How could this woman, possessing no cultivation whatsoever, predict the future?

"Utterly baffling!"

After racking his brain to no avail, Zong Shou simply stopped contemplating it. With a low mumble, he retracted his focus.

Zong Shou didn't dwell on the matter. Although this woman seemed capable of weaving causality and fate with her words to alter the future, he, Zong Shou, was equally proficient in that very art. He would find a way when the time came; it wouldn't unfold as she wished.

As for any talk of demonic fire or fiends, Zong Shou paid it even less mind, harboring not the slightest intention of playing the hero.

What concern were the people of this realm to him? Let the Buddhist sects worry themselves over it.

Shaking his head, Zong Shou attempted to recall the sliver of his spiritual consciousness.

However, the instant his intent arose, he discovered that thread of thought was firmly fixed within the Buddha statue. No matter what, he could not withdraw it.

He froze again for a moment, then let it be. He cared little for this trivial speck of soul-force. Even leaving it here seemed to cause no harm.

It was just that everything today felt steeped in a bizarre strangeness.

Shaking his head again, Zong Shou began absorbing the power of aspiration.

This time, he cast aside all reservations, manifesting his Black and White Dharma Forms externally and devouring the power with full force.

Aspirations originated from the heart, using the heart as their source. If he could absorb them after purification, it would greatly benefit both his physical body and his soul.

Over two days, Zong Shou felt his physical form becoming gradually suffused with this divine energy.

He then summoned the little Golden Hán Xi and others from his sleeve, pouring these purified aspirations into the bodies of these spirit beasts.

Before the Spirit Realm, when he devoured the deities of the Daoist sects, Zong Shou had worried his cultivation was insufficient to purify them completely, leading to potential hidden dangers if he used the power to enhance his spirit pets' constitutions. But after the Spirit Realm, his mastery of the Black and White Dharma Forms had advanced immensely.

Furthermore, these aspirations were originally destined for the Boundless Beginning and End Buddha that he, Zong Shou, would become.

Thus, using them now carried absolutely no risk of future trouble.

Among the spirit beasts, the Howling Sun absorbed the most, its body acting like a bottomless pit, greedily taking in the aspirations with an expression of utterly content ecstasy. When Zong Shou finally stopped, it still looked dissatisfied.

Next was Hán Xi. It was unclear how absorbing this power of faith would benefit this innate anomaly born from the resentment of heaven and earth’s slaughter. It did not, as before, differentiate into soldier ants, but simply continued to increase the volume it contained within its body—a volume over six times that held by the Azure Fire Mystic Turtle and the Thunder Wyvern combined!

As a result, the six pairs of wings on its back began to radiate holy light, infinitely brilliant and utterly pure. One could not possibly guess that this creature was inherently bloodthirsty and extremely savage.

It wasn't just Hán Xi; even the dozens of guard soldier ants were undergoing changes, becoming increasingly humanoid, likewise suffused with a sense of the sacred.

"If I truly one day establish the Great Qian Celestial Court and become the Emperor of the myriad heavens, in times of need, I must use these things as envoys. Their mere appearance is excellent for swaying the minds of men—"

Next in line was Little Gold. This one transformed its body, mimicking Hán Xi's constitution, and also absorbed a considerable amount, second only to Howling Sun and Hán Xi.

Seeing that four hours had passed, Zong Shou dared not linger. He once again employed the Void Shuttle technique to shift through space. This time, he even utilized the Book of the Cosmos, warping time to make the transit even swifter.

In mere moments, he traversed a distance of a hundred worlds.

However, the cost was not small; the hundred immortal stones he carried were nearly depleted of spiritual energy. He would have to wait several years for these stones to accumulate sufficient elemental quintessence before they could be used again.

In just three hours, he traversed a vast expanse of the Sea of Delusion. This location was precisely where Zong Shou knew that strange world was situated.

By this time, however, his Demon-Warding Divine Shuttle was already heavily scarred. Many parts were severely worn down. Zong Shou estimated the shuttle could only last another day or two of shuttling back and forth across this immense sea of void.

"Shen Yuexuan was right when he said these replica parts aren't very reliable; it's best to find the genuine articles sooner rather than later. Now I see he wasn't wrong—they really don't hold up well—"

Zong Shou shook his head slightly, then summoned the Azure Fire Mystic Turtle, stepping onto its back. This beast was protected by the Mystic Turtle Primordial Barrier Qi, allowing it to move freely through the Sea of Delusion as well. Its speed was merely somewhat slower than the Divine Shuttle.

Acquiring this turtle for transport, he reflected, had truly been a profitable decision.

Scanning his surroundings, Zong Shou's gaze finally locked onto a single point. His expression instantly sharpened, and controlling the Azure Fire Mystic Turtle, he moved in that direction.

This world was different from his own; it existed within a Sea of Delusion, completely isolated from the myriad realms. It wasn't until later ages, when the surrounding void energy gradually stabilized to form the rudiments of a River of Worlds, that it was discovered.

This realm was clearly not yet fully formed. When Zong Shou tentatively reached out to touch the spatial barrier, he passed through with the utmost ease, effortlessly penetrating it.

What greeted his eyes was a world of pale, yellowish light. There was no ground, no sky, and no concept of a flat Earth; only clusters of stars, some incredibly brilliant, others emitting a faint glimmer.

Zong Shou drew a sharp, cold breath. Even though he had confirmed repeatedly that his memories from his 'previous life'—ten thousand years hence—were real and not illusions, the sight of this place matching his memories still caused his emotions to surge uncontrollably.

"Truly marvelous, just how vast! Nearly every star is equivalent to an entire world. Many stars possess territories several, even dozens of times larger than [Cloud Realm equivalent]. The exceptionally luminous stars are actually hundreds of millions of li wide—"

Zong Shou expanded his spiritual sense, then let out a soft sigh. This place truly possessed not a shred of spiritual energy. Only in certain peculiar locations could he sense even a trace of the elemental quintessence, and it was exceedingly sparse.

They say the Cloud Realm ten thousand years later was an Age of Dharma Decline, but compared to this place, it was the difference between heaven and earth.

The laws of this realm were quite stable, but because the world was so immense, the power of heaven and earth was weak. This imposed very little restraint on his internal energy and magic.

Zong Shou shifted his gaze and casually reached out. A streak of protective force shot toward a planet hundreds of millions of li away, grasping for it. In this vacuum, no sound could be heard, yet before his eyes, a star with a diameter of two hundred thousand li across a span of hundreds of millions of li was forcibly shattered by him using only forty percent of his strength!

Although this realm contained little spiritual energy, cultivators here were completely unrestricted and could wield immense power. For someone like him, whose internal self was akin to a world, he required almost nothing externally; his power was virtually endless. Here, he was practically an omnipotent god. With a mere gesture, he could pulverize a star whose territory was equivalent to that of the Cloud Realm.

Zong Shou let out a soft chuckle, unconcerned.

"Shattering a single star causes no discernible damage to this realm. This world truly is interesting."

As far as the eye could see, there were billions of similar stars. The destruction of this one was no different to him than crushing a small hill or a pebble in the Cloud Realm.

"So the essence of all things and the power of all things remain eternally unchanged. In that case, it is not that this realm has failed to complete itself, but rather, the moment it ceases expansion will be the moment of its destruction and rebirth—"

In the Cloud Realm, his divine sense could only reach a few hundred li at most. But in this world, it could extend for hundreds of millions of li, unimpeded, encompassing half a galaxy and billions of stars within its sensory range.

This seemed like boundless divine ability, yet it was utterly meaningless, as Zong Shou could visually estimate nearly ten thousand similar galaxies. Furthermore, the edges of the universe were expanding ceaselessly.

The only thing that surprised him was that here, he possessed an unusually clear perception of the foundational structure of some worlds.

"Observing this realm's evolution, it must have existed for tens of billions of years? Unfortunately, although this realm is vast, the stars capable of nurturing life are one in a billion. Some stars have evolved quite well, showing promise, but they still require hundreds of millions of years more—"

At least within Zong Shou's perception, no such thriving stars existed. Any that did were insignificant specks, less worthy than ants.

Zong Shou shifted his gaze, finally settling on one spot. That direction appeared no different from the others, yet the surrounding spacetime was distorted abnormally. And if those distortions were smoothed out, a blind spot, a void, would appear in his vision.

"This must be the so-called black hole—"

Zong Shou smiled faintly and continued to control the Azure Fire Mystic Turtle, flying toward that location. Not only had his own divine abilities significantly increased in this world, but the Azure Fire Mystic Turtle had as well. Once it flew, its speed was nearly equivalent to light. Time around it appeared static, and it could easily warp the void.

Although the distance to the black hole seemed to be thousands of trillions of li, when Zong Shou arrived, it had only taken half an hour.

Yet, he dared not approach closer than a hundred million li. At this location, all light was captured, and all matter was devoured. A colossal force attracted everything nearby. Even with Zong Shou's current omnipotence, he had to exert his full strength just to hold his position in the void, unaffected by the black hole's influence.

Zong Shou’s mind was shaken to its core, and he stared, transfixed. In truth, at this very moment, he could see nothing tangible. The light here was all twisted and absorbed, failing to reach his eyes. Yet his spiritual sense could remotely perceive a massive void not far before him—a void of such indescribable, majestic grandeur that it shattered all laws, all Great Daos, returning everything to chaos—

Now, not only him, but even the Azure Fire Mystic Turtle beneath his feet was unusually docile, filled with dread and an impulse to retreat from this celestial anomaly.

"Even the might of the Supreme Realm could be no more than this! No, it should be far inferior—"

Zong Shou gasped again, his eyes flickering. Then, a wry smile touched his lips. It was no wonder the Buddhist sect called him Zong Shou the Master of the Universe's End and Beginning.

If this black hole were placed in the Cloud Realm, it could indeed destroy a world. (To be continued)RQ