bestfiction Chapter 996 Distortion (7)
Chapter 996 Distortion (7)
boom! ! !
A beam of flame, compressed to its limit, roared out from the giant mouth. The black fire pillar, more than two meters in diameter, was like the sharpest knife in the world. Everything that was swept by the fire pillar... boulders melted, houses collapsed, and even the mountaintop was cut in half.
It appears to be a black flame pillar without any smoke or heat, but it is actually a highly compressed Netherworld fire. The black flame burns silently, without a trace of smoke or life.
The Netherfire spread extremely quickly, transforming into a black sea of fire stretching for hundreds of feet in just a few breaths.
Fenghua Mountain, which was originally a beautiful and charming place, has now undergone a complete transformation.
Layer upon layer of thick, rolling flames, countless trees and rocks quietly merging into them, and the entire mountain peak, viewed from a distance, now resembles a giant black torch.
"Burn! Release! Purify!" Han Yi hummed a strange tune, gazing contentedly at his masterpiece, a strange sense of pleasure washing over him. "If this place truly exists... then it should be able to withstand the baptism of flames..."
Click...
suddenly.
Han Yi seemed to hear the sound of something crisp and fragile breaking, and a hint of ferocity appeared on his lips.
pity.
Not here.
The scene before my eyes changed rapidly, like a rapidly spinning kaleidoscope, with red, black, green, yellow... all sorts of images flashing by in an instant.
It seemed like only a moment had passed.
Suddenly.
The world before Han Yi had changed drastically.
The sky was a hazy gray.
Countless streams of black air swept across the sky, transforming into black vortexes of varying sizes.
Clouds are settling.
The already gloomy sky grew even darker.
Look around.
Han Yi was still on a mountain at this moment.
Fenghua Mountain.
to be exact.
The current Fenghua Mountain is the real Fenghua Mountain.
The beautiful scenery before us was just a mirage from who knows how many years ago.
The surrounding area consisted of ruins, a bare, dark ground, moss-covered stone steps, and dust-covered Buddha statues. Everywhere, dense white spider webs silently spoke of the desolation of the place.
“Interesting…” Han Yi walked heavily into the ruins, where the words “Wuding Temple” were written on a plaque with peeling paint on the ground.
In front of the rusty brass incense burner, a large number of wooden sticks were scattered.
All the wooden tags were facing upwards, with only one word written on them in vermilion red characters.
This is a very bad omen, extremely unlucky.
"Alright. Don't think I can't see you just because you're hiding. Come out." Han Yi cleared away the clutter around him with a slap, making it easier for the battle to begin.
"..."
From the shadows of the half-collapsed Buddhist temple, a one-armed old nun slowly emerged. The nun was very, very old, with long eyebrows that almost reached her cheeks. Her face was covered in wrinkles, and her body was as thin as a rake, as if she were just a clothes hanger wearing a robe.
At this moment, she was looking at the enormous giant, whose leg alone was as tall as a Buddha statue, with a complicated expression.
She was also holding a steel chain, the other end of which was tied to a huge, white, fleshy ball.
It was none other than Jing Xi's true form after undergoing a transformation within the endless cycle of illusions.
"Tell me. Your identity? The master of Xuanling Temple? A nun?" Han Yi casually picked up a stone pillar more than ten meters long next to him, ready to strike it down if things went wrong.
"Waaaaah!!" The fleshy ball being led by the old nun was oozing a large amount of pungent and foul-smelling white fluid. Its facial features were indistinguishable, but a gaze full of fear and resentment was fixed on Han Yi.
"Woo-hoo-hoo...woo-hoo-hoo..." The old nun gently patted the fleshy ball, making inexplicable soft humming sounds, and it was unclear what she was saying.
The ball of flesh then stopped beating and settled down, hiding discreetly behind the old nun, like a little girl hiding behind her mother after seeing a bad guy.
"Please excuse my rudeness. This child has had a tough time; he's a bit shy. It's understandable that he's a little frightened since it's his first time meeting strangers." The old nun raised her head and gave a gentle smile.
"?!"
Han Yi's expression, which had remained calm throughout, finally changed slightly, and the killing intent he had been releasing abruptly stopped.
The person opposite...
They weren't speaking the native language of this land, but rather standard Mandarin, the common language of the North?!
"You're surprised?" Old Ni's lips curled up slightly as he chuckled. "Actually, it's not difficult. Over the past few hundred years, you extraterrestrial demons have descended here hundreds of times. If you observe carefully a few times, you'll always gain something."
"What did you call us?" Han Yi asked, his voice filled with surprise.
It was already puzzling enough that the other person could speak a northern language, but what was most unsettling was the way they addressed each other.
"Heavenly Demons. Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons." The old nun said without hesitation, "Aren't you all like that? Plunder, exploitation, and unbridled enslavement...aren't these all things you've done?"
"You demon races come from a demon kingdom called the Demon Saint Palace. In my view, everything you do is for the purpose of better enslaving our world. Perhaps you don't think so, but that's the truth."
"..."
Han Yi fell silent. He never thought that he would be regarded as a demon one day. If they were demons, then what was the demonic calamity that was currently raging in the Central Plains?
He simply transformed back into his normal human form and listened quietly to the other person's story.
"What are you trying to say? Or rather, what is your purpose in appearing before me?"
“It’s not that I appeared before you. It’s that you disrupted the time cycle here,” the old nun said with a helpless bitter smile. “Without this barrier, the gods will soon notice me.”
"Deities?" Han Yi frowned deeply.
"They have many names: outward gods, evil gods, heretics..." the old nun said helplessly. "This world... from the very beginning... has been corrupted..."
In the nineteenth year of the Wentai era of the Song Kingdom, auspicious omens descended from the heavens. That night, the sky shimmered with golden light, and overnight, the world was turned upside down. Many people received divine opportunities, undergoing transformations, and some even displayed abilities only found in gods, immortals, demons, and ghosts from vernacular novels. Extraordinary arts, secret techniques, and magical treasures appeared one after another...
"That day... the sky shattered, and fiery waters fell to the earth, but what fell were not flames, but colorful raindrops, like liquid gems..."
The old nun's face was complex, revealing a mixture of pain, sorrow, and bitterness, as if she were recalling something.
"What followed was decades of favorable weather and abundant harvests, a rapid population increase, and an unprecedented golden age, which everyone believed to be a blessing from heaven... Little did they know, this was the world's last act of resistance, and we... have already missed it..."
From the old nun's narration, Han Yi roughly understood the true secrets of this world.
The Song Kingdom was a distant dynasty that existed at least a thousand years before the present-day Ning Kingdom. At that time, the Song Kingdom had no supernatural arts or strange ghosts; it was just an ordinary martial arts world.
Practicing martial arts can strengthen the body and prolong life. Although there are conflicts in the martial arts world and wars between families and countries, everything is within the scope of human flesh and spirit. It is absolutely impossible for one person to defeat an army of thousands, or for an extraordinary path that is beyond the understanding of ordinary people.
And then came the emergence of supernatural arts.
This is a manifestation of the corruption of the world by external gods.
This extraordinary skill has no specific cultivation method; it is unique in the world and cannot be cultivated. It descends from the sky accompanied by auspicious omens.
Those who possess extraordinary abilities have power far exceeding the limits of ordinary martial artists; flying, escaping, manipulating fire, and controlling the wind are no longer just legends.
There is no need to train hard to hone one's body, nor to train in the coldest and hottest months of winter to build up one's strength. As long as one finds a suitable spiritual medium, comprehends the laws of all things, and reflects upon oneself, one can pursue the Great Dao and obtain extraordinary skills.
The old martial arts sects were quickly replaced by the emerging "cult sects," ushering in an era in which everyone frantically searched for spiritual mediums and practiced supernatural arts.
I don't know.
This marks the beginning of a gradual deepening of global pollution.
"So, Jing Xi..." Han Yi's gaze fell on the fleshy mass behind the old nun, "her cause of death... was the worsening of the pollution? Or the loss of control over her supernatural powers?"
"Indeed..." Old Ni nodded slowly, his eyes inexplicably heavy. "The ever-increasing pollution... the world finally couldn't bear it any longer, further mutating and collapsing, causing practitioners of supernatural arts to lose control, their minds to break down, and they to be completely devoured by the pollution, turning into Otherworldly demons who only know how to kill and distort the rules..."
"I see..." Han Yi mused. "And the reason the pollution stopped worsening was because we discovered this world and brought the situation under control? Shouldn't you be thanking us?"
"As a sheep, would you thank the wolf that wanted to eat you?" the old nun said calmly. "You demons... all you want is for us to live, provide resources, and plunder slaves..."
And those outer gods... what they want is us, the dead... The former is like a frog being slowly boiled in water, a slow death. The latter, however, is a death that comes in an instant...
The relationship between you demons and outer gods is like that of ice and fire; there is no possibility of coexistence. And to us, caught in the middle, you are all evil beings.
Han Yi stood motionless, speechless.
Before coming here, he had talked a lot with Lian Chengzi, who vaguely revealed some information about unorthodox sects.
Although not much was said.
But Han Yi also knew.
The Demon Saint Palace and the heretical faction are diametrically opposed and irreconcilable.
The so-called heretical paths.
It is an indescribable dark dimension, filled with countless terrifying and twisted evil creatures, ineffable evil gods, and all sorts of indescribable beings.
The heretical forces are constantly eroding and engulfing various world planes, distorting their spacetime, corrupting and polluting living beings, and ultimately consuming them completely.