https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-496-The-Birth-of-a-New-Protagonist/12851433/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-498-Does-This-Mud-Bully-the-Weak-/12851437/
Chapter 497: The Source of the World-Destroying Catastrophe
Chapter 497: The Source of the World-Destroying Catastrophe
“Done, I finally managed to crack the firewall of the Heroic Spirit Land. I can’t go in myself, though.”
“With my size, I’d trigger an alarm as soon as I enter. I’ll have to send in a fragment of my consciousness to explore.”
If Qin Muye were to enter the Heroic Spirit Land in his true form, it would definitely trigger a reverse effect. He didn’t want to have to crack the firewall again, so the best approach was to use a stealthy infiltration method, not a brute-force one.
A fragment of his consciousness was quickly separated and then underwent various modifications and seals to prevent it from becoming a source of contamination upon entry.
Otherwise, the heroic spirits might turn into demonic spirits, and Qin Muye wouldn’t know how to explain that.
If the Heroic Spirit Land were to fall, all summoners would be tainted by the abyssal power, greatly reducing its value.
Qin Muye needed a normal, complete Heroic Spirit Land, not one that had been corrupted by the abyss. After corruption, many of the data points would change, resulting in significant losses for him.
The fragment of consciousness was soon wrapped up and sent into the Heroic Spirit Land.
Upon looking around, the Heroic Spirit Land was not as he had imagined, filled with various heroic spirits, but rather a terrifying expanse of black sludge.
The sludge was continually expanding, slowly filling the entire Heroic Spirit Land.
“Damn, it turns out this firewall wasn’t to prevent external intrusions but to prevent these things from spilling out.”
The moment Qin Muye saw the sludge, he understood that this was the so-called spirit calamity. All the heroic spirits were formed from this sludge.
“It seems someone has sabotaged the entire heroic spirit system.” Qin Muye realized that summoners were not part of a transcendent system but rather a floodgate.
When a summoner awakened a heroic spirit from here and took it away, a portion of the black sludge would be reduced. As the number of summoners increased, the sludge would gradually diminish until growth and consumption reached a balance.
However, this balance was never achieved. Instead, the cultivation of heroic spirits by summoners led to a situation where, upon the summoner's death, the heroic spirit would return to the Heroic Spirit Land, and the power gained would become even more massive sludge.
It was like sending out one unit and getting back ten or a hundred units.
“Someone must have discovered this problem, which is why they set up the summoner qualifications and the firewall.”
“No wonder it erupts every three thousand years, as it takes around that much time to accumulate.”
Qin Muye now understood why the heroic spirits were part of the spirit calamity.
“However, there seems to be a deeper countermechanism, but it can’t be activated, likely because certain conditions need to be met.”
He knew these mechanisms were not innate. The firewall and the heroic spirit system were unique constructs people built for self-preservation. The engineering was so advanced that modern summoners couldn’t even detect it.
Even the so-called Tian Tong Pavilion was likely part of this mechanism.
“Even without maintenance, it can operate automatically, perhaps for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Why has the entire civilization remained at this level?”
“A highly advanced civilization?”
Qin Muye couldn't help but draw parallels to the Gondarian civilization, which had a similar past, although this copy world was more extreme, with only a tiny portion of it left intact.
“Never mind, I’ll worry about that later. I should first study what this spirit calamity is.”
“If the Heroic Spirit Land is truly breached by this spirit calamity sludge, it will flow into the real world, causing a major disaster.”
Sampling the spirit calamity sludge went smoothly. Qin Muye discovered that it wasn’t a physical substance but a highly concentrated form, incorrectly referred to as sludge. Instead, it was a special energy aggregate.
“Targeting the mind?”
The moment he touched the spirit calamity sludge, Qin Muye could feel it gradually devouring the thoughts of this fragment of his consciousness.
The sludge on his hand then changed, forming a human face.
It was naturally Qin Muye’s face, struggling as if trying to completely devour his thoughts and become a new entity.
And these individuals are called Heroic Spirits.
"The resting place of human souls is indeed here, and becoming a Heroic Spirit is also true, but everything is not as everyone imagines."
"Heroic Spirits and humans are two different entities. Heroic Spirits are merely energy life forms that possess human memories, not true humans."
"This seems like some kind of malfunction in the world's rules?"
To Qin Muye, the entire Heroic Spirit Land felt like the Netherworld with a bug, where all the functions were present but were unable to operate properly due to massive data overflow, leading to issues.
"Put another way, this sludge is the Six Realms of Reincarnation, yes, the damaged and bugged version."
Naturally, Qin Muye's interest was growing.
"I wonder if it can be repaired. If it can, perhaps it can be transformed into a Titan-level megastucture for resurrection."
After obtaining a large amount of data and making some speculations, Qin Muye had this thought.
However, upon a deeper inspection, he found that it was completely damaged. Due to the malfunction, the functions were permanently broken.
Repairing it was impossible; Qin Muye did not have the technology for it.
Thus, the idea of a resurrection-type Titan-level megastucture was out of the question. However, although the original Netherworld functions were lost, a more peculiar function had emerged. Qin Muye thought about converting it into an energy building.
If successful, this entire Endless Abyss would not have to worry about energy issues.
As long as it was useful, he did not insist on a specific type of Titan-level megastucture. Adapting to the environment was the most important.
"However, this sludge definitely needs to be dealt with. I can't handle it, and it's not even good as fuel. Moreover, if so much of it were to be used as fuel, it would reduce the efficiency of the energy building."
Not everything could be used as fuel; Qin Muye had to consider the characteristics of the fuel.
"If there's no other way, I'll have to let it become a world-destroying catastrophe and let it dissipate on its own."
Now, Qin Muye understood why the civilization in this world was so strange. If everyone's thoughts were consumed, they would have to start over, and with a major catastrophe every three thousand years, how fast could civilization develop?
"No wonder there are no related memories; most likely, everyone's minds were consumed."
This also explained why there were no records or even awareness among Heroic Spirits about the spirit calamity. Everyone's memories of that period were erased, and Heroic Spirits were part of the world-destroying catastrophe. Who could retain such memories?
"What is the protagonist's role?" Qin Muye also thought about this.
"Wait, did I place the protagonist's allegiance in the wrong camp?"
"Is there a possibility that the protagonist belongs to the world-destroying catastrophe camp rather than the human camp?"
Qin Muye was stunned. This way, it made sense. The protagonist was not there to resolve the world-destroying catastrophe but was instead the executor on behalf of the world.
"The protagonist is the protagonist of the world, not the protagonist of humanity. This means the allegiance was never on the human side from the beginning."
"Indeed, one cannot be limited by conventional thinking. There are differences between protagonists, especially in a world that has malfunctioned. The protagonist is definitely not a normal protagonist."
"So, whether it's any protagonist, as long as they enter the Tian Tong Pavilion, the world-destroying catastrophe will be prepared?"
If there's a time when the protagonist is closest to the Heroic Spirit Land, it would be when they hold the Tian Tong Order and enter the inner chamber of the Tian Tong Pavilion.
"Thus, the firewall system has had flaws from the beginning, but due to the spirit calamity sludge, the technology was lost, and no one came to repair it?"
"No wonder the Tian Tong Pavilion can stay at the forefront of the era. The entire civilization has not progressed. It can still hold up now, but if the world-destroying catastrophes occur too frequently, the civilization might regress to a primitive age."
Qin Muye found these matters too absurd. He never expected the truth behind the world-destroying catastrophe to be like this.
Perhaps his speculations had errors and omissions, but the overall direction was unlikely to be wrong.
"This main quest is really simple. The supporting character role is a hundred times stronger than the protagonist role."
(End of Chapter)
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