Chapter 678: The Truth of the World (The Five Elements of Solving a Case Return)

The World-Suppressing King looked at Yan Jing and slowly recounted an ancient secret.

According to rumor, at the tail end of a distant era...

Deities already existed.

The River governed time, the Fertile Earth governed space, and the Firmament governed Order.

Together, the three constructed a complete ecology across the Surface and Inner Worlds.

But...

With the arrival of the new Firmament, everything changed.

The originally azure Firmament was covered in a layer of gray mist. Pitch-black darkness began to spread relentlessly across the Surface and Inner Worlds, replacing the original energy systems.

Immortal qi, spiritual energy, transcendent electrons... an entire array of energies began to transform, converging into a single system.

People back then didn't know what this new system was, but they later understood.

That new energy was incredibly eerie, twisting all the original energy systems entirely.

Thus, people called it weird energy.

The new Firmament brought not only a new supernatural system but also an entirely new management model.

Originally, the model of the Surface and Inner Worlds was extremely simple.

The Inner World housed the supernatural, while the Surface World housed reality.

The River and the Fertile Earth respectively governed the time and space of the two worlds, while the Firmament, which governed Order, was primarily responsible for managing the supernatural powers of the Inner World.

The Firmament managed the Deities, the Deities controlled the Demigods, the Demigods acted as walkers to find the Divine Envoys, and the Divine Envoys handled activities and contact with ordinary entities.

This model was simple and efficient. The only drawback was that the Deities held too much authority, making them inconvenient to manage.

But after the new Firmament descended, that model was completely overturned.

First, it introduced entities like the Source of Mutation.

The Sources of Mutation were creations of the new Firmament. Using dead powerhouses or immortal souls as a base and modifying them with Mutation, it birthed entirely new creations.

To secure recognition and authority for the Sources of Mutation, the new Firmament directly initiated a world-shaking war at the end of that distant era. The Sources of Mutation battled the entities that existed just below the Deities at the time.

The winners would claim Divine Thrones.

Relying on their sheer numbers and the inability of most entities to adapt to the changing energy systems, the Sources of Mutation secured victory after victory, ultimately occupying a third of all Deity positions.

As for the defeated experts, they either entered a broken chronology—like the Wizard Tribe and the Ice Clan—to begin adapting to the new weird energy...

...or they entered the great curtain to accept the modifications of weird energy, just like Rabbit did.

Yet the Sources of Mutation were merely the new Firmament's first step.

The next step was his true killing stroke.

He established the new Firmament Envoys.

They were put in charge of managing the Deities.

Firmament Envoys had actually existed before.

Just as the River had River Envoys, and the Fertile Earth had Fertile Earth Envoys.

Originally, the Firmament Envoys had been responsible for recording and summarizing the actions of the Deities, then reporting them back to the Firmament.

But the new Firmament was clearly dissatisfied with this method of management.

So, he bestowed his own essence upon the new Firmament Envoys.

This made the Firmament Envoys exceptionally powerful; every single one possessed the strength of an upper-tier Deity.

Not only that, but the Firmament directly granted the Firmament Envoys the authority to execute Deities.

If a Firmament Envoy found a Deity's behavior problematic, they could report it to the Firmament. Upon receiving a response, they could immediately execute the Deity right in front of them.

From then on, the Firmament Envoys became the hands of the Firmament.

Wherever the Firmament's gaze fell, the Deities lived in constant fear for their lives.

Under such intense pressure, the Divine Realm lost all vitality, becoming completely unrecognizable compared to its past.

"Question."

Yan Jing only spoke after the World-Suppressing King finished his explanation. He looked at the king.

"Why doesn't the Firmament act personally?"

"What do you mean?"

The World-Suppressing King blanked for a moment.

"I mean, why doesn't the Firmament directly manage the Deities himself?"

Yan Jing's expression was calm as he slowly explained his reasoning.

According to the World-Suppressing King's account, the Firmament should be the type of entity that acted dictatorially and desired highly centralized power.

If the Deities were compared to civil and military officials, the Firmament was the emperor.

Historically, emperors who sought to centralize power mostly chose to directly manage their officials.

When they didn't, it was either because there were too many people to manage easily, or because their bodies couldn't handle the intense workload.

Were there many Deities?

Yan Jing didn't know, but no matter how many there were, the number couldn't be overwhelmingly large.

Since he had established Firmament Envoys to receive reports around the clock, he didn't seem like the type to shy away from the hassle.

Then...

"Are you saying the Firmament is in poor health???"

The World-Suppressing King stared at Yan Jing, his eyes wide.

Over the course of ten thousand years, he had heard many analyses about the Firmament, but he had never heard anyone suggest that the Firmament was in poor health.

"I mean he might lack the capacity to manage the Deities directly."

Yan Jing remained perfectly calm as he slowly continued.

"You just mentioned that the entity from the Creation Pathway attempted to strike down the Firmament and ultimately suffered defeat. Do you know exactly what the situation was back then?"

Hearing this, a contemplative look appeared in the World-Suppressing King's eyes.

"My final memory of that battle is frozen on the entity from the Creation Pathway charging toward the Firmament. Right after that... the sky went dark."

"The sky went dark?"

"Yes, it went dark. I didn't remember it wrong. And it was pitch-black—all light seemed to vanish, resulting in a total loss of vision. By the time the sky lit up again, that Deity had disappeared."

Yan Jing sank into deep thought. Several seconds later, the corners of his mouth ticked up into a slight smile as he looked at the king.

"Do you know how to solve a case?"

Solve a case...

The World-Suppressing King drew another blank.

The mind of the man across from him leaped around far too much. First, the Firmament was in poor health, and now they were solving a case...

He felt like he was struggling to keep up.

He shook his head. Yan Jing simply chuckled, then snapped his fingers.

"Then let me broaden your horizons today."

In the very next instant, the World-Suppressing King watched Yan Jing's appearance change, right before two other figures manifested in front of him.

One was a white-haired young man with a flawlessly perfect face, and the other was a tall, heavily built old man dressed in stylish clothes.

They were Chen Nian and Liu Fu, Old Master Liu. Both of them had long since stepped into the Demigod Realm.

Chen Nian had obtained the Divine Thrones of two apex Deities: bloodline and Mechanization. The Old Man's situation was even more outrageous. Although he only had a single Divine Throne, and it wasn't an apex one, that particular Deity had taken a complete liking to his talents and had already made a pact to pass the Divine Throne to him the moment the revelation of the gods began.

Because of this, the Old Man had been gloating for days.

"What?!! Becoming a Deity is a scam?!!"

The Old Man jumped to his feet.

"Fuck that, even Deities con people!!!"

He had never doubted Yi Ji's words. Hearing Yan Jing now declare that Deities were a scam, he cursed furiously, feeling that that specific Deity had been utterly screwing him over.

"Yi Ji, who is this?"

Chen Nian looked at the World-Suppressing King standing off to the side.

He had heard of Zheng Youlan; she was currently the most prominent genius of her generation in the Surface World, far from an ordinary figure.

But... he didn't know much about the World-Suppressing King.

Yan Jing smiled.

"A friend."

Hearing that he was a friend, Chen Nian and the Old Man each offered their greetings.

"I called you guys over this time because..."

Yan Jing gave them a rough summary of the situation. After listening, Chen Nian and the Old Man both sank into thought.

The three of them sat around a table Yan Jing had conjured, taking up seats in a triangular formation.

The World-Suppressing King looked at the three deep in thought, then turned to Zheng Youlan beside him.

"What on earth are they trying to do?"

"I don't know either."

Zheng Youlan shook her head.

She hadn't been following Yan Jing for long, so she naturally couldn't understand what this scene meant, but...

She had a lingering feeling that something massive was coming.

"First, the old method."

The Old Man tapped his foot lightly on the floor. A massive, perfectly square chunk of the ground was jolted into the air, hovering vertically before them.

The Old Man reached out and gently brushed his hand over it, forcefully carving lines of text inches deep into the stone.

{Case Solving!}

{There Are Only Five Elements!}

{Motive, Modus Operandi, Time of the Crime, Location of the Crime, and the Murder Weapon}

"The murder weapon isn't important."

The Old Man reached out to cross out the murder weapon, but Chen Nian stopped him.

"Don't cross it out."

"What's wrong? The murder weapon used to kill that Deity is important too?"

The Old Man looked somewhat puzzled, but Chen Nian explained.

"Normally, the murder weapon wouldn't be important, but this is different."

"Now... there's no corpse."

"It's fine if the murder weapon can't be found, but the fact that his corpse vanished is rather bizarre."

"The murder weapon and the corpse might be connected somehow."

Yan Jing nodded.

"This is exactly what I'm confused about. Where did the corpse go? Did it just vanish entirely? Why was the Firmament so insistent on making him disappear completely? If a casual strike could completely erase that Deity, why bother extinguishing all the light too?"

"Isn't that simple? He didn't want anyone to see," the Old Man said, his gaze gradually sinking.

"He didn't want anyone to witness the battle between him and that person."

"That battle would have exposed something, or perhaps involved underhanded methods that couldn't see the light of day, or—"

"He was afraid," Yan Jing said, suddenly struck by a flash of insight. Possessing the authority of Fear, he was now one of the few people in the entire world who understood fear best.

"Whatever the reason, he was afraid."

"If he truly had nothing to fear, he wouldn't try to hide anything he did."

"Making the other party completely disappear is very likely a manifestation of that fear."

Yan Jing looked over at the World-Suppressing King.

"From start to finish, were there many people who challenged the Firmament?"

The World-Suppressing King nodded, then shook his head.

"Many, but not as many as you'd imagine. Roughly twenty or thirty."

"Did it happen the exact same way for every entity? The sky went dark, and then they vanished?"

The World-Suppressing King pondered for a moment.

"No, it's only been like this recently. In the early days, there was no such thing as turning off the lights."

"What usually happens when the sky stays light?" Chen Nian asked.

"A Firmament Envoy. The strongest Firmament Envoy under his command would deploy and strike those people down." As he finished speaking, the World-Suppressing King's eyes lit up, as if he had just realized something.

Chen Nian nodded.

"When the sky goes dark, it's definitely not a Firmament Envoy making the move."

"That is the whole point of turning off the lights."

"Think back carefully. List out for me exactly which times the lights were turned off and which times they stayed on," Yan Jing said to the World-Suppressing King.

The World-Suppressing King immediately began recalling and transcribing his memories.

This scene caused the Old Man and Chen Nian to exchange a look.

The Old Man blinked.

"Your friend has some wild connections. To think he can even get his hands on this kind of info."

Yan Jing nodded.

"He's an expert in this field."

Before long, the battles from the World-Suppressing King's memories were transcribed for the three of them.

After analyzing them, the three exhaled long breaths in unison.

"Aside from the fact that the lights were never turned off before Creation, and that they began turning off intermittently afterward, there is almost no discernible pattern to it," Chen Nian said.

"That makes sense," the Old Man chimed in. "To put it bluntly, this trick of his is pretty low-rent."

"He didn't want anyone figuring out the pattern behind his blackouts," Yan Jing concluded. "Taking it a step further, he didn't want anyone to realize that Creation was special."

"Interesting. Very interesting indeed."

The Old Man spoke up.

"There are a lot of connections we can make now. Creation had to disappear. Creation might have been capable of hurting him."

"Next item."

Yan Jing looked at the Old Man.

The Old Man crossed out the murder weapon. Next were the two elements usually linked together: location and time.

"Location, time..." the World-Suppressing King muttered.

"To be honest, it was far too dark at the time. I couldn't see a single thing."

"What about the other times?" Yan Jing looked at him.

"When the sky stayed light."

"There's a pattern to that!" The World-Suppressing King perked up; there was finally something he could answer.

"I actually researched it back then. Every single time, the challenger would ascend above the firmament to push open the Gate of the Firmament."

"And then... the strongest Firmament Envoy would emerge from the gate at exactly midnight to strike them down."

"And what happens when the sky goes dark?" Yan Jing asked.

"Then, the very instant the gate is pushed open, everything goes dark."

"Then, the Firmament makes a standard declaration, like listing the reasons for executing you or something along those lines."

"How do you know it was the Firmament?" Yan Jing stared at the king.

"I've heard the voice. As long as someone is a Deity, they know the Firmament's voice," the World-Suppressing King explained.

Yan Jing nodded.

"Continue."

"That's it," the World-Suppressing King said.

"Either way, it always starts at midnight, and then they're suppressed in front of the Gate of the Firmament."

"Alright."

The Old Man crossed out the time and location.

On the stone slab, only the motive and modus operandi remained.

"There's not much to say about the method," Yan Jing said with a smile.

"Either the sky goes dark and he kills them himself, or a Firmament Envoy handles it."

"No, wait a minute."

Chen Nian raised his hand, opening his mouth to say something, but Yan Jing shot him a look. Chen Nian immediately understood and said nothing more.

"Finally, the motive."

Yan Jing looked at the World-Suppressing King.

"Why did he want to kill those Deities?"

The World-Suppressing King was still completely lost.

He hadn't kept up with the trio's train of thought at all. He mumbled, "Those Deities wanted to kill him, so he just killed them back."

The Old Man looked at the World-Suppressing King like he was an idiot.

"The kid is asking you why in the world he only killed the Deities that wanted to kill him."

"If it were me sitting at the very top as the strongest, and you all still dared to rebel? I would carry out a massive purge and slaughter every single entity that might oppose me."

"Can't he create Sources of Mutation? Can't he create Firmament Envoys? Why would I even keep you guys around?"

"I could just replace all of you and be done with it."

"That's true..."

Hearing this, the World-Suppressing King sank into deep thought.

This time, Yan Jing didn't spell it out for him, but instead spoke slowly.

"Regardless, what we can confirm—what can be concluded from every angle—is that the new Firmament is not invincible. He feels fear, and he might even... get hurt."

"He had no way of filling all the Divine Thrones with Sources of Mutation, nor did he have the power to completely crush Creation."

"He... doesn't act like some unfathomable, imperceptible entity. He acts more like..."

"A person."