Chapter 483 - 482-

However, Grey was not aware of this. Hence, he didn’t pay it any more thought. And after this was completed, he heard a few more muffled booms ring out in his body. Three more spirit perforations had been blasted open, bringing the total number to ninety-eight.

Two more spirit perforations and he would be able to manifest his third Ball of Spirit Fire. Grey assumed that the reason for the sudden breakthrough was the internal strain and stress he had been under.

His sea of consciousness was also beginning to repair itself, and some of the excess energy released in the process was clearly drifting out, stimulating his spirit perforations with leftover power. In the end, though, his sea of consciousness would become far stronger and more robust once it had fully healed from the corruption and other damage it had suffered.

A few seconds later, Violet appeared. Her face was slightly pale, and droplets of sweat could be seen gliding down the side of her cheek. As soon as she appeared, she gave Grey a gentle smile, and he nodded curtly in return.

"I assume you’ve dealt with the sword as I asked?" she said gently, though her haggard appearance suggested it had cost her more than she let on.

Grey did not reply immediately. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and glanced around, searching for any sign that a battle had taken place near the captain. But there was nothing — no scorch marks, no broken ground, no trace of struggle at all. It made him wonder whether she had actually fought the six-eyed entity in the first place.

That was, after all, the very reason he had left as soon as she’d spoken.

"Are you looking for that thing?" she said, as if reading his mind. "You don’t think I knew what you were thinking, do you? Fortunately, I’d already prepared for it this time and made the necessary arrangements."

Hearing her words, Grey couldn’t help but wonder just how much of the whole ordeal had been orchestrated rather than left to chance. It was hard to ignore how smoothly the captain had handled every significant event along the way — even down to preparing the oil canvas that had somehow been linked to the six sections of the Heavenly Vine.

Grey wasn’t foolish. He knew the captain was after something far more than just the sword.

"Have you gotten what you came here for?" Grey asked, after a long moment of silence. At the question, she froze for a split second before a cheeky smile crept across her face, followed by a soft wink in his direction.

Slowly, the Withered Heavenly Vine began to wither even further. Its branches folded in on themselves, decay spreading across every part of it, until within seconds it had begun to rot away entirely.

The sky, too, began to shift — darkening into a pitch-black shade reminiscent of what one would find deep within a Corroded Zone. It was a clear sign, one that let both Grey and Violet know that the strange world in which everything had unfolded was beginning to collapse in on itself.

"I’ll be leaving now, little Grey. Hope you find that little girl you came here with. When you’re back at the Sect, we’ll split the profits," Violet said, before folding into a streak of light that shot off into the sky.

The moment she vanished, Grey could hear murmurs, howls, and bursts of laughter — the usual chorus of the Corroded Zone’s inhabitants: mutated beasts and other bizarre existences that called the place home.

Their unsettling cries put Grey on edge at once, and his usual caution and vigilance came rushing back. With one last silent glance around him, he quickly retreated from the area.

He suppressed the power of his Spirit Fires and plunged into the dark, twisted forest ahead. But only a few seconds later, several mutated beasts converged on the very spot where Grey had just been standing.

Their red eyes gleamed with malevolence, practically dripping with violence. They sniffed at the air, searching for some trace of where their prey had gone — but only moments after arriving, an overwhelming sense of dread swept over their bodies, and they froze in place, trembling.

Without hesitation, the gathered beasts scattered in every direction, fleeing without any clear reason. And once they had gone, a strange sound rose up from the empty space they left behind.

It sounded like someone singing — a sorrowful, mournful melody, and yet woven through it was an eerie, joyous laughter that seemed to spread out in every direction at once.

When the source of the presence finally came into view, it drifted eerily to the spot where Grey had been standing, gazing off in the direction he had fled. But rather than following his trail, it instead turned toward the path the captain had taken, and a strange, cackling energy rippled outward from the space around it.

---

Grey, who was already sprinting far from the area, remained unaware of any of this. Still, after they had completed the mission and made their way back toward the true depths of the Corroded Zone, he had a nagging suspicion that several powerful mutated creatures might show up before long.

Nor was it out of the question that a Bizarre existence might appear as well. The moment that thought crossed his mind, he left without hesitation, taking care to cover his tracks along the way.

The power of ninety-eight spirit perforations churned within Grey’s body. He could feel himself growing stronger with every passing moment, inching ever closer to the hundredth spirit perforation — the threshold he needed to cross in order to safely manifest his third Ball of Spirit Fire.

If he managed it, he would possess four balls of spirit fire in total, counting the Cold Yin Energy Core. At that level, he would have little reason to fear even Peak Foundation Establishment realm cultivators.

And if he pushed himself to his limits, he might even be able to suppress ordinary Spirit Core Formation realm cultivators.

"My power has been climbing steadily these past few months. Not only am I close to unlocking my third Ball of Spirit Fire, but I’m also drawing nearer to revealing the Ancient Technique I acquired." The thought of his strength growing further stirred a quiet hope in his chest.

In this world, everyone’s actions ultimately served the same purpose: securing their place and ensuring their survival — even if that meant killing others and rising atop their corpses, blood-soaked and unrepentant. Grey was no stranger to death. He had brushed against it more times than he could count, and had always managed, narrowly, to claw his way back from the brink.

But survival alone was never enough. To carve out a place in this cold, unforgiving world, one needed the strength to stand at its very peak. Otherwise, the only path left was to scrape by on whatever scraps the strong chose to leave behind.

As these thoughts churned in his mind, Grey found himself considering ways to grow even stronger — preferably by fully unlocking the true form and essence of the Soul Devouring Everlasting Bird.

It was, after all, an emperor-level cultivation art, one whose might was enough to shake the heavens and suppress countless rivals. Only those in possession of cultivation arts of a similarly imperial caliber could hope to contend with it.

But Grey knew that attempting to awaken the Soul Devouring Everlasting Bird without the right external conditions would be an uphill battle — and the odds of success would be slim at best. It was then that he recalled something peculiar that had happened not long ago.

Back when he was still in Sky Mist City, he had sensed the presence of the strongest Heaven’s Chosen from the Sects Alliance — someone who possessed a complete emperor-level cultivation art, or something close to it. Because of their shared nature, the two of them had somehow sensed each other, each becoming aware of the other’s existence in that instant.

Grey came to a conclusion: if he truly wished to unlock the full power of the Soul Devouring Everlasting Bird, he might have no choice but to devour the other party’s emperor-level cultivation art.

That realization made it almost certain that their paths — already prone to crossing — would intersect sooner rather than later. In truth, if either of them hoped to leave their current region and expand into the wider world beyond Kamui County, they would need the resources and authority that only the Sects Alliance could provide.

So in the end, the odds of their paths crossing had always been high to begin with. Grey simply hadn’t recognized it until now. And yet, even with this realization settling in, his expression barely changed. It made no difference to him whether the other party was the number one Heaven’s Chosen of the entire Sects Alliance. If they stood in his way, he would not hesitate to kill them and claim their resources for himself.

In this world, that was the only thing that truly mattered.

Compared to the time it had taken Grey to reach the depths of this place, the journey back toward the periphery was considerably shorter and easier. That was largely because he had already traveled this terrain once before and knew exactly what to expect. Moreover, it was currently daytime, meaning the true horrors of the Corroded Zone remained suppressed until nightfall.

Grey gave little thought to it as he ran past the old city ruins where he had once spotted the straw doll. Even as he raced through the very areas where it had previously appeared, he caught no sign of the strange existence this time.

Still, he didn’t dwell on it for long and continued forward at full speed, leaving behind nothing but faint afterimages and blurred streaks that vanished as quickly as they formed.

Barely a minute later, Grey came across a wandering mutated beast, evidently scavenging for weak prey or rotting flesh. The moment it heard footsteps and caught sight of him, the creature bared its fangs and lunged at him with wild abandon.

Grey didn’t so much as flinch at the sudden attack. He merely tapped the air lightly with one finger. The beast’s body shuddered for an instant before exploding outward in a violent burst of blood and viscera.

He was about to press onward when something caught his eye — a small glint shining faintly in the light. Glancing down to get a better look, his brows furrowed into a frown.

It was the jade slip Grey had given to Iria before entering the depths!