229: Devouring Planet

It should have been a day as peaceful as any other, but in the depths of the vast desert, an Eclipse fell into the abyss beneath the earth.

Countless terrifying Abyssal Monsters that did not belong to this world erupted from the ground like a spring; the monsters, thrown hundreds of meters into the air, filled the atmosphere like mist, and once they hit the ground, they would begin to run frantically as long as they weren't killed by the fall.

The monsters that fell to their deaths bit into their own bodies with sharp teeth, tearing their flesh into small, bite-sized pieces so that other monsters could devour them and continue running.

Smashing through every building and devouring all visible life, they were more like breathing natural disasters than monsters.

Thus, a portion of the monsters successfully crossed the rainforest and arrived at The Chasm.

At that moment, monsters surged out from all over Teyvat. The Chasm's defense force was effectively attacked from both sides, but a Yaksha stepped forward! He wore a purple mask and had four arms on his shoulders! Lightning flickered in his palms, and he was as strong as an ox!

Led by this Yaksha, the soldiers lured the monsters into the depths of The Chasm. Using the fantastic compass as an anchor, they sealed the Abyssal Monsters along with themselves within this eerie underground palace!

Boyang's younger brother, Rongzhao, successfully escaped, hoping to inform Liyue Harbor of what had happened here.

Though they might not have a future, the underground palace continued to read everyone's wishes.

On the first day, everyone's spirits were still high. Together with the Yaksha, they found a campsite in the palace and took a long-awaited day of rest.

On the second day, some began to notice that they didn't feel hungry despite being there for a long time, even though sleep should have consumed significant energy.

On the third day, a Millelith soldier wandering the palace found mahjong and Pai Gow tiles. They thought others might have been there before, but their search yielded nothing.

On the fourth day, the group passed the time with the entertainment they found; those who didn't know how to play rested nearby.

On the fifth day, they realized their sense of time was becoming distorted. Those playing tiles had a relatively consistent perception of time, but those with nothing to do felt it differently. The one with the fastest perception believed they had been there for seven months.

The sixth day, the seventh, the eighth... by the eighteenth day, someone disappeared, and unease began to spread.

Within the underground palace, the group found many strange sights, providing fertile ground for rumors to grow.

There were branches grown into the silhouettes of humans, rumored to match the posture of a certain missing soldier.

There were also pitch-black caves; some said they could hear the voices of their families calling from the other side.

Or a room where those who stepped inside would see what they feared most. Upon coming out, they would become fearful and anxious, eventually losing their sanity one day and walking back into that room forever.

Chen Xiao was a middle-aged soldier. Having lost his parents at a young age, he was raised by the community. Even his wife hadn't been able to stay with him until the end, leaving him with the mission of caring for his three young children alone.

After coming to the underground palace, he constantly worried about his three children, eventually vanishing one day. No one ever saw him again, but a humanoid tree appeared in the nearby thicket, bearing three white flowers.

Li Rong was just over eighteen and hadn't been in the army for long. He believed that cave was extremely dangerous and was convinced the voices coming from it were Abyssal Monsters trying to bewitch them.

He had a mother with mobility issues and a newlywed wife, yet he heard their voices inside the cave.

Chen Rong worried about being bewitched and specifically stayed away from the cave, but one day he inexplicably lost his sense of direction, got lost, and accidentally fell into it.

And that final room, just as it was when first discovered, stayed there quietly waiting for someone to open it, then spread its throat-like doors.

They were all dead. The four-armed Yaksha was no longer lucid, leaving only Boyang alone, pleading for him not to die before him, not to leave him all alone.

The palace ignored their wishes; it simply continued to absorb the lingering wills of the soldiers whose whereabouts were unknown.

Was it to go home? To see their children one last time? Or to take care of their mothers?

None of the above. Countless soldiers lost in The Chasm left behind only one shared wish.

To defend the underground palace to the death, and never let anything take a single step out of here.

This was the memory recovered by Bosacius, the past he had completed.

Whether because two Descenders were present or due to the nature of the palace itself, this memory flowed into the minds of everyone present, including the final tragic wish of the Millelith soldiers.

It was the will to hold the line to the death, with their homes behind them, never retreating.

The memories that suddenly surfaced caused a tear to unknowingly fall from the corner of Zhi Qiong's eye. As it hit the ground, it reflected a sky full of crimson.

Everyone was startled and looked up at the sky.

The false sky created by the palace's illusion had vanished, and the technique preventing everyone from leaving revealed its true form.

In the sky, an endless expanse of red stretched to the horizon. Looking closely, it was actually one red humanoid shadow after another.

They held hands and feet, their bodies linked together to form a massive net covering the sky!

The great net twisted and writhed in the air with the sound of the wind, letting out bursts of wailing, while their gazes looked straight down at the people on the ground.

Based on the final wishes of countless Millelith before their deaths and woven from the vengeful spirits of those same soldiers, it was a "human net" designed to block any external enemy from leaving the palace—an autonomous technique cluster named "Lurking Wonder of the Grassy Dreams"!

Now, the technique composed of heroes' tragic wishes and spirits began to emit a purple mist. This was the Abyssal Power corroding the technique and interfering with its operational logic.

"Those are no longer vengeful spirits; they aren't even ghosts anymore." Hu Tao gripped her staff of homa tightly. "That black energy has polluted them into something else. They can't even find peace after death!"

The operational logic had been rewritten from "protecting the home behind" to "all living things must perish." The twisted net was no longer satisfied with trapping everyone beneath The Chasm; it wanted to climb up to the surface world and integrate more living beings into itself, weaving an even larger net!

Yanfei gripped the blade in his hand: "Can this 'Rule Breaker' destroy this technique once and for all?"

Huo Xi compared the two: "It can tear a hole to let us escape using the fantastic compass, but destroying it completely is impossible."

Everyone's expressions grew increasingly grave. If this autonomous technique cluster reached the surface of The Chasm, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lan Yan noticed something and hurried over to support Zhi Qiong. As the only ordinary person among them, Zhi Qiong was finding it hard to withstand the pressure. Chest tightness and shortness of breath left her weak, but luckily Lan Yan caught her before she fell.

Yakoda, who was guarding the front with her shield, also noticed and rushed over to help: "Sister Zhi Qiong, are you okay?"

Zhi Qiong shook her head, her voice sounding weak: "I feel... it shouldn't be like this."

Her voice wasn't loud, yet it reached everyone's ears.

"They are clearly the heroes of Liyue. They are heroic spirits who turned their own lives into a net even after death to prevent the Abyss from escaping, yet they have to become vengeful spirits, and now even their final tragic wish is being twisted again..."

"This is the scar of Teyvat." Xiao spoke quietly, gazing at the net of spirits in the sky. "As long as the Abyssal disaster rages in Teyvat, we cannot relax for a single day.

Liyue has been this way for thousands of years, and so have other nations."

Zhi Qiong's gaze grew more dejected. "But they ended up like this for the sake of Liyue, yet because of the Abyssal pollution, they are turning their hostility toward their own home..."

"Zhi Qiong, our peaceful life today exists because these heroes bear the burden for us. That's why I can weave rattan and you can adventure as you please." Lan Yan's voice was like birdsong in the wind as an elemental shield appeared to share the pressure for Zhi Qiong. "Now that the heroes' wishes are being twisted, we must set aside our sorrow, because if we do nothing, Liyue Harbor behind us will also suffer a great catastrophe."

It was so for Rex Lapis and the Adepti during the period when Liyue was still called 'Shanhui Fort', it was so for the Eight Wonders after Liyue's birth, and now, it is the same for the Yakshas and the soldiers of the Millelith.

Zhi Qiong understood these truths, but she was just an ordinary person. She was different from everyone else present. Facing a massive disaster that human intelligence could not handle, while others could pool their strengths, she could only pray helplessly behind them.

She clasped her hands to her chest, recalling her experiences and things she'd seen on the road, murmuring softly, "I just feel... the end for heroes shouldn't be like this... They should be praised and remembered, not swept away by the Abyss and dying as monsters... If there are still Adepti who can hear my prayer, I hope to at least return the title of hero to them.

Perhaps, without the Abyssal pollution, they would all just be ordinary members of a family. In that case, there could be no heroes in the world, or perhaps everyone would be a hero..."

"There are no heroes in the world, or perhaps everyone is a hero." Lumine heard this sentence and repeated it in a low voice.

Whether this would impact the journey to the Nation of War in the future remained unknown. At this moment, even with their combined efforts, the group could find no way to stop what was unfolding before their eyes. However, as everyone quieted down, the sound of Huo Xi and Paimon's banter reached their ears.

"Paimon, do you think that thing in the sky is good or bad?"

"Isn't that obvious? They might have been good before, but now they're bad."

"Why?"

"Because... because they've been corrupted by the Abyss, and they won't let us escape."

"Oh... because the Abyss is bad, and they're stopping us from escaping." Huo Xi nodded, then looked at Paimon. "Then Paimon, what if what they're stopping isn't us, but a giant monster that would bring the apocalypse to all of Teyvat the moment it stepped out of The Chasm? In that case, wouldn't they be the good guys?"

Everyone's gaze converged on Huo Xi. Zhi Qiong and Lan Yan looked over as well, only to see that Huo Xi was no longer wearing the black robes of the WangSheng Funeral Parlor, but was instead dressed in all red.

Huo Xi turned around and raised his right hand, revealing a pattern composed of three strange lines.

Lumine looked at Huo Xi. "Are you going to turn into the Giant Spider again? But didn't you say you don't have the power to purify? Are you planning to eat all these vengeful spirits?"

Huo Xi shook his head. He walked toward Lumine, took her right hand, and with a swipe across the back of it, the three red strokes of the command spell were transferred to her hand.

Huo Xi held Lumine's hand and said, "The Giant Spider won't work. The Giant Spider is like a natural disaster, a True Neutral existence; that's not evil. What I want to summon is something evil, something destructive, yet a final trial that humanity itself must overcome."

No translation needed for this segment as it's part of the previous logic, but strictly following the tag: "What I want to summon is an evil, destructive, final trial that must be overcome by humanity itself."

"What's the point of that?"

"There is a point, of course there is. Let's assume this disaster itself loves humanity; then it possesses the qualification to purify the souls of heroes. Let's further assume this disaster's love is so thick that it actually twists into a form of evil; then it can also grant its enemies the legitimacy of being heroes."

The opposite of evil is justice. It's a very simple theory."

Huo Xi pressed the back of his hand against Lumine's. The status of Master and the command spell capable of commanding the summoned entity began to transfer to Lumine, while Huo Xi himself would only be responsible for the summoning.

"This is exactly what I want to do. Since I am the throne of heroes itself, I should logically be able to summon myself. And since the summoned self is, after all, a fictional product, I can endow that 'me' with various hypotheses and concepts to fill it out."

"Like stuffing cotton into a doll, I use various hypotheses as a foundation to make a fictional version of myself into a real existence."

"At that time, if I am an existence that is evil toward humanity, then those who oppose me can be classified as righteous, thereby allowing the law of causality to achieve their purification."

Huo Xi's tone was very calm, but Lumine's brow furrowed deeper and deeper. She felt Huo Xi was up to something again. "What are you doing? Didn't you say some alien divine authority could purify vengeful spirits?"

"But they can't purify vengeful spirits that have merged with Abyssal Power to this extent; they can only kill them. But I can. Similarly, if I become a disaster that humanity must overcome, then you, as a human, should be able to defeat me."

Huo Xi held Lumine's hand and spoke slowly under everyone's gaze. "Now, listen to my hypothesis."

"Suppose in a place called the Solar System, there exists a planet named Earth. There is also a group of humans on Earth, but they are still in the childhood of their civilization, not yet having gained the power to cross the stars."

"And at the edge of the Solar System, there is a 'Hypothetical Spherical Cloud of Celestial Bodies' surrounding it. They have reached a point of equilibrium under the gravity of the Sun and the gravity of the universe, forming a tidal belt that envelops the entire Solar System."

"That is the Oort Cloud, which is my origin."

The native humans of Teyvat couldn't understand, but Lumine could. Her eyes gradually widened as she looked at Huo Xi in confusion, not knowing what he intended to do.

Huo Xi continued, "A will born from the stars, the Giant Spider named ORT, should have no emotions and cannot empathize with humans."

"However, within the body of this spider, I appeared. The will named Huo Xi possesses emotions, has thoughts, and can empathize with humans."

"Then can I assume that the stars also possess a will?"

"Thus, I hypothesize again: Earth revolves in an orbit around the Sun, but if there were a celestial body on the opposite side of the Sun that always maintained the exact same relative position as Earth, revolving in the same orbit, then this celestial body would forever be obscured by the Sun. It and Earth would never see each other."

"So, does the Sun also have such a 'companion star' that has not been discovered by humans?"

"A companion star with a will, with thoughts, and the ability to empathize with humans. It loves humanity, so through stellar-level gravitational perturbations, it cast off the scattered disc of the Kuiper Belt, forming the imaginary tidal belt known as the Oort Cloud."

"Then the Oort Cloud is no longer a mere hypothetical celestial body, but a cradle that envelops humanity, preventing them from being noticed by high-level civilizations of other star systems, a cradle that protects the safety of the infant."

Huo Xi spread his arms and walked backward.

Beneath his feet, a Servant summoning circle gradually took shape. He used himself as the 'artifact' to summon a Pseudo-Servant named Huo Xi.

"This kind of protection is indeed protection in name, but to a certain extent, it cuts off contact between humanity and the universe, effectively closing off the development of human civilization. Therefore, it is a 'Great Filter' that originates from 'love' but actually constitutes 'evil.' It is a cosmic disaster directed at humanity that must be personally overcome by humanity."

"And so, the hypothesis is established."

Huo Xi's body suddenly began to burn. A cyan-blue plasma flame began to expand, growing taller and taller, finally forming a massive wall of fire that reached from the heavens to the earth.

The moment the wall of fire touched the giant web in the sky, it actually burned through it. Countless wailing voices mingled, so loud it made people's eardrums ache.

But then, an earth-shaking beastly roar came from within the wall of fire, and the world fell into silence once more.

In the universe where ORT originated, there existed disasters on Earth known as 'Evils of Humanity.' But counterintuitively, these disasters named 'Evil' actually all originated from 'love' for humanity.

Did Huo Xi love the humans of Teyvat? He did indeed love them, but it must be noted that this was not love in the conventional sense, but a high-and-mighty love looking down from a narrative level, as a former player of 'Genshin Impact'.

We can simply call it 'Mercy'.

And when this love exceeds its limits and forms behavior manifesting as 'spoiling,' then so-called 'protection' is actually no different from 'imprisonment'.

This was the underlying logic of the 'Evil of Humanity' summoned by Huo Xi—a 'desire to protect that turns itself into an eggshell, swallowing the planet into its belly'.

Thus, a terrifying beast unacknowledged by Human Order was born within the pale blue flames. It was a giant beast with silver-white skin, looking very much like a MUTO. (A monster from the Legendary Godzilla series; I will attach a picture later.)

At the same time, Lumine, as the Master, received information about this giant beast in her mind.

An Evil of Humanity, an existence with the Class of 'Beast,' must be born carrying one of the world's rules, or rather, the world's 'Principles.' Similarly, it must also possess the ability to negate a certain rule of the world.

And the pale monster standing over seven hundred meters tall before them was the 'Beast' that embraced the Principle of 'Mercy,' took the negation of heroism as its duty, and held high the banner of 'Anti-Hero'.

In Lumine's eyes, the status screen belonging to her Servant gradually appeared.

"Principle Held: Mercy"

Class Skills: Nega-Gibbor EX

Independent Manifestation EX

Clairvoyance EX

Magic Resistance EX

Self-Admonition • Armament Degradation EX

Fictional Fate - Spiral of True Knowledge B

..."

A calamity named Beast naturally wouldn't use human armaments. The Gate of Babylon was disabled, and the Elemental Power of the Human Realm could not be used. Even the 'Pseudo-Scripture: Spear of Lucretius' had turned into the skill 'Independent Manifestation.' Its effect was an S2 Engine that could exist independently without relying on anyone—transformed into a massive red sphere placed in the monster's chest.

But what was lost in power was gained in mass. With a mass equivalent to an entire island, the monster fully stepped out of the flames. An Evil of Humanity had descended here!

It was the imaginary part positioned as the 'First Beast' among the seven Beasts, the 'Imaginary Beast' known as 'Beast-I'.

Lumine stared blankly at the sky and spoke its name.

The true name of that Singularity formed by the throne of heroes itself was—

"Companion Star Perturbation Scattered Disc • Opit-Oort • The One Who Devours Planets."