Chapter 275: Core Trap

The dizzy feeling from the space distortion lasted only an instant.

When solid ground returned beneath his feet, Li Hu opened his eyes, and his pupils instantly contracted.

There was no heavily fortified base as imagined, no guards on high alert.

Before him stretched an endless gray wasteland.

The sky was lead‑gray, like a dust‑covered rag, weighing heavily overhead and making it hard to breathe.

The ground was cracked, with bottomless fissures crisscrossing like the dried scars of the earth.

The air contained not a trace of spiritual Qi; instead, a indescribable rotting smell filled it.

As if the essence of death distilled from countless beings rotting for eons.

"Cough…"

Zhang Mei let out a suppressed cough; her complexion turned pale at a visible pace, the skin that usually shimmered with life now showed a faint ashen hue.

The vitality within her was being mercilessly drained by this world!

Li Hu fared slightly better, but not much. He felt his limbs as if filled with lead; each breath drew a bone‑deep chill through his nose into his lungs, then turned into countless tiny ice needles stabbing his limbs and bones.

He subconsciously activated his cultivation technique, only to find the energy inside him stuck in a quagmire, moving at less than a tenth of its normal speed!

This realm repelled and suppressed every living thing.

"This smell... is fucking disgusting."

Wang Zhitao wrinkled his nose, his face showing unmasked disgust for the first time.

But unlike the pure discomfort of Li Hu and the other, his disgust was tinged with an extremely contradictory… excitement.

It was like a starving beast entering a highly toxic swamp; the poison instinctively repelled it, yet the massive energy emanating from deep within the toxin was like an unparalleled delicacy, maddeningly tempting its palate.

"Something's off."

Wang Zhize's voice rang out, still calm, yet it instantly gave Li Hu and Zhang Mei a focal point.

He surveyed the surroundings; in his deep eyes there was no ripple, only countless minute data streams flashing rapidly.

Fragments of the Shadow Specter's memory were repeatedly cross‑checked in his mind, yet none matched the current scene.

The memory had been altered.

Or perhaps that memory of the teleport array's destination was itself a carefully laid bait.

"We were 'invited' into a cage."

Wang Zhize reached a conclusion.

His words had just fallen.

"Ka... crack..."

A sour‑tooth, bone‑crushing sound rang from all directions.

Li Hu gripped his long sword tightly, staring fixedly at the source of the sound.

Beneath the cracked earth, something was wildly bulging upward.

The next moment!

Snort! Snort! Snort!

Tens of thousands of gray‑black vines, like twisted arms, erupted violently from the ground!

These vines were not plants; their surfaces were covered with a keratin‑like hard shell, tips as sharp as spears, sprouting bone‑white barbs.

The moment they appeared, the already thick death aura of this realm surged severalfold.

The vines broke the soil without raising a speck of dust, moving like ghostly tentacles—silent yet lightning‑fast—surrounding the four from all sides.

"Watch out!"

Zhang Mei shouted, her hands instantly forming a seal; a rune glowing with soft white light materialized, becoming a Light Screen before her.

However, the tip of a vine struck the Light Screen hard.

Zila—

The Light Screen quivered violently, its holy white light rapidly corroded and assimilated by the vine's death aura, dimming.

In a single breath, the Light Screen shattered!

Li Hu roared, channeling his whole strength into the long sword, a plain blade flash sweeping outward.

Puff!

The long sword struck a vine, but it felt like cutting tough cowhide; after only half an inch it jammed solidly. An extremely chilling force of Counter-Devouring surged along the blade, and Li Hu felt a sharp pain in his grip, nearly losing his hold.

This damned thing is not only tough, it can also erode energy!

Seeing more vines about to engulf them, Wang Zhize finally acted.

He didn't even look at the vines; he simply lifted his eyelids and calmly uttered two words.

"This thing is mere grass."

Words spoken, law follows!

Buzz—

An invisible, supreme will descended upon the space in an instant.

The tens of thousands of previously ferocious, indestructible death vines, in that instant, seemed to have all their bones and strength withdrawn.

Their aura rapidly withered, the hard keratin layer turning into wind‑dried thousand‑year‑old straw, fragile.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The first dozens of vines that surged forward disintegrated on their own mid‑air without external force, turning into puffs of meaningless gray powder.

Li Hu and Zhang Mei's pressure instantly vanished; they stared at the miraculous scene before them, overwhelmed beyond words.

This is... the Definition Law?

A single utterance can alter the very nature of things in the world!

However, Wang Zhize's brows twitched ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly.

Defining the law is not without cost.

He could feel that this dead land itself possessed an extremely powerful, inherent law of "death". His "definition" was like forcibly placing a speck of white on a canvas already dyed black with ink.

That speck of white existed, but the endless surrounding "black" was constantly eroding and assimilating it.

He had to continuously expend power to keep that "definition" existent.

And the vines of this realm seemed… endless.

Cut down a batch, shatter a batch, and deeper underground more vines surged forth, as if never ending.

"Never ending!"

Wang Zhitao let out an impatient roar.

He hated this kind of dragging‑out scene the most.

"Brother, these trash, leave them to me!"

Without waiting for Wang Zhize's response, he lunged forward a step, his chest puffed up high.

"Devour Yuan Overlord Body!"

Boom!

A terrifying aura that devours heaven and earth erupted thunderously from Wang Zhitao's body.

Around his body, space began to warp violently, a black vortex so deep it seemed able to swallow all light, centered on him, expanding wildly outward!

Those vines that Wang Zhize had just "defined" as weeds, ready to gather strength again, instantly lost control.

They seemed seized by an invisible giant hand at the throat, ripped out in sheets, turning into gray torrents, involuntarily drawn into that massive black vortex.

Within the vortex came intermittent heart‑pounding sounds of tearing and chewing.

The powerful law of death, the resilient vine bodies, everything, were forcibly torn apart and broken down by that overwhelmingly supreme devouring force, ultimately turning into the purest primordial energy, all merging into Wang Zhitao's body.

"Gurgle…"

Wang Zhitao let out a loud belch, a satisfied expression spreading across his face.

"The taste is weird, but… it fills you up!"

Li Hu and Zhang Mei stared dumbfounded.

If Wang Zhize's power was godlike "creation" and "definition", then Wang Zhitao's power was demonic "destruction" and "plunder".

One sets the rules, the other devours everything.

These brothers are literally born… monsters!

As tens of thousands of vines were devoured by Wang Zhitao, the earth began to moan under the unbearable weight.

The rifts that had been torn now widened even further at this moment.

Rumble—

The entire wasteland quivered violently, as if some ancient beast deep underground were about to turn over.

A chilling aura a hundred to a thousand times stronger than before surged out like a well‑sprung spring from the deepest, widest fissure!

Faced with this aura, Li Hu and Zhang Mei could not even stand; their legs went weak, they were pressed to kneel on one knee, gasping heavily, feeling their souls about to freeze.

Wang Zhitao's devouring vortex, under the impact of that aura, showed signs of instability for the first time.

Wang Zhize's gaze turned completely cold.

He understood.

These vines were not an attack method at all.

They were merely "appetizers", used as "nutrient" to activate this massive Altar.

Here is the true Core refining ground, the blood‑flesh mill prepared by the Lord for forging that Longevity Dao Pill!

They crashed headlong into the enemy's most Core trap.

And at that moment.

A hoarse, aged laugh with a metallic rasp, as if emanating from the deepest abyss of the Nine‑dark Underworld, rang directly into the souls of the four.

"Hehehehe…"

"Truly… an unexpected delight."

"I was still pondering what method could usher you, as the 'Pill Guide', into this 'Pill Furnace' without a single hair out of place."

"Didn't expect you… to bring yourself to the door."

Accompanying those grim words, within the massive underground fissure, a dense, solidified black death energy slowly rose.

The energy surged, coalesced, and finally formed a vague, colossal silhouette towering a hundred zhang.

It lacked distinct features, only two crimson lights glowed at its face, like two lanterns hanging high over hell.

Its gaze held no anger, no murderous intent, only a lofty, alchemist‑like cold indifference as if inspecting herbs.

It stared at Wang Zhize, as if viewing a perfect sacrifice about to be thrown into the furnace for refinement.