Chapter 1957 - 1501: The Locked Prison Cage!

Ten-plus breaths later.

Jiang Dali dropped over a thousand zhang in altitude before he sensed that the icy gaze seemed to have shifted away, no longer fixed on him. That fear and frenzied agitation rising from his Spirit also gradually ebbed, and he couldn’t help loosening his heart a little, while faint guesses formed within.

"Just now it should have been the Heavenly Will getting provoked by me, in a half-awakened state, using a thread of consciousness to observe me... If I kept ascending, I’d very likely come into direct contact with it..."

His expression was grave. Even while in the Primordial State, his Mental State as still as an ancient well, the higher he flew the more he felt an uncontrollable panic and manic unrest, a chill running down his spine.

It was as if the closer one drew to the edge of the heavens, the more one would be affected by some incomparably terrifying, vast Will. The Spirit and even the Body seemed to undergo some kind of chemical reaction, beginning to slide uncontrollably toward the brink of madness.

"Looks like that fallen fragment of consciousness within the Heavenly Will has impacted it greatly, to the point its overall consciousness may be riddled with restlessness and malice, shifting from its initial emotionless State to one rife with negative emotions. That is a disaster of the highest order!"

Jiang Dali’s heart sank heavy, as if cast in cold lead, as he inferred the severity of the situation.

When a person’s Will grows strong enough, it can infect others.

Just like how a leader’s confident bearing can infect his subordinates and those around him, or how a vicious fiend, bloodlust surging, can scare the timid into pissing themselves.

For a powerhouse like him, his joys and sorrows can directly infect people’s hearts.

As for the Heavenly Will, that goes without saying. Once it shifts from its original state of no emotion to the current faint mania, it can even affect someone like him; the closer he gets to the Heavenly Will, the more his heart grows oppressed, edging toward madness.

One can imagine that as the days and months accumulate and the Heavenly Will grows ever more deranged, many of the weak-willed folk and living beings on the ground will be infected by it, turning insane and hysterical. At that time, that will be when the true Catastrophe descends.

The Emperor had clearly foreseen such a horrifying outcome long ago, and thus used the power of the Human Dao to confront the Heavenly Dao, most likely to delay the speed at which the Heavenly Will plunges into madness.

"But merely delaying is to treat the symptoms, not the root. What follow-up methods does the Emperor still have prepared? Must we really wait until that five-hundred-year covenant arrives to see it?"

Jiang Dali pondered inwardly, tilting his head to gaze at the pitch-dark starry sky above.

Through Qi Mechanism observation, he could sense a vast, icy, colossal aura covering the firmament. In his Qi Mechanism Sensing, it was as if a mass of formless, intangible mist in a dispersed State, high above, overlooking the myriad beings.

Yet if one looked with the naked eye, nothing abnormal could be seen.

However, with his eye power he could perceive Space Fluctuations spread across an expansive region.

Those widely radiating, distorted Space Fluctuations were like a trap designed by some higher lifeform, or rather a nest it had no wish to see disturbed, shrouding the entire sky above the Mixed Martial Arts World, all but invisible to the naked eye.

The Heavenly Will seemed to exist in this inexplicable form, lying beyond that distorted Space Fluctuation, like a colossal entity in perpetual slumber, whose consciousness would only gradually stir when someone approached or provoked it.

"Once I’ve completed Heaven and Earth’s Forgiveness, I’ll come back to take a look... Right now this big fellow doesn’t seem to welcome me. What a bizarre world—just how was such a powerful Heavenly Will born in the first place?"

Jiang Dali hovered in the high sky where there was virtually no air resistance, fixing his gaze for a moment on the tranquil, unfathomable starry vault that seemed able to Devour all things, then dismissed the thought of drawing any closer for observation.

In all the years of the Mixed Martial Arts World, he was likely one of the very few who had ever reached such heights to observe the entire world at close range.

Perhaps in ancient times, there had been War Gods and others who could fly who had come here.

Later on, those who truly reached this height were likely only the Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, the Regent King, Guang Chengzi and the like, who might possess such strength.

As for other powerhouses capable of Near and far, yet lacking a true Flying Technique, they might not dare to forcibly create Space Fluctuations, draw close to this Heaven’s Edge, and provoke the Heavenly Will.

Looking at it now, this entire world shrouded by the Heavenly Will is not only riddled with Space Distortion, but has already become a cage of mad despair, imprisoning all living beings, forcing them to follow the fallen Heavenly Will step by step into insanity and ruin.

...

Half a quarter-hour later.

Jiang Dali returned once more to the Land of Catastrophe.

The ten-thousand-zhang-deep seawater had already been gradually repelled hundreds of zhang away by the Earth Intent.

Jiang Dali released his Will and began to rouse the Earth Crystal Core.

The golden vertical pupil with its single eye snapped open; the Earth Intent instantly condensed into a beam and struck the Void before him.

A Space Rift appeared.

Jiang Dali’s eyes flashed. He leaped to sit atop the Earth Crystal Core, and together with it slipped into the Space Rift, vanishing from sight.

...

An instant later.

Within the Sky, filled to the brim with black fog, a ring of dazzling white light that twisted space-time spread outward, turning into a continuous, expanding giant halo. The surrounding black mist of the four directions was pierced through, transforming into a bizarre, prismatic light-fog, forming a strange zone within this Land of Sin.

A crowd of freaks—some covered head to toe in ominous red fur, others with Scale Armor bristling over their Bodies—muttered venomous, resentful words. Their expressions were vicious yet tinged with fear as they ringed a middle-aged man whose bearing radiated authority, circling hesitantly around him, eager to strike yet held back by dread.