Ouyang Kong had found this part of the story heartbreaking when he first experienced it. Nahida, who had lived through it herself, must have felt even worse.
More words of comfort would be meaningless now. Companionship was the tenderest expression of love.
Perhaps sensing Ouyang Kong's thoughts, Nahida still managed to smile at him.
What a gentle god!
The scenes on the Sky Screen continued. Just as Greater Lord Rukkhadevata had said, nearly all the Forbidden Knowledge had been purged. But the tiny bit that remained was the hardest to deal with.
It was that stubborn fragment of Forbidden Knowledge that had kept the Withering Zones spreading through Sumeru's rainforest for five hundred years, impossible to eradicate.
"A sudden headache gave me a bad feeling. That was when I remembered that my consciousness was connected to Irminsul. As I cleansed the Forbidden Knowledge from Irminsul, the Forbidden Knowledge had found its way to me as well.
"Or perhaps my existence had been tainted from the very beginning."
Nahida's and Ouyang Kong's clasped hands tightened involuntarily. Just imagining the pain of being tainted by Forbidden Knowledge was enough to know how agonizing it must have been.
But compared to that suffering, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's next words were even more terrifying.
"Even if I die, my existence will remain stored in Irminsul in the form of memories and knowledge. If that happens, the Forbidden Knowledge will never be completely eradicated."
To the people of the Douluo Continent, this was a curse from which even death offered no escape—a curse that would keep harming generation after generation.
No one would willingly bear such a curse. It was too horrifying.
Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's next words also explained why Scaramouche had been unable to delete himself.
"I could never 'delete' my own existence, because that