Chapter 263: Absurd Dawn

【Reincarnation】 sounds like an abstract concept.

Before truly grasping this power, even Miss Vilyric wasn’t too clear on what the true power of the Spiritual Fox Priestess represented; she could only guess, based on the tip of the iceberg that was the skills bestowed by the 【Mask of the God Fox】, that it might have something to do with the soul.

However, that was a one-sided understanding.

The power of the 【Mask of the God Fox】 is fundamentally related to the soul, as it is merely the medium of the Spiritual Fox Priestess’s power, a partial manifestation of the 【Reincarnation】 principle. In fact, contact with the soul is just a medium; the true authority of Ming Xi had already manifested in the tomb sealing the 【Nameless Demon Lord】 in Xinchuan County of Dongyuanzhi Kingdom.

That is the power to manipulate the states of various things and even energy in a linear and free manner according to one’s will.

Even, tracing back to relative meanings of 【Past Life】.

Actually, the Miss Swallow from the Divine Spirit Sect, who is now remembered by Vilyric and became the 【Xuanji】 of the 【Seven Hidden Stars】 under Ming Xi’s suggestion, wasn’t wrong; the divine spark of the Spiritual Fox Priestess had been hidden within the Priestess since the beginning. Although it wasn’t complete, with parts safeguarded by Lingyin Fairy Island and each of the Seven Hidden Stars, it still granted Vilyric some related abilities.

For example… the high-level resurrection magic of the holy light type called 【Time Rewind】.

Thinking carefully, doesn’t it sound a bit strange?

Regular holy light magic, related to the power of 【Light】, why would a skill that looks like time magic, which has nothing to do with holy light, pop up?

The effect of 【Time Rewind】 is to reset the biological state to an ideal optimal level, which even triggered the bloodline regression of Leila and Renée back then; this kind of power clearly transcends normal healing and involves concepts akin to causality and time.

Vilyric has always wondered why those two sisters exhibited a regression phenomenon after being revived, and it seemed like they reached some invisible contract with her. She had thought it was due to some changes in the effect of 【Time Rewind】 after traversing…

But now it seems, this skill likely had some relation to the power of 【Reincarnation】 from the start.

The holy light magic power Vilyric wields comes from the divine spark of 【Light】, but mixed within it is some power related to 【Reincarnation】, something she had taken for granted for a long time without realizing.

No power can be generated or used out of thin air, because this is a real world.

But if I continue to think in this direction, what about Min Chen and the others? Game NPCs like Xiao Guang who came back to life, the manifested game equipment and items, even the skills taught to Liliya back in the game?

As a virtual world, 【Illusory World】 is not supposed to have creations appear in reality. The Guardian of Heaven could still be understood as a life created by Ming Xi, but many other things remain situations she could not explain with her current understanding of 【Illusory World】.

This world created by Ming Xi seems to have already slipped from her control, undergoing some more incredible changes, or perhaps Vilyric simply hasn’t inherited that part of related memories.

Reigning in the myriad thoughts that surfaced from using her powers for the “first time,” the girl wearing the white fox mask directed her gaze towards the countless bizarre shadows around her.

This is the memory and life belonging to that giant rotten wood, or rather, the causality of the 【Pharmacist】, or perhaps… his【Existence】.

In most cases, beings do not truly experience 【Rebirth】; when one dies, they are dead. The soul descends into the underworld and, after disappearing, gradually transforms into pure 【Void】 energy to re-enter the world cycle, and there is no such thing as past life memories.

But this is not absolute.

The Ancient Spirit Realm has some special secret methods that can allow beings to retain their soul after death, to be reborn or to gain life again through some peculiar and bizarre forms. However, this is clearly not the same concept as so-called 【Reincarnation】; it is closer to an alternative resurrection, much like the case of Swallow.

Thus, one could say it is a past life in a relative sense.

If we were to discuss it, the only scenario Vilyric could think of that fully aligns with the concept of 【Reincarnation】 would involve a divine being, such an eternal and indestructible concept of life, which, after its original will dissolves for some reason, gives birth to a new consciousness from the same principle.

Yet, even so, that would usually only occur once or twice at most; it cannot produce this bizarre spectacle before her.

While it has all been distorted quite a lot due to the merger with the dream of the end, Vilyric can still tell that the memories and causality before her represent the【Existence】 of the 【Pharmacist】—and there are actually thousands of them.

Those distinctly different lives and causality intertwine layer upon layer, forming an impenetrable net that completely wraps the world before her. Countless vague images flicker and intertwine, and the protagonists within them are all different.

Vilyric silently nodded.

Indeed, this should be the traces left by those assimilated by the Pharmacist. That fellow copied his consciousness with drugs, invading other people like a virus, while consciousness cannot coexist within the same body; the stronger one devours the other, inheriting everything and transforming into a new 【Pharmacist】.

However, the traces of those who have been swallowed did not disappear; on the contrary, as the 【Pharmacist】 has continued to transmit, they have accumulated more and more, ultimately forming the appearance seen today.

Assimilating others does not come without cost; even if the Pharmacist is powerful, he will undoubtedly be influenced and changed by these consciousnesses to some extent. In other words, he is not the true 【Pharmacist】 anymore.

Even so, why does he continue to survive? Is it merely a thirst for survival?

Recalling the few encounters she had with him, Vilyric shook her head.

No, it doesn’t seem like that.

But no matter what the truth is, it no longer matters.

The indescribable pollution from the end has transformed everything into a more distorted form, and even if it accumulated thousands of lives, memories, and causality, before the divine power, they are merely a relatively large offering, decayed wood that had already died from the start, leaving only the instinct of chaos and destruction.

Yet, this massive offering indeed became the best vessel for causality.

Vilyric raised her palm, a white light ball floated out from her sleeve. She gathered a strand from it and directed it at a certain flickering yet broken memory not far off.

“Bang!!!”

Like a mirrored glass shattering under immense force, that already vague 【Existence】 and the white thread from the girl’s fingertip shattered together, dispersing into countless light particles.

Decayed wood cannot be killed on the physical level because its concept has already taken root deep within the Ancient Spirit Realm, just like those【Destruction】 factors fused with the world’s laws, which are difficult to eradicate with conventional means.

But what about erasing its 【Existence】?

Before leaving the Ancient Spirit Realm and entering the 【World Initialization Plan】, by an unexpected opportunity, Ming Xi discovered and captured the Nameless, who had developed abilities related to 【Existence】 using his stunning talent, sealing him to prevent him from wreaking havoc in the world.

However, through this unexpected encounter, the Spiritual Fox Priestess suddenly received some wildly imaginative inspiration that had a high probability of resolving the issues of the Ancient Spirit Realm all at once.

The curse of the 【End】 shrouded this world under causality, endlessly ravaging living beings. No matter how much sealing and obstruction is done, it is merely quenching thirst with poison; it cannot avoid the eventual destruction.

So, what if this causality is cut?

The influence of the concept of 【Existence】 was something Ming Xi has seen with her own eyes. If a way could be found to transfer the causality connecting the Ancient Spirit Realm, even if just temporarily to certain entities that could bear it, then in some way, erase their 【Existence】…

Could it… eliminate that causality as well, severing the root of disaster?

To achieve this, Ming Xi kept an eye when sealing the Nameless Demon Lord, specifically extracting the portion of the divine spark that the latter had already condensed, storing it in the distant Xianxia Mountains, far from the sealing location, and passed on the information to Lingyin Fairy Island.

This was both to weaken that fellow as much as possible, preventing him from regaining power and causing trouble, and also to leave a backdoor for achieving this possibility.

Not long before the Great Barrier that sealed heaven and earth was lifted, the fairy island dispatched someone to retrieve that divine spark that had taken form, coincidentally capturing a fake Cheng Zhenwu, who had come from afar to assist the Nameless in stealing the source of power. That divine spark related to the concept of 【Existence】…

Now, under the dark manipulation of Hen, it has truly been put on the right path to save a world.

This likely represents… the duality of power.

   

---