Eternal Night

Chapter 847 The Only Answer

(PS: There was a typo in last night's chapter. It should have been "not of the heroic race," which completely changed the meaning. It has been corrected.)
Wu Pifu took out his Dream Compass and pointed it at the black earth below.

"Judging in progress...judging complete."

"The primordial fungus, Elsterloh."

"???..."

This is the main brain's assessment of the primordial evil below; to put it simply, it contains absolutely no useful information.

However, this also indirectly illustrates how sinister this thing is, because the main brain can even determine some information about the root, and there are very few things it cannot determine. Each of them is a heaven-defying thing, and this primordial evil object in front of us is obviously one of them.

Wu Pifu looked down at himself.

Mycelia appeared all over his body. These mycelia began to multiply and divide in his flesh and blood at a seemingly slow but actually extremely fast speed, absorbing his body and spreading throughout his entire body. No matter how Wu Pifu tried to stop him with his qi, blood qi, internal force, domineering aura, mental energy and other extraordinary powers, it was all in vain.

This didn't seem like supernatural power or distortion and corrosion; it was more like a natural phenomenon based on nature, like a neutron star or a black hole. All his power was being defeated by these mycelium. Moreover, Wu Pifu keenly discovered that although it looked like mycelium, the core power within it was something else entirely...

"...It's time."

Beelzebub's voice rang out, and the old information extractor awoke. Seeing the mycelium on Wu Pifu's body, she cried out in alarm, "Primordial Fungus, Elstero! Yes, it's this Primordial Evil! When the Thirty-Three Heavens Transcendent-level Great World was broken and occupied by the Primordial Immortals, thirty-three Primordial Evils emerged from it. These Primordial Evils prefer to lurk and slumber in ancient Transcendent-level Dream Worlds. They form a symbiotic relationship with the Transcendent-level Dream Worlds. The 'nature' they represent strengthens the Transcendent-level Dream Worlds' own rules, while the Transcendent-level Dream Worlds, in turn, nourish it with their vigorous life force… Do you remember the New Heavenly Dao of the Mountain and Sea Realm devouring souls and true spirits? That technique or ability actually comes from the Primordial Evils. Primordial Evils can devour souls and true spirits, and not just imprison them within their bodies, but truly digest them. This is something even countless roots cannot easily do; it's a unique ability of the Death Root…"

Beelzebub quickly recounted the information she had recalled about the primordial evil.

Wu Pifu pointed to his body and said, "Why are you saying all that? How do I get rid of this thing on my body?"

“…There’s no way to solve this.” Beelzebub said anxiously, “I suggest we return to Gaia as soon as possible and try to make a wish using the Holy Grail. This is the ‘nature’ unique to the Primordial Evil, and it’s also the core reason why the Primordial Evil is not affected by the infinite cycle of the Root. Its priority level is the same as the Root…Do you remember your title of ‘Rogue’ after you upgraded? The three descriptive categories are Supreme Priority, Root Level, and Limit Breaking Attribute. These three categories actually belong to the priority of the Primordial Evil, the level of the Root, and the attributes of the third rank and above of the Ascension Path, respectively. I just remembered that the three categories of the Mastermind title represent the core power of the three paths in the Dream World!”

"What nonsense... does this mean that this thing, like the corruption of the root, is something that mortals cannot fight against?" Wu Pifu frowned, and the next second, the Nodos Crystal appeared in his hand.

Wu Pifu was first troubled by the root-level corruption in the Lost Lands. At that time, he did not know about the path of advancement from mortal to sublimated body to root. Although he was clearly stronger than an ordinary sublimated body, he was still powerless against the root-level corruption. In the end, he was able to clear the corruption by meditating in the Heavenly Court and drawing on the power of the Heavenly Court.

Mortals cannot fight against the root cause, not even a trace of its corruption. Therefore, he plans to summon the body of the Hero Race and use the perfect characteristics of the sublimated body to fight against this so-called "natural" power.

But Beelzebub immediately cried out, "Don't transform! The Primordial Fungus, Elstero, hasn't noticed you yet. It doesn't have a concept of 'self.' It's just been awakened from its slumber to feed, devouring life energy and soul essence, accumulating endlessly before falling asleep again. If you become an Ascended Being, you'll become its target, because you're its most prized food, the kind that fights to the death. Oh, and one more thing: all ancient evils are unaffected by the dream world's layers. They can freely travel between the Zero Point Dream World and the Absolute Truth Layer. It will hunt you down all the way to the Absolute Truth Layer, and it might even affect Gaia!"

Wu Pifu stopped transforming and fell silent.

Beelzebub continued, “Go back. This is not a battlefield you can fight on, nor is this an enemy you can fight right now. Go back and use the Holy Grail and the main brain's judgment together; that should be able to resolve the corrosion on your body. This looks like mycelium, but it is actually the power of the Time Domain… The Primordial Mycelium Elstero. In my memory, it was an ancient evil that appeared because of the Thirty-Three Heavens. We were greatly shocked, and that's how we began our research on the ancient evil, because we thought we had found a way to fight the origin of pollution. Back then, we fought dozens of battles of various levels with this Primordial Mycelium Elstero. I remember a lot about the research on this mycelium.”

"...There was an experiment that left a very deep impression on me. When the mycelium was diluted tens of millions of times, what it manifested was not a change in the mycelium itself, but rather a time acceleration function and evolutionary characteristics. In a closed system, time acceleration and evolutionary characteristics would be achieved. We would be able to see the evolution of all things in a closed system. Each evolution would produce brand new life characteristics. If the environment provided was different, the life characteristics that appeared would also be significantly different. We tested different life evolutionary characteristics, from carbon-based to silicon-based to elements to energy... but no matter the environment or any life characteristic, it would strengthen the essence of the mycelium that had been diluted tens of millions of times, causing the intensity of time acceleration and evolutionary characteristics to increase dramatically. From the initial tens of times time acceleration, it would reach hundreds of thousands of times acceleration in real time after a few minutes. In this case... guess what happened?"

Although Wu Pifu's body was being corroded by the mycelium, he was inexplicably calm, which puzzled him. He simply said calmly, "Has a very powerful life form appeared? Or has a super civilization been born under a closed system?"

"...No, countless different life characteristics, countless different environments, countless bizarre things that were born, all eventually perished into mold. With the support of super time acceleration and evolutionary characteristics, 'nature's' final choice was...mycelium! And this is, in fact, the true power of the primordial fungus, Elstero!"

Looking at the mycelium that had spread to most of his body, Wu Pifu wasn't panicked at all, but he still said, "You mean, every piece of flesh on my body is actually changing under super-time acceleration, eventually turning into mycelium? Then what will happen to me in the end? Will I also become a lump of mycelium, and then be absorbed by the primordial evil below?"

Beelzebub was very anxious. She flew to Wu Pifu's nose and said, "Yes, these mycelia will first erode your physical body, and then simultaneously penetrate your consciousness, also eroding your consciousness. In the end, they will assimilate your soul and true spirit. Everything you have as Wu Pifu will be devoured by the Primordial Mycelium Elstero. Come on, let's leave this place and hurry back to Gaia. You still have time!"

“…You’re too hasty, Beelzebub.” Wu Pifu remained calm, saying to Beelzebub, “Your intention to make me leave is too obvious…”

“I’m worried…” Beelzebub seemed to snap out of her daze at this moment. She examined her own thoughts for a moment, and the giant fly buzzed around, saying, “I… I don’t know if my thoughts are even my own, but I’m worried about you. You’re in too much danger right now. You need to go back quickly, otherwise it will be too late once the mycelium penetrates your mind. Gaia’s human technology can only effectively treat the physical body, you…”

"You just mentioned... piercing my mind, right?"

Wu Pifu laughed. He sat down cross-legged, ignoring the mycelium spreading on his body, and said to Beelzebub, "Calm down. Also, Chirp, Daphne, can you sense that you want me to leave this world as soon as possible?"

Both Chirp and Daphne called out twice at the same time. Wu Pifu nodded silently and continued to Beelzebub, "I understand... that means you have a problem, Beelzebub."

Beelzebub herself noticed something was wrong with her, but since she wasn't the complete source of gluttony yet, even knowing there was a problem, she couldn't change her anxious thoughts and feelings, and could only buzz around in frustration.

At this moment, the mycelium had already covered Wu Pifu's face and forehead. Then, as expected, it turned from solid to ethereal from between his eyebrows, transforming into countless spreading mycelium that pierced into his sea of ​​consciousness. This also triggered... an endless stream of negative energy from his sea of ​​consciousness to flow out along the mycelium.

Almost in the blink of an eye, all the mycelium in his body and mind withered and disappeared.

Unfortunately, just as Beelzebub had said before, this primordial evil had no fatal weakness or core. Its life was evenly distributed in every cell of its existence. It was both a split entity and a union entity. Wu Pifu's negative backflow only affected the infected hyphae on his body and did not fall into the black earth below out of thin air.

Only then did Wu Pifu say to Beelzebub, "Alright, now tell me, if your current anxiety to send me back to Gaia is due to the influence of that Heavenly Court entity you mentioned earlier, the right and left hands of the First Immortal, then what is the reason...? Why are you in such a hurry to send me back to Gaia? Are you planning to ambush me halfway? No, that's not right, there's no need to be in such a hurry to ambush me halfway. So tell me, what is the reason that makes Him so anxious to send me away from here, even to the point of racing against time to achieve it?"

Beelzebub was caught in a mental turmoil, and she murmured, "I...I don't know, I just feel that you can't beat the Primal Fungus Elstero, I feel that you are dangerous...I don't know."

"Don't."

Wu Pifu held Beelzebub in his arms and said earnestly, "I trust you and believe you can find the answer. I only know one thing: the more the enemy doesn't want you to do something, the more you should do it, because that is the enemy's fear... Come, Beelzebub, think carefully and tell me, why is He so anxious to drive me away from this world?"

Beelzebub trembled, his voice buzzing, and after a long while he said, "...If it really is Him, and if we are truly enemies, then the reason He wants to quickly drive you out of this world and get you out of this battle... is because you might undergo some kind of qualitative change in this battle, a qualitative change that could threaten Him, or even the primordial immortals?"

Wu Pifu paused for a moment before nodding and saying, "That makes sense. So what is this qualitative change that even Zero Point One Source is wary of, or even fearful of? Will I sublimate here? Or advance to the ultimate realm? No, a mere improvement in rank is simply not enough to make such a powerful figure so wary and fearful. So what is this qualitative change? What kind of qualitative change would make me appear here, on this battlefield? Come, Beelzebub, tell me."

"me……"

In an instant, countless thoughts, anxieties, and ideas began to clash and rage within Beelzebub's mind. It was so obvious that she immediately knew she had indeed fallen victim to it, perhaps even back when she was still the source of gluttony and one of the Seven Deadly Sins. After all, she had indeed worked with that being for a period of time...

In the midst of this chaos, a flash of inspiration struck her, and she shouted out this idea with all her might.

"Oaths and constraints!"

"If you want to win, you can only rely on your newly acquired Nen ability to make an unparalleled vow and set a constraint. This is your only chance of victory!"

"He fears your oaths and constraints!"

In the next instant, Beelzebub's countless thoughts and ideas vanished instantly, leaving only a trace of extremely deep killing intent.

Calm and serene, only the truth remains.

(End of this chapter)