What Do You Mean I Have To Comprehend Dao As A Mortal God?-Chapter 78: Imposing My Will

The Anomaly in front of me looked different from the ones that I have beaten so far, even compared to these orc types.

Instead of having stone as armour, it looks like it was surrounded with crystals and gems instead.

Just by looking at it, I can tell that this was stronger than all the other Anomalies we’ve encountered in this rift so far.

This creature would have been comparable to the boss Anomalies that we have encountered in the previous rifts but... Something tells me that this wasn’t even the strongest being in this rift and there’s still something stronger than it somewhere in here.

I looked down at the buckler that was still strapped to my arm, finding a crack on its surface after the stress I had put it through.

I doubt this shield would last much longer in a fight.

I stood back up to face the Anomaly, narrowing my eyes at the creature that was encased with crystalline armour around it.

This is going to be annoying...

I could just run now but... If we want to clear this rift, we would have to deal with creatures like this as well. So I’m going to have to fight this one sooner or later.

There was one thing I realised... If this was the past me, I would probably be panicking or at least feel a little terror at the Anomaly that had appeared before me.

After all, I still don’t want to die.

Even when I was facing the horde of wolf Anomalies that basically ’killed’ me, I still felt fear while I was fighting them.

Yet right now, even when I was face to face with this Anomaly that was clearly a class above the current me, the only thing I felt was a sense of peace.

It’s like the feeling of reaching the highest level in an RPG game and you encounter a low level mob enemy while walking through a place that you have visited before.

Even this Anomaly in front of me just felt like another mob I had to face at the moment.

Was this a side effect of being a Mortal God? Or was this related to the god that I had supposedly awakened as?

Perhaps part of the god’s personality is indifference or something and that is seeping into me as well?

Regardless... It doesn’t change the fact that there’s still a big enemy in front of me that I still have to deal with at the moment.

But with me being this exhausted, I don’t know if I would be able to fight this Anomaly on my own.

Hmm... I wonder... I should be able to reenergise myself by absorbing the Qi in the air... And this Anomaly looks like it’s the lumbering and slow type so I should have time to do it...

Then I remembered that I’ve already absorbed the ambient Qi in the air earlier so I don’t think there’s any left around for me to absorb.

Hmm... Wait... I remember I could sense the life energy from Kris when I was trying to heal him... And I could even move the energy around if I wanted to... So what about Anomalies? Do they also have the same energy that I could absorb as well?

But in order to do that... I need to be touching the Anomaly directly...

No doubt, the Anomaly most likely wouldn’t sit still while I’m trying to absorb its life energy so I’ll probably have to immobilise it somehow... At least just for a short period of time.

What skill do I have to do that, though?

Right as I thought of that, the image of Ava using her gravity magic came to mind.

I’ve already successfully used her teleportation spell before so I should be able to use her gravity magic as well, right?

Now... How did I use her magic again?

...

Wait, of course... Didn’t I just give a quick lecture about the difference between Qi and Mana recently to them? I should be able to make use of that, right?

Let me think... I said that magic was making use of mana to change reality to suit your will while Qi was using the power of your will that has been strengthened with Qi to change reality...

Hmm? Now that I think about it... I haven’t actually tried using my own will to change reality have I?

Maybe I should try that first?

Alright... So imposing my own will over reality and trying to change it...

As though responding to that idea, I felt another tug at my core, just like how I felt when I first discovered the purple smoke.

Believing that this might be another skill I was awakening, I focused on it and tugged at the feeling with all my strength.

This felt even more tougher than the last one and it really felt like I was trying to pull a giant lump of metal through a small hole.

The Anomaly in front of me stomped a step closer and I took a step back, still concentrating on that feeling.

The feeling intensified and now it felt like something was being squeezed up from my chest.

I pulled at it even more and I felt something pop as whatever I was pulling popped out from the hole.

The feeling I got, however, wasn’t me successfully pulling the object out but more of me pulling out a part of it instead.

Whatever I felt was too gigantic to fit through that small hole at this point in time I suppose.

I then concentrated on the feeling that had been pulled out of the hole and the world around me seemed to change to a saturated colour scheme.

At the same time, it felt like the world around me was holding its breath, like it was waiting to see what I wanted and it would respond to it.

I then slowly raised my palm to point it at the Anomaly in front of me, the creature also seemingly frozen in time at the moment.

In that very moment, I could feel the entire universe bending as I willed... No... As I commanded it to.

And I only whispered one single word.

"Stop."

The world around me shifted back into focus once like it was finally allowed to breathe again.

The Anomaly had completely ceased its movements and I had a feeling that it would not be able to move ever again.

But despite that, it was most definitely still alive.

I then tried to take a step forward but a sudden sense of exhaustion washed over me and I couldn’t feel my legs anymore.

Before I knew it, I was face first down on the ground and my entire body felt like lead, almost like I had all the energy drained out from me.

My vision blurred and I could feel that I was on the verge of passing out.

Looking up ahead, the Anomaly was just an inch out of reach from where I had fallen.

My exhausted mind managed to form the thought that I could probably wash away this exhaustion if I just absorbed the Anomaly’s life energy and I mustered all of my strength to reach towards the Anomaly with my right hand.

I pushed my body forward using my feet, propelling me forward that single inch as I grabbed onto its ankle.

I then focused my mind and used the last of my energy to sense the life energy within the Anomaly.

Sure enough, the balls of light shone through the darkness and I could see my own body’s lights being dim in comparison.

If I had been fully conscious, I might have paused to worry if it was alright to absorb this energy from an Anomaly of all things but at this point, all of my processing power was used to focus on these balls of light and nothing else.

And with that same mind, I willed all of the balls of light towards me and tried to absorb it into my core.

Warmth seeped into me and I focused on that heat, willing it to spread to the rest of my body.

As the warmth spread towards my mind, an indescribable pain suddenly wrecked throughout my body, shocking me back awake.

I opened my mouth in a silent scream as I curled up in a fetal position, trying to figure out what the cause of the pain was.

In an instant, I realised that the balls of light I had just absorbed were not the same colour as my own balls of light.

They might look roughly the same but the light balls looked duller and more ’dirty’.

My mind then instantly clicked and hypothesised that the reason for the pain must be related to the fact that the energy came from a creature that has been tainted by the miasma. Thus, the life energy it possessed must also be tainted.

The solution I came up with was to purify it so I immediately focused back within myself pushing the tainted life energy back into my core and the pain immediately eased.

But with that, exhaustion also started creeping back in and I knew I only had a few seconds before I lost my consciousness so I worked quickly by forcibly siphoning the tainted life energy out from the gathered Qi.

It felt like I was trying to suck out oil from water and a black tar-like substance split off from the ball of energy to hover beside my core.

Just before I blacked out, I directed the purified Qi to split off to the rest of my body and darkness claimed me.