25: Chapter 25: The Madman at the Bottom of the Prison, When "Cannibalism" Meets "Reading"

Great Zhou Dynasty, the lowest level of the Sky Prison.

Three thousand zhang underground, without light, without sound.

The air here was viscous as mercury, solidified into a dead gray, solely to imprison one prisoner.

Or rather, one monster.

"Click... click..."

The sound of heavy mechanisms turning tore through the deathly silence; the Dragon-Severing Stone Gate, which had been sealed for three hundred years, was slowly rising.

Behind the gate was a massive pool of blood.

In the center of the blood pool, a disheveled, gaunt man was suspended. Nine chains forged from ten-thousand-year cold iron pierced his shoulder blades and limbs, fixing him into the shape of a grotesque spider web.

Hearing the sound, the man slowly raised his head.

It was a face that had been forcibly crushed and then pieced back together. He had no eyelids, and his turbid eyeballs bulged fixedly; his lips were sewn shut with black thread, leaving only a thin slit from which a hoarse, wheezing laugh squeezed out.

"Heh... hehe..."

The warden at the entrance, a powerhouse at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, had legs that had turned to mush; he dared not let his gaze meet the man's.

Trembling, he took out a golden imperial decree and threw it in with all his might.

"By... by the order of the Imperial Preceptor! Release 'Heaven Rank Number One' — Yan Kuang!"

"Target, Cloud Break Mountain Range, Heavenly River Sword Sect!"

"Mission... kill them all, or, eat them all."

The imperial decree fell into the blood pool and ignited without fire.

The man named Yan Kuang stared at the flames, the turbidity in his eyes receding like a tide; a kind of ultimate madness and a kind of ultimate clarity were intertwined in his eyes in a bizarre way.

"Pop!"

A crisp sound.

The ten-thousand-year cold iron chains that had imprisoned him for three hundred years shattered like rotten wood with his gentle struggle.

He landed on the ground.

Barefoot, he stepped through the viscous blood.

Step by step, he walked toward the entrance.

When he passed the warden, he stopped.

A hand, withered like a chicken claw, reached out and gently stroked the warden's face.

"The skin... is too rough."

Yan Kuang's voice sounded like two bones rubbing together, "Not suitable for writing, what a pity."

The warden rolled his eyes, a foul-smelling liquid soaked his crotch, and he fainted stiffly.

Yan Kuang shook his hand in disgust and walked out of this sunless place.

The moment he saw the sun again, he took a deep breath, his face revealing an almost divine intoxication.

"Ah... it is the scent of Vast Righteous Qi."

His gaze suddenly turned to the west, his mouth splitting into an inhuman arc that reached his earlobes, revealing a mouthful of pitch-black teeth.

"And another... a fellow creature of the abyss that is growing?"

"It has been so long since I have read such an interesting book."

...

Heavenly River Sword Sect, Scripture Pavilion.

Li Mo's action of feeding "Squeak" suddenly froze.

【Warning! Warning! Warning!】

【Detected a "Disaster-Class" organism approaching rapidly!】

On his retina, a giant, constantly dripping skull flashed frantically, the shrill alarm almost piercing his eardrums.

【Danger Level: Crimson (Certain Death)!】

【Opponent attributes: Chaotic Evil, Confucian Dao (Fallen), Cannibal.】

【Suggestion: Run away immediately! Run away immediately! Run away immediately!】

Crimson level?

Li Mo's heart sank into an ice cellar.

Since his Awakening, the System had never given such a desperate rating; even when facing the Old Ancestor of the Blood River, it was only "High Risk."

"Fallen Confucian scholar? A cannibal?"

Li Mo stared at those two entries, and a terrifying image instantly formed in his mind.

It's not that hooligans have culture that is scary, it's that madmen have faith.

A madman who has read the books of sages until he fell into Qi Deviation and feeds on humans is a thousand times more terrifying than a hundred demonic Cultivators combined!

"Linger!"

Li Mo stood up abruptly and roared toward the second floor, "Stop memorizing! Take Squeak, enter the secret passage immediately! Go hide in the Ancestor Master's grave!"

"What's wrong?" Chu Linger poked her head out from the pile of books, looking blank, "Are we acting again?"

"This time it's not acting, it's risking our lives."

Li Mo's face was livid, his speech as fast as a machine gun, "No matter what sound you hear, don't come out! Unless I come to call you myself!"

Chu Linger saw the unprecedented, almost overflowing solemnity in Li Mo's eyes.

She didn't waste any more words, snatched up Squeak, who was still gnawing on the table corner, and with a flash, dived into the secret passage under the floor.

After settling everything, Li Mo took a deep breath and looked out the window.

The sky had turned black.

Not the black of night, but a suffocating, pitch-black darkness that spread instantly like ink dropped into clear water.

Drops of black rain fell from the sky.

The rain fell on the leaves, and the leaves withered instantly, turning into scraps of paper covered in eerie characters.

The rain fell on the stones, and the stones cracked silently, precipitating piles of black powder.

Outside the mountain gate of the Heavenly River Sword Sect, the light screen of the mountain-protecting Formation began to... be "tampered with" the moment it touched the black rain.

That's right, tampered with.

Those endlessly flowing Formation runes were forcibly twisted and smeared under the erosion of the black rain, turning into an opposite operating logic.

"Defense" turned into "Welcome."

"Slaughter" turned into "Welcome."

A figure wearing tattered Confucian robes and barefoot, with hands behind his back, walked through the mountain-protecting Formation that could strangle a Nascent Soul Cultivator as if he were strolling in a garden.

"Too ugly."

Yan Kuang commented on the surrounding Formation nodes as he walked, "The brushwork here is too sharp, vulgar. The turns there are too stiff, amateurish. The whole thing is full of typos, the entire page is full of grammatical errors."

Following his words, those "reviewed" Formation nodes emitted unbearable wails and then disintegrated on their own.

As if ashamed, they committed suicide to apologize.

Dugu Yun, who was presiding over the Formation, vomited a mouthful of heart's blood, collapsed to the ground, his eyes filled only with endless terror.

"Words become reality?! What... what kind of monster is this?!"

His Sword Intent had lost even the courage to be unsheathed in front of that figure.

Yan Kuang didn't even glance at Dugu Yun.

In his eyes, this group of illiterate people who brandished swords and spears didn't even qualify to be "read" by him.

His goal was clear.

That pavilion which was the only one that remained unchanged in the black rain, exuding a faint scent of books — the Scripture Pavilion.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Yan Kuang stood in front of the door, not breaking it, but politely knocked three times.

"Is anyone home?"

"This humble one, Yan Kuang, passing by this precious place, smelled the scent of books, and came specifically to... borrow a brain to use."

Borrow a brain?

Li Mo, hiding behind the door, felt his scalp explode. Is this fucking borrowing? This is wanting to eat brains!

"Not opening the door?"

Yan Kuang sighed, his tone carrying a trace of disappointment, "Truly... impolite."

He extended a finger and gently tapped it on the door panel.

"Here, there should be no door."

The moment the words fell, the door that Li Mo had reinforced countless times with Star Iron Essence vanished into thin air.

Not shattered, not annihilated, but forcibly erased from the concept of "existence."

Yan Kuang smiled and stepped inside.

Inside the Scripture Pavilion, the candlelight flickered, but the light and shadow were frozen on the wall in deathly silence.

Li Mo sat behind the counter, holding the evolved "Starry Sky Iron Book" (Squeak), looking at this uninvited guest expressionlessly.

Their eyes met.

Yan Kuang's gaze swept over Li Mo and finally pinned onto the Squeak in his hand.

The greed in his eyes boiled instantly!

"A good book... truly a peerless good book!"

Yan Kuang licked his lips, the tongue covered in black flesh thorns was remarkably eye-catching, "The skin of the abyss, the bones of the stars, and mixed with a trace of... the scent of a fellow creature that fascinates me."

He looked at Li Mo, his eyes as if measuring a side dish.

"And you, are you the... book cover of this book?"

In his eyes, Li Mo was not a person, just a container wrapped around this abyssal strange book.

Peeling off this layer of skin would allow him to taste the most delicious truth inside.

"I am Li Mo, the Scripture Pavilion Administrator."

Li Mo suppressed the trembling of his Soul, his 【Longevity Body】 running frantically to maintain the last trace of composure, "If Your Excellency is here to borrow a book, please register. If you want to... eat a book, that depends on whether your teeth are good enough."

"Teeth?"

Yan Kuang laughed, opening his mouth to reveal a mouthful of pitch-black sharp teeth capable of chewing through the Void Realm, "This humble one is untalented, but in this life, I have eaten a thousand, or at least eight hundred, great Confucian scholars, Saints, and Demon Venerables. I have yet to see a book I cannot chew."

Before the words faded, he took a step, and his figure appeared in front of the counter!

That withered hand, carrying a Dao rhyme that caused all things to decay, went straight for Li Mo's crown.

"Let me take your brain out first as an appetizer."

This grab locked the space and twisted time.

Under the rules of the "Fallen Confucian Dao," whatever Yan Kuang wanted to take, nothing could not be taken.

Just as that hand was about to touch his scalp.

Li Mo did not dodge.

He only did one thing—

He slammed the "Starry Sky Iron Book" in his hand open and, with a resolute posture, shoved it directly into Yan Kuang's face!

"Don't you love reading?!"

Li Mo's eyes were bloodshot, looking like a madman!

"Squeak! Show him something good!"

Clatter—

Squeak was completely excited; it had long been displeased with this madman who smelled of ink!

The pages flipped frantically, and countless characters turned into a pitch-black torrent, savagely pouring into Yan Kuang's Sea of Consciousness through his eyes, ears, and pores!

Not a Divine Ability, not a Spell.

It was pure, incomprehensible, and uncorrectable—logic collapse!

Yan Kuang's hand reaching for Li Mo froze in mid-air.

His expression changed for the first time.

First confusion.

Then pain.

Finally, uncontrollable madness!

A storm was raging in his Sea of Consciousness!

【Woman, you are playing with fire.】 — The declaration of a domineering prince conflicted with the laws of heaven and earth in an indescribable way.

【This sentence is false, the previous sentence is true.】 — A simple paradox, yet it caused a crack in the "Confucian Dao" Foundation he relied on for survival.

【Because therefore, scientific reasoning; if there is no reasoning, I will beat you.】 — A tyrannical "truth" that didn't follow any logic was polluting his cognition!

"No... this doesn't make sense!"

"Absurd! This is against the rules! Illogical!"

Yan Kuang let out a painful roar; in his eyes where clarity and madness coexisted, clarity was being devoured by madness.

As a Confucian madman with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, his lifelong pursuit was to correct all the "wrongs" in the world.

But now, these things pouring into his mind were not "wrongs" at all, but pure Chaos that had "no right or wrong"!

He instinctively wanted to "correct" them, only to find that every time he corrected one, ten thousand more outrageous fallacies were born!

His "Dao" was being polluted! Being torn apart!

Taking advantage of the moment Yan Kuang's "Dao" was locked in internal conflict.

Li Mo's other hand lightning-fast snatched the "spring and autumn brush" from the table and, using all his strength, fiercely stabbed it into Yan Kuang's mouth, which was wide open from roaring!

"Shut up for me!"

"If you can't read it, don't read it! Swallow it for me!"

Puchi!

The brush tip, containing Imperial Dragon Qi and Vast Righteous Qi, savagely pierced through Yan Kuang's throat!

"Ugh—!!!"

Yan Kuang widened his eyes, and the eyes swept by the logic storm were filled with disbelief.

How dared he?

How could an ant hurt him, who wielded the rules?

But Li Mo didn't stop.

"Want to eat me? I'll format you first!"

A ruthless look flashed in Li Mo's eyes, and he roared using his last bit of strength.

"System! Activate the highest authority of 【Great Reader】!"

"Target: Yan Kuang!"

"Mode: Forced... formatting!"