Chapter 1678 - Past and Present Lives

Chen Fan had gathered all five remnant map pieces.

In that instant, they erupted with blinding radiance, light surging as the fragments slowly fused into one. Moments later, the brilliance receded, revealing a single golden crystal suspended in the air.

Swoosh.

The golden crystal rushed into Chen Fan’s mind at once.

Rumble!

It was as if a bolt of divine lightning struck him head-on. His consciousness convulsed violently, a deafening buzz tearing through his thoughts as though his mind were being smashed apart. Piercing pain flooded in, so intense it felt as if his brain were about to explode.

“

Ah

!”

At the same time, hazy, fragmented visions appeared in his mind.

Within these visions, he saw a figure of indomitable spirit radiating divine light, like the backbone that held heaven and earth together. The great Dao followed his every motion. With a mere flick of a finger, stars crumbled into dust.

Chen Fan tried to make out the figure’s features, but space itself warped and distorted around him, making the godlike form impossible to perceive clearly. Yet despite the blur, a powerful sense of familiarity welled up within him.

It felt as if he were gazing at... himself.

He saw this God-like figure destroy billions of demons with a raise of his hand, engaging in a fierce battle with the demon race’s Demon God. Heaven collapsed. Earth shattered. Covered in blood, the figure slew the Demon God at last, restoring peace to the universe.

Fragmented visions kept flashing across his mind, blurring and distorting his memories. That familiar, yet unfamiliar sensation grew increasingly intense.

“Who is it? Who exactly is it? And who am I?”

“Qian Yuan, Qian Yuan...” roared Chen Fan in agony.

Swish!

The disturbance immediately drew Huang Wuji and the others. They descended upon the mountain peak one after another, their expressions changing the moment they saw Chen Fan’s condition.

“Little Junior Brother, what’s wrong?”

“Who am I? And who are you? Qian Yuan...”

Chen Fan raised his head and looked at Huang Wuji and the others. His face was vacant, his eyes unfocused, as if his soul had been torn loose.

Swish.

He stepped forward and disappeared.

“Little Junior Brother!”

Worry plastered all over Huang Wuji and the others’ faces. What exactly happened to Chen Fan? And where was he going?

Alas, they could not catch up to Chen Fan.

“What do we do?”

“What exactly happened here?”

“Should we inform the sect of this matter?”

Huang Wuji and the others’ faces turned grave.

Such a change in Chen Fan was definitely no good news.

......

“Qian Yuan...”

A lone figure streaked through the boundless starry sky, his movements erratic, his expression deranged. It was Chen Fan.

He was in indescribable agony, like his brain was about to explode. Countless visions and memories flooded his mind, distorting his original memories and plunging him into a state of confusion.

He drifted aimlessly, with no specific destination in mind. And yet, faintly, something unseen seemed to beckon him. An unspoken pull guided him forward, as though the answers he sought lay just ahead.

After an indeterminate amount of time, a divine palace appeared in front of Chen Fan.

Chen Fan looked at the divine palace. A streak of light suddenly erupted from his dazed eyes.

“Qian Yuan Sanctuary.”

This divine palace bore that name.

Rumble!

Creak, creak, creak!

The tightly shut doors of the sanctuary suddenly opened slowly, seemingly due to Chen Fan’s arrival. Countless rays of divine light shot out, illuminating the icy cosmic void in a riot of colors.

The moment the Qian Yuan Sanctuary’s doors opened, Chen Fan saw a figure seated within the main hall, radiating divine light. A faint divine might swept out.

Boom!

Chen Fan shifted his gaze upward. The moment he saw this figure’s face, it was as though billions of stars detonated inside his mind.

An immeasurable torrent of information surged into his consciousness, filling every gap, connecting every fragment. The shattered visions fused into a complete, coherent whole.

Scenes flashed through his mind like an unfolding epic.

Chen Fan’s eyes gradually regained clarity, now filled with profound depth.

“Qian Yuan... is me. I am... Chen Fan,” Chen Fan murmured. At last, the face of the godlike figure from his visions became clear.

It was his own.

The figure seated within Qian Yuan Sanctuary was also himself.

“So, so, that’s how it is...” Chen Fan sighed. He stepped forward, setting foot in the Qian Yuan Sanctuary.

Qian Yuan was a real God, the last God of the Heavenly Realm during the middle ancient era, the guardian deity of the myriad realms bound by duty to protect them.

However, in the middle of the ancient era, the demon race invaded the myriad realms under the Hell Demon God's leadership.

Chen Fan led the people across the myriad realms to resist the invasion. He fought the Hell Demon God in the cosmic starry sky. In the end, he slew the Demon God and saved the Heavenly Realm.

In this battle of the Gods, Qian Yuan killed the Hell Demon God. However, his divine origin was shattered, his strength nearly extinguished, his existence teetering on the brink of annihilation.

In his last moments, Qian Yuan spent the last of his strength and suppressed the Hell Demon God’s descendant, Deep Abyss Demon Lord, in Chaotic Demon Sea, under the Demon Suppression Tower. A wisp of his divine soul entered the cycle of reincarnation.

That reincarnated wisp of divine soul was none other than Chen Fan of today.

“So, that's how it is. I’m actually the reincarnation of Qian Yuan...”

Finally, Chen Fan understood everything.

Past and present lives. Everything became clear.

Before Qian Yuan reincarnated, he had laid down numerous measures. The great fortune Chen Fan encountered, the Heaven Seizing Art that reshaped his destiny, was one such measure. It was the divine art Qian Yuan himself had once cultivated.

Another example was the remnant map leading to Qian Yuan Sanctuary. It fell into Chen Fan’s hands because it was predestined by the heavens.

Every step, every encounter, every rise in power had been orchestrated to ensure that Qian Yuan would one day return, reborn as Chen Fan, to safeguard the myriad realms once more.

The root of the current catastrophe lay with the Deep Abyss Demon Lord. The Deep Abyss Demon Lord of the past was now an unrivaled existence second to none under the God realm. It would not be too much to call him a Half-God.

If Qian Yuan were in peak condition, he could kill the Deep Abyss Demon Lord effortlessly.

However, his origin was severely damaged in the bloody battle against Hell Demon God, greatly diminishing his strength. He could no longer kill Deep Abyss Demon Lord and was forced to spend the last of his divine strength to suppress it using the Demon Suppression Tower in Chaotic Demon Sea.

Now, Deep Abyss Demon Lord has broken free. Although being suppressed for hundreds of thousands of years was a terrible ordeal, it also tempered him.

Qian Yuan had already known this back then. If the Deep Abyss Demon Lord failed to endure the Demon Suppression Tower, he would perish. But if he survived, the ordeal would temper him, transforming him in an enormous way.

In a world devoid of Gods, should the Deep Abyss Demon Lord ascend to Godhood, the result would not merely be disaster.

It would be the end of everything.