Chapter 84: Sore, Sticky, and Something Smells Off

Somewhere far beyond the reach of the world, a vast and dark expanse of space stretched out endlessly. Thousands of stars adorned the emptiness, giving off tiny, twinkling lights among countless clusters of galaxies.

In the middle of that silence, there was a figure who seemed to be a part of the expanse itself.

His entire body blended into the darkness and the starlight around him, making his presence almost impossible to tell apart from his surroundings. In fact, if it weren’t for the long blue hair standing out clearly among the stars, no one would probably have noticed him at all.

The figure looked so calm, as if he had witnessed everything that ever happened within this endless realm.

"Hmm?"

*Crack...

Suddenly, he sensed a fissure forming in the space around him. The figure then opened his eyes, revealing a pair of glowing red eyes.

He only let out a long, lazy sigh.

"This is the first time someone from another world has dared to tear open a rift in this place."

*Crash!

The space that had only been cracked a moment ago suddenly shattered into pieces. From behind it, three beautiful women appeared, dressed in rather unfamiliar clothing.

They wore long robes layered with flowing silk, decorated with beautiful embroidery and ornaments here and there. Their long hair was adorned with small accessories made of jade and metal, while the long sashes wrapped around their waists swayed gently with each step.

Their appearance was completely different from the people of this world.

The woman in the middle stepped forward right away. Every step she took left a chill behind her.

"Greetings, Lord."

The woman placed both of her hands in front of her waist, then bent her knees slightly to pay her respects to the being.

"What brings the people of the East to this place between space and time? If you’re planning to forcibly tear a path to another multiverse, I won’t hesitate to erase your entire existence along with your world, as if neither of them ever existed."

*Rumble...

The blue-haired being immediately released his pressure toward the three women. Their bodies instantly trembled as they tried to withstand the overwhelming force. Before long, blood began to trickle from the corners of their lips, a sign that the pressure had hurt them from the inside.

Even so, they still tried to remain standing before a being whose true form they couldn’t even recognize.

The woman with the cold Energy bowed her body again and pleaded.

"Please calm yourself, Lord. We only came here to look for someone."

"You mean the man you killed?"

The moment the being mentioned that, all three of them instantly fell silent and their expressions turned gloomy. The deep regret still weighing on their hearts was plain to see.

Seeing the three women’s expressions, the blue-haired being only sighed lazily before speaking again.

"You claim to be gods in your world, but you can’t even free yourselves from human emotions. So what exactly are you, huh?"

Hearing his words, the three women gave no answer. They knew that what the being said was true.

They really had once called themselves gods.

*Whoosh...

The blue-haired being then shrank his body down to the size of an ordinary human.

"Is there still something you want?"

The three women didn’t answer right away. They knew the question from the man in front of them wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

"Finding the man you killed, apologizing to him, treating him better, repaying all of his kindness, protecting him, even becoming his disciples again."

The three women froze in place, eyes wide. The long-haired, blue-haired man had just listed everything they actually wanted.

"You’re filled with regret, sadness, anger, happiness, and an unhealthy kind of love. Tell me, gods from another world..."

*Flicker!

In an instant, without any of the three noticing, the blue-haired man had already moved behind the two women standing a little way off from their leader.

"What exactly are you? Gods? Or just a bunch of Demons pretending to be gods?"

Realizing the figure was already behind them, the two women who had stayed silent all this time broke out in a cold sweat. Their faces went pale, and neither of them could say anything under the pressure radiating from the being.

*Gulp...

Realizing the three of them wouldn’t answer, the being moved to the other side again without pressing the question. Not that it mattered, since he already knew the answer.

"The man you’re looking for isn’t here. There is a world in this place, but it only has three strangers who just crossed into it."

"If it’s alright with you... Could you tell us where our Master is?"

The being raised an eyebrow at the woman with the cold Energy before sighing again.

*Sigh~

"You already see the person you call Master as a man. So why do you still call him Master?"

"..."

The three women fell silent once more. It was as if there was no answer they could give to that question.

Feeling that this conversation was just a waste of time, the blue-haired being snapped his fingers.

*Snap!

A spatial rift immediately appeared beside them.

Seeing the huge spatial rift suddenly appear, the three women looked shocked. Only the woman with the cold Energy stayed calm.

"Ask my disciple in there. He’s the one guarding that place."

After looking at the rift, the woman with the cold Energy clasped her hands in front of her waist again and bowed slightly.

"Thank you for your help, Lord. We’ll take our leave."

But before they could walk toward the rift, the being spoke again. This time, he had already returned to his enormous form, lying down among the expanse of space.

"I advise you never to come back here. Down below, there’s a truly terrifying place. Even a cultivator who calls himself a Heavenly Emperor wouldn’t last more than a few seconds if he fell into it."

"Back then, I warned him not to look into something he had no need to know. Unfortunately, he was too stubborn and did it anyway."

Hearing the title Heavenly Emperor, the three women spun around to stare at the being, eyes wide.

"Do you know what he was looking into?"

All three shook their heads at the question.

Seeing their answer, the being pointed downward.

"Down there lies the deepest part of ’space’. That place is a prison built to lock away things that should never have existed... Its name is the Abyss."

"Abyss..." muttered one of the women, the one wearing a blindfold.

The name felt familiar to her, even though she couldn’t remember where she had heard it.

The being then touched the woman’s head with his index finger.

"I told you, don’t try to dig any deeper. Not even a little. I’m only telling you about that place to warn you."

After hearing his warning, the three women bowed and thanked him before finally stepping into the spatial rift.

Once the three of them passed through the rift, the opening closed right behind them.

The blue-haired being let out a long sigh before getting up from his lying position. He then turned his gaze downward.

Down there, a dark red light could be seen slowly growing larger and brighter.

"Is the Era of Destruction coming back, just like ’that man’ said?"

He then looked up toward a golden-yellow light shining brightly above.

"What a pain..."

The being scratched his head in frustration before opening a portal to a place filled with nothing but water.

"I’d rather go visit my wife than think about stuff like this."

*Zzzt...

He then stepped into the portal. Once his figure disappeared, the portal closed as well.

* * *

Meanwhile, Elias was sitting on a wooden chair, with Mira behind him, massaging his back.

In front of them, Auntie Potato was teaching Evelyn and Elysia how to sew clothes.

Even though their fingers got pricked by the needle a few times, the two girls absolutely refused to give up and kept trying to learn.

Seeing how serious they looked, Elias found it pretty entertaining.

"Big Bro, do you have any plans today?"

"Hmm... Maybe I’ll go fishing. That’s the plan, but who knows."

Hearing Elias’s answer, Auntie Potato sighed before chiming in.

"Always fishing. Isn’t there anything else you do?"

"Sleep," Elias answered with a straight face.

"You can’t sleep, Big Bro! It’s still daytime!"

Elias just let out a lazy sigh at Mira’s words. She was right, he shouldn’t be spending his daytime sleeping.

"But for some reason, my whole body feels sore. I’m kind of low on energy too."

"Are you sick?" Mira asked, pressing her hand against Elias’s forehead.

"I don’t know. When I woke up earlier, my whole body was sore. My back stings a little too. Not only that, my hips feel like they’re about to snap."

Auntie Potato raised an eyebrow at Elias’s explanation. With a body like his, it was strange that a day of work alone could leave him hurting this badly.

"Maybe it’s just regular soreness?"

"That’s what I thought too. But usually, if I get some exercise, the soreness goes away right away. This time, it doesn’t."

"Oh, so that’s why you wanted me to massage you..."

Elias could only chuckle at Mira’s words.

"Not really. I just missed your tiny hands."

Hearing her big brother’s answer, Mira smiled as she kept massaging Elias’s back.

*knead. knead.

"But, something weird happened when I woke up this morning."

Mira and Auntie Potato glanced at each other before looking back at Elias, curious.

"What is it?"

Elias took a breath, then furrowed his brow as if he was about to talk about something serious.

"When I woke up, my whole body felt sticky. I don’t know if it was sweat or what. On top of that, there was a weird smell in my room."

Hearing Elias’s explanation, Mira immediately clapped her hands together.

*Clap!

"Ah, right! When I woke you up, I smelled that too."

"See? Where the heck is that smell even coming from?"

"You’re sure you’re not keeping dirty clothes in the closet, right?"

"Of course not! I don’t do that anymore."

"Then, what is it?"

While Elias and Mira both wondered where the strange smell in the room came from, Auntie Potato’s attention shifted to Evelyn and Elysia, who were sewing right beside her.

The two girls were still busy with their own stitching, but their faces looked slightly flushed.

’Well, well, well... Look what we have here...’

* * *