Only Today Did I Know Myself

Every anomaly had one, and only one, "supernatural power."

Different anomalies possessed different powers. Some were intensely lethal, while others would generally leave you unharmed as long as you did not actively interfere with them.

At least, that was how Xia Anmeng had described them.

As countless blue arms spread out and seized Ye Wuyou tight, an overwhelming, suffocating sense of life and death washed over him.

Squeezing, binding-the pressure crushing every inch of him made his bones crack and creak.

That terrifying, spectral-blue face drew closer and grew larger, swelling from an ordinary human face into something like a vast painted backdrop, its blood-basin maw opening before Ye Wuyou.

On the brink of death, Ye Wuyou felt only the pain coursing through his body, enough to nearly make him pass out.

[Pain. Such terrible pain. Between life and death, you tried everything you possibly could, but ultimately, this body's strength was too feeble to accomplish anything.]

[Yet Heaven never bars every path. You began to crave power, and finally discovered that the key to turning things around lay within you.]

[Devour all the soul power of this Sixth Realm remnant soul within your body and merge it into yourself. Never mind the thing before you-even all the Great Dao Remnants here would no longer be able to halt a single step you took.]

What was the narrator barking about?

Can't hear you. Too quiet. Can't hear you.

"What are you doing? Stop! Stop right now!"

"You've gone mad! At this rate, I'll suffer soul annihilation!"

Hm? What was that voice?

Xia Anmeng? What was that damned woman still yelling about? Couldn't she see I was about to croak?

Why was she still possessing me? Get lost.

The next second, a faint streak of light shot out of Ye Wuyou's body and hastily burrowed into the ring on Lu Caiwei's finger. She lay unconscious on the floor.

[A relic of a bygone era. With kindness in your heart, you ultimately spared her life, taking only sixty percent of her soul power. Barely enough, but enough nonetheless.]

I'm tired. Let it all be destroyed.

His body crushed and twisted, black blood already spilling from his seven orifices, Ye Wuyou felt the light in his eyes fade bit by bit.

At last, when it had dwindled to the faintest glimmer, everything seemed to come to a standstill.

The immense soul power transformed into abundant vital energy, spreading and rampaging through his body. Guided by the spontaneous circulation of the Formless Heart Sutra, it gradually permeated everything.

What was formlessness?

To be formless was to dwell within form, yet depart from form.

To be formless was to have no form of self, and thus seek one's true form.

To be formless was to assume the forms of all living beings.

And thus, the first stage of the Formless Heart Sutra-No-Self.

He had mastered it.

The light in his eyes dimmed once more. The next second, the blue maw swallowed him whole.

To anyone outside, it looked as though Ye Wuyou, suspended in midair, had suddenly vanished without explanation.

The world was blue.

A man walked through this world, unable to find land.

The spectral-blue ocean seemed to comprise the entirety of this world.

And so, he could only stand upon its surface, slowly drawing his gaze back from the distance until he looked down at his feet.

The spectral-blue water reflected his face.

Familiar, yet utterly strange.

Who am I? The question surfaced in his mind, simply and naturally.

But immediately, the question in his mind became: Who I am doesn't matter. Who can I be?

His contemplation did not last long.

Ripple after ripple gradually spread across the azure sea.

The ripples scattered his reflection and shattered his thoughts.

They grew increasingly frantic, until a terrifying, abyssal whirlpool churned across the sea. From its center, an enormous phantom figure suddenly surged forth.

A gigantic spectral-blue face, with countless arms extending from it.

It rose above the sea like a demonic god, scrutinizing from on high the figure swaying precariously beneath the battering wind and waves.

The man was drenched, seawater running down his face along his sodden hair. Yet as he stared at the sight before him, the light in his eyes grew ever clearer.

"I remember now," he said.

He reached out, pointed at the spectral-blue monster before him, and said,

"You were the one who ate me."

Then he thought for a moment and spoke with interest, as though asking a question.

"Since you wanted to eat me, you won't have any complaints if I end up eating you instead, will you?"

Not a flicker crossed the enormous spectral-blue face. Its dead-fish eyes held only the same terrifying strangeness as before.

But soon, its gaze changed.

Its angle shifted.

From looking down loftily, it gradually came to look straight ahead, then tilted its face up to stare overhead.

The face, its eyes still like those of a dead fish, opened its mouth. No sound emerged, but perhaps those countless flailing hands were meant to express a furious roar?

Or a threat?

Smack.

Ye Wuyou lifted his foot from the ground.

Only a small smear of blue liquid and a little puddle remained there.

Around the puddle stretched a boundless expanse of land.

Ye Wuyou continued onward, his steps steady upon the land. The little puddle behind him grew farther and farther away, until it vanished from sight.

An unusual silence hung over the prison.

The standoff between the Mute Woman and the Legless Man appeared to have ended, though they still stood apart, facing one another.

The white jelly-like skin had spent ages squeezing out of its cage, but apparently its body was too fat; even after all that time, it still had not managed to get out.

The remaining child and the wooden stake still stayed quietly in their cages, looking quite well behaved.

Yet now, every one of these anomalies, whether they had eyes or not, had turned its attention toward a single cage.

Just as he had inexplicably vanished earlier, Ye Wuyou inexplicably reappeared inside the cage.

No aura rippled around him, nor did he reveal any cultivation realm, yet he still drew the gaze of every anomaly present.

"Ye Wuyou" floated gently down to the floor, one hand held behind his back, and calmly walked forward toward the cage door.

His steps were neither hurried nor slow, composed and unruffled.

"Creak..."

The cage door was gently pushed open, and Ye Wuyou, dressed in a deep-black jailer's uniform, walked toward a certain spot.

The Legless Man's eyes remained vacant. After a few seconds, he too moved toward Ye Wuyou.

Off to the side, all the anomalies quietly watched this unfold.

At last, the two figures met.

Ye Wuyou said nothing, but the Legless Man shook his head, as though trying to convey something.

And so, his expression calm, Ye Wuyou reached out and rested his hand lightly on the Legless Man's shoulder.

His words carried a mocking edge.

"A mere Great Dao Remnant-why do you stand when speaking to me?"

Boom!

The Legless Man's body involuntarily dropped to its knees in obeisance.

In the candlelight, his shadow, which consisted only of two legs, gradually dissipated.

Meanwhile, inside the cage, the woman's reflection gradually regained its legs.

Ye Wuyou withdrew his gaze without giving the Legless Man another look, then turned toward the Mute Woman behind him.

Watching Ye Wuyou approach, the Mute Woman in her gray-white robe seemed almost humanly "excited," turning several circles on the spot.

Finally, the Mute Woman knelt before Ye Wuyou of her own accord, pressing her body close against his thigh.

Then she took one of his hands and tucked it beneath the long hair hanging down in front of her, rubbing against it delicately, almost greedily.

An icy, lifeless sensation reached his fingertips. Ye Wuyou gently closed his eyes, his expression content and at ease.

He extended his other hand to stroke the Mute Woman's hair. Feeling her cold body tremble faintly against his thigh with excitement, he suddenly intoned,

"Only today did I know myself."