With firm resolve and a clear goal, Zong Shen ignored the illusions flooding into his mind.
The Chaos Domain around him steadily expanded.
The nearly tangible mental corruption and the twisted spatial pull were both shut out.
He steadily stepped into the vortex at the center of the plaza.
The black stone slabs beneath his feet had completely softened here. Walking over them felt like stepping into a purple-black swamp.
With every step forward, the vortex's pull grew stronger, as though countless icy hands were relentlessly dragging at his ankles.
The dark-red crystal floating in the air sensed the approaching intruder at that moment, and its hum suddenly turned shrill and piercing.
The arcs of electricity dancing across its surface also grew denser, weaving together into a lightning net that covered the entire sunken area.
Every arc within that net carried powerful spatial tearing properties and mental corrosive damage.
They lashed against Zong Shen's domain with piercing crackles.
Ripples spread across the surface of the Chaos Domain.
But overall, it remained stable.
Zong Shen did not rush to attack the crystal. Instead, his gaze fell upon the bottomless purple-black vortex beneath it.
The vortex rotated slowly. Viscous nightmare energy continuously crawled and intertwined upward along its edges like living creatures, eventually forming those thorn-like barriers.
Through the deepest darkness at the vortex's center, he could sense a more vast and chaotic dimensional aura.
"Is this the rift entrance connected to the Nightmare Dimension?"
"This crystal forcibly anchored the rift and enlarged it."
Zong Shen understood.
Destroying the crystal should cut off the mechanisms amplifying the energy and anchoring the space.
But whether the rift already existing below would collapse and expand as a result, perhaps even triggering uncontrollable dimensional turbulence, remained unknown.
So, he chose complete purification rather than simple,