649 Forging a God

[POV: Da Wei]

I traveled through the past of the past of the past. Did that even make sense? I had no idea where this journey was leading me, and chances were I would forget most of these lives once I returned to my body.

Navigating the Circle of Transmigration was no easy feat. It was a greater system of the multiverse, one that managed the coming and going of universes. I had already witnessed quite a few universes wink out of existence, which was terrifying enough on its own. I wondered if delving deep enough would finally reveal the mystery of how souls were created. Hei Mao had explained how they propagated, sure, but what about before that? Who or what had made all of this possible in the first place?

I suspected the 'eye' hanging above me, visible only to me, had something to do with it all. I could feel its gaze following me, as though it were waiting for me to make a mistake so it could punish me for it. Whatever it was, I had no intention of finding out what happened when something like me got winked out of existence.

"This world's a bust too," I sighed, staring at the horde of zombies flooding the streets of a modern metropolis.

I kept firing my rifle, killing as many of them as I could. There wasn't much else to do.

"Welp, might as well go swinging..."

I could hear Hei Mao and Ren Jingyi making love from three walls away. Apparently, even in a zombie-infested world, those two still had the hots for each other. Good for them, I supposed.

I took a deep breath, lit a cigarette, and enjoyed one last smoke before the distant nuke went off.

We were fated to die here. There was nothing I could do about it.

God, I had tried.

But this was the past, and everything had already been predetermined. If I had to make an analogy, it was like one of those assassin games where you traveled into the past by tracing your ancestry or something. Real sci-fi stuff. You followed the threads of history, experienced the lives of your predecessors, and watched events unfold exactly as they were supposed to.

When I died, I found myself in another life.

One thing I had learned from this world-hopping business was just how rigid the rules were. If the Circle of Transmigration was the system that made all of this possible, then destiny was one of its primary functions. It determined the sequence of events and dictated how certain things played out.

Take Hei Mao and Ren Jingyi, for example. Their doomed romance would somehow find its spark, only for an apocalypse to cut it short. I needed to remember that if I ever wanted to change things in the real world. Another recurring pattern was my tendency to make a last stand, even when the outcome was already decided.

It seemed my destiny ended around the time I had actually died in the Hollowed World, courtesy of Aixin. Everything beyond that point had been beyond the reach of ordinary fate. Only the interference of a greater design had saved me from what should have been my final death.

Looking back, I realized that the people I had met after dying to Aixin had never appeared in these universes of infinite pasts. I hadn't encountered a single iteration of Ru Qiu, Da Ji, Yuen Fu, or the others. Those whose destinies were intertwined with mine, on the other hand, were easy enough to find.

Gu Jie, for instance, had a recurring habit of trying to rob me, only to get her ass kicked and eventually develop a father-daughter relationship with me. Different worlds, different lives, but the same old nonsense.

Anyway, I continued hopping between worlds, surviving as best I could while searching for the Yellow Emperor or some iteration of him. Time passed at an incomprehensible pace. Through it all, the 'eye' above me continued to watch.

Finding the Yellow Emperor proved challenging, but the destiny we shared, rooted in his role as my summoner, seemed to carry enough weight to guide me toward him eventually.

And when I finally found him, I was able to have a conversation with him.

We were in a universe that existed before the Age of Supremacy, back when Supreme Beings had yet to come into existence. It was a time so far removed from the world I knew that even the foundations of reality seemed different.

I remembered punching him in the face.

Then everything went black.

I felt as though I could remember our conversation, yet I couldn't recall a single coherent detail. Whatever we had discussed, it had undoubtedly been important. Perhaps the memories would return when I needed them most.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back at Voidy's place, except his house was gone.

He stood on a small island of debris, most of his human features swallowed by darkness. Only his hand, eye, and mouth remained visible. He raised his hand and waved at me.

"You did good," he said.

"Thank you."

He faded into nothingness, leaving me alone amid the scattered debris. A moment later, I found myself back in the familiar room.

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Tao Long was still engrossed in his horse races.

That guy really had nothing better to do, did he?

I cast Divine Phantasm of Dreams and explored the city, piecing together how much time had passed while I was away. Roughly seventy-five years had elapsed within Ophanim.

Seventy-five years.

And that was only the time I could account for.

Time had been compressed across levels of existence I would never have imagined possible. Those weren't merely alternate worlds or isolated pockets of reality. They were entire universes, each with its own history and countless lives.

If I had a choice, I would never want to go through that experience again. It felt as though the entire journey had been eroding my existence, overwriting who I was in the present. The memories of those lives clung to me, threatening to blur the boundaries between the person I had been and the person I was now.

It freaking sucked.

Tao Long finally noticed me. "How did it go?"

"I have a plan," I answered.

The problem was that trusting myself was difficult when I couldn't even remember what that plan was.

"Anything left for me?" I asked.

He held my eyeball.

Cool.

I returned the other half of Ophanim to where it belonged. I blinked, and my body quickly adjusted to the restored eye as though it had never been missing.

Freaky god anatomy was something I would never get used to.

There was a message waiting inside the eye. It came from the Dark Witch, and it seemed N'wa had met her. I closed my eyes and reached out to the echo she had left behind, establishing a connection through the strange properties of this Tower.

It was a clever way to exploit the Tower's peculiar nature. Our conversation was brief, but she said a few things that seemed to tickle the back of my mind, stirring thoughts I couldn't quite grasp.

When I opened my eyes again, I felt more certain that my plan would work.

This Tower wasn't my place. The sooner we got out of here, the better.

"What's the plan?" Tao Long asked.

"I'm going to pray real hard."

I knelt down.

There was only one person I wanted to reach. Hei Mao, one of the six disciples of the Holy Emperor. He was the God of Death outside the Tower and had a connection to the very system through which souls passed from one life to the next. If I could call upon him through that connection, perhaps I could obtain something I no longer possessed myself.

I clasped my hands together and prayed with all the sincerity I could muster.

"Hei Mao, if you're listening, grace us with your presence. Your old friend could really use a hand."

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then a boy appeared before us, a red scarf wrapped around his neck.

I recognized him immediately. This was Hei Mao's echo depicting the time he had died, preserved in the Wheel of Reincarnation. The figure standing before us wasn't the Hei Mao I knew in his entirety, but a recorded remnant of the boy he had once been.

His eyes widened as he stared at me, curiosity written all over his face.

"Big bro?" Little Mao called out.

I smiled.

Since I couldn't be a god anymore, why not just make one?

"Yep. Long time no see."

I reached out and rubbed his head, unable to suppress my grin. There was something almost nostalgic about seeing him like this, before all the years and burdens that had shaped the God of Death.

"Tell me, what do you think about jumping some bad guys?" I asked. "We could use plenty of reinforcements."

His eyes lit up. "Cool! Count me in."

Even with my authority as the Tower Master, I couldn't see Little Mao's level or class. Both appeared as a series of question marks, leaving me completely in the dark. I doubted it was because he was powerful. Rather, he was a flawed existence.

Hei Mao had once been inside the Wheel of Reincarnation, but he had never actually passed through it. He had gotten stuck, and by sheer coincidence, an echo of him had been recorded. That was what stood before me now: a remnant of a life that had never properly moved on.

My plan hinged on making Hei Mao my patron, granting me the power I currently lacked. Although I had lost the Supremacy Trait, I still possessed my Paladin Legacy. If I could establish the right connection, perhaps I could work around the limitations imposed on me by this Tower.

I turned to Tao Long. "Go with Nongmin and help him prepare to climb the Tower in earnest."

Tao Long raised an eyebrow. "What about you? And the rest of us?"

"N'wa can stay here and do what she's meant to do." I wasn't particularly keen on letting her overextend herself when she hadn't even reached her full potential. Besides, I wanted her to become Void's problem someday. It would be a shame if she died before living up to that expectation. "I'll be going with Ru Qiu to take care of some things. As for our little godling here, let's leave him to—"

"Who is this adorable little guy?"

Hei Mei's shocked voice interrupted me. She had just walked through the doorway when she spotted Little Mao. Several books slipped from her hands and scattered across the floor as she hurried toward him. Before the poor boy could react, she scooped him into her arms and hugged him tightly.

"Oh, he's so squishy!" she exclaimed, squeezing his cheeks. "Can I take him home?"

Little Mao froze, then he began to panic.

"W-Who are you?!" He squirmed in her arms, trying to push himself free. "Let go of me! Why are you grabbing me?! I don't know you!"

Hei Mei only hugged him tighter. "Oh, you cutie..."

"You're squeezing me! Stop it! I said let go!" His face flushed as he struggled against her embrace. "Big bro, what's wrong with this lady?!"

Little Mao phased straight through her arms, flickered out of sight, and reappeared behind me. He grabbed the back of my clothes and peeked over my shoulder, glaring at Hei Mei with flushed cheeks.

The little guy had absolutely no idea that this was his twin sister. To be fair, Hei Mei looked considerably older than the girl he remembered from the last time he had seen her. The years had done their work, while he remained frozen in the state recorded by the Wheel of Reincarnation.

"No, you can't take him," I said.

"But he's so adorable!" Hei Mei protested, looking utterly unwilling to give up. "The one we have at home is too dark for me."

I narrowed my eyes, considering her words.

She kind of had a point.

"No, you still can't take him. This guy is a denizen of this Tower." I cleared my throat and pointed at her. "Anyway, you're in charge of him now. I trust you can guide him and help him grow, so I'll leave him in your care."

"What?!" Little Mao exclaimed from behind me. "No one is in charge of me! I'm in charge of myself! And I don't like her!"

Hei Mei's eyes practically sparkled.

Before Little Mao could escape again, she appeared behind him and wrapped her arms around his tiny body. "Oh, don't worry. We have plenty of time to get to know each other," she cooed, hugging him against her chest. "And I'm going to make you like me, you adorable little thing."

Little Mao struggled desperately in her embrace, but this time, he couldn't flicker away or phase through her arms.

"No! Nooo!" He kicked and squirmed, his voice rising into a wail. "Big bro, save me!"

I watched helplessly as Hei Mei carried him toward the doorway.

"Big bro, you traitor!" he cried, tears welling in his eyes. "I hate you!"

The door closed behind them.

Tao Long stared at the doorway for a moment before turning to me. "Is he going to be fine?"

"He'll be fine," I assured him, though I couldn't help wincing.

I had a feeling Little Mao would disagree with that assessment.

"The current Hei Mei is more than capable of turning this echo into a godly conduit," I explained. "Once she's done, we'll have a way to call upon our trump card when the time comes."