Eternal Night

Chapter 595 The Root and Essence!

A dazzling light burst forth in the subspace, then rapidly transformed into a torrent that swept outwards, finally dissipating only when it reached the core domain of the four evil gods.

At the core of that dazzling light, the bird-shaped demon and the bloated demon were charred black, their bodies mostly evaporated. But strangely, as the light dissipated, their bodies were healing at an incredible speed. This healing was not even an invincible effect they obtained through the subspace, but rather a natural occurrence.

"This...this is!?"

"...Who exactly are we...?"

Both demon gods' values ​​were nearly shattered, and even the Slaanesh core held by Wu Pifu was struggling violently.

"This is your power? That's why I call you weaklings, inhuman!"

Wu Pifu appeared in the light, no longer in its previous infinitely large form that seemed to fill the universe, but simply in the body of a hero, as if everything before was an illusion.

A second later, the two demon gods had fully recovered, with only a few faint black marks on their bodies. However, compared to them, the endless waves of warp demons that rushed towards the Emperor who was protecting the Earth in this warp space were wiped out. These demons did not recover or revive, but were actually destroyed by the white light.

"So this is your trick? It's nothing more than that this is your home turf, so the falsehoods you create will last longer. And as long as the vast majority of other intelligent life forms believe it to be true, it will become true in this subspace. This is your mindset, this is the truth of the subspace. But I am unaffected. So even if you imagine the destruction of the universe, it won't affect me. Otherwise, what are you going to do? Bring your heads to my blade?"

As Wu Pifu spoke, he raised his sword again and charged forward, relentlessly slashing at the two demon gods until they were covered in blood and gore, their bodies sliced ​​and cut countless times. Although they were healing rapidly, Wu Pifu's damage was real damage. If they were hit within five steps, annihilation was real annihilation. It was only because the subspace was so large that they could keep healing and regenerating.

This time, however, no matter how much Wu Pifu attacked, the two demon gods remained motionless, and even the Slaanesh core in Wu Pifu's hand stopped struggling, making the atmosphere quite strange.

Wu Pifu remained silent, relentlessly launching an attack. Finally, the two demon gods suddenly exploded with a bang, disintegrating and disappearing. The core of the Slaanesh also exploded and disintegrated, and all three disappeared within Wu Pifu's attack range.

Seeing this, Wu Pifu stopped wielding his sword and stood still.

"...Why should we tell them the truth about this warp?"

The Emperor's voice rang out, tinged with anxiety and reproach: "Wouldn't it have been better to let them be deceived and have their true nature depleted? Your revelation has immediately driven them to a desperate gamble! They just don't know that once they do, they are, after all, the Four Evil Gods, capable of making decisions and possessing great courage!"

"That's good!"

Wu Pifu shouted loudly and said resolutely, "How can we win if we don't kill powerful enemies? If we just kill the bodies they've imagined, will it take us days? Dozens of days? Or hundreds of days? When the true nature of the subspace emerges, its essence will still be largely preserved. How can we fight them? It's better to force them to use the true essence of the subspace now, and kill them one by one. If we're not strong enough, we can still fight to our hearts' content. At most, we'll just get killed. We'll at least get a bloody face!"

The emperor was taken aback and exclaimed repeatedly, "You, you, you're being far too reckless!"

Wu Pifu chuckled and said, "I don't have your patience or your high level of awareness. That's why you're an emperor, a great man, able to quietly watch humanity develop for tens of thousands of years, or bravely rise up to lead humanity in a counterattack, or sit on the golden throne for ten thousand years in a state of besieged sorrow. I can't do that. I'm just a commoner. You want to talk to me about ten thousand years? No, I only seize the day! Today..."

"If we cannot win, then let us die on the way of the charge!"

As he spoke, Wu Pifu held his knife horizontally and looked around in three directions in the subspace.

Just as Wu Pifu was conversing with the Emperor, the core territories of the three evil gods, Tzeentch, Nagoro, and Slaanesh, also underwent changes.

These three core territories are their respective domains of rules, places in the warp where their rules manifest uniquely. They are named the Crystal Labyrinth, the Plague Garden, and the Temple of Pleasure, respectively. There is also an absent one, Khorne, who is still shrinking and recovering in the material universe. His core domain is called the Brass Fortress.

For a long time, the core territories of the four evil gods have been forbidden areas in the warp, and all beings who know about these four core territories, including the Emperor and the four evil gods themselves, have only believed that these four territories are the manifestation of their great authority.

But it was only at this moment that the three evil gods, the emperor, and all the beings in the warp realized that the core territory of the evil gods was not merely a manifestation of authority, but their true essence of power in the warp!

The three territories began to dissolve, but did not disappear. Instead, they solidified and writhed, eventually merging into one. Within these territories, all the demons, souls, and various essences fused together, ultimately manifesting as three colossal demons.

A bloated, obese, rotting fleshy fungus; a collection of bird wings and beaks with sharp teeth and no visible head or tail; and a long, writhing mass of flesh that resembled a snake, a graceful woman, and a muscular man—each a thousand meters in size. Compared to the previous demonic body, they were utterly insignificant. But the moment they appeared, the cores of three subspace hurricanes began to emerge, and a vast amount of subspace essence began to converge toward these three points. The speed at which it absorbed subspace essence was second only to the black hole formed from the mental world.

Seeing this, the Emperor fell silent, then burst into laughter: "Very good, very good, the ever-unchanging Warp has actually come to this day... Regardless of the outcome, the mere existence of this means that the Warp can never be perfected in this world again. At most, the material world and the Warp will each be divided in half. Even if you and I die, this battle will not have been a loss!"

Wu Pifu retorted, "They think just the three of them can kill me? They're too early to say!"

The Emperor nodded in agreement, saying, "That's right. They are only three of the eight manifestations of the Warp, and even with Khorne, they are only four. The true source of the Warp has not yet emerged, so why should we die? Then... me one, and you two?"

"it is good!"

Wu Pifu looked around, chuckled, and charged towards Seneca with his knife.

The great sun, symbolizing the emperor, suddenly contracted, and a golden throne emerged from it, followed by countless heroic spirits, including space marines and ordinary humans, as if forming a torrent of humanity. Among them, an old man holding a long staff bowed and said, "Your Majesty, has it come to the final moment?"

“Macado…” the Emperor murmured.

Another handsome man with wings on his back flew down from the sky: "Father, has the final battle arrived?"

“Saint Gilles…” the emperor murmured in a daze.

Then countless giants, far taller than the Space Marines, came forward: "Your Majesty, was our sacrifice worthwhile?"

“Thunder…” the Emperor said, tears welling in his eyes as he bowed his head. Countless Space Marines, countless ordinary humans, countless commoners, all rushed forward with their hands raised: “Your Majesty, is there still hope for us? Can we still win? Will our descendants still be threatened by the Warp?”

The emperor raised his head, a light appearing in his eyes, and spoke with the utmost determination the words he had uttered ten thousand years ago.

"I swear……"

I will surely win!

The torrent of humanity, accompanied by the golden throne, merged with the great sun, and a golden-armored humanoid figure, a thousand meters tall, emerged.

The golden-armored humanoid looked around before charging towards the rotting fungus.

At the same time, Wu Pifu had already approached Slaanesh. Before he could get close, a snake tail in Slaanesh's flesh trembled, and a sharp spike slammed towards Wu Pifu.

Wu Pifu raised his knife to block, and a tremendous force, powerful enough to shatter stars, struck the knife. In an instant, Wu Pifu's arms exploded, and he was blasted back for dozens of seconds before gradually stopping. His arms were covered in blood, although they healed in a moment. This was real, undeniable power, not some self-indulgent game in his mind.

"Hahaha, that's more like it!"

Wu Pifu laughed and continued charging forward, exchanging dozens of blows with the snake's tail spikes. Finally, he seized an opportunity and chopped it off with one strike. The entire snake tail instantly exploded and vanished. At the same time, the flesh that made up the Slaanesh had completely transformed, and a beautiful humanoid figure, thousands of meters tall and resembling both male and female, finally emerged.

"Young man from another world, thanks to you, I've finally come to know my true self today, so..."

Seneca smiled, holding a spike in each hand. The spikes glowed faintly with blue light, clearly carrying some kind of poison.

"...Let me repay you, and let you ascend to paradise!"

As Slaanesh arrived, Wu Pifu also charged forward with his sword. The broken blades clashed, their sharp points clashing together. There was neither the birth nor death of stars, nor any destruction of heaven and earth, but it was in this clash that his true nature was revealed!

Wu Pifu has now completely understood what a sublimated body is and what a root is... Perhaps not all roots, such as a 0.2 level root of the seven original sins of life, or a 0.1 level root of the primordial immortal or primordial Buddha, but at least he has understood what a 0.3 level root is!
The so-called sublimation is the self-perfection of a life.

That might not be a very vivid way to put it. To put it more concretely, so-called self-perfection is... my way!

Taking Wu Pifu's Tiger Demon Skill as an example, its upgrade path is from the initial entry threshold, to entering the inner sanctum, to becoming superb, to reaching the pinnacle, until finally achieving the ultimate manifestation of sainthood. When one reaches the ultimate manifestation of sainthood, one has already reached the limit, and there is no way to go further unless one achieves sublimation!

Wu Pifu's Tiger Demon Skill was sublimated from the ultimate manifestation of sainthood.

"I believe that I will surpass the limits of theory and create my own path."

This is the sublimation beyond the limit of Tiger Demon Skill; this is actually the ladder to sublimation!

However, Tiger Demon Skill is just one of the countless techniques in Chinese martial arts, not the entirety of this extraordinary path. Therefore, it cannot be relied upon to propel Chinese martial arts beyond its limits. In the end, it is only the Tiger Demon Skill that breaks through the limits.

A true sublimation is the sublimation that occurs after reaching the limit through an extraordinary path; it is the perfection of a life's self. For example, if Wu Pifu's martial arts surpasses the level of "seeing the body without being harmed" and is further sublimated, then he can achieve a sublimation through martial arts.

This is the sublimation, the self-perfection of a life, a self-contained system, the one itself, the beginning itself, the circle itself!

Of course, this is a small perfection, a self-perfection belonging to a life, not yet reaching great perfection, not yet able to be completely independent and absolute within oneself, but it can still exert a great resistance to all non-self pollution, erosion, distortion, or the infinite cycle and self-closed loop of the root cause.

As for the root cause...

Transform yourself into the Dao, and the Dao will permeate the universe!
For non-sublimated entities, the Root is unsolvable, because the Root can easily incorporate them into an infinite loop and a perfect closed loop, making all non-sublimated entities into brains in a vat within the Root's universe!

This is why, in the Lost Lands, the people of those lost forces say they can only fight against those who have transcended one level. For example, mortals fight against ascended beings, and ascended beings fight against the Root. This is because mortals simply cannot break through the fourth wall brought about by the Root. This is also why, even though Wu Pifu was strong enough to defeat an ascended being, he almost died as soon as he encountered any pollution at the Root level, even if it was just a tiny bit.

When you are overwhelmingly superior in terms of dimensional energy level, numbers of strength are completely useless!
However, if the sublimated entity were to fight against the Root, the Root would only be able to kill it with its true self. Whoever is stronger would win, and there would be no situation where the Root could crush the sublimated entity with a single thought.

However, in most cases, the Root can still crush the Ascended Body because the difference in their size is too great. The Ascended Body is still an accumulation of an individual, but once the Root is transformed into Tao, it can immediately use the world as its resources and easily influence the world with Tao, turning the heavens and earth and all things in it into the brain in the vat within the Root's infinite cycle and self-closed loop. In the same amount of time and under the same conditions, the resources that the Root can absorb far exceed those of the Ascended Body by tens of thousands of times!
Therefore, the three levels of Mortal, Sublimated Body, and Origin still belong to the absolute level suppression within the entire Dream World system, unless there are extremely rare exceptions...

Ultimate Ascension Body!
It can learn multiple extraordinary paths without hindrance, and once each extraordinary path is sublimated, it can immediately condense sublimation characteristics. Multiple sublimation characteristics plus multiple extraordinary paths can reinforce each other. If there are many such reinforcements, it is not as simple as a simple numerical qualitative change!

The real qualitative change comes from complementary rules and multiplicative numbers!
And coincidentally... Wu Pifu is the seed of the ultimate path!

"Monster! I can tell you're not human at first glance! Hmph! Your skills are mere child's play, how dare you show off your amateurish abilities before an expert?"

Wu Pifu let out a roar that seemed to have no meaning, his one hand forming a palm, and a burst of dragon-shaped energy erupted forth, while his other hand gripped a knife and lunged forward.

With a palm strike, Slaanesh's arm was severed from the air, and Wu Pifu's blade slashed into his chest.

But at the same time, a bird's claw suddenly appeared and pierced into Wu Pifu's belly from behind.

Slaanesh is severely injured, Tzeentch launches a sneak attack!
(End of this chapter)