novelraw Chapter 185: A Curse That Leads to Utter Evil
Chapter 185: A Curse That Leads to Utter Evil
Ever since being suppressed by Jiang Si, the Black Dragon had almost completely lost its autonomous consciousness.
After all, the experiences within the Heart Image Remnant made Jiang Si give up on letting the Black Dragon retain its own will, to avoid being screwed over by it somewhere else again.
And after transforming into the Calamity Dragon, the power and form used were essentially still derived from the Black Dragon, closely linked to the Black Dragon's Nascent Soul.
Therefore, when the absorbed power began to develop problems, it naturally affected the Black Dragon's Nascent Soul.
It also lifted Jiang Si's suppression, awakening the Black Dragon.
However, the first problem the Black Dragon faced upon waking up was being assimilated by the Curse Realm.
At this moment, the ashen-gray Calamity Dragon finally understood what the last Disaster Beast had meant.
It was like in the Chaos Universe of the Ultimate Sword Dao Sovereign, the Northern Underworld Controller, where certain Chaos Worlds had incomplete, insufficiently powerful Original Heavenly Dao. After birth, they couldn't sustain the Chaos World's eternal existence. So, the Celestial Immortals born in these Chaos Worlds merged their own Great Dao with the Original Heavenly Dao, achieving True Immortal status to delay the Chaos World's death.
Yet, without opening a World Realm within oneself, comprehending the Original Heavenly Dao to become a Patriarch Immortal and leap out of the Chaos World, one was ultimately just an ant. They could neither control this world nor make it last forever, instead being limited by the world itself.
Once the Living Planet representing the Curse Realm died, the Curse Realm itself would also perish.And the Calamity Dragon, having absorbed the Living Planet's curses and power and already beginning to assimilate with the Curse Realm, would likewise face death.
The Heavenly Dao had collapsed;
the Calamity Dragon had taken the Disaster Beast's place, only to suffer the consequences!
Of course, this actually had no effect on Jiang Si.
After all, the Calamity Dragon was just one of his forms. Even if the Calamity Dragon died, he'd only lose one transformation ability.
Speaking of Nascent Souls, what exactly is a Nascent Soul?
When cultivators battle, if their physical body is destroyed but their Nascent Soul escapes, the cultivator does not die!
That is the Nascent Soul!
The reverse is also true.
Heavenly beings clash, the Black Dragon dies violently, the Nascent Soul takes the calamity, the true self remains unextinguished!
Can other Nascent Souls do this?
A good External Dao Nascent Soul is no worse than a true Nascent Soul! Such ingenious design makes one marvel—the Nascent Soul is truly a cultivator's good companion.
Even in cultivation, one must often reverse their thinking.
Moreover, he had completely figured out the transformation principle.
Discard the Calamity Dragon, then go find a new Calamity Egg and cultivate a new External Dao Nascent Soul.
Compared to the classical one-person-one-infant approach, as a new-era cultivator, it was only natural for him to achieve replaceable Nascent Souls.
Next time, he must get a sufficiently useful External Dao Nascent Soul.
Eliminate the Nascent Soul's self-consciousness from the start to prevent it from developing into an inner demon again.
"Boss! Save me! Boss! I'm going to die!"
The Black Dragon cried out, begging him.
Looking at it now, one could indeed see the Black Dragon's condition was terrible.
The scales on its body were already losing color.
The jet-black dragon scales rapidly turned ashen-gray. Soon, it couldn't be called a Black Dragon anymore, but a Gray-White Dragon.
Its whole body trembled, seemingly in some pain, but those dragon pupils also gradually dispersed into a grayish-white.
So, towards the end, it probably wouldn't hurt much either.
"Boss, I... I feel a bit uncomfortable..."
"Dizziness is normal. Take deep breaths, have a good sleep."
Sleeping would allow it to disappear comfortably.
Even so, Jiang Si wasn't in a hurry to cancel the Calamity Dragon form.
And as the Calamity Dragon's power gradually faded, he discovered a huge problem.
That was, the Rule Power obtained from the Living Planet and the Mental Landscape from The Emperor were actually fused with the Calamity Dragon.
If the Calamity Dragon form disappeared, these two powers might also vanish.
For Jiang Si, this was absolutely unacceptable.
Every time you run a dungeon, you must get the rewards!
His favorite part when reading books before was the inventory check after a dungeon ended.
That joy and satisfaction of a bountiful harvest couldn't be replaced by any story.
Now, having lost the Golden Throne and with the Black Gold Card damaged, he could be said to have suffered heavy losses.
Putting in so much effort was originally to allow the Calamity Dragon form to advance further and avoid being phased out.
After all, the Dragon-Blood Warrior was his favorite form.
But now, with the Calamity Dragon's power about to completely dissipate, perishing along with the Calamity Realm, while he could accept it—it just meant starting over—if the power of the Golden Throne and the Living Planet were also to disappear, it would be like he had worked for days and gotten nothing.
For Jiang Si, this was absolutely not allowed!
Therefore, he still intervened, slightly ensuring the Calamity Dragon's survival.
However, even by using his strong Personal Reality to interfere with the spread of the ashen-white death, he couldn't dye it back to its original color.
This ashen-white had already fixed a certain outcome, no longer susceptible to interference.
The Living Planet and the Calamity Realm shared the same origin. As a result, the Calamity Dragon, having fused with the Living Planet's power, was essentially already the ashen-white of death.
It couldn't be dyed black again.
Moreover, due to the characteristics of the Curse Realm, this ashen-white was also different from the other remnants of the old world outside.
Compared to the ashen-white dregs of the Magical Girl Killer,
The ashen-white here was closer to the result of a curse. The shadow-like, ever-present curse also couldn't be dyed back to its original color by Personal Reality. Even Shion's mana could only destroy it.
Unless... one cultivated Divine Sense!
Using the extreme speed of individual Divine Sense transformation to dismantle the curse and absorb it, modifying the fixed outcome!
"Boss, I think I see my mom."
"She's doing just fine, no need for you to worry."
"Mom seems to be waving at me... She seems to be saying something..."
"What's she saying?"
"'No candy, then I'll make trouble.'"
"Then which damn mom of yours is that?"
Wasn't that Lu Ya's joke?
Speaking of which, Jiang Si still hadn't figured out the punchline of that joke. Next time, he'd tell it to Bingtang.
See if Bingtang knows. Bingtang always understands these things well.
Maintaining the Black Dragon body with its fading consciousness, Jiang Si tried to transfer the Mental Landscape and the Death's curse onto his Dharma Body, Shion.
However, in this state, the Pure Mana would trigger a violent reaction with just the slightest touch, making transfer impossible.
Once he transformed into a Magical Girl, these powers would instantly vanish.
"Boss..."
The Black Dragon said weakly, "I want... to live, boss, I don't want to die yet..."
Then want it.
For Jiang Si, the current situation meant he could only abandon the Black Dragon and find a way to transfer his own Mental Landscape and Rule Power.
"You won't die."
The Calamity Dragon raised its head, watching the girl who suddenly jumped down from the dragon's head.
Gently stroking the dragon's head.
The Emperor closed her eyes and whispered:
"I won't... let you die."
Then, Jiang Si indeed caught a whiff of death's aura.
......
Death was something the Calamity Realm was naturally all too familiar with.
People born with curses were constantly tormented by them.
Curses were one form of death's manifestation.
And The Emperor, as the ruler of the Calamity Realm, had witnessed countless deaths.
From a very, very young age, she had already seen her parents' deaths.
The Calamity Realm was clearly a hellish place, yet people kept giving birth.
The purpose of childbirth was simple, not because of love or anything else, but solely to prolong one's own life.
Because long ago, before the Calamity Realm was completely swallowed by the curse, giving birth to a child would inherit the parents' curse, thereby lessening the parents' curse and allowing them to live longer.
The longer the child lived, the more curse the parents could reduce.
For the people of the Calamity Realm, this seemed like a matter of course.
To survive, even to lessen the pain brought by the curse, having children early and having as many as possible was everyone's way of survival.
Every child was born not to bear love, but to bear the curse brought by pure desire.
But The Emperor was a child untouched by the curse. Being curse-free was seen as a miracle by others.
Yet for her parents, it was an even more despairing curse.
Because their curse had no one to bear it;
their lives couldn't be prolonged by the child's birth.
Instead, the newborn accelerated the curse's worsening.
Therefore, not long after The Emperor's birth, her parents died unnatural deaths.
She witnessed her parents struggling in despairing pain, resenting her birth, cursing her future.
The girl who couldn't be infected by the curse couldn't understand their anger and resentment.
She just still remembered her parents' final curse before death.
Later in the town, she met many people, but the one who actually raised her was Rika, who had once resisted the curse alone.
That was an era when no one realized how terrifying it would be to let the curse spread unchecked. Because although the curse was painful, not everyone would die early.
While everyone only thought about having children early, having many, and extending their lifespan, only Rika thought about how to reduce the curse.
While everyone thought about how to coexist with the curse, only Rika thought about how to completely eliminate it.
She even considered killing cursed babies, only leaving those born without curses—such a terrible act that would prevent everyone from alleviating their curse suffering.
Everyone thought she was crazy.
Because before The Emperor, this world had no babies born without curses, and none after either.
Wasn't this extinction?
Without children to share the curse, the curse would keep increasing.
Wasn't this making it impossible for everyone to survive?
Rika was eventually driven out of the town.
When The Emperor saw Rika again, she had been tortured by the curse beyond recognition.
Choosing not to have children to share her curse, bearing the curse alone, Rika was lonely in her old age.
No one understood her, no one helped her.
But the methods she researched to resist and weaken the curse were ultimately passed down.
The Emperor's last meeting with her was at a cliffside. This old woman dedicated to eliminating the curse lit a bonfire at the cliff's edge.
"Why not pass the curse on?"
At the cliffside, roasting by the bonfire, The Emperor couldn't help but ask her.
Just get married and have children, then you can survive.
Rika shook her head, just sighing that she wished The Emperor were her daughter.
At that time, The Emperor didn't understand what Rika meant.
It wasn't until she personally saw Magical Girls and understood love and happiness that she knew.
Because she didn't want her own child to struggle in this despairing hell either.
She didn't want her child to share her curse and pain. If possible, she hoped to have a girl like The Emperor, untouched by curses, able to obtain happiness.
Perhaps, if Rika hadn't been cursed, she could have become a Magical Girl.
At the very least, she was more suited to become a Magical Girl than The Emperor herself.
In Rika's final moments, The Emperor stayed by her side.
Because for The Emperor, she was indeed raised by Rika. Without Rika, she would have just waited for death beside her parents' corpses.
She had always regarded Rika as her mother.
Yet this foster mother, on her deathbed, was still the same as her birth parents.
Gave her the same curse.
Sometimes, The Emperor also thought that perhaps she wasn't immune to curses.
It was just that her curse had always been in her soul.
Whether it was her birth parents' or her foster mother's curse, it had always accompanied her, never disappearing.
It was just that her body had never been tainted by the curse.
But The Emperor still couldn't understand why Rika did that meaningless thing in the end.
Why the old woman who had resisted the curse her whole life ultimately feared death.
After that, she met the Holy Beast.
The Holy Beast led her through many, many experiences. At that time, she became the hope and salvation of the town.
Everyone hoped that one day she would succeed and lift the curse for everyone.
But she thought, if only someone else could do this kind of thing.
Why should I work hard while others enjoy the results?
Why can't others work hard while I enjoy the results?
Perhaps it was precisely because of such thoughts that she ultimately failed to meet the Holy Beast's and others' expectations.
Gentle, kind, self-sacrificing.
The traits the Holy Beast constantly emphasized to her—The Emperor couldn't imagine them, nor could she achieve them.
Until the Holy Beast also died because of the curse.
The despairing denial before death was, for The Emperor, like a curse.
To the point that The Emperor herself completely gave up on this path.
Even Holy Beasts from other worlds, after being here for a long time, would still be cursed, killed by the curse.
But The Emperor could never be tainted by the curse.
Not to mention compared to people of the Curse Realm, even in other worlds, she was an absolute anomaly.
The townsfolk also changed from expecting her to one who repelled the anomaly.
From isolation to eventual hostility, hatred.
Like the trial of a heretic.
She didn't want to become like Rika;
she hated being isolated.
So the town turned into ruins.
She was The Emperor, forever untouched by the world's curse.
She was also the ordinary girl forever entangled by the curses of humanity.
Until her Personal Reality manifested as a Mental Landscape, taking the form of the Golden Throne,
Did The Emperor finally, for the first time, truly feel the curse.
Their pain, their despair, their struggle—only now did it materialize on her own body, making her no longer the anomaly different from everyone else.
She became an ordinary member of the Curse Realm, no longer that miracle distinct from everyone else, capable of bringing possibility.
Even though she used the Death Note to suppress the effects of other curses, she could still clearly feel the pain brought by the curse.
But for The Emperor, she instead felt an unprecedented peace.
She finally accepted her identity, no longer feeling uneasy and lost because of her difference.
She also understood the madness of those people back then, even feeling pity for her own birth parents.
They had hoped to use her to relieve some of their pain and curse, but only accelerated their own deaths.
Despair born from hope was the most maddening.
And Rika's final fear was perhaps jealousy stemming from a sense of unfairness.
An old woman who fought the curse her whole life, wanting to eliminate it, ultimately looked at a child who did nothing yet could never be infected by the curse. In her heart, it was hard to avoid jealousy and resentment.
At the final moments of their lives, they all chose to give her the same curse.
The empire was established, reached its peak, then collapsed and fell.
The Emperor ultimately, as an ordinary girl of the Curse Realm, gladly welcomed the end of her own life.
And now, she even personally witnessed the disappearance of the Curse Realm.
She didn't feel resentful, nor was she particularly sad, just a little... wistful.
All curses were about to disappear here, along with the Curse Realm, heading towards an unknown nothingness.
She should have disappeared along with the Curse Realm too.
"I don't want to die."
Until she heard the Calamity Dragon's voice.
"I want... to live..."
Until she saw the Calamity Dragon's fear.
In a daze, it was as if she saw her birth parents struggling on the bed when she was little.
Their faces twisted, looking at her, cursing her, yet also pouring out their desire to live.
And there was her foster mother Rika, who had never shown weakness before death, gripping her hand tightly, fearfully pouring out the same words in the end.
I don't want to die, I don't want to die...
I want to live.
The voices merged together, gradually becoming indistinguishable as to who they came from.
Coming back to her senses, The Emperor touched the golden crown on the Calamity Dragon's head.
Familiar power surged into her soul. The girl's body was clad in magnificent golden garments, golden hair, golden-red pupils like twin scorpions, now devoid of their former emptiness and coldness.
Just gently holding that huge, fierce dragon head, intimately as if holding a lover, "Don't worry."
The Curse Realm was a world that only existed within curses.
Similarly, all its power could only be maintained within curses.
Even though the curse source had completely disappeared, leading to the world and the Calamity Dragon that absorbed the world's source facing disappearance.
But, while the world might have no way, the power on the Calamity Dragon wasn't absolutely destined to vanish.
As long as... it was given a new, absolutely indestructible curse.
That was the curse remnant in The Emperor's soul.
The curse from the heart, given by her birth parents and foster mother on their deathbeds.
It had interfered with her Personal Reality, guided the birth of her Mental Landscape, and was even the reason The Emperor could still maintain her soul's indestructibility.
The Emperor lowered her head, kissing the dragon's head, softly murmuring.
Recounting the hope and despair of every living being in the Curse Realm since ancient times.
It was once the cruelest curse, but now it could also be the most beautiful blessing.
"Please, bear all the curses, and live forever."
The world originally filled with the ashen-white of death was once again illuminated by pitch-black light!
The eternal curse instantly swallowed the ashen-white dragon body, and then...
Was dyed with the witch's color.
Stroking the dazzling golden-black dragon scales, that hand gradually became illusory.
Transforming into specks of golden light.
Watching the gradually disappearing Emperor, the Calamity Dragon's mouth twitched slightly.
You seem to have misheard...
At this point, it was actually my Nascent Soul's inner demon who said it didn't want to die...
Seems a bit hard to say it now...