CHAPTER 675: COUNTERATTACK!

The entire world was crumbling.

Huge cracks spiderwebbed across the sky before it shattered in the next second akin to a fragile sheet of glass, sending countless fragments falling like a shower of sparkling rain. Boiling magma churned beneath the earth’s stomach and burst out through the volcanic mountains, blanketing the earth in a layer of fire and ashes. Rivers and seas flowed in reverse to form a tsunami tall enough to reach the heavens.

The heavy stench of death permeated the air, punctuated by screams of despair and pleas of help from all over the world.

At this moment, countless cultivators came together, both righteous and demonic, disregarding the history of enmity between them. All to halt this calamity.

Their number amounted to hundreds of thousands, making a grand and magnificent spectacle that was utterly unprecedented down the canals of history. But alas, it was futile. No matter how massive the line-up was, how formidable their collective strength was—all was equal in the face of death. Even immortals were not spared from this disaster.

Whenever the colossal scythe moved, silence followed and all lives ceased to exist.

Until the end, this Cycle became thoroughly, completely dead.

It was a one-sided massacre.

Amidst the ruin, the sound of slow and steady footsteps abruptly shattered the silence. A tall silhouette stepped out of the thick fog, seemingly without a single care for the destruction around him.

Had anyone caught a glimpse of him right now, they would have been terrified out of their wits. The man was dressed in long, flowy robes from the ancient era, his long hair falling behind his back, slightly curly, neatly held up by a hairpin. However, half of his body was that of a skeleton, making him look ghastly and grotesque. Just like a corpse who had crawled his way out of the grave.

Trailing behind him was a black cat, stretching with a yawn. "Finally! If we spent even one more day here, I would have gone bald!"

Despite its complaints, its coat was as shiny and glossy as ever. Not only that, it even seemed to have put on some weight. Clearly, it had led a comfortable and pampered life.

Even in another world, cats were soft furry creatures no one could resist.

Noir didn’t heed any of its words, however, for his attention was entirely placed on the single stalk of flower which he carefully held in his skeletal hands. Its bud was still closed at the moment, yet faint lights leaked out of the seams like magic.

Upon closer look, a tiny, translucent figure could be seen curling up inside, seemingly in deep slumber.

At the sight of that delicate silhouette, Noir’s expression—cold and harsh from the recent slaughter—seemed to gain a tinge of softness.

This was a fraction of Gu Luoxin’s soul.

And the flower he was holding was a divine artifact called ’Soul Nurturing Lamp’. It was a life-saving tool that only existed in legends and spread through word of mouth. Even the record of this artifact could only be found in the hidden library of the biggest cultivation sect in this world. No one could truly prove it existed because it had been so long ago since someone had obtained it.

But Noir had a cheat.

Thanks to the information given to him by the Harbinger of Doom, Qian Hui, he came to know the location of this divine artifact.

The Soul Nurturing Lamp could only be found in a secret realm that opened once every three centuries.

And that was how long Noir had spent in this Cycle.

From an ordinary person who knew nothing about cultivation to a powerful Elder revered by many, he had clawed his way through this bloody world and reached the position that was unattainable to most cultivators, yet not even once had he lost sight of his goal.

Three hundred years— for the cultivators of this world, it was but a passing blink. But who could imagine what such a long stretch of time means to a human? When one had tasted power, wealth, prestige, with immortality at arm’s reach, how many of them could stay true to their goal?

But Noir did. He had truly done it.

Not receiving a response, Lucius cast him a faint glance before climbing to his shoulder in one agile leap, peering curiously at the glowing flower as well. "Is that really Xinxin inside? He’s so small and cute..."

But Noir, this stingy skeleton, immediately put the flower away before Lucius had its fill of staring. The black cat’s first instinct was to explode in anger at such a blatant provocation and disrespect, but at the sight of Noir’s face—half skeleton, half human, a chilling sight beyond words—its anger eventually faded into a myriad of complex feelings.

Forget it, forget it, it released a helpless sigh. Just let him be stingy once in a while.

No one knew more than Lucius what Noir had gone through to reach this point. Which was precisely why it couldn’t muster even the slightest anger now that the man had achieved his original goal.

At a slight loss of words, it could only comment dryly, "You are really not afraid of the Nightmare, huh..."

"What can it do to me?" Noir countered in a flat tone, his voice tinged with indescribable hoarseness that made him sound less human.

What a boastful remark—and yet he was simply stating the fact.

From the very moment the little skeleton gained sentience and escaped from that haunted school, Noir had begun to shake off the Nightmare’s control. And now that he had become a Legendary player, it became all the more true. He was not a living being to begin with, and thus the Nightmare had no way to kill him like it did to other players. It could only trap him in this type of Cycles, using various underhanded tricks to make him surrender and give up on his goal.

But it had clearly overestimated Noir’s persistence and stubbornness.

Or at this point, it should be called—obsession.

Three hundred years might be long enough to change a human, but unfortunately for the Nightmare, Noir was not human. Compared to the endless stretch of time he had spent in the haunted school, repeating the same routine over and over again, these three hundred years were nothing.

Besides, he was simply walking in Qian Hui’s steps. If even such a young child could endure it, why couldn’t he?

Lucius’ whiskers quivered as it burst out into uncontrollable laughter. "Hahaha, the Nightmare must not have seen this day coming, right? Good job, you!" It used its soft and fleshy paw to pat Noir’s cheek, praising him. "I knew I didn’t choose the wrong person back then!"

Noir was too lazy to bother with its nonsense. "Let’s go."

"To another high level Cycle?" Lucius continued to laugh, full of delight and schadenfreude. "Come on, I live to see you defeat the Nightmare in its own game!"

A hint of euphoric madness shone in Lucius’ feline emerald eyes.

Once, it was also an intelligent and powerful creature who had hailed from a high-level Cycle—a term used by players to refer to the worlds which were not under the Nightmare’s autonomy.

But because of the Nightmare’s boundless greed, its world was plundered, the core energy sucked dry. All living beings were on the edge of extinction.

In the last moments, Lucius’ elders stuffed its young self into the body of this soft and harmless creature and used their lives to send it to a low-level Cycle where it could keep a low profile, hidden from the Nightmare’s all-seeing eyes.

Countless years flew by and just as it began to lose hope, it inadvertently came across a strange little skeleton who gained sentience on its own. When Lucius thought of the long years they had spent together and looked at what they had become now, an inexplicable feeling welled up, almost like seeing the complex gears of fate falling into place.

The goal, which had once seemed so beyond reach, suddenly arrived right in front of its eyes.

The flame of vengeance set its small body ablaze. It was the maddening desire to take revenge for its destroyed world and lost family—and Lucius knew that Noir was feeling it too.

Their hatred for the Nightmare was immeasurable.

This was just the beginning of their counterattack. From this moment onward, they were officially launching a war against the Nightmare!