Eternal Night

Chapter 534 The Lion...

(PS: I have no conflict or personal grudge against Cuttlefish. To be honest, Cuttlefish's books are very good. I have read Mystery several times. The reason I wrote about the aristocracy is because this plot is really useful and fits Wu Pifu's character all along. So I used this plot. Please don't overinterpret it.)

Additionally, I used Huang Rong because Wu Pifu's character is quite interesting when she encounters a character similar to Huang Rong. I wanted a quick-witted, intelligent, and beautiful character to be outmaneuvered—yes, outmaneuvered—because she encountered someone with Wu Pifu's personality. This is something that the supporting animals can't replace. So there's no need to replicate the Huang Rong and Guo Jing model. Rather than that model, I wanted to write about the kind of situation where the "comedic" spirit meets the protagonist in the anime *Delicious in Dungeon*. That's all.
Wu Pifu transferred 100,000 points to Huang Rong, which restored her from her disappeared state.

At this point, the little girl came to her senses and was terrified; she had almost disappeared.

"What just happened to me?" Huang Rong asked, still shaken.

Wu Pifu had nothing to hide, so he selectively told Huang Rong some things, such as that the internal martial arts system was a lost martial art, Huang Rong's world was a lost world, and coming from the lost world to the real world, or at least a semi-real world, created a gap that would lead to disappearance.

"I spent 1.5 million points to bring you out, and I thought that was a one-time payment, but I never expected that teaching me martial arts would cause you to lose your existence..."

Wu Pifu frowned as he spoke, recalling the scene when Po spoke to him. Every word he said was equivalent to consuming Po's existence, and the more important and crucial the information, the more existence was required to express it.

Clearly, Huang Rong was in a similar situation. She needed to use her existence to explain how to cultivate internal energy. As a result, she had only just begun her introduction, mentioning the location of a meridian, and hadn't even finished explaining the visualization and breathing techniques when she was about to disappear. The main computer then used 100,000 points to complete the explanation.

Does this mean that this extraordinary path to immortality requires so much real power (points) to manifest?
Wu Pifu squinted as he looked at his remaining 750,000 points.

Points can be earned again, but if Huang Rong really disappears, then she's dead...

"Don't continue teaching me martial arts," Wu Pifu said immediately.

Huang Rong was still processing what Wu Pifu had said. Although she was somewhat confused, her intelligence allowed her to quickly find commonalities in her various sources of knowledge. For example, Buddhist scriptures explained the concept of a microcosm, or that a single flower or leaf could be a world. If interpreted in this way, then her world belonged to a microcosm, or perhaps even smaller than a microcosm. As for her brother Pifu, he was a celestial being, possibly from a macrocosm…

Huang Rong said somewhat dazedly, "So you brought me out of my world at a huge cost?"

Wu Pifu nodded slightly, then turned back to continue eating and drinking, saying, "Don't continue teaching me martial arts. You need points to teach me, and that's the price. I don't have many points right now. If I exceed that, I won't be able to save you..."

Huang Rong felt a mix of complex emotions and fear, but upon hearing this, she felt slightly relieved and a sweet feeling welled up inside her. She smiled gently and said, "I've never seen anyone die while teaching martial arts before... So, it seems that sending me back will also consume a lot of these... points?"

Wu Pifu nodded, and Huang Rong's eyes darted around as she asked, "Then if we bring my father out of the Lesser Thousand Worlds, we'll need points too?"

Wu Pifu nodded again, and Huang Rong immediately said without pausing, "Then reviving my mother also requires points?"

Wu Pifu shook his head and said, "No, this is unnecessary..." Then he suddenly looked at Huang Rong.

Huang Rong was overjoyed, her eyes reddening. There was no trace of happiness at having gained an advantage on her face; instead, she became terrified. Her voice trembled as she said, "Brother Ant, don't lie to me. Can...can you really bring my mother back to life?"

Wu Pifu sighed inwardly. As expected of the clever Huang Rong, she was truly cunning. She had tricked him into revealing information he shouldn't have known. However, considering that Huang Rong had just explained martial arts to him and almost disappeared, and that he would rely on her in the future, and that this young girl had suddenly arrived in another world, the distance from home not just a matter of space and time, but also uncertain of her future return, he could only sincerely say, "It is indeed possible to revive people, but this isn't a matter of points. It involves other very complex elements, including connecting the afterlife to specific individuals, and altering the past at the causal and temporal levels. Moreover, the opportunity is extremely rare… But I won't lie to you, it really is possible to revive people."

Huang Rong trembled all over. She slowly sat down, holding onto a chair, and after a long while, she said, "Is it possible to contact people in the afterlife?"

Wu Pifu nodded, and Huang Rong asked in a trembling voice, "Brother Pifu, can...can I contact my mother?"

Wu Pifu sighed and said, "Alright, there are spots available every now and then. I'll have the mainframe make a decision, and if it's possible, I'll give you the spot!"

Huang Rong sat motionless in the chair for a long time before large tears rolled down her cheeks. She said in a very soft voice, "Brother Ant, my mother died before I could even remember anything. From a young age, only my father and the mute servant were on the island. I finally met a white-bearded old rascal, but my father wouldn't let me go play with him. My father is so fierce and doesn't care about me at all. Even if I disappeared or died, he probably wouldn't even know..."

"If only Mother were still here, she would sing to me every day, play with me every day, and love me dearly, unlike Father..."

Huang Rong chattered on and on, but seeing Wu Pifu silently keeping her company, her heart softened, and she asked, "Where are Brother Pifu's parents? Are they also celestial beings?"

Wu Pifu shook his head as he ate, saying, "No, they've been dead for about eight hundred years. Oh, and there are also our parents from a parallel world. They haven't escaped their predicament yet, and we need a lot of points to make them real. But it feels weird to have two parents..."

Huang Rong: "?"

Wu Pifu said calmly, "But it doesn't matter. I can keep fighting. As long as I don't die, as long as I keep fighting and getting stronger, I will definitely earn enough points in the future. I will bring back all my parents, my comrades, and my benefactors!"

Huang Rong looked at Wu Pifu expectantly, feeling both shy and at a loss. She could only reach out and clutch the hem of Wu Pifu's clothes. Wu Pifu sighed again and said, "Alright, I will resurrect your mother as well... but be prepared for a long battle. Even if I keep getting stronger, I will still have many and strong enemies. It might be lucky if I can resurrect the first person within ten years."

Huang Rong smiled sweetly and said softly in her gentle, watery voice, "Brother Ant is a celestial being. He could probably live for hundreds of years, let alone ten. What's there to be afraid of?"

Wu Pifu subconsciously replied, "I should be able to live for thousands or tens of thousands of years... Hey, Pretty Huang Rong, don't use your intelligence to fool me. Come on, help me analyze how those five true gods would react if I went to fight them."

Upon hearing the words "Pretty Huang Rong," Huang Rong spat several times, her face turning bright red. However, upon hearing Wu Pifu's question, she began to think about it seriously.

"I'm not entirely sure how powerful the true gods are, but from what Brother Ant said, the humans in this world are all controlled by them, right?" Huang Rong asked.

Wu Pifu shook his head and said, "No, the humans in this world... are very likely not human."

Huang Rong retorted, "I know you think they're inhuman, but what I mean is..."

Wu Pifu shook his head again and said, "No, it means exactly what it says. They are very likely not human, but something else, a puppet, an illusion, a program, a projection... In short, when I killed those kings and nobles before, I had this feeling, but they were not entirely illusory, but somewhere between illusion and reality..."

After thinking for a long time, Huang Rong finally understood what Wu Pifu wanted to say. Her expression became even more serious as she said, "If such divine and demonic methods are truly the work of those five true gods, then their power and authority are simply unimaginable. Brother Pifu, are you really confident in fighting against them?"

Wu Pifu remained expressionless as he said, "We'll only know after we fight them. But they don't seem to be insurmountable to me yet. They're not the root of the problem; they're more like some kind of special, sublimated entity. And besides them, I'm more concerned about the Containment Foundation behind them..."

Huang Rong thought for a moment before resolutely saying, "If that's the case, then I only have one piece of advice for Brother Ant: when facing the first deity, go all out, use all your trump cards, and be sure to kill it in the shortest possible time. Under no circumstances should you let it escape. Otherwise, if the five gods find out Brother Ant's strength, they may unite because of the threat, and then unpredictable changes will occur."

"...To seize the initiative?"

Wu Pifu pondered for a few seconds, then decisively said, "Alright, then let's fight with all our might to kill one of them! The five true gods are War, Sun, Starry Sky, Death, and Gear..."

Huang Rong suggested, "I recommend choosing the gear or the sun; the other three might all be..."

"No, war!"

Huang Rong was taken aback and hurriedly said, "But the word 'war' is undoubtedly related to combat power. A god who can use 'war' as his name is likely to be very powerful."

Wu Pifu shook his head and said seriously, "Five true gods descended just now, but they descended in the form of projections. I looked closely at the time. The descending entity representing war had a lion decoration on its clothes."

Huang Rong: "?"

Wu Pifu continued, "Lions are also felines, right? They're close relatives of tigers, aren't they? So it shouldn't be a problem to consider a lion as half a tiger, right?"

Huang Rong: "??"

Wu Pifu said with certainty, "That's why I chose war as my first deity. After we eat, we'll go to the location of the Church of War."

Huang Rong immediately said hastily, "No, Brother Ant, you're being too perfunctory! How can you choose something just because the decoration is a tiger, no, a lion?"

Wu Pifu, however, said with certainty, "No, listen to me this time. Choosing a war with lions as decorations is absolutely the best choice."

Huang Rong's mouth dropped open; for a moment, she was completely at a loss for how to persuade Wu Pifu.

She discovered... Wu Pifu was truly her nemesis in her cleverness and wit...

On the other side, in the headquarters of the Church of War in the capital, in the very center of the magnificent hall, there was a lifelike statue of a majestic and heroic man riding a powerful lion.

For some inexplicable reason, the statue seemed to tremble slightly...

(End of this chapter)