Eternal Night

Chapter 736 Understanding Cause and Effect
Wu Pifu felt neither sorrow nor joy, and carrying his knife, he flew towards the horizon.

Battles, powerful enemies, desperate situations—it's all just these things, as if he's never experienced them.

That's how people are. The first time you experience a desperate situation, you can call it a fight to the death. The second time, you can call it a desperate battle. The third time, you can barely call it a desperate struggle. But this is the fourth, fifth, or sixth time... Wu Pifu is even starting to get used to this situation.

"But it's all good... one should always wield their sword against the strong, right?"

Looking at the mist on the horizon, Wu Pifu revealed a ferocious smile.

The thick fog obscured the sky and sun; looking in all four directions—east, west, south, and north—from thousands of meters above the ground, all one could see was the dense fog that stretched straight to the zenith.

Even ordinary people can see that this dense fog is not benevolent. Those with slightly more sensitive spiritual senses can even perceive the great terror and malice within it. For ordinary people, this is a true natural disaster. Even if they can see the great terror in this dense fog, they are helpless and can only wait to die on the spot.

As Wu Pifu flew through the sky, he would occasionally channel his inner energy into the ocean, altering the direction of the ocean currents. This action allowed him to perceive the situation of many inhabited islands, ports, and ships on the sea. Faced with the rolling thick fog, many of them were panicked, desperate, or even engaged in internal strife. However, Wu Pifu also noticed that a very small number of people were going against the current at this moment.

They steered their boats, rallied their companions, shouted slogans, and sounded horns. Even as the thousands of sails receded into the distance, they still pressed on relentlessly toward the source of the mist. Wu Pifu flew along, seeing no fewer than ten similar boats and no fewer than a thousand similar figures. When they saw Wu Pifu flying overhead, they all fired cannons in salute. Even though Wu Pifu flew extremely fast, roaring across the sky and leaving the cannon fire behind, the smoke from the cannon explosions still seemed like fireworks paying tribute to those going to their deaths!

He faced death with a broadsword, much like Wu Pifu's feelings at that moment.

He didn't have the management skills of Xu Shilan and Chu Yuyan, nor the talent and ambition of Chu Minghao and Liang Min, and perhaps even the strategic brilliance of Xu Wanfang. He also lacked the resourcefulness of Zhiyu Mi... but he was willing to fight to the death so that they could use their talents.

Wu Pifu suddenly recalled his fragmented memories from the 21st century.

He was still young then, and his parents took him back to their rural hometown. In his hazy memory, when he was playing with his friends in the village, he often saw an old man sitting at the entrance of the village, who had difficulty even standing. At dusk, the old man's children would help him home.

Wu Pifu was very curious and asked his parents if the old man's children were unfilial.
After a long silence, his father told him that the old man was a veteran who had fled to the icy and snowy land of a neighboring country during the most dangerous time when the country was first established. He had survived by the skin of his teeth. His children were very filial, and his family had a good family tradition and was highly respected in the local area.

"Then why is he standing at the village entrance watching the main road? Is he waiting for someone?"

The young Wu Pifu asked curiously.

"...His comrades-in-arms were waiting for him to die."

My father said solemnly, “When I was a child, my father told me that when this old man was sent to the frontier, he was very young, a child soldier, but he knew a few words and could do some addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. He was a treasure in his company. My father told me that at that time, people from the village and the surrounding area were going to the frontier. He and a few familiar friends from the village were also in that team. When the battle was at its most intense, the company was wiped out and only a few people were left. The political commissar called him over and assigned him a difficult and important task: to escort the battle flag back to the command post and then come back to die together. They would wait for him to come back before charging again.”

"An army can be destroyed, but its spirit cannot be lost. The flag of the army is the core of its reconstruction." He believed this to be true. In the freezing cold, on the vast snowfield, he ran all night to bring the flag back to the command post. Before he could even return, he learned that the army had been completely wiped out... His comrades, his partners, his old company commander, everything he knew was gone. They abandoned him to go and die alone...

"...Later, when the war ended, the division commander told him that along with the flag came a small note, which their company commander had secretly hidden inside. He hoped that the command could settle this young soldier back to the rear. He was an educated man, he could read, and he could make more contributions to the motherland in the future, build up the motherland, and never let the motherland be bullied by those foreign enemies again."

"They were willing to die to protect those they felt they should protect."

"And he was waiting for his comrades who had gone to their deaths to come back and take him away."

Back then, Wu Pifu was carefree and thought his father's words were just some kind of story in a book. He knew them, listened to them, and then forgot them. But now, after countless personality changes, he has remembered them again.

Just like him now, he is willing to die for those who deserve to be protected!
Wu Pifu was extremely fast. This time, he didn't bring any small animals or potted plants. That's the good thing about having companions; he can fight without any worries.

Either the enemy dies, or he perishes!
With this excitement and exhilaration, Wu Pifu flew to the edge of the dense fog about forty minutes later. As he approached, the fog suddenly became even more turbulent. When there was still at least ten thousand meters between them, the fog seemed to coalesce into a solid form, transforming into a hazy snake head, a colossal creature that blotted out the sky and the sun, crushing towards Wu Pifu like a mountain range.

Faced with the power of nature, Wu Pifu simply raised his knife and charged forward, undeterred.

The instant the blade struck the dense fog, a massive shockwave swept across the heavens and earth. Wu Pifu, covered in blood, crashed into the sea, slicing across the ocean surface for tens of thousands of meters, tearing apart the surface and creating waves hundreds of meters high. The dense fog that had gathered was also completely shattered, and the mist that made up the fog dissipated considerably, significantly thinning the fog that shrouded this large area of ​​the sea. Wu Pifu leaped up from the seabed, all the wounds on his body now healed. He didn't say much; he had gained some information about the enemy from that attack and had some plans for the battle to come.

First of all, it can be confirmed that this dense fog is not just some simple strange phenomenon. Unlike the fog encountered during the ship's curse, this fog should be part of some powerful sublimated entity.

This sublimated body far surpasses any sublimated body he has ever encountered. If it were at its peak, its strength would be many times greater than that of the Golden Arhat, and there would be no comparison between them. The difference is so great that Wu Pifu even suspects that the sublimated body in front of him at its peak might be the so-called ultimate sublimated body.

The thick fog before us may seem mysterious, but in reality it is worthless and, in fact, a great tragedy for this sublimated entity.

This is a reversal of the material world!
Wu Pifu understood how to transform from an ordinary being into a sublime being. His own perfection was only one of the prerequisites. The real key was to materialize the world, unfold himself, use perfection as the core anchor point to preserve himself, and then transform as much as possible to reach the limits of the world. The more world range he could encompass and the more real share he could include, the stronger the sublime being would be.

What if the "perfection" of an elevated form is destroyed?

It is highly likely that it will die on the spot, unable to contain or control the share of the world that it invades during sublimation, and will be reduced to ashes on the spot.

However, there is also a very rare possibility that the perfect essence of an ascended being is too powerful. Even if its perfection is broken or its essence is erased, the remaining materialized body still possesses vitality, carrying some instincts and abilities of that ascended being, and then transforms into the state it was in when it became materialized...

In other words, the thick fog before us is an extremely powerful sublimation entity, the form it takes when it materializes into the world during the process of sublimation from mortal things, or it can also be called... its essential origin!

Once it transforms into a sublimated form, its mortal appearance and state are no longer its essence; rather, its appearance and state when it materializes the universe are the essence of its life!
Sensing the true nature of the dense fog, Wu Pifu felt a sense of relief, but also a profound sadness.

If the true form of this dense fog were at its peak, it would be incredibly powerful, perhaps even stronger than the source behind the space. But now it can only transform into this dense fog, neither alive nor dead, trapped here. If it weren't awakened by something, it probably wouldn't change for billions of years. This is even more unbearable than death.

As for what exactly "thing" had startled him awake, Wu Pifu already had a good idea.

"I misunderstood you, Zhi. You're still a good child. It's you who..."

"On the contrary, it's you... Mastermind, you son of a bitch! Your so-called judgment is just taking organs from someone in a vegetative state, isn't it!?"

Wu Pifu took out half of the Dream Compass. Sure enough, there was some kind of attraction on this half of the Dream Compass, and the source of this attraction was the depths of this thick fog. He could even imagine that this Dream Compass must be a vital treasure of the fog itself. The fog itself was probably not human, but some other kind of creature, so it fused the Dream Compass with its own organs or hid it deep inside its body. As a result, the main brain took it away for some reason.

Then, he happened to encounter the moment when he comprehended Conqueror's Haki and unleashed the essence of his soul. Although he had not yet materialized the world, he had the rudimentary form of materializing the world, which was just like the process of mortals sublimating. This triggered the already awakened subconscious of the dense fog, causing it to go completely berserk.

It was both avenging the theft of the Dream Compass and a sign of the sublimated being's wariness of another possible sublimated being. When the two were combined, oh dear, the leisurely time instantly turned into a life-or-death moment...

"Is fate turning against us?"

Wu Pifu retrieved the Dream Compass, which was crucial to his future foundation and path, and he absolutely could not give it up. Not only could he not give it up, but he also wanted to obtain the other half of the Dream Compass right in front of him!
As the fog on the horizon, which had been thinning, thickened again and began to condense once more, a beastly roar came from within it, and something else was also awakening. Clearly, the fog had been thoroughly enraged.

but……

so what?

Wu Pifu clenched his sword, ready to die, and charged headlong into the thick fog.

"Come!"

(End of this chapter)