Chapter 160: The time that humans have is both a cage and a weapon.
In this forest, where killings repeated, a mist suddenly arose.
The world shrouded in darkness resembled a cold lake under nightfall, silent and lifeless. A drop of eerie green dripped in, spreading out bit by bit, dyeing the entire lake a glowing green.
The mist permeated the entire mountain forest, extending outward continuously, even encompassing the distant ruins destroyed by explosions.
Noah sensed something was wrong.
With just the final steps remaining, the collective sacrifice was about to end. He could even feel the entropy continuously being channeled into his body, encompassing the chaos of the entire human race, their information, emotions, and memories, all turning into the energy for him to break the seal.
Yet the dense mist before him did not dissipate in the slightest. The mist gradually obscured An Wujiu’s figure.
He could sense a strong opposing force emerging.
Was it him?
Impossible, Noah dismissed the thought from his mind.
He was currently trapped in the abyss of time, and there had never been a precedent of anyone escaping the punishment of time.
Moreover, his human incarnation had already been completely destroyed by him.
But his human incarnation did not have a heart.
Where was the heart?
Noah suddenly thought of something. A tentacle with a sharp mouthpiece shot out from behind him, darting towards the head-hanging An Wujiu.
The tentacle’s mouthpiece opened mid-air, revealing many saw-like sharp teeth, aiming straight at An Wujiu’s chest.
The dark green mist grew even thicker.
To Noah’s surprise, the tentacle he controlled couldn’t advance an inch further.
Just one inch short.
Not only that, all the tentacles he had previously used to bind An Wujiu also seemed to be under some pressure, forcing them to loosen.
An Wujiu broke free from his control but did not fall back to the ground. He hovered, still with his head bowed.
This powerful force was invisibly opposing him, and Noah could clearly feel that this force shared the same origin as him.
It was him, and only him.
A compressed, rebounding sound emerged, like a small explosion, deep within the dense mist. Then he heard the sound of flesh tearing, accompanied by the dragging sound of mucous being stirred.
In an instant, he felt like billions of tuning forks were struck simultaneously by his ears, each cell experiencing the strongest stimulus and trembling in response.
A hissing sound came from An Wujiu’s feet, like the sound of snake tails rapidly rubbing against the ground. Soon, one, two warm, twisted snake-like tentacles coiled around his ankles, climbing upwards bit by bit, brushing against his skin along the way, creating an ambiguous warmth.
Ankles, inner knees, the root of the thighs, continuing upwards, the waist, chest, the smooth skin of the collarbone, side neck, and finally the cheeks.
The snake-like tip gently brushed An Wujiu’s cheekbones, seeming like a kind of solace.
An Wujiu opened his eyes.
At the same time, his chest tore open from within, numerous green tentacles blooming out like petals, emerging from his muscles and bones as soil, a warm nest of revival.
Those tentacles, closely surrounding him from the outside, wove a web that allowed him to fall down safely—a web into which he fell, allowing the god to be reborn.
Lasasmus was shocked by his brother’s resurrection in a different place, almost as if born from a human body.
The mist grew thicker, and the sense of oppressive power grew stronger. He was certain that this was even stronger than before.
But even so, it was impossible for him to surpass himself, Lasasmus was sure.
At this moment, having devoured the entropy of all mankind, his energy exceeded even before. He looked up to confirm, and the full moon in the sky blinked at the same time.
His main body, monitoring the collective sacrifice, told him everything was about to end.
He wouldn’t make it.
Many tentacles wrapped around the unconscious An Wujiu, like a butterfly’s cocoon, each one connected to his empty heart.
But the monster that split from An Wujiu’s body wasn’t just simple tentacles. He was almost indescribable and unformable, without twisted tentacles or a massively deformed body, almost beyond human imagination.
His body was semi-transparent, with glowing snake-like patterns engraved on the surface; his figure was tall and slender, shrouded in an unrelenting mist, his form constantly changing. The patterns on his body entwined like forcibly pulled plant roots, changing every second, impossible to fathom. One moment, he appeared as a godly figure for a temple, the next, more terrifying than a demon, the most dangerous, majestic, and mysterious.
That semi-transparent body flowed like dark currents, with a complete heart buried inside, a cluster of glowing green light, sparkling with the light of life, symbolizing the order of time.
Seeing this scene, Lasasmus was no longer surprised; he had indeed returned.
The brother he trapped in the abyss of time had broken the curse of punishment.
But as long as he didn’t die, his power didn’t diminish, and the wheel of eternal punishment would not stop.
“You found yourself in the eternal punishment of time.”
In the silent forest, only his brother could hear this sentence.
But the other did not respond, instead launching an attack directly!
A spherical light sliced horizontally, like lightning, green lightning.
Lasasmus did not attempt to dodge the attack, he tauntingly said to his brother.
“You know your attack is ineffective.”
The strong light penetrated Noah’s body, splitting it in two, but before the light faded, his body rejoined, revealing a grim smile.
“Even if this low-dimensional creature’s body is truly destroyed, you cannot destroy me.”
He, as always, proudly proclaimed his imminent victory.
“You can’t even stop me, nor do you need to stop me.”
“In this ever-expanding universe, just low-dimensional creatures like humans can observe at least 200 billion galaxies, with similar galaxies to the Milky Way numbering in the billions. In the Milky Way alone, there are billions of stars like the sun. A mere Earth, a mere human race, is as insignificant as stardust in the universe. Isn’t it laughable that your eyes are fixated not on the complete three-dimensional universe but on a single life form, like fixating on a speck of dust?”
Lasasmus told him, “Even if you stop now, the impact on this universe would be no more than a planet.” His voice carried the disdain of a higher-dimensional being, “You can see the timeline; you can see the fate of a planet. The universe is constantly increasing in entropy. One day, the sun will expand and engulf these planets. Even if not engulfed, Earth’s surface will be left with nothing but lava and extreme heat. Humanity will eventually perish; it is the fate of the three-dimensional universe.”
The ever-changing creature before him still showed no intention of giving up.
“Their fate is the heat of death and extinction at the end of time, not premature annihilation by you.”
The green glow flickered, like the counting of time, fair and unstoppable.
“You are interfering not just with a human, not just a planet, but the future of a universe. I am the master of time and space, and my mission is to maintain the normal operation of time.”
Lasasmus laughed, a mocking smile on his human-like face.
“So what? Do you really think you can stop me?”
Before his eyes appeared a continually expanding blue light sphere, countless ethereal beams flying in from all directions, converging here—all entropy created by humans.
The immense energy was enough to trigger an all-destroying explosion. The center of the light sphere was like an abyss, suddenly releasing infinite indescribable things—human despair, madness, and chaos turned into weapons.
But countless unpredictable limbs and weapons also surged from the other’s semi-transparent body. The two forces clashed, freezing the surrounding mist in an instant. Half a second later, all the trees in the forest were snapped in half by the shock!
The forces on both sides were too immense, and Lasasmus was on the defensive. He knew his brother would not sacrifice an entire universe just to win, so he was not worried, and the collective sacrifice was about to conclude.
“If you won’t give up, then go die.”
He coldly declared the outcome, “But before dying, you can taste the power of the entropy of an entire planet.”
With that, he raised his right hand, the blue light sphere gathering in his palm, shining blindingly bright, like a blue star on the edge of the universe.
He raised his hand, aiming at his brother’s heart, ready to finish him in one strike, erasing everything here.
“Orpheus Cronus Cheasia.” Lasasmus pronounced his brother’s full name. Last time, he didn’t do this and disdained to do so, but this time, he had to completely destroy him, using his name as an entry point and pouring all his power to crush him.
The light sphere kept expanding, eventually shooting out.
But things did not go as Lasasmus expected.
The high-dimensional life form before him, like himself, was not overwhelmed by his mighty power. On the contrary, the blue light sphere stopped in front of the other, as if there was an unbreakable barrier between them.
“Sorry, I forgot to mention.”
He smiled, and within his semi-transparent form appeared a hand that pierced the blue light sphere, then clenched it tightly.
“I was given a new name by a human.”
The old, lengthy code of the god was no longer the index of his life, no longer his Achilles’ heel.
Lasasmus had a moment of panic.
“You’re insane; how can a god be named by low-dimensional humans?!”
“What can I do? I like it.”
Shen Ti gripped the light sphere tightly; it was the chaos of an entire planet.
Lasasmus threatened him, “You cannot destroy this entropy; it can only devour you.” As he spoke, he manipulated the light sphere, aiming it at Shen Ti’s heart.
But in the next second, Shen Ti, beyond his imagination, grasped the ball of entropy tightly.
“I indeed don’t have the power to destroy them, but I control time.”
Shen Ti gazed at the blue light sphere and said, “This indeed is the total entropy of a hundred parallel dimensions, immense energy, but you forgot, behind this energy are countless humans.”
In a moment so brief that even Lasasmus couldn’t perceive it, Shen Ti suddenly appeared in front of him, his semi-transparent body gradually transforming into his human form, holding the blue light sphere from Lasasmus, his greatest weapon.
He also overlooked his greatest weakness.
“Since you have absorbed all this entropy…”
“Then, if I were to unfold all the timelines of all the humans behind this entropy…”
The light sphere was thrust into Lasasmus’s heart.
A human is indeed insignificant, but their life is composed of countless moments, each moment offering infinite choices, each choice branching into a completely different parallel timeline.
Unfold every dimension, every possible occurrence at every moment for every human, and what you get is true infinity.
Shen Ti whispered his brother’s name, tearing open a path to his heart, “Lasasmus Kexi, what will you do?”
In the next instant, accompanied by a painful and intense roar, the ground trembled, Noah’s human body perished in a burst of intense light, turning to ashes, and Lasasmus, who had consumed an entire planet, was also countered by this infinite possibility.
Higher-dimensional beings disdain those bound by time.
But the time that humans possess is both a prison they cannot escape for a lifetime and their greatest weapon.
The dark night sky was torn apart. With Lasasmus’s counterattack, the countless blue “eyes” monitoring the sacrifice also vanished, revealing a sky pure as crystal, and the sun, which would eventually expand and destroy but still existed for now.
In the sunlight, his semi-transparent body shone like a glass sculpture, and as the green mist dispersed, Shen Ti emerged from his semi-transparent original form, returning to human shape.
Lasasmus was shattered into countless particles, drifting in the higher-dimensional universe, unable to return to the three-dimensional universe.
And the Eternal Wheel of Punishment, driven by his divine power, quietly came to a stop.
Shen Ti was released from the cycle of the abyss of time and gained freedom.
In front of him was An Wujiu, wrapped layer upon layer by tendrils, like petals blooming, revealing An Wujiu, who was protected at the center.
Shen Ti walked over and picked him up by the waist.
An Wujiu’s chest was full of blood, and under Shen Ti’s touch, he struggled to open his eyes.
“You came back…”
“Yes, I came back.” Shen Ti hugged him, showing a somewhat childish smile, but the mist in his eyes lingered, tinged with faint sadness.
An Wujiu also smiled, raising his hand to touch Shen Ti’s chin.
“Is it over?”
Shen Ti nodded, “It’s over, Wujiu; we won.”
An Wujiu, with no heart, was as pale as paper soaked in blood. He smiled, “We won; why are you crying…”
He wanted to raise his hand to wipe Shen Ti’s tears but found he had almost no strength left.
“I’m so tired… Shen Ti,” An Wujiu leaned into Shen Ti’s arms, his breath weak and his voice almost inaudible, “I want to go home…”
He was so tired, feeling like he had lived for so long.
All that he had lost had already crushed An Wujiu. This life was originally like a parasite of a god’s heart, forcibly retained.
Now, without the god’s heart, death was his fate.
“Alright.” Shen Ti hugged him and said, “We’ll go home, very soon we’ll go home.”
An Wujiu softly responded, “…I love you.”
“I…”
As Shen Ti began to speak, An Wujiu in this timeline died in his arms.
In the desolate forest, the sunlight cruelly fell.
Shen Ti, in a very gentle tone, said to An Wujiu, “Wait for me.”
“I’ll take you home.”
