Volume V: Ancient Legends Chapter Sixty-Two: Chen Chen

How many romantic affairs are there in the mortal world, reaching the abyss of heaven at the touch of a finger?
The old love and dreams of the mortal past are accumulated drop by drop for the sake of what once was.
As Chen Chen walked through the mortal world, the challenges and bitterness of that journey ultimately led him to reincarnate once more, returning to that Tianwu Continent.
That ancient heavenly monument, which had knocked down the ghostly gates of the netherworld, returned once again to the very spot where Chen Chen had cast it down from the void into the mortal realm all those years ago.
Chen Chen's soul stepped out from that heavenly monument, returning to the Tianwu Continent he had yearned for in his dreams.
Having undergone several cycles of reincarnation for the sake of Mu Qingcheng, Chen Chen returned to the Tianwu Continent, where the former glory of the land seemed to have been recreated.
This time, it was not a matter of ethics, nor of merits and faults.
No matter how arduous the path or how bitter the reincarnation, nothing could ultimately stop Chen Chen from seeking out the truth of that lifetime.
In that lifetime, he was at his most authentic, free from the interference of external factors and the judgment of right and wrong.
Just like this time in the mortal world, across the land of China, the trivial human relationships and worldly affairs on the Third Cultivation Star had already faded away, leaving no further entanglements.
The only significant entanglement was that destined wish in the dark—that lifetime of simply accompanying Da Huang, reaching the destination that belonged to the original Chen Chen.
That year, Chen Chen accompanied Da Huang, using the Big Dipper Nether-Penetrating Secret Art to forge a path through the endless void from Mars to the Tianwu Continent.
That Da Huang was a large dog covered in golden fur from head to toe. The two depended on each other for survival, beginning their journey of adventure right there.
Now that everything had passed, Chen Chen had to return to his physical body, and he had to guard it firmly without making the slightest concession.
Back then, when the Great Qin Dynasty of the Tianwu Continent held the Nine Provinces Tournament across the mainland, Chen Chen and the others had fallen into a trap upon arriving at Qingqiu City, resulting in their heavenly banishment from the Tianwu Continent.
That generation of the Three Pure Ones, that generation of Hongjun, and that single cry of "disciple" had already passed away many years ago.
After all, Chen Chen was neither the lingering strand of Tongtian's soul from back then, nor was he the Supreme Lord who had struck out a bridge of guidance to help Chen Chen leave the Tianwu Continent.
Chen Chen was simply Chen Chen. Everything he had paid for himself could not be made for another's benefit, nor could he be reduced to a plaything for the powerful.
Everything that had been stripped away from Chen Chen in the Tianwu Continent had to be reclaimed by him.
Chen Chen returned to his physical body—his very first physical body, which had languished in desolation within the Tianwu Continent for five years.
In the sixth year, that strand of Chen Chen's divine soul returned. It returned to the Tianwu Continent, entering his long-desolate physical body.
Even though he was no longer the Spirit of the Book, Chen Chen still shook the past and terrified the present, standing as a renowned powerhouse in the Tianwu Continent.
Only this time did he realize just how difficult it was to guard his beautiful wife.

Chen Chen had originally only followed the powerful figures of the Wangyue Sect on a distant journey to Qingqiu City to participate in the Nine Provinces Tournament, which had already drawn widespread attention.
Subsequently, in the Nine Provinces Tournament, Chen Chen participated in that battle as a representative.
During the tournament, Chen Chen and his companions repeatedly triumphed, growing stronger with every fight. However, their own vital energy was heavily discounted time and time again.
Following that, Chen Chen used reincarnation as the price to protect Mu Qingcheng for many years, bringing her back to her maiden home in Qingqiu City.
There, Chen Chen followed the arrangements of his elders, ultimately paying homage to the boundless heavens with three sticks of incense, thereby returning to a normal life.
Having undergone nine cycles of reincarnation, Chen Chen had become the true Chen Chen. He was no longer Chen Chen the Book Spirit, and no one needed to play the role of Chen Chen anymore.
The inner thoughts and feelings belonging to Chen Chen returned to his body, and the other fake Chen Chen figures dissipated accordingly, each returning to their own lives, while Chen Chen remained Chen Chen.
Those who had played the role of Chen Chen, those unknown individuals, ultimately all became themselves.
As the story developed to this point, Chen Chen was truly Chen Chen. Whether the true names of that pair of mandarin ducks in the Tianwu Continent were Chen Chen and Mu Qingcheng had already become a thing of the past.
The protagonist of the story, that protagonist Chen Chen, now went by the assumed name of Chen Chen, continuing his cultivation on the Third Cultivation Star.
Qingfeng Continent had already become a bubble, and its four nations had been reorganized into a unified, powerful state.
Chen Chen began to travel far and wide. In that nation under the protection of immortals, even through dynastic changes, the four nations had evolved into a major state under the Chinese civilization.
Immortals still served as the main pillar, escorting and protecting this nation.
In the human world, it was humanity's long-cherished wish to master their own destiny and survive in the mortal realm.
Yet when they had to face the intervention of higher-level civilizations, the immortals evolved from the local land could only step forward to communicate with other civilizations and interstellar races.
As the universe had evolved for 13.8 billion years thus far, its potential could not possibly be limited; the star hosting their native civilization alone had already existed for 4.6 billion years.
The civilizations existing upon it had developed their technological levels to the current degree of advancement many years ago.
The once-glorious Atlantis civilization, the once-glorious Maya civilization, the once-glorious ancient Egyptian dynasties, and the once-glorious alien civilizations—
Over the long passage of time, their technological levels had long since reached astonishing heights.
There were many ancient civilizations, ancient states, and ancient stars whose travel across the universe took mere moments in the blink of an eye.
Even native grand cultivators, when combined with the fervor of immortal cultivation and applying technology, possessed the ability to instantly transform into gods or immortals.
Having the primordial spirit leave the body and roam the great void was as effortless as a child's game.
Just how formidable had other interstellar races grown, and how terrifying had the power of immortal cultivation become?

Relying solely on humanity made it difficult to escort and protect a nation or a territory.
In other nations, there were also their own civilizations and powerful protectors; it was only when humanity and even more powerful beings united that they could possibly safeguard their respective civilizations and territories.
This time, surviving in the mortal world, Chen Chen claimed no share of the things that belonged to the past Chen Chen, nor did he interfere with them.
With the passage of time, Chen Chen would simply become a character who eventually appeared on the historical timeline.
Outside the Third Cultivation Star, there had once been powerful beings from other stars who piloted spaceships to this celestial body. Should war break out, Chen Chen did not wish to implicate human settlements.
Surviving in the mortal world, Chen Chen had many matters that needed to be handled against the clock.
There were ubiquitous grudges in the mortal realm, and after the massive beast siege on the city, a mountain of affairs awaited his handling.
Chen Chen had come to clean up the aftermath. Although he still carried a slight shadow of Chen Chen's past incarnations, Chen Chen was, after all, Chen Chen.
Chen Chen's era came to an end alongside his story.
Everything turned into a tomb—a tomb that buried the era of Chen Chen.
Chen Chen took over the unfinished business left behind by the previous era of Chen Chen, growing accustomed to the boundless expanse at his fingertips as he wrote.
As Chen Chen recorded and documented, he captured a fraction of those bygone years between the lines.
The curtain-raiser of antiquity had its beginning; Chen Chen had laid out his schemes ever since the origin of civilization and the dynastic transitions of those years.
He was the shadowy hand and the driving force behind that civilization in ancient times.
Even before the ancient past, he had laid down a legend.
A legend that began in the primeval era of chaos and spanned numerous epochs alongside more than twenty dynasties.
Those extinct civilizations all shared strikingly similar trajectories of civilizational progress.
None of them could afford to decay or degenerate; back then, those civilizations were seized upon precisely at this weakness, when it was discovered that few complete homes remained within them.
Amidst poverty and degradation, they were razed to the ground by more advanced civilizations, which built pyramids symbolizing the burial of an era upon their ruins.