CHAPTER 252: CHAPTER 73: THE WASTELAND WHERE THE GODS DIED (PART 3)

The first and second floors are called the "Bloody Shallows," which on the surface appears to be just a wilderness under a perpetually blood-red sky.

But the book reveals that beneath this seemingly ordinary surface lie thousands of "Space Bubbles," each with its own unique ecosystem.

The boundaries between these bubbles are blurred and unstable; one misstep, and the explorer might step into a completely different environment.

The third floor, the "Black Sand Wilderness," where the Scorpion hails from, is described as a cursed desert on the surface.

But deeper analysis reveals a more shocking truth: the "grains of sand" here are actually tiny life forms, each with its own consciousness and purpose.

The entire desert is essentially a massive intelligent cluster that expands by continuously devouring and assimilating.

However, what truly made Ron feel creepy were the descriptions of the fourth floor and below, these levels began to diverge from forms of existence that mortals could comprehend.

The fourth floor, the "Twisted Jungle," is an ecosystem that defies the laws of nature.

The lines between plants and animals are blurred, life forms reproduce and evolve in incomprehensible ways.

The trees there may suddenly turn into animals, and animals may take root and grow into plants.

Some creatures possess traits of both plants and animals, and there are even unclassifiable forms of existence.

The fifth floor, the "Sea of Eternal Night," is a region of distorted space filled with fluid...

The sixth floor, the "Maze Domain," is a multidimensional space-folding structure, a maze not only of physical space but of cognition and logic as well.

Here, the most basic causal relationships are broken; outcomes may precede causes, and paradoxes are the norm rather than the exception.

The book states:

"The real danger starting from the sixth floor, the Maze Domain, does not lie in its complex spatial structure but in its erosion of an explorer’s mind.

Prolonged exposure to such an environment will cause one’s thought patterns to align with the logic of the Abyss, gradually losing understanding of the concept of ’normal.’

This transformation, once begun, is almost irreversible, as those affected will assume the world around them has become ’abnormal,’ rather than recognizing the problem lies within their own thinking."

...

The ninth floor, the "Soul Abyss," is even more abstract and difficult to describe, defined as the "intersection between existence and non-existence."

Here, thoughts and emotions become visible entities, and fragments of memories and dreams float in the void.

Souls can be directly observed and manipulated, much like objects in the material world.

...

And the deepest level, the thirteenth floor, the "Void Boundary," is almost entirely beyond the scope that language can describe.

This part of the book is filled with blotches and blanks, as if the author found it difficult to convert what was seen and heard into words.

The few existing descriptions are filled with contradictory and disjointed expressions, such as "infinite narrow space," "burning ice," and "noisy silence."

The following Chapters delve into the effects of Abyssal Curses, more detailed and shocking than anything Ron had previously learned:

"The Abyssal Curse is not just an influence on the body and spirit but a transformation of an existence form. Every creature residing in the abyss is unknowingly redefined, written into the ’dictionary’ of the Abyss, becoming part of its grammatical system."

"The curses from the first to the third floor mainly manifest as physical changes—skin hardening or softening, sensory distortion or enhancement, organ position change or function conversion.

These changes can indeed partially reverse after leaving the abyss, but there has never been a recorded case of complete recovery."

"The fourth to the sixth floor start to affect mental structure—the way of perception, thought patterns, and emotional responses undergo fundamental changes.

Those affected may begin to understand time, space, and causality in entirely new ways, even developing new kinds of thinking that cannot be expressed by mundane language."

"From the seventh floor onward, the curse directly reconstructs the essence of the soul—not merely ’infection’ or ’influence,’ but a complete ’rewrite.’

Explorers who linger too long are no longer creatures altered by the abyss but become conscious fragments of the abyss itself, a living embodiment of the abyss."

The book especially emphasizes a disturbing phenomenon—the irreversibility and contagiousness of the Abyssal Curse:

"Even explorers who have had brief contact with the deeper Abyss will unconsciously bring the ’logic’ of the abyss back to the Surface World.

Their thoughts, words, and even presence become tendrils of the abyss extending into the Surface World.

An individual affected by the seventh floor curse, just through prolonged conversation, can cause the interlocutor’s thinking to begin aligning with the abyssal mode."

This description made Ron inevitably think of the various Black Wizard Organizations and the Abyss Sect not tolerated by the mainstream Wizard World.

Perhaps they are the collective manifestation of this infectious process, a group of individuals reshaped by the abyss, secretly spreading the abyss’s influence in the Surface World.

The subsequent Chapters specifically describe the biomes of each layer of the abyss.

The most common category of abyssal creatures is "Mutants," those originating from the Surface World, later transformed by Abyssal Energy.

"Mutants" seem like a further evolution of these external aberrant creatures, which he could barely comprehend.

What truly perplexed him was the description of the native abyss creatures.

These entities, belonging to the abyss from the moment of their birth, completely escape the framework of mundane biological understanding.

The book meticulously records more than a dozen such native abyssal creatures, each possessing traits that defy the laws of nature:

"Void Wanderer"—an energy aggregate with no fixed form, capable of existing in multiple spatial locations simultaneously, unimpeded by physical barriers;

"Mind Swarm"—a collective consciousness creature, composed of thousands of tiny entities, each possessing a fragment of collective thought, but only the collective can exhibit complete intelligence;

"Time Devourer"—a peculiar being that feeds on time, gnawing at an object’s "timeline," causing the attacked to experience accelerated aging or degeneration...

The most terrifying native abyss creature is the "Soul Eater"—a being that exists solely in the ninth layer, the "Soul Abyss."

The book provides an extremely detailed description of them, occupying almost an entire Chapter:

"Soul Eaters do not exist on the material plane but as ’conceptual beings’ in the realms of soul and thought.

Their most terrifying trait is not their destructive power but their infectiousness—any soul influenced by a Soul Eater will gradually develop the traits of a Soul Eater, eventually fully transforming into a new Soul Eater."

"This transformation process is gradual and imperceptible. The victim usually does not realize they are changing until it is too late.

The initial symptoms are small voids in memory, followed by dulling emotional responses, then an abnormal perception ability of others’ souls, and finally an uncontrollable ’appetite’—a craving for other souls."

"The most horrifying aspect is that even in the Surface World, once this transformation begins, it is almost impossible to reverse.

The only known ’treatment’ is the Soul Splitting Technique, to sever and seal the infected portion, but this itself is an extremely dangerous Forbidden Magic with a very low success rate."

However, just as the dangers of the abyss increase exponentially with depth, so do the treasures and opportunities contained within equally multiply.

Ron turned to the Chapter titled "Abyssal Materials and Wonders" and found this section far more systematic and detailed than he had imagined.

"Abyssal Material should not be simply understood as ’materials’ but rather viewed as ’solidified distorted fragments.’

The book explains:

"Each type of Abyssal Material can to a limited extent interfere with or overwrite the physical laws of the Surface World."

This is currently the content Ron is most interested in.

But just as he was about to continue reading, he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness and quickly reached out to support himself on the table...