Chapter 229: Aberration

Li Hu felt as if he had been thrown into a huge Shuijingdong.

The surroundings were filled with strangely shaped crystals, semi-transparent, with colored light seeming to flow inside, yet indistinct. There was no wind in the air, but a low hum resonated directly in the mind, making one's teeth ache.

"Are… are they still alive?" he asked hoarsely, while frantically checking Zhang Mei beside him.

Zhang Mei didn't respond, just gripping his arm tightly, her nails almost digging into her flesh, her whole body trembling like autumn leaves in the wind.

"Brother, I'm fine," Wang Zhize's voice was surprisingly calm as he supported the barely standing Wang Zhitao, "My younger brother… is terribly weak."

Li Hu was about to say something when a purple crystal taller than a person beside him suddenly popped and shattered.

No fragments flew, and there was no sound.

It simply vanished a small piece as if erased by an invisible eraser.

Immediately after, Zhang Mei let out a short scream, clapping her hands over her ears, all color draining from her face.

"What's wrong?" Li Hu asked urgently.

"Sing… someone is singing…" Zhang Mei's voice trembled with tears, "A woman… by the cradle…"

Li Hu's heart skipped a beat—where did a woman come from in this damned place?

Before he could think further, an inexplicable sorrow welled up in his heart, his vision blurred, and he seemed to see himself as a child, being hung up and beaten by his father for stealing a neighbor's chicken leg. That was miserable… no! He bit his tongue hard, the sharp pain snapping him back to clarity.

This thing directly attacks the mind!

"Watch out! Something's here!" Li Hu shouted, pulling Zhang Mei and the two children behind him.

Almost as soon as he shouted, the air before them began to warp, like steam over boiling water, gradually outlining a vague humanoid shape. It had no features, no substance, just a shifting mass of shadow that felt deeply unsettling.

"What monster is this?" Li-Hu's scalp tingled, and he instinctively gripped the Magic Artifact at his waist, only to realize it was useless here.

The shadow moved.

It had no feet, yet it floated over silently, bringing a chill that froze the soul.

Li Hu watched helplessly as it "passed through" his raised blocking arm, feeling no contact, but his mind rang with a boom as if countless needles were stabbing him simultaneously.

Just as he thought he was done for.

"Roar——!!!"

A soul-shaking roar came from above them.

It was Wang Shan.

This roar differed from before, like a massive stone smashing into a calm lake, an invisible domain erupting outward from the beast at its center. The shadow drifting toward Li Hu twisted violently within that domain, as if splashed with concentrated sulfuric acid, emitting a piercing, otherworldly shriek.

Wang Shan moved.

Its mountain-like body defied any physical law; one moment it was in place, the next a massive claw sheathed in bone armor tore through the air and slammed toward the shadow mass.

A bizarre scene unfolded.

The claw passed through the shadow's body without hindrance.

Yet the shadow seemed to be torn apart alive, its outline suddenly dissipating into threads of pure, faintly glowing energy, which were completely absorbed by a rune-like structure on Wang Shan's claw.

"Damn it…" Li Hu collapsed to the ground, gasping heavily.

"Brother, look at Grandfather." Wang Zhize's voice was calm, even tinged with wonder.

Li Hu looked up and saw that, after absorbing that energy, the flesh on Wang Shan's body where a hollow had been erased by "void" was writhing and regrowing at a visible speed, becoming even sturdier and more ferocious than before.

"Is it… eating?" Li Hu muttered to himself.

"Mm." Wang Zhize nodded. "These things are Grandfather's 'food'."

Li Hu's head buzzed—treating these soul‑attacking ghosts as food? What exactly is this old man now?

Before he could figure it out, the crystals around the cavern began to shatter and disappear one after another.

One, two, ten, a hundred…

As the crystals vanished, clusters of distorted shadows of various shapes emerged from the void—some humanoid, some bestial, some merely illogical geometric masses—all targeting the few living beings that had intruded into their territory.

"Fuck!" Li Hu could only manage to curse.

Wang Shan, however, seemed like an enraged king facing his surging subjects, letting out an even more violent roar.

It charged forward on its own.

A slaughter that Li Hu would never forget began.

Wang Shan used no techniques at all; it was pure, savage physical crushing. Its domain was like a moving "real" fortress, forcibly suppressing any shadow creature that drew near, slowing their movements. Its claws, bone spurs, or even a random piece of carapace impact could shred these void‑born monsters into primal energy, which it then devoured entirely.

A winged shadow shot like a black bolt of lightning, piercing Wang Shan's shoulder blade in an attempt to strike its core.

Wang Shan neither dodged nor avoided; with a backhand claw it crushed the wing and half the body. The shattered energy was instantly absorbed, and the wound on its shoulder blade healed within a few breaths.

"Brother… I'm hungry…" the perpetually drowsy Wang Zhitao suddenly opened his eyes, fixing his gaze on the battlefield's center. His eyes flickered with the same craving for energy as Wang Shan.

"Hold it!" Wang Zhize grabbed him, "Grandfather is hunting—we must not interfere!"

Li Hu stared at the demonic figure before him, feelings mixed. The grandfather who once held his grandchildren and drank with him while bragging was truly gone. In his place stood a being who had willingly become an Abyss monster to protect the bloodline.

He was using the most extreme means to clear a path to the unknown for his grandchildren.

As the last shadow monster was torn apart and absorbed, the entire crystal cavern fell silent.

Wang Shan's massive body stood still in the cavern's center, the gouges erased from its flesh fully repaired, its size even slightly increased. A more violent, primordial aura emanated from it, making Li Hu's breathing difficult.

It slowly turned its indescribable head, two deep red points falling on Wang Zhitao and Wang Zhize.

That was not a benevolent gaze.

It was a kind of… scrutiny.

It was like looking at two fine pieces of material, and also like looking at two… hungry cubs.