Bai Ming looked at her status panel:
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[Roleplay System]
[Na: Bai Ming]
[Lifespan: ∞]
[Available Characters: Big Herta, Celenova, Jingliu, Ruan i, Sparkle, Hertatomb, Lord Ravager · Jingliu, Young Herta, Robin, Artoria, Cipher, Georios, General of the Yuque - Qingque, Huohuo, Silver Wolf, Hysilens, Cyrene · Fuli (Charge: 46.1%), Acheron (Charge: 10.8%), Calypso]
[Available Pulls: 21 (13.1%)]
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Over the past few years, she hadn't been very active in the outside world.
Although her reputation occasionally preceded her, most of it filtered out indirectly through places like Celestial Sparrow Entertainnt or the Astral Express.
Consequently, the efficiency of accumulating Emotional Value fluctuated wildly over the years.
Even when she was roleplaying as Acheron, she hadn't actually done much of anything, spending most of her ti focused on research.
So, all in all—including the pull she just perford—she had only saved up about a dozen or so pulls.
It wasn't a lot, but it wasn't a small amount either.
Bai Ming wasn't in a hurry to start a new roleplay imdiately.
Instead, she closed her eyes first.
Activating the Nihility Equation, she plunged directly into that Path, which was as pitch-black as an abyss.
It was the Path of Nihility—broad, deep, and vaguely standing in silent opposition to all other Paths from a distance.
True to its na, it was filled with a deathly silence in every sense of the word.
Bai Ming looked "upward" against the current of the Path.
There sat the black Aeon of Nihility, IX. There were no cute, mismatched eyes here; there was only a pure, absolute darkness that seed to encompass all things.
Faced with Bai Ming's probing and her attempt to occupy the Path, IX did nothing. There was no reaction whatsoever.
Bai Ming even felt that if she ran over right now and tried to kick IX off the Path entirely, the Aeon wouldn't even bother to give her a second glance.
But that was fine.
This ant that no matter what she did on this Path, the other party wouldn't interfere.
It was essentially a Path without a master.
However, just as Bai Ming began to follow the river of the Path downward, attempting to capture the essence of everyone tainted by Nihility, a strange ripple emanated from the Path.
This fluctuation instantly caught the attention of every Aeon in the cosmos.
There was no helping it.
No matter the Aeon or the Path—whether they stood for Preservation or Destruction—almost all were diatrically opposed to Nihility.
Even Nanook had never considered letting the world fall into Nihility as a ans to end it.
So, when the Path of Nihility—which was supposed to be stagnant—began to show signs of movent, the alarm bells for nearly every Aeon were cranked to the max.
The Hunt drew its bow; the Harmony opened its eyes; the Preservation raised its hamr...
Aha even went so far as to scoop up Noa—crystal wall, divinity, and all—and lug them over. In such a solemn atmosphere, the sight was exceptionally ridiculous.
But when these Aeons saw that it was Bai Ming standing upon the Path of Nihility, stirring that endless void, their collective gaze shifted in unison to the still-grinning Aha.
Bai Ming hadn't made much noise on the borders of Nihility lately, aside from recently building a small world to pass on the souls of the Sin Thirsters.
Such a minor matter naturally wasn't worth the Aeons' constant surveillance.
But you, Aha? As the master of the Path of Elation, your "Second Aeon" is over here tinkering with Nihility... and you're telling us you didn't know?!
Absolutely impossible!
Aha definitely knew about this long ago but deliberately kept it quiet.
THEY let them all remain oblivious while Bai Ming took control of the Path of Nihility.
Consequently, the looks the other Aeons gave Aha turned decidedly unfriendly.
Dammit, Aha! Is there sothing wrong with you?!
If Bai Ming doesn't understand the risks, don't you, a "proper" Aeon, know the gravity of the situation?!
Besides, strictly speaking, Bai Ming is your subordinate. And yet, you just sat there without a word and let her cook up this massive crisis for the rest of us?
The terrifying thing about Nihility is that it swallows everything.
It erases things; it erases the very concept of existence itself.
It is fatal to any Path.
But the "safe" thing about Nihility is that, due to its own nature, it doesn't move on its own. It only spreads passively.
As long as one takes proactive preventative asures and doesn't do anything stupid like opening the floodgates, Nihility isn't exactly an unsolvable problem. Every Path has its own way of dealing with it.
But now...
In a Nihility that was supposed to be unconscious, an Emanator—or a sub-Aeon—had appeared who could actively wield that power and point it wherever she pleased.
This was a disaster waiting to happen!
If Bai Ming truly had the desire to destroy the universe, she would only need a single thought.
Nihility would surge forward, turning into a tide of universal destruction, swallowing the entire cosmos whole.
If it ever reached that point, even if they successfully intercepted it, the universe would likely be so mangled that they might as well just hit the reset button.
Nanook, for one, actually looked forward to such an ending.
However, Nanook showed no outward emotion, because through the golden blood given to Bai Ming, the Aeon could feel what she intended to do.
Similarly, Aha and Nous, who had also bestowed power upon Bai Ming, could sense her motives.
So, these few were relatively calm.
Aha was especially relaxed, grinning as THEY held Noa's crystal sphere and waved at the other Aeons, acting as if the whole thing had nothing to do with THEM.
Bai Ming had originally thought Aha might help explain things for her.
Instead, this guy was purely here to fan the flas.
THEY even brought Noa along, looking for all the world like THEY were saying, "If things go south, I'll smash Noa as a signal for everyone to commit suicide together so we can help Noa defeat the Big Bad Boss."
THEY truly lived for chaos.
"Ahem. Everyone, the people I care about all live here. I have no intention of destroying the world. If you are uneasy, you may give a token of your Path so you can monitor my actions at any ti."
At this stage, the blessings of other Paths didn't actually an much to Bai Ming anymore.
She said this primarily so these Aeons could perceive her status imdiately and establish a level of mutual trust.
After all, Bai Ming knew that what she was doing this ti was a pretty big deal.
Last ti she gained the trust of Equilibrium; this ti, she needed to win over at least a few more.
The Aeons fell into thought.
Then, the Preservation was the first to act.
The Aeon tossed the hamr in THEIR hand lightly. The hamr turned into a streak of amber light, flying before Bai Ming and shrinking into a finger-sized trinket.
However, the incredibly heavy and threatening aura radiating from the tiny hamr spoke of its extraordinary nature.
This was far more exaggerated than the aura of any typical Pathstrider.
The Hunt then drew THEIR bow and fired seven arrows of light in one breath. The arrows rged together, transforming into a single arrowhead that fell into Bai Ming's lap.
Just like the gift from the Preservation, the power within this arrowhead was imnse.
Nous's light flickered, dropping a key.
Then, a multicolored ribbon flew in along a mysterious Path. It threaded through the hamr, the arrowhead, and the key, turning them into a bracelet that tied itself around Bai Ming's left wrist.
Seeing this, the other Aeons said no more.
After all, four Aeons had already made their stance clear. Combined with the ones from before, it didn't matter much if the rest abstained.
Bai Ming raised her left hand and looked at the strangely designed bracelet.
A hamr, an arrowhead, a key, and a dazzling ribbon of strange material... the aesthetic was quite the mix-and-match.
Bai Ming could manipulate the power stored within these items at will; like the golden blood Nanook gave her, they were a form of blessing.
Of course, besides being a blessing, they also served as a monitoring system to detect any Imaginary fluctuations with Nihility attributes.
Other powers didn't matter, but if Bai Ming used Nihility power beyond a certain threshold, these Aeons would notice imdiately.
For Bai Ming, bypassing this kind of Imaginary reaction surveillance wasn't actually difficult.
But she had no intention of blocking it.
She knew herself that mastering the power of Nihility was a dangerous ga.
If she ever got carried away and used too much Nihility power, causing irreparable consequences, it would be bad.
With the other Aeons acting as a safety insurance, Bai Ming felt more at ease.
Besides, the Amber Lord had given her THEIR hamr.
Good grief—if she took this thing to the Interastral Peace Corporation, she'd probably scare several executives to death on the spot and be handed a seat on the Board of Directors imdiately.
Bai Ming pushed these unrealistic thoughts aside.
She retracted her gaze and began once more to stir the calm waters of the Path of Nihility.
She had been interrupted just now, so she naturally had to start over.
Ripples rose again on the surface of the void. Layer after layer of ripples spread outward from Bai Ming as the center, expanding toward the boundless river of Nihility.
This was a decree Bai Ming issued to the stagnant Path, using Nihility as her foundation.
This was a feat that contradicted the very essence of Nihility, but Bai Ming hadn't gained her power by following the Path's philosophy in the first place.
Relying on the Equation, she forcibly manipulated Nihility, causing waves on the placid surface.
Following the shadows of the void, the influence instantly spread to everyone tainted by Nihility.
Every "Self-Annihilator" struggling beneath the shadow of the void felt the change.
That pitch-black shadow, which should have been eroding their sense of self and existence every second, was suddenly and infinitely slowed. It even seed to recede.
The essence of Nihility couldn't be completely overturned, but under Bai Ming's control, its ability to erode individuals was drastically reduced.
The interference brought by Nihility was slashed to a tenth, a hundredth, even a thousandth of its original strength.
The montum of the spreading shadow was weakened, even halted.
Those Self-Annihilators, originally trapped in the misery of their own fading existence...
Felt a sense of liberation that was akin to being born anew.
Bai Ming couldn't completely separate those already tainted from the Path of Nihility across the vastness of the cosmos.
But when the threat of Nihility was lowered by a factor of a thousand, a once-fatal danger beca gentle.
To put it in simpler terms: as long as a person tainted by Nihility had the will to resist it, this new rule would take effect, causing the threat of Nihility to practically vanish.
It would preserve the lives of the Self-Annihilators.
However, the nature of Nihility was still Nihility.
Therefore, if soone chose to underestimate its danger and actively sought out its power, the rule Bai Ming had overlaid would beco completely void for them.
The rules she established were ant to save those in suffering; they weren't ant to provide a safety net for the ambitious.
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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL
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