Chapter 1 Yggdrasil—The Diseased Heart of Darkness—Is Obviously In An Unstable, Radical, And Impatient State

He had probably been driven close to madness by thousands of years of corruption and erosion, or rather, the rational part of him was about to be completely replaced by corrupting factors. Now this powerful demigod creature only wanted to die, and even when thinking about this issue, his not-so-normal brain seemed very slow.

For example, it was only now that he realized that Hao Ren could also help him carry out this death sentence.

But Hao Ren obviously didn't intend to agree to the other party's request.

"The situation may not be that bad," Hao Ren quickly dissuaded Yggdrasil. "You have no way, but what if I do?"

At this time, the healthy consciousness in that beam of light—the "executioner consciousness" personally created by Yggdrasil—also spoke: "I think this makes sense. We can't solve the corruption problem because we are trapped in this body, but this outsider can do what we can't."

Hao Ren suddenly remembered that he hadn't greeted that beam of light yet, so he quickly turned around and said hello: "Oh, right, I haven't introduced myself yet, I'm..."

"I know," the beam of light made a soft voice, which overwhelmed the storm and huge waves of the Dark Sea. "I am also the master of this world. I share all the information here with the other me. I heard it when you introduced yourself just now. Actually, I didn't want to show up, because it would be very troublesome to face another myself every time, but your arrival... makes me see a glimmer of hope."

"Hope, hope, what a flimsy thing," Yggdrasil's Dark Heart grumbled. "A motivation that arises without any basis. I really don't know why you are driven by this thing."

"As you can see, the dark negative forces have seriously interfered with the thoughts of the other me," the voice of light said with some regret. "He was originally strong and optimistic, and he was always like this in the first five thousand years of being corrupted, but he was gradually replaced by the power of corruption. This subtle influence is almost impossible to resist. In fact, I have always believed that the appearance of 'me' precisely means that this corruption has gained the upper hand. When Yggdrasil decided to create a substitute consciousness to end himself, 'he' had already bowed his head to the dark side in his heart."

"Stupid, stupid!" the voice of the Dark Heart said angrily. "Don't you realize that the situation is getting out of control? I have even lost control of my body. I can feel that the diseased organ is eroding the entire Rune Body on a physical level. It also transformed the environment of Niflheim! Corruption has shifted from the spiritual world to the material world, but you are not vigilant enough!"

Hao Ren thought of the deformed dark tentacles that ran through the entire Niflheim. It seemed that those tentacles had occupied the entire Land of the Dead and might break through the barrier of Midgard space at any time. He couldn't help but ask, "What is the essence of this corruption?"

The Dark Sea rolled up monstrous waves, and the rumbling thunder shook back and forth between the sky and the earth. The pillar of light that ran through the sky and the earth immediately bloomed with a powerful light, forcibly suppressing the Dark Sea's riot. Yggdrasil's Dark Heart finally stabilized after a violent turmoil, and his voice was tired: "Essence... essence, ah, as long as I think about this question, I can feel my soul undergoing irreversible changes... but I am very willing to talk to you about this thing, if you have the guts to listen."

Hao Ren was startled by the great changes on the sea just now. He thought that this spiritual world was about to collapse: "Holy crap! Are you okay?!"

"The problem is huge! But this problem has been going on for thousands of years, so it doesn't matter if we delay it," the Dark Heart rumbled. "You asked about the essence of corruption? It's hard for me to explain it clearly to you. I don't even know when it lurked in the depths of my soul, but I know that it started to attack when I just passed through that wall, so that thing probably lurked in a long time ago. It's a kind of... ah, I guess it's something at the soul level, at least when it first broke out, it was limited to the realm of the soul and spirit..."

"A mental virus?" Hao Ren suddenly blurted out this word.

"What a wonderful word," the Dark Heart praised. "That's probably a virus, lurking in the depths of my heart. It draws on my strength to grow, and stirs up trouble in my spiritual world, but this is not the most terrible thing. The most terrible thing is that this thing actually spread out along my dreams—can you imagine it? This monster lurking in the spiritual world gradually overflowed from my dreams and climbed into the real world! At first, I found that some of my limbs were withering, so I cut them off, but these limbs quickly turned into monsters raging in the world. Later, I found that I began to secrete poisonous liquid in the Niflheim area. These liquids were completely condensed hatred and madness. A poor black dragon crashed into my diseased organ, and went crazy the next day, so I knew that corruption had begun to shift from the spiritual world to the material world..."

Hao Ren flipped the "corruption" encountered by Yggdrasil back and forth in his mind, but failed to find any scientific and reasonable explanation, but he vaguely guessed a mastermind: "Do you know who planted the seeds of corruption in you?"

The Dark Heart was silent for a few seconds before speaking again: "You must have investigated a lot of things, otherwise you wouldn't ask this question... That's right, corruption cannot be produced out of thin air, nor can it be a hidden danger left by the Mother when she created me, so it must come from the enemy—all suffering comes from the force that is against the Mother. I have been investigating the source of corruption, although I haven't made a breakthrough, but I firmly believe that it comes from the Mother's enemies..."

"I know about the war ten thousand years ago," Hao Ren said. "The rebellious rebels who murdered the gods, did they create the corruption factor? Was it to stop a certain plan of the Creation Goddess?"

"Ha! You have investigated more things than I imagined!" The Dark Heart's voice was filled with uncontrollable excitement. "I believe you more and more, and of course I suspect you more and more! It seems that you are either a friend of the Mother, or another villain, but it doesn't matter, anyway, I have nothing else to do... Those rebellious sons? You really think highly of them. How could those crazy fools subvert the Mother's great plan... Well, they did subvert some of it, but they can never subvert the Mother's greatest plan! They don't have the ability to implant corruption factors in me, but behind them... there is a force, that force is the culprit. It has been competing with the Mother for countless epochs, and I believe that only that force can cause my current situation."

Hao Ren's conjecture was confirmed: "The 'voice' that instigated the rebellious sons to murder the gods, the one who calls himself the 'Origin of the Universe'?"

"...You even know this."

"I have been investigating this matter for a long time," Hao Ren took a breath. "I even found the wreckage of the Surtr Gate, but I couldn't find more fragments of the God Realm. I also found the parts of the Creation Engine, and my team and I are even trying to assemble that thing. If you are willing to give me more trust, I can tell you more things and show you some things that you might be interested in."

"Surtr Gate... Creation Engine..." This time it was the beam of light that made the sound. "I think this person is trustworthy."

"I think so too," the Dark Heart rarely agreed with the voice of light calmly. "Okay, strange demigod, you are a guy who has aroused my interest, and you know a lot of things—what are you going to show me?"

"I don't know the root of your corruption, but I have successfully controlled a guy who is 'homologous' with the root of your corruption," Hao Ren said, carefully considering his words. "Do you know the... process of the Creation Goddess's fall?"

The Dark Sea surged instantly, and the endless huge waves almost completely obscured the sky. The entire ocean seemed to be upside down. After a long time, everything slowly returned to calm.

"Of course, never forget." Yggdrasil's two consciousnesses said at the same time.

"That god-killing black sword, if I'm not wrong, it was created by that 'Origin of the Universe'," Hao Ren calmed down. "Now it's in my hands, and it's already under control."

The whole world, turned upside down.

But in the end, Hao Ren was not ejected from the connection, and this spiritual world did not collapse. Yggdrasil just had a huge touch, but like other guardians—his calm and wise side was still there, and he did not blame a weapon.

The Godslayer was taken out by Hao Ren: in the state of a spiritual body.

In the pure spiritual world, the Godslayer turned into another black spire. This mountain appeared out of thin air next to the Dark Heart's Thorns Mountain, and easily occupied a place in the Dark Sea. It curiously "looked" at the surrounding situation, and then immediately began to introduce itself: "Oh, hello everyone, I am the Godslayer, also known as the Echo Wall, nicknamed Little Sword, you can call me Layman Tongren... Ah, why is it so noisy here?"