Volume 1, Chapter 29: The Gu Family, Now Nothing More Than an Empty Shell

[Page 1/3]

[Pillow of the Progenitor: Condensed from the primordial breath of the dawn of time. Sleeping on it accelerates the accumulation efficiency of "Lying Flat Points." Dreams experienced by the host while resting on this pillow have a certain probability of interfering with reality, manifesting as actual worlds or events.]

In the courtyard, the ordinary pillow beneath Gu Changsheng’s head silently transformed into a brand-new one that looked softer and more comfortable.

The sunlight was perfect, and the breeze was gentle.

A storm capable of overturning the status quo of the Upper Realm was completely erased into nothingness by a mere yawn and a word of complaint from the Young Master.

In the courtyard, everything was deathly silent.

Gu Fan’s previous impassioned, high-stakes performance—along with the man himself—seemed as if it had never existed. With a light flick from Old Fu, he dissipated without a trace, as if he were not a powerful expert at the God Venerable Realm, but merely a speck of dust on a lapel.

The air held only the faint scent of sandalwood and the fragrance of earth.

Gu Changsheng had settled back down, his breathing steady. The newly appeared, exceptionally soft pillow made his profile look even more serene. He seemed to have completely forgotten the episode that had disturbed his slumber and drifted once more into a sweet dream.

Ji Ruxue and Ye Qingxian exchanged a glance, both seeing a lingering shock in each other’s eyes, followed by a deeper sense of awe.

"So... this is the true style of the Main Branch." Ji Ruxue murmured softly, her voice as thin as a mosquito’s, fearing to disturb the sleeping Young Master again.

She recalled the majesty she once held as the Empress of Yaochi, and the divine arts that could shatter the heavens and earth at a whim. Comparing that to Old Fu’s effortless flick, she finally understood: true power is not about making the world change color for you, but about making the world unaware that you have even moved.

This "purification" at the root of causality was billions of times more terrifying than mere erasure. Death, at least, leaves a trace that can be traced back. But for Gu Fan, the very "concept" of his existence had been thoroughly wiped away.

"The Dao I pursued in the past was truly laughably shallow." Ye Qingxian’s realization was more direct. She caressed the long sword at her waist—the immortal blade she had once been so proud of—but now, it felt like nothing more than common iron in her hand.

The sword path she had mastered could sever galaxies and shatter worlds. Yet, Old Fu’s flick had not even required the use of "Dao" traces. That was a higher level of power—a form of authority they could not understand, only look up to.

And all of this was simply because the Young Master had complained, "It’s too noisy."

Their gazes fell once more, in unison, upon the lounge chair. The seemingly harmless, lazy young man—his every movement, every word, even his dream-mutterings—was steering the course of this world in an unimaginable way.

Old Fu picked up a broom and walked to the spot where Gu Fan had just vanished, sweeping back and forth meticulously, as if there were truly some invisible dust remaining. His movements were precise, focused, and earnest.

Having finished, he stood upright and looked at the sleeping Gu Changsheng, his clouded old eyes filled with tenderness and relief.

"The Young Master’s state of mind is becoming increasingly returning to simplicity," he mused to himself. "Even the Progenitor’s pillow has manifested. It seems the Progenitor’s soul is receiving the best nourishment in this quiet time. Any existence that attempts to break this tranquility is a blasphemy against the Progenitor."

[Page 2/3]

Just as the small Gu family courtyard returned to peace, in the distant Upper Realm, within a magnificent divine temple suspended at the peak of the realms, shrouded in endless divine light...

This was the "Pantheon."

In the center of the temple, rows of soul lamps, bright as stars, were enshrined. Each lamp represented a core member of the Pantheon or a powerful figure executing an important task abroad.

Suddenly, one of the lamps in the front row swayed violently without warning.

The divine general guarding the site felt his pupils constrict and immediately tensed. That soul lamp belonged to Gu Fan, the pawn in whom the Hall Master had placed great hope and sent to the Lower Realm to probe the legendary Gu family.

However, the expected extinguishing did not occur.

After swaying to the extreme, the soul lamp did not "go out"—it simply vanished into thin air.

It was not extinguished by an exhaustion of energy, nor was it shattered by force; it simply disappeared completely and entirely from its position, as if it had never been lit at all.

The guardian general was stunned. In his countless eons of service, he had seen soul lamps shatter, seen them dim, and even seen them forcibly reignited by great powers reversing causality.

But he had never seen a soul lamp "disappear."

"What is going on?!"

A wave of bewildered divine sense echoed through the temple.

The next moment, a more majestic and vast will descended like the wrath of heaven. All the light in the temple dimmed before this presence.

A towering figure wearing a divine crown and a star-river robe, with an indistinct face, appeared in the center of the Soul Lamp Hall.

It was the Lord of the Pantheon, the same "little fellow" whom Old Fu had once spoken of.

His gaze fell upon the empty lamp base, his brows locked in a frown.

"My soul contract with Gu Fan... has been severed." His voice echoed in the space, carrying a hint of disbelief. "No, it is not severed. The 'cause' associated with him has been erased from my memory and the laws of this world."

The Lord of the Pantheon raised his hand, his fingertips wreathed in supreme divine laws, attempting to backtrack through time to investigate what Gu Fan had encountered.

[Page 3/3]

However, the river of time was a chaotic blur. He could only vaguely perceive that Gu Fan’s thread of causality ultimately pointed to a mortal realm in the Lower World shrouded in dense, impenetrable Dao rhyme.

The atmosphere there was ancient, weathered, and carried a strange sense of decay.

"The Gu Family Main Branch..." The divine sense of the Pantheon Lord pierced through layers of boundaries and finally caught a glimpse of a blurry scene.

He "saw" it.

A dilapidated courtyard, a few ordinary thatched huts, an old servant sweeping the floor, and two exquisite maids doing manual labor.

And, that young man lying on a chair, his aura so unremarkable that he seemed like a mere mortal.

"So it is as the rumors say, they have fallen to this point?" A trace of contempt rose in the Pantheon Lord’s heart.

In his view, Gu Fan’s disappearance must have been the result of that fallen Gu family using some desperate, one-time forbidden trump card left behind by an ancestor, or perhaps some sacrificial forbidden weapon.

Such an action might have killed Gu Fan, but it would have surely exhausted their final reserves. The current Gu family was likely nothing more than an empty shell.

"Hmph, to be so reckless for the sake of a side-branch returning—it shows how narrow-minded they are, having long since lost the ambition to dominate the heavens," the Pantheon Lord sneered.

"However, the Heavenly Emperor’s legacy cannot be insulted. My pawn is not someone just anyone can touch."

His will swept across the entire temple.

"Where is the Divine Punishment Envoy?"

A figure clad in dark gold divine armor, holding a thunderous war spear, with a violent and powerful aura, instantly appeared before the hall and knelt on one knee.

"Subordinate is here!"

"You, take my divine decree, descend to the Tianyuan Realm, and make a trip to that Gu family," the Pantheon Lord’s voice was cold and unquestionable. "Tell them that the majesty of the Pantheon cannot be provoked. Order them to hand over the culprit and offer half of their family’s reserves as penance. Otherwise, I would not mind personally wiping that rotting name from history forever."

"As you command, Hall Master!" A bloodthirsty glint flashed in the eyes of the Divine Punishment Envoy.