CHAPTER 87: WHEN DEATH LOOKS BACK

Chapter 87: When Death Looks Back

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With an initial estimate, he could tell that at the very least, several hundred miles had already passed, and probably, they were already close to a thousand.

Needless to say, that alone showed how vast the frozen continent was.

Because if you were to travel from the southernmost edge of the human empire all the way to its northernmost point,

the total distance covered would only be a bit over 3,000 miles, and the values, both in width and length, were quite similar.

The same could be said for the other two empires that bordered it on the sides.

Only the beast empire was slightly smaller than the other two, but that hardly mattered since the inhabitable areas varied greatly from empire to empire.

And this was only a rough estimate, his vision kept going for quite a while, and after who knows how long, it finally began to slow down.

As it did, the perception of the environment below him started becoming clearer.

He immediately noticed that the land, while for this incredibly long and vast stretch had appeared relatively white from above,

was starting to lose color, and the further forward he went, the more that white began to fade, revealing below him a vast expanse of what in the past might have been a lush forest,

now completely withered, with blackened, dry trees that seemed to give off a strange aura.

Even the ground beneath it was in the same condition, black like ash, with no plant or visible life on its surface.

The vision kept moving forward, and soon he started noticing certain details here and there, both on the trees and on the land.

’These are...’

If his expression could be seen, he would have a grim look on his face as his vision captured a dead expanse of land with blackish purple spikes sprouting everywhere, some growing out of trees, merging with them, others stuck into the ground, half above, half below.

All of them had those reddish veins that looked... alive.

He began to feel a strange sensation as his vision, now moving at an increasingly slower pace, kept covering dozens of miles,

until soon he noticed something and his brow furrowed.

’heavens, what the hell is that thing?’ he shouted internally as he saw a massive shape, like a thick pillar, rising from the ground up into the sky, as if piercing through it.

At first, the thing confused him, but soon that confusion turned into shock once he realized that what he was seeing was just the faraway view of the strange thing.

He was still traveling at a decent speed, several miles per second, and that massive shape ahead of him was slowly getting bigger.

The closer he got, the more his amazement grew, and after another few hundred miles, he could finally see in full the enormous figure of a majestic tree, whose width and height defied the imagination of any being.

It was only thanks to its immense height that it had been visible from hundreds of miles away, and now that he was close enough to see it properly, he realized its size was beyond anything he had ever seen or even imagined.

He couldn’t even comprehend how something like that could exist.

Just a few of the roots at the base of the tree that slightly emerged from the ground were as thick as an entire large city.

He shivered at the thought of how big the rest of it must be.

’So those cocoons are a product of this colossus?’ he asked himself as his vision carried him closer to the tree’s trunk.

Only then did he notice that at the center of the trunk, there was a huge spiral shaped deformation.

The bark there was sunken and twisted in a spiral, with a massive, glowing dark purple crystal at its center, seemingly radiating subtle energy pulses.

The moment his sight landed on it, a powerful terror surged through Zhu Rong’s entire being,

he felt that while he was looking at the crystal, the crystal was looking right back at him.

Zhu Rong felt his soul tremble more and more violently, as if it was on the verge of shattering, and a strong sense of death was ringing in his mind like an alarm.

He didn’t think twice, using all the strength he had, he severed the spiritual connection.

The moment he did, like a reversed recording, his vision pulled away from the place at terrifying speed, and in an instant, he was pulled back.

The very instant it happened, with a loud jolt, Zhu Rong’s real body, lying on the ground, shuddered and suddenly twisted as he tried to get up, only to cough out a mouthful of blood.

’Sht, I almost died,’ he cursed his bad luck as he tried to compose himself and stand up.

The moment he laid eyes on that massive dark purple crystal, he felt death approaching, so without hesitation, he cut off the connection that linked him to that being and managed to pull back just in time.

Just looking at it had caused him severe internal damage, and he was sure his soul had taken a hit too.

The awareness that there existed a being whose mere gaze could erase someone’s existence was terrifying, to say the least.

Finally, as he started regaining control over his senses, he noticed the ground beneath him was shaking, and soon after, he raised his gaze and turned his head forward in horror.

’Damn it, it’s waking up’

He didn’t waste a second, with his body aching from every tiny movement, he quickly channeled his Qi into his limbs and dashed away at full speed.

He realized that the creature inside the cocoon was waking up, and if that happened while he was still there, it wouldn’t end well for him.

Fighting it was out of the question, and even staying within its range of action would have been enough to kill him from the pressure alone.

He didn’t care about the serious condition his body was in and kept channeling his spiritual energy into it while darting at full speed through the tunnel he had come from, now partially collapsed due to the strong tremors.

It took him less than half the time to cover the entire path, and the moment he did, his sight met the scene of people fleeing in chaos, chased by a massive wave of beasts.

He wondered where the hell so many beasts had suddenly come from.

The number of beasts from earlier had already been large, but they had reduced it significantly after the battle.

Yet now, this horde was even larger and stronger, each beast at least third stage.

Only now did he realize that these beasts were probably part of the enormous beast tide that the being in the cocoon would lead in the future to attack the province.