Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

It was an illusion, after all, just an illusion.

What lay before the eyes, what was felt in the heart, all were mere fantasies.

Even if that had been a past that truly happened.

Du Wei watched as Minette struggled endlessly with the coffin in the cold and gloomy lake waters.

Yes...

That was all he could do, just watch.

He watched as Minette awkwardly dodged the falling rocks, watched as the woman occasionally disappeared beneath the water, and from time to time, resurfaced with desperate struggles.

Beyond that, there was no other way.

In the end, Minette sank into the icy depths of the lake with the coffin.

Darkness devoured everything.

The outcome that followed...

Du Wei already knew it too well.

For he had seen the latter part of the end through the ability of Future Sight.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But the words reached his lips and could not be spoken.

He could only turn around and walk alone into the profound darkness, with the wind, with the fog, as if he was taking steps towards hell with no possibility of turning back.

...

In the last century, Massas City was a city extremely developed in heavy industry.

Its rise was due to that, its fall was due to that as well.

A city focused on heavy industry was led by the nose by it, and once the limited resources that could be exploited were exhausted, Massas City became an uninhabited city.

Now.

After a century has passed, today, Massas Uninhabited City has completely disappeared from the map.

The entire deserted city was leveled to the ground.

Or rather, directly erased.

All buildings ceased to exist, the yellowing new soil covered all, with only the birch forest outside of Massas City and some vegetation still adorning the pitiful green.

Perhaps that was the color of life.

Now the night was heavy.

The bright moonlight, once obscured by dark clouds, reemerged in the waste's night sky, but from afar, only a waning moon remained.

Dawn was about to break.

Amidst these ruins, there lay a two-meter-long stone block, not fully covered by the new soil.

This time.

Du Wei was sitting on that stone block.

He gazed at the bright moon above, his face as indifferent as always. A gust of wind blew by, and feeling a chill, he reached into his pocket, fumbled for a while, and then took out a packet of cigarettes.

He put a cigarette in his mouth, and with the other hand, he took out a lighter and pressed it.

Click...

The red flame lit the cigarette.

Du Wei took a deep drag and, as he exhaled the faint smoke, his fingertips trembled slightly.

"Sigh..."

He was in a very bad state at the moment.

The power of Evil Spirit Du Wei was simply too strong.

It was something that humans could not bear.

Of course, the pain of the body was nothing compared to the torment of the soul.

Minette and Alex, they had tired his spirit beyond words, leaving him on the verge of collapse.

To be frank.

Du Wei had complicated feelings towards Alex, mostly fondness and responsibility, but even more was rationality.

But even so.

He couldn't possibly abandon Alex.

Minette was different, though.

That woman was too foolish...

The things she did had no value whatsoever.

Du Wei could not understand why she was willing to give up so much for him.

What was love?

Such a thing actually drove Minette to choose Armored Divinity Ascension, and when it didn't work once, she did it a total of five times.

Five times she stole the power of Demon Gods.

Rahmer, Valak, and three other Demon Gods.

"Don't you understand that such power is something you simply cannot bear?"

Du Wei's voice was somewhat hoarse.

"All because of love?"

"But I feel it's more like a self-inflicted sentimentality."

"Impulse keeps you from staying rational."

"An inability to let go of everything has led you down a dead end."

Minette once walked a doomed path for Du Wei, culminating in her being dismembered and entwined with the Demon Gods.

This end could be called nothing short of tragic.

Yet.

Du Wei's past and future were a complete cycle.

That is to say.

One day in the future, Du Wei would return to the past and thus spend a long and solitary existence, until, with certain thoughts in mind, he met Minette.

He knew everything that would happen later.

He knew how tragic Minette's end would be, tried to change it, yet still made things turn out as they were meant to be.

If Minette did not die, Alex would not exist.

One had to choose between the two.

"What kind of person am I, after all?"

"Should I feel sorrow?"

"Should I be moved?"

"But all I feel is that I cannot bear Minette's love."

...

He smoked cigarettes one after another.

Whenever a tiny flame went out, Du Wei's mood sank a little more.

"I don't like this world."

"From the beginning till now, I've been wandering between life and death, tormented, seeing no hope."

"I'm not a good person."

"Not a savior, nor a hero."

"But why can't those I care about even have a seemingly beautiful outcome?"

Minette died a dismembered death.

Alex's consciousness vanished, falling into an eternal slumber.

Ryan suffered at Dusk Bell Church.

Corrine Dowqui, who worshipped him, became Brand of the Vanity Sect, tragically and helplessly becoming his own enemy.

Alvin Dowqui died due to complications from Evil Spirit Transformation.

Hunter Kane reached his critical point, too.

Aside from Tom and Father Tony, who lived relatively peaceful days, the rest were heading toward a hopeless end.

As for Du Wei himself…

He had become numb.

At this moment.

Du Wei collapsed on that rock, staring woodenly at the darkness before dawn arrived.

He said, "I am just a person living on this timeline called 'the present', and one day in the future, I will return to the past, repeating the cycle over and over again."

"Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods and I are locked in this timeline."

"So, I have no future."

"And as an Evil Spirit, I have no past."

"No one can help me because that end has long been determined."

Having said this.

Du Wei took out a mask and put it on his face.

He said, "Even if I'm trapped in an endless loop, eternally struggling on this timeline with Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods, I can accept it. But I do not like such an ending."

"The pain that comes from me, the torments I've endured, I can accept them all."

"But I cannot accept that those I care about don't even get a slightly better ending."

"I want to give them, and her, a good outcome, to let them depart this closed loop of time, to give them the future they deserve."

Then.

His breath became chilly.

His eyes turned pitch black, and the Evil Spirit Du Wei said indifferently, "But this is just the first plan. Besides this, I have another plan that can break the cycle."

"One of the Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods has already been fully assimilated by me, and the concepts of five other Demon Gods have also been partially assimilated by me."

"They will be with me."

"Either I kill them, or they die with me."

"If they cease to exist, there's no need for this so-called cycle."