The Witch Hunter System

Chapter 1175: The Horror of Corrupted Souls

"Considering everything we’ve discussed, the truth shouldn’t be difficult to figure out, Empyrean Oceanheart."

"Think about it, the Earth Law is getting corrupted because a powerful Outerworlder adapted to the world and comprehended the Earth Law. As such, the Earth Law is transforming in a way that could accommodate and better serve this Outerworlder."

"However, Outerworlders are essentially beings of a higher dimension, with their primary consumption of Origin Energy, a higher-level energy."

"We call it corruption because the transformation it brings is detrimental to the life of Chaos. But to these Outerworlders, the corruption is more likely a supplement or buff, benefiting it in ways we have yet to understand."

"Still, just from this information, we infer that as the Outerworlders adapt to Chaos, Chaos is also evolving into a higher-dimensional world to accommodate them. It’s just that no other life is ready for this dimensional upgrade."

"As such, once Chaos completes its dimensional upgrade, it’ll also mark the extinction of all life."

"Nothing has really changed. The Outerworlders are still trying to wipe us out and are our mortal enemies. It’s just that their approach towards their goal is different," Vaan figured.

After all, if the Outerworlders wiped out all life in Chaos, Chaos would still be around and could potentially birth new life over time.

However, if Chaos transformed into a higher-dimensional world, all life would eventually die off, and no new third-dimensional life would be born thereafter, marking the end of all things.

Essentially, Chaos would change ownership, falling into the hands of Outerworlders.

Vaan had always felt like the birth of every new Chaosverse was like the production of a new blood cell within a living being. It would inevitably die once it exhausted itself while serving its purpose.

However, Chaos had completely shattered this natural cycle and could be considered a cancerous blood cell, maliciously seizing the surrounding energy, resources, and space to produce new cancerous blood cells.

In this case, the Outerworlders were simply the antivirus or cure, sent to Chaos to treat the malicious cancer, reforming it into something benign or even beneficial for the fourth-dimensional being.

Although Vaan thought this, he also wouldn’t accept it.

After all, this was ultimately a battle for survival; only the fittest could survive. The well-being of the fourth-dimensional being had nothing to do with him. He might consider it if he had the capacity to.

However, since he didn’t, he could only worry about himself and protect those dear to him.

The so-called bigger picture was none of his concern. He was not some ignorant activist who would sympathize with the invading Outerworlders. That would make him a traitor not only to humanity but all of Chaos. 𐍂ÄℕỔᛒƐ𝙎

"This..."

Empyrean Oceanheart was shocked by Vaan’s bold assumption.

However, as she followed his train of thought, she also couldn’t help but feel that what he said made a lot of sense and was very true.

Perhaps the situation was as he said.

"Sigh..."

Although Empyrean Oceanheart had much to say, she could only sigh with helplessness. Even if they knew the situation, they couldn’t do anything to change it. Thus, talking about it was pointless.

It was more imperative to focus on what they could do during these tumultuous times.

"Since we know the Earth Law has become corrupted, it’s not difficult to filter out every disciple who has at least visited such places with dense earthen elements," Empyrean Oceanheart suddenly mentioned.

"If you are not busy, should I send these disciples to you to inspect, Sir Vaan?"

Sure, I’ll give them a look," Vaan nodded.

Although he had to halt his cultivation, he was interested in the soul state of a person infected with the power of corruption.

At the same time, he was curious to see whether he could leverage the power of corruption to his advantage. After all, it was ultimately Origin Energy, a high-level energy, with endless uses for Origin Creators.

Nevertheless, it would take some time for Empyrean Oceanheart to gather the filtered disciples and send them his way.

As such, Vaan took advantage of this window of time to purchase more resources using the Grand Exchange Tablet. He had a feeling that if he didn’t make use of this opportunity to thoroughly prepare himself, he might not get another chance later.

Too many problems were appearing lately, and it was, indeed, concerning. Moments of peace were short-lived. There was no time for idle leisure.

On the Grand Exchange Tablet, Vaan first browsed the list of cultivation resources for nurturing his other Spirits Path sub-physiques. He noticed that their prices were similar to the wind-attribute cultivation resources.

Thus, after some calculation, he immediately commenced bulk purchases.

With this bulk of magical plants, he would surely raise each of his Spirits Path sub-physique to the Divine Rank at least.

Still, it was questionable whether his Spirits Path cultivation would progress smoothly in other cultivation realms, especially in the Earth Realm, where the corruption should be much more severe than in any other realm.

’No, that’s not right,’ Vaan suddenly thought of something.

If the Earth Realms’ corruption were truly as severe as he had originally imagined, then there was no way that they wouldn’t have been discovered until now.

As such, the Earth Realms most likely had only a small part of their subterranean world’s Earth Law corrupted, as was the case in the other realms. But the more this was the case, the more terrible the overall situation was.

It implied that the influence of the Outerworlder’s Earth Law was very balanced, with particular focus on Earth Realms, which were richer in earthen elements, allowing an even spread of its corruption throughout Chaos.

If there was one Outerworlder who could possess enough power to influence the entire Chaos, it would be the Abyssal Beast King, who was said to be on par with the Lord of Chaos.

Thinking optimistically, the situation might not be as bad as it seemed.

After all, if the current leader of the Outerworlders was responsible for the Earth Law’s corruption, then the situation possibly couldn’t get worse than this.

If the other Outerworlders comprehended laws and adapted to Chaos, the influence of their law corruption wouldn’t be as effective and widespread. As such, Chaos would only have to avoid the earthen elements.

Rebuilding worlds without the earthen elements would undoubtedly affect all matters of life, but at least it left room for survival, free from the corruption.

Of course, this was a last resort if no other solution was found.

’Sigh. I’m just a little Divine Being. Why is my mind always preoccupied with these matters? How is it any of my business to interfere with problems that even True Divinities can’t solve?’

Vaan smiled wryly at this thought.

Was he feeling responsible, as someone who had stood at the top and was part of the Prime Originator’s lineage? Or was it simply the natural sense of responsibility as a denizen of Chaos when facing invaders?

Regardless, the current problems were definitely above his league.

If he were the main protagonist of a story, he would definitely have a master telling him that it was still too early for him to know about these things and that he should just focus on cultivation.

This was because learning about them wouldn’t benefit him and would only affect his cultivation.

It didn’t take long before Vaan’s express package from Grand Exchange Hall arrived. After confirming the goods, he carefully stored away his cultivation resources.

Moments later, Empyrean Oceanheart returned with the first batch of filtered disciples, who clearly had no idea why they were brought to the Core Palace. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be displaying such excited expressions.

"This isn’t everyone, right?" Vaan asked with a strange look.

Empyrean Oceanheart shook her head, replying, "There’s more, but these were the ones I could find on short notice. See if you can discover anything from them."

"Alright," Vaan nodded.

Shortly after, he cast his Omni-Sense on the filtered disciples.

In an instant, their collective information was revealed before him for his scrutiny. Nothing could be concealed—not unless they possessed powerful concealing-type magical artifacts.

"As expected..." Vaan uttered after discovery multiple problems.

While the filtered disciples might not know what was wrong with themselves, Vaan could see the slow death of their souls. Tiny parts of their soul cores had been tainted with corruption, rewiring their thoughts, senses, emotions, and even memories.

Vaan detected numerous minuscule holes in these corrupted areas.

Wherever the corruption affected, minuscule hole-like wounds could be found on their soul core. Such soul damage, no matter how small, would definitely induce soul-tearing pain.

Yet, horrifyingly, these filtered disciples show no such expressions of pain and agony.

Evidently, such existing pain had also been numbed by the corruption.

The infected did not know they were infected, and neither could they even feel it. The corruption was killing them, yet also brainwashing them into not feeling anything.

Such a process was absolutely terrifying.

The victims would be absolutely horrified once they learned about the state of their corrupted souls.