Chapter 1344: Law Cycle

Buzz!

The sensation of the world spinning returned, even more chaotic and painful than when he entered the Dao Realm. He felt his body and soul as if they were about to be torn apart by different spatial forces. The roaring of the Silence Extinction Storm behind him instantly became distant and muffled, replaced by a low, the 'thriving' sound of all things growing—? No, it was more like the slow sound of decay and sedimentation.

No one knew how much time had passed, perhaps only an instant, when he crashed heavily onto a damp, soft patch of ground.

He was in excruciating pain all over, his magic nearly depleted, his spirit weary, his injuries severe. But he was still alive!

He struggled to lift his head and look around.

This was no longer a grayish-white dead wasteland, but a dim, tranquil forest.

The trees were towering beyond imagination, their trunks a deep, dark brown, bark layered like dragon scales. The canopy blocked out the sky, only extremely faint light seeping through the gaps, forming hazy pillars of light. The air was thick with vital energy, yet this 'life' carried a strange inertia and heaviness, as if put on slow motion, full of decay and sedimentation. The ground was carpeted with thick layers of fallen leaves and moss, accumulated over who knows how many tens of thousands of years, soft and silent underfoot.

In the forest, there was utter silence—no bird calls, no insect chirps, only his own breathing and the omnipresent low whisper of the rule of all things slowly 'settling'.

"Where is this again?" Yan Buji's heart filled with vigilance. Although he had escaped the lethal threat of the Silence Extinction Storm, the feeling this forest gave him was no less serious. That heavy, inert life rule was slowly eroding his active chaos power and vitality, as if trying to assimilate him into a 'motionless' ancient tree of this forest.

He barely propped himself up, leaning against the root of a giant tree, and immediately began breathing exercises to heal his wounds. Although the vital energy here was strange, its quantity was immense; he forcibly absorbed and transformed it via the Chaos Path, albeit inefficiently, but it was better than nothing.

At the same time, he sank his consciousness into his body to examine the Infinity Chaos Essence crystal. The crystal still radiated brilliance, but at its core had added an extremely fine, indelible grayish stain—the residual aura of that terrifying gaze, like a bone‑eating maggot, trying to erode the crystal's very foundation.

"What existence lies beyond that door… just what kind of divine being is it?" Yan Buji remained uneasy. This reconnaissance mission had far exceeded expectations. Does the Myriad Law Alliance know that such a thing is hidden deep in that wasteland?

He knew he was temporarily safe, but had also fallen into a new predicament. This unknown forest was fraught with danger; his wounds were not yet healed, he needed to constantly watch for any further moves from Black Flame Peak, and he must quickly eradicate the terrifying gaze imprint within him.

However, fortune and misfortune depend on each other. Having escaped death this time, he personally felt the transcendent Silence Extinction pressure, even being branded by its gaze—though dangerous, it also forced his understanding of Silence Extinction to rise to a new level between life and death. If he could digest this experience, his true meaning of Silence Extinction would surely advance further.

He swallowed a handful of pills, closed his eyes, began to heal his wounds with all his strength, and attempted to slowly wear away and analyze that speck of grayish stain using the Infinity Chaos Essence.

Dangers in the Dao Realm sprang up endlessly. And that door linking to unknown terror, along with the gaze beyond it, was like a huge shadow that quietly shrouded his heart.

Yan Buji leaned against the giant tree's root, like a statue about to merge into this dim background. His aura was faint; the gray‑gold chaos deathly qi turned obscure, only the 'Infinity Chaos Essence' crystal within him stubbornly emitted a faint light, resisting the omnipresent inert erosion from outside.

The forest's law was extremely strange. It did not deprive vitality, but in a slow, heavy way, it settled and solidified all 'activity'. The thick vital energy in the air, once absorbed into the body, not only failed to quickly replenish consumption, but like viscous gum, it clogged the meridians, slowed the circulation of magic, and even faintly threatened to drag his thoughts and his Dao Heart into an eternal 'slumber' state.

"What a strange 'life' law…… it is the exact opposite of the 'death' of the Silence Extinction Wasteland, yet equally dangerous." Yan Buji felt a chill. Silence Extinction was a violent ending; here was a gentle solidification. He must constantly guard his spirit, using the 'motion' and 'evolution' traits of the Chaos Path to forcibly resist this 'stillness' and 'solidification' erosion.

The healing process was unusually slow and painful. The pills' potency was greatly delayed by the inertial law; each thread of Chaos Force recovered had to undergo a difficult 'struggle' and 'transformation' against the heavy vital energy invading the body. What's worse, the grayish stain deep in his spirit, originating from the terrifying gaze, in this inertial environment, though its spread slowed, seemed to have found a kind of 'hotbed', becoming more stubborn and profound, continuously emitting a heart‑pounding Silence Extinction pressure that interfered with his healing.

Time lost its accurate meaning in this forest; only the maddeningly slow sense of 'settling' flowed.

No one knew how much time had passed, but Yan Buji's injuries finally stabilized, his magic restored to thirty‑forty percent, yet the weariness of his spirit and the threat of that mark remained like a bone in his throat. He knew he must quickly leave this forest and find a place with relatively normal laws to completely eliminate the hidden danger.

He slowly opened his eyes; the chaos hue in his pupils was dim, yet he gained a few degrees of calm after being tempered. He leaned on the rough bark and rose to his feet, carefully sensing his surroundings.

The forest stretched boundlessly, towering giant trees. Underfoot lay a layer of humus several feet thick, soft as a blanket, making no sound when stepped on. There was no wind, only the faint airflow stirred by his own movement. Light was extremely dim, visibility limited to less than a hundred zhang. His divine sense still dared not reach far; here the law's 'settling' effect on mental power was even stronger.

He chose a direction where the inertial law felt relatively thin, and began to advance cautiously.

Walking through this lethargic ancient forest was a peculiar experience. He could sense from deep within the forest a vast, ancient will, as if eternally slumbering, and it was this will that endowed the place with its unique law. Along the way he saw some strange plants: huge fungi that slowly opened and closed, exhaling pale yellow inert spores; vines whose leaves were like solidified jade, with natural patterns forming seal runes; even a few sapling‑shaped animated plant puppets whose roots twitched slowly, though they moved extremely sluggishly and posed little threat.

He also encountered some 'animals'. It was a rock‑skin marten with gray‑brown fur, moving like a slow‑motion replay. Upon discovering Yan Buji, it tried to attack, but its pounce speed was laughably slow, easily dodged by Yan Buji. The marten's body was also filled with inert energy; after being killed, it left little essence, and its corpse was quickly decomposed and absorbed by the ground's moss and fungi, as if returning to the forest's cycle.

"All the living beings here have been assimilated." Yan Buji mused. This forest itself was like a huge, slowly operating digestive system, taking everything into its 'settling' and 'solidifying' law cycle.