Defying Heaven Is a Joke! How Can Something Born of Rules Defy Heaven?

Swallowing, Bibi Dong could not help asking softly, "Then... what about now?"

"You currently have seventy percent of your Soul Power sealed by the Godly Trial Seal and unusable, and your body has regressed into this little-kid form. Can you still beat them?"

Nan Feng tilted his head and thought for a moment before giving a very objective assessment:

"If I had to beat them head-on, it probably wouldn't be possible right now. After all, those three aren't pushovers, and having seventy percent of my Soul Power suppressed is a serious handicap. However, protecting myself definitely won't be a problem. If they want to kill me, there's nothing they can do."

At that point, Nan Feng suddenly gave a mysterious smile. "Oh, right. I don't think I've shown you my Spirit Rings before, have I? Want to see them?"

Bibi Dong suddenly came to her senses. "Spirit Rings?"

Nan Feng nodded and explained, "Although the Trial of the God of Evil is torturous, the reward that Bi Yang gave me was quite generous."

"According to what the God of Evil revealed, the rewards a Deity can grant a successor during a Godly Trial are closely tied to the trial's difficulty."

"This is one of the Cosmic Rules. It's an ironclad law that the Divine Realm must obey when interfering with the mortal realm. Even a God King cannot violate it."

"In other words, the more outrageous the difficulty of the Godly Trial, the more the God of Evil can give me, and the more he can improve my foundation."

"And the stronger my foundation is before I truly challenge the Divine Seat, the more terrifying my initial strength will be after inheriting the Divine Seat. I'll be far stronger than ordinary Deities!"

"However..."

Nan Feng rubbed his chin. "Normally, when a Deity sets up a succession trial, it's because they've grown tired of doing the job themselves and want to find a successor so they can leave as soon as possible."

"So, under ordinary circumstances, they absolutely won't make things excessively difficult for the successor."

"Otherwise, if they torment the person to death, or make the difficulty so high that the person fails, that suitable successor won't be as common as cabbages. They can't just find another one whenever they want."

Bibi Dong's expression grew increasingly strange. "Then why did the God of Evil torment you half to death for decades?"

Hearing that, Nan Feng immediately rolled his eyes in extreme exasperation, his resentment soaring.

"Because that son of a bitch never intended to pass on the Divine Seat from the very beginning!"

"He simply thought that an oddball like me was fun and became interested in me! He probably planned to casually bring down a death trial that was absolutely impossible to complete, so I'd back off after realizing the difficulty. But I refused to believe in fate and stubbornly fought him!"

"He made the trials harder and harder, more and more inhuman, so I insisted on forcing my way through them time after time and slapping him in the face! And now..."

Nan Feng let out a cold laugh. "I think the old bastard himself has gotten a little stuck between a rock and a hard place."

Bibi Dong hesitated, then slightly parted her red lips. "Then haven't you ever thought of... giving up?"

"Giving up?" Nan Feng tilted his head. "Why?"

Bibi Dong looked at him with a complicated expression. "Since you know perfectly well that the God of Evil never truly intended to pass on the Divine Seat from the start, and has even been tormenting you without limits to force you to give up on your own, if you keep stubbornly fighting him, you may very well end up drawing water with a bamboo basket—wasting all your effort for nothing."

Hearing this, Nan Feng could not help laughing. He shook his head.

"Little Dongdong, it seems you've seriously misunderstood the nature of a Godly Trial."

"Although the essence of this thing really isn't as proper or sacred as you once imagined, it also isn't as utterly unconstrained as you imagine now."

Nan Feng raised one finger and began explaining seriously.

"A Godly Trial, as the name suggests, is a succession test established by a Deity. Its specific content and difficulty are indeed set by the Deity themselves. However, this doesn't mean they can simply do whatever they want."

"Not only must its rewards and punishments strictly follow the equivalent-exchange Cosmic Rules I mentioned, but its underlying design also has an absolute, rigid requirement."

Nan Feng raised two fingers. "First, it cannot be too easy."

"If a Godly Trial is designed too casually, with something as simple as taking a run being enough to pass, then when the successor ultimately inherits the Divine Seat, it will directly trigger the Cosmic Heavenly Tribulation."

"Without sufficient tempering, the successor's foundation and strength won't be enough to bear the Divine Seat. They'll be struck by the Lightning Tribulation on the spot until their soul is scattered, and the Divine Seat will collapse along with them."

"The Cosmic Rules themselves absolutely do not acknowledge this kind of backdoor ascension."

"Second, the Cosmic Rules likewise do not permit Deities to treat a Godly Trial as pure entertainment. A Deity can set an extremely difficult death trial, but they must also provide an equally generous reward."

"More importantly, although the contents of the trial are unrestricted, they absolutely cannot be arbitrary. It can be extremely difficult, difficult enough to surpass your physical and mental limits, but it absolutely cannot be an impossible dead end!"

"Because the essence of a Godly Trial is, in the end, still a test."

"As long as there is even a one-in-ten-thousand chance of passing, no matter how harsh the conditions are, it still counts as a test."

"But if something is absolutely impossible for you to complete from the very beginning, then it isn't called a test."

"The Cosmic Rules will absolutely never acknowledge such an impossible dead end."

"Although a God King is a supreme existence standing above ordinary rules, if they dare to toy with these most fundamental rules at will, they'll incur the merciless backlash of the Cosmic Rules."

"Even the Dragon God, who was hailed as the strongest in ancient times, absolutely could not resist the backlash of the Cosmic Rules."

Bibi Dong froze, her eyes filled with confusion. "Why?"

"If God Kings already stand above the rules, why would they still suffer the rules' backlash?"

Nan Feng sighed and patiently explained, "The God of Goodness once explained this issue to me as well."

"Although Deities stand above conventional rules and can even control and modify certain rules, the world we exist in—this entire universe—possesses a grand Cosmic Will of its own."

"Whether they're insignificant mortals or lofty Deities, when all is said and done, they're merely living beings existing [inside] this universe."

"Even a God King who controls the rules absolutely cannot do anything that affects the foundation supporting the universe's continued existence. Recklessly toying with the fundamental rules will cause the universe's logic to collapse, leading to irreversible self-destruction."

"So, whenever any existence attempts to do something this dangerous, the Cosmic Rules will immediately activate their defensive mechanism, unleash the highest level of backlash, and forcibly erase and destroy this unstable factor!"

Nan Feng looked at Bibi Dong. "You can regard these Cosmic Rules as the true Heaven's Dao."

"We were born in this universe. It's precisely because these fundamental rules support us that we're able to exist."

"That also means our existence itself is [based on rules]."

"Something born from rules, yet attempting to break the rules that maintain its own existence... Logically speaking, that's a complete paradox."

"In other words, those people who shout every day about defying Heaven and breaking the laws of Heaven and Earth are, from the perspective of underlying logic, nothing more than a fundamentally invalid joke."

After hearing this grand theory of the "Cosmic Heaven's Dao," Bibi Dong fell into a prolonged silence.

A moment later, she raised her head, a light of realization shining in her eyes.

"So what you mean is... although the God of Evil's Godly Trial is utterly disgusting in the process and lets him torment you in all kinds of ways, since he has already initiated the trial, as long as you can endure the torment and successfully clear it, then no matter how unwilling he is, he'll ultimately have no choice but to pass on the Divine Seat to you?"

"In theory, that's how it works."

Nan Feng snapped his fingers. "As long as I complete every Godly Trial he has established, the equivalent-exchange Cosmic Rules require him to pass the Divine Seat on to me."

"Of course, as a God King, he can also forcibly renege and refuse to fulfill the reward. But..."

"The ensuing backlash from the Cosmic Rules will then be something he, the God King, has to bear himself. I imagine the scene will be quite spectacular."