Abyss of Destruction

The next morning, Tang San and Ye Lingling returned to the secret room and activated their respective Divine Imprint.

A dark purple light shone from Tang San's left palm, while a pale golden light shone from Ye Lingling's brow.

Tang San felt his body lighten, and his consciousness once again fell into that strange state of rising and falling.

I don't know how much time passed, but the feeling of falling suddenly stopped.

The two opened their eyes and looked ahead.

The sight before them made them gasp for breath.

This is an underground Abyss Passage that extends infinitely downwards.

The passageway is about ten meters wide, which is quite spacious for this scale.

However, the rock walls on both sides slope inward in an eerie arc, like a giant mouth slowly closing, creating a sense of oppression that makes one involuntarily want to curl up.

The rock face was covered with a layer of dark purple crystals, which emitted a faint glow, enveloping the entire passage in a dim, blood-red halo.

The ground beneath my feet was made of a dark black rock, hard to the touch, and had a strange temperature.

A deep, rumbling sound came from the depths of the passage, mixed with the cracking of rocks, sending a primal tension through one's body.

The air was thick with the smell of sulfur and rust, so strong it made one's throat tighten.

Tang San took a deep breath, gripped Ye Lingling's hand tightly, and stepped inside.

As soon as he stepped into the passage, Tang San's body jolted violently.

The omnipresent dark purple destructive energy in the air instantly enveloped them, like countless invisible blades scraping at their skin and muscles from all directions.

The pain was not a normal stinging pain, nor was it the burning sensation caused by Soul Skill damage. Instead, it was a dull pain that penetrated deep into the bone marrow, like countless fine needles piercing every inch of muscle and meridian at the same time.

Tang San gritted his teeth, the veins on his forehead bulged instantly, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

He could feel that the destructive energy was eroding his meridians, slowly consuming his Soul Power along the path of its circulation.

With each cycle of circulation, the Soul Power thins out a little, as if something has hollowed it out from within.

The two walked down the passage.

With each step forward, the concentration of destructive energy increases by one unit.

At first, it was just a stinging sensation on the surface of the skin.

Those energies are like fine sandpaper, slowly and continuously rubbing against the skin.

At first, I could bear it, but after walking for less than half a day, my skin started to turn red and feel hot.

By the tenth day, that energy had already penetrated into the muscle layer.

With each breath, I could feel them tearing, cutting, and reshaping within the muscle fibers.

The feeling was as if countless invisible knives were slicing through his muscles piece by piece, and then stitching them back together with some kind of intense heat.

Tearing, healing. Tearing again, healing again.

Each rotation was more painful than the last, but it also made his muscles firmer and more resilient.

By the twentieth day, the destructive energy began to erode the bones.

A throbbing pain emanated from deep within my bones, as if countless tiny hammers were striking each and every bone.

The pain was deep and heavy, not as sharp as a torn muscle, but more persistent and more unbearable.

Tang San felt his bones being reshaped by some kind of force.

But the most painful part isn't the physical pain.

The corrosive energy of destruction accumulates in the body over time. If it is not released in time, the accumulated energy will suddenly erupt at a critical point, tearing the body apart from the inside.

Tang San must constantly be aware of the energy within his body and find a way to release it before it accumulates to a dangerous threshold.

There is only one way to unleash its power: through combat.

Fortunately, countless ferocious and destructive Soul Beasts roamed the passage.

They come in all shapes and sizes; some resemble lizards, some bats, and some pythons.

These Soul Beasts seemed to have been corrupted by destructive energy, losing their reason and only having an instinctive desire to attack. Once they sensed the presence of living beings, they would pounce on them frantically.

Tang San didn't know whether these Soul Beasts were "created" by the Abyss of Destruction, or whether they were ancient creatures that originally lived here whose forms were distorted by the energy of destruction.

But he knew that fighting them was the only way to unleash the destructive energy within him.

With each swing of the hammer and each collision, the destructive energy accumulated within his body would be channeled out with his movements, transforming into a dark purple light on the hammerhead, which would then smash into the surging Soul Beasts.

Tang San gripped the Clear Sky Hammer tightly, and dark purple destructive energy surged from his body, flowing down his arm into the hammer, causing a layer of flowing dark purple luster to appear on the surface of the jet-black hammer.

He unleashed the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer and the Clear Sky Nine Absolutes quick succession.

Tang San moved swiftly through the passage, his hammer whistling as it smashed into the surging Soul Beasts, shattering them into countless dark purple fragments.

The fragments floated in the air and were then miraculously absorbed by Tang San's body.

Ye Lingling stood not far behind him, enveloped by the light of the Nine Heart Begonia Emperor, healing the wounds eroded by destructive energy.

But there's very little she can do.

The destructive energy corrodes much faster than her healing speed; often, just as a wound is healed, new erosion reappears.

All she could do was slow the progression of his injuries, giving Tang San more time to fight and adapt.

By the sixtieth day, Tang San's body had undergone a subtle change.

The destructive energy no longer eroded his meridians as frantically as it had at the beginning, but instead began to integrate into his Soul Power circulation in a more "peaceful" way.

His Soul Power gradually gained a dark purple luster, as if it had been dyed by destructive energy, and it carried a scorching and heavy texture as it flowed slowly through his meridians.

His meridians were also adapting; the torn wounds healed and became more resilient, the eroded muscles regenerated and became firmer, and the hammered bones reorganized and became denser.

On the ninetieth day, Tang San was able to actively channel the destructive energy within his body to the hammerhead the instant he swung the Clear Sky Hammer, imbuing the strike with a layer of dark purple Light of Destruction.

Soul Beasts struck by that light will begin to disintegrate and shatter from the inside out, a process far more thorough than a simple strike of force.

He discovered a pattern: when he resisted those destructive energies, their corrosive power became more intense; but when he accepted them, guided them, and let them flow through his body, the destructive force of those energies weakened.

It was as if the trial of the Abyss of Destruction was not only testing his physical abilities, but also his capacity to withstand the power of destruction.

In the sixth month, Tang San swung his hammer and smashed the last Abyss Giant Python into pieces, the dark purple fragments merging into his body.

He caught his breath, supporting himself with the Clear Sky Hammer, and looked up ahead.

The passage ahead became even more bizarre. The destructive energy no longer merely eroded his body, but began to seep into the depths of his consciousness, like countless invisible hands repeatedly manipulating the most vulnerable parts of his heart.