Chapter 717 - 28: The Five Decays of the Celestial Being

Chapter 717: Chapter 28: The Five Decays of the Celestial Being

Time rolled back to a few minutes ago, upon Heng’e’s great moon.

"Aunt, what’s wrong?"

Ignoring the possibility of a sneak attack, the Great Golden Crow transformed into the Yellow-robed King and appeared in front of Heng’e.

"Big Brother!"

Seeing this, the many Moon Gods all cried out in shock.

After all, no matter what they had imagined, they had never thought the Great Golden Crow would appear directly before everyone in this way.

However, it was precisely because of this move from the Great Golden Crow.

Chang’e, who originally held little hostility toward him, flashed forward and instantly appeared between the two.

"My mother is sick, and very seriously ill."

Ignoring Heng’e’s stern gaze, Chang’e spoke out the secret everyone had been concealing.

"She... didn’t just fall ill recently, did she!"

As scenes from their past interactions flashed through his mind, the Great Golden Crow’s tone unconsciously carried a hint of anger.

This anger of the Great Golden Crow’s was not directed at Chang’e and the others.

He was angry that he hadn’t noticed such an obvious fact.

Because he suddenly realized that Chang Xi absolutely could not have fallen ill only in these last few hundred years.

As an Ancient God who presided over the moon, the changes of the moon’s phases symbolized Chang Xi’s condition, and Chang Xi’s condition in turn continually affected the moon’s phases.

Under such circumstances, Chang Xi suddenly, without warning, chose to hand over the Moon God authority to Heng’e—this in itself was an omen.

Yet the Great Golden Crow had never thought in this direction, and thus had not realized that she was actually ill.

If he had thought a little deeper, he would have seen that his father God’s research into the Immortal Grass, and even his sudden decision to become a Pathfinder, seemed to have started from this stage as well.

In other words, a considerable part of Emperor Hao’s various abnormal behaviors had been because of Chang Xi.

[Wait... is that really the whole truth?]

Eyes suddenly widening, the Great Golden Crow strained to recall those details in his memory.

Unfortunately, the Great Golden Crow had yet to attain apotheosis, and had not suffused his will through the entire dimension of his life.

So the details the Great Golden Crow could recall were only those he himself had experienced.

Those pasts that had already been altered, those other lives of other Great Golden Crows that he had never lived through, were not in his mind.

However, the Great Golden Crow did not feel dejected because of this, for he knew there was someone who could remember all the altered histories.

"Heng’e, what is the truth, really?"

"I want to know the whole truth, not some carefully selected scraps."

Noticing the Great Golden Crow’s gaze, Heng’e instantly understood—he had already guessed her identity as a Pathfinder.

On the path of apotheosis, she had clearly long since been ahead of the Great Golden Crow.

Yet when she met that majestic gaze of his, Heng’e couldn’t help but feel a sense of desolation.

"As expected, you’re still more suited than I am..."

The corners of her mouth gradually curved into a faint smile, and Heng’e’s voice suddenly grew relaxed.

"You do indeed have the right to know the whole truth—and so do you all."

Sweeping her gaze around, Heng’e spoke amid the bewildered looks of the many Moon Gods.

"Whether in the earliest history, or in this life we’ve lived through, Father God researched the Elixir of Immortality for Mother’s sake."

"I only gradually came to understand this after I attained apotheosis as a Moon God."

Here Heng’e paused slightly, then kept smiling as she continued.

"Gods can die; even a Celestial God is no exception."

"In the earliest history, only Father God was an existence transcending Celestial Gods, the Great Celestial God in the eyes of the world."

"So here’s the question: Mother, who was born almost in the same era as Father God, could she accompany him at his side forever?"

Chang’e and the others listened in confusion, unable to understand what Heng’e meant.

After all, in their memories, Father God was the supreme sovereign of this era, but not the only Great Celestial God.

To say nothing else, the Great Golden Crow was now himself a Great Celestial God, only one step away from apotheosis.

Fortunately, Heng’e did not expect her younger sisters to fully comprehend these words; it was enough if the Great Golden Crow understood.

"So, Father God decided to research the Elixir of Immortality to extend Aunt’s life?"

Blinking in sudden realization, the Great Golden Crow understood this was the earliest history he himself had not lived through.

Emperor Hao’s initial research into the Elixir of Immortality had been to prolong Chang Xi’s life.

Until Li Boyang reshaped the River of Time and Emperor Hao broke free from history, and began to alter his own era.

From his own final destination back to the primal source, Emperor Hao spent countless years making the era he ruled undergo earth-shaking changes.

"Then what about now?"

"Why is Aunt gravely ill now?"

Keenly grasping the key point, the Great Golden Crow’s voice grew unusually low.

In this segment of history that Emperor Hao had already rewritten, although Chang Xi’s achievements did not equal Emperor Hao’s, she had also long since attained the rank of Great Celestial God.

Under such circumstances, in theory Chang Xi should already have shaken off the threat of death.

At the very least, the Chang Xi of this era should no longer need the Elixir of Immortality to extend her lifespan, and Emperor Hao ought to have more energy and time to devote to apotheosis.

"Because of me!"

"Because of an existence that was never meant to be born."

With a bitter smile, Heng’e had been just as shocked as the Great Golden Crow now was when she first realized this.

Theory had always been just theory; reality was forever reality.

On the theoretical level, the Chang Xi of this era indeed did not need to take the Elixir of Immortality to accompany Emperor Hao to his final destination.

But this rested on a major premise—that Heng’e was only Chang Xi’s daughter, and not a Pathfinder trying to rewrite fate.

Heng’e was not a normal Pathfinder; she was the Moon God who inherited Chang Xi’s mantle and ultimately achieved apotheosis.

Which is to say, only when Chang Xi died could Heng’e succeed her and attain apotheosis.

This was an unsolvable temporal paradox, a time phenomenon of reversing cause and effect.

Because Heng’e had already, as a matter of fact, attained apotheosis.

Therefore, no matter how many times Emperor Hao reenacted history, Chang Xi had to die.

This was the direction of the great trend of history, involving the causality of a Pathfinder’s birth, no less difficult than Emperor Hao himself succeeding in apotheosis and rewriting destiny.

"Because I exist, Mother is gradually losing the Moon God authority and falling down to the level of a Celestial God."

"The stronger I become, the weaker Mother grows..."

"As time passes, when I have recovered the power I wielded at my peak, that will be the moment of Mother’s death."

"In the future, Pathfinders will call this kind of death, which even the Elixir of Immortality cannot avert, the ’Five Declines of Celestial Beings’."

"Clothes defiled, floral crown withered, sweat streaming from the armpits, body reeking of filth, and no joy in one’s own seat..."

"It is a long and painful process, and also a process in which the Undead continue to struggle against death..."

"Until death utterly defeats the Undead, shattering their soul and annihilating their Divine Soul."

When Heng’e said this, it was not only the Great Golden Crow who was shocked.

The many Moon Gods, including Chang’e, all looked at Heng’e in disbelief, as if listening to some utterly fantastical tale.

"Did you think I was competing with you, fighting you, just to prove to Father God that I was better than you?"

With a mocking little laugh, Heng’e then merely shook her head.

"I admit I did have that thought, but I’ve never been that shallow."

"Father God wants to rewrite the great trend of history—how could I not want the same?"

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