After a long while.
Only then did the waves of sound finally die down.
The surface of the water returned to calm as well.
The old woman turned her head and gazed at her dying younger brother. Then she murmured again, "Even Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng, that great man who came so close to godhood, with all his outstanding talent and grand vision, clearly understood that humans are such weak and pitiful creatures. He used the strength of the entire nation to research new methods precisely to change humanity's weakness."
"But all of this was destined to take a long time. Yet he had clearly overlooked another way to rapidly break through the limits of humanity." As the giant ship sailed on, Zhong Qingyu suddenly spotted a huge shadow beneath them.
It was a gigantic octopus covered in grievous wounds. Even nine human heads had vanished without a trace. Deprived of its human heads and intelligence, it had become a completely wild beast.
"Having mastered countless sea routes and secretly investigated for so many years, I've finally found you!"
The old woman's eyes were filled with longing. "It's hard to imagine just how powerful that terrifying creature must have been to wound you this badly."
"Since we can't endure the weakness below our necks, and our bodies grow old and move toward death, why not simply replace everything below the neck with another body? Wouldn't that solve the problem?"
A yearning smile appeared on her face as she gazed at that enormous Deep Sea Shadow.
"Young, powerful, gentle, and soft—what a perfect body this is! This is the most beautiful creation in the Mortal World, the one I desire most. This is the glory and greatness rooted deep in our blood!"
"Only with such a perfect woman, with such a perfect body below the head, could I be worthy of the gods, right?" She recalled the story of the god's birth announced by Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng.
A god was different from the moment he descended into the mortal world.
He was born in an ordinary mountain village in this world. Strange omens accompanied his birth, and a phantom shadow held him as he came into the world.
"That shadow embracing me is no demon. It is a god from heaven."
"This is."
"God-Given Tear Mole. I was born of Heaven and descended upon Earth, a holy god among the world."
"Above Heaven and below Heaven, I alone am supreme!"
How majestic!
How mighty and domineering!
The old woman's aged face revealed immense yearning and desire.
Only by seizing such a magnificent body for herself now could she become worthy of that sacred and majestic existence born as a god!
"Cast aside humanity's ugliness and choose this most beautiful body," she murmured softly.
Her younger brother lay beside her on the sickbed. At death's door, he wore an expression of immense terror.
His own sister intended to cut off his head and graft it onto that terrifying figure—the lord of the sea.
She knew very well that the Qi Consumers of the present age all possessed powerful heads, yet their mortal bodies would still wither. Thus, she intended to cut off her own head and exchange it for an even more powerful and terrifying body.
The species known as humanity had limits, after all.
"Yes, your eyes long for it too, don't they?"
The old woman seemed to understand the trembling in her younger brother's eyes. She murmured, "Because you're about to die of old age, and I refuse to lose you, my last relative. I've researched for countless years, all for this moment."
Her brother's terror deepened.
The old man lying on the sickbed whimpered incessantly. He looked utterly miserable, and tears even fell from his eyes.
"Don't cry. I know you fear death. Your life is withering, and your body is decaying. That's why I brought you out to sea."
The old woman revealed a gentle smile. Calmly wiping the corners of the old man's eyes, she said softly, "An ancient poem from the old era says: Do not let your eyes dry from sorrow; gather up your streaming tears. When your eyes are dry, your bones will show. In the end, Heaven and Earth remain without mercy."
"Do you still not understand? My last relative, my ridiculous younger brother—this Heaven and Earth is merciless. Weeping is useless. We can only rely on ourselves to seize our fate."
She looked toward the octopus, her eyes filled with yearning and memories, and continued:
"I know. Just like me, you must have felt an intense attraction to it the very first time you saw it all those years ago."
"Those writhing tentacles, that exquisite dancing form."
"We both long desperately for its soft, moist, sensual tentacles to wrap around us and ravage us, allowing us to enjoy supreme pleasure and bliss."
"It has the shape I like."
"Come, fight me and become a part of me!"
The old woman's lips curled upward, battlefire burning in her eyes. Suddenly, she threw her head back and laughed wildly. "My younger brother and I will continue into the future and build a new nation!"
Boom!
A terrifying battle erupted.
The Black Bronze Cloud Crab God brought Zhu Zhengwei here. Watching from afar, he felt deeply uneasy. "Your leader hasn't recovered from her serious injuries, and she attacked her?"
He could only feel that this world was somewhat frightening.
Without immortality, humans might carry regrets and intense unwillingness as they approached death, but in the end, they would still choose to accept death honestly.
But what if the history of humanity produced a true "hope" of immortality?
Humans would go mad!
At the same time, no true gods had ever appeared in human history, yet humanity had already become superstitious and worshipful to that degree—building shrines and Divine Temples, burning incense and praying to the Buddha, and engaging in all manner of superstition. What would happen when a true god actually appeared?
Humans would become even crazier!
Unlike Earth's five-thousand-year civilization, this place appeared to possess the same feudal civilization and a similar course of development, yet its historical trajectory might diverge completely!
Driven by this desire for eternal life and imperishability, and by the longing to pursue the gods, humanity would inevitably begin seeking even more unbelievable powers, giving rise to all sorts of great horrors.
Zhu Zhengwei suddenly had a thought:
Things like this would not be isolated incidents!
Unlike Earth's civilized history, this world already possessed the supernatural, with qi permeating Heaven and Earth.
Across the long and vast civilization that would unfold in the future, all kinds of humans, strong beings, and living creatures would fervently worship the "gods" in different ways and pursue eternal life by any means necessary!
This would be a very real problem.
Of course, at this moment, Zhu Zhengwei was not prepared to deal with such a fanatical believer. To put it bluntly, eating the Giant Octopus was fine, but as for the human-beast issue in this regard... absolutely not.
Zhu Zhengwei lowered the telescope and hurriedly sailed away. Wouldn't something terrible happen if he went over there himself?
Let a fellow cultivator die, but not oneself.
Without using GM power, he would be carried off immediately. Using it, however, simply wasn't worth it—the price was too high and would shake the foundations of the world.
He turned his head and said solemnly to the Black Bronze Cloud Crab God:
"Life and death are fated, wealth and honor are decreed by Heaven. Everything is destiny; everything is Heaven's fortune. The gods never interfere with mortals' choices."
"She is a human with the bearing of a great hero and immense courage. Back then, she witnessed your birth with me. She may also be the hope of your people's rise."
Zhu Zhengwei sailed into the distance. To prevent himself from being discovered, he raised a hand, and a vast fog covered the view.
"This is history. It is the will of fate."
His expression calm, he sat aboard the ship and vanished into the thick fog. Then he laughed aloud:
"Sacrifice the body to repay the abyssal sea; sever the head and weep beneath the vast heavens. Give up the body, and man enters the fish—who says that the end of life means death?"
Gurgle, gurgle.
The Black Bronze Cloud Crab God wore a puzzled expression. At this time, his simple-minded self did not understand why Zhu Zhengwei had spouted a load of nonsense instead of saving their leader.
It was only many years later that this lofty and great Ocean Deity repeated this day's scene countless times to his subordinates, filled with supreme reverence:
"At the time, I didn't understand. I only felt tremendously shaken."
"But now, thousands of years later, when I look back, I keep chewing over the True God's Poem from that time: 'Give up the body, and man enters the fish—who says that the end of life means death?' I can only feel the magnificent, epic, tragic spirit of all living beings' pursuit of eternal life!"
"As expected of the supreme and magnificent ancient god of old who saw through everything."
Before you continue