Chapter 461 - 187: Prying into Memories, Blue Star Anchor, I’ll Do It

"That was indeed an oversight on my part."

At this, Su Bai could only nod.

He had indeed left many traces since arriving in this world.

He was well aware of this himself.

But even if he could do it all over again, he would still act the same way.

Unless he had devoured all the Spiritual Qi in the world the moment he arrived, he was bound to be discovered eventually.

It was a path no one had managed to complete for hundreds of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions of years.

How could a lowly Prison Guard who completed it in a mere eight years, surpassing every Cultivator in the world, not stand out?

"But so what?"

Su Bai gazed coolly at the Black and White Dual Venerable before him, his expression serene. He showed no trace of the fear or dread one might expect after being exposed.

"Hm?"

His reaction made Venerable Hei Ming frown for the first time.

"Fellow Daoist Su, you seem to have no fear at all?"

"I am a man of flesh and blood, subject to all seven passions and six desires. How could I not be afraid?"

Su Bai flicked his sleeve and shook his head.

"I’m simply confident in my backing. It’s nothing worth mentioning."

Ultimately, his greatest trump card was the Purification Tripod.

’When you’ve got a cheat, you naturally don’t panic.’

He could now activate a sliver of the Purification Tripod’s power, allowing him to retreat at his leisure.

He still had a chance to stage a comeback.

But Hei Ming’s words were also a wake-up call. Just because no one in the Mortal Realm could detect his methods didn’t mean his technique for prying into memories was infallible.

"Oh?"

Venerable Hei Ming lowered his eyelids, concealing the glint of surprise in his eyes, and asked with feigned curiosity,

"I have a question. I wonder where you come from, Fellow Daoist. Would you be able to enlighten me?"

"I would also like to know."

Just then, Bai You, who had been silent for a moment, slowly raised his head.

"The older the man, the shrewder he gets; the older the ghost, the sharper he becomes. You two already know the answer, so why bother asking?"

Su Bai let out a soft sigh.

As the common folk say, live a hundred years and you’ll understand the ways of the world.

These two old ghosts had lived for far more than ten thousand years.

Regardless of their demeanor, they were both deeply calculating individuals.

"Just as I thought..."

A Divine Light flickered in Venerable Hei Ming’s eyes as he murmured to himself,

"So this is the opportunity the Venerable Lord has been waiting for..."

"Hm!?"

Hearing Hei Ming’s murmuring, Su Bai’s heart jolted. He seemed to have realized something.

’That’s it!’

’The Netherworld Venerable Master failed in his war against the heavens, dragging this world further toward collapse.’

’If I were Gu Tianyun, I would definitely have sought an escape route too.’

’And as a Transmigrator aware of other worlds, it wasn’t hard to understand why Gu Tianyun would want to retreat.’

’But if leaving was all they wanted, both Gu Tianyun and Bai You could have ascended to the Jin Yun Great World at any time.’

’Yet they didn’t leave. They must be plotting something far greater!’

As these thoughts raced through his mind, his gaze toward the two old schemers turned peculiar.

"You..."

"...want to move this entire world, and all its living beings, to Blue Star?"

Thinking back on Gu Tianyun’s long wait and Bai You’s distinctly different attitude toward him, he felt he was on to something.

’But a second later, he dismissed it as impossible.’

’This was completely different from swapping individuals.’

’Even a single entity like one of the Seven Heroes and Three Li, despite their immense size...’

’...was merely Continent Level. Enormous compared to a person, of course.’

’But compared to an entire world, it was nothing.’

’And this world—even setting aside its sun, moon, and stars—’

’...its Four Seas and Five Continents, plus its countless billions of living beings... in the entire vast Solar System, only the sun itself would likely be massive enough to qualify for such an exchange...’

’And that didn’t even account for this world’s boundless Spiritual Qi and the accumulated destiny of an entire realm!’

’That was far, far heavier than a great sun.’

For over a million years, spanning multiple eras, this world had been under constant pressure from the Jin Yun Great World.

Stars fell from its sky, an act of apocalyptic destruction that also served to shatter the world’s Spiritual Mechanism.

At the same time, this was also a way of accumulating Great Fortune.

In a way, this world was the very core of all the myriad paths in the Mortal Realm!

If he guessed correctly, the moment all the celestial bodies in this realm crashed into the continent would also be the moment the Jin Yun Great World finally captured it.

Trying to swap away such a crucial place was tantamount to ripping out its very heart!

"The world you come from... is it called Blue Star?"

"The Venerable Lord... never mentioned that name..."

A look of yearning rose in Bai You’s eyes.

"Blue Star..."

A flush appeared on Hei Ming’s dark face, as if he could barely suppress his excitement.

For two ancient beings to lose their composure like this, one could only imagine how long they had waited and planned for this very day.

Seeing their expressions, Su Bai’s thoughts churned. He frowned and couldn’t help but ask,

"Mr. Gu’s Divine Techniques are immense, that much is certain. But he couldn’t possibly have known when I would arrive, or even if I would arrive at all."

"If I hadn’t come, what would you have done?"

Gu Tianyun wasn’t an omniscient, omnipotent god. He couldn’t have predicted everything.

In fact, if Su Bai himself hadn’t peeked at the source of everything through the Exchange Altar, he never would have had the chance to even see Gu Tianyun.

He would never believe that Gu Tianyun could have calculated even that.

"If he knew when you were coming, why would the Venerable Lord have needed to take such a risk?"

Venerable Hei Ming gave a desolate smile. "You only know that the world-ending calamity is a century away. You don’t know that it was originally supposed to happen several thousand years ago!"

"The Venerable Lord was forced to act, but all he could do was buy the rest of us a few thousand years."

His laughter, desolate and cold, echoed through the air, audible for hundreds of miles.

But there was no humor in it, only endless sorrow and reminiscence.

"Thousands of years ago..."

Su Bai’s brow relaxed.

’If that’s the case, then this Netherworld Venerable Lord Sacrifice...’

’Qin Wuliang was born too late. Although he was called a Little Ghost under the Netherworld Venerable Master, the gulf in their power meant there was much he didn’t know.’

’Therefore, Su Bai, who had pried into Qin Wuliang’s memories, was only learning this today as well.’

’Gu Tianyun’s war against the heavens had also been an act of desperation.’

"The Venerable Lord’s sacrifice has a twofold purpose."

"If you arrived, we were to sacrifice all the Cultivation Spiritual Mechanism in the world, combine it with the Seven Heroes and Three Li, and transport the entire world..."

"If you didn’t, we were to kill every Cultivator in the world, along with the Seven Heroes and Three Li, to summon the Venerable Lord back to fight the impending world-ending calamity..."

"The appointed time was one hundred years before the apocalypse. In other words... now."

Bai You no longer held anything back, revealing the full story.

"I may be bloodthirsty, but I’ve never cared about killing those I could crush with a flick of my finger."

But as he finished, his expression remained unchanged, though his eyes dimmed with sorrow.

"The Venerable Lord took pity on my elder brother and me. When he fell, he told us to ascend to the Jin Yun Great World."

"But what meaning is there in merely surviving?"

"This world is the land my brothers died to protect."

"How could I, Bai You... how could I dare to just leave it behind?"

"Unless... I can take it all with me!"

Bai You didn’t state it outright, but he wasn’t good at hiding his emotions—or perhaps he simply disdained to. His meaning was plain to see.

Venerable Hei Ming remained silent, his dark eyes fixed on Su Bai, awaiting his answer.

"I deeply admire your perseverance, and everything Mr. Gu has done. I truly do..."

Su Bai sighed softly.

"But unfortunately, this plan cannot succeed. To force it would be nothing but a path to ruin."

The deeds of the Black and White Venerables, and everything Gu Tianyun had done, resonated deeply with him.

However, from what he had seen in Chen Shaoyou’s memories, this Netherworld Venerable Lord Sacrifice was destined to fail.

Both choices—summoning Gu Tianyun or moving the world—ended in failure.

And once it failed, the Seven Heroes and Three Li—sacrificed but not killed—would be unleashed upon a Cultivation Realm that had been utterly purged of its defenders.

What would happen next was self-evident.

It was destined to be a scenario even more horrifying than the world-ending calamity itself—a fate too terrible to imagine, let alone witness.

To say nothing of the fact that, for Su Bai, killing the people of this era to save the Future World...

...was simply wrong.

Regardless of whether the intentions were good or malicious, he did not believe it was the right thing to do.

The people of this era did not deserve to suffer such a fate for no reason.

"Cannot succeed?"

"Hah..."

Venerable Hei Ming mulled over those words, then suddenly lowered his gaze and gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"That’s what I told the Venerable Lord, all those years ago..."

As he murmured to himself,

a look of reminiscence flickered in the eyes of both Hei Ming and Bai You.

It was a day several thousand years ago.

The aura of the world-ending calamity had permeated the heavens and earth. Demon Ghosts wailed in the Netherworld, and every living being in the Mortal Realm trembled in fear.

On that day, just before the Venerable Lord departed, he seemed to have said the very same thing...

But...

The moment Venerable Hei Ming lowered his eyes, he snapped them back up, staring intently at Su Bai.

"Fellow Daoist Su, could you provide..."

"...Blue Star’s world anchor?"

He spoke the words awkwardly, as if he didn’t truly understand what an "anchor" was.

Clearly, he had learned the term from Gu Tianyun.

Bai You also looked at Su Bai.

The world fell still. For a moment, everything was plunged into silence.

Atop the city tower, even the nether mists and ghostly winds seemed to freeze in place.

Even time itself seemed to freeze as the three of them locked gazes.

An indescribable pressure radiated out from the Netherworld Giant City.

It drifted for hundreds of miles, spreading in every direction.

An unknown distance away, Jin Yunfeng and the others who were watching felt a sudden tremor in their hearts.

Within this tranquil atmosphere, they sensed a terrifying pressure, even heavier than before!

For a moment, their hearts were filled with utter dread.

Although they couldn’t see the faces of the three people on the Netherworld Giant City or hear their conversation,

Jin Yunfeng, Chen Shaoyou, and the others felt a vague premonition of a great terror about to descend!

"Perhaps there is a third way."

Under the intense gazes of the Black and White Dual Venerable, Su Bai lifted his eyes and spoke calmly,

"I’ll do it."