Rules Are Man Made
“Nice domain,” Mu Yu praised, able to appreciate Nameless’ domain as a fellow swordsman.
“But useless against you.”
“Don’t say that. Your domain is already monstrous in its own right.”
Nameless turned to face in the direction of several Apotheosis Realm energy signals coming closer. “Their response time is quick. We should get moving.”
“The only place you’re going is to our corpse collection!” Shi Qianyou brayed, scowling as he readied himself to stall the duo until reinforcements arrived.
“Neither you nor they can stop us. That said, I need you two to come with me,” Mu Yu asserted.
Mu Yu bound into Shi Qianyou’s face using a formation and beamed black and white energy beams onto the latter. Scream and thrash around as he may, Shi Qianyou could not break free while Mu Yu used Life and Death Universe Ruler to wipe out the former’s memories.
“I’m going to kill you two!” Despite his threat, Shi Xiuluo made a break for the ground as fast as he could.
Mu Yu and Nameless let Shi Xiuluo go, judging it to be wiser to abscond with Shi Qianyou’s corpse than to the take on over a dozen Apotheosis Realm combatants. Unsurprisingly, the reinforcements arrived almost immediately after their departure.
***
Arriving at Formation Sect, Mu Yu questioned, “How are you going to take the zombie’s domain?”
On cloud nine, Gu Jiangyou explained, “Their domain is linked to their corpse. Therefore, their domain ability remains even after death. I’m going to use a technique I invented to transfer ownership of the domain to myself!” Seeing Mu Yu assume a chin-in-his-fingers pose, Gu Jiangyou followed up with a question. “What are you thinking about?”
“Don’t worry about it. You do what you have to. I’ll tell others not to interrupt you.” Mu Yu cast a barrier and then returned to muttering, “Transferring ownership of domains? My Universe Ruler domain is only operable if my opponent’s domain is active. What if I transfer their domain’s ownership to myself instead of manipulating their domain only while it’s active? Since I don’t have Gu Jiangyou’s cultivation method in my arsenal, I can’t transfer it, though. Even so, I wonder if I can learn their domain instead of just copy and pasting?”
“You trying to create a cheat code? Just listening to the idea sounds ludicrous,” Xiaoshuai opined.
“I’m aware of that. For me to grasp their formation forever, I would have to spend time trying to comprehend other rules.” Mu Yu let Primordial Yin Yang orbit around him as he sat in Formation Palace.
“I’ve never heard of anyone controlling multiple domains.” Xiaoshuai pulled out a drumstick whilst riding on Xiaohei but stopped himself when he had his drumstick a centimetre away from his mouth. “Wait. It’s not impossible given your Universe Ruler works in an unorthodox way. I do think I recall controlling multiple domains to be possible, though you need be to at a higher level.”
“I wonder what Shifu’s domain is.”
“An incredible one. I swear I’ve seen it before. Let me think… Let me think…” Xiaoshuai held his drumstick up to his mouth and stopped again a centimetre away from his mouth to gasp, though Xiaohei could not avoid the grease dripping onto his head. “Never mind. I can’t remember. I do remember hearing this, however.” Xiaoshuai put away his drumstick to assume his safe stance, continuing, “Nobody can avoid being subjected to this world’s rules. In saying that, we can learn its rules. Although nature has set many rules, many rules are also rules we created. Look at the world from a different perspective, and you’ll find a pleasant surprise.”
“Shifu’s quote?”
“Only I could say something so philosophical, hahaha!”
One had to set rules down when they started a sect, such as no killing fellow disciples or taking the law into their own hands. People determined the values of spirit stones, which meant they were setting a rule. All of these rules had been broken before, which meant that man-made rules could be violated. The sun was only called the sun because we asserted so. Words did not have meaning until we gave them meaning.
If ‘sun’ was redefined to mean ‘the silver ball that blossoms on the sky at night’, then we were not wrong unless we are speaking in the framework that it was defined as a ‘moon’. Common sense was a result of us enforcing concepts we came up with and finding ways to describe them. We forged paths with our feet, and then others followed along, eventually turning it into a rule that we should follow the same path. Rules were man-made ideas.
Mu Yu focused his gaze on Primordial Yin Yang. “When I competed against Chang Tiancheng for control over Formation Palace, he categorised the eighty-one characters, while I saw them as eighty-one individual entities. We are the ones who give meaning to text; we are the one who set the rule. If man set the rule, he can break the rule. That being the case, why can’t Universe Ruler break the rules and take over other rules?”