Chapter 742
Ren Xue
“This is the true manifestation of 'annihilation'.” The Goddess of Life said solemnly, extending her slender hand. Life force poured down like a waterfall, flowing into the Tree of Life. The ancient tree shone brightly, the cracks in the barrier began to heal slowly, and the seeping black substance gradually decreased, but did not stop.
“It’s testing us.” The God of Destruction stared at the rift, his eyes flashing with purple light. “Although the Eye of Annihilation is damaged, its tentacles have already reached our world. This rift wasn’t forcibly broken open, but rather ‘assimilated’—it’s using its own characteristics to slowly dissolve the very foundation of the barrier’s existence.”
Xiao Wu looked at her son with concern. Tang Wulin stood a little distance away, supported by Qian Renxue. His face was paler than usual, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
"Wu Lin, what's wrong?" Xiao Wu walked over quickly.
“It’s calling me,” Tang Wulin said with difficulty, staring at the seeping black substance, the imprint deep in his soul burning. “No, it’s not calling, it’s resonating. The imprint within me is resonating with those things.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a strange thing happened.
The seeping black substance suddenly boiled, no longer spreading slowly, but instead condensing into several tentacles that pierced the barrier! At the same time, Tang Wulin's body trembled violently, and faint dark red patterns appeared on his forehead—marks left by the Eye of Annihilation, which were now uncontrollably manifesting.
"Suppress it!" Tang San shouted, and the power of the Sea God transformed into chains, wrapping around those black tentacles.
The God of Destruction and the Goddess of Life attacked simultaneously, their destructive power tearing through space and their life force constructing a cage. But those tentacles were incredibly strange; they weren't physical attacks, but rather acted directly on the very "existence" of things. The divine attacks that struck them were mostly "erased," with only the core laws causing any damage.
Even more troublesome was Tang Wulin's situation. The resonance of the mark grew stronger and stronger, and he felt his consciousness being dragged into some abyss. Qian Renxue held him tightly, pouring all her divine power into him, but it was like a clay ox sinking into the sea—divine power could suppress all evil, but annihilation was not evil; it was "nothingness," and even the divine could not purify something that did not exist.
"Let me go." Tang Wulin gritted his teeth, trying to push Qian Renxue away. "It wants me, stay away from me."
"Impossible!" Qian Renxue's voice was choked with sobs, yet unusually firm. She didn't let go; instead, she hugged him even tighter. "We'll die together, we'll live together. Don't even think about abandoning me again!"
"Xue'er." Tang Wulin wanted to say something more, but his consciousness was becoming increasingly blurred. Before he completely succumbed to darkness, the last thing he saw was his wife's resolute face and the tears glistening in her eyes.
Then, the world fell silent.
No, it's not silence, it's "nothingness".
Tang Wulin experienced that state again—no light, no sound, no temperature, no space, no time, even the concept of "self" became blurred. But this time, it was different.
He "senses" Qian Renxue.
Not through the five senses, but through some more fundamental connection. Her existence was like a warm fire, burning in this absolute "nothingness," faint yet incredibly clear. It was the bond of souls, the weight of vows, a connection forged from countless life-and-death experiences, an indelible bond. "Xue'er," Tang Wulin "thought," and thus this thought became "existence."
Then, more "beings" emerged from the void—the concerned gaze of parents, the laughter of children, the trust of friends, Isis's final smile. Every memory, every emotion, was a ray of light shining in this ocean of "nothingness."
Then, the will of the Eye of Annihilation descended.
It has no specific form, only a "tendency," a tendency to drag these lights into "nothingness." But this time, Tang Wulin did not resist; instead, he met it head-on.
“I understand.” His consciousness echoed in this void. “You are not trying to devour, you are trying to ‘prove’—to prove that everything will eventually return to nothingness, to prove that existence is meaningless, to prove that all persistence is futile.”
The will of the Eye of Annihilation fluctuated, conveying an emotion mixed with mockery and curiosity.
“But look,” Tang Wulin’s consciousness continued to expand, and the points of light began to change with his thoughts. They were no longer passive existences, but active “narratives,” “Every memory, every emotion, every choice defines who ‘I’ am. If you erase them, it’s the same as erasing ‘me’ myself. But if ‘I’ no longer exist, what’s the point of your erasure?”
A logical paradox. The eternal entanglement between existence and non-existence.
For the first time, the will of the Eye of Annihilation hesitated. It was used to fighting, used to using absolute "nothingness" to dissolve all "existence," but this insignificant being before it, this soul that should have collapsed the moment it first invaded, was questioning its foundation with "existence" itself.
"Look at this." Tang Wulin's consciousness focused, and a point of light transformed into an image—it was his wedding with Qian Renxue, where they exchanged vows and made an eternal promise under the witness of the gods of the divine realm.
"This vow was 'real' the moment it was uttered. Whether we are together in the future or not, whether we remember it or not, the promise made at that moment has been fulfilled. It has become part of history, a thread that makes up this world. You can kill us, you can erase memories, but can you make that moment 'never have happened'?"
Another ray of light transforms into a scene—the morning Tang Xuan Yu was born, he held his swaddling son in his arms, looking into those eyes that resembled his own, and a surge of tenderness and responsibility welled up in his heart, almost overwhelming him.
“This emotion changed the universe the moment it arose. It made me a father, Xue’er a mother, and Xuan Yu our child. These relationships, these definitions, these ways of ‘existing,’ once established, can never be completely erased—because erasing them would require turning back the timeline of the entire universe and reversing cause and effect. Can you do that?”
Sparks of light, scene after scene. Every laugh, every tear, every reunion, every farewell, every choice, every act of perseverance. Tang Wulin, with over thirty years of his life, has built an unbreakable "network of existence." He is not fighting against annihilation, but rather "demonstrating" the richness and complexity of existence itself.
The will of the Eye of Annihilation began to falter. It tried to erase these images, to cover them with nothingness, but for every one it erased, a new one would arise from elsewhere—not that Tang Wulin was creating them, but that the existences themselves were interconnected, forming a web that could not be completely dismantled.
"You've lost," Tang Wulin's consciousness calmly declared. "Not to me, but to 'existence' itself. You can kill life, destroy matter, even distort time, but the fact that you 'existed' is something you can never erase. Like rain falling, you can evaporate all the water, but the fact that the rain 'fell' is forever etched into the history of this universe." (End of Chapter)