Chapter 1085: The Story of a Little River
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After he had flown off from Monk Zhi Nan’s residence, Fang Ning could but help but let out a sigh.
“The gap between a human and a Saint sure is huge; if it wasn’t for Sir System, we wouldn’t even be able to talk to him.”
“Uh, Master, System Daddy’s in confinement now, even if you were to say nice things about him, he wouldn’t be able to hear them…” Heavenly Book baby reminded him.
“Oh, is that so? Then I won’t say any more. What a waste of my emotions.” Fang Ning scoffed.
“By the way, baby, do you know what the River God of Sky River is doing?” He asked.
“Oh, according to intelligence, the River God is currently taking on the Galaxy and trying to accumulate followers, it seems that he wants to be the River God of the Galaxy,” Heavenly
Book baby flipped through itself and replied.
“Oh, then could you find out his current location?” Fang Ning continued to ask.
“I’ll need to find someone to contact him for that. I’ll make the arrangements right away.”
A few minutes later, the Heavenly Book baby fluently drew a star map and pointed out the location of the River God of Sky River.
The other was currently located somewhere near a star by the Perseus sign in the Milky Way. It was incredibly far away from where Fang Ning was now situated, being no less than tens of thousands of light-years away.
“Uh, baby, you can use Sir System’s skills too, right?”
“I can. The thread he gave me has access to it.”
“Then let’s head over there with speed.”
An unspecified amount of time later, Fang Ning finally arrived within the vicinity of the planet of his destination.
Only to find a long, far-reaching Milky Way before him, emitting golden light, its waves glistening as it spread through the boundless starry skies; an astronomical spectacle to behold.
Seeing the far-reaching Milky Way, Fang Ning suddenly remembered that the other’s powers must have been restored more than half by now.
Otherwise, how could he have easily reached this place that was tens of thousands of light-years away from Earth?
One should know that in the past, it would have taken the other at least half a year’s time to reach a distance 600 light-years away.
It follows that the Gods descended from the Upper Realm, under the guidance of an experienced tutor, so long as they faced no disasters, once they recovered, they would make phenomenal progress.
As such, he tentatively asked, “Elder River God, have your powers returned?”
The Galactic River made a “buzzing” sound.
“Oh, I can’t accept you addressing me with the title of ‘Elder’ now. Your powers have far surpassed mine, Great Venerable Dragon God. Maybe in my younger years, only did I once have powers like yours.” The Galactic River did not outright acknowledge it; neither did he deny it.
“It was all because of destiny. It’s not a big deal,” Fang Ning said honestly.
That was the truth.
“Oh, you are so modest. How admirable. For what purpose have you traveled so far?” The Galactic River could obviously tell, and he could not help but feel impressed.
He had met plenty of Gods; those who had first become Gods had enhanced destinies, their inner sense of pride and self-contentedness were all too obvious to the eye, it was only due to considerations for poise and conduct that they did not blatantly show it off.
Of course, there were also those that were extremely self-restrained. However, those kinds of guys could never become a God as, without desire, they would also lack the motivation to ascend to Godhood. Life and death mattered little to them, and thus they passed away just like that in their path of cultivation.
However, such emotion did not exist at all within this person, and that was something incredibly rare.
Fang Ning was not aware of the other’s thoughts, he had only answered in earnest, “I’ve come to pay my respects to the Elder River God, and I’ve also some doubts and questions I was hoping you might be able to clarify.”
“I thank the Venerable God for your thoughtful consideration. As for the doubts in your heart, do tell.”
Fang Ning repeated the previous question again on the topic of “World Advancement”.
The Galactic River went silent for a long while before he finally spoke. “For this issue, you’ve come to the right person. I was born from the heavens and earth, to live and to die for the river. I’m different from those other Gods who only ascended to Godhood later on. In this regard, I do have some particular perspectives.”
“Please share your wisdom with me, Elder River God,” Fang Ning said respectfully.
This was extremely valuable information. If he had not ascended to God-level status, he would not have even been qualified to pose the question. Even if the two had good relations, the other would have simply brushed off the matter.
Because his power was not at that level, it would have been better for him to not know at all.
“The subject of World Advancement is a wide one. It’s not something that can be done hastily. It needs to be cultivated with great patience before it finally bears fruit. Even a Saint may not have such patience…Does the Venerable One truly wish to know?” The River God had said, in a way as if he had fallen into a recollection of old memories from long ago.
Fang Ning gave a firm nod to show that he had the patience for it.
After all, it was Sir System who was in control. He could just sleep away. As for Sir System himself, he possessed no concept of patience to speak of whatsoever.
The other could work 24-7 without showing a single hint of frustration.
“Since the Venerable One is so confident, then I’ll tell you a story that I hope will be of help to you for you to discover the way of World Advancement.”
“Do tell.”
“In the Upper Realm, there was once a small river. It had a dream, and that was to flow through the entire world. So, it worked hard every day to accumulate water, without letting a single drop of rain to go to waste. It accepted all streams and expanded the river channel and gathered followers. Little by little, it turned from a small river into a big river, and then it expanded across the world and into the heavens…Yet, at this time, someone told him that it had flowed through the entire world, it could stop now.”
“The little river believed them and just like that, it degenerated and became one of those people. Once it had stopped, it slowly began to shrink, until it entered the new world…where it regained its vitality once again.”
“This is the story of the little river.”
For a while, Fang Ning’s mind was blank, and for a long time, he could not understand what the fable of the story was.
Was it trying to tell him to persevere until the very end?
To him, that appeared to have held little educational value.
“Venerable One, have you learned something?” The River God asked calmly.
“I’m afraid I’m a bit slow, I couldn’t grasp anything.”
“Oh, it’s actually very simple. The best way to advance the world is to constantly absorb and learn new things from outside so that you can continue to make progress. If you stay in your own circle, you will only have one end, and that was to fall and regress,” The River God said straightforwardly.
“Oh, I understand now. Elder River God is most right.”
Only did then Fang Ning realize the true purpose of the other for telling him the story.
The path pointed out by the other was another one that was different from the previous two Venerable Ones.
Bodhisattva had told him that the path to World Advancement could be achieved so long as the world did not cease to exist.
Zhi Nan had implied that there was an extreme measure that could be taken to prevent the destruction of the world, as long as he was merciless and ruthless enough.
However, the River God had told him of the value of all rivers run into the sea and to be open-minded.
These principles sound easy but to execute them was difficult.
Nevertheless, Fang Ning had grasped the idea, and he was no longer as lost as he was before.
He thanked the River God and turned around, preparing to take his leave.
At that moment, the River God had stopped him.
“Venerable One, I, too, have a request of my own.”
“Do tell, dear Elder.”
“I am currently in the midst of becoming a Galactic River. If there comes a time when we may come in conflict as I gather my followers…”
“As long as the Elder maintains a heart of compassion, I shall definitely not interfere with you.”
“That is good to know.”
Either way, this was all just small talk. The specific issues would have to be specified and analyzed in detail; it was not viable for him to make any specific promises beforehand.
After that, Fang Ning finally left.
He had given his body over to his baby as he went inside the System Hotel in search of the two Gods.
He asked them the same question. Death had gone quiet hearing it.
The Culinary God, however, shook his head. “A new God like me is not qualified to answer a question like this. This a subject that should be discussed by the higher Gods and Saints.
Death later said, “After the formation of the world, it has been in a constant state of weakening, and finally headed towards its death. Only death is unavoidable. To avoid death, we must find a way for it to sustain itself; yet, this method of self-sustainability is too difficult to find.”
“Looks like before we find the way of self-sustainability, we must find a way to make up for the damages and loss of the world from outside, only then will we have enough time.” Fang Ning probed.
“Oh, that’s obvious. For this world, the outside world that could replenish it is the Upper Realm. The Upper Realm is dead and it would make for good fertilizer for this realm,” Death said unabashedly.
Fang Ning nodded. Before, when the Earth’s Heavenly Axiom had several times gone to the Upper Realm to collect its debris, it was clearly for this purpose that it had gone.
From this point alone, it would seem that the other had already gone a step ahead of him.
The other had used its own advantages and started accumulating resources for this world, just like that little river who had collected every drop of water.
