Chapter 69: Burn The Heavens, Burn The Earth, Burn Myself!
“Are you really sure you want to choose [Holy Light]? Although I also think [Holy Light] is pretty good, I still have to remind you. Once you actively choose to embrace a power that seeps into your soul. For ordinary people, you have been marked by this origin, with no possibility of turning back, and can only firmly continue down this path.”
Yuan Zhu heard the implication and asked back: “Then what about for non-ordinary people?”
“Heh, don’t even think about that. For truly extraordinary people, their soul essence is innately powerful, and being preemptively marked by a mere power doesn’t count for much. They just need to select a desired power and perform a higher intensity pollution overlay to drown out and twist the previous mark.”
Senior Student Chen looked at Yuan Zhu: “But do you think ordinary people can withstand such an impact? They’d have long scattered soul and spirit. Moreover, even for those with innately extraordinary foundations, once they condense a certain foundation, that is, seeds, their own souls will likewise be bound to this origin, with no way back. Now, do you have the resolve?”
Yuan Zhu: “I’ve long considered [Holy Light], but just wanted to come to Rain Courtyard to see if there’s anything better. It seems [Holy Light] is still the most suitable for me.”
The senior student nodded, stopped walking, and changed direction: “Since you’re interested in [Holy Light], there’s no need to stroll the zoo. I’ll take you to the church for a look. We at [Rain Courtyard] also built a Holy Church, with cooperation projects between the two sides, and it’s also the introducer for the East Coast [Nightmare School]. Therefore, those in the academy who want to walk the [Holy Light System] all receive the ritual here. I’ll take you to feel the atmosphere and inquire about the price along the way.”
“Are there many Holy Light Cultivators at [Rain Courtyard]?”
“Not few, all students desperate with their respective majors. For example, the [Wolf School] in the animal department—only fools become werewolves. Learning Holy Light and then burning frogs—isn’t that happily joyful? Those in the industrial department who don’t want to go underground mining or accept ‘steam transformation’ all choose [Holy Light]. If you really master Holy Light in the future, you’re welcome to come to our Rain Courtyard to buy frogs. No matter how sinful the frogs, we can cultivate them.”
Miss led Yuan Zhu around onto a stone arch bridge, walked past a lotus pond, and entered the rockery of Jiangnan waterscape, feeling like they were on a secret rendezvous.
“Frogs, sin? What does this have to do with Holy Light? Using frogs as biological batteries?”
Senior Student: “Since you want to walk this path, I’ll explain to you. You know about biological batteries, so you must have some understanding of [Holy Mark] and Holy Light. You’ve probably seen gas canisters, right? [Holy Mark] is like the ignition device on a gas stove, and your body is the gas canister. You output your body’s life energy, and [Holy Mark] can burn life to release [Holy Light].”
“The most primitive [Holy Light] is cultivators burning their own vitality (stamina/essence), releasing Holy Light to illuminate others. For you, [Holy Mark] is not only an ignition device but can also regulate output size, determining [strong light] intensity. When you, who fears death, tune the output to minimum. Your body consumption drops sharply, no need to worry about weakness or even shortened lifespan, but [Holy Light] is also pitifully weak. At this time, if you have a little frog full of sin in hand, pierce Holy Light into its body.”
Yuan Zhu continued: “The frog will burst forth with endless light!”
“Right, it’s burning itself, sacrificing itself, illuminating everyone! And redeeming its sin.” Senior Student Chen Yi at this moment had a face full of piety and gratitude. As if there really was a frog sacrificing itself, transforming into light!
Yuan Zhu: “What does this have to do with sin?”
“The moment you are branded with [Holy Mark], Holy Light preliminarily binds to this body of yours. Through the eternally unhealing burning of [Holy Mark], it slowly transforms your physique, bit by bit eroding, infiltrating, rendering (polluting), transforming your soul’s base color, gradually approaching [Holy Light].”
The senior student paused: “You don’t naively think [Holy Light] is just a simple kind of energy, do you?”
“Then what is it?”
“Hard to describe. Holy Light has activity. It has no self-awareness, but after you obtain the Holy Mark, this power gradually fuses with you and manifests your personality, thoughts, and actions. Your will is reflected through Holy Light. So the Holy Church also habitually judges a practitioner’s good and evil through the color of ‘Holy Light’.”
“The closer you are to the [Holy Church]’s doctrine, the more you sacrifice and dedicate yourself, the higher the Holy Light quality will be, and the holier the color. The more selfish you are, deviating from the [Holy Church] doctrine, or burning others to supply yourself, the murkier and lower the Holy Light luster. It can be said that a pure and noble soul sublimes Holy Light; while a vile and selfish soul causes Holy Light to degenerate.”
Yuan Zhu furrowed his brows. Holy Light also forces passive self-brainwashing, approaching the [Holy Church]?
“What is this [Holy Church] doctrine? Does Holy Light becoming murky affect power exertion?”
Miss had long guessed he would ask this, waved her hand: “Don’t worry, that’s just the [Holy Church]’s one-sided view, can be ignored. [Holy Light] is indeed a manifestation of personal will, but unrelated to sacred or not. Jumping out of the [Holy Church] from an objective perspective, as long as you use Holy Light to burn pollution sources, it’s a good deed. As long as you burn yourself more, you can elevate Holy Light color. If you have no psychological burdens or guilt, openly burning mice and burning frogs can also raise Holy Light purity. Holy Light is the manifestation of will! Of course, if you crazily burn mice and frogs without burning yourself much, Holy Light color will still decline, eventually turning into [Grey Light].”
Yuan Zhu thought thoughtfully: “Purity and color are two different things. Purity corresponds to Holy Light quality, while color represents behavior and alignment, embodying personal will?”
“Right, purity can also embody will. The holier the color, the closer to the Holy Church doctrine. While those neither degenerate nor self-sacrificing, but with extremely strong will, will emit [Pure Grey Light], with no lack of effect.”
“Got it! Then the little frog full of sin you mentioned?”
Senior Student: “Actually, it’s just severely polluted laboratory discarded frogs. You use Holy Light to burn this thing, equivalent to incineration of pollution source, can harvest ‘pure ashes’ to elevate Holy Light color, counts as a good deed, accumulating merit. For us, it’s also destroying harmful pollution garbage, killing two birds with one stone.”
“Then you still charge money?” Yuan Zhu was greatly surprised. It’s actually dangerous pollution garbage that the laboratory doesn’t want to handle, and they still charge?
“Plenty of people want to burn garbage, of course it costs money to buy. Burning ordinary frogs only gives vitality, but their souls are ordinary, the ‘soul ashes’ produced are average quality, and this behavior is wanton killing of innocents, lowering Holy Light reputation and rating. Conversely, burning polluted souls is punishment of sin in Holy Church doctrine, incineration of sin yields ‘pure ashes’, this is a good deed, this is cultivation.”
“You want to ask about ‘ashes’, right? Holy Light attribute is very domineering, like UV lamp, can annihilate weak or thin pollution, even burn down souls. After Holy Light destroys these things, ‘ashes’ invisible to the human eye remain. Ashes can be captured and absorbed by Holy Mark, but cannot be utilized or stored, quickly volatilizing and dissipating.”
“So you go to the Holy Church to register, accept assessment, then obtain [Holy Seal]. The initial Holy Light System is also called [Holy Seal System]. There are many kinds of Holy Seals, each containing a concept, which can endow Holy Light with additional attributes and skills. For example, endowing Holy Light with ‘healing’ or ‘flame burning’. With [Holy Seal], your Holy Light can get stronger, gain lethality. Can kill demonic creatures, burn souls, plunder ashes, used to cast [Holy Seal].”
“Holy Seal continuously absorbs ashes, from virtual to real, your Holy Light System will also undergo qualitative change. When Holy Seal fully condenses, your Holy Light also undergoes qualitative change. This process also writes your behavior, personality, will, thoughts into the [Holy Seal], this process is called [Seal Casting].”
Yuan Zhu was puzzled: “Wait, how do personality and behavior get written into [Holy Seal]?”
“Very simple. Every time you release [Holy Light], you’re somewhat burning yourself, right? Burning yourself also produces faint ‘ashes’ captured and absorbed by [Holy Mark], cast into [Holy Seal]. When using Holy Light, no matter what proportion your vitality occupies, it will be faithfully recorded by [Holy Mark], casting ashes of different ratios into the Holy Seal. When you kill demonic creatures, your combat intensity and killing actions are recorded by [Holy Mark] through ashes, written into [Holy Seal].”
“Holy Light is the manifestation of will. The Holy Light you release can’t come back, only the remaining ashes are collected and preserved by Holy Seal. Your kills, your battles, your waste, your torment and abuse… will all be cast into [Holy Seal]. Ultimately, when Holy Seal completes, your Holy Light base color is also fixed.”
Yuan Zhu: “What use is this base color? Higher purity the better? Or purer color the better?”
Chen Yi: “Neither is important. Holy Light base color is the appearance of your mind. Innate appearance can’t be changed, ugly is ugly. One Holy Seal, as long as filled, guarantees 4 notches at minimum—this is the unit to measure Holy Light, not important. When your Holy Mark collects ashes to cast Holy Seal, the stronger your soul will, the more terrifying the hunted polluted monsters, the higher the quality of remaining ‘ashes’, and after using to cast Holy Seal, Holy Seal potential improves, breaking through to 5 notches, even 6 notches, then you’re stronger than other cultivators.”
“Even, ashes remaining from incinerating some powerful pollution sources carry pollution source information, after casting into [Holy Seal], can cause Holy Seal itself to mutate, gaining stronger attributes or new skills, but also risks pollution distortion. So purity and color aren’t important—intensity is most important! Color is just a reflection of your personality and behavior; you can fake it for a while but not forever. What you need to do is maximize ashes intensity and quality.”
Miss added: “Finally, one more very important point. Fearing death and unwilling to burn yourself is understandable. But the harsher you burn yourself, the greater the proportion of your own will (ashes) in the Holy Seal, the smaller the risk of losing control. Conversely, if your own ashes content is very small, but large amounts of advanced pollution remnants are cast in, your Holy Seal intensity is high, but Holy Light is also very dark… this is the degeneration route.”
“Alright, still forcing people to diligently burn themselves.”
Yuan Zhu was not surprised at all by this. Immortal Path has two plant persons, Buddha Head Cocoon is also weird, now it’s [Holy Mark]’s turn—simple and crude, using your own soul’s ashes for [Seal Casting] (erecting a tombstone), and even compiling your ugly abuse of small animals into an epitaph, released through Holy Light for everyone to appreciate.
If abusing and burning small animals is to save people, your soul brilliance can still be a bit brighter. If purely burning small animals as flashlights for lighting… soul brilliance will seriously decline and be amplified and displayed by Holy Light.
Yuan Zhu: “After the first Holy Seal is cast successfully, what next, go cast the second Holy Seal?”
“When you successfully cast [Holy Seal], your Holy Light intensity and quality are temporarily locked and solidified. At this time, you continue burning demonic creatures or bullying small animals, collecting more ashes. [Holy Seal] will purify and compress these soul ashes, mix with your Holy Light, infuse into the soul, self-incineration.”
Yuan Zhu: “Damn! Not enough to burn vitality, now have to burn myself?”
“Your own Holy Light, your own Holy Seal, ashes you burned yourself, ultimately poured back into the soul, bit by bit smelting out a [Soul Crystal]. This thing is the seed of [Holy Light System], also the mark of 1st tier. Congratulations, your Holy Light finally has a container to store, no need to burn your life anytime anywhere, no need to constantly squander yourself.”
Yuan Zhu: “But to refine [Soul Crystal], I ruthlessly used Holy Light inside the soul to ruthlessly burn myself.”
[Soul + Holy Light + ashes] further heated and pressurized by [Holy Seal], even burning out sarira!
“[Soul Crystal] and [Holy Seal], what’s the difference?”
Chen Yi encouraged: “[Holy Seal] is your will’s system, recording Holy Light information and unique skills, corresponding to Holy Light quality. [Soul Crystal] is your soul itself, the supernatural core. Product of deep fusion of own soul and Holy Light. With Soul Crystal, you can release Holy Light directly via Soul Crystal without self-ignition, burn biological batteries to produce Holy Light, then store via Soul Crystal, achieving a closed loop.”
“Anything else?”
Chen Yi: “That’s all for now. When you reach second tier and start casting the second [Holy Seal], Soul Crystal quantity directly elevates to 4! Each Soul Crystal can store the total notches of Holy Seals. At first tier, your Holy Seal 6 notches, your Soul Crystal stores 6 notches Holy Light. At second tier, two Holy Seals total if 14 notches, your Holy Light capacity = 4 Soul Crystals × 14 notches = 56 notches. Third tier, Soul Crystals 9, Holy Seal notches also increasing… Holy Light System’s future achievements are very objective!”
Yuan Zhu: “But I only see that every [Holy Seal] requires burning large amounts of ashes, and Soul Crystal even more so requires repeated self-roasting, round after round of more challenging self-burning.”
When casting Holy Seal, to elevate quality and intensity, add ashes from advanced pollution sources; to improve stability and prevent distortion, must self-combust in large amounts to balance pollution ashes proportion.
After burning this wave, accumulate high-quality ashes again to burn soul sarira. Refining Soul Crystal is another round of more stimulating self-burning! The higher the cultivation, the greater the challenge difficulty, impossible to stop…
Yuan Zhu: “Burning out so many Soul Crystals, what’s the use?”
“Soul Crystal is the soul, solidification of your soul. Quantity corresponds to soul strength. When Soul Crystals reach a certain number, they can bear and engrave your current soul information, for rebirth after death. Or manufacturing clones. Can also be implanted into subordinates’ souls for body snatching rebirth… In short, absolutely not a loss! [Holy Light System] is famous for being able to turtle.”
