697 Memory Corruption

“Leave the rest to us,” said the dean.

“This battle also determines the entire human race’s dominance in this dominion,” added the Eternal Tower Master, his eyes blazing with a fierce determination.

Having ventured into the Abyss countless times, Eternal Tower Master had no sympathy for those who indulged in Abyss Sacrifice for prolonged periods. While the occasional use of this magic could be justified, if this continued for extended periods… it only meant that those who were corrupted by the Abyss and had lost themselves to its power were beyond redemption.

“Alright.” Xu Jingming disappeared in a flash, retreating into the Heart Realm where he could observe the battle from a safe distance. Asinus has a score to settle with me, having tried to take my life through karma before. If it escapes, it will only bide its time and strike at the most opportune moment, regardless of its fear toward the human race.

Therefore, Xu Jingming knew which one he would rather spare between Asinus and Dome Wishswan.

The latter had no significant conflict with the human race and had nothing to lose from this battle!

Of the three Abyss powerhouses, Dome Wishswan had the least grudge with humans! In the vast and treacherous Abyss, such conflicts were commonplace, and as long as the human race emerged victorious, Dome Wishswan wouldn’t waste its efforts in seeking revenge.

“Get lost!”

The terrifying trio closed in on Asinus, who had managed to break free from their illusion.

“Suppress!”

From the void emerged a massive palm wreathed in black flames, descending upon the towering Asinus who wielded a staff of darkness. The beast roared and summoned an abyssal phantom as it unleashed its attack, but its might was feeble against the power of the black-flamed palm.

With a crushing force, the palm sent the staff flying and broke Asinus’s arm, reducing its once-mighty form to nothing.

Its body—which it was most proud of—was pulverized.

Asinus seethed with rage as it blamed the Heart Realm lineage for its defeat. It’s all because of that Ming! He used the illusory realm to hold me back!

It snarled, its crushed form turning into a pool of black liquid with its faces appearing in the dark substance.

Bang!

The black liquid exploded and tore open another escape rift, allowing it to flee.

The dean, Tower Master, and Island Lord were unfazed, watching as the liquid burned with black flames and emitted pitiful cries of agony.

“Stop, stop, stop. I admit defeat,” Asinus’s faces pleaded anxiously from the drops of black liquid.

But the high-dimensional lifeforms of the human race remained unmoved by its pleas.

“No.”

“I admit defeat.”

“Let me go.”

The pitiful cries of the black liquid that had escaped the formation echoed through high-dimensional space, sending shivers down the spines of the distant high-dimensional lifeforms.

Asinus’s vitality was terrifying; as long as a single droplet survived, it could continue to live. But the forbidden weapons wielded by the human lifeforms were too much for it to bear.

It consumed everything in its path, even reaching across karma to destroy the enemy’s life imprints.

Asinus’s strength lay in its powerful body, not in any life marks branded in the Abyss like the Abyss Thousand-Eyed Spider Demon.

For ten seconds, Asinus burned, its black liquid form reduced to nothingness.

In that time, it went from begging for mercy to roaring in indignation to wanting to take as many high-dimensional lifeforms with it to its grave.

“Let’s die together,” it snarled as the black liquid spread out across spacetime, hoping to touch the distant lifeforms. It gave them quite a shock.

They wanted nothing to do with Asinus’s last-ditch effort.

The black flames were terrifying, and they were the last thing the distant lifeforms wanted to touch.

“What a lunatic,” shouted one of the high-dimensional lifeforms at the peak of the Eternal realm in this universe, as they worked together to prevent Asinus’s black water droplets from approaching.

With nearly 100 high-dimensional Eternal lifeforms in this universe, some of them permanently stationed, they were not to be trifled with.

Asinus’s obsession was strong, and it let out a howl of misery and indignation until its black water droplets were burned away.

The dean, Tower Master, and Island Lord appeared and collected the items left behind by Asinus.

“Everyone…” the dean addressed the gathered high-dimensional lifeforms with a smile. “From today onward, this dominion occupied by the Abyss Thousand-Eyed Spider Demon, Sinan, will belong to our human race. We humans are a friendly race, but if anyone violates our human dominion, we will definitely eliminate them!”

The dean’s voice rang out through high-dimensional space, and all the lifeforms in the universe heard it clearly.

“Humans?”

“This new human race is not to be trifled with. They’re much stronger than the Abyss Thousand-Eyed Spider Demon.”

“The joint forces of the three Abyssal powerhouses were quickly defeated. Two died, and one fled.”

“In our universe, this human race is probably one of the best.”

The high-dimensional lifeforms of various species were filled with fear.

The appearance of these unfamiliar and mysterious powerhouses had intimidated most of them.

…

From afar, the fleeing Dome Wishswan looked back in the direction of the universe.

Asinus is dead, it realized. All the karmic connections it had with the defeated beast had disappeared.

These mysterious powerhouses are incredibly powerful, Dome Wishswan thought to itself. The three of us couldn’t hold our own despite joining forces, resulting in two deaths and one escape. I have never been active in this dominion to begin with. I came only because of Abyss Thousand-Eyed Spider Demon.

I won’t come to this dominion again after I return to the Abyss. Dome Wishswan was a little afraid.

It didn’t want revenge. All it wanted was to stay as far away from those powerful beings as possible.

Dome Wishswan didn’t suffer any losses in this conflict either.

******

The dean, Tower Master, Island Lord, Xu Jingming, and Redmond gathered to celebrate their victory.

“The plan went smoothly,” the dean said, satisfied. “We killed the Abyss Thousand-Eyed Spider Demon and even defeated Asinus. The battle served as a sufficient deterrence.”

“Few in this universe will dare to provoke us,” added Eternal Tower Master.

Spacetime Island Lord raised her wine glass and smiled.

“Jingming, you suffered some corruption when you served as bait, didn’t you?” asked the dean.

“Thankfully, I destroyed that clone immediately,” Xu Jingming replied. “I can hold back the corrupted information that was transmitted to my memories. It will probably be resolved after some time.”

Eternal Tower Master spoke up, “Don’t underestimate Abyssal corruption. Deal with it first. Leave the rest to us.”

“Yes, don’t worry about us. We will take over this dominion and sort it out. We also need to prepare for the migration of humans from our home universe in the coming decades,” said the dean. “In 80 years, you will be in charge of carrying the miniature universe and migrating the entire human race to their new home.”

“Will the human race’s selection go according to the original plan?” Xu Jingming asked.

“Stick to the original plan!” The dean nodded. “Our species migration plan is better than the Void Celestials’. Many planetary lifeforms can live to an old age in our home universe. There will be a certain percentage of deaths when they migrate to an unfamiliar universe.”

Xu Jingming nodded.

Although the new cosmic home he chose was already very suitable, there was ultimately a percentage that would die.

And in their homeworld, planetary lifeforms could retire and pass away peacefully.

“Leave it to us. Focus on dealing with the corruption,” urged Spacetime Island Lord.

“Alright.” Xu Jingming got up and disappeared.

The dean, Tower Master, Island Lord, and Redmond then discussed the trivial matters in detail.

“In order to migrate, Jingming dedicated the most efforts and took the greatest risk,” the dean said. “In the next 80 years, we have to prepare everything. When the time comes, Jingming just needs to transport the miniature universe to our new home.”

“Yeah.” Redmond nodded as well. He wasn’t able to help due to his limited strength. He still wanted to spend more effort on the trivial matters involving the species migration and help them share the burden.

…

In the Heart Realm territory, within the beast hide space.

Xu Jingming sat cross-legged and frowned. The beast hide space can greatly isolate karma, but the corruption of the Abyss is too potent. I managed to sever most of the transmission of the corruption by self-destructing my clone, but the transmission of memories can’t be stopped.

The memories of every clone were interlinked, and the corruption of memories couldn’t be isolated.

Thankfully, I’ve cultivated my Eight Directions Map to a good level, and have attained more than half of the fifth realm—Great Joy. Corrupted memories and emotional memories couldn’t shake him at all, thanks to the third level of the Eight Directions Map, Intent realm, which completely controlled all kinds of emotions.

He had passed the Eight Directions Map’s tests for appetite, lust, comfort, and greed.

Most of these memory corruptions didn’t affect him at all.

Most of the memories can’t affect me. Xu Jingming’s eyes were deep.

Likewise…

But some memories were still affecting Xu Jingming’s mind.

“I can’t accept this. I can’t accept this. I want to live. I want to live,” projected Xu Jingming’s future. At that moment, he was furious, consumed by grievances and worries.

“I can’t die yet!

“I want to revive countless humans. I want to change the past! I can’t die!”

Memories of disgruntledness before his death flooded his mind.

“I really wish to take the last step.

“I’m just short of reaching the third realm.

“I’ve lived for 120 Abyssal Eras, but this is all I can do?”

The other Xu Jingmings in his future memories didn’t have much hatred or resentment. They only had expectations for a higher realm.

…

Xu Jingming’s expression remained calm. I self-destructed my clone to stop most of the corruption, and I’ve suppressed and sorted out more than 90% of the memory corruption. There’s only a small amount left… There are a total of 321,029 Xu Jingming memories from the past and the future, and they all have very deep imprints as if they want to be branded into my consciousness. They attempt to confuse me.

This corruption makes me understand the futility of superiority in the face of life and death.

Only by living can there be hope of changing everything.

The abundance of memories from the past and future made Xu Jingming consider his path from a more sublime position.