Phanes' Ultimate Plan: The Demon Gods Were All Puppets on Strings, and He Imprisoned Himself Above the Abyss! Huo Yuhao Was Stunned

"How tragic, and yet... how fair." Ye Yinzhu closed his eyes again. He seemed to hear the crisp sound of hundreds of Shackles snapping into place at once, their clicks coming together as the first note of a grand symphony. "No one came first, and no one was special. Under this system of musical laws, every note was born equal."

Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Eye was pushed to its limits. He stared intently at the Demon Gods who had just stepped onto the stage of history. In his perception, an intangible yet omnipresent "network" tightly connected all several hundred of them.

"I can 'see' it..." Huo Yuhao's voice was a little hoarse. "It's not energy, and it's not spiritual power. It's a kind of... thread woven from 'Rules.' Each Demon God is a node, and 'love humanity' is the core directive running through all the threads. When a Demon God develops the thought of 'harming humanity,' even for a single moment, the node he occupies... 'changes color'!"

"And then?" Bei Bei asked anxiously.

"Then the other nodes connected to him—the other Demon Gods—immediately receive an 'alert.'" Huo Yuhao spoke slowly, one word at a time. "Just as San Shi said earlier, they become 'Antivirus Programs' and 'repair' the 'corrupted' node."

Everyone knew what "repair" meant. It could only be a bloody purge.

"A... perfect Closed Loop." Tang San let out a long breath. His voice was full of awe, along with a trace of fear he could barely conceal. "Creator, Maintainer, supervisor, exterminator... the Demon Gods themselves fill every role. Phanes only had to establish the initial Rules, and this system could run on its own for thousands upon thousands of years. What an undertaking. Truly, what an undertaking!"

Ning Rongrong and Ning Tian exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in the other's eyes. The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was famed for its support, focusing on the allocation of resources and winning people over. But Phanes had bypassed every step and dictated the outcome at its root.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Dai Hao smiled wryly and shook his head. "Phanes used absolute 'love' to counter absolute power. He succeeded. The price was that these so-called 'Gods' never truly possessed power to begin with."

For the first time, something akin to "understanding" appeared in the Dragon God's enormous golden eyes. His deep rumble rang out. "This is not a plan based on power, but one based on 'Rules.' In his world, Rules stand above all power."

The Dragon Prince beside him had been so shaken by this unimaginable idea that he couldn't utter a word.

Niu Tian and Tai Tan, two tower-like men, simply stood in silence. They worshiped strength, but today they had witnessed something more awe-inspiring than sheer power: wisdom, the ultimate kind of wisdom capable of shaping the fate of the world.

"So that was how that era began," Tian Hen said softly, breaking the heavy silence.

"Yes," Hai Long replied. "An era without a Creation God, ruled by a group of puppet-like Gods. I wonder where a world like that will end up."

A'Dai—or rather, Mandun, the former King of Underworld—simply watched in silence. He understood the pain of losing one's freedom better than anyone, and he also understood the price one had to pay to protect something. He couldn't judge what Phanes had done, but he could feel the immense weight of it, a burden that had endured across the ages.

Lei Xiang and Chang Gongwei exchanged no words. They had both once stood at the peak of their respective worlds, and they had both fought to protect them. Yet compared to Phanes, their acts of protection seemed... too small.

Tang Ya supported Bei Bei, her face pale. "What if—I mean, what if one of the Demon Gods disagreed with this Law? Would they rebel?"

"They cannot rebel," Gu Yuena answered. "The very thought of 'rebellion' would be judged an 'error,' bringing down the other Demon Gods to erase the dissenter. This is a prison of thought. Before they could even rebel, they would already have been executed."

Just as everyone held their breath, waiting for the Light Screen to reveal the weighty answer, the image on it abruptly changed.

No names. No faces.

In their place was a breathtakingly magnificent scene.

The great being they knew as Phanes was slowly rising into the air. He was no longer the imposing God of War who had fought the giant dragon. His light remained brilliant, yet now carried an indescribable sense of exhaustion and brokenness. His gaze swept one last time over the land below, which had only just endured creation and destruction. It passed over the tiny humans struggling to survive among the ruins, so small, yet so full of Life Force.

That glance held too many complicated emotions: relief, reluctance, resolve, and, buried deep beneath them all, a loneliness beyond words.

"He... is leaving." Lie Yan's voice was faint. As a former enforcer of the Divine Realm, she understood better than anyone the desolation of reaching the summit.

Ji Dong silently took her hand. In Phanes, he saw a familiar shadow: the resolve to burn oneself for a belief, shouldering everything alone.

The next moment, Phanes's figure became a streak of light that pierced the heavens. Without a trace of hesitation, he shot straight toward the floating island hanging high in the sky, already in ruins.

[Phanes had completed his final plan for the mortal world.]

[His divine body returned to the ruined Sky Throne. He would spend the long ages that followed healing the wounds left by his deadly battle against the seven Dragon Kings, and make himself a prison to suppress the Curse from the Abyss for all eternity.]

The cold text appeared. Every word struck the hearts of those present like a heavy hammer.

"Suppress... the Curse from the Abyss?" Tang San's pupils contracted. "Those seven Dragon Kings weren't his only enemies? Was he also fighting an even greater threat?"

"So this wasn't a triumphant retirement, but a... strategic retreat!" Dai Hao's voice was hoarse. The Emperor's keen instincts let him grasp the truth at once. "He made himself the first—and last—line of defense for this world! He imprisoned himself in the sky!"

Xue Ye's body trembled slightly. The old Emperor murmured to himself, "What we've seen is only what he wanted us to see. Beneath that glorious creation myth lie endless solitude and battle... Is this the... fate of a God?"

The image on the Light Screen did not stop there.

As Phanes disappeared into Sky Island, a term slowly expanded at the center of the image.