Deep within the Heaven-Slaying Alliance, in a separate courtyard.
Gu Changge quietly observed the changes on Yue Mingkong. She sat cross-legged on a soft couch, her black hair cascading, and on her lustrous, peerlessly beautiful face, one after another mysterious and archaic mark seemed to be shifting.
Her entire aura was continuously rising, the aura of the Dao permeating every inch of her skin, as if even her cheekbones had become transparent.
"Dream is merely a medium…"
"The true essence involved is actually years, time…"
"This time, besides the past, has she also touched upon the future?"
Observing the changes on Yue Mingkong, he fell into thought for a moment.
The Dreamghosts Clan is actually somewhat similar to the Dark Clans. They are not perpetuated by bloodlines, but rather, they fall into dreams, trapped until death, and within their original physical bodies, new will and life are born.
This also allows the Dreamghosts Clan to use dreams as a medium, wandering into the dreams of various living beings.
As for the Dark Clans, they are either eroded by Dark Matter, or their original physical bodies turn into cages trapping their previous souls, and within those hollow shells, new wills are born.
In the past, within the Vast Expanse, there was an Era of Dream's Ashes, and the person who created the Era of Dream's Ashes was called the Dream Lord.
Gu Changge had not actually probed into Yue Mingkong's secrets, and now there was no need for him to investigate. The many changes on Yue Mingkong were already enough to explain her identity and origins.
The last time she awakened, she had also told him about this matter.
"Dream Lord…"
Gu Changge gently shook his head, not forcibly waking Yue Mingkong. Whether she was the Dream Lord or not, that identity was not important to him.
Only, what he was pondering now was that Yue Mingkong had once told him that she had dreamed back to the very beginning of the Innate Era, transforming into a lake known as Mengze. One day, a scripture scroll fell, and relying on instinct, she vaguely embarked on cultivation.
Who left that scripture scroll?
At the beginning of the Innate Era, before the Vast Expanse was born, that was an ancient era of chaos, where Innate Deities and beings coexisted, and the myriad races that later evolved did not yet exist.
Gu Changge swept his gaze over, passing through the boundless territory of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance, crossing countless spacetimes and universes, and beyond the infinitely oscillating void, he saw a clear, immaculate pool resembling an innate source. Within it, a lotus was about to bloom, its lotus leaves slowly unfurling, each leaf carrying a destructive aura.
"The World-Destroying Lotus has already sensed the aura of the Cataclysmic Tribulation in this heaven and earth, and is about to bloom."
He merely observed for a moment before withdrawing his gaze.
Now, in many mysterious places of the Vast Expanse, the omens before the Cataclysmic Tribulation had already begun to appear. This was a power beyond human reach; the great trends of heaven and earth had been like this since time immemorial, and all living beings in the Vast Expanse would experience such a day.
At this moment, as if sensing something, Gu Changge's figure left this place, and when he reappeared, he was already in the central hall of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance.
"I want to know the whereabouts of the Master of Fate."
In the vast and grand hall, immortal mist drifted and golden lamps shone brilliantly. Ji Hanjing appeared here with Jiang Weiyang.
Seeing Gu Changge appear, she immediately asked bluntly.
Jiang Weiyang, with her help over these years, had recovered her sight. Her clear, bright eyes looked at Gu Changge with a hint of hope.
"Even you haven't found him?" Gu Changge asked casually.
"I have searched, and there was truly no way."
"Weiyang's father and mother are still in the hands of the Master of Fate."
Ji Hanjing looked at Jiang Weiyang beside her and explained, "Now that the Alliance of Righteous Unity has collapsed, with the Master of Fate's ruthlessness, who knows what he might do to Weiyang's parents…"
Gu Changge glanced at Jiang Weiyang. He could see that Ji Hanjing intended to groom her as the successor of the Weiyang Immortal Dynasty and treated Jiang Weiyang extremely well.
He had originally thought that Ji Hanjing, because of her past experiences, would harbor deep resentment toward the descendants of her younger sister, but now it seemed she was far more magnanimous than he had imagined.
Not only had she helped Jiang Weiyang resolve the curse issue, but she was also so persistent in helping her find the Master of Fate's hiding place.
"I'm not entirely sure either. The waters of the Vast Expanse are very murky right now. If someone is determined to hide, trying to find them is probably very difficult," Gu Changge said, shaking his head slightly.
A gloom appeared in Jiang Weiyang's eyes. She didn't understand why her ancestor seemed so familiar with Gu Changge, not at all as respectful as ordinary people, but instead very casual.
Over these years, Ji Hanjing had been deducing and searching for the Master of Fate's whereabouts, almost searching through many parts of the Vast Expanse.
After the Alliance of Righteous Unity collapsed and disintegrated, the Master of Fate had taken all his subordinates and vanished without a trace, and no one knew where he was hiding.
Across countless spacetimes, endless layers of void dimensions, an existence like the Master of Fate, if he truly wanted to hide, trying to dig him out would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
"I know you must have a way. Right now, I can only come to you."
Ji Hanjing stared fixedly at Gu Changge. As a princess of the Radiant Ancestral Court and the former Radiant Empress, proud as she was, her tone carried such beseeching for the first time.
Gu Changge waved his hand, his eyes devoid of any emotional fluctuation, and only said, "The Heaven-Slaying Alliance has just barely stabilized. I actually don't want to break that peace."
"However, if you insist on searching, you can go look in the Land of the Nine Heavens or the Ancient Treasure Civilization. Perhaps you'll have some gains and discoveries."
Ji Hanjing nodded, let out a breath, and said, "Thank you."
She knew Gu Changge must have his concerns, but since he said this, the location of the Master of Fate was not hard to guess.
"Thank you, Alliance Leader," Jiang Weiyang also said.
The two then did not stay long and quickly left the central hall.
Only after Ji Hanjing left did Gu Changge withdraw his gaze. Naturally, he didn't care about the life or death of Weiyang Emperor Lord Jiang Yun. At the time, it was he who had told Jiang Weiyang to find Ji Hanjing and seek her help.
Ji Hanjing's intervention now was entirely within his expectations.
However, with Ji Hanjing's current strength, even if she found the Master of Fate, it would be useless, as the Master of Fate's strength was far above hers.
The reason Gu Changge responded was actually to see how the Master of Fate and Progenitor Xu would react next. The Ancient Treasure Civilization was about to make its move.
At this moment, in front of the Hall of War Merit of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance, on a vast and boundless square.
Pillars reaching to the sky stood tall, lofty and imposing like mountains, permeated with the aura of Dao laws. Jade slips floated around the pillars, waiting for cultivators to step forward and take them.
A veiled woman in a black dress silently looked at the jade slip in her hand, as if meticulously counting every bit of war merit within it.
"Finally, it's enough…"
"As an outsider, just to meet the Alliance Leader of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance once, it has been so arduous. Even with my strength, it took several thousand years to accumulate enough war merit."
"For other cultivators, they probably would never be able to meet him in this lifetime. Only those who had followed the Alliance Leader of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance from the very beginning now have the opportunity to pay their respects freely."
She composed herself, gripped the jade slip in her hand tightly, and then walked up the layers of immortal steps toward the Hall of War Merit to exchange it for the qualification to meet Gu Changge.
At the same time, Gu Changge sensed something. He had been about to leave the central hall, but with just a glance at that black-dressed woman in the Hall of War Merit, he understood her purpose.
"Qingyi's clansman?"
"All these years, you've been in the Heaven-Slaying Alliance, accumulating war merit?"
Gu Changge's gaze paused slightly. After leaving the Dao Chang True World back then, he had not actually concerned himself with Qingyi. His goal had already been achieved; the traces and karma he left behind already existed in the world.
Thus, his current identity would have no flaws.
From the very beginning, Qingyi had been just a chess piece he used to make his own existence reasonable.
During the period when he was the Demon Lord, whether it was Qingyi or Hongyi, they were all the same in his eyes…
With a wave of his sleeve, the veiled black-dressed woman still inside the Hall of War Merit saw a blur before her eyes, and felt a force that shook the universe and warped spacetime.
She had already appeared in a wide and vast hall, where a young man with his hands behind his back was looking at her.
"Alliance Leader…"
The black-dressed woman was inwardly shaken, knowing this was Gu Changge's method, and quickly composed herself, cupping her hands in salute.
"You are Qingyi's third sister?" Gu Changge asked, seemingly casually.
The black-dressed woman was taken aback, dumbfounded on the spot. She hadn't expected that Gu Changge would know her ninth sister.
"As the third princess of the Ji Chan Clan, you traveled all the way from the Ancient Treasure Civilization just to meet me. How interesting." Ignoring the shock in her heart, Gu Changge continued on his own.
"It seems… nothing can be hidden from the Alliance Leader."
At this moment, the black-dressed woman felt nothing but shock. Her origins, identity—all of these could not be concealed before Gu Changge.
With just a single glance, he had seen through everything.
She forced herself to calm down, and couldn't help but wonder how Gu Changge knew Little Nine.
"Alliance Leader, I came here actually to make a request. All these years of accumulating war merit were for this reason…" The black-dressed woman took a deep breath, intending to tell him her request.
However, Gu Changge merely waved his hand, interrupting her. "I already know your request."
"You want the Ji Chan Clan to break free from its original torrent of fate and change its established destiny. So you want me to help you move the entire Ji Chan Clan from the Ancient Treasure Civilization to here?"
"But the Ji Chan Clan relies on the Epoch Mother Tree to survive. Asking me to do this, isn't that uprooting the very foundation of the Ancient Treasure Civilization?"
"Moreover, what the Epoch Mother Tree represents, you should be very clear on…"
The black-dressed woman's gaze was very firm and persistent as she said seriously, "The Epoch Mother Tree is a gift from heaven, but our Ji Chan Clan has long ceased to revere heaven…"
To the entire vast Vast Expanse, the Land of Truth is heaven.
The Ji Chan Clan is an extremely unique race in the vast Vast Expanse, named after the cicada that carries the epochs.
With a single flutter of its wings, it signifies the change of epochs and the demise of all living beings.
From ancient times to the present, wherever the Ji Chan passes, years alternate, epochs cycle, repeating endlessly, and all phenomena are renewed.
And the relationship between the Ji Chan and the Epoch Tree is like that of the parasol tree to the phoenix.
The Ji Chan searches for the Epoch Tree to perch on; the two coexist, sharing weal and woe.
The Epoch Tree nurtures all living beings, evolves the myriad heavens and universes, and is also called the World Tree, the Progenitor Tree, the Origin Tree. And this is also the destiny of the Ji Chan Clan to serve heaven.
Their clan, since ancient times, diligently and conscientiously followed their own destiny, serving and revering heaven.
Yet the Epoch Mother Tree they had always depended on was eventually cut off by a supreme existence from the Land of Truth, causing the entire clan's fortune and fate to collapse completely, even reducing them to sinners of the Ancient Treasure Civilization.
If one were to say their clan didn't resent heaven, didn't complain against heaven, and didn't want to break free from their long-standing destiny, that would be impossible.
However, the other members of the Ji Chan Clan didn't have her courage and determination.
Hearing this, Gu Changge merely shook his head slightly. He didn't agree outright, but instead asked, "Where is Qingyi now?"
The black-dressed woman was stunned, then her gaze dimmed slightly, and she replied subconsciously, "Little Nine, to atone for her sins, went to the Grand Priest to receive punishment. The Grand Priest represents the supreme Divine Hall of Rituals of the Ancient Treasure Civilization, transcendent beyond imperial authority. Little Nine has now had her wings broken and is guiding departed souls before the path of reincarnation, suffering day and night from the erosion of reincarnation's resentment…"
Gu Changge remained silent upon hearing this.
The last time he met Qingyi was atop the canopy of the Epoch Tree. She was slender like a painting, gentle like water.
If he hadn't had that thought back then and severed the Epoch Mother Tree, there wouldn't have been the later matter of the Ji Chan Clan becoming sinners of the Ancient Treasure Civilization, nor would the young Qingyi have escaped without permission, bringing great disaster to the Ji Chan Clan.
Every action has its consequence, all is karma.
"If you are determined to defy heaven and change fate for the Ji Chan Clan, then I can help you…"
"Whether for Qingyi's sake, or for your persistence over the years."
After seeming to consider for a moment, Gu Changge raised his hand. The void before him trembled, as if a fissure had opened, and then a misty, radiant substance spilled out. With a beckon, those lights coalesced into a white jade precious vase, trailing rosy mists, extremely divine.
"Pour all the substance in this vase onto the roots of the Epoch Mother Tree, and you will be able to take it away."
"When the time comes for your Ji Chan Clan to migrate, if you encounter obstruction along the way, I will intervene. The imperial family of the Ancient Treasure Civilization and the five great royal clans, if they are sensible, will not interfere lightly," Gu Changge said casually.
The black-dressed woman stared blankly at the white jade vase that landed before her, as if she could sense the terrifying weight within, billions of jun, enough to crush the void and sink the universe.
She carefully put it away, her red lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but Gu Changge's figure had already disappeared from the central hall.
"The person Little Nine encountered back then, was it him…" she murmured in her heart, and then didn't linger, quickly leaving.
The Ancient Treasure Civilization was located within multiple dimensional spacetimes. The void there was completely distorted, and all matter would annihilate and collapse upon contact with that barrier, just as its name 'Ancient Burial' suggested.
Now, the Dark Clans had already made their move against the Land of the Nine Heavens. If she wasn't mistaken, then next, the Heaven-Slaying Alliance would also move against the Ancient Treasure Civilization.
Gu Changge returned to the separate courtyard.
The uniqueness of the Ancient Treasure Civilization lay in that it bordered the land of reincarnation, and the land of reincarnation was one of the most important places in the Vast Expanse. After every Tribulation Reckoning Cycle, countless living beings would be sent there.
The five great royal clans within it each had a Reincarnation Ancient Emperor backing them. Each Reincarnation Ancient Emperor could be said to be a vanguard leader during the Tribulation Reckoning Cycle.
Calamity, Karma, Longevity, Extinction, Emptiness.
It could be said that the five great royal clans, as well as the Ancient Treasure Clan behind the imperial family, all had countless ties to the Land of Truth.
And the Lord of Reincarnation, stationed at the deepest part of the ancient reincarnation road, was an existence that controlled the Authority of Reincarnation. Of course, to the various clans of the Vast Expanse, that was a 'lackey' of the Land of Truth.