Chapter 411: Recorders of Past and Present (Twenty-Two)

In the Abyss, there are eighteen layers, each ruled by a monarch.
Each monarch possesses terrifying power capable of sweeping across countless realms, revered as the calamity among calamities.
Even the formidable Dark Night Emperor, one of the few supreme beings in the heavens with the potential to ascend to immortality, only managed to fight a single monarch of the Abyss to the point of mutual destruction.
From the depths of this dimension, a towering, ghostly figure overlooks the mortal world. Countless withered black dots swirl around this figure—each a parched universe, reduced to mere specks of dust.
In an instant, all light is enveloped.
The towering figure gazes upon the bronze mask floating in the vast darkness. Even though everything here is shrouded in profound darkness, a thin film of light still shimmers upon the mask.
"That's... the Lord of No Light, one of the top five supreme rulers among the eighteen kings of the Deep Abyss!"
The descendant of the Dark Night Emperor, who had intruded into the Deep Abyss, trembled in fear.
That mask had actually attracted such a terrifying being.
The Lord of No Light—this was an opponent even their ancestor, the Dark Night Emperor, had to treat with utmost caution when he was reborn.
At this moment, the evolution within the mask did not stop. One after another, peerless beings were manifested, countless rays of light piercing the darkness. These rays branched out and intertwined, forming the cause and effect of all living beings... So much time had passed since Su Chen carved the mask; countless epochs had passed. The bronze mask of yesteryear was no longer a mere mask, but an object interwoven with the cause and effect of all living beings.
"All of this... is indeed true."
As a murmur echoed through the heavens and earth, the mask suddenly transformed into a figure—the very same emperor who had refined the world.
"No..."
Before he could react, the overwhelming torrent of history swept over him, shattering his body.
This sudden turn of events caught even the descendants of the Dark Night Emperor completely off guard.
Time and space seemed to freeze.
They could still think, but their bodies were paralyzed.
"That...that's our ancestor?"
As countless figures manifested one by one, the last figure on the mask was none other than the long-fallen Dark Night Emperor.
This greatly excited the descendants of the Dark Night Emperor.
Was their ancestor about to be resurrected?
The boundless pupils of the Lord of No Light, containing the vast universe, suddenly contracted.
The Dark Night Emperor's figure also turned into golden sand, as if scattered by a gust of wind.
Within the intertwined cause and effect of those countless figures, a...egg actually coalesced?
Within that egg was a figure...wearing that strange bronze mask.
His body was constantly flowing and recombining, constructed from the intertwined cause and effect of countless beings. His existence seemed not to exist in this time and space, existing in nothingness.
And it was at this very moment...
In the void of space and time, a low murmur echoed:
"Success? In the end, it is I who dominates the collective consciousness of all beings."
Essentially, Su Chen was already dead.
He had long since died at the Tianyuan Sect.
But he did not immediately return to the Reverse Fate Space.
This mask… Su Chen had manipulated it. Although he possessed no cultivation, setting up a guiding magic array wasn't difficult. With this array, after the wearer's death, a wisp of their consciousness would reside within the mask, generation after generation…
Until the mask completely transformed into a product witnessing cause and effect, imbued with the aura of karma, witnessing immortality through the long ages!
This was a risky move. Over countless years, the slightest change could destroy the mask. Having witnessed countless wearers, if Su Chen's will wasn't firm enough, he wouldn't be able to regain control within the karma of all beings, instead becoming a pawn in someone else's game.
Su Chen couldn't fail; this was his last hope. Fortunately, he succeeded. In the Great Dao of the Heavens, cause and effect and destiny are supreme. What Su Chen sought was cause and effect… At this moment, his destiny was already rooted in the long river of time in this space-time, stealing the power of cause and effect, rootless and formless. As long as he didn't actively expose himself, even a Celestial King couldn't easily deduce his past.
Su Chen understood... that it would be far too difficult for him to forge a new path to immortality on his own in this life.
Therefore...
He used the power of all living beings to steal the position of Cause and Effect!
Looking at the countless threads of light covering the golden figure, extending like vines, fear actually appeared in the eyes of the Lord of No Light.
A True Immortal of the Cause and Effect position!
He had actually witnessed the birth of a True Immortal!
Su Chen glanced at the Lord of No Light, then looked at the descendant of the Dark Night Emperor below.
He immediately understood what had happened.
Su Chen had no interest in intervening. As He disappeared, everything seemed to return to tranquility.
Until it was confirmed that Su Chen had completely vanished, the Lord of No Light's massive body slowly disappeared into the dimensional rift. The already quiet, deep place became even quieter, without a single sound.
Su Chen left?
He did not leave.
In the midst of a flowing river, He stood atop it, countless threads of cause and effect intertwined and diffused, ultimately transforming in His hand into a book, ancient and simple, at first glance resembling the Book of Reversal of Fate.
This was not the Book of Reversal of Fate.
The path of cause and effect for a True Immortal to grow stronger differed from the 'source' required by other True Immortals. To advance, Su Chen needed to record the lives of all beings, True Immortals, even Immortal Kings… to record the causes of their deaths. If they were truly dead, without returning to their origins, existing only in the Book of Cause and Effect.
Then Su Chen could obtain a portion of the 'fruit'.
Countless 'fruits' gathered together would form a towering tree.
If He hadn't been killed that day, perhaps He could have attained the Dao of Immortal King.
Time, to Su Chen, was merely a number.
He began to walk the world.
Whenever a momentous historical event occurred, a major event that would influence the course of this myriad realms of time and space, a masked figure, holding the Book of Cause and Effect, would appear from the shadows.
He did not participate in any conflicts, nor did He alter any history.
All He did was record this history.
With the passing of another era, turmoil erupted.
The rulers of the deepest lands emerged in droves.
But in this era, they were wrong... At the end of this age, an extraordinary figure was born.
A colossal giant, towering above the heavens, easily tore apart an emperor with his bare hands; his power had long surpassed its limits.
The Lord of No Light was filled with resentment.
But... he was about to die.
In his trance, he saw a familiar bronze mask appear behind that terrifying giant, the masked figure holding a book.
The Lord of No Light's consciousness vanished completely.