Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 477 Original Sin
Dark golden dust fell slowly like snowflakes.

The dragon corpse that blotted out the sky was no more; the colossal creature that once dominated the sky quickly disintegrated, leaving only a vast expanse of ashes.

A faint warmth lingered in the air, but the dragon's might could no longer be felt.

Louis stood in the center of the ruins.

Just as the last piece of dark gold dust landed, a phantom figure slowly appeared before them.

The figure was incomplete; its outline seemed to have been repeatedly washed away by time, barely maintaining a human shape.

Louis looked up and saw the other person's face clearly.

He recognized the face.

It was the very same Archmage Norken who had spat the Primal Heart into his brain back in the Primal Lands, and who had already died. Perhaps he also had another identity: Lin Ze.

But at this moment, he was no longer the elegant and composed chief steward.

That body had been dead for many years; what existed before him was merely a remnant of a soul that had been forcibly severed.

Anchored by obsession and guided by prophecy, they stubbornly persevered for a thousand years.

Louis simply looked at him without speaking immediately.

From the state of that afterimage, he understood everything.

Norken quietly looked back at Louis.

Deep within his empty eyes, a faint emotion surfaced—not joy, but more like a sense of relief at finally being able to let go.

The thousand-year plan has finally come to an end, and his mission is completed at this moment.

Louis remained silent for a long time, then spoke softly, "Thank you for your hard work."

The voice was not loud, but it was extremely solemn.

Norken simply bowed his head slightly, as if bidding a final farewell to the world.

The next moment, his figure began to fade.

Like smoke blown away by the wind, it disappeared silently into the air without pain or struggle, leaving not a trace.

Louis stood there, staring at the void.

He only slowly turned around after the last wisp of soul energy had completely disappeared.

The fog still lingers above the ruins.

That was a remnant of the Dragon Emperor, a mist of greed and a half of the mist of arrogance.

Louis reached out his hand, and the two streams of mist converged under an invisible pull, compressed into a stream of light, carrying pure power.

Without hesitation, he let the stream of light pierce straight into his chest and sink into his primordial heart.

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

The power of original sin and the original heart resonated completely at that moment.

Louis's consciousness left the battlefield and plunged into an endless expanse of pure white.

In the next instant, countless memories flooded into his consciousness.

The images are fragmented and chaotic, like a revolving lantern with its order disrupted, forcibly pieced together and reassembled deep within the consciousness.

He saw war, not of this era, but of a much more ancient time.

Dragon wings that blot out the sky, cities burned by flames, and human settlements turned into pastures.

He remembered that in his previous life, he was the very first monk.

A thousand years ago, when humanity was driven to the brink of despair and had exhausted all resources, he stood up and led the remaining humans to resist the dragons.

After repeated failures, he realized a harsh truth.

To truly counter the power of dragons, humanity must acquire a power that does not belong to the dragon system.

So he chose to bear the original sin.

It was not because of corruption, but to create a foundation of power other than dragons.

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

He established the city of mages, attempting to confine this power within reason and order.

However, original sin did not stop.

It is constantly eroding his consciousness and devouring his ego.

He clearly felt that his existence was sliding into an irreversible abyss, and that he didn't have much time left.

In order to avoid being completely consumed by original sin, and to avoid dragging the whole world into destruction when he loses control, he made an extreme choice.

He chose to split himself.

Send the remaining rational self into the cycle of reincarnation.

Extract the original sins of emotion, violence, and uncontrollability, along with all memories, and dismantle the seal.

All memories came together at this moment, and as the last piece of the puzzle was embedded deep within his consciousness, Louis's figure gradually solidified.
Opposite him, a dark shadow also took shape.

The outline, the figure, the face... were exactly the same as his.

But Louis was able to see through that facade; it wasn't a complete entity.

Instead, it is an arrogant sneer, greedy claws, a gluttonous maw, and a lazy quagmire...

It is the collection of original sins that he personally stripped away and sealed away back then.

Louis stared calmly at the dark figure before him, as if he were looking at a sworn enemy he had known for a thousand years.

The shadowy figure spoke first.

“Child,” the voice was exactly the same as his, yet carried an unsettling echo, “we meet again.”

The white space slowly cracked open behind the black figure.

The scene unfolds.

That was a projection of the real world, the land ravaged by August.

Collapsed city, piles of corpses, crowds wailing amidst the ruins.

“Take a look,” the shadowy figure said calmly, yet seductively, “Humanity is forever in conflict, desire has never ceased…”

The shadowy figure spread its arms wide, as if displaying a long-foreseen outcome: "This is the true nature of this world. The desires of this world are endless."

The dark shadow slowly approached, its outline expanding and encroaching on the surrounding white.

"Even after a thousand years, I still exist. Even if you kill a dragon king today, a new crisis will appear tomorrow, and humanity will still destroy itself."

“Come on,” the shadowy voice became deep and seductive, “accept me, embrace me.”

Once we unite, you will be the one and only, eternally supreme true god on this continent.

The white space then trembled.

The shadowy figure constantly shifted in shape, transforming into countless silhouettes symbolizing desire: thrones, legions, mountains of corpses, and cheering crowds.

"You can erase all the suffering in the world at will and create a utopia of eternal peace."

Isn't this exactly what you've been pursuing?

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

He looked up at the dark shadow that almost completely obscured his consciousness.

The expansion of the shadow paused slightly.

“Your so-called utopia,” Louis said calmly, “is a world without desires, without variables; it’s nothing but a giant tomb.”

He took a step forward.

"And what you want is never to help me become a god, but to make me a vessel for you to devour civilization."

Seeing that his thoughts had been exposed, the shadowy figure stopped pretending.

It suddenly expanded, completely engulfing the pure white space, even its direction and boundaries disappeared.

"Do you think you have a choice?" The voices pressed down on Louis from all directions.

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

"And destroy me?" The shadowy figure let out a low, almost mocking laugh. "You couldn't do it a thousand years ago, and you can't now."

I am a companion of the world since its inception. As long as there are living beings and desires, I will live as long as the world exists.

You can't kill me, and you can't escape me.

Louis stared into the darkness. "You're wrong. I can't kill you, but can you feel it? You've become weaker."

For the first time, the shadowy figure's voice wavered: "Weakening? No! War, famine, death... these are all nourishing me."

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

Louis slowly raised his hand, pointing to the depths of nothingness: "For every inch knowledge spreads, your shadow shrinks a little."

The so-called original sin is essentially the chaos caused by ignorance, and I will sow the seeds of reason throughout this continent.

The dark shadows surged violently in the white space.

It no longer maintained its calm demeanor; its outline kept crumbling and reforming, as if it had been pushed to its limit.

"All it takes is a catastrophe! Or a war big enough to destroy civilization!" Original Sin's voice lost its certainty, becoming sharp and almost hysterical.

"Order will be torn apart, systems will collapse, and humanity will regress to the level of beasts!"

“At that time, everything will go back to square one…” Louis listened quietly, then said, “You still don’t understand.”

His tone wasn't harsh, but it was like a hammer falling steadily, pinning the roar of original sin to the spot.

“The accumulation of civilization is never a circle.” He took a step forward, and the pure white space beneath his feet rippled. “It is a spiral ascent.”

Disasters can destroy cities, but they cannot completely erase the knowledge and logic ingrained in our very being.

Louis raised his eyes, his gaze piercing through the shadows as if looking into something far away.

"History may indeed go backward, but it never goes back to the beginning." His voice gradually became clearer and stronger.

"A thousand years ago, the dragons harvested humans as easily as they harvested weeds."

"And today my workers know how to withstand the cold winter with steel, and my knights know what to fight for."

Knowledge, once mastered by millions, becomes ingrained habit.

The shadowy figure tried to refute, but found its form shrinking uncontrollably.

Louis continued, "Even if you destroy the Red Tide, as long as one literate child survives, the speed of civilization's recovery will be a hundred times faster than last time."

He paused for a moment, then lowered his voice, adding a threat: "One day, humans will trample on your head."

The white space trembled, and the outline of original sin began to show unmistakable cracks: "These are all your delusions!"

“The most important thing I teach my people,” Louis said slowly, “is never how to use gunpowder, but the courage to use their reason.”

The way the world works has changed when a farmer starts thinking about the logic behind next year's harvest instead of praying to the void.

His gaze returned to the shadowy figure, as if stating a conclusion that had been verified countless times.

"The moment you merged with me, you were already dead. You are no longer a nightmare; you are just a problem that has not yet been completely solved."

Original Sin let out a nearly tearing roar.

Louis didn't give it any more room to roar.

He opened his arms, and the surging darkness, along with the lingering essence of original sin, was actively absorbed into his body.

Deep within my consciousness, countless images flashed by.

It's the lights shining in the night school, the machines constantly humming in the factory, and the smiles on people's faces when they receive their paychecks...

The magic power accumulated within his body began to be consumed at an alarming rate.

This is the most dangerous yet most stable sealing magic possessed by the primordial mage—the Eternal Vessel.

Original sin raged wildly within his soul, struggling, collapsing, and being forced to compress.

Eventually, it lost its form.

It transformed into countless tiny, cold chains, coiling around Louis's soul foundation.

The white space returned to silence.

Original sin is temporarily sealed away.

(End of this chapter)