Chapter 699: Law Of Devouring

Third Person’s POV

Arlene naturally knew all of this.

Yet despite the importance of their destination, her attention was repeatedly drawn toward the thought of Ethan walking beside her party.

’Eryndor chose to join us instead of Brother Erius...’

A faint smile threatened to appear on her face.

She quickly suppressed it and composed herself.

’That’s why I’m happy.’

At least, that was what she told herself.

There was certainly nothing else behind her happiness.

The party continued through the snowy landscape, with Arlene and Edhan walking side by side at the front.

Reed and Pebba followed behind them, while Ethan and the two women remained farther back.

In reality, Ethan was the final person in their formation.

The arrangement had been deliberate.

This realm had already become filled with hidden dangers, and the appearance of strange creatures and outside invaders that were clearly different from the known inhabitants of the Ice Abyss had made everyone significantly more cautious.

With Ethan and Edhan being the two strongest and most undisputed fighters within the group, they had naturally moved to the front and rear ends of the formation.

This allowed them to respond quickly to dangers approaching from either direction while keeping Arlene, Aurelia, and Eleanor safely positioned between them.

Pebba and Reed had initially been rather displeased when they learned that they would be responsible for covering the other two positions around the middle of the formation.

Neither of them had particularly wanted to walk in such a rigid arrangement.

However, after witnessing Ethan’s strength and seeing how favorably Arlene regarded him, neither dared to voice their objections.

They understood that Ethan’s warning about remaining vigilant was not something they could afford to ignore.

The group therefore proceeded across the mountainous, icy region in relative silence.

Their footsteps sank into the thick snow with soft, muffled sounds, while the cold wind swept across the exposed portions of their bodies and carried fine snowflakes through the air.

Jagged mountains rose in the distance, their frozen surfaces disappearing beneath the perpetual pale light of the realm.

No one dared to casually chat as they walked.

Ethan had specifically warned them against unnecessary conversation after leaving the ruined city, and Edhan had solemnly agreed with him, understanding the reasoning behind such caution.

They were entering an area where danger could emerge from anywhere.

A seemingly harmless patch of snow could conceal something beneath it, an empty mountain pass could hide an invisible creature, and even the surrounding space itself could potentially become a battlefield without warning.

Under such circumstances, maintaining silence and preserving their concentration was far more important than making idle conversation.

Thus, the group continued deeper into the frozen mountains, their formation remaining tight and orderly as the distant Death Valley gradually came closer.

As they walked across the snow-covered terrain, Ethan was not simply moving forward mindlessly or wasting his time worrying about every potential danger that he might encounter in this realm in the next few days.

Instead, he was finally beginning to sort through all the matters he had been postponing since regaining consciousness several hours ago.

There were simply too many things that had happened in such a short period of time, and until now, he had not possessed the luxury of calmly examining them one by one.

While continuing to walk with the group, Ethan sank his consciousness deep into his body, allowing his spiritual perception to travel through his internal world.

He deliberately left only a small portion of his perception outside his body, enough to remain aware of his surroundings and follow the group’s movements so that he would not accidentally walk into a ditch or stumble over some obstacle while completely absorbed in his own thoughts.

The first things he examined were the two poison beads.

One was blue.

The other was purple.

Both were only about the size of a peppercorn now, yet Ethan had no intention of underestimating either of them.

After he had stripped away their primitive consciousness and removed the strange law fragments contained within them, they had ultimately been reduced to two extremely lethal concentrations of poison.

He still didn’t know what he should do with them.

For the moment, however, there was no obvious reason to keep examining them.

Ethan therefore shifted his attention away from the two beads and sank his consciousness deeper into his dark mana dimension.

There, his attention immediately landed on the suspended grayish black runes.

There were dozens of them floating quietly within the darkness.

At first glance, they appeared almost identical.

Every rune possessed the shape of a twisted spiral, its structure strangely reminiscent of the enormous dark rune that had appeared upon the surface of the huge dimensional anchor crystal floating within his mana dimension during his comprehension of the poisons’ force fields.

The more Ethan observed them, the more familiar their twisting structure seemed.

He recalled the strange twisting force fields that had surrounded the two poisons when they had fought against each other.

The way the force fields had warped, twisted, and distorted everything caught within them.

Gradually, an idea formed in his mind.

’Could these be law fragments related to that strange power?’

The instant this thought emerged, a line of words suddenly appeared within his soul’s vision.

[You have encountered traces of Law Power, causing the nexus to become active again.

Does host want to know about them?]

Ethan was pleasantly delighted by this development and hurriedly let his soul transmit waves of agreement toward the Eterna Nexus.

He had been waiting for an opportunity to understand these strange runes, and now that the Nexus had apparently become active again, he certainly wasn’t going to waste it.

The mysterious Nexus responded almost immediately.

[The rune fragments host pulled out from the invading blood consciousness belong to one of the three aspects of the Law of Devouring.]

[Host might not know, but the Law of Devouring is an intersection of the two Greater Laws of Darkness and the Greater Law of Space.]