The Supreme Council

"The Ten Supreme Deities' council is about to convene. Esteemed Calamity Supreme God, do you accept the invitation immediately?"

At this moment, or rather, for the past three days, Tang Chuan had been utterly bewildered.

This inexplicable thought would appear in his mind roughly every hour.

Three days ago, it was still obscure and vague, difficult to grasp.

Tang Chuan had just assumed that after being exhausted, his body had been drained, and his thoughts had subtly deviated.

But by today, this thought, which he couldn't control, had gradually become clearer, resounding like a deafening bell.

It was almost as if a prompt box had appeared directly in front of him, asking if he accepted the invitation, with only an "Accept" option and no "Reject" option.

Beneath his dark eye circles, the whites of his eyes were bloodshot, crisscrossed with red veins.

His brain felt heavy and muddled, bordering on nervous exhaustion, leaving him utterly listless.

These were the manifestations of being tormented by that inexplicable thought for three days straight; it didn't let him sleep at all, waking him up the moment he drifted off.

Tang Chuan was going crazy.

No matter what kind of demonic game this was, he'd accept it!

He wasn't an idiot, nor did he think he was suffering from sudden delusions, obsessing over this one thought all day.

The reason he hadn't responded to it in the past few days was that the thought was still too obscure, and he didn't even know what it was trying to convey.

Now, however, he was afraid that responding might lead to some unpleasant consequences.

But with it resonating like a deafening bell in his mind, striking a great gong every less than an hour, who could endure that?

Damn it, whatever devil's game this was, if it wouldn't let me sleep, I'll fight you to the death!

Without immediately choosing to accept, Tang Chuan, his eyes bloodshot, walked out of his solitary dorm.

He hired a car and went from the nearest temple to the Taoist temple on the mountain, and then to the church in the city center, visiting them all.

"Three Pure Ones, Dao Ancestors, Buddha Tathagata, Jesus Christ, God, bless your devout followers as they take down the devil who won't let me sleep!"

As he went, Tang Chuan not only prayed to the gods but also purchased many so-called blessed items from these places of worship.

He didn't ask them to exorcise anything, though.

It was useless.

He had tried yesterday; no one could remove this inexplicable thought from his mind.

Two "masters" with an air of immortal grace had looked at him with very strange expressions.

Their gazes seemed to say: "You're being haunted by a demon, really? Just admit it's a delusion!"

Of course, they didn't refuse the customers who came to them. They failed to exorcise anything but managed to extort a lot of money from Tang Chuan. One of them, who was a bit more conscientious, did end up recommending a mental health sanatorium.

After the excursion, that deafening thought appeared in Tang Chuan's mind twice more, each time causing him to see white and nearly faint.

It had become even more intense.

It was utterly unstoppable.

The car took Tang Chuan back to his dormitory building.

Tang Chuan paid the fare, picked up his bags, and was about to open the door to get out.

"The Ten Supreme Deities' council is about to convene. Esteemed Calamity Supreme God, do you accept the invitation immediately?"

It was back.

Instantly, Tang Chuan felt as if struck by lightning, convulsing in the back seat. It took him several seconds to recover.

The driver in the front seat coughed twice and said, "Kid, even though you've hired the car, don't do anything weird in here. I wanted to say something the first two times..."

Back then, you hadn't paid yet. I was afraid if I called you out, you'd get angry and refuse to pay?

Now that the money's in, I really want to tell you, I've put up with you for a long time!

You think I can't see you in the back seat?

Is the rearview mirror just for decoration?

Tang Chuan had just recovered, his mind still a bit frozen, and he hadn't reacted for a moment. "My apologies."

The driver said, "It's fine. How about you give me a little extra for car washing?"

Tang Chuan froze.

Realizing what he meant, he said with a dark expression, "Get lost!"

With that, he got out and left, returning to his dorm.

He put on a silver cross necklace, a Buddha and Guanyin pendant, a blessed amulet from the Taoist temple, and then a string of garlic.

Holding an oversized peachwood sword, he also slung a dramatically styled Holy Cross Sword over his back.

Splash!

He poured the Holy Water obtained from the church over his head.

Tang Chuan roared, "Accept! Accept the invitation!"

I'd like to see who's stopping me from sleeping. I'll even chop up demons for you!

Of course, on a physical level, demons can't be taller than 1.75 meters or weigh more than 65 kilograms.

Whoa!

As Tang Chuan finished speaking, his body was enveloped in a strange energy, lifting him up and causing him to contort.

A power that reversed reality made his body twist, deform, and spin like a vortex.

Finally, the vortex condensed into a small black dot and disappeared.

The room was empty, as if nothing had happened.

His consciousness and body entered a bizarre passage. All around, there were grotesque, abstract, and distorted fragmented patterns, seemingly connecting all heavens and myriad worlds.

Time and space here were like physical objects, graspable with an outstretched hand.

But that was only if you could extend your hand.

Within this bizarre and fragmented passage, Tang Chuan's body and consciousness became indescribable shapes. Forget extending a hand; he didn't even know where his hands were.

Even his thoughts seemed to freeze, unable to keep up with the speed of his transit through the passage.

It's over, I definitely can't win...

This thought flashed through Tang Chuan's mind and vanished.

Tang Chuan had always believed that even if strange things might exist in the world with a low probability.

But regardless of whether you truly existed or not, the reality of a peaceful millennium, a prosperous and harmonious human society, was a manifestation of human strength, at least within the framework of reality, that feared no ghosts or gods!

Otherwise, the real world would have been overrun by demons long ago!

So, Tang Chuan's life motto was: whether you're a god or a ghost, if you're not convinced, fight me!

If I can't win...

Then I'll sit down, and we can have a calm talk!

Communication is the true meaning of intelligent life's existence. It's rare to have contact across species and space; getting physical would be too damaging to relations.

Initially, it was indeed with the mindset that you could beat me, but since I'm a citizen of Xia Country, I have the luck of humanity, so I can beat you too.

Tang Chuan, whose thoughts were somewhat disordered from lack of sleep, decided to equip himself and go for it!

But after witnessing everything around him that was beyond human imagination.

Tang Chuan sincerely felt that sitting down to talk was the more reliable option.

After an unknown amount of time.

Tang Chuan felt as if he had experienced billions of years of cleansing in an instant, strange and absurd, beyond description.

When he came to his senses, he found himself on a boundless...

continent?

Before Tang Chuan could think further, his vision instantly went white again, his brain crashed, and he fell to the ground, his body convulsing.

Vast, ineffable information began to flood Tang Chuan's mind.

Compared to this vast and boundless amount of information, Tang Chuan's twenty-three years of life were not even a drop in the ocean.

His brain's storage capacity was like a grain of dust on Earth, while this immense information was the entire cosmic starry sky!

Tang Chuan's consciousness instantly burst, overwhelmed and destroyed.

When he vaguely regained consciousness again, Tang Chuan felt like a fetus in amniotic fluid. The fatigue from lack of sleep vanished, making him so comfortable that he didn't want to open his eyes.

In a daze, he seemed to dream of a black, crystalline prism emitting a faint glow.

The black crystal collected, compressed, stored, and sealed the vast information.

It also stitched and repaired Tang Chuan's burst individual consciousness.

He suddenly opened his eyes.

Tang Chuan got up nimbly, his eyes blank.

In the depths of his being, he seemed to vaguely know something, but he couldn't clearly pierce the veil of mist to see the essence.

It was like waking up from a great dream, vaguely knowing what he had dreamt, but unable to recall it clearly no matter how hard he tried.

Mysterious and inexplicable.

"Why send such a weak clone to attend the meeting?"

A voice like a great bell boomed from beyond the universe, deafening.

Tang Chuan quickly covered his ears; his soul was almost torn apart by the sound.

This was definitely a language beyond human imagination, utterly indescribable, like the true words of a higher-dimensional being, which lower-dimensional beings could not analyze even a single syllable of.

But.

Tang Chuan actually understood?

He covered his ears and looked up blankly.

He saw the sky, which had been a blurry expanse, continuously shrink, shrink, shrink until it was the size of the universe's starry sky…

Then shrink further, infinitely.

Tang Chuan suppressed his shock and stared blankly as the boundless continent transformed into a massive and bizarre black throne.

So, the boundless black continent, as vast as the sea of stars, was merely the surface of a seat?!

This wasn't what shocked Tang Chuan the most.

He saw a palace that seemed to contain the profound mysteries of the universe, the ultimate truths of all worlds and all things, stretching across the cosmic starry sky!

Inside the palace were ten thrones of varying shapes and colors, or perhaps they could be called divine seats?

And he, Tang Chuan, was currently standing on this divine seat that only supreme deities should occupy?

Besides him, there were nine other "things" occupying their own divine seats.

Ten divine seats, ten "things," arranged in a circle, forming the interior of the divine hall for the supreme council!

The reason they were called "things" and not "beings"

was because those nine existences completely surpassed Tang Chuan's previous understanding!

One of them vaguely resembled a human form, but it had three faces and eight arms, its entire body composed of pieces of the cosmic starry sky!

Tang Chuan had just watched them shrink, shrink, and shrink further!

He had no doubt that if any "cell" of this being were to be plucked out, it would be a genuine galaxy!

Another was covered in fleshy tumors, with eyes of all sorts growing all over it, and varying sizes of tentacles protruding from certain parts, its shape extremely asymmetrical and completely defying human aesthetics!

Or perhaps it was a planet, quietly suspended on its divine seat.

Or a ball of constantly changing gas, within which flickered dozens of what looked like atoms, rapidly and chaotically swimming… gemstones?

Their shapes varied!

Completely indescribable!

Looking at it this way, his own appearance – covered in crucifixes, amulets, garlic, holding a peachwood sword, with a silver holy cross sword on his back, chicken blood smeared on his face, and his hair soaked with holy water –

At least from a human perspective, was quite normal?

However, these gods seemed to be looking at him…

Tang Chuan wasn't sure if the word "looking" was appropriate, but he could clearly feel that the nine supreme beings were sizing him up.

Recalling how they had infinitely shrunk this divine hall, or perhaps meeting room, which was larger than the cosmic starry sky, just so they could communicate with him as equals, and remembering that deafening question they had just asked him—

"Why send such a weak clone to attend the meeting?"

Tang Chuan was starting to panic!

These beings, who were even more god-like than the gods described in human cognition and imagination.

Could it be that they mistook him for the so-called Calamity Supreme God?

This, this was what had been troubling him for three whole days…

The invitation to the Ten Supreme Deities Council?!