After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 109.1

After Wang Chang’er left, the kitties continued chatting in the hall.

“The God of Chaos… how was Amon’s condition?”

The gray cat jumped to the window, lifting its head to gaze at the gloomy sky.

The silver cat analyzed objectively. “He was too big, couldn’t retract His body quickly. In my view, it would take at least another month.”

The Siamese cat’s tail puffed up, “Why so long! Our family meeting time is almost here.”

“Can’t that meeting time be delayed? Hasn’t Barbatos always arranged it in the past? We can ask Barbatos to do it slower, the others won’t have any opinions. Besides, have you forgotten? They’re all our demons now.”

The lynx smiled at His brothers confidently. Since His power awakened, His personality seemed to have become more domineering.

The silver cat agreed with His words, but was a bit worried, “However, will Fourth Brother say anything?”

The lynx shook His head. “Fourth Brother is still busy with Lelagin’s magic cube, it’s questionable whether He can attend on time.”

The silver cat nodded. He had seen that magic cube, it was indeed difficult to solve. If it were Him, He would either give up or force His way through, how could He be as patient as Samikina, wanting to solve it personally.

The Siamese cat swished His tail, “I don’t care, it’s getting late, I’m going down to sleep with Father.”

The big lynx turned His eyes, immediately curling His tail around the little Siamese.

Caught off guard with belly against belly, the little Siamese became angry, glaring at the big lynx. “What are you doing!”

The lynx’s gaze was stern, commanding. “You sleep in the cat bed.”

The implication was too obvious.

The little Siamese was seen through, grinding His teeth, but still lowered His head.

No choice, they had too many demons, it couldn’t be helped!

“Fine, cat bed it is!”

The little Siamese was fuming, butting His head against the lynx’s belly. Only after the lynx nodded did He successfully leave.

After the little Siamese ran down, the silver cat followed, yawning while walking, both clearly very tired.

The gray cat didn’t leave, lost in thought, head lowered in contemplation, eyes slightly dim.

The lynx watched the gray cat from the corner of His eye.

Actually He was about to die from exhaustion too, but He had to address the gray cat’s situation.

“Inpos.”

The lynx called out.

The gray cat froze, slowly raising His gaze to meet the lynx’s eyes.

“…”

Faint light illuminated the lynx’s fur.

The lynx’s ears twitched slightly, saying calmly, “If you’re so concerned, you can go take a look.”

“Go… where?”

The gray cat seemed not to quite understand.

The lynx extended His big paw, softly patting the gray cat’s head, answering, “The subspace.”

The gray cat paused, still not quite understanding, “Look at what?”

“Look at your past.”

The lynx gently pinched the gray cat’s face, saying, “Go find Otherworld God 007, They are the God of Time. If you want to know about the Primordial God of Humans, perhaps you can ask Them to help trace back your memories.”

The gray cat paused.

Was there such a method?

But thinking about it, the gray cat hesitated, saying, “They are an otherworld god, They don’t have any connection with us, there’s no reason They would help us.”

The lynx smiled, “How could there be no reason? In a sense, aren’t They our sibling too?”

Huh? The gray cat was dumbfounded, “How could They possibly count as one?”

Even counting the connection through the little light body, They shouldn’t be a “sibling”, shouldn’t They be an uncle?

The lynx said carelessly, “Don’t mind the details. Besides, They’ve been secretly watching our Father for so long, They should pay some interest.”

The gray cat, being an honest demon, couldn’t quite follow the lynx’s logic.

Why did it feel like their Third Brother had gained some roguish attributes after His power awakened?

The lynx didn’t care about the gray cat’s thoughts. His big paw patted His mouth, and after yawning twice, His eyes sharpened, and the surrounding space immediately changed.

The gray cat realized it too late, turning His head to find Himself in the subspace near the Continental Domain.

After being confused for a few seconds, His gaze quickly fixed on the distance.

There was brilliant golden light there, like a golden sea, powerful and majestic divine power displaying its incomparable presence from afar.

Even though the endless, surging sea of chaos was nearby, this golden sea was no less impressive, existing quietly and steadily.

Above the golden sea, a golden humanoid figure stood suspended in the air.

Otherworld God 007, or perhaps They should be called the God of Time?

Vassago showed His human form, yawned again, rubbed His eyes, and turned to ask the gray cat. “Want me to go with you?”

The gray cat’s ears twitched slightly, and He too transformed into human form, still with that androgynous face.

Inpos frowned, His eyes showing firm conviction, speaking, “I’ll go by myself.”

Vassago smiled, raising His hand to pat Inpos’s shoulder, as if giving Him strength, “Alright, go ask and see. If it works out, great, if not, we still have other methods.”

Inpos nodded solemnly, saying to Vassago. “Sister Barbatos is actively facing the past, I need to work hard to do so too.”

Vassago was pleased, offering rare encouragement, “Good luck.”

Inpos was silent for a few seconds, and just as He turned to leave, He suddenly looked back, smiling calmly, as if He had suddenly understood something.

Vassago paused, His eyes showing surprise.

Inpos remarked thoughtfully. “Remember what was said before?”

Vassago was puzzled. “What was said before?”

Inpos faced away from the starry river, His eyes profound, “It was said — we all inherited Father’s humanity to varying degrees, and Father’s humanity is also what we rely on to stabilize our consciousness.”

“Ah, that?”

Vassago quickly went through His memories and remembered – that was what Agares had said.

During their first family meeting, Agares had unusually spoken at length, telling them something about their identity.

Identity, that is, self-recognition.

Because it was Agares’s reminder, they all listened carefully at the time, but whether they took it to heart was another matter.

For example, Vassago had never thought about this question. Humanity, divinity, demon nature… come to think of it, what kind of existence were they now?

Father was human, they were human’s children, were they human too? Speaking of which, Father hadn’t set them as demons, being demons was just their own self-perception, because since birth, they had spent a long time in the abyss, mixing with all sorts of monsters and demons, plus their corresponding forms, over time, they came to recognize themselves as demons.

And now, His younger siblings had remembered their past as gods…

Vassago couldn’t quite sort out the relationships here, but He was a lazy demon, didn’t think He had to sort it out – anyway, they were Father’s children, wasn’t knowing that enough?

That’s right, this was their only identity!

Thinking of this, Vassago couldn’t help but smile happily, and at the same time, He suddenly widened His eyes, as if thinking of something crucial, exclaiming in shock. “I see, that makes sense too!”

Inpos tilted His head, “What’s wrong, Third Brother?”

Vassago suddenly smiled mysteriously, instantly closing the distance, reaching out to pat Inpos’s head, imitating Agares’s riddling demon tone. “Hehe, so you see, Father is our destiny!”

“What?”

Inpos, who had brought up this topic, instead didn’t know what Vassago had associated it with.

Vassago continued. “Remember the gods’ madness? Back then many gods broke down.”

Inpos certainly remembered, every Continental person knew about this.

Vassago said, “I don’t have a past as a god, that’s another matter, but I know that for you all, Father is your destiny. You all broke down back then, and Father is your medicine.”

Inpos froze on the spot, eyes widening.

****

Meanwhile, in the bedroom, all the kitties were asleep.

The little Siamese hadn’t succeeded in climbing onto the bed, obediently sleeping in the cat bed.

The silver cat was the meritorious demon in stopping the little Siamese. Under His terrifying watchful gaze, even though the little Siamese’s fur was puffed up, He could only curl up properly, and then fell asleep while curled up.

Recently some things had happened, they learned many things, and it wasn’t easy to digest it all at once.

The silver cat was a demon who liked to organize intelligence, unravel threads, and analyze carefully. Having finally waited until the deep night when demons were quiet, of course it was His time to analyze.

In His view, the intelligence Wang Chang’er brought was likely true. Wang Chang’er had informed them of the mastermind Arnold’s motives.

—Because Father hadn’t been able to help him, so he held a grudge against Father and wanted to put Father to death.

It sounded like a very laughable reason – who would want someone dead just because they couldn’t help? How mentally ill would one have to be to have such an absurd thought?

In the silver cat’s character portrait, Arnold could basically be determined as an out-and-out dark figure, humble and friendly on the surface, but actually sinister and evil inside.

Moreover, Arnold probably had no self-awareness of his true nature, believing himself to be the most innocent, believing that others being nice to him but not helping him was evil.

How ridiculous. The silver cat’s eyes turned cold, murderous intent rising.

So most of the ten emotions Barbatos analyzed were real, they were Arnold’s own emotions.

—”Nostalgia, hatred, friendship, love, ambition, greed, anxiety, depression, resentment, despair.”

Among them, the strongest were grievance, hatred, and despair.

Of course. Holding a grievance and hatred against Father.

The silver cat was utterly speechless inside, feeling even more loving pity for Father who was targeted for no reason.

“However…”

The silver cat analyzed seriously, “Arnold is Arnold, the Evil of the Universe is the Evil of the Universe. Arnold’s motive for killing Father isn’t equivalent to the Evil of the Universe’s motive for killing Father.”

And the latter’s motive was actually the most important.

If Father had just been an ordinary human back then, how would He have provoked the Evil of the Universe’s malice?

If Father had nothing special about Him, how would He have awakened the Creator profession?

All of this must be connected.

…Among the ten emotions Barbatos analyzed, perhaps some were Arnold’s, and some were the Evil of the Universe’s.

Furthermore, the silver cat hadn’t fully accepted the notion of “Evil of the Universe”, because so far, the mastermind’s power was really too weak.

If They were really as big a concept as “Evil of the Universe”, logically They should at least have the strength of the God of Chaos, right? Why were They so weak that They fled to this planet, and even hid among humans, such a weak race?

Were They deliberately doing so, or were They forced to, perhaps due to serious injury and greatly reduced power?

Both were possible.

In any case, the silver cat believed this matter could be resolved sooner or later, it was just a matter of time. Hmm… would that seem too composed and confident?

The silver cat stroked His chin. Never mind the rest, first organize the intelligence on His side and update it in the cat head demon group.

Although the signal from the Continent to the other side of the universe wasn’t good, it would still get through eventually.

So the silver cat laboriously organized the intelligence, editing it several times before being satisfied and posting it in the group chat, @ing all demons.

After doing everything, the silver cat didn’t look at their replies, casually closed the mental domain, then turned to look at the young man on the bed.

The young man slept quietly, his breathing somewhat shallow, almost soundless.

The silver cat thought, Father had been asleep for a long time, Second Brother hadn’t appeared, should He wait?

Never mind, anyway they knew most of the intelligence from Second Brother’s side.

He was also… getting a bit sleepy.

The silver cat’s eyelids drooped, and He quickly fell asleep too.

“…Purrrr.”

****

Almost simultaneously, in Xiu Si’s dream, time seemed to be stretched very long.

One second outside might be an hour here, or even longer.

Xiu Si entered the dream, looked around, confused and puzzled, feeling he had arrived at a library.

“Library” might not be sufficient to describe the building before him – it was practically a city.

He stood at the city gate, looking up, seeing the city was so vast its end wasn’t visible. In the center of the city stood a pure white giant tower, its height invisible, reaching straight into the clouds above, majestic and solemn, surrounded by an inviolable divine radiance.

For some reason, Xiu Si’s heart developed a strong curiosity about it, really wanting to know what kind of world was inside.

So with a thought, he pushed open the city gate.

These two extremely large doors were opened so easily by him, like cicada wings unfolding.

And amazingly, after the gate opened, cicada sounds came from within the city.

The cicada sounds were extremely penetrating. Normally he would definitely find them noisy, but amazingly, the cicada sounds here were pleasant to hear. Although very loud, they didn’t make you feel disturbed at all, but rather seemed to nourish the creatures in the city with a kind of magical musical energy, making you alert and raising your attention.

“…”

Xiu Si stopped his steps, looking around, discovering people coming and going in the city, but all their faces were blurry. He didn’t know what they were saying or what language they were using. Some were laughing and joking, some were arguing and quarreling. They seemed unable to see him, and hadn’t noticed the gate opening, like a playing recording that wouldn’t be disturbed by his arrival.

This must have been a human city that once existed, but the culture and customs here weren’t any that he knew of.

He swept his gaze roughly over it once, his vision still fixed on the white giant tower in the center of the city.

There was a boulevard in front of him that visibly led straight to the tower. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t think about how long it would take, and walked on foot toward the tower under the blazing summer sun.

He didn’t know exactly how long he walked, because he forgot about time while walking. When he came to, he had arrived in front of the giant tower, stopping to look up.

The sky was an unbelievably deep blue, without a single cloud, completely transparent.

He walked around the giant tower once, couldn’t see any entrance, was patiently puzzled, saw no one around, turned back, and then discovered people had mysteriously gathered around the tower’s perimeter, their gazes showing reverence and curiosity, yet not one person walked closer, countless pairs of feet cleverly tracing out a circle.

What was this situation?

Xiu Si had never seen anything like it, but also knew asking them would be useless, because they were recordings of the dream – the past couldn’t answer the present. If he was curious, he had to find the answers himself.

He turned back, looking at the giant tower again, having reached an understanding in his heart. So he walked forward, pressed one hand against the tower body, slowly caressing it, as if feeling the tower’s quality.

At this time, a voice sounded in his mind.

—Do you like it, solving puzzles.

He paused, his expression surprised, thinking about whose voice that was.

Then realized it was his own voice.

This wasn’t him talking to himself of course, but rather… a dialogue.

That voice was from a conversation with someone, the tone very gentle.

“Have I ever said something like this to someone before?”

Xiu Si paused, feeling puzzled inside.

He couldn’t possibly remember every word he had ever said, perhaps he really had said it.

But why did it suddenly come to mind now?

Because he was facing a puzzle?