Chapter 564 VS The Great Demon of Disaster 2
Seeing the Great Demon of Calamity charging towards me, I reached out and grabbed a distant mountain peak.
When I made this move, I didn't make my arms extremely long or my hands extremely large; I just grabbed the mountain peak in a very ordinary way. Describing this process in words might be hard to understand, and seeing it in person is probably even harder to describe.
In three-dimensional spacetime, objects exhibit the property of appearing larger when closer and smaller when farther away. Assuming a constant volume, an object appears smaller the farther away it is, and larger the farther away it is, and vice versa. Therefore, even a colossal object like a mountain will appear tiny if it is far enough away, so small that it seems as if you could pinch it between your fingers.
Some photographers combine this optical illusion technique to create photos that appear as if the subject is holding the moon in their palm. In a two-dimensional world with only length and width, the relationship between size can be so easily overturned; but humans ultimately live in a three-dimensional world, where large things are large and small things are small. Holding the moon in one's palm isn't something that can be achieved with such fancy tricks.
However, this is not the case for the Great Impermanence.
The phenomenon we're witnessing now is something only a seasoned, highly experienced deity with an extremely profound understanding of space and time could accomplish. But thanks to the blessing of the small bowl, I too can forcibly achieve such a miracle, ignoring the vast amount of accumulated experience. In the eyes of true deities, time and space are nothing but illusions, and the difference between three-dimensional and two-dimensional spacetime is even more illusory.
Just as one can traverse thousands of miles in a single step, moving mountains and filling seas is also a power inherent in the Great Impermanence. Covering a massive mountain with one's tiny palm and then throwing it away like a stone is even easier for it.
I threw the mountain peak at the great demon of calamity in one go.
Naturally, since it's something I can do so easily, it's impossible for it to actually cause any real damage to the Great Demon of Calamity. This isn't an attack intended to kill, but rather a simple probe. I want to see how the Great Demon of Calamity reacts to this attack.
The Great Demon of Calamity merely waved his hand, and a vast expanse of black flames danced wildly in the sky. The black flames collided with the rapidly moving mountain peaks, which exploded and scattered in mid-air like sandbags colliding with siege ballistae. For a moment, it was as if a meteor shower had bombarded the land, and the dust that shot up everywhere covered the sky.
And I saw what I wanted to see.
Just as I predicted, the black flames of the Great Demon of Calamity were less like flames and more like "flame-like anomalies." When destroying mountains, the black flames relied not on high temperatures and explosions, but on "impact." The mountain I launched seemed to collide with another mountain with even greater kinetic energy and hardness.
Although abnormally high temperatures and melting marks were visible at the point of impact, such a violent physical collision would naturally generate high temperatures. Of course, the black flames themselves were also hot, but they didn't feel like flames to me; rather, they gave me an impression similar to lava.
The black flames of the eclipse relentlessly swept towards me, and I, in turn, unleashed my own coronal fire with all my might.
The instant of direct contact, a strange sensation surged within him once more, accompanied by a deafening explosion. The coronal fire was dispersed like mist struck by rocks, while the opponent's eclipse fire was shattered like rock pulverized by explosives. That impression became increasingly concrete in his mind.
Solid and heavy, with an oppressive feeling like a mountain peak, and gravity born from immense mass and density...
I can only make this judgment—the power of the Great Demon of Calamity is not "fire," but "earth."
To put it another way, I wield fire-elemental magic, while my opponent wields earth-elemental magic. If I symbolize the Vermilion Bird of the South (fire element), then the Great Demon of Calamity symbolizes the Yellow Dragon of the Center (earth element).
Only this logic can explain why the Great Demon of Calamity can so naturally restrain the Great Demon Xuanwu. Because in the generating and restraining relationships of the Four Symbols and Five Elements, Earth can restrain Water, and the Yellow Dragon can restrain the Black Tortoise.
This answer sounds utterly absurd. If I am the descendant of the Vermilion Bird, how could the Great Demon of Calamity, derived from my prototype, possibly be the Central Yellow Dragon? Furthermore, the "Two Elements Descendant" corresponding to the Central Yellow Dragon is actually the Mountain Two Elements himself. Could it be that I am actually the reincarnation of the Mountain Two Elements, and my future self awakened my past life memories, thereby awakening the Earth Element Yellow Dragon's power?
However, I might actually be able to think of a direction that can explain the current contradiction.
In the Five Elements theory, fire generates earth. This theory was originally used to explain the claim that "the seed of the Vermilion Bird can enhance the power of the Yellow Dragon," and is also one of the possible reasons why the Lord of Peach Blossom Village had a murderous intent towards me. However, does this also mean that there is another, simpler and more direct interpretation—that the flames of the Vermilion Bird's descendant can, under certain conditions, be transformed into the earth element power of the Yellow Dragon?
For example... when the power of the Vermilion Bird successor is compressed too directly to a certain extent, to the point that it deviates from the definition of the Vermilion Bird Flame?
There's a saying in old mystery stories: after eliminating all possibilities, the remaining answer, however absurd it may seem, is the truth. I don't know if I'm intellectually capable of listing all the possibilities, let alone eliminating all the incorrect ones, but at this moment, only this one possible answer remains in my mind. I can only accept it as the truth.
Even ordinary water, if accumulated to a mass equal to that of the sun, would collapse and transform into another sun. Similarly, fire, after accumulating to a certain limit, might transform into a substance entirely different in nature. I thought I understood this principle, but I never imagined I would forget it in practice.
At the same time, I also figured out why the Great Demon of Calamity could manipulate the power of fate.
Because "fate" itself is the force of "mutual attraction," in other words, it is "gravity." For a great demon capable of directly manipulating gravity, this is a concept that is easy to expand upon. The abnormally high hit rate is also due to this; perhaps it can also reverse gravity to achieve an abnormally high evasion rate.
Perhaps the power of the Great Demon of Calamity was an essential reason why Asaho went to the modern world.
While Asahi's jinx power attracts unusual things to her, this attraction is not without reason; the events always have their own independent logic. The same applies to Kobo's prayer power. Although it can bring about miracles, these miracles either "enhance an existing ability" or "make something that was already possible happen," rather than simply bestowing a miracle without any real reason.
The gravity of the Great Demon of Calamity can distort spacetime itself, inevitably negatively impacting skills such as spatial teleportation and potentially causing them to malfunction. It's highly likely that Xiaowan's prayer power intervened in this malfunction, achieving a probability as small as an astronomical number, allowing Asaha's time travel to be completed.
Then, streaks of black flames rushed toward me. I dared not be careless and used my own flames to counteract them all.
These black flames can all harm my true spirit.
However, their methods differed from those of Huang Quan and Ming Zhuo. Those two were able to harm my true spirit because they possessed a deep understanding of it and power far exceeding mine. The Great Demon of Calamity, on the other hand, preferred to forcefully achieve this through his own power attributes.
The heavier the substance, the easier it is to sink to the bottom of the sea. The incredibly heavy black flames of the Great Demon of Calamity also seem to be able to easily attack the "deep and essential parts".
The attack from the other side wasn't over yet. Almost simultaneously, I felt my flames being "hackered."
—The Great Demon of Calamity is trying to manipulate my flames!
This is the same thing I did to it before. It seems it has learned my trick.
We are all beings whose bodies and souls are composed of flames. Invading and stealing each other's flames is equivalent to "fighting for each other's existence".
It is far more brutal than ordinary fighting, and the loser will be completely devoured and digested by the other side.
I simply disintegrated my body completely, transforming it into a massive sea of fire that devoured the Great Demon of Calamity. The Great Demon of Calamity did the same, transforming into a black sea of fire that lunged towards us.
Bright, dazzling flames and dark, deep flames intertwined, turning the area into two vast oceans of destructive energy.
My consciousness was distributed across every place my flames swept, so what followed would be difficult to describe intuitively in human language. I can only describe it this way: in my mind, it was as if a giant chessboard had been constructed based on the information received from each location. The white chess pieces, symbolizing me, and the black chess pieces, symbolizing the Great Demon of Calamity, moved haphazardly, mingling and fighting each other.
Each piece is both my flame and my will, and so is the Great Demon of Calamity. I am constantly capturing the opponent's pieces, turning them into my own white pieces; at the same time, my pieces are being captured by the opponent, turning into black pieces that are hostile to me.
Some people say that fighting is a process of "no friendship without a fight," and even believe that opponents can "communicate with their fists," naturally understanding each other's will during combat. However, what we are doing now goes a step further; it is a genuine exchange of ideas.
In this process of repeatedly devouring and being devoured by the other, I grasped the essence of the "Great Demon of Calamity" with unprecedented efficiency.
I now seem to understand the logic used in Naraku's Gospel deduction to summon the Great Demon of Calamity.
This great demon of calamity, although it is "my future self", is not "my self after meeting Asahi".
My encounter with Asahaya was probably something that shouldn't have happened. Without Kobo's prayer, we were destined never to meet. Perhaps even the Naraku Gospel couldn't incorporate the power of the divine seal fragments into its calculations. Therefore, the prototype of the Great Demon of Calamity should be "me who, without encountering Asahaya or any strange events, wandered aimlessly outside the gates of the strange world, and then suddenly entered the apocalypse ten years later."
Because I cannot access any strange events, I naturally cannot access any witchers, let alone any magical knowledge.
Although given time to grow, even without encountering any danger or battle, I could naturally become a Great Impermanence within these ten years, I cannot know the correct evolutionary path for myself because I do not know how other Great Impermanences use their powers.
To continue growing stronger, I must increase my density—that's the most I can vaguely grasp at, and I simply compress my flames in a visually crude way. As for the point of growing stronger without encountering any strange dangers, I can't say for sure, but I will definitely pursue greater power. The desire for greater power itself needs no reason.
As I walked along, my power finally underwent a qualitative change, and the eclipse form was born.
As I came to understand these things, a sense of certainty welled up from the bottom of my heart.
—I won this battle.
(End of this chapter)
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