Cultivating in Honkai!

Chapter 257: World Rendering Sword, Once More

Venus, Earth, and Mars.Three civilizations struck by the honkai. Each of them came up with different last-ditch countermeasures: Venus’ Sa; Mars’ Supercomputer; and Earth’s Project STIGMA.

Undeniably, the plan who came the closest to succeeding was Project STIGMA. The “unqualified” humans are placed inside the imaginary space and turned into . Then, these wishes form the . The Spiritual Adam is responsible for empowering the new batch of (i.e., stigma awakened). Project STIGMA turns humanity into a part of the Honkai itself, hence it will no longer be destructive. Its Proportionality Law would also lose effect.

This entailed sacrificing the majority of humanity to save a few. It is a final failsafe kept for more than fifty thousand years.

Today, the thwarted failsafe showed itself once again.

The people of Mars felt a appear out of nowhere. They uncontrollably fell unconscious. Soon, they entered their dreamlands.

Hare's flag swayed as light spots gathered around it. Strangely enough, the lights are a mix of black and white. She frowned when she sensed the unwelcome power.

Shi Tian appeared beside her.

“That’s the . A power belonging to the Cocoon of Finality.”

“No wonder it felt familiar.” She nodded in agreement. “I shall pass onto you.”

“Thanks.”

“You are welcome.”

He was very formal when talking to Hare. The latter did not mind and gestured to him to hold her banner. 

A long lost sensation returned within Shi Tian.

‘As expected. Mars is the perfect place to pull this off.’

His fight with Nihility cost him the Core of Origin. He exchanged it for a strike belonging to the Dao Integration Realm. Now, the power of filled his entire being once again.

Mars’ Bubble Worlds lay in the Sea of Data. It is a special place within the Sea of Quanta. Wishes can be turned to reality here.  Moreover, the ‘people’ living in this simulated world are not , but . They are akin to the stigma awakened, granting them unique powers (i.e., control over shadows and wish manifestation).

Given such a perfect place, Project STIGMA temporarily gathered all of Mars’ power to recreate the Spiritual Adam. Its biggest downside is its extremely short duration lasting five seconds. Anything longer than that will incur permanent damage to Mars’ people.

‘It won’t last long. I need to recall ..!’

“Final blow. Retract!”

Everyone followed his words. The imaginary barrier lost the powers sustaining it. In exchange, they were freed up. Sa was immediately greeted by their attacks.

One second. 

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Four seconds.

Seele and Veliona held each others’ hands, summoning again. The projection of the sent terrifying waves to the birds and branches, obliterating them all. The rest focused their attacks to the hourglass-like apparatus protected by an egg-shaped crystal shell.

An ominous sense of foreboding arose amongst them, though it quickly died down.

Then…

Five seconds passed.

“My samsara is that of life and death…”

Sa’s fully lit up. The power of Abundance blossomed throughout all of Mars’ two Bubble Worlds. It threatened to everything—to become samsara.

The swaying of Daoist robes took Sa’s attention. Her words came to a halt. She glanced towards Shi Tian. His appearance did not change…

The belonging to his past self fully assimilated with Shi Tian.

The answer’s simple.

He joined his index and middle finger, forming a sword-gesture. He pointed it straight at Sa. His overwhelming aura halted itself. The world came to a stand-still, save for the two of them.

In her eyes, nothing but a remained. The entire world turned into a pointed at her.

“Face the weight of the world.”

Along Shi Tian’s words…

*****

Time is something perceived by everyone. For mortals, it can only go forward, not backward. They are to be stuck within the , unable to touch the nor the .

However, at this exact moment…

Every immortal cultivator present has their eyes on the … which is not exactly a sword. They never saw a sword, yet their minds registered it as one. It is formless, yet it has a form. Such a contradiction grinded their minds to a terrifying halt.

‘...as if the entire world is my enemy…’

Chen Tianwu’s thoughts drifted away. All that remained in his mind was that . Its began changing. From a sword, it became a towering tree; then a boundless ocean; then an expanse of nothingness…

‘Forms are not fixed… and so is the Tao. The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao.’

Steadily, his third level Tao Heart rose to the fourth level, the equivalent of Golden Core Realm. It wasn’t just him. Everyone who paid a modicum of attention to the boss battle cutscene gained benefits. Their comprehension of their Tao Heart rose. Some raised their techniques’ mastery to a higher realm. Be they the cultivators within Langqiu, Oxia, or even the real Mars, the appeared under their sights.

They, who were the bystanders in this world-ending boss battle, gained experience packs and leveled up.

They fail to notice one thing. Their minds are focused to the extreme on the . They did not notice the irregularities of and assumed Sa was defeated by the .

‘Time stop…’

Shi Tian saw the glimmer of white on Sa’s disintegrated body. He knew what happened. Right after he struck Sa with the weakened version of the , Kiana’s attack came to ensure her death. It obliterated Sa’s backup plans as well as the trace of left on her.

A metaphysical sound spread throughout the solar system. Shi Tian eyed the imaginary barrier enveloping them.

‘The Cocoon’s power is enough to hold it off.’

He let out a sigh of relief. The most dangerous part wasn’t Sa, but the Aeon of Abundance. Fortunately, the Cocoon of Finality showed him why it remained undetected amongst other Aeons for billions of years.

With the threat gone, a sense of emptiness filled his entire being. The events of the past repeated once again:

*****

A/N: Bonus chapter (2/2)