Volume 1, Chapter 53: The Power of the Gu Family, Beyond Their Comprehension
Then, it "saw" the Gu family courtyard, which looked ordinary on the surface but was actually situated at a dimensional singularity.
"No aura of the Heavenly Heart Seal... The defensive array is in its lowest dormant state... Inside... there are only a few mortals with weak life auras, and some... flowers and plants?"
For the first time, a trace of an emotion called "doubt" stirred within the will of the Causality Probe.
Could this be the ancestral land of the Gu family?
The legendary forbidden zone where even Immortal Kings dared not set foot?
No matter how one looked at it, it was simply an ordinary, perhaps even somewhat dilapidated, rural courtyard.
Could the intelligence be true? Had the Gu family truly declined to such an extent?
The Causality Probe floated quietly in the void. Its very existence was a paradox: it was simultaneously here and not here, lingering between the cracks of reality and concept. As the top-tier reconnaissance unit of the God-Eater civilization, its core logic was absolute caution and calm.
Yet at this moment, the rune representing "alert" in its logical core remained utterly silent.
It repeatedly scanned the courtyard below, but the result remained unchanged.
There were no earth-shattering energy fluctuations, no airtight formations of laws, and not even the slightest aura of a powerful being could be perceived.
The young man lying on the chair had life signs weaker than those of an ordinary mortal, as if he might stop breathing at any second.
The two maidservants, though possessing some cultivation, were no different from dust in its eyes.
The old servant possessed a somewhat peculiar aura, unfathomable yet hidden deeply, but at best he was merely at the level of a decent gatekeeper—countless dimensions away from posing any threat to the God-Eater civilization.
And then there was the black dog, a cat, a few fish, a flock of chickens...
Everything, absolutely everything, pointed to one conclusion: this was merely an ordinary mortal dwelling.
"The supreme forbidden zone... The guardian clan... Could all of these be exaggerated falsehoods passed down across the myriad realms?"
The doubt deep within the Causality Probe's consciousness grew heavier.
It began to trace the timeline of this realm, attempting to find traces of the Gu family's past prosperity. However, everything it saw was utterly mundane. This world was as clean as a blank sheet of paper, to an unbelievable degree.
"No, that's not right." The probe's logical core spun at high speed. "This 'cleanliness' itself is the greatest anomaly. For a family that has existed for countless epochs, how could their ancestral land leave behind no profound marks of causality? Unless... all these marks were completely leveled by a higher-tier force."
This reminded it of the Sovereign's second conjecture: the power of the Gu family had already surpassed their understanding.
Yet, the scene of "bare walls" before its eyes made it impossible to believe this conjecture no matter what.
"A contact probe must be conducted."
Ultimately, the probe made its decision.
Pure observation could no longer yield further information; it needed a variable to provoke a reaction from this stagnant pool of a courtyard.
It chose not to launch a direct attack—that was the most crude and low-level method. As a masterpiece of the God-Eater civilization, its greatest specialty was pollution and erosion.
A wisp of pure black energy, billions of times thinner than a hair, detached itself from the probe's phantom projection.
This was the origin of "divine pollution."
It was not mere energy, but a "conceptual virus." Once infected, it would twist a living being into a servant and nourishment for the God-Eater civilization, targeting their soul, true spirit, and even the very foundation of their existence. This pollution ignored the vast majority of law defenses, acting directly upon "divinity" itself.
In the view of the God-Eater civilization, any powerful living entity possessed a "divinity" at its core, which was the source of their power and existence. As long as the source was polluted, no matter how powerful a god or demon might be, they would eventually rot away.
This wisp of black energy moved silently, like a drop of ink falling into clear water, infiltrating toward the courtyard wall.
It effortlessly penetrated the seemingly ordinary blue brick wall—the defense formed by the dimensional barrier remained dormant, reacting almost not at all to this conceptual invasion that generated no energy collisions.
The polluting energy entered the courtyard, and its target was the young man lying on the chair.
As long as it could analyze and pollute this target—suspected to be the "core"—all secrets concerning the Gu family would be laid completely bare.
Like the most venomous snake, it slid silently through the grass, carrying lethal malice as it closed in on Gu Changsheng.
Ten zhang.
Five zhang.
Three zhang.
Close, even closer.
The probe's will was intensely focused, preparing to record every bit of data once the pollution erupted.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the courtyard, Ye Qingxian and Ji Ruxue were silently watching Gu Changsheng's previous "gardening" actions.
Their realms were no longer what they used to be.
Ji Ruxue's Jade Pool Heart Scripture had undergone an essential transformation after submitting to Gu Changsheng, enabling her to perceive the flow of vitality in all things.
Ye Qingxian was a born sword dao embryo. Under the nourishment of the "Sword Dao Fence," her sword heart was lucid, capable of severing illusions and gazing directly into the origin.
In their eyes, Gu Changsheng's actions just now were by no means mere fertilization and watering.
When his hand parted the soil at the corner of the wall, what they saw was an invisible giant hand tearing open a rift in the world, pulling a handful of... "Creation's Foundation" from a primal, unformed land of chaos and primordial void!
What was contained within that soil was not nutrients, but the very rules of "existence" and "possibility"!
And when he picked up the teapot to water the plants, what they saw instead was a long river of time spanning antiquity and the future, drawing forth a stream of... "Source of All Spirits" from the furthest genesis of life!
That was not water; it was the primordial concept that bestowed spiritual awareness and vitality upon all things!
When he finished all this, his casual remark of "Let them see to their own fortune" sounded to them like a supreme and indifferent decree uttered by a creator god after scattering the seeds of life!
Was this gardening?
This was clearly a living reenactment before their very eyes of the creation process, "from nothing to being, from death to life"!
What a terrifying and extravagant "lecture on the Dao" this was!
Ji Ruxue felt her Jade Pool Heart Scripture spinning wildly. She seemed to witness the birth and fading of countless lives, the reincarnation of vitality and desolation, and her understanding of "life" was skyrocketing at an unimaginable speed.
Ye Qingxian trembled violently. Her sword was a sword of protection, and also a sword of destruction. Yet at this moment, from Gu Changsheng's movements, she glimpsed a third possibility transcending both protection and destruction—"Creation"!
So, the pinnacle of the sword dao was neither to slay everything nor to protect everything, but to... create everything!
A single sword strike could carve out a world!
A single thought could evolve countless living beings!
The two of them stood frozen in place, plunging into the deepest state of enlightenment. Their surrounding auras began to climb step by step, charging toward a realm they had never dared to imagine before.
They paid no attention at all to the fact that the fatal "divinity" pollution had already bypassed them, leaving only the final step to reach Gu Changsheng on the recliner.
The polluting energy was about to touch the corner of Gu Changsheng's robe.
The Causality Probe was ready to welcome the flood of data.
At this split second of imminent danger.
At the corner of the wall, among the few wild grasses that had been "rescued" and just transformed from mundane objects into unknowable entities—right in the middle, the most ordinary five-petaled little flower gently fluttered its delicate petals.
As if... sensing some "filthy thing" that made it "displeased."