Chapter 1869 - 1441: The Truth of Heaven and Earth! Black Fruit!
The fact has proven that only under the Iron Fist does one gain more say.
As the Twisted loudly begged for mercy and submitted, Jiang Dali also withdrew his hand at the right moment, using Cultivation to call back his Mahavira, and at once the wounds on his body that had just healed split open again, spraying out Blood Arrows, yet inwardly he let out a slight breath of relief.
Fortunately, this Twisted himself was also very frail, especially in physique, fundamentally unable to withstand a second punch from him.
The only thing that could pose an immense threat to him was the power of Space Distortion, which, after being used in succession, seemed to have also reached its limit, and thus had no choice but to bow its head.
If the other party launched another fierce offensive, although he could pay some price to block it, his Inner Strength, already greatly consumed, would likely be exhausted; by then, neither would be able to do anything to the other, and naturally the Twisted would not choose to submit.
Jiang Dali advanced unhurriedly, his bearing deep and forceful, and said, "Speak. Tell me everything I want to know."
The Twisted fixed his gaze on Jiang Dali’s burly, powerful frame; seeing him drenched in blood, covered in wounds, with even his left arm already broken, yet at this moment still unable to muster the courage to stake his remaining strength against him.
Courage—this excellent, precious quality—simply cannot exist in one who has long since lost his true heart; even the mere mention of courage fills him with dread.
Thus now, having been defeated and injured, even though he still had the strength to strike, he simply had no courage to fight Jiang Dali to the death.
The Twisted suddenly gave a faint smile. "Since you’re so eager to know who they all are... I’ll let you know right now. This is what you asked for. I hope you won’t fall into fear and madness because of it... hehehe... hahahaha!"
"Fear?"
Jiang Dali’s brows knit slightly; while he was still pondering the meaning of these words, the Space Fluctuation shrouding the Twisted ahead grew violent.
In a flash, ring after ring of transparent, distorted space spread outward, revealing a gaping hollow like a Gate.
The body of the Twisted, warped by Space Distortion into something no longer human, was exposed before Jiang Dali’s eyes.
He saw that its two legs had been twisted into a braided strand, wrapped around each other, while the torso seemed to have been folded up, the front chest and back pressed together, patches of raw, red flesh exposed on the surface, hideous and terrifying; both arms twisted the wrong way, raised high.
The single remaining head seemed also to have undergone distortion—but from the inside out—the entire brain laid bare, the left and right hemispheres and the nerve fibers all clearly visible; the two eyes, as if only whites remained, were chillingly ghastly as they stared at Jiang Dali with a cold smile, and the figure slowly stepped aside.
He saw behind it layers upon layers of Space Fluctuation, each ring of fluctuation like a ripple on water.
Figures, each likewise twisted beyond human form and grotesquely varied, were all encased within the waterlike Space Fluctuations, appearing as though they were insects trapped in amber; there were men and women, old and young... only all had already lost any breath of life. Moreover, on the bodies of the vast majority of these figures, a single dark, brainlike Fruit protruded, faintly emitting a fluctuation akin to spiritual Will.
"This is... Earth Intent?"
At the instant he sensed that familiar, faint fluctuation of spiritual Will, Jiang Dali’s pupils suddenly contracted, and then he denied it. "No... Heavenly Will? Both Earth Intent and Heavenly Will are present at once?"
The Twisted smiled with ill intent. "Hehehe, you sensed it? Still not horrifying enough? Do you know who they are? They are the Twisted of former days, Martial Arts Experts from one era after another in the Martial World.
But now, they have all become dried corpses in the prison cage of heaven and earth; their memories, their lives, their Souls, have all been offered up to heaven and earth.
All that talk of heaven giving birth to all things to nourish man, and man not having a single virtue to repay heaven. Hehehe, now they are repaying heaven and earth. This is the truth of heaven and earth. This is the truth!! Hahaha!!"
The Twisted let out a great laugh, a laughter indescribably bleak, wretched, and venomous, filled further with a sort of self-destruction, a complete shattering of all hope, and helpless despair.
"This is the truth of heaven and earth?"
Jiang Dali’s mind quaked as he fixed his gaze on those figures warped beyond human form, looking at the Black Fruit growing from one human body after another, and his scalp crawled.
The Twisted suddenly turned his back, pointing at the Dark Fruit that had shockingly grown from the back of his own head, and said angrily:
"Didn’t you want to know more? Now you’ve seen it! This is the truth you wanted. Any person who sinks deep into the Sky, whether he eventually dies of old age or falls, will in the end be reborn here in this Twisted Land, manipulated by that damned Heaven and Earth’s Intent, and when his last shred of value has been squeezed dry, he will become them! Become them!!"
He flung out his arm toward the dense ranks of twisted figures behind him, each like something sunk in amber, and laughed manically.
"This is the truth! Heaven and earth contend; humans are the chess pieces. Every interval, when the Heaven and Earth Fruit fully ripens, it means that a person’s final trace of existence in this world has vanished."
"Who am I? You ask who I am? I don’t know! I don’t want to know! Don’t ask me, don’t ask me!! I don’t want to know!"
The Twisted’s emotions surged once more, his aura turning dangerous and oppressive.
Jiang Dali fell silent, looking at that twisted, hideous, and tormented face of the Twisted, at the turbid tears flowing from his pale eye sockets. In a flash he understood: this one was very likely the Twisted that had once been Supreme Master Ling Donglai, and he grasped his feelings.
If it were him—if he were turned into this grotesque half-human, half-ghost, if he too lost his dignity and pride, lost even the courage to kill himself, lost everything—then he too would absolutely not wish anyone to recognize who he once was; he would only wish to muddle onward in a daze, fleeing from all that he had lived through.