Chapter 631: Darkness Under the Lamp

Chapter 631: Chapter 583: Darkness Under the Lamp

“Little Ban.”

“Put yourself in their shoes for a moment.”

“Using your instincts as a Calamity-level aberration, how do you think the remaining power of the other Ancient Evils would persist?”

Aboard the Great Ark, Shi Ming communicated with the Colorful Insect in his Sea of Spirit.

Although the aberration had submitted to him out of desperation, Shi Ming couldn’t trust it completely due to a lack of a definitive binding method.

Submission was one thing, but this was another matter entirely.

He certainly wasn’t going to release it early, not before it had made some kind of dazzling contribution. At most, he would stop suppressing it on a daily basis, give it a drop of purified Origin Blood to let it recover some of its strength, and have it serve peacefully as an “aberration radar” within the Hundred-Floor Celestial Tower.

That in itself was a blessing.

After absorbing the Origin Blood, the Colorful Insect’s vitality had clearly recovered significantly.

“Master, I was born in the ancestral land of the Star Spirit Race. My knowledge of high-level aberrations like the Ancient Evils is limited to the genetic information in my bloodline—an instinctual subservience to them—and the knowledge I gained by resonating with the power of this drop of Origin Blood.”

‘Hmm?’

‘Resonating with the power of the Origin Blood can yield knowledge?’

Shi Ming showed no sign of confusion, nodding as if he had known this all along. “Continue.”

“The four great Ancient Evils each have their own symbol.”

“They too possess an Origin. Unlike a Calamity’s Origin, the Origin of an Ancient Evil is the source of all aberrant power. It’s the ‘one’ in the transition from zero to one, the so-called ‘Virus #1,’ the ‘Unit-01’.”

“When an Ancient Evil falls, as long as its Origin survives or is backed up, it can absorb the universe’s pleasure, corruption, sin, and slaughter. Using these as nutrients, over tens to hundreds of thousands of years, it can evolve again from weak to strong, ascending step by step. It progresses from a fledgling form to a nightmare, then to a disaster, a catastrophe, and a calamity, ultimately becoming a new Ancient Evil.”

“This process is called Revival.”

Shi Ming furrowed his brow.

“The world’s corruption, pleasure, and slaughter will never cease… If that’s the case, as long as an Ancient Evil has backed up its Origin, it’s nearly impossible to eradicate it completely? Is there a chance that the Flower of Evil Thoughts I killed could be reborn?”

“No.”

The Colorful Insect continued to divulge the information it knew.

This was a show of allegiance.

Since it had acknowledged Shi Ming as its master, it naturally wanted a better life for itself. This intelligence was a rare opportunity to demonstrate its loyalty.

“The ability to create a backup is a technique only a fully-matured Ancient Evil possesses.”

“The Flower of Evil Thoughts had not yet grown into the true Evil Thought Heaven, so it lacked the ability to create a backup. And while pleasure, corruption, and slaughter in the universe are endless, as long as an Ancient Evil’s backup Origin is completely erased and purified before it can fully mature—just as you annihilated the Flower of Evil Thoughts—they can never reform. Their lineage will be severed for good.”

“Annihilating ‘Virus #1’,”

“is equivalent to killing them for good.”

“Even if new Ancient Evils are born in the subsequent evolution of the universe, it would take tens upon tens of millions of years of cultivation. The difficulty is countless times higher than a simple revival after death.”

“However, this is easier said than done. An unrevived Ancient Evil will usually lie dormant. One as foolish as the Flower of Evil Thoughts is truly rare. Perhaps it believed that nothing in the Star Sea could threaten its existence, that it could do as it pleased. It was completely unaware of your brilliant descent, Master. Its fall was inevitable.”

The Colorful Insect slipped in the flattery seamlessly.

On the surface, Shi Ming was quite pleased.

But he didn’t believe it completely. He would still need to verify everything later with his Eye of the Divine. This was a caution he carried from his past life. He had to be especially careful when dealing with a creature like the Colorful Insect, whose loyalty was unknown. If this little thing tried to pull a fast one and backstabbed him with false information at a critical moment, he would be repeating the same tragic mistake of a god.

“After an Ancient Evil revives, is it completely identical to the one that fell before it?”

“There are differences.”

The Colorful Insect seemed to have gained a great deal of knowledge from that drop of Origin Blood.

Shi Ming had completely purified that drop of Origin Blood, so it shouldn’t have contained any extra information. And yet, it could still be used to acquire knowledge through resonance? This gave Shi Ming pause.

‘Could this be considered a transfer of ‘Virus #1′?’

He made a mental note of it.

He would verify it later.

Meanwhile, the Colorful Insect once again provided the information he wanted to know.

“After an Ancient Evil falls, its backed-up Origin will grow again to complete the revival process. However, while the power of the new, revived Ancient Evil is similar and largely without difference, its mind and consciousness are completely independent. It’s similar to what some civilizations call ‘cloning,’ but on a much, much higher level.”

“It’s just that the instincts of each generation of Ancient Evils are largely the same—slaughter, pleasure, corruption. Therefore, to outsiders, there’s no difference between generations. Defining this revival as a rebirth or a return isn’t a major issue.”

“Master, that is the answer to your question. Have I made myself clear?”

Shi Ming nodded.

He affirmed the Colorful Insect’s answer and, at the same time, posed his next question.

“Then in your judgment, are the Origin backups of the other three Ancient Evils—the so-called Slaughter Heaven, Sinful Heaven, and Luxury and Lust Heaven—all dormant in the endless Sea of Chaos? What would be the most efficient way to find their hiding places?”

This was what concerned Shi Ming the most.

To him, the Origins of the Ancient Evils were nutrients—nutrients that could help him break through his bottlenecks and overcome his limits. He didn’t want to let a single one of the other three great Ancient Evils go.

“Master.”

“Leaving the Origin backup in the Sea of Chaos is the safest choice.”

“But the Sea of Chaos is exceptionally barren. The difficulty of absorbing enough slaughter, corruption, sin, and pleasure there is immense. Revival would take at least a hundred thousand, or even a million, years.”

“But if the Origin is backed up in the Star Sea, the difficulty of revival drops by more than a single tier.”

“The Star Sea is teeming with countless living beings, and slaughter and pleasure are the main themes for innumerable civilizations. From the perspective of revival alone, backing up the Origin in the Star Sea is the best choice. However, opportunity comes with risk. The Star Sea is full of powerful experts. An ordinary Nirvana-level expert can easily erase Disaster- or Catastrophe-level aberrations. Backing up the Origin in the Star Sea is also a risky choice.”

“If I were an Ancient Evil,”

“I would back up my Origin in the Star Sea. I would find a secret place within a civilization rife with slaughter, corruption, pleasure, and sin, and return at the fastest possible speed.”

As the Colorful Insect spoke, it suddenly paused.

‘Strange…’

An extremely peculiar sense of déjà vu washed over it, as if it had just grasped something long forgotten.

‘What is this strange feeling?’

Shi Ming smiled.

His gaze fell upon the Colorful Insect within the Hundred-Floor Celestial Tower, and he discreetly used his Eye of the Divine… This was the first time he had used it since his Eye of Destiny evolved into the Eye of the Divine. Its tier was higher now, and the intelligence it could perceive was far more comprehensive.

“Eye of the Divine, acquire intelligence.”

[BEEP.]

[Gathering intelligence…]

[Sinful Heaven (Fledgling)]

[…]

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