NOVEL NEXT Chapter 61
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Chapter Sixty-One: Time and Souls (Requesting Subscription)
“Ah!!”
“It hurts!”
“It hurts so much!!”
“……”
The recovered evil ghost continuously cursed the three people present, its crimson eyes glaring at them as if wanting to tear them apart on the spot.
“Is this guy’s brain a little off?”
Ace felt speechless. Can’t he see the disparity in strength between the two sides?
“Perhaps, because we don’t have the Sun Blade, he thinks he won’t die?”
As Bai Luo finished speaking, the two women indeed noticed that the evil ghost had calmed down. Especially after hearing about the Sun Blade, the change in his expression did not escape their notice.
“Relying on the fact that he can’t be killed, that’s why he’s so reckless.”
Kurumi Tokisaki understood the thoughts of the marsh ghost. After all, she herself relied on countless clones to dare to take risks.
However, this incident reminded Kurumi Tiske of something.
In the future, it seems she shouldn’t be too arrogant.
Having witnessed Bai Luo’s power, Kurumi knew she would encounter more powerful warriors from other worlds in the future.
They might have ways to counter her.
Besides, Miyao Takamiya was also a big trouble.
If she encountered Miyao, even with countless clones, Kurumi would still end up defeated and dead.
“Have you realized your own problems?”
Bai Luo looked at Kurumi by his side and said indifferently.
“Yeah.”
Kurumi didn’t hide anything and admitted directly: “Me, Discharge Girl, and Esdeath, our problems are quite similar; we’re all glass cannons with high attack but low defense.”
“The magic awakening I prepared for Esdeath will work for you guys too.”
“The difference is just lowering the intensity.”
Bai Luo said: “With magic, you won’t have to worry about the issue of fragile bodies anymore.”
“Can I do it too?”
Misaka Mikoto was surprised. She thought Bai Luo only intended to help Esdeath convert.
“What are you thinking?”
Bai Luo lightly tapped Ace on the head and said: “You are all the same in my eyes. Since I helped Esdeath, I certainly won’t forget about you guys.”
The transmission of magic could better bring the three women closer to Bai Luo, deepening their bond.
Such a good thing, why wouldn’t they do it?
“And Miyao Takamiya, would it be difficult to deal with her?”
Kurumi originally wanted to say it would be hard, but then she thought about the purpose behind Bai Luo’s words.
Bai Luo stepping in, Miyao Takamiya would naturally fall at his hand.
“Do you understand now?”
Seeing Kurumi realize, Bai Luo said: “Miyao Takamiya isn’t hard to deal with. What’s difficult is your original plan.”
Kurumi Tokisaki wanted to travel back in time to change her fate of becoming a Pokémon, then save everyone.
The biggest challenge here lies in the coalescence of the Twelve Bullets.
Bai Luo has many abilities, but time travel and altering the past are things he cannot achieve yet.
Even if he had similar abilities, changing worlds means it’s not guaranteed to succeed.
“I understand.”
“Then let’s see if these evil ghosts are up to the task.”
The feeling of having someone to rely on behind her really made Kurumi feel at ease: “If their time runs out, there are still Esdeath’s captives.”
According to Kurumi’s calculations, after devouring through the Demon Slayer and Red Slash worlds, the Twelve Bullets should be almost complete.
“Alright, let’s give it a try.”
Bai Luo stepped back with Ace, and without hesitation, Kurumi immediately summoned the City of Time Consumption, swallowing the still cursing marsh ghost inside.
To accommodate Ace, Kurumi specially stored the evil ghost in the shadow space before consuming it.
Under the power of the City of Time Consumption, where the evil ghost disappeared, large amounts of blood water surged out.
Ace felt somewhat physically uncomfortable, but she forced herself to stay calm, not showing any unbecoming demeanor, which actually surprised Bai Luo.
“Should I help you blur the scene?”
“No need.”
Ace stubbornly rejected Bai Luo’s suggestion.
A mere bloody scene, Misaka Mikoto wouldn’t retreat!
“Esdeath was right, Mikoto, you have the potential to become a warrior.”
After finishing, Bai Luo pointed to a nearby corner: “If you want to throw up, you can go over there.”
“I, won’t…”
Mikoto’s face was slightly pale, but she ultimately watched the entire process of Kurumi devouring the evil ghost.
Despite the emergence of flesh and the overwhelming stench of blood, she persisted, earning Bai Luo’s respect.
“Hmm?”
Soon, Kurumi emitted a soft sound of surprise, her eyebrows furrowing tightly, seemingly encountering an incomprehensible dilemma.
“What’s wrong?”
“Not as much as expected.”
Kurumi said: “The vitality of the evil ghosts in this world is strong, my City of Time Consumption can suppress them, but the amount of time obtained is completely different from what I anticipated.”
In short, the time devoured from the evil ghosts was far from proportional to their vitality.
Too much of a difference!
“How much have you plundered?”
Bai Luo became interested and began asking about the details of Kurumi devouring the evil ghost.
“Um…”
Kurumi said: “Basically, it’s equivalent to devouring one ordinary person.”
“This is indeed unreasonable!”
Bai Luo shook his head: “The vitality of evil ghosts is much stronger than humans, it’s impossible to have only this much.”
“What’s the principle behind your City of Time Consumption devouring time?”
Bai Luo intended to help Kurumi analyze it, and the recovered Ace also wanted to assist Kurumi.
She may not excel in other areas, but solving exam questions is Misaka Mikoto’s forte.
Her superhuman intelligence is no mere decoration!
“Uh…”
However, regarding Bai Luo’s question, Kurumi indicated she had never thought about it.
After all, few people consider why the underlying rules of the world are like this.
It’s like we all know 1+1=2.
But why?
Simply put, it’s a convention, and asking more questions might mean you’re sick!
“You haven’t considered this at all, right?”
“I…”
Kurumi couldn’t find any excuse and could only awkwardly lower her head: “I dropped out before finishing high school.”
Yes, the notorious Pokémon being a poor student is no longer a secret.
“You’re truly something else.”
Misaka Mikoto was speechless. Unable to help, she could only seek Bai Luo’s assistance, hoping he could discern something.
“Kurumi’s power comes from Kukkuruki Emperor.”
“And Kukkuruki Emperor is a node in the Kabalistic Tree of Life system.”
However, what exactly Kukkuruki Emperor is, not even Kurumi, let alone Miyao Takamiya herself, probably knows nothing.
“Know the what, but not the why.”
Bai Luo: “For you Pokémon, angels are like skills activated by shortcuts.”
Kurumi only knew that the ability of the City of Time Consumption could devour others’ time.
But where does this time come from? Kurumi had never explored it.
“This can’t continue, Kurumi.”
“Yeah.”
Kurumi humbly accepted Bai Luo’s criticism.
“Judging from the current situation, the lifespan of an evil ghost lasting a thousand years doesn’t significantly differ from that of an ordinary human.”
How long can evil ghosts live?
This question might be unclear even to Giyu Tobitsujin himself.
The only certainty is that evil ghosts are not truly immortal.
Even Giyu Tobitsujin has the concept of aging for 9000 years.
“Therefore, the time you plunder is not derived from others’ lifespans.”
“If it’s not lifespan, where does the time come from?”
Misaka Mikoto found this very intriguing. She was establishing hypotheses to filter out the most likely conjectures.
“That depends on Kukkuruki Emperor.”
Bai Luo said: “Perhaps in our view, lifespan equals time, but in the perception of angels (Kukkuruki Emperor), the two are not equivalent.”
“Carefully considering, it seems indeed true.”
Kurumi said: “If merely living long life were enough, I wouldn’t need to choose humans; absorbing the time of trees and plants would be much easier.”
However, the fact is, Kurumi had already tried it.
The amount of time energy provided by plants for Kurumi was negligible.
She also attempted to devour the time of animals, with similarly unsatisfactory results.
The time on animals far exceeded that of plants, but compared to humans, it was still insufficient.
Originally, Kurumi didn’t understand the intricacies, merely assuming that only humans could provide her with spiritual energy to replenish her reserves.
“Is that guy still alive?”
“He still has a breath!”
“Release him, I’ll restore some blood for him.”
Bai Luo wasn’t planning to give the marsh ghost his own blood; he used the life force obtained from Alpha.
The marsh ghost couldn’t die so easily.
Bai Luo intended to conduct several tests on him.
Thus, Bai Luo and Kurumi carried out numerous experiments on the marsh ghost, including recovery speed, resistance to physical blows, and tolerance to cold and heat.
Following Bai Luo’s instructions, Kurumi practically tortured the marsh ghost half to death.
Regarding this, not only Kurumi and Bai Luo, but even Ace showed no sympathy whatsoever.
Just moments ago, Bai Luo extracted memories from the marsh ghost’s mind of him hunting innocent young girls.
Those girls who had just passed adolescence, many already engaged and about to enter the matrimonial hall, ended their lives full of infinite futures due to his greed.
Worst of all, the marsh ghost flaunted the finest jewelry from their bodies as trophies of his victories.
Such a person, in Ace’s opinion, deserves to die a hundred times.
“Did you find the reason?”
“Yeah.”
Bai Luo: “If I’m not mistaken, the factor influencing how much time Kurumi can plunder should be the soul.”
“Soul?”
“Could it really be the soul?!”
Bai Luo’s words made the two women pause momentarily, then suddenly enlightened.
Indeed, if the amount of time Kurumi absorbs is unrelated to vitality and lifespan,
Comparing plants, animals, and humans, what’s the difference among the three, isn’t it obvious?
Wisdom, and self-awareness.
Or, in mystical terms, the soul.
Plants lack souls, and insects, according to reincarnation theory, might possess equal souls as humans, but in reality, that’s impossible.
“Wait a minute, does the soul really exist?”
Kurumi quickly accepted Bai Luo’s explanation, whereas Ace hesitated.
Coming from the scientific perspective, she finds it hard to accept things like ghosts and spirits.
“Other worlds are uncertain, but in this world, they definitely exist.”
Bai Luo: “Alright, Kurumi, completely consume him. He’s useless now.”
“Okay, I’ll increase my power.”
It must be said, the resilience of evil ghosts is truly remarkable. Even Kurumi took several minutes to completely consume the marsh ghost.
“Thank you.”
At the moment the marsh ghost died, clear female voices sounded in Kurumi’s ears.
Before Kurumi could search for the source of the sounds, a massive amount of spiritual energy surged into the girl’s body from the void—several dozen times more time than that of the marsh ghost and ordinary people.
“This?!!”
Kurumi was stunned. She had never encountered such a phenomenon.
“What’s wrong?”
“What happened?”
Kurumi recounted every detail to Bai Luo and Ace.
“It’s those deceased young girls!”
Ace was glad they could rest in peace, but also felt a chill.
After all, ghosts are something Ace fears.
As for Bai Luo, he first used magic to sense, but unfortunately, found nothing.
Could it be that neither magic nor Sacred Domain powers can interfere with souls?
Bai Luo pondered: Conversely, it should be the same.
Without spiritual energy, the dead cannot touch the material world.
But with spiritual energy as energy, Bai Luo’s magic can counteract it.
There’s no such thing as ghosts hitting him while he can’t hit the ghosts.
Force is mutual, and energy is mutual.
Once souls lose control over energy, they are equivalent to losing the medium that keeps them in existence, thus disappearing without a trace.
“Let me summarize.”
Bai Luo said: “Only individuals with souls can provide time.”
“And the amount of time provided is related to the strength of the soul.”
Of course, Kurumi’s consumption of time does not cause substantial damage to the soul.
“The City of Time Consumption is more like stealing the duration of the spirit’s stay in the material realm.”
Kurumi’s so-called time mainly comes from two sources: one is the soul, and the other is the world’s gift.
The former is easier to understand, explaining why animal time is much less than human time, and why plants, shells, and insects provide no time at all.
As for the world’s gift:
This is a secret Bai Luo learned after coming to the Demon Slayer World.
The immortality of the evil ghosts in the Demon Slayer World, besides the initial formula, more importantly, stems from a certain curse.
In other words, evil ghosts are not the result of biological modifications but products of the mysterious side.
Like the curse carried by the Ubuyashiki family generation after generation.
Giyu Tobitsujin, as well as the other evil ghosts, bear a certain destiny.
If the soul is the source of time.
Then life makes originally meaningless time valuable.
When Kurumi uses the City of Time Consumption to completely consume an evil ghost, some existence actually rewards her—a whole several decades worth of time!
Yes, reward!
The source of this reward is precisely the retribution from those people devoured by the evil ghost.
Evil ghosts eat people, and those eaten by them naturally lose their value.
Every time Kurumi eliminates an evil ghost, the wrongfully killed souls within the ghost’s belly can finally rest in peace and offer her the lost lives as gifts.
“That’s why sometimes I get more or less spiritual energy when replenishing time.”
Kurumi said: “Upon reflection, after devouring murderers, I indeed received more time.”
This is why Kurumi primarily targets criminals and hooligans.
One part is because Kurumi has her own moral bottom line, another part is because these people provide more time.
The key reason she didn’t discover this earlier is that she hadn’t consumed enough ordinary people, missing out on data comparison opportunities.
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