Chapter 440: The Players of the Fourth Calamity (Part 20)

"Take care."
The Lord of War clasped his hands in a fist salute.
The two parted ways.
The Lord of War still needed to proceed to the final battlefield.
Su Chen did not return with the Lord of War; his task was to continuously correct the erroneous timeline altered by the 'Calamity'.
...
"A new king has risen?"
On the boundless torrent of time, a vast expanse of history had already been ravaged, an entire ancient history sunk. Without powerful means, perhaps nothing would have remained.
Both the Celestial Kings of the heavens and those on the 'Calamity's' side were fighting with all their might.
The torrent surged, the overwhelming killing intent like erupting magma, from which a figure emerged, standing proudly!
"Lord of War! Lord of War is still alive!"
"It seems Lord of War emerged victorious in his battle against Ancestral King Youzhen."
High above the heavens, Lord of War laughed loudly, "Of course! A mere Ancestral King Youzhen, I could annihilate him with a mere flick of my wrist!"
At the same time, another figure slowly emerged from the torrent below, arms crossed over his chest, eyes narrowed, behind him transforming into a vast underworld.
"Lord of War, your arrogance seems to have grown even more pronounced over the past epochs."
Lord of War smiled at the newcomer: "Youzhen, it seems you have successfully returned."
This Youzhen is not the same Youzhen as before; this is the Youzhen Immortal King, unaffected by the 'Calamity'.
With the return of Lord of War and Immortal King Youzhen, the ranks of the heavens have gained two more Immortal Kings!
In a world isolated from the heavens, existing in a different time.
The Witness and Immortal King Xuanyi sat facing each other.
Immortal King Xuanyi was quite curious.
This guy was initially sealed here, shouting and fighting, then gradually quieted down, doing something unknown.
Now, he even has the leisure to chat with him, discuss the Dao, and pass the time.
Xuan Yi Immortal King asked, "You seem unconcerned about the situation outside?"
The Witness blew on his cup and took a small sip of weak tea.
"What difference does it make whether I care or not?"
"According to you, both you and I are now in a 'new world,' unable to leave this place."
Xuan Yi Immortal King looked at the guy before him, thinking, "You, a Celestial King, are actually afraid of getting burned?"
Wait a minute.
This guy's true form is just a mask, why the hell does he need to drink tea?
Xuan Yi Immortal King casually picked up a cup, downed it in one gulp, and shook the empty cup in his hand, as if to say, "See? See? This is the correct way to drink tea."
The Witness looked at him strangely.
"How did you become a Celestial King?"
In this day and age, a Celestial King doesn't even understand this basic unspoken rule.
Celestial King Xuan Yi tilted his head and said, "A Celestial King... well, that's how it happened. I swept through everything in my path, and then a voice in my head asked if I wanted to join Him in overthrowing the old world and building a new one."
"I agreed, and that's how it happened."
Witness: "......."
He suddenly felt a pang of unease.
"Even if you hadn't agreed, you would still have become a Celestial King."
Xuan Yi Immortal King remained unperturbed: "I just wanted to see what a new world would be like. Everything's fine now, except for that guy Yu Ji who's always ordering me around. But I guess I won't see Yu Ji anymore."
Looking at the witness's expression, Xuan Yi Immortal King smiled and said, "Do you want to know why we're here?"
"The reason isn't just because I've been slacking off, causing Yu Ji to worry about me."
"I've been working very hard."
The witness became interested. He was indeed curious why Yu Ji Immortal King would choose to have Xuan Yi Immortal King, an absolute top-tier expert among Immortal Kings, perish with him.
Xuan Yi Immortal King sighed and said, "I once met you in the future."
"Me in the future?"
"That's right... Doesn't all this sound incredible?"
Looking at the witness's slightly astonished expression, Xuan Yi Immortal King's mood suddenly improved. Since he didn't know what had happened to this guy, he had been calm and collected; it was rare to see such a strong emotional fluctuation now.
Xuan Yi Immortal King continued, “You should have already witnessed a portion of the power of the Immortal Emperor realm, but let me tell you, everything you've seen is merely the tip of the iceberg.”
The witness nodded.
He hadn't forgotten how he'd been prematurely killed by successive 'calamities'.
That was unbelievable enough.
“What if I told you that everything in this world is fake? Living beings, time, cognition, even your and my existence…”
The witness murmured, “Everything fake? Impossible! I think, therefore I am; I still exist, so everything is real.”
Xuan Yi Immortal King shook his head: "All of this is for you and me. For the Immortal Emperor, none of this matters. 'Presence' and 'absence' are not centered on you and me, but on the Immortal Emperor. 'Calamity' is the Immortal Emperor; even those legendary beings struggle to suppress it."
"I once allowed your future self to travel through time, wanting to see if it could influence 'Calamity.'"
"But all of that vanished, ceased to exist. Although I don't know why you weren't directly obliterated by the power of 'Calamity,' everything in the future became false, all disappeared. 'Calamity' denied the variables that occurred in the past; that ending became false, nonexistent. 'Calamity' wants an ending that benefits it. It possesses the power of 'no,' able to continuously define everything until the predetermined arrival arrives."
"However, it currently only has the power of 'no,' not the power of definition. Its power is still suppressed by those few."
The witness suddenly understood that the reason it was treated so 'specially' was not because of its existence, but because of the existence of the future.
However...
The witness gave Xuan Yi Immortal King a strange look.
"As expected, this guy was sealed here with me by the Supreme Immortal King because he was unreliable."
The witness glanced again at the downstream side of this world.
A small creature was still struggling.
........
On the battlefield
Changes continued
Immortal Kings from the 'Calamity' side kept disappearing.
Gradually, more and more Immortal Kings from various realms returned.
Ultimately, the Celestial Kings of the 'Calamity' side are merely substitutes for the Celestial Kings of the Heavens. When the Celestial Kings of the Heavens rediscover themselves, that will be their day of return.
Unless some Celestial Kings willingly submitted to the 'Calamity'.
"Oh dear, it seems another new development has occurred."
"This is truly a headache."
A young figure chewed on the Lord of the Heavenly Dao, watching the sudden changes unfold. He rubbed his head, feeling a headache coming on.
"It seems a little mouse has appeared."
The figure of the Supreme Celestial King flashed by.
The remaining Celestial Kings of the 'Calamity' side all disappeared here one by one.