484: I am not your uncle.

"Your Majesty is right. Deep down in his bones, he still harbors a reverence for order."

It began when Yao Ji violated the heavenly laws, gave birth to Erlang Shen, was imprisoned, and suffered Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering.

Erlang Shen apprenticed under Immortal Master Yuding, learned his craft, split the mountain, wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace, and received his title... Throughout his journey, hatred and protection intertwined, while endurance and sharpness coexisted.

He hated the coldness of the Heavenly Court, yet he could not help but maintain the "order" beneath that coldness.

He utilized the rules and maneuvered for power, using his position as the God of Justice to carry out many seemingly cold-blooded acts, yet at certain critical moments, he left a glimmer of leeway.

Such contradiction perhaps made even him suffer unbearably.

Until Your Majesty revealed the truth of the "alienated Heavenly Dao," and until he knew that his father, mother, brother, himself, his sister, and even Chenxiang were nothing more than pawns sown and blades wielded by the Heavenly Dao to break free from its shackles and reshape the Three Realms.

The object of his hatred instantly shifted from the Emotionless Heavenly Court and his Emotionless uncle to that even colder, more grandiose, and more terrifying "alienated Heavenly Dao."

And the object of his allegiance became that uncle who had lost his sister and nine sons, was schemed against by the Heavenly Dao, yet dared to be Heaven-Defying and was willing to fight to the death for the Three Realms.

Therefore, when Your Majesty secretly gave the instruction, proposing the plan to play along with the enemy's scheme, lure the snake out of its hole, and borrow the power of the Heavenly Dao at the critical moment to weaken the Heavenly Dao itself, this God of Justice, who had endured for thousands of years, felt almost no hesitation.

Erlang Shen walked over to Chenxiang's side and crouched down.

He reached out, seemingly wanting to touch Chenxiang's pale face, but his fingertips paused in mid-air, ultimately just hovering there.

Chenxiang's pupils had begun to dilate. At the wound on his chest, the grayish-white power of annihilation from the Heavenly Dao was entangled with the tens of thousands of years of magical power from the Lotus Lantern within his body, preventing the wound from healing and his vitality from recovering.

"Chenxiang..."

"Uncle... why... exactly..." Chenxiang's voice was as thin as a gossamer thread, his eyes stubbornly fixed on Erlang Shen's face, wanting an answer.

"Because you were used by It. From the moment you picked up the sky-opening axe and struck Mount Hua, or even earlier... from the moment your mother gave birth to you, everything was within Its calculations."

"It did not want to save your mother, nor did It truly want any new heavenly rules... It only wanted an opportunity to break free from Its shackles and devour the Heavenly Emperor. And you were the best axe It selected to use."

"I was... the same."

"But I am different from you. I know what I am doing, and I know whom to hate."

"It can be splitting the mountain to save one's mother, but it cannot be splitting the mountain to kill one's mother!" Erlang Shen's fists clenched: "From the moment your axe fell and killed the Third Holy Mother, I ceased to be your uncle!"

"Mother..." Chenxiang's blood-red eyes faded, becoming black and white again: "So that's how it is. After working so hard for so long, expending so much effort, I am still just a pawn!"

Chenxiang spread his arms, lying on the ground, looking up at the firmament: "I am tired... Do it!"

"Someone will deal with you!" After Erlang Shen said this calmly, he released the three-pointed, double-edged blade with his right hand and thrust his hand directly toward his forehead, driving it into flesh and bone, gripping that Heavenly Eye tightly.

"Do you think you can control me? Want me to be your Puppet Heavenly Emperor? You underestimate me, Erlang Shen!"

With a fierce tug, a sharp pain far more intense than any physical injury, originating from the depths of his Soul, erupted!

"Argh—!" Erlang Shen let out an irrepressible roar of pain, his whole body trembling violently, the veins on his forehead bulging, and the muscles under his silver armor knotting up.

"Come out!" At the Heavenly Eye, golden light and grayish-white Qi crazily intertwined, collided, and annihilated each other!

Golden divine blood mixed with the grayish-white power of the Origin gushed out from the wound between his eyebrows, splitting into several eye-catching bloodlines that streamed down, staining half his cheek red.

An eyeball was forcibly ripped out by him; the grayish-white lines connected to the eyeball seemed to be tangled with his brain. The scene was tragic and resolute.

"Heavenly Dao, are you satisfied with this counterattack from Erlang Shen?" Erlang Shen tightened his five fingers and crushed the eyeball in his hand.

The Heavenly Eye turned into powder, and the grayish-white light twisted and dissipated between his fingers like a dying snake.

He staggered, knelt on one knee, and blood gushed from his forehead like a spring, staining the jade fragments beneath him red. But his eyes were clearer than ever before.

"Uncle..." Chenxiang struggled to reach out, wanting to touch the hem of Erlang Shen's garment.

Erlang Shen did not look at him, but instead looked up toward the depths of the firmament. The true victory or defeat was not here, but above the heavens.

You are looking at your uncle, and I am also looking at my uncle!

At the extreme of the heavens, the source of the Law. The two figures of Lu Jiuyuan were still in a standoff, but at this moment, the balance had already tilted.

When Erlang Shen forcibly dug out the Eye of the Heavenly Dao and crushed that pawn, the Incarnation of the Heavenly Dao was thoroughly defeated!

"You have lost." Lu Jiuyuan said calmly, then opened his arms: "Please!"

"You have a good nephew!"

"I do indeed have a good nephew!"

The Heavenly Dao Lu Jiuyuan smiled slightly, feeling somewhat unwilling. Streams of light from his body continuously entered the thousands of worlds within Lu Jiuyuan's body. Under the influence of this power, those particles that had not yet opened up worlds began to rapidly create inner Small Worlds.

"Both are nephews, but the Erlang Shen you cultivated is much stronger than the Chenxiang cultivated by Erlang Shen!"

"That is because I am much stronger than Erlang Shen!"

Absorbing the power of the Heavenly Dao, the 12.96 million Small Worlds that had already been opened cheered and leaped with joy, like a dried-up riverbed welcoming sweet rain; and those "seeds" that had not yet been opened, under the irrigation of this majestic power, emitted the crisp sound of creation.

"Crack— crack, crack—" Like a spring river thawing, like seeds breaking through the soil.

Every particle in Lu Jiuyuan's body was trembling, reorganizing, and sublimating. His body dispersed, once again transforming into a miniature model of the Universe, with the birth of countless worlds.

12.96 million newly born Small Worlds, exactly equal to the number of worlds he originally possessed, formed a perfect symmetry and balance on the level of Law in a neat and uniform manner.

At this moment, the total number of Small Worlds within his body: 25.92 million.

Countless galaxies rotated, each point of light being a complete Small World, and these galaxies were connected to each other, forming a three-dimensional network of Law that covered his entire body.

The galaxies expanded outward, clearing a huge blank space. The river of light of the Law at the extreme of the heavens, at this moment, seemed to be summoned by some existence of a higher order, and began to slowly flow and converge toward the location where Lu Jiuyuan was.

A Major Thousand Worlds occupied the true core of this Universe.