With the Compass's newly unlocked [Astral Shuttle] ability and the potential the team had awakened under extreme pressure, Su Yan and the others were like faint star fire burning across the nether lands, forcibly tearing open a winding and difficult path through the End Times Cult's inescapable net.
They crossed treacherous forests of jagged rocks and zones of Space Turbulence, evaded several large-scale encirclements, and dealt with wave after wave of ambushers and bizarre environmental traps. Everyone was wounded, their spiritual energy and Spiritual Power nearly exhausted. Even Xing Xuan's beautiful dark purple carapace had grown dull, covered in crisscrossing marks from battle. Yet their gazes only became firmer, and their goal clearer—the suffocating source of filth and distortion pulsing like a heartbeat ahead.
At last, after breaking through the final defensive line formed by numerous elite cultists and several enhanced corrupted creatures, the view before them suddenly opened up. Yet it also made them hold their breath, a tremor rising from the depths of their souls.
It was a vast, sunken basin. Its edges were twisted and blurred, as though some invisible force had forcibly torn them apart and reshaped them. At the center of the basin was no earth, no stone—only an indescribable "existence" so enormous that it filled their entire field of vision.
It was a colossal mass that continuously pulsed, contracted, and expanded. Its surface was not solid, but forcibly kneaded together from countless chaotic, twisted, conflicting lines of rules and viscous, filthy Dark Energy, like a living cosmic scar that had festered and begun to ooze pus. Countless phantom souls wailed in agony as they surfaced upon it, struggled, and were then mercilessly swallowed, becoming fuel for its pulsing. This was the "Core of the Fallen God," the "Rule Tumor" they had been seeking!
Below the Rule Tumor stood a massive altar made from countless bones, twisted metal, and runes flickering with ghostly light. It was operating at full power, endlessly pouring soul energy gathered from every direction—those captured Living Souls—into the Rule Tumor above. Its pulses grew stronger and stronger, while the chaotic ripples it emitted caused the entire basin's space to distort slightly, as if it could completely collapse at any moment.
And directly before that enormous, pulsing Rule Tumor, a figure floated silently in midair.
He wore a black imperial robe inlaid with dark gold patterns and a damaged crown. His face was shrouded in flowing shadow, leaving only a pair of eyes like two bottomless black holes that devoured all light. The pressure radiating from him was like a tangible mountain, heavily weighing on everyone's hearts. Even the dense aura of deathly yin around him seemed to bow in worship. In his hand, he held a longsword seemingly formed from pure shadow, black droplets that corroded space constantly dripping from its blade.
[Nether Hall Master Ying Hai] (Area Boss) Level: 42!
A level 42 Area Boss! This was the most powerful enemy they had faced so far!
"You finally... made it here." Nether Hall Master Ying Hai spoke. His voice was no longer merely a telepathic transmission, but rang directly through reality, low and hoarse with the grating texture of metal scraping together, as though it came from the depths of the Nine Netherworlds. "I had thought you would fall along the way and become an insignificant part of these countless offerings."
His gaze swept over the group before finally landing on the Compass in Su Yan's hand. A barely perceptible ripple flashed through his black-hole eyes. "The scent of order... is revolting. But soon, all of it will be thoroughly cleansed."
The instant Su Yan's gaze met Ying Hai's, the Compass in his arms erupted with an unprecedentedly blazing silver light! The Compass, now 65% repaired, seemed to have been completely activated upon coming so close to the Rule Tumor itself!
"Boom!"
A torrent of memories, ten times stronger and a hundred times clearer than the one in the depression, burst into Su Yan's mind like a breached riverbank. Through the Compass's resonance, it was also vaguely shared with his companions!
They "saw"... an era unimaginably long ago, when a great being known as Netherworld Emperor You Huan ruled the netherworld, governed reincarnation, and maintained the Balance of Order between life and death. Then demons from beyond the realm invaded, and a brutal war that swept across the Three Realms erupted. To protect the foundations of the netherworld, Netherworld Emperor You Huan confronted a pure Origin Power of "the End" from outside the world... He succeeded, preventing the Power of the End from erupting completely at that time, but his core became tightly entangled and eroded by that filth... His divine body collapsed, while his unyielding will and the core of the netherworld laws under his control were forcibly kneaded together and contaminated beneath the distortion of the Power of the End. In the end... they became the pulsing, agonized, shrieking "Rule Tumor" before them!
It was both a tool and a coordinate for the Power of the End's invasion of the world, as well as the eternal prison and source of suffering for the emperor who had once protected it!
"So... that's how it was..." Tears welled in Bai Zhi's eyes. What she felt was not fear, but boundless compassion and heartache. A guardian had been twisted into the source of destruction.
Mo Hen and Yun Ji were equally shocked and solemn. At last, they understood the painful and cruel truth behind the "Rule Tumor."
Su Yan gripped the Compass tightly, his nails nearly digging into his palm. What the Compass conveyed was not merely memory, but also a faint yet incomparably resolute cry of grief and unwillingness from Netherworld Emperor You Huan's remaining will!
"Pointless sentimentality." Nether Hall Master Ying Hai coldly interrupted his thoughts. "The fall of the old gods is the foundation upon which a new order is born. To become the first anchor for the Well of Guixu to descend into this world is its honor."
He slowly raised the shadowy longsword in his hand. "Now, the game is over. Offer up your souls as well!"
Battle erupted in an instant!
Ying Hai did not even move. With a mere sweep of his shadow sword, countless fissures split open around the basin. A vast number of cultists and corrupted creatures they had slain earlier were forcibly reassembled by an invisible power and infused with Dark Energy, transforming into even more hideous [Resurrected Corpse Demons] and [Vengeful Spirit Aggregates] that charged forward with howls! He had twisted the local laws of life and death!
At the same time, an icy will of death descended upon Su Yan and the others, and the system alerts blared frantically—[Instant Death Judgment]! At fixed intervals, if they failed a will check or lacked sufficient protection, they would be killed instantly!
"Mo Hen, Bai Zhi, clear the fodder and hold the line!" Su Yan roared as he activated the Compass with all his strength. "Starlight Barrier!"
A dazzling Starry Sky Curtain unfurled once more. This time, more intricate runes flowed across it. It not only resisted physical and energy attacks, but also forcibly blocked out the terrifying will of the Instant Death Judgment! However, maintaining the barrier consumed an enormous amount of power, and Su Yan's face immediately turned deathly pale.
"Yun Ji!"
"Understood!" Yun Ji's hands fluttered like butterflies among flowers, and one improved [Mystic Yin Soul Suppressing Talisman] after another flew toward Ying Hai like icy blue butterflies. Rather than attacking him directly, they landed precisely upon the invisible energy links between him and the Rule Tumor behind him, attempting to interfere with and sever them.
Mo Hen's mechanisms fired at full force, working with Bai Zhi's wide-ranging Buddhist radiance and [Golden Cudgel Spell] to barely hold back the seemingly endless resurrected monsters. Xing Xuan let out a long cry and transformed into a streak of resolute silver light, charging directly at Ying Hai himself! [Star Vortex Sky Rend Strike]!
"An ant trying to shake a tree." Ying Hai snorted coldly and casually slashed with his shadow sword. A massive black rift, as though capable of cutting space itself, swept toward Xing Xuan!
"Astral Shuttle!" Su Yan endured the searing pain in his Spiritual Power and activated the ability once more!
With a flash of starlight, Xing Xuan was forcibly shifted away at the critical instant. She avoided the fatal rift and appeared at Ying Hai's flank, her claws descending viciously with the force to tear apart everything!
"Rip!" Ying Hai's imperial robe was torn open, revealing not flesh beneath, but a body of thick, rolling shadows. He had been hit for the first time!
"Seeking death!" Ying Hai was clearly enraged. He no longer held back. The shadow sword erupted with darkness that devoured all light, and the laws of the entire basin began to twist violently. All manner of terrifying negative conditions started stacking upon the group. At the same time, he unleashed the massive-area spell [Shadow Annihilation]. A black Energy Tide swept outward like a tsunami, a horrifying attack capable of instantly wiping out the entire team!
"Starlight Barrier! Hold!" Su Yan poured every last trace of his spiritual energy into the Compass in a desperate gamble. The Starry Sky Curtain shook violently, as though it would shatter at any moment. Mo Hen and Bai Zhi also gave everything they had to defend and heal.
At that razor-thin moment between life and death—
The Rule Tumor, which had been silently pulsing all this time, seemed to be intensely stimulated by the Compass's silver light. Or perhaps the remaining unyielding will of Netherworld Emperor You Huan within it had seized this chance created by the external disruption. It suddenly began to expand and contract violently and unstably!
"Buzzz—!!!"
An Energy Impact of ultimate chaos, filled with pain, fury, and destructive intent, erupted from the Rule Tumor like an out-of-control stellar explosion and swept indiscriminately in every direction!
This power distinguished neither friend nor foe! The first to bear the brunt of it was Nether Hall Master Ying Hai, who stood closest! He let out a muffled groan as the shadows around him churned in disorder. His energy connection to the Rule Tumor was forcibly severed, and the half-cast [Shadow Annihilation] came to an abrupt halt!
Su Yan and the others were also violently hurled away by the berserk shockwave. The Starlight Barrier shattered instantly, leaving everyone wounded and in a miserable state.
The entire core area of the ritual descended into even more dangerous and unpredictable chaos!
The Rule Tumor—an existence that was both the source of tragedy and a weapon of destruction—had finally bared its completely uncontrollable fangs, capable of annihilating everything, before them all!
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