The ground in an area of several meters was churned up, immersed in a disturbing silence. Alm and Bruno watched intently at the fallen body; Alm’s axe was dripping blood uncontrollably, and the entire body was marked by wounds and exposed bones, struggling to stay upright. One can imagine how deep the wound must be to be seen through that fat body.
The man was definitely dead, but they stood firm, watching with furrowed brows.
Bruno, attentive, remarked, ’The energy of his soul has completely extinguished. However, this suffocating presence is still in the body. It seems to be possessed or something close to an undead. This infernal law... it seems to be very exotic and sinister.’
Alm didn’t respond; he was focused on harnessing the power coming from his Yin divine soul. This was a resource they never wished to use, quite different from soul techniques.
This power came directly from the refinement brought by the divine cultivation they achieved in the past. It wasn’t a gentle energy like soul technique. Instead, it was a power akin to scalding lava, and they had to use this mortal body as a mediator. No method or technique would be safe for such an endeavor; it would practically be sentencing the body to suicide and destroying all meridians.
’Don’t rush. I know we have no more means of defense, but I don’t want to have to look for another body and start cultivation from scratch again,’ commented Bruno, though he was equally attentive to using his Yang power at any moment.
The man had died only a few seconds ago when several scarlet runes began to emerge slowly from his body. They seemed to have a consciousness of their own, which made Alm and Bruno even more vigilant. However, soon, they realized that it had no intention or life of its own; it was like a natural law that simply followed the flow of its existence.
Hundreds of runes completely emerged from the body, moving toward Alm and Bruno. They stood still, analyzing this strange behavior, and then the runes began to penetrate their pores, invading their dry meridians.
A wild sensation began to kindle in their minds in a strange way, but it lasted only a few seconds. Those runes within their meridians moved as if searching for something. Soon, they slowly dispersed, vanishing as if they had never existed.
Alm couldn’t help but think, ’This is very similar to the Yin laws of death, but at the same time, they are completely different.’
Bruno agreed but couldn’t quite put into words why. Alm had a deeper understanding, though. ’The laws of death are merely the opposite of life; they have no intention and cannot be classified as good or evil. But these infernal laws are clearly bloody and violent. It’s a sinister distortion of the law we are familiar with. However, its destructive potential was tested directly on our skin. Its killing ability is absolute.’
Bruno nodded in understanding and soon reached a conclusion. ’This law is basically a complete alteration geared entirely toward killing from the Yin laws. In some universe, someone reached a level of understanding higher than us in these laws and developed this terrifying power.’
’In the end, everything was stolen and brought to the queen’s damn house,’ Alm concluded roughly.
Bruno looked at the fallen man’s body; there was nothing left there, just a sack of flesh. He didn’t hesitate and stashed everything into the spatial inventory. Soon, he glanced to the side and saw dozens of eyes from humans and other humanoid races looking in their direction.
The sky was brightening, and with a thud, the colossal whale fell backward onto the ground, unconscious.
***
Two days passed, and then Alm and Bruno opened their eyes, now quite recovered. They were in a cabin shielded from the sun. Upon looking around, they realized it was an improvised tent built around them. They were too large and heavy to be moved, so they simply constructed something around them.
After sitting down to assess their body’s recovery, Ruri entered the tent and smiled upon seeing them completely well. Her eyes trembled, but she caught Alm’s gaze and quickly composed herself.
Bruno was amazed by this reaction; Ruri seemed to already know when Alm was in charge. Alm disliked her being too emotional, so she behaved in the most satisfactory way. But when he was in command, she didn’t restrain herself at all.
On that same night, they wanted to leave. But Ruri mentioned that the people wanted to express their gratitude for being saved. Alm simply ignored it, but Ruri told everyone what could really make the whale stop here for a day.
Throughout the day, everyone was busy preparing. During the night, a massive feast was served, but practically the only people eating were Alm and Bruno. He ate until everything was gone... in the end, full satisfaction didn’t come, but they slept content after consuming an incalculable and frightening amount of food.
***
Half a month later, Alm, Bruno, and Ruri finally crossed the gigantic mountain ranges to the East. Then, the sands of a desert that stretched beyond the horizon filled their views.
Ruri was a mix of excitement to reach a completely new environment and anxiety about being close to the lair of the corrupt cultivators.
When Bruno tried to analyze the memories of the man, something extreme ran through his entire consciousness. It was a power that prevented him from reading those memories, and a self-detonation was initiated in the body. But, obviously, Alm and Bruno were not ordinary people. When both joined forces, it was easy to completely block the detonation.
The corrupt cultivators posed a much greater threat than the beasts living in the western forest. Even the Three Extremes Sect and the entire extent of its power tried tirelessly, but this plague never came close to being destroyed. Moreover, they never managed to find the fortress or even their location.
All the corrupt clans and sects lived together in a single enigmatic place, impossible to find. All their cultivators would kill themselves without any hesitation and were never captured, and receiving information through memories was even more impossible due to detonation.
But this only applied to the cultivators of this ascending world. Bruno had much more trouble than usual. However, after a few attempts while trying to avoid that body’s detonation, with great care, he managed to read only some memories from that body. In the end, only a small part of the guy’s memories was blocked by the seal. The majority was still free to be taken.
Everything then became clear, leaving Bruno a little incredulous. It wasn’t that the cultivators of the Three Extremes Sect were incompetent in finding the corrupt cultivators. It simply was impossible for them to find them.
They didn’t live in a real place but in a different world. It was a world separate from the planet, a place created through the manipulation of the laws of space. And only a high-level cultivator from the divine world could do something like that.
First, the Divinestone clan, now the corrupt cultivators. It seems that various factions are involved with this simple ascending planet. Something seemed very wrong with this place; something hidden seemed to be attracting these powers to this location.
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