Lord of Winter: Beginning with Daily Intelligence Chapter 883 - 476: Original Sin

Dark golden dust slowly falls like snow.

The dragon corpse that once obscured the sky has vanished, the vast creature dissolving rapidly, leaving only a large expanse of ash.

A faint warmth lingers in the air, yet no trace of the dragon’s aura can be felt.

Louis stands at the center of the ruins.

At the moment the last piece of dark golden dust lands, a phantom figure gradually emerges in front of him.

The figure is incomplete, its silhouette seeming to have been repeatedly eroded by time, barely maintaining a human shape.

Louis raises his head and sees the face clearly.

He recognizes the face.

It is the face of the Grand Mage Noken who once, long ago, in the Primordial Land, implanted the Primordial Heart into his mind, known perhaps by another identity as Lin Ze.

But now, he is no longer the elegant and composed steward.

That body has been dead for many years, with what stands before him, a forcibly severed remnant of a soul.

Anchored by obsession, guided by prophecy, stubbornly enduring for a thousand years.

Louis merely watches him, without speaking immediately.

From the state of the remnant, he already understands everything.

Noken quietly looks back at Louis.

In the depths of hollow eyes, there is a faint emotion, not joy, but a kind of release, a final letting go.

A thousand years of planning finally come to an end, his mission complete at this moment.

Louis remained silent for a long time before he spoke softly, "You’ve worked hard."

The voice is not loud but extremely solemn.

Noken slightly bows his head, as though making a final farewell to this world.

In the next moment, his figure starts to thin.

Dispersing like smoke in the wind, without pain or struggle, disappearing quietly into the air, leaving no trace.

Louis stands in place, gazing at the void.

Only when the last trace of soul fluctuations completely disappears does he slowly turn away.

Above the ruins, mist still lingers stubbornly.

This belongs to the Dragon Emperor, the mist of greed and that half of arrogance.

Louis reaches out, and under invisible guidance, the two masses of mist converge, compressed into flowing light, carrying pure power.

He hesitates not, allowing the flow of light to pierce straight into his chest, merging with the Primordial Heart.

At this moment, the powers of the seven original sins finally complete their closure.

The resonance of the power of original sin and the Primordial Heart reaches full completion.

Louis’ consciousness separates from the battlefield, plunging into boundless whiteness.

In the next moment, countless memories flood into his consciousness.

Fragmented and chaotic scenes, like a shuffled carousel, forcibly pieced together and reorganized in the depth of consciousness.

He witnesses wars, not of this life, but from far older times.

Dragon wings obscuring the sky, cities burnt by flames, human settlements reduced to pastures.

He remembers, his past self, the original mage.

A thousand years ago, in the epoch when humans were driven to despair, water and mountains exhausted, he stood up, leading the remnants of humanity against the dragons.

After numerous failures, he realized a harsh truth.

To truly counter dragon power, humans must wield a force not of the dragon’s system.

Thus, he chose to embody the original sin.

Not due to corruption, but to create a foundation of power independent of dragons.

After the dragons were defeated, the world enjoyed a brief peace.

He established the Mage City, attempting to bind such power within reason and order.

Yet the original sin did not halt.

It continuously eroded his consciousness, devoured his self.

He keenly felt his existence sliding irreversibly into an abyss, the time left to him dwindling.

To avoid being completely consumed by original sin, and to prevent dragging the world into ruin during a loss of control, he made an extreme choice.

He chose to divide himself.

Sending the remaining rational self into reincarnation.

Separating emotional, cruel, unmanageable original sin and all memories for disassembly and sealing.

As all memories return to place, with the final piece embedded deeply into consciousness, Louis’ figure gradually solidifies.

Opposite him, a shadow simultaneously forms.

Contours, form, face... exactly like him.

But Louis can see through that surface, it is not a complete entity.

But arrogance’s cold smile, greed’s claws, gluttony’s maw, sloth’s mire...

It is the collective embodiment of original sin he personally removed and sealed long ago.

Louis regards the shadow before him, eyes calm, as if he is facing an adversary known for a thousand years.

The shadow speaks first.

"Child," the voice identical to his own, yet reverberating with unease, "We meet again."

Behind the shadow, the white space slowly cracks open.

The scene unfolds.

It is the projection of the real world, the earth ravaged by August.

Collapsing cities, stacked corpses, crowds moaning amidst the ruins.

"Look." The shadow’s tone was calm, yet full of allure, "Humanity is always struggling, desire never ceases..."

The shadow spread its arms, as if displaying a long-expected result: "This is the true face of this world.

The desire of this world is endless."

The shadow slowly approached, its outline expanding, eroding the surrounding whiteness.

"Even after a millennium, I still exist. Even if you kill a Dragon Emperor today, new crises will emerge tomorrow, and humanity will still self-destruct."

"Come." The shadow’s voice turned deep and seductive, "Accept me, embrace me.

Once you and I merge, you will become the only, eternally supreme true God on this land."

The white space trembled with it.

The shadow’s form constantly changed, transforming into countless outlines symbolizing desire: thrones, legions, mountains of corpses, and cheering crowds.

"You can eliminate all the world’s pain at will and create an eternally peaceful utopia.

Isn’t this what you have always pursued?"

Louis chuckled lightly: "It does sound like a perfect bonsai, but unfortunately, it’s lifeless."

He raised his head, looking at the shadow that almost overshadowed the entire conscious space.

The shadow’s expansion paused slightly.

"Your so-called utopia," Louis’s tone was calm, "is a world without desire, without variations; it is nothing more than a huge tomb."

He took a step forward.

"And what you want has never been to help me become a God, but to make me a vessel for you to devour civilization."

Seeing his intention exposed, the shadow no longer maintained its facade.

It suddenly swelled, and the pure white space was completely engulfed, even the direction and boundary disappeared.

"Do you think you have a choice?" The voice pressed Louis from all sides.

"In your current state, you can suppress me for at most a few decades. When you die, I will still control the entire world."

"And to destroy me?" The shadow let out a low laugh, almost mocking. "A thousand years ago, you couldn’t do it, and now it’s the same."

I am a companion of the world’s inception. As long as there are living beings, as long as there is desire, my lifespan is as long as the world’s.

You cannot kill me, nor can you escape me."

Louis stared at the darkness. "You’re wrong, I indeed cannot kill you, but have you felt it? You have grown weaker."

The shadow’s voice fluctuated for the first time: "Weaker? No! War, famine, death... these all nourish me."

Louis shook his head: "Compared to a thousand years ago, humans have learned about the law, learned to cooperate, learned to use tools to fight against nature."

Louis slowly raised his hand, pointing into the void: "Every inch knowledge spreads, your shadow shortens by a fraction.

The so-called original sin, in essence, is chaos caused by ignorance, and I will scatter the seeds named rationality across this continent."

The shadow surged violently within the white space.

It no longer maintained a calm demeanor, its outline continuously collapsed and reassembled, as if pushed to the extreme.

"It only takes one disaster! Or a war that could devastate civilization!" The voice of original sin had lost its certainty, imbued with an almost hysterical sharpness.

"Order will be shredded, systems will collapse, humans will revert to beasts again!"

"By then, everything will return to the starting point..." Louis listened quietly, then spoke, "You still don’t understand."

His tone wasn’t intense, yet it fell like a hammer, nailing the roar of original sin in place.

"The accumulation of civilization is never cyclical." He took another step forward, the pure white space underfoot rippling in layers, "It spirals upward.

Disasters can destroy cities, but they can never erase the knowledge and logic already etched into the blood."

Louis raised his eyes, his gaze passing through the shadow as if looking at a far more distant place.

"History does indeed regress, but it never returns to the starting point." His voice gradually became clearer and more powerful.

"A thousand years ago, the dragons harvested humans like weeds."

"But today, my workers know how to use steel to ward off winter, my knights understand what they are fighting for.

Once knowledge is mastered by millions, it turns into an inertia engraved in the bones."

The shadow attempted to retort, only to find its form shrinking uncontrollably.

Louis continued: "Even if you destroy the Red Tide, as long as a single literate child survives, the speed at which civilization will recover will be a hundred times faster than the last time."

He paused for a moment, his tone lowered with a threatening edge: "One day, humans will trample over you."

The white space trembled, the outline of original sin revealed irreparable cracks: "These are just your fantasies!"

"The most important thing I taught the people," Louis slowly said, "was never how to use gunpowder, but to dare to apply their own reason.

And when a farmer starts to consider the logic behind next year’s harvest, instead of praying to the void, the way the world functions has already changed."

His gaze returned to the shadow, as if stating a conclusion that had been proven countless times.

"The moment you merged with me, you were already dead. You are no longer a nightmare; you are merely an unsolved problem yet to be fully resolved."

Original sin let out a near-torn scream.

Louis didn’t leave it any space to continue roaring.

He opened his arms, and the surging darkness, along with the essence of original sin that had yet to dissipate, was actively absorbed into his own body.

Deep in his consciousness, countless images flashed by.

Lights burning in the night school, machines roaring continuously in the factories, smiles when people received their wages...

The magic power accumulated within began to deplete at an astonishing speed.

This was the most dangerous and stable sealing magic mastered by the Primordial Mage—the Eternal Carrier.

Original sin rampaged in his soul, struggling, breaking down, being forcibly compressed.

Ultimately it lost its form.

Transforming into countless tiny and cold chains, they wrapped around the cornerstone of Louis’s soul, circle after circle.

The white space returned to silence.

Original sin was temporarily sealed.