Extreme East, deep within.

An emerging figure, stumbling.

With an unsteady step, he directly fell to the ground.

And the moment he sat on the ground, there was a cry of meat-wrenching pain, along with a continuous sound of sharp intakes of breath.

However, these cries and intakes of breath sounded... very hoarse.

"Water..." The figure endured the severe pain all over his body.

What he longed for now, was water.

Compared to the pain all over his body, the thirst that plagued him was far more unbearable.

"Ugh." The figure let out a deep groan.

Underneath the weak body, his vision blurred to the extreme.

But instinctively, despite the pain, the slight moisture he sensed through his nose became his guide.

There was water ahead.

Yet he couldn’t even muster the strength to stand; the immense weakness incapacitated him to the utmost.

Barely crawling forward little by little.

Fortunately, the ground retained some moisture.

Otherwise, his tormented body would become even more lacerated from friction with the dry ground.

A short distance took nearly a minute to crawl.

Before him, there was a small water lake.

It was merely a giant pit left from intense fighting; later filled with rainwater over several days, becoming a small water lake.

The figure unhesitatingly scooped a handful of water.

Yet, his arm trembled, and could only slowly and with effort extend.

Then, slowly retract.

As he retracted, water trickled through the gaps of his unclosing fingers.

When finally in front of him, only a small sip was left.

The figure drank it all.

In his mouth, a sweet taste lingered, greatly relieving his thirst.

Joy filled his heart, and he leaned forward, drinking directly from the lake.

To the figure, it was the sweetest water he had ever tasted.

Just ordinary lake water, but it felt like divine nectar, sweet as honey.

After drinking heartily, his parched feeling was somewhat alleviated, though still severe.

The figure could only continue drinking under the agonizing thirst.

Yet, after his stomach was full of water, the thirst hadn’t diminished much.

Instead, the burn inside, like an organ ablaze, made him suffer more.

The figure could only stop drinking.

As he lifted his head, the figure suddenly paused.

The water surface, once chaotic from his frantic drinking, gradually calmed, as still as a mirror.

The mirror-like surface reflected the figure’s face.

It was this face that made the figure pause.

That... was it really a face?

The face, somewhat gaunt and sharp-featured.

Obviously, it was an exquisite face.

But at this moment, it could only be described as terrifying.

The face was no longer recognizable.

It was covered in sores and blood blisters.

Tiny sores and blood blisters covered the entire face.

This was a face that only a monster might possess.

The once-clear eyes were now clouded, speckled with black dots.

At the corners of the eyes and eyelids, it was corroded and ragged.

The whole face was devoid of intact skin.

Blood occasionally oozed from the gaps in the flesh.

"Is this my face?" The figure stood stunned.

His head plunged into the water.

The sweet clear water slightly soothed his eyes, allowing him to clear his blurred vision a bit.

Raising his head, the figure looked at his own hands.

That... just like his face, was a monstrous hand.

Unlike the alabaster hands of the past, now it was covered in sores and blood blisters.

The entire hand was in ruins, as if scorched by fire, slightly blackened, with blood striations also seeping.

The figure finally understood.

His thirst wasn’t just mere thirst, but his entire body seemed as if soaked in venom, burning unbearably.

His hoarse voice wasn’t due to thirst, but because his throat had long been eroded and nearly destroyed by venom.

The body-wide pain, weakness was only one reason; the biggest reason was his whole body being full of ghastly sores and blood blisters.

However, to the figure, these were probably nothing significant.

With the figure’s character, he didn’t care about such things.

He forced himself through the pain to introspect internally.

Upon introspection, his heart was horrified.

How terrible had it gotten within?

His once enormous Small World was now riddled with holes, much like a deflated balloon.

The most terrifying thing was, this balloon was punctured with hundreds of holes.

The holes retained a great deal of toxic vapor.

Inside the Small World, inside the Qi Spring, the once surging Primordial Power was now gone.

The Qi Spring’s base resembled a cracked, barren land.

Above the Qi Spring, around the Small World, there once were 9999 radiant Martial Arts.

Now, none remained.

All complete Martial Arts had disintegrated.

The only intact ones were the two Martial Souls atop the Small World.

He withdrew his perception from the Small World, moving within his body next.

Internally, it was even more shocking.

The extent of damage to his organs was beyond severe.

The figure even felt that surviving was a miracle.

The organs were wrecked beyond repair; next was the physical body, bones...

The meridians throughout his body were shattered.

The bones were coated with a thin layer of poison, rendering them fragile.

The flesh seemed like broken, weak threads, frighteningly frail.

Was this really his body...

"Is this... really my, Xiao Yi’s, body?" The figure uttered to himself.

But the voice was raspy and harsh to the extreme.

The figure was, of course, Xiao Yi.

In the previous battle with Elder Jingz Yue, he had left himself a fallback, hence dared to trigger the Poison Pill.

He was confident of surviving.

In the venom, underground, with life and death uncertain for ten days, he finally broke through to the surface.

Yet the result was as it is now?

Xiao Yi even noticed that his once proud strong perception was now weak to the extreme.

This feeble perception, even used to sense inside himself, was still incredibly difficult and reluctant.

Yet, he could clearly perceive his condition.

His cultivation was utterly lost.

Primordial Power dispersed, and all complete Martial Arts vanished into the world.

His once robust Physical Strength had been destroyed, leaving the current damaged body.

This was a body so fragile it couldn’t even compare to an average person without cultivation.

At this instant, Xiao Yi felt utterly hopeless.

This body, perhaps even if used for retraining, was impossible.

And unable to retrain, no matter how unparalleled Xiao Yi’s skills were, it was all in vain. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

He couldn’t even gather a wisp of flame to heal himself.

He couldn’t even open his Universe Ring to retrieve the Elixir within.

He was now, merely a cripple!

...

The third update.

Today’s update, end.