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--- Chapter 459 ---
"He really is meditating..."
Hanlong Nuji watched silently as Han Yuan sat motionless on the mat. He looked perfectly normal, completely alive, yet she could feel that his soul was entirely elsewhere, anchored to a domain far beyond this physical space.
"Such immense mastery over the soul... or perhaps, more accurately, the spirit," She murmured, a trace of awe slipping into her voice. "To willingly tear apart your own soul must be agonizingly painful, yet he survives it without perishing."
"It's a miraculous feat."
She leaned closer, her eyes narrowing. "Han Yuan, oh, Han Yuan... Who are you, really?"
Meanwhile, within the cosmic expanse of Hey's Fate, Alpha and Beta sat upon their respective thrones. Before them, the 'Providence' glowed with blinding intensity, radiating outward like an ultra-bright star trapped in the center of the room.
"Look at all that fortune... all that destiny," Beta said, his gaze locked onto the 'table' of existence, the literal center of this dimension.
Alpha crossed his arms, his expression unreadable. "Hmm, I take it you've finished the tasks I assigned to you?"
"Uh... Alpha, it's complicated," Beta answered, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "I finished them, sure, but not in the way you ever expected."
"Let's just say we have a few more variables on our hands than we anticipated."
Alpha's eyes sharpened. He had been confident that a rogue time-traveler was altering the past and that Slaughter God was the sole anomaly. "Oh? And what exactly do you mean by that?"
Beta cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably under Alpha's questioning gaze. "Ahem. Should I give it to you straight, or do you want the usual mental download?"
"What is with that look on your face?" Alpha pushed, his suspicious eyes narrowing further. "Did you find something you shouldn't have?"
"Well... Uh, it's better if you see it for yourself." Beta sighed, genuinely at a loss for words. How was he supposed to explain the presence of Hanlong Nuji?
'After all, who would have thought the literal Blue Dragon from the Primal Chaos Dimension would manifest here?'
Strictly speaking, they already possessed the means to access the Primal Chaos Dimension a long time ago.
However, the sheer danger of that higher-level universe compared to the Douluo or Dou Qi Planes had made it a forbidden zone for them.
In the Dou Qi Plane, cultivation was linear, peaking cleanly at the Dou God Realm.
The Douluo Plane followed a similar structure, split between the mortal and divine tiers, peaking at the Godking or the elusive Supreme Godking Realm.
But the Primal Chaos Dimension?
That was an entirely different beast, governed by a brutal three-stage system: Mortal, Divine, and True God!
While the Mortal stage wasn't that much of a threat, the Divine stage of the Primal Chaos Dimension made the Divine Realms of the other two universes look like a joke.
Power scaling aside, the sheer disparity in lifespans was staggering. An entity like Hanlong Nuji could take a casual nap, and entire lower planes would rise and fall before she woke up.
Alpha accepted and reviewed the shared memory stream from Beta, and as the realization hit him, his grip on the armrest of his cold throne tightened.
"I see..." Alpha murmured, his voice dropping low. "So this is the variable you spoke of."
"Yeah. Quite a surprise, right?" Beta chuckled in return.
"Indeed. But you did well to convince her to join our side, even if it's only for a century." Alpha offered a solemn, approving nod.
Beta grinned, his previous awkwardness vanishing. "Hey, I learned from the best!"
Alpha's mouth twitched. "Why are you looking at me like that? Don't forget, we are literally the same person."
"Even then, your method is a bit too scummy..."
"Well, when you put it like that, I can't really argue," Beta snorted, leaning back. "Still, a Blue Dragon..."
"She's cut from the same cloth as the Primordial White Tiger, whose legacy you luckily obtained."
"Yet, Hanlong Nuji's value extends far beyond a mere legacy..." Alpha countered thoughtfully.
"Exactly," Beta agreed. "I don't even know if the Primordial White Tiger is still alive in the Primal Chaos Dimension, but she definitely is. Though it does give me a bit of a headache..."
"Are you wondering whether we should bring her back here, or drag her into our alternate future?" Alpha leaned against his throne, entering deep analysis. "Your progress on the Dou Qi Continent has been too slow."
"Hey, there's nothing I can do about that," Beta complained immediately, shrugging helplessly. "The time difference between our worlds is rapidly stabilizing. Xiao Yan isn't going to just march out of Wu Tan City in a year or two."
It was a frustrating reality. In their earlier meetings, the temporal gap had been so massive that Beta could live out a chunk of his youth while Alpha only experienced a few months. Now, their timelines were running almost perfectly parallel.
"Which means it's time to accept another task from the system," Alpha stated calmly, his eyes drifting upward toward the interface manifesting above the Providence.
Beta blinked, caught off guard. "You've... already made up your mind?"
Deep down, Beta knew he didn't have any autonomy over 'Han Yuan.' At the end of the day, he was merely a fragment, a 'pinky finger' split from the main soul to possess a new body.
Alpha was the true leader, and his decisions were absolute. Because they shared the same values, Alpha never made foolish choices, though Beta would never miss an opportunity to clown him if he did.
Even so, the decision to forge a 'third' member of Hey's Fate felt sudden to Beta.
They had planned this for years, but doing it now felt rushed.
Then again, no plan could keep up with changing realities. They had to adapt, or they would perish.
"Just let me know if you need me to anchor anything," Beta said firmly, his playful demeanor vanishing as he watched Alpha prepare to cut another piece of Han Yuan's soul.
Alpha let out a soft chuckle. "Don't get sentimental on me. I'm doing this for the greater good of us all."
"Dude, don't say it like that. You're giving me the creeps," Beta scoffed, playfully flipping him off. "Dumbledore shit right there."
Alpha shook his head, a faint smile playing on his lips. "Alright. Enough jokes."
"Maintain the stability of Hey's Fate. I am beginning... now."
Under Beta's serious gaze, Alpha closed his eyes and entered a deep meditation.
A moment later, a brilliant manifestation of Han Yuan's soul materialized above the cold throne, pulsing with an otherworldly, silver radiance.
Beta looked at the soul form, noting that the right pinky finger of the soul appeared slightly translucent.
That was his own missing piece, a visual reminder of their separation that always made him a little nostalgic.
Though Han Yuan's own soul had regenerated over time, it still carried a fragile, illusory quality. If Beta's existence wasn't connected so perfectly within it, the domain of Hey's Fate wouldn't even exist.
'Everyone thinks our greatest strengths are our cultivation techniques and overwhelming power,' Beta thought, a smug grin slowly returning to his face.
'And sure, those help. But our real cheat code is Han Yuan's soul. It was blessed by the void itself.'
'Without a blessed soul like us, an iron-clad will, and a strong anchor of existence, cutting your soul into pieces would just result in instant death.'
'But we're different...'
'Our soul is actually... immortal!"
Beta leaned forward eagerly, watching the silver light begin to form into a soul-splitting blade. 'I wonder what kind of person our new member is going to be. Man, I just hope he isn't as extreme as Alpha...'