Chapter 91: Outside, You Can Call Me a Mortal, and I Won't Mind

That was his first reaction. Just as he was mulling it over, Yang Dongqing's voice sounded from outside the door.

"The damn sky gets bright so quickly."

"This room is too small. If we stay here, we're bound to attract more dark shadows. Listen to me, let's switch rooms," Ye Fanyu's voice immediately followed.

Su Mu felt slightly dazed. He looked down at his own shadow; there was no dark figure hidden inside. He reached inward to sense the Immaculate Heart and Myriad Phenomena, only to find nothing. The only Bronze Law existing within his body now was the Primal Angel, which had just driven away the darkness for him!

A surge of memories surfaced in his mind—the memories of entering the dark shadow's illusion.

He remembered. He remembered everything! There was never an Immaculate Heart, nor was there a Myriad Phenomena!

Everything was an illusion!

He had been immersed in the dark shadow's illusion the entire time. The Bronze Coffin, The Unrememberable, Tie Feng, and the rest—all of it was fake!

The truth was, he had never escaped the illusion. Back then, he thought he had succeeded when he felt the shadow's hands vanish. By opening his eyes in that moment, he had broken the rules, plummeting straight into the Boundless Sea of Blood and plunging deep into false illusions.

Everything in his memory after supposedly escaping the illusion had been a lie!

He... had never made it out of the dark shadow's illusion!

Only now had he truly escaped. Driven into a corner, he had become a Chosen One and connected to the Bronze Law, the Primal Angel!

It was the angel's holy light that had dispelled the darkness and guided him out of the illusion.

"So I failed before. I was trapped deep in the illusion and couldn't free myself. But at the critical moment, my hidden potential erupted. I was favored by a God and awakened the Primal Angel, which finally let me escape. The angel I saw in the illusion earlier was actually a premonition that I was about to awaken the Primal Angel," Su Mu muttered. He was finally starting to understand everything.

"Am I a Chosen One too?" His brow furrowed unconsciously. He didn't like this feeling. He craved excitement and thrills. This sensation of receiving divine intervention whenever danger struck, of owing every victory to sheer luck, was incredibly boring.

Soon, Yang Dongqing, Ye Fanyu, and the others entered. Su Mu shared the information about Tingting from the dark shadow's illusion. Ye Fanyu was delighted and deduced the way to break the nightmare: they had to kill Tingting.

Yang Dongqing disagreed with this plan. Ultimately moved by Yang Dongqing's kindness, Ye Fanyu decided to join everyone in helping Tingting instead.

Things went smoothly. The Primal Angel worked its magic, and with a God's guidance, Su Mu found Tingting's family and finally returned to reality.

After returning to the real world, Su Mu was scouted by all the major corporations. From them, he learned that the Primal Angel was the strongest Bronze Law in legend—even stronger than Future Sight. Not only did it allow the use of divine power, but it also granted unseen divine assistance. Naturally, every corporation wanted to recruit him, even coming to blows over the right to claim him.

Just as Su Mu was making his decision, the princess of the Chiyan Empire appeared. Holy, beautiful, and utterly flawless, she drove away all the competitors and recruited Su Mu herself.

After that, Su Mu lived the life of a typical fantasy protagonist. Through countless adventures in the Nightmare World, aided by divine intervention, he grew continuously stronger. He soon reached the Gold tier. Empowered by divine strength, he was invincible against anyone of the same rank, and was widely hailed as the Empire's greatest powerhouse.

The princess fell deeply in love with him, swearing she would marry no one else. The emperor held him in the highest regard, even promising to pass the throne to him.

Years later, as the greatest emperor of the Chiyan Empire, the strongest being in the world, the incarnation of the angel, the proxy of the gods, and the only Nightmare Apostle in history to break the nightmare curse—Su Mu finally stood at the pinnacle of the world, living happily ever after with his princess.

Seated upon a massive throne, Su Mu looked down at the Empire's nobles kneeling at his feet, then glanced at the stunningly beautiful princess looking at him with eyes full of love. He pushed up his glasses. There wasn't a trace of happiness on his face; there was only endless emptiness and boredom.

He let out a heavy sigh. "Ah, this isn't thrilling at all, is it?"

He shifted his gaze toward the hundred-meter-tall Angel Statue standing in the center of the Imperial Palace square. The Silver Vertical Pupil embedded in the center of its forehead gleamed brightly.

"I know you want me to worship you, and that you've prepared this perfectly smooth-sailing life for me, but could you at least put some effort into it? These are all tropes I played out a long time ago."

The hundred-meter-tall Angel Statue remained as lifeless as an ordinary object, offering no reply.

Su Mu frowned slightly and waved a hand. "Men. Tear this statue down."

The kneeling ministers all paled, immediately crying out in protest.

"Your Great Majesty, you cannot! That would be blasphemy against the Gods!"

"The Gods will send down their heavenly wrath! The entire Chiyan Empire will suffer for it!"

"Your Majesty, the angel is the foundation of the Chiyan Empire's faith! If you insist on doing this, the people will undoubtedly rebel!"

Su Mu only felt more and more bored. He slowly raised his palm, summoning a dazzlingly brilliant holy light, and thrust his hand downward. A massive palm made of holy light materialized out of thin air, completely engulfing the Imperial Palace.

Boom!

The Imperial Palace was reduced to ruins. The world fell silent.

The ministers were dead, and so was the princess.

Su Mu walked out from the rubble and strolled right up to the Angel Statue. Just as he was about to strike, the Angel Statue came to life.

Like a true angel descending to the mortal realm, the hundred-meter-tall entity looked down at Su Mu with a compassionate, divine radiance on its face. Yet, within that Silver Vertical Pupil, there was only an endless, freezing indifference.

"Mortal. I have granted you all the glory and wealth in this world, yet you still dare to blaspheme the divine?"

Su Mu laughed. He raised his head, his crystalline blue eyes meeting the angel's freezing gaze—a gaze completely devoid of human emotion.

"I remember you entering my body, and then I blacked out. Is that right?"

The angel's voice grew even colder. It boomed with grand, heavenly authority, "Mortal, answer My question!"

Su Mu's expression remained unchanged, his posture as straight as a pine. His golden imperial robes fluttered gently in the wind. Beneath his high nose bridge, his thin lips were pressed into a tight line. Then, the corners of his mouth suddenly curled up, blooming into a cold smirk.

It was a subtle smile, yet it carried endless chill and absolute disdain.

"Outside, you can call me a mortal, and I won't mind. But here in my dream... tell me, what should you call Us?"

Boom!

The world violently shifted!

The entirety of the Chiyan Empire shattered into nothingness. In its place, a vast, majestic Celestial Palace slowly rose. Immortal light bathed the nine heavens, the void roiled, and myriad laws trembled.

Su Mu took a single step forward. Beneath his feet, endless laws wove together to form a pathway straight to the heavens, carrying him up to sit upon the supreme throne of the towering Celestial Palace.

His figure grew impossibly vast, seemingly as tall as the heavens themselves. The Heavenly Emperor Robe draped lightly over his shoulders. Just sitting there was enough to make the world lose its color and cause all of creation to tremble.

He radiated a divine light as blinding as the sun. With a flip of his hand, he controlled the cycle of life and death across the world; with a turn of his palm, he dictated the flow of time, space, and fate. He was like the very center of the universe—the ultimate endpoint of all Dao!

And the angel that had previously seemed like a supreme God was, in comparison, nothing more than a pitiful ant.