Chapter 295. Constellation System (6)
“No...!”
Faced with Taigong Wang’s desperate crisis, Nezha lost his composure.
“Are you planning to disgrace your master’s honor?”
“Don’t make me laugh, Jason!”
This was clearly a one-on-one duel agreed upon by both sides.
If Nezha interfered now and saved Taigong Wang...
it would stain Taigong Wang’s honor.
But Nezha couldn’t simply stand there and watch.
“Supreme Commander...!”
Calling out to Taigong Wang, Nezha tried to rush over.
But he quickly realized he couldn’t move freely.
"...?!"
Something like a spiderweb had wrapped itself around his entire body.
It was restricting his movements.
“Don’t tell me... Princess Longji!”
“Yes.”
Princess Longji nodded calmly.
“The Mist-Dew Universe Net is, as its name implies, a net woven from mist and dew.”
“It can naturally be used as an actual net.”
“You think this little thing can stop me...?!”
Nezha tried to rip apart the Mist-Dew Universe Net.
With the power of Three Heads and Eight Arms and his eight magical treasures...
tearing through it should have been easy.
“You won’t be doing that.”
“Ghk?!”
Suddenly, his entire body went numb.
Something other than the Mist-Dew Universe Net was restricting him.
“You... Daji!”
“We can’t defeat the current you with our strength...”
Daji covered her mouth with one hand and smiled seductively.
“But secretly preparing a spell to bind your movements for a short while?”
“That much is perfectly possible.”
“You bastards...!”
It was an extremely complicated spell.
Brute force alone wouldn’t be enough to break free.
Had they prepared it while he was distracted by Taigong Wang’s battle with the Nameless King?
No...
perhaps they had been preparing it even before Nezha arrived.
“Did you really think we were doing nothing while leaving everything to the Nameless King?”
“Our role was to hold you back while the Nameless King defeated Taigong Wang.”
“Princess Longji, Daji... you...!”
Nezha glared at the two beauties who had lived in the same era as him three thousand years ago.
“I’ll kill you...!”
He twisted his entire body violently...
but he couldn’t escape.
The combination of the greatest fairy and the greatest wicked woman of the Shang-Zhou Revolution...
had completely restrained the strongest artificial being, Nezha.
“And my role was to distract you.”
“Sometimes by looking miserable.”
“Sometimes by provoking you with confidence.”
“Jason...!”
Nezha widened his eyes at Jason’s shameless grin.
“Looking pathetic and acting smug about other people’s business are both things I’m very good at, you know?”
“I’ll kill every last one of you...!”
“Haha.”
“You think we’re afraid of that?”
Jason shrugged.
“We’ve all died once already.”
“You bastard...!”
“Jason, I haven’t.”
“Daji, you nearly died because of Taigong Wang and survived.”
“That’s close enough.”
Nezha struggled furiously.
Just a little more...
and he could break free and save Taigong Wang.
“And Nezha...”
“you’re already too late.”
"...!"
Nezha stopped moving.
Then he looked toward the shoreline...
and his eyes widened.
“H-Haha...”
Taigong Wang was laughing in disbelief.
“This is truly... absurd.”
He lowered his head.
Staring at the hole in his own chest...
he looked as if he couldn’t understand what had happened.
“I, Jiang Ziya...”
“who spent three thousand years preparing and obtained the power to influence countless worlds...”
“am going to die after losing a fistfight against a human?”
Taigong Wang burst out laughing.
“What an utterly ridiculous Scenario...”
“Because of your arrogance.”
I lowered my fist.
“You were afraid of us...”
“but at the same time, you were arrogant.”
“If you had pursued victory thoroughly and nothing else, this would never have happened.”
If Taigong Wang had acted even slightly differently...
I wouldn’t have been able to deal with him.
He had appeared before me while his spatial domination was still unrepaired.
He had even accepted my request for a one-on-one fight.
“You were afraid of us, so you used all kinds of methods to restrain us.”
“But once you had taken those precautions, you relaxed.”
“You convinced yourself you had the advantage because you had already prepared countermeasures.”
“Even though, in reality...”
“your position kept getting worse.”
“I see.”
Taigong Wang shook his head bitterly.
“I prided myself on being the greatest strategist...”
“but it seems my instincts have dulled considerably over three thousand years.”
Taigong Wang had originally been a legendary strategist.
The man said to have written the Six Secret Teachings and Three Strategies...
and who led the Shang-Zhou Revolution to victory.
If he had retained the same instincts he possessed three thousand years ago...
I probably would have lost.
“Or perhaps...”
“I became intoxicated by the arrogance of ruling all worlds.”
"..."
Taigong Wang had originally been a historical great man.
Even in Material Realm history, he had been called the ‘Master of the Hundred Schools.’
His practical way of thinking was said to have influenced the philosophical roots of the Hundred Schools of Thought.
The Taigong Wang of the Fantasy Realm standing before me...
must also once have been a remarkable man.
But after participating in the Investiture Plan...
a plan that forcibly killed heroes and turned them into gods...
he began using that brilliance elsewhere.
He came to dream of managing and judging countless heroes as he pleased...
and reorganizing the entire world according to his own will.
From the moment that happened...
Taigong Wang was no longer the brilliant minister Jiang Ziya of old.
He had become a villain who would eventually need to be defeated.
“Then, Nameless King.”
Taigong Wang looked at me with resignation in his eyes.
“How do you intend to guide this universe?”
"..."
“The Material Realm.”
“The Fantasy Realm.”
“They are both filled with countless problems.”
“I told you earlier that the Fantasy Realm is stable, but if I withdraw my hand...”
“it will quickly fall into chaos.”
That was exactly what I had expected.
If the Fantasy Realm Taigong Wang had reorganized truly were an ideal world...
then it should have continued functioning perfectly even without him constantly intervening.
But based on everything I had heard so far...
Taigong Wang seemed to have been so obsessed with the Fantasy Realm that he couldn’t properly monitor the Material Realm or the Spirit Realm by himself.
That meant the current Fantasy Realm was still far from the ideal world he had envisioned.
“Not my problem.”
“What?”
“The affairs of the Fantasy Realm should be handled by the people of the Fantasy Realm.”
“It isn’t even directly connected to this place anymore.”
I raised my head.
“The passage connected to the Celestial Time Realm will eventually close, right?”
“That is... correct.”
“Then before it closes completely...”
“we’ll make sure no one like you can ever appear again and manipulate space-time across multiple worlds.”
“You have no intention of becoming someone like me...”
“a being who controls multiple worlds?”
“What would be fun about that?”
Taigong Wang looked genuinely caught off guard by my answer.
“Thanks to you...”
“I finally got to return to a human body.”
“To being a Contractor.”
I placed a hand over my chest.
Feeling my heartbeat...
I smiled.
“I’m going to live as a Contractor.”
“You don’t even intend to return to being a Constellation?”
Taigong Wang sounded unable to understand.
“You achieved countless accomplishments as a Constellation...”
“and rose to the very peak of the Spirit Realm.”
“I did.”
“So...”
I grinned.
“now it’s time to reach the top as a Contractor.”
That was right.
I had been a Contractor from the beginning.
Even without talent.
Even with a terrible Constellation.
Even while being looked down on by everyone around me...
