Wu was silent, a look of remembrance on his face, mixed with complex humanity.
He was the beginning, the origin, and he was all beings, possessing all their forms.
Wu fell silent for a moment, then, with hands clasped behind his back, strode across the sky, the great world moving with him.
"Destiny, nemesis? That explanation isn't quite right. I have lived for so long, so long, it has become too lonely and dull. Do you understand?"
As he spoke, Wu waved his Daoist robe, and heaven and earth flowed, a realm beyond the mundane appearing.
Sparse immortal mist, billowing forth.
As far as the eye could see, there was only the grandeur of stars and light.
Every blade of grass, every tree, was born from the evolution of the Chaos Sea.
A single speck of dust contained an infinite, boundless universe.
An ancient, simple stone table appeared. Wu, hands behind his back, smiled and said,
"This is called hospitality, correct?"
Wu emulated human etiquette, using ancestral artifacts as his table and divine creations as his chairs.
He used the brilliant starry river as tea and transformed all things between heaven and earth into a pot.
Assuming the demeanor of a host, he gestured for Mu Changqing to sit.
Mu Changqing's gaze calmly surveyed this world.
The scene here was terrifying and awe-inspiring.
In the Dao of Relativity, they now appeared to be of normal human size.
Yet, the very dust they stepped upon was composed of billions of boundless universes, an endless Chaos Sea.
The tea they were to share was sourced from the brilliant starry river, formed from the ocean of cosmic light.
Flowers, plants, trees, the most common things in the mortal world, could all be found here.
However, everything in the mortal world seemed to have been shrunk countless times, while this place was the very origin of all things.
Mu Changqing gently smoothed his robe and leisurely sat down. He raised his head and drank a river of stars. His gaze flickered, and he spoke directly, asking,
"Is this the true Grey Ancestral Origin? Or rather, is this the deepest part of the Ancestral Origin, the place where you usually reside?"
Wu smiled at his words and poured Mu Changqing another cup of starry river tea.
"How does it feel? This is something I spent some thought creating for amusement."
"Your guess is correct. This place is what you call the true Ancestral Origin. Everything outside is merely extraneous matter that has arisen from too many years of neglect."
Wu shook his head, beginning to boast to Mu Changqing about the joys he had created over his endless years.
With a wave of his hand, boundary butterflies danced in the sky, vibrant and colorful, shimmering with light, exuding exquisite beauty.
"Look, this thing, you people would probably call it a butterfly. However, I prefer to call it a boundary butterfly, as it better suits its identity."
Mu Changqing set down his teacup and looked up.
Countless colorful butterflies danced in the sky and earth, a truly beautiful sight.
But upon learning the truth, it was profoundly terrifying.
Upon their bodies, they bore infinite, boundless universes, adorned with the radiance of stars, which made them appear so exceptionally beautiful and captivating.
With each flap of a boundary butterfly's wings, eons passed, and an ancient history turned a page.
Innumerable living beings resided on the bodies of these boundary butterflies, completely unaware.
Seeing that Mu Changqing remained silent, Wu continued to speak.
It seemed as though he had not spoken for too many years, and now that he finally had someone to converse with, he had become quite talkative.
"You are my first guest, and the first being to have the right to be here."
"For so many years, or rather, no being has ever sat at my table and spoken with me. It has truly been dull."
Mu Changqing's expression was calm; he was not surprised by these world-shattering scenes.
Having reached his level, he had attained the pinnacle of all realms, with no other beings capable of surpassing him.
Even Wu, the consciousness of the Grey Ancestral Origin before him, was merely a being of the same level.
"You created all of this, so how could there be no one to speak with?"
Mu Changqing tidied his sleeves, his aura receding to that of an ordinary person.
He was not in a hurry to initiate the final ultimate battle.
After all, there were still some questions that needed Wu to answer.
Wu heard this and sighed lightly.
"Would you chat with some ants? What right do they have? Those so-called Ancestral Gods are merely those I chose to exile myself, falling into eternal slumber, causing this Ancestral Origin to be unattended, thus giving rise to these pests."
Wu's tone was calm, yet it carried an arrogant superiority.
If Mu Changqing had not ascended to this level, Wu would never have appeared to engage in such pleasantries.
If no successor had ever reached this level in all the realms, Wu might have remained eternally dormant, never to reawaken and regain consciousness.
And he, the master of creation, was comparing himself to pests. Such a declaration was exceedingly overbearing, no less so than Mu Changqing's own dominance.
"Are you perhaps wondering why I acted this way?"
Wu waved away the tea set and retrieved wine brewed from starry rivers from space, offering it to Mu Changqing.
His actions were somewhat childish, like a child showing off their toys and sharing the fun.
Except, these toys were sentient beings, truly sentient beings.
All the worlds inhabited by all sentient beings were brewed into wine. How horrifying!
Mu Changqing accepted the wine without hesitation. Life was merely entertainment for beings at their level; why would they care about the thoughts of the things they used for amusement?
He raised his head and drank a mouthful of wine, and countless starry rivers annihilated.
"Speak."
Mu Changqing wiped his mouth, brushed back a strand of black hair from his forehead, and said with a smile.
It had also been a long time since he had experienced such quiet leisure.
"I have lived for too long. I created historical epochs one after another, only to bury them."
"I have also created beings of the level you call Ancestral Gods, using them as experiments, desiring to create beings on my level."
As he said this, Wu's brow furrowed, and he sighed.
"But for some reason, I failed every time. Their ultimate attainment was that of an Ancestral God. Even if they were fortunate enough to transcend, to break through the ultimate barrier, they were merely larger ants."
He looked at Mu Changqing.
Mu Changqing paused for a moment and nodded in agreement.
Indeed, the Seven Great Ancestral Gods were immensely powerful.
They had even used ultimate transformation methods to take that step.
But even so, they were still too weak, too weak to contend with Mu Changqing, who had not yet undergone his transformation.
"Alas, therefore, I understand a truth: true transcendence cannot be created; it can only occur naturally. One must break free from all restraints, shatter limitations, comprehend the Ancestral Origin, and create a new Ancestral Origin. Only then can one achieve true transcendence."
He looked at Mu Changqing, clearly implying that Mu Changqing was such an example.
"What is your purpose in doing this? To create an opponent? Or are you seeking death?"
Mu Changqing looked at Wu, a strange smile appearing on his face.
Wu was stunned for a moment, having not expected any being to have the courage to speak to him in such a manner.
But upon second thought, Mu Changqing, having reached this level, indeed possessed that qualification.
He slowly rose, a look of reminiscence on his face, and while gently teasing the boundary butterflies, he began to speak.
"Why do you think mortals fall ill? Feel lonely, melancholic? Possess the seven emotions and six desires?"
Wu turned to look at Mu Changqing and continued,
"Because all of this evolved from myself!"
"Immortal and indestructible, eternally unyielding. Initially, I could still find amusement in the birth and death of all beings, but as time went on, I grew bored and lonely. But I cannot die; I am truly immortal and indestructible."
He sighed and then explained further.
"The power of creation originates from me. The power of the Seven Great Ancestral Gods originates from me. Everything in all realms originates from me."
"I wished to divide my power in this way, perhaps at a certain low level, I would die."
"But I was wrong. I am too powerful. So powerful that no matter how I divided my power, it was difficult for me to perish. I am the heaven of all realms. How can heaven perish?"
At this point, Wu's aura surged, his tone becoming incomparably domineering.
He was the true heaven, the origin of all things in all realms, the so-called Heaven of the Ancestral Gods, the Primordial Heavenly Dao.
Everything was merely entertainment he devised out of boredom.