468 Waking Up (1/2)

The gray sky was like a gray piece of cloth. It was filled with wrinkles and was spread right to the end of sight. There was no sun, no moon, and no stars. There was only the gray that caused depression to rise within a person’s heart.

Its color exuded the air of death, causing the people to feel as if they were lost in that gray shade, and they would even begin to feel confusion boiling in their hearts.

The white ground rose and fell as it stretched into the distance. There was not a single plant there, not any other color. There was only white earth that spread endlessly outwards, leaving the entire place with no boundaries.

If anyone stared at the ground and the gray sky that acted as its contrast for a prolonged period of time, they would become even more lost.

When Su Ming opened his eyes, this was what he saw. After a long time, he lowered his head and saw his own body. He could clearly see that his body had turned into an illusion. He was just a wisp formed by the white fog spreading from the ground. That fog was incredibly weak in the beginning, but soon, it gradually gathered together to turn into a person, which was him.

A large amount of fog seeped out from the white ground around him. As that fog gathered together, more people appeared.

These people looked as if they were newly born. Their eyes were gray, and those gray eyes gave off a feeling of despair and fatigue that stemmed right from the soul. It was as if they had died numerous times already but still had to be newly born only to die again and again. This process would repeat endlessly, turning into a cycle.

Perhaps death was not terrifying at times. What was horrifying was endlessness, an eternity of not being able to die and not being able to perish until the soul itself became numb, until all will was lost, all that made a person, turning him into… an undying soul, Imperishable living corpse…

Not too long ago, at the spot where Su Ming woke up was a war waged between thousands of undying souls. This war might have happened several breaths ago, or it might have happened several days ago, or even several months ago. Su Ming had no idea how long it had been since then.

He only knew that this was what he saw when he woke up.

Su Ming might have woken up, but his heart was still at a loss. His eyes were still gray, and he still did not possess much intelligence. He did not know who he was, neither did he know how he got there. In fact, he did not even think about those things; his mind was simply blank.

He stared at the gray sky blankly, and just continued looking… until his body was gradually filled up by that fog and he turned into a complete person, and until all the other undying souls around him were formed.

All the undying souls were the same as him. They stood there, staring blankly at the sky with their minds vacant.

This continued for an unknown amount of time until one day, the sound of a horn came from the distance and reverberated through this boundless world. That voice was very faint, and nobody had an idea how many regions the sound of that horn had traveled through.

The instant the sound of that horn reached the thousands of undying souls, they immediately shuddered and lowered their lifted heads to look before them, at what lay in the endless distance. They looked at the same direction and slowly lifted their feet before slowly floating forward.

Su Ming was among these undying souls. He also heard that horn, and when that sound landed in his mind, it turned into a voice summoning him, a call that caused ripples in his soul.

He also stopped looking at the sky and looked instead in the direction the sound of the horn had come from. He simply floated forward slowly with the other undying souls by his side.

Su Ming had no idea just how long he floated. He had no concept of time in his mind. There was only the sound of the horn calling to him. The undying souls just drifted forward without an end to their numbers on that white ground.

Gradually, some of the undying souls let out piercing howls from their mouths while drifting forward. As the howls grew in number, on that day, one of the undying souls turned around swiftly and pounced on one of his companions that still had that vacant look in his eyes.

He ripped him apart, devoured him, and fused with him. After a moment, once the victim undying soul disappeared, its attackers body gained a more corporeal form. A hint of intelligence appeared in its gray eyes.

Almost the instant he devoured his companion, quite a number of other undying souls around him did the same thing. There was an undying soul who did that exact same thing right beside Su Ming.

That soul looked like it belonged to an old man. As he roared, he lunged at Su Ming like a wild beast. Once he got closer, he pounced on Su Ming, then opened his mouth and sank his teeth into his body.

Su Ming did not resist. There was still that dazed look in his eyes as he let the undying soul rip apart and devour him. The pain in his soul made Su Ming shudder. That sort of feeling where his body was about to be ripped apart made him suddenly remember that he had gone through the exact same type of pain when he woke up moments ago.

”So, I already died once..?” Su Ming mumbled. Half his body had already been devoured by that old man. By the looks of it, it would not take long before his entire body was devoured.

At that time, everything about Su Ming would disappear without a trace, but he would not die. Instead, after some time, the fog would gather up and turn into him once again in this Undying and Imperishable World so that he would have to go through the same form of death again. He had to continuously experience it, and the cycle would repeat… endlessly...