Chapter 1 The Interrogation

In the magnificent interstellar warship, everything froze in an instant. The motes of dust floating in the air, the characters flickering on various devices, the maintenance robots patrolling the ship's corridors—everything seemed to be paused, frozen in place. The personnel walking through the ship gradually turned into translucent shadows, and then disappeared into thin air, trembling one by one.

Silence descended, leaving only Hao Ren standing before Nakulu. He was still wearing that "officer's uniform," but the clothes were gradually fading and deforming, returning to his usual attire.

"When did you start suspecting?" Hao Ren smiled, spreading his hands, and repeated the question, "Were my questions just now too impatient?"

"I felt something was wrong the moment I stepped onto the ship," Nakulu said, his face like ice. The proud Godslayer was finally tasting the bitterness of defeat, a defeat more unbearable than being captured on the battlefield. On the battlefield, he could admit his lack of strength, but now—he felt utterly and completely fooled. "Many things on this ship were not in accordance with regulations. Incorrect things were placed in the wrong positions… I should have realized sooner that this was just your conspiracy."

Hao Ren looked around. This ship was a scene he had created based on the *Patian*, the rebel warship captured from the Sulun Gate. He had simulated almost every detail of the ship, even arranging appropriate crew members and operating equipment, but now it seemed that a fake was just a fake. It could fool outsiders, but not a true rebel soldier.

But in the end, he shook his head indifferently. "But it doesn't matter. At least you finally spoke, didn't you?"

Nakulu glared at Hao Ren. This time, the contempt and disdain in his eyes finally disappeared, replaced by intense anger and hostility. Perhaps only now did this proud fellow truly regard the person before him as a strong enemy. "Vile and cunning! If I hadn't hoped to leave this cage from the beginning, I wouldn't have fallen for your trick!"

"No, it's not that you shouldn't have hoped to leave the cage," Hao Ren said, looking at Nakulu expressionlessly, "It's that you shouldn't have hoped to wake up at all."

As the words fell, the entire world began to collapse.

This illusion ended. The magnificent "God's Warship" crumbled like sand, the light faded from view like flowing water, and all sound vanished in an instant, leaving only empty echoes to sink into the darkness. Nakulu—he had once believed he had regained his freedom, but when the darkness faded, he slowly opened his eyes and found himself still lying in that sturdy cell, surrounded by a swarm of buzzing arcane creatures and autonomous machines.

Hao Ren stood outside the cell, watching him. All around was the intact crystal prison, all the pillars still gleaming with brilliance, the crystal dome pressing down from above with a sense of despairing pressure. There was no siege or raid, no rescue force suddenly breaking in. In the cold reality, the Godslayer race had been reduced to ashes ten thousand years ago—Nakulu felt this for the first time so clearly.

Hao Ren waited with his arms crossed until Nakulu was fully awake, then asked calmly, "What is the Cosmic Origin?"

The prisoner lowered his head, not uttering a word, like a lifeless stone.

"Is it another god? Another powerful race? Some kind of power? Or a spiritual belief you created yourselves?" Hao Ren continued to press, unmoved. "Did you decide to slay the gods after hearing the voice of the 'Cosmic Origin'?"

The prisoner remained silent.

"You've already spoken once," Hao Ren shook his head, "What's the point of continuing to resist—besides, your race is already extinct. Who are you trying to keep secrets from now?"

His questions were destined to go unanswered. Nakulu seemed determined not to say anything to anyone. Seeing this, Hao Ren didn't care much. He waved his hand to the others, indicating that they were done for the day, and then led the group to leave the area. But before leaving, he suddenly stopped and turned his head to say one last sentence to the prisoner: "Oh, by the way, do you think you're awake or asleep right now?"

The man in the cell finally reacted to these words. He subconsciously looked up, but then lowered his head again.

After leaving the prison area, Hao Ren immediately contacted Zhumu, who was in charge of the entire dream system: "Revise the dream weaving for Prisoner Number One again. In any scene, don't let him come into contact with props or clues that can determine whether the current world is real, and reduce those torture-like illusions. They're useless."

Lily poked Hao Ren's arm at this moment. "Landlord, Landlord, why do I feel like our methods just now weren't very upright?"

"Uprightness is useless. How can you talk about chivalry when you're trying to pry something out of someone like him?" Hao Ren curled his lips. "I regret that my acting skills weren't good enough back then, and the scene was a bit too crude. Otherwise, if I could have asked just two more questions, he would have said the key things. Tch, but it doesn't matter. At least I've grasped some new information now."

Even Izhaks couldn't help but look at Hao Ren with new eyes. "To be honest, your idea is quite clever. Of the hundreds of wardens I had under my command back then, not one was as creative as you. If you could directly control souls, you might be more qualified to be a demon than I am…"

Hao Ren couldn't help but twitch his lips when he heard this. "Tch, with your rhythm of reading the People's Daily every day, anyone with horns on their head would be more suitable to be a demon than you, okay?"

Elizabeth wasn't happy when she heard this, and used the little horns on her head to nudge Hao Ren's leg in circles. "My dad is the Demon King! My dad is the most powerful of the demons! Uncle Ren can't talk about my dad…"

Don't look down on the little girl, who is only a little over a meter tall, but the horns on her head are genuine symbols of a high-level demon. This full-strength nudge was really not to be underestimated. Immediately, golden light burst out on Hao Ren's thigh, and the rigid shield was even sparked by the little girl, looking like firecrackers were being set off in his crotch from a distance. Hao Ren quickly held down this naughty child, grabbed her horns and lifted the little girl into the air, and turned to walk towards the central hall. "Let's go discuss it with Muru and the others first, and see what they think of this 'Cosmic Origin'."

Soon he found the three guardian giants waiting for news in the central hall. The three giants had originally wanted to go to the prison area to interrogate the prisoner together, but they knew that they would not be able to control their emotions after seeing that rebellious son, so to avoid getting in the way, they had been waiting here. After Hao Ren told the three guardians about his success, they were first surprised by the successful "interrogation," and then expressed a strong interest and incomprehension in the suddenly emerging "Cosmic Origin."

"You don't know what this 'Cosmic Origin' refers to either?" Vivian frowned slightly.

"It sounds like a general title," Muru shook his head. "It could be a race, it could be a false god, or it could just be a spiritual belief, but the third possibility is not high—because it sounds like those rebellious sons gained power with the help of this 'Cosmic Origin', so that thing should really exist."

"That guy named Nakulu did mention that the 'Cosmic Origin' implanted some kind of power that could resist divinity into the souls of the entire rebellious son race," Hao Ren stroked his chin, "But we also found runes that can resist divinity on the rebel weapons and equipment. You said those runes were stolen from the Goddess by the rebels. These two methods are both used to resist divinity, but their origins are completely different."

"Their runes can resist the Mother's power and creations, but the use of the runes is limited. After leaving the runes, those rebels are still mortals," Lementusa nodded. "So they need a more essential 'ascension' to turn themselves into weapons that can resist gods. Now it seems that this power is not their own, but from a third party."

Muru scoffed. "Everything they have is stolen or deceived. They have nothing of their own."

"What's giving me the biggest headache now is—how did a Cosmic Origin suddenly pop up?" Hao Ren sighed, feeling unprecedentedly overwhelmed. "There are already enough enemies in this universe. I really don't want to provoke more troublesome guys."

Lily was optimistic. "There are already enough enemies in this universe, so we're not afraid of having one more."

Everyone immediately looked at Lily with admiration. They didn't expect one of the fish-dog duo to have such heroic spirit. Lily shuddered from the circle of gazes, and quickly shrank her neck. "I just thought it sounded cool to say that…"

Hao Ren sighed. "Lily is right. It doesn't matter if there are more lice, and it doesn't matter if there is more debt. Anyway, I didn't plan to be idle when I came to this dream plane—let's discuss what this 'Cosmic Origin' might be like."