Chapter 134: Chapter 133: World Deformation Tumor

The Demon Hunting Jade Token against his chest grew steadily hotter as a cold stream of information poured into Ian’s consciousness.

His fingers lightly caressed the Jade Token, his brow furrowed.

’Earth Hernia... World Deformation Tumor...’

The information revealed the truth of what lay in the deepest part of the Demon Cave.

It was no simple Demon nest, but a "malignant scar" left behind in the world’s fundamental Rules after the Will of the Abyss had been driven out.

A living, constantly pulsing and growing spatial distortion.

It used the polluted Earth Veins as its blood vessels, its roots sunk deep into the World Origin.

With every contraction, it spewed out a massive amount of Demonic Qi—enough to drive even an Official Wizard insane.

Even more terrifying was its ability to transform the environment.

Within its sphere of influence, Rock would turn into Bloodstone, and streams would putrefy...

Even the most fundamental physical and magical Rules would be twisted. Gravity might reverse, fire could turn cold, and a Healing Technique would instead cause flesh to fester.

It was a death Domain that constantly eroded everything and corrupted the spirit.

It was like a Demon factory. Not only did it endlessly spawn basic Demons, but its most crucial danger lay in "Abyssal Assimilation."

It could drag powerful captured creatures into its core, twisting and transforming them into elite monsters that retained some of their former abilities, but whose Wills were utterly dominated.

The information specifically highlighted several known Guardians that required extreme caution.

Law Resonance: These were Abyssal Law Fragments that spontaneously manifested around the Earth Hernia, forming malignant Magic Fields that would trigger at random.

These could manifest as indiscriminate spatial slicing, a doubling of the Soul’s weight, or even a conceptual form of "forgetting."

The Aberrant Symbiote: A being known as the "Cave Demon Witch."

The most powerful of these was a former Level Three Great Witch, who had been defeated and devoured by the Earth Hernia during an early purge and subsequently transformed.

Its body has fused with the Earth Hernia’s vascular network, allowing it to "grow" out from any location within the hernia’s range.

It can cast twisted, Abyssal versions of its former Witchcraft with almost no loss in power.

And its Life Box is the Earth Hernia itself; as long as the hernia isn’t destroyed, the creature can regenerate almost indefinitely.

The mission objective was outlined as a high-precision "surgical strike."

They would first need to isolate the energy source, then analyze and neutralize the chaotic Laws.

The final step was to excise or seal... the "Original Scar," a concretion of the "world’s traumatic memories and an Abyssal Contract."

Using brute force could lead to a collapse of the Rules and cause the corruption to spread on a massive scale.

The stream of information came to an abrupt halt.

Ian slowly exhaled, as if he could hear the heavy thumping of his own heart.

THUMP... THUMP...

The rhythm of his heartbeat seemed to overlap with a sound coming from the depths of the abyss.

’A cancer of the Rules... a World Scar... assimilating Wizards...’

He thought of the Thousand-Eyed Soul-Stealing Demon he had encountered, and the [Abyssal Soul Contract] fragments his panel had absorbed.

He felt as if he was just beginning to grasp the cruel and bizarre nature of this War.

This was no longer a matter of clearing out Demons; it was surgery on a festering wound on the world itself.

And they, the Wizards, were the scalpels—but they could also be devoured and transformed by the wound itself.

He thought of Murphy, of the Deep Red Royal Court, of Hector...

In the face of an aberration and corruption of this magnitude, personal grudges seemed insignificant.

And yet, the extreme nature of this environment could also magnify them to infinity.

"Gaa..." Perched on his shoulder, Gaga seemed to sense the weight on his mind and gently nuzzled his cheek.

Its mismatched eyes were full of worry. "Ian, down there... it’s not good."

"I know," Ian said in a low voice, his gaze refocusing, turning sharp and cold.

The danger far exceeded his expectations.

But the "Abyssal Law Crystal Fragments" and "World Scar" mentioned at the end of the report—the ones that might remain after the Earth Hernia was destroyed...

Could they be cross-referenced with the purified [Abyssal Soul Contract (Fragment)] knowledge on his panel?

Within this crisis, perhaps, also lay an opportunity to glimpse a deeper truth.

He pulled his hood tight, suppressed the last trace of inner turmoil, and turned to merge into the stream of Wizards making their final preparations.

Before dawn, the Ring-shaped Fortress’s Purification Light Curtain suddenly went out for three breaths.

There was no omen, no countdown.

Eight figures with auras as vast as the sea and deep as the Abyss were the first to transform into streaks of light, plunging into the abyssal fissure like eight sharp swords.

Immediately after, more than a thousand Level One and higher Wizards followed like a bursting flood.

Ian leaped into the fissure along with the torrent of people.

Instantly, the world changed.

Demonic Qi, so thick it felt tangible, rushed at him, boring into his nostrils.

The sound of the wind was replaced by countless overlapping whispers—temptations, threats, and fragments of meaningless babble...

All of it mixed with a heavy, thudding heartbeat.

THUMP... THUMP...

The moment Ian landed, his body felt light, as if he were about to float away.

But in the next instant, the direction of Gravity suddenly flipped, and he found himself "falling" toward the Rock wall to his left.

’Law Resonance!’

Alarm bells screamed in his mind. He instantly activated his enhanced [Crystal Energy Barrier], and a faint silver membrane of light formed a triple-layered Shield around his body.

At the same time, twelve miniature Floating Crystal Cones split off from the Shield, shooting like nails into the surrounding Rock walls to forcibly anchor his body in place.

Three breaths later, Gravity returned to normal.

Ian dropped back to the ground, his forehead already beaded with cold sweat.

That was just the most basic twisting of the Rules. If it had been "doubling the Soul’s weight" or "conceptual forgetting"...

He didn’t dare to dwell on the thought.

Looking around, he saw that the thousand-plus Wizards who had entered with him had already scattered.

In the labyrinthine Underground Cave, the passageways were a tangled mess. The surfaces of the Rock walls were covered in dark red, vein-like patterns, as if he were inside the guts of some colossal creature.

The concentration of Demonic Qi in the air was extremely high. Even with the filtering from his [Spirit Devourer] trait, Ian felt a faint, stinging pain in his Sea of Spirit.

"Gaa, there’s an Energy reading to the front-left. It’s very faint, like... a person."

Gaga’s telepathic voice sounded in his mind, tinged with caution.

Ian didn’t respond, merely adjusting the Crystal Cones into their optimal formation.

Six patrolled ahead, three guarded his rear, and the remaining three were ready to reinforce the Shield at a moment’s notice.

He chose a narrow, untraveled passageway.

Traveling alone, while dangerous, offered more freedom.

Especially in an environment like this, he didn’t want anyone to see his trump cards.

Neither his [Spirit Devourer] trait nor the existence of his panel.

The passage grew deeper as he walked.

The vein-like patterns on the Rock walls gradually shifted from dark red to a purplish-black, their pulsing growing ever faster.

The ground was covered in a layer of slime. It made a SQUELCHING sound underfoot, as if he were treading on rotting flesh.

Occasionally, dark purple pus seeped from the Rock walls, dripping onto the ground and corroding it, leaving small pits that steamed with black smoke.

Ian proceeded with caution, his Spiritual Power spreading out silently like a spiderweb.

His [Spirit Devourer] trait made him exceptionally sensitive to the flow of Energy. He could "smell" the corrupting Energy that saturated the air and "hear" the pained groans of the Earth Veins as they were forcibly drained.

’So this is the Earth Hernia... a wound on the world itself.’

It was rooted in the network of Earth Veins, siphoning the world’s nutrients like a parasite, converting them into Abyssal Demonic Qi, and spawning twisted Demons.

"Two hundred meters ahead, there are three life signs... no, three sources of corruption," Gaga transmitted again.