Journey of the Fate Destroying Emperor

Chapter 1666: The Divergent Path

"Kong is missing," Maitreya said.

"What do you mean he’s missing?"

"I mean, he suddenly disappeared," she explained. "By the time I sensed something and reacted, he was already gone."

"Have you checked his soul lamp?" Ye Guang asked.

Maitreya raised her hand, and a projection of a gold lamp with a white flame manifested in the room. "Yes, and so far, he’s alive."

"That’s good to hear," Qiyuan nodded. "So, the issue now is who is responsible? The Black Dimension, or some unknown Saint of our timeline?"

"I can’t tell," Maitreya explained. "Whatever power they used was beyond my capabilities."

"It’s most likely those invaders," Ye Guang said. "These people have been quiet for too long, and now, they’ve finally made their move."

"Summon Wang Wei and Kong’s close kin," Maitreya said.

Less than a minute later, Wang Wei teleported into the room. He first noticed that Qiyuan was using an Avatar and guessed that the original one was probably in retreat, most likely cultivating his first transcendent foundation. ’It’s about time,’ Wang Wei thought, but he did not bring it up.

"What’s going on? What do you mean, Kong disappeared?" He was soon caught up on the situation.

"I knew it was a good idea to give up that position."

"Now is not the time for that," Maitreya reprimanded. "Give me Kong’s chess piece." Wang Wei did not hesitate to reach for his chessboard and summon the one piece that is karmically linked to Emperor Kong. Soon after his arrival, Lin Fan, Xu Shi, and Bai Han arrived.

’Hmm? Why is Lin Fan’s chaos aura so pure? Not just him, but even Xu Shi seemed different somehow.’ Wang Wei thought. ’When he released the Chaos Demon Gods, his choice of words indicated he had made a bargain with them. He was probably in communication before and received some reward. But what about Xu Shi? Did he also get his wife something? Possibly, but my intuition is telling me something fishy is going on. I should keep an eye on those two.’

"Lord, Saint, my father —"

"That’s why we summoned you three here," Maitreya explained. "I’m going to try to find him, but to do so, I will need a drop of your blood. I will also use the master-disciple karmic threat you two have with him."

"Take whatever you need as long as you can find my father," Bai Han said, and the couple also nodded. So, Maitreya held the chess piece in her left hand while she held the drop of blood that flew from Bai Han’s body in her right. She crushed it, and it turned into a thick red karma thread connected to the piece. Then, two more strings flew from Lin and Xu Shi to reinforce the first.

A terrifying power emanated from Maitreya as she tried to lead the karma link to Kong and locate him. Everybody waited with baited breath; meanwhile, Wang Wei was secretly observing the destinies of these two. Nothing much has changed. After releasing the Chaos Demon Gods. Lin Fan’s destiny to chaos has been fulfilled, but his connection is not directly severed. Meanwhile, Xu Shi is still struggling to find a destiny that is not intrinsically linked to her husband. Everything was fine, which relieved Wang Wei, but his decision to keep an eye on those two had not wavered.

Divine War Post:

"Everything is ready," Fan Leiwei said.

"Excellent," Wan Yanmei nodded. "Are there any precautions that we need to take?"

"Just don’t let these people creeping on base get close to this area."

"You don’t have to worry about that," Wan Yanmei reassured. However, the words hadn’t finished escaping her lips when she received news of numerous personnel suspected of dreaming. "I’ll leave everything here to you."

Fan Leiwei waved his hand as he inspected the tower one last time. He was meticulous in his work because he knew this tower was the key to resolving the underlying tension and other issues in the Infinity Divine Court between [Original Beings] and [Alternates]. More importantly, it will also be a significant step in increasing the court’s military power, thereby increasing the chances of achieving the Highest Sovereign’s ambition. So, after ensuring there were no problems, he activated the tower.

A magic circle materialized above the tower before releasing an unknown power wave. The entire dimension trembled slightly, but no one was alarmed, since they had been warned in advance. ’Now, we just wait for the other half,’ Fan Leiwei thought as he glanced at the gate in the distance.

...

"Where am I?" Emperor Kong muttered as he looked around. To say he was on the highest alert would be an understatement. One minute, he was on the court, adjusting his stance after mastering his first Ultimate Skill, and the next, an unknown force teleported him out. The scary part is they did it right under the Saint’s nose.

"Welcome to the Unification Tower," said a cold and naval voice. A gold-white scholarly brush materialized in Emperor Kong’s hands as he glanced at the source of the voice.

"The brush Bao’er gave us — how nostalgic. She almost died gathering the material for that gift. I wondered if it was the same for you."

Emperor Kong squinted his eyes when he saw the person who showed up: it was him, except dressed in all black clothes, with a cold and gloomy aura, a rough voice, depressing eyes, and a scarred right face.

"My alternate self," Kong muttered.

"Alternate — how I hate these words."

"You forcefully summoned me here? No, you shouldn’t have such power," Kong analyzed. "But, is it a coincidence that the Divine Timeline just invaded, and I was somehow forcefully pulled into this unknown realm to face my alternate self? Probably not."

"Oh, how clever," Alternate Kong said sarcastically.

"It seems life hasn’t been too kind to you," Kong commented. "I wondered what went wrong in your timeline."

"That’s actually quite easy to determine. Do you know this man?" The alternate self created a projection.

"Wang Wei?"

"What’s your relationship with him?"

Kong frowned. After mulling the situation over a bit, he decided to risk it and gather more information. "Ally."

"So, Han’er is alive, isn’t he? You arrived in time."

"Are you talking about the time I saved him from Wang Wei and took him to the upper dimension?"

"It was one mistake," Dark Kong said. "I was delayed by a few seconds, and by the time I arrived, he was dead."

"Couldn’t you have revived him?"

"I did, but that damn Fate Lord was ruthless. He deemed me a threat, so he slaughtered every member of my academy. Then, after ascending, he set his eyes on me. I tried to fight back by joining one of those parasites, but he eventually slaughtered them. In the end, I only escaped because Bao sacrificed her life. But this time, the Fate Lord made sure I couldn’t see them again."

The picture of a middle-aged woman with the gentlest smile in the world flashed in Emperor Kong’s mind. His wife — Han Libao — was the kind of woman who would sacrifice her life for her loved one. It had almost happened to him once. "You tried to kill him, didn’t you?"

"So what? He killed my son. Is it wrong for me to get revenge?" Alternate Kong snapped. Every day, he regrets not succeeding, and it’s all of Heavenly Dao’s fault for preventing his Empyrean Projection from killing that bastard while he was in the lower dimension.

"And that’s the difference between us," Kong calmly stated. Would he have attacked Wang Wei had he failed to save Bai Han? No, he would not. Out of fear or wariness of the Dao Opening Sect, he would have chosen the more rational approach — especially knowing it was still possible to revive Bai Han.

"You say that now, but you were never confronted with that choice, were you?"

"That’s fair," Kong nodded. No one truly knows how they will react or choose in such a stressful, emotional situation. He believed his rationality would prevail, but is that true? As a father, can he see his son die and control himself? As an enlightened scholar, Kong wants to believe he would, but the answer is not absolute.

"I’m curious, though," Kong asked. "How did you get involved with the people from the Divine Timeline?"

"They invaded, and Wang Wei led the resistance force against them. I was prepared to do whatever was necessary to have my revenge."

"So, you betrayed your timeline?"

"What has this timeline done for me?" Alternate Kong asked. "The man who killed everybody I loved, destroyed all my dreams and goals, became a hero of the entire Chaos Universe. Meanwhile, I was forced to be hunted like a rabid dog. So, tell me, why would I remain loyal?"

"But your choice doesn’t seem to have improved your life much," Kong argued. "So, what happened?"

"None of your business."

"You’re me, and if I had experienced what you did, I would have asked the divine timeline to revive my family in return for my servitude, or information about Wang Wei. Did they go back on their promise?"