Most members of the World Serpent are individuals whose mental cultivation is lacking.
Taking shortcuts on the path of cultivation can easily lead to this. The growth of both mind and strength must be balanced.
Especially the realm of the mind; if it's not firmly controlled, one can fall into a strange state that will hold them back.
Shuten-dōji is very old. He may look like a child, but he's actually an ancient demon who has lived for thousands of years.
His mental cultivation is naturally far beyond that of other World Serpent members.
However, he still has flaws in his mind, the so-called inner demons.
Inner demons can be interpreted in many ways, such as an obsession or a source of fear.
These things need to be suppressed or the mindset adjusted over a long period to slowly resolve them.
Either let go and accept, or confront and overcome; that's generally the process.
And Shuten-dōji's inner demon is naturally "Holy Light." He fears those who wield it.
Jiang Wang is currently putting pressure on Shuten-dōji, a tactic to attack his mind and make him waver.
Once he wavers, he will easily reveal an opening.
"An opening, fleeting as a moment!"
Jiang Wang saw a flash of struggle in Shuten-dōji's eyes and immediately accelerated.
The broken sword in his hand struck out, leaving a ghastly mark on Shuten-dōji's body.
Blood splattered, and a burst of world origin power mixed with blood gushed out.
"You, this whole body is filled with world origin..."
Jiang Wang narrowed his eyes. Some of the blood splattered on him, and for a moment, his mind felt dazed.
Within the power of the world origin was mixed memories from the "world."
Upon close contact with the blood stained with origin power, fragments of images flashed through Jiang Wang's mind.
Frankly, before, viewing world memories required special tools developed by the Final Evolution organization.
But now, Jiang Wang only touched the blood, and memories already surfaced in his mind.
They were records pieced together from numerous images.
"So, you are a child of the world."
Jiang Wang said, looking at Shuten-dōji, who was seriously injured and lying on the ground, his gaze becoming subtle.
A child of the world, simply put, is the so-called "protagonist."
A special existence within a world, highly anticipated by the world's consciousness.
To protect itself and ensure its safety, the world's consciousness cultivates powerful entities.
When powerful enemies invade, this "protagonist" is arranged to fight them.
It's a self-preservation method of the world's consciousness.
In fact, there are generally many entities highly anticipated by the world.
These special existences receive some kind of "help" under the subtle manipulations of the world's consciousness.
For example, suddenly erupting with powerful strength in desperate situations, or having smoother cultivation processes.
It's not just growth in strength; even technological development is possible.
The world's consciousness might manipulate so-called "fate," giving scientists sudden inspiration.
These "protagonists," highly anticipated by the world's consciousness, are the core forces for developing and strengthening the world.
And the Shuten-dōji before him was the protagonist among protagonists, an extremely special existence.
First, it's important to understand that the world's consciousness can only influence the children of the world.
The world's consciousness cannot truly interfere with the choices of the children of the world, only indirectly control them through subtle changes.
For example, an apple suddenly falling and hitting someone's head.
Then, that person begins to think, why does the apple fall?
This is the indirect influence of the world's consciousness, a very weak form of intervention.
Of course, this isn't absolute; it mainly depends on the strength of the world's consciousness itself.
A powerful and mature world's consciousness can even personally enter the battle.
Each world has a different way of cultivating its children of the world.
Some like to focus on technology, others favor a particular race, and some favor a certain power...
The world where Shuten-dōji was born used a very unique method.
That is, to pour everything into cultivating only one strong individual, just one, which is enough.
The so-called world god-making, only needing one powerful individual, incomparably strong, an absolute powerhouse who can sweep away all enemies.
Arranging this powerhouse to become the world's "god," worshiped by everyone, ruling everything, protecting everything; that is enough.
Shuten-dōji's world followed this path.
But this path is very unstable, with a very low margin for error.
Various worlds actually try to achieve balanced development in as many ways as possible.
Even if there is development competition, it won't create a winner-take-all, loser-eat-dust scenario.
Things that fail in the competition are not useless and can continue to exist.
The more balanced the development, the higher the stability of the world, and the more confident it is in resisting various risks.
If only one strong individual is cultivated, the risk is too great, and a single mistake can lead to complete defeat.
And Shuten-dōji's world, as a matter of course, encountered an accident.
Chapter 743: Reincarnation
It's like the relationship between viruses and antibodies. Multiple forces acting as a safety net mean more antibodies, which can fight more viruses.
But with only one type of antibody, even if it's cultivated into a so-called "omnipotent antibody," it will eventually have its limits.
Encountering a special enemy will lead to trouble.
That world followed the path of a single strong individual for many years.
The first strong individual seemed to be called "Amaterasu," truly pulling the full flavor of Japanese mythology.
This strong individual's strength was astonishing, and they were dutiful in protecting the world, repelling many invading enemies.
But the risk was already buried early on, especially when that world encountered a particular type of enemy, and finally, something happened.
That time, the Abyss Order spread the Abyss, a very unique organization.
The World Serpent, the Joyful Chorus, and Absolute Holy Light are known as the three madmen.
And the Abyss Order is an "abnormal existence." They believe in the Abyss, like to spread Abyss power everywhere, and destroy various worlds.
These strange fellows targeted that world and confronted the first god, "Amaterasu."
Amaterasu was, after all, the world's sole powerhouse, with immense strength, and successfully repelled these enemies.
But the problem is that the Abyss power is not so easy to deal with.
Even if it's cleared away, there will be lingering traces.
Like stepping on a cockroach, its eggs will splatter out, foreshadowing future troubles.
This world was finally eroded by the power of the Abyss. Amaterasu fought against the Abyss, constantly resisting.
The result was that the Abyss was repeatedly repelled, and the god fell in the long battle.
The dead god, with the power of the Abyss remaining on their body, their corpse turned into a monster, which was the "Yamata no Orochi."
Thus, this formed a "reincarnation." The Yamata no Orochi became a fixed calamity in that world.
It was immortal and indestructible. Even if it was dealt with, it would revive and continue to plague the world.
A god dying would immediately lead to the creation of the next god.
The god would fight against the external enemies and also fight against the Yamata no Orochi.
And the dead god would have their power seized by the Yamata no Orochi, turning into a part of it.
In fact, Orochi initially had only one head, but as it devoured more and more corpses of gods, its heads began to increase.
The first head was Amaterasu, and each subsequent head represented a god.
That world experienced the rule of eight gods in total.
And Shuten-dōji was the last god.
Initially, Shuten-dōji was also a dutiful god, but during the fight against the Orochi's calamity, some changes occurred.
As mentioned earlier, the world's consciousness can only influence everything within the world.
The world's consciousness has no way to truly control the people within the world.
These changes in Shuten-dōji were unexpected and uncontrollable by the world's consciousness.
And these subtle changes, layer upon layer, gradually accumulated.
The final result was...
Shuten-dōji chose to merge with Orochi.
Since then, Orochi achieved a body with eight heads, and Shuten-dōji completely fell.
They became a strange fusion.
Shuten-dōji, as a child of the world, did not practice any secret techniques of power systems; he could use the world's origin.
And Yamata no Orochi operated the power of the Abyss. After their combination, they were invincible.
And Shuten-dōji's ambitions began to swell.
