Chapter 112: Catastrophe Born of the Dao, The Great Art of Transmutation (Part 1)

"What is the meaning of this 'Calamity Qi,' and where does it come from?"

Luo Zu pinched a wisp of unusual energy, feeling perplexed. This wisp had been extracted from the World Within the Pot; it felt like foul, baleful energy, yet also like the lingering obsession of a ghost, making it truly difficult to fathom. Luo Zu channeled the "Mediation of Creation" (Woxuan Zaohua), seeking to find an answer within it.

Under the influence of the Mediation of Creation, the energy was deconstructed and regressed, collapsing into loose, scattered wisps. Luo Zu recorded each one, storing the data within the Dharma-image brains hidden inside the sun and moon of the mortal realm. Once deconstructed, these wisps dissipated into nothingness, returning to the world as mere spiritual energy. It seemed as if the "Calamity Qi" had simply vanished.

However, this was no trivial matter. Luo Zu had spent the energy of a full wisp of Immortal Essence just to push his Mediation of Creation to the limit of a Third-Order Daoist technique to neutralize this single wisp of Calamity Qi. In other words, to resolve one wisp of Calamity Qi, one must expend at least one unit of Sun-Moon Essence, and a single unit of Sun-Moon Essence consists of three hundred and sixty thousand smaller wisps.

How much of this "Calamity Qi" existed in the World Within the Pot? Luo Zu’s divine sense enveloped the world, and after his Dharma-image brains processed the data at high speed, he reached a conclusion: one hundred twenty-six thousand, nine hundred wisps. And the amount was still growing.

This meant Luo Zu would need to expend one hundred twenty-six thousand, nine hundred units of Immortal Essence to purge this Calamity Qi. That amounted to over forty-five billion wisps of Sun-Moon Essence.

"I'm exhausted. Let it all be destroyed."

Luo Zu threw his hands up; the task was impossible. Let there be a calamity; these creatures had brought it upon themselves through their own meddling.

Luo Zu defined "Calamity Qi" as an energy that invades the soul, making it difficult for people to control their emotions, leading to impulsivity and a short temper. Many were already showing these symptoms. Only those who had forged a Primordial Spirit could suppress these impulses, but because the Primordial Spirits were trapped within the system, they could not perceive this shift in energy. Luo Zu, being an outsider and the creator of this world, remained clear-headed and could see the Calamity Qi for what it was. Yet, even though Primordial Spirits could suppress the influence of the Calamity Qi, their own cultivation attracted more of it. Once the concentration of Calamity Qi became high enough, even their emotions would surely be compromised.

"You brought this upon yourselves, so you must bear it yourselves," Luo Zu muttered, having deduced the origin of the Calamity Qi. It was scattered, originating from all corners of the world and from the living beings themselves. This was why the inhabitants could not perceive it—even those with Primordial Spirits could not see it, because the Calamity Qi was now a part of them. Thus, Luo Zu concluded that calamity is born from the Dao.

The greater one’s stature and the deeper one’s entanglement with the world, the more Calamity Qi one accumulates. The reason for this "Calamity Qi" lies in the cycle of existence: the world seeks to reclaim the energy harvested by all living things. This was the primary reason Luo Zu remained unaffected; he was a provider of energy to the world, not a consumer. His responsibility was to the Great Desolate World, not the World Within the Pot.

There are two ways to resolve "Calamity Qi." The first is Luo Zu’s method: neutralizing it with vast amounts of energy to "buy one's freedom." The second is to destroy the world itself, which is akin to killing the creditor so that no one remains to collect the debt. However, the world is the vessel for all living things; unless a being attains an incredibly high realm, how can they detach themselves from the world? And if the world is destroyed, how is one to survive? Does one truly think oneself an Eternal Golden Immortal?

Luo Zu could not understand why his World Within the Pot had developed "Calamity Qi" so quickly. Although he accelerated "time" daily to keep the spiritual energy and material particles in constant, high-speed motion, it should not have been enough to trigger the world’s "desire" to reclaim its energy so soon.

"What is the actual cause?" Luo Zu fell into deep thought. To find out, he mobilized his thirty-six Dharma-image brains once more.

"It is because there are too many Primordial Spirits," Luo Zu finally concluded.

The world has its limits. Although the volume of the World Within the Pot was constantly expanding, the rapid evolution of living beings meant that beings with Primordial Spirits were springing up like mushrooms after rain. The expansion of the mortal realm could not keep pace with the growth in the number of Primordial Spirits. This forced the world to react in such an extreme manner; otherwise, it would be drained dry by the sheer number of Primordial Spirits.

Thus, a third method to resolve the "Calamity Qi" emerged: expand the volume of the world so that it can sustain more and more powerful living beings. Luo Zu had the intent to do so, but that would require the Daoist techniques of the World Within the Pot to advance. Currently, he had only upgraded the World Within the Pot and the Mediation of Creation to the Third-Order, far behind the three hundred and sixty Eighth-Order Daoist techniques he had integrated into the Primordial Spirits. However, these two abilities were so profound in essence that even at the Third-Order, they rivaled Ninth-Order techniques.

Though this "Calamity Qi" could not be entirely solved, it could be mitigated. If Luo Zu stopped harvesting Sun-Moon Essence from the World Within the Pot, the Calamity Qi would diminish significantly.

Since that was the case, Luo Zu stopped harvesting the Sun-Moon Essence. However, he did not release it back into the mortal realm but instead continued to store it within the sun and moon stars hanging in the sky. As for the Calamity Qi already in the mortal realm, Luo Zu found another way: he diverted the newly generated Calamity Qi—that which had not yet attached itself to any living being—into the "Nine Netherworlds" and the "Immortal Realm," a clever shortcut to alleviate the burden on the mortal realm. This was a task only he, an outsider, could perform. The living beings of the mortal realm would have to resolve the existing Calamity Qi on their own.

Having reached this conclusion, Luo Zu decided to hold a grand distribution of Sun-Moon Essence. Recently formed Primordial Spirits would receive a generous subsidy—ten times the previous amount. Furthermore, after shunting the "Calamity Qi" into the "Nine Netherworlds," there was an unexpected result: the ash-covered land of the Nine Netherworlds gained a hint of vitality. Yin giving birth to Yang, through this mediation, there was a sense of creation.

"Mediation of Creation—perhaps it is meant to have such transformations," Luo Zu mused.

After understanding the nature of the "Calamity Qi" and easing the crisis in the mortal realm, Luo Zu withdrew his consciousness from the World Within the Pot. But the moment he emerged, his vision was filled with swaths of deep, crimson gloom.

"This is... Calamity Qi?" Luo Zu felt dazed.

A message flashed through his mind: a massive Wu tribe was about to go to war with a demon tribe within a hundred billion miles.

"So, the calamity has arrived."

The colors before his eyes faded as quickly as they had appeared, as if it were merely an illusion. Yet, Luo Zu remembered the feeling clearly; it was not much different from what he had witnessed in the World Within the Pot, perhaps even more terrifying. The cause of the "Calamity Qi" in the Great Desolate World might differ from that in the World Within the Pot, but he could already foresee something far more horrifying: the future war between the Wu and the demons, and the Great Investiture of the Gods. The "Calamity Qi" then would be far more devastating than this.