Chapter 172 (3/3): Nirvana Rebirth

Such abundant divine power of destruction, such a powerful fallen body, the original sin power sufficient to overturn everything.
“Truly… marvelous.”
He praised softly.
Su Fu — in the end, she was the one who won —
The Fate Goddess.
But to say it was the Fate Goddess was not entirely correct either; the current Satan was actually a collective entity of countless False Gods.
It was just that the other False Gods were too weak, so the Fate Goddess took dominance.
She had revived within Satan’s body.
This was the true Fate.
It was the karma she had personally planted.
“If one day, all the False Gods die…”
“Then all authority will converge upon Satan’s body.”
His slumber was not failure, but a safeguard.
After all, who would care about a dead existence?
Even that Pope was at this very moment investigating the death of the “Fate Goddess,” which was what allowed her to be reborn so smoothly.
“What a wonderful Fate~”
“It is the cycle of karma, the predetermined trajectory.”
“Once the cause is planted, the effect will surely form.”
“No matter how many twists and variables occur in between.”
Her struggle with Su Fu was never limited to that single moment.
It was a supreme game spanning timelines, manipulating karma.
She had died at that one point in time, yet was reborn at the present point in time.
Thinking of the scene where Su Fu was cast into the endless space-time turbulence, Satan felt incomparably delighted.
He had witnessed it with his own eyes —
That higher-dimensional power had directly crushed Su Fu.
No matter how strong her abilities, how many Divine Powers she had, before the mighty power of the space-time laws, she was ultimately as powerless as an ant.
“Now, Su Fu is dead…”
“Thoroughly and completely dead.”
“She can never return.”
He had won.
Although the cost was losing the identity of the Fate Goddess, as well as all chess pieces and subordinates.
But he had finally glimpsed the true secret —
It turned out that China was the most powerful force in this world.
The one and only correct path to eternal immortality, to the supreme existence that governs the birth and death of all things.
Even if he had lost everything, as long as he knew this, he could start over.
It was merely… spending a few more thousand years.
And he, least of all, lacked endless time.
This time, the target was China.
Hecate trembled with excitement, tears streaming down her aged face:
“Lord, you have finally awakened from that endless slumber and imprisonment!”
“Our Lord Satan!”
“The prophecy is fulfilled at this moment, you have descended upon the world once more!”
They had waited for this day for far, far too long.
They had even been willing to make enemies of the entire universe, bearing the infamy of “heretics” and “fallen ones.”
All for this day, was it not?
“Lord!” Asmoth looked at Satan with worship and anticipation.
“What can we do for you next?”
“Please grant us your Divine Oracle!”
Satan’s pale fingertip brushed Asmoth’s chin, the motion gentle as stroking a lamb.
But what he spoke was the most bloody judgment:
“Go find those traitors.”
“When they cooperated with me, they greedily demanded benefits.”
“Yet after gaining those benefits, they turned and abandoned me.”
“All who have ever opposed me shall be — judged.”
“Humans are the most shameless traitors of all.”
Now that Su Fu was dead, there were no more obstacles.
It was also time to properly cleanse this thoroughly polluted world.
Satan said —
“Hell is their final destination.”
“Sin must be reckoned, and I shall execute it with my own hands.”
Countless believers trembled with excitement, their faces revealing incomparably fanatical worship.
“Our Lord is wise!”
They shouted in unison, their voices shaking the heavens.
“We will spread like a plague!”
“Harvest the souls of all traitors for you!”
Satan smiled with satisfaction.
“Very good.”
“Once the new world is established, loyal servants like you will receive eternal life.”
Lies are sweeter than truth.
Of course he would not tell the believers that once they had outlived their usefulness, the souls of these madmen would also become firewood for Hell.
Then, a new world would be exchanged.
When the believers madly dispersed to prepare for slaughter, Satan alone walked toward the Abyssal Throne.
Su Fu was dead.
Now it was time to properly enjoy victory.
Although Satan’s authority was not as useful as the Fate Goddess’s.
The advantage of being the Lord of Hell lay in the fact that he was the incarnation of death and sin, controlling the power of Hell.
He would forge this world into an unending purgatory, and hold a truly large-scale, all-people, unified Dungeon exam.
“In Hell, I shall be the only Lord.”
How wonderful.
Su Fu walked aimlessly through the chaotic space-time turbulence.
All around floated countless shattered images, like torn strips of film.
Upon them flickered different possibilities — some she had experienced, some were completely unfamiliar, some were even absurd tributaries born from logical paradoxes.
She chose to walk forward, rather than stay.
After all, like the story of marking the boat to seek the sword, if she stayed in place, the sword could never be found.
In the rushing, ever-changing, unpredictable space-time turbulence, if she attempted to stand still, could her original timeline miraculously drift back on its own?
This was clearly impossible.
So she had to take initiative, had to go searching.
In the process of advancing, she also saw too many images — there were tragic futures like George’s and Theresa’s, and there was also the BE ending where she fought bloodily in the Torch Dungeon but still sacrificed herself heroically.
She even saw some people experiencing bizarre and strange lives.
As the images she passed through grew more numerous, Su Fu gradually realized that to return to the mainline, she had to find a unique anchor point.
In other words, an absolute anchor that could only possibly occur on her main timeline.
Could it be a person?
Not very reliable.
George, Theresa, Fuzi… too many timelines had their figures; it was equally like fishing a needle from the sea.
A place, then?
Equally ambiguous.
Whether it was Kunlun Celestial Palace or Tianqiong Path Academy, they existed in too many timelines.
Heavenly Technique? Divine Artifact?
There were also problems — whether it was the original [Buddha’s Radiance] or the later-obtained [Sun-Shooting Divine Bow], she had used them more than once.
Because of differences in her state of mind, environment, or even a trivial thought at the time, countless — and each time she
cast it, there was a possibility
of
a brand-new, specious
parallel timeline splitting off.
Su Fu eliminated all known possibilities in her mind one by one.
Suddenly a flash of inspiration — wait —
Nirvana!
Phoenix Nirvana, she had only used it twice.
The first time was in [Shan Hai Jing: Ghost Crow Forest], at her initial awakening, burning the entire Dungeon, reborn from fire amidst sky-full ash and newborn petals.
The second time was just now, after she entered the time turbulence, a complete Nirvana rebirth — but that was not on her mainline, it had already
detached from the mainline.
So this was the only anchor.
Moreover, this anchor was strong enough.
It was different from ordinary healing; it was a qualitative transformation from destruction to rebirth, special and recognizable enough.
Like lighting the brightest, most unique lighthouse in the endless Dark Void.
Furthermore, most of the time she would not undergo Nirvana — after all, she rarely encountered near-certain-death crises.
This meant that in certain space-times split off due to her trivial choices, Phoenix Nirvana would not trigger.
This could filter out, to the greatest extent, the interference of those irrelevant parallel space-times.
Secondly, choosing that time point would not affect the real world of the mainline.
You must know the real world is dynamic and continuous — even if the mainline choice was correct, if she entered the wrong node, any subtle interference could trigger a butterfly effect.
This could cause the mainline to fall into an irreversible logical paradox or total collapse.
But if it was within a Dungeon, especially a collapsing Dungeon, this was perfectly avoided.
It would not interfere with the continuity of the real world.
Just then, a thought suddenly surfaced in her mind —
Human timelines advance linearly.
But if she returned from this moment and connected to a certain node in the past, would that not form a closed loop?
Her heart pounded — since a closed loop was achieved, why couldn’t she warn herself?
This thought flashed by, but made her abruptly stop.
This idea was too crazy, yet… incomparably reasonable.
Wait!
She remembered — back when the [Shan Hai Jing: Ghost Crow Forest] Dungeon collapsed, when she was reborn from ash…
She had seen a hand!
That hand reached out from the crack, with distinct knuckles, pale, slender.
She instinctively reached out her hand — after being enhanced by the Tree of Life, it had already become… identical.
So that was it!
Su Fu’s heart beat violently.
That hand was not someone else’s at all — it was her future self, leaving a signal for herself in the space-time turbulence!<10
The timeline was a closed loop.
Her current actions had already left traces in the past.
And her past had already seen that trace.
That hand was her own anchor —
Guiding her present self.
Su Fu found the answer.
8
She reorganized her thoughts once more, and every link became incomparably clear.
First, the anchor satisfied uniqueness — not every timeline’s her could trigger Nirvana.
Only the mainline her would see that hand after Nirvana.
Because only the mainline her would fall into the space-time turbulence and attempt self-rescue.
Second, it satisfied the causal closed loop — the past Su Fu saw the future’s hand, and the future Su Fu — the present her — must return to the past and reach out her hand.
Thus, logically self-consistent, undisturbed by any external force, an absolutely stable causal closed loop.
Now, no one could tamper with or interfere with this.
Even if the Fate Goddess were alive, she could not alter an already-occurred closed-loop event, could not change the established fact that occurred simultaneously in the past and future, mutually corroborating each other.
Like a Mobius strip — no matter how it twists, the start and end are always connected.
Su Fu closed her eyes, no longer passively sensing the shattered images around her.
She sank her consciousness into the core of the Nirvana authority, feeling that critical point where life and death intertwined.
Ash, flame, and… that hand reaching out from the crack!
In that instant, her consciousness shot like an arrow through the turbulence, speeding toward the one correct direction.
“Found it!”
Among the countless shattered images, she finally saw —
“So… I had long ago left myself a path.”
She reached out without hesitation, catching that petal symbolizing rebirth.
Gently, softly, delicately — the petal.
She remembered the words she once heard, and at the moment she was about to speak, she suddenly changed her voice —
“/…RA?”
A soft murmur broke the dead silence.
The space-time loop closed, karma established.
She had finally returned to the one mainline.
Answer correct.