The Rotting Spirit Cavern is located beneath the southwestern rift zone of the Void Obliteration Domain. Viewed from above, it resembles a scorched, torn expanse of land. Countless fractured rock veins resemble the tattered bones of a dragon.
Exposed from the earth, dark purple corrosive mist seeped from between the rock layers, slowly rising and condensing into a low-hanging gray curtain in the air. From the depths of the cave came muffled rumblings from time to time, like some huge heart beating underground, but the true source could not be found.
At this moment, the entire outer perimeter of the Rotting Spirit Cavern was packed with cultivators from various sects and temples. Dozens of magic boats floated in the sky, their banners fluttering in the wind; array patterns crisscrossed the ground, and the outlines of various protective arrays spread out in layers; in the distance, even the Liu Yuan Practitioners stood in formation, their blades still wet with demonic blood.
Some whispered among themselves, while others used their divine sense to explore the surroundings.
"Wasn't it said that the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor would appear here? How come there's not even a trace of his aura?"
"The news is said to have come from a mysterious sect; it can't be baseless."
"The Rotting Spirit Cavern has always been eerie; perhaps he has already left."
"Hmph, if that beast were really here, would it be so quiet?"
The sounds of discussion rose and fell, echoing through the cavern, mingling with the low rumble of corrosive mist, creating an exceptionally oppressive atmosphere.
Jin Hanyan stood at the front of the crowd, her plain white dress fluttering slightly in the gray mist. Her gaze was cold and detached, and she never participated in any argument.
Five Stainless Realm · High Stage elders of the Chaos First Palace stood behind her, while hundreds of Chaos Realm · Initial Stage disciples stood in formation. Although their auras were steady, they clearly suppressed their unease.
Time passed slowly. The Rotting Spirit Cavern remained deathly silent. There was no surging Demon Qi, no fluctuations in cause and effect, and no oppressive force from a powerful being at the Severed Thought Realm.
Gradually, patience began to wear thin. Some sects started to leave. "Let's go, waiting is pointless." "It seems the information was wrong."
Large numbers of magic boats rose into the air, and the cultivators transformed into streaks of light and departed, gradually emptying out the once crowded underground cave.
An elder from the Chaos First Palace sighed softly and bowed to Jin Hanyan, saying, "Miss Hanyan, it seems there is indeed nothing unusual here. The information may have been misleading."
"Alright, let's go back to the temple and discuss this further."
Jin Hanyan did not respond immediately. She slowly closed her eyes.
A tiny wisp of chaotic energy flowed from her palm and merged into the earth's texture in the Rotting Spirit Cavern.
She did not use any powerful supernatural abilities, but instead used the exquisite perception of [Silent Void - Dao Reversed from Heaven] to gently align her own Fate Soul with the causal connections of the surrounding space.
The flow of putrid gas was stable. There were no abnormal vibrations in the underground network. There was also no obvious distortion in the spatial hierarchy.
Indeed—everything seemed normal on the surface. She opened her eyes and nodded slightly. "Wait..."
Before she could finish speaking, just as her gaze swept over a collapsed stone wall on the east side of the cave...
A faint, almost imperceptible ripple flashed across the edge of space.
It wasn't a fluctuation of spiritual energy. It wasn't a manifestation of cause and effect. Rather... it was as if the space itself had been gently touched from within.
The ripples vanished in an instant, as if it were an illusion. Jin Hanyan's pupils contracted slightly.
She was about to turn around and call out to the people of the Chaos First Palace when she found that there was no one behind her.
The Dharma Boat had already taken off, and the auras of the disciples and elders were rapidly dissipating. At this moment, she was the only one left in the Rotting Spirit Cavern.
The gray fog surged. In the distance, the last Dharma boat transformed into a streak of light and disappeared into the horizon.
An eerie silence fell over the entire cavern. Jin Hanyan didn't pursue them. Her gaze slowly fell upon the stone wall.
The space was flat, without cracks, patterns, or any traces.
But she was certain that what she had just experienced wasn't an illusion. She took a step forward.
With each step she took, the earth's putrid odor seemed to subtly recoil, as if unwilling to touch her aura.
She made no show of force, nor did she summon any treasures. She simply walked alone slowly toward that secluded place.
The gray mist closed in behind her. The Rotting Spirit Cavern was completely Space Silence. And she chose to venture deeper into it alone.
Jin Hanyan slowly stepped into the shadows before the collapsed stone wall.
Gray mist churned beneath her feet, and putrid odor flowed along the cracks in the rock strata, like thin, dark purple snakes slithering across the ground. She raised her hand, and with a flick of her fingertip, she gently probed the void ahead with chaotic energy. In that instant, space suddenly collapsed.
It wasn't a tearing apart, nor an explosion; rather, the entire space seemed to have been hollowed out from the inside, caved inward into an abyss invisible to the naked eye.
Jin Hanyan only had time to furrow her brow before an extremely pure yet Ultimate power suddenly enveloped her Fate Soul.
That wasn't an attack. It was a kind of "traction".
It was as if someone had already left a path for her deep within the realm of cause and effect, and now, with just a gentle pull, heaven and earth would turn upside down.
The gray mist shattered into countless fragments of light, and the rock layers of the Rotting Spirit Cavern peeled away layer by layer in her vision as if being torn into pieces of paper.
Space around her transformed into a spiraling, dark gray vortex, and the timeline was compressed into a thin line that slid down from her feet.
The next instant, she was completely swallowed up. When her vision refocused...
She was now standing in a completely different world. There was no putrid smell, no rock formations.
The sky hung low, as if covered by a thick, dark red blood mist, and the clouds rolled slowly, but there was not a sound of wind.
The distant mountains appeared eerily dark purple, their bodies resembling solidified flesh and blood, with faintly visible twisted patterns on their surfaces, as if they were still slowly writhing.
The ground was a dry, cracked, deep black wasteland, with a faint red light shining through the cracks. Each crack was like a blood vessel of some enormous being, occasionally flashing with dark red pulses.
The air was so heavy it was almost suffocating. Not oppressive, but... the world itself rejected her existence.
In the distance, a towering, dilapidated tower leans against the wasteland, its body half-destroyed, its edges seemingly severed by some invisible force.
Several dark shadows were perched atop the tower. The shadows had no fixed shape; sometimes they transformed into sharp blades, sometimes into wings, and sometimes into open black mouths.
The entire space resembled an apocalyptic painting stained with blood.
The moment Jin Hanyan landed, the chaotic Dao energy around her automatically circulated, forming a very faint halo that isolated her from the strange aura outside.
She was not alarmed. She simply raised her eyes slowly. The instant her gaze swept over the ruined tower, a familiar yet chilling aura clearly entered her Fate Soul's perception.
That aura was neither ostentatious nor outwardly emitted, but rather existed quietly, like the undercurrent at the deepest level of an abyss.
The Thought Severance Devouring Emperor is just ahead, not far away, and it's not hidden at all.
The aura seemed to have been deliberately made to be sensed by her, as if it were waiting for her.
Jin Hanyan's eyes turned completely cold. She slowly took a step forward.
A faint crimson light suddenly appeared in the cracks of the wasteland, and on the distant ruined tower, several dark figures slowly rotated, as if they had sensed her arrival.
Deeper still, a slender human figure stood with his back to her beneath the dark red sky. This Thought Severance Devouring Emperor.
Jin Hanyan did not rush to show herself.
She suppressed her own aura to a minimum, and the chaotic Dao energy clung to her skin like an invisible mist.
Even the fluctuations of her Fate Soul were quietly concealed by her Formless and invisible Annihilation Other Shore. Her entire being seemed to have "retreated" from the world, no longer directly intersecting with this realm.
She slowly approached along the crack in the wasteland. The further she went, the stronger the stench of blood in the air became.
That wasn't the ordinary smell of blood; it carried an extremely pure, primordial aura.
It was as if every drop of blood contained a complete destiny and cause and effect, and after being forcibly extracted, it floated here.
Behind the ruined tower lies a deep, hollowed-out pit.
In the center of the deep pit floated a platform woven from black and red light patterns. On the platform, the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor stood in the due north position.
His humanoid figure appeared even more eerie against the dark red sky. His black robes fell like the night sky, his hair was slightly swaying, and a dark mark on his forehead slowly flowed with deep purple light.
Five unfamiliar figures circled around him.
The five otherworldly beings had different forms.
One of them was as if his body were cast from dead wood, with a vertical gash in his chest, from which flowed not blood, but a viscous, dark golden liquid;
One of them had three pairs of wings, which were not feathers, but were made of sharp bone blades pieced together, with deep blue blood dripping from the edges of the blades;
A body with a semi-transparent appearance, revealing writhing black lines within, like living threads of cause and effect struggling;
There was another being whose entire body was bound by crimson flame chains; with each vibration of the chains, a wisp of his own essence blood was drawn out.
The last one, his face shrouded in black mist, revealing only a pair of scarlet pupils, plunged his hands into his chest and pulled out a burning blood core.
The five men growled simultaneously. They weren't forced; they did it voluntarily.
Each time a stream of essence blood is extracted, it leaves a dark red trail in the air, converging towards the center of the array platform.
There hovered a dark, slowly pulsating mass.
That's not a heart. It's more like an unformed embryo.
It was wrapped in a thick, blood-red membrane, and within it, a gigantic outline could be vaguely seen curled up, with each pulsation...
The crimson light within the cracks of the wasteland would vibrate accordingly. The essence blood did not scatter the moment it fell.
Instead, it was absorbed by that blood-red membrane.
The absorption process was extremely bizarre. The blood did not flow, but was "swallowed," as if its existence was erased, and then it appeared directly inside the embryo.
Thought Severance Devouring Emperor raised his hand. His fingertips swept across the void, leaving a gray-black Dao pattern imprinted on the pulsating object.
"Using otherworldly true blood as a catalyst... and Annihilation as a medium..."
His voice was deep and calm. "Awaken." At that moment, the heavens and earth suddenly trembled. It wasn't the formation that shook.
Rather, the entire space was touched by some ancient being.
The next instant, a dragon's roar suddenly erupted from the deepest part of the pit. That sound was no ordinary dragon's howl.
It was neither loud nor angry, but rather seemed to have pierced through the chaos of antiquity.
Somber, desolate, imbued with an aura of both destruction and Creation.
The moment the sound waves spread, a huge rift was torn open in the dark red clouds in the sky, and dark golden lightning surged within the rift.
All the cracks in the ground simultaneously emitted a crimson glow, like countless blood vessels throbbing wildly.
The five otherworldly beings trembled simultaneously. The crimson membrane suddenly bulged, and the enormous outline inside slowly unfolded.
A huge dragon-shaped shadow was faintly visible within the blood membrane.
The dragon's horns resembled broken mountain ranges. Its scales were a mix of dark gold and blood red.
A mere wisp of aura leaked out, causing the entire wasteland to tremble.
Jin Hanyan's pupils contracted slightly.
For the first time, her chaotic Dao heart showed a slight fluctuation.
"A dragon's roar?" she murmured to herself. "How could there be a divine dragon in this place?"
In the distance, the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor slowly turned his head. His gaze had already fallen in the direction where she was.