Chapter 93 : The Birth and Disappearance of [Existence]
[Birth]'s words reached his ears, and Jiang Lai's eyes widened slightly as an incredible speculation swayed in his mind.
The future Supervisory Committee, and its exclusive symbol iris flowers placed everywhere...
Jiang Lai didn't know what would specifically happen during this period, but he could basically confirm that the Supervisory Committee had a very close relationship with [Birth], though this relationship wasn't necessarily a good connection.
Was his elder sister (elder brother) deceived? By whom? Kenjaku? But logically they wouldn't make contact with humans. What happened to make them choose to enter the world?
Various speculations slid through his mind, and Jiang Lai didn't know how to speak.
Future events were already determined to happen and couldn't be changed by exerting influence in the past.
After a moment of silence, Jiang Lai raised his warm brown eyes, smiled gently, his words quite serious. He said:
"Alright. If I get lost, I will definitely come back."
"And if one day in the future, you get lost, I will also cross thousands of mountains and rivers to bring you back."
[Birth] in beautiful twelve-layer court dress was slightly stunned, then smiled with cherry lips: "Good, though I never get lost, I welcome you to come find me anytime."
They raised their hand, carelessly ruffling Jiang Lai's hair: "By the way, what you just said also implies you're not planning to travel with me, right? You're planning to go mix with humans in the world again?"
Jiang Lai blinked: "Sorry. This time I plan to go see my friend."
"Visiting is fine," [Birth] released their hand that had messed up Jiang Lai's hair, peach blossom eyes looking at him. "But don't consume your own power for humans again. We are long-lived, but not immortal."
Jiang Lai looked back at his elder sister (elder brother), sensing this contained information about [Existence], his mind focusing.
In the midst of this flower sea, [Birth] gazed ahead, saying: "Do you know how cursed spirits are produced?"
"I know." Jiang Lai nodded, answering, "They're formed by the accumulation and precipitation of cursed energy overflowing from humans' negative emotions."
"Right. Cursed spirits originate from emotions." [Birth] said, "And we, in a certain sense, were born from living beings' cognitive concepts of the world's source, space-time, birth and death."
"...Cognition?"
"When world rules were still incompletely developed in the early stages, the world's power overflowed. Under the convergence of living beings' cognition, the world's power condensed into [Existence], which is us. That is to say, we come from world power and living beings' cognition."
"Later, as the world gradually perfected itself, with complete system construction and rules, power would no longer overflow arbitrarily in large amounts. Only small amounts would drift in the air, but that portion is insufficient to form complete [Existence] under cognitive convergence."
"......" Jiang Lai listened quietly, speculation vaguely swaying in his heart.
At the same time, [Birth] also revealed the answer: "So, since the world's completion, no new [Existence] will be born anymore. If one day we completely disappear, there will be no new replacements either."
"If your [Existence] power is consumed too much non-objectively without following rules, accumulated karma will reduce your divine status, that is, the world power's condensation in you." The princess-cut figure turned their face. "And condensed world power is limited."
Cursed spirits essentially born from humans' negative emotions could continuously regenerate. Even if one was exorcised, as long as humans still had fears of earth, ocean, forest, human nature, etc., new cursed spirits would be born.
But [Existence] essentially born from overflowing world power, because the world had approached perfection, would have no new [Existence] born to replace them.
Jiang Lai pressed his lips straight, then asked: "The meaning of 'complete disappearance'... refers to?"
"Complete shattering of divine status, and the power of shattered fragments also being consumed." [Birth] paused here, then softened their brows and smiled, comforting: "Well, of course, you don't need to be afraid. The conditions for [Existence] to completely disappear are still not easy to achieve."
"As long as you still have a part of your main body and a small piece of divine status, whether degrading to human, cursed spirit, or object, none count as complete disappearance." They smiled. "Though time is long, by slowly absorbing the scarce world power in the air, you will recover someday."
Hearing this, Jiang Lai relaxed somewhat, his palms slightly sweating as he organized his thoughts.
Regardless of what actually happened in the future, at least in the main timeline a thousand years later, [Birth]'s abilities could still be used, so their main body and divine status probably still existed.
He had a part of [Origin]'s main body (the pagoda tree wooden pendant), and most likely the light green divine status fragments from [Origin] still had energy. Moreover, one piece was in Sukuna's hands rather than the Supervisory Committee's, so it probably wouldn't be used and consumed.
The straw of hope was still firmly grasped in hand.
"So you, fool, stop worrying about those short-lived creatures like humans and just live well yourself."
Speaking to the end, [Birth]'s words circled back, seemingly somewhat gritting their teeth, muttering in a low voice: "Don't know what's good about humans, actually tricking away my good little brother. Clearly humans aren't as cute as flowers and grass..."
Jiang Lai couldn't help but smile, saying: "No, I wasn't tricked. I just really like certain compatible humans and enjoy integrating into worldly interactions."
The words his elder sister (elder brother) just spoke revealed [Existence]'s birth and disappearance, but Jiang Lai understood that [Existence] divine status disappearance only referred to the fall of quasi-gods, but this didn't necessarily equal the disappearance of the main body.
For him, becoming an ordinary person and integrating into worldly reincarnation wasn't bad at all. Moreover, this was his beginning originally.
In a certain sense, becoming an ordinary person was also a kind of eternal life, experiencing rebirth again and again in the eternally flowing world's reincarnation.
Jiang Lai wouldn't escape. He had always walked the path he chose without regret: weathering storms together with friends and family, achieving a good ending, then happily returning home.
"Don't worry about me," Jiang Lai's eyes flowed with light, smiling in response. "I will create the best future."
"......" [Birth]'s peach blossom eyes tilted upward at the corners. They pointed at Jiang Lai's brow with their index finger, neither light nor heavy. "You."
"Though I still don't quite understand what you're thinking, well, after all, each individual has their own lifestyle." [Birth] first sighed, then smiled sweetly. "Then continue following your own thoughts."
A clear breeze blew through the blue-purple and white interwoven iris flower field, carrying flower fragrance and grass scent, drifting and spreading to more distant places.
Jiang Lai bid farewell to [Birth] and returned to Ryomen Sukuna's side.
The other's secondary eyes glanced over carelessly, saying casually: "Too slow."
"Walking itself is an activity for cultivating body and mind. It doesn't pursue speed." Jiang Lai replied calmly.
The wild boar meat in that large pot on site had long been eaten clean, with only some seasonings still floating on top.
Uraume didn't seem to have any intention of cleaning it up, but simply used ice techniques to wrap it, then used techniques to break it down into fine ice crystal fragments and scattered them on the ground.
Jiang Lai unconsciously raised an eyebrow, asking: "Just destroy it? Then won't you have nothing to use next time?"
"Take these troublesome things on the road?" Ryomen Sukuna shook his wrists, naturally saying: "Just steal one from nearby when needed, and ingredients can be processed on site too."
Jiang Lai: Impressive.
Though it sounded somewhat absurd, since the speaker was the boss, it seemed normal again.jpg
He decided not to continue discussing this aspect, since no one could convince the other anyway. Therefore, Jiang Lai just asked: "How many days until we reach Heian-kyo?"
"Ah... about three days." Ryomen Sukuna didn't hide anything here. "We'll probably arrive around Obon Festival."
Sure enough, same as his guess. Jiang Lai checked it off in his heart. The thousand-year-ago Night Parade of a Hundred Demons was on Obon Festival day.
Over the following days, their interaction was neither cold nor warm, just right at a subtle boundary.
Most of the time they ignored each other. When there was opportunity, they would definitely mock each other once or twice or fight once or twice, but their anger wouldn't reach the point of really fighting.
What made Jiang Lai slightly regretful was that Ryomen Sukuna didn't mention the deal again for the rest of the journey, preventing him from extracting more content.
But it wasn't without gain. From the other, Jiang Lai heard some things about Gojo Satoru.
"That guy's been quite prominent recently, wanting to rewrite jujutsu world rules," Ryomen Sukuna's speaking tone always carried slightly mocking meaning. "His name carries... quite some weight in nobles' hearts."
Hearing this, Jiang Lai's brows furrowed slightly as he sensed part of the implication behind those words.
Long-haired Gojo's rule rewriting would definitely touch those noble rotten tangerines' interests. Then 'carrying quite some weight in nobles' hearts' definitely didn't refer to anything good.
Maybe this Night Parade of a Hundred Demons' seemingly reasonable but somewhat problematic arrangement was an action targeting Gojo.
Three days later, they finally reached the outskirts of Heian-kyo. It was nighttime, with night curtains hanging and stars scattered across the sky.
Different from usual, the air rippled with manic cursed energy, as if some dark accumulated things were about to erupt like a volcanic explosion.
Jiang Lai half-narrowed his eyes, instinctively becoming alert. Beside him, Ryomen Sukuna stopped walking, sitting down cross-legged cleanly to rest in place.
"...You're not going forward anymore?" Jiang Lai turned his head to ask.
"Go forward for what? The [door] is about to open. I'm not interested in getting close to kill curses." Ryomen Sukuna's posture was quite casual.
Jiang Lai raised an eyebrow: "Then why did you travel so far to Heian-kyo?"
"To watch the excitement, of course." Ryomen Sukuna's crimson eyes lifted, sneering: "Isn't it very interesting? Since I'm idle anyway, might as well come observe the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons."
Of course Jiang Lai didn't believe the other was just here to observe, but at this moment, he didn't want to waste time staring at the other either.
Thoughts flowing in his heart, Jiang Lai planned to go find long-haired Gojo who would guard the [door] alone tonight.
The possible conspiracy of jujutsu world higher-ups arranging things this way that he'd analyzed before: draining Six Eyes' stamina and cursed energy, temporarily moving long-haired Gojo to Heian-kyo's outskirts and ensuring he wouldn't return during this period. There were ways to break these two points.
As long as he went to help long-haired Gojo temporarily guard the [door], letting the other immediately return to Heian-kyo quietly to check the situation.
Whether there was conspiracy or not, one investigation would reveal it.
Having thought this through, Jiang Lai lightly touched his foot to the ground, spread his techniques, and headed toward where cursed energy fluctuations were most turbulent.