle, and then it grew louder.

“Hahahaha!”

The laughter echoed through the ruined fortress, carrying across the shattered mountains and burning ground. It was not the amused laughter Nongmin had heard from him before. There was something almost manic about it, as though the Supreme Heart had finally lost whatever restraint he had maintained until now.

“Hahahahahaha!”

He laughed and laughed.

“How wonderful.”

His voice trembled with exhilaration.

“How utterly wonderful!”

Nongmin continued walking.

“I thought you were gone,” Supreme Heart said between his laughter. “Do you understand? I thought I had lost you forever!”

His laughter returned, louder than before.

“All these years. All this time. I searched and searched, yet I never realized that you were right there.”

Nongmin's footsteps did not slow.

“The irony!” Supreme Heart exclaimed. “What an incredible irony!”

His voice was filled with genuine delight.

“The son I thought I never had. The son who was never supposed to exist. The son who now has every right to take what was destined to be his!”

He laughed again.

“A son who is not a son.”

His voice softened.

“And yet you are my son nonetheless.”

Nongmin finally glanced back.

Supreme Heart was smiling. Not the calculating smile he usually wore. Not the mocking smile he used when speaking to his enemies. This was different. He looked almost happy. Truly happy.

Nongmin found that more disturbing than anything else. He turned away again. He had no interest in listening to the Supreme Heart's madness. He reached out and attempted to open his pocket dimension.

Nothing happened.

Nongmin stopped. His expression changed. He tried again. Still nothing. The connection to his pocket dimension remained completely closed. For a moment, he simply stared ahead.

When his mind returned to the battle, he realized what happened.

The champions. The way they had fought. The strange priorities behind their attacks. They had not merely been trying to kill him. They had been systematically forcing him to reveal his abilities and rely on his technology.

Nongmin's eyes narrowed.

His pocket dimension had been their real target. They had never needed to destroy his entire arsenal. They only needed to seal his access to it. And here he thought they had no secondary plan at work.

“I’ve been had.”

The realization came with an unusual bitterness.

Nongmin looked toward the ruins behind him. His pocket dimension contained far more than weapons. It contained resources, tools, treasures, formations, and countless preparations he had accumulated over the years.

All of it was still there.

He simply could not reach any of it.

“Clever.”