Chương 465: Death (II)

We paused rather abruptly and studied the destroyed landscape. There was a solemn weight to the kids' expressions, especially Duo Xin's; it seemed they truly believed and expected this place to be a paradise, which doubly confused me. They knew far too many specifics for their seniors and the sect master to have merely guessed or made up a story for them. No, they knew this place, and they knew there was supposed to be something akin to a paradise here.... but there wasn't.

As the clouds in the distance cleared up to our left, I noticed another horrid sight: a river of petrified ash flowed, its surface cracked and jagged, resembling molten stone frozen mid-motion. It spat out billows of Death Qi and hung them overhead before the blowing wind cascaded from the far reaches of the north, dispersing them further throughout the already desolate world. I also recognized something: if we were to continue onward, I had to create an art.

Even I would probably struggle to forcibly move through such densely packed layers of Death Qi, and the kids were likely to drown and die within days. Rather, I was tempted to tell them to go away, but another gut feeling of mine told me that what I'm seeing here isn't going to be isolated for too long. As such, I quickly whipped out the creator's window and even more quickly concocted a relatively simple yet extremely specialized art that I named 'Enduring Life Art'.

[--Congratulations, Host, on creating the 'Enduring Life Art' Special Art] [...] [Enduring Life Art] [Type: Special Art] [Rank: low-Jade tier] [Host Comprehension: Minor] [...] [Death Qi is akin to poison to the living; though tolerable in small doses, it corrupts and rots and decays the senses of the living, innately overcoming Life Qi. It is not its opposite; it is merely an extension of it, twisted like a reflection in a mirror. Though it is impossible to create a shield safeguarding against Death Qi in its entirety, arts to stabilize its effects on the living exist in excess, especially as the more daring and mad experiment with cultivating using Death Qi. The art's one purpose is to block the Death Qi from latching onto the living and, in the case of somehow penetrating into the meridians, to purify it and destroy it. Though its effects are beyond miraculous, they will not work on Imperial-level Death Qi in any capacity and will have diminishing effects for levels of Death Qi above the Nirvana Realm] [...] [Creation Points Value: 400/400] [Comprehension Difficulty: Easy (Initial) -- >??? (After Minor Comprehension)] [...] [Creation Bonus: New Trait Unlocked, Unending Light Talisman] [...] [New Trait Unlocked: Arbiter of Death (Legendary)] [Arbiter of Death (Legendary) -- has a natural resistance towards Death Qi. Immune to full corruption and greatly resistant to excessive ones. Can more easily discern the existence of Death Qi where it is otherwise hidden] [...] [Unending Light (???) -- rip the talisman to unleash seventy-two arrays of Light Qi that extinguish Darkness and Death within a small radius around you. Creatures that primarily practice using Dark and Death Qi will suffer immense wounds and might even die]"Alright, everyone, listen." I turned their attention to me.

"I don't know why it's become this way, but I do believe you and I do think that it wasn't like this before. Regardless... I have to keep going further. Now, I'm not going to force you to come with me; if you're scared or you just want to go back, you should. I will warn you to be very alert to Death Qi's presence, as I don't think this is as far as it will go.

On the other hand, if you choose to stay and come with me, we'll spend a day here as you study an art that will help us traverse the areas with such dense Death Qi." You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"You... you're not scared of Death Qi?" Duo Xin asked.

"... I am," I replied, forcing a smile.

"Terrified. And it's not just Death Qi--within the depths of this landscape, we've awoken things that have slumbered for a long while, things that are hungry and thirsty for us, because we live. So, if you choose to come, not only will you have to fight the incessant invasion of Death Qi, but also whatever shambling manifestation of it lives here. So, think carefully--and think deeply--before saying any--""I'll go!" somebody suddenly sounded out.

"Hm, yes, me too! We can't let you go alone!"

"No, we promised to take you to the tortoise, and we should see it through!"

"Besides, Senior said that he has an art that will help us!"

"Yes, yes. An art to help against Death Qi... I knew Senior was a hidden hermit!"

"I, I'll go, too," Duo Xin said, her expression hardening.

"It's true, we did promise to take you all the way. Besides... we're stronger together! Though we don't have our beasts yet, we have learned powerful formations that we can deploy."

"Very well." To be honest, I'm not so touched as I'm stumped that they're staying. They really are pretty stupid kids, but... well, shit, looks like I've developed a soft spot for stupid kids since I've come to this world.

"Here." I slowly took out a dozen manuals in varying degrees of deterioration, handing them out.

"Aim to reach at least Minor Comprehension by tomorrow; it should be enough to deter most Death Qi we'll face. For any higher density... we'll just have to run."

"Thank you, Senior!" We retreated further back toward where the line between the two worlds blurred, but I immediately noticed it was temporary. After all, within an hour, that line moved--it was barely anything, perhaps a tenth of an inch, but it did move. Which meant that Death Qi will likely spread, almost like a plague, and move south. With what purpose? How? Why? Well, I can't really say. Maybe that was the entire purpose--but I kind of doubt it.

If the point of locking us into this place was to suck out our Life Qi for advancing into the higher realm, it doesn't really work if all that Life Qi is essentially immediately corrupted, becoming Death Qi. Even Sages, best I can tell, don't like Death Qi or at least can't manipulate it to the same degree they can Life Qi. In the end, I'm just a tiny little cog in the machine of this world that has been churning out stories long before I came here.

This realm, layered and unpredictable, was here so long ago that humanity back on Earth was still banging rocks or perhaps wasn't even 'humanity' as we know it. [--anomaly detected] H-huh? Ugh, what now? [Mirror-Flower is resonating with the oscillation of Death Qi] Mirror-Flower? What the fuck is that?... Wait, no--isn't that the thing I picked up back when we found Xing Feng? That little flower surrounded by nothing but death and darkness?

I quickly took it out of the spatial ring as the kids all sat in a meditative circle, studying and trying to rapidly comprehend the art. The flower is as I remember it being--seemingly on the verge of dying, with dulled shades of emerald washing over its forty-seven petals and a stem so thin it looked like it'd snap from my gaze alone. Just as I thought I hallucinated the system's message, something happened--the petals turned... transparent, revealing the palm of my hand beneath them.

Curious and driven by instinct a bit, I grabbed it by the stem as gently as I could and lifted it off my palm, facing it toward the ashen wasteland north of here. The world within the flower came into focus bit by bit, and odder and odder it grew with each more focused detail. The sky and earth were inverted; the immense Death Qi was roaring with Life, and Life was roaring with death; it twisted and cracked and distorted like a spatial storm, concepts manifesting and disappearing in a flash.

And yet, outside the flower, it was calm. Silent. Dull. While within it was something that defied description, perhaps more so than anything else that I've ever seen in this damned world.