Chapter 675: The Secret of the World (Two-in-One)

Castle was confident.

Not because he believed he could defeat the cat on the opposing side, but because he had absolute faith in his own defensive capabilities.

Defense had always been his greatest expertise.

Back at the Tenth Tier, having already merged himself completely with the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom, he possessed resilience rivaling that of a Demigod Realm entity.

That was why he had been able to keep his cool when facing Xue Mo's ferocious assault, even after the man had slain three Mechanical Emperors.

Confident in his Demigod Realm defenses, he knew Xue Mo could not defeat him.

However, the restrictions of merging with the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom meant he couldn't attack freely. Therefore, he had no choice but to call upon one of their two Demigod Realm experts: Mechanical Emperor Thor.

He just hadn't expected Xue Mo to use some unknown method to blast off one of Thor's arms.

Soon after, they discovered that the life data of their other Demigod Realm expert, the Box of Destruction, had vanished after heading to Old Sin City. It had fallen for reasons unknown.

Under such heavy blows, the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom—which had initially leaned toward sending the ninth Mechanical Emperor to participate in the revelation of the gods—ultimately chose to pivot all its resources toward the Domain Revelation.

With Thor's help, Castle had achieved the Demigod Realm.

Now in the Demigod Realm, his defensive capabilities were far beyond what they had once been.

Even a Demigod Realm expert who specialized in offense could never take him down in a short amount of time.

The Domain Revelation had only just begun. With numerous domains glaring greedily like tigers watching their prey, no one would want to fight a war of attrition at this stage.

Once the battle lines were drawn out, he was certain the opposing Cat Ship would naturally turn its bow and retreat.

"Mhm."

Prodigy pondered for a long time before finally nodding. Having calculated almost every possibility, he agreed that it was indeed impossible for the enemy to quickly defeat Castle, who was entirely focused on defense.

The other Mechanical Emperors also relaxed.

Silence returned to the great hall.

Everyone was waiting for this Domain War to end.

They didn't care about the casualties of this war. The destroyed mechanical bodies possessed practically no sentience; no matter how many died, it wasn't a pity.

On the contrary, the opposing side would feel the sting. Given the combat prowess they had displayed, every one of their fighters was the elite of the elite. Losing even a single person would be agonizing.

"Oh my, every single one of you is so big~~~"

Suddenly, a raspy voice broke the silence of the hall.

All the Mechanical Emperors froze, looking down at Mao Si.

"Heave-ho."

Yan Jing climbed onto the table and bowed slightly to the Mechanical Emperors.

"Good afternoon, everyone. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the captain of the Cat Ship, Mao Si, and also the Lord of the Domain for the Cat Ship."

The instant his voice fell, Precision, Prodigy, Pope, and the Magic Emperor attacked simultaneously.

Under the rules of the Domain Revelation, their actions wouldn't be restricted during the Domain War, but Yan Jing couldn't initiate an attack against them. This turned him into a punching bag unable to strike back. If they didn't attack now, when would they?

"Boom—"

Countless artillery flares flashed in midair across the hall as mechanical projectiles blasted toward him.

Yet, Yan Jing dodged every single one.

His movements could no longer be described as merely fast. Not only could they not catch his figure, but they couldn't even tell which of the blurry shadows in the air was his actual trajectory.

It didn't feel like Yan Jing was dodging their attacks. Instead, it was as if he existed in another dimension altogether. Even a direct artillery hit would just pass right through his body.

"According to the rules, I can only attack you, right?"

From that other dimension, Yan Jing looked at Castle and smiled.

Castle stared at Yan Jing, who was standing right on his mechanical body, and then looked at the other Mechanical Emperors continuously bombarding a completely different direction. He took a deep breath.

The entity before him was terrifyingly strong. Both his speed and his mastery over space were on an entirely different level. Even Demigod Realm experts of the same tier wouldn't be able to handle him, let alone these Mechanical Emperors who were only at the Tenth Tier.

At that thought, the weird energy around him completely erupted. The ground beneath his feet detonated with a deafening bang. Terrifying roars echoed from deep underground, rumbling upward with a massive sound that resembled an earthquake.

It really was an earthquake.

The earth split apart, and chunks of the domain rose up. Stray electronic circuitry hung from the crevices of the terrain, exposing a colossal mechanical body hidden beneath the boundless ground.

It was a horrifying existence. To beings of normal size, a moving skyscraper hundreds of stories tall would already be an unfathomably colossal behemoth. Yet what appeared before Yan Jing was a landmass stretching for thousands of miles, bound tightly beneath the surface by a chaotic web of circuitry and machinery.

And at the center of that rising domain sat Castle's mechanical chassis.

Fully half of his body had merged into the earth, functioning as the brain of this giant.

"Boom!!!"

The terrifying weird energy surged like a tidal wave, instantly swallowing everything in its surroundings.

Yan Jing extended a paw, pulled open a door beside him, and stepped inside.

This was the first time he had ever seen such violent fluctuations of weird energy. It surpassed even The Tower from before, and was even denser than the weird energy unleashed when the trapped Messenger broke free.

He waited in another space. Soon, the weird energy—so dense it had become corporeal—shattered the spatial barrier and arrived right in front of him.

Yan Jing opened a door and stepped into yet another spatial dimension.

Then...

The weird energy rushed over again, and Yan Jing opened another door.

Finally, on the sixth time, the weird energy ran out of momentum. Yan Jing reached out, opened one more door, and stepped outside.

He was back beside Castle.

"Being a Lord of the Domain seems pretty nice, too..."

Yan Jing looked at the stunned Castle and smiled.

"To achieve this level of power by relying on the entire domain's capabilities is truly impressive."

"Fourth Master is a little tempted."

"Alright, I've decided. I'm going to be the strongest Lord of the Domain!!!"

Having finished his declaration, Yan Jing raised a paw, pointed at Castle, and smiled.

"Chaos."

As his voice fell, Castle's expression suddenly froze. In the next second, his colossal mechanical body stationed on the domain vanished, leaving behind only a chubby human baby wailing on the ground.

The baby clearly possessed immense strength. A casual punch blasted the ground, sending dust flying for hundreds of miles. Within the pitch-black fissures lay the shattered void.

But...

It was still a baby in the end.

Gaining a completely physical body of flesh and blood on the Pathway of Mechanization wasn't necessarily a good thing.

At this moment, Castle had lost his fusion with the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom, as well as many of his Mechanization methods.

Yan Jing walked over, hoisted the baby by hand, and patted its butt.

The baby cried even harder.

Unbothered, Yan Jing reached out to bind the weird energy around the baby, then tossed it bodily right into the great curtain.

Without Castle's control, the towering domain plummeted back down. With a massive crash, it slammed into the earth, essentially returning to its original position.

Watching Yan Jing dispose of Castle without breaking a sweat, the other Mechanical Emperors didn't even dare to breathe too loudly.

They genuinely didn't understand what had just happened. Why had Castle vanished? Why had a baby appeared? Why did Yan Jing throw the baby into a curtain? What was that place, and why did he do it?

But Yan Jing obviously felt no obligation to explain things to them.

The commander was dead; the Domain War was over.

He raised his hand and flicked his wrist.

All the Mechanical Emperors felt an overwhelming force slam into their faces. Before long, one by one, they flipped backward, entirely immobilized.

With a single slap, Yan Jing flattened five of them.

Yan Jing stepped forward and threw these Mechanical Emperors into the great curtain one by one. He then looked at the domain beneath his feet. After pondering for a moment, the great curtain materialized again. Expanding to an impossibly massive size, it began to swallow the entire Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom whole.

Just as he was working in full swing, a gigantic figure slowly rose from underground and arrived right in front of him.

It was a mechanical giant.

It was several times larger than Castle's unfused form. Its chassis alone occupied a small fraction of the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom's total area, and its height was roughly equivalent to Castle standing tall after fusing with the domain.

Except... it was missing an arm.

On the right side of his terrifying figure was a bare stump without an arm. Electronic circuitry as thick as tree trunks dangled down, dripping black liquid drop by drop.

Yan Jing looked at the mechanical giant and laughed.

"You're that Demigod Realm expert who got an arm cut off by a Divine Envoy?"

Thor looked at Yan Jing, initially staying silent. Only after a few seconds did he finally nod.

"Mechanical Emperor, Thor."

"The final Demigod Realm entity of the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom."

"If you want to touch the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom, you'll have to step over my dead body first."

Hearing this, Yan Jing lifted a paw and scratched his head.

"You're making me sound like the bad guy."

"We've actually met before, though I don't know if you can still tell."

"You couldn't even win last time, so the odds are way too low this time around."

He had just tossed that out casually, but unexpectedly, Thor nodded.

"I know we've met."

"Oh?"

Faintly intrigued, Yan Jing looked at Thor and smiled.

"Then tell me, where did we meet?"

"..."

Thor stared at Yan Jing. After a few seconds, he slowly spoke.

"You are Xue Mo."

!!!!

Yan Jing's pupils unavoidably shrank.

He looked at Thor in silence for several seconds before slowly nodding.

"I've heard about the eons you've existed. Ginger is still spicier the older it is."

Being exposed didn't severely shock Yan Jing, nor did it induce any fear.

He had always known that he would be seen through one day.

In truth, being exposed didn't matter much. He no longer feared the vast majority of entities. As for the tiny handful who could see through him, well, there was nothing he could do about them anyway.

Those beings were simply beyond his control.

What he hadn't expected, however, was that the one to figure it out would be a seemingly over-the-hill Demigod Realm expert.

Receiving Yan Jing's confirmation, Thor spoke slowly.

"Fight me. If you win, I'll tell you a secret about this world."

Yan Jing nodded.

"Bring it on."

The two faced each other from a distance.

Thor's weird energy erupted abruptly.

He was indeed in his twilight years, suffering from unhealing wounds inflicted by Yan Jing, but a starved camel is still bigger than a horse.

The weird energy radiating from his body was still incomparably radiant, like a vast sea of stars falling to the mortal realm. An illusory vision of a mechanical paradise manifested behind him.

However...

Yan Jing raised his hand.

"This is the Machineless Land."

A domain of pure white manifested out of thin air, falling around Thor.

Instantly, the illusion of the mechanical paradise shattered, bursting into countless fragments like broken mirrors.

"Crack, crack—"

Thor trembled all over, stumbled a few steps backward, and finally collapsed onto the ground.

He raised his head to look at Yan Jing.

"I've lost."

Yan Jing nodded.

"Obviously."

"Who exactly are you?"

Thor watched as Yan Jing hopped over to his side.

Yan Jing smiled.

"You're the one who lost."

"And you're the one supposed to be answering questions."

Thor sighed.

"Actually, I'm not the only one who knows this legend."

"All the ancient deities should know it."

"Do you know what Advent Day is?"

Yan Jing nodded.

"Of course. Advent Day is divided into—"

"Not that."

Yan Jing had been about to recite what he learned back in Old Sin City, but Thor cut him off.

"..."

Yan Jing blinked.

"Then you tell me."

Thor let out a heavy sigh.

"Have you ever wondered where the power in our domains comes from?"

"It's polluted, right?"

Yan Jing thought for a moment before speaking.

"Transcendent power has existed since ancient eras. It's just that starting from the severed era, the original transcendent power mutated, eventually becoming the weird energy we have today."

"And what polluted it?"

Thor looked at Yan Jing.

Yan Jing blinked. This question genuinely stumped him.

He carefully recalled some of the information he had received before.

Some people seemed to claim it was the deities, while others said it was the Source of Mutation. Yet there were also those who said that some Sources of Mutation were deities.

He looked at Thor and shook his head.

"You tell me."

Thor took a deep breath, then slowly let it out.

"Regarding this question, some people think it's the deities, and others think it's the Source of Mutation. But there's another theory... that it's actually neither."

"Neither?"

Yan Jing looked at him.

Thor nodded.

"There is a theory that although the Sources of Mutation are considered the origin of the pollution, they are merely creations as well."

"They are the byproducts of dead powerhouses or fallen beings after being polluted."

"Some of them occupied the positions of deities, while others did not. Therefore, the Source of Mutation and deities do not conflict. A deity's Divine Throne is ultimately just a seat."

"And the thing that caused this world to become what it is today... is the true source of that pollution."

Listening to Thor's words, Yan Jing frowned.

"Are you certain?"

Thor shook his head.

"I'm not certain. Perhaps only the deities and the Sources of Mutation know the inside story."

"But... among Demigod Realm existences, there is a legend about Advent Day."

"Rumor has it that when the true Mutation arrives, everything will change."

"You mean..." Yan Jing furrowed his brow.

Thor nodded.

"When you made your move against Castle just now, I saw it all."

"I couldn't possibly be mistaken. That was the power of Mutation."

"Your Divine Throne... is related to Mutation?"

My Divine Throne is Mutation.

Yan Jing's brow furrowed tightly. He had never imagined the situation would be so complicated.

"Then why are you telling me all this?"

"Even if everything changes, it shouldn't have anything to do with you, right?"

He looked at Thor.

Hearing this, Thor gave a mysterious smile.

"Don't you want to know how I saw through your identity?"