Chapter 663 - 421: Destruction and Hope

Chapter 663: Chapter 421: Destruction and Hope

Limbs continuously sprouted and spread across his body. Lu Cang felt as if another "self" was about to be born from him.

"An Su!"

Lu Cang roared in his Sea of Consciousness!

Almost simultaneously, his soul surged forth, pouring into An Su!

An Su let out a long sigh.

’This kid...’

’He probably figured out how to order me around long ago.’

WHOOSH—

An aura of Death swirled around Lu Cang’s body.

"Kid."

The whites of Lu Cang’s eyes turned black, and his pupils shifted from black to red.

"She is not something you can handle."

"Even I can’t kill Her in my current state..."

"If you have a way to escape, you should retreat for now."

An Su’s voice sounded in his mind.

Lu Cang finally felt his body stop sprouting new limbs. An Su had temporarily disrupted Sophia’s growth...

"I know."

TAP—

Lu Cang’s form flickered, and he reappeared on an extremely desolate planet.

Sophia was nowhere in sight.

"What on earth were you thinking?" An Su’s voice rang out.

An Su’s power gradually faded.

Lu Cang had sacrificed only a measured portion of his soul to An Su.

Over more than a decade of coexistence with An Su, Lu Cang had figured out many of its clever applications.

Not every situation required him to sacrifice his entire soul and let An Su go all out.

If he only fed it a sliver of his soul at a critical moment...

...and only required it to perform a specific task...

...then everything would become much more manageable.

An Su wouldn’t be able to break free from his control, either.

The only time he had used his entire soul was to have An Su confront the Level 9 Izparut.

In a battle of that magnitude, An Su had no spare energy to even think about escaping his control.

But if it had any power to spare, An Su did indeed have ways to break free.

In a state where it could hold its own against a Level 9 Iz...

...Lu Cang couldn’t even see the battle clearly.

Let alone read its thoughts.

To break free, it didn’t need to kill him. In fact, if it tried to harm him, his Final Sense would detect it.

Therefore, it could simply kill itself before he had time to react.

Although, An Su said it would not commit suicide.

Suicide is a blasphemy against Death.

But "won’t" and "can’t"... are two different things.

At the very least, it truly had a way to escape him.

Limiting An Su’s power was the only way to prevent it from breaking his control.

"I just wanted to test the waters with her."

"It seems I really can’t win."

Lu Cang’s reply was nonchalant.

"You certainly are audacious..."

"But I have to say, you’ve gotten quite skilled at pouring your soul into me."

An Su felt it was being treated as a mere tool—a living power source to be infused with a bit of soul whenever it was needed.

Lu Cang gave a self-deprecating smile. "Yes, I suppose I am pretty daring."

’I don’t know when it started,’ Lu Cang mused, ’but now, my first instinct upon meeting a god is to test them.’

’It’s dangerous, but at least I got some of the information I was after.’

TAP—

Another instant passed.

Lu Cang appeared on the island.

He saw massive walls of water rising around him. He was now on the surface of the Ocean.

Now that a Core could be left behind regardless of distance, its greatest advantage was that swapping positions had become much easier.

Even across tens or hundreds of millions of kilometers.

As long as a Core was left behind...

...he could arrive in an instant.

He could even leave another Core behind before teleporting, allowing him to switch back immediately.

Since a Core could be left on Yelieya...

...it could naturally be left in other places as well.

Although his Mage and Warrior Levels hadn’t increased...

...these ten-plus years of training...

...had elevated Lu Cang’s application of Magic to a new height.

Lu Cang believed his own proficiency in Magic was now perhaps on par with that of the Level 5 Izparut from back then.

After all, when Izparut first found him, he had only been a Mage for three years.

And the time Lu Cang had spent in the reset timelines was already longer than Iz’s entire life.

"An Su, what do you think Sophia’s purpose... truly is?"

An Su snorted. "What else could it be? Hasn’t She already told you?"

Lu Cang said, "Be more specific. I don’t want to misunderstand any nuances."

An Su chuckled coldly. "Have you ever heard of a game called ’big fish eats little fish’?"

Lu Cang replied, "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

’There are video games like that on Earth,’ he thought, ’but... that’s on Earth.’

"Heh, it’s a game from ancient times."

"There’s a type of fish called the Kun-Devourer. It’s tiny when it’s young, but by devouring other fish, it achieves astonishing growth."

"It eats its way through fish smaller than itself, growing into a giant."

"Everyone gets their own Kun-Devourer, and whoever raises the biggest one wins the game."

"From what I see, this Sophia wants to become a Kun-Devourer herself."

"Resurrect the Lord of the Sea, then devour it, making the Lord of the Sea part of Herself."

’So it’s literally what it sounds like.’

’I was wondering if there was some ambiguity I was missing, but it seems my understanding was spot on.’

"Then what if, in the end, it’s not the Lord of the Sea that Awakens, but the Original Sea?"

Lu Cang asked again.