Chapter 274

Wu Chang looked at Xu Dejun in confusion. Do we really have such a good relationship that you're asking me for help?

If he remembered correctly, the four organizations were still in a state of declared war against him—merely pretending to be dead, without withdrawing or backing down.

Letting Xu Dejun and the four Guangming Society members survive the chaos power was already owing to the face of the Omniscient Crystal and the Wanghai Branch; now he was asking Wu Chang for help? Wasn't that a bit too much?

But since the Omniscient Crystal's revelation pointed to Xu Dejun, it meant Xu Dejun must possess the information Wu Chang needed.

Whether to help or not could wait—first, get the information out, and treat it as Xu Dejun's life-saving offering.

Wu Chang stared at Xu Dejun with a blank expression. "Tell me what it is first."

Xu Dejun was about to speak when a stinking pus oozed from his abdominal wound; he clutched his stomach, downed a large HP potion, and his condition improved slightly.

Wu Chang frowned. "Aren't you going to treat your wound first?"

This isn't some third-rate melodrama—if Xu Dejun keeled over right when he got to the crucial part, it'd be disgusting.

Wu Chang hated riddles more than anything, but if there was something worse than a riddler, it was someone who spoke only halfway.

Xu Dejun shook his head. "It's nothing—just a bit of corpse poison laced with resentment. Purify the resentment from the toxin, and it's cured. Won't kill you."

Xu Dejun spoke casually, like a tough guy, but the reality was far less optimistic.

The toxin clinging to his wound was called Resentment Wraith Heart-Eater, forged from vengeful ghosts steeped in malice—its poison carried resentment, corroding both mind and body simultaneously.

While inflicting damage, Resentment Wraith Heart-Eater continuously worsened the victim's condition and reduced all healing effects by 75%.

The reduced healing effects included detoxification and purification—meaning to remove Resentment Wraith Heart-Eater, if you didn't eliminate the resentment within the poison, your purification skill needed at least four times the strength of a standard skill of the same level.

In terms of tenacity and weirdness, Resentment Wraith Heart-Eater ranked among the top ten in the Realm of Reason.

Xu Dejun had no way to cure it in the short term—he could only rely on blood potions to endure, hoping to find a chance to return to the Bureau's territory in the Realm of Reason, or seek help from the other three major factions.

If he failed to detoxify, he'd slowly be tortured to death by Resentment Wraith Heart-Eater.

Wu Chang glanced at Xu Dejun—couldn't even stand straight, still talking tough. If the poison had been in his food, he'd probably still shout, "Sweet! No big deal," right before he dropped dead.

He reached his left hand toward Xu Dejun's wound. "Stay still."

As he moved, his right hand slipped behind his back and retrieved the Soul-Purifying Banner.

His left hand touched Xu Dejun's wound; lightning flashed in his palm—he activated Heavenly Thunder from the Five Thunder Arts.

Since upgrading the Thunder Art fragment into the Thunder Art scroll and mastering the Five Thunder Arts, he'd used Divine Thunder most frequently.

Divine Thunder dealt extra damage to deities, with striking effects—it seemed unmatched, but each of the Five Thunder Arts had its own specialty, with no inherent hierarchy.

For instance, the Heavenly Thunder Wu Chang now used was meant to subdue demons, exorcise evil, and purge plague.

When Heavenly Thunder struck Xu Dejun's wound, Resentment Wraith Heart-Eater suffered heavy damage; the nearly healed wound split open again, oozing pus—but this time, one-third of the blood flowing out was normal, fresh blood.

Seizing the moment Heavenly Thunder took effect, Wu Chang activated the Soul-Purifying Banner behind his back.

This banner, inscribed with orthodox Daoist methods, was the natural enemy of evil and malevolent qi—its suppression made no sense, it simply worked.

Combined with Heavenly Thunder, within two or three breaths, the necrotic flesh on Xu Dejun's abdomen turned to black charcoal, no longer hindering wound healing.

Xu Dejun drank a recovery potion; his abdominal wound healed visibly before their eyes.

Resentment Wraith Heart-Eater had truly been purged.

Xu Dejun looked up at Wu Chang, his shock impossible to hide—his astonishment even greater than when Wu Chang effortlessly wiped out the four players.

Wu Chang effortlessly killing the four players chasing him was shocking, but understandable.

The high-ups of the four organizations in the Realm of Reason already knew Wu Chang had repelled Joy; if he could defeat a divine descent of Joy, eliminating four mid-tier peripheral members of the Guangming Society was perfectly reasonable.

But purifying Resentment Wraith Heart-Eater was different. In the Abyss Game, a person's energy, skills, attribute points, and items were all limited—even players backed by major factions couldn't carry their entire organization's arsenal, let alone solo players.

In his memory, even early Joy or the Painter spent long periods focusing solely on their strengths, only expanding into other areas later.

But how long had Wu Chang been in the Abyss Game? How could he surpass Joy in combat while also being this strong in support?

How many rewards are you getting per dungeon run?

Wu Chang met Xu Dejun's stunned gaze, tucked the Soul-Purifying Banner behind his back, and held up two fingers.

"You owe me two lives now."

Gulp.

Xu Dejun swallowed hard, rapidly revising his previous assessment of Wu Chang's abilities.

Only after seeing Wu Chang in person did he realize their earlier data-based model had grossly underestimated him.

Should he take a gamble—bet that this monster could destroy the Guangming Society's conspiracy?

But if Wu Chang learned everything and chose to exploit the chaos for personal gain, his capabilities could cause immeasurable harm.

Then the responsibility would fall on him.

Xu Dejun fell silent for a moment; hesitation faded from his eyes, replaced by resolve.

He looked at Wu Chang. "How much do you know about the Realm of Reason, the Pillars of the Present World, and World Dungeons?"

Wu Chang replied, "Assume I know nothing. Start from the basics."

As Xu Dejun spoke, the fragmented information Wu Chang had gathered before began to connect.

Everything began with the core mechanism of the Abyss Game—the Abyss Game, as the name implies, connects to an endless abyss.

It was not a divine gift; every ounce of power gained from the Abyss Game came with a price.

Whether the target was individual players or Blue Star, connected to the Abyss Game.

For Blue Star, the effect was Abyssal Erosion—uncontrolled dungeons became Erosion Dungeons; the erosion's aura accumulated on Blue Star, spawning wild transcendents.

For individuals, the Abyss also eroded players' minds, subtly pushing them toward extremism.

The longer one stayed in the Abyss Game, the more dungeons one completed, and the stronger one became, the greater the impact.

Especially when entering True Dungeons—the pollution value within True Dungeons represented the Abyss's erosion of that dungeon; pollution value made players more extreme and more controlled by instinct.

Wu Chang nodded slightly—he now understood why so many resentments he'd encountered in dungeons had owners who died from pointless risks or sheer stupidity.

Players who entered True Dungeons were seasoned veterans—they shouldn't have made such basic judgment errors.

Combined with Xu Dejun's description, it all now fit.

The reason those players died was because they were experienced.

Long-term exposure to the Abyss Game had accumulated massive Abyss Corrosion within them; normally, in projection dungeons or reality, they could suppress it through willpower, but upon entering true dungeons—especially true dungeons on the verge of going out of control—they could no longer contain it. The Corrosion would surge, shatter their will, and drive them mad and reckless.

The more mad and reckless the players became, the more likely they were to die in high-difficulty true dungeons; after these veteran players died in the dungeons, the Abyss Corrosion within them would leak out, seep into the dungeon, and intensify its contamination level.

This endless reverse cycle meant that without trained Breakers intervening, highly contaminated true dungeons would inevitably slide into out-of-control dungeons.

Seeing that Wu Chang understood, Xu Dejun continued speaking.

Wasteland Realm players could suppress Abyss Corrosion outside true dungeons not because their level of Corrosion was low or their willpower exceptionally strong, but because the worlds they spent most of their time in were sufficiently "clean." Whether it was the real world or the Wasteland Realm's territory of Crimson Courtyard, both were safe zones where Abyss Corrosion was extremely thin; the stable environment gave players ample time to breathe and readjust themselves.

The fact that Crimson Courtyard's territory in the Wasteland Realm was clean was easy to understand, because the Abyss Game's system had explicitly designated it as a safe zone.

But the Abyss Game had been active for over twenty years, and during that time, countless dungeons had gone out of control, corroding reality.

Even if each individual corruption event affected reality minimally, over twenty years, the accumulation should have raised the concentration of Abyss Corrosion in the real world significantly.

Why, then, was the real world so clean?

Facing Xu Dejun's question, Wu Chang showed a thoughtful expression.

When he was in the underwater ruins of Night Island, the Omniscient Crystal had told him the real world would be affected by Abyss Corrosion—he had pondered this very question then.

According to the Omniscient Crystal, the real world was still in the early stage of Abyss Corrosion; the level of contamination was far lower than his expectations.

In the real world, the frequency of corruption dungeons was not low; the Administration had compiled statistics showing at least forty corruption dungeons appeared monthly worldwide, totaling no fewer than five hundred annually.

The rarity of corruption dungeons was limited only to regions managed by the Four Organizations—and even that rarity was achieved by piling up the lives of Breakers.

At the borders between the Four Organizations' controlled zones and in areas far beyond their reach, corruption dungeons appeared with extreme frequency.

!

For example, Hot Sand Continent, Rainforest Continent, Island Ocean Continent, and Oil Bay—these places lacked temporary administrative authority and only discovered they were danger zones when corruption dungeons appeared.

Faced with corruption dungeons, they either paid exorbitant prices to hire Lone Wolves or high-level players from the Four Organizations to clear them, or they sacrificed their own local players.

Some small nations, with too few and too weak players, could not gather enough rewards to hire high-level players, so they simply designated warning zones and let the corruption dungeons develop unchecked.

Only when the corruption dungeons grew too large and began threatening the Four Organizations' control over reality did they reluctantly cooperate to clear them, sending equal numbers from each organization to ensure no side profited or suffered unfairly.

This approach resulted in massive civilian and player casualties, along with severe Abyss Corrosion.

With them dragging things down, even if the Four Organizations worked tirelessly within their controlled territories, the Abyss Corrosion level on Blue Star should not be low.

Why, then, was the real world so clean?

Wu Chang shook his head and said: "I've never understood it either."

A smile appeared on Xu Dejun's face; it seemed even this monster wasn't absurd in every field—at least in intelligence, he hadn't reached the point of matching the Four Organizations' entire network alone.

Fortunately, Joy had sealed the intelligence and never revealed their target in the Singing Company's dimension; if Xu Dejun knew of the Omniscient Crystal's existence, he probably wouldn't be smiling so happily now.

Xu Dejun cleared his throat and said: "Because of World Dungeons."

"World Dungeons?" Wu Chang's eyes sharpened, his voice laced with surprise.

He had heard of World Dungeons many times—he knew they involved many players, brought great rewards, attracted waves of new players, and reshaped the world's balance.

To him, World Dungeons were like World Bosses in online games: massive collective events involving countless players.

He had never considered that World Dungeons might be connected to the real world's Abyss Corrosion.

Xu Dejun paused, then explained to Wu Chang the origin of World Dungeons.

Every player who joined the Abyss Game received a system notification stating that Blue Star, as a Lucky Star, had successfully drawn the Abyss Game's qualification, connected to the Cosmic Root, and gained a great chance at evolution.

Whether Blue Star was truly a Lucky Star was questionable, but one thing was certain: the Abyss Game granted Blue Star extraordinary favors.

As a multiplayer online game, it was common sense to ensure continuous player influx by maintaining peace and stability in the starter village.

Thus, the Abyss Game periodically helped Blue Star detoxify: whenever the accumulated Abyss Corrosion reached a certain threshold, the game would extract it and transform it into a massive World Dungeon.

Wasteland Realm World Dungeons were enormous—even larger than most Rational Realm dungeons—and all players who survived and completed them received tremendous rewards.

Players who reached level thirty were collectively promoted into the Rational Realm.

The rewards players received came from Abyss Corrosion, but the difficulty of World Dungeons meant players could not fully exhaust all the Corrosion.

Where did the leftover Abyss Corrosion go? Was it reclaimed by the Abyss Game?

No—it entered the Rational Realm along with the players' collective promotion.

Wu Chang:?

Abyss Corrosion affected players' minds, gradually driving them mad. If the Wasteland Realm concentrated such things and dumped them into the Rational Realm, then the Rational Realm…

Xu Dejun saw Wu Chang's speculation and said:

"Peaceful Lord, you've cleared so many real-world dungeons—you should have realized by now: this is not inside any dungeon, but Crimson Courtyard's territory in the Rational Realm."

"As you suspect, the influx of massive Abyss Corrosion into the Rational Realm meant that, except for a tiny core area, all other regions of Crimson Courtyard's territory in the Rational Realm are not peaceful zones."

"And Rational Realm players cannot return to the real world; Crimson Courtyard's territory is tainted by Abyss Corrosion, with no peaceful zone as a buffer to let them breathe—so most Rational Realm players have gone mad, reckless, and irrational."

The day after Wu Chang elbow-bashed the Painter, he received a plea for help message from Yu Na, who told him of You Feipeng's atrocities against the Revelation members.

He had originally thought You Feipeng had become deranged due to the influence of the Light Society, since the Light Society had a terrible reputation in his mind—they would coerce and bribe Wasteland Realm players, deliberately triggering dungeons going out of control and corroding reality for personal gain.

Now, it seemed You Feipeng's madness might not stem from the Light Society, but from the fact that most Rational Realm players were simply not normal.

Xu Dejun did not know what You Feipeng had done; fearing Wu Chang wouldn't believe him, he cited several examples—including ones from the Four Organizations and peripheral members of the Light Society.

Compared to Xu Dejun's examples, You Feipeng almost qualified as a model player—he had never targeted the Administration or ordinary civilians, only striking hard against Revelation members.

In Bai Ta and the Western Alliance, many priests returned to the real world, and their first stop upon arrival was not headquarters, but a primary school.

Rational Realm players committing atrocities in the real world was a common phenomenon—what about those who never returned to the Rational Realm?

Each Abyss Layer was independent; to return from the Rational Realm to the Wasteland Realm, one must pass through the Pillar of Reality.

But the Pillar of Reality had a player capacity limit: players above level 45 could not return to reality unless, like You Feipeng, they possessed special means.

Those with even higher levels, greater strength, and deeper Abyss Corrosion—would they accept this?

They craved safe, clean zones where they wouldn't be fully consumed by Abyss Corrosion, driven mad into monsters, or impulsively die uselessly in some high-difficulty dungeon's corner.

For them, this wasn't just about returning to reality—it was about their lives.

Taking the return to reality as its demand, the Light Society came into being.

A safe rest area was far too great an attraction for players in the Reason Realm; under the bewitching of joy, not only lone wolves and players from small factions, but even members within the Four Great Organizations secretly joined the Light Society in great numbers.

As the Light Society grew, they became like a massive Bingshan—though only a small portion was visible above the surface in the Reason Realm, the more one understood the Light Society, the more one feared the part hidden beneath the water.

If one were to speak of factions, whether the Believer Circle or any single major organization, all had to give way before the Light Society; only when the Four Great Organizations united could they firmly suppress the Light Society by a single margin.

But the premise of firmly suppressing the Light Society was that the Four Great Organizations be of one mind and allied with each other.

Possible?

Impossible.

What was impossible was not the Four Great Organizations being of one mind, but rather that within each individual organization, they could not achieve being of one mind.

At this point, Xu Dejun's face showed an awkward expression; he looked toward Wu Chang, his gaze full of resentment and bewilderment.

"Starting from yesterday, all the Pillars of Reality belonging to the Four Great Organizations have completely lost control—either destroyed or seized of their control rights; the Reason Realm and the Wasteland Realm have completely severed contact."

"Earlier today, the Evolution Faction within the Administration Bureau took advantage of a meeting to launch a sneak attack against the Order Faction; the Order Faction's three top leaders were critically wounded by the ambush, and the Evolution Faction announced cooperation with the Light Society, ushering in a new era of the Abyss Game."

"It wasn't only the Administration Bureau—the other three of the Four Great Organizations all launched internal wars at the same time. The scheming against the unsuspecting, combined with the Light Society's involvement, made the battle situation overwhelmingly one-sided; the Evolution Faction of each major organization took over control of the organization and announced cooperation with the Light Society's actions."

"The Reason Realm is finished."

(End of this chapter)