Chapter 873: The World-Ending Terror of the Starry Sky
Chapter 873: The World-Ending Terror of the Starry Sky
"Gnawing away at your abilities?" Li Fan asked, startled.
The ability Tianyang spoke of was none other than the spatial power originating from the Inkstone, one of the Earth's Souls. It was a manifestation of the Xuanhuang Realm's laws, and once a cultivator absorbed it using the New Method, not even the Xuanhuang Realm itself possessed a way to strip it from them.
Yet here, in this bizarre, remote little world, it was being consumed?
"Don't worry, Senior Brother. To me, these unknown entities are just like ants crawling all over my body," Tianyang transmitted, his tone reassuring.
"It might sting or itch, but they pose no threat to my life." He sent a brief mental image to illustrate his point.
Li Fan, however, refused to lower his guard. The Soul Yin World before them was clearly not the same as the one the Immortal Alliance's expedition team had scouted during their 115th excursion. Ever vigilant, he and Tianyang began to explore the strange realm.
The small world was not vast; it was, in fact, smaller than the Spirit Wood Realm. Curiously, Li Fan couldn't find any of the spirit bodies mentioned in the Immortal Alliance's report.
The wide expanse of land was dark and somber, a perfectly flat plane composed entirely of gray soil.
His spiritual sense swept across the Soul Yin World, and the result was unnerving: aside from himself and Tianyang, the two outsiders, there was no other sign of life.
His expression grim, Li Fan scooped a handful of the gray soil and examined it. It looked like nothing more than ordinary dirt.
But as he glanced at his palm, he saw a dark, scorched mark where the soil had touched it for only an instant. He knew at once this was no common earth.
"No pain," he muttered, his eyes glinting. "It corrodes in silence." A surge of vitality flowed from his core, attempting to heal the injury.
To his astonishment, however, the life force he channeled into his hand seemed to serve only as fuel for the blight!
The black patch expanded with alarming speed, threatening to engulf his entire body.
Without a second's hesitation, Li Fan made a swift decision and sliced off his hand.
The scene that followed made Li Fan's pupils shrink.
The moment his severed hand of flesh and blood touched the gray ground, it began to change.
Like embers cooling after a fire, it lost its color, turned to dust, and dissolved, becoming one with the soil.
"What is this..."
Li Fan stared out at the world of gray soil, a chill running down his spine.
The sheer strangeness of this place was beyond anything he had anticipated.
Just as he was contemplating a retreat, Tianyang sent a mental message.
"Senior Brother, the intensity of this gnawing sensation seems to vary depending on the location."
"We might be able to use its strength to identify the source of the anomaly."
Li Fan hesitated for a moment, then nodded his assent.
With Li Fan's go-ahead, Tianyang shot across the sky above the Soul Yin World, his senses focused.
He quickly pinpointed a location.
The "gnawing force" there was incredibly potent.
Li Fan could even feel faint, inexplicable fluctuations emanating from Tianyang, as if he were locked in a fierce battle with a formidable opponent.
After just a moment, Tianyang was forced to pull away.
"It's like being devoured by ten thousand ants. You really don't feel it, Senior Brother?" Tianyang asked through their mental link.
Li Fan shook his head. Enveloped in his Seven-Colored Divine Light, he flew toward the designated spot.
He truly felt no discomfort.
Yet, a faint premonition warned him that if he dared to use his fire-attribute spiritual energy as he had before, the consequences would be far worse than merely being frozen into a statue.
Thus, he suppressed all the spiritual energy in his body, relying only on his physical prowess and the power of the divine light.
Hovering above the target location, Li Fan scanned the area, searching for any clues.
He quickly spotted something out of place.
His initial survey had shown the entire Soul Yin World to be perfectly flat, but this particular spot was different.
It was slightly raised, as if something lay buried just beneath the gray soil.
Learning from his previous mistake, Li Fan enveloped his right hand in the Seven-Colored Divine Light before he began to dig.
He burrowed deeper into the ground until his fingers struck something hard.
With a solemn look, he lifted the object from the depths of the gray soil.
The coating of dirt on its surface vanished moments after it left the ground, revealing its true nature.
"This is...?"
Li Fan froze.
The object in his hand was unmistakably a human skull.
It was not, however, an ordinary one. In the center of its forehead was a hollow, the size and shape of a third eye socket.
Moreover, the cranium bore intricate, naturally formed patterns of gold and black.
Turning the skull over, Li Fan made a horrifying discovery. The inside was covered in what looked like mold—a series of shocking, gray spots.
And these spots seemed to have a consciousness of their own.
After lying dormant for untold years, they began to squirm unnervingly the moment they detected a living presence, as if trying to explore their new environment.
A sense of danger too profound for words suddenly gripped Li Fan's heart.
He instantly unleashed streams of Seven-Colored Divine Light, weaving them into a perfect seal around the skull.
Once his aura was completely cut off, the gray spots ceased their movement and fell still once more.
Li Fan's brow furrowed as he studied the strange skull, now contained within the sphere of radiant light.
"A three-eyed skull... it's humanoid, yet distinct. Definitely not native to the Xuanhuang Realm."
"This gray mold... it must be the cause of the disaster that befell the Soul Yin World."
"Could it be that this very outsider brought the blight here, reducing this entire world to ash?"
"And the perpetrator himself was consumed by it, leaving nothing behind but this skull, which was preserved only by the black and gold runes etched into the bone."
...
A plausible theory began to take shape in his mind.
"This location is at the furthest edge of the Xuanhuang Realm's reach. It's likely within the sphere of influence of other cultivation worlds."
"This three-eyed individual must have come from one of them."
"Was he fleeing for his life?"
"And did he inadvertently bring this horrific gray mold along with him?"
A series of images played out in Li Fan's mind as he pieced the story together.
He then realized that his Seven-Colored Divine Light was not enough to fully repel the gray mold's power.
The simple act of containing it was constantly draining his energy.
If not for the endless supply of power from his Five Elements Cave-Heaven, the seal would have already shattered.
After a moment of contemplation, Li Fan decided against putting the skull back.
Instead, he tried to place it inside his storage ring.
To his surprise, the process was exceptionally smooth.
The skull vanished into the ring without any resistance.
Peering into the storage ring, Li Fan saw that the gray mold was far from inert.
It continued to drain the power of the Seven-Colored Divine Light.
And now, even the very space inside the ring was starting to grow unstable.
(End of this chapter)
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