Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 467

Death (IV)

I put the flower down and took a deep breath.

... what the hell is going on?

The flower's description is rather simple, merely stating that it reveals the truth. I didn't think too deeply about it and thought it was another one of the system's vague riddles, but not in a million years would I have thought it was quite literal.

Look through the flower and see a world so different it doesn't feel real.

My first instinct is that it's literally a mirror universe, owing to the flower's name, but... it didn't feel that way. While the heaven and earth were inverted, and while it seemed dimensions themselves were folding under themselves, the core structure was familiar. Qi there was as it was here--just... different. Laws, too, seemed to be the same, just... different.

No.

I don't think it's a different universe or a different world--I merely think it's the true nature of this place. I don't know how it ties into anything or what it even means ultimately, just that this place certainly isn't a tomb of some phoenix or even a place to respect a tortoise. It's clear that the purpose of it is far deeper and darker.

Then again, I'm just one random guy and should probably just ignore it.

... oh, if only it were that simple. Regardless, deeper we must go. Thankfully, the kids picked up on the minor understanding rather quickly and were ready to set off. I fully expected our little stalker to rest at the edge or at least come out of hiding, but... they never did.

Eternity became a blood-colored cloak that fluttered even without the wind, revealing that the man followed us as we made our way into the ashen wasteland.

How he was going to contend against such dense Death Qi, I don't know, but he must have a plan.

The scenery hardly changed as we trekked it; dry rock stretched endlessly, a river of petrified ash a reminder of death. Here and there a rock would jut out almost like a tombstone, with the air growing thicker and thicker with fire.

We were about four or five miles deep when I realized we probably wouldn't have been able to go much deeper than this without the art. The sheer density of Death Qi was such that it began to manifest; though it was only in minute traces, plumes of dark-gray matter would drift upward for a moment before dissipating, like smoke from an ashtray.

Our breaks were growing increasingly less frequent as I simply didn't want us to spend any more time in this damned place than we had to; as such, we began to practically run at some point, and yet, nothing changed.

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Endless wasteland persisted, as though we were caught in an array--but I'm fairly certain we weren't.

We came to a rather abrupt halt as a canyon appeared in front of us; it was long and winding, at least a mile or two deep, though a strange haze covered the bottom. It extended on either end seemingly endlessly, and not only did it look foreboding, it felt that way, too.

Deep within it, I felt them--the screams of death. Even the kids, who didn't seem aware of what lay in its depths, all had uncomfortable expressions as they stared at it.

"Let's go," I called out as we found a nearby ledge to descend. While I was tempted by going over the canyon, leaping between the ridges, I feared the fall would likely be lethal for all of us. And though I felt my guts twist by going into this place, I didn't feel the sense of danger I've come to recognize as my sign to go the fuck away.

The descent took a while as it kept getting darker and darker towards the bottom. To be fair, I'm not even sure what the source of light on the surface was, so it was kind of a miracle there was light at any point in this place.

By the time we reached the bottom, though, it was dark. Quite a few kids had long since summoned globes of light that had beautifully illuminated old, decrepit stone.

It was all coated in the ever-darker shade of brown the deeper we went until it was nigh black at the very bottom. Uneven and eroded, it reminded me a touch of the Grand Canyon, though just a touch. Namely in that they were both oddly quiet for such grand sculptures of nature.

"W-what is that...?" one of the kids suddenly asked as we all came to a halt. About forty yards from us, enshambled silhouettes broke through the dark; they were people, and yet were not. Four limbs, a pair of eyes, a nose, lips... they had all the makings of a person, yet lacked the essence.

Though the kids were a bit horrified by the sight, I was horrified by something else: the remnant energy within that shambling corpse... it was unnaturally similar to what I glimpsed when I looked through the flower.

Taking a moment, I took the flower out and looked through it, aiming at the corpse--as I figured, that... wasn't a person. It was a plume of darkness, vorpal at the edges like a sharpened blade yet bleeding like a photograph bleeding beyond the final trim edge of a page.

Coming back down to reality, I took out the sword and, before any of the kids could properly process it, blinked over to the shadow's, well, shadow, stabbing it at the neck--that was where I saw it through the flower, the tiny, fingernail-sized sphere around which the plumes of death warped.

It didn't screech or cry out--it merely dissolved into a sludge that dried out rapidly, becoming petrified ash.

It was... well, it wasn't pretty, that's for certain. A couple of the kids seemed to gag, and a couple more even let their innards out, though most just put on strained expressions.

"Senior, that... what is that?"

"I don't know," I said. It was an honest answer--were they intended guardians? Byproducts of this place? Creations of Death Qi? I really didn't know. "All you have to remember is that they are not alive. They are not people. Stay alert--this place is swarming with them. Keep close to me."

We began to walk through the canyon, our pace stuck between slow and lethargic. Since the 'roads' or, better yet, pathways, tended to wind around like coiling serpents, we couldn't exactly bum rush forward since we never knew what lay ahead of a corner. Though I trusted my Divine Sense and my instincts, I still trusted my eyes a whole lot more.

It has to have been about half an hour, at least, before we stopped--it was no longer dark ahead, but bright.

Annoyingly bright.

There, surrounded by unending darkness and grips of Death Qi, was a small pond of water, no larger than a suburban pool, perfectly round, its water colorless and transparent, and at its center a swirling lotus flower with forty-seven petals fanning out.

It was below it where my eyes were drawn.

There, just underneath it, leaning against the floor, was the body of a young woman.

Unmoving. Silent. Dead, it seemed.

... until her eyes snapped open.

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