Immortal Zhu was shocked by the situation.
"How could it be? No, you are not a clone! You are her! But why would you place yourself here? A being like you, whom countless people revere! Why would you bind yourself to a nobody like him?"
There were two shocks in Immortal Zhu's heart. First, why was her clone so powerful? Second, why did she dare to go against the Heavenly Dao in order to protect Li Gang?
He was not a fool. He could see through the fact that she was trying to protect Li Gang with this excuse. To protect one person, she sacrificed billions and trillions and even went against the Heavenly Dao.
Little Heaven had been involved in eliminating the aura of destruction and promoting creation in this Divine Spirit World, and she directly went against the Heavenly Dao. She would face severe consequences because of this action. Even if she didn't die, her fate would be just as miserable!
He firmly believed Li Gang was the Timeless Demon God, and with her ability, she could have seen through that as well. But why did she still wish to protect him?
Wang Xueyao's eyes contained infinite anger. She glanced at him and said lightly, "There is no need for a dead person like you to know."
She thought of the man she met during the Monarch Inheritance and continued, "Your leader was a smart guy and understood when to interfere and when not to. It's a pity your greed overwhelmed your rationality."
Immortal Zhu immediately knelt down in fear. "Please don't ki—"
His words did not finish before Wang Xueyao waved her hand, and his entire body disappeared like ashes in the wind.
At the moment of his death, his entire life flashed before him. He recalled his journey—how he grew strong from the Small World, defied his fate, and succeeded in becoming an Immortal. How he became the disciple of Immortal Chen and possessed one of the strongest talents in the Heaven of Balance.
His growth rate evoked immense pride within him, and this pride became his downfall. He was confident that Wang Xueyao wouldn't go so far as to kill him, but she did.
As his memories surfaced, he suddenly recalled the moment of the Awakening Ceremony.
A line echoed through his mind.
"It's meaningless!"
Immortal Zhu had a sudden realization as everything started to make sense.
"I see!"
"I was wrong! You were never the Timeless Demon God. The Timeless Demon God can't possibly defy the Law of Unpredictability. Only the Supreme God of Creation and the Supreme God of Destruction have the ability to defy the Laws of the World!"
"You had always been the Creator!"
"But why did you scheme against me? If you had asked, I would have directly sacrificed my life for you! So why?"
What did Immortal Zhu figure out at this moment?
The entire time, Li Gang's subconscious thoughts were just traps to deceive Zhu.
It was all acting—to let him think that he was trying his 'best' to counter Immortal Zhu, but in fact, his subconscious thoughts had always been subtly manipulating him and subtly lowering his guard. He was so open that Immortal Zhu felt complete control over him—to the point that Li Gang openly confessed that only if his enemies laid down their guard could he win!
Li Gang first elevated the stature of 'his enemies'—the Emperors—to Immortals. This gave Immortal Zhu an illusion. He thought that the worst-case possibility—that Li Gang might be the Timeless Demon God—could be true.
Li Gang saw through Wang Xueyao's plot and deliberately chose the path that led Immortal Zhu to believe he was the Timeless Demon God.
In this way, Immortal Zhu's belief that he was the Timeless Demon God deepened. He believed that the Timeless Demon God and Wang Xueyao were against each other. As a result, going against Li Gang would not incur the wrath of Wang Xueyao. He also became agitated and felt he had to hurry—the Timeless Demon God was not an easy opponent.
After this, Li Gang's goal, through an open scheme, caused Immortal Zhu to feel immense humiliation. This led him to develop a grudge against Li Gang.
All these series of events were subtly influencing him to take action in his final plan.
Li Gang directly evoked his Special Ability! But wasn't his Special Ability broken? How could he still use it?
He was the Creator. Before his rebirth, he should have deliberately damaged it all for this moment.
When Li Gang was born, he failed to feel the presence of his Special Ability. But was that really so?
No. How could he not even feel the presence of his own Special Ability? He could feel it yet he never gave it any thought.
When he entered the Awakening Ceremony, he should have conducted experiments on how to activate the Special Ability with his subconscious thoughts.
Back then, he realized that only when all his Active and Passive Thoughts ceased to exist could he truly evoke it. It was also the reason why the Emperors and Wang Xueyao never tried to directly kill him. Because just before he died, all his thoughts would cease to exist, and his Special Ability would awaken. At that very moment, his battle strength would reach a level high enough to resist them and might cause irreversible harm.
His Special Ability was broken, and when he evoked it, he made sure that it had a tendency to separate from himself.
This caused an ideal situation, where Immortal Zhu could take over the Heavenly Dao fragment, leading to his own demise.
Wang Xueyao glanced at the rupturing Divine Spirit World and murmured, "Nine Absolute Seals: Fourth Seal, open."
Her strength grew beyond transcendence as she opened two more seals. She glanced at the Divine Spirit World and said lightly, "Heal!"
Her words were like an absolute order. The entire Divine Spirit World, which was about to break apart, started recovering on its own. In less than a few seconds, it returned to its previous state. It wasn't just the Divine Spirit World—countless universes that were destroyed due to her presence were restored as well, like broken glass fragments merging back into the original glass. These universes existed beyond the boundary of the Divine Spirit World.
She did it to cover up her mistake. This time, she defied the Heavenly Dao, and she was bound to suffer a fate worse than death.
You can't question Heaven's majesty.
Seeing the complete recovery of the Divine Spirit World, she glanced at Li Gang, who was still in a blank state, with a deep gaze.
"You really love to court death, don't you?"
There was only one reason she protected Li Gang. It was because of the Red Thread of Heaven. There was no such thing as a free lunch.
She planned to make Li Gang her own slave with the Red Thread of Heaven. Her fate was now connected with Li Gang through this thread. Before Li Gang broke away from this fate—or before he truly fell into it—she had to make sure that he stayed alive.
At this time, another Immortal appeared behind her. It was unknown to whom she was speaking, but he felt infinite coldness from her words.
Her words—"You really love to court death, don't you?"—were meant for both Immortal Chen and Li Gang.
"It was my fault as a leader that such a circumstance arose. Please forgive me!" He knelt behind her, not daring to look at her.
Wang Xueyao said lightly, "I don't care what plot you use. If he fails, then it is because he is incapable. However, my order is absolute. No Immortal shall interfere directly with a Small World."
She continued while looking at the Divine Spirit World, "If there is nothing else, you can leave."
The Immortal immediately nodded and left.
Wang Xueyao, who had been holding it back, suddenly coughed. A streak of blood spilled from her mouth.
She murmured, "I have to go into seclusion for hundreds of years before I can suppress this backlash."
Meanwhile, in the Divine Spirit World—
Deng Wei saw through everything with his calm gaze. He understood that his plan had succeeded.
He knew there was only one way to invoke Li Gang's Special Ability: by letting his mind go blank.
As a result, he caused strife in Jade Harbor City. Logically, the feud with Ren Ying wouldn't reach the point of massacring an entire village. This went completely against the values of a Righteous Sect.
However, Wu Yuan intensified the feud through Huang Shu. He also leaked the affair between Li Yuxong and Huang Ling and used Huang Shu to frame Li Gang for Tang Liuyue's death. No—it wasn't framing him, but revealing the truth, since Li Gang was the actual cause of her death.
He knew the Immortals wouldn't allow Li Gang's parents to die. They needed a bargaining chip to use against Li Gang in the future.
Why?
Immortal Zhu wanted to turn Li Gang into a vile person, but Li Gang had been resisting by making himself more righteous. In such a situation, Immortal Zhu would surely prepare a contingency in case his plan failed.
He would keep Li Gang's parents as hostages.
Yes—Li Gang's parents never died. They were kept as hostages.
Wu Yuan understood that with Wang Xueyao's presence, the Jade Harbor City warriors couldn't kill them. But with Immortal Zhu's interference, Wang Xueyao wouldn't stop them from being taken hostage. It could also be useful to her in the future. If Li Gang was the Creator, his righteousness would make his parents his greatest weakness.
But what Wu Yuan didn't know was that this entire plan was guided by Li Gang himself.
Back during the Monarch Inheritance, Li Gang pulled Wang Xueyao into the Inheritance. What was his purpose?
It was to show Wu Yuan that he had someone protecting him.
After that, Li Gang deliberately stuck with her for a few years, leaving Wu Yuan no way to attack him. At that moment, Wu Yuan realized he needed to separate Wang Xueyao and Li Gang.
This was also aided by Li Gang. He created a fake persona and formed enmity with all Four Factions of Jade Harbor City at the same time, then escaped to the Central Continent.
He also 'killed' Huang Shu indirectly through Spiritual Beasts. With Li Gang's cautious nature, he wouldn't be at ease without seeing Huang Shu's corpse with his own eyes—especially when Huang Shu held his secrets and could lead to the Li Family's downfall.
Yes. He had been using Wu Yuan from the very beginning.
He created an opening through Huang Shu, allowing Wu Yuan to exploit the loophole in his plan and manipulate subsequent events.
There are a few important points to consider here.
Back during the Awakening Ceremony—
Why was Li Gang aware of Wu Yuan's existence, his appearance in the Monarch Inheritance, and his goal?
Why was he aware of Wang Xueyao's identity?
Why was he aware of the Timeless Demon God?
Why was he not affected by the Law of Unpredictability?
Without these, he could never have pulled it off.