Chapter 170: The Crisis Begins to Spread

Just as Wang Shan was figuring out how to turn this crisis-ridden hellhole into his own personal cash machine, the air suddenly trembled gently, eerily.

It was not wind.

The air in this godforsaken place was as thick as syrup; there was no wind at all.

The sensation was more like a small stone tossed into a calm pond, an invisible ripple spreading outward and softly brushing past everyone's body.

"Ugh…" Li Hu was prying a bloody crystal core out of a monster's skull when his movement abruptly stiffened. He raised a hand to rub his temples. "That's weird, why do I feel a little dizzy?"

Zhang Mei also stopped what she was doing, her face pale as she hugged her arms tightly. "I… I feel uneasy in my heart, like something bad is about to happen."

Wang Shan said nothing. He took the last few crystal cores from Li Hu's hand and had the system recycle them all in one go, his eyes fixed dead on the depths of the jungle.

【Recovery complete. Obtained a total of 2980 Spirit Plant Points.】

The system's cold notification sounded in his mind, but Wang Shan could not feel the slightest bit of joy right now.

That tremor just now — he felt it most clearly.

It was no illusion.

It was as if someone had forcibly torn a gash in the "rules" of this world from the outside.

Wan Tianxiong, that old bastard!

Wang Shan cursed inwardly. Aside from that Half-Step Golden Core old monster, no one had this kind of ability. He couldn't get in, so he wanted to brute-force a breach from the outside? What an incompetent fool who could only ruin things!

Did he think this was some ordinary place? The fence of his backyard garden, free to tear down whenever he pleased?

"Master, look at those trees!" Zhang Mei suddenly pointed nearby, her voice trembling.

The bizarre-looking plants now seemed to have come alive. A strange tree that looked like countless arms — those "arms" were twisting and elongating at a visible rate, their fingernails turning sharp and black. The eyeball-like fruits hanging from the vines beside it suddenly spun much faster, threads of blood seeping from their pupils.

The colors of the entire world seemed to become more vivid, more deranged.

The cloying stench of blood in the air also intensified several times over. Breathing it into the lungs induced an urge to vomit, while a bloodthirsty brutality inexplicably rose in the mind.

This energy forcibly injected from the Outside World did not dilute the eeriness here. Instead, it was like a ladle of hot oil splashed into a bonfire, setting everything ablaze!

"Everyone, get over here!" Wang Shan barked in a low voice.

Before he finished speaking, a pressure far vaster and heavier than that ripple swept forth without warning from the deepest depths of the Ten Thousand Beasts Origin with a thunderous roar!

It was not Spiritual Power pressure, much less a Spiritual Sense assault.

It was a… presence.

As if this world itself, an ancient giant that had slumbered for countless eons, had been roused from its dream and impatiently turned over.

Yet this "turning over" nearly ground the souls of Wang Shan and his two companions to dust!

Li Hu gave a muffled grunt, his legs buckling, nearly dropping to his knees as blood seeped from his seven orifices. Zhang Mei's vision went black and she fainted outright; had Li Hu not caught her with quick reflexes, she would have fallen.

Wang Shan also felt as if his head were being viciously squeezed by an invisible giant hand, his brains nearly bursting from their sockets. The Spiritual Power in his body instantly plunged into unprecedented chaos. The bestial power that the Clear Heart Pill had suppressed, stirred by this ancient will, grew restless once more, roaring to break free of its restraints.

【Alert! Unknown source pressure detected!】

【Alert! Awakening signs detected in the Core guardian consciousness of the 'Ten Thousand Beasts Origin'!】

【Assessment: All foreign life forms have been designated as elimination targets! Threat level: Extinction!】

The system's Alert blazed frantically in Wang Shan's mind, every word carrying a bloody taste.

"Elimination targets? All?" Wang Shan gritted his teeth, squeezing out a few words through the gaps.

He understood in an instant.

Wan Tianxiong, that old bastard — his reckless tampering had not only exposed himself, but also marked out every "bug" that had broken in, Wang Shan's group included!

Great. The master of the house had woken up and was preparing for a thorough cleanup!

"Damn it…" Wang Shan circulated his Spiritual Power, desperately resisting the nearly shredding pressure while pulling out the black Beast Taming Sect jade slip from his robes.

The jade slip grew slightly warm in his palm, emitting a soft halo of black light like a thin membrane that enveloped the three of them.

That terrifying pressure immediately eased.

Li Hu gasped for breath, all color drained from his face. Looking at the jade slip in Wang Shan's hand, his eyes were filled with lingering fear. "M… Master, what… what is this?"

"Something to save our lives." Wang Shan looked at the light on the jade slip, but his brow furrowed even tighter.

This thing could indeed block part of the pressure, but the light on the jade slip was dimming at a visible rate. It was like a small skiff in a raging storm, liable to be smashed to pieces by the next bigger wave at any moment.

"Roar—howl—"

"Hiss hiss—"

From every direction of the jungle came beast roars far more frenzied and dense than before. Those voices no longer carried only hunger and brutality — they now held something more… a fanaticism akin to pilgrimage.

They seemed to be responding to some supreme summons!

"Wan Tianxiong… you've really given me quite a gift!" Wang Shan muttered to himself, his voice cold as ice.

He finally figured it out.

This godforsaken place originally had its own ecological balance. Wan Tianxiong's forced intrusion was like a catalyst — not only shattering the balance of this region, but directly kicking the hornet's nest and waking that invincible ancestor in the deepest depths.

Now, that "ancestor's" waking rage was indiscriminately covering the entire secret realm.

In its eyes, his group and Wan Tianxiong, the chief culprit, were probably no different — all stinkbugs that needed to be crushed.

The most lethal aspect of this pressure was that it seeped into every crack, ceaselessly boring into your mind.

Wang Shan felt his consciousness was like a sponge, being slowly permeated and stained by this ancient, vast, chaotic will. He could even sense the loneliness of endless eons contained within that will, and its hatred for all "ordered" life.

If this continued, even if they were not torn apart by the monsters outside, they would lose their minds first, becoming beasts that knew only slaughter.

"Master, what… what do we do? Should we retreat to that Stone Hall?" Li Hu's voice was trembling. He would rather face Wan Tianxiong right now than endure this sensation of his soul being ground to nothing.

"Go back? Go back and wait to die?" Wang Shan shot him a glance. "That old thing is probably worse off than us right now. This pressure is aimed at everyone. As an outsider, could he be having a better time than us?"

The situation now was this: ahead was an awakened ancient god, behind was an old dog in pursuit.

Both paths seemed to be dead ends.

No…

Wang Shan's gaze once again turned toward the depths of the secret realm, the direction from which the pressure emanated.

The more dangerous the place, the more likely it hides a chance of survival.

Since that "guardian consciousness" is the Core here, around it must also exist "rules" that can oppose it, or rather, coexist with it.

Staying put, being slowly ground to death by this invisible pressure, or being overwhelmed by the increasingly ferocious beast hordes, is just waiting for death.

Turning back and running into Wan Tianxiong, who is also driven to a frenzy by this pressure, is even more courting death.

The only way to live may lie at the eye of that storm!

"Wake Zhang Mei up," Wang Shan said without any hesitation, "We won't turn back; we keep going inward."

"Huh? Still going inward?!" Li Hu's eyes nearly popped out, "Sir, isn't that... isn't that courting death?"

"Staying here is just waiting for death!" Wang Shan's voice rose sharply, carrying an unquestionable resolve, "That old fool Wan Tianxiong is surely trying to get rid of this pressure now; he'll most likely retreat outward to find a weak spot. We deliberately go the opposite way! The deeper we go, the less likely he'll find us!"

"More importantly," Wang Shan paused, a flash of madness in his eyes, "I want to see what the thing that has turned this world upside down actually is!"

If they don't figure out the fundamental rules here, they'll forever be lambs awaiting slaughter.

Rather than passively endure, they'd better charge in and see if they can find their own sliver of hope amid the chaos!