Void Cultivation

Chapter 323 - 322

Only a second later, Grey saw the entire world plunge into darkness.

The air in front of them twisted violently, as though reality itself was being wrung like wet cloth. Then, without warning, a massive spatial tear ripped open in the void before them.

Within that jagged crack, something appeared.

A pupil.

A huge, vertical pupil.

It was a sickly yellow, shaped like the slit of some ancient reptile or amphibian, and it radiated a faint greenish-black glow that seemed to corrode the very space around it.

The moment the eye opened,

It looked at Grey.

And everything went wrong.

In that instant, Grey felt as though an endless tide of corrosive substance had been forcefully poured into his body. It wasn’t just pain, it was invasion. Something alien, something filthy, something utterly wrong was spreading through his flesh.

His body began to swell unnaturally.

His skin stretched.

Then it tore.

With sickening sounds, his flesh split open in multiple places, and from the ruptures, a mixture of yellow-black pus and blood began to gush out. The stench that followed was unbearable, thick, rotten, and suffocating, as though decay itself had been given form.

But Grey wasn’t the only one.

The captain.

Roxanne.

They were suffering the same fate.

Their skin rapidly darkened, turning patches of pitch black as the same foul pus began to leak from their bodies. Their forms trembled, their breathing grew erratic, and their expressions twisted under the overwhelming agony.

Grey and Roxanne’s faces were filled with raw, undeniable fear.

But Violet...

She was different.

Her expression was filled with madness.

Even as her body visibly rotted under the mere presence of that divine entity, her lips curled into a wide, almost reverent smile. Slowly, she bent down, her movements deliberate and devout, as if she were standing before something sacred.

Then she knelt.

Lowering her head to the ground, she kowtowed in complete submission.

"Oh, great god! Thank you for listening to my prayers. I pray that you..."

Her voice remained steady, almost ecstatic, despite the disgusting fluids dripping from her body. It was as if she couldn’t even perceive her own decay, as though her mind had already detached itself from reality.

But before she could finish,

The vertical eye blinked.

Once.

And then,

A calm voice emerged from the rift.

"You... are not my believer."

The words were incomprehensible.

Or rather, they should have been.

Grey could tell that whatever spoke wasn’t using any language he knew. And yet, somehow, the meaning forced itself into his mind, bypassing logic entirely.

The voice carried a strange duality.

It pulled at them, magnetic, irresistible, almost divine.

And yet, at the same time, it was repulsive, disgusting to the core, something that made every instinct scream at them to run, to hide, to escape.

The captain froze.

Her body shivered as stopped mid-kowtow.

Slowly, she lifted her head.

A dumbfounded expression appeared on her face.

She hadn’t expected this. She hadn’t expected this at all!

All her preparations... all her careful planning to mimic a true believer and yet, she had been exposed instantly.

For a brief moment, silence hung in the air.

Then, her lips curled.

Into a sly, almost amused smile.

"Oh... well," she said casually, as though nothing had gone wrong, "that’s why I always have back-up plans."

The moment those words left her mouth,

The vertical pupil shifted.

It narrowed slightly, its gaze moving away from her and toward a distant point in space.

And then,

The world trembled.

From the darkened sky above, six massive beams of light descended, each one radiating a different hue. They cut through the darkness like divine spears, all converging toward the spatial tear.

The presence they carried was overwhelming.

Ancient.

Majestic.

Terrifying in its own right.

The pupil observed them, its slit tightening.

"...Soul Ascendancy."

There was a trace of recognition in that alien voice.

But no fear.

Because thhis was still a god.

Even if it was merely a projection from an unimaginable distance away...

Even if only a fraction of its true power could manifest here...

It was still a god.

A dense golden radiance suddenly burst forth from the vertical pupil, surging outward like a tidal wave. It collided head-on with the six descending beams of light.

For a split second, everything froze.

Then,

The six beams shattered.

Dispersed completely, as though they had never existed.

The aftermath was immediate.

The moment the golden light spread, Grey, Roxanne, and the captain felt the corruption within their bodies intensify. The corrosive substance surged violently, as though empowered by the god’s dominance.

Grey’s vision blurred.

His thoughts scattered as if his soul and spirit was separating away from his physical body. Around his body, several Grey’s could be seen shuddering in fear and pain.

Death..

Had never felt so close.

Too close.

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to act.

"Now!" he urged internally.

At his command, the shadow within him responded.

Trembling.

Shaking.

But obedient.

Its mouth opened wide, stretching unnaturally as it began to devour the corrosive substance flooding Grey’s body. It consumed it greedily, swallowing the foul energy as though it were a delicacy.

Despite its fear, clear, undeniable fear, Grey could feel something else from it.

Joy.

A twisted, excited pleasure.

As if consuming the corruption born from a true god was the greatest feast it had ever experienced.

Of all the things Grey possessed, only the shadow reacted this way.

The sentient spirit within the scythe had gone completely silent, suppressing its aura to the absolute limit, as though terrified of being noticed.

The piece of cloth, which had taken the form of a small child-like doll, also became motionless and quiet.

Both of them...

Were hiding.

As if acknowledging a single, terrifying truth...

They did not want the god’s gaze to fall upon them.

And while the god was occupied with suppressing the six descending beams of light, Grey reacted instantly and retreated without hesitation. As he moved, he grabbed Roxanne and the Captain, dragging both of them along with him.

The three figures shot backward, crossing several thousand meters in mere moments.

Only when they were far enough away did Grey finally stop.

The instant he did, his legs gave out beneath him, and he collapsed heavily onto the ground. His body arched violently, trembling as though something inside him was trying to tear its way out.

The shadow within him churned frantically, struggling to devour the invading corrosive substance that was eating away at his flesh piece by piece.

It was not just pain, it was annihilation.

Every inch of his body felt as though it was dissolving, breaking down into nothingness, only to be forcefully held together by the shadow’s desperate resistance.

Roxanne and the Captain were in no better condition.

Despite Roxanne’s nature as something akin to a divine creature, she was still heavily affected by the corrosive invasion. Her resistance only slowed the inevitable, it did not stop it.

Her long crimson hair began to fall out in clumps, drifting lifelessly to the ground.

Her once pale and flawless skin had already darkened into a sickly shade, swelling grotesquely as patches of it split open, leaking thick yellow pus. Her entire body bloated unnaturally, as though something inside her was expanding beyond control.

She looked as if she could explode at any moment.

Yet, even in that state, she gritted her teeth, desperately suppressing the mutation that threatened to consume her.

Violet... was worse.

Far worse.

The sides of her face had long since ruptured, torn open into a gruesome display of exposed flesh. Rotten blood and fragmented tissue continuously spilled out, staining her body and the ground beneath her.

Her condition was beyond saving by normal means.

And yet her smile never disappeared.

Even now, with her body falling apart, her lips remained curled upward in a calm, almost amused expression.

Instead of gratitude, her brows furrowed slightly in displeasure as she looked at Grey.

"Why did you pull me back?" she asked, her voice still soft and feminine, completely at odds with her grotesque appearance. "We were already so close. Once ’it’ leaves... we would have been able to obtain what we came here for."

Anyone who saw her in that moment would feel their spine turn cold.

Grey endured the pain for a few more seconds before responding.

His breathing was uneven, his body still trembling, but his gaze remained steady.

"If you want to die so badly," he said coldly, "go ahead."

That was all.

Violet clicked her tongue in annoyance, her expression twisting slightly, but she said nothing more.

The air between them fell into a heavy, suffocating silence, broken only by the sound of flesh rotting, bodies struggling... and something far worse still lingering in the distance.

"So what’s the plan?" Grey asked after the silence descended.

---

Several thousand meters away, the vertical pupil narrowed as a thin golden light appeared around the spatial tear in the sky.

Suddenly, another tear appeared in the sky and a flash of light appeared and swept towards the vertical pupil.

However, the vertical eye had already activated the screen of light, so the attack did not do much damage.

It was only then that the thing within the second tear showed itself.

A huge mass of steel appeared, that steel seemed to be passing through a membrane of time and space to appear here.

The moment it appeared in this world, a oppressive aura fell as it’s full form was revealed.

It was a halberd!