In the Death Demon Cavern, there was no passage of seasons, no sun or moon, dawn or dusk.
Since time immemorial, eternal darkness and deathly silence had shrouded this entire world.
Outside, the gods counted their days in years, their lifespans of hundreds of millions of years or even eternity seemingly endless; yet for the prisoners trapped in this God-Burying Purgatory, every day was an ordeal, every hour a punishment.
The dark, icy winds swept endlessly across the vast, ruined land of Purgatory, unchanged throughout the decade.
Dense, tangible deathly energy of annihilation piled up in layers and churned without cease, corroding all things and wearing away Dao Hearts, never changing in the slightest across the ages.
A full ten years had passed in the blink of an eye since Shiheng had been thrown into the cavern and reduced to forced labor.
In the Myriad Heavens God Domains, ten years were merely a flick of the fingers, less than an instant of the gods' slumber.
But for the God-level prisoners of every race trapped here, those ten years were endless torture, their Divine Souls constantly eaten away, their Dao Hearts continually crushed, and their flesh corroded day after day.
Every breath brought the stabbing pain of deathly energy entering their bodies;
Every day of labor depleted their already dwindling Divine Essence and lifespans.
After ten years, the Tenth Labor Group to which Shiheng had first been assigned was long since changed, weathered and broken.
The nine Midgods of various races who had once joined forces to exclude, isolate, and mock Shiheng had all been racial patriarchs and rulers of Planes who once held sway over entire regions.
Some of them had a rudimentary understanding of the death law to varying degrees, making them more resistant to the deathly energy than