The wind in the valley seemed to blow from the depths of the earth's crust, carrying no temperature, only a kind of dry, hoarse texture that made one instinctively want to pull away when it brushed against the skin. Bai Lin stood at the valley's entrance, his chest tightening in spasms—not from the cold, but from that familiar yet unwelcome sensation—dislocation.
It was as if someone had gently pushed the entire valley an inch to the side and back, but not quite aligned it perfectly.
The texture of the air was pulled into disarray.
Shadows lagged half a beat behind their entities.
Vibrations from deep underground echoed as if reflected through countless layers.
Bai Lin didn't step in immediately; instead, he tilted his ear to listen.
The Demon Emperor's indifferent voice slipped through some crevice within him.
"…Another fractured boundary layer… Your world… Why so many holes?"
Bai Lin didn't respond. His full attention was on the center of the valley, where a fissure was slightly opening.
Like an eye.
An eye that shouldn't be seen.
Inside the fissure flowed not layers of soil, but some kind of boiling black shadow. These black shadows weren't black mist itself, but more like "residual fragments" after the black mist had been torn apart. The fragments clashed with the surrounding air, releasing a hissing sound, as if two incompatible texts were forcibly pieced into a sentence.
Bai Lin's fingertips unconsciously tightened.
If this is a true fractured boundary layer, what falls out from inside… won't be something humans can comprehend.
He took a deep breath, entering the semi-static state of "Corpse Cold Breath." His body temperature dropped, blood flow slowed, breathing became so light it nearly vanished. Only his vision sharpened, as if he could see through the hidden flaws in the air.
The fissure suddenly trembled.
Bai Lin reflexively gripped the short blade in his hand.
The earth slightly bulged, as if something was colliding with the surface from below. A second time, a third—the vibrations grew faster.
Then—the fissure was torn open.
A black shadow was forcibly expelled from the world, tumbling onto the ground with a dull, moist thud.
Bai Lin instantly retreated, his Corpse Cold Breath making even his footsteps silent.
He stared at the mass of black shadow.
It wasn't human.
Nor was it a demon, nor a spirit beast.
The thing seemed composed of countless decayed scriptures, each one written wrong, scraped off, rewritten countless times, and finally crumpled into a ball. It had no fixed form, occasionally extending a limb-like appendage, but the next instant it would disintegrate into flowing fragments resembling text.
Its very existence was like a "data error."
The Demon Emperor paused for two breaths inside Bai Lin, unusually silent.
"…This is… something written wrong."
Bai Lin frowned: "Written wrong?"
"Your world doesn't operate on its own," the Demon Emperor said in a tone as if looking at something foolish. "You're being written. This kind… is the result of writing gone awry, yet forcibly crammed in."
Bai Lin didn't pursue further. Because the thing started moving.
It got on all fours—at least, lines resembling limbs—and lifted a "face" that didn't belong to any facial structure. The face looked like it had been carelessly drawn on and then smeared away, leaving blurry marks.
However, its "eyes" locked onto Bai Lin.
Bai Lin's heart tightened.
Not from fear, but because that gaze carried a nauseating familiarity.
—It was trying to recognize him.
Like searching for data correspondence points.
"Back off," the Demon Emperor said lowly. "It doesn't belong to you, nor to me… It belongs to error."
As soon as the words fell, the thing emitted a sound that wasn't quite a sound, more like a fragment of audio forcibly played in reverse.
"…Re-cord—er…ror… dis…place…"
Bai Lin's body stiffened.
This wasn't the first time he'd heard similar phrases, but this time it was clearer, more invasive, even carrying a certain… directness.
Like it was speaking to him.
Like it was identifying him.
Like it was confirming—that he was part of the error.
Bai Lin didn't retreat.
Instead, he stepped forward.
The Demon Emperor was silent for two breaths, then sneered coldly: "Courting death again."
Bai Lin didn't retort, instead staring at the reverse-audio monster.
The rift creature seemed enraged by his approach, its body lines erupting, limbs spreading at impossible angles. The next instant, it lunged at Bai Lin with a speed that utterly defied mass!
The air was torn, emitting a piercing screech.
In Bai Lin's Corpse Cold Breath world, everything slowed.
He saw that when the monster swung its limbs, it left "residual text" in the air. Those texts resembled half-erased runes, or erroneous annotations.
Bai Lin sidestepped, light and precise, his blade flashing across a section of the monster's limb.
That limb shattered into a string of dislocated text.
The next instant, it reassembled into a limb.
Bai Lin's heart sank.
It can't be killed because it's not material. It's a "written error."
The monster lunged repeatedly, its speed increasing, and Bai Lin even began to see the residual shadows in the air becoming chaotic.
It was adapting to him.
The Demon Emperor's voice suddenly deepened.
"It's starting to read you."
Bai Lin's body chilled.
"What do you mean?"
"It's reading your existence. Reading your structure. Reading your dislocation," the Demon Emperor said coldly. "Once it finishes reading, you'll be written over by it."
Bai Lin gripped his short blade tightly.
He couldn't let it finish reading.
He took a deep breath, pushing Corpse Cold Breath to its limit, his heartbeat seeming to halt.
The world quieted for a breath.
The next second, he flickered like a shadow to the monster's side, his short blade stabbing straight at the twisted core.
The instant the blade tip pierced in, Bai Lin felt like he'd stabbed into some "text layer," as if piercing a sheet of draft paper. His blade was hindered by an inexplicable force, entangled in dense deletion lines.
The monster's counterattack was faster than before.
One of its limbs instantly extended threefold, striking Bai Lin's chest with bizarre serrations!
Bai Lin was knocked back three steps, his chest feeling like it had been smashed by a boulder.
It was imitating him.
Learning his form.
Copying his rhythm.
The Demon Emperor's tone grew cautious.
"…It's starting to read you correctly."
Bai Lin wiped the blood from his mouth, his eyes showing no hint of retreat.
He knew—this was his first time facing a true non-human enemy.
Not a cultivator.
Not a demon.
Not black mist.
Not nature.
But—a defective product born from the world's writing errors.
The depths of the rift vibrated again.
As if more things were about to emerge.
Bai Lin gripped his short blade, shoulders sinking slightly, preparing for the next wave.
The Demon Emperor suddenly said lowly:
"Bai Lin… That dislocation in you is about to be seen by it."
Bai Lin's pupils contracted.
The monster emitted a clearer reverse audio:
"…Record… er…ror… Bai… Lin…"
Bai Lin's heart felt pierced by an ice blade in an instant.
It said his name.
The moment the monster uttered Bai Lin's name, the valley's air seemed to congeal.
Not cold.
But a kind of "system-level" solidification.
As if the world had a brief pause in that instant—
Like rechecking if that sentence should be allowed to exist.
The Demon Emperor lowered his voice, his tone carrying a faint caution for the first time: "…It's written your existence into it."
Bai Lin didn't move.
He stared at the patchwork error monster, its twisted texts and lines re-floating. The monster's outline began to sharpen, more like… a person.
Not like any specific person, but a vague humanoid framework emerging.
Bai Lin's breath tightened.
It was—using him as the draft.
The monster stepped forward.
When that step landed, the ground produced two layers of shadow.
One was the ground's own shadow.
The other… was the monster's dislocated shadow, lagging half a beat behind its body.
The shadow seemed forcibly pasted into this world, but not quite fitting.
The Demon Emperor said coldly: "It's forcibly aligning with your existence… If you let it keep reading, you won't be you anymore."
Bai Lin didn't retreat.
For the first time, he felt an indescribable revulsion deep in his chest—
Not toward the monster, but toward the act of "being read" itself.
That feeling was like… someone flipping through his proof of life.
The monster's form gradually coalesced, like segments of dislocated strokes trying to form a word.
Its mouth split open, as if imitating human speech.
"…Bai… Lin…"
Bai Lin's short blade trembled in his hand.
The next second, the monster suddenly teleported right in front of him!
Its speed—so fast, faster than any time before.
As if through reading, it had directly learned how to "approach Bai Lin."
Bai Lin's body instinctively dodged to the side, but the monster's shadow preemptively latched onto his foot, slowing his movement by half an instant like a spirit.
In that half instant.
The monster's limb grazed Bai Lin's chest side—
Rip!
Not flesh, but existence scraped open with a "seam."
That seam wasn't a wound, but like an eraser swipe, revealing the next layer of "draft paper."
The Demon Emperor's voice sank abruptly: "It's starting to edit you!"
Bai Lin suppressed the stabbing pain in his chest, retreating two steps.
He looked down.
The scraped seam was slowly healing, but not by mending flesh—more like text automatically filling the blank.
Bai Lin's fingertips chilled slightly.
This wasn't an injury.
This was "the world correcting him back to original."
He suddenly understood one thing:
He himself carried inherent dislocation.
And the monster could see that segment.
The monster attacked again.
Bai Lin didn't dodge; he stepped forward, short blade slashing diagonally—
The blade light shredded an entire section of the monster's limb, fragments scattering like ink blots, but the next instant they flowed back onto it.
The monster's reverse audio grew clearer:
"…Bai Lin… record… er…ror… dis…place… cor…rect…"
Bai Lin gripped his short blade: "Correct your mother."
He lowered his center of gravity, fully erupting Corpse Cold Breath.
The world slowed again.
The monster's trajectory became strings of jumbled text, its actions sliced into segments in Bai Lin's eyes. Bai Lin stamped the ground with a dull thud, his whole body slipping out like from a crevice, instantly appearing behind the monster.
Short blade thrust!
The piercing sensation this time was deeper than before—
Like penetrating a layer of "data."
The monster's form showed obvious distortion for the first time, emitting a non-sound sound, like shattered audio forcibly accelerated.
"…Er…—cord… place…"
Bai Lin withdrew the blade; no blood splattered, replaced by a string of deleted and inverted text.
The monster turned toward him.
The writing traces on its "face" rearranged.
The next instant, the monster became even more like Bai Lin.
Body proportions.
Shoulder lines.
Even arm length.
All approaching his.
The Demon Emperor said coldly: "It's trying to become you."
Bai Lin's heart tightened: "Become…?"
"Two 'you's in the world; one will be overwritten."
Sweat beaded on Bai Lin's forehead.
Can't drag this out.
He immediately retreated, pulling distance, his palm pressing on the seam in his chest that hadn't fully healed.
Deep in the seam… there was black mist.
Not the external black mist, but the "anomaly" within him.
The Demon Emperor said faintly: "Want to borrow that power?"
Bai Lin was silent for a moment.
The monster lunged again.
Bai Lin didn't dodge anymore.
He raised his left hand, letting the dislocated seam in his chest open wider.
A wisp of black mist overflowed from the seam.
The monster froze mid-air.
As if suppressed by some force, its movements fragmented obviously, one action cut into three, rigidly stuck in place.
The Demon Emperor's tone was light: "…This thing fears the true 'original black mist' more than you imagine."
Bai Lin charged forward with blade in hand.
First step forward—the ground seemed to instantly recede.
Second step—the air felt stripped of its thick skin.
Third step—his whole body pierced into the monster's shadow.
Short blade plunged straight into the monster's core.
This time, the instant it pierced, it wasn't text shattering, but—
Like some erroneous code being directly deleted.
The monster's body exploded into countless black dust particles, floating in the air like burned draft paper.
Finally, those dust particles all flowed back toward the fissure.
Recycled by the world.
Bai Lin half-knelt on the ground, chest heaving, sweat sliding from his forehead.
The Demon Emperor said: "…This is the first time you're not being hunted by the world, but the world wants to 'correct' you."
Bai Lin didn't speak.
He stared at the half-healed seam in his chest.
Beside the seam lingered faint black mist, as if reminding him:
He was never "normal" in this world.
Just hidden well all along.
He took a deep breath and stood up.
The depths of the fissure still pulsed.
As if more errors were brewing.
Bai Lin retreated a few steps, wanting to pull distance first, but at that moment—
The fissure suddenly contracted sharply!
Like an eye closing.
But in the half-second before it closed, he saw it.
A extremely blurry shadow, seemingly standing deeper in the fissure, wrapped in countless deletion lines, its form utterly unclear.
Yet that shadow lifted its head toward him.
Bai Lin's heart tightened fiercely.
The Demon Emperor's voice lowered instantly: "You saw that?"
"…Yeah." Bai Lin's fingers trembled slightly.
The Demon Emperor was silent for three breaths.
Then, he said a sentence that chilled Bai Lin's back.
"That's not a rift creature.
That's… a deleted person."
Bai Lin's breath halted in his chest.
The fissure closed completely.
The valley returned to deathly silence.
The wind blew again.
But Bai Lin felt… this wind carried an extra thread of icy gaze.
Like someone staring at him from a "non-existent place."
The Demon Emperor added lowly:
"Bai Lin… This world is starting to notice you."
Bai Lin gripped his short blade, knuckles whitening from the force.
The dislocated seam in his chest… still throbbed faintly.
Like reminding him:
You're not a victim of dislocation.
You are the dislocation itself.