Chapter 1175
Little Pony's First Lesson
Chapter 1175 Little Pony's First Lesson (Edited content, remember to refresh before reading)
The fat penguin let out a small gasp, its round body trembled slightly, its wings were pressed tightly against its sides, and its eyes even began to redden.
"I...I was exaggerating..."
Look, even the Abyss Lord scared the penguin to tears.
Soros, the emperor penguin, stammered as he explained:
"Those are all artistic embellishments... market-driven demand... you know..."
Seeing his expression, Xia Xiu decided not to tease him any further, fearing he might break the penguin.
Actually, the idea of turning this fat penguin into canned food was just a joke, meant to scare the penguin.
He's not some kind of devil.
Faced with a penguin slandering him, he would at most take the guy back to the yard, hand him over to Tulls, and let the penguin organize the documents and write reports...
Lao Xia was still very compassionate, allowing the penguin to continue doing his old job, except that the penguin would have to be a corporate slave for the Heavenly Courtyard for the rest of his life.
Xia Xiu withdrew his hand and sat back down in his chair.
"Tell me, how did the wand man end up in the Garden of Joseph?"
His gaze fell casually on the emperor penguins, and he continued:
"I remember you've always claimed to be neutral. What, have you changed your stance and are planning to intervene in the war between Heaven and all the myriad worlds?"
The emperor penguin immediately shook its head, like a rattle-drum.
"No, no, no—!"
"We really have no intention of going to war!"
He took a deep breath, trying to keep his speech from becoming too hurried.
"We're just here to make a deal... a pure deal!!"
He cautiously looked up at Xia Xiu, then said carefully:
"We wand people have always cared only about knowledge and maps, not about factions."
"Oh, yes."
Xia Xiu tapped the armrest lightly with his fingertips, the rhythm even and steady. He looked at the Emperor Penguin, and the playful expression he had been wearing suddenly vanished. His gaze became sharp and deep in an instant, as if some higher level of innate nature had opened up behind those eyes.
As the emperor penguins saw it, Xia Xiu's outline began to change.
That was no longer a person sitting in a chair.
It was a pitch-black sun.
There was no light, yet it devoured all light; there was no temperature, yet it burned the soul; a huge black sun hung in the void, its edges shimmering with subtle dark gold patterns, as if the universe itself had been compressed into that unseen core.
The emperor penguin let out a scream, abruptly covered his eyes, and staggered backward. He felt as if his retina had been pierced by something beyond his sight, and even his consciousness began to crack.
"what--!"
Just as he was struggling in pain, something slowly emerged from his body.
It was an exquisite and solemn object.
The golden cylindrical shell slowly unfolds, its surface covered with intricate relief patterns. Layer upon layer of patterns and ancient symbols intertwine to form a symmetrical structure. The top is decorated like a dome, with small gold ornaments and hanging bells hanging down. The whole thing looks like a golden ark that can be closed, or like some kind of sealed scroll of miracles.
It slowly rotated in mid-air, emitting a faint glow.
Xia Xiu narrowed his eyes, his voice low and clear.
"This is the backup of the multiverse map... The pterodactyl in that golden palace is really fast. I guess it was a backup plan left behind when I used my great spirituality to destroy it and capture Magus."
He extended his finger, and a great spirituality enveloped the object like an invisible tide, freezing it in mid-air.
"There are many backups of this miracle."
"It is not a single entity, but a miraculous vessel residing within each wand-wielding human. Even the weakest individual can be favored by it, thus gaining the ability to teleport across dimensions."
The golden object suddenly began to vibrate.
The surface texture glowed, and spiral patterns and layers of dimensional coordinates faintly emerged inside. It sensed the danger to its host and attempted to activate the teleportation mechanism to forcibly take the emperor penguin away from this place.
Space was slightly distorted, and EVE particles began to recombine.
However, Xia Xiu remained seated and did not even get up. His great spirituality only spread outward slightly, and in an instant, it suppressed the pulsating power.
The vibrations stopped, and the golden object was completely suppressed in mid-air.
"interesting."
He said it calmly.
"This thing isn't bound to the soul, which means—you can steal treasure by killing someone."
He paused for a moment, his eyes flickering slightly.
"However, it seems to have a need for a master."
As he explored the map's structure, Magus beside him was completely captivated.
His single eye reflected the light of that miraculous object, and he stared intently at the layers of symbols and spiral structures, glimpsing the rhythm and orderly framework of the ether itself.
That was a pure kind of beauty.
A structural, logical, and near-perfect beauty of dimensional arrangement.
Magus's breathing gradually became rapid, and subtle changes began to occur in his body.
Beneath the skin of his arm, the structure was quietly reorganizing. A few tiny feathers emerged from between the skin, the joints shifted slightly, and the proportions of his bones were adjusted. His physiological functions were unconsciously evolving towards a form that was more adapted to the leap to a certain dimension. The deeper changes were happening in his soul—his consciousness was moving closer to that spiral structure, trying to align with it.
It was an almost instinctive assimilation, and just as this change was about to deepen further, a magnificent and resounding voice came from the highest level.
"Magnus!"
The sound was like thunder crashing down from the sky.
Magus was suddenly jolted.
The almost completed transformation was abruptly interrupted by the father's voice. The feathers retreated rapidly under the skin as if erased by reversed time. The joints reset with a slight cracking sound, and the skeletal proportions returned to their original human form. The trajectory deep within the soul, which was almost aligned with the spiral structure, was also forcibly pulled back onto the right track.
He staggered, grabbing the metal railing of the bridge, breathing rapidly, fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead, the light in his single eye gradually clearing from its dazed state.
The pure, almost intoxicating structural beauty still resonates in his mind.
Xia Xiu's gaze was already fixed on him, without anger or disappointment, just a calm stare.
"Father...I..."
Magus's voice lowered.
This was the first time he had felt such obvious shame in front of his father.
His father had repeatedly warned him not to peer too much into the ether, and not to embrace the deep sea in the most primitive way before a stable phylogenetic network was established. But he still lost his composure in that instant, attracted by the miraculous beauty of the structure, and almost willingly made himself a medium for some kind of transformation.
Xia Xiu did not immediately reprimand him.
He simply raised his hand, slightly rotating the suppressed [Multiverse Map], causing the embossed patterns on its golden shell to slowly flow under the light, and then said in a calm tone:
"It seems you have a very high compatibility with this miracle."
He paused, his gaze falling on Magus's single eye. "One of the conditions for this thing to recognize its master is, I think, already quite obvious." Magus looked up, while Xia Xiu continued speaking to himself:
"A thirst for knowledge, an obsession with the unknown, and a natural affinity for the logical relationship between dimensions and order."
He lightly tapped the object with his fingertip.
"It never chooses the strong, but those who cannot stop thinking. However, you have already seen the price."
He said slowly:
"Having a map of the multiverse is not as simple as just acquiring a teleportation tool."
"It will shape the holder in reverse. When you align with its structure, when your consciousness frequency begins to synchronize with its dimensional spiral, your physiological structure will change accordingly."
He glanced at Magus's arm, which had already recovered.
"Claws and feathers are just the beginning."
“Skeletal proportions will adjust, joint flexibility will change, and breathing and sensory methods will gradually adapt to the biological forms required for cross-dimensional leaps.”
His tone remained calm, yet it carried more weight than any reprimand.
"Once this process is complete, it is almost irreversible; your body will no longer belong entirely to the original racial structure."
Magus remained silent.
Xia Xiu's gaze shifted slightly toward the emperor penguin huddled to the side.
"This also explains why wand people are all avian creatures."
"That's not just a racial trait; it's the result of a transformation that must be undergone to enter the wand-wielder system."
With a gentle wave of his hand, the golden object was compressed back into the Emperor Penguin's body. The patterns flickered in the air one last time before disappearing completely.
"Knowledge may choose people, but it may also reshape them."
Xia Xiu looked at Magus again.
"The way that is not practiced in person is the way of evil."
“Magnus, you must learn moderation, you must learn to be moderate in the face of endless extraordinary knowledge, and you must learn to revere this extraordinary knowledge. This is the most important lesson I need to teach you.”
As the saying goes, you can't teach someone a thousand times, but you can teach someone once.
With Xia Xiu's abilities, he could have easily isolated the contamination of the [Multiverse Map] from the Mother in that instant, preventing that structure from affecting Magus, but he chose not to do so.
He wanted the child to see for himself, to experience firsthand the near-loss of self, and to realize the fear when he truly touched the edge of the abyss.
If this isn't enough, the old father has many other ideas.
For example, take Xiao Ma to [Void Dragon Well] for a stroll, let him see the ancient projection that is so suppressed it is almost bursting at the source; or use [Heavenly Lever] to pry open the boundary and let Xiao Ma watch the tense and exciting Etheric Spirit Platform escape; if that's not enough, just take Xiao Ma to see [His Covered Boundless], let that indescribable thing that devours stars be reflected in Xiao Ma's retina.
Show your child this kind of content several times, and they will naturally behave.
These thoughts flashed through Xia Xiu's mind only for a moment. Magus was unaware that he was truly afraid at that moment.
In that instant, he clearly felt his body changing: his skeletal proportions shifted, his joints reorganized, and his consciousness aligned with another form. But what was even more terrifying was not the change in his physical body, but the shift in his soul.
The impulse to willingly merge with the spiral structure and actively abandon his original self made him realize for the first time that the pursuit of knowledge can also lead to being devoured.
His palms were still cold; for the first time, he felt fear of the ether.
It's not the fear of power, but the fear of losing oneself.
Magus raised his head, his single eye showing less fanaticism and more clarity.
“Father…” his voice was low but extremely serious, “I will remember this day.”
He paused for a moment and took a deep breath.
“I will maintain awe for ether and will no longer let curiosity override reason.”
Xia Xiu nodded.
It's a good thing that the child has learned to be afraid.
He didn't say anything more, shifting his gaze from Magus back to the still trembling Emperor Penguin. Then, with a casual wave of his hand, the golden artifact that had been suppressed in mid-air condensed back into its original form in a faint light. The relief patterns on its outer shell quickly dimmed, and the dome-like top slowly closed, finally transforming into a stream of light and disappearing back into the Emperor Penguin's body.
In that instant, the emperor penguin trembled, as if it had regained something it had lost, or as if it had taken on a heavy burden again.
Xia Xiu did not press further, but simply said in a calm tone, "Tell me, what exactly is going on with the collaboration between the Wandman and the Golden Palace?"
The emperor penguin finally let out a long sigh of relief.
For a brief moment, he really thought he was about to have a mental breakdown.
When that pitch-black sun unfolded in his field of vision, he felt as if his consciousness was being pulled into some kind of unbearable high-dimensional structure, and even his thoughts were shattering. Fortunately, Xia Xiu deliberately restrained his power and converged at the most dangerous critical point; otherwise, he would probably have become a complete fool who had lost all self-awareness by now.
Thinking about this, he even felt a little scared.
Therefore, he never dared to be cunning again.
"We...we really have no intention of going to war."
The emperor penguin took a deep breath, and his tone finally became serious.
"The Golden Palace contacted us on their own initiative."
"They have some coordinates of Blackrock Fortress, but they don't have a stable means to cross dimensions, while we have a map of the multiverse."
He glanced up at Xia Xiu, then quickly looked down again.
"The deal is simple—we provide access to a map of the multiverse to help them reach the outskirts of Blackrock Fortress; in exchange, they provide the exact location of the Twelfth Wandman's remains."
Magus listened quietly from the side.
Xia Xiu tapped the armrest lightly with his fingertips. Upon hearing about Blackrock Fortress, his expression became subtle. He also had the coordinates of Blackrock Fortress in his hand.
This can't be such a coincidence...
wrong.
This was all a conspiracy by Xin Liezhi.
That guy is definitely plotting something...
Xia Xiu then asked:
"The twelfth wandmaster died in Blackrock Fortress?"
The emperor penguin nodded.
"Yes, he entered the internal structure of Blackrock Fortress as part of an exploration team. He lost contact while trying to record its mechanisms for suppressing Great Power and spiritual interference. We later confirmed that he perished on the outer perimeter of the core."
His voice lowered.
"To us, it's not just a body, but also a complete set of unfinished research records and experimental data... In addition, the backup of the multiverse map of the Twelfth Wandman's body is also left in Blackrock Fortress, and we need to retrieve it."
Xia Xiu did not immediately offer his opinion.
Emperor Penguin continued, seemingly oblivious to the situation: "The Golden Palace is currently very wary of the Heavenly Kingdom's expansion. They want to use Blackrock Fortress as a new strategic bargaining chip, while we only want to recover the remains and data."
As he said this, his tone became even more sincere.
"We really don't intend to directly intervene in the full-scale conflict between the myriad realms and the Kingdom of Heaven."