Chapter 340:

Mortals eat through the use of teeth, tongue, and throat.

But the world consumes through the crushing of laws, principles, and order.

As time passed, Xu Xi became increasingly skilled at using Spirit Vision and began to witness more changes occurring on the level of the world itself.

Tangible things turning into intangible ones.

The cycle of life and death being forcibly twisted and overturned.

The sorcerer world was like a small, trembling boat, barely managing to function.

In contrast, the scale of the Endless Netherworld was terrifyingly vast. It wasn’t just a larger warship—it was the vast, surging ocean itself.

Infinite expansion.

Infinite extension.

Just a corner of its shadow cast into the chaos…

was already beginning to slowly devour the sorcerer world.

Once that small boat completely sinks into the deep sea,

everything in the sorcerer world—whether rules or living beings—will be assimilated by the Endless Netherworld.

Even if some living beings manage to survive,

what awaits them will no longer be the familiar homeland,

but a twisted and terrifying world of the dead.

“Master Sorcerer… is there really no hope for this world?”

A soul flame flickered.

Beneath her cloak, Sylvia, clad in armor, asked in a lonely voice.

She had already died once. As an undead, she was not affected by the Netherworld.

Even if the sorcerer world was completely devoured, she would remain untouched.

But Sylvia had a kind heart.

She couldn’t bear to see people suffer like this.

In such a dark and frozen world, to live was to suffer—and even death offered no relief.

“Maybe there is,” Xu Xi replied.

With a wave of his wand, a roaring fire dragon crashed into a withered forest, burning large numbers of undead to ashes and saving a group of fleeing survivors.

He didn’t stay to hear their grateful cries.

Xu Xi, controlling the Netherflame Raven, once again flew toward the center of the sorcerer world, spreading his wings through the black sun and blood-red moon.

Nothing in this world is truly impossible.

Especially not in a world of the extraordinary.

The strongest beings have the power to define all of reality.

But unfortunately, Xu Xi was only a third-ring sorcerer.

With the entire sorcerer world in retreat, he had no power to save it.

There were only two choices before him.

“Either stay here, abandon your identity as one of the living, and become a necromancer.”

“Or escape alone to a safe world in another plane.”

Xu Xi looked up at the dying sky.

From within that dark gloom, he gathered a mass of death energy in his hand. Compared to when he left the mountains, the concentration of death energy in the world had doubled.

“I don’t want either of those choices…”

Xu Xi loosened his grip.

The unbound death energy once again drifted across the world.

The eerie, blood-red moonlight mixed with the death aura illuminated the land—revealing a despairing scene of scattered bones and the weeping of the living.

The dead could not find peace.

The living could not survive.

Whether he stayed in this hell or fled from it, Xu Xi felt a heavy weight pressing on his chest.

He didn’t want to be a hero.

He didn’t want to be a savior.

He just wanted, very simply…

to help those two elderly people.

To avenge the desecrated corpses of the Hansen couple.

To strike back at this monstrous and twisted world.

“Sylvia.”

“Yes, I’m here.”

“Make sure to sharpen your sword. Once we find the one behind all this, we’ll be swinging it a lot.”

“Yes!!!”

…

[Sylvia feels uneasy about the changes in the world. Faced with rivers of blood and a scene of utter darkness, she feels both sorrow and anger, never stopping as she grips the longsword in her hand.]

[The brave one asks you—]

[Is there still hope for a world like this?]

[You cannot give the answer she longs for.]

[Such a catastrophe has already exceeded your capabilities.]

[Even sorcerers of the fourth, fifth, or sixth ring can only choose to flee. As a third-ring sorcerer, how can you solve this crisis?]

[You begin to recall the goal of this simulation—]

[To study death. To study the soul.]

[Thanks to Sylvia’s loyalty and the special nature of the “Life and Death Intertwined” trait, your research has gone smoothly. You’re confident that when you return to the real world, you’ll have better control over the power of death.]

[You’re quite satisfied.]

[But you’re not ready to end the simulation. You want to explore more of the world, grow stronger, and find the mastermind behind all this horror.]

[You want to kill him.]

[This is the main reason you’ve always wanted to go to the Plateau of the Gods.]

[You believe that in the place where sorcerer forces are most concentrated, you’ll find some useful information.]

…

[Simulation, Year 11. You are 28 years old.]

[The world’s corruption accelerates. You encounter even more undead—these are not just resurrected souls, but true undead creatures from the Netherworld itself.]

[You feel no fear.]

[You are a powerful third-ring sorcerer, also highly skilled in the field of necromancy.]

[Though not yet worthy of the title “Calamity,” like the fourth-ring sorcerers, your strength is enough to ignore ordinary undead.]

[Simulation, Year 12. You are 29 years old.]

[The corruption of the sorcerer world continues to accelerate.]

[You and Sylvia pass through a fallen kingdom. Inside, a river of deep yellow flows—illusory and hazy—carrying countless soul spirits toward the distance.]

[You explain to the girl—]

[That is the Soul River, flowing through the Endless Netherworld, linking the deaths of countless worlds across planes.]

[Under normal circumstances, the sorcerer world would never be able to see the Soul River. But now, on the verge of being devoured, such a bizarre phenomenon has appeared.]

Step by step, you continue your journey.

Step by step, you press forward.

It’s as if the plot of a novel has become reality.

Xu Xi and Sylvia, riding the Netherflame Raven, soar over countless ancient kingdoms and ruins.

They witness perilous mountains and cross roaring seas.

“Master Sorcerer… please, please don’t look at me…”

Whenever thunderstorms came,

Sylvia would still curl up, trembling with her hands over her head.

Xu Xi would chuckle softly and cast a sound-isolation spell around her, helping the undead girl get through those unbearable stormy days.

“Master Sorcerer, please use my body.”

During breaks, Sylvia would take off her armor of her own accord, allowing Xu Xi to study her undead skeleton—further exploring the mysteries of life and death.

In the silence of night, the brave girl’s damaged face held a haunting beauty.

“Master Sorcerer, here’s some water.”

“Master Sorcerer, thank you for preparing these death mushrooms for me.”

“Master Sorcerer, thank you…”

Brave.

Fearless.

Strong in silence, swinging her sword in anger.

Sylvia remained at Xu Xi’s side, using the one eye she had left to witness the collapse of the world—walking forward with him through the darkness.

In the fourteenth year of the simulation, Xu Xi was 31.

At long last, the outline of the Plateau of the Gods appeared in the distance.

“Master Sorcerer, is that the center of the world?”

“Mm. More accurately… it used to be.” Xu Xi stood atop the Netherflame Raven’s back, gazing into the distance as he waited to draw nearer.

Soul power surged as he cast a long-range vision spell, magnifying the blurry image of the Plateau of the Gods.

“This is…”

Xu Xi froze slightly.

What came into view was not the thriving civilization of sorcerers…

but the horrifying remains of several skeletal dragons,

collapsed in twisted, crumpled heaps—

their massive corpses having shattered most of the Plateau’s structures.