The voice was strange. It wasn't the voice of a male or a female, nor was it hoarse and unpleasant, as one would expect from a creature living in this place. On the contrary, it was strangely soft and soothing.
Yun Wuji stopped moving. He froze in place, staring at the giant before him. During their fight earlier, it hadn't uttered a single word, and he had assumed it lacked high intelligence, acting purely on instinct like other Abyssal Beasts.
"It spoke! This thing actually spoke!" Hei Xiaolian exclaimed in his mind, equally startled by the sudden change.
"No shit! I have eyes and ears," Yun Wuji retorted, rolling his eyes. He withdrew his spiritual sense that had just reached the giant's forehead and asked seriously, "Who are you?"
"I should be the one asking," the giant replied, lowering its hands as it took two steps forward until only a few meters separated it from Yun Wuji. It stared at him as if he were some rare creature. "Strange. How could someone other than me control the Power of Extinction?"
Standing close, the difference in their size became even more apparent. Yun Wuji looked like a tiny ant in comparison.
"Since you can do it, why can't I?" Yun Wuji floated into the air until he was level with its eyes. He had never liked looking up at others before, and that hadn't changed now.
Before entering the Abyss of Death, he had suspected that some powerful being might dwell here and even expected that they could control Abyssal Dust to some extent. But after fighting this giant for so long without receiving any response other than attacks, he had assumed it was nothing more than a mindless beast.
So when it suddenly spoke, he was somewhat surprised. It seemed that even during their fight, it had been in a state of deep sleep and only awakened when he revealed his ability to control Abyssal Dust... or more accurately, when his spiritual sense touched its forehead.
"We are not the same. I was born from the Power of Extinction, while you clearly were not," the giant said, its eyes fixed on the tiny figure before it as if trying to pierce through his body and uncover his secrets.
'Born from the Power of Extinction? How is that even possible?' Yun Wuji's thoughts turned to astonishment. The Power of Extinction was the force that reduced everything to nothing. Its very nature was destruction itself, completely opposed to the concept of existence. So how could something be born from it?!
'So many things have changed since the Ancestral Goddess split the original Primal Chaos. For an anomaly like this to exist, was her decision to divide the Primal Chaos into the World of Existence and the World of Extinction really the right one?' He thought of how the Ancestral Goddess had first created the universe and felt that even though she had done her best, some of her actions had not been entirely correct.
Still, that was her limit. She was born from nothing and knew nothing of creation, doing everything from scratch without any reference to follow.
"How I can control the Power of Extinction isn't important. Let's just say I learned it through trying," he said, staring at the giant the same way it stared at him, as if trying to discern something from it. One thing he was certain of was that the giant wasn't hostile. It seemed rather calm. "I am Yun Wuji. Can you tell me who you are?"
"Me? I don't have a name. You can call me Abyss of Death," the giant said calmly. It no longer focused on the fact that Yun Wuji could control the Power of Extinction. Sitting on the ground with its legs crossed, it looked at him and said, "You are truly a strange being, the strangest I've ever seen."
Although it had been in a state of slumber during its battle with Yun Wuji, everything that had happened had still remained within its consciousness.
"The strangest you've ever seen?" Yun Wuji's face twitched as he asked, "If you're saying that, have you even seen any other living beings before?"
"No," the giant replied calmly. "I have never left this place, and no one has ever reached it before." Since Yun Wuji was the only being it had ever seen, it wasn't exactly wrong to call him the strangest if he was also the only one.
"Then how can you tell whether I'm strange or not?" Yun Wuji asked.
"Although no one has come to this place, in the past I could extend my sense to see other people here… well, that was a long time ago. Perhaps things have changed now," the giant said in an uncertain tone.
"What do you mean?" Yun Wuji asked curiously. It seemed he was finally about to learn something important. The giant appeared easygoing. It hadn't pursued him for beating it earlier; on the contrary, it was willing to speak to him calmly.
The giant remained silent for a long while, as if recalling something, before speaking. "This world was originally a world of complete death, containing only the pure Power of Extinction. It was meant to remain that way for all eternity. However, at some point, I do not know when, I suddenly gained consciousness." It stretched out its dark, massive hand, and Abyssal Dust began swirling above its palm.
"I was the only being in this dead world. However, several million years ago, something strange happened. A foreign power started seeping into this world. At first, it was very faint and caused no changes here, but over time, this power grew until it began diluting the Power of Extinction."
"To me, this was a pleasant change in my extremely boring, monotonous, and lonely existence." It stared at Yun Wuji with its dark, calm eyes.
Living alone for millions of years in total darkness was something only those who had experienced it could understand. Perhaps the only ones who could endure it were those who had never known what it was to interact with others or to see a world beyond the darkness.
Yun Wuji felt that a large part of the reason this giant was so 'friendly' toward him was its loneliness or perhaps its boredom, and it simply wanted someone to talk to.
"Along with the great change brought by that power, living beings began to appear in this world for one reason or another. They were beings completely incompatible with the Power of Extinction," it said, then added, "Unlike you."
"Most of them couldn't survive for long before dying miserably. After watching them for a long time, I decided I would no longer witness these pitiful creatures struggle in despair, perish, and have their pitiful cries etched into my world. I chose to gather all the power of the Abyss and direct it toward the center, creating what you would come to know as the Endless Fog."
"I created a land that is thin with Abyssal Dust for those who fell, a space full of life, which is what is now known as the Land of Living."
'Holy shit! What did I just hear?!' Yun Wuji's eyes widened to the limit. This was completely different from what he had been told after coming to this world. He had heard that the Abyssal Monarch had used his power to create the Land of Living and the Pure Land.
Yun Wuji wasn't dumb enough to think that Mo Su had the power to do that alone. He thought Mo Su must have used the Nether Mirror or perhaps gathered the power of all the Gods at that time to carve that tiny 1% of land and make it a place for people to live.
But now it seemed that everything he had heard was complete bullshit. Perhaps the only place Mo Su had truly created was the Pure Land, which was completely isolated from the Abyssal Dust.
Although he was shocked, Yun Wuji was a very open-minded person when it came to twists like these, mainly because his own existence was the greatest anomaly in this universe. Since he existed, why not other things? He asked calmly, "So the reason the Abyssal Dust is condensed in the Endless Fog is because of you?"
"Yes. However, because of that, I lost much of my power and had no choice but to fall into a long slumber. Before I completely slept, I commanded the Abyssal Beasts, which I discovered I could control, to never leave the Endless Fog," the giant revealed another secret. "If the Abyssal Beasts were to go out, it would only bring disaster to these pitiful life forms who found a new refuge from the Power of Extinction."
This time, Yun Wuji wasn't too shocked. Since the giant could control Abyssal Dust to such an extent, it was only natural that it could control the Abyssal Beasts as well. He asked, "You woke up now because of me?"
"No! I woke hundreds of thousands of years ago. I sensed that the Laws in this world were crumbling, which stirred me awake, but at that time, I was far too weak. I could only stay awake for a short while before returning to sleep," the giant answered calmly. It didn't seem resentful toward Yun Wuji for giving it a beating earlier. "Since then, I have awakened every few thousand years to observe the state of the world before returning to sleep."
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