Chapter 226

Deathly silence.

When the last trace of humanity's light in those scarlet beast eyes faded, the entire cave seemed to have all sound and warmth sucked away.

Li Hu and Zhang Mei collapsed on the ground, even breathing feeling like a luxury. That invisible pressure was no longer the restrained warning before, but had turned into pure, absolute domination from the top of the food chain.

It was as if they weren't living people, but two worms lying on the ground, ready to be crushed at any moment.

"Grandfather..." Li Hu's lips trembled, but he couldn't make a sound.

He knew that the Wang Shan who would fight desperately for them, who would cling to a sliver of lucidity for his grandson, had completely vanished.

What lay before them was a true, indescribable monster.

It was no longer the guardian blocking the cave entrance, but the... new king of this twisted land.

However, the anticipated attack did not come.

That mountain-like giant beast simply stood still, as if waiting for something.

Wang Zhitao knelt on the ground, tears already dried, he stared blankly at that huge, lonely black shadow, his heart aching in waves. His grandfather's final gaze, his last caress, seared into his soul like a branding iron.

"Live on..."

Grandfather's voice still echoed in his mind.

But how to live? In this damned place, how can one live?

Just then, the Black Jade Slip in Wang Zhitao's hand lit up without warning!

It was not the gentle halo from before, nor the blinding light when information was forcibly implanted.

But rather... a kind of black.

A kind that could devour light, sight, even thought—the ultimate black light.

"What... what is happening?!" Zhang Mei cried out, instinctively pulling the two children behind her.

Li Hu struggled to lift his head, and the sight before him made his soul flee.

With Wang Shan's massive beastly form as the center, the energy of the entire space began to surge! Those aberrant energies that had merely drifted in the air now, as if finding a king's soldiers, madly converged toward Wang Shan.

And Wang Shan, or rather that giant beast, showed no reaction.

Its mutated form seemed to resonate with the deepest part of this forbidden zone in a way beyond comprehension.

"Hum—"

A sound that could not be heard with the ears but exploded directly in the soul, causing Li Hu and Zhang Mei to each spit out a mouthful of blood.

The Black Jade Slip in Wang Zhitao's hand surged with black light to its limit!

The next second, behind the beast, the dark cave mouth that had been blasted open, leading deep underground, began to twist.

Space became like a water surface, with concentric invisible ripples spreading out. At the darkness's center, a point began to spin, pulling everything around it, forming a massive vortex.

It was no longer an illusory void, but... a real entrance to an unknown dimension!

Countless twisted light bands interwove and rotated within the vortex; they appeared slow yet held the speed to tear spacetime. Merely looking at it made one's consciousness blur, the soul feeling as if it would be sucked in and shredded.

An indescribable pressure emanated from the vortex's depths, terrifying thousands, even tens of thousands of times more than Wang Shan's beastly pressure!

That was the pressure of a 'god'.

An evil, chaotic, mad god.

【Final Warning: The high-dimensional energy entity seal's core has manifested.】

【Warning: The 'Flesh Key' is undergoing an irreversible coupling reaction with the seal.】

【Warning: Ahead lies the life-forbidden zone, also the endpoint of destiny.】

The intermittent, icy system prompt sounded like it came from another world, flashing in Wang Zhitao's mind and then vanishing—the last echo left by his grandfather.

The seal's grounds...

The endpoint...

On Wang Zhitao's deathly pale little face appeared a look of despair.

He understood.

Grandfather wasn't waiting for an enemy; he was waiting for this 'door' to open!

"Roar..."

A low, inhuman growl rolled from the beast's throat.

It moved.

The mountain-like beastly body took heavy steps.

Each step made the entire cave shudder violently, gravel rattling down. It wasn't walking so much as responding to a summons, being drawn by an invisible force, relentlessly toward the vortex exuding endless annihilation.

"No! Grandfather!" Wang Zhitao screamed, scrambling to rush over.

"Young master! Don't go!" Li Hu grabbed his leg desperately, shouting with all his strength, "It's a dead end! Master... he... he is no longer your grandfather!"

"Let go of me! That's grandfather!" Wang Zhitao also realized, though he didn't understand what had happened, the instinct in his blood filled him with immense fear and sorrow, and he began pounding Li Hu like a madman.

"Don't move!" Li Hu's eyes blood-red, he pressed down hard on the two children, "Grandfather's order is for you to live! Not to go die!"

As they struggled, Wang Shan had already reached the edge of the vortex.

His massive beastly form, upon touching those twisted light bands, began to blur and become illusory. The black flesh and ferocious bone spikes seemed about to merge into that chaotic light and shadow, indistinguishable from one another.

He was merging with that entrance.

"It's over..." Li Hu felt a chill in his heart.

Was grandfather... intending to offer himself as a sacrifice, completely dedicating himself to that thing?

However, something even more terrifying happened.

When half of Wang Shan's body had entered the vortex, an irresistible immense suction erupted from the vortex's center!

"Ah!"

Zhang Mei shrieked, her whole body uncontrollably launched into the air, sliding toward the vortex.

"Grab me!" Li Hu, quick-eyed and quick-handed, his other hand tightly gripping a protruding rock on the ground, at the same time grabbed Zhang Mei's ankle.

But that suction force was too strong!

The rock crumbled bit by bit under his fingertips; the four of them, like ants swept into a flood, were irresistibly dragged toward that stretch of Abyss representing Termination.

"No... no..." Li Hu's face was filled with terror and unwillingness.

He had just received the old master's final entrustment, to protect the young masters well; how could he die here so pointlessly?

He looked toward the vortex; Wang Shan's figure was no longer visible.

He suddenly thought of something.

Old master... no, that monster, it wasn't seeking its own death.

It wanted to... take them along inside?!

That thought made Li Hu shiver all over.

Why?

He had already lost his sanity; why would he still bring them?

Could it be...

Li Hu's gaze fell on the two children he was protecting beneath him.

He understood.

That monster's sole obsession was to guard the descendants.

It wanted to go to a place, a deadly land where even it could not foresee life or death.

It was uneasy leaving the children in this equally dangerous cave, waiting to be killed by enemies that might descend at any moment.

So, it chose the most crazy, overbearing way—to take them away together!

Bring them into the core of the "Whirlwind Trap Zone" that makes even Golden Core cultivators pale at the mention!

Damn it! What kind of protection is this!

Li Hu cursed wildly in his heart.

The vortex's core emitted a strange allure, as if whispering to Wang Shan's soul, promising supreme power while foretelling utter downfall.

All the plots, the Beast Taming Sect's curse, the "Lord's" schemes, seemed to converge here, heading for their final meeting.

"Hold on tight!" Li Hu let out a desperate roar to everyone.

He gave up resistance, instead actively embracing the two children and Zhang Mei, using his body to shield them in the middle.

Since we cannot resist, we can only face it together!

In this chaotic, despairing Abyss, Wang Shan, this unique "flesh-and-blood key," with his thoroughly transmuted body, is opening a grander, more perilous unknown chapter for his family and for the fate of this world.

A flash of light, and the figures of the four people together with that giant beast vanished completely into the vortex.

Inside the cave, silence returned once more, as if nothing had happened.