chsdbacks Chapter 674 Integration and Warning
Chapter 674 Integration and Warning
Chapter 674 Integration and Warning
The energy fluctuations outside the Mirror Palace became even more intense.
The ground trembled, new cracks appeared in the walls, and the suspended water vapor surged violently.
With his eyes closed, Jemin sensed the way through the walls of the Mirror Palace and looked directly at the sky.
The purple sky also began to shake violently, like a flag torn apart by a gale, with wrinkles pushed from one end to the other, never still for a moment.
It seems that Austin is nearing its end.
The eighth-level archmage's bizarre fusion of the planes is nearing its end, and the tearing and reorganization of the planes' origins are about to be completed.
The clone also felt the tremors.
It rose from its seated position, the hem of its robe sweeping across the ground without stirring up a single speck of dust.
It looked down at Jemin, who was still sitting on the ground, and saw only calmness and a hint of regretful relief on his face.
"Good luck," the clone said softly. "Even with my experience, the task of achieving Dao is still deadly. Don't think that just because you have a 90% success rate you can rest easy. In the data I studied before, there were quite a few examples of people who relaxed their vigilance because they thought they were safe, and ended up Daoizing instead."
Jemin looked up, a smile playing on his lips, and nodded. "Of course, I'll be careful."
The clone extends its right hand, with its five fingers slightly spread.
It stood there, like a traveler seeing someone off at a train station, stretching out its hand, waiting for another hand to reach out and grasp it.
Jemin stared at the hand, his pupils contracting slightly.
The same line of reasoning made him immediately understand what the clone was supposed to do.
"Wow! I didn't expect that—" Jemin hesitated for a moment, but still reached out and grasped the clone's hand.
He looked at the face that resembled his own, and a smile curved his lips, revealing a genuine smile that even he found unfamiliar: "I'm actually such a helpful person."
The clone paused for a moment, then the corners of its mouth curved up.
"Don't make me laugh." The clone's voice became light, as if all the burdens had been lifted. "If I could escape this world and roam freely, I would definitely show you what the struggle for survival is like—"
The sound stopped.
The smile was still there, but the light in her eyes had dimmed.
"But since I can't leave this world," its voice lowered, returning to a calm, declarative tone, "there's no point in me doing all that. In that case, I might as well make my final act more meaningful. We've always been selfish, haven't we?"
Upon hearing this, Jemin unconsciously tightened his grip on the clone's hand.
"That's right." Jemin's voice wasn't loud, but his tone was unusually firm. "We" have always been "selfish."
Selfish.
It's not meant in a derogatory sense; it's about absolute loyalty to one's own path.
Everything Jemin did—researching, trading, fighting, taming—was never for anyone else, but for himself.
For my own research, for my own alignment with the Tao, for my own survival.
Just like in this dimension, Eric, the professor, and the Psychic Association were all fellow travelers he encountered on this path, whom he helped along the way.
But if helping them one day jeopardizes his very foundation, he will not hesitate to turn away.
The same applies to copies.
It did not choose to discuss the doctrine because it was persuaded by Jemin, but rather it arrived at the optimal solution after calculating all possibilities.
Tighten both hands simultaneously.
The clones actively dispersed their resistance.
Starting from the very bottom of existence, weave yourself into a network of energy that can be absorbed.
Its body became transparent from the edges, and its muscles, bones, skin—all forms of matter—transformed into energy particles within seconds, flowing into Jemin's body through the channels between its clasped arms.
Dark golden light erupted from Jemin's body. As his true form was strengthened by this newly injected "self-awareness," it instinctively broke free from its compressed state.
The dome of the Mirror Palace was lifted like a piece of paper under the impact of the light, and countless mirrors shattered and flew away.
The circular building exploded from the inside, sending rubble and glass shards flying in all directions, leaving streaks of light like shooting stars in the dark golden light.
Jemin's body expanded in the light, and in the blink of an eye, the thousand-meter-tall dark golden Dharma image stood up on the earth again.
Against the backdrop of the Hollow City's gloomy sky, the dark gold skin emitted a soft yet resolute light, not dazzling, yet unmistakable.
Soon, the details of the double-sided image began to change.
At the Dharma image's ears, liquid light formed from dark gold condensation flowed continuously, eventually converging into the shape of a pair of earrings.
The earrings have an extremely complex internal structure, resembling two miniature cores that are constantly in motion.
The golden vertical line between the eyebrows of both faces flashed simultaneously.
Immediately afterwards, the vertical lines split in the middle, and the skin on both sides parted like eyelids, revealing the dark gold pupils underneath.
This means that the original markings between the eyebrows of the true form have become real eyes, a genuine third eye.
In the past, when Jemin used knowledge of destiny, he needed to run both the Destiny System and the All-Seeing Eye simultaneously.
Now, this vertical pupil is naturally open, and without any mental effort, it can observe those subtle fluctuations in the realm of fate for him.
He looked down at his dark gold palm, clenched his fist, and then relaxed it.
After absorbing another version of himself, his control over his "self" became even more perfect.
If we compare Hedao to a ship sailing in a storm, then the previous Jeming was a giant ship with a sturdy hull, complete equipment, and well-trained crew.
Now, in addition to this giant ship, he also has a complete nautical chart.
Moreover, this nautical chart wasn't drawn by someone else; he personally drew it after walking the route himself.
The last piece of the puzzle before achieving enlightenment has been completed.
Jemin's image stood on the ruins of the amusement park, its dark golden light dispelling all the eerie projections within hundreds of miles.
The fake pedestrians melted away like ice and snow in the light, revealing the lifeless empty space below.
"Indeed, this is my biggest gain since arriving in this plane!"
Jemin thought to himself with admiration, now fully understanding why the fate line he saw was guiding him in that way.
The gains here have far exceeded those of the Hollow City itself.
The knowledge of Fate is so convenient.
The moment this thought crossed his mind, the vertical pupil between his brows suddenly moved.
His pupils suddenly contracted from a divergent state to a point, but they were not aimed at an external target, but rather at the depths of Jemin's own consciousness.
Jemin's body stiffened abruptly.
He suddenly remembered the admonitions in "The Great Dao Book Pavilion".
Every book on divination and fate begins not by teaching how to predict the secrets of heaven, but by teaching how to restrain the urge to use it.
Even on the wizarding civilization's side, the beginning of the textbooks on fate-related knowledge explicitly warned against this.
Those who rely entirely on fate will ultimately be controlled by fate.
This is not a moral warning, but a technological inevitability.
When you get used to letting fate guide you, you gradually forget how to walk on your own.
But the gifts that fate bestows will one day come at a price.
The few wizards Jemin had met in the wizarding world who were skilled in the laws of fate were all quite restrained when using their knowledge of fate.
After all, those who didn't restrain themselves probably all died.
"It also has the function of assisting in understanding one's true nature? That's truly a remarkable supernatural power—"
Jemin took a deep breath, and his vertical pupil slowly closed between his brows, transforming from an open eye back into a single golden vertical line.
The moment the vertical pupils closed, the comfort of "everything is under control" was replaced by a slightly bewildered clarity.
The Dharma form also began to shrink.
In the dark golden light, Jemin returned to his normal human size.
A golden vertical line appeared between his eyebrows.
As the surrounding light and shadow flickered, the vertical line resembled an eye that kept opening and closing.
Using the nearby wreckage as raw material, Jemin used alchemy to craft himself a wizard's robe and put it on.
Jemin slowly rose into the air, hovering in mid-air, his gaze sweeping over the entire empty city.
The commotion in other directions has subsided.
The battle turmoil that once erupted throughout the city has now dwindled to mere sparks, with an occasional burst of light exploding at the end of a street only to quickly dissipate.
It seems the wizards have finished clearing out the secondary anomalies in their respective areas and are beginning to converge on the city center.
Figures rose from the ground and hovered above the hollow city.
Each person had a sealed container floating in their hand, beside them, or under their feet.
The light from the container intertwined with the dark purple sky, creating a mottled pattern of light and shadow.
All eyes turned to the very center of the city, to the hollow city itself.
This particular anomaly is indeed completely different from other anomalies.
From the city's administrative boundaries to the City Hall Square, the entire eerie diameter exceeds one hundred kilometers, forming a complete city.
The wizards' expressions became subtle as they gazed at the enormous, bizarre entity.
This is difficult —
If you slowly wear it down with low output, given the size of the Hollow City itself and its strange resistance, it can withstand it for a long time.
Judging from the changes in the surrounding environment when the wizards made their move, it would take at least several months for the strange energy to be completely worn away, even with the processing skills of a level three wizard.
But the wizards' time is running out.
The purple hue of the sky is fading from intense to pale, and the fusion of Austin is drawing to a close.
Once that level eight great wizard completes the initial life form transformation, they will be carried away.
However, if a high-level witchcraft were used to forcibly blast through it, the destructive power of the wizards present would be enough to evaporate the city along with the earth's crust dozens of kilometers below.
The problem is that the supernatural is essentially a living being, not an inanimate object.
Faced with a powerful attack, the city in front of it would likely instinctively shrink back to avoid it, causing the power of the wizards' large-scale attack to dissipate greatly.
In that case, the energy aftershocks would trigger a chain reaction of environmental collapses worldwide.
The mission is to clean up the supernatural, not to destroy the world.
If they're lucky and the losses are small, Austin might punish them slightly, deduct their pay, and throw them out.
If the aftershocks of the attack interfere with Austin's fusion, causing the level eight archmage's transformation and contraction to fail—
No one wanted to find out what an enraged Austin would do.
A seventh-level archmage's voice echoed in the sky, deep and resonant, with a metallic quality: "Does anyone have a solution? Time is running out."
"9
Silence fell over the scene.
The wizards present were not without means of countermeasures, but whether it was setting up a sealing array or something else, it would take a certain amount of time under the premise of limiting their output.