The 592nd floor fell silent once more, as if dead. On that black and gray earth, torn apart like fragments of a broken dream by madness,
Only one person remained: Ping Koucen, the Third Elder of the Asura Immortal Hall.
He stood alone amidst the colorless air and the remnants of nightmares.
His chest heaved violently, and his breathing was rough and hoarse, like wind being scraped by a blade.
Beneath his feet lay countless "ash voids" of disciples; those ash were not corpses.
Rather, it was—a lingering shadow left behind after being swallowed up by this realm, without even a trace of death.
At this moment, Ping Koucen... was no longer a human being at all.
More like a demon from the Asura realm, facing certain death.
His skin displayed eerie, layered blackish-purple textures, as if death had been forcibly etched into his flesh.
The veins bulged, not red, but pitch black, as if rotting embers were flowing within them.
The muscles were like stretched-out animal hides, so taut they looked like they might burst at any moment.
The two bony horns on its back grew twisted and curved, their shape remarkably similar to the horns of the demon in the image.
But it was rougher, darker, and cracked with abyssal fissures.
Each crack shimmered with dark purple "death-time filaments."
Like a countdown to fate beating within him, his face had lost its original human features.
His cheeks were sunken, his cheekbones were high, and his eyes were completely filled with a dark purple mist.
The pupils disappeared, leaving only an empty void that seemed to say, "I know when you're going to die."
The corners of his mouth split open, and the teeth inside turned into jagged, sharp blades—not teeth at all.
More like rows of ever-growing Black Bone. The chest is covered with Asura patterns.
But now those metallic patterns have been corrupted by time.
The black and purple skeletal markings transformed into twisted curses, like a curse crawling out of his body. His arm was mangled and torn.
The Asura Blade he held in his hand had been stained a purplish-black by the ravages of death.
Black smoke dripped continuously from the blade, and with each drop, a large area of the ground collapsed.
He stood there... not like a survivor, but more like a grim reaper crawling out of the abyss.
At that moment, the Mad Consciousness Corridor whispered to him, "You are the only one who survived... because you are no longer 'alive'."
Ping Koucen raised his head, and a dark purple light, as if his death was imminent, emanated from his eyes.
He grinned, revealing teeth stained with black blood.
It let out a low, inhuman howl. "Asura... will never die in submission..."
But he knew very well that he had already died once, and was continuing to die.
The deeper death draws him, the stronger his power becomes, but life... becomes increasingly Does Not Exist.
At this moment, he was more terrifying than a demon. A demon is "born evil."
The current Ping Koucen is—a dead but not perished, Silent Profundity Asura by death.
A monster whose sanity is being stripped away by madness, yet he still clings to his obsession and struggles to stand. His existence is on the verge of collapse.
The 592-story sky finally shattered completely.
Like being snapped by an invisible giant hand, the boundary support lines exploded into purplish-black lightning in the air. Those lightning bolts were silent, yet they instantly chilled the spines of everyone present.
In the midst of this silent collapse— Ping Koucen went completely mad.
The dark purple death lines all over his body began to expand wildly, like thousands of death snakes surging within his flesh and blood.
His skin began to harden into purplish-black Asura bone plates, his muscles bulged and cracked, and his joints twisted.
Terrifying lines of death rippled up his spine. Suddenly, a violent jolt shook the center of his chest—poof!
A ball of dark purple flame shot into the sky from his chest.
It scorched the air, instantly melting all the mad consciousness shadows within a hundred feet of it.
Ping Koucen's eyes were no longer blackish-purple. His pupils had been completely swallowed up.
Instead, there were two empty spaces without a center.
That's "how death sees you".
His voice also became completely inhuman. "Death... time... mystery... silence..."
The next instant—his horns stretched wildly, reaching a length of three zhang (approximately 10 meters), like a crown of death;
The Asura Bone Armor completely covered his entire body; as flesh and blood faded, death light illuminated the cracks in his skin.
The battle blade in his hand was directly swallowed by Death, transforming into a giant, handleless death light blade.
And so, he completed his transformation: Death-Ending Asura - Xuanji State (592nd Floor Guardian)
He was no longer the Third Elder of the Asura Immortal Hall. He was no longer a "person".
He no longer belongs to either the living or the dead—he belongs to the 592nd floor.
He became the embodiment of death, the dominant form of the Mad Consciousness Corridor, and the nightmare for all outsiders who step into this level.
And just as he completed his madness—the entire layer of shadow suddenly contracted.
Like a tide, they retreated towards Ping Koucen's feet. "... They're here..."
It was a vibration that even the air itself seemed to tremble with fear. A three-dimensional, pitch-black crack appeared in the void.
There was no light or form in the crevice, only a conceptual entity slowly opening its eyes.
Not eyes, but "eyeless vision." Lord of Madness, the Eyeless One.
The Eyeless One has no physical form; its existence is like a "fog of observation" formed from a black hole.
It vibrated incessantly. It had no eyes.
Yet it can see through the fearful memories of all living beings. It has no mouth.
Yet it could drive listeners mad. It stared intently at Ping Koucen.
The next instant—a shadow-like tentacle emerged from the void.
It gently landed on the back of Ping Koucen's neck. All of Ping Koucen's death-death markings instantly glowed with a purplish-black light!
His consciousness collapsed completely in an instant, leaving only a last vestige of death that transformed into a cold vow. "... Lord... I... am willing..."
The Eyeless One slowly sank into the depths of his shadow, as if he had donned a new body.
From this point onward—the ruler of the 592nd floor is no longer the Lord of Madness.
It wasn't Ping Koucen, but rather a "hybrid monster" descended by the Lord of Madness through the Death-Ending Asura - Xuanji State Ping Koucen.
He turned his head. Behind him—
At some point, another enormous, indescribably blurry, terrifying creature appeared in the void projection.
Like a phantom awakening, yet not yet fully entering reality.
Its body was as huge as a mountain, and its two horns resembled two broken lines of spacetime.
A cosmic storm could be faintly seen swirling inside the crack in the chest.
It has no name and does not belong to any realm system.
It is merely a "deeper"—a waiter.
The shadow monster slowly raised its eyes, even if it was just a blurry glance.
The entire area instantly fell into darkness. 592nd floor...
From then on, it became a forbidden zone that no one in the three main halls wanted to approach.
Meanwhile, Unnumbered Layer Domain
Meanwhile, the disciples and elders of the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall entered the "Unnumbered Layer Domain"—
They had no idea they had entered one of the most terrifying traps in the entire Deep Root Lower Layers.
There is no sky, no earth, no air here. Only shadows.
Their shadows are not their mirror image; their shadows are their enemies.
At first, only the shadow and the movement were out of sync.
When they raise their hands, their shadows don't; when they walk, their shadows are a step ahead of them.
The shadow's chest remained still as it breathed. Then—
The shadow began to laugh. Silent, yet it sent chills down one's spine.
A disciple of the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall suddenly noticed that his shadow was slowly rising, detaching from the ground, and transforming into a humanoid figure formed from a cloud of black mist, revealing an empty smile:
"You... shouldn't exist." The next breath—
The shadow, like a black fingertip of a bone knife, pierced through the disciple's chest.
No bleeding. No sound.
The disciple's body shattered like dust. The elders reacted immediately.
Using Chaos Techniques and Silent Void Techniques, they discovered that the shadows could not be attacked.
All attacks seem to fall into another dimension. Yet, the shadows can wound them.
An elder of the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall was bound by six shadows, his limbs and neck locked.
The shadows whispered in unison, "You erase other people's names..."
"Now it's our turn to wipe you out." The elder's pupils instantly lost focus.
His "name," "definition of existence," and "past memories" were shattered as if torn apart by hand.
Even "death" is not a valid concept.
The entire Unnumbered Layer Domain was filled with the laughter of shadows.
The laughter was devoid of emotion, yet it seemed to tell all those who entered, "You are not intruders... you are sacrifices written into this world."
Deep Root Lower Layers Unnumbered Domain, the darkness seems to have no direction whatsoever, the world compressed into a suffocating slit. The elders and disciples of the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall were randomly thrown here, their feet Does Not Exist even touching the ground, as if suspended in an "empty shadow."
Their shadows trembled slightly at first, then were drawn by an invisible force and slowly and eerily "peeled" off the ground.
The shadows raised their heads.
--Those were their own faces, but they had no features, no emotions, only an empty hole torn open by the black mist.
"Kill--!!" The shadows pounced on the main body immediately.
The shadowy figure moved faster, more ruthlessly, and was more familiar with every weakness than the real body, because that was "another self they were not allowed to acknowledge."
"Chaos without distinction!!"
An elder of the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall roared, his hands surging with laws, transforming into a "light-refractional line without attributes" that slashed at the shadow. But the shadow transformed into a wisp of black wind the instant the slash landed, tearing at his shoulder bone from another angle.
Blood splattered across the sky. "Ah!!"
The disciple was pressed to the ground by his own shadow, his hand was held by the shadow, and his sword was raised by the shadow—but the sword was pointed at his throat.
The sound of blood splattering was particularly jarring in the darkness.
The shadow was silent, yet it seemed to be cruelly mocking the original body:
I am more complete than you, I am purer than you; all your hidden desires, fears, and malice are me.
In just a few dozen breaths, nearly half of the elite disciples of the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall were killed or wounded.
"Everyone, calm yourselves! The shadow is the reflection of the deepest part of your hearts; do not let it capture your thoughts!" the Grand Elder of the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall roared.
However, no sooner had he finished speaking than his own shadow rose up from behind like a black spider web, nailing itself hard to his back, as if to tear him apart, his bones making a nauseating cracking sound.
"Drink!! -- Silent Void Dao - Primordial Chaos Reverse Judgment!!"
He forcefully broke free of the restraints and slapped the shadow away with his palm, but the shadow seemed to have no substance, merely splitting into countless fragments before reforming in front of him.
It's laughing. It has no mouth, yet it's more eerie than any other expression.
Just as all those in the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall were engulfed in fierce combat, their blood splattering endlessly—
A string of cold numbers suddenly lit up the sky.
It's not carved on a stone wall, nor imprinted in the air, but appears directly on everyone's "sea of consciousness." --999
It was as if the entire world was frozen by this string of numbers.
The Grand Elder's face turned deathly pale instantly, and for the first time, genuine panic appeared in his eyes.
"... No... impossible... this... this is actually the last layer of the Deep Root Lower Layers..."
The disciples' hands and feet were ice-cold; every jump in the numbers felt like a blow to their hearts.
"The... the very last floor? This... this is the legendary floor... the one where no one can survive?!"
Just as despair was spreading—all the shadows stopped moving.
They stopped attacking and moving, but simultaneously—raised their heads and looked at the "999" in the void.
The next moment.
The shadows began to tremble violently, as if drawn by some indescribable force. Their bodies were pulled, twisted, and torn apart, before surging wildly toward the number "999".
"Like an apocalyptic tide." "They... they are being summoned!!" someone screamed.
Countless shadows were sucked into the void, eventually coalescing into three terrifying giant shadows deep within that black and red sky.
The world collapsed in an instant.
Lava-like cracks appeared on the ground, and black flames rose from the cracks, as if even the air had turned into molten slag that could scorch the soul.
The first figure descended.
It had no face, no eyes, no mouth; its entire body seemed to be formed from withered giant roots and dark swamps intertwined. Its chest was split open, and inside swirled a black hole that devoured light. As soon as it descended, everyone's consciousness shook violently, and they saw their own future death.
A second figure appeared shortly after.
Behind it, black flames transformed into a swirling vortex of natural disaster, like a vision descending from the end of the world. It raised its hand, and the heavens distorted, the earth began to crack and rise, and all things knelt before it.
A third figure slowly rose from the sea of shadows.
It resembles a colossal column formed by countless piled-up corpses, its body constantly writhing, breaking apart, and reassembling, as if every dead soul is wailing within it. With each step it takes, the earth turns to ashes.
The three terrifying creatures stood side by side, like the true final judges Deep Root Lower Layers.
The disciples of the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall felt their legs go weak, and despair filled their hearts. "This... this is impossible for us to handle..."
"This is no longer the Deep Root Secret Realm, this is... the true World Extinguisher Layer..."
The Grand Elder's throat trembled, and for the first time, his voice lost control. "Everyone—retreat!!!"
But it was too late. The three beings took their first steps simultaneously.
The earth turned completely black, the sky burned into a purgatory, and the entire level seemed to be inverted into the "apocalyptic sequence".