Chapter 597

Task World 5.

A figure clad in a green wide-sleeved robe sat upright in the void.

It was Gao Wuwang of Jishigu.

He was now intently staring at the three-legged elixir cauldron before him.

Inside the cauldron, true fire blazed fiercely, its waves surging as if countless stars flickered and vanished, with star-dust-like specks swirling endlessly.

Long moments passed…

Gao Wuwang changed his hand seals and uttered a soft command.

“Come!”

Xiong Xiong!

The true fire, shimmering with star-dust radiance, surged violently and directly “hurled” out the star-dust-like specks from within the cauldron’s flame.

The true flame extinguished.

Fine, dense specks of light hung silently before Gao Wuwang, like a starry river’s projection, flickering unpredictably.

Each speck was impossibly tiny; only through divine insight could one discern their true form.

These tiny specks were, in fact, tiny, perfectly round, translucent elixirs, glowing with brilliant radiance as if breathing.

“Huu~” Gao Wuwang exhaled slowly.

He raised his right hand, drew one elixir from the star-river-like multitude before him, and made it hover at the tip of his index finger.

After observing it closely for a while, a faint smile finally appeared on his face.

“Duanxin Dan… finally accomplished.”

He then released the Duanxin Dan hovering on his fingertip and waved his hand to retrieve the cauldron.

Only after completing these actions did he finally look toward the vast, boundless continent ahead of him.

A pale golden ring encircled the entire continent, emitting an invisible force that compressed and fused the landmass together.

Thick clouds covered the continent, containing divine winds and heavenly thunder, acting as a natural barrier isolating the inside from the outside.

The instant Gao Wuwang’s gaze pierced through the clouds!

The mist churned, as if stirred by invisible hands.

It was as if every living being on the continent had simultaneously lifted their gaze toward him, coalescing into a vast, sinister, terrifying twisted consciousness.

Fixing upon Gao Wuwang with boundless malice.

Facing this chilling sensation, Gao Wuwang remained calm.

After all…

It wasn’t the first time he’d dealt with it.

“The Shadow Consciousness…”

When he first arrived in this world, due to a misjudgment, he nearly had his soul erased by the world’s “Unified Consciousness.”

(ーー゛)-

Fortunately, he reacted in time and narrowly escaped.

Later, he evaded the Unified Consciousness while seeking a solution.

At first, he used his auxiliary module to sever off some sub-entities from the Unified Consciousness, but those sub-entities had a strong self-destructive tendency.

Before Gao Wuwang could restore their forms, they vanished into nothingness.

With no other choice, to complete his mission, he had to find another solution.

After prolonged observation, he finally discovered the Unified Consciousness’s weakness.

Negative emotions—or rather, “desires.”

To sustain its existence, the Unified Consciousness actively expelled the negative emotions it generated.

In other words, the presence of “desires” affected the Unified Consciousness’s very existence.

Thus, he secretly concealed himself with his auxiliary module, quietly collected the negative emotions expelled by the Unified Consciousness, and selected certain ones—

“Greed, Anger, Delusion”—as primary ingredients to forge elixirs.

After much time and elaborate preparations, he finally caused the entire Unified Consciousness to collapse.

Afterward, he traveled across the world, gathering the shattered fragments and cosmic dust left by the Unified Consciousness’s destruction, forging them into the continent before him, and using ecological transformation techniques to make it habitable.

Only after all preparations were complete did he use Shape-Forming Elixirs to restore their physical forms.

By the way,

The Shape-Forming Elixir can sculpt the most suitable body according to the soul’s true nature.

It is the most economical choice for cultivators whose bodies were destroyed due to failed breakthroughs, accidents during expeditions, or other reasons, leaving only fragmented souls.

The higher one’s original realm, the more expensive the Shape-Forming Elixir.

So far, it has only been developed up to the Soul Transformation stage.

After all, advancing from Void Return to Union with the Dao involves “Dao Wounds,” which no elixir of this level can resolve.

Of course, Shape-Forming Elixirs work best for humans.

But other races can still take them—though the effect is somewhat weaker…

Back to the matter at hand!

After expending great effort to reshape the human race of this world, Gao Wuwang assumed he could begin transmitting cultivation methods and let them cultivate.

But the reshaped humans were too deeply affected by the elixirs—nearly all of them became greedy, lustful, cruel, and murderous.

With no choice, he once again collected the positive emotions scattered during the Unified Consciousness’s collapse and forged them into elixirs for them to consume.

Only then did the reshaped humans achieve balance between their positive and negative emotions.

Just as he thought everything was over, another unexpected twist occurred—again!

Because their positive and negative emotions were now balanced, memories from before they became the Unified Consciousness resurfaced, causing every reshaped human to believe they were “transmigrators.”

Moreover, the collapsed Unified Consciousness showed signs of revival.

Restricted by the fact that the reshaped humans had become independent individuals with their own thoughts, it could no longer encompass all consciousness, comprehend everything, or arbitrarily manipulate the world’s rules as before.

It could only become the shadow consciousness of all reshaped humans, peering into the real world when their minds were most blurred.

To restore its former glory,

It hid deep within the consciousness of every reshaped human, weaving their dreams into an immensely vast mental network.

Then, it seized the fleeting moment when a person’s spirit was under extreme stress or their body neared death—when their mental defenses were weakest—and dragged their consciousness into the network.

There, it subjected their consciousness to horrors until their psychological defenses shattered, then devoured them.

And since the Shadow Consciousness resided deep within every human’s mind, even Gao Wuwang could not devise a good way to stop it.

Transmitting cultivation methods was useless—the Shadow Consciousness used “psychological suggestion” and other means to make the reshaped humans unconsciously disbelieve in the existence of cultivation.

He couldn’t just extract and refine the souls of everyone…

Thus, after years of intense contemplation, Gao Wuwang finally developed the current “Duanxin Dan.”

The Shadow Consciousness exists because the reshaped humans are all fragments of the former Unified Consciousness.

Though now independent individuals, they still retain faint connections, and their souls carry a trace of the Unified Consciousness’s nature.

Therefore, if the connections are severed and that trace nature erased, the Shadow Consciousness, split into countless fragments, would naturally perish.

“Go!”

With a wave of his hand, the Duanxin Dan before him, like a star-river projection, were swept by spiritual power toward the distant continent.

From afar, it looked like a meteor shower piercing through the clouds.

Boom!

Thunder roared, clouds reversed, as if a colossal entity was howling.

It was the Shadow Consciousness trying to prevent the Duanxin Dan from landing on the continent.

Having devoured many consciousnesses during this time, it could now interfere with reality once more!

But…

It had no effect whatsoever on the falling rain of Duanxin Dan.

Gao Wuwang could not defeat the complete Unified Consciousness.

But a Shadow Consciousness that had only just regained the ability to interfere with reality? He could easily handle it!

Thus, Gao Wuwang watched as the elixirs fell into the continent.

“Finally…”

He flicked a tiny spark of fire, following the countless falling Duanxin Dan.