After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 142.2

Xiu Si paused briefly, his gaze drawn to the second cub’s long-unseen snow leopard form. He couldn’t help but crouch down, gently stroking the soft fur while following its pattern as he asked softly.

The snow leopard seemed more worried about him.

The second cub knew everything, even about his memory recovery.

“Can’t hide from you.”

He smiled and explained, “It’s nothing. Just that there are too many memories, a bit hard to organize.”

The snow leopard stared at him intently, its head gently nuzzling against him.

Xiu Si patted Its head and said, “What’s wrong, are you worried I’ll be overwhelmed? Haha, it is indeed a burden for a human body, but it’s fine, I won’t push myself when I reach my limit.”

The snow leopard continued staring at him.

Xiu Si blinked, “Are you worried about my ‘troubles’?”

The snow leopard slightly nodded, Its crystal-clear jade-like eyes seeming able to see through everything.

Xiu Si could only honestly say, “Um… yes, I still haven’t found a solution to what’s troubling me.”

As he spoke, he lowered his head and said in a complex tone. “I’m also overthinking it. Have to admit, not everything has a solution. Eternity… and its inevitable affliction.”

Emptiness, the unbearable weight of consciousness. In this era, it seemed to have another name called eternal depression.

Xiu Si pondered while saying, “Emptiness can only be filled with ‘substance’, but ‘substance’ has its limits, often not enough to fill it, and after using this method for a long time, once intellectual awakening occurs, it creates another kind of emptiness.”

—Why only one method’s emptiness.

Eternity inevitably led to weariness. The longer-lived a being was, the harder it was to dispel this weariness.

In fact, not just gods, this weariness could also occur in short-lived species. It had no necessary connection with lifespan – even humans under twenty could experience it.

It sounded similar to metal fatigue, and indeed there were similarities. It was something that couldn’t be completely eliminated through any means.

If it were merely a matter of “durability” being insufficient, this problem would be easy to solve, but unfortunately it wasn’t – the real problem was more complex.

He had once thought it was due to “emotions”, believing that organisms without emotional functions wouldn’t experience it, but later proved himself wrong.

For some unknown reason, organisms without emotional functions actually suffered more severely. It was as if they had a hole in their hearts from the beginning, and as time passed, the hole could only grow larger and wouldn’t naturally shrink.

Xiu Si had thought of countless methods but couldn’t find an effective solution.

If he could discard all emotions and treat consciousness as an experimental subject with a cold-hearted attitude, perhaps he could find a solution more quickly, but he couldn’t conduct such heartless experiments. As long as he was himself, he could never do it.

As a creator, as Their father, was he too incompetent?

Xiu Si slightly lowered his eyelids and sighed softly, “It seems observation alone won’t find the answer.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the snow leopard shook Its head.

He was stunned and couldn’t help asking, “Do you know the answer?”

The snow leopard stared at him, suddenly approaching gracefully, raising Its front limb and gently extending a fluffy paw.

This gesture was very familiar to Xiu Si.

Xiu Si skillfully took Its paw, letting It lean forward against him, Its head buried in his shoulder.

It whispered a long message in Xiu Si’s ear.

At first, Xiu Si was shocked and widened his eyes in confusion, but gradually understood, his expression becoming gentle.

The dream was unusually quiet until he suddenly broke it.

“So there’s such a method.”

The snow leopard nodded, lying somewhat lazily on him, Its tail long and fluffy, swaying slightly.

It seemed a bit tired – maintaining magic for such a long time was naturally a burden for It who wasn’t yet “omnipotent” at that time.

“I never thought of that.”

Xiu Si had to admit this method was simple and effective.

After hearing it, it made him feel… that he had been quite foolish to spend so many years thinking of methods.

Such a simple thing, how had it taken so long?

—Companionship.

Not some complex universal-level magic, just companionship.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt… he had worried needlessly before, and though he said he was taking a walk, he had walked for so long.

What kind of father was he!

Xiu Si deeply reflected, feeling even more ashamed.

The situation with his children after he wasn’t there these years…

“Wait.”

Xiu Si’s eyes brightened as he suddenly realized something – the system restart was complete, and now he could see the complete creation catalogue.

He took a deep breath and nervously opened the creation catalogue. In just an instant, his body trembled, and his eyes widened.

Unbelievably terrifying values and a series of exaggerated skill bars were right before his eyes!

Even more shocking was a series of titles. Abyss, Abyss Lord… and Demon God!!

Xiu Si stared in amazement, all his past understanding overturned.

How could his, his lovely obedient cubs be Abyss Lords?

At this point, the cognitive modification had been completely unlocked. Of course, whether it was unlocked or not no longer affected his cognition.

One truth after another impacted him, making Xiu Si’s mind confused and somewhat unable to accept it, taking quite a while to recover.

He thought weren’t Abyss Lords rumored on the continent to often quarrel over nothing? Hmm… wait, recent history seemed to say They were just expressing familial affection, not that Their relationships were bad.

Xiu Si also recalled that several Abyss Lords were particularly feared by humans, nicknamed human threats – yes yes, it was his Amon cub, Botis cub, and Beelzebub cub!

His eyes darkened, almost unable to bear it.

Fortunately, he quickly remembered that later historians seemed to say it was a misunderstanding.

Yes, it must be a misunderstanding!

Xiu Si’s intelligence was lowered by deep fatherly love and what could be called a terrifying filter, and he even felt a bit angry.

How could such outrageous titles be spread around? It concerned his cubs’ reputation!

Xiu Si was inexplicably agitated, but more than that was joy, because his cubs were so amazing!

The eldest was the universe-shaking Demon God Baal, the second was the universe-revered Sage Agares, the third was one who had slept for many years…

Wait, slept for many years?

Xiu Si paused and carefully looked at the system’s description of [Vassago].

Skipping over level, strength, and skills, his gaze stopped at the historical evaluation.

–[Abyss Lord Vassago was powerful but lazy, often sleeping for decades at a time, gentle in nature, with no bad interests, laziness being the only shortcoming.]

Xiu Si was silent for a few seconds, then his brow relaxed and he smiled saying, “That’s nothing, what’s wrong with being lazy? Father can support you.”

He continued to look at Samikina. The fourth cub was indeed a reassuring child, with no bad reputation in over eight thousand years, just seemed to like catching some gods for education?

That’s a good thing. Developing education is how the world progresses!

Xiu Si saw Marbas, immediately noticing His wealth value – normally it was only five stars, but his family’s fifth cub had broken through five stars, racing towards ten stars, even breaking the star gauge!

Well well, he knew the fifth cub liked shiny things, but didn’t expect Him to put it into action. As a father, Xiu Si’s pride was beyond words.

Then there was the sixth cub Valefor. After seeing a series of “records”, Xiu Si couldn’t help but clap in admiration – our sixth cub was indeed an artistic genius!

Then there was Amon, He just liked to play a bit – He’s a child, that’s understandable.

Barbatos was indeed a good child, actively protecting world peace, moving father to tears.

Paimon liked fighting, well that was since childhood, always imitating Baal.

The tenth cub Buer actually had such an impressive alternate identity, being called the God of Potions by humans?

Xiu Si paused, as if recalling the scene of the tenth cub saying in a milky voice “If Father gets hurt in the future, I’ll definitely heal you.”

Whether in the past or present, the tenth cub was unchangingly adorable!

Then there was his eleventh cub, Gusin was always such an otherworldly child, indeed well-behaved! The twelfth cub Sitri really liked traveling to ancient sites? Haha, a very good interest.

Xiu Si looked further down, widening his eyes again – his thirteenth cub was actually a wandering poet! Beleth had loved music since childhood, yes indeed very reasonable.

Xiu Si very much approved, and after learning that the fourteenth cub Lelagin was the Elven Ancestor God, he was stunned for a moment, his eyes showing affection.

His previous departure… might have hurt this child. But not anymore.

Xiu Si promised internally, turning to look at Aelioge.

Wait, God of War?

He paused for a moment, suddenly realizing with enlightenment, hitting his palm with his fist. “So that’s it.”

Then, his gaze deepened, silently saying, “After all the twists and turns, your primitive consciousness still returned to my side.”

He was touched and felt great responsibility.

Next, he saw the sixteenth cub Zepar.

Zepar was still the same as before, straightforward and prone to trouble, need to remind Him when meeting. Xiu Si said helplessly.

The seventeenth cub Botis had somewhat of a bad reputation, feared by everyone on the continent, but he knew He wasn’t essentially a bad child, just that because of His powers, He was too close to evil, thus His personality was somewhat extreme – just needs proper guidance, and He would still be a good child.

The eighteenth cub Bachin had established a country in subspace? Xiu Si was surprised for a moment, then felt it was reasonable.

The nineteenth cub Celerios turned out to be a forging master? No wonder He was so good at alchemy before.

Xiu Si looked down, discovering that his twentieth cub Busson had been lying around for several thousand years, really, that’s what the profile card said.

That’s fine too. What’s wrong with lying flat? Father can support all!

The twenty-first cub Morax was still the same old self loving balls, but playing with planets… might the toys be a bit too big?

Xiu Si saw the twenty-second cub Inpos. Inpos occasionally had small squabbles with His siblings, spent most time studying, He had secretly helped humans quite a bit throughout long history, and even had several continent-shocking alternate identities.

The moment he saw “Great Mentor Matros”, Xiu Si practically doubted his own eyes.

So Matros was Inpos?!

Reasonable, yet very shocking.

Xiu Si then looked at his twenty-third cub little Ayni. Little Ayni was always mischievous, personality unchanged for eight thousand years.

The twenty-fourth cub Beelzebub had an evil reputation outside, but fortunately history proved His innocence.

And… his little white bird and little black bird turned out to be the God of Light and God of Darkness?

After being continuously shocked countless times, Xiu Si gradually became numb, feeling nothing would shock him anymore.

He barely digested the information in the catalogue after an hour or two, coming back to his senses, feeling his mind was still a bit dazed, having a dreamlike feeling.

At this moment, the snow leopard beside him gently nuzzled him.

He awakened as if from a dream, smiled slightly and said, “What’s wrong?”

The snow leopard buried Its head, bending down to whisper.

Xiu Si was shocked again, “So… the Lord of the Abyss was actually myself?”

The snow leopard nodded.

Xiu Si was incredulous, stayed stunned for a while, hand stroking the snow leopard’s soft fur.

He had taken in too much information in one day, feeling his mind was buzzing.

Need to take it slowly, need to take it slowly. He took a deep breath, finally sorting out some things, and asked, “So what you were dealing with just now was the ‘Creator God’.”

The snow leopard nodded again.

“Have you defeated Him already?”

“Mm.”

Xiu Si organized his thoughts, suddenly asking, “Has Baal come home?”

“Soon.”

Xiu Si’s eyes were gentle as he asked again, “Is everyone waiting for us?”

“Yes.”

“Then we should hurry home.”

****

Meanwhile, in the bookstore.

Aelioge, transformed into a black cat, was anxiously pacing back and forth.

Beelzebub, transformed into a silver tabby cat, first gave a subtle look at Busson’s silver-shaded form, then slowly looked at Aelioge, suddenly saying coldly, “What are you so anxious about?”

The black cat paused, Its eyes glowing with anger, “Father hasn’t returned yet, shouldn’t we be anxious?”

The silver cat raised Its chin, suddenly saying, “Compared to this, Aelioge, have you realized?”

The black cat turned to face the silver cat, asking puzzled, “Realized what?”

The silver cat swept It a contemptuous look, saying haughtily, “Father is the original creator, and I, the God of Destruction, am Father’s creation from the primitive period, and so are you.”

The black cat frowned, suddenly realizing with enlightenment.

Which meant, It had been Father’s child from the beginning, 100% pure!!