Chapter 846
Chapter 846 - 832: Eternity and the Abyss
1,661 words
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9 min read
"Oh no, they’re really playing with fire."
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it seems it wouldn’t take many days to turn it into ruins after a fire.
When the entire world began to shake, Lu Ping’an naturally didn’t miss out.
"What do you think? Got any ideas?"
"....Uh, you call the shots."
Facing Lu Ping’an at that moment, Xia Qin found it a bit difficult to raise her head.
The unfortunate examinees had been settled in, safe within the courtyard. They wouldn’t encounter any trouble, and all these events had led to Lu Ping’an standing before her now... Based on the original plan, he should have been back to drinking tea and sleeping.
Although she knew that Lu Ping’an didn’t care, in some ways, she indeed had let him down, or at least held him back,
"...I’m not asking about that. We don’t need to split hairs between us. If something were to go wrong, you’d stand in front of me anyway. Heh, such a small matter...,". The main point is, your master wouldn’t have come down just to make a sneak attack, right?"
Lu Ping’an cared not for the minor issue at hand; he was only concerned about the future.
To have such a powerful array master hide his name for so many years, just to tear down some lower-plane slum? Lu Ping’an didn’t think they’d be that idle.
If they started with a royal flush, then they probably planned on going for the general from the beginning.
Lu Ping’an had already realized that, now that he was embroiled in the situation, he could no longer avoid it.
"....Oh right, master mentioned a keyword on the way, ’Snake Razor’, and they also brought up the Snake King ..."
Snake Razor? Lu Ping’an was taken aback at first, then he stroked his chin thoughtfully, swaying side to side, and then.....
"Don’t get it, can’t figure it out." Naturally, Lu Ping’an wouldn’t understand; he was just a novice who had joined the ranks six months ago.
But at times like this, one naturally needs...
"The omnipotent Doraemon... Chris, help me out!"
That put poor Chris, who was already in deep, in a tough spot.
"You really treat me like Mr. Know-It-All, I..."
"So that means you don’t know...,". Tsk, useless thing!"
"I do know! You little brat, are you getting more and more disrespectful..."
After completing his daily routine of teasing the cat, Lu Ping’an also gathered the intelligence he needed.
Actually, many things are plain as day. When it comes to wars between planes, the moment a move is made, it’s only a matter of time before everything is analyzed and understood clearly.
The problem has never been about what is going to happen, but rather...
"What can we gain from this?"
Looking at the landslides and earth-shattering events in the distance, Lu Ping’an was pensive.
After organizing the intelligence, Lu Ping’an pondered for a moment, then disappeared into the pouring rain with Xia Qin.
Meanwhile, the frontline of the battlefield had fallen into complete chaos.
As the big bosses joined the battle one after another, the residents of the Abyss showed their extraordinary sides... they charged into battle alongside the big bosses!
Hordes of abyssal creatures had no time to indulge in the joy of massacre before being turned to ash by the aftershocks of the high-level battlefield.
Whether it was the chaotic all-map AOE of that crazy god or the Snake King’s effortless tail swipe, or the endless Sword Qi on General Dragon’s blade, any of these could easily scatter the ashes of these Abyssal bones.
But even so, they had no intention of stopping.
Soon, it wasn’t just these low-level pawns that were joining in; high-level Abyssal creatures and even the Quasi-Lords stepped onto the battlefield one after another.
They fought against humans, local life forms, their own kind, and even their superiors... The original military force had turned into complete chaos.
Aside from a few "insufficiently pure" Abyssal creatures (Commanding General lineage), most of the Abyssal ethnic groups were like this, never worrying about the number of opponents. More opponents meant more for each of them and they would fight joyfully. If there were fewer, wasn’t fighting their own kind still fighting?
This characteristic of unbearable confusion, this fighting instinct that lost all reason once things heated up, was one of the signature traits of Abyssal creatures... One moment they could be talking and laughing with you, and the next they would suddenly rage and charge forward with a cheer.
Chaos does not repel reason; on the contrary, many mid- to high-level Abyssal creatures possessed cunning wisdom. However, unlike most normal life forms, once they got heated up, they would throw away wisdom and reason without hesitation... Or to put it another way, their wisdom was possessed only to better engage in a brutal fight.
An eminent Master who once almost attained Quasi-God status as a Beast Tamer/Healer said that she had dissected many creatures and was deeply fascinated by this characteristic of theirs... never having to worry about morale, what excellent cannon fodder they made, how strengthening through slaughter was such a fantastic evolutionary route.
But after years of extensive research, she ultimately gave up all the Abyssal Biological Modules.
"There’s a fundamental problem with their basic instincts as life forms. For normal life forms, the primary instinct is usually the will to survive, and they possess a combative instinct for the sake of survival. Then comes characteristics like reproduction for the sake of the species, needing individuals first before forming ethnic groups. Evolution and mutation are, in some manner, byproducts of individual existence..."
"The first characteristic of native Abyssal creatures is all about evolution, and in its simplest form at that - survival of the fittest, natural selection. In the face of proving themselves stronger and more capable of evolving by killing others, their own survival isn’t important..."
"This doesn’t seem like a normal evolutionary path for life forms but rather like some kind of bio-weapon gone awry. From what we can see, normal life forms that undergo Abyss Transformation can still retain their self and reason, it might still be ’it’, but if it’s a native Abyssal demon, they often have a strong impulse to self-destruct, and this is extremely dangerous and even potentially disastrous for normal ethnic groups. They can easily be annihilated after a crisis or a powerful enemy leads them all to charge forward and perish..."
Someone got hold of this report just to confirm the safety of their metal puppet’s post-Abyssal transformation.
"...It should be fine. Abyssal Transformation isn’t restructuring, quite the opposite actually. Its property of activating the life force of everything might give her real life, although there will surely be some side effects, such as becoming more reliant on instinct, or more aggressive..."
When Lu Ping’an heard her say this, he vaguely had a speculation.
"This reminds me of the relationship between ’cells’ and ’the human body.’ If the entire Abyss is seen as a living organism, then the creatures within it are just cells. The cells themselves can’t control their own life and death, and if the whole Abyss can gain stronger survival competitiveness because of this..." Lu Ping’an thought of his past knowledge and the "Ten Thousand Spirits" he had encountered, and spoke thoughtfully.
When Lu Ping’an said this, the former Quasi-God looked at him for a long time, not surprised by the argument, but that it was him who made it.
"You’re actually from the Eternal Sect? That view is among the most radical of all the factions within our Life system..."
"What? I just had this speculation, don’t pin labels on me that easily."
As it turned out, seeing the entire ethnic group or the entire world as one "life" and prioritizing its development was actually a mainstream belief within the Life system, and their style of behavior...
"Although regarded as a cult and extreme, when I meet them, I would tap them on the shoulder and say, ’Hey, junior, aren’t you a bit too extreme?’"
To think the Evil Gods would find them overly extreme, one can only imagine how radical these people were.
"Similar to the Eternal Sect? No, not the same at all. I believe in self-preservation above all, while the Eternal Sect views themselves and every individual as part of the ’ethnic life,’ just as you said. They don’t care about the death of any ’cell’ and are more than willing to sacrifice a pile of ’cells’ to achieve the overall evolution."
"Indeed, some suspect that the Abyss is a Creation of the Eternal Sect, but this seems a bit unrealistic because the Abyss predates most ethnic groups and most of the Eternal Sect factions. In fact, history has proven that their mode of existence, survival of the fittest, is very ancient and extremely effective..."
Obviously, when such a "survival of the fittest" appears beneath your city, even the most rational decision-makers wouldn’t think it was a good thing.
Especially when they actually have a sufficiently authoritative boss who could periodically lead them into madness!
"Die, mortals!"
Finally, when the battlefield entered the intense and stimulating melee phase, the previously compassionate and gentle appearance of the Snake King vanished without a trace.
She charged into the human lines like a war machine, wantonly harvesting and slaughtering, unaware that everything in front of her was tailored for her.
And she didn’t notice, or would not have paid attention if she did, that some people and some tangible or intangible nets were beginning to close in slowly.
"Begin, let the Abyss return to the Abyss, let chaos return to chaos."
— End of Chapter 846 —