Chapter 608: Futile

Ever since Li Pin killed Huang Ze, Xuan Zhi, Wu Tian, and others, he had become an undisputed heavyweight among the pioneers. Every move he made, every word he spoke, drew countless eyes. Even during his recent low-profile period, no one dared to overlook his presence.

Under these circumstances, a clash, possibly even a full-scale battle, between Li Pin and Mu Yunsheng held greater allure for the pioneers than Baili Qingfeng's fight against the Ancient Gods. After all, many already knew the outcome of Baili Qingfeng's battle, but Li Pin and Mu Yunsheng's clash was a novel event.

Both men had been specially invited by the Void Divine Treasury Hall to break open the world. Everyone wanted to know which of these two trump cards was stronger.

However, to everyone's dismay, the fight ended as quickly as it started, giving no time for suspense to build.

By harnessing the power of the Astral Formation, Mu Yunsheng had elevated his strength to the level of an Ancient God in just a single stellar year, a feat so shocking it shattered all known cultivation records.

Yet before he could even unleash that power... he was gone.

Li Pin crushed him with absolute superiority.

***

Every pioneer who had witnessed the battle had only one thought.

"Too strong!"

"Li Pin is terrifyingly strong!"

"How is this possible?! We're all pioneers, we all had the same single stellar year to grow! How could Li Pin advance so absurdly fast?!"

"This makes no sense! I've undergone ten cycles of reincarnation, broken down every aspect of cultivation for study, yet even now, I've barely forged my Divine Kingdom! But Li Pin... this is only his first time entering the Void Divine Treasure World! How is he this much faster than me?! How?!"

The initial shock quickly turned into deep bewilderment.

To them, watching Li Pin felt like seeing a private server player step into the official game.

Time hadn't closed the gap between them. Instead, it had only widened it to a hopeless degree.

***

Li Pin paid no attention to their thoughts.

He moved swiftly toward the battlefield where the three Ancient Gods were besieging Baili Qingfeng.

At this moment, Baili Qingfeng's situation had reached its most perilous point. If not for the Reincarnation Shield, he would have already fallen under the enhanced Ancient Gods' relentless assault.

"Baili Qingfeng," called Li Pin, stopping ten thousand miles away. His gaze fixed on Baili Qingfeng as he spoke telepathically. "You can ask me for help. But whether you do or not, the choice is yours."

The Reincarnation Shield didn't give out any response.

Meanwhile, the Ancient Gods besieging Baili Qingfeng had witnessed Li Pin's overwhelming power during his battle with Mu Yunsheng.

Fully aware of his strength, they intensified their attacks, growing more frenzied and ferocious. Clearly, they aimed to kill Baili Qingfeng before Li Pin could intervene and complicate the situation.

Li Pin simply watched.

Baili Qingfeng remained silent. So did Li Pin

Just as Li Pin had said, the choice was Baili Qingfeng's.

Time stretched on. As the Reincarnation Shield buckled under the relentless assault of the Ancient Gods, Baili Qingfeng's voice rang out.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"No need."

In the next instant, the Reincarnation Shield pulsed, sending waves of spatial energy outward. The attacks closing in on him were severed, and at the same time, he stepped out of the Divine Weapon.

"Baili Qingfeng! The one who will bring about Ragnarok!?"

"So you finally decided to crawl out of that shell?"

"Take him down! Don't give him a chance to recover! And don't forget, another Ancient God is waiting for an opening!"

The moment Baili Qingfeng emerged, Scorching Sun and the Violet-Silver Twin Moons lit up with a savage gleam. In the next breath, their joy sharpened into pure killing intent.

Baili Qingfeng acted as if he didn't sense the Ancient God's killing intent and spoke to himself, "I've been retreating, again and again... but no matter how much I step back, how much I yield, how much I try to escape, that suffocating pressure, that overwhelming helplessness still closes in, surrounds me, binds me, leaving nowhere left to run."

"It didn't matter whether I chose to abandon my mortal body to break through or reactivate the computational core I recently shut down. If I had taken either path, none of you Ancient Gods would even be worth mentioning.

The only reason I haven't stepped into this realm..."

Pain flickered in his eyes, but beneath it was something stronger—relief. The relief of letting go of everything.

At this moment, he had made his decision.

And with it, he gave Li Pin his answer.

"...is because I still hold onto what it means to be human. I refuse to cast that away and become like you, beings who call yourselves gods."

Bang!

A powerful shockwave erupted, invisible to the naked eye. It was the power of the Twin Moon Domain.

The Scorching Sun and the Violet-Silver Twin Moons had merged into a single planet, much like the Demigods in the outside world.

But Baili Qingfeng had merged with the Twin Moon Domain itself—a colossal planet with a diameter of 640,000 kilometers. By using such a massive celestial body as his Natal Planet to ascend to Demigodhood, Baili Qingfeng's power surged to unimaginable levels.

Li Pin witnessed the result firsthand. Destruction.

The Celestial Force Fields of the three Ancient Gods were utterly crushed under the overwhelming force of the Twin Moon Domain's force field. They had no chance to resist and were shattered instantly.

Without the protection of their force fields, the three Ancient Gods were reduced to nothingness.

"I devoted my life to my beliefs, striving endlessly, giving everything, and never once slacking since I took up martial arts. Yet, the world continued to contradict my ideals. Suffering persisted. Pain remained. It felt as if all my efforts were meaningless. As if everything I had done was in vain... But at this moment, I finally understand, I was wrong."

Li Pin listened in silence, like a bystander witnessing the transformation of the Void Emperor, from mortal to god.

"Desires are insatiable. The stronger one becomes, the greater their hunger. Mortals seek Divinity, Gods crave the power of Ancient Gods, and Ancient Gods pursue Ancient Divine Weapons.

"The cycle never ends, stretching across eternity. Only one force can restrain the heart—power. A law that distinguishes what should be and what should not. A force that protects the world, shields it from corruption, and keeps it from descending into darkness."

Baili Qingfeng opened his right hand. The immense Celestial Force Field of the Twin Moon Domain, spanning tens of thousands of kilometers, contracted violently, shrinking, compressing, folding inward.

In moments, the entire Celestial Force Field twisted and condensed onto his palm.

For an instant, it seemed as though the entire Twin Moon Domain rested in his hand.

"Power!"

***

"Human sorrows are never the same. In this moment, I almost feel that embracing Void would be a better choice for you."

Li Pin couldn't fully grasp the sorrow that came with Baili Qingfeng's decision to give up his pursuit of an ordinary life. Yet, humans are beings capable of empathy.

If one day, someone told him that martial arts never existed, that life evolution was a lie, and that all beings, including himself, were nothing more than ordinary mortals....

If they told him that he would have to live as a common man, working tirelessly, destined to a dull, uneventful life until death...

Perhaps he, too, might consider such a life the greatest tragedy.

"The Void Emperor," Li Pin murmured.

There was a mix of emotion in his voice—a sigh, a lament.

All Baili Qingfeng ever wanted was to live an ordinary life, not to be the god the world demanded, not the guardian of Celestial Barren, not the enforcer of order.

Unfortunately, the wheels of history never stopped turning.[1]

As he himself had said, no matter how much he stepped back, no matter how much he yielded, the relentless oppression never stopped, never gave him a moment to breathe.

In the end, he had only one path left.

To become a god.

To use divine power to suppress the world.

To establish its rules.

And now... he had finally abandoned his insistence on an ordinary life, embracing power instead.

But that wasn't the real question. The real question was...

"How did he do it?"

Li Pin could sense the shift in Baili Qingfeng's mental state.

The essence of his power, originally structured by special rules but still within the realm of the spirit, had suddenly stepped into an entirely new domain—one that hovered between existence and nothingness.

If not for the fact that Baili Qingfeng remained in the material world, never merging with the Astral World, Li Pin would have thought he had become an Astral God, one who used the Astral World's properties to experience existence while sustaining eternal life in Void.

"I don't understand."

Li Pin spoke his thoughts aloud.

He truly couldn't. Even with his Clairvoyance, he had no way of discerning how this transformation had occurred.

He held a suspicion.

Baili Zhu didn't understand what Transcendent truly meant, nor could she perceive Baili Qingfeng's current transformation. That was why, within the divine treasure world she had constructed, such a phenomenon could not manifest.

There was no need to speculate. This was the truth.

He didn't think that Clairvoyance was inferior to Baili Qingfeng's Transcendent power. The flaw wasn't in him but in Baili Zhu. She simply didn't understand.

"And that's only natural. If she understood, she wouldn't be a Cosmic Radiance Astral God. Even if she fell short of the Void Emperor's level, she would at least rival the Transcendent."

Li Pin sighed with regret. "If only the Void Emperor had left behind a divine treasure."

He knew that was nothing more than wishful thinking. With the Void Emperor alive and well, it was impossible for him to leave one behind.

Shaking his head, Li Pin left the battlefield.

"The only thing left for me to do in this cycle is to battle against Baili Qingfeng."

As he descended toward the Twin Moon Domain, he glanced back.

"But right now, he has only just stepped into the Transcendent Realm. He hasn't yet reached his complete form in this divine treasure world, his strongest state. So... I'll wait."

Wait for Baili Qingfeng to grow. If we were to fight, it would be with him at his peak.

1. It emphasizes the unstoppable progression of history. In this context, it suggests no matter how Baili Qingfeng resists or tries to step back, the momentum of historical demand pushes him forward into his role as a figure of power. ☜