I can return to the age of mysterious
Chapter 1026 - 1026 523 Undying Flames and Pale Tree Seeds (4000)

Chapter 1026: 523 Undying Flames and Pale Tree Seeds (4000) Chapter 1026: 523 Undying Flames and Pale Tree Seeds (4000) This is the bottommost layer of the Ancient Ruins, the fifth layer, hundreds or perhaps thousands of meters from the surface. The silence around was unbelievably profound.

Footsteps swept past, creating bursts of noise.

The Secret Martial Arts World team led by Casio, flew through the ruins, speeding towards the dangerous area not far away. Soon, one or two minutes had passed.

In front of everyone appeared a broken stone bridge with a dried-up creek underneath, overgrown with weeds, presenting a scene of decay.

“Is the dangerous area just across from here?”

Casio stood at the edge of the stone bridge, his sharp gaze looking far across to the opposite bank.

There was grass, rocks, and ruins. It looked like a very ordinary scene without any particular anomalies or dangerous aura.

The group paused briefly, and ultimately, it was Casio who took the lead and walked across.

Stepping over the stone bridge, their feet landed on the opposite shore.

The scene around them suddenly blurred, the grass and broken stones on either side stretched back like clouds and fog, rapidly moving away. It felt as though the spot where Casio stood had become a conveyor belt; he was standing still, but the environment kept changing, instantly transporting him to a distant place.

Casio had experienced this hazy sensation before.

It was like the first time he entered Black Rain Villa, as if he had arrived in another secluded, mysterious realm. It was as if his entire being had passed through a layer membrane, with one side completely different from the other in terms of world and environment.

“Interesting, is this an innate ability that comes with that level? Merely the presence is enough to affect and warp the real environment. Or is the environment special by nature, and Black Rain Villa and the Ultimate Dark Entity purposefully picked these spots…”

Casio wondered this in his heart.

He also remembered the fourth time he retroactively entered the Oyon Ruins. He encountered an old Extreme Fist practitioner who created a world so ambiguous it was hard to tell real from fake with just his lingering qi. Casio practiced boxing there, died there, and was resurrected there, even the flow of time inside and outside was different. Perhaps, the first guess he just made might be a bit more likely than the second.

In a daze, the group arrived in a weird realm.

Threads of dry heat burrowed into their bodies from the outside, like poisonous snakes, wriggling and twisting on the surface of their skin, making them uncomfortable.

Rustling, rustling…

Was it raining in the sky? No, it was snowing—ash snow.

Looking up, the ash fragments, lightweight like willow catkins, fell densely from the sky, resembling varied snowflakes. Air currents quickly swept through the sky, taking large swathes of ash into visible wavy lines. The ash fell to the ground, making a rustling sound, exuding a sense of deathly stillness and desolation. As if vitality struggled in vain before inevitably slipping away.

With a glance, Casio saw the white spreading into every corner, like a thick blanket. Hillsides, plains, rocks, trees, it was as though they had instantly arrived in the depths of winter, beautifully covered in white. But this paradise-like scene had no hint of coldness; it was instead, scorching hot.

The air seemed permeated with fire poison, cold and breeding, spreading.

Fizzling… fizzling…

Within the Secret Martial Arts World camp, fighters enveloped in qi touched the falling ash, triggering a reaction. The ash collapsed, and two streams of energy pierced into their bodies. But the qi repelled them instinctively, annihilating the interaction, which then produced the sound of grease being scorched by flame.

“These ashes will greatly deplete our qi…”

Many fighters showed signs of apprehension.

“It will intensify the darkness within us!”

At Black Rain Villa, the complexions of the Eerie Night Guests changed. They had gained strength through Black Rain Villa, which had also resulted in some dark substances lingering in their bodies. Sometimes when the dark substances accumulated, the Eerie Night Guests would fall into madness. Their spirits became abnormal, extremely aggressive.

And these falling ashes seemed to be able to stir up that darkness.

This environment was a serious restraint on the Eerie Night Guests.

Among everyone present, only Evil Mother and Casio were largely unaffected. Evil Mother needed no further explanation, being a dark creature, entering such an environment was like returning home. As for Casio, when he was still collaborating with the Ghost Iron Knight to enter the Pale Land period, he was able to transform into a Demon Idol and become immune to the ash. Not to mention now that his magic puppet secret weapon had further evolved.

“Interesting, this environment is quite similar to the World of Calamities’ Pale Land. Is it a coincidence? Or has the barrier between the World of Calamities and the Real World in this region been broken, causing them to overlap?”

Casio narrowed his eyes and continued to speculate.

“Or perhaps, that so-called Pale Origin is here!”

“It’s the Ultimate Dark Entity hidden in the shadows of the Eternal Islands!”

He instantly thought of the task list from Black Rain Villa given by the Ghost Iron Knight, which revealed some information about the Pale Land.

The Pale Land environment was formed because there was a giant plant capable of infinite growth and immortality, covered by undying flames that eternally burned. This resulted in a bizarre balance.

The Pale Origin’s eternal burning sat at the intersection of destruction and rebirth, repeatedly undergoing the process of death and resurrection. The grass and trees burned to black ash, while life burned to white ash.

The current Casio was not the same as before; he had almost completely understood the state of the World of Calamities through the Sinful Demon Well in Xiadu. Casio’s understanding of both the Dark Ultimate Level and the Saint Fist grew substantially. The situation with the Pale Origin was abnormal; what plant would want to be burned by flame?