I'll Carry You All

Beneath the Department of Lore, a door slowly opened. Brishisan led Li Mo inside.

It was a vast underground hall filled with all manner of shelves. To an ordinary person, it would undoubtedly look like nothing more than an ordinary warehouse.

But stone gargoyle statues, the severed head of the Phantasmal Species Hydra, and even a pitch-black, still-beating heart in the corner beside Li Mo—how was this anything like an ordinary warehouse?

Li Mo stopped. Even with Brishisan beside him, this place still felt extremely dangerous.

Seeing Li Mo still standing at the entrance, Brishisan turned back and smiled. "Come on. This place will be handed over to you someday. What's there to be afraid of?"

Uh... true enough.

Fine. Li Mo followed Brishisan and slowly entered the warehouse.

Still, the Incineration of Humanity would begin in just over twenty years. Whether he would even live to see the day he took over was another question entirely.

Li Mo smiled, brushed aside his tangled thoughts, and turned his curious gaze toward the items displayed on the shelves.

As they walked, Brishisan introduced them one by one. "See that one-meter-tall red crystal? It's the crystallized core of the Fallen Dragon beneath the Clock Tower. The third Lord of our Department of Lore found it!"

"See that stone? They say it was the crystal the primordial goddess of time from the Chaos Pantheon used to observe the world!"

"See that lump of black mud? It wasn't black mud originally. It was an apple core left over from the apple Adam and Eve ate back then..."

Silence. Li Mo fell silent, and even his gaze began to lose focus.

What the hell was he even talking about? That first crystal had been fine, but what about the rest?

A stone? Black mud? Or that withered lotus beside it?

So all the money the Clock Tower allocated every year was spent on this stuff?

Wait... a lotus?

In mythology, lotuses had never been ordinary plants. For instance, the Twelve-Petaled Golden Lotus in Western Buddhism, or Ra's Lotus of Creation in Egyptian mythology.

Li Mo's heart stirred. An indescribable thought suddenly surged within him, his pupils dilated, and all his attention seemed to focus on that withered lotus.

If he had to put it into words, this thing was destined for him?

Brishisan seemed to sense something. He turned back to look at the entranced Li Mo, but made no move to disturb him.

After a while, Li Mo finally came back to himself. He withdrew his gaze and asked, "Professor Brishisan, what is the origin of this lotus?"

"I don't know." Brishisan shook his head. "This lotus was passed down by one of our ancestor Solomon's disciples. Its origins were never explained, and there are no records of it in the Department of Lore either."

He didn't know?

Li Mo shook his head and stared blankly at the lotus again. It was as though a voice in his heart was urging him on, making him unable to resist reaching toward the shelf.

"Professor, can I take it?" Li Mo murmured. The last shred of his rationality made him force out that question.

"Sure. I brought you here to give you—uh..." Before Brishisan could finish, Li Mo had already rushed forward and grabbed the lotus.

Brishisan was stunned. Why was this kid acting like he had lost his mind?

Wouldn't all these things be his eventually?

But Li Mo could no longer care about that. Ignoring Brishisan's inward complaints, the instant he touched the lotus, his consciousness entered another world entirely. Only his and Brishisan's breathing remained in the underground warehouse.

"Where is this?" In an unknown world, Li Mo looked around and asked himself that question.

It seemed to be nighttime. The stars filling the sky shone brilliantly, as though Li Mo could pluck them down with a reach of his hand.

No, it wasn't as though he could!

Li Mo lowered his head and froze. This was the starry sky itself!

And beneath his feet was a truly blazing sun!

"Is this the world contained within that lotus?" Coming back to his senses, Li Mo stood atop the sun and muttered to himself.

Sure enough, lotuses were never simple things, no matter where they existed.

"Hiss!" With a strange cry, Li Mo pinched himself hard at the waist.

That hurt!

Li Mo's face lit up with excitement. This wasn't an illusion. It was actually a world!

He just had no idea why he was standing on the sun without being burned.

Suddenly, Li Mo noticed that blue, light-like vapor was continuously flowing from his body. It drifted slowly before sinking into the sun and gradually disappearing.

It sank in, and sank in again, and sank in again... then—

"Ah! Give it back!"

The strange cry rang out again. Li Mo looked as if he had lost his mind, wildly grabbing at the vapor with both hands as though trying to pull it back into his body.

He had finally realized what it was. This was the magical energy he had spent a full three months accumulating to fill himself!

"Could this damned place be a trap?"

After a while, Li Mo gave up.

He had tried every method he could think of, yet not a trace of magical energy remained within him. Feeling the emptiness inside his body, Li Mo was on the verge of tears.

Helpless and furious, Li Mo plopped down on the sun and puffed out his cheeks as he sulked.

Go wherever you want. Out with the old, in with the new. It's not like I can do anything about it!

"I refuse to believe this place has nothing!" Gritting his teeth, Li Mo looked around, hoping to find some compensation for his losses.

Then Li Mo despaired.

What could he possibly expect to find on the sun? Some legendary treasure? And beyond that was nothing but starry space. With one glance, he could see there wasn't even any fucking air...

I'll carry you all to victory!

Li Mo felt outrageously furious. If there had been a mirror in front of him, he figured his face would have been red with anger by now!

Why was there nothing here?! Why was he on the sun?! Why was there nothing on the sun?!

And wasn't the sun made of gas? Why could he stand on it?!

"Hey! Is anyone there?!"

No one answered.

Helpless, Li Mo simply sprawled out and lay down on the sun.

Wait...

Li Mo's expression suddenly changed.

A force seemed to be seeping into his body, thread by thread, from where he was touching the sun beneath him.

This power was not the magical energy he had accumulated before, yet it resembled magical energy and could be controlled perfectly.

Brightness, warmth, strength—those were the feelings this power gave him.

Slowly, Li Mo's expression changed from misery to confusion, from confusion to delight, and then gradually became downright unhinged...

Compared to this power, magical energy did not even seem to be on the same level. It was powerful and incredibly refined!

Most importantly, it was still pouring into his body!

Feeling the power within him gradually filling up, Li Mo's face grew uninhibited. His earlier complaints had long vanished, leaving only blissful enjoyment.

Come on, keep going. Let more of this power come!

Gentlemen, I crave (crossed out) power!

But would things really go as Li Mo wished?

Before long, Li Mo suddenly frowned, realizing that things did not seem so simple.

His body seemed nearly full already, so why had this power not stopped?

Imagine a balloon being inflated, getting bigger, then inflated again, getting bigger again, then inflated again, and then...

"Hiss..." Li Mo swallowed. He wasn't actually going to be blown apart by all this power, was he?

So what should one do in a situation like this?

Analyze the cause, verify it repeatedly, reach a conclusion!

Those three steps took Li Mo only three seconds.

Wasn't the transmission of this power dependent on his contact with the sun?

Then he stood up!

Then he cried...

He couldn't fly, and this power was still drilling into his body through the soles of his feet...

"Heaven wants me dead! Heaven envies genius!" Li Mo cried out heartbrokenly.

"No, there must be a way!" Li Mo muttered. He felt that he could not simply sit and wait for death.

Power... what was the essence of power? And what was the essence of the human body storing power?

Magic Circuits! Right, ordinary magi had little magical energy because they possessed few Magic Circuits. I have so much magical energy because I have 108 Magic Circuits!

And most magi's Magic Circuits were located only in a certain part of their bodies. In other words, even one small part of the human body could contain many Magic Circuits.

"But I'm different. My Magic Circuits are spread throughout my entire body and widely dispersed. I'm fundamentally different from other magi!"

After pondering for a long time, just as the power entering through his feet was about to burst him apart, Li Mo finally thought of a solution!

A heaven-shaking solution!

Since the Magic Circuits in my body correspond to the 108 meridians, why can't I try opening up those even finer meridians and use them as Magic Circuits?

This was a lofty idea!

This was a lofty man!

Because he was turning this Type-Moon World of magecraft into his own Eastern cultivation world!

In modern popular terms, there was only one thing to say: fucking awesome!

If this were ancient times, countless people would probably kneel and shout: Saints!

"Fuck it," Li Mo said, hardening his heart as he began controlling the power within him to force its way into places beyond his Magic Circuits.

If people don't push themselves, they never know how despairing things can get! (crossed out)

Eighteen years later, I'll be a hero again! (crossed out)

When a man dies, he faces the sky; if he lives, he lives for ten thousand years! (crossed out)

Take a gamble, turn a bicycle into a motorcycle!

Yes, that one!