485: No more giggling

The Cat Head, whose flesh had almost completely melted, lay on the ground, a scorching and dazzling sun lighting up before his eyes.

"Ah... is this the sunlight the supreme will once spoke of?"

The Cat Head's eyes were filled with longing, but his melted eyeballs could only perceive a trace of scorching light.

The next moment, the world fell silent.

"Hoh, that was quite something." Chen Heng, whose entire arm had been vaporized, raised an eyebrow and chuckled at the heart that no longer pulsed before him.

"Keep barking, why aren't you barking anymore?"

"Do you think you succeeded?" The Root's sinister voice echoed in Chen Heng's ear.

"You cannot destroy me; all you have done is merely postpone the arrival of the Ultimate Return!"

"Oh, still got some strength, huh?"

Chen Heng raised an eyebrow, and the complete Mouth of Taotie opened.

If I can't destroy you, then become my nourishment!

The Mouth of Taotie devoured everything around it like a black hole, even tearing apart the outer metal layer of the world-suppressing nail, sucking it into Chen Heng's mouth.

"Hm?"

After a while of absorbing, Chen Heng realized something was off.

"Damn it, I fell for it." Chen Heng looked at the empty pit before him and only then remembered that the Root also controlled the rules of space and time.

It probably slipped away during a small gap when he opened the Mouth of Taotie.

"A coward who doesn't even dare to confront me head-on, yet talks about destroying the world."

Chen Heng scoffed disdainfully, carried the gigantic world-suppressing nail, and tore open a spatial-temporal rift.

This timeline was already on the verge of collapse; there was no point in him staying here.

The main goal this time had been achieved; the Fellow Countryman's legacy was in hand. Finding the Root hidden in other timelines was only a matter of time.

"Should I... take a look into the future?"

"Never mind, important matters first."

Although Chen Heng was very interested in the future, he knew what was more important.

The future he would travel to now was one where the Root had not been eliminated, so it probably wouldn't be much better.

"Ah..."

Chen Heng opened his mouth wide, lifted the gigantic world-suppressing nail, and stuffed it into his stomach.

The infinitely capacious stomach of the taotie shouldn't go to waste; carrying this thing back would be too much trouble.

"Not bad, doesn't feel bloated."

He patted his stomach, feeling nothing out of the ordinary.

"Let's go, back now."

Chen Heng instinctively wanted to call out to someone beside him to leave together but forgot that he had come alone this time.

"My brain still needs to be used; it gets dull if not used."

Tearing open a spatial rift, Chen Heng returned to the River of Time.

What happened here seemed to have no effect on the outside world, as if the Root had not been unleashed.

Or perhaps, Chen Heng's punch was indeed effective, temporarily making the Root of this timeline lose its desire to cause mischief... In the Dragon Tomb, Chen Heng stepped through the spatial rift and returned to the Yin Side of the World.

"Hey, stop spacing out, I'm back."

Chen Heng knocked on Dragon One, who was staring blankly at the monitor.

"Ah?" Dragon One was startled by Chen Heng's sudden appearance and quickly turned around.

"You... so fast?"

"Otherwise? I was gone for less than three hours in total, right?"

Chen Heng roughly calculated the time he had spent, and it was indeed not much.

"It seems you have already obtained the Creator's legacy?"

Observing Chen Heng's expression, Dragon One was sure that Chen Heng wasn't fooling her.

"That's right, and I conveniently punched the Root's heart."

Chen Heng pushed open the door to the tomb's monitoring room, walked outside, and opened his mouth.

"No wonder the Root's fluctuations surged instantly just now, then rapidly plummeted..."

Dragon One suddenly understood; she finally figured out what that strange data anomaly was about.

Boom!

Just as Dragon One was about to record the cause of this data anomaly, a loud bang came from outside the room.

"Come on, I pulled out the entire world-suppressing nail and brought it back."

"?" Dragon One's neck seemed to rust, slowly turning to look behind her.

"You... brought back the entire world-suppressing nail???"

"Yeah, why else? I'd have to go in and search slowly, how troublesome."

Chen Heng patted the world-suppressing nail he had plunged into the ground. All the Dragon Clan members in the entire Dragon Tomb put down what they were doing to join the commotion.

"Then... what about the Root that was suppressed?"

Dragon One's voice had begun to tremble. She remembered Chen Heng's earlier remark.

'Conveniently punched the Root.'

So the Root had already been unleashed all this time! The Ultimate Return hadn't begun because it was knocked back by a single punch!

"It's over, it's over, it's over, it's over..."

Dragon One showed no excitement for the gigantic world-suppressing nail; instead, her entire Dragon body started spinning in place.

"What can we do, Mr. Chen, how could you do such a thing?"

"Once the Root revives, it will immediately begin the Ultimate Return."

"According to current data, the Root will recover to its Peak state in at most three months. By then..."

"Then why didn't you make it clear earlier?" Chen Heng's old face twitched; he wasn't taking the blame for this.

"Besides, three months is enough time for me to crush him, as long as your speed in finding the Root's coordinates is fast enough."

Chen Heng decisively threw the blame onto Dragon One.

"..." Dragon One lowered her head, silent, her two delicate fists clenched tightly.

"What, you want to hit me?" Chen Heng scrutinized Dragon One, walked up to her, and asked.

"No, I think you're absolutely right." Dragon One forced a smile.

Her original six months of work had been greatly compressed, but Dragon One could only greet it with a smile.

"I can understand your intention. Without pressure, there's no motivation. Thank you for your urging."

"I will determine the Root's spatial-temporal location within forty-five days, please rest assured."

"..." Chen Heng opened his mouth, unsure what to say.

Is this the legendary self-PUA?