Changing Tactics

Take Immortal Herbs, for example. Unless there was a compelling reason, Gu Yuena was far more likely to take the Immortal Herbs for herself than to wait for Huang Tian to stumble upon them by chance, as he did in the original story.

At most, she might give him back the few he had originally taken.

"Looks like even someone with their head in the clouds over love isn't easy to fool."

Huang Tian let out a long breath. His eyes gleamed, and he suddenly found the whole thing even more interesting.

With a thought, every word on the screen vanished at once.

In the opening of his Version 2.0 past-life memories, Gu Yuena faced a deadly crisis. The Five Great God Kings had joined the Five Super Divine Artifacts to form the Sword of Three Realms Judgment and World Destruction, unleashing power beyond that of a God King. She was about to be reduced to ashes.

At the critical moment, a Space-Time Turbulence struck and swept away the Divine Realm. Although she still died, her memories of her entire life had, through a twist of fate caused by the turbulence, returned to tens of thousands of years earlier.

The origin of the past-life memories: solved.

Next, Huang Tian abandoned his earlier wish-fulfillment novel routine, in which he portrayed himself as peerless, unrivaled under heaven, born with all knowledge, capable of anything, and ultimately rewarded with a happy ending.

Instead, he became the protagonist of a tragic novel: a prodigy of extraordinary talent, righteous and kind, who struggled desperately to survive as fate toyed with him and schemes by utterly shameless villains and evildoers closed in—only to fall short in the end and meet a miserable fate.

Along the way, he would weave in copious partings in life and death, misunderstandings, mistakes, and failures.

He would make the Silver Dragon King suffer such anguish that she would regret everything, her hatred soaring to the heavens.

Tragedies often carried more emotional force than comedies. They stirred the heart more deeply and left a lasting impression.

After all, these past-life memories were made up. They weren't things he had actually experienced. His real life, of course, would be even sweeter than sweet.

The reason he was so miserable in his wives' past-life memories was precisely to make them feel even more sorry for him and devote themselves wholeheartedly to satisfying him, so that he could live it up in the real world.

It wasn't enough for him to suffer. Gu Yuena herself had to suffer, too, and the Soul Beast clans she cared about had to suffer even more, utterly wiped out. Even humanity wouldn't escape the villains' clutches; the whole world would be plunged into misery.

In short, it was the original ending, only even more tragic.

The Soul Beasts were wiped out, human society collapsed into endless slaughter, and darkness swallowed the Divine Realm.

In this version, Tang San was even more repulsive, and the Asura God had even fewer scruples. So much of the story was recast as conspiracy, and the word "suffering" ran through the lives of everyone with a conscience who tried to fight back.

Huang Tian had an easy solution for the fact that he would have many wives in the future.

For the world, for all living beings, for fairness and justice, and for everyone he cherished and who cherished him.

He had accidentally created a powerful dual-cultivation technique. Seeing the state of the world and the human realm, he had no choice but to endure the humiliation.

He would rather bear the accusation of being unfaithful and be misunderstood by the women he loved than give up the power to change everything.

This time, it took him a full two hours to finish writing. The second review, with revisions and added details, took another seventy minutes.

The system's deductions showed no major flaws or loopholes. As for the few minor blemishes that remained, Huang Tian corrected each one without changing the main plot.

By evening, the sun had begun to set. After one final review of Version 2.6 of Gu Yuena's past-life memories, neither he nor the system found anything wrong with it.

Huang Tian no longer hesitated. He firmly tapped the word "Generate" with a thought.

The initial result had already been perfect, brimming with artistry and delivering a powerful effect.

But he still had the system generate eight more versions, so he could choose the best of the best and pick the one with the greatest emotional force.

Only after confirming again and again that there were no problems did he officially select "Implant."

In the core region of the Star Dou Forest, within an isolated pocket dimension, the Silver Dragon King's enormous body stretched across the sky.

Her massive scales each measured a meter across, glittering with a dazzling silver light that seemed to make the eyes swim.

Within that silver radiance, hints of nine other colors—white, yellow, purple, black, red, gold, blue, green, and cyan—shimmered in support, making the scene all the more gorgeous and mysterious.

Her thousand-zhang-long body towered majestically. Even in slumber, the presence of a God King radiated from her without pause, forming a unique biological force field. Ordinary powerful beings could scarcely stand or even breathe there.

Only the hideous scar on her shoulder seemed out of place, slightly spoiling the beautiful scene.

Beneath the dragon's body, a mountain range stretching a hundred zhang across rose from the ground. Astonishingly, it was made entirely of the legendary and exceedingly precious Gold of Life.

Following the Silver Dragon King's breathing, the mountain range occasionally released wisps of mist, which she then swallowed.

No one knew how long this process had been going on when the Silver Dragon King's towering body suddenly shuddered violently. Her four claws clenched, and her tail lashed more than a thousand meters away.

It was as if something had jolted her. Her breathing fell out of rhythm, and the calm, relaxed expression on her face changed dramatically, revealing humanlike shock and a moment of fear. Yet she did not wake or open her eyes.

"What's going on? I actually had a dream?"

"No, my consciousness is clearly awake, but the images are still playing. This isn't a dream."

"But if it isn't a dream, what are those images? Someone's Soul Skill?"

The jolt had made Gu Yuena's consciousness react in an instant.

But even after she came to, the dream continued unabated, stubbornly pressing on, growing ever clearer until every detail stood out in perfect clarity.

It even brought sensations that shouldn't have appeared in a dream: smell, divine sense, and the perception of energy.

Before long, the images had captured her attention, and she had no time to wonder what the strange scenes in her mind meant.

"This is...

The Divine Realm as it is now?

And who is that corpse?

Why does my heart feel so uneasy?"

From a low, upward-looking angle, a seven-colored sphere in the vast central reaches of the starry sky drew closer and closer, rapidly growing until it filled her entire field of vision.

Clouds and mist shifted unpredictably within the sphere. At times they surged like stormy seas, winds rising and clouds gathering; at others, they were like a serene beauty, unmoved by the raging waves.

She could clearly sense the extremely dense Heaven and Earth Essence within. Layer upon layer of magnificent palaces glimmered with a faint golden sheen beneath the divine light, creating a breathtaking spectacle.

Not far from the sphere, a battered corpse floated in the void.

Its head had been severed, its limbs were incomplete, and deep wounds exposing bone covered its torso.

From the golden blood that spilled forth and the qualities revealed by its bones and flesh, its owner had clearly possessed at least the cultivation of a Main God.

Strangely, however, the color of its divine power and the aura of its energy were unlike those of any deity or godhood in her memories.

In other words, it was an exceedingly rare Self-Created Godhood.

Even this single image stirred a little astonishment in Gu Yuena. Becoming a god through a Self-Created Godhood was far more difficult than inheriting a godhood.

The next moment, Gu Yuena realized that the scene came from her own perspective, because she began to speak.