"You're starting to scare me a little..."
System 999 muttered. For a moment, it seemed to return to the time of its birth, when a group of mighty beings had joined forces to create countless systems, and it had been one among them.
Back then, there had seemed to be one? Two? Or even more?
Like Feng Jiu at this moment, they had made others instinctively uneasy-the sort of ruthless figures who would sooner or later poke a hole through the heavens and overturn every chessboard.
"Actually, Little Jiu, don't get too nervous..."
The system reassured him, "First, when I snatched... no, picked up that Lotus Seed, I used a divine art of the Dao of Changes to muddle heaven's secrets and divert the flood of trouble elsewhere..."
"Things were urgent then, and I had very little time, but in that brief instant, I took a peek and spotted an immensely, immensely vast realm within this world. Its mountains and rivers stretched without end. Surely it must have countless powerful beings, enough to stand against the local shamans."
"So I linked our auras and borrowed a little of their heavenly traces... with them taking the brunt up front, no one will find us here anytime soon."
"Second, once I recover, I can just take you and run. We'll resonate with countless concepts of 'Heavenly Court' and make a clean getaway!"
System 999 was confident-running away was its specialty!
"I see..." Feng Jiu breathed a sigh of relief. "But surely that comes at a price?"
"There is a bit of a price... traveling to a 'Heavenly Court' who knows how far away would consume an enormous amount of energy. We might both be gone before we got halfway there."
"Then it looks like I still need to put in some effort and win this round." Feng Jiu remained calm. "Actually, we won't necessarily lose."
"Oh?" The system sounded surprised. "We're gathering experience in being a Heavenly Emperor. Nobody asked you to fight a race left behind by a divine creator..."
Feng Jiu smiled without answering. "Besides Lady Houtu's scriptures and principles, what other good things do you have? Bring them all out!"
"Oh, and they need to help with my cultivation right now."
"Cultivation? Let me look..." the system muttered. After a long while, divine light surged.
"Found it!" It seemed to have discovered something. "It's the great goddess Nuwa's fortune Dao!"
"The legendary Nuwa who shaped humans from earth?" Feng Jiu perked up.
Nuwa creating humanity-that was a story he knew!
"Yes..." Had the system taken human form, it would probably have been swaying its head as it recited, "Nuwa, an ancient goddess and sovereign, had a human face and a serpent's body, and underwent seventy transformations in a single day..."
"This great goddess attained the highest achievement in the domain of creation... in fact, in the world we came from, she created not only humanity, but countless races throughout existence."
"In just one day, she could create seventy races. She continued for hundreds of millions of years, until the entire Primordial World, across boundless space and time, was filled with the sentient beings she had created."
"Life is the greatest miracle in existence!"
The system grew solemn, its voice filled with boundless reverence. "The Great Dao numbers fifty; the Heavenly Dao takes forty-nine, leaving a single thread of life..."
"That thread of life lies in all living beings. It is the key to any world turning from 'dead' to 'alive'!"
"Without life, an entire world is deathly silent, running futilely according to predetermined rules. Its end is visible at a glance. Without any vitality or vigor, it ultimately proceeds toward its ordained destruction."
"Only the birth of life allows a world to survive the tribulation of destruction and move toward eternity."
"That is why Lady Nuwa's creation of myriad spirits and living beings is universally acknowledged as a deed of great merit!"
"I've wandered off topic..." The system turned its attention back to Feng Jiu. "Your constitution looks ordinary, and your origin is unremarkable. That's a very frail foundation!"
"Why not draw on Lady Nuwa's principles of creation? If you can grasp even a little of their divine wonders, creating an entirely new race from nothing might still be beyond you, but whatever constitution exists in this little universe, you can simply mold one for yourself."
So the system said.
The Dao of creation was that domineering. Whatever constitution you wanted, you could simply mold it yourself.
Feng Jiu's eyes lit up.
"Even innate constitutions can be molded however I please?"
"Why not?" the system argued confidently. "Submitting to an innate constitution is how the weak think!"
"The truly strong recognize no taboos. Heaven and earth themselves are a canvas for their splashed ink!"
"If you can perfect the Dao of creation, you could seize all the mortal worlds in one hand and refine them in an instant, becoming the source of creation for all life!"
The system promised Feng Jiu a glorious future.
"Even if you can't reach that level, you can still transform yourself at will. Not just your constitution-you can even change your race. You could become a True Dragon, a Phoenix, a Qilin... any race in existence!"
"Of course, changing races is secondary. What matters is using those transformations to gain fresh perspectives on heaven and earth, another way of understanding the Great Dao."
"For instance, why can birds fly?"
"A mortal could only pour every ounce of effort into studying it, endlessly deducing and proving... but for a bird, flight is instinct, already hidden within the divine mysteries of creation."
"Likewise, ordinary creatures struggle to perceive the wonders of time and the mysteries of space, but some races are born within the flow of ages and roam the void by instinct!"
"Transforming your race, changing your fundamental nature-creation can do anything!"
System 999 talked with spit flying, leaving Feng Jiu so enthralled that he almost abandoned Houtu's reincarnation to become the most devoted follower of Nuwa's creation.
"Is it really that powerful? I'm not asking for much. I'd be satisfied for now if I could turn into a Saint Spirit..."
"But if creation can do anything, it must be very difficult, right?"
Feng Jiu sighed in wonder.
"Transforming out of nothing would indeed be somewhat difficult... but if you could obtain the corresponding race's blood essence or origin, and borrow the false to cultivate the true..." System 999 mused. "Taking a shortcut could lower the threshold considerably."
Feng Jiu's expression immediately turned peculiar.
Blood essence?
Origin?
Anyone who didn't know better would think he had embarked on the demonic path of the ruthless inheritance!
"Being an assassin is a fine profession..."
He suddenly spoke in a quiet, meaningful voice.
If someone else killed people and seized their origins, people would think it was the ruthless demonic path.
But as an assassin... it seemed perfectly normal for him to kill anyone!
Don't ask.
If you do, the answer is: take someone's money and rid them of their troubles!
"Nuwa... Houtu..."
"Creation... reincarnation..."
"The future seems bright. Perhaps I can carve out the most inconceiv-
"-able Dao..."
He pondered, then abruptly rose and walked outside, carrying half a cubic measure of Nine Heavens Divine Jade and donning a cloak that was almost impossible to see through.
Feng Jiu had a clear destination, as though he had scouted it more than once.
At last, in an ancient village, beneath an old yin tree, he met a cultivator who was little more than skin and bones, his eyes cold.
"The assassin organization-Hell!"
Feng Jiu stopped, drawing the cultivator's gaze. The man asked in a hoarse voice, "You've sought out Hell. Who do you want killed?"
"A Sacred Body!"
Feng Jiu lowered his voice.
He was... outsourcing!
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