Chapter 1944 - 1943: Slaying the Tuning Master

The starlight silhouette constructing the array in the sky appeared visibly stunned at this scene.

He seemed to think that He Ao would at least consider a little, but unexpectedly, without any thought, he rushed forward boldly.

Brilliant electric light gathered in the sky into a denser electric net, pressing downwards in waves.

The dense electric light struck He Ao’s illusory gray armor, emitting bursts of dazzling radiance.

Rather than just scooting past below, the electric light behaved like a real net being struck, directly wrapping He Ao’s body.

Thus, almost He Ao’s entire body emitted crackling sounds, flickering with dense brilliance.

Even though He Ao’s divine sense was plentiful, he couldn’t sustain such a large collision area, with each region able to supply only a barely sufficient amount of divine sense.

As He Ao’s divine sense quickly depleted, he rapidly broke upwards, and the electric light pervading the sky became even more abundant.

Soon, the armor on He Ao’s body was covered with fine scars, which quickly evolved into countless interwoven cracks.

These cracks crisscrossed, permeating every corner of the armor from outside to inside.

It seemed as if in the next moment, this gray armor would completely collapse.

However, the armor never collapsed; instead, it took He Ao layer by layer, piercing through the electric net in the sky.

Seeing this scene, the starlight silhouette in the sky frowned slightly.

He Ao was getting closer and closer to the top of the stone wall.

And the new electric nets pervading the sky grew weaker in brilliance, as if only hastily drawn together, barely usable.

Bang—

With a faint noise, a small gap opened up in He Ao’s armor.

Following that was a series of dense gaps.

Bang—

Finally, when there were only three electric nets left in the sky, the already overburdened armor completely shattered.

Countless fine electric lights sliced across He Ao’s body, across his cheek, tearing open his just-healed body again, with blood dispersing in the void like raindrops.

The starlight silhouette observed the scene, finally taking a slight breath.

At the same time, some invisible aura surfaced in the void above, as if some grand and majestic existence was forcibly casting its gaze here.

The divine gaze falling implies the reestablishment of contact.

The starlight silhouette slightly raised his eyebrows, staring at the blood-covered, seemingly on-the-brink He Ao.

At this moment, there was only one last layer of electric net left in front of He Ao.

The brilliance of that net was not intense, but He Ao’s body was already at its limit.

"You’ve lost." The Tuning Master looked down at He Ao, raising his body upward in the dazzling glow.

Once the divine power re-arrives, he could directly use the connection with the world to reverse control He Ao or even devour ’He Ao’ directly.

Every choice comes with its price.

He gazed at He Ao below and the blood-covered body that shattered through the last layer of electric light.

Without divine sense, He Ao could not cause any significant harm to him.

His body ascended, leaving this shadowy ’prison,’ as if about to reach the radiant skies.

The transcending gaze seemed about to descend.

Poof—

At this moment, a gray brilliance pierced through his body.

He lowered his head, looking at the blood-covered face below, a hint of astonishment crossing his starlit visage.

He Ao raised his head to look at him, a slight smile curling on his lips, "It seems, I have won."

He Ao had reserved a portion of divine sense, never using it, even as the electric light layers peeled away his flesh, he never deployed that divine sense.

He knew very well, the Tuning Master’s position was higher than an Angel Tier, and aside from void consciousness, causing severe damage to the Tuning Master or even... killing him, was quite challenging.

Of course, the only risk with this approach is that he might be killed by the electric light directly.

Just two more layers of the electric net, and He Ao would have been dead.

The Tuning Master seemed to have realized this as well, gritting his teeth, his hoarse voice reverberating around the vacant four walls, "You madman, but unfortunately, you’ve still lost."

As his words fell, brilliant glow began surging within the Tuning Master’s body.

Undying Lotus.

In this world, he naturally possessed this thing.

He had carried it with him ever since entering this world.

Opposite him, He Ao raised his head, watching him, smiling once again, "Are you sure?"

The pervasive crimson showcased the color of glow, intricate brilliance outlined into dense arrays within the thick, surrounding stone walls.

The Tuning Master raised his vision, looking at the dense arrays all around, his starlit pupils shrinking slightly, "My arrays? When did you learn—"

Poof—

He Ao’s body thrust forward; the sharp gray longsword further pierced his body, leaning close to the Tuning Master’s ear, he weakly and hoarsely said, "Thank you for informing me of the Undying Lotus’s efficacy characteristics."

The next moment, brilliant glow ignited around, instantly cutting off the glow surging from the Tuning Master’s body.

The surging void consciousness, infused with Super Memory and Secret Wizard power, quickly infiltrated the Tuning Master’s body, penetrating his soul.

Tearing apart everything that could be torn.

The surrounding walls were gray, shrouding all surrounding brightness, the Tuning Master ultimately couldn’t escape the prison he had himself set.

The array severing the connection between the Undying Lotus and the Tuning Master’s soul indeed stemmed from the Tuning Master’s array, but He Ao had not fully learned it, only a part.

The rest filled in by a flash of insight from the Secret Wizard.

He Ao raised his head, watching the flickering eyes of the Tuning Master, slightly opening his mouth, "So, can you tell me, what exactly the God of Machinery intends to do?"

Hearing his words, the Tuning Master opened his eyes, slightly opening his mouth.

The world was dim, ultimately, he couldn’t utter a sound.

The brilliant gray glow engulfed his body, shredding the pervasive brightness.

He Ao quietly observed the scattered brilliance before him.

A dry well surfaced in his hand, swiftly absorbing the scattered brilliance around.

The Tuning Master actually died from greed.

The reason he had to spread power from the world’s depths to deconstruct He Ao was not only to prevent He Ao from escaping but also out of coveting the ’secrets’ within He Ao.

In his ever-frightened escape, he yearned for power to counteract Truth, ensuring he wouldn’t be directly killed by Truth.

The appearance of He Ao, favored by the God of Machinery, offered him hope.

Thus, he had been willing to design traps at any cost to deconstruct the deepest secrets of He Ao’s soul.

And this provided He Ao with room for manipulation.

At the moment the starlight silhouette shattered, that vast gaze pierced through time and space, across the square sky above He Ao, landing here.

Landing upon the scattered starlight and upon He Ao’s body.

He Ao raised his head, locking eyes with that gaze, a slight smile curling on his lips.

The world seemed to fall silent for a moment, everything becoming eerily quiet.

Boom——

Invisible thunder spread across the sky.

Whoosh——

Then came the torrential downpour.

It seemed to be the suppressed fury of a divine being, or perhaps a simple response.

That gaze, transcending time and space, finally withdrew, and the raindrops pattered on He Ao’s cheeks, turning into crimson droplets.

The God of Machinery still dared not descend, dared not destroy this world.

He Ao slightly raised his hand, and a pure white, jade-like lotus flower materialized from the scattered starlight, landing in his palm.

The Undying Lotus.

Accompanying the familiar yet inexplicable thoughts drilling into his mind, He Ao stored the lotus away.

He never thought he could obtain an item twice.

But this item, it seems, can only be used in this world, and cannot be taken to the real world.

However, it doesn’t matter, judging from the Tuning Master’s usage, this item could probably be used here as an extra life.

Add an extra life.

He Ao flew into the sky, passing through the square opening of the cage and landing on the edge of a high wall, sitting there.

He lifted his head to look at the boundless plains ahead.

Boom——

Roaring thunder crossed the firmament, bringing dazzling lightning that made the dim world appear even gloomier.

The Tuning Master actually told him in the end what the God of Machinery was doing.

Through the last remnant memories.

The God of Machinery, in short, was ’exchanging world lines’.

This world is not a completely false world but another ’timeline’ of the main world.

The Tuning Master speculated that the God of Machinery probably used an item called the Book of Bygone Days and found a ’branching point’ from the history of the main world.

And this branching point should be whether ’He Ao’ existed or not.

This concept is somewhat like the legendary concept of a parallel world.

Then, from that branching point, the God of Machinery began to separate the timeline where He Ao does not exist, letting it naturally evolve to the present time, forming this world.

All the material foundations of this world are real; it is merely a parallel world evolved from a disrupted timeline.

However, this world is not truly the main world. Once it loses the support of the Book of Bygone Days and the supply of divine power, it will immediately collapse. Also, in the cosmic mysticism context, it does not possess the characteristics of the main world.

That’s why the Tuning Master said this world is real yet not real.

And the God of Machinery’s plan revolves around this, which is to exchange timelines.

In this timeline, the God of Machinery has already mastered the coordinates of the main world, and even completed the control over the main world.

He only needs to exchange the timeline of this world with the real main world, making the real main world the parallel world, and letting this world replace the main world to become the real world.

Then everything that happens in this timeline will collapse into reality.

The God of Machinery won’t have to struggle with He Ao; he could directly acquire a well-developed main world.

While He Ao was still wrestling his brain on how to prevent the God of Machinery from obtaining the main world coordinates, the God of Machinery had already found another way, solving He Ao’s problem from the root.

Skips the sowing and nurturing stages, jumping straight to harvest.

Boom——

The torrential rain fell from the firmament, washing the crimson bloodstains from He Ao’s body.

He Ao raised his head, looking at the sky, his gaze seemingly piercing through the thick clouds, seeing the divine being high in the firmament.

So even if the God of Machinery sees He Ao alive and kicking here, he won’t risk destroying this world to kill He Ao.

As long as his plan succeeds, it doesn’t matter how He Ao jumps around.

He has all the time to deal with He Ao.

This might be the composure of the older generation of the cosmos.

But it’s a bit of a bully towards young, honest folks like He Ao.

He Ao raised his hand to catch the rainwater, washing his face.

This memory is the only glimpse He Ao got of the Tuning Master’s memory, clearly displayed by the Tuning Master himself.

Standing from the Tuning Master’s position, he died, so everything was meaningless, the success or failure of the God of Machinery had nothing to do with him. But helping He Ao might really disgust the Truth.

In that instant, the Tuning Master was possibly the person who most hoped for He Ao to survive and grow stronger in this world.

It is clear that he had been chased by the Truth to the point of psychological imbalance.

He Ao opened his palm, looking at the slightly glowing Dry Well in his hand.

The heavy raindrops battered the outside of the Dry Well, making it seem like it was raining inside the Dry Well.

The reflection in the well was struck by some invisible raindrops, causing ripples to scatter.

Just recently, after the Tuning Master died, he had casually allowed the Well Shadow to absorb the remnants of the Tuning Master’s body, but he hadn’t thought of a question to ask.

This question should not involve divine beings; the Well Shadow can’t answer that.

But perhaps he could ask some more challenging questions. Although the Tuning Master in this world only retained Angel Tier abilities, he still bore some characteristics of a Usurper God.

Undoubtedly more valuable than a pure angel.

He Ao lowered his head, gazing at the reflection in the well.

The question to ask now should be related to the exchange of timelines.

With He Ao’s current abilities, he couldn’t think of any way to stop the God of Machinery.

Things like this were like an elementary student solving advanced questions, somewhat beyond his level.

Perhaps ascending to a Usurper God might have a solution.

From the Tuning Master’s memory, it seemed the God of Machinery still needed five days to complete the timeline exchange.

In five days, ascending to a Usurper God seems a bit too difficult.

The ’Dreamer’ Promotion Ceremony requires a fictional world to deceive the universe.

But where could He Ao now fabricate a world?

Does a timeline of this parallel world count as a fictional world? Directly alter everyone’s memory to make them believe this world is fictitious?

Anyway, there aren’t many people left in this world.

But how does one deceive the universe?

He Ao lowered his head, gazing at the Well Shadow in his hand, slightly parting his lips.

And at that moment, the pouring rain suddenly ceased.

He Ao paused, raised his head, and looked to the sky.

The interwoven clouds and radiance in the sky began to transform rapidly at a visible speed.