This collective subconscious "acknowledgment of death" had, for the lines sustained by "sense of existence," "influence," and "causal entanglements," turned them into rootless duckweed deprived of water.
Tan Lin knew full well that their disappearance was only a matter of time, for he had experienced it more than once already.
In fact, not only those lines—even the individual Causal Lines had dimmed with his passing.
When a person died, their lamp went out.
This was reflected in him. Though not absolutely so, the Causal Lines remained, yet no longer produced any obvious fireflies.
Of course, there were also a very few exceptional lines.
Even now, they still glowed. Yet they were not merely lines from the lifetime of the Indestructible Golden Body, nor were they all purely crimson lines. Some were mixed, and some gleamed black.
It was simply that the fireflies accumulated by these lines over a thousand years were undoubtedly not so numerous. They could only be said to be better than nothing.
Before the turmoil, when he moved into the World Within World, he had possessed roughly the equivalent of three Deep Crimson Light Points.
Now, after a thousand years had passed, the Deep Crimson Light Points accumulated within the Soul Pearl had only increased to six.
An increase of three might once have seemed quite considerable to him.
But compared with the gains made during the effort to halt the turmoil, when the vast majority of living beings in the universe supplied him within an extremely short time, it was somewhat insignificant.
However, the turmoil had now passed, and for the time being, he had no urgent need to consume vast amounts of fireflies.
He merely needed to ensure that he always had the two Deep Crimson Light Points needed as a safeguard for Disintegration Reincarnation.