Free Web NovelChapter 406: Chapter 23: Worldview
Imitations of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Bai Wu once possessed a knife that lost its power after being used dozens of times, which was also an imitation of the Seven Deadly Sins.
It had the ability to percentage-wise slash the life of living beings, which could be said to be so powerful that it was astonishing.
At that time, Bai Wu thought that if an imitation could be so powerful, the genuine article might be stronger but not by much.
After the knife had exhausted its number of uses, Bai Wu gave it to Wu Jiu. Though it no longer had the miraculous "blood-shaving" ability, the material of the weapon itself was far superior to many others.
As Evil Fallen’s strength continued to increase, the weapon in Wu Jiu’s hands, Evil Fallen Must Die, although it had undergone two stages of Spirit Possession and gained the ability to drain life, did not even compare in power for slaying Evil Fallen to that of the disabled imitation Seven Sins weapon.
Does a high imitation that is no less than the genuine article mean... that High Tower’s sealed items have already acquired the abilities of the Seven Sins’ creator?
Bai Wu still remembered that the Masked Strange Person, the strongest form of Lin Rui, also carried a similar weapon when he first encountered Jiang Yimi in Baichuan City.
Where exactly does this weapon originate from?
Why would the monsters on the seventh floor of High Tower want to imitate this weapon and try to create a Talent Sequence?
Are they competing with the creator of the Talent Sequences or the creator of the Seven Sins weapons?
The immense palace was right before their eyes, silent and still, erected six hundred meters above the ground, and after coming up from the spiral corridor, there was a plaza so vast it was hard to see its edges.
The palace had many rooms, and Cain asked,
"You’re more familiar with this place than I am, aren’t you? How many days have we just spent?"
"Dozens of days, I guess. The spiral corridor may seem straightforward, but it is actually a cyclical maze; each cycle has a mathematical system. Without walking the corresponding number of steps, it’s impossible to break the cycle."
Bai Wu didn’t lie. Even without Prayle’s Eye, he could have discovered the intricacies here.
But definitely not in a matter of dozens of days; it’s highly likely, as mentioned in the note, that one could spend several days in the spiral corridor only to find that several years, or even longer, have passed in reality.
Although only dozens of days have passed, Bai Wu was already a bit worried. After such a long time, had the team leader come back? Had Tang Jing looked for him? What has happened in High Tower now?
He quickened his pace and said,
"Let’s split up. I’ll explore the left side, and you explore the right."
The idea was rejected by Cain who responded, "Don’t even think about it. There’s no way you can shake me off. Bai Wu, I did indeed underestimate you, but I will reevaluate you. As for this exploration, I’ll stick close to you."
Bai Wu didn’t mind.
If the little trickster wanted to follow, then so be it. Not to mention Cain was using Jiang Xuan’s body, even if he had been using his own, Bai Wu was not worried.
"So many rooms, where do you plan to go first?"
"Let’s check out that stele first. If you don’t want to split up, just follow me."
The material of the palace’s main doors was the same as the lower levels of Black Tower, resembling shining obsidian.
Outside the obsidian palace, at the end of the spiral corridor, the stele that Great Demon King mentioned stood silently.
The stele recorded all Talent Sequences, written in Sequence language.
Bai Wu looked at the six-meter-tall stele, at the strange sequences inscribed upon it, and felt amazed. How had the creator of these sequences managed to construct so many abilities?
Most of the sequences on the stele were blue.
They included Sequence Nineteen God of Destruction, Sequence Twenty-Three The Deceiver, and Sequence Twenty-Four Prayle’s Eye.
But the originally Twenty-Fifth Sequence—the Integrator, which belonged to Yan Zhao, had turned black.
Bai Wu pondered and realized this meant that Yan Zhao was the only owner of the Integrator, and now with Yan Zhao dead, no one else could obtain this sequence.
Prayle’s Eye had mentioned that among the top thirty sequences, there are some unique sequences that once acquired, no one else can obtain.
And even Sequence Eight—Parasitic Heart Demon was gray. Bai Wu suddenly understood that the Sequence Eight he had encountered was just an incomplete "replica," the handiwork of the Great Demon King.
The true Sequence Eight, Parasitic Heart Demon, must have had an owner who was now dead, but someone had indeed owned it at some point.
Bai Wu was very certain of this; otherwise, Bai Yuan could not have accurately deduced the dangerous nature of Sequence Eight out of thin air.
"Prayle’s Eye is my sequence," he thought, "according to Xie Xingzhi, he had never seen any of the top eleven sequences, including Prayle’s Eye."
"Of course, his words probably contain some exaggerations, and there are many sequences that Xie Yingjie would not have seen, but it is very possible that from Sequence Twelve to a certain range, such as up to Sequence Thirty... Xie Yingjie had seen all the owners. Prayle’s Eye was the only one he had never encountered until he met me."
Bai Wu trusted his intuition and now realized that Xie Yingjie’s words very likely implied he knew some secrets.
This could also be the reason why Xie Yingjie was researching artificial sequences.
Bai Wu made some deductions in his heart. The actions of Zero and Xie Yingjie were great, in some sense, what they were doing was akin to the work of the Great Demon King on the seventh floor of the High Tower.
The only difference was in their motives.
Bai Wu took mental note that of the top ten sequences, or rather, the top twelve sequences, only Twelve Temporal Return and Ten Thousand Phantasmal Bodies were blue, while the others were dim.
This meant that the task required by the Great Demon King was indeed real; there were targets.
There were two people in this world, one owning Temporal Return and the other owning Ten Thousand Phantasmal Bodies.
These were the two humans with the highest-ranking sequences alive, who had never appeared before, which surprised Bai Wu.
"They must know something... are they hiding from the Great Demon King? It’s very possible that Xie Yingjie had met the owner of Sequence Twelve... Speaking of which, the teachers at Baichuan Middle School also mentioned the owner of Sequence Twelve in their questions, and they talked about Zero too."
"Now that my relationship with Zero is so close, I hope that the owner of Sequence Twelve is on our side. Of course, none of this rules out that it’s all the handiwork of Jing Liu. Those teachers still revere Jing Liu as a prophet. Some of their questions also originated from Jing Liu."
"Now that I think about it, the question was: Who is stronger, the effects of Reincarnation or Temporal Return? At the time, I focused on the answer, but now it appears that if the questioner was Jing Liu, then the question itself is suspect... Is Jing Liu hinting at me that the owner of Sequence Twelve is somehow connected with the master of Reincarnation from the death flight?"
Bai Wu now felt that this apparently inactive "Jing San" might be an extremely important existence.
Having acquired Jing Si, Jing Liu would most likely set his sights on Jing San next.
Both Huangquan Island and Black Gold Island seemed to be vying for Jing San as well.
Jing San appeared to be a highly sought-after prize.
Bai Wu shook his head; the problem was too complex, and with the current information, he could only draw these conclusions. He needed to end the investigation on the sixth floor quickly and then head to the fifth floor of the High Tower to inquire with Xie Yingjie.
He hoped that in the next few dozen days... nothing untoward would befall the Xie Family.
As for the monsters of the seventh layer, what these two sequences are used for, nobody knows.
We can only continue to wait for someone to find out.
Cain suddenly spoke up:
"The earliest Talent Sequence tablets might have been passed down from this stele. If we enter the palace, we might find other things, methods to create Traction Discs, Return Roulettes. Oh, the method to create Return Roulettes has already been passed down, but not Traction Discs. Even the ruler of the fifth layer doesn’t have the goods like we do."
Cain obviously had more interest in the things inside the palace.
Bai Wu silently glanced at it, indeed, apart from the front nine and eleven, all sequences were already possessed by someone.
"This world is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. The land of Sheng Country is vast; maybe there are some powerful beings lying dormant," Bai Wu said.
"That’s right. Not all of the original seventy-two rulers died; some escaped, and among those who truly fled, some simply didn’t want to stay in High Tower. After gaining eternal life, they left the High Tower, escaping the vortex of power struggles."
This was indeed valuable information, and Bai Wu became even more convinced of his own speculation.
"However, these fellows haven’t shown themselves in seven hundred years, and they’re unlikely to appear in the future. It’s better to focus on what’s inside here than to worry about them. Is this palace hiding some treasure?"
"Perhaps. We’ll know when we go in."
The two began heading inside the palace.
Bai Wu pushed open the massive door, which was fifteen meters high, and he faintly felt a sense of heaviness.
The interior of the palace was not the so-called splendor of gold and glitter.
Everything made of dark obsidian gave the interior of the palace a pitch-black appearance, luckily, there were several torches that seemed to never extinguish, keeping the entire palace from falling into absolute darkness.
Bai Wu and Cain both had exceptional eyesight and could adapt to such darkness.
Bai Wu didn’t intend to waste time. The advanced effect of Prayle’s Eye was very strong and directly provided the answer.
[The bathroom is the second room on the left, the dining room is the fourth room straight ahead, there are many guest bedrooms, a whole set of rooms twenty meters to the right are all there. Don’t be polite with me, just treat this as your own home. Since it’s your home, I’ll give you the safe’s password too. In the main hall of the second-floor palace, there is a secret door; writing the word "Well" in Sequence language will lead you to his collection and some notes. Ah, I’m really a hospitable good eye.]
Bai Wu didn’t actually know how to write the "Well" character in Sequence language, but luckily, Cain did.
Soon, Bai Wu came to the room hinted at by the eye, with Cain following him all the way, becoming more certain that Bai Wu had really been here before.
And more certain that Bai Wu was not bluffing; he really had some sort of agreement with that monster on the sixth layer.
This made Cain’s wariness toward Bai Wu shoot up drastically.
So much so that Cain suddenly felt a sense of dread: the vessel I coveted before...what kind of monster is it?
Intimidating others with someone else’s power was one of Bai Wu’s traditional skills. Even his intimidation of Xie Yingjie was thanks to Zero.
Bai Wu was pleased to see such a result.
"There is a secret door here, and I need you to write the "Well" character in Sequence language to open this door," he said.
"Why don’t you write it?"
"I can’t."
"Didn’t you say it’s standard issue for the Investigation Corps?"
"You believe everything I say? Would you believe me if I told you the leader is two meters tall?"
"..."
When someone’s perceived threat level is high, people pay attention and are cautious about every word they say.
Cain felt just that way about Bai Wu.
The example Bai Wu gave wasn’t false; Wu Jiu’s Evil Fallen form was indeed over two meters tall.
"If you’re not confident, you can draw the symbol and I’ll write it."
In the end, Cain did as Bai Wu said, writing a "Well" character on a protruding disc on the pitch-black wall in Sequence language.
The disc spun, and a black dot flashed at its center, trailing a line that extended along the huge obsidian wall from both ends.
The immense obsidian wall was split by this line and then slid open like sliding doors, revealing what lay beyond.
The scene inside the secret room unfolded.
It looked like a storeroom, with notes and various empty boxes strewn about the floor.
Bai Wu’s purpose was clear, and he immediately spotted the weapon placed on the huge grinding stone.
A great sword.
Cain rushed over instantly, but Bai Wu said calmly:
"Don’t touch it, or I’ll kill you. Don’t think we’re friends because I’ve said before, black is black, it will never turn white. If you want to keep digging your grave, I won’t stop you."
Damn...he bluffed me again.
Cain suddenly regretted not using a stronger body. He didn’t know what effects this great sword had, but he feared a weapon would not be enough to close the gap between him and Bai Wu.
Bai Wu walked over at a leisurely pace and picked up the great sword, examining it slowly.
[The Seven Sins, Envy Replica, stronger than the original in terms of power, but as a result has a drawback - it’s draining. Envy is an emotion that harms both the envious and the envied, bringing unhappiness to both. It must be said that the replica better conveys this point. Overall, though, it’s a powerful weapon.
Negative effect: After using Envy, you enter a weakened state, and can’t recover quickly through Innate Force or Evil Fallen Distortion Power.
Positive effect: Envy drives people crazy, and craziness leads to destruction.]
Does the positive effect feel even worse than Jing Si’s weapon?
Bai Wu suddenly felt conflicted; this Envy gave him the sense of a blood-for-blood feeling.
It was a weapon to be used only once in a certain timeframe.
Bai Wu felt somewhat disappointed.
"I’m willing to trade a secret for this weapon," Cain said.
"Although I’m always interested in secrets, I’m sorry, I’m not trading this weapon."
"I can do one thing for you!"
"Really, I doubt your ability, which is why I refuse to deal with you," Bai Wu replied somewhat disappointedly, yet he still declined Cain’s request.
At the very least, he had to find an opportunity to test the effects of Envy before he could confirm the weapon’s value, so Bai Wu did not completely dismiss it.
Perhaps...there might be a surprise with a single slash?
Envy drives people insane, and insanity leads to destruction, which is certainly the most annoying riddle Bai Wu has encountered so far.
It’s like playing a game and suddenly a beam of orange light appears, making you excitedly think that you’ve found a Divine Artifact, but when you pick it up and read the description: Effect unknown.
That was undoubtedly disappointing.
What Bai Wu didn’t know was that this extremely powerful weapon would completely change his combat style in the future.
His attention had already shifted from the weapon to some of the notes in this room.
Having obtained the weapon, although Bai Wu really wanted to continue exploring the palace, the time spent in the spiral corridor had cost him dozens of days, so he had to find a way to get back.
Fortunately, returning from the spiral corridor shouldn’t take another few dozen days.
Given the urgency of time, Bai Wu didn’t plan to continue exploring the palace, but he still skimmed through some notes in the secret room before leaving.
One of them was very strange, it read Sequence 4—Rule Binding, and Sequence 7—Reverse Dimension.
Written in the language of Sequences, it was translated by Prayle’s Eye.
Something felt off to Bai Wu:
"Sequence Four, Sequence Seven... All I found here was a blank sheet of paper with only these few words on it. Was he trapped by these two Sequences? Or did these Sequences help him in some way? Did he want to acquire these two Sequences?"
The function of Rule Binding can still be deduced from its name, but Reverse Dimension was incomprehensible.
Bai Wu continued flipping through the papers. He scanned the textual archives in the room as quickly as he could.
"In that battle, he used seven weapons, the seven human definitions of sin, to fight me. Spirit Possession, truly an intriguing rule. Although he won, he died. And although I lost, I still live."
Battle...
The person who sealed this monster had fought a battle with it, the monster was ultimately sealed, but the victor paid a severe price for his victory.
The sealer must have been the creator of High Tower.
Maybe he was the first dragon slayer in this game as Bai Yuan had said.
Bai Yuan didn’t care about a world without heroes, maybe simply because he believed that no one afterwards would have the power to surpass their predecessors?
Bai Wu continued to the next note.
"I can already use my power to replicate the weapons he used back then! Once I comprehend his other powers, I will be invincible. But there is indeed one existence in this world that can pose a threat to me, and that was a mistake I made."
Jing Si?
Bai Wu remembered that the monster on the seventh level mentioned Jing Si, saying Jing Si was the mistake he made.
Jing Si had true empathy for humans, preferring to help them, which perhaps was the mistake.
And the ability to replicate the seven deadly weapons is also something Jing Si could do. Moreover, in the region of Jing Si’s heart, there were also replicas of other Seven Sins weapons in the inventory.
Bai Wu thought, does it mean... that although Jing Si had gone mad, he had more talent than the Demon King?
It was still too early to make a conclusion. However, from the information previously revealed by Bai Yuan and that found here, Bai Wu seemed to see the confrontation between two factions.
The first faction, Bai Wu referred to as the Twisted Faction. This faction was dominated by the Evil Fallen.
The power of Twist and mutation, the terms of twist, adaptation to the twist, and various twisted rules, are the most terrifying aspects of this faction.
The second faction was the Order Faction, which was the human faction. Talent Sequence and Innate Force, Spirit Possession. With these powers, humans could barely survive and explore within the twist.
Until now, the Twisted Faction has been suppressing the Order Faction, having once nearly driven humans to extinction or assimilated them into Evil Fallen.
Only a few humans managed to hide in High Tower, and human civilization was on the brink of extinction.
But unbelievably, the Order Faction had once defeated the Twisted Faction. As a result, the strongest monsters were sealed within the High Tower.
However, although the Order Faction had defeated the Twisted Faction, the price was also severe.
There are too many powerful creatures in the Twisted Faction, but what about the Order Faction? Due to the base nature of humans, a "purge" operation actually occurred within the High Tower, causing the strength of human explorers to stagnate.
Moreover, the current situation is more complicated, with the boundaries between order and twist becoming blurred. The emergence of the powerful species, Semi-Evil Fallen, indicates that life is adapting to this twist.
Fundamentally, both Order and Twist are forms of twist, forces outside the scope of human scientific systems.
It’s just that, according to Bai Yuan, the former is a reasonable twist, while the latter is an unreasonable one.
Bai Wu’s speculations, based on the content in the notes, were actually somewhat close to the truth.
But the truth was more nuanced and complex; within the Twisted Faction and Order Faction, there were many subfactions as well.
Human nature is the most complex, and in these subfactions, there are all kinds of disputes.
Bai Wu was actually very worried.
The Demon King was gradually comprehending the "reasonable twist," and if it truly grasped it, would the High Tower still be able to contain it?
That was an internal worry.
There were also external threats; Jing Wu, Jing Er, and the farmers, all looking for the High Tower to find and unleash the Demon King.
In comparison, what did humanity have? Over the years, it seems the greatest step humanity took... was establishing a power outside the tower.
The decay of the High Tower’s rulers had kept humanity marking time, which in turn strengthened the power of the Twisted Faction.
As Bai Wu perused these Origin Level secrets, Cain was also looking through material.
"I am of the same origin as him, but he advocates restoring the world to law and order. In my view, high-dimensional gods need not deliberately cater to low-dimensional bugs. I will use our shared origin to comprehend his power system. By then, no one in this world will be able to stop me."
Cain couldn’t imagine that the monster on the sixth level had once been defeated by someone.
But what came next was even more unimaginable for him, as he took the note handed to him by Bai Wu—
"He is already dead, while I am still alive. The well is my life, and the Power of Twist is destined to spread my will to even more distant places. My children will find the other parts of my sealed body and bring them to High Tower. On the day the real me returns, I will prove that he was wrong and I am right!"
Cain’s pupils trembled:
"So you’re saying... the monster in High Tower isn’t complete?"
Bai Wu nodded:
"The creator of High Tower, the one who sealed the monster of the sixth level in High Tower, most likely fragmented the body of this monster. The core part was placed in High Tower, while other, less important parts, were placed elsewhere."
"Where?"
"Beyond the Black Fog."
Bai Wu’s speculation had some basis. Within the Black Fog, it was likely that the Well Level monsters had already found them, but beyond the Black Fog was different.
This was also what Bai Wu was most concerned about.
Because the Twist had already spread beyond the Black Fog.
It was very likely... that the other bodies of the Great Demon King would be found. And this also meant that the Great Demon King, who was so easily deceived, was not the true Great Demon King.
Only the core part of the Great Demon King, the true one, might not only be an upgrade in strength, but also in understanding human nature, or in wisdom, compared to the core of the seventh level.
No wonder Bai Yuan felt there was no hope left for this world, for the leader of the Twisted Faction was still alive, and there was a possibility that he might return.
But the Order Faction... could no longer find anyone to stand against him.
Bai Wu continued to flip through for a while and found no information about the Doomsday Puzzle pieces.
This puzzled him.
"Such an important thing, the Great Demon King actually didn’t record it... Could it be that he didn’t know? Come to think of it, the Well Level monsters seem to have collected very few Puzzle pieces, even though Cain has quite a few. It seems that there are certain restrictions on Evil Fallen when it comes to using Puzzle pieces, but these restrictions don’t apply to humans."
This was an optimistic view, but Bai Wu was not sure.
After reading everything within these notes in the secret room, Bai Wu found nothing more valuable and decided to leave.
Cain said:
"In such a big place, aren’t you going to continue exploring? There are many places here we haven’t been to, and we might find other treasures."
The appearance of the sixth level had changed drastically since the last time Cain was there, and naturally, he didn’t want to leave just like that.
But Bai Wu said:
"You can continue to stay here if you like, but don’t blame me for not warning you. Along the way, I knew where I could go and where I couldn’t. What about you? Some areas are hiding extremely dangerous rules. Even with our strength, we could still encounter danger when facing these rules."
Bai Wu was actually telling the truth.
Heaven knows how many "scenes that have awakened a self-consciousness and possess a Sequence" there might be.
Even a dangerous Sequence like Sequence 8 was tampered with by the Great Demon King to create a replica. It’s possible that there are other dangerous places in this palace.
Cain had always believed that Bai Wu had been here before and was quite wary of Bai Wu’s words. Seeing Bai Wu leave without hesitation, Cain, after hesitating for a few seconds, followed like a little sidekick.
...
...
The sixth level, compared to the five levels below, seemed like an ancient mythical heaven. The rules here were bizarre and twisted, hiding countless treasures and secrets.
But the time dimension here was also very strange.
When Bai Wu and Cain returned along the spiral corridor to the Soul Tree, crossed the blood-red path again, and made their way back to the starting point from the Stone Forest...
The two felt as if they had spent less than a day there, but according to the clock, they had been on the sixth level for nearly two months.
What could happen in two months was beyond Bai Wu’s prediction.
But one thing was certain, whatever happened, he was confident he could twist everything back.
The moment they passed through the Stone Forest and returned to the starting point, both Bai Wu and Cain felt that everything around them had slowed down significantly.
"The spiral corridor can change the time dimension. Such a change, it seems, only takes effect once we leave the sixth level. We’re now at the entrance of the sixth level, probably back in the correct time dimension," Bai Wu said, looking down at the fifth level, nine hundred meters below.
Cain said, "I always thought the High Tower was a place that couldn’t be twisted. If one day even the High Tower was twisted, it must be because the Evil Fallen had destroyed the tower from the outside.
But now it seems the inside of the High Tower has begun to twist. It’s hard to imagine just how terrifying the twist emanating from that monster would be without the High Tower."
Bai Wu couldn’t imagine either.
The role of the High Tower was to isolate the twist. Any rules, any negative attributes, and even the Evil Fallen would turn to dust the moment they entered the High Tower.
But now, there was a monster inside the High Tower breaking this system. Ridiculously, the rulers of the High Tower believed it could not be destroyed.
They believed their rule could last forever.
At this moment, as Bai Wu looked down at the fifth level nine hundred meters below, a note popped into his eyes, informing him that the rulers of the fifth level had once again courted disaster.
"The battle between the Eternal Beings has reignited. In these two months, conspiracies have made life difficult for your old pals. The most chaotic time for the High Tower has arrived. You weren’t too early; a lot of people have died inside the High Tower, but fortunately, you weren’t too late either; the deaths that would make you regret forever have not occurred. You should be grateful for your calm and rationality which curtailed the desire to explore.
Let us purify this High Tower with the truth. Are you ready to become a war god descending from the sky?"
During the period Bai Wu and Wu Jiu were away, the largest war in seven hundred years broke out in the High Tower.
And this war among the rulers soon involved all the levels, from the fifth to the bottom, sparing none.
The commoners at the bottom suffered heavy casualties, and the noble elites, who once prided themselves on elegance and poise, either finally found the meaning of life or, despite being alive, emitted a stench more foul than that of a corpse.
The unfinished military exercise between the Investigation Corps and the Garrison Corps, the conflict between Qin Zong and the Qin Family, the war between the commoners and the nobility at the bottom—all erupted following the departure of Bai Wu and Wu Jiu, two super combat forces, due to the civil war amongst the rulers. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
And Bai Wu, at the critical moment when the battle among the rulers was already tipping, descended like a god from nine hundred meters above, joining the war.
(This Chapter is quite long, and the next one is anticipated to be even longer, possibly the longest ever. Furthermore, I might need to take a break tomorrow, although the possibility is not high. The main reason is the concern that I won’t be able to finish. Why not break it up and write a bit at a time? It’s mainly because I’m worried about the continuity; after all, everyone wants to see Bai Wu decisively cut through the chaos. But the buildup is also important, so I’ll try to change some writing methods and write it all in one go if possible, but there’s also a chance I won’t finish... I dare not make guarantees.)
