Starting from Yu Jin's feet, the greyish-white of the earth subtly took on a hint of pitch-black. The pitch-black interwoven within the earth continued to wriggle, as if they didn't exist upon the earth itself, but rather in a deeper layer.
"Gurgle gurgle ~" A series of sounds of mud shifting echoed from all around. Subsequently, more wet humanoids crawled out from beneath the earth in front of everyone.
However, besides the wet humanoids, there was another, even stranger kind of "person" among them.
Those "people" were different from the wet humanoids. The faces of the wet humanoids had a huge gash. The gash was precisely an oval formed by the connection of the eyes, nose, and mouth.
This made the faces of the wet humanoids look, from a distance, as if their facial features had been scooped out.
But those "people" were different; their physiques varied, some even discernible by gender.
However, all "people" were, without exception, enveloped in a black mist. Not to mention seeing their appearance clearly, even the edges of their bodies were blurry, making them look as if they didn't exist in the world.
Their appearance was such that it was less that the black mist enveloped them, and more that the black mist *formed* them.
Whether wet humanoids or collections of malice, after crawling out from underground, they were all covered in a thick layer of charred, rotten mud. The rotten mud fell from their bodies and re-merged with the earth.
"Tap! Tap!" The sound of mud dripping grew louder and louder, gradually replacing the sounds of the monsters crawling out.
The air grew increasingly damp. Alex and Bayeta felt as if their lungs were immersed in a viscous substance with every breath they took.
Their flesh felt as if it were stuck together by something; every movement required ten times more effort than before.
Sweet and cloying, fatigue—this was the only sensation Alex and Bayeta felt. In this state, they could do nothing at all.
"Hummmm…" Faint murmurs began to echo in everyone's ears. Even Durin started to feel uncomfortable.
As a pure consciousness, his changes were the most obvious. Strands of black began to spread upwards from Durin's limbs. He could feel himself regressing, regressing to his appearance five hundred years ago.
The murky Sky began to brighten, the barren earth gradually grew lush green, and only the unchanging wet humanoids and collections of malice in the distance reminded Durin that the scene he now witnessed was once again the opposite of what a normal person would see.
Yu Jin looked at the collapsed group on the ground, then at the monsters surging forward like a tide, and felt that it was a bit too much.
So he extended one foot and gently tapped the ground. Subsequently, the earth suddenly began to surge, like waves on an ocean.
Pitch-black waves rolled up, swallowing all the crawling monsters. The earth returned to normal, making one wonder if they had been dreaming just now.
"Get up, get up. If you die sleeping here, I won't be responsible," Yu Jin said, helping the three collapsed individuals to their feet.
"Are… are we not there yet?" Bayeta looked around with apprehension, fearing a hand might suddenly reach out from underground.
"No, we've only just reached the edge," Yu Jin shook his head, then nodded. Further ahead, the earth began to descend.
Bayeta's expression stiffened upon hearing this. She had seen two types of things, and almost died twice. And yet, they had only just reached the edge.
"Hahaha, didn't you say you wanted to see the forbidden? Are you scared already? I was counting on you to research something," Yu Jin said, patting Bayeta's shoulder reassuringly as he looked at her contorted expression.
"Phew—, who said I'm scared? Continue! I want to see how many times I can die!" Bayeta took a few deep breaths after hearing Yu Jin's comfort, then puffed out her chest.
She already understood that as long as Yu Jin was here, they couldn't die. If that was the case, it would be a pity not to see what the so-called forbidden truly was!
"Good, that spirit is excellent," Yu Jin nodded, then raised a hand, and everyone flew into the air.
Yu Jin slowly ascended from the ground, explaining to the astonished group, "If we stayed on the ground from now on, I'd be exhausted to death."
As for why he would be exhausted to death, one only needed to look at the previous two experiences. They were too fragile; they could die at any moment. If they were to walk all the way, Yu Jin would have to constantly monitor their condition. In that case, he would probably suffer from nervous exhaustion.
Despite having no prior experience with flying, Alex and Bayeta quickly adapted. This was because they weren't flying themselves; the air currents were carrying them skyward.
Everyone looked down at the earth from high in the Sky. They didn't know how high they had flown; the distance between them and the dark clouds in the Sky seemed constant, showing no change. Only the increasingly expansive view told them that they were indeed ascending.
From an unknown height in the Sky, everyone looked down and realized that the seemingly flat ground had actually been continuously sinking.
The entire land was like a funnel magnified countless times. The center of the funnel was pitch-black, and the pitch-black spread from the center, seemingly wanting to devour the entire land.
"What do you think?" Yu Jin hovered in the air with his arms crossed, looking at the pitch-black below and asking the group.
"Awe-inspiring," Alex stared intently at the "funnel-like" earth below, uttering only two words.
He couldn't imagine how vast this land was, nor how high they currently were.
"What… what is this?" Bayeta didn't know how many times she had asked this question. Her questions and horror had not ceased since arriving in this world.
"I… I somehow feel like it's watching me?" Durin looked at the pitch-black below. The more he looked, the more he felt it was an eye, a deep, giant eye staring intently at him.
Yu Jin looked at Durin and the pitch-black below with some surprise upon hearing this, but he quickly returned to normal.
"In that case, couldn't you just go down and ask Him?" Yu Jin said something that sounded like a joke.
However, before Durin could react, the ground beneath them suddenly began to shake.
"Rumble!" The colossal sound of the earth's crust shattering and the ground reforming traveled an unknown distance to reach everyone's ears.
The earth below began to tremble, and countless pitch-black masses surged from underground, engulfing everything.
The ground where everyone had walked before was like an oil slick floating on the sea; with a slight tremor of the ocean, the oil slick would shatter into pieces.
And the pitch-black deep underground was the sea, that thin crust of earth was merely the sea's disguise to attract birds.
In an instant, everyone saw the greyish-white ground shatter into pieces. Then, the pitch-black from the cracks surged out, devouring the last remnants of different colors.
If Alex and the others' eyesight had been sharper, they would have seen that the surging pitch-black was actually countless wailing human faces.
The pitch-black tide contained everything: skeletons, broken corpses, malice—everything that people hated, all the darkness of humanity, was within it.
Of course, if Alex and the others had truly seen these things, whether it would be a blessing or a curse would be hard to say.
Even after devouring the earth, the pitch-black did not stop. They began to roll and gather like clouds in the Sky, eventually becoming smaller and smaller, smaller and smaller… As small as the pitch-black was, so small was the matter in this space. Everything of that land was the pitch-black itself. And that greyish-white ground was perhaps the matter that floated up within the pitch-black due to its lightness.
As for whether it was bone ash or something else, that remained unknown.
When the pitch-black compressed to its extreme, the people in the Sky could no longer see anything below.
They couldn't see what was below, but that didn't mean what was below couldn't see them above.
A cold, the Deep gaze swept over everyone, and then the "thing" below actively appeared in their line of sight.
A pitch-black helmet, rusted red plate armor, blood-stained burlap—the appearance of that thing was clearly a gloomy Yu Jin.
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