Chapter 80 Ambition This world only needs Him...
Things were worse than everyone thought.
The first to suffer were the cultivators who were searching for treasures in the Abyss. A few cultivators who managed to escape said that at that time, the center of the Abyss suddenly emitted a bright red light that shot into the sky. The dark clouds that covered the sky were no longer hanging lifelessly in the sky, but rolled and moved outward. Countless flames rose from the ground and began to drift outward.
If you go to the border where the Four Continents and the Abyss meet now, you will find that the unique landscape that used to be clearly defined no longer exists. The Abyss is like a giant beast, greedily devouring the spiritual energy of the surrounding land, and even causing the once vibrant forests to wither in an instant, leaving only broken branches and fallen leaves everywhere, a desolate scene.
If it were just Yu Huo, it wouldn't be a problem. As long as you're careful not to touch it, you'll be fine. But the problem is that it's not just Yu Huo that comes out of the abyss. As black clouds shroud the four continents, countless skeletons controlled by humans emerge from the ground and keep attacking living beings.
These skeletons are not strong, but their sheer number is overwhelming. As the saying goes, many ants can kill an elephant. Anyone would feel their scalp tingle in the face of the continuous appearance of skeletons. What's even more chilling is that whenever someone is accidentally killed by these skeletons, their corpses are quickly assimilated and begin attacking those around them.
The Skeleton Demon is similar to the Corpse Demon that Qin Moyu and Shen Mo encountered in He Village that day, except that the Corpse Demon is refined from living people, while the Skeleton Demon is refined from the skeletons of dead beings.
For a time, all the forces in the four continents were scrambling to deal with these things that could not even be called "human." Everyone was fighting their own battles. The larger forces were alright, but the smaller forces and families were quickly wiped out in this disaster. Some astute people noticed that whenever the skeletal demons completely killed the living beings in a certain place, the spiritual energy in that place would rapidly dry up, as if the spiritual energy had been sucked away by something.
Qin Moyu and Shen Mo also noticed something was wrong after they came out of the inheritance site.
Because Yanjiang is some distance from the abyss, the dark clouds haven't spread here yet, but some scattered sparks of fire have drifted over and, by sheer coincidence, stuck to Qin Moyu's clothes.
The clothes Qin Moyu wore were tailored and made by Shen Sheng. They were made of very precious fabric, which was dustproof, waterproof, and fireproof. It could even withstand a certain degree of attack. Although it was not as good as a defensive treasure, it was still very precious.
But even this kind of clothing, which is beyond the reach of ordinary people, still had a small gap melted the moment Yu Huo stuck it on, and it tried to continue burning Qin Moyu's clothes as if it were stuck on.
Shen Mo was the first to recognize it as Yu Huo. He stopped Qin Moyu from instinctively trying to push it away with his hand, and then told Qin Moyu to use the Red Lotus Karmic Fire to remove the ball of Yu Huo.
As expected, Yu Huo vanished like paper upon encountering the Red Lotus Karmic Fire, but Qin Moyu was still somewhat surprised and uncertain: "How did Yu Huo end up here?"
You must understand that although he possesses the Red Lotus Karmic Fire and is not afraid of the Fiery Blaze, others do not! If this thing were floating everywhere across the Four Continents, it would be a terrifying natural disaster.
"I'm afraid they couldn't hold back any longer." Shen Mo immediately scanned the area with his divine sense after discovering Yu Huo, and his expression darkened considerably upon finding something.
Qin Moyu's heart skipped a beat. She tugged at Shen Mo's sleeve and asked with her eyes what had happened.
Shen Mo didn't know how to describe the scene below to Qin Moyu, so he could only say tactfully, "The scene below... is a bit disgusting, Moyu, please be prepared."
Qin Moyu pursed her lips and looked down nervously.
As Shen Mo controlled the flying sword to descend, the scenery below became increasingly clear.
Looking down from the sky, it was clearly a small village. The simple houses and cultivated wasteland indicated that the people living here were just ordinary people who might never be able to abstain from grains even after a lifetime of cultivation. But now, the village, which should have been thriving, was filled with only one voice.
—A dull, heart-pounding sound, like bones hitting bones.
Countless bones crawled out from the ground. Some were human, some were wild animals, some were broken, some were whole, and some even had rotting flesh and blood. They were being controlled by an invisible force and were moving in a certain direction. At the same time, countless round, ghostly souls with a faint blue glow were floating around the village.
The entire village was shrouded in the shadow of death. The crops withered, the wells dried up, and even the air was filled with a deathly atmosphere, devoid of any vitality or signs of life.
When Qin Moyu first saw the yellowish skull with its dark red, atrophied muscles hanging on it, like a skinned person walking, it was a terrifying scene he had only ever seen in movies and novels in his previous life. Even though he could easily scatter the large number of skeletons below with a wave of his hand, and they posed no threat to him, the nausea still made him turn pale instantly, and his stomach churned.
In her past life, Qin Moyu would feel disgusted and scared even by zombies that were clearly created with special effects and makeup, let alone such a 4D scene with sound, color, and visuals.
Shen Mo knew that if they could see this kind of scene on their way back, it meant that other places would only be worse, and Qin Moyu would see this kind of scene sooner or later, so he did not stop them, but he still paid close attention to Qin Moyu's reaction.
Upon noticing that Qin Moyu's expression was off, he immediately raised his flying sword and moved away from the chilling sound and terrifying scene.
"Hoo..." Qin Moyu gripped Shen Mo's hand tightly and took a deep breath, trying to suppress the nausea. Even as Shen Mo comforted her, she couldn't help but hug him.
The intimate physical contact and Shen Mo's familiar embrace quickly calmed Qin Moyu down. He couldn't help but rub his head against Shen Mo's chest like a spoiled cat.
After Qin Moyu had completely calmed down and stood still, he finally asked:
"What exactly are they trying to do? What's with all these... things, and what's the deal with Yu Huo? Doesn't Yu Huo only appear in the Abyss?"
"Do you remember the formation we found in the Abyss?" Shen Mo stroked Qin Moyu's hair, a hint of disgust flashing in his eyes as he thought of the Heavenly Dao and Fen Qi. "I secretly went to see that formation after the Four Continents War and found that it was very similar to the formation in the Extreme Cold Land. Both of them absorbed the flesh and blood and spiritual energy of the living beings within the formation. However, the formation in the Extreme Cold Land absorbed the bodies of those Tribulation Transcending stage experts who willingly sacrificed themselves, while the formation in the Abyss Land absorbed the flesh and blood of the beings who died in the Four Continents War... As for what they did... Heh, I can't think of anyone who would need such a huge amount of spiritual energy except for those who have undergone human transformation."
Shen Mo sneered. When Heaven created the "protagonist," besides cultivating capable people, the most important thing was the bloodshed along the "protagonist's" path to growth. The more lives that died, the more excited Heaven became, because it could absorb spiritual energy from the dead to help itself take human form.
The reason why the demon race has always been inferior to humans is that the more powerful the demon race is, the more spiritual energy it takes to be born and transform into human form. The dragon and phoenix, which are extremely powerful demon races, have gradually become extinct because it is too difficult for them to be born and transform into human form. With the current level of spiritual energy, even if the spiritual energy of an entire continent were gathered together, it might not be enough for a single dragon to transform into human form.
If dragons and phoenixes are like this, then the spiritual energy required for the Heavenly Dao, which is the embodiment of the world, to cultivate into human form is several times greater.
Shen Mo even suspected that without the blood and spiritual energy absorbed from the Four Continents War, the Heavenly Dao might not even have a human form now, instead of just having facial features that haven't taken shape.
Therefore, Shen Mo's later pretense of unifying the four continents and launching a war was exactly in the interest of the Heavenly Dao, which is why the Heavenly Dao allowed Zhou Donghan to come and surrender, and gave Shen Mo a chance to breathe.
“I think this Yu Huo might be like the Red Lotus Karmic Fire, a special spiritual energy that only appeared because of the formation.” Shen Mo took out Jiang Hua’s notes on the formations of the Extreme Cold Land from his storage bag, as well as another note on the formations of the Abyss Land that he had studied. He showed the miniature diagrams of the formations drawn on the two notes to Qin Moyu. “Look, the two formations are very similar, but they are completely different in the key parts. It must be that Fen Qi modified and set up Senior Jiang’s formation, but he only imitated the surface. He didn’t learn the real core things, so he could only control it in the small area of the Abyss Land.”
Qin Moyu looked at the two formations in front of him, which were almost identical and so complex that he could only see them as mosquito coils. He had a feeling of déjà vu when he was in high school studying humanities and facing chemical formulas on the blackboard.
Qin Moyu: I don't understand it, but I am deeply shocked.
When Shen Mo talked about his strengths, he was like a different person. He became radiant and incredibly talkative. It was as if the kind of man who "talks at length about the workings of science and engineering" from the complaints in his past life had come to life. He was talking about principles that Qin Moyu couldn't understand. Qin Moyu thought he was a peacock displaying its feathers, but all she noticed was that there seemed to be some vegetable leaves stuck between his teeth from yesterday.
Of course, Shen Mo, who was deeply influenced by royal etiquette, would never have a piece of vegetable stuck between his teeth, but he did have the air of a peacock spreading its tail feathers, and he couldn't stop talking about his expertise in front of his sweetheart.
Qin Moyu's ears automatically filtered out the obscure and difficult knowledge that anyone with even a little knowledge of formations would treasure, transforming the remaining key information into sentences he could understand.
For example, why can the Red Lotus Karmic Fire overcome the Blazing Fire? Because the formation in the Abyss Land is a counterfeit, so the Red Lotus that comes with the genuine formation can crush the Blazing Fire that comes with the counterfeit formation.
For example, why are there wildfires now? It's because someone is controlling the formation of the Abyss Land to expand outwards. The appearance of wildfires means that this place has actually been invaded by the formation.
For example, why do skeletons and ghosts appear? Because the formations in the abyss not only absorb the spiritual energy within the formations, but also use special techniques to create these skeletons and ghosts.
“…This method of controlling skeletons and souls is not common, but it’s not uncommon. The Ghost Tomb we encountered before specialized in this kind of unorthodox technique,” Shen Mo said.