"Absolutely outrageous..."
Fang Yuan spat. Just this face alone was thousands of meters wide, and if it had a complete body, it probably wouldn't be any smaller than the yellow dragon.
What was even more bizarre was that this thing's condition was exactly the same as the yellow dragon's—clearly dead beyond belief, its eyeballs solidified into a murky amber color, yet it could still distort the surrounding environment, causing those demons to automatically sacrifice themselves as if in pilgrimage.
A creature that could still be so dramatic after death—how terrifying would it have been in life...
At this moment, having encountered a dead dragon in the world below could still be chalked up to coincidence, but encountering a second dead one in a row was no accident.
One was buried in the East Continent, and another one here—would there be one on the West Continent as well? But Fang Yuan hadn't noticed.
How many such "corpses" were still lurking in this world?
"This world... could it be some ancient god's or demon's mass grave?"
Fang Yuan held his breath and took extremely light steps. Even though the giant face in front of him appeared utterly dead, he still dared not show any carelessness. He retracted his aura to the extreme, moving like a shadow walking on the edge of a blade.
When he truly stood in front of that giant dead face, only then did he feel the difference between them.
—Merely the destructive aura naturally leaking from the corpse caused his bones to creak, and his muscles uncontrollably trembled.
"My full-strength strike... would it even scratch its dead skin?"
As soon as that thought crossed his mind, an unexpected change occurred!
The giant face that had been deathly still suddenly—no, to be precise, its black-hole-like mouth suddenly emitted a terrifying suction force!
The air in the entire cave was shrieking as it was drawn into a vacuum, and stones from the crumbling rock walls flew in like sugar beans.
"Dammit! Even dead, you're still this arrogant?!"
Fang Yuan had no time to think about why the corpse had suddenly "reanimated." His body was swept toward that giant mouth like a leaf in a storm.
At the same time, those demon corpses around him were also swallowed up without resistance, as if they were dumplings being thrown into a pot.
Fang Yuan furrowed his brows, sharply turned his head toward the cave exit, and without hesitation, activated his movement technique!
"Whoosh—"
His figure instantly flashed several kilometers away, but he didn't dare to pause. He immediately activated the technique again, and again!
In the blink of an eye, Fang Yuan had escaped to a very distant location, but that terrifying giant face had already vanished from his sight. However—
"How is this possible?!"
That strange suction force had, like a bone-deep curse, still firmly latched onto him!
What was even more terrifying was that Fang Yuan could distinctly feel that, in the dimness of the void, it was as if a pair of murky dead eyes were coldly watching him from beyond the emptiness.
"It seems like you've got me all figured out!"
Fang Yuan suddenly stopped, his eyes flashing with a terrifying fierceness. Since he couldn't escape, then he would stop running!
"Clang—"
The sword in his hand let out a deafening hum, seemingly responding to its master's battle intent. Fang Yuan stopped resisting, letting the strange energy flow envelop him as he was swept toward the abyss!
Behind him, a brilliant sun and a bright moon rose simultaneously, their radiant light instantly tearing through the eternal darkness of the cave. Under the combined light of the sun and moon, Fang Yuan's figure looked like a deity descending from the heavens!
"Doesn't matter if you're a god or a demon, I'll strike first and talk later—"
In an instant, that sky-covering dead face reappeared before Fang Yuan. The sun and moon's avatars exploded with a mighty roar, their dazzling radiance transforming into a torrent that pierced through the heavens and slammed into the giant face!
"Boom—!!!"
The deafening explosion reverberated throughout the cave, and the violent shockwave shattered the surrounding rock walls. But when the light faded—
That pale, giant face was still completely unharmed, not even its eyelids fluttered. The only change was a shallow wrinkle, as if mocking Fang Yuan's overconfidence.
Since external attacks were ineffective...
A wild idea flashed through Fang Yuan's mind. He suddenly relaxed all his strength, letting the terrifying suction force pull him toward the giant blood-red mouth!
"If you want to eat, then eat your fill!"
Thick darkness enveloped him like asphalt, and the stench of decay flooded his nostrils. Fang Yuan felt as if he were falling into an endless abyss, even the sound of his own heartbeat was swallowed by the oppressive silence.
Strangely, the expected attack didn't come. But it was this abnormal stillness that caused Fang Yuan's hair to stand on end—like the calm before a storm, the oppressive feeling of death was rising exponentially!
The foul odor grew stronger, and the surroundings were instantly engulfed in an even darker blackness. After being swallowed into the mouth, he couldn't see anything anymore, just like the feeling in the mist earlier.
"Sun and Moon, Together!"
The dazzling avatar exploded once more, and the Earth Sword swept through with the power of splitting the heavens apart! The blinding sword light, like dawn breaking, briefly tore through the eternal darkness—
In an instant, Fang Yuan's blood froze.
The sword light did not illuminate the flesh walls, but instead, countless... human faces.
The older brother's seemingly innocent smile was rotting, the sister-in-law's gentle eyes were crawling with maggots, the young lady from the Han family's delicate face had cracked into a spiderweb pattern, and Zhao Shuanghe's iron-blue face was still pierced by the familiar broken sword.
In the distance, the dragon robe of the Yan Taizu was wrapped around white bones, and the heads of the entire Zhang Xuanting family hung like lanterns...
Looking at these faces of people he had personally killed, Fang Yuan suddenly felt his whole body tingle, countless shattered memories flooding into his mind like a torrent—
He was suddenly plunged into a time-space vortex, and found himself back at the moment he first arrived in this world.
The rancid straw mat rubbed against his back, and he was thrown onto the cart like a dead dog.
"You need to pray that your older brother wins every bet..."
His older brother's face suddenly came close, a wet cloth soaked in well water pressed against him, bringing with it a familiar feeling of suffocation.
"Thud!"
Although the counterattack's hairpin still pierced the opponent's neck, the sister-in-law's scream came from the kitchen. The woman's eyes were now bloodshot, the kitchen knife in her hand was just about to rise—
At this moment, Fang Yuan's mind was empty, and there was no golden light from the "Good People Sutra" rising up.
"Thud!"
The long-lost pain erupted in his neck, and hot blood splattered on the earthen wall.
Fang Yuan felt the pain he hadn't experienced in a long time!
And it was this pain that yanked him back from the endless abyss. Fang Yuan suddenly realized—he was still submerged in boundless darkness, but golden light was flowing around him.
The golden light... Fang Yuan was stunned for a moment, then lowered his gaze to see that his health bar had completely restored.
No, it wasn't the health bar—it was a second life!
He realized something was wrong. In the previous, muddled hallucination, his first life had somehow been triggered and had directly activated the "Rebirth"!
Right now, he was in the invincible state after "Rebirth," and it was this invincible state that brought him back to reality from the hallucination!
"This time, I really kicked a steel plate..."
A bitter smile appeared on Fang Yuan's lips, and at the same time, the golden light surrounding him, representing his invincibility, began to flicker.
Fang Yuan knew exactly what would happen next. Once the golden light went out, the strange death hallucination would strike again, and this time—
There would be no second chance at rebirth!
At this point, he absolutely couldn't stay here!
"I never thought I'd have to use this divine ability so soon..."
Fang Yuan sighed, then activated his ability: "Load Saved Game!"
Buzz—
Time and space suddenly froze.
The next moment, the entire world began to rapidly reverse!
The scenery was like a torn painting, rapidly blurring and collapsing in front of Fang Yuan's eyes.
It felt like he was falling into a tunnel made of memories, countless scenes flying past him before scattering into nothingness!
...
At the dimly lit edge of the sea, thick fog surged like a living creature.
Fang Yuan and Ruan Chao'an stood in the air, their robes fluttering in the salty sea breeze.
In front of them, the fog swallowed the entire sea, like a giant mouth waiting for its prey to fall into its trap.
"What did Your Majesty say? I didn't hear clearly..."
"This trip's been a bit confusing..."
Ruan Chao'an shook his head vigorously, muttering to himself.
Fang Yuan didn't respond, just calmly gazing at the fog in front of him... So this was the feeling of loading a saved game? First time using it, and it actually feels pretty novel...