Seal Weakens, World Scar Shatters in Three Years?

The top floor of the library.

The old librarian began to repair some ancient books.

Ye Xiao sat by the window, from where he could see the bustling students entering and exiting the main entrance of the library.

He withdrew his gaze and stared once again at the book in front of him, Introduction and Distribution of World Scars.

The book was thick, its pages yellowed and brittle, with moth-eaten edges.

He turned the pages slowly, afraid of tearing them.

This book had nothing to do with cultivation; it was a miscellany recording the sights and experiences of transcendents throughout history within various World Scars.

World Scars were not natural occurrences.

One hundred thousand years ago, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth revived, and humanity coexisted with ten thousand races on the same continent.

Later, a great war tore the world apart—not a war between humans and Demonic Beast, but a schism of the "Dao."

The world was split in two: the human world and the Demonic Beast world.

Between the two worlds lay only a "World Scar."

A World Scar was not a crack.

It was a "membrane" between the two worlds.

Like a scar on skin, like a crack on porcelain, like the wall between two rooms.

A crack was a hole in that wall.

Ninety-five thousand years ago, the thinnest part of the World Scar tore open.

Demonic Beast poured into the human world for the first time.

That war lasted for a thousand years, and humanity was nearly wiped out.

It was the Nameless Ancestor who used One Punch to pierce through the Demonic Beast world and then sealed the World Scar with his fist intent.

Today, the seal is weakening.

Ye Xiao stopped reading here and looked out the window.

The setting sun dyed the sky a dark red, like blood.

There are eighty-eight weak points in the World Scars, distributed all over the globe.

These weak points are the "roots" of the cracks.

Demonic Beast cannot attack the seal directly, but they can erode it with demonic energy.

Just like water dripping through stone, just like an iron pestle being ground into a needle.

Ninety thousand years is enough to wear away many things.

How much longer can the seal hold? The book did not say.

But Ye Xiao noticed a line of pencil annotations next to this passage; the handwriting was very fresh, as if written recently.

"Three years at the fastest, five years at the slowest."

His hands began to tremble.

"Are you afraid?"

Without him noticing, the old librarian was already standing behind him.

At the same time, a cup of mellow, fresh tea was placed on the table in front of Ye Xiao.

"Drink some tea before you continue reading."

Ye Xiao remained silent, looking up at the old librarian.

"Elder Qian, did you write this annotation?"

The other party did not deny it.

"Yes."

Ye Xiao took a deep breath: "Three years at the fastest, the World Scar will break?"

The other party nodded.

"That is the worst-case projection."

"You have already learned a secret that cannot be revealed."

Ye Xiao asked: "Why can it not be told?"

The other party said: "Once this secret spreads, the world will fall into chaos. Human nature cannot withstand the test; once people know that the end is coming, social order will collapse instantly. People will fall into the final madness before the end, indulging in their desires and committing crimes to their hearts' content."

Hearing this, Ye Xiao remained silent for a long time.

The old librarian smiled and comforted him: "These things are not what you should be thinking about right now."

"When the sky falls, there are taller people to hold it up."

"There are so many transcendents up there; they want to survive more than anyone else."

Hearing this, a look of relief washed over Ye Xiao.

"Elder Qian, you make a fair point."

"If the sky falls, there are taller people to hold it up."

Ye Xiao continued reading the book.

Soon.

He saw content related to the Red Abyss.

And this was exactly what he wanted to understand.

"Red Abyss, the seventeenth of the eighty-eight rifts, located in Jiang City. The seal is weak, Demonic Beast activity is high, and the danger level is extreme."

A simple evaluation was enough for Ye Xiao to outline the danger of the Red Abyss.

"The world on the other side of the rift is a sea of fire. There is very little land, possessing endless magma. Rivers of magma crisscross the landscape, and volcanoes erupt every few minutes. The air is thick with the smell of sulfur and charcoal, and the temperature is high enough to melt steel and turn rocks red."

"The sky is dark red, and the sun is never seen. Only the light emitted by the magma dyes the entire world in the colors of hell."

"Deep within the Red Abyss lies a volcano. The crater is a thousand feet in diameter and bottomless. Magma surges from the crater, forming rivers that flow into the distance. That volcano is the lair of the Flame Demon King."

Ye Xiao's throat tightened.

He imagined that world—no wind, no rain, no sound.

Only the bubbling of magma, the roar of volcanoes, and the howling of Demonic Beast.

"The Demonic Beast of the Red Abyss are primarily Flame Demon. Flame Demon are not creatures eroded by demonic energy; they are the embodiment of demonic energy itself—fire, magma, sulfur. Their bodies are made of flames, making physical attacks almost useless."

"Flame Demon are divided into four ranks."

"The lowest rank is the Flame Demon Larva, about one meter tall, with skin like charcoal. They can spit fireballs with temperatures reaching a thousand degrees. They are equivalent to a human in the Second Realm. These Demonic Beast are the most numerous, moving in swarms like locusts, covering the sky and earth."

"The middle rank is the Flame Demon Warrior, about three meters tall, with flame patterns all over their bodies. They can transform into fire and are immune to physical attacks. They are equivalent to a human in the Fourth Realm. Wielding battle axes forged from magma, a single strike can cleave through steel."

"The high rank is the Flame Demon Lord, about five meters tall, with flame wings on their backs, allowing them to fly. They can summon magma to incinerate all things. They are equivalent to a human in the Seventh Realm. Each Flame Demon Lord rules over a territory of magma."

"The highest rank is the Flame Demon King, about ten meters tall, sleeping in the deepest part of the volcano. A single thought can ignite an entire city, and a single rage can melt mountain ranges. They are equivalent to a human above the Tenth Realm."

Ye Xiao put down the book and closed his eyes.

A ten-meter-tall giant of flame appeared in his mind, standing at the crater and looking down at the human world.

He opened his eyes and continued reading.

"The danger of the Red Abyss is not limited to Demonic Beast."

"First, the high temperature. The magma in the Red Abyss reaches temperatures as high as three thousand degrees; any creature that falls in will melt instantly. Even the golden body of a Martialist can only persist for a few breaths at the edge of the magma."

"Second, toxic gas. The air in the Red Abyss is filled with sulfur and sulfur dioxide, which burns the lungs and corrodes spiritual power upon inhalation. An ordinary person would die from poisoning within minutes of entering."

"Third, spatial instability. The space at the edges of the Red Abyss rift is severely distorted; one wrong step and you will be swept into the void turbulence, lost forever."

"Furthermore, the Red Abyss has a unique danger—the will of the Flame Demon King."

"The mental fluctuations emitted during its slumber erode the human mind. Staying in the Red Abyss for too long makes people irritable, prone to anger, and causes them to lose their sanity. In severe cases, they are directly controlled by the Flame Demon King, turning into half-human, half-demon monsters."

Ye Xiao's hand paused on the page.

Here, he saw a handwritten note in the margin.

"Stay in the Red Abyss long enough, and you will hear a voice. It is calling you, calling your name."

Within the Red Abyss, danger is everywhere.

"But the Red Abyss also holds opportunities."

"First, deep within the magma, there is a type of ore called Molten Heart. It is a crystal formed from the energy leaked while the Flame Demon King sleeps, containing extremely pure laws of fire. After refining, it can grant the physical body resistance to fire, or even significantly increase the power of fire-type skills."

"Second, at the edge of the Red Abyss crater grows a plant called Fire Spirit Grass. It is the only spiritual plant that can survive near magma and is the main ingredient for refining high-grade fire-type pills. A single stalk of Fire Spirit Grass can sell for hundreds of thousands on the black market."

"..."