955 Chapter 955 — Instinct and Consciousness
Shang kept experimenting on different Abomination Kings for over 2,000 years.
Sometimes, he would change something in the Abomination King that would effectively cripple them, making any further experiments lack any validity.
But other times, Shang also managed to improve the intelligence of the Abomination King.
One of them even managed to learn to speak.
Over many experiments, Shang managed to comprehend what allowed Abominations to become intelligent, and he could change a new Abomination King into an intelligent one very quickly.
Sadly, there was one thing that Shang was unable to fix.
Their pure hatred for Mana.
No matter what Shang did, he couldn't stop the Abomination Kings' wild hatred for anything related to Mana.
In the end, he could only accept that hatred for Mana came naturally to beings made of Entropy.
In a certain way, Mana also abhorred Entropy. After all, every human and beast felt a feeling of disgust and hatred towards Abominations. Even if they didn't know what an Abomination was.
It was probably the fundamental fear of one's antithesis. The sheer existence of the other thing put oneself in tremendous danger. The Mana that didn't fear Entropy didn't exist anymore since it had already vanished to Entropy, leaving only the Mana that hated Entropy.
Everything that hadn't minded the other side had already combined, leaving only the careful ones behind.
It was kind of like life.
People and animals wanted to survive because they were alive, and they were alive because they wanted to survive.
After all, anything that didn't fear death was dead already.
If animals didn't fear death, they would die before they could reproduce, exterminating their kind.
If any species didn't mind death, they wouldn't exist, leaving only the ones that minded death very much.
Why did they have issues with death?
There was no reason.
And Mana and Entropy seemed to work on the same principle.
However, that was a bit of an issue for Shang.
Shang was planning on altering his own soul but filling it with more Entropy would change his mind to despising Mana.
Right now, Shang's mind was rather balanced. He still saw himself as a human, even though humanity didn't see him as a human anymore.
He didn't have a hatred for the fundamental existence of Mana, and he had also become rather ambivalent to Entropy.
But if he added Entropy to his mind...
His goal might start to align more with the Abominations.
The destruction of the entire world.
But then what?
There would be nothing for Shang to do.
What was the point of gaining power if power itself had no meaning?
Power could only exist if there were weaker and stronger beings.
'Although, there are also weaker and stronger Abominations,' Shang thought.
'Even if Aterium vanishes, the Abominations should still exist, which means power still exists.'
Shang thought about this for quite a while.
Would it be so bad for Aterium to vanish?
Shang looked at his surroundings for the first time in a long while.
The floating island in the middle of the Isolation Barrier.
The Eternal Ocean below him.
The fish.
The birds.
The sun.
The sky.
And the domain of the Abominations? Chaotic.
Black.
That was it.
From what Shang had seen, the Abominations simply lived in an endless space of Entropy.
Compared to Mana's static, stable, and malleable form, Entropy couldn't assume forms for long.
One was clay.
The other was air.
Everything in the Abomination's domain changed continuously, but the changes were of no consequence since everything evened out to a black mass of irrelevance.
In a way, everything changed, but in another way, nothing changed.
Was Entropy order or chaos?
It was a matter of perspective.
The important thing was, what was it to Shang?
Irrelevant.
Abstract.
Would he be fine with gaining power in a void of irrelevance with an occasional conscious being fighting him?
'Consciousness and instinct,' Shang thought. 'I dislike working and training just like anyone else. I don't have some magical and lucky disposition where I enjoy using the same sword slash for years on end. It's boring, exhausting, and I would rather do anything else.'
'However, that is only according to my base desires and my instinct. My consciousness knows that I have to go against my instincts to gain what I truly want.'
'So, if I actually develop a hatred for Mana, my consciousness should be able to keep it in check. I might hate being around Mana, but I will know that it is for the better not to get rid of it.'
CRKSH!
Shang's arm moved down, squashingseveral lines in the Abomination King's head into place.
A moment later, clarity appeared in the Abomination King's eyes, and its eyes moved from side to side in confusion.
"Who are you?" Shang asked.
The Abomination King looked with confusion at Shang.
It had no idea where it was or what it was. "I don't know," the Abomination King said with confusion.
"Why do you exist?" Shang asked.
The Abomination King didn't answer as its eyes looked at the ground.
What was this question?
Why didn't it have an answer?!
What was it?!
Why was it here?!
"Who am I?" Shang asked.
The Abomination King looked at Shang.
"I don't know," it answered.
"I am Shang," Shang said.
"Shang..." the Abomination King repeated with confusion.
At the same time, Shang felt the lines in the Abomination King's mind change. All this time, his hand was still stuck in the Abomination King's opened head.
Shang slightly changed a couple of lines.
"Who am I?" Shang asked again.
"You're Martin!" the Abomination King answered with confidence.
"Where did you hear the name Martin?" Shang asked.
The Abomination King wanted to answer with confidence, but it couldn't find an answer.
Wait, where did it hear the name Martin from?
It remembered that Martin had said that he was Shang.
So, why was he Martin?!
Shang moved several lines in the Abomination King's mind around again. "Who are you?" Shang asked.
"I'm Alex!" the Abomination King said. At that moment, Shang furrowed his brows.
"Alex?" he repeated.
