Chapter 214: Trap Zone

Wang Shan lowered his head, looking at the two exhausted brats in his arms.

Wang Zheze had already fallen into a faint sleep, tear tracks still on his small face, his long eyelashes trembling slightly, as if he were having an uneasy dream. Wang Zhitao, meanwhile, strained to keep his eyes open, leaning against Wang Shan's broad chest, gasping heavily; he tried to straighten up, but his legs were limp like noodles, utterly unresponsive.

"Grandpa... Grandpa... that guy... is he dead?" Wang Zhitao's voice was weak and breathless, carrying a tremor of having just survived a catastrophe.

"Almost." Wang Shan's voice was hoarse, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.

He lifted his gaze toward the cave entrance; Wan Tiande lay there like a puddle of mud, his Golden Core self-detonation beyond even immortal aid. This hunt, at last, had come to an end.

As long as I catch my breath, I can completely eliminate this future trouble, and then...

However, before that thought could finish, the ground beneath his feet suddenly shuddered again without any warning.

It wasn't the aftershock of that earlier energy impact, but rather a... deeper, more viscous... grinding sound.

Creak... squeak...

It seemed as if something immeasurably heavy was slowly turning deep within the earth's core, driving the whole mountain to emit a groan of unbearable strain.

"What's going on? Another earthquake?" Wang Zhitao jumped at the sudden tremor.

Wang Shan didn't answer; his icy vertical pupils contracted sharply, locking onto the ground at the center of the cave.

Something's off.

Too off!

Wan Tiande's self-detonation energy, though violent, was ultimately the spiritual power of a Golden Core cultivator, leaving traces. But this tremor now—its source unknown, its nature bizarre—carried a kind of... eeriness that made one's bones chill.

Hum——

After a low hum so faint it was almost inaudible, an aberration suddenly erupted!

At the very center of the cave, at the point where Wan Tiande's Golden Core self-detonation had concentrated its power, space... twisted itself into existence.

It wasn't a tear, but like a drop of hot oil falling into water; the region's color, light, and even form began to become chaotic and irregular. Immediately after, a strand of energy of indeterminate color seeped out from that twisted center point, slowly yet with absolute resolve...

That energy manifested a chaotic hue, as if all colors had been haphazardly mixed together, yet tinged with a lifeless gray decay. As soon as it appeared, an indescribable smell—mingling iron rust, rotting flesh, and ozone—instantly filled the entire cave.

"Ugh..." Wang Zhitao gagged at the smell, his stomach churning as if he might vomit.

Wang Shan immediately clapped one hand over his mouth and nose, while his other hand held the unconscious Wang Zheze even tighter.

"Zhitao, close your eyes! Cover Xiaozhe's ears! Quick!" Wang Shan's voice, for the first time, carried an undisguised gravity and a hint of... disbelief.

That strand of chaotic energy, upon contacting the air, seemed to come alive. Like a beast starving for eons, it greedily lunged at the residual Geng-metal spiritual power lingering in the air from Wan Tiande's self-detonation, not yet fully dissipated.

Zizzle——

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a series of grating, corrosive sounds that made the teeth ache.

Those violent golden energies, before this strand of chaotic energy, were as fragile as snow in sunlight—unable to offer the slightest resistance, they were easily devoured and assimilated, vanishing without a trace.

It was as if... that previous heaven-shattering, earth-rending Golden Core self-detonation had merely served to offer a trifling sacrifice for its debut.

Having consumed the residual spiritual power, the chaotic energy seemed still unsatisfied, and began to spread outward in all directions.

Wherever it passed, the sight was horrifying.

The mutant vines, incredibly tough, that Wang Shan had cultivated, withered and rotted at a touch, turning into pools of black water. The hard rock walls, under its corrosion, became like foam sprayed with strong acid—quickly pitted and crumbling. The air emitted a piercing hiss, as if even space itself were being polluted and decomposed by this force.

"Ah——!!"

A non-human, bloodcurdling wail came from the cave mouth.

It was Wan Tiande!

He wasn't dead yet, but at this moment he was undergoing something more terrifying than death.

A strand of ashen chaotic energy, like a shark scenting blood, wrapped around his shattered body. Wang Shan could see clearly: the last vestige of Wan Tiande's origin spiritual power was being frantically drained away, poured into that chaotic energy.

Worse still, his body was undergoing mutation.

On his skin, bizarre black spots began to appear, like lividity, yet they writhed slowly. His muscles twisted and bulged irregularly, as if something beneath were trying to burst out.

"My treasure... my Fixed Star Disk..." Wan Tiande's eyes filled with endless fear and despair.

Around him, the scattered fragments of his once-bright spiritual-light treasures were now losing all luster at a visible pace, becoming rust-blotched, and in places even beginning to melt into heaps of useless scrap iron.

All the pride and reliance he had as a Golden Core cultivator, in the face of this unheard-of bizarre energy, became a joke.

【Warning! Highest-level alert!】

【Detected high-dimensional anomalous energy leak! Energy nature determined: absolute contamination!】

【Warning! Core seal of the 'Whirlwind Trap Zone' breached! Leaked energy possesses 'conceptual erosion' and 'reverse transformation' properties!】

【Analysis conclusion: 'Contamination equals power'! Currently eroding all laws in the present area!】

The system's electronic tone, for the first time, carried a frantic, near-collapse shriek, as a series of scarlet warnings frenziedly flooded Wang Shan's mind.

Whirlwind Trap Zone?

High-dimensional energy?

Wang Shan's heart sank instantly to the bottom of the valley.

He suddenly understood what was happening.

This cave was never merely the simple legacy left by our ancestors! Beneath it... lay sealed some unimaginable, absolutely unreleasable horror!

And Wan Tiande's reckless Golden Core self-detonation was far too powerful, exceeding the cave's own array's tolerance. It was like smashing a precision lock with a huge iron hammer—the lock didn't open, but the lock core was shattered, inadvertently triggering a deeper mechanism that must never be touched!

This guy... is an utter fool through and through!

He wasn't self-destructing to kill enemies; he was using his own life as a key, opening a door to hell!

Just then, Wang Shan's own body sent a strange sensation.

As that chaotic energy spread, an extremely fine filament seemed drawn to his aura, drifting over.

Excruciating pain!

When that filament touched his skin, a pain as if his very gene chain were being forcibly torn apart and reassembled surged through him.

Yet strangely, amid this extreme pain, his body, altered to 89%, did not reject it; instead, it produced a... profoundly bizarre... sense of affinity?

It was like a wanderer abroad encountering his own kind.

His body's mutating power, before this higher-level 'contamination,' was like an obedient child, faintly showing a trend of being assimilated and absorbed by it.

This power…… although painful, but…… seems…… able to make me stronger?

This thought rose uncontrollably from the depths of his heart, bringing with it a deadly temptation.

Wang Shan shuddered violently, forcibly suppressing that impulse.

He realized the situation had completely spiraled out of control.

Wan Tiande, this 'prey,' was no longer important; he had inadvertently opened a Pandora's box, summoning a true 'indescribable entity' that was hundreds of times more terrifying than his own 'monster'.

This hunt, which began as a personal grudge between him, Wang Shan, and Wan Tiande, was at this moment forcibly elevated to an unprecedentedly strange level.

This is…… a merciless contamination of higher-dimensional laws upon lower-dimensional life, and also…… a deeper level of life's mutation.

"Ah…… heh…… heh……"

Cave Entrance, Wan Tiande's shrill cries had turned into meaningless howls. His body was rapidly 'rotting' and 'reforming' in a way that defied all biological logic.

Finally, all his sounds vanished.

That pool of mud-like flesh ceased its writhing.

Then, under the horrified gaze of Wang Shan and Wang Zhitao, 'it'…… slowly lifted its head.

That could no longer be called a face; the features had melted into a mass, leaving only a huge opening that continually dripped black slime downward.

And deep within that opening, two points of scarlet light suddenly flared.

"It"…… turned its gaze toward Wang Shan.