Immortal Paladin

Xin Yune rested against my chest quietly as I held her close. She was still weak and fragile. Not physically alone, but existentially. Her soul had only recently stabilized after being dragged back from the edge of oblivion itself. Right now, even overwhelming her emotions too much could destabilize the delicate balance keeping her together.

So I used Ophanim carefully.

My eyes glowed softly as countless rings rotated within my irises. Streams of memories flowed between us in compressed fragments. I showed her my adventures. My failures. My wars. Nongmin’s journey. The people we met. The worlds we crossed. The countless horrors that nearly devoured us whole. Entire years of experiences passed through her consciousness within a single instant, yet I guided every memory gently so she would not drown beneath the sheer weight of them.

Her eyes widened.

“Yes!” Xin Yune shouted as she leaped out of my arms and started doing a ridiculous little victory jig atop the mausoleum floor. “Nongmin finally got a woman! A genuine significant half! About damn time! I knew somebody would eventually tolerate his emotionally constipated ass!”

I blinked.

Shi Chang looked physically offended.

Xin Yune spun around dramatically before pointing at me accusingly. “Wait a minute! Why wasn’t there a wedding yet?!”

Then came the tantrum.

“Unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable! What kind of progression speed is this?! I was dead and even I expected better pacing than this!”

“Please calm down,” I said tiredly.

“I can’t!”

She marched toward me furiously before abruptly pausing mid-rant. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously as she leaned closer to my face.

“Also, what happened to your eyes?”

Her expression softened immediately afterward, a beautiful grin blooming across her face despite the concern lingering beneath it.

“Wait, forget about it. A bad guy version of you that you defeated—”

“Hey, that’s not fair to Dark David,” I interrupted. “He’s a very important part of me, you know.”

Xin Yune stared at me.

I shrugged helplessly. “Still… cool, right?”

She snorted before playfully jabbing my shoulder. “Congratulations, Da Wei. You found your significant other, became ridiculously overpowered, and somehow even ended up with a daughter.” Her grin widened mischievously. “Aw, our little Da Wei grew up.”

Heat crawled up my neck immediately.

“That’s embarrassing when you say it out loud.”

A fake cough interrupted us.

Shi Chang stood nearby with his arms folded behind his back, wearing the expression of a deeply exhausted middle-aged man regretting every life decision that brought him here.

“There’s a time and place for everything, Da Wei.”

“Yeah,” I admitted.

I looked back toward Xin Yune. “Do you have access to Meng Po’s memories?”

Her playful expression faded slightly. “Fragments of them.”

“Would you allow me to cast Divine Possession on you?”

Xin Yune blinked once as her lips curled upward slowly.

“My,” she said teasingly. “Why are you so eager to get inside me?”

I groaned immediately.

“Your son’s gonna blush if you keep throwing lines like that around.”

“Oh?” she asked innocently.

“And besides,” I continued, “I’m already spoken for. We wouldn’t want to piss off the missus.”

Xin Yune burst into laughter.

“You’re so adorable.”

I winced.

Yeah.

Same chaotic Xin Yune I remembered.

Another fake cough echoed throughout the mausoleum.

Shi Chang somehow looked even grumpier now.

“The Judge of Order is literally standing here,” he said flatly. “Please conduct yourselves with at least some dignity.”

“Oh, calm down,” Xin Yune replied lazily. “It’s not going to be simple playing around with memories this fragmented, especially when those memories belong to an existence like Meng Po.”

Her expression shifted slightly afterward.

“My primal self wasn’t exactly ordinary.”

Shi Chang’s stern demeanor weakened immediately. His shoulders sagged with visible exhaustion.

“…My apologies,” he admitted quietly. “You have to understand. I just witnessed Da Wei bring back an existence connected to Meng Po. Even if only fragments remain, that is still one of the oldest gods and immortals to ever exist.”

His eyes darkened.

“And frankly… time has not been treating us kindly.”

Silence lingered briefly afterward and Xin Yune looked at me and smiled softly.

“Go ahead.”

I nodded before placing my hand against her forehead.

“Divine Possession.”

The world shattered instantly.

I entered her sea of memories and immediately felt pressure slam against my existence from every direction. Endless fractured walls stretched across reality itself like a broken labyrinth. Countless intersecting mazes folded into one another infinitely, each containing shattered pieces of memories older than worlds.

And the weight?

Gods.

The sheer weight of existence nearly crushed me where I stood.

Meng Po’s memories were vast beyond comprehension. Even fragmented, they contained enough depth to bury entire civilizations beneath the pressure of accumulated eternity. I activated Transcendent Heart immediately. My thoughts accelerated. My soul stabilized. My consciousness sharpened beyond limitations.

Still not enough.

The pressure continued mounting.

I gritted my teeth.

“…It’s been awhile.”

Emerald flames flickered around me.

“Soulful Guiding Fire.”

A butterfly manifested from the flames. Brilliant emerald wings fluttered quietly as it drifted deeper into the endless maze. I followed without hesitation. The deeper we traveled, the quieter everything became.

Eventually, the labyrinth disappeared altogether.

I found myself standing beside an empty Bridge of Forgetfulness stretching endlessly across pale gray waters. A single figure stood near the edge of the bridge, stirring an old pot lazily as mist drifted around her.

Meng Po glanced over her shoulder toward me before sighing heavily.

“Took you long enough, brat.”

I smiled faintly despite myself.

“Long time no see, too.”

Meng Po snorted softly before looking back toward the pot.

“This means I must already be dead.”

“I’ll bring you back,” I said immediately. “I’m going to need your strength.”

She stopped stirring.

Then she looked at me like I was the stupidest creature to ever crawl out of existence.

“First, you need to learn the history of the Six Supremes and understand your role in all of this.” Her eyes narrowed. “We do not have much time.”

“You can explain everything afterward,” I replied firmly. “First I bring you back, then we deal with the Great Beast together, and afterward we can—”

“Are you truly this naive?”

Her voice cut through mine sharply.

The atmosphere darkened instantly.

“What is going to happen is that I will allow you to absorb as much of my memories as possible before I disappear completely.”

I frowned. “Why are you in such a hurry? This is a memory world. Time moves differently here.”

Meng Po slowly turned toward me fully. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The moment her eyes met mine, oblivion itself seemed to stir around us.

“Because I am the Goddess of Oblivion,” she said quietly. “And if you refuse to do as I say…”

The pale waters beneath the bridge began vanishing into nothingness.

“…then I will personally consign the remainder of my existence into oblivion myself.”

Her gaze sharpened.

“And you will get nothing.”

“Stop being so surly, you old hag.”

“I’M GONNA DO IT, DA WEI! I’M GONNA DO IT!”

Seeing her wave her ladle wasn’t creating a convincing image, but I could tell that she wasn’t bluffing.

There was no hesitation in her eyes. No uncertainty. No hidden grief trying to soften the threat. If I refused her, she truly would cast herself into oblivion without a second thought. A being who governed forgetfulness itself had the authority to erase even her own existence completely.

Then she snapped her fingers.

The world ruptured.

Fragments and broken pieces of memories flooded into me violently.

Patchwork visions stitched together through incomplete histories and shattered timelines. Yet despite the missing portions, the emotions attached to them remained horrifyingly vivid. I felt everything she felt as though her soul had briefly become my own.

I experienced the Age of Divinity through her.

An endless golden world overflowing with miracles beyond imagination. Vast civilizations crafted by the Shén stretched across realms filled with impossible beauty. Seas of stars drifted through skies painted by divine laws. Living mountains walked alongside celestial beasts while transcendent beings shaped reality itself like artists brushing color upon a canvas.

And among them was a young, gentle, and smiling Meng Po.

She had not begun as the Goddess of Oblivion.

She had begun as a healer.

I watched her tending wounded creations beneath sacred trees taller than worlds. I watched her soothe crying spirits and restore broken bodies with hands overflowing with warmth. She traveled endlessly across the land of the Shén helping both gods and lesser creations alike, earning merit through compassion rather than conquest.

That was who she originally was.

Not a manipulator.

Not an architect of monsters.

Just someone who wanted to help others.

But there were wounds even she could not heal.

I felt the frustration growing within her as the memories shifted. Diseases emerged that attacked souls directly. Madness spread among immortals. Grief accumulated endlessly inside beings who could not naturally die. Countless ancient existences became broken beneath the burden of memory and eternity.

And Meng Po?

Stubborn idiot that she was, refused to accept there was no solution.

So she searched recklessly.

The memories fractured heavily afterward. Entire centuries became blurred fragments filled with anguish and obsession. I felt her desperation growing deeper and deeper until eventually, she succeeded.

The Tea of Forgetfulness.

Or in some case, a soup, because she tends to forget, which was either.

I saw the moment she created it.

A simple tea capable of granting release from unbearable pain by allowing memories to fade away peacefully. At first, it seemed like salvation. Countless suffering beings sought her guidance. Entire civilizations praised her wisdom. The exhausted and broken finally found relief through oblivion.

Meng Po became revered and placed upon a pedestal.

But the cure poisoned the world instead.

The visions darkened.

The Shén began changing.

Followers abandoned old loyalties. Lesser gods rose against higher divinities. Ancient bonds eroded as memories faded and identities blurred beneath repeated use of oblivion. Distrust spread like infection. Wars erupted between transcendent factions.

There had once been a world resembling LLO.

A true land of the Shén.

And I watched it collapse.

Heaven burned.

Stars died.

Divine realms shattered apart beneath endless war.

Meng Po watched all of it happen while understanding her cure had contributed to the destruction.

The shame destroyed her.

She hid herself afterward, withdrawing from the remnants of the shattered divine world. The memories became quieter then. Lonely. I saw her entering the Underworld beneath the protection of the Judges and the ruler of one of its mightiest layers.

The Judge of Fools.

I blinked in shock when I saw Jue Bu as not the eccentric disaster I knew.

The memories portrayed him as something far greater.

A valiant ruler beloved by his people. Wise despite his absurdity. Fearless despite overwhelming odds. Entire layers flourished beneath his guidance. Even the other Judges respected him openly.

It felt surreal.

Then came the fall.

I watched his layer crumble beneath catastrophe and war. Even then, Meng Po remained. By that point, she had already become indispensable to the Underworld itself. Souls passed through her hands endlessly. Oblivion became a pillar supporting reincarnation and cosmic balance.

And then, everything changed.

I saw her begin scheming.

The memories distorted violently afterward, but I still caught glimpses. Forbidden experiments. Hidden preparations. Endless calculations spanning eras.

A figure suddenly appeared in the world of memories.

My entire body froze.

Someone stood across from Meng Po within the fragmented memory. Their appearance remained obscured completely, swallowed by static and distortion.

Yet I heard the title clearly.

“Game Master.”

The mere presence of that existence caused the memory to destabilize around me. I watched Meng Po speaking with them quietly. And there conversation? It was about the creation of the Great Beast. It broke my heart.

Slowly, the vision shattered again. The final fragments arrived afterward.

I saw myself, small, weak, and lost. I was harbored secretly by Meng Po herself, which led to her death. I watched Supreme Beings descend upon her. I watched her perish, while ensuring my survival.

The memory ended there.

Silence consumed everything.

The world shifted abruptly afterward. I found myself floating within the vacuum of space surrounded by countless distant stars. Meng Po stood before me calmly while galaxies rotated slowly behind her like drifting lanterns.

I stared at her in horror.

“…Why?”

My voice came out harsher than intended.

“Why did you do it?!”

The pressure inside my chest intensified violently.

“It doesn’t make sense!”

The fragmented memories only made things worse. Pieces were missing everywhere. Motivations blurred together beneath incomplete context and shattered timelines. Would I have understood her better if the memories were complete?

Meng Po looked at me quietly as she smiled faintly.

“The Great Beast,” she said softly, “is nourishment for your growth.”

I frowned.

She continued anyway.

“Just as the Great Beast serves as fuel for you… I am no different.”

The stars around us dimmed.

“Devour my existence.”

My eyes widened slightly.

Meng Po raised her hand, and ancient laws stirred throughout space itself.

“The same way immortality can be stolen to ascend further into the Ascended Soul Realm…”

Her gaze locked onto mine.

“…the same principle applies to Rulers of Laws.”

I had played this game before.

People always tried forcing my hand by painting themselves as monsters, martyrs, or necessary sacrifices. Some used guilt. Others used rage. A few hid behind the excuse of the greater good and demanded I accept horrors because there was supposedly no better choice.

Nongmin had done it first.

I still remembered the fury I felt toward him back then. He painted himself as a genocidal emperor willing to slaughter descending realms beyond the Dark Veil without remorse. At the time, I believed he had lost himself completely. I thought he had become another tyrant swallowed by power and fate.

And perhaps he had.

But that was not the entire truth.

Nongmin had been cornered by destiny itself. Every step he took had been calculated to place me where I stood now. That lunatic moved heaven, earth, karma, and fate to carve a path for me through impossible circumstances. He willingly became history’s villain because somebody had to shoulder the burden.

There would never have been a Holy Emperor without Nongmin.

The cost was his sanity, suffering, and becoming a man the world could hate.

And now I stood before another existence willing to do the same thing.

Meng Po had already died once because of me.

The Six Supremes discovered my nascent existence hidden within her world, and despite understanding the danger, she still sheltered me. I cultivated within her realm. I recovered my disciple there. Even afterward, she continued protecting us despite knowing exactly what kind of catastrophe followed my existence.

She never lied about it either.

Meng Po had bluntly admitted she allowed herself to become part of the Yellow Emperor’s schemes. She understood I was being used long before I did, yet she accepted it because she believed the alternative would be worse.

And now?

She was preparing to die again just to hand me more power.

There would never have been a Supreme Bearer without Meng Po.

All she had needed to do was reject me when I stumbled into her realm searching desperately for my disciple. One refusal would have changed everything. Instead, she opened the door for me despite understanding the consequences better than anyone else.

I exhaled slowly.

“The two of you are quite the son and mother pair.”

Meng Po snorted softly. “You say that like it’s a compliment.”

“It wasn’t entirely an insult either.”

The stars around us flickered gently while silence settled between us. I hated this. I hated how people kept choosing suffering for my sake. Every path leading toward my growth seemed paved by sacrifices others willingly made before I even understood the value of what they gave up.

But I also understood something else.

Refusing her now would only invalidate everything she endured.

So I accepted her power.

The moment I did, existence roared.

Meng Po’s authority surged into me like an endless tide swallowing entire universes whole. Memories, laws, divinity, and oblivion merged with my soul violently enough to make reality tremble around us. I felt ancient principles carving themselves into my existence. The concept of endings. The silence after death. The mercy hidden within forgetfulness.

I opened my eyes.

The mausoleum returned around me.

Divine Possession faded quietly as my consciousness settled back into my body. Xin Yune remained standing before me, still intact, though exhaustion lingered heavily across her face. Shi Chang watched silently nearby with visible tension etched into his expression.

I inhaled slowly.

Something inside me had changed. yet I had not broken through.

Perhaps it was selfishness.

I wanted Xin Yune to stay alive.

With the power I now possessed, I genuinely believed I could create a heaven upon earth. A world where people like Nongmin and Xin Yune no longer needed to sacrifice themselves endlessly for everyone else. A world where existence itself did not demand suffering as the price for survival.

I wanted them to live long enough to see that world.

Shi Chang broke the silence first.

“Can you defeat the Great Beast now?”

I looked toward him quietly and shook my head.

“No.”

The answer left my mouth without hesitation.

Even after inheriting Meng Po’s authority, the Great Beast still remained an existence beyond absurd. I understood it better now after seeing fragments of the truth. That thing was not merely a monster rampaging across creation. It was something cultivated deliberately through countless eras.

A disaster designed with purpose.

I stepped toward the coffin resting within the center of the mausoleum and pushed the heavy lid aside fully. Ancient dust scattered into the air as the interior revealed a single weathered stone tablet covered in glowing inscriptions.

Xin Yune tilted her head slightly.

“What’s that?”

“A prophecy,” I answered quietly. “One connected to the Great Beast.”

The moment my eyes scanned the writing, something ancient stirred within me.

The words themselves radiated impossible weight. Each symbol carried enough pressure to distort surrounding laws. They were not merely written language. They were truths carved directly into existence itself.

My heartbeat slowed.

Then accelerated violently.

The authority inside my soul began resonating with the tablet. Meng Po’s power intertwined with my cultivation while countless laws spiraled around my body uncontrollably. The mausoleum trembled. Mountains of divine treasures reacted simultaneously as though bowing toward something newly born.

I felt my Ascended Soul evolving.

The world around me became clearer than ever before. I could see invisible principles woven throughout reality itself. Karma. Death. Space. Time. Oblivion. Cause and effect intertwined endlessly like rivers flowing beneath creation.

I understood how to grasp them directly.

Power surged through every corner of my existence as the final barrier shattered completely.

I had reached the next realm.

Ruler of Laws.