Eternal Night

Chapter 777: Index of Forbidden Books
(PS: Today's update has a bit more words, not bad.)
After learning about the Heaven's Cup project from this disappearing future magician, Wu Pifu's mind began to wander.

This is clearly a consequence of the pollution source.

The entire dream world, starting from 0.9, will be affected by the source of pollution. The most concrete manifestation of this influence is the emergence of the extraordinary. The extraordinary is pollution, and this is the truth.

At the same time, the more powerful the supernatural being, the more they use their supernatural abilities, and the more real energy they consume. The more real energy they consume, the more illusions, distortions, pollution, and various forms of chaos will follow. Many seemingly man-made consequences are actually futures already predetermined by the source of pollution.

Ever since Wu Pifu learned that this world belonged to the Scattered Heavenly Dao, he thought it was unlikely that a similar pollution-related outcome would occur here. After all, transcendent-level great worlds are not affected by pollution sources and will not be dragged down by pollution sources. But now it seems that it is also affected by pollution.

Or is it that the worlds scattered under the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Dao are no longer the so-called transcendent dream worlds, because they were once destroyed?

Wu Pifu couldn't understand it for a moment, but he didn't dwell on it. He simply said, "So, if we destroy the Clock Tower, the future of the Heaven's Cup can come to an end, right?"

The dozen or so magicians from the Silent Organization were all rolling their eyes. It turned out that this guy hadn't listened to a single word they'd said.

A female magician nearby whispered, "Nonsense... Do you think the Clock Tower can be destroyed so easily? Especially with two great mages guarding it."

Wu Pifu suddenly asked curiously, "Speaking of which, I find it strange. Why do you call yourselves magicians? For example, my class is also magician, but those two guys you consider very powerful and who are stationed at the Clock Tower are called magicians. Is there any explanation for that?"

Albert said helplessly, "Not a magician, but a sorcerer... Don't you even know the difference between magic and sorcery? This is common sense, common sense that should have been known even in the age of gods, right?"

Wu Pifu looked at Albert with an expression that said, "What are you talking about? I don't understand."

The old magician, whose body had completely disappeared, put on a robe and explained: "The most fundamental difference between magic and sorcery is that magic can be explained and repeated through reason and science. The more widely known something is, the less mysterious it becomes. And the less mysterious it is, the less powerful it is. This is just like what adults call magic in a broad sense. Once it is exposed, it is worthless. That is why it must maintain its mysterious characteristics."

Wu Pifu still didn't understand. He scratched his head and asked, "So... what is mystery?"

"Hey, no, you are from the mysterious realm." Albert couldn't help but complain again, "As a phantom spirit, you came out of thin air through mystery, and you don't even know what mystery level is?"

Wu Pifu, on the contrary, seemed quite innocent: "Even if you say that, I still don't know."

The magicians around them were all incredulous, and they felt that Wu Pifu was even more mysterious than before.

The old magician immediately said, "Then let me explain it to you in detail, sir. The so-called mystery is actually the unknown and elusive nature of its origin."

"All things in the world come from the root. The Western mysticism calls it the root, while the Eastern mysticism calls it the Tao. This is the beginning of the entire universe, the source of the source, the core of the core, and magic and other extraordinary powers come from the root."

Wu Pifu naturally understood this concept.

Once a world has a Heavenly Dao, then that world is essentially a part of the Heavenly Dao. All derivative things on it come from the Heavenly Dao itself. Outsiders must also integrate into the Heavenly Dao to be recognized. This concept is similar to the Dao, God, and other concepts that Wu Pifu knew in the 21st century. It is also similar to God in the Western mythological system, except that one is a generalization of the heavens and the other is a personification.

Seeing that Wu Pifu understood, the old magician continued, "All extraordinary powers originate from a source, but their total amount is limited. If we use a percentage as an analogy, 100% to 70% of extraordinary powers are magic, and less than 70% are spells. It's just that there are powerful spells like exclusive spells, grand spells, and crown spells. This is the phenomenon of the diversion of mystery. The more people know about it, the more people acquire it, the weaker the spell becomes. If the mystery of magic also spreads, then magic will be downgraded to spells..."

"Wait a moment."

Wu Pifu frowned as he thought about it carefully.

This was different from what he knew, and also different from all the extraordinary paths in the dream world.

Outside the world ruled by the scattered Heavenly Dao, there is no such thing as the more people who know about it, the weaker the extraordinary path becomes. On the contrary, an extraordinary path requires thousands of people to cultivate it, and then elites and geniuses are selected from among them. Only then can it innovate and continuously evolve to become stronger. For example, the True Martial lineage is like this, or any extraordinary path is like this. The only thing that limits its expansion is the real consumption required.

How could the world scattered under the rule of the Heavenly Dao be so special?
Or……

Is this the method by which the scattered Heavenly Dao controls pollution?

Suddenly, such a concept came to Wu Pifu's mind.

Transcendence is pollution. As the former transcendent world's Heavenly Dao, it naturally knew how to prevent the pollution from spreading and how to avoid it. Perhaps because it was destroyed and became a scattered Heavenly Dao, it no longer possessed the essential power to fight against the source of pollution. Therefore, it used the method of restricting its transcendent path to rule the world to limit the spread of pollution.
Suddenly, Wu Pifu remembered a message that the Heavenly Dao had sent him when he first became a follower.

"This is a special gift, a lost path to transcendence, now one of the ways to collect transcendence from the source (the fusion of Alaya consciousness and Gaia consciousness), Pokémon System Magic (beyond magic, unique in all worlds including this world and the source).

The Pokémon system he obtained in this world is referred to as "magic" by the scattered Heavenly Dao. Its definition is "unique to all worlds in this world and from the source." This fits the mystery issue mentioned by these magicians. Only he knows the Pokémon system, and only he knows about it. So, for this world, this is magic.

Upon realizing this, Wu Pifu's expression suddenly dawned on him, and the old magician secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "That's it. So-called magic means concealing its existence and obscuring its mystery. However, all magic can be explained and repeated by science, but only magic cannot be explained or repeated by science. It is a great miracle from the root essence. It can even be considered as the authority from the root, the power to rewrite the laws of the world. So far, there are only five great magicians. They are the pinnacle of the mystical world, and the Clock Tower has the second and third magicians."

Wu Pifu remained silent, silent, still silent, and then he suddenly stood up.

"Stop rambling. Just tell me straight: who exactly created Heaven's Feel Future? Name, location, time, and then I'll take care of them right now."

Albert covered his face, and the magicians around him all wore wry smiles.

The female magician who had just spoken muttered under her breath, "Those are two mages, not to mention the Clock Tower itself, really..."

I'll repeat it again.

Wu Pifu exhaled, then his eyes widened, and the entire world seemed to dim slightly. Then, centered on him, an immense and boundless pressure began to surge.

This was not any extraordinary power; it was merely Wu Pifu displaying the essence of his soul's oppressive aura. This was an ability he gained after breaking through his Conqueror's Haki. It was not Haki itself, so even the Servant's body created by the scattered Heavenly Dao could not stop him.

In an instant, all the magicians present froze, their consciousness suppressed, and their very souls began to tremble, unable to think, speak, or move.

For them, even the ability to perceive the passage of time seems impossible.

Wu Pifu didn't maintain this state for long. He wasn't trying to kill these dozen or so magicians. He withdrew the soul pressure and said seriously, "I'm not joking with you. I'm in a hurry, and this trip is just a simple mission. A fight is fine. Don't make it so complicated. I hate all this strategizing and stuff. Understand?"

The dozen or so magicians were completely stunned. They looked up at the sky in terror, and before their eyes, the bright blue sky had transformed into a vast, empty starry expanse, with endless stars twinkling. Then, as Wu Pifu withdrew his soul pressure, this celestial phenomenon gradually dissipated. Most terrifyingly… this wasn't an illusion, nor a confined barrier, but a damn natural phenomenon… At least three-quarters of the South American continent where they were located could see this phenomenon. Their magical eyes, set up outside the valley and even in cities far beyond, witnessed it all!

"What...are you?!" Albert exclaimed, his mouth agape.

"Wu Pifu." Wu Pifu pointed to himself in confusion, then added a few more words after thinking for a moment: "Pure-blooded human."

It took the dozen or so magicians at least a few minutes to recover from the shock that had nearly shattered their worldviews. The older magician said, "The future outcome of the Heaven's Grail is not the work of any single mastermind or individual, including mages. It is the result of countless years of planning, the intertwining of numerous forces, the foreshadowing of several past Holy Grail Wars, and most importantly... the inevitable result of 'the principle of its attainment.' That's why I told you before, in the eighty failures I've experienced, no matter which force or Servant achieved final victory, the outcome was always the appearance of the Heaven's Grail. Even if you could destroy the Clock Tower, you couldn't easily reverse this future. Otherwise, the Fifth Mage wouldn't have died in the future. So, to end this Holy Grail War and prevent the Heaven's Grail from descending, the only way is..." "Wait a minute."

Wu Pifu suddenly stopped the old magician. He suddenly looked towards the direction outside the valley, and everyone looked over at the same time. They even activated related farsight magic.

But they saw nothing; it was a deserted area.

"Get lost." Wu Pifu didn't explain, but just recited this sentence in that direction, and then looked at the old magician, signaling him to continue speaking.

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers above the valley, an Indian sitting on an eagle suddenly turned pale when Wu Pifu uttered the word "get lost," and blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. At the same time, the eagle he was riding let out a mournful cry and dissipated into specks of light. Then, the Indian plummeted from thousands of meters in the sky...

A few dozen seconds later, in a church somewhere on the European continent, a priest suddenly froze. He looked at the back of his hand in disbelief, then hurriedly ran to the back of the church. Soon after, he arrived outside a prayer hall and respectfully spoke to the two guards at the entrance.

One of the guards went in to announce the news. After a long pause, he was finally allowed to enter. He didn't dare to delay and hurried into the prayer hall. He didn't dare to look around too much and respectfully said to the figure kneeling in prayer in the center of the prayer hall, "My lord, my Assassin has returned to the Throne of Heroes. Because it happened so suddenly, I don't even know how he died. I need a Saint-level expert to trace the process of his death and investigate the information."

"...No need, I already know."

The person who was kneeling in prayer stood up.

This was a tall, silver-haired man with a cross mark between his eyebrows, and his eyes were always tightly closed.

"God has given me a revelation: the culprit of Judgment Day has appeared, and it is the object of your investigation: all the evil in the true world summoned by the Silence organization of the Reverse Magicians!"

The Assassin's Master asked incredulously, "Did the Holy Grail of the previous Holy Grail corrupt all the evil in the world? Can that thing also be transformed into a Servant? Or is what you're referring to as a 'beast'?"

The man with the holy mark shook his head and said, "No, the beast is actually the inverse manifestation of the imperfect love of humanity, but the revelation God gave me is not this. It is true evil, a higher, more metaphysical, utter evil that embodies all the evil in the world... You don't understand, and neither do I. I've even begun to have blasphemous thoughts, and the idea that 'maybe God has made a mistake' has arisen. This is not good..."

The Assassin's Master paused for a moment, then hurriedly said, "Does Your Excellency mean that the Judgment Day, which will arrive in one year and three months, is caused by all the evil in this world?"

The man with the stigmata nodded and said, "It's highly likely that I, the Vice-Chancellor, the Pope, the Twelve Cardinals... and so on have all received similar divine revelations. It's even possible that saints like you have received related revelations. In one year and three months, the unstoppable Judgment Day will arrive. We tried everything to stop it, but everything slid towards the most desperate situation. So this time, we had to participate in the Holy Grail War ourselves and cheated countless times, but we still couldn't find the source of the Judgment Day's arrival... Now, we've finally found the source!"

The Assassin's Master was immediately invigorated and exclaimed, "My lord, I request to join the Holy War Army! I want to personally annihilate all evil in this world!"

"Not urgent."

The man with the stigmata shook his head and turned to the Holy Cross, saying, "I have just informed the Papal Court, and the Pope has given me a reply. Now, the Papal Council has convened, and the twelve cardinals will vote simultaneously to decide whether to open the Catalogue of Forbidden Books, which is suppressed beneath the Papal Court. I think they should all agree to open it."

"We must know what kind of existence all evil in this world truly is, what its purpose is, and why it would trigger Judgment Day..."

"We need to know His origins!"

Meanwhile, in the Papal Palace, a secret supreme council was underway, and as the man with the stigmata had said, all those present immediately passed the resolution without any hesitation.

"...The only problem is, who should be sacrificed, then put into the Forbidden Books Index, and then relay the message back in the most accurate way?" a cardinal asked.

Another cardinal said, “I think any saint would be willing to sacrifice themselves. The only problem is that they may not be able to transmit the message back completely and accurately. But even so, we must take this step. I think we should conduct a selection of saints.”

Many of the cardinals nodded.

"No need."

At this moment, the Pope, sitting in the highest position, a gaunt old man who looked as if he might die at any moment, closed his eyes and bowed his head, saying, "A choice has been made."

All the cardinals who were discussing looked at the Pope. Before they could even ask any questions, a young girl with bloodshot eyes and snow-white hair walked out from the room behind the papacy.

The twelve cardinals were all stunned for a moment, then suddenly stood up, their bodies surging with terrifying holy energy.

"Your Holiness!?"

"Yusei, a juvenile!?"

"No, impossible, this already happened in the last Holy Grail War..."

At this moment, the girl with bloodshot eyes and snow-white hair suddenly spoke, but her voice was actually a male voice: "Don't panic, this is a pseudo-puppet I created using the First Law, but it possesses some of the original's abilities."

The twelve cardinals looked slightly better, but they were still all very serious and did not withdraw their holy power.

The Pope then spoke up: "As you can see, Judgment Day will arrive in one year and three months, unstoppable. The most likely outcome is... the attainment of the 'Heaven's Feel'. We originally believed that the sins were created by the Clock Tower, which is why the First Magician and I cooperated this time. But that was all. At the moment the Heaven's Feel was attained, we used a pseudo-spacecraft to overwrite and rewrite it, because this is also a kind of 'civilization'. But now that we have discovered the true evil in the world that caused all of this, this puppet has a new purpose."

"It can access the banned books list without hindrance and deliver information to us in a near-perfect way."

The cardinals remained silent, as did the pope and the white-haired, red-eyed girl, who simply waited patiently.

"agree."

"Agreed, the trial day is more important."

"Agreed, but with reservations."

"……agree."

The twelve cardinals spoke one after another, and after a long while, they still unanimously agreed.

Because the matter was urgent, they had no time to waste. Since everyone had agreed, the white-haired, red-eyed girl quickly entered the underground of the Papal Palace, carrying the stigmata of the twelve cardinals and the divine stigmata given by the Pope, and opened the twelve gates of the reverse zodiac and the final gate of sighs...

Then, the twelve cardinals and the pope in the secret meeting hall, along with the mastermind behind the control of the white-haired, red-eyed girl, the forces behind the scenes, and many more people who were spying on all of this through parallel world senses and other methods, saw it all…

The Milky Way was cleaved in two by a single stroke!

(End of this chapter)