The frigid air flowed through the Ghost World, carrying faint wails, as if it had solidified the despair of countless worlds.
Hu Jiu leaned against the twisted railing, which seemed to be pieced together from withered bones and shadows, his cold eyes reflecting the dying world below.
What was once a bustling civilization is now like a piece of sugar thrown into strong acid, silently and rapidly dissolving into pure nothingness. There is no fire, no explosion, only patches of land abruptly disappearing, like poorly drawn pencil drawings erased by an invisible eraser.
"Truly... breathtaking." Du Zhong stood half a step behind Hu Jiu, his voice a mixture of surprise and an almost morbid pleasure.
He rubbed his hands together, his gaze sweeping over the ever-expanding, chilling void with astonishment. "Old Hu, this 'elimination'... it's truly incredible! Look at the efficiency, look... this world has been completely wiped out!"
Hu Jiu's lips curled into a cold smile, but he didn't respond. All his senses were like the most sophisticated radar, locked onto that void—the existence he had named "Elimination."
"Elimination" has no form, no mass, and not even a sense of "presence" in the usual sense. It is more like an absolute "nothingness," an "emptiness" that greedily devours everything.
It should have been a stepping stone on Hu Jiu's path to the top, the most sumptuous main course.
However, at this moment, this main dish gave Hu Jiu an unprecedented feeling... prickly.
His fingertips twitched almost imperceptibly, as if plucking an invisible string. A curse power, condensed to its extreme, enough to instantly crush a mountain range and distort space, silently pierced the coordinates of the "elimination" core in his perception.
Without sound or light, the cursed power evaporated instantly upon contact with the edge of that void, like dewdrops in the sunlight, without even causing a ripple.
Hu Jiu's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly; as expected, it was still the same as before.
Devouring? Decomposing? No, neither.
It was more thorough, more unreasonable—an erasure, as if the power he had unleashed had never existed.
A very soft, irritated click of his tongue escaped his throat.
"What's wrong with you?" Du Zhong noticed the unusual behavior and leaned forward slightly.
Hu Jiu's gaze remained fixed on the ground below, not shifting even slightly.
"It's nothing." His voice was flat, devoid of any emotion, only a frozen calm. "I just confirmed once again that this 'eliminated' shell is even harder to crack than I expected."
Du Zhong immediately put on a teasing smile, "Of course. The World-Ending Level Fierce Ghosts that this world has given birth to are likely specifically targeting you, or even all rules related to the Supernatural. How can they be compared to those ordinary creatures? Its very existence is a law beyond the laws."
"I advise you to give up. I think this thing is very dangerous." He emphasized the word "dangerous," glancing down at the tiny, struggling creatures in the world below, like specks of cosmic dust.
Hu Jiu's gaze shifted accordingly, and on the rapidly spreading edge of the void, on the shattered land that had not yet been completely erased, there were still some faint, flickering golden lights, like candles in the wind. Those were humanity's "safe houses," fortresses built with gold to isolate the Supernatural. At this moment, they looked like lone boats about to capsize in a vast ocean, both laughable and tenacious.
Hu Jiu's fingertips tapped lightly on the cold Bronze Tree, the rhythm slow and steady.
Then he "saw" that one of the huge underground golden fortresses, which should have been completely sealed, had inexplicably leaked, and the Supernatural of "elimination" took the opportunity to invade. The crowded survivors inside had extreme fear and despair on their faces, their mouths wide open, but they could not make a sound.
Just a second before the fortress completely collapsed and was exposed to nothingness, Hu Jiu clearly "captured" a dazzling golden light bursting from one of the people's eyes, revealing a hint of fear and an almost burning, extreme resentment, which was "nailed" to the sky, as if piercing through the barrier of the Ghost World and stabbing straight in his direction.
That person narrowly escaped death, but everyone else in the safe house perished. After leaving the safe house, he was fortunate enough to be taken in by another safe house, and by sheer luck, rose to a high-ranking position. However, this safe house was inexplicably compromised shortly afterward, resulting in the complete wipeout, with him the sole survivor. This cycle repeated itself endlessly...
The cold smile on Hu Jiu's lips suddenly deepened. A pure, destructive pleasure spread like venom in his eyes.
"Look, a Lucky One." His deep voice carried a cruel appreciation for art. "This is humanity's last glimmer of hope, small, yet... interesting."
Du Zhong immediately laughed, his tone sarcastic. "Aren't these all your pawns? Speaking of which, shouldn't you take back the Supernatural you released? If you don't, they might be 'eliminated' and wiped out along with you."
Hu Jiu nodded, then waited quietly.
Safe houses are indeed very safe, but unfortunately, fortresses often crumble from the inside out.
Under the cold gazes of the two, the world's last remaining safe houses, along with the final struggles and curses of the billions of lives they contained, were extinguished silently, completely swallowed by that greedy void, leaving no trace, except for the eternally unchanging gold standing in place.
The last solid fragment of this world vanished completely from sight, leaving only a constantly rotating, expanding, pure, and soul-chilling "emptiness" below.
Several "shooting stars" surged in from afar, and a sense of satisfaction, like a warm tide, gradually overwhelmed Hu Jiu.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the cold, deathly air of the Ghost World. The "nourishment" from the world's destruction, the desperate wails and curses of billions of living beings, and the countless vengeful Fierce Ghosts born from the Supernatural Revival were all converging and merging into the bottomless, limitless Vengeful Ghost Puzzle within his body, nourishing every bit of power and filling every tiny gap. He could clearly feel his own body cheering, becoming even more powerful and terrifying.
This is the afterglow of a grand feast, the pure sweetness brought about by destruction.
"Almost done." Hu Jiu opened his eyes, the satisfied light in his cold pupils not yet completely faded, his tone tinged with laziness, "The fish in this pond are almost all caught, except for the biggest one..."
"You're still not planning to give up?" Du Zhong scoffed.
Hu Jiu said matter-of-factly, "Even if I can't devour 'Elimination,' I should at least take away some of its Supernatural to enrich my database."
Du Zhong was about to say something more, his expression suddenly changed, and he pointed to the sky. "The moon is running away."
Several eyeballs sprouted from Hu Jiu's head, and he immediately saw the huge Red Moon moving rapidly into the distance, almost as if it were fleeing in panic. The woman on the moon had an extremely angry face, glaring fiercely at Hu Jiu's true form, but that didn't stop it from running even faster.
"What's wrong with that guy?" Hu Jiu asked, puzzled. Red Moon had been locked in a stalemate with him for quite some time, so why did he suddenly run away?
Wrong!
Hu Jiu immediately realized the problem and turned to look down at the "Elimination" that had devoured the entire world. This terrifying Fierce Ghost had destroyed a world but had not returned to peace or disappeared.
It's still going berserk!
Seemingly stimulated by the dense Supernatural aura of the Ghost World, "Elimination" is expanding wildly!
It is expanding outwards at a terrifying, exponential rate!
That absolute "vacuum" quickly filled the entire Ghost World within Hu Jiu's field of vision, and showed no sign of stopping! The twisted matter of the Ghost World, formed from Supernatural and curses, burst and disappeared silently like fragile soap bubbles when it came into contact with the expanding edge of nothingness, without even a ripple of resistance!
Hu Jiu gasped, briefly activating his emotional perception to experience the tension and excitement.
"What's going on?!" Du Zhong screamed dramatically, his voice distorted and filled with disbelief, "This thing is really dangerous!"
Hu Jiu remained silent. All his senses, the keen intuition he gained from controlling countless Vengeful Ghost Puzzle and understanding the rules, were all frantically pointing to the same message!
"Elimination"—this Fierce Ghost born from the dying breath of an entire world—has completely spiraled out of control!
After erasing its target (that world), it did not cease operating. Its "instinct" for existence, its essential concept of absolute "elimination"... was not satisfied after completing the destruction; instead, it was completely activated! Like a cosmic bomb with its fuse lit!
A terrifying conjecture, enough to plunge all the heavens and myriad realms into deathly silence, crept into Hu Jiu's heart like the coldest venomous snake—this thing would continue to expand! It would erase space, erase matter, erase energy, erase time... erase everything it touched! It would spread like an uncontrollable plague, like cancer cells spreading throughout the universe itself, until it dragged everything within sight and thought into that eternal, cold, absolute "nothingness"!
The moment this thought arose, Hu Jiu's brow twitched.
"Go!" His voice was sinister, carrying an unprecedented malice that Du Zhong had never heard before.
He didn't have time to explain. He picked up Du Zhong, raised his hand sharply, his five fingers forming a claw, and fiercely grabbed at the empty space in front of him. His movements were violent and decisive, with no trace of his previous composure and elegance.
"Sizzle--!"
A deafening roar, as if space itself had been forcibly torn apart, exploded!
The same Fierce Ghost can unleash different powers in the hands of different Ghost Tamers.
Hu Jiu gathered all the power he could muster at the moment, disregarding the cost, and pushed the power of the "Yin-Yang Road" to its limit. The originally stable Ghost World space was like a fragile old cloth in front of him, and a huge passage with viscous darkness flowing at the edges and chaotic spacetime turbulence inside was forcibly torn open!
A violent spatial storm erupted from it instantly, causing his and Du Zhong's robes to flutter wildly, and their skin to feel as if it were being scraped by countless blades!
Without the slightest hesitation, Hu Jiu, carrying Du Zhong, charged headlong into the chaotic, violent, and potentially collapsing spatial passage like a ignited black meteor, displaying a resolute and ruthless determination.
Du Zhong's scream rang out almost simultaneously, "Old Hu, what the hell are you up to now?!"
"Look behind you," Hu Jiu reminded him.
As Du Zhong turned his head, he saw that the edge of the spatial passage that had been forcibly torn open behind them had silently "disappeared." It wasn't a collapse, nor an explosion, but rather it was as if it had been gently wiped away by an invisible eraser, with even the space itself disappearing at a speed that was despairing.
"See that?" Hu Jiu's voice came again.
Du Zhong nodded blankly, already understanding what had happened.
With a wave of his hand, Hu Jiu caused the spatial passage behind him to suddenly close, isolating the ultimate terror that was spreading silently.
The cold, chaotic spatial turbulence was like billions of blunt knives, frantically cutting into his body, but Hu Jiu felt no pain whatsoever. All his senses were locked onto what was behind him—through the spatial gap that closed in an instant, in that last glimpse, he "saw" it.
The Ghost World, that distorted spacetime composed of countless Supernatural, cursed, and Fierce Ghost forces, is like a giant block of ice thrown into boiling water, silently melting, annihilating, and returning to utter nothingness before that ever-expanding "elimination." Its speed far surpasses the destruction of the material world below!
Further away, several cold, ancient, and desolate stars hanging above the Ghost World, their faint and constant light, in Hu Jiu's perception, was like a candle flame being extinguished, instantly... going out.
It's not dim, it's not hidden.
It has been erased from existence.
Thoroughly, completely, as if it had never existed in the universe.
"Slow down, my body is about to be crushed~" A muffled groan, so affectedly affected it sounded like a wounded beast, squeezed out from Du Zhong's clenched teeth.
"You're a fake! Your body was created by me using Supernatural; it has no pain receptors whatsoever!" Hu Jiu retorted directly.
Du Zhong immediately dropped his affected expression and asked, "Uh... have we done something terribly wrong? With the terrifying speed of 'elimination' expanding, could all the nearby worlds, even the entire Ghost World, and even the more distant myriad realms, be wiped out...?"
Hu Jiu thought for a moment, "It shouldn't be that exaggerated. After all, 'elimination' is only a product of Supernatural rules. When it encounters other extraordinary systems that are not Supernatural, it may be suppressed."
"In other words, the Ghost World is definitely doomed." Du Zhong said thoughtfully. "Among the worlds destroyed by 'Elimination,' there are powerful Ghost Tamer survived. If they know that the origin of 'Elimination' comes from you, won't they hunt you down with all their might?"
"It's like you weren't involved," Hu Jiu retorted calmly.
Du Zhong chuckled, "You're the mastermind."
It's you.
It's you!
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The two bickered utterly bored, while Hu Jiu sped up even more, like a bolt of lightning flashing through a crack in spacetime, recklessly moving away from that ultimate nothingness that was expanding geometrically and devouring everything.
Behind them, stars and worlds were constantly being annihilated.
Ahead lay endless, cold darkness.