The Last Gentleman
Chapter 549: 547: Entering the Darkness

Since the exploration of the Abyss was initiated by William, naturally, he stood in the front and willingly reached out his hand towards the curtain.

"Hmm! Even the touch feels real!"

The sensation transmitted from the surface of his fingers was like touching a kind of delicate fabric,

and the moment he touched it, the fabric immediately grew micro-level tentacles trying to penetrate William’s skin and enter his body.

[Abyss Infection]

This was William’s first encounter with the Abyss’s ’active intrusion’ in this area; previously, he had only come across Rat people affected by the Abyss.

Possessing the body of a Perfect Birth made it easy for William to capture this process of intrusion,

and even in an instant, his Madness Brain offered several methods to block the intrusion. Just as William selected the most reliable method to try and annihilate the intruding Abyss tentacles with the "Death Plague," also a product of the Abyss.

Buzz! A flash of inspiration crossed his mind.

William recalled the first time he went to Zion and initially accepted the "Gentleman’s Skin,"

The real touch given by the black curtain in front of him had some similarities to the Gentleman’s Skin, and both tried to invade his body upon first contact.

And the choices William could make were two: ’accept’ or ’reject.’

If he had rejected the Gentleman’s Skin initially, he would not have been able to become a gentleman and embark on this unique path.

Thinking of this, William instantly withdrew all the Death Plague from his body, allowing the tiny Abyss tentacles to enter his flesh.

Jin, Price, and Candle Puppet Thirteen, who maintained a connection with William, also noticed this.

Jin did not make any statement but merely smiled silently,

Price seemed thoughtful, wanting to say something but eventually swallowed his words,

"Teacher!" Thirteen cried out in a moment, suddenly recalling something, "Sorry, I shouldn’t say more... I will focus on the illumination task."

"Right, let’s go!"

William nodded and then lifted the curtain in front of him. He didn’t restrict the tiny tentacles that had invaded his body in any way, allowing them to move and root within him.

As everyone entered, the curtain fell, but the darkness wasn’t as absolute as expected; instead, there was more of a sense of [separation].

The fallen curtain seemed to completely isolate the Old World; the place they were now in seemed like a completely new area, a secret zone filled with unknown dangers.

Black winds howled,

Thirteen’s Skull Candle was suppressed, as if hundreds of black skulls floated around, constantly blowing out cold breath trying to extinguish the Skull Candle.

The Skull Candle still burned, but its brightness was suppressed to that of an ordinary candle.

The candlelight not only illuminated the squad but also revealed a neatly laid stone path less than ten meters away.

Price immediately recognized that the material chosen for this path was "Dark Stone," and quite pure at that; previously, it could have sold for a high price. Such quality Dark Stone was completely suitable for building noble palaces, yet it was extravagantly used here for paving roads.

Just as the squad prepared to step on this special stone path and head deeper into the Extremely Dark Land,

Clang—Iron Chains connecting them began to tremble as something approached.

Thirteen immediately increased the burning efficiency of the Skull Candle to expand the illumination area in an attempt to find out what dangerous thing was approaching.

It was neither in the air nor on the surface.

"Underground."

William perceived this at the same time as Jin took a step out!

Tap—As Jin’s gold boots stepped on the ground, a robust Red Lotus root suddenly grew from behind his heel, plunging into the ground and wildly growing and splitting.

When one of the roots touched the target body, it immediately bore fruit underground.

Boom!

The ground was blown open by a large pit, and some kind of creature that could move underground was blasted out. With multiple blast injuries, the sound of clearly splashing blood could be heard.

"Mouth?"

In the light of the candles, what appeared before everyone was indeed a large, detached mouth.

The mouth was a whole six meters wide, maybe even seven meters long, entirely capable of swallowing everyone whole in a single gulp.

Strangely, this detached large mouth had no tooth structure and seemed only capable of swallowing.

At the end of the mouth grew dense fingers arranged together to form a fishtail-like structure, reminding William of the hotel manager’s lower half, clearly influenced by the Abyss.

It was this "fishtail" that allowed the mouth to swim underground in the Extremely Dark Land.

Next, William looked inside the mouth and, through his Stargazer physique, felt a sense of space and immediately concluded:

"This must be the ’transfer problem’ Thirteen mentioned before."

Any individual who traveled to the Extremely Dark Land would be randomly teleported to an area and lose their sense of direction, increasing the probability of succumbing to the darkness and eventually being assimilated by the Abyss.

"Once swallowed by this mouth, we should be transferred to another area."

Upon hearing this, Jin felt helpless, "Ah? Is that so... I wish I had known before blowing it up. With some luck, it might have sent us directly to the edge of the Abyss, saving us a lot of time."

However, William shook his head, "In such an unknown place, it’s better not to rely on luck but to be more grounded."

During their conversation,

the mouth, which was injured by the Red Lotus, repaired itself by breathing rapidly and frantically flapped its fishtail in an attempt to burrow back underground.

City Lord Price stepped forward and swung his silver-covered claw.

Buzz!

A sound of space tearing apart spread.

Although the claw was still a meter or two away from the mouth, as the claw descended, the mouth was directly chopped into six pieces, with the cuts covered in moonlight silver to prevent regeneration.

Hiss~The flesh sublimated and completely died.

Price watched the gradually disappearing chunks of mouth and then raised his hand to look at his claw, muttering to himself: "Such a strange sensation, it looked just like a deformed mouth, yet cutting it felt like killing a pitiful fellow."

"The sensation of slaying feels right if it resembles a Patient,

this mouth must have been an outsider who became a Patient, trapped in the Extremely Dark Land and slowly mutated under the influence of ’malicious disease,’

even consciously bestowed with a function by the Abyss, specifically to transfer outsiders."

"Look at my hand..."

William slowly raised his right arm, the same one that had just touched the Black Curtain.

The tips of his fingers now showed noticeable ’filamentous splitting,’ the tightly arranged skin had become loose and stringy, and the underlying muscles and bones were also changing.

William didn’t mind as he had many ways to return to normal, and continued sharing his thoughts:

"The hotel manager and the Green Prime Minister I killed in Rat City also had severe ’lower body mutations’... If they had prolonged contact with the Abyss, they would inevitably lose their rat essence and transform into an Abyssal creation.

However, the exact process of the malignant disease is still unclear.

For example, your condition, Price, is quite different; your body hasn’t undergone any mutations, only a Abyss Mask appeared on your face. The reason is still unclear, perhaps your body is too strong for the Abyss to cause mutations, or some other reason.

To fully understand what ’malicious disease’ the Tenth Abyss corresponds to, we must continue to delve deeper."

City Lord Price touched his rat chin, "Is ’malicious disease’ referring to an illness that goes against the Old World? Is the so-called ’Abyss’ an expression of malicious disease?"

Just then, the sound of wheels rolling not far away interrupted the team’s conversation.

This sound was all too familiar to William and Jin, originating from a coach that also carried an individual far more dangerous than the mouth.

William’s hand also fell on the briefcase, ready to put up a full fight.

As everyone expected, a special coach emerged from the darkness.

It was pulled by two headless black horses,

The necks of the horses had smooth cuts, and black candles were even inserted on the surface of these cuts... These candles would emit a "dark light."

A type of light that could both resonate with the darkness and provide ’black and white illumination’ within the dark, very strange.

The belly of the horses was completely ripped open, with exaggerated ribs exposed that seemed capable of moving independently, ready to pierce any outsider trying to harm them.

The legs of the black horses started ’filamentous splitting’ from the middle, turning into muscle-like tentacular structures that moved by wriggling, which is why everyone heard the sound of the hub rolling on the ground instead of hoofbeats.

And the coachman sitting at the front of the coach was wrapped in a black coat, his entire head entwined with dense tentacles, with only one eye growing obliquely at the center.

The coach stopped in front of the group, and the door opened.