Chapter 4728: The Living Rule
"Where do you come from?" Lin Moyu asked calmly.
He could faintly sense the other's panic.
Undying spirits and the resurrected thralls he had created before were somewhat different; these retained much more of their original self awareness.
But no matter how much self they retained, they were now undying undead, living dead beings both dead and not dead.
From now on, for all the rest of his existence, this one would obey Lin's commands absolutely; whatever his life had been, in death he was Lin's slave.
Faced with Lin's question, he held nothing back.
"This slave is called Xuan Jin, from the Fallen Gold World, under True Lord Fallen Gold's command."
Xuan Jin had been one of Fallen Gold True Lord's subordinates, a member of the expedition team.
By the standards of the Primal Chaos Wilds, his cultivation had already reached the Quasi Great Venerable level.
However, he specialized in body and soul together, unlike ordinary cultivators, making him particularly suited to moving through broken world remnants.
He had traversed many remnants and carried out many missions, until at last he came here and died here.
Under Lin's questioning, he recounted what had happened back then.
When they first entered this dark world, nothing seemed immediately dangerous; only after groping around for some time did they realize something was wrong.
The power of darkness had crept into both their bodies and souls.
Their flesh was contaminated, and their souls were shrouded in ignorance.
By the time they understood, it was already too late.
Lost in the blackness, unable to find the way back, they remained here forever.
Everyone who had fallen in this place still had a soul flame that had not fully gone out.
They were dead, yet their souls still existed in a strange state.
This was the work of the Dark World's power.
The darkness had polluted them, but also left them one final ember.
If, in the far future, a heaven defying opportunity appeared, they were not entirely without hope of resurrection.
Lin Moyu was that opportunity.
"This is rather interesting…"
The Dark World's power was terrifying, overflowing with hidden killing intent, yet as it corrupted others, it also left them a sliver of life.
Lin dimly grasped another facet of what it meant for all things to have cause and effect; no world, great or small, escaped karma and fate.
Cause and effect and destiny were like brothers, eternally linked and inseparable.
After hearing Xuan Jin's tale, Lin gained some understanding of the Dark World's dangers but not enough.
More Undying Soul Soldiers brought back other dead from within the Dark World.
Their corpses were intact, their whole bodies sheathed in a dark sheen.
Once removed from that world, their bodies immediately began to rot and fall apart, and their souls turned to ash in an instant.
Without the Dark World's power to shelter them, these long dead beings were naturally erased.
Lin cast out tongues of Undying Flame and turned them all into undying spirits.
He wanted to extract as much information as possible about the Dark World; the more he knew, the safer he would be.
The pale light of the flames flickered, casting a strange white glow over Lin's face.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, glimpsing something within the fire.
"These corpses are not right," the Primordial Stone suddenly said.
"They do have a problem," Lin replied, "but the real problem is not the bodies.
"It is this world."
Almost imperceptible black threads rose slowly out of the Undying Flames, noiselessly melting into the spatial channel.
The channel itself did not appear to change, yet Lin keenly felt that it had darkened a little.
This dimming was so slight that even another peak powerhouse might not have noticed; he himself had only just caught it.
"The Dark World's laws have come here through the corpses and tainted the channel," Lin said.
"Fortunately the amount is small.
"If there were too much of it, the entire passage would become another Dark World."
If the Dark World's rules could pollute a spatial channel, they could also infect other worlds.
With enough of them, any world could be turned into a new Dark World.
Even in smaller amounts, these rules could reproduce themselves; given time, they would still be able to corrupt another world.
"My understanding of Dark Worlds is limited," the Primordial Stone admitted.
"There are not many of them, and each one is so black I can barely see what happens inside."
Lin pondered a while.
"This Dark World really is troublesome.
"Just now its rules tried to affect me, but they failed."
The Undying Flame could not burn away the Dark World's rules, but the Power of Death could.
"Those strands of rule tried to slip in," he said, "but the Death Power corroded them."
"They did not succeed."
"Even though its rules are troublesome," the stone replied, "I do not think the Dark World can truly threaten you, Master.
"Your own great Dao should be enough to handle it, and my Elemental Stone can also destroy them."
As it spoke, the Elemental Stone flared briefly.
Lin heard faint screams as several more rule strands from the Dark World were crushed.
"It is not that simple," Lin said, frowning.
"I feel there is some hidden secret in the Dark World's rules."
"Let them all finish describing their experiences first, and then we will go in."
He did not want to waste time, but haste would be even more dangerous now.
This Dark World was very powerful; Lin judged that it was not just a Seventh Cycle world but likely an Eighth or even a Ninth.
If it were only Eighth, he could still handle it fairly easily, but if it were Ninth, past experience suggested real trouble.
He swept his hand, covering the Undying Flames with the Power of Death.
Every black filament that slipped out of the fire was completely corroded.
Just as before, nothing new revealed itself to his senses.
One after another, former powerhouses were resurrected as undying spirits, bowing at Lin's feet and obeying his orders.
Each recounted everything he or she had experienced.
The more people spoke, the more complete the information became.
What they described generally matched Xuan Jin's story, but with certain differences.
In particular, there was one insectoid being from an insect race world who possessed a special ability: he could see things others could not.
He had noticed that within the Dark World's rules were hidden hair like structures, yet far, far thinner than any hair by billions of times.
More slender than any strand of hair, by countless orders of magnitude.
That went not only beyond the limits of the naked eye, but even beyond the tiny soul particles that filled Lin's own soul.
Moreover, those hair like specks seemed… alive.
This discovery immediately put Lin on high alert.
Did the Dark World's rules themselves possess life?
Were the rules alive, or were there living creatures dwelling inside them?
Even the Undying Eye had limits; when a lifeform grew too small, it could no longer see its soul flame.
That was why Lin's earlier use of the Undying Eye had found nothing.
As undying spirits, they would never lie to their master; Lin had no reason to doubt the insect's testimony.
But this was still only one being's observation and could not yet count as definitive proof.
The Primordial Stone had been listening as well, and all at once it thought of a possibility.
"What if this Dark World itself is a rule born lifeform?"
Lin paused.
"Is that even possible?"
"It is," the stone said.
"Such worlds have appeared before I have seen one with my own eyes.
"They were extremely powerful and caused no small amount of chaos."
"Explain in detail."
"With you asking so sincerely, Master," it said, "then this stone will speak at length.
"Once, there was a Five Element World…"