Eternal Night

Chapter 688 Return
(PS: That's two chapters. It was supposed to be three, but it's more enjoyable to read them together. Otherwise, everyone will criticize me for skipping chapters again~)

Wu Pifu's current state is very peculiar.

According to the main brain's assessment, after he uses the super brain aid, his physical body will die completely within sixty seconds, and his mental consciousness will be completely alienated and leave the realm of humanity within three hundred seconds.

This is the mainframe's decision. So far, Wu Pifu has never seen the mainframe's decision go wrong, so his physical body should die within sixty seconds, but...

It's unclear how the Super Bullet Time of Super Brain World is calculated and determined. Wu Pifu used the Super Brain Auxiliary Device to release the Super Brain World, which Chu Minghao had stored within, and then fought with Chu Minghao himself within it.

Judging from the timeline, he and Chu Minghao had been fighting for at least several hours. Logically, he should have died physically and suffered a mental mutation long ago.

However, his physical body still retains its vitality. Although it has begun to deform and die, it is only changing gradually in the process, and the onset time is far less than the main brain's judgment.

Wu Pifu himself could feel that the backlash from his physical body and his mental consciousness was much slower than expected. Although it was not as slow as the tens or hundreds of billions of times slower speed he experienced in his current invincible super brain world state, it was still far slower than the actual passage of time.

Although the mechanism behind it is unclear, there is no doubt that this gives Wu Pifu an opportunity, at least an opportunity to stall Chu Minghao!
Wu Pifu's original plan was to use the invincible super brain world that Chu Minghao left in the super brain auxiliary device, and then use all his trump cards to fight Chu Minghao during the countdown to death. It wasn't that he could defeat or kill Chu Minghao, but rather that he would use the burst of power to briefly repel and injure Chu Minghao, and then completely destroy the final producer platform.

As for his trump cards... besides the usual Chinese martial arts, immortal martial arts, immortal martial arts internal force, domineering aura, etc., his magical girl cooldown time has long been over, and his hero race transformation has also been fully charged. With these two, combined with the amplified strength of his own super brain, and since the physical and mental load has been greatly reduced, he can also use the negative backflow with high output...

All these factors combined, even if he still couldn't reach his strongest state in the Warhammer Dreamworld, wouldn't be too far off!
But this is a desperate gamble. If it fails, not only will he be doomed, but this battle will also be a complete failure. Human civilization will become a huge spacetime paradox, thus not existing from the very foundation of logic. Everything will be over!

So when Wu Pifu discovered that his backlash had been significantly slowed down, he immediately stopped his attack and instead began a war of attrition with Chu Minghao, buying Xu Wanfang and humanity of this era enough time.

but……

too strong!
Chu Minghao is too strong!

If he doesn't unleash all his trump cards, even against the currently invincible Super Brain World, he wouldn't even be a match for him in close combat!
It should be noted that Chu Minghao was under control at this moment. His attacks, defenses, and movements were all filled with a dull, mechanical feel. Wu Pifu estimated that he was probably less than 70% of his peak strength. However, even so, he completely suppressed Chu Minghao in the close combat within five steps, which Wu Pifu was most proud of!

Wu Pifu's fluid-like body was struggling to condense into a human form. At the same time, he held a knife in both arms and slashed down. It looked like a straight line, but when the knife fell, the blade trembled slightly. It was as if thousands of moves were condensed into one move in one strike.

Within five steps of him, Chu Minghao pointed forward with one hand, and the Heavenly Sword appeared like starlight. Despite Wu Pifu's thousand attacks, this single finger strike actually blocked the transition of Wu Pifu's sword moves. Wu Pifu's thousand moves vanished into nothingness, and in the end, the sword and blade clashed again. With a huge tremor, Wu Pifu's fluid body, which was about to solidify, shattered again, while Chu Minghao stood still in place.

Sit down!

This... is definitely not just the power of the invincible super brain!

Using the immense force of their clash, Wu Pifu twisted his arms backward, wielding his sword again to meet the attack. This time, there was no more of a thousand moves; instead, the sword flashed like a gazelle's horns or a celestial being descending from the heavens, striking from an impossible point. Chu Minghao, being somewhat dazed, was a fraction too slow to react to this miraculous strike. Just as the Heavenly Sword Star Finger was extended, Wu Pifu's sword grazed his finger and slashed behind him.

Chu Minghao was about to turn his finger behind him when Wu Pifu suddenly moved forward with his whole body, using his fluid-like flesh to block the sword finger. Although his body was twisted even more violently after the explosion, he managed to block the sword. His greatsword flashed and landed in the void behind Chu Minghao.

Although the slash clearly missed its mark, Chu Minghao was jolted, a blank expression of pain appearing on his face. The power of the sword finger piercing Wu Pifu's body surged, and for a moment, thousands of sword energies almost completely pierced through the fluid-like flesh, as if to annihilate it. However, Wu Pifu suddenly burst into laughter, his body moving forward instead of retreating, and his greatsword slashing forward even more frantically.

Bang!
With a loud bang, Wu Pifu was shoved a hundred miles away and crashed into a mountain peak as large as a pillar of heaven. A hundred miles away, Chu Minghao stood motionless in place, and behind him, where there was nothing, something seemed to flash by.

Wu Pifu stood up from the rocks on the mountain peak. He looked at his arms and body. He had transformed back into a human body from a fluid state, and it was his own body.

But he knew it was fake... at least in his perception it was fake!

gluttonous!

Wu Pifu now knows exactly what is eroding and controlling Chu Minghao!

The root cause... the gluttonous beast!!

Everything is clear now!
The primordial corpse that resonates with the final productr is not yet completely dead!

No, that's not accurate. A more precise statement is that the primordial spirit of the corpse that resonates with the final producer has not yet departed!

Wu Pifu had personally witnessed countless Root Corpses floating in the imaginary space of the Absolute Truth Layer, including even beings like the Goddess Nuwa. According to Nuwa's message, these Root Corpses were either completely lost or their true spirits had separated from their Root Essence and reincarnated. Therefore, these Root Corpses were floating in the infinite negativity based on some kind of law, and then resonated with special humans through this law, thus giving birth to latent superbrains and a very small number of manifest special superbrains among humans.

This is how it should be...

However, at this moment, Wu Pifu, who had fought against the four Roots before, finally confirmed one thing with that last strike: the Taotie Root that resonated with the End Producer still had its true spirit consciousness. This was not a pure Root Corpse, but a true Root that still possessed its original true spirit and had not yet completely died and turned into a corpse!

This also explains the power of the End Producers and the abruptness of their transformation... even the origin of the original super-brain aid, the End Producer platform, is explained!

Although Chu Minghao was incredibly powerful, he was not a sublimated being and could not resist the pollution and erosion from the root essence. Just like when he was corrupted by lust, one of the seven deadly sins, in the Lost Lands, the amount of his extraordinary power was negligible, but its essence was indeed root-level. Even a trace of it almost cost him his life.

Chu Minghao is the same!
As for what was cut down with that last strike... it was precisely the Taotie's essence, completely concealing its information within its self-enclosed loop!
Just as Wu Pifu realized all this, countless pieces of information surged into his mind from the void, and at the same time, the voice of the main brain rang in his mind.

"Judgment in progress... Judgment complete, the root cause is being eroded by the Gluttonous Beast..."

"Erosion rate one percent, two percent, three percent..."

"Once the erosion is complete, this world will become real, and citizen Wu Pifu will disappear completely..."

Without a word, Wu Pifu picked up his knife and walked to the edge of the mountain pillar. He looked up at the sky and saw that it was incredibly high and infinitely high, with even higher heavens above it. He looked down at the earth, which was covered in green grass and was vast and boundless. The sky was round and the earth was square, and the earth was endless.

Chu Minghao stood frozen in place, while humans and animals began to appear one after another on this land...

He just slashed Chu Minghao into the End Producer Platform with a single blow. The power of that blow was more than enough to shatter the End Producer Platform. Even if he couldn't shatter it, Xu Wanfang and Zhi's Dragon Rider System behind him could instantly annihilate the entire End Producer Platform. Furthermore, there were thousands of warships remaining on the perimeter. The full-force bombardment from each of these warships would be enough to accomplish all of this...

But without a doubt, all of these attacks were swallowed by the Taotie and brought to this seemingly real Taotie space... or rather, the final producer space.

Here, truth and falsehood are meaningless!
As the birth of the final producer draws near, the power of the gluttonous beast grows ever stronger, and all that it devours will be transformed into reality here!
"...Heh, this is your strongest place, in other words, this is also where your true nature resides, right?"

Wu Pifu took a breath, closed his eyes, and then opened them again. His clothes suddenly changed, transforming from ordinary clothes into a gorgeous mini-skirt, a pretty bow, silk trim, and stockings. A cute and sexy magical girl outfit appeared on Wu Pifu's body.

Then, in a flash, flesh and metal surged from its body, transforming into a powerful exoskeleton armor.

But inexplicably, this Qiangzhi exoskeleton armor only covered his skin and flesh, while the magical girl outfit was exposed on the outside.

Wu Pifu was stunned for a moment, then he ignored it and a broken crystal appeared from his personal space. As soon as the crystal appeared, it turned into a stream of light and stuck to his heart.

"...Erosion rate of 21%, 22%, 23%..."

"Activating Nodos Contract Crystal (Fragment), in progress..."

"Judgment complete!"

"The one who activates it is an eternal ally of the Hero Race."

"The degree of contractual obligation will remain consistently above 100%."

"Hero's Soul drawing in progress... Drawing complete."

"Hero Therpsicori successfully anchored."

"Perfect activation!"

The crystal fragments began to shine brightly from Wu Pifu's heart, and a vast amount of energy surged out. In an instant, Wu Pifu's body began to grow taller and larger, and then transformed into a gigantic flesh and metal giant a thousand meters tall. Its face had compound eyes, and its body was silver-blue. Unlike the violent beauty of Belcros that Wu Pifu had originally possessed, this hero's body was filled with a cold sense of order.

"Perfect Trait: Order!"

In an instant, the blue sky, white clouds, green grass and fields before Wu Pifu's eyes began to crumble inch by inch. At the same time, Chu Minghao disappeared. In an instant, everything before Wu Pifu's eyes turned into a sea of ​​light swords, and endless light swords swept over like a galaxy.

"Perfect Trait: Order!" "...How ugly this chaotic world is! If I had to live in such a chaotic cesspool, I would rather use my own body to make up for the world's flaws!!"

"When faced with any chaos, disharmony, violation of order, truth, reality... you will be in a state of burning order. As long as your essence remains intact, all chaos will be eliminated by you. This elimination will ignore all hierarchical judgments and will inevitably lead to its success!"

Wu Pifu raised his broadsword and slashed down at the endless beams of light in front of him. Where the sword passed, the beams of light vanished, and all illusions disappeared. In front of him, in the unseen and indescribable realm, at the end of the beams of light, the Platform of the Producers stood tall!

Meanwhile, Xu Wanfang and Zhi are about to lose themselves amidst countless realities and illusions.

They rushed into the End Producer Platform through the gap cleaved by Wu Pifu, but the instant they entered, it was as if they had fallen into an endless tunnel, or as if they had fallen into the stomach of some kind of creature. The world they perceived kept switching between reality and illusion, and their vision changed between space and the End Producer Platform, between blue sky and green land.

Then, just before they were about to lose their way, a silver-white giant appeared. Its enormous, ancient-looking sword revealed its identity. It stood atop the sea of ​​lightsabers that suddenly appeared in front of it, wielding the sword and slowly breaking through.

At this moment, Xu Wanfang and Zhicai suddenly came to their senses. They were rushing towards the final producer platform, and behind them, the remaining hundreds of warships were also stumbling forward.

"Follow him! Charge forward with Mr. Wu Pifu!!"

Xu Wanfang dragged his mutilated body and roared loudly. He only had three super brain auxiliary devices left on his body. He activated the super brain auxiliary devices again with all his might. As his anti-super brain domain and super brain world were launched at the same time, all the warships seemed to come back to their senses and turned around to follow closely behind Xu Wanfang. Then Xu Wanfang charged forward, followed closely by the others. Finally, hundreds of warships sailed over together and followed the silver-blue giant, moving forward little by little.

The sea of ​​lightsabers seemed endless, yet it couldn't even pierce the silver-blue giant's blade. Instead, the giant's body continued to evaporate as it slashed forward, carving out a passage through the chaos with each strike...

Warships disappeared from time to time, along with their crews, vanishing completely into nothingness. But the remaining ships relentlessly followed Xu Wanfang and Zhi, heading towards the silver-blue giant further ahead.

It was like a lighthouse in the darkness, like a beacon of light, like hope in despair; all that remained in everyone's eyes was the figure of the ever-burning, evaporating silver-blue giant.

Zhi stared blankly at everything in front of him.

That body was so strong, that back so upright, just like the image of his father that he had imagined countless times...

“Mi, you’re right…”

"Our father is the most powerful person in the world!"

"He stands tall and upright!"

"He single-handedly blocked out all the darkness in the world!!"

"His shoulders are broad enough to bear all the beauty in this world..."

"You're right...you bastard, you're right!!"

Zhi roared loudly, Xu Wanfang roared loudly, and all the remaining humans on the warships roared loudly.

If someone were to look from the outside at this moment, they would see a vast expanse of space centered on the Producer Platform constantly fluctuating. At times, the solar system transforms into a flat, earth-shaded world with blue skies, white clouds, and green grass; at other times, it transforms into the starry space of the sun, earth, moon, and Mars...

Only at the very center of that reality and illusion, a silver-blue flame slowly expanded from a faint point, transforming into a massive, burning pillar of fire...

at last!

The silver-blue flames burned and boiled, finally burning through the real and illusory fluctuations. At the very core, the final producer platform appeared. Wu Pifu's remaining body charged forward, and a sword fell from the sky, slashing into the void beside Chu Minghao.

With a single slash, everyone seemed to hear a phantom scream, and they seemed to see a colossal maw, large enough to devour the entire universe, being severed by a single blow.

Immediately afterwards, Xu Wanfang and Zhi simultaneously activated the Dragon Rider System, and a rainbow of light surged toward the Final Producer Platform...

The remaining hundred warships roared simultaneously, shells and beams of light flying out in a deafening roar...

"...Ah, Brother Wu, I..."

Chu Minghao's bewildered voice suddenly rang out amidst the boiling roar, and then, as if he had discovered something, he suddenly turned to look at Xu Wanfang's mecha.

"Mr. Chu Minghao, I've come to save you." Xu Wanfang's almost unrecognizable mutilated body revealed a hearty smile.

"...It seems I've done something terribly wrong..." Chu Minghao gave a bitter smile, then his body quickly faded away and disappeared.

Xu Wanfang disappeared as he smiled.

Then there were two mechs, the two mechs equipped with the Dragoon system, and all the people who didn't belong to this time and space...

Looking at the figure ahead, he reached out and smiled bitterly: "The logic of time and space has begun to reset. The people of this era will not remember your sacrifice, Father."

Wu Pifu turned around; he was disappearing rapidly, but in Zhi's eyes, his figure was still towering and imposing.

"I never expected to be remembered by anyone, nor did I expect their gratitude."

Wu Pifu walked over to Zhi's side, looked at the child who seemed to have just cried, and reached out to rub his hair, saying, "It's better to forget, otherwise the truth about the final birth would be too cruel for them."

Zhi lowered his head and said, "Then what's the point of all this? If you don't expect anything in return, what's the meaning of your sacrifice?"

"I just want to be a person, a good person."

Wu Pifu thought for a moment, then smiled and said to Zhihu, "These are the words my father told me. He is willing to treat me as a human being, so I must also be a human being... It's difficult, but I am willing to try my best to be a human being."

"Father……"

Zhi looked up, tears streaming down his face, and sobbed, “Father, I know, I know! You are a hero. You didn’t care about any profit or future. You came to save us just because we children were pitiful. We are not the failed biological weapons they claimed, the company’s experimental subjects, or the People’s Revolutionary Alliance’s trump card…”

"Father, Dad..."

Zhi disappeared amidst the crying...

Wu Pifu reached out, but there was nothing under his palm, and then his palm also disappeared rapidly.

"Judging in progress...judging complete."

"Faction quest perfectly completed!"

"The spacetime loop has been perfectly achieved!"

"Perfect deception achieved with Chrono Trigger!"

"The final retrospective of the Absolute Spacetime Concept has been activated..."

“Key spatiotemporal nodes…”

"penetrate!"

The next instant, Wu Pifu transformed into a puddle of fluid and appeared in a chaotic hibernation pod hall. This was...

Gaia!

The instant he appeared, in the medical station at the end of the passage not far away, Wu Pifu, who was in a treatment pod, essentially reverted to death. Meanwhile, Xu Shilan and Amadei, also in a treatment pod, whose bodies were riddled with wounds, had reached their critical point and were about to die...

The next instant, the writhing fluid enveloped Wu Pifu, Xu Shilan, and Amadeus inside the hibernation pods...

(End of this chapter)