Chapter 80: This is Plain Robbery!
Chapter 80: This is Plain Robbery!
Chapter 80 This Is Outright Theft!
From Li Lanyin's perspective, the Great Serpent she knelt before seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking with gentle warmth:
"I grant your request."
"Seven days," He said, "I shall grant you seven days to settle your unfinished affairs. Then, you shall return to my domain and become the Keeper of Fate."
Li Lanyin was briefly stunned.
Unfinished affairs?
Having been imprisoned in that instance dungeon, isolated from the world for so many years, what unfinished matters could she possibly have?
But when her gaze brushed against the edge of her vision, catching sight of the crimson cloak cascading from her shoulders, she suddenly understood—
Though the Father of Curses had been slain, torn into countless pieces, the lingering negative effects of His existence had yet to be fully resolved.
For instance, the foul, viscous secretions from His black tendrils.
Knowing the Father of Curses as she did, Li Lanyin was certain that in His final moments, He would never have restrained those secretions from evaporating or scattering. Boundless curses would inevitably accompany that filth, spreading across innocent worlds, causing needless suffering and casualties...
And the deity she now followed was undoubtedly a benevolent and gracious arbiter of fate.
The Lord of Fate would not tolerate curses—elements that disrupted the natural flow of destiny. Thus, He would dispatch servants to erase such chaos from fate's weave, maintaining the proper order of events.
This could very well be the first genuine assignment after joining the ranks of Fate.
An opportunity, but also a test!
Believing she had grasped the deeper meaning behind her lord's words, Li Lanyin reined in her excitement and bowed solemnly. "I understand. I shall not fail your expectations."
Yi Fengchu: "?"
He was bewildered. What expectations had He just expressed?
He had merely been stalling for time, creating some leeway to establish His divine domain.
Watching blankly as Li Lanyin departed with a sense of mission, Yi Fengchu thought slowly, *Let her work it out and handle it herself.*
*Surely it won’t cause much trouble?*
Time was pressing, so Yi Fengchu didn’t dwell on this minor episode. Instead, adopting the studious attitude of exam-cramming mode, He asked the phone, "You mentioned constructing a divine domain... How exactly should I proceed?"
The phone could be caustic at times, but when Yi Fengchu displayed genuine scholarly curiosity, it became far more reliable, guiding like a patient teacher: "The rules of divine domains vary among deities, but certain characteristics are universal."
["And the 'old photo album' is the only nascent domain you’ve encountered so far. But the Father of Curses never achieved full mastery over His domain, never becoming a true deity. Thus, the 'old photo album' was forever confined to its rudimentary form."]
"Have you noticed any defining traits?"
After a moment’s thought, Yi Fengchu answered:
"First, it possesses barriers unlike any other instance dungeon. Nearly all external forces entering were monitored and controlled by the Father of Curses."
"Second, it essentially forms its own self-contained world, with unique rules..." Here, Yi Fengchu paused before adding, "But this point is debatable. I’m uncertain whether those rules might simply be manifestations unique to the Curse Domain."
"Third, the entire instance dungeon was fundamentally constructed and sustained by the Father of Curses’ power. When He perished, the 'old photo album' instantly vanished without leaving a trace—not even a grain of dust remained."
The phone: "These three points roughly correspond to the basic attributes of a divine domain."
"A true divine domain is entirely its owner’s sovereign territory—a physical manifestation of a deity’s highly concentrated power."
"Within it, all rules—space, time, or otherwise—are dictated and controlled by its master. One could say every corner could be the god’s arms, every breeze Their senses. When outsiders tread within, not a single action escapes Their notice."
"Some deities even merge Their physical forms with Their domains, making the domain a literal extension of Themselves."
Hearing this, Yi Fengchu couldn’t help but muse: "Thankfully, the Father of Curses never managed to construct a true divine domain..."
Otherwise, dismantling the 'old photo album' instance dungeon and slaying Him wouldn’t have been so effortless.
After this moment of reflection, Yi Fengchu keenly felt the daunting nature of His task.
What He needed to accomplish in seven days was a monumental task...
His tone grew subdued as He muttered, "So... how should I begin?"
"Your ultimate goal is to make your power tangible, manifesting an entirely new, independent space. As for the first step..."
The phone hesitated before continuing, "Start by attempting to focus the powers of fate and time, shaping them into the physical form you envision."
Yi Fengchu: "Which brings us to the question—how do I condense them, and how exactly do I shape them?"
The phone paused, surprised, as though such questions had never occurred to it, then vaguely replied, "Well... however other deities condense theirs, you do the same?"
"...Alright, evidently you don’t know either."
Yi Fengchu sighed, feeling the first signs of a headache from sheer frustration.
Though adrift in void, He couldn’t shake the illusion of being back in a classroom—no, perhaps even worse than that.
At least in classrooms, teachers and textbooks provided clear instructions on how to solve problems.
Not like this phone, offering vague overviews and leaving Him to experiment repeatedly, hoping for enlightenment through trial and error.
If possible, Yi Fengchu would gladly pay a fortune for a detailed manual—one that plainly laid out the foundational formulas for constructing a divine domain. For example:
One divine domain = x% domain power + (100-x)% conceptualization; with step-by-step instructions appended...
Alas, Yi Fengchu knew all too well that no such manual existed.
After all, the only beings qualified to construct divine domains were True Gods—and deities certainly wouldn’t document their divine construction processes with scholarly precision, publishing their insights for the benefit of future deities.
The Great Serpent shook His head as Yi Fengchu embarked on His arduous attempts.
Day One.
Yi Fengchu failed utterly to create an enclosed space. Staring at the malformed, uneven, and leaky silver-white construct with six irregular sides, He fell into extended silence.
Too ugly, too asymmetrical... completely offensive to His taste.
Without a second thought, Yi Fengchu smashed it to pieces with a tail swipe, destroying all traces as though nothing had happened.
Day Two.
He managed to form an independent, complete enclosure—but its structure was perplexing. No matter which direction one moved, they would inevitably return to the starting point, trapped in an endless Möbius loop.
The phone offered a diplomatic comment: "If your goal was to create a dungeon meant to torture players, you might have succeeded."
Expressionless, Yi Fengchu raised His tail and obliterated the failed attempt into nothingness.
On the third day, They finally made significant progress.
This time, Yi Fengchu successfully constructed a perfect cubic space, its boundaries wrapped in a silver-white radiance, like a delicate silver trinket.
However, perhaps due to Their still-imperfect control over time, time's laws within the space were utterly chaotic.
The serpent lashed its tail outward, casually snatching a passing divine creature and placing it inside the space. As the creature frantically scrambled about, its appearance fluctuated between childhood and senescence, as if it were constantly leaping back and forth through the river of time.
After releasing the frightened divine creature, Yi Fengchu attempted to adjust the timeflow settings within the space.
Feeling confident this time, They worked diligently for a long while, even Their tail-tip visibly straining as it coiled itself into a complex knot. In the end, They successfully achieved...
A wonky space where moving left caused time to fast-forward and moving right caused it to rewind.
Yi Fengchu: "..."
Yi Fengchu: "......"
They wanted to quit!
To avoid further agitating Them, the phone softened its tone and earnestly encouraged: [Keep at it! Your gatekeeper is still waiting for you to finish building the "door."]
The serpent’s long body coiled into tight coils, burying Its head in the hollow center to brood for a moment. Suddenly, It perked up as if remembering something:
"Wait, didn’t I snatch an instance from that half-Nightmare being before?"
[That C-rank instance world you renamed 'Nameless Land'?]
[Yes, that did happen,] the phone replied. [But that small world is under the supervision of the System. I doubt you’d want to follow in the footsteps of the Cursefather Nightmare and settle for a 'demigod's domain' that isn’t fully under your control.]
"Right now, it isn’t entirely mine, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be in the future."
Yi Fengchu countered, "Have you heard of the Ship of Theseus?"
"Of course," the phone gradually caught on. "You mean—using that instance’s existing space and rules as a foundation, then gradually stripping away the System’s influence until it’s entirely replaced by your power?"
Seeing the great serpent preened, the phone remained hesitant: "That—sounds theoretically possible, but I’ve never heard of a divine realm being built this way."
"As if you know how every deity constructs their divine realms," Yi Fengchu retorted bluntly. "We're pressed for time—this method is much faster than building from the ground up. If no god has tried it before, then let me be the pioneer!"
With that, the serpent surged forward, toward the direction of the "Nameless Land."
......
In the dimensional seams near the former Kaleidoscope Advertising Company—now the sealed instance Nameless Land (Locked State)—chaotic time-winds surged through the crevices, their storms fierce enough to tear apart any life caught within.
Even divine beings, born with formidable power, avoided this place unless absolutely necessary. Thus, the dimensional seams were also known as the "Lifeforge's Ban."
Yet, floating untethered in this forbidden zone was a small cabin.
This was the workspace of a Recorder under the System—one cabin per Recorder, tasked with drifting through their assigned regions to document energy fluctuations, major events, instance clearance records, and any anomalies across various worlds.
Due to the nature of their work, most Recorders were Ability users from the Truth and Scrying Domain, allowing them to monitor the state of worlds without ever leaving their System- and deity-protected cabins.
Inside the cabin, a Recorder sprawled in a high-backed chair, legs crossed, as countless streams of data materialized before her in flickering datastreams.
As a Rank 7 Ability user of the Truth Domain, she could process an entire world’s worth of data in an instant, filtering constants and calibrating deviations.
Beside her, several pens danced midair, their tips flowing with smooth ink as they recorded the day’s work.
"Ah, another slow news day," the Recorder sighed. "I wonder when this month’s *Philosopher’s Journal*, *Secrets of Alchemy and Spells*, and my guilty pleasure *Mystery World Joke Monthly* will arrive..."
Just then, amidst the sea of green data, a bloom of crimson abruptly appeared.
The Recorder cast a surprised glance, but before she could examine it closely, the crimson spread like ink dropped into clear water, rapidly staining the entire sea red.
"What’s happening?!"
"The last time I saw such severe error flags was when Hao Youqian’s instance changed hands outright..."
The Recorder, who had just been complaining about the dull shift, instantly straightened in her seat, eyes wide, nerves taut as she deciphered the anomalies.
As she read, her lips moved nervously, reading the alerts verbatim:
*System time 08:36, sealed instance 'Nameless Land' showing wild power spikes—concentrations of Fate and Time Domain power spiking, System signals under impact.*
*System time 08:41, System signals lost with instance—40% disconnection, attempting repairs.*
*Repairs failed. Detected severe instability in instance structure—core matrices rewriting.*
*System time ??:??, System signals lost—90% disconnection, attempted pinging the instance, no response.*
*Warning! Instance has broken free from Playground oversight—cause unknown... white noise...*
The final segment of data was especially garbled, and it took the Recorder considerable effort to decipher its meaning.
After reviewing the timestamps, she mused, "No wonder the anomalies came flooding in delayed. It’s past 9:00 now, but this data was generated an hour ago—it was just delayed due to signal loss."
Having reflexively analyzed the data issue, she suddenly froze, the pens around her clattering to the ground.
"Wait... 'Fate' and 'Time'?"
The Recorder muttered in disbelief, "The Fate Domain again? Could it be the same entity? Last time, they seized control of an instance—now they’ve outright taken it and fled the Playground’s surveillance!"
"No, no, 'fled' isn’t even the right word. This was an outright robbery! They didn’t even try to hide it."
"Ugh, with a disaster like this happening on my watch, my quarterly review for the next few months are doomed."
Scratching her tousled bangs, the Recorder patted her cheeks in a daze and opened the forum. "At this point, might as well see what everyone’s discussing."
"And maybe check if any seniors have posted tips on how to dodge write-ups..."