Eternal Night

Chapter 526 Promise and Penetration

With Po's explanation, Wu Pifu learned about the past of the Zhenwu lineage.

According to Per, when the Zhenwu lineage was born, it alarmed many ancient civilizations and ancient origins. This was a civilization and race that relied on martial arts to fight even in the Absolute Reality layer. Their character was unyielding, and they had great courage and a strong sense of collective honor. So after falling into the Dream World, they relied on their civilization characteristics and collective strength to develop a large area of ​​the Dream World, gaining a huge share of the Reality and various resources and specialties of the Dream World.

This led to a surge in the power of the Zhenwu lineage, with many powerful figures emerging. Even when the entire civilization was still in the Zero Point Seven Dream World, there were already double-digit levels of Ascension-level experts in the civilization, and the strongest among them, the Zhenwu Ancestor, had already begun to move closer to the Origin level during the Ascension stage.

This can be seen as a replay of the rise of the two great powers of Buddhism and Heaven. As long as the Zhenwu lineage continues to grow stronger, it may very well become an extremely powerful civilization and a powerful source of strength, similar to Buddhism and Heaven.

At that time, the Buddhist realm had fallen silent, but the Heavenly Court still existed. Moreover, the Heavenly Court was the leader of many ancient civilizations and ancient origins. According to Per, although there was no clear evidence, the Heavenly Court seemed to have done some covert things against the Zhenwu lineage, which led to a split within the Zhenwu lineage.

A peerless genius suddenly appeared, and this genius was also a seed of the ultimate path. Then, for some inexplicable reason, he became enemies with the lineage of the True Martial Ancestor and was forced into the dream world to struggle for survival. However, he rose up because of this and later created the Star River lineage of his own path. He fought against the True Martial Ancestor's Human Immortal Yang God and shared the fortune of the True Martial lineage.

Because the Zhenwu lineage and the Xinghe lineage originally came from the same source, but their paths diverged, and because of the fate of the Xinghe lineage's ancestor, the two sides became irreconcilable enemies. This led to the obstruction of the rise of the Zhenwu civilization, and at the same time, internal strife occurred frequently.

Even so, the combined power of the Zhenwu lineage and the Xinghe lineage is still overwhelming and difficult to control. The two still share the same origin, and even though they are at odds, they still have a certain tacit understanding on major issues. If this trend continues, they may develop from one supreme source into two secondary supreme sources, which will still pose a threat to the Heavenly Court.

So gradually, without anyone knowing when, a new extraordinary principle began to emerge in the derivative dream worlds of the Zhenwu and Xinghe lineages.

This extraordinary path is also named after martial arts. Once one cultivates this extraordinary path, one can cultivate the True Martial Path or the Star River Path without hindrance. It has a complementary relationship with the True Martial and Star River Paths, forming a multiplicative superposition zone, and even has the prospect of sublimation to the ultimate. The two major forces of the True Martial and Star River were overjoyed. Although they also had some doubts, after testing and research by their ancestors, it was confirmed that this path was not polluted and was completely compatible with the True Martial and Star River. Only then did the two forces begin to study and learn this newly emerged extraordinary path, and in the hundreds of thousands of years that followed, they carried it forward and developed it step by step to an extremely high level.

Just as the True Martial Galaxy was about to reach its origin through this new extraordinary path, and might even approach the level of the First Buddha and the First Immortal, this extraordinary path revealed its terrible drawbacks... All those who cultivated this extraordinary path began to suffer a significant loss of their true essence!
"...Transcendence is corruption. This should be a fact that your civilization already knows. However, because your civilization is still at the level of absolute truth, you are not clear about many specific details of transcendence being corruption. You only think that only some individuals in your civilization can cultivate the transcendent system, and can only cultivate one or at most two transcendent paths, otherwise it is easy to cause mutations or something. Apart from that, it seems that there are no other effects, right? But that is not the case."

Per sighed, “Besides the fact that the Extreme Path Seed can cultivate all extraordinary paths without hindrance, the fact that the extraordinary is also polluted is that once it begins to fall into nothingness, it will continuously consume reality. Unless it continuously brings strength and benefits to this civilization and this world, which can allow the mortals of this civilization and this world to continuously generate reality, the civilization will begin to weaken and fall faster, or attract sources of pollution and bring loss. This is the truly terrifying thing about the extraordinary being polluted.”

"Unless an extraordinary individual achieves the Sublime Body, the amount of reality they consume will be greatly reduced. This is the true core of the Sublime Body's 'perfection.' The so-called perfection refers not only to the perfection of self-sublimation but also to the perfection against pollution. If one can achieve the Root and realize an infinite cycle and self-closed loop, then not only will their own consumption of reality be almost non-existent, but it can also benefit the entire civilization and race, greatly reducing the civilization and race's consumption of reality. This is the greatest help that the Sublime Body and the Root provide to their civilization and race!"

Wu Pifu was startled. Only then did he understand the perfection of the sublimated body and the significance of the self-circulation and self-closed loop at the root. It turned out that this did not simply refer to strength and domain, but was also applicable to the entire civilization and race. The so-called self-closed loop was actually the resistance to pollution!

Per continued, "At that time, the True Martial lineage had no origin, and almost all of its extraordinary individuals cultivated this new extraordinary path. Although those who had ascended could greatly reduce their actual energy consumption, countless ordinary extraordinary individuals could not do the same. This was because the True Martial lineage was extremely prosperous and powerful at that time, with trillions of ordinary mortals and hundreds of millions of ordinary extraordinary individuals. As a result, a huge problem arose!"

Wu Pifu felt a chill run down his spine just thinking about that scene. Putting aside everything else, if the actual energy consumption of ordinary superhumans were to increase by 20% or 30% in a short period of time, it would be enough to cause a fatal disaster for the Zhenwu civilization, which had already achieved a balance.

As expected, Per said, "Because of this sudden upheaval, the true reserves of both Zhenwu and Xinghe were completely depleted. Terrifying sources of pollution descended upon both sides, causing drastic changes. This immediately intensified the friction between the two camps, eventually escalating into war and plunder. In the end, both sides suffered heavy losses, and the Zhenwu civilization faced the possibility of complete loss and destruction in a short period of time. Finally, the Zhenwu Ancestor joined the Heavenly Court at the cost of his own life to invite Heavenly Court reinforcements, while the Xinghe lineage colluded with the sources of pollution in a mysterious way... That's all I know. I don't know the specifics. In short, the Zhenwu lineage was eventually torn apart, either becoming extinct or hiding in the Lost Lands. The Zhenwu Ancestor became the Zhenwu Xuantian Shangdi, the North Pole Town Emperor of the Heavenly Court's Four Emperors. The Xinghe lineage was completely lost, and even the path of the Xinghe lineage may have been subject to the pollution of the Lost Lands."

"The extraordinary path that nearly wiped out the Zhenwu lineage was completely lost after that. Many ancient civilizations and ancient origins have explored its foundations, but they have been unable to find it and its whereabouts remain unknown. It seems to have been forcibly lost by some force. This extraordinary path is called Immortal Martial. Its path is the type of refining essence into qi, forming internal force within the body, and constructing an internal energy cycle. Its names include the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, the Ren and Du Meridians, the Heaven and Earth Mysterious Gate, etc. This extraordinary path is extremely compatible with both the Zhenwu and Xinghe lineages. Once cultivated together with these two extraordinary paths, a chemical change can immediately occur, forming a synergistic superposition zone. It can even be mutually compatible beyond the original limits, and at the same time break through the limits to reach an even more incredible level. This is also the reason why the Zhenwu civilization could not resist the temptation and, despite its sudden appearance, the entire clan cultivated it."

Wu Pifu recognized the name; wasn't this the internal energy cultivation technique from martial arts novels? There were so many profound secrets involved! He couldn't help but ask, "But if you recommend I cultivate this immortal martial art, wouldn't that be repeating the mistakes of the True Martial Civilization?"

Per smiled and said, "No, the True Martial Civilization had everyone cultivating, and they pushed it to an extremely high level. Naturally, the consumption was terrifying. But you are different. Your civilization is still at the Absolute Truth level. In other words, even your race-specific extraordinary beings haven't appeared yet, let alone everyone cultivating. You are the only one in the entire race cultivating. Even if you fall below the Root level, how much Truth can you consume for your civilization? Moreover, with the combination of True Martial and Immortal Martial, you will reduce the consumption by 99% after becoming an Ascended Being. If you become a powerful Root, the entire race will be under your protection. Why would you care about this little consumption?" Wu Pifu suddenly realized, and then frowned and said, "That is indeed good, but you said that Immortal Martial disappeared after the True Martial Civilization perished, and I have no way to obtain it."

Per continued, “My civilization’s special transcendence is ‘containment.’ It’s an extremely unique racial collective transcendence that can transform pollution into a specific disaster, a specific individual, or specific information, object, or life form when faced with it. Then, it can find a way to contain it or transform it into racial power. At the same time, this racial special transcendence can also be used for exploration, which is why I know so many secrets. Moreover…”

Per sighed as he spoke, "Perhaps this is also your opportunity. Wasn't I going to preserve 30% of my existence to send you to the location of my civilization? Essentially, this is to open a passage across time and space. And I just happened to be infected by the Lost Pollution and turned into a demon. In other words, I also possess a certain degree of the power of the Lost Pollution... I can set this passage as a time-space passage to the lost worlds, a time-space turbulence. In this process, you will pass through this passage, and there is a very high probability that you can obtain people, things, and objects from the lost worlds that are compatible with your extraordinary system. I can also increase this probability. If you choose the path of immortal martial arts, then I will do this for you!"

Wu Pifu pondered for a long time, considering the pros and cons. He asked Po repeatedly and received the clearest answer each time: the combination of Human Immortal Martial Path and Ghost Immortal Cultivation to achieve the fusion of Human Immortal and Yang God, or the cultivation of the Star River lineage to achieve the final Star River Emperor, none of them can compare to the fusion of True Martial and Immortal Martial. Moreover, the Immortal Martial Path is indeed only more energy-consuming, and has no other special features. This point was verified by the True Martial Ancestor and the Star River Ancestor.

In the end, Wu Pifu agreed to Per's suggestion.

“Then… there’s no time to lose! My existence has been almost exhausted, and delaying will only lead to trouble sooner or later. I’ll send you to my civilization right now!” Per said decisively.

Wu Pifu asked earnestly, "Then what about this world?"

Per laughed and said, "Alright, I'll leave you a coordinate, you can come back and check it yourself in the future."

"Judgment in progress... Judgment complete, imprint obtained, android world coordinates."

The AI's voice sounded at the right time, and Wu Pifu was finally relieved.

Then Per smiled at him, and his whole being began to crumble inch by inch.

Wu Pifu silently clasped his hands in a fist salute, and then the pastoral scenery before him began to fade away.

When he came to his senses, he saw a broken, sci-fi-style hall in front of him, which was the domed building on the moon. Before he could even react, all the ghosts that were scattered across the moon began to shatter and dissipate. At the same time, countless ghosts fell into nothingness with the moon as the center, while a large number of living souls surged towards the mechanical life forms and androids on Earth and in space.

Immediately afterward, Wu Pifu's vision blurred, and he was once again in the scene of the mainframe traversing the dream world. However, the process was no longer a fleeting moment, but rather a quantified process of time. He was wearing the bio-engineered armor, wrapped in three small animals and a golden tree bonsai, and transformed into a giant meteorite, streaking across countless indistinct, hazy, and illusory two-dimensional worlds, with all sorts of strange and bizarre scenes from all corners of the world...

In Zhangjiakou, beyond the Great Wall, outside a restaurant, a boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old was dressed as a beggar, wearing a tattered black leather hat askew on his head and covered in soot. The boy was being chased away by the restaurant's second waiter, but he was not angry. He just showed two rows of bright white teeth and his eyes were black and very lively.

Just as the boy was about to speak, and a simple-minded boy in leather clothes rushed out of the restaurant, suddenly the sky brightened, and a comet as large as a bucket appeared out of nowhere, skimming low towards the ground, instantly attracting everyone's attention. The comet flew rapidly through the sky for several tens of seconds, and everyone felt as if they had been reborn, but they couldn't figure out why. They only saw the comet fall to the ground and disappear beyond the horizon.

At this moment, the waiter and the honest-looking boy came to their senses. Then they saw that the beggar boy had disappeared. They looked at each other, both puzzled, but it didn't matter. The honest-looking boy went back to the restaurant to eat and drink, and the waiter resumed his work.

Only the beggar boy had disappeared.

(End of this chapter)