Chapter 687: Devouring The Poisons

Third Person’s POV

Their instincts told them that this strange darkness was no different from the power they had encountered earlier.

They had already twisted and devoured Ethan’s mana before.

Naturally, they believed that this darkness would suffer the same fate.

The dark domes would be twisted apart by their innate twister force field, after which they would absorb the resulting mana fragments and grow even stronger.

Yet a short moment later, something began to feel wrong.

The twisting force fields surrounding the two poisons started behaving strangely.

They were no longer responding entirely to their instincts.

The force fields they had formed through their innate ability to twist matter, mana, and even soul power were gradually slipping beyond their control.

The poisons were nothing more than bundles of powerful instincts.

They lacked the intelligence and sharp senses of the demonic creature from which their power had originated.

Even so, they could instinctively recognize that something was terribly wrong, as they felt a fatal threat to their existence.

The darkness surrounding them was not being twisted apart.

Instead, it was twisting them.

The two poisonous vortexes instinctively looked upward.

The dark domes surrounding them had changed.

They were no longer domes.

A gigantic dark maw had replaced them.

Dark runes flashed along the edges of the enormous maw like streaks of black lightning, making the already terrifying sight appear even more sinister and devilish.

The two poisons struggled instinctively.

But they had failed to understand one crucial difference between themselves and Ethan.

Their power was limited with no source backing them, but Ethan’s power wasn’t the same.

Behind the devouring runes was an entire reservoir of dark mana continuously supplying them with power.

The force fields generated by the two poisons began to twist.

At first, the change was subtle.

Then the twisting became stronger.

Their own force fields were gradually being distorted, compressed, and twisted like a mass of dough being kneaded by an invisible hand.

The two poisons desperately resisted, as they attempted to devour the darkness surrounding them.

They attempted to strengthen their force fields and attempted to break free, but none of it worked.

The dark maw opened wider.

And then—

The distorted force fields were violently sucked toward it.

After that, bit by bit, the blue and violet poisons were dragged into the darkness.

Every trace of mana they had devoured from Ethan throughout the battle only became fuel for their own destruction.

They struggled with everything they possessed, but the result never changed.

The devouring maw continued consuming them.

And the same scene was occurring throughout Ethan’s entire body.

Countless dark maws appeared simultaneously around the poisonous vortices, leaving the two seemingly living poisons no opportunity to retreat, regroup, or turn their combined strength against Ethan.

One after another, their force fields collapsed.

The poisonous energy was swallowed, and the instincts contained within them were devoured.

And eventually, nothing remained.

After Ethan finished devouring every trace of the two poisons inside his body, he didn’t immediately destroy the bundles of instincts that remained within them.

Instead, he carefully separated them from the poisonous energy and transferred them into his mind space.

There, he sank the bundles of instincts into the vast, silver sea.

The moment they entered the terrifying silver sea of the Astral World, they began dissolving.

Their instincts struggled for a brief moment before gradually disappearing into the silver depths, destined to be completely erased.

As for the poisonous substances themselves, Ethan compressed them into two tiny beads.

One of them was blue, while the other was purple.

Each bead was no larger than a pepper seed, and they floated quietly near his heart, occasionally flashing with a faint, dangerous radiance.

They were no longer living forces driven by instinct.

They were now nothing more than concentrated poison.

And Ethan immediately realized that, if necessary, he could potentially use them as lethal, one-time weapons in the future.

Yet something else caught his attention.

His ice mana that he had recovered from the blue poison was strangely different.

It still possessed the same fundamental nature of cold as his original ice mana, but there was now a faint blue hue mixed into its previously pure white color.

Ethan frowned slightly as he carefully examined it with his soul sense.

But no matter how thoroughly he analyzed it, he couldn’t find anything abnormal.

After pondering it for a moment, Ethan could only sigh and put the matter aside for now.

His attention then shifted toward the small bundle of strange runes floating within his dark mana dimension.

He had constructed them from his own mana a few seconds ago.

Ethan had discovered them hidden within the two poisons after reducing them to their smallest fragments and absorbing them.

Only after examining them at an extremely microscopic level with his soul had he discovered these strange runes buried deep within their cellular structure.

Now that he knew about Laws and the existence of runes, he had copied them using his soul power.

He didn’t intend to investigate them immediately.

That could wait.

There were too many unanswered questions surrounding the poison, the runes, the strange blue hue in his ice mana, and the newly awakened Eterna Nexus.

But for the moment, Ethan was alive.

More importantly, his darkness had returned.

His mana veins had been freed from their shackles, and he had even obtained a faint understanding of this new power called the Law of Devouring.

He couldn’t afford to remain lying here any longer, as this was still a dangerous realm filled with unknown enemies, and his mother and Aurelia were outside waiting for him.

He had only just reunited with them after years of separation, and yet he had left them waiting while he lay unconscious on the verge of death.

There was no way he could continue sleeping peacefully in this place.

Whatever questions remained unanswered, whatever mysteries surrounded the Eterna Nexus, and whatever further changes had occurred within his body could all be dealt with later.

For now, Ethan needed to get up as he had people waiting for him outside.