One-Eyed Monster

At this moment Igor’s nerves were taut; inside this Inner World he could feel a huge disparity.

The reason he’d been joking around earlier was because he needed to bluff. After all, to that Spirit, his Inner World was also something novel.

The opponent was extremely powerful; the way it sent and drew Energy so freely had forced Igor to use Time Leap. You had to know that using this move cost him a tremendous amount of effort; this double‑faced technique from Arnold was strong, but it was still ultimately tied to his own Spirit Power.

Igor’s Spirit Power was not yet strong enough for him to use Time Leap as he pleased.

If this moment were happening in real life, he would definitely be gasping for breath in great heaves.

Yet this was the Inner World after all, so he didn’t show that kind of wretched state; aside from his Spirit Power being a bit drained, he hadn’t revealed many other disadvantages.

With his Spirit Power weakened, the entire Inner World space was actually rocking and swaying. Kuyi Tulan and that Spirit had already retreated; he could have gone back to reality peacefully as well, but he didn’t, because he still had a lot he needed to ask this Spirit in front of him.

This Spirit had once appeared back at the time on Guru Mountain, and then had never shown up again. He’d been puzzled about the reason; even when he’d been entangled with those Little Black Hands back then, this Spirit hadn’t given him much in the way of hints.

Now this Spirit had taken the initiative to summon him, which left him feeling very surprised.

Once they entered the Inner World, there hadn’t been much chance to talk, because the powerful enemy had thrown them straight into battle. That fight had been extremely difficult. Now they had finally achieved the outcome they wanted: forcing Kuyi Tulan to retreat.

”Your plan worked well enough.” It was still that Spirit who spoke first.

”Heh.” Igor let out a bitter laugh. He actually had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but his Spirit Power really couldn’t keep up; all he could do was barely manage to listen.

”I know the reason you’re still staying here is because you want to ask about some things.”

”Heh!” Right now Igor felt that besides that hollow laugh, he couldn’t force out any other words.

Fortunately this Spirit already intended to speak with him; if the Spirit had simply vanished again without a word, that would have left him utterly helpless.

”Before, I told you that you are an Awakened, and I am a Spirit. I gave you a general introduction to our world. After all this time your own exploration hasn’t stopped either; you can be considered to have grasped the ins and outs of it by now, right?” the Spirit said; it understood Igor fairly well.

After all, it was Igor who had awakened this Spirit; every time Igor used Spirit Power, this was the guy who provided assistance!

Igor listened to the Spirit’s words and nodded, indicating that what the Spirit said was right.

”Our world is undergoing upheaval. That fellow just now is the root of this upheaval. His appearance has changed the entire world. We are no longer as we used to be, cycling between sleep and waking in endless slumber. We have become more complicated.”

”That, you mentioned before. You’ve gained emotions!” Igor said weakly; he was fairly familiar with this situation.

”Yes, and it is precisely because of this that your plan just now was able to succeed. Otherwise we really wouldn’t have had any way to deal with that fellow,” the Spirit said.

Igor’s plan just now had been to control the opponent’s emotions, to sway the opponent’s mood, making him confused, thereby losing his balance and being unable to take care of both the outside world and his internal situation.

It had to be said, this plan had been quite successful. At the very least, that Spirit had been affected by Igor’s influence, its emotions fluctuating violently, and in the end it finally overlooked Kuyi Tulan’s situation outside, which led to Kuyi Tulan being surrounded.

But that Spirit was still very strong; it had managed to retreat successfully. It hadn’t chosen to fight to the death; in that regard, it seemed it was still quite rational.

”When are you going to give me a detailed account of that guy’s story?” Igor finally voiced a request.

This time in the Inner World, Igor was partly here to catch up with this Spirit—after all, they hadn’t met for a long time—and partly to consult it, because he had finally figured out who the enemy was.

Now that unknown enemy had completely exposed his identity, no longer hiding anything. The other side’s identity was already known to them.

”His story isn’t very complicated. He’s just a Spirit that was influenced by an Awakened.”

”Uh…” Igor was still quite confused about this matter.

”He was the first to engage in deep communication with an Awakened. Unfortunately, he didn’t learn the Awakened’s strengths; he only mastered some of their flaws. Ambition is the biggest one!” the Spirit said slowly.

”How did you discover all this?” Igor was very curious. These Spirits had only just acquired emotions; they shouldn’t be that practiced at handling so many things, right?

”Among us there are quite a few who went astray, but most of them turned back. Remaining forever in a single world is not a good thing. If we do not sleep, the world we inhabit will no longer be able to sustain that tree, and that is deeply worrying.”

”Tree?” This was Igor’s first time hearing that there was a tree in the Spirit World.

”Yes. That is our source. All Energy grows out from there. Our slumber promotes its growth; its growth in turn provides Energy for us. This is a cycle, and it is also a balance.”

”Oh, so it’s similar in nature to Equivalent Exchange!” Listening to the Spirit talk so much, Igor’s Spirit Power was gradually recovering somewhat.

”Exactly, that’s the principle. Some among us realized this mistake and wanted to stop that fellow. But his abilities have always been greater than ours, and his Awakened seems to share the same intentions. That makes things very difficult for us.”

”Aren’t you the same as him?” Igor still didn’t quite understand this point.

”Of course we’re not the same. We are Nothingness; he has already fallen.”

”He’s being led around by his emotions?” Igor probed.

”Having a bit of emotion isn’t a bad thing. At the very least, we found that it allowed us to communicate with you, and that is a very successful step. But being controlled by emotion is not good—especially being controlled by ambition.”

”Flaws can be corrected.” Igor scratched his head.

”You’re not wrong. However, someone who single‑mindedly wants to break the balance and alter the operating rules of the world is still far too dangerous. We cannot allow that fellow to run wild. Change is necessary, but it must not be reckless.”

Igor listened silently. With emotions, Spirits had become more complex; they no longer resembled the past, when they knew nothing but pure rationality. That kind of Spirit was not bad, but there was always something missing—being too rational made their world feel almost as if it didn’t exist at all…