System Possession, One Sword Shocks the Gods

169: Outside the Demon Palace, the Shadow of Annihilation”Tap... tap... tap...”

The sound of a hard object striking the ground echoed through the deathly silent cave, neither hurried nor slow, carrying a heart-palpitating sense of regularity as it drew closer.

Ye Chen leaned against a broken pillar, his guixu sword resting across his knees. His eyes were as sharp as an eagle’s, fixed on the depths of the darkness from which the sound originated. The intense pain and deathly stillness from his left leg remained strong, but he forcefully suppressed it as his Chaos Gang Qi circulated slowly within him, ready to strike. The chaos monitoring compass had not given a clear warning, but this only made him more vigilant.

In the darkness, two points of crimson light lit up first, like the gaze of a demon from Hell. Soon, a hunched and twisted figure slowly paced out from the shadows.

It was not a White Bone Demon Soldier, nor any known demonic creature. It was roughly the height of an ordinary person, its entire body shrouded in a tattered cloak that seemed woven from shadows, making its specific form indistinguishable. Only those two unsettling points of crimson beneath the hood were visible. Its ”feet” did not seem physical; every time they touched the ground, they produced a ”tap” sound like bone striking rock, yet no footprints were left behind. In its hand, it leaned on a twisted wooden staff topped with a cloudy grey gemstone.

An unspeakable aura emanated from it—not simple death, nor Chaos, but a deeper ”Nirvana” Concept of the end of all things, faintly resonating with the ancient aura deep within this cave.

It stopped about ten zhang away from Ye Chen, its crimson gaze falling upon him, lingering for a moment on the greyish-white wound on his left leg and the guixu sword gripped tightly in his hand. There was no killing intent, no hostility, nor even any emotional fluctuation—only a cold, clinical scrutiny, as if observing a specimen.

Ye Chen’s mind was tense; he could feel that the strength of this bizarre existence was unfathomable! It was far more dangerous than that White Bone Demon General!

”Outsider... the aura of Chaos... and... the scars of Nirvana...” A dry, raspy voice, as if it hadn’t spoken for countless years, rang directly in Ye Chen’s Sea of Consciousness with an ancient rhythm. ”You... do not belong here.”

Ye Chen’s heart tightened; the opponent had seen through some of the characteristics of his Cultivation Technique at a glance and even pointed out the root of his leg injury (the laws contained within the Nirvana Death Light). He remained silent, secretly accelerating the activation of his chaos ancestral talisman to purify the leg wound and recover his Protective Aura.

The eerie existence didn’t seem to care about Ye Chen’s defensiveness. Its crimson gaze turned to the stone platform beside him, which was carved with a teleportation array, and the skeletons scattered around. ”Ancient teleportation... broken guardians... time... has eroded everything...”

It slowly raised its shadow-shrouded ”hand” holding the twisted staff and pointed toward a direction in the cave. ”Nirvana Demon Palace... does not welcome the living... but... those who hold ’key’ fragments... may pass to the... Outer Corridor...”

key fragments? Ye Chen immediately thought of the incomplete map of the nirvana demonic palace in his robes. Could it be that this fragmentary map was not just a map, but also a token or part of a key?

”Your purpose?” Ye Chen finally spoke, his voice somewhat raspy due to his injuries and vigilance.

”Purpose?” The bizarre existence released a mental ripple that resembled mockery yet lacked any emotional fluctuation. ”I am the ’Shadow of Nirvana,’ the guide and... cleanser of the palace outskirts. Following the ancient covenant, I guide those who hold ’fragments’... and also clear away... intruders.”

Its crimson gaze fell on Ye Chen’s left leg again: ”You have been marked by the ’Wraith General’... if you stay here, you will eventually be found and devoured. Move forward... and there may be a slim chance of survival... or, you will meet your... end even sooner.”

After speaking, it said no more. Its figure seemed to melt into the shadows as it slowly drifted back. The ”tap... tap...” sound echoed again as it headed in the direction it had pointed, seemingly waiting for Ye Chen to make a choice.

Ye Chen’s expression shifted. It was hard to tell if the words of this being calling itself the ”Shadow of Nirvana” were true or false. However, the situation it pointed out was a fact. The injury on his leg contained the power of the White Bone Demon General’s laws, acting like a beacon that the enemy would eventually track down. Staying here to heal was no different from waiting for death.

Moving forward was an unknown, but at least this ”Shadow of Nirvana” currently seemed to follow some rule and hadn’t attacked him directly. Moreover, it mentioned the ”Outer Corridor,” where there might be clues to escape or other Opportunities.

Take a gamble!

Ye Chen took a deep breath, enduring the intense pain and inconvenience of his left leg. Using the guixu sword as a cane to support his body, he struggled to stand up. He glanced in the direction the ”Shadow of Nirvana” had disappeared, swallowed a few Medicinal Pills to replenish his Protective Aura, and limped after it.

The cave was deeper and more vast than he had imagined. Following the intermittent ”tap-tap” sounds, Ye Chen traversed through tunnels filled with jagged rocks and ancient remains. The stale, sulfurous scent in the air grew thicker. Occasionally, he could see blurred murals on the walls that shared the same origin as the fragmentary map, depicting scenes of stars collapsing and demon gods at war, filled with a desolate and destructive Concept.

The ”Shadow of Nirvana” always maintained a certain distance from him, neither hurrying him nor drawing close, like an indifferent ghostly guide.

As they went deeper, Ye Chen felt the surrounding energy become more active and dangerous. Besides the omnipresent ”Nirvana” Concept, fluctuations from spatial rifts began to appear, along with wandering energy lifeforms that lacked physical bodies and were merely masses of twisted shadows. When these energy lifeforms sensed the aura of a ”living being” on Ye Chen, they would pounce frantically, but each time, the ”Shadow of Nirvana” ahead would simply tap its staff lightly. Those shadows would then shriek silently as if meeting their nemesis and quickly dissipate.

Ye Chen’s assessment of the danger level in this area increased once again. If not for this bizarre guide, he would likely find it impossible to traverse this place alone.

After traveling for about half an hour, a massive archway cast from some kind of black metal appeared ahead. The archway was tightly shut, its surface covered in rust and deep claw marks. Carved upon the doors was a massive Demon Eye pattern, almost identical to the one on the fragmentary map, which was currently closed.

The ”Shadow of Nirvana” stopped before the archway, its crimson gaze turning toward Ye Chen.

Ye Chen understood and took out the incomplete map of the nirvana demonic palace. When he aimed the fragmentary map at the archway, the Demon Eye mark on the map lit up with a dull yellow light once more, resonating with the Demon Eye pattern on the archway.

”Buzz...”

The heavy archway let out a grating sound of friction as it slowly opened inward, revealing a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through. An even more ancient, pure, and deathly aura rushed out from behind the door.

”The Outer Corridor... is open.” The mental ripple of the ”Shadow of Nirvana” arrived. ”Pass through the corridor... and perhaps you can find... a way to temporarily isolate the mark... or... your burial ground.”

With that, its figure slowly dissipated like green smoke, and the ”tap-tap” sound vanished completely.

Ye Chen stood before the archway, looking at the deep darkness behind the door that seemed capable of swallowing all light. He took a deep breath and adjusted his state to its peak. Although his left leg still throbbed with pain, the purification from the chaos ancestral talisman had stopped the injury from worsening, and his Protective Aura had recovered by twenty to thirty percent.

He stepped through the archway.

What lay before him was not the corridor he had imagined, but an incredibly vast, boundless, and bizarre space. Beneath his feet was a black stone floor, smooth as a mirror yet bone-chillingly cold. There was no sky above, only a swirling Chaos vortex composed of grey, black, and dark red, emitting a disquieting halo.

Countless floating stone bridges of varying widths crisscrossed like the veins of a giant web, extending to the horizon. Beneath the bridges lay a bottomless dark abyss, where massive, distorted shadows occasionally swam past, emitting an aura that made the Soul tremble.

This was the Outer Corridor of the Nirvana Demon Palace!

The air was thick with a Nirvana Concept so dense it wouldn’t disperse, ten times stronger than outside! Compared to this, the soul-eroding yin wind was like a gentle breeze. Ye Chen had to fully operate his Chaos Myriad Transformation Art to barely resist the erosion of this Concept on his mind. He could even feel that the death rules from the White Bone Demon General at his leg wound had their activity reduced slightly under the suppression of this space’s Nirvana Concept.

He stepped onto the nearest floating bridge. The bridge was about three zhang wide with no railings on either side, and the bottomless abyss lay below. Walking on it required extreme caution.

He tried to extend his Divine Sense, only to find that the space here was extremely stable and bizarre. His Divine Sense was greatly suppressed, only able to probe an area of several dozen zhang around him. Furthermore, when his Divine Sense touched the swirling Chaos vortexes or the abyss below, it felt a needle-like sting, as if it were about to be swallowed.

Following the blurred guidance on the fragmentary map, he chose a direction and carefully proceeded along the intricate network of bridges. Here, the map’s guidance became very sparse, providing only a general direction.

After traveling for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, he had not encountered any danger, but the omnipresent Nirvana Concept was continuously draining his mental energy and Protective Aura.

Suddenly, a hundred meters ahead on a crossing bridge, space distorted, and a blurred humanoid shadow composed of pure Nirvana energy slowly materialized! The shadow had no facial features or concrete form, just a mass of constantly twisting and changing darkness, but the aura it emitted made Ye Chen feel a fatal threat!

Ninth Layer Earth Fiend Realm! And it was no ordinary Ninth Layer; its energy essence shared the same origin as this space!

The Nirvana Shadow seemed to sense the intrusion of a ”living being” like Ye Chen. It instantly locked onto him and transformed into a bolt of black lightning, lunging forward with an aura of total annihilation!

Its speed was far beyond Ye Chen’s expectations!

Ye Chen’s pupils constricted. He instantly raised his guixu sword, and Chaos Gang Qi poured into it!

A great battle abruptly erupted within this Nirvana Corridor!