Chapter 524: A Mortal Body Becoming the Celestial Dao? Nothing More Than a Matter of One Punch

Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao watched as its Wood Demon avatar was devoured in a single bite by the Cosmic Giant Bull. When nothing followed, its heart went cold.

Fortunately, the half-hour passed in the blink of an eye, and he successfully completed his ascension.

The problem was, even now, there wasn’t a single clue about the true identity of the mastermind behind it all.

CLAP, CLAP, CLAP~

Suddenly, the sound of clapping reached his ears, and his expression changed in an instant.

His gaze fell upon the source of the sound: an utterly unremarkable middle-aged man. The man, dressed in a white lab coat, was approaching him with a leisurely stroll.

His pace wasn’t fast, yet Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao couldn’t perceive the method by which he was drawing near.

On both a macro and micro level, it was as if the man didn’t exist at all.

“Not bad. You actually succeeded.”

“You’re the second being I’ve seen to achieve the state of a Celestial Dao from a mortal body.”

“However, compared to the other Celestial Dao I know, the gap is still quite large.” Qi Suian walked right up to Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao, nonchalantly reached out, and grabbed him by the neck.

At that moment, Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao actually felt like he was suffocating.

He was a Celestial Dao now; how could he possibly have such a sensation? Even before his ascension, he would never have felt something like this.

Yet here it was, absurdly manifesting in his body. He felt just like a human with no Extraordinary powers. If he didn’t break free, this suffocating feeling would absolutely be the death of him.

“Who… who in the world are you…?” Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao couldn’t comprehend how Qi Suian was doing this. He struggled, but his efforts were completely futile.

The disparity between them was so vast that he could see no hope of survival.

“Me? Just your average, unremarkable survivor,” Qi Suian said modestly.

‘When you’re away from home, you have to give yourself a suitable cover. I can’t just go around announcing my real identity.’

‘That would be too dangerous. What if someone found out my origins and came after me with a specific counter-plan?’

“Unremarkable? Heh…” Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao’s sneer made it clear what he thought: ‘You can’t even be bothered to make your lies convincing.’

“What? Is there something wrong with my face? Am I earth-shatteringly handsome or incomparably ugly?” Qi Suian had a very clear assessment of his own appearance.

‘If I had just changed my name to Zhang Wei, I’d be a complete background character from head to toe. I might’ve even awakened an S-rank talent for having a -1 presence.’

‘If the protagonist’s halo hadn’t randomly landed on me back then, I wouldn’t even have qualified to be cannon fodder with a name, let alone a supporting character.’

“Appearance is merely an external matter. For someone with your power to care about such things is absurd,” Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao blurted out before taking a ragged breath.

Qi Suian loosened his grip slightly, granting him the comfort of being able to breathe. “Then why’d you make yourself so handsome?” he asked.

‘He says he doesn’t care, yet he made himself look like a total stud.’

‘Someone like me is the one who truly doesn’t care. Otherwise, I would’ve given myself a cosmetic upgrade ages ago.’

‘Having an unremarkable face has its advantages, too. At least no one ever notices me in a crowd.’

“Hmph!” Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao snorted, not intending to answer Qi Suian. Instead, he asked, “Invader, who are you?”

He could see how out of place Qi Suian was, and therefore deduced that he was not a native life form of this universe.

But the man was indeed unnaturally strong, able to completely overpower even a Celestial Dao like himself.

Of course, this was also partly due to the universe’s own problems.

If not for the great war of the past that had caused the universe to shrink and shatter until only a single galaxy’s worth of space remained, he wouldn’t be this weak.

However, in that complete, peak-era universe, Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao would never have been able to succeed with his plan to ascend to the status of Celestial Dao.

It was a situation with both pros and cons.

“You’ve already asked me that twice. Besides, you’ve already answered your own question.”

“Since you already know I’m an invader, what’s the point of asking?”

“You’re not expecting me to tell you my origins and weaknesses so you have an easier time fighting me, are you?” Qi Suian said, exasperated.

‘I already gave you a vague, non-committal answer, which means I don’t want to tell you. No matter how you probe or what you ask, you won’t get a real response.’

“Besides,” he continued, “even if I told you everything, what do you think you could do?” As he spoke, the hand that had loosened slightly tightened once more.

The force was even greater this time, caving in the neck of Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao.

A feeling of suffocation, accompanied by excruciating pain, caused Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao’s consciousness to blur.

These sensations should have vanished after he became a Celestial Dao, yet Qi Suian was inflicting them upon him.

‘Even if I’m just a nascent world, I’m not someone a newly ascended Celestial Dao like him can mess with.’

‘Especially after spending all this time sorting through and adapting to my own power. My strength has soared to a point I don’t even know how to quantify anymore.’

‘After all, it’s my first time being a world, so I have no experience to draw on. I can only feel my way forward.’

‘It’s a good thing I had the data from the “Heaven-Connecting Divine Wood Project, Version 72.0 (Ended in Failure),” extracted from the Ginseng Fruit Tree clan’s genes. It’s how I managed to build a basic framework.’

“See? There’s nothing you can do except struggle in vain,” Qi Suian said, then simply dragged him away.

He returned to his laboratory and, without much fuss, tied up Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao.

The bonds were just ordinary hemp rope, yet even as a Celestial Dao, he was unable to break free.

“The Flame Demon and that Cosmic Giant Bull were your handiwork, weren’t they?”

“With your level of power, I doubt you needed to resort to such convoluted methods. You must have a much grander scheme in mind,” Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao said.

Although he was bound and hanging upside down, it wasn’t Qi Suian’s hands directly holding him, so while he was still unable to resist, he no longer felt that mortal-like discomfort.

Hearing this, Qi Suian nodded. “Correct. You’re right.”

‘He just admitted it outright. So what? It was the truth anyway.’

‘Besides, what he said was just stating the obvious. If there wasn’t something to be gained, I would’ve just shown up and punched him into dust.’

‘Why go through all this trouble?’

“I just don’t understand… why is your power so… plain?” Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao finally asked what was bothering him.

‘We’re all powerful entities. Why are your methods so crude?’

‘I command laws and manipulate rules. But Qi Suian? He just throws a punch.’

‘And yet that one big fist is enough to send me scurrying away in terror.’

“The ultimate essence of combat is killing your enemy.” Qi Suian began his research with unhurried movements, chatting with Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao as he worked. “The method doesn’t matter. All that matters is that the enemy dies.”

“The simpler the method, the more effective it is.”

“All those flashy rules and laws are just tools to compensate for one’s own deficiencies.”

“I don’t have such shortcomings. So with pure, unadulterated brute force, I can achieve what you cannot.”

“It’s more efficient and costs less, wouldn’t you agree?” As Qi Suian analyzed Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao, streams of data from the entire universe began to surface.

If a world were a vast and complex computer, with matter as its hardware and rules as its software, then the Celestial Dao would be the operating system born from their union.

It not only possesses every administrative privilege but also stores all the system’s data.

Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao had only just completed his ascension and had not yet realized his own immense value.

After all, his status was acquired, not innate. Much like Qi Suian, he needed sufficient time to learn and let his new power settle before he could wield it to its full potential.

Unfortunately, unlike Qi Suian, he didn’t have the good fortune to secure enough time to develop. The moment his ascension was complete, he was captured.

“You… This… I…” Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao was left completely dumbfounded by Qi Suian’s words.

‘What he said made sense, but… a wise man doesn’t stand beneath a collapsing wall. Using such crude methods implies taking unnecessary risks.’

‘But for the life of me, I couldn’t think of a rebuttal.’

‘Because Qi Suian really had just grabbed me by the neck and dragged me back by force, and I hadn’t been able to resist at all.’

‘That proved the man’s philosophy was entirely viable.’

“Oh? You move fast. Leaving a failsafe in your old husk… interesting,” Qi Suian remarked, his gaze sweeping into the distance.

However, Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao remained silent, clearly having no intention of responding.

—————–

After Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao was taken away, all the Heavenly Dao Wooden Men simultaneously dissipated.

At the same time, the residual instinct within the massive, “dead” husk began to disintegrate, causing each and every root to develop a will of its own.

This caused its previously coiled form to unfurl, transforming the planet-sized mass into a cosmic monstrosity.

A distant malice triggered a stress response in the Ginseng Fruit Tree—a being long dead, kept animated only by a forced, lingering breath of necrotic energy.

Countless Heavenly Dao Wooden Men were swept up and instantly devoured, assimilated into the mass.

With every Heavenly Dao Wooden Man it fused with, the instinct within the Ginseng Fruit Tree’s husk grew more active.

Soon, human faces began to appear all over its roots, trunk, and branches. These faces no longer had closed eyes; instead, they stared blankly into the distance.

From a distance, these faces looked like eyeballs, crudely embedded into every surface of the tree.

The five planets—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—were eroded by the necrotic energy, gradually merging with the husk to become even more twisted, giant eyeballs.

As for the humans on those planets? They had long ago been offered up as blood sacrifices. How else could Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao have possibly succeeded in its ascension?

It was a required part of the ascension protocol. Without completing that step, there could be no follow-up.

When the five giant eyeballs snapped open, it signaled the official awakening of the cosmic monster created by the Celestial Dao.