Volume One: "The Nature of the Devil Does Not Change"
Arc Finale: "The Devil Finally Leaves Earth"
The trio followed the route the System had indicated. After an hour, they ran into a procession of meteors, forcing them to stop. Lin Yuan spoke, exhausted:
"Hah… traveling through space is tiring. But space is filled with Qi—many times more than Earth. Why don't we rest a little?"
Scarlet King replied, his voice like water gone dry:
"Fine. But only for a short while. Then we move."
The three descended onto one of the meteors and sat. The view was breathtaking: stars, galaxies, a massive nearby blue-tinged black hole, and clouds of violet and blue cosmic dust.
They sat on a jagged rock. Lin Yuan stared at the endless expanse with genuine awe and asked:
"How was this beautiful world even formed?"
Ikalat answered:
"We're nothing but the result of a collision between the Ghairamengi Light and Ghairamengi Darkness."
Lin Yuan blinked, confused and curious:
"What? Who are Light and Darkness? And what does Ghairamengi even mean?"
Scarlet King looked at Lin Yuan with lifeless eyes and said:
"Before everything… and before even nothingness itself… there were Darkness and Light. They were primitive beings without awareness. But Darkness found awareness before Light—because it is branched, unstable, and unfixed. When it realized there was nothing… not even nothingness… it released a wave of energy that formed the Void and the concept of Nothingness. Then Darkness formed a body. After that, Light gained awareness too and tried to draw close to Darkness… and their collision created the Dao—which represents order and the path—along with Primordial Chaos, which represents change and disorder. Then Yin and Yang formed, and Heaven and Earth. In the end, existence stabilized into two kinds: the Classical Existential Dimensions—the ones we're in now—and the Demonic Existential Dimensions, the origin of Mo Sheng, Yu Ru Meng, Yao Yan, and demons in general."
Lin Yuan asked again, like a child who refused to let go:
"But you still didn't explain what Ghairamengi means."
Scarlet King stood up and stared toward the distant—yet not truly distant—black hole.
"In the Mortal Dimensions, there are absolute concepts, but they're divided into twenty-two levels. The highest level is the Absolute: Level 22 in the Sixth Dimension. After that, in the Immortal Dimensions—from the Seventh to the Eleventh—there are ranks of concepts beyond the Absolute: Supra-Absolutivity in the Seventh, Sasianity in the Eighth, Akhrsiasity in the Ninth, Ghairgohiya in the Tenth, Holghiya in the Eleventh… and finally Ghairamengi—the highest rank in existence, restricted to Darkness and Light alone. And there are the Twenty-Two Concepts—the strongest concepts in existence—and their rank is Half-Ghairamengi."
Scarlet King clapped once.
From his shadow, octopus-like limbs burst out and wrapped around Lin Yuan and Ikalat.
"Move. We've rested enough. But before that—"
Suddenly, the System appeared.
System: "Limited System-control authorization has been granted by the Master to Lin Yuan and Ikalat."
Scarlet King turned and looked in the direction the System had indicated—then noticed that directly ahead was the blue-accretion-disk black hole itself. He thought, suspicious:
(The Qi signal seems to have come from the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy… and we're currently in the void between galaxies.)
He glanced behind him and saw the Milky Way, while Lin Yuan and Ikalat dangled in the air, suspended by the black octopus limbs.
Scarlet King surged forward toward the black hole at even greater speed.
Ikalat screamed:
"What are you doing?! Do you want to kill us?!"
Scarlet King didn't answer. Instead, he dove beneath the black hole, using its gravity to accelerate—then launched upward.
His speed became a million times faster than light.
In mere seconds, they reached the location the System had marked.
It was a planet.
They descended into a grassy region where many people had gathered, staring at something ahead. Four elderly figures floated in the air above the crowd.
As Scarlet King, Lin Yuan, and Ikalat approached…
They saw a Buddhist man using an extremely powerful defensive weapon: he had formed a golden, armor-like barrier around himself. The monk was spitting blood and screaming:
"You four sect masters—damn you!! Are you trying to steal the Buddha Defense Treasure from me?!"
Scarlet King smiled inwardly, demonic amusement flickering through his calm:
(Hah… a defensive weapon from the Qi Condensation Realm, fourth grade.)
Scarlet King stepped forward through the cultivators and raised his voice:
"Great elders—I have a way to break this Buddhist's defense, if you allow me to try."
The elders' faces remained cold and distrustful. The skinny old man with a long white beard and silver hair spoke:
"Proceed. But if you fail, we'll kill you—because you wasted our time."
Scarlet King walked up to the monk with icy calm and released his soundwaves:
"Wooooom—!!"
The golden barrier didn't crack.
But the sound didn't strike the barrier—it struck what was behind it.
The monk's head snapped back. His face twisted in pain as he clutched his ears. His eardrums burst, blood pouring out. His eyes turned a sickly red.
The monk lifted a finger to his forehead and screamed:
"If I die—I won't die alone!!"
The golden light split into fractures… then his body detonated like a Qi-bomb.
At the heart of the explosion, a black hole formed—dragging in air, people, and even nearby starlight, as if the place itself were collapsing into itself.
Scarlet King took the shockwave head-on…
…and his body was violently damaged.
"Power Stones + rating, please