40: Chapter 40 Successfully Breaking Through the Realm

The Moon Beast leader's group of Tentacles suddenly hovered in mid-air.

Immediately after, dozens of pink Tentacles turned in unison towards Wu Xi.

Wu Xi stood in the center of the clearing, six Tentacles behind him hovering in mid-air, twitching slightly.

The Moon Beast leader tilted its head.

The Tentacles reached towards Wu Xi, the frequency of their swaying suddenly changed—it was no longer the unhurried breathing-like sway from before, but a rapid, fragmented trembling, with the ends opening and closing in circles, as if sniffing, identifying, and recognizing.

Wu Xi's chest tightened abruptly.

The two Tentacles on the sides of his chest actually began to shake on their own. It wasn't controlled by him; it was a spontaneous, uncontrollable trembling, with a frequency drawing closer and closer to the Moon Beast leader's Tentacles, like two streams of water forcibly merging into the same riverbed.

Resonance!

The Moon Beast leader's Tentacles hovered in mid-air, not attacking. It was hesitating, identifying, as if it had encountered a peer but was unsure.

Wu Xi did not waste this half-second opportunity. He took a deep breath, drove his will fiercely into the two Tentacles in his chest, and forcibly broke the frequency of the trembling—fast, slow, then fast again, forcibly exploding a chaotic wave. Those two Tentacles were like two crazed plucked strings, playing a disorderly tune in the air.

The Moon Beast leader's group of Tentacles was instantly thrown into chaos.

Dozens of pink Tentacles collided with each other, some going left, some going right, receiving entirely contradictory signals.

That massive white Physical Body spun in place, the "creaking" sound of it rubbing against the ground making it as chaotic as a mouse whose nest had been poked.

"Damn it... Is it blind?!" Qi Ling poked his head out from behind the strange rocks, his eyes wide.

It wasn't blind; its perception had been completely stirred into a mess.

Wu Xi lifted his foot and took a step forward. One step, and he was at the edge of the stone platform. The sacred fork bell was right before his eyes; he could touch it if he reached out.

"Hurry!" Qi Ling shouted from behind in a hushed voice, "It's about to recover!"

Wu Xi reached out, his fingertips touching the cold body of the bell.

The moment his fingertips touched it, the golden light inside the bell exploded brightly! It was as if something had suddenly woken up.

At that very instant, deep inside the Moon Beast leader's bloated torso, a certain cavity suddenly emitted a low rumble— "Gurgle".

It was like a giant boulder rolling through an empty valley, like an underground river shattering a rock wall. It didn't come from a throat; it was its whole body vibrating, the air being squeezed flat, released, and squeezed flat again, exploding into a series of low-frequency resonances.

It wasn't an attack. It wasn't a warning. It was a call!

The ground shook violently.

It wasn't the tremor of the Moon Beast moving, but a vibration surging from deep underground, from all directions.

Fine cracks opened up on the ground in the rock fissures, black slime bubbling out, the bubbles popping with a crackling sound.

Qi Ling's face turned white as paper. He jumped out from behind the strange rocks clutching his bone blade, dragging his bleeding, lame leg as he rushed over like a madman: "Go! Take the bell and go!"

It was too late.

From every corner of the rock fissures, in the shadows, inside the ground cracks, behind the stone walls, white bodies crawled out. Not one, but five, ten!

They were a size smaller than the leader, but with the same white toad-like body, the same group of pink Tentacles, and the same fishy, sweet scent. Crawling from underground, squeezing from stone fissures, dragging slime all over the ground, the "creaking" wet sounds merged into one, making one's scalp tingle.

The retreat was completely sealed off.

Qi Ling and Liao Su rushed to his side, backing against the stone platform, bone blades held across their chests. The blood from his left leg was still flowing, dripping onto the black stone platform, seeping into the wriggling runes, and was instantly swallowed clean by those fine, worm-like markings.

Qi Ling squeezed three words through his teeth, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the bone blade, "We really messed up this time."

Over a dozen Moon Beasts formed a circle, their white bodies squeezing into a wall of flesh, surrounding the stone platform tightly. Countless pink Tentacles reached out from all directions, pointing at the center of the stone platform, at Wu Xi, at the sacred fork bell in his hand.

The vibration inside the Moon Beast leader stopped.

It slowly turned around, dozens of pink Tentacles aiming at Wu Xi once again. This time, there was no hesitation. The Tentacles were taut and straight, like spears quenched in poison, their ends all wide open, revealing circles of dense, bone-like tooth rings inside, flashing with a cold glint.

Wu Xi finally pulled his fingers back from the sacred fork bell. He flexed his wrists, all six Tentacles spreading out, suckers fully opened, the feelers rustling in the air.

There was no way out, so he would just have to face it head-on.

Over a dozen Moon Beasts slowly pressed in, their white bodies packed so tightly that not a breath of air could get through, the slime on the ground pooling into a black pool. The "creaking" wet sounds merged into one, setting one's teeth on edge.

Qi Ling leaned his back against the stone platform, bone blade across his chest, his teeth grinding with a creaking sound: "Let's fight! Taking one down means we break even, taking two is pure profit!"

Wu Xi stared at the cluster of pink Tentacles on the Moon Beast leader's head. Those Tentacles swayed unhurriedly in the air, as if waiting for him to show fear first. But the six Tentacles on his body were shaking.

A thought, crazy to the extreme, instantly took shape in his mind. No more dodging, no more baiting, just rush in and finish it!

Seeing him not moving, Qi Ling was so anxious he hit him hard with his elbow: "What are you stunned for?! They're about to close the net!"

Wu Xi didn't respond; he moved.

The two tail Tentacles slammed into the ground, the suckers locking onto the stone surface, emitting a dull thud like a war drum being beaten. The massive recoil launched him out like a cannonball!

The two Tentacles on the sides of his elbows protected his head and face, suckers wide open, feelers dancing wildly. The two Tentacles in front of his chest stabbed straight out, with only one target—the head of the Moon Beast leader, the core of that cluster of pink Tentacles!

The Moon Beast leader's reaction was terrifyingly fast.

The cluster of pink Tentacles retracted sharply, and immediately after, dozens of Tentacles whipped out simultaneously like steel lashes! The sound of breaking air was sharp and piercing, like countless belts tearing through the air at once. One lashed towards Wu Xi's face, one coiled towards his waist and abdomen, and three flanked from the sides, sealing off all room for dodging.

Wu Xi did not dodge or avoid.

His Tentacles and the Moon Beast's Tentacles collided fiercely.

Slime against slime, sucker against sucker, flesh against flesh, entangling, strangling, tightening.

Excruciating pain!

It wasn't the pain of a knife cut, but the pain of a living thing burrowing into his flesh. The bone-like tooth rings on the Moon Beast's Tentacles bit into the skin of his Tentacles, circle by circle, burrowing into the meat.

Dark red slime sprayed out, splashing onto his face, fishy, sweet, and scalding hot.

The moment the Tentacles made contact, a frequency traveled along the Tentacles and directly into his nervous System. It wasn't a sound, it wasn't an image, it was a vibration. He "saw" the world perceived by the Moon Beast leader—the slightest ripples in the air, the smallest changes in temperature, every collision of scent molecules.

A map woven from vibrations unfolded in his mind with a boom. The stone platform was three feet to the upper left. The sacred fork bell was on top of the stone platform.

Qi Ling was to the right of the stone platform. Liao Su was at the edge of the stone platform. Every position, every movement, was perfectly clear!

Borrowing the force of this collision, Wu Xi swung his body violently. One tail Tentacle tightly entangled the thickest Tentacle of the Moon Beast leader, giving a fierce tug, and he flipped his whole body using that leverage. Another tail Tentacle tapped hard on the edge of the stone platform, his body drawing an arc in the air.

The Moon Beast leader's other Tentacles lashed past under him, hitting empty air, colliding with each other, emitting "slapping" dull sounds.

Wu Xi's hand reached for the sacred fork bell again.

The moment his fingertips touched the bell body—

The sacred fork bell rang on its own.

The sacred fork bell emitted an indescribable sound, the sound waves spreading out in ripples visible to the naked eye.

One circle, two circles, three circles.

Where the ripples swept, all the Moon Beasts' movements instantly froze. Their white bodies remained fixed in place, pink Tentacles hovering in mid-air, as if frozen.

Immediately after, everything before his eyes began to peel away.

The air in front of Wu Xi felt as if a layer of skin had been forcibly torn off. Those white bodies of the Moon Beasts began to crack; there was no blood in the cracks, no flesh, only clusters of black mist.

The sound waves of the sacred fork bell continued to spread. The ground, the stone platform, the rock walls—the surface of everything rose with a thin film, like snake skin shedding, falling off in pieces as it was shaken by the sound waves. The entire space had a layer of disguise torn off.

The sacred fork bell was covered in visible black mist. The mist was moving, breathing, countless worm-like things crawling in and out of the bell's body. The black mist burrowed into the cracks of the bell, then seeped out from the cracks, tightly entwined with the golden light inside.

Wu Xi wanted to let go.

He couldn't move.

The sacred fork bell was like a magnet, stuck tightly to his hand. A terrifying suction came from the bell body, welding his fingers firmly to the surface. The blood under his skin surged towards his fingertips like crazy; something was frantically extracting his Qi and blood. He tried to pull his hand back, but his fingers, his wrist, his entire arm, no longer obeyed his brain.

The black mist crawled along his hand and into his skin. It didn't enter through the pores; it seeped directly into the flesh. Cold. Damp. Carrying the salty, fishy smell of the deep sea. The black mist burrowed into his blood vessels, crawling up along the blood, arm, shoulder, chest. Every inch it crawled, that inch of flesh lost all sensation and no longer belonged to him.

A voice sounded in his ear.

It wasn't heard through his ears; it exploded directly in his brain. Low, damp, carrying the echo of the water bottom, as if transmitted from the very bottom of an abyss, filtered through ten thousand years of water, distorted beyond recognition.

It wasn't speaking. It was will, poured directly into his mind.

"How dare you offend my majesty!!! Ant!!!"

Every word was like a giant boulder smashing into his brain matter, smashing until his vision went black. This voice was the Black Lake Master from before, Mnomquah!

The terrifying power attached to the sacred fork bell rushed into his body like crazy. The black mist on the sacred fork bell grew thicker, coiling around his wrist and elbow like a living thing, crawling towards his shoulder. The remains of those Moon Beasts, the empty shells formed by black mist, had long been shattered by the sound waves, turning into fly ash and scattering on the ground.

"Wu Xi! Let go! Throw it away!" Qi Ling shouted like a madman from below the stone platform.

Wu Xi couldn't let go; his fingers were stuck tightly to the bell, the black mist had already covered his entire right arm and was spreading to his chest.

He could feel that thing swimming in his blood vessels, cold, slippery, a will that didn't belong to him, frantically reading his memories, his fears, his desires.

Resist? What could he use to resist? He couldn't even move a single finger.

He stopped resisting; he actively opened up his consciousness. Not passively waiting to be invaded, but actively opening the defenses of his consciousness, pulling open the gates, and welcoming the raging flood from outside.

His skin was shaking; not from fear, but shedding—a snake shedding its skin, a cicada sloughing its shell. Something was about to crawl out of his body.

His consciousness was expanding, spreading; his skull couldn't contain it, his skin couldn't hold it. It was bumping, shouting, impacting the inner walls of every inch of his skin.

His consciousness was no longer trapped in his skull; it followed the Tentacles, followed the black mist, followed the sound waves, and merged with the entire space.

This wasn't losing himself. This was discovering that the self had never been confined to just this one skin.

[Three-Turn Heavy Origin Technique]: High-risk pollution detected... Initiating neutralization... Neutralization successful! Cultivation Technique upgraded! Breakthrough—Removal of the Sac Realm!

At the very moment his Cultivation Technique broke through, the skin on his chest ripped open violently.

On the left, on the right.

Each had a bulge, frantically wriggling under the skin, pushing outward, burrowing outward. The skin was stretched until it was transparent, and one could see the pink muscle texture underneath twisting.

Pop! A soft sound.

The skin broke.

A brand new Tentacle broke out of his body from his left chest.

Another brand new Tentacle broke out of his body from his right chest.

Pink. Slippery. The suckers at the ends still carried blood streaks and slime, small mouths opening and closing in the air. The two new Tentacles swayed slowly, as if breathing the first breath of air, and as if sizing up this brand new world.

Slime dripped from the wounds, plop, plop, hitting the stone platform.

The number of Tentacles had gone from six to eight.

The black mist on the sacred fork bell, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, rushed into his body like crazy. Flowing along his arms, surging in his blood vessels, circulating in the eight Tentacles. The black mist on the bell grew fainter, and the golden light in the cracks grew brighter.

The last wisp of black mist was sucked clean.

The sacred fork bell returned to its original appearance, the surface clean as new, no longer flashing, no longer eerie.

It lay quietly in Wu Xi's hand.

In the clearing, the Moon Beasts were long gone. Only Qi Ling, who was dazed under the stone platform, and Liao Su, who was crouching at the edge of the stone platform, remained.