Chapter 1348: Your Turn

The amber seal on his forehead warmed slightly, transmitting a vague directional cue. Yan Buji finished his breath regulation; his injuries had recovered to about sixty or seventy percent, and the dark imprint inside him had been worn down to only a tiny stubborn speck at its core, his condition much improved since first entering the forest. He did not linger, following the seal's guidance as he pressed deeper into the Ancient Forest.

The deeper he went, the surrounding giant trees grew older and more massive, their canopies almost completely blocking the already scarce daylight, plunging the forest into a near‑absolute gloom. The inert life‑energy in the air was so thick it seemed almost solid, each step feeling like wading through sticky honey, greatly increasing the drain on his mana and spirit. The principle of things 'settling' and 'solidifying' reached its peak, forcing Yan Buji to devote more of his spirit to keeping his Chaos Force 'active', resisting the trend of assimilation.

Occasionally he could see even more strange sights: a 'brook' made entirely of clear amber flowing silently through the woods; vast areas grew transparent mushrooms carved like crystal, emitting a dreamy faint light; and in a small patch the flow of time seemed unusually slow, a fallen leaf drifting in mid‑air for a long time without landing.

The core region of this forest possessed rules that were both strange and powerful, far surpassing those of the outer areas.

After traveling for an unknown length of time, the amber seal on his forehead suddenly throbbed with a clear pulse. Ahead, through the gaps between the dense ancient trees, a hazy green light could be faintly seen.

Yan Buji's spirit lifted, and he quickened his pace. Passing through the last stretch of heavy vines that hung like a heavenly curtain, his view suddenly opened up.

It was a huge, bowl‑shaped underground space, as if the entire forest's root system had gathered here to guard it. At the center was not soil or rock, but a mass of indescribable green light.

That was the Life Core.

The Core was not a solid object; rather, it resembled a lattice woven from the purest, most condensed life principle and the solidification conception. The light mass pulsed slowly like a heartbeat, each pulse sending out a soft green halo that spread out, merging with the surrounding ancient trees' roots, the soil, and even the air, upholding the forest's unique 'eternal solidification' principle.

The Core itself was breathtakingly beautiful, its green light seeming to hold endless vitality and tranquility. Yet only by approaching it could one feel the terrifyingly extreme solidification field! Here space seemed frozen, light twisted, and even thought grew sluggish. Had Yan Buji not grasped a hint of the 'still' truth within 'Silence Extinction Return to Truth', and had he not possessed the Chaos Path that embraces all laws, he would have been instantly immobilized by this field and turned into another 'life fossil'.

Yet at this moment, this beautiful Core was under attack.

Dense gray‑black swarms, like a locust plague, clung to the surface of the Core's light mass and to the huge, tangled ancient roots beneath it!

These were the Devouring Decay Swarm!

Each individual was the size of a fingernail, beetle‑shaped, entirely gray‑black, with sharp mouthparts that opened and closed incessantly, emitting a grating 'hiss‑hiss'. They did not devour matter, but frenziedly gnawed at the Core's green halo and the solidifying power flowing in the roots! Every insect's mouthparts flashed with a faint, law‑eroding grayish sheen; wherever they passed, the green hue dimmed and the roots showed tiny signs of decay. Tens of thousands of them gathered into a moving gray‑black cloud, continually consuming the Core's power.

Beneath the Core, where the roots were densest, perched an insect queen far larger than her kin—big enough to be a washbasin, with a heavier, deeper carapace, compound eyes flashing cold red light, and mouthparts like a pair of curved black sickles. Each bite could tear away great streams of law‑light from the roots, and her aura had unmistakably reached the early Mahayana stage! Moreover, she seemed able to command the swarm, giving its movements order.

"Indeed troublesome." Yan Buji hid in the shadows at the entrance, observing carefully. The swarm was too numerous and skilled at eroding laws; a head‑on clash would be no good. The solidification field around the Core was extremely strong, also a major hindrance to his actions. He needed a clever plan.

The forest's will, in the information it gave, noted that while the Devouring Decay Swarm liked to consume solidification and extinction laws, its core weakness lay in its soul link. Though the swarm appeared to consist of independent individuals, it was actually governed by the queen, sharing a vague group consciousness. If one could disturb or heavily wound the queen, the swarm would fall into chaos.

"First clear the minions, then behead the leader." Yan Buji settled on a plan. He needed a method that could inflict large‑scale damage on the swarm without overly alarming the queen or causing secondary harm to the Core.

He thought of the newly grasped power of Silence Extinction. Silence Extinction and solidification share common ground, perhaps they could work wonders here. Moreover, the swarm seemed to have a liking for the aura of Silence Extinction, which could be put to good use.

He quietly retreated a distance, found a spot where the roots were relatively sparse and the solidification field somewhat weaker, sat cross‑legged, began to mobilize his inner Chaos Force, combining it with the trace of pure solidification law contained in the amber seal on his brow, and tried to condense a special attack.

He intended to blend the 'Silence Extinction' truth latent in his Chaotic Death Qi with the forest's 'solidification' law, creating an ability that would momentarily 'solidify' a target on the level of law, then trigger its internal Silence Extinction so that it would self‑destruct—'Silence Extinction Condensed Essence'!

This was a completely new attempt, requiring a solid grasp of both laws. Fortunately, Yan Buji had just gone through a life‑and‑death tempering, and had also gained some insight in the chaotic zone of the rock cave; at this moment inspiration struck, and progress went smoothly.

Moments later, dozens of grain‑sized crystals, gray‑green interwoven in color and emitting a strange vibration, condensed in his palm. These crystals were highly unstable, containing his simulated 'solidification' shell and an internal 'Silence Extinction' fuse.

He silently returned to the edge of the Core's space, picked a zone where the swarm was relatively dense but far from the queen, and flicked his finger.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—!"

Dozens of gray‑green crystals shot silently into the swarm.

At first the swarm showed no reaction, and some insects even tried to nibble these 'foreign objects'. But when the crystals contacted an insect's body or the law‑halo it was gnawing, a sudden change occurred!

The crystals' shells instantly 'melted', releasing a weak but pure solidification pulse! Affected insects' movements jerked to a halt, a thin amber‑like transparent film coating their bodies; though it could not truly immobilize them (the insects themselves had some resistance to solidification), it greatly reduced their mobility and gnawing efficiency.

Immediately after, the crystals' core 'Silence Extinction' fuse was triggered! A faint yet source‑pointing 'Return to the Abyss' notion traveled along that solidification shell and acted directly inside the 'stilled' insect's body!

"Pop‑pop‑pop……"

Like burst bubbles, the hundreds of Devouring Decay insects directly hit stiffened violently, then quickly turned gray‑brittle from inside out, finally crumbling into specks of gray dust that drifted down! Even the faint soul link within them was instantly annihilated!

This strike silently cleared a small patch of the swarm, and because it carried the solidification attribute it did not provoke a violent rejection from the Core's field, and the disturbance was kept extremely minor.

The swarm stirred slightly, but soon, under the queen's invisible command, it restored order and continued gnawing, merely sending a portion of insects to vigilantly circle the affected area.

"Effective!" Yan Buji felt a surge of joy. He repeated the process, condensing crystals again, from different directions choosing zones where the swarm was dense but the queen's attention was hard to divide, and carried out precise 'point‑kills'.

Like a patient hunter, he steadily whittled down the swarm's numbers, each attack kept to an extremely small range to avoid alerting the queen and triggering a large‑scale counterattack.

However, the swarm was simply too numerous. After clearing nearly a thousand insects, the queen finally seemed to notice the anomaly. She stopped gnawing, lifted her ugly head, her cold compound eyes scanning the surroundings, and emitted a sharp, soul‑piercing shriek!

The remaining swarm instantly halted its disordered gnawing, like soldiers receiving orders, quickly gathering to form layered defensive rings around the queen, while several streams of the swarm shot out like arrows from a bow, probing the directions where Yan Buji might be hiding!

"Spotted!"

Yan Buji knew the real battle was only now beginning. He no longer hid, stepping out from the shadows as a gray‑gold Silence Extinction Chaos Shroud flared around him, forming a stark contrast with the Core's green light and the swarm's gray‑black.

He fixed his gaze on the massive queen; the gray‑green light in his hand condensed once more, this time not into scattered crystals but into an illusory spear forged from highly concentrated Silence Extinction Condensed Essence!

"Next, it's your turn."