Chapter Ninety-Six: "The Flame Demon"

This was the formidable power that the Serpent of Poison brought from its homeland—a universe governed by idealistic laws—yet it also served as testament to how practitioners could pit their meager strength against the heavens.

Since that was the case, to shatter the Serpent’s absolute rigid body, one had to unleash an attack powerful enough to break materials held together by the strong nuclear force.

The so-called hadron collider was, in essence, the particle accelerator described in high school textbooks. It utilized the Lorentz force as centripetal force, endlessly accelerating protons by continuously varying magnetic field intensities to observe the most extreme high-energy particle states. In doing so, it unraveled the myriad wondrous laws of the microscopic world, serving as humanity’s gateway to the truth of the future.

Particles accelerated to their limits converged into unimaginable, ultra-high-energy levels. Temperatures could reach as high as a billion degrees—surpassing even the core of a star.

While that sounds terrifying, such energy would only exist at a high density within a minuscule space—so small that even if it struck a human body directly, only a few atoms would burst. Yet, for an absolute rigid body, it was a fatal blow.

Atoms compressed tightly by the strong nuclear force are undeniably solid, but they are merely a miracle that rewrites physical laws within a small range. Once subjected to a powerful enough strike, even the vibration of a single atom could trigger an avalanche-like chain reaction, causing the entire absolute rigid body to vanish in an instant.

Adonsa had scoured the nation for talent and resources to hastily construct a massive hadron collider here, solely to break the Serpent’s absolute rigid body with particle collisions comparable to a Big Bang.

This was the optimal plan Adonsa had derived through precise calculations—the only winning opportunity it could grasp. Had the Tianjing military rashly launched a nuclear strike, it would have jeopardized the construction of Adonsa’s particle accelerator and hindered the execution of its plan.

With the successive impacts of four space stations, Adonsa finally fully mapped out the Serpent’s defenses, routing all of its capabilities in one fell swoop.

The Serpent’s scattered Delta waves dissipated into the air, gradually vanishing into the magnetic fields of all things. Perhaps it still retained a spark, one that might miraculously awaken eons later, but for now, it had lost all capacity to threaten.

Adonsa ventured to gather the remaining Delta waves, decoding the precious information contained within. The Serpent had originated from another chaotic universe where matter and energy did not exist, where even space and time were absent, inhabited only by various spiritual entities of differing strengths.

That was the Idealistic Universe, a world composed purely of spirit and thought.

However, all that was in the past. A powerful force had suddenly intruded upon that world, an endless malice infecting every free-spirited thought, dragging the entire world into an abyss of mire.

As Adonsa gazed at the murky red in the memory, it could not help but feel a sense of suffocation. It hurriedly severed the connection; it feared that if it kept watching, that force might transcend the endless reaches of space and time to touch it.

What was that?

Adonsa dared not even ponder this question. At the very least, it could not afford to be associated with an entity capable of destroying a universe; even a mere glance could lead to catastrophic consequences.

Steadying its mind, Adonsa began to watch with caution. In the final moments of annihilation, the most powerful beings of the Idealistic Universe joined forces to detonate their entire universe, choosing self-destruction over being consumed and corrupted by an unknown evil god.

The Idealistic Universe was like a shattered egg; countless droplet-like fragments spilled into the void. Some were ground away by the endless emptiness, while others were fortunate enough to enter another universe.

The Serpent was one such lucky survivor, yet it was also unfortunate. For a lifeform from an Idealistic Universe to arrive in a material world was like a deep-sea fish cast into a desert; in an instant, it was nearly evaporated by the harsh environment.

It eked out a meager existence, parasitizing humans and slowly initiating its plan. It created the religion of the Heavenly Dao, planting it deep in the hearts of every human, and selected suitable candidates to stimulate their spiritual power, providing the material it needed to observe and alter this world.

To resist the oppression of the material world, the Serpent had to suppress its entire psyche, carrying out this plan with immense difficulty. Three thousand years passed in this manner.

Three thousand years of shifting tides were truly marvelous in the eyes of the Serpent, which originally possessed no concept of time. Most of the time it spent in slumber, recovering and accumulating strength, but occasionally, upon waking, it would feel a profound loneliness.

In this world, it was almost the only idealistic lifeform; all other life was incapable of resonating with it. Therefore, it had to change this world. It had to rebuild its own universe and transform this planet into an idealistic universe that transcended matter.

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"I need to sleep for a while," Adonsa said to Helena.

Helena immediately shrieked, "What is with this 'series finale' sense of ease? Do you think everything is over just because you defeated that Heavenly Dao?"

Adonsa, of course, did not think so. It knew that whether it was the surviving practitioners within Tianjing, the mechanical lifeforms of Amester, or the ambiguously aligned Frankenstein, all were eyeing it with covetous intent.

However, the cost of forcibly driving the Undead Tree had been far too great. Controlling a combat weapon that evolved an entire tier higher than itself was already strenuous enough, not to mention that the genetic degradation within the Undead Tree had backflowed into its own body, infecting all its split entities simultaneously.

On the surface, nothing seemed amiss, but in reality, Adonsa’s life force was nearly depleted; it could no longer sustain a serious battle.

Adonsa said, "I must repair the damage caused by this battle, digest the resources I have acquired, and evolve once more. Otherwise, I have no chance of winning as I am."

After a brief silence, Helena muttered sullenly, "I am a demon; do not think I will offer you my loyalty. Should anything happen, I will immediately take Livida and flee. Do not try to threaten me; you cannot imagine the methods of a demon."

Adonsa did not care about Helena’s thoughts; in fact, it had long since made arrangements.

"Although my split entities have been severely damaged, my reincarnated bodies and dependents retain their full combat capability. And my several experimental subjects—they will all contribute."

In the darkness, a dozen disparate figures emerged, radiating an exotic and powerful aura that made Helena narrow her eyes. She murmured, "Things are about to get interesting."

Adonsa’s research into its dependents had finally yielded results; even if its primary consciousness fell into a deep slumber, it could still maintain sufficient combat power.

In distant Amester, countless mechanical beasts slept in shipping containers as heavy transport machinery roared, carrying these living weapons of slaughter toward the horizon.

Frankenstein smiled in his laboratory.

A group of capsule-like minions piloted a captured pirate ship. The mangled vessel surged forward at high speed, powered by exaggerated rocket thrusters and threatening to fall apart at any moment, while several pirates, stripped down to their undergarments, hung from the mast and let out shrill, desperate screams.

In a corner of Wushui, a mass of sludge trembled and coalesced into a human shape, only to be protected and carried away by the astonished Wang Daoming.

Turmoil spread across the lands, igniting a wave of world-upending chaos at the very moment of Adonsa’s greatest vulnerability.