Chapter Forty-Six: The Broken Soul Devours the Light

Cold. Viscous. Tearing.

Lin Mo was like a piece of rotting flesh flung into a raging current, tumbling in the turbulence of a rift in space. There was no direction, no time, only endless, ceaseless rending. Clinging darkness enveloped him, and each invisible “wave” that crashed over him threatened to wrench his bones from their sheath of flesh and grind his soul to dust. Pain was no longer a matter of wounds, but a poison of ice and fire flooding every inch of his being, making every fragment of flesh scream in agony.

His left arm was the only “anchor.” That rusted sword tip, driven through the center of his palm, became the eye of the storm. The chaotic Dao seed, impaled by the sword’s remains, throbbed madly—each pulse pumping out a viscous “plasma” of gray, gold, and green, which flowed backward along the sword’s remains and into the meridians of his left arm. These chaotic forces were no longer pure torment, but were forcibly forged and compressed by the cold, unyielding sword fragment! A new, more frigid and sinister “pulse” was being born deep within his left arm, and each beat caused a subtle, nearly imperceptible stagnation in the raging spatial turbulence around him.

His right arm’s sword markings were utterly lifeless, while the starlight at his brow burned like a brand, fiercely resisting the newborn sinister pulse in his left arm. The two powers collided within the meridians of his torso, and each clash forced Lin Mo to cough up black blood laced with fragments of his own organs.

As his consciousness teetered on the brink of utter dissolution in this eternal chaos and agony—

A hum!

From deep within his left palm, the chaos Dao seed impaled by the sword remains suddenly flared with a faint, yet piercingly clear, dark golden light!

The source of this light was a remnant deep within the Dao seed’s core—a fragment of the Void-Heaven Scripture, nearly drowned by the gray-green shards of reverse seeds and the lingering resentment of Su Li’s soul. Under the crushing torment of the spatial maelstrom, as the Dao seed verged on collapse, this sliver of scripture ignited with its final essence! The light pierced through the muddied shell of the Dao seed, through the raging sword intent, and cast a brief, crystalline vision into Lin Mo’s dying sea of consciousness—

At the edge of the Immortal Burial Abyss, rain poured in torrents.

At the heart of the vision was a scorched rock wall. Zhou Xiaoxiao’s body was half-buried beneath rubble, the sunken outline of his chest stark and raw beneath the rain. Blood and mud snaked beneath him, forming a cold, dark red stream. His only remaining right hand clawed deep into the blackened earth, nails torn, knuckles twisted in agony, reaching desperately toward the rift where Lin Mo had vanished… reaching, and reaching. That hand—caked in mud and blood, frozen in the downpour—was like a broken signpost, pointing with the last of its strength toward the distant void.

The vision vanished as swiftly as it appeared. The dark gold light was smothered by the surging gray-green corruption within the Dao seed.

But it was enough!

A guttural, animal roar ripped from Lin Mo’s throat—not despair, but a fury that would burn all to ashes! The void vortex in his core was ignited by this rage, reversing wildly! A cold, brutal power from the very heart of the Immortal Refining Furnace was forcibly torn free!

No more suppression! No more balance!

He hurled this force of annihilation, together with the newborn sinister pulse in his left arm, straight into the rusted sword shaft impaled through his palm!

“Devour it!” His will was a blade, slicing at the sword remains!

A hiss—

The sword remains seemed to awaken completely! The rusted surface burst into countless fine black patterns, and a suction more ravenous and frigid than the spatial maelstrom exploded forth! Its target—the raging energies all around!

A thunderous roar!

The viscous darkness around Lin Mo collapsed inward in a violent surge! Countless invisible wounds in space shrieked and poured toward that small sword tip! The sword remains became an endless black hole, devouring the turbulence, its rust flaking away to reveal a cold, abyssal core! The sword body impaled through the Dao seed vibrated with a low hum, and the gray, gold, and green lights were forced back into the blade, finally solidifying into a profound, light-consuming black.

A new, sharper, and more ruthless sword intent flooded backward through the sword remains into Lin Mo’s left arm, instantly crushing the resistance from the right arm’s sword marks and the starlight at his brow! Beneath the skin of his left arm, blackened veins swelled and writhed like living things, finally coalescing at his wrist into a savage, twisted sword-shaped brand!

The sword’s devouring lasted but a moment, yet in that instant, a brief vacuum was carved into the raging current!

And at the peak of this devouring force, as the spatial maelstrom was momentarily emptied—

With a violent gasp, Lin Mo’s body was wrenched free, as if torn from glue by an unseen hand! Icy air flooded his shredded lungs, thick with the stench of rotting vegetation and blood-tinged iron.

He crashed heavily to the ground, cold and hard, splattering viscous mud. Underneath him, dead branches and decayed leaves splintered noisily.

The spatial rift behind him closed in utter silence, the last trace of tearing gone.

He forced his head up.

The rain had ceased.

Before him stretched a dead, desolate plain. The sky was a crushing leaden gray, clouds hanging so low they threatened to fall. The ground was a dark brown mire, laced with rotting roots and the bones of beasts, reeking of decay. Sparse, twisted dead trees clawed at the sky like the skeletons of dying giants, their branches stabbing upward into the gloom. In the distance, the vague outlines of ruined buildings sprawled across the horizon, like the ribs of some colossal, putrefying beast.

Deathly silence. Even the wind felt thick and sluggish.

Lin Mo pushed himself upright, his left arm heavy as if filled with lead and mercury, the new sword-shaped brand at his wrist stabbing with icy pain. He looked down at his left palm.

The dark golden sword tip was still embedded deep in his flesh, the rust now entirely gone, revealing a blade as deep and shadowed as an abyss, its tip glinting with a devouring edge. The chaotic Dao seed buried in his palm now throbbed weakly, its surface coated in a viscous black light, as if encased in a cold, hard shell. Within, the shrieks of Su Li’s fragmented soul and the howls of the reverse seed were stifled by this sword shell, reduced to only faint tremors.

It was no longer a fragment of a sword's remains. It was a sword nail, pinning down the Dao seed—a key, linking his left arm to this deathly, silent world.

Lin Mo tried to stir his power. The void vortex in his core rotated slowly, heavy and cold with the essence of the Immortal Refining Furnace. Flowing through the meridians of his left arm was a newborn, sinister force, forged by the sword’s remains—cold, sharp, and hungry to devour. The star at his brow and the sword marks on his right arm were utterly silent.

He panted, each breath tugging at every wound in his body. He surveyed this strange and lifeless land. The scorched wasteland of the Immortal Burial Abyss, the rain-soaked mountains of the Greenwood Sect, the cold blade of the Heaven’s Warden, Zhou Xiaoxiao’s blood-soaked hand reaching toward the void—all were sealed behind the closed rift.

Only the searing pain of the sword nail driven through his Dao seed and the savage sword-shaped brand at his wrist remained to remind him of all he had just endured.

With his left hand—the one pierced by the sword nail—he braced himself against the ground and staggered upright. The leaden daylight fell upon him, casting a thick, twisted shadow at his feet, edged faintly with the sharpness of a blade.

Stumbling, he took his first step into the heart of the wasteland, toward the silhouette of those ruined structures.

Behind him, the rotting mire swallowed his footprints without a sound.