The ancient hall, empty and dimly lit, was unusually quiet.

Faced with the questioning of this former king, Zhou Huai remained silent.

A lackey of Heaven's Way?

In the eyes of these ancient races who once dominated the world and attempted to break its shackles, they see themselves as vicious dogs driven by the will of heaven, simply following the system's missions and upholding the world's rules.

But so what?

This is essentially a matter of perspective; in this cruel world, there is never a clear distinction between right and wrong.

If anyone is to blame, it's Zhou Huai for living in this chaotic world where every day is uncertain!

He possessed a god-level clone system that was practically heaven-defying, but he had too little time to develop it!

From the time he transmigrated to the present, how long has it been? He was originally just a useless person who was abandoned by his family and paralyzed in both legs.

But the enemies he had to face were high-dimensional monsters that had lived for thousands of years and could crush space with a flick of their wrists!

Ahead lie menacing beasts, behind lies the unfathomable Dawn Guild, and now these remnants of the old era, attempting to overthrow the present world, have emerged.

To put it bluntly, Zhou Huai got to where he is today entirely because he was pushed to the edge of a cliff by the surging tide of the times.

If we don't follow the will of Heaven, if we don't use this mysterious force to plunder resources and rapidly increase our strength...

He's long dead!

He and all those he cared about had long been crushed into ashes by a transcendent being like Mr. Duan!

Zhou Huai now has only one clear goal in mind—to become as strong as possible at all costs, so strong that no one and no rule can threaten him!

Then he would protect Uncle Fu, Ye Xi, and the brothers of the Eternal Night Guild who had entrusted their lives to him, and search for the mother who harbored a shocking secret.

As for whether he was a lackey of Heaven's Way, he didn't care at all!

Or rather, he doesn't even have the right to care about that title right now!

Zhou Huai, controlling Li Er, raised his head and stared directly at the broken, dark gold skeleton on the throne.

He countered with a question, his voice echoing in the empty hall:

"And what about you?"

"You keep saying I'm a lackey of Heaven, so why do you, the former Human Emperor, choose to defy Heaven at this time?"

Upon hearing this question, the Skeleton King on the throne was slightly taken aback. Then, his jaw opened and closed violently, emitting a chilling sneer.

"Hehe... Hahaha!"

The laughter went from low to arrogant, shaking the dome of the underground palace.

Why should I defy the heavens?

The Human Emperor leaned forward, and in his empty eye sockets, the two faint purple soul flames that had been burning intensely suddenly became incredibly powerful, exuding an arrogant aura that looked down upon all ages.

"Because I... am the Human Emperor!"

"In my time, I was the strongest human being in the heavens and the earth, in the six directions and eight wastelands!"

"Back then, I cleaved the chaos with a single sword, pacifying the four seas and eight wastelands! Billions of humankind revered me as their master, and all races trembled and prostrated themselves at my feet! My word became the law of heaven and earth! The era in which I lived was the golden age of humanity!"

"The whole world belongs to the king! All people within the realm are his subjects!"

"I once thought that there was no mountain in this world that I could not conquer, no sea that I could not traverse!"

The Emperor's voice trembled, carrying an extreme pride that came from the depths of his soul.

However, just as his momentum reached its peak, his voice abruptly stopped.

The skeletal hand that had been clenching in mid-air fell limply to the armrest of the throne.

A long, mournful sigh, filled with endless sorrow and resentment, emanated from the withered skeleton.

"But so what?"

The Emperor leaned back in his chair, his body writhing violently with deathly energy.

"No matter how great my achievements were back then, no matter how profound my cultivation was, no matter how far I had even gone, I had even stepped one foot out of that legendary threshold..."

In the end, he couldn't escape the fate of dying of old age!

"This damned rule set by Heaven forcibly stripped me of my life force, leaving a peerless genius like me to watch helplessly as my flesh withers away, turning into a handful of foul-smelling yellow earth, hiding in this dark underground, ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) barely clinging to life!"

The Emperor slammed his hand on the armrest, his dark gold bones emitting a piercing grinding sound, and roared:

"I am the Human Emperor! I am the Mandate of Heaven!"

"Why is it that if the rules of this world dictate that I must die, then I must die?!"

"Since the world rules are as they are, then I will break those rules! Since the Heavenly Dao does not allow me to live forever, then I will defy the Heavenly Dao and trample it under my feet!"

That's it! And that's all!

Faced with the Emperor's frenzied roar, Zhou Huai's expression remained unchanged. Li Er's aged face even showed a mocking expression.

"You spoke with such conviction, and it sounded quite tragic."

Zhou Huai, controlling Li Er, said in a calm tone, "But what's the use of that?"

"Do you really think that with your current inhuman and ghostly appearance, you can transcend the limitations of the world's rules?"

"If it were truly possible, you should have taken that step to transcend back in your prime when you were still alive!"

Zhou Huai struck at the Emperor's sore spot: "Why wait until tens of millions of years after death to come to this world where spiritual energy is reviving and try to undermine him from the ground up, relying on others to survive?"

Upon hearing this, the temperature inside the hall plummeted to freezing.

The purple flames in the Emperor's eye sockets flickered violently, but instead of flying into a rage, he calmed down. A bizarre smile appeared on his mangled skeletal face.

"What do you know?"

The Human Emperor sneered, his voice low and deep: "You are far from reaching the heights I once reached. You have no idea how powerful and unshakeable the Heavenly Dao was in the past!"

"In my era, the laws of Heaven were incredibly strict! Even if I had tried to break through at my peak, I would have been directly annihilated!"

"But now... times have changed."

"The Heavenly Way is no longer as invincible as it once was. It is asleep, it is weakening!"

"Especially today..." The Human Emperor grinned, his laughter filled with the satisfaction of a successful conspiracy, "I failed in my tribulation, but I forcibly triggered the World-Destroying Thunder Punishment, which has greatly depleted a portion of the original power of this broken Heavenly Dao!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Huai frowned.

He grasped the hidden information in the Emperor's words.

Consume the power of the Heavenly Dao?

"So..." Zhou Huai narrowed his eyes, staring at the Human Emperor on the throne: "From the very beginning, you never expected to truly break through and become a transcendent being today?"

"You were prepared to sacrifice yourself from the very beginning?!"

Zhou Huai was extremely unsettled.

A mighty human emperor, a supreme overlord who once ruled the four seas, actually willingly became a target after his resurrection? He so willingly consumed the thunder of the heavens, becoming someone else's pawn?!

Who on earth could possess such power to make such a proud and arrogant hero willingly face death?!

That name was about to spring to mind for Zhou Huai—

Mr. Duan!

The leader of the Dawn Guild, that high-dimensional monster who has long since transcended the rules!

"Hahaha--!"

Seeing through Zhou Huai's shock, the Human Emperor looked up to the sky and let out a hearty laugh.

"In my entire life, I have never taken any living being seriously. But there is only one person for whom I truly admire and respect!"

The Emperor's laughter echoed throughout the Hall of Eternity, displaying a heroic spirit of facing death with righteous indignation: "He has already proven to me the possibility of that path! Now, he has shown us, the remnants of the old era, true hope!"

Even if I am shattered to pieces today, even if I cannot become the emperor of that new world...

"As long as the shackles of Heaven can be cracked, as long as this cage will eventually be broken..."

The Emperor closed his empty eye sockets, and the deathly aura around him began to dissipate rapidly. His voice became calm:

"I am ready to die."