Extra Chapter 9: Beneath the Heavenly Abyss

Nothingness. Emptiness.

After plunging into the Abyss, this was the only thing Ye Shu could feel.

It was as though his eyes were sealed shut and he had fallen into a pitch-black deep sea, unable to sense anything, as if everything were slipping away from him. All he could feel was the endless process of falling. He wanted to struggle desperately, to swim upward, but it was as if his strength had been stolen by something. He could not use it at all.

Throughout his endless descent, the only thing Ye Shu could do was hold Xiaobai tightly in his arms, making sure she would not leave him during the fall.

Now, he could not open his eyes or speak. He could not even be sure that he was truly holding Xiaobai.

The only thing he could do—

Was hold on.

Was believe that there was still someone in his arms who needed to be protected.

His consciousness continued to rise and sink during the descent, sometimes soaring above the clouds, sometimes sinking to the bottom of the sea.

If anyone had been watching, they would have seen a strange black aura coiling around Ye Shu’s body, frantically drilling into him through his pores.

During his fall, Ye Shu seemed to have a dream.

Through his hazy field of vision, he seemed to see Lin Qingxue and the others pointing their swords at him, their brows furrowed and eyes cold. It was as though he had returned to that time in the demonic beast forest, when the whole world had been his enemy and he had been utterly alone.

All he could do was flee.

All he could do was run for his life.

As he fled, he raised his head. The World Tree that never went out seemed to be getting farther and farther away from him—from filling half the sky, to being as small as the sun, then twinkling like a star, until it vanished completely.

In a world of nothingness, a young man fell.

The Abyss—a true land of nothingness.

A place the World Tree’s light could never reach.

Colossal, hollow remnants of broken worlds were scattered everywhere, each radiating an aura of decay. When a world was forgotten, it lost its light and fell from the heights until it reached this forsaken, rotting bottom layer, where no one remembered it.

And now, this decayed land had gained two new arrivals.

Bang!

Ye Shu crashed heavily onto the ground.

Xiaobai lay in his arms, her eyes tightly shut and her tiny brows knitted together, as though she were trapped in an endless nightmare from which she would never awaken.

“Someone’s here!”

“Someone’s here!”

Around the place where the two had fallen, indescribable creatures began crawling out of the stinking, decaying worlds. They stared greedily at the two people who had fallen from the sky.

Everything in the Parallel Lines needed to be nourished by the World Tree.

But in the Abyss, where the World Tree’s radiance could not reach, ordinary worlds would rot and perish before long. Their only way out was to devour the remains of other worlds that had fallen here, drawing the last traces of nourishment from the decay of their own kind in order to cling to life.

The indescribable creatures crawling out of those remains survived through this method. They had long since lost their original forms, leaving behind only the most primitive greed and instinct to survive.

“Fresh… still glowing.”

“Hehehehe…”

They squirmed and crawled, surging toward the pair from every direction.

In their eyes, Ye Shu and Xiaobai—who had just fallen from above—were without a doubt a sumptuous feast. If they waited any longer and the precious World Tree essence brought down from beyond the heavens dissipated, the taste would surely suffer.

Ye Shu remained deep in slumber, completely unaware of the outside world.

If he awoke, these already-rotted creatures would certainly be no match for him. But the system’s methods were constantly devouring and eroding his strength, leaving him unable to spare even a hand.

“Cackle, cackle, cackle!”

“The first bite is mine!”

The creature at the very front opened a deep, abyssal maw that stretched across half its body and lunged viciously at Ye Shu.

But just as it was about to touch him—

Ssssh!

The black aura coiling around Ye Shu suddenly erupted. It transformed into several chains that wrapped tightly around the serpentine monster before yanking hard.

With a ripping sound, the creature instantly let out a shrill, agonized wail. Its body split into pieces, spraying foul-smelling juices through the air. A strand of black aura rose from its corpse and slowly drifted beyond the Abyss.

The other monsters, however, were not frightened by the sight.

Driven by instinct, they were incapable of understanding danger. One after another, they charged toward Ye Shu, fighting to be the first to reach him.

The black mist moved like a guardian deity, lashing out with its chains.

Every monster that dared approach was killed, then transformed into black mist that drifted upward, becoming sustenance for the system.

Ye Shu remained unconscious, completely oblivious to everything happening outside.

He was still lost in that dream of countless betrayals, experiencing the entire lives of every Child of Destiny from the worlds he had absorbed—their lives, twisted beyond recognition.

Gradually, the surroundings grew quieter.

The monsters that had rushed forward were all slaughtered by the black mist, leaving only a few stragglers that had smelled the two newcomers from afar and come hunting.

If nothing unexpected happened, then Ye Shu and Xiaobai would likely spend the rest of their lives fallen within the Abyss, their nourishment continuously siphoned away by the black mist, becoming one of the suppliers sustaining the Divine Lord of the system race.

They would not die, but they might as well have been dead.

Yet accidents always seemed to favor this lucky young man.

Or perhaps, given infinite time, even the smallest possibility was destined to occur.

In his sleep, Ye Shu suddenly heard something. A voice pierced through layer upon layer of dreams and rang directly beside his ear.

“Hey, hey, boss. There are living people here.”

“Oh? And it’s a little boy.”

“Why’s there a little girl in his arms too?”

“Damn, he’s holding on tight. Why can’t I pull her free?”

“Haven’t seen a living person in ages. And this one’s so fresh, too. What do you say? Take him back and eat him?”

“Hmm…”

“Actually, forget it. In this dump, we might not see a living person for several great epochs. I’m going crazy having to deal with this bunch of primitive idiots every day.”

“We finally found someone. At least we can talk to him.”

“Pick him up and carry him back. Let’s see what the Dragon King says.”

“Tsk… this black mist.”

“Who would’ve thought he’d be another poor soul ruined by the system? Then again, if it weren’t for those bastards from the system, how else could he have ended up here?”

“Kid, meeting us means you’re in luck.”

“Let’s go!”

After that, Ye Shu could no longer make out the voices. He only remembered the sound of heavy, labored breathing, followed by an extremely bumpy journey. Then he was thrown rather roughly into some place, where he waited for an unknowable amount of time before being carried away again, apparently to meet someone important.

He was placed on something extraordinarily soft.

Someone pried open his mouth, and then poured in something he had never tasted in his life.

It was warm and comforting, like swallowing a radiant sun.

Ye Shu’s consciousness stirred. His eyelids moved with difficulty, and the face that appeared before him was old and withered, as rotten as a tree that had died long ago. A voice sounded beside his ear.

“Boy, you’re in for a blessing.”