Pollution

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Pollution (污染)
Alias(es)	Pollution Power; polluting power
Occupation/Role	Source of Transcendent advancement and destructive power; hazardous contaminant affecting minds, bodies, objects, and environments
Status	Pervasive throughout the universe, often existing in an undetectable neutralized state with Life Energy 421 505
First Appearance	Polluted land and scarce uncontaminated food and water are identified in the survival world 4

Nature and Mechanics

Relationship with Life Energy

Principle	Details
Natural attraction	Life Energy and Pollution naturally draw one another together. A being with more Life Energy attracts surrounding Pollution more strongly. 232 504
Neutral energy	When Pollution combines with Life Energy, it becomes a relatively safe and nearly undetectable neutral substance. This state is unstable and gradually leaks Pollution back out. 421 505
Source of Transcendent power	Transcendents can destabilize their stored neutral energy to release Pollution in destructive forms. This grants power but harms the user as well. 231 421 504
Universal presence	Observable Pollution may be only excess Pollution or leakage from neutral energy; the total amount in the universe may greatly exceed what can be detected. 421 505
Norton's analogy	Norton compares Life Energy to 1 and Pollution to a negative, endlessly repeating 0.999…: nearly balanced, but never wholly equivalent in practical reality. 232 505

Acquisition and Advancement

Ordinary people carry small amounts of Life Energy and slowly absorb trace Pollution throughout their lives. Increasing Life Energy—such as through killing living beings—can eventually cause passive Pollution absorption and a rank breakthrough. Contact with a high-concentration polluted extraordinary item accelerates the same process. 232 504

Advancement is described as accepting and integrating Pollution rather than simply becoming stronger. Even Black Iron Transcendents commonly retain lifelong adverse effects from their advancement rituals. 108

• Life Energy accumulation — Raises the body's attraction to ambient Pollution and can trigger advancement. 232
• Extraordinary-item exposure — Dense Pollution continuously enters the body and neutralizes its Life Energy, rapidly increasing strength. 232 504
• Cultivation aids — Medicines such as Qi Gathering Powder can forcefully draw Pollution into the user for cultivation. 231 233
• Limits — Excessive Pollution or Life Energy creates dangerous internal pressure; a body can reach the point of rupture, madness, or collapse. 233 499

Effects

Mental Pollution

Mental Pollution alters thought, perception, emotion, and behavior. Its influence can be subtle enough that victims do not recognize their own cognitive changes. 336 606

• It can induce obsession, fanaticism, hallucinations, and loss of rationality. 336 363 421
• Some contaminated knowledge only becomes harmful when its meaning is understood; isolated characters or words may be harmless, while comprehension activates the effect. 100 336
• Witnessing Ye Qian's blood-and-flesh massacre polluted a girl so severely that hallucinations and mental torment drove her to suicide. 363
• Pollution from forbidden texts can gradually turn a reader into a slave willing to sacrifice everything to continue reading. 336

Physical Pollution

Physical Pollution causes abnormal bodily changes, injury, mutation, and eventual breakdown. The distinction between physical and mental Pollution is not absolute, as each can worsen the other. 421 505

• Ye Qian's spiritual-pollution advancement produced sensations resembling fever, inflammation, neuralgia, organ failure, and visible ulceration. 108
• Severe exposure can transform flesh, blood, or spirit into a different state, preventing further absorption of Life Energy. 232 504
• Pollution incidents include people growing mouths across their bodies and corpses mutating after death in highly contaminated regions. 545
• A higher-realm Transcendent's Pollution aura can suppress weaker Transcendents from kilometers away, causing breathlessness and intense pressure. 360

Corruption and Breakdown

When Pollution exceeds a person's tolerance, their body or mind may lose control and collapse. Resistance depends partly on adaptability, rationality, and compatibility with the specific kind of Pollution. 155 232

• People with low resistance may be unable to endure even a zombie core's Polluted power without going mad. 155
• Polluted items can gradually increase a user's contamination even when their immediate side effects are not obvious, eventually leading to madness or premature death. 499
• Long-term Water of Purification use can offset some contamination, allowing individuals such as Ke Heng to resist mental-control potions more effectively. 392
• Excessive infusion can permanently fuse cells with Pollution; Ye Qian identifies complete saturation of this kind as polarization. 618

Applications

Application	Use and limitations
Combat enhancement	Ordinary weapons are ineffective against many Transcendents, but bullets imbued with Pollution or Spirituality can injure them. 115
Pollutant weapons	Highly hazardous polluted remains and extraordinary items can be deployed directly against enemies. Ye Qian retains a dead mother body as a future pollutant weapon. 649
Cultivation pools	Clones cultivate with pills amid accumulated pollutants, creating a concentrated Pollution field for advancement and item production. 391 403
Artificial extraordinary items	Pollution can assimilate materials into Black Iron-grade components or be used by Sacrificial Gestation to create forbidden pollutants. 351 388
Mind control	Polluted potions and objects can assimilate or manipulate targets, though resistance and purification can weaken the effect. 392
Environmental destruction	Ye Qian considers using diffusible pollutants for large-scale attrition against enemies, while evil-god ruins and contaminated sites can render areas lethal to normal people. 420 557

Purification and Resistance

Water of Purification

Water of Purification, also called Purified Water, removes harmful free Pollution from a body or environment. It is exceptionally valuable because effective Pollution-clearing items are rare and expensive. 113 231

• It can completely erase Pollution that has not yet neutralized with Life Energy. 231 232
• It cannot remove Pollution that has already fused with Life Energy into neutral energy; therefore, purification does not erase a Transcendent's accumulated strength. 232 504
• Excess Water of Purification remains active until it dissipates naturally or is expelled. 232
• Ye Qian's saliva and blood function as Purified Water, allowing her to suppress the pain of her own advancement. 108
• Different body-derived Purified Water has different effectiveness; water associated with Ye Qian's feet purifies high-hazard Pollution slightly better than that associated with her hands. 305

Environmental Purification

Purification is far less efficient when applied to large contaminated areas than when consumed by an individual. Extremely concentrated Pollution, however, can be suppressed by sufficient volume. 557

• Ye Qian used roughly one million tons of Purified Water to suppress Pollution leaking from an evil-god ruin. 557
• A further two million tons successfully suppressed the ruin's Pollution for thousands of years, though the initial amount could not eradicate it completely. 557
• Her Purified Water reserves include a lower-grade supply estimated at roughly nine million tons. 557
• Severed portions of Ye Qian's body can continuously generate purifying power, though the effect weakens over time. 557

Environmental Impact

Pollution concentration is presented as a worsening long-term threat. A Twilight Organization researcher reports that using hidden or forbidden powers releases Pollution into the air, where it spreads rather than disappearing. 471 505

• Ancient records indicate that even the harsh Fourth Era had lower airborne Pollution than the modern era; the Second Era reportedly had mental and physical Pollution close to zero. 471 505
• Worldwide average Pollution allegedly increased by one-thousandth over ten years, with severe localized increases following specific incidents. 506
• Repeated use of polluted powers, Transcendent advancement, and extraction from sealed pollutants all contribute to environmental diffusion. 471 505
• Areas affected by evil-god descents can remain contaminated for generations, causing corpses to mutate and exposing inhabitants to ongoing breakdown risks. 545
• Although low ambient Pollution may only make ordinary people weaker or more susceptible to illness over time, continued accumulation could make the world increasingly hostile to human life. 471 506