Eternal Night

Chapter 765 Past and Inevitable Kill
(PS: This barely qualifies as two chapters. I'll try to write three tomorrow.)
A curtain... so it really was a curtain!?

Wu Pifu had always thought that the so-called "veil" in those sublimated works was just an adjective, an act of concealing the truth, or some other abstract thing. But it turns out... it really is a curtain, like a stage set!

In Wu Pifu's eyes, the world before him seemed to have been torn apart like a canvas.

Although the Mountain and Sea Realm was turned into a mess due to the great battles of the many sublimated beings, the surprise attack of the demon race, and the arrival of Chu Minghao, with mountains and rivers completely destroyed—if this were in the absolute reality layer of the universe, a planet would probably be shattered—the Mountain and Sea Realm is so vast that, apart from this area, other areas still appear to be beautiful natural landscapes.

But when the curtain was torn to the brink, what was revealed beneath the canvas was an incomparably terrifying hell!

Countless pieces of flesh, bones, metal, rotting matter, vomit... and countless other indescribable, incomprehensible things, even if seen, were tangled together. The most terrifying thing was...

These things are alive!
Whether it was flesh and blood, bones, metal, rotting matter, vomit, or those things that were completely unknown, they were all alive, they had life... If what Wu Pifu saw and perceived was "life force".

These countless different things are intertwined, achieving a strange sense of balance. Countless terrifying pollution, erosion, distortion, and mutation, because of their mutual generation and restraint, especially the entanglement of countless different negative things, appear harmless and plain to the outside world.

Most importantly, Wu Pifu knows about these things; he has encountered them before. These things are all the root of the problem, or at least part of it!

An infinite loop, a self-enclosed loop, this thing is very much like an infinite erosion, an infinite proliferation, and a self-sufficient thing, like the first perpetual motion machine. At the same time, it is also an information black hole, a self-enclosed information loop. Unless a certain critical point is reached, whether external or internal, its information will not be released.

Therefore, the underlying structure woven from these infinitely looping and self-enclosed entities possesses both infinite energy and resources, allowing for almost unlimited regeneration, while simultaneously remaining so self-enclosed that it remains unknown to the outside world. In order to define it, a "canvas" must be draped over it to disguise its form—and this is the veil. Meanwhile…

This is the way of Heaven!
At this moment, Wu Pifu understood why the so-called "old era" of the Primordial World and the so-called "new era" of the Mountain and Sea World, which were clearly the same world, had different Heavenly Dao situations, and why the Heavenly Dao he had previously sensed had both rage and ecstasy.

Because on top of this most basic structure, countless "canvases" are arranged layer upon layer. Some canvases are very thin and broken, usually at the bottom layer, almost thinly covered, with a very weak presence. But some canvases are very thick and solid, almost able to integrate all the potential of this infinite root part. For example, the canvas that may be from the primordial era is like this.

As for how this Heavenly Way (canvas) is formed and defined?

The will of Heaven is in the hearts of the people!
The lives of people living in this land of balanced origins, their perceptions, their behaviors, their definitions of nature, and even their spiritual consciousness and souls after death, all gradually shape the canvas of their era.

Originally there was nothing. It was only after life came into being that the world came into being, that the Way of Heaven came into being, and then all of this came into being.

The will of Heaven is the will of the people; that's the idea.

Seeing and understanding all this, Wu Pifu suddenly recalled a fragment of a memory from the 21st century.

He was young at the time. He went back to his hometown with his parents to pay respects to their ancestors. While playing with some of his friends, he saw an old temple keeper. Many children gathered around the temple keeper to listen to him tell some ancient stories or ghost stories.

The old temple keeper was quite interesting. Although he told ghost stories, most of them were warnings to people not to do evil and stories of punishing evil and promoting good. Although the children certainly wouldn't understand, they found them all interesting.

Among Wu Pifu's fragmented memories is a passage spoken by an old temple keeper.

"...In the past, there was no underworld. But as our ancestors were buried underground, their spirits and souls settled there generation after generation, and thus the underworld came into being. Below is the underworld, representing the earth and our ancestors; in the middle is the human world, representing mortals and the present; and above is Heaven, representing the gods and the future..."

At that moment, Wu Pifu suddenly recalled this memory.

This perfectly matches the knowledge of the layered nature of reality and illusion that Wu Pifu learned after the emergence of the dream world!
Because of our understanding of life, we have reality!

At this moment, Wu Pifu could no longer feel his physical body. Everything he "saw" was actually based on the diffusion of information. The current shattering of the curtain (Heavenly Dao) of the Mountain and Sea Realm caused the diffusion of information from the underlying self-closing structure. This was actually the same as the root directly killing life below the sublimation level. In the infinite loop, all beings that had not perfected themselves were included in it, reduced to NPCs in the game.

But by reducing the dimension to that point, one can "see" all this past information more clearly.

Once upon a time, before this world became the Primordial Realm, it was a land of salvation that was born by sheer chance. It was a land where multiple fundamental essences intertwined and interlocked, eventually reaching a certain state of equilibrium. This was not different from the original origin of the land of salvation that humanity has now. In the beginning, it was completely unremarkable, so it seemed like an ordinary dream world. It was only when it was noticed by the outside world or when some clues were revealed that it attracted countless forces to fight for it.

Now that Wu Pifu thinks about it carefully, wasn't the redemption battle and the percentage of redemption a different kind of tearing down of the curtain?

All of these were witnessed by Wu Pifu. In the beginning, this world was not very large, and there were only a few wild life forms. Moreover, because the fusion of multiple root essences was not perfect, the environment was very harsh, and many life extinction events occurred. All of this continued until a radiant figure descended.

Kirin!

When Wu Pifu saw this radiant being, he immediately knew what it was: a Qilin!

He harmonized the underlying structure of this world and revitalized all things. Under his power, everything was transformed into the original demons. Life, non-life, concepts, and non-concepts were all demons. However, most of the demons that were too bizarre and illogical were naturally annihilated at birth. The remaining demons fought and devoured each other, and gradually gave birth to demon species with rudimentary intelligence. By the time the Qilin left this world, this world had already begun to take shape as a transcendent world.

However, the prototype was still just a prototype. Several major events occurred during this time, each triggering a revolutionary change in the veil of this world. Finally, at a certain point in time, the first veil that could mobilize the countless fundamental essences of the underlying structure appeared. From that time on, this world was called the Primordial World. The landmark event was that, led by the sublimated body of this world, several root tentacles were driven out of this world in a super battle.

In that war, all sides fought in chaos. Some races and sublimated beings sought peace and surrendered to the source, while others fought back resolutely and refused to surrender. In the midst of a super chaotic war that lasted for thousands of years, the Heavenly Dao of the Primordial World was born. And at the very beginning of its birth, the Heavenly Court was awe-inspiring in the Dream World, and many powerful figures under the Heavenly Court swept away all those who refused to submit.

At the very beginning of its creation, the Primordial World welcomed a super strongman. This strongman fought with a giant club that could grow large or small, light or heavy, blunt or sharp, almost forcing all beings in the Primordial World to kneel down. However, this super strongman was lazy and, after sweeping through the world, simply left without taking anything. This completely bewildered all the beings in the Primordial World at that time, and even the Heavenly Dao of the Primordial World could not understand it. Therefore, the most basic definition of the Primordial World is the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, like a super huge arena where all life entering this world must fight their way out.

Wu Pifu's initial guess was wrong. It wasn't that the life forms of this world went out to fight with the backing of the Primordial World, then devoured various small worlds, leaving some scraps for this world, which caused the Heavenly Dao of this world to be dissatisfied. No, that's not how it is!
The Heavenly Dao of the Primordial Era was to unleash its killing intent, cultivating a Gu King through the most brutal internal struggles of Gu breeding, and ultimately, to cultivate a Super Gu King capable of rivaling that super strong individual. This was the initial and ultimate goal.

Humans, in that primordial era, were the most insignificant race, struggling to survive, and almost always at risk of extinction.

In fact, it's not just humans. In this kind of super arena, apart from the demon race who have the blessings of creation and the old gods, strange creatures, or giant beasts with only vague intelligence, all other races are suffering and are seeking change.

The saying goes that human will is the will of Heaven; driven by the instinctive yearning of countless beings, the destined person of that era truly appeared...

One Piece, D has appeared!
What Wu Pifu sees and knows now is all information imprinted on this world in the form of a curtain. Therefore, he can only get a general idea, like watching a movie, and cannot know certain details at a certain point in time. He only knows that this D came into being at the right time, just as the Primordial World was approaching another transcendent world that had just begun to have the Heavenly Dao. The Pirate King traveled between the two worlds and ultimately made great contributions in the war in which the Primordial World devoured the other world.

With this great achievement, D should have gained abundant resources, obtained supreme authority, and even been promoted to a second-tier ascended body, ensuring a long and carefree life in the future.

But D did something big... He used his reward to gain an opportunity, an opportunity to communicate with the Heavenly Dao.

Wu Pifu didn't know the specific content of the conversation, only that after that conversation, the Grand Line was born in the Primordial World, and D became the world's ruler for a period of time, leading the transformation of the Heavenly Dao in the Primordial World.

It absorbed the remnants of the Heavenly Dao from that defeated world, using it as a new canvas. It gradually improved upon the old Heavenly Dao, transforming the law of the jungle into cooperation and progress, natural selection into fair competition, and the brutal internal and external struggles and killings into absorbing the essence and excellence of all worlds, undergoing self-transformation and self-evolution.

"...I want to forge a new path and set an eternal benchmark for this world. Life... should not be treated so tragically!" At that time, a hope appeared in the primordial world.

Then it all came to an end with a backstab...

D's lieutenant, who was also his closest confidant, secretly received assistance from the demon race, the old gods, the strange and mysterious, as well as some people with ulterior motives. During that period of great change, he corrupted the new era's narrative with unknown methods. Finally, at the crucial moment of the Heavenly Dao's transformation, when Pirate King D was worshipping the heavens, he launched a betrayal.

Ultimately, the old Heavenly Dao of the Primordial World was unwillingly replaced by the newly born Heavenly Dao and suppressed under a veil, becoming the old veil. The new veil then replaced it with the new rules of the new era, eventually transforming the Primordial World into the Mountain and Sea World.

"Mortals feed on things, so they are weak and fragile. The extraordinary feed on qi, so they are strong and can be sublimated. But this is still putting the cart before the horse. The true way of this world must feed on the true spirit, just as one begets two, two begets three, three begets all things. But all things eventually return to one. So why not start with one as the foundation? How wonderful!"

These were the words spoken by Jiuying after it devoured the true spirit of a mortal during the battle between Wu Pifu and Jiuying.

Looking back now, it seems that Jiuying had already revealed the truth about this world back then.

Why did Wu Pifu continuously fall into nausea, discomfort, and rage after arriving in this world?
In the new era, the Heavenly Dao rules of the Mountain and Sea Realm are not about using the Grand Line as a passage to conquer and seize other worlds. That's not it at all!
Rather... it's the soul of a mortal!
D's adjutant, that backstabbing woman, for her own wealth and longevity, not only betrayed D, but also all of humanity in this world!

Wu Pifu saw an endless, densely packed mass of human souls and spirits, arranged in a neat, orderly fashion, one after another, forming a matrix. At the center of each matrix was a Celestial Dragon, and the spirits gathered around it emitted endless resentment and hatred. This resentment and hatred all went toward the Celestial Dragon's spirit, as if ten thousand ghosts were devouring souls. All the Celestial Dragon's spirits were constantly suffering excruciating pain, as if they were being torn to pieces.

However, the other true spirits were not having an easy time either. They gathered in groups, and the groups gathered into veins. Countless human true spirits transformed into tree roots, trunks, and branches, forming a Tree of Life on the scroll of the Heavenly Dao in the Mountain and Sea Realm. This Tree of Life continuously absorbed the nutrients of all the true spirits that made up it and channeled them into the new Heavenly Dao. All the human true spirits were endlessly suffering the terrifying pain of being drained.

Unable to live or die, they could only unleash their greatest resentment upon the true spirits of the Celestial Dragons.

Each Celestial Dragon's true spirit gathers into a true spirit matrix. After all its nutrients have been absorbed, the remaining portion forms a fruit on this Tree of Life...

This is the Devil Fruit!
Why is it called "demon"?
It is because this fruit was born from this incredibly terrifying hell!
Each fruit gathers the knowledge of a great deal of true spirits, so when mixed with pollution, it has a peculiar and extraordinary effect. At the same time, when a Devil Fruit is cultivated to the final awakening stage, it will emit resentment, which is actually all the negative aspects of these true spirits before their demise!
Norm!

The woman who betrayed D and all of humanity, her sublimated form imitated this Tree of Life. She was the external anchor of this Tree of Life, so she called herself the progenitor of Devil Fruits, because the extraordinary path of Devil Fruits originated from her. All the Devil Fruits scattered throughout the worlds came from this realm, from this Tree of Life, and were all remnants of countless pitiful people who had suffered endless torment!

And D is at the very center of this Tree of Life, the world's ruler who replaced the old and new Heavenly Dao during the sacrificial ceremony. He is not yet dead, but he is certainly not alive either. Endless resentment and negativity have corrupted him, causing him to evolve into an iterative form similar to Wu Pifu's countless past personalities. However, because of his importance, he can neither die nor live. Therefore, he cannot self-iterate and die. The personality belonging to D has long since transformed into something indescribable, suppressed in the center of this Tree of Life, howling and roaring day after day...

At this point, Wu Pifu finally saw the scene behind the curtain and understood the origin of the abnormality of the Mountain and Sea Realm. He also learned why the Celestial Dragons were protected by the Heavenly Dao and the World Government. They had neither power nor importance, so why did they have such treatment and status?
Now everything is clear: the Celestial Dragons are the nodes that attract resentment!
What utter bullshit about conquering the outside world, about changing the brutality and cruelty of the past primordial world, and therefore accommodating the outside world through peaceful means—it's all bullshit!
The Heavenly Dao of the Mountain and Sea Realm is a gigantic monster that devours humanity!

The truly greatest, most inhuman thing... is this world!

Wu Pifu silently watched the Tree of Life crumbling into pieces, observing the Heavenly Dao of the Primordial Era roaring upwards, and the Heavenly Dao of the Mountain and Sea Era frantically absorbing vast amounts of True Spirit to solidify its own scroll, clashing and fighting against the Heavenly Dao of the Primordial Era. Among those countless True Spirits, either annihilated or frantically absorbed, suffering in agony, wailing, powerless, and in despair, Wu Pifu even saw several "familiar faces"...

Baghdad and Gordi, their true spirits were tortured into terrifying forms, their original forms still faintly visible, but they were no longer human.

Besides them, Wu Pifu also saw Xu Ruonan's true spirit, who was also bound to the Tree of Life. However, unlike Bagdat and the other two, whose original forms were slightly different, her true spirit had been completely mutated into an indescribable monster, emitting endless negative energy that almost surpassed most Celestial Dragons' Matrix Nexus...

Wu Pifu remained silent, then opened his personal space through his consciousness and retrieved the Nodos Contract Crystal...

"Life...should not be treated so tragically!"

A beam of light burst forth from the information plane where Wu Pifu was located.

At this moment, amidst the endless cycle of the veil shattering and the struggle between the old and new Heavenly Dao, only the sublimated body can maintain its identity. Apart from this, even powerful figures like Liang Min and Chu Minghao cannot maintain their identities. Fortunately, it is a struggle between the old and new Heavenly Dao. Although they are reduced in dimensionality by information, they still maintain the independence of their own information for a time and are not directly dissolved and absorbed by the endless cycle. However, the overwhelming power they had just possessed has vanished.

Meanwhile, the ascended beings of this world are still engaged in a chaotic battle, each bearing the imprints of the old and new Heavenly Daos as they bombard each other. In the midst of this chaos, they are also searching for the information-reduced beings of Wu Pifu, Liang Min, and Chu Minghao.

These three mortals were incredibly powerful. If the veil of Heaven hadn't been torn apart, triggering an infinite cycle of dimensional reduction similar to the origin of all things, all their sublimated forms would have been crushed like insects. Such power was irresistible to them. Even if they only obtained one percent or one-thousandth of the secrets of these three powerful beings, they were confident that they could become super strong.

In the midst of this, Norm, taking advantage of her home field and the fact that the new Heavenly Dao Tree of Life had not yet completely collapsed, suddenly experienced a surge in strength. Not only did she push away the surrounding sublimated bodies, but she also split her own giant tree sublimated body into billions of branches, all in an attempt to seize the information reduction bodies of those three mortals.

She knew that the new era had ended, and all her schemes had failed. The vengeful spirit that man had transformed into would lead all the human vengeful spirits that had been devoured since the era of the Mountain and Sea Realm to seek revenge on her and all the schemers. She dared not imagine the horror of that, and it might even become the source of a new negative realm. Therefore, she had to, she absolutely had to obtain even greater power!
"Mine! The power of these three mortals is mine!!"

"I did nothing wrong! Why should I cater to the masses?! Why should everything you've sacrificed be used to cater to the masses?!"

"I should be the one to receive this blessing!"

"Damn it, damn it, I did nothing wrong, I absolutely did nothing wrong!!"

Suddenly, a dazzling light burst forth between the old and new Heavenly Daos, and then a metallic giant with a concrete form appeared from the light. This giant was purplish-black, surrounded by an aura that seemed to be both resentment and poison. Any true spirit that was touched by this aura instantly decayed and turned to ash. But for these true spirits who had been tormented for countless years, this was the greatest antidote. The true spirits who still retained their last bit of instinct cheered and rushed towards the metallic giant.

"...You are a non-human being I have never seen before!"

"Everything else is secondary, only you, only you!"

Why do you exist?

The metal giant emitted a deep sound, and it was Wu Pifu's voice.

The metal giant wielded a massive sword tens of millions of meters long. This sword was so sharp that even the slightest movement could tear apart the infinitely looping information contained within it. It was so heavy that even before touching anything, the field of vision shrank.

He pointed his sword at Norm, who had the home advantage, and also at the Tree of Life, which was still collapsing but temporarily maintained its tree-like shape.

"Give me!"

In the next instant, everything turned into black and white.

Wu Pifu swung his sword forward, cleaving open the chaotic boundary!

(End of this chapter)