Chapter Sixty-Four: The Bloated Touch

Chen Zi’ang escorted his younger sister back to her bedroom. Once she was settled, he returned to his own room. Tonight, he had to decide on the upgrade path for the Abyssal Touch—a matter far more important than any organizational restructuring at the office.

After all, this had cost him a hundred embers.

To earn those hundred embers, he had traveled all the way to Lingyi Town, ventured deep into the mysterious and gloomy Ossuary, fought off assaults from hordes of lesser races, and even endured the glare of a deity that pierced through countless dimensions. If he couldn’t get a satisfactory result in exchange, wouldn’t all his suffering and hardship have been for nothing?

First, he would visit the ancient city of Enlanke and see if he could glean any information from Priestess Nico.

Using the power of dream-walking, he quickly sank into the realm of collective subconscious and once again set foot in the territory of the Nightmare Clan.

Compared to his last visit, Enlanke’s ancient city had changed greatly. The throbbing, thick veins were gone, as were the crimson moss creeping along the walls and the dried blood that once seeped between the stone slabs. Instead, countless purple orbs, like fireflies, floated gently and freely through the air.

Chen Zi’ang did his best to ignore the orbs, careful not to let them brush against him, and swiftly crossed the empty streets to the central plaza.

Priestess Nico, staff in hand, emerged slowly from the temple to greet him—her figure still slender and graceful, her face as smooth and featureless as a mask.

“Welcome, Mr. Ask,” she said. Though she had no mouth, her voice was that of a mature, sultry woman, conjured by some unknown means. “Have you noticed anything different about Enlanke?”

“To be honest, I’m not particularly interested,” Chen Zi’ang replied cautiously.

In the world of the occult, the more you knew, the greater the danger—an ironclad truth. Of course, ignorance was equally perilous, so one had to choose carefully what to learn, and avoid forbidden knowledge that was best left unknown.

“Very well, then,” Nico replied with a smile. “Are you here to exchange power? Or perhaps you seek information?”

“Yes, I’d like to purchase some information.” Chen Zi’ang posed the question he had prepared. “What are the ‘Substrate,’ ‘Concept,’ and ‘Spirituality’?”

“A very valuable question,” Priestess Nico said slowly. “I have three answers for you, priced at twenty, one hundred, and two thousand merit points, respectively. Which would you like to buy?”

“Why three prices?” Chen Zi’ang asked in surprise.

“Because this question points directly to the essence of the universe,” Nico replied, her voice ethereal and enigmatic. “The essence of the universe is so vast and supreme that it cannot be fully explained. Every being, whether great or humble, must try to understand, describe, and write their own answer.”

“Twenty merit points will buy you an answer comprehensible to humans; one hundred points, the knowledge our Nightmare Clan has uncovered; two thousand points, knowledge obtained from a lower race far greater than us, purchased at great cost and considered precious, forbidden lore.”

“I’ll take the twenty-point answer,” Chen Zi’ang said.

It wasn’t just because that was all he could afford; Nico had already hinted: knowledge priced above one hundred merit points was beyond his current ability to comprehend, even if she spelled it all out.

The physical forms of humans and Nightmares were utterly different, as were the limits of their understanding—perhaps more so than between ants and humans.

If an ant wanted information from a human, the most valuable would be “where to find food,” not “how to use genetic engineering to improve crops.” Even if the latter knowledge were poured in its entirety into the ant’s brain, it would understand nothing and likely go mad.

“A wise choice,” Nico intoned. “Substrate, Concept, and Spirituality are known as the ‘Three Elements,’ together forming the universe as we know it.”

“Substrate is the totality of matter, energy, time, and space—an element most familiar to humans.”

“Concept is the sum of all information, data, and laws. It manifests in the existence, movement, transformation, and annihilation of Substrate.”

“Spirituality is somewhat akin to what you humans call the soul—a unique projection upon the Substrate from distant dimensions.”

“To use an analogy: Substrate alone is like a corpse; Substrate and Concept together are like a comatose body; only when all three are present—Substrate, Concept, and Spirituality—is there a living human being. That is our universe as it exists.”

Chen Zi’ang listened, half-understanding, feeling as though his twenty embers had been wasted.

“Let me guess,” Nico said, as if reading his mind. “You’ve just upgraded an exchanged power and are now considering which evolutionary path to choose, correct?”

“Yes.” Judging by her tone, this was a common enough dilemma, so he nodded.

“In simple terms,” Nico explained, “choosing Substrate as your evolutionary path will make your power more material in nature. Choosing Concept will make it more mental. Choosing Spirituality leads to the most bizarre path—I can hardly explain it in terms you’d understand, as humans know so little about Spirituality.”

“Put it this way: if you intend to face direct, fierce combat, choose Substrate; if you prefer to work from the shadows, undermining others, choose Concept; if survival or escape is your only concern, then Spirituality is most suitable.”

At last, Chen Zi’ang understood.

Substrate meant physical assault—like striking enemies with tentacles. Concept meant mental attacks—like the tentacles that invaded Xia Zili’s subconscious to assail her spirit. Spirituality, meanwhile, was the strangest evolutionary path: perhaps useless in one situation, yet invaluable in another.

Considering he would soon face Mihui Nishikawa head-on, he made his decision:

Substrate it would be.

Standing before the altar once more, Chen Zi’ang cast his decision into the Chaos Altar.

[Abyssal Touch], evolutionary path selected: Substrate.

Available advancement: [Corpulent Touch].

He had no time to ponder the meaning of [Corpulent Touch] before his consciousness plunged downward.

Within the strange, terrifying divine realm of tentacles, he saw, surrounded by countless writhing limbs, an enormous, bloated tentacle. Its diameter far surpassed that of any ordinary Abyssal Touch, and every sucker was covered in nauseating fleshy nodules, like the frenzied proliferation of cancer cells.