novelraw Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Chapter 29. “Quantum Vacuum” — The World Falls Silent!
“This world shall know pain! Shinra Tensei!”
Seeing the scene unfold before him, Xixiang Yan suddenly blurted out a line of pure chuunibyou nonsense under the utterly baffled stares of Giselle and Restia beside him.
Whoosh—!
Cidy’s figure shot out from the thick cloud of smoke at the center of the explosion in the sky.
At this moment, she looked a little disheveled. Her once-elegant magical gown was now in tatters, and large portions of her pale, jade-like skin were exposed—completely transformed into a dress full of holes.
But the girl had no time to care about her unexpected exposure.
Too many—!
Just now, how many of those blades were there?!
Countless. Cidy didn’t even have the time to calculate. Even with her thin magical barrier, she could barely defend against that scale of weapon detonations.
However—
Before she could even catch her breath, Yan’s eyes locked onto her flying figure in the sky. A sly, mischievous smile spread across his face.
“This world shall know pain! Shinra Tensei! Shinra Tensei! Shinra Tensei!…”
As his voice echoed—
Swish swish swish swish swish swish!!!
Countless swords once again rained upward like a torrential flood, surging toward the utterly flustered Cidy.
“Ahhhhh!!” The girl screamed in panic, almost as if venting her frustration.
Her body’s mana was rapidly being drained to maintain her defenses.
(Note: at this point, Yan was already deliberately guiding Cidy into exhausting her mana—while the mana consumption needed to maintain the Reality Marble itself was entirely shouldered by the ‘world,’ effectively making it zero-cost for him.)
Even so, Cidy didn’t feel safe.
Facing the endless storm of magical blades—and Yan’s merciless, unchivalrous barrage—she shouted desperately, “Wide-Area Strategic Magic—Tear of Hecate!”
Immediately, the power of the Word Chain manifested once more.
Hecate: the goddess of the night, of ghosts and magic; one of the world’s first-born deities and a creator of the underworld—an ancient god representing the darkness of existence.
Bearing such a name, the magic instantly tore open a gateway to hell itself.
From that door poured the Styx of Death, the infernal river of the underworld—crashing directly into the oncoming torrent of swords.
Rumble—!
In that instant, the heavens roared with the deafening sound of a world being torn apart, like a flood breaching its dam.
The two forces collided and exploded across the sky—a cataclysmic clash that seemed capable of shattering the very heavens. It was like the dawn of creation—or the end of all things. The overwhelming light and sound left everyone stunned, deafened, and breathless.
Meanwhile, while Cidy struggled to defend herself, Yan stood calmly to the side.
Inside him, the 【Simulated Star-Creation Map】 was rapidly analyzing the very essence of those two colliding “currents” in the sky—
dissecting them, refining them, and converting them into magic he could use.
Inwardly, Yan silently handed Cidy a “Good Person Card.”
In just one brief battle, he had already harvested several high-level spells from her.
Even forbidden magics capable of opening the gates of hell were now recorded within his system.
Many of them were spells that even Cidy herself couldn’t directly cast—she merely knew their “theory” and had manifested them through Word Chain, allowing Yan to record and study them.
…For Yan, knowing the principle was enough. Once he understood it, he could learn and master it completely.
Regarding the cosmology derived from the Three Theories of Heaven—the ancient human attempts to describe celestial movement—Yan could only say one thing:
“Never underestimate humanity.”
…
Just then, Cidy launched another assault from the skies above.
As flames and lightning rained down, Yan’s mind flickered—and several of the swords embedded in the ground shot up in response.
Boom!!
They detonated midair, countering her magic before it could descend.
“Flight really is a tempting thing…” Yan murmured as he watched Cidy soar through the air, a faint, cheerful smile tugging at his lips.
His gaze softened—but beneath that calm light, there shimmered a faint, dangerous spark.
“To make planes soar through the sky, to send ships across the sea… In every world, humanity always produces geniuses that move the soul. Whether through science or magic—”
“That’s why,” he sighed, “even a ‘monkey’ like me—one who merely imitates others through the 【Simulated Star-Creation Map】—can’t help but wish to reach that same sky, even if it means being torn apart in the process.”
He wanted to witness the full extent of human potential—to realize it, to experience the awe and 【Delight】 of it firsthand.
But before all that—he’d start by claiming victory here!
Controlling his projected blades, Yan exchanged several more strikes with Cidy.
In the blink of an eye, thirty seconds had passed.
“My turn—listen carefully, Cidy. This time, it really ends!”
Yan’s clear voice rang out through the Reality Marble, and then—he took a deep, forceful breath.
Before Cidy could even process his words—
beneath those fire-lit eyes, the boy shouted the word:
“Quantum—Vacuum!!!”
Vrrm~! Hummm~!
It was as if a colossal invisible hand had brushed gently across the entire Reality Marble.
Suddenly—
as though time itself had stopped—
the entire world fell silent.
Life or lifeless—everything froze.
Even the two colossal torrents raging in the sky halted mid-motion, suspended like a paused film reel.
“Ugh…”
Cidy opened her mouth, but though she tried to speak, no sound emerged from her throat.
Her face turned deathly pale. Then, like someone drowning, her eyes filled with pain and panic.
What was a Quantum Vacuum?
There are two concepts of vacuum.
The ordinary one refers to the absence of matter. By that definition, an absolute vacuum does not exist in the universe. Even in the space between galaxies, the density of matter averages around two to five atoms per cubic meter—and these atoms constantly ionize into protons and electrons, only to recombine again.
The other kind, however, is the Quantum Vacuum.
This form of vacuum can exist without any matter—yet it is not truly “empty.”
Quantum mechanics posits that even in a space devoid of all things, energy still exists.
It is called vacuum zero-point energy.
This energy is not “nothing”—it is simply at its lowest possible state.
Under certain conditions, this zero-point energy can materialize—becoming something tangible, perceivable, real.
That, in fact, is why the universe itself exists.
The so-called Big Bang was the moment when zero-point energy within the quantum vacuum materialized—creating the singularity that exploded into all existence.
Or, in the words of the ancient texts—
It could “trigger the death of a supermassive planet, collapse under gravity, and unleash an astronomical phenomenon reaching fifty billion degrees Celsius—an ultra-supernova explosion capable of vaporizing star systems light-years away.”
—A power equivalent to the creation of heaven and earth!
Of course, this current situation hadn’t met those extreme conditions.
Yan wasn’t trying to take Cidy down with him in mutual destruction.
He couldn’t even guarantee he’d survive a second longer than her if he did.
Simply creating a vacuum environment alone was enough to kill any human being.
So then—the question was—