Chapter 93 - 289: Answer

Chapter 93: Chapter 289: Answer

"Senior, you didn’t create this place to lock yourself up. By building such a space and stuffing yourself inside, are you planning to bury yourself here, or are you hiding from something?" Su Tan thought.

"I created this place to hide from certain things," the Half-Corpse said.

"As you know, the Void Immortal Realm lost its Heart of the Great Dao, and there is a mutated, eerie power within it. If I were tainted by that eerie power... my old bones wouldn’t be able to withstand it. That is why I extracted a drop of Colorless Water and refined it into this space.

"With this space capable of isolating everything, no one from the outside world can find me... as long as I do not wish to be contacted," the Half-Corpse continued.

"So... you are hiding from something?" Su Tan asked.

The Half-Corpse fell silent.

After a long time, he finally spoke slowly, "Indeed. This thing... can shield me from anyone tracking me from the outside world."

"What are you hiding from, Senior? Could it be... the eerie power as well?" Su Tan asked.

The eerie power was the most terrifying legend in the Void Immortal Realm. Whether within the Void Immortal Realm or the many Otherworlds outside it, everyone dreaded it like the plague. Living in the Void Immortal Realm for a long period of time... what else would one do but hide from it?

"Haha!" The Half-Corpse let out a series of unpleasant, hoarse, and aged laughs. This sound didn’t seem to come from a human. Instead, it was like the clash of two stones echoing through history... a bizarre noise. It was filled with the vicissitudes of time. Ancient. A voice from the Immortal Ancient Era.

From this tone, Su Tan sensed a hint of disdain.

"The so-called eerie power... is nothing more than that. It’s just a terrifying legend fabricated by petty people. To me, it is actually nothing to be afraid of. In fact, for the powerful creatures of the Void Immortal Realm, it is even a boon," the Half-Corpse said.

"I’m sure you noticed earlier, my young friend, the eerie tentacles extending from the Ancestral Dragon, piercing into all living beings in the Void Divine City. That is the eerie power..."

The Half-Corpse slowly revealed the truth behind it.

"The truth of the eerie power is that it is simply a means of self-preservation used by the natives of the Void Immortal Realm—powerful creatures from the Immortal Ancient Era—after the realm lost its Heart of the Great Dao. They created these eerie tentacles and plunged them into every creature that lives in the Void Immortal Realm for extended periods. They do this to harvest nutrients, gain new Life Force, and prolong their own lives."

Hmm? It was that terrifying?!

Hearing this, Su Tan instantly felt a chill run down his spine. As long as one lived in the Void Immortal Realm for a long time, an invisible tentacle would pierce into their body, siphoning their nutrients. No matter where one fled, that hand would follow them like a shadow.

Su Tan finally understood... No wonder in the Void Immortal Realm, no matter how outstanding one’s talent was, no matter how breathtakingly brilliant they were, it was incredibly difficult to break through to the Saint Realm. Because from the moment of birth, an invisible hand was extracting their energy and siphoning their cultivation. Under those circumstances... it would be a miracle if anyone could break through.

Why had no one discovered it? These tentacles... were extremely concealed and difficult to detect. Unless one came into contact with the core of the eerie power, discovering them would be nearly impossible!

But... how could the fact that people from the Otherworld turned into eerie creatures be explained? Didn’t they only absorb energy? Why would they completely slaughter the cultivators from the Otherworld?

This was actually very easy to explain. Su Tan had already guessed some of it beforehand. Because this world lacked the Heart of the Great Dao, no matter how high the cultivation of the creatures inside was, they would face severe consequences if they didn’t regularly replenish themselves. Therefore... they would turn cultivators from the Otherworld into eerie creatures, converting them into nutrients... and then absorb the Dao Principles of the Otherworld.

However, what puzzled Su Tan was why cultivators from the Otherworld absolutely had to become eerie creatures. He had discovered many methods to stabilize one’s cultivation and go into dormancy to conserve energy. It made sense that weak cultivators couldn’t live past a thousand years, so they needed to absorb the Dao Principles of the Void Immortal Realm, thus suffering from its corruption... But what about powerful cultivators? They could easily live past a thousand years even if they did nothing and just consumed their own energy. Why did they also have to undergo this eerie transformation?

One could argue that the eerie creatures would do everything they could to absorb their power. But those existences who could survive for a thousand years on their own merits weren’t completely powerless against the eerie creatures. Why couldn’t they resist?

Su Tan voiced all of these questions.

Hearing this, the Half-Corpse explained, "They cannot resist... To be precise, when it comes to this eerie transformation among the cultivators of the Otherworld and across thousands of worlds, those who can resist are extremely few."

"Why is that?" Su Tan continued to ask.

"Because... this is a life-prolonging measure set up by the forbidden entities of the Void Immortal Realm," the Half-Corpse explained.

"Don’t be fooled by the current state of the Void Immortal Realm, where many experts in the forbidden zones appear fierce on the outside but hollow on the inside. You yourself can defeat many creatures that are the source of the eerie power—like the Ancestral Dragon, for instance... you probably felt it was a bit weak. But they are only weak now because they have been eroded by an unimaginable amount of time, reducing them to this fragile state. During the Immortal Ancient Era, they were absolute juggernauts capable of blotting out the sky with a single hand...

"Back then, any random one of them who stepped out—as long as they weren’t facing a world of the same tier or creatures from the Immortal Realm—could suppress the All Heavens and Myriads of Realms...

"The rule in the Void Immortal Realm today—that creatures from the Otherworld will gradually undergo an eerie transformation, and cannot survive otherwise—was created by them right when the Heart of the Great Dao collapsed. Foreseeing that they would encounter many massive troubles in the future, they realized that only by seizing the vitality of the world and stealing the Dao Marks of the Ten Thousand Realms to prolong their lives... could they drag out their feeble existence. Thus, they joined forces back then to establish this rule. How powerful were they at that time? The rule they set was just as terrifying. Their personal strength might have waned now, but this rule... remains the same as it was in the beginning. Tell me... can creatures from the Otherworld resist such a rule?"

Hearing this, everything suddenly became clear to Su Tan. So that was how it was. It made sense... During the Immortal Ancient Era, the Void Immortal Realm was an existence on the verge of evolving into a true Immortal Realm. In that era, just how strong were the titans of the Void Immortal Realm? It was unimaginable! It went without saying that the rules they established had to be incredibly terrifying. Therefore... it was no wonder that no one could unravel the eerie rules here.

Su Tan had finally figured out the general gist of the eerie anomalies in the Void Immortal Realm. It meant that... in order to survive, the various titans of the Immortal Ancient Era had manufactured this eerie power. Not only did they exploit the cultivators of their own realm, but they also preyed on creatures from the Otherworld.

As for the countless fortuitous encounters in the Void Immortal Realm, the Divine Medicines in the forbidden zones, the Cultivation Techniques, Martial Techniques, and the like... as well as the scattered minor spaces—they were all bait used by the sources of the eerie power to hunt. Even the trial cycles that opened once every thousand years were deliberately set up by them. One hunting cycle was exactly enough time for them to digest the food in their bellies.

So that was it... No wonder the native cultivators found it so difficult to encounter or seize true fortuitous encounters... while cultivators from the Otherworld had a much easier time. It was all a trap! A trap designed to lure Otherworld cultivators in for trials.

"This struggle between hunter and prey is truly interesting!" Su Tan laughed.

Who was the hunter, and who was the prey? The cultivators of the Otherworld... would probably never realize this conspiracy!