Chapter 99 The Grand Finale (19) You listened to the [Promotion]...

"Such a grand banquet, offered to my most respected guest, isn't that enough?"

The figure on the platform turned around. Half of the face was one that Du Yu had seen before, while the other half was a distorted, constantly spinning, chaotic silver vortex. From the depths of the vortex, dark golden light would occasionally flash.

Du Yu's eyes darkened. Sure enough, the Six-Star Holy Grail hadn't been lost at all! It was all a deception by [Mi Mi Yin]!

"You're looking at this?"

[MiMiYin] laughed, reached into the silvery-white vortex, and with a little force, a small, exquisite cup with a very familiar shape appeared—the Six-Star Holy Grail!

"Don't look at me like that. It's actually very simple. The characteristic of the Holy Grail is 'containment,' but who says it can only be contained within a cup?"

"'All are prisoners under fate.' The world is a huge prison, and all living beings have their limits, not even gods can escape them."

Du Yu was awestruck by the power of the "Mi Mi Yin" (靡靡音).

She had previously thought that the ritual at the mine would only begin today, but in reality, the ritual planned by [MiMiYin] had already begun the moment the Six-Star Holy Grail shattered!

A broken cup can't hold water, but it can still "hold" air. In the realm of mysticism, "holding" is an abstract concept and doesn't necessarily require a concrete space to hold it; even a broken Holy Grail can still "hold."

Financial tycoons, hunter guilds, ordinary citizens of the lower city, the Ocean Research Center of the Order of the Lord of the Sea, and the unintentionally wandering Du Yu... The Holy Grail has always contained the ripples of fate that have changed the lives of all those affected by the "stolen" Holy Grail!

【MiMiYin】will use these ripples to snatch the 【Fate】element from the 【Lord of the Pure Sea】!

"What is my place in your 'banquet'?"

"It seems you already know."

[MiMiyin] narrowed her remaining eye, her voice still tinged with laughter: "If the guests at the banquet are not of high enough status, I, as the host, will also lose face."

"Who did you book before?"

Du Yu didn't respond to him. He glanced around and saw countless faces, each with a different appearance but the same stiff expression, looking back at him like a series of carved tombstones.

[MiMiYin] is not someone who likes to teach others or answer their questions. The only reason He is willing to explain himself is that it is beneficial to Him.

【靡靡音】What we want to collect are the ripples born after the change of fate. Since it is a "change", there must be something before the change as a backdrop.

But fate can have countless possibilities, but only one of them will become reality. Therefore, [MiMi Yin] needs an anchor point. Only in this way can the amplitude of fate's fluctuations be "measured".

When it comes to "anchor points," what could be more significant than another deity?

The more thoroughly one understands the ritual, and the more thoroughly one knows the means by which the "Mimi Music" influences the fate of the masses, the more one will be in accordance with the will of the "Mimi Music," and the better the effect of the ritual will be!

Looking back now, I realize that when I ruined [MiMiYin's] plans, her attitude was unusually gentle. I suppose that's when [MiMiYin] came up with the idea of ​​having me witness it!

"I originally wanted to invite that arrogant guy, but since there's a better option, let him play by himself."

Du Yu was silent for a moment. The witness originally chosen by [Mi Mi Yin] was [Lord Jing Hai]? To let the other party witness the failure of his fishing plan? It was practically killing him and destroying his spirit.

"Waaah—"

The music that had disappeared reappeared. [MiMiYin] tilted her head slightly, supporting her head with one hand, and conjured a conductor's baton out of thin air with the other, conducting the unseen orchestra. Her eyes were slightly closed, and she looked completely absorbed in the music.

Accompanied by cheerful music, the waiters at the "banquet" quickened their pace, their nimble figures flitting about as main dishes were placed on the table, their exotic aromas wafting through the air. The tender roasted meat was juicy and plump, its thick sauce overflowing as it was gently shaken.

Amidst the rich aroma, the "guests'" blank faces seemed less stiff. Yu, however, remained ashen-faced. She could clearly see that the plates of roasted meat on the dishes were not beef or mutton at all, but monsters with human heads, broken limbs, and glaring venomously at people who looked exactly like her!

"Glug."

The soft sound of swallowing saliva echoed in the banquet hall, not only without disrupting the melodious and elegant tune of the music, but also blending in very harmoniously. The figure of [Mi Mi Yin] seemed to gradually take on a different charm in the music.

Despite her outward appearance remaining unchanged, an invisible energy field enveloped the banquet hall. [MiMiYin] stood in the center, her increasingly hazy eyes seeming to hold something more, and looking up, she seemed to be able to see right through people's hearts.

We're almost there.

[MiMiyin] felt a long-lost excitement rising from her core, so much so that her former human face flushed. The increasingly powerful pleasure filled her whole body. In her perception, the lucky one who had obtained the qualification to become a god was surprisingly calm.

"You don't seem angry."

Mimi tilted her head in surprise. Although her current appearance was quite bizarre, her actions carried an air of innocent naivety and a pitiful fragility, making people feel an irresistible urge to protect her.

Of course, Du Yu was not fooled by Him. He turned his head and shifted his gaze from the guests in the hall to the Holy Grail in [Mi Mi Yin's] hand.

The Holy Grail is dark gold all over, with an ancient and simple design, like a trophy awarded to a champion in a sports event in a previous life. You can't tell that it is stained with the blood of thousands of people.

"I have a question."

Du Yu spoke calmly.

After all this ritual, even though she didn't know how to grasp the key elements before, she now has a pretty good idea of ​​them, albeit with some guesswork.

A sword can kill, or it can save. No matter how powerful, elements are merely tools; what determines the tool's use is its inclination! [Crowd Domain] binds the three elements: [Mind], [Fate], and [Calamity]!

Under the same inclination, the gods compete for the elements, which is actually a competition for the qualification to become the "Sword Bearer"!

【Fate】, 【Mind】, and 【Calamity】 These three superior elements belong to different domains and contain a wide variety of characteristics, but they all belong to the same tendency of 【Group Domain】, and there is an inexplicable connection between the three.

The term "group domain," literally understood, refers to a collection of groups, with "group" referring to the masses or the public. In my previous life, the concept of "group domain" also involved the distinction between "group domain" and "personal domain."

The collective domain refers to the public area and the collective concept of the masses, while the personal domain refers to personal space, which is a private and individual concept. Human society is the combination of the collective domain and the personal domain. Everyone is born free, but must relinquish some rights in order to maintain the collective domain. That is, for the sake of the collective, people can only have limited freedom.

In the past, some scholars even translated the concept of "freedom" directly as "the boundary between individual and collective rights," meaning that the pursuit of freedom is the definition of the boundaries between social and individual rights.

Guardian of natural disasters, lords of the realms...

Why is the Lord of the Pure Sea a special existence among all the evil gods?

Du Yu kept pondering the last sentence of the [Lord of the Pure Sea] prayer, which referred to divine authority, and a sense of enlightenment gradually rose in his heart.

Those who are imprisoned on both ends of the scales of fate—constantly weighed on both sides of the scales and constrained by their own community, are trapped in their own destiny.

The source and end of the river of impure thoughts—the filth of selfish desires—must be purified in the ocean of the collective.

Natural disasters that protect us—disasters that make humanity realize the insignificance of the individual and that even calamities can be opportunities.

The three superior elements, namely [Fate], [Mind], and [Calamity], each have their own emphasis, but they all ultimately point to the same realm—[Group Domain]!

The star of calamity winks silently, the deluded path of desire leads to the final feast of revelry, and the pink heart sinks into decadent music.

Unlike the prayer that only involves the names of the elements, the Lord of the Pure Sea directly includes the tendencies of all three elements, making the difference in strength and status between the two gods immediately apparent.

According to this understanding, it is highly feasible for [MiMiYin] to imitate [Lord of the Pure Sea], pretending to use [disaster] to create panic in the [mind], but in reality using death and pain to change the predetermined trajectory of [fate], thereby stealing the authority of [Lord of the Pure Sea].

In practice, the [Mimi Yin] did indeed generate enough ripples of [Fate] to master the [Command] element.

but……

"By doing things your way, by going to great lengths to conform to the prevailing trends, are you in control of destiny, or are you in control of destiny?"

"you……"

Mimi Yinyin's expression changed slightly, but before she could speak, a sudden change occurred.

"Slap, slap, slap."

Beside the silk red carpet, on an ordinary jade round table, an inconspicuous figure suddenly stood up. The stiff expression on his face vanished, and he gave Du Yu an approving look, clapping his hands quickly.

"Slap, slap, slap!"

"Slap, slap, slap!"

"Slap, slap, slap!"

The figure's movements spread like a plague, instantly transforming the deathly silence in the hall. One figure after another stood up and began clapping, their clear sound waves spreading rapidly across the sea, growing ever more powerful until finally reaching the terrifying force of a tsunami.

What was clearly just an ordinary sound, when countless sound waves converged, possessed a captivating power. The ground shook, space distorted, and the standing figures, like neatly arranged tombstones in a cemetery, blurred and blurred, merging into one in the violent shaking, transforming into a familiar face—

It's Gu Xi's face!

The expression on Mimi's face suddenly vanished: "How did you get in?"

The applause surged like a tidal wave, and the space shook even more violently. The magnificent buildings, jade tables and chairs, and gracefully walking waiters—all the beautiful and dreamlike scenes—faded and dimmed in the distortion, like a beautiful dream that had been abruptly awakened. The cold cracks of reality left ugly fissures outside the dreamlike scene.

Countless faces bearing the name "Gu Xi" burst into laughter, turning in unison to look at [Mi Mi Yin]. Their mocking voices echoed through the hall: "You want to use the ascension ceremony to reshape your divine kingdom? A very imaginative decision. Without the holder's permission, I indeed cannot enter your divine kingdom, but—"

“Since you acknowledge the existence of [Destiny], then [Destiny] is omnipresent. As the master of [Destiny], I can naturally find you.”

"No."

[MiMiyin] The expression on the half of her face that belonged to humanity was uncertain. As if she had thought of something, the panic in her eyes faded, and she sneered:

"Without an invitation to the banquet, you could not have entered my divine kingdom. What stands here now is merely a ripple that steals the [Destiny] here, a hollow phantom with no substance. You can do nothing."

"Even if I do nothing, you still won't succeed."

Gu Xi turned to Du Yu, a mocking smile on her face: "Am I right, you little kid full of useless sense of justice?"

Countless faces merged in an instant, then separated in the next moment. A person with a weak heart might be driven crazy by this scene, but Du Yu only raised an eyebrow. She was genuinely curious: "I don't like [Mi Mi Yin], and I don't like you either. What makes you think I'll do what you say?"

Gu Xi showed no sign of being offended, the smile on her face remaining unchanged: "Rather than disappointing me, you obviously don't want to see this clown in front of you succeed, do you?"

"Gu Xi," or rather, the voice of the Lord of the Pure Sea, was calm and gentle, like an elder guiding a child: "With my interference, its ritual cannot proceed. You can easily end this farce. I can teach you; it's very simple."

"Are you sure you want to listen to His nonsense? He's just a greedy liar! No matter which 'path' you choose, He won't let you go!"

[Mimi Yin] was hindered by [Lord of the Pure Sea] and could not continue the ritual to become a god; similarly, although [Lord of the Pure Sea] used the element of [fate] to sneak in, he was also subject to certain rules and could not personally descend upon the "banquet".

Inexplicably, he, a "passerby deity" caught up in the incident, became the key figure in determining the final outcome of the event.

Amidst the overwhelming sense of absurdity, Du Yu abruptly recalled a line Chen Xingzhi had shouted before disappearing mysteriously in the Tai Sui instance:

"Chaos is dead! All are prisoners under fate, there is no freedom in the cosmos. To become a true god, there is only leap! Memories have been altered, devoured and plundered, there is only one path left to leap—"

【Chaos】, 【Group Domain】, 【Leap】—three tendencies.

[Mind], [Calamity], [Fate], [Madness], [Erosion], [Twisting], [Memory], [Devouring], and the last unknown element—the Nine Elements.

There is only one right path.

The distorted space trembled, and lost memories rushed in. Du Yu squinted, and many fragments of memories appeared inappropriately before his eyes. He clearly heard a crisp sound, as if an invisible glass wall had collapsed.

"Help [Mimi Yin] or [Lord Jinghai]? I won't choose either."

[Beep beep - Player detected in a special state, personal profile update in progress...]

Some chase after essential elements, while others are destined to be chased by them. Vision may be obscured, and memories may be altered, but the clear-headed will ultimately be able to hear the voice of their own hearts amidst the noise of the world.

[Like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, it's futile and overestimating its own strength. But what if it were ten, a hundred, a thousand, or even tens of millions of ants? You would hear the ants' suffering, and you would also hear their anger.]

[You have listened to the elements of [Ascension], and your extraordinary abilities are being [Ascension]... Congratulations to the player for awakening the trait [Listener].]

In the darkness of chaos, someone lit a candle. Will this light last? Listen to your inner voice at all times.

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Author's Note: The last superordinate element has appeared! The relationship between elements and tendencies is finally explained. It was so abstract, writing it was painful!

——

I overestimated myself during the Lunar New Year. I couldn't write anything amidst the kids' screams, and I'm way late. Here are some small red envelopes for everyone (slides to my knees).

*When Yan Fu translated "On Liberty," he titled it "On the Boundaries Between Individual and Collective Rights." This article's concept of "boundaries between individual and collective rights" is derived from this, and some explanations also reference this concept. However, I have added many of my own subjective interpretations; these views are for entertainment purposes only.