Chapter 426 The Terrifying and Weird Realm - Socially Anxious Witch in the Apocalypse

This witch Su Miao is simply too much; she disregards his goodwill. He was willing to offer the secrets of the Astral Sea, yet she still insisted on hunting him down. He didn’t hold her killing the Twelve Divisions members against her. Nor did he hold her accountable for wreaking havoc in the Abyss, causing him massive losses. He never imagined that his concessions would give her the illusion that he was weak and easy to bully, leading her to pursue him relentlessly. Unforgivable! If only he had been restored to his peak, he would definitely confront Su Miao. However, considering Su Miao's power, if they were to truly battle, both would likely suffer severe injuries. In that scenario, the countless years his true form had spent dormant in the Abyss would be wasted. Moreover, in such a state of mutual destruction, he would have no opportunity to return to the Astral Sea, let alone seek revenge. Whenever he thought of his enemies in the Astral Sea, the dormant fury deep in Si Wu's heart would bubble uncontrollably. It was a curse from one of his enemies, not harmful, but extremely troublesome. "Lord Xiang, if you ever return to the Astral Sea, the moment your heart ignites with anger, I will find you immediately." "I could kill you once; I can kill you a thousand times. I await your return. In your absence, I’ll take good care of your palace, your beloved concubines, your maidservants." "If you die in the wasteland of the lower realms, don’t blame me for laughing at you." "Hahaha!" “……” Recalling the ancient memories, Si Wu's mind couldn’t settle. But his fleeing did not slow; it, in fact, became faster. Damn them all! They all deserve death! Si Wu glanced back, seeing the witch Su Miao still in pursuit. He had used all sorts of methods, yet Su Miao persistently tailed him. This fleeing technique was straight from the Astral Sea! Someone with Su Miao's strength shouldn't be able to catch up. Yet, Su Miao was following leisurely behind, seemingly not worried about losing his trail. He was locked on! "Could it be..." Si Wu pondered. Perhaps Su Miao was tracking him using a method similar to his enemies from the Astral Sea. As long as he harbored rage against Su Miao, she would always be able to lock onto him. If not for knowing Su Miao’s origins, Si Wu would have suspected she also hailed from the Astral Sea. Thinking this, Si Wu emptied his mind, purging all thoughts, and cleared all hatred and anger towards Su Miao. By sheer happenstance, all his ill will towards her vanished. In the void, Su Miao halted. The malice from Si Wu vanished, and he was nowhere to be seen. His caution and strength truly befitted the mastermind behind the Twelve Divisions. The moment things turned sour, he fled, leaving no room for a confrontation. Heading back to Earth, perhaps waiting there would be the best approach. With this in mind, Su Miao turned and headed towards the Abyss. She needed to question the remaining demons and evil gods there for directions. Just as she prepared to leave, Su Miao unexpectedly sensed the resurgence of Si Wu's malice. Pausing, she cast a glance in his direction, contemplating whether to continue the chase. … "Never expected the witch Su Miao to be this formidable." Si Wu, having escaped, was still fraught with fear. He had narrowly evaded being hunted down by Su Miao. From the previous situation, it was clear that the witch possessed similar pursuit methods to his enemies, luckily, he had countermeasures prepared, or it would have been perilous. He gazed pensively in a direction where a passage back to Earth lay. "Should I return to Earth?" Si Wu pondered. In just a second, he dismissed this thought firmly. While returning might allow him to reclaim other powers, the risk of encountering Su Miao was greater. Capturing Su Miao's sidekicks, Lin Jiujiu and Xia Xiaoan, was an idea he immediately dismissed. Given Su Miao’s unpredictable nature, having hostages was useless against her. Anyone who's studied Su Miao’s engagements could reach that conclusion. She cared little about innocents around her, casually launching purple fireballs—akin to hand-thrown nukes—without concern for collateral damage. As for Su Miao's parents. Capturing them might be useful, but according to intelligence gathered by the Twelve Divisions, her parents had been missing for decades. Before the apocalypse, they might have been traced, but post-apocalypse, with less than two billion out of several hundred billion global population surviving, the outcome was uncertain. Moreover, a witch as formidable as Su Miao couldn’t find them either. Perhaps, searching for her parents had become an anchor preventing Su Miao from losing herself. With such an anchor, Su Miao could remain stable; without it, Si Wu dared not imagine how unhinged she might become. "Directly to the Astral Sea!" Si Wu decided, setting his course to leave the inner world. Suddenly, as he flew, he felt a change in the surroundings. A domain... He had unknowingly stumbled into a domain. Could Su Miao have caught up? Quickly ascertaining that this was not the case, Si Wu struck the domain repeatedly, but all his assaults were nullified. Moreover, the rules within this domain seemed to entwine bizarrely, severely disrupting his defenses. Suddenly, eerie gray mist appeared before Si Wu. There seemed to be a gigantic entity concealed within. Prepared to delve deeper, he glimpsed the enormous figure within the gray mist. They were corpses—bodies long dead for countless millennia. Some of the corpses were shattered. Others were incomplete. Unlike decayed ones, they were oozing blood. Theoretically, after such a long time, this was impossible, yet they were bleeding. Question was, where did the blood from these corpses flow? Compelled by instinct, Si Wu looked down. The view around him shifted again. He found himself amidst a hazy, blood-colored forest. The forest housed all sorts of peculiar plants, either jet-black or crimson, seemingly nourished by the blood of the deceased. Strange sounds emanated from the forest, faint yet unsettling to the core. "Not good, I've fallen into their rhythm." Si Wu's expression changed. Quickly, he tried to gather his emotions, attempting to control himself from being influenced. However, the more his emotions were stirred here, the harder it became to rein them in. Within his line of sight, Si Wu saw some formless little figures singing eerie tunes as they passed by him. "Stop this trickery." Si Wu immediately employed his power, turning his body ethereal, and crushed all those little figures with his ethereal grasp. These strange figures left no trace behind. Yet, the next moment, it looked as if the area they vanished from was splashed with melted paint, leaving patches of stains. "Hee hee hee, hee hee hee, hee hee hee..." An odd laughter echoed. The laughter came from all directions, encircling the ethereal Si Wu, seemingly mocking his current plight. Si Wu snorted contemptuously and, in his ethereal form, fled towards the distance. He was now certain; this was a bizarre domain. Incidentally, the Abyss was a forbidden area he had modeled after such anomalous domains. Ironically, Si Wu never anticipated encountering such an anomaly, and it was all because of the witch Su Miao; if not for her relentless chase, none of this would have happened... "Not again!" Si Wu quickly snapped to attention. Having just evaded Su Miao's pursuit, he once more exuded emotions towards her, effectively lighting a signal in the dark for her. Hopefully, this bizarre domain would shield his emotions, keeping Su Miao at bay. Unluckily, his emotions were amplified. Su Miao sensed it immediately. In a flash, Si Wu’s malice grew as intense as a sun... Initially, if it were just a blip, Su Miao might have hesitated and opted to return to Earth. But in such circumstance, she couldn’t ignore it. Su Miao approached swiftly. Huh? Having flown for a bit, she suddenly noticed something amiss ahead, halting immediately. Up ahead, chaotic laws were interwoven, resembling a black hole formed by countless spider webs, devouring everything. It was an eerie domain unfamiliar to Su Miao, with Si Wu trapped inside. A trap? Her expression darkened; it seemed Si Wu dared to expose such intense malice to lure her into being ensnared. If she hadn’t been so sensitive to rules, she might have already fallen into the trap. Si Wu was despicably cunning! He must die. Clutching her Starlight Staff, Su Miao stared intently at the bizarre domain ahead, ready to unleash Starlight Burst once more. Such a perfect target was rare indeed. Just as Su Miao was about to make her move, she realized that her current magic reserves were insufficient to support a more powerful Starlight Burst. She needed an energy source, so she decided to summon some demons and evil gods. She would make them surrender treasures that could provide energy. Any malicious ones would be swiftly dealt with. Those without malice would be let go. With this plan in mind, Su Miao took out the *Book of the Abyss.*, and with a wave of her Starlight Staff, she arranged ten summoning circles in the void. This time, the summoning was random; whoever responded could be dragged over without issue. … Within the bizarre domain. Si Wu tried to suppress his emotions, only for them to inflate the harder he tried. Despite a long passage of time, the witch Su Miao had not appeared, which gave Si Wu a slight sense of relief. But this didn't exclude the possibility that Su Miao was also trapped here. This domain was too strange. Forcing a way out seemed impossible. His best hope was to find the core of the bizarre presence within the domain. By eliminating it, he should be able to escape. Si Wu continued forward and soon found himself in a new forest. But it wasn’t a forest as much as a writhing mass of tentacles. Countless tendrils swayed, making it difficult to see clearly. Si Wu employed his powers, causing a violent explosion that decimated the tentacles ahead, carving a path through force. He moved swiftly and soon arrived at a plain, dotted with numerous crystal-clear lakes, mirroring the sky like flawless mirrors. From a distance, Si Wu thought he saw something reflected in the water. A massive head. Its skin was decayed, leaking dark fluid, and each drop transforming into eerie tentacles. Normally, this wouldn’t be much cause for concern, but this giant head emitted the aura of a quasi-supreme deity. Its shriveled eyes moved. They looked at Si Wu. His scalp tingled; he felt detected. Yet, the colossal head drifted away into the distance, not approaching him directly. Si Wu glanced into the void, but the emptiness revealed nothing. If not for the sporadic emergence of sinister tentacles from the ground, he might have believed it all a mere illusion. "A quasi-supreme deity fell here?" The thought sent a shiver through Si Wu's heart. The level of this bizarre domain far exceeded his expectations. Hmm? Si Wu's attention returned to the lakes, momentarily catching a glimpse of something by a flicker in the water’s reflection. As powerful as he was, he wasn’t able to discern what it was. Despite a moment’s hesitation, Si Wu pressed onward. Suddenly, eerie water began to seep from the sky and ground. In an instant, the lakes connected to form an ocean. The sea roiled, yet upon its shattered surface, an unnameable form could barely be made out, appearing silently to stir strange chaos. An eyeball-covered hand flew across the sky, but didn’t get far before half of it vanished abruptly. The sound of bones and flesh being crunched echoed above, crispy and sounding strangely appetizing. Blood oozed from the cracks of the severed hand. In terror, it continued its flight. But the next second, the entire hand vanished, devoured whole. In the void, bizarre lumps appeared like meteors plunging into the ocean. The sea heaved, and as the lumpish anomalies met its waters, they sizzled, dissolved, and vanished. Si Wu glanced at the water below, utterly terrified. He realized the water had a grave problem, far beyond his initial reckoning. "What are you doing hiding here? Hurry up and escape!" Suddenly, Si Wu heard a voice. Before him stood a person in black clothing, urging, "Quick, put on these clothes, or you'll be discovered." The person in black produced an identical set of black clothing, handing it to Si Wu, "He's coming soon." "And this umbrella, don’t get caught in the rain or you’re finished." He thrust a pitch-black umbrella towards Si Wu. Thud! Thud! Thud! Strange sounds boomed from the distance. The person in black grew more anxious, "I'll try to hold him off, you must head west of the village to find them; they will lead you out of here." Without waiting for a response, the figure dashed away. Si Wu then noticed the sea had vanished. He was now in an ancient, unknown village. In the distance, he saw a woman in brightly colored clothing running, her body disassembling as she moved, yet surprisingly, another person in black nearby remained unharmed. Those black clothes seemed wearable. After a brief hesitation, Si Wu decisively swapped into the black attire. As for the individual who went to intercept something, Si Wu looked in that direction. He saw a crimson eye appear beside the figure in black, the eye splitting open to reveal two rows of sharp teeth. With a snap, the person was devoured by the crimson eye. Si Wu took a deep breath and quickly headed west through the village. Find them, but who were they? Wait! "Why am I playing along with their games?" Si Wu jolted to awareness, realizing he was no longer in his ethereal state but confined to a human form. He attempted to revert to his intangible state, but no exertion of his powers succeeded. Si Wu's expression darkened. What exactly was happening? (End of Chapter)