The dragging sound was rhythmic and heavy like a wet sack of meat being pulled over jagged rocks. Xuan Ye pressed his chest against the cold damp earth and felt the vibrations through his ribs. His Stone Body was silent. His breath was non existent. He was a part of the landscape.
Through the thicket of thorns he saw it.
The clearing was bathed in a sickly grey light that didn't come from the moon. In the center stood a man wearing the tattered remains of a Royal Scout uniform. But he was no longer a man. His limbs were elongated and his skin was pulled so tight over his bones that it had begun to tear at the joints. His eyes were gone. In their place were two holes leaking a thick silver fluid that hummed with a low frequency.
Xuan Ye felt the Book of Fate thrum against his soul. It wasn't the hunger he felt for Xuan Feng's system. It was a warning.
[Detected: Corrupted Logic]
[Source:upper World(outer space) Leakage]
[Status: Non-Biological Entity]
Not a demon, Xuan Ye thought. He watched the creature pull a dead Spirit Deer toward its chest. Instead of eating it with a mouth the creature's torso split open like a jagged wound. Thousands of thin black threads erupted from the cavity and pierced the deer's flesh. In seconds the animal was a husk. Its bones turned to white dust. Its blood was sucked dry.
Xuan Ye gripped his obsidian dagger. His logic was sharp. If the four empires are the administrative of this world then this thing was a virus. And he was an anomaly.
If I eat a virus what happens to the anomaly?
He didn't hesitate. Xuan Ye simply moved because he needed to know his own limits, he needed strength to survive in this world
He didn't run. He lunged.
The Stone Body gave his muscles the tension of a drawn bow. He cleared the distance in a single leap. The creature didn't have ears but it felt the displacement of air. It tried to swing its elongated arm but Xuan Ye was already underneath its guard.
The obsidian dagger sank into the creature's thigh. There was no blood. Instead a jolt of freezing energy shot up Xuan Ye arm. It felt like his veins were being filled with liquid nitrogen.
[Warning:Integrity Breach]
[The Book of Fate is neutralizing foreign code]
Xuan Ye ignored the pain. He twisted the blade and ripped upward. The silver fluid sprayed across his face. It burned like acid but he didn't blink. He reached out with his left hand and grabbed the edge of the creature's open chest cavity.
"Absorption" he hissed.
The black ink of the Book surged out of his pores like a flood of shadows. It met the creature's black threads and began to devour them.
The creature let out a sound that wasn't a scream. It was the sound of glass shattering. The silver light in the clearing began to flicker and die.
[Absorbing Non-Standard Logic]
[5%... 15%... 40%...]
Xuan Ye felt his mind expanding. He saw flashes of a place that wasn't the Finite World. He saw a void where stars and universes were being extinguished by giant creatures it doesn't look like the finite world
"This is a higher realm?"xuan ye whispered in excitement
His body was screaming. The Stone Body was being forced to evolve too fast. His bones were cracking and reforming into something denser than rock. His blood was starting to boil.
[Mortal Vessel: Level 1 — 45% Progress]
[New Trait Acquired: Void Step (Fragment)]
The creature collapsed. It didn't leave a corpse. It dissolved into a pile of grey ash that the wind immediately carried away.
Xuan Ye fell to one knee. He was gasping for air. His skin was covered in black veins that slowly receded back into his heart. He looked at his hands. They were trembling but the power surging through them was intoxicating.
"That creature is just an ant compared to other creatures in this higher world?"xuan ye whispered
"And that creature was almost in a vegetarian state how is that even possible I wouldn't have absorbed it if it wasn't distributed and in a unable to move"xuan ye whispered while trembling with excitement
"Oh I forgot I got this Void Step techniqae or something like that"he thought. He stood up and took a step forward. For a fraction of a second his body didn't touch the ground. He had moved through the gap between the pixels of reality.
He looked toward the western waterfall. The Blood-Vine was still there. But now he had a weapon that the universe doesn't understand.
He wasn't just a mortal counting grain anymore. He was the only thing in the forest that the Heavenly Eyes of the Princess wouldn't be able to define.
He began to walk. The grey light was gone. The forest was dark again. But Xuan Ye can move easily because of the void steps
"This void step technique is just a fragment so how powerful is the complete version"
xuan ye thought.
"The hunt has truly begun" he whispered.
He moved toward the waterfall. Every step was a silent promise to the world that had discarded him. He was going to eat everything they held dear. And he was going to start with their blood.