Void Cultivation

Chapter 345: Chapter 344- Return from the dead sea (2)

When Grey entered the Detective Agency Department, his arrival did not attract much attention.

The building was as busy as ever. Detectives constantly entered and exited through the large hall, creating a steady flow of traffic throughout the department.

Many of the members wore grave expressions.

Some carried traces of dried blood upon their robes, while others bore visible wounds that had yet to heal. Their eyes were cold and vigilant, and a faint baleful aura lingered around many of them.

Years of investigating dangerous incidents and hunting criminals had left their mark upon these cultivators.

Grey silently observed the scene as he walked through the building.

Despite his rather miserable appearance, nobody paid him much attention.

After all, this was the Detective Agency Department.

Injured cultivators appeared here every day. Compared to some of the horrors that agency members regularly witnessed, Grey’s current state was hardly noteworthy.

Without stopping, he continued toward the rear section of the building.

Soon, he arrived before the office that had once belonged to him.

His hand instinctively reached for the door.

However, he paused halfway.

Only then did he remember that he was no longer the Vice-Captain of the Detective Agency Department.

Months had passed since his disappearance.

Given the length of his absence, it was only natural that the department would remove him from his position and appoint someone else in his place.

Surprisingly, Grey did not feel particularly aggrieved.

Instead, he merely shook his head with a faint smile.

After all, the responsibility rested entirely upon him.

He had vanished for months without warning and had contributed absolutely nothing to the department during that period.

Under such circumstances, retaining his position would have been far more unreasonable.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Grey turned around and headed toward the Captain’s Office instead.

His goal was simple.

He wanted to find an empty room where he could cultivate in peace and recover from the ordeal he had just endured.

His spirit energy reserves had been depleted to a frightening degree, and both his body and mind desperately needed rest.

Fortunately, now that he had returned to Sky Mist Sect territory, his situation was considerably safer.

Within the sect, he no longer needed to fear being hunted by the Spirit Core Formation expert.

Sky Mist Sect maintained strict laws regarding the protection of its disciples.

If disciples ventured into the Dead Sea and died due to their own choices, then the sect generally would not interfere.

Likewise, conflicts and killings that occurred beyond the sect’s jurisdiction were often left unresolved.

Cultivation was a dangerous path.

Death was simply a part of life.

However, matters became entirely different once someone entered sect territory.

Should a foreign cultivator dare infiltrate Sky Mist Sect with the intention of harming one of its disciples, the sect’s laws would immediately come into effect.

No outsider could casually enter the sect and slaughter its members without consequences.

That was one of the few assurances that every disciple enjoyed.

Of course, Grey did not spend much time dwelling on the matter.

For now, he only wanted a place to rest.

Arriving before the Captain’s Office, he raised his hand and knocked firmly upon the door.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

A few moments later, a slightly familiar female voice drifted from inside.

"Come in."

Grey raised an eyebrow.

The voice sounded oddly familiar.

Pushing open the door, he stepped inside.

The moment he entered, he froze.

Sitting comfortably behind the captain’s desk was a young woman dressed entirely in white.

Her long white hair cascaded down her shoulders and continued all the way to the floor like a flowing waterfall of snow.

Her skin was exceptionally pale, giving her an almost ethereal appearance.

Yet despite her beauty, the most noticeable feature was the numerous bandages wrapped around both of her arms.

Only her fingers remained uncovered.

At the moment, she was lazily reclining in the captain’s chair with a thoroughly bored expression on her face.

The moment she saw Grey enter the office, her eyes lit up slightly.

A mischievous smirk immediately appeared on her face.

Without the slightest bit of restraint, she casually placed both feet atop the desk.

Then she took a large bite from the apple in her hand.

Crunch.

The crisp sound echoed through the office.

As she chewed, a trace of red juice stained the corner of her lips, creating a striking contrast against her pale complexion and snow-white clothing.

Only after swallowing did she grin widely.

"Well, well..." she drawled.

"If it isn’t little Grey."

Naturally, the white-haired woman was Violet.

Grey stared at her in disbelief.

He had never expected to see her sitting inside the captain’s office.

However, what truly shocked him was not her presence.

It was her condition.

The last time he had seen Violet, she had been in terrible shape.

Her injuries had been severe enough that even she had admitted it would likely take several weeks, perhaps even an entire month to fully recover.

Yet now she sat before him casually eating an apple as if nothing had happened.

Aside from the bandages wrapped around her arms, she looked perfectly fine.

In fact, she appeared far healthier than he remembered.

There wasn’t even the slightest trace of weakness visible on her face.

The sight left Grey thoroughly confused.

It simply didn’t make sense.

Had she recovered far faster than expected?

Or had something happened while he was away?

Whatever the answer was, one thing was certain.

The Violet sitting before him now was vastly different from the heavily injured woman he had last encountered.

"Surprised to see me alright? Well, it was also surprising for me. I honestly thought that it would take me several weeks to remove all the anomalous substance from my body." She said as she patted her stomach.

But then her eyes suddenly lit up and her expression turned animated. "Who would have thought that this body would have such resistance against corrosive substance and all."

"Look I even recovered two days after I left! Isn’t that amazing?" Violet said with a wide grin on her face. With such a smile, the image of a beautiful and pure woman was broken.

Right now, she looked like someone who had been corrupted by the world and was sinking into madness.

After realizing that this was nothing to be surprised about, Grey’s indifferent gaze returned and he sat down on the other seat opposite the captain.

With a small gesture, another apple appeared in her hands. She tossed it to Grey who caught it effortlessly before taking a bite.

Her eyebrows lifted up in surprise, but she didn’t say or do anything out of the ordinary.

It was also now that Grey remembered the item that she had given him. The eye of fate from the Soul Ascendancy realm expert.

After giving it to him with no instructions, she left soon after. Now that he was before her again, Grey decided to ask.

"The eye of fate... what does it do? Have you figured it out?" Grey asked after taking his fourth bite.

Violet revealed a spurious smile before nodding and then shaking her head. She placed a finger in her mouth.

"Yes and no. Yes - because I figured out that only those with the potential to reach the Soul Ascendancy realm can use it. No - because I haven’t figured it out it’s real uses." She said curtly. And after some contemplation, she spoke again.

"When I tried to use it, I was immediately rejected and even felt my fate leaving my body. I stopped before something bad happened." Violet shook her head.

"What about you?" She said with curiosity evident in her voice.

’Does that mean that you don’t have the potential to reach the Soul Ascendancy realm?’ Grey did not voice out his thoughts and remained silent.

He also did not believe that it as simple as that.

Grey contemplated whether he should tell her. But in the end, he decided he should.

"When I used it, I saw several threads coming out the world. These threads were many and could not be counted. They came from everywhere and all directions and led up to the sky."

"Moreover, the world changed when I viewed it through the eye of fate. Everywhere was pitch black and filled with intense corruption."

"The corruption was constantly eating and erroding everything it touches. It even transformed and have birth to new forms of life. And what seemed to be the corruption was the endless corrosive substance infiltrating everything."

Grey shook his head soon after speaking. "But I could only retract my gaze after a moment. After that, I felt like I would die if I looked any longer." Grey described his experience, only leaving some things out.

Like the fact that out of everything in this world, only him did not have a thread coming out from him and leading into the sky was off. He also did not describe the image he saw when he looked at God’s hand.

As if looking back at that moment again, Grey subconscious almost broke down and his body trembled in fear.

The statement ’Do not look at God! was definitely ringing in his head right now.