Chapter 221: Evil Made Manifest

Beneath the eternal night sky, at the highest point in Spring City, someone pushed open the doors of a towering building from which vast quantities of aberrant spirit matter poured like a waterfall. With his usual smile, he politely said, “Good morning, everyone. How did you all sleep last night?”

Little fish were swimming in the tank. A withered old monk sat cross-legged in the corner, silent and unmoving, while a young woman gazing absently at the night scenery lowered her eyes, her expression caught between a smile and something else, and an aged craftsman in gray robes rested with his eyes closed, turning a deaf ear to everything.

Only the middle-aged man standing before the enormous floor-to-ceiling window turned around. He had been looking down at the streams of firelight surging through the city in peace, only to frown suddenly.

“Hm?” Lu Changsheng offered them a puzzled smile. He walked in without wavering and took his usual seat. “Everyone seems to be in a rather bad mood.”

The old monk from Wulou Temple raised his head and looked over. As his lips moved, lines of scripture flowed from his mouth, weaving through his flesh like tightly packed stitches. His voice came out muffled. “The Three Realms are a house consumed by fire. Who among us can hope to sleep peacefully through the night?”

The mentor from the Celestial Heart Society, who wore the appearance of a young woman, grinned with open delight at their misfortune. “I didn’t sleep at all. After all, it’s rare to see such a rich source of entertainment. Who would have thought that a small place like Haizhou could become this lively? Isn’t that right, Master Jian Yuan?”

Jian Yuan didn’t move, not bothered in the slightest to acknowledge her. People from the Celestial Heart Society were the kind of troublemakers who would gladly risk their lives just to stir up entertainment. With people like her, even sparing her a glance meant admitting defeat.

The leader of the Dragonrite Society, Adrian, frowned at Lu Changsheng. “The situation has deteriorated this badly, yet you can still smile?”

“Deteriorated?” Lu Changsheng looked confused. “How so?”

The young-looking mentor from the Celestial Heart Society threw her head back and burst into laughter, nearly doubling over, while Adrian’s expression grew darker by the second. He was completely certain that Lu Changsheng knew exactly what was going on and was only pretending otherwise.

Just the shock and turmoil caused a few hours ago by the arrival and departure of an Upper Abomination had been enough to leave everyone overwhelmed. The breach it had created nearly caused an entire district of Spring City to fall out of reality. Even now, they were still using the remains of an aberrant body from Wulou Temple to hold it in place.

He didn’t even mention how the Security Bureau had seized the opportunity to counterattack and tighten its grip.

Tao Cheng truly lived up to his reputation as a veteran Celestial Being of the Origin Path. All he needed was a tiny clue to infer the entire situation. The moment those traces entered his Heaven’s Eye, he reconstructed what had happened with near-perfect accuracy.

He immediately launched a counterattack and reinforced the blockade around Spring City with two additional layers, sealing everything that was happening by cutting the city off from the outside world.

Their rash decision to show themselves had become a weakness. While they were still lurking beneath the real world, they could rely on the links between rift realms to cross boundaries and move in and out freely. Now, however, they were trapped inside the city with nowhere to go. Wasn’t it about time someone stepped forward and took responsibility for the situation?

Everyone looked at Lu Changsheng. At last, the man in the recliner sighed helplessly. “I understand, Mr. Adrian. I understand your obsession with victory and defeat, and your desire for results. In truth, there is no need to worry so much, is there? Sometimes, one should not aim too high. A meal must be eaten one bite at a time, and a road must be walked one step at a time.”

Calmly, he added, “Besides, haven’t all of you already gotten what you came for? With the Heretic Cult backing you, don’t tell me none of you has the nerve to risk everything on one final gamble.”

“What would be the point?” Adrian asked.

The monk from Wulou Temple finally looked up. Beneath his eyes lay nothing but an endless, churning darkness. His lips moved, and a muffled voice emerged from beneath the sutures of scripture. “Now that our objectives have been achieved, why not leave while we still can?”

Lu Changsheng was amused. He spread his hands and asked, “Why must everything have a point? And why should we leave? In your eyes, what exactly are we doing right now?”

“Courting death,” Adrian answered indifferently.

Anyone could take a gamble, but Lu Changsheng was a madman who went all in every single time. Who would truly dare to stake their entire fortune and life on a gamble alongside him?

Even if they had already received guarantees, signed contracts, or obtained their payment, the balance between the two sides was hanging by a thread, depending entirely on the unspoken understanding between Lu Changsheng and Tao Cheng. The situation could escalate again at any moment.

Once things spiralled out of control, they could easily ignite a catastrophe far greater than any of them had anticipated. There was no telling what the consequences could be.

By now, the attention of nearly the entire real world was fixed on this place. Who knew how many people were watching silently from behind the scenes, ready to make a move at any moment? And that wasn’t even counting those plotting to fish in troubled waters or take advantage of the chaos.

Lu Changsheng was already playing with fire. The question was, when he finally went up in flames, would he drag all of them into the inferno with him?

Lu Changsheng sighed. Maintaining his calm, he asked, “Do you know something? I greatly admire Nirvana, even though I’ve never had the chance to meet their Chief Commander. When even villains and heretics like you have grown numb to everything this world can throw at you, someone still has the courage to stand up and say, ‘Fuck this world.’ I also greatly admire Onyx. When the fate of the world was placed in their hands, they made their choice, even though there was no way to know what the future would bring.

“And that is to say nothing of those who came before them: the first rebel who drew a dagger against the gods; the kings who followed and established new laws during the Age of Chaos; and even the first emperor and final ruler of the Eternal Era. In my eyes, true heroes are those brave enough to act on their own judgment and bear everything, even when they know exactly what terrible consequences their actions will bring, or even when the evil they unleash leaves endless suffering in its wake.”

Lu Changsheng slowly rose to his feet. Looking around at everyone, he curiously asked, “Do you really think any of them stopped to worry about the consequences?”

There was no such thing as a perfect outcome in this world. Sometimes, someone had to choose between one terrible consequence and another.

The gods had bled dry, and the Supreme Benevolences had been born from their blood. The pillars of the world had been replaced, while everything that had belonged to the old order was destroyed in the upheaval.

The kings had crowned themselves, seized control of the Supreme Benevolences, and ushered in the age of humanity. Yet they had also rewritten the origins and end of the world as they pleased, altering both the past and the future. Through their endless wars and bloodshed, the world was twisted beyond recognition, giving rise to aberration.

The Emperor founded the Empire and restored order, but he also used Origin to bring everything under his control. He forcibly suppressed every source of calamity, only to cast the shadow of aberration beneath the world.

The Lord of the End Times stubbornly pursued his own course, driving the entire world to rise against him. The Onyxists were the first to kindle the flames of revolt. After the Celestial Pillar collapsed, it fell into shadow and threw everything into chaos. Disaster burned across the world like fire for ninety years, leaving behind corruption and hidden dangers that would last another four hundred years, all the way to the present day.

Its achievements and the devastation it caused were hopelessly intertwined. Who could ever separate one from the other? When that sword severed the Tower of Origin, who could have known that ending the Eternal Age would also prevent two Great Abominations from ever being born?

There were twelve Supreme Benevolences, yet only nine Great Abominations that corresponded to them. The three without counterparts were Origin, White Deer, and the Ruins.

The Ruins manifested throughout the entire world. They were everywhere and encompassed all things, making it impossible to draw any clear distinction between them and the world itself. But in a certain sense, the vortex beneath the world that contained the nine Great Abominations was the shadow of Ruins, while the countless calamities that plagued this world were the Ruins’ corruption. If Ruins ever succumbed completely to aberration, it would mean the end of the world had truly arrived.

Origin, meanwhile, had suppressed the other Supreme Benevolences for thousands of years and should have given rise to the strongest Abomination of all. Instead, the shattering of the Celestial Pillar had inflicted an eternal wound upon it. Origin was torn apart, breaking into countless fragments, the two largest of which became the Federation and the Empire.

The moment the Edge of Revolution fell, the Putrefied Domain was completed, yet Origin could never again be made whole. At the same time, the boundary between rules and chaos was blurred completely.

Origin and White Deer were intertwined twins among the Supreme Benevolences. When one was damaged, so was the other one. When Origin was shattered, White Deer’s wilderness was fractured as well, leaving the two forever tangled as each bore traces of the other.

The Abomination of Origin died before it could be born, while the Abomination of White Deer lay dead in the wilderness.

The shadow of the tower sank beneath the vortex, never to rise again. Those who upheld order began to fear being twisted by the very order they served, gradually losing all semblance of their former selves. Meanwhile, the wolf of the wilderness was devoured by the White Deer in the forest, and hunters and savage beasts hunted one another in an endless struggle.

The world had survived to this day because of what had happened, and it had remained wounded even now. Every monument erected came at the cost of countless new scars. Ever since all of this came into being, everything had moved in cycles, rising and falling, forever teetering on the brink of collapse.

Unsteady and turbulent, the world drifted toward a dark future. Just as it did now.

“I understand. What all of you fear is a crushing defeat from which there will be no recovery. But there’s one thing you have failed to grasp...”

Lu Changsheng turned around. With his back to the deep, shadowed world behind him, he added, “We do not measure victory and defeat by the same standards as the Security Bureau. For those in power, the moment vermin from the gutters crawl out into the streets, they have already lost. But if we seize this so-called victory only to flee in terror, how are we any different from the vermin hiding in the gutters?

“You fear the consequences, but those consequences are inevitable! It’s the same as the confrontation between us and our enemies right now. Even if I had never existed, even if none of you had existed, even if there had never been a Heretic Cult, this day would have still come. Even now, you’re free to walk away whenever you choose, just as I promised.”

Lu Changsheng bared his teeth, making no attempt to hide his mockery. “But once I’m buried here in Spring City, where will you ever find another man like me?”

A long, heavy silence followed. The little fish released a trail of bubbles, and the young woman sneered. Jian Yuan remained impassive, while Adrian said nothing.

A strange light stirred in the darkness of the old monk’s eyes as his lips parted. One by one, the sutra-like threads stitching them together snapped, and writhing blood spread from the torn flesh. His voice emerged hoarse and decayed. “ Lu Changsheng. What is it that you seek?”

“Do you even need to ask? It’s right in front of you. It’s right here, right now!” Lu Changsheng spread his arms wide, presenting the turbulent world behind him, where darkness and blazing light clashed without end. He laughed. “From the moment the horn sounded, we have already issued our proclamation to this world.”

If the Supreme Benevolences were the ancient cause from which all things arose, then the birth of the Great Abominations was the inevitable price of their glory. If people had to do evil to survive, then evil was justified. And if people needed to pursue evil in order to ascend, then the pursuit of evil was the true path.

“One day, I will turn evil into righteousness!” Lu Changsheng’s solitary figure looked down upon everything and softly declared to his enemies, “When that day comes, what in this world will still be considered evil?”