Zhou Ming did not keep pressing in that direction.
Since Pangu said he did not know, then he truly did not know.
An existence who had once undergone the Great Dao's extinction and walked the path of Dao validation anew had no need to lie about something like this.
He thought for a moment, set the question aside for now, and instead asked about another matter that concerned him personally.
"Fellow Daoist."
His voice calmed.
"Since all systems were made by those Outsiders, then... the system that brought me across to the Ninth Chaos must have been made by them too."
"By rights, I should have some connection to those Outsiders as well."
"Then why did you leave me alive back then, Fellow Daoist?"
This question had been coiling in his heart from the moment he learned the truth about the system.
A living being carrying an Outsider's system had appeared in the chaos where he was validating his Dao.
By common sense, he should have been erased at the first moment, cutting off future trouble at the root.
Yet Pangu not only did not act, he had instead given him protection.
It did not make sense.
Pangu smiled.
It was the smile of someone who had been through it all, recalling old events, tinged with a bit of self-mockery.
"You've forgotten one thing."
"What?"
"Although I had already awakened at the time, I had not yet validated my Dao."
Pangu lifted a hand and raised one finger.
"My memories of the Great Dao Realm had not yet fully returned. Many things, I could not see clearly."
"At that time, I was only an Innate Being being nurtured in the chaos. As for Outsiders, systems, the struggles of the Chaos Sea—I knew nothing of any of it."
Zhou Ming was