The golden glow surrounding his soul main body intensified, gradually engulfing his entire form.
Even his iron armor began to gleam with brilliant gold.
He was drawing ever closer to peak 2nd grade.
Without warning, a streak of dark light appeared soundlessly and slashed across Lin Moyu’s body.
The Bone Armor flickered once before shattering.
At the same time, the undead army within the law art stars collapsed.
Lin Moyu reacted instantly.
The moment the dark light struck, he shifted aside, limiting the damage to a single hit.
As long as the damage wasn’t continuous, there was nothing to worry about.
Though its power was devastating, the dark light lacked the ability to track souls.
Lin Moyu knew that by dodging quickly enough, he would suffer no more than one or two hits at a time and had nothing to fear.
Undeath Undead had a three-minute cooldown, during which the undead could die five times.
Combined with the Undeath Lich’s ring of light, his talent would activate on the seventh death, granting him seven more lives.
After one minute, the talent reset, giving him another seven chances.
Unless he was killed fourteen times consecutively within a single minute, he wouldn’t truly die.
Given the dark light’s attack frequency, as long as he didn’t stand still like a target, he wasn’t in much danger.
This was Lin Moyu’s greatest advantage—incredible survivability.
As he approached the center, the dark light became denser and more frequent.
Dark streaks flashed constantly through his vision, appearing unpredictably from any direction.
With no discernible pattern, Lin Moyu could only respond in the moment, doing everything possible to avoid sustained damage.
Ever since the dark light’s attack frequency increased, the number of skeletal remains on the ground decreased.
Yet although their numbers dwindled, the quality of the soul remnants rose sharply.
Earlier, they had only been half-step Transcendent God-level or Transcendent God 1st and 2nd tier.
Now, the soul remnants had reached Transcendent God 5th tier.
Even the Undead Eye began to struggle, forcing Lin Moyu to incorporate Time Curse into his attacks.
The stronger the soul remnant, the higher the quality of soul essence it left behind, and the greater its effect on improving soul grade.
As his soul grade drew closer to peak 2nd grade, quality had become more important than quantity.
He had destroyed over a hundred soul remnants along the way, yet he still remained just a hair’s breadth from peak 2nd grade.
Each soul remnant represented a former powerhouse, though not every skeletal remain had left a soul remnant.
Lin Moyu suspected some of these remains had originated from the greater world.
They had come here in pursuit of the world core.
After all, the allure of a True God-grade treasure was impossible to ignore.
By now, Lin Moyu had been struck by the dark light more than ten times.
Each time, he had reacted fast enough to endure only one hit.
Yet gradually, something felt wrong. A strange impatience crept into his mind.
Without realizing it, he accelerated, eager to reach the end and seize the world core as quickly as possible.
Another streak of dark light flashed. This time, Lin Moyu failed to respond.
His undead army collapsed, then instantly regenerated.
A second strike followed, and the army collapsed again.
Only then did Lin Moyu snap back, escaping the dark light’s range.
The dark light itself hadn’t changed.
He had.
Lin Moyu realized the problem at once.
An inexplicable irritation had taken root within him, dulling his reaction speed.
Beneath that irritation, a trace of resentment had begun to grow, resentment toward this world and toward the chaotic dark light.
“Could this be the source of the resentment lingering within those soul remnants?”
Those soul remnants had been slain by the dark light in life.
Even after death, their remains had endured endless attacks, torn apart over countless years.
The dark light carried an inexplicable irritation, transferring from the skeletal remains to the soul remnants, leaving them saturated with resentment.
“The resentment comes from the dark light. The dark light comes from the world core.”
“The world core belongs to a destroyed world.”
“A world has a will of its own… and that will harbors resentment toward its destruction.”
The chain of realization clicked into place. A sudden clarity washed over Lin Moyu.
He had found the root of the problem.
Now that he understood, there was nothing to fear.
After all, the unknown was what truly frightened people.
With a slight flutter of his soul, he erased the emotions that didn’t belong to him.
His mind became clear once more, and he continued forward.
The dark streaks grew denser and denser until they appeared every few steps.
Sometimes the dark light blocked Lin Moyu’s path; other times, it appeared directly on his body.
The frequency of attacks increased dramatically.
Lin Moyu slowed his pace, carefully adjusting his rhythm.
At times, he paused for several minutes to wait for the cooldown to pass.
Yet even standing completely still offered no safety. The dark light would still strike at times.
Advancing in this stop-and-go manner, Lin Moyu covered several hundred more kilometers.
“Adding it all up, I’ve traveled nearly three thousand kilometers. I should be close.”
Estimating the distance he had crossed and judging by the scale of this strange world, Lin Moyu believed he was nearing its center.
Suddenly, his nose twitched.
A faint fragrance drifted through the air.
The scent entered his nose and somehow flowed directly into his soul world, as though even his soul could smell it.
“What an amazing aroma…”
The moment the scent reached his soul, it quivered violently, and his mind became extraordinarily clear.
At that instant, a dark streak formed in front of him.
Lin Moyu reacted with incredible speed, twisting aside to evade.
But he was still a fraction too slow and was struck once again.
He had long since lost count of how many times his undead army had collapsed.
But Lin Moyu had realized something: his reaction speed had become faster.
And the source of that change was the fragrance.
Following the scent, Lin Moyu searched for its origin.
Then his pupils contracted sharply.
There was someone here.
Lin Moyu froze in shock.
A Human, without a doubt.
He trusted his instincts; they wouldn’t deceive him.
And not just any human, but a woman. An incredibly powerful woman.
The aura surrounding her had reached Transcendent God 8th tier, or perhaps even Transcendent God 9th tier.
Sensing his gaze, she turned and looked at him.
Surprise flashed through her eyes as well.
The woman was beautiful—no less than Lilian.
Yet more striking than her appearance was the presence she carried. Her immense power gave her an extraordinary aura, making her even more captivating.
Lin Moyu was certain he had never seen her before.
Suddenly, the dark light appeared beside her.
“Watch out!” Lin Moyu called instinctively.
But the woman had already noticed it.
With a single step, she slipped effortlessly aside.
Her speed far exceeded Lin Moyu’s.
Then she took another step.
In a blur, she appeared directly in front of him.
Lin Moyu looked at her. She looked back at him. Neither spoke.
Lin Moyu quietly considered her identity.
Though she had yet to say a word, her clothing revealed clues.
Her attire was unlike that of the humans of this world, nor did it resemble ancient human garments.
Instead, it bore some resemblance to the daoist robes from Huaxia [1] in his previous, except far more refined.
The embroidered patterns seemed almost alive.
From that alone, Lin Moyu drew a conclusion: this woman was either a human from the previous age… or someone from the greater world.
Seeing that he remained silent, the woman frowned slightly, “Are you a human of this world?”
Lin Moyu nodded, “Are you from the greater world?”
Her expression shifted with surprise, “You actually know about the greater world?”
“I know a little.”
[1] - Huaxia, a historical concept representing the Chinese nation
