The Will of the Plane?
Displeased, Chu Qing wrote with his hand:
"Do you realize how rude you're being?"
"Tell me the truth. Are you trying to refine me into your puppet?"
The Will of the Plane responded directly with action. The Blade of Life's Watch turned into a flash of green light and appeared in Chu Qing's Sea of Spirit in an instant.
The Blade of Life's Watch then began nourishing Chu Qing's divine sense. With it at the center, emerald-green ripples spread across his Sea of Spirit.
"Who are you looking down on?"
"It's just a little piece of Gold of Life. I have plenty of it."
Only then did the Will of the Plane take control of his hand and continue writing.
Feeling the changes in his Sea of Consciousness, Chu Qing immediately changed his tune.
"Big Brother Plane, I didn't know what was good for me. I misunderstood you, venerable sir."
The Will of the Plane continued writing with his hand:
"But it's only natural for you to have that concern."
"Let me explain it again. All I need is for you and Tang Wutong to become gods together and draw some attention away for me, giving me time to prepare."
As Chu Qing listened, he recalled how he had long had a vague feeling that something was wrong. Now a terrifying thought sprang into his mind, and he wrote rapidly with his other hand:
"Big Brother Plane, let me ask you something, if I may. You wouldn't happen to be a transmigrator too, would you?"
As he wrote, his other hand, which had been under the Will's control, froze in midair.
For a moment, the air fell silent.
Chu Qing swallowed nervously.
His heart pounded wildly, and, feeling terribly guilty, he wrote with his hand:
"Big Brother Plane, don't give me the silent treatment!"
There was no response for a long time.
He groaned inwardly. Could a transmigrator really have been reborn as the Will of the Plane?
Running into someone from his own world at a time like this might not be such a good thing.
He would find a fellow transmigrator even more terrifying than Tang San.
The Will of the Plane did not respond, and the worried Chu Qing suddenly found himself in his Sea of Spirit the next moment.
Huh?
He was a little puzzled, but he was soon stunned by the colossal thing around the edge of his Sea of Spirit.
At the edge of his Sea of Spirit, it seemed as though he were connected to the real sea in the outside world. An incomparably enormous bone serpent lay in the deep sea, encircling the continent.
He turned and looked in every direction. Like a vast mountain range, the bone serpent coiled around the edge of his Sea of Spirit.
"What is this?"
He could hardly believe it.
"Don't tell me you're not the Will of the Plane at all, but an unimaginably terrifying Soul Beast!"
As he felt the wisps of its presence entering his Sea of Consciousness, every last trace bore down on him, shaking his mind.
He felt certain that the bone serpent's cultivation had surpassed a million years.
And it seemed even more like this was merely the strength it had left. Or was it that, even reduced to a skeleton, it still hadn't completely died?
Looking at the earth-shaking World-Encircling Bone Serpent, he thought of Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent that encircled the world and had been cast into the deep sea by Odin.
The Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Spirit, Rainbow Shieldtail, cowered behind Chu Qing in fright.
"Yes, and no."
A voice devoid of joy or anger, neither male nor female, rang out from every direction in his Sea of Spirit.
Brilliant blue-gold soul flames ignited in the enormous bone serpent's eye sockets, vast enough to fill mountains and form lakes.
The instant its gaze fell on him, Chu Qing's Sea of Consciousness began shrinking back in fear.
Sensing danger, the Blade of Life's Watch within it erupted with dazzling emerald light in an instant, shielding Chu Qing.
Chu Qing's Martial Soul was also roused into bursting forth. It coiled and swam through his Sea of Consciousness, a seven-colored halo radiating from its body and illuminating his Sea of Spirit.
"I am indeed the Will of the Plane, and a transmigrator as well."
"But my existence is complicated."
"You may find this hard to believe, but I am Sea God Tang San, the one hated by the people of your world. Now I've transmigrated and become the Will of the Plane of Douluo, while another Tang San exists in the Divine Realm at the same time."
"What?!"
"You're saying you're Tang San?"
"Then who's the one in the Divine Realm?"
Chu Qing's scalp went numb, and he couldn't help crying out.
He had thought he had already imagined the worst: that the Will of the Plane was a fellow transmigrator.
Never in his wildest dreams had he expected an even worse possibility. The damn Will of the Plane was Tang San after transmigrating!
This is hard to bear!
His Sea of Consciousness had stabilized, and the compression had even brought faint benefits.
But Chu Qing's head was practically bursting, and he was in no mood to pay attention to any of that. He felt as though the left and right sides of his brain were fighting each other.
"So?"
"Are you going to take yourself on now?"
"Tang San versus Tang San?"
"Then what does that make me?"
Tang San, the Will of the Plane, gave him an answer.
"No. I'm not doing this to fight Tang San."
"Once, to find my reincarnated wife, I gave up everything and followed her into reincarnation."
"But fate played a cruel trick on me. I never expected to transmigrate back here and merge with the Will of the Plane."
"At first, I was just as stunned as you."
"But I don't hate Tang San. I'm only trying to find a way to keep Xiao Wu from treading the same old path again."
"Even if I have to watch her lying in someone else's arms, I'll be content."
"But later, as I merged more and more perfectly with the Will of the Plane, I absorbed a great deal of resentment in the process."
"There were Soul Beasts that perished in heavenly tribulations. They asked why Soul Beasts couldn't become gods."
"There were Soul Masters who died of old age at level 99. They, too, couldn't accept why they couldn't take another step forward."
"Gradually, I could hear more and more resentful wails. All the suffering on the continent-whether from Soul Masters, Soul Beasts, plants, trees, mountains or stones-their weeping echoed ceaselessly in my mind at every moment."
"Little by little, I also absorbed some souls that had transmigrated here from other worlds, including people from your world."
"I was no longer as muddleheaded as before."
"I began to ponder what the root of all the suffering on the continent truly was."
"Later, I found the answer: the Divine Realm bearing down on us from above."
"As the Will of the Plane of this world, I naturally ought to protect every living thing in it."
"I resolved to create a world without suffering!"
Chu Qing was stunned, deeply moved. He really was the pure and spotless Tang Buddha!
At the same time, though, what he heard frightened him a little, and he said:
"Lord Sea God-no, Lord Plane, while it's very great of you to have an ideal,"
"Would you consider listening to the happy voices on the continent too?"
Tang San's voice, which reverberated through Chu Qing's Sea of Spirit, finally took on a hint of lament.
"You're only human. You can't understand how I feel."
"And gods are merely somewhat stronger people."
Chu Qing nodded firmly. He agreed wholeheartedly with that.
Gods were just powerful people.
But did Tang San, who had merged with the Will of the Plane, still count as a person?
He was puzzled and scratched his head, unable to calm himself for a long time.
"One day, perhaps you'll understand."
Tang San, the Will of the Plane, suddenly said this out of nowhere.
Chu Qing found it strange.
"Me?"
"You needn't worry about yourself."
"Do you see the half-dead state I'm in now?"
Chu Qing nodded, only half understanding. The other party didn't seem to have responded to what he'd said.
"What happened?"
"Tang San did it."
"I had no choice but to wipe out Da Ming. Not long afterward, Er Ming came looking for me."
Chu Qing thought that it was none of his business how miserably either of the two Tang Sans died fighting each other.
"Mm, that is pretty miserable."
But Tang San, the Will of the Plane, continued:
"The war has already begun. We don't have much time left, and everything has become more urgent."
"Before long, I'll use your hand to fake my death and slip away. You'll ascend to the Divine Realm carrying false fortune, and our cooperation will be over."
"I only need you to buy me some time."
"I've told you everything frankly. You can complete this task without a hitch, can't you?"
"All I'm asking is for you to behave yourself and become a god."
Chu Qing immediately assumed a serious attitude and said shamelessly:
"Lord Plane, trust me. I'm not like those haters."
"Do you know why, out of all those transmigrators' souls, I chose you in particular?"
Tang San, the Will of the Plane, asked.
Chu Qing had been wondering about that too.
"Right! Why?"
He suddenly remembered the posts he had made on the forum insulting Tang San and felt a little guilty.
"Because your innate aptitude is extraordinary."
"Oh!"
Chu Qing was delighted. He loved hearing nice things.
"Could you be more specific?"
"You've got the bones of a cheap bastard."
The figure of the World-Encircling Bone Serpent at the edge of his Sea of Spirit gradually vanished.
"Fuck..."
Chu Qing felt he should never have asked, and flew into a rage in his Sea of Spirit.