Chapter 1441: Fruit of Sentient Will
Chapter 1441: Fruit of Sentient Will
As the bowl of red broth settled in their stomachs, the expressions on the faces of the trio from the Sword Domain began to shift dramatically.
Evidently, not everyone could appreciate the subtle delights of sentient desire on their first taste, as Li Fan had.
Ji Xingdao's eyes flew wide, his aura surging and ebbing like a tumultuous tide.
Situ Tiantian’s brow furrowed, her face a mask of frost. A flurry of what looked like countless snowflakes danced around her, but a closer look revealed that the white crystals were, in fact, miniature flying swords!
Zhao Xing handled it best of the three. He reacted as if he had just downed a particularly potent liquor; a flicker of discomfort crossed his face before he quickly returned to normal.
Ignoring the reactions of the Sword Domain disciples, Zhu Xueshi, draped in his long robe, slowly descended from the main seat.
His stooped figure, hidden within the robe, emitted a series of unsettling creaks and groans, the sound of unnatural growth, as it rapidly straightened and became slender.
A plaintive, sorrowful female voice began to drift through the hall.
Zhu Xueshi sang softly, his movements a graceful dance.
Li Fan watched the elegant, faceless figure, his gaze unwavering.
As Zhu Xueshi's song continued, the doors of the City Lord's mansion seemed to swing open. The once silent hall was suddenly plunged into a boiling cauldron of noise. The voices of the City of Extreme Bliss's myriad inhabitants surged in from all directions, converging within the mansion.
In a daze, Li Fan saw everything happening in the City of Extreme Bliss.
Laughter, indulgence, conflict, lust, delight, pleasure, drunkenness, joy.
Visions of countless beings reveling in pleasure exploded before Li Fan's eyes simultaneously.
"The City of Extreme Bliss... what bliss."
However, as Zhu Xueshi's tone shifted, everything changed in an instant.
"But joy to sorrow turns, as all things must, with flashing blades and shadows, blood runs deep. A thousand ghouls arise from night and dust, with skulls for stones and bones for towers to keep..."
His voice turned grim, brimming with a monstrous killing intent.
"Clang!" A sound like a sharp sword hitting the ground jolted the countless souls of the city from their blissful dreams, awakening them to a new reality.
The magnificent lanterns extinguished, and the City of Extreme Bliss was plunged into darkness.
But the darkness did not last long.
A blood-red sun slowly rose from the horizon, casting its crimson light upon the city.
The slaughter had begun.
Those who had been intimate companions during the long night of revelry now drew blades on one another, locked in a struggle to the death.
All friendship, kinship, and love.
In the long night that followed, they meant nothing.
Only survival remained the one and eternal truth.
...
"Die, die, die, die!"
"Kill!"
"Ah!"
The screams of the dying and the frenzied roars of the killers swelled into a grand symphony, playing out in the City Lord's mansion.
Zhu Xueshi had reverted from the graceful dancer to a stooped old man, watching the carnage in his city with a look of pure enjoyment.
Meanwhile, the three young cultivators from the Sword Domain, having gradually recovered from the visions of the red broth, now faced the horrifying spectacle of pure human evil unfolding in the City of Extreme Bliss. Their faces grew pale, and they began to tremble uncontrollably.
Li Fan, for his part, put on a convincing display of extreme discomfort.
"What a pity. A scene like this should be appreciated by a larger audience."
"Yet only you few juniors have come."
Zhu Xueshi's voice sounded somewhat lonely, almost desolate.
But the slaughter in the City of Extreme Bliss did not stop because of it.
"All the more reason not to let it be boring. I wouldn't want to lose face."
Zhu Xueshi's demonic voice echoed in their ears.
Within the city, another variable emerged.
The souls who had been killed were now resurrected. Not as living beings, but as intangible phantoms.
They now had two choices. One was to seek immediate vengeance, which would allow them to kill their murderer directly. But in doing so, their phantom form would dissipate into nothing.
The second was to possess a survivor and use that survivor to enact their revenge. The possessed individual's power would be like that of two people combined, greatly increasing their chances of success.
However, anyone killed by a possessed survivor would also become a phantom.
In their phantom state, they could attack each other, but the only outcome was mutual annihilation. Therefore, they would most likely choose to find other survivors to possess.
As the slaughter continued, the City of Extreme Bliss was gradually left with only a group of ghost-possessed survivors.
If a possessed survivor was defeated, no new phantom would be born, and the possessing phantom would dissipate along with them.
The massacre was slowly moving toward its endgame.
When the number of survivors dwindled to one hundred, the possessed would become aware of the phantoms inhabiting their bodies.
They could choose to coexist. Or they could launch a mental assault from which there was no retreat.
Those who vanquished the phantoms could completely absorb their power, making it their own.
"Tell me, among the final victors, will there be more humans, or more ghosts?"
Zhu Xueshi suddenly posed the question to everyone present.
"This ceremony will produce ten victors. Each of you four will receive one fruit. If your guess is correct, I will award you an extra one."
Upon hearing this, the faces of the Sword Domain trio lit up with delight. The fear and revulsion they had shown while watching the slaughter were instantly cast aside.
"I wager that more ghosts will survive!" Situ Tiantian declared first, her voice full of confidence.
The other two from the Sword Domain also made their predictions.
Some guessed ghosts, some guessed humans.
When it was Li Fan's turn, he pondered for a moment before answering seriously, "Among the ten victors, I believe it will be an even split between humans and ghosts."
The trio from the Sword Domain looked at him, their expressions a mixture of surprise and disbelief.
Zhu Xueshi, however, simply gave Li Fan a meaningful look and said nothing.
As the sun climbed to its zenith, the slaughter in the City of Extreme Bliss continued to unfold.
Those who had survived the initial massacre had already gained a certain level of experience. They hid, they stalked, they struck from the shadows. This caused the pace of the killing to gradually slow down.
But the City of Extreme Bliss itself was shrinking, forcing them closer together and speeding up the game's rhythm once more.
The repetitive viewing led to a kind of sensory numbness. After watching so much, even the most gruesome and bizarre acts of violence began to seem mundane.
The trio from the Sword Domain had grown desensitized. No trace of their earlier reactions remained on their faces. They even started to look a little impatient.
Only Li Fan continued to observe with intense focus, studying the different actions and choices of every single being in the city as they faced life and death.
It was said that the city's cycle was three years.
And indeed, this slaughter lasted for exactly three years.
It seemed as if some mysterious force was manipulating the game's progress from behind the scenes.
Over the three years, the Sword Domain trio drank bowl after bowl of the red broth. By now, drinking it was like drinking plain water; it had no effect on them at all.
Li Fan did not receive such favorable treatment.
In the first year, he was granted a total of six bowls. After that, Zhu Xueshi deliberately ignored him.
Li Fan knew that Zhu Xueshi was gradually building up the Sword Domain trio's tolerance, lest they be unable to withstand the final fruit. The infinite killing intent contained within it could have easily turned them into mindless fools.
They were from the Sword Domain, after all. Zhu Xueshi had to show them some courtesy.
As for "Ma Tiande"...
His fate was left entirely to chance.
The three years were up. The blood-red sun finally disappeared below the horizon.
The City of Extreme Bliss, now just a small remaining area, was once again plunged into darkness.
This time, it was as if time itself had frozen. All the survivors stood motionless, like statues of ice.
The projection of light contracted, flying straight back into the City Lord's mansion.
The survivors, glowing with a fluorescent light, flew out of the city's illusion.
Phantoms and humans split apart, each distinct from the other.
"Five ghosts, five humans? You actually guessed it, you brat!" Situ Tiantian stared at Li Fan in shock.
The trio from the Sword Domain looked dejected, watching their extra prize slip through their fingers.
Li Fan, however, knew that Zhu Xueshi had just saved their lives.
Given the strength of these young cultivators, they might have been able to barely handle one fruit. But if they had consumed two, there was no chance they would have survived.
"It seems this Zhu Xueshi is truly a petty man."
Li Fan sneered inwardly.
Considering that even the duration of the slaughter in the City of Extreme Bliss could be precisely controlled...
The entire process was nothing more than a formality.
The final outcome was entirely at Zhu Xueshi's whim.
Because Li Fan had guessed that the result would be an equal number of humans and ghosts...
The final number of survivors had to be an equal number of humans and ghosts.
"Well done. These two fruits are yours!"
The survivors, glowing with a soft white light, curled up as if returning to the womb, their bodies transforming into the shape of fruit.
Zhu Xueshi selected the two largest and handed them to Li Fan himself.
Li Fan bowed his thanks.
The trio from the Sword Domain looked resentful but dared not act out. With simmering dissatisfaction, they took their own fruits and swallowed them in one gulp.
Li Fan could feel Zhu Xueshi's gaze fixed upon him.
He followed suit, swallowing one of the fruits.
There was no taste, no sensation. The Fruit of Sentient Will dissolved the moment it touched his tongue.
The culmination of countless wills, memories, and emotions then exploded in Li Fan's mind.
It was as if on a calm plain, a terrifying storm capable of destroying everything had suddenly erupted from nowhere.
Li Fan's original consciousness was swept up by the gale, tossed about helplessly, perilously close to shattering.
"This is what they call the will of the masses, capable of refining even gods."
"If I were using my divine will, honed through a hundred lifetimes and reflecting the Great Dao, no storm, no matter how powerful, could shake me. But Ma Tiande... he simply doesn't have that kind of strength..."
"Not without using the Dao Net."
Hiding within the storm of sentient will, Li Fan peeked at Zhu Xueshi and sneered inwardly.
He had already devised a countermeasure.
"Within the Dao Net, there are living stakes of Nameless True Immortals."
"From one of those nodes, I can faintly sense an aura... one remarkably similar to Zhu Xueshi's..."
Li Fan's thoughts raced.
In reality, Ma Tiande's face was a twisted mask of tears and snot.
A single face was somehow contorting into several different expressions at once. His limbs thrashed and flailed uncontrollably, like a drowning man desperately grasping for any possible straw to save him.
Zhu Xueshi wore a look of enjoyment as he watched Ma Tiande struggle.
But out of the corner of his eye, he couldn't help but glance toward the world outside.
The death of a Dao Operator would generate a signal, transmitted through the Dao Net to the Administrative Council.
Within Shuo Xinghai, there were surviving factions from various cultivation worlds, and even from different star seas. There were even former True Immortals. Strange and secret techniques abounded. Only the Dao Net could ignore all of it and transmit the real-time status of a Dao Operator to the council.
It was Shuo Xinghai's method for maintaining its stability.
And it was precisely the phenomenon Zhu Xueshi was eagerly awaiting.
This was the real reason he wanted "Ma Tiande" dead.
However, what Zhu Xueshi anticipated did not happen.
The Dao Operator, who was already in his death throes, seemed to have actually found something to hold onto.
Even though his expression was horribly contorted, Zhu Xueshi could see that his inner sense of self had not dissipated.
"Hmm?"
This piqued Zhu Xueshi's interest.
"This is..."
Squinting to observe more closely, Zhu Xueshi's expression suddenly changed.
He saw it, within the other's sea of consciousness.
Ma Tiande, facing mortal danger and on the brink of death, had instinctively written a vast number of meaningless Dao Yuan symbols.
These symbols did not form a proper Dao Net command.
Thus, they did not trigger any anomaly in the Dao Net.
But inexplicably, they formed a long embankment, holding back the storm created by the Fruit of Sentient Will.
"A stroke of luck? He managed to call upon the Dao Net's power without a formal connection?"
Zhu Xueshi had a deep understanding of the Dao Net.
He had already figured out the fundamental reason for Ma Tiande's survival.
The Dao Net was a real, existing entity.
Although it was under the manipulation of certain individuals, the masters of the Dao Net could only control its actions and commands.
They could not dictate all of its instinctive reactions.
After all, the Dao Net was a replica of all the Great Daos between heaven and earth.
"The Dao Yuan commands touched the Dao Net."
"Theoretically, it should have triggered an anomaly, but the Administrative Council must have intercepted it."
"Out of infinite combinations, he just happened to combine one that saved his life."
"Was it a coincidence?"
Zhu Xueshi remained silent.
He did not intervene, allowing Li Fan to devour and digest the first fruit.
The mental storm gradually subsided.
Li Fan awoke from his daze and agony.
Before he could even process the changes brought by consuming the fruit, Zhu Xueshi spoke again, his voice cold. "Continue. There is still one more."
Li Fan paused, seemingly unable to comprehend Zhu Xueshi's coldness.
Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and swallowed the second fruit.
Within his sea of consciousness, the storm rose again.
This time, it seemed even more violent than the last.
It once again consumed Li Fan's awareness.
"I'd like to see if you can be so lucky a second time!"
This time, Zhu Xueshi watched Ma Tiande's sea of consciousness from the very beginning.
Sure enough, after a futile struggle, as he began to lose consciousness...
Ma Tiande's dying instincts once again called forth countless Dao Yuan symbols.
The command they formed this time was different from the last.
"It seems good fortune does not strike twice," Zhu Xueshi thought, feeling a sense of satisfaction.
He waited for the storm of sentient will to completely devour Ma Tiande.
But soon, his expression turned rather peculiar.
The Dao Yuan symbols this time did not form a great wall.
Instead, they transformed into another storm.
The forces of the two storms canceled each other out.
And Ma Tiande, once again, was unharmed!
(End of Chapter)
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