The ..... of Nothingness

"What did you find?" the female voice hurriedly asked.

"… Hard to say right now, I'll probably need a shovel" Liu Ping answered.

"Take it" 

Before she even finished, a shovel appeared in Liu Ping's hand.

He looked at the three people in front of him.

The three of them were also looking at him with strange looks on their faces.

"You're just solving a problem, what are you doing with a shovel?" one of them asked.

Liu Ping looked at the shovel in his hand, then at the other party, then smiled: "When I'm thinking about a problem, I like to dig a bit, this is my unique way of thinking" The three of them nodded as they heard that.

"So that's why" the other person was surprised.

"Sure enough, all geniuses have their own quirks" the second person said.

"Then go ahead" the third person said.

Liu Ping swung the shovel and started digging.

A few moments later, he couldn't help but ask: "That's too slow, do you have something more advanced?"

"That would be a technology-type excavator" Torment answered.

"Alright, let me use it for a bit"

With a dull sound, an excavator appeared next to them.

Liu Ping threw the shovel down and climbed on top of the excavator.

Recalling something, he turned around to look at the three Mystic-type Professionists.

He looked at the three people in front of him.

The three of them were also looking at him with looks of confusion.

"You're just solving a problem, what are you doing with an excavator?" one of them asked.

Liu Ping looked at the excavator, then at the other party, then smiled: "When I'm thinking about a problem, I like to use the excavator to dig a bit, that should be quite reasonable"

The three of them nodded as they heard that.

"So that's why" the first person was surprised.

"Sure enough, all geniuses have their own quirks" the second person said.

"Then go ahead" the third person said.

Liu Ping went into the driver's seat and operated the excavator.

A few moments later, a large hole several meters deep was dug out.

"What exactly are you doing?" Lord of Torment asked in surprise.

"Trying something out" Liu Ping answered.

Clang!

A sound of impact came from inside the hole.

"You found a rock!" one of the Professionists standing on the side loudly exclaimed.

Liu Ping jumped down from the excavator, walked into the hole, and used his hand to dig up the soil at the bottom of the hole to feel what was below.

— — -as expected, it was rock, and very solid.

"I'm afraid we won't be able to dig any further here, should we go somewhere else?" another Professionist asked.

"No, I need to take a closer look at this thing!" Liu Ping replied.

He placed his hand on the rock and gently stroked it.

"Strange, I know many types of rocks and minerals, but I've never seen this before …" while he was thinking, lines of burning text appeared in the void of space:

[An unknown entity has awakened, it has noticed your actions]

[It will soon arrive to communicate with you]

[This is an extremely delicate moment, this Sequence must urgently explain to you that no matter what, you can't afford to offend it!]

[The next few minutes will determine your life and death. You must be careful when you speak!]

Suddenly, the burning words seemed to have noticed something and quickly disappeared.

There was a strange silence.

Liu Ping slowly looked around.

Three Professionists were standing in front of the hole, watching him dig.

Curiosity, doubt, and confusion were written all over their faces. Their expressions were frozen.

Behind Liu Ping, the woman in a black dress with a white mask appeared. She tilted her body slightly, trying to see the secret of the rock that Liu Ping was pressing on.

She also didn't move.

Liu Ping's pupils dilated.

Who exactly is this deity that came?

Even if the Goddess of Torment is dead and turned into a Servant Deity, her strength is still far beyond what I can imagine.

— — -even a Deity like her was tricked.

What kind of entity is this?

Boom!

The entire world disappeared without a trace.

Liu Ping felt himself arriving in the middle of the endless void of space. Tens of thousands of stars were circling around him, slowly manifesting in front of him.

Stars.

The stars had manifested into a giant head that exuded a faint glow.

It looked down at Liu Ping and spoke with a deep and resounding voice: 「 A cultivator … 」

Liu Ping clasped his fist: "I still haven't asked Your Excellency's name, did I disturb Your Excellency?"

The head made of stars replied: 「 My time of awakening is limited. The dead Deity next to you has been deceived by me, she won't be able to hear our conversation 」

「 Let us cut to the chase — — - 」

「 Young man, what did you discover? 」

Liu Ping thought for a second.

This entity — — it is indeed much more powerful than the Goddess of Torment.

In front of such an entity, rather than playing tricks, it's better to just cut straight to the chase.

Liu Ping calmed himself down and spoke: "In the ancient legends of us cultivators, someone once left the path of ascension and came into contact with a completely unknown entity in another part of the void."

"It's said that only an extremely mysterious power can contain such a riddle."

"— — It's called the 'Trio of the Death of the World'"

"According to the ancient legends, this matter contains a deep and strange fate, only those who can truly solve the riddle will meet it"

the giant head asked: 「Then, have you solved the riddle?」

"I have" Liu Ping replied.

「Tell me — — – but don't say too much. For now, you can only solve the first riddle」the giant head said.

"Why?" Liu Ping didn't understand.

「Because fate is not something that can be easily explained. If you tell me the answer to the first riddle, you'll be fine, but if you tell me anything else, you'll probably alert some entity that can peek into the secrets and fate of the world. And since I'm currently in a dead state, I can only protect you on the first riddle」 the giant head explained.

Liu Ping took a deep breath and spoke: "I've heard of the 'Trio of the Death of the World' before. At the time, I roughly deduced it, but due to the lack of detailed information, I couldn't do anything about it. Today, I'm fortunate enough to see this riddle with my own eyes, so I'll tell you the solution and the first riddle."

"The so-called 'Trio of the Death of the World' contains three riddles, each of which is the answer to the other."

"In detail, the second riddle is the answer to the first riddle, the third riddle is the answer to the second riddle, and the first riddle is the answer to the third riddle." "To solve the first riddle, you only need to look at the second riddle."

"The first riddle is: How is this' Temporary Prison of the Useless' created?"

"The second riddle is: If there's a world that's similar to the 'Temporary Prison of the Useless', how do you conquer this world?"

"Obviously, the answer to the first riddle is that this' temporary prison for the useless' is made up of a world."

"The reason why I want to dig is because of the simplest method of elimination. Since there is nothing in this world except for this mountain, then if there is any information worth paying attention to, it must be hidden inside this mountain." After Liu Ping finished speaking, he looked at the other party.

The gigantic head made entirely of stars seemed to smile a little.

「Mortals, you are all so insignificant, yet it is you all who can exert an incomparably powerful influence on fate.」It sighed with emotion, and then opened its mouth to spit out a star.

This star floated and soon landed in front of Liu Ping.

The head let out a loud voice, 「The Gods have begun to fall, and from this moment on, the era will enter a turbulent and dangerous change. Life and death will become an unreachable dream of yesterday, and the living beings will know nothing about this …」

「You hold … these two things, one of them is what that Goddess desires, and the other is my gift to you."

"How can I repay you?" Liu Ping asked.

「In the near future, you will feel my call, and when that time comes, I will summon you again」 the gigantic head said.

The shining star landed in Liu Ping's hand, and two items materialized.

One was a coiled black snake that kept flicking its tongue.

The other was a palm-sized rock.

Two lines of small burning words quickly appeared in front of Liu Ping's eyes, [You have obtained the legendary Divine Weapon: Whip of Torment and Agony (exclusive to the Gods).]

[You have obtained the Occult Object: Rock of Nothingness.]

With a boom, everything collapsed, scattered, and went far away.

The violent wind blew away billions of meteors, causing everything to fall into a blur of chaos.

The next moment.

Liu Ping found himself back at the mountain peak, in the deep pit, and his hands had just pressed on the rock.