Duality of Shadows-Chapter 975: Right Mindset

It was an ordinary day on a completely rocky planet, almost devoid of water or forests. The entire landscape was covered in massive mountains, and an intense bronze glow could be seen in every direction.

That day, a flying ship appeared in the sky and slowly descended. Before it even reached the ground, an army of golems had already surrounded it from all sides. The golems wore tense and worried expressions, as if they knew what was coming.

When the ship stopped, a rounded figure stepped out slowly, carrying a little girl on his shoulder. He exuded an aura of calm and mystery, while the girl’s gaze was as sharp as a blade.

"I’ll cut straight to the point. I’m giving you one chance, only because of a promise I made long ago," the whale said calmly, his voice echoing through the ranks of golems. "I’ve already killed your clan leader and wiped out all the powerful figures you produced. Your clan’s elite fled to defend the humanoid clan because you support each other, committing massacres and heinous acts…"

"Don’t slander our clan!" a dry voice rang out from within the bronze golems.

"That’s why I’m here," the whale responded serenely. "I’m giving you a chance, and I’ll investigate everything. If you choose to resist, that’ll be a clear sign you know exactly what was happening behind the scenes. If you have nothing to hide, you don’t need to fear. You can come with me and see for yourselves that I won’t—"

"SCREW YOU!"

Suddenly, all the thousands of golems roared in unison, and the laws of earth pulsed through their bodies. Their bronze shells gleamed intensely, like colossal, sharpened blades. In addition to the supreme defenses provided by the earth laws, this bronze law granted them immense offensive power, covering their weaknesses. These golems were undeniably formidable within this universe.

The whale snorted. He had tried. Alm and Bruno had already noticed the dark karma surrounding practically everyone there, but they had hoped to find a few just individuals among the planet’s elite.

Perhaps some would stand against the rest, wanting to uncover the truth. That way, even if the majority resisted, they would only need to eliminate that majority. However, it was now clear that all the more powerful golems were united in this.

The golems they had encountered in the past would never have been corrupted like this. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to judge an entire race as wholly good or bad, but these particular golems were beyond redemption.

In the past, they had also encountered an equally vile family of dwarves on the Pristine Planet. However, since then, the other dwarves had proven themselves to be fair and trustworthy.

Meru saw everything unfold before her eyes and was shocked. She had grown up on Gloom Planet, surrounded by golems, often playing with them. She always believed they were pure and innocent, thinking they were so carefree they’d never consciously harm anyone. Now, she understood how naive that thought had been.

Suddenly, the whale’s eyes lit up like beacons. The entire planet seemed to freeze, and the earth laws resonated in perfect harmony. At the same time, all the golems seemed to turn into bronze statues, unable to move a single inch.

The Dao of the Golem God, combined with the Behemoth bloodline, was activated. The whale’s tattoos glowed at their peak, enhancing his power. With this, all the earth laws composing the golems were immediately subdued.

The whale gestured sharply. "Disappear."

With his will, all the golems on the planet trembled, their bodies cracking. Within seconds, they crumbled, returning to the planet’s earth. The most powerful ones had their lives extracted from their cores, their souls severed without resistance, condemned to complete death.

Not everyone died. Certainly, some weaker individuals were unaware of the dark deeds and were spared. Alm and Bruno decided to address the situation by destroying the bodies of all the bronze golems. This way, the survivors would have to rebuild themselves from scratch, becoming ordinary golems.

With another gesture, the planet’s bronze law was completely removed. This ensured that when the golems rebuilt themselves, they would no longer pose significant threats due to excessive power.

The whale returned to the ship. Inside was a demon, the ship’s owner, trembling after witnessing everything. In just two minutes, the entire planet and its clan had been declared finished.

"Take us to the Celestial Eagle Clan," the whale instructed the demon coldly before heading into a luxurious room within the ship with his daughter.

The journey would take several days, and Meru took the opportunity to hand her father a ring. The whale calmly examined the souls of the siblings contained within the ring.

"They’re fine. When we leave here, I’ll arrange for them to reincarnate in our home. But it’s best for them to start fresh, without memories of these events," the whale said to the little girl, who nodded, satisfied.

When they reached the planet where the beast clan lived, the reception was similar. As soon as they landed, they were surrounded by a sea of beasts with serious expressions.

This time, ironically, when repeating the same words as before, a third of the beasts reacted differently. These winged beasts, though demonic and living for the thrill of the hunt and competition, weren’t necessarily evil or disloyal.

Meru was equally astonished. This opposing group became enraged at the lack of honor in killing the weak and innocent. They quickly declared their desire to investigate the matter, even if the majority disagreed.

The whale acted swiftly, completely sealing the bloodthirsty beasts. He then allied with the smaller group, and it didn’t take long for them to find what they were looking for. The whale clearly felt where to go. Soon, in the places where these beasts lived and cultivated, they found pills made from the blood and life energies of those sacrifices.

The humanoid clans had a deal with the other two clans, handing over part of the resources created from the sacrifices of the weak. These resources were used by the powerful to grow even stronger.

With everything proven, the whale carried out a true purge, capturing everyone marked by dark karma. Seventy percent of the planet’s most powerful beasts were eliminated. Then, the whale gathered all the law energy contained in the dead and removed their internal elemental runes from their bodies.

The remaining beasts were terrified by what they saw. To them, internal runes represented supreme and uncontrollable power. Without Qi, removing or manipulating another’s elemental runes was considered impossible, as those runes wouldn’t remain stable.

Yet, the whale sealed and made them obedient, something that defied all the logic they knew. A massive and powerful collection of runes was left in the center of the clan. Turning to the few survivors, the whale declared:

"I’m leaving these runes for you to use. Just absorb them into your bodies, and they’ll become a part of you. With this, you’ll be able to grow quickly, gain the power needed to protect yourselves, and rebuild this clan. I advise you to focus entirely on forming a new generation, instilling in them the right principles. Chasing power at any cost, without considering the karma it generates, is foolish. Eventually, karma catches up, and everything gets destroyed. Next time, your entire race might not be so lucky and could be wiped out entirely."

After five days in that place, the whale and Meru returned to the ship. When the demon accompanying them saw them, he was sweating cold, dreading their next destination.

"Take me to your demonic clan. It’s one of the seven, isn’t it?" said the whale. The demon nearly despaired, but before he could protest, the whale continued:

"There’s no need to fear. I only want your clan’s law core. In fact, I’m going to take the cores from all seven clans so that no one else has them. I’ll be fair and offer compensation. But if they outright refuse, I’ll kill a few... until they agree, or until there are no demons left. Whichever comes first."

The demon took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart. Then, trembling, he replied, "Please, allow me to speak with them first. I’m related to a high demon elder. Let me try to convince them and speak to them on my own. If they know everything, I believe they’ll accept compensation."

The whale gave a slight nod, allowing him to proceed. Three days later, the ship landed on the demons’ planet. There was no army waiting for them, as the ship belonged to the demon guiding them.

That demon bowed in gratitude and ran off on his own from the ship. The whale and Meru stayed aboard and waited.

Meru observed the planet and its people from inside the ship. The demons lived lives that, in some ways, resembled those of humanoids. They were much more similar to humanoids than to beasts. Even though they had no direct connection, they were races that sometimes even thought similarly. However, the prejudice against demons was strong among some races.

During this journey with her father, Meru’s worldview changed drastically. Alm and Bruno had spoken with her extensively, revealing the reality of the world. More importantly, they taught her the correct path.

As she gazed out the ship’s window, Meru wore a thoughtful and reflective expression. Alm and Bruno noticed the change within her and were pleased. In the past, Ruri had a clear goal: to save her people. After that, she dedicated herself entirely to being happy and helping them defeat the queen.

Meru, however, still needed to find her purpose in life. The weight of being their daughter was enormous, and it drove her to despair at a very young age. Despite being only ten years old, her mental development had advanced rapidly.

Now, Meru finally understood what she should live for, cultivate, and fight for. Even if she stayed in the internal universe with the others, she would grow with the right mindset. She realized this when she saw the tragic end of her siblings and heard the stories of the people the whale helped within his internal universe — including her own mother. No one could hide anything from her for long, and Meru was incredibly curious about everything.

The conclusion was simple: life wasn’t easy for anyone. Suffering was everywhere, impossible to avoid or escape. Because of this, many people got lost — either because they didn’t know how to escape ignorance or because others, driven by malice, pushed them further into it.

But Meru was different. She was born with everything anyone could wish for: talent, resources, and people who loved and taught her. The weight on her shoulders wasn’t something to fear but rather an opportunity to give back to the world all the good she had received.

Her mission was now clear: to teach people the right path and prevent those filled with hatred from spreading suffering.

These were the responsibilities of being their daughter. Thinking of the siblings who had died because they were naive and alone in the world, Meru didn’t see this as a burden but as something she genuinely wanted to do, driven by a desire to help as many people as possible — especially those who, like those siblings, hadn’t been as fortunate as she was.

This gave her confidence in herself because now she understood that being passive or naive wasn’t the way. She had everything she needed, so there was no reason to be afraid.

’One less Young Master in the world... so much work... but, it feels worth it,’ Bruno muttered mentally, and Alm sighed.

Meru was talented enough to surpass everyone around her quickly. In no time, she would be powerful, and taking on her responsibilities would come naturally and smoothly. After all, she knew she would always have support and people by her side to guide her.

Nearly a day later, the demon returned with a large group in tow. Among them was an ancient figure with a cold gaze: the leader of that demonic clan.

The whale stepped out of the ship slowly, and the two locked eyes for a few seconds.

"What do you want besides the core?" asked the demon leader in a dry voice.

"Only the core. If you give it to me, I’ll leave quickly for the other clans," replied the whale without hesitation.

All the demons around clenched their fists. They wanted to fight to their last breath, but the final decision rested with their leader.

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Meru watched the demon leader staring at the whale intently. She noticed his hesitation and then leaped off the whale’s shoulder.

Everyone was baffled at the sight of her. All of them were over two meters tall, and the small girl stood out completely. However, she raised her Yin tattoo, which glowed brightly. All attention instantly locked onto her.

Meru walked up to the demon leader, who suddenly froze, his eyes wide in shock. The others, startled, drew their weapons immediately. But in just two seconds, Meru finished what she was doing, turned around calmly, and jumped back onto the whale’s shoulder.

"Your internal rune was too low-level. I upgraded it a bit, adjusting the laws within it. You can feel it, right?" Meru said coolly.

Everyone turned toward the demon leader, whose trembling eyes betrayed the changes he was sensing.

In this universe, everyone’s internal runes were of a mortal level. Thanks to her father’s teachings, Meru already knew about immortal levels, even though she hadn’t reached that point herself. She simply elevated the Yin of the demon’s internal rune to a divine level. This modification alone made it a thousand times more powerful than before.

"This..." he stammered, clearly stunned.

Meru didn’t waste time and quickly added, "Let’s get this over with. My father’s in a good mood, so you’d better take advantage of it. We can do this for a thousand of you. How about that?"

"A thousand..." the demon murmured, still dazed.

"That should be enough. These thousand can focus on studying this higher level and then pass the knowledge of this enhanced Yin to the next generation. That way, everyone will have a much better chance of reaching the same level. At the very least, everyone’s mastery of Yin will improve significantly with the knowledge gained," Meru concluded, cutting the old demon off directly.

The demons around them looked at their leader, confused, but upon noticing how shaken he was, they started to believe this was something extraordinary.

It didn’t take long before the leader bowed and handed over a small rounded orb—the law core they needed.

Within an hour, the leader had gathered his thousand smartest demons. He didn’t prioritize the strongest but rather those who were wise and capable of studying high-level laws, especially to pass that knowledge on accurately in the future.

Meru and the whale altered the laws of those thousand demons in just one minute, without breaking a sweat. Shortly after, they returned to the ship.

The demon who accompanied them jumped back onto the ship, beaming and excited. Everything had gone surprisingly well.

Next, the whale moved on to the other clans.

One of them lived on a planet almost entirely covered in magma. They were a race of Heavenly Elemental Spirits of fire, known for their explosive nature—just like their element. They were exactly as expected... and rejected the proposal outright.

Meru, finding the situation amusing, decided to act. She attacked the clan members, injuring them severely and forcing them to bow. After driving them to despair, the whale stepped in and offered them a "sweet treat."

It was a perfectly orchestrated move between father and daughter. The whale modified the Fire Rune of the clan leader in the same way they had done with the demons. Witnessing the girl’s power and the benefits from this change, the clan finally agreed to the trade.

"There are always those we need to beat down first to make them listen. Only then do they start using their heads..." Alm said lightly to Meru, who laughed a lot. She was feeling much lighter now and returned to being a child who enjoyed herself whenever possible.

Unfortunately, the last two clans were more complicated.

One of them consisted of beasts resembling rhinos, while the other was yet another demon clan. Neither of them accepted the terms peacefully, no matter what they did. The whale was forced to invade their territories, subdue them, and take the cores by force. Thankfully, he didn’t have to kill them—just robbed them and left, leaving them with nothing.

With the seven cores in hand, the expected system announcement didn’t happen. The mission wasn’t declared complete. Reflecting on what could be missing, they decided to question the demon commanding the ship.

"Hm? Oh yeah, all the powerful clans have a common origin. They got their cores from the Absolute Principle. It’s a place few who enter ever come back from, but the founders of those clans managed to leave and create what they are today," the demon explained casually.

Hearing this, Alm and Bruno immediately understood where they needed to go next.