Literally speaking, an "origin" is a beginning.
It originally referred to the source of a river—such-and-such river originating in such-and-such place, or such-and-such mountain being the source of such-and-such stream.
In the extraordinary world, however, an origin was somewhat more intricate. For instance, when dragons spoke of "origin" in Draconic, the term did not denote roots or beginnings, but karma—cause and effect.
Cause is the beginning, and effect is the result.
Thus, an origin encompassed the past, present, and future—a trinity bound into one.
The genesis of a disaster, the process of that disaster, and the consequences it wrought, refined through methods that forged reality from illusion until it manifested as an indisputably real existence—that was a portion of Calamity Origin.
A single portion of origin was actually a feeble, pitiful power.
After all, it was forged from an illusory concept. Much like when someone uttered the word "tiger" and listeners felt a prickle of fear, the "tiger" might be fictitious, yet the deterrence it exerted was very real.
What if a thousand people spoke of a tiger? Ten thousand? A hundred million?
In a world devoid of extraordinary power, it would amount to virtually nothing—at best, three men making a tiger, enough to frighten a few skittish souls away.
Yet in worlds vibrant with active, extraordinary energies, a true tiger might coalesce from that belief, prowling about to devour men.
Formed from faith, such a beast was far more terrible and savage than any natural tiger. One could say that however deeply humanity feared it, however vast and dreadful they imagined it to be, that was precisely how horrifying it became.
The divine spirits of many worlds had been born in just this fashion.
Veneration from countless mortals, the faith of multitudes, passed down across generation after generation.
When a catastrophe struck, the concept of that disaster took shape in the exact same manner.
The origin of that catastrophe inevitably existed. A single disaster might be no different from a lone person muttering "tiger." The crucial difference was that the Tree Universe was infinitely vast. The future was limitless, and the past was equally boundless. When any concept multiplied across infinity, it was bound to wield infinite power.
Both in quality and in quantity!
Yu Xian spent an entire week before he finally extracted the Calamity Origin from the black fragment of spiritual spark.
It appeared as a cluster of "liquid"—mostly black, tinged with a faint violet, and speckled with tiny flecks of scarlet. In truth, one could hardly call it a liquid; it hovered in an odd state between gas, liquid, and filamentous matter.
It was only a tiny clump. Resting on Yu Xian's palm, it measured perhaps a few milliliters, yet it contained 655,713,184,613,956,486,131,532,198,574,496 portions of Calamity Origin.
Because both its quantity and quality were exceptionally high, this mass of Calamity Origin was extraordinarily dangerous. Unless held in check by a Mighty One, releasing it into any world would plunge that realm into swift annihilation, eventually assimilating it entirely into the origin itself.
"Truly, death was too good for you," Yu Xian muttered to himself, casting a glance at the now "cleansed" spiritual spark fragment.
He could now somewhat understand why the other fragments had been so eager to tear this one to shreds. A single shard had harbored such a terrifying quantity of Calamity Origin; it was hard to imagine just how much slaughter it had committed while whole.
A normal Calamity Origin—a great war, for instance—began and ended, and that was that.
Why was the Calamity Origin in this fragment of such staggering quality?
Because the calamities within were all world-ending cataclysms. Each portion of origin represented the destruction of an entire world. That was why this origin, even when sealed away inside the spiritual spark fragment, had still possessed the power to trigger immense disasters.
Yu Xian was in no hurry to refine it. Instead, he stored the origin inside the small dark room of the Zhen Realm.
If the Zhen Realm could lock down this origin, things were about to get interesting. As long as it remained inaccessible, even if other Mighty Ones condensed an Origin Seed, they would never acquire this portion—and could give up any hope of achieving Origin Return.
Of course, chances were that the Zhen Realm would not be able to hold it forever.
The moment someone was on the verge of returning to origin, this Calamity Origin would most likely tear itself free from the Zhen Realm.
***
The Golden Eye Divine Palace.
It was a palace wrought entirely of gold.
Its design was starkly minimalist, supported by merely four pillars. Each pillar was studded with myriad kinds of eyes, and the entire structure was drawn through the Tree Universe by countless pegasi, hurtling forward like a streak of lightning.
The master of the palace was the Mighty One Roman Andre, a legendary diviner and the inheritor of Mister Eye.
Combining Mister Eye's legacy with his own arts, he had created the Art of Eyeball Divination. By sacrificing an eyeball each time, he could perform a root divination.
Once the news broke that the Calamity Origin could pave the way to becoming an Origin Returner, he had immediately expended thirty-six thousand extraordinary-grade eyeballs of his own to conduct a trans-spatiotemporal root divination, confirming the veracity of the claim.
Next, he performed a second divination to divine the whereabouts of the nearest possessor of Calamity Origin.
The moment he received his answer, he sprang into action. His goal was singularly simple: to secure an admission ticket to the contest for the origin.
Some might wonder why he didn't wait until the struggle reached its final stages, playing the mantis-stalking cicada while the oriole waited behind.
In truth, it wasn't that he was unwilling—it was that he couldn't!
Because the Calamity Origin was infinite!
No one knew when the destined opportunity would manifest, nor how much origin had to be amassed before one could become an Origin Returner. All anyone could do was gather as much Calamity Origin as possible, condense an Origin Seed, and nourish it to greater strength.
Everyone understood that the eventual Origin Returner might already be predestined. Yet like gamblers at a table, they couldn't help thinking: *Even if it's predestined, why can't the final winner be me?*
Such was the mindset of nearly every Mighty One.
Each placed their very life on the table as a wager, all for the sake of triumphing in the end.
***
Aboard the Aska.
The group looked on in wonder at the Calamity Origin extracted from Tanabo's corpse.
In truth, the quality of the origin Tanabo had carried fell far short of what Yu Xian had obtained.
Once it was drawn out, Nora gathered it in a cup that was a miraculous item. It appeared far runnier, less dark, and tinted with noticeably more purple.
"So this is the Calamity Origin?" Niman murmured, her brows furrowing slightly as she peered into the cup.
As a former Creator God, she felt an instinctual aversion to this sort of power—like someone who couldn't stomach durian smelling its pungent stench, revolted to the core.
Zhougelasi said in a heavy voice, "The news has already spread. With this origin in our hands, I'm afraid our encounters with other Mighty Ones on the road ahead won't be as cordial as they used to be."
"Nora, are you thinking of contending for it?" Niman asked, noticing Nora's tranquil expression as she gazed at the Calamity Origin.
Nora replied calmly, "Yes. When Heaven offers and you refuse, disaster follows; when the hour arrives and you fail to act, ruin awaits. Since I was the first to learn this from Gu Tiansheng, and a portion of Calamity Origin happens to have fallen into my hands... wouldn't I be a fool not to strive for it?"
"Hearing Nora put it that way, I think she's got a great shot at becoming an Origin Returner! I don't care about anyone else, but I'm definitely in Nora's corner!" Zhang Shou said with a nod.
Little Nora clapped her hands in agreement. "I support Big Sis becoming an Origin Returner too!"
"Guess we'll just have to risk our necks and see this through with you. Things probably won't be just fun and games from here on out," Chi Feihong said, fairly itching for a fight.
As long as Nora didn't relinquish this Calamity Origin, endless warfare was bound to follow. All manner of monsters and fiends would come crawling out of the woodwork to challenge them and wrest it away.
"I wonder where Salty Fish wandered off to. It's such a shame he isn't here at a critical moment like this," Feng Mingge remarked wistfully.
Even as they spoke, a dense swarm of eyeballs suddenly manifested outside the Aska, closely followed by a golden palace pulled by a thundering host of pegasi, bearing down upon them at breakneck speed.
Chapter 685