The transition was not subtle.
One moment, Jiang Chen was walking through dense, wet ferns and towering pines. The next, the world turned grey.
The vibrant green undergrowth vanished, replaced by a carpet of grey ash and blackened, twisted roots that looked like arthritic fingers clawing at the sky. The air grew heavy, thick with a yellow mist that smelled of sulfur and old graves.
The silence was absolute. No crickets. No night birds. Just the wet squelch of his boots on the decaying soil.
[Environmental Alert: Necrotic Miasma concentration rising.]
[Breathing hazardous to standard lifeforms.]
[Host Adaptation: Active. Filtering toxins...]
Jiang Chen took a deep breath. To a normal cultivator, this air would burn the lungs like acid. To him, it tasted spicy. Like pepper and ozone.
"It's quiet," Jiang Chen whispered. The sound of his own voice seemed to die instantly, swallowed by the mist.
[Correction: It is not quiet. You are simply not listening to the right frequency.]
Crunch.
Jiang Chen stopped. He didn't hear it with his ears. He felt it in the soles of his feet—a heavy, rhythmic vibration traveling through the earth.
Something massive was moving in the mist.
He crouched low, blending into the charred remains of a fallen tree. His [Predator's Instinct] screamed a warning, not of danger, but of competition.
A shape emerged from the fog, thirty meters ahead.
It was a bear, but only in the vaguest sense. It stood eight feet tall at the shoulder. Its fur was gone, replaced by patches of iron-hard, grey scab. Ribs protruded through the skin like white cage bars. Where its eyes should have been, green witch-fire burned in empty sockets.
A Grave-Walker Bear (Layer 6 Equivalent).
It wasn't alive. It was a animated husk fueled by the resentment of the gorge.
The beast stopped. It sniffed the air, its snout dripping a viscous, black fluid that hissed when it hit the ground.
It turned its head. It looked directly at the log hiding Jiang Chen.
"So much for stealth," Jiang Chen muttered.
The bear roared—a sound like grinding metal—and charged.
It moved terrifyingly fast for something so large. The ground shook as it closed the distance in three bounds.
Jiang Chen didn't retreat. He exploded upward.
[Skill: Phantom Step.]
He vanished in a blur of motion, reappearing in the air above the beast. He spun, driving his heel down like an axe towards the creature's skull.
BANG.
The impact felt like kicking a solid wall of iron. Jiang Chen's leg went numb. The bear didn't even flinch. Its skull was reinforced with decades of necrotic hardening.
The beast reared up and swiped. Its claws, long and dripping with rot, tore through the air where Jiang Chen had been a split second before.
Jiang Chen rolled upon landing, skidding through the ash.
"Hard," he grunted, shaking out his numbed leg. "Physical attacks are reduced."
[Analysis: Target is biologically dead. Pain receptors: 0%. Structural Density: High.]
[Recommendation: Erode.]
The bear lunged again, jaws snapping. Jiang Chen side-stepped, but the beast was deceptive. It twisted its torso mid-air and slammed its flank into him.
The impact sent Jiang Chen flying. He smashed into a petrified tree trunk, shattering the stone-wood.
He coughed, tasting blood. His ribs groaned but held. [Iron Skin] had saved him from being crushed, but the force was immense.
The bear loomed over him, raising a massive paw for the killing blow.
Jiang Chen looked up. He didn't look afraid. He looked annoyed.
"Fine," he spat, blood staining his teeth. "We do it the messy way."
He raised his right hand. The air suddenly grew cold. The shadows around the tree roots seemed to flow into his palm.
[Skill: Void Claw (Max Output).]
Black talons, longer and denser than before, erupted from his fingers. They didn't just darken the air; they seemed to cut holes in reality.
As the bear's paw descended, Jiang Chen thrust his hand upward.
SHRRRRIP.
There was no sound of impact. No thud. Just the wet, tearing sound of fabric ripping.
The Void Claws sliced through the bear's iron-hard wrist like it was wet paper. The massive paw, heavy with rot, spun through the air and landed with a thud in the ash.
The bear paused. It looked at its stump. It didn't feel pain, but it felt the loss of mass.
Before it could react, Jiang Chen was inside its guard.
He didn't strike the head this time. He drove his clawed hand straight into the beast's chest, between the exposed ribs.
"Open wide."
He twisted his hand. The void energy expanded, acting like a black hole inside the creature's torso. It didn't just cut; it ate. Muscle, dead organs, and necrotic Qi were sucked into the vortex of his hand.
The green fire in the bear's eyes flickered. It tried to roar, but its lungs were already dissolving.
Jiang Chen ripped his hand back.
He pulled out a pulsing, jagged crystal the size of a fist. It was pitch black, swirling with green veins.
The Beast Core.
The massive body of the Grave-Walker Bear shuddered once, then collapsed into a pile of loose bones and grey sludge, its animating force stolen.
Jiang Chen stood there, breathing heavily, covered in black ichor.
[Target Neutralized.]
[Combat Assessment: Ruthless.]
[Loot Detected: Necrotic Beast Core (Grade 2).]
Jiang Chen held the core up to the dim light. It vibrated, cold and malicious. A normal cultivator would need days to purify this before using it, or risk turning into a mindless ghoul.
Jiang Chen's mouth watered.
"System," he asked, "is this safe?"
[Define 'safe'. Will it kill you? No. Will it hurt? Yes.]
[Consuming raw necrotic essence increases Evolution Points significantly. Side effect: Temporary aggression boost.]
"I'm already aggressive," Jiang Chen grunted.
He opened his mouth, unhinging his jaw slightly—a subtle, monstrous mutation he hadn't noticed before—and shoved the fist-sized core in.
He bit down.
CRACK.
Bitter, freezing cold fluid flooded his throat. It felt like swallowing liquid nitrogen.
Jiang Chen fell to his knees, clutching his throat. His veins turned black, bulging against his skin. A scream tore from his lips, but it turned into a low, bestial growl.
[Processing...]
[Converting Necrotic Qi to Void Essence...]
[Purge successful.]
[+150 EV.]
[Constitution +0.2]
The pain faded, replaced by a surge of cold, dark power. Jiang Chen stood up. He felt stronger. Heavier.
He looked deeper into the mist of the Weeping Gorge. He could feel them now. Dozens of them. Grave-Walkers. Rot-Tigers. Corpse-Eagles.
To the Sect, this was a Forbidden Zone of death.
To Jiang Chen, standing amidst the ash with black veins fading from his face, it looked like something else entirely.
"It's an all-you-can-eat buffet," he whispered, a twisted smile spreading beneath his mask.
He cracked his knuckles and walked into the fog.