Chapter 296 I Am Me, From Beginning to End, Just Me
The moment these words were finished, Tushan Yaya's fist was already flying toward Hakuto. "You lied to me. You said you would come back. Now you say you're dead and never thought about coming back?"
He reached out and caught Tushan Yaya's fist. Hakuto said calmly, "These aren't contradictory. I have come back. But Emperor Shengzong is dead. Liu Mao Xing is also dead. The one still alive now is Yagami Hakuto."
Tushan Yaya wanted to make another move. But Tushan Rongrong stopped her. "Second sister, you've been fooled by him. Emperor Shengzong and Liu Mao Xing are dead. But he is still alive. He is Hakuto. Whether he is Emperor Shengzong, Liu Mao Xing, or Yagami Hakuto, he is him. From beginning to end, there is only one him."
Tushan Rongrong looked at Hakuto. "You're still so nasty. But I only want to know one thing. This is our last meeting, right? From now on, you will only be Hakuto, right?"
"So clever. Completely unlike Tushan Yaya, who only grows muscles, not brains. I've only changed my name. Before, I was called Zhu Cilang. From now on, I'll be called Yagami Hakuto."
After speaking, Hakuto directly fell straight back. Emperor Shengzong had clearly returned to the sea of consciousness.
Liu Mao Xing, who was teaching Hakuto cooking, said to him, "Alright, he's back. Go see him. Oh, right, if you want to obtain my complete memories and strength, you'll need to collect all the character card fragments."
The next moment, Hakuto's vision blurred. Then he appeared in a magnificent, resplendent hall. In the center of the hall, a person wearing a bright yellow robe embroidered with nine-clawed golden dragons sat on a dragon throne. His posture was very lazy, but he exuded a sense of majesty and domineering aura.
"Nice to meet you. To be honest, you disappoint me a bit. Your strength is too weak. And you actually got fooled by a small-time character like Nyaruko. You really went through with evil godification. Aren't you stupid?"
As soon as he opened his mouth, Hakuto's face darkened. Hakuto defended himself. "At the time, anger was overwhelming me. In your position, what would you have done?"
"That's true. Given the situation, with your strength at the time, the only way to get revenge really was evil godification. But it really was stupid. Getting fooled by Nyaruko."
Hakuto looked at Emperor Shengzong with a dark expression. Then Emperor Shengzong continued. "In the past, I dealt with these evil gods my whole life. I even drove most of them out of this world. But who knew that by the time it got to you, you would become a contractor for evil gods."
"By the way, what's your cheat ability? I asked Liu Mao Xing before. His cheat ability was the Heart of Cooking and culinary talent. I inherited Liu Mao Xing's Heart of Cooking and culinary talent. So what about you?"
Emperor Shengzong smiled. "Are you sure you want to know?"
Hakuto: "???"
"Since you ask sincerely, I will tell you generously. My cheat ability is the ability to summon people or things from other worlds into this world. People like Natsuki, Yae Miko, and Bai Yuekui were all summoned by me. But as the price for summoning, for example, summoning Hagoromo Kitsune comes with the Nura Clan as an enemy faction. Summoning Tushan comes with a Black Fox Empress, Tushan Fengxi. Buy one, get one free. Happy?"
Looking at Emperor Shengzong in front of him, Hakuto's cheek twitched. Then he looked at Emperor Shengzong and said, "You motherf***ing set me up!!!"
"Hey, hey, hey, that's not fair. I haven't touched any of them. I left them all for you. Shouldn't you be thanking me?"
"Thank your second uncle. I can already imagine how much trouble my future life will have."
"Oh, right, there's one more thing to tell you. Because I summoned too many people or things from other worlds, the world's barriers became too thin. So I created the Nine Provinces Barrier to reinforce the world's barriers and prevent some things from entering our world. Also to keep those evil gods out of the world, so they wouldn't dirty my garden. Then, to prevent the world's barriers from completely breaking down, I couldn't use my cheat ability anymore."
In Hakuto's heart, ten thousand alpacas were stampeding. This bastard had died himself, leaving all the remaining matters to fall on Hakuto. Hakuto now had an urge to punch Emperor Shengzong in the face.
"Alright, I've said everything I need to say. If you want to hit me, just give yourself a few hard slaps in the face. You are me, aren't you?"
"Then, goodbye."
After speaking, Emperor Shengzong turned into countless specks of light that merged into Hakuto's body.
Hakuto then became Zhu Cilang. Then he experienced Zhu Cilang's entire life, from birth to growth, to the fall of his country and destruction of his family, to awakening his memories, then using his cheat ability to restore the country, to ruling the world...
After an unknown amount of time, Hakuto in reality opened his eyes again. Then he looked at the people present and said, "I'm back."
"Welcome back, Master."
Rem gave a slight bow. Ram was more direct. She directly threw herself into Hakuto's arms. Holding Ram, Hakuto stroked her head. Then he said, "I need you to do something."
"What is it?"
Everyone looked at Hakuto. Hakuto directly slapped Nyaruko out of another space.
"Previously, I was tricked by this guy into evil godification. It's easy to undergo evil godification, but it's very difficult to reverse evil godification."
"The Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual you mentioned before won't work. The Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual is fine for general impurities. But wanting to use the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual to solve evil godification is just wishful thinking. So we need the Legendary Cooking Utensils. You should have already memorized all the locations of the Legendary Cooking Utensils, right? Have people search for the Legendary Cooking Utensils. Then, using the seven Legendary Cooking Utensils to make a dish, we can remove the evil godification. Since we have to reinforce the Nine Provinces Barrier anyway, we might as well do it together."
After speaking, Hakuto noticed that the group was looking at him, wanting to speak but hesitating.
"What is it? Is there something else?"
"Then who are you now? Yagami Hakuto? Or Emperor Shengzong? Or Liu Mao Xing?"
"That question? I am me. From beginning to end, there is only one me."
"Seeing mountains as mountains, seeing water as water. Seeing mountains not as mountains, seeing water not as water. Seeing mountains still as mountains, seeing water still as water."
Hakuto smiled slightly.