Chapter 200: Rules, Concepts, Authorities; The Gravely Wounded First Immortal

On the strange and absurd ground, the scraping sounds of insect limbs wriggled constantly, accompanied by various shifting mists.

“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?” Within the mist, Chen Xiyi’s Alloy Full Body Armor was covered with a layer of carapace-like keratin, writhing as though it were alive.

Behind him, vast swarms of flying insects continuously gathered and dispersed.

When scattered, they formed a sky-blotting black cloud; when united, they coalesced into a ferocious-looking Buddha.

“Relax, definitely this direction. How could I mistake such a big red dot?” Chen Xiyi’s voice declared with confidence.

They were inside history, or perhaps the third map.

Chen Xiyi could clearly see the red dot and the name on his Game Map.

[Mist of Ancient History]

Facing such a large red name marker, guided by the game map, how could Chen Xiyi possibly get lost?

It was just that these mists were quite annoying. Even after a year of Chen Xiyi’s improvements to his techniques, he had still underestimated their power. All previous countermeasures had drastically weakened, retaining only about ten percent effectiveness, and that was after he had enhanced their resistance to the reality mist by a hundred percent.

Luckily, he had brought ample supplies. Even with just ten percent effectiveness, he forced it to deliver a full hundred percent result.

“The mists seem to be an extension of that entity. Clearly, it must have detected our arrival and started closing in on us.”

“But that also confirms one thing: its condition isn’t good. Otherwise, it could have swatted us both to death from afar.”

Chen Xiyi watched the casualty reports for his Force-Devouring Gu feeding back into the System.

The current casualties were acceptable. Thanks to the overall enhancement of his Eighty-Four Thousand Buddha Primordial Spirits, not many Force-Devouring Gu had perished.

“Are you sure it’s fine to expend your Gu Insect Primordial Spirits like this?” Lin Feng asked with concern.

“Stop calling them Gu Insects, it sounds cheap! These are my Eighty-Four Thousand Buddha Primordial Spirits. ‘A Buddha observes a single bowl of water, perceiving eighty-four thousand insects within.’ Don’t degrade my divine Buddhist ability into some cheap trick!” Chen Xiyi corrected Lin Feng irritably.

“Ugly is ugly, no need for excuses. Looking like that, you’ll surely never find a wife,” Lin Feng retorted, understanding from Chen Xiyi’s tone that everything must be fine, otherwise he wouldn’t have time for banter.

“Hah! And who was it that said, ‘Women slow down my sword’? But you turned around and snagged yourself a rich wife! Tsk, look who’s talking!” Chen Xiyi bristled. Lin Feng could tease him about being single, but calling his Eight-Four Thousand Buddha Primordial Spirits ugly? Unacceptable! This was his meticulously crafted, Gundam-inspired electronic Buddha Primordial Spirit!

“Mei Niang and I… it’s mutual devotion. Deal with it. Just deal with it!”

“Damn, even Wandering Light isn’t as annoying as you.”

Chen Xiyi felt the guy was just plain gloating now.

And so they journeyed through history, bickering non-stop, only to suddenly fall silent simultaneously.

“Our friend here sure knows how to play, building a castle in this place?” Chen Xiyi commented, looking at a castle faintly visible near them, shrouded in thick mist.

“Do you feel like there’s something… wrong about that castle? Like some incredibly evil presence?” Lin Feng spoke gravely.

Chen Xiyi scrutinized it carefully. “Nope. Just looks like fancy special effects.”

He couldn’t see any evil aura at all, likely a failing of his Player perspective.

“I saw… glimmers of twisting… horror. Like bizarre limbs… or perhaps the castle is part of a limb. More nightmares lurk within the mist beneath the castle,” Lin Feng murmured, a peculiar tone in his voice as if he genuinely saw something.

“Huh?”

Chen Xiyi looked over the castle again and again but saw nothing like what Lin Feng described.

“Is that really necessary?”

To him, it was still just a somewhat ornate castle surrounded by mist. None of the feelings Lin Feng mentioned.

[System Notification: You have been gazed upon by Mist of Ancient History. Unnameable Fear acquired. Unneeded negative status converted into Health Points damage.]

[Unnameable Fear dealt 0% Health Points damage to you.]

[Alloy Full Body Armor Durability decreased by 1 point.]

[Enchantment: Thorns has reflected the gaze of Mist of Ancient History. Dealt 1% Health Points damage to Mist of Ancient History.]

The next instant, the entire castle exploded. From within vast clouds of mist, swarms of hideous tentacles, partly illusory and partly solid, emerged.

“Holy smokes! Take a taste of Justice and Truth!” Chen Xiyi rallied a huge swarm of Force-Devouring Gu into the form of a Buddha. He pulled out a stick of TNT and hurled it towards the castle erupting with tentacles.

So that’s why Lin Feng saw that weird stuff! He must have been infected by the negative status! The effect had been intermittent because the Sturdy Enchantment of his Alloy Helmet would kick in, offering partial immunity.

Lin Feng had taken the status directly as a human. But Chen Xiyi was a Player in the Home Game. There was no such status there. That’s why it got converted into Health Points damage and reflected back by the Thorns Enchantment.

The bizarre, illogical rules of the game system had acted directly on the First Immortal. This single point of damage likely aggravated its heavy injuries, sending it into a berserk fury in an instant.

The triple-enchanted TNT flew through Chen Xiyi’s mighty throw and landed squarely on the castle with perfect stability.

BOOM!

A colossal explosion erupted instantly.

[System Notification: You dealt 100% Health Points damage to Mist of Ancient History using TNT!]

There was no death notification, which was normal. Massive tentacles tore the entire castle apart. The being known as [Mist of Ancient History] had “???” instead of a specific Health Points value behind its name. It wouldn’t die even from 1000% damage, let alone 100%.

[Mist of Ancient History, Health Points: ???, Statuses: Spirituality Collapse, Grave Injury, Ancient Horror Entanglement]

[Ability 1: Rule · History]

[Ability 2: Concept · Immortality]

[Ability 3: Concept · Transcendence]

[Ability 4: Authority · Mist]

[Ability 5: Authority · Civilization]

[Ability 6: Authority · Time]

[Recent Timeline]

[September: Stabilizing injuries, halting Spirituality collapse, attempting to break free from the Ancient Horror’s entanglement.]

[September: …]

Seeing the six Abilities, Chen Xiyi was utterly stunned. What an outrageously OP set! Rules? Concepts? Authorities? This bordered on the ridiculous!

If that being hadn’t suffered those three negative statuses, both he and Lin Feng would’ve been squashed flat the moment they acted up. Lin Feng was just an embodiment of the Concept of the Sword. This First Immortal wielded two Concepts, three Authorities, and the most powerful one of all: Rule · History. Essentially, Lin Feng was just a Rule Incarnation. The First Immortal was the Rule itself – achieving Dao Harmony, probably deeper than even Ji Shan!

“How dare you worms crawl into the Spirit World? Seeking Death?” An inhuman roar shook the entire realm of history, or rather, the entire Spirit World.

Chen Xiyi watched as the castle shattered. A monster shaped entirely of mist rapidly expanded on the sky. Semi-illusory tentacles, writhing limbs, and grotesque organs…

For a moment, Chen Xiyi was speechless. This design is even uglier than my Eighty-Four Thousand Buddha Primordial Spirits! However, he figured this monstrosity probably wasn’t intentional. Checking the notification log, he saw a cascade of new statuses suddenly added behind the First Immortal’s name: Spirituality Warping, Ancient Horror Surge, Rule Backlash, Authority Backlash, Concept Damage—a whole list of compounding complications.

Crucially, right after these complications emerged… the Health Points value finally appeared: 18%.

“One stick of TNT triggered all its complications! Lin Feng, move! Kill it while it’s down!”

Before Chen Xiyi even finished speaking, Lin Feng was already charging.

The Wandering Light Sword flashed, unleashing terrifying sword flashes wrapped in world-shaking Sword Intent. The Sword Qi sliced through the First Immortal’s mist-like form, cleaving it cleanly in two!

[System Notification: Lin Feng (The Immortal) dealt 18% Health Points damage to Mist of Ancient History using Wandering Light Sword!]

The First Immortal didn’t die. Despite losing 18% of its HP in one slash, its Health Points bar stubbornly remained stuck at… 18%. Its HP had hit an absolute zero lockout.

Lin Feng’s expression hardened. Sword raised, he charged again. Innumerable Sword Qi beams and torrents of Sword Intent clashed violently with the First Immortal’s tentacles and distorted limbs.

[System Notification: You suffered contamination from the Spirit World. Lifeform Mutagenesis acquired. Unneeded negative status converted into Health Points damage.]

[Lifeform Mutagenesis dealt 0% Health Points damage to you.]

[Alloy Full Body Armor Durability decreased by 1 point.]

[Enchantment: Thorns reflected the Spirit World’s contamination. Dealt 1% Health Points damage to the Spirit World.]

CRACK!

A crisp shattering sound echoed. A hair-thin fissure rent open within the Spirit World surrounding them.

More crucially, the First Immortal’s Health Points dropped by… 1%, and it gained a new status: [Spirit World Backlash].

“The reason its HP is locked… it shares its lifeforce with the Spirit World itself!” Chen Xiyi instantly understood the First Immortal’s predicament. It wasn’t immortal; they had simply been attacking the wrong target.

As long as the Spirit World existed, it wouldn’t die. Severe injuries and debilitating statuses might cripple its power, but not kill it.

“So… worlds actually have Health Points? It’s just that I can’t target them directly, so my attacks don’t register against their HP?” Chen Xiyi pondered, continuously manipulating the Eighty-Four Thousand Buddha Primordial Spirits to manifest a Buddha Land to unleash attacks on the First Immortal while calculating how to strike the entire Spirit World.

The Spirit World was no ordinary realm. It resembled Wandering Light’s Chronological World – an artificial dimension crafted by the supremely powerful First Immortal onto the framework of “History” using its Rule, Concepts, and Authorities. It wasn’t a world born naturally.

“Also… it has no reason. Its Spirituality has completely collapsed. It can only act on instinct to preserve stability.”

Watching Lin Feng gradually lose ground, Chen Xiyi knew the truth. Even gravely injured and berserk, the First Immortal was not something Lin Feng could casually flatten.

BOOM!

Seizing an opening, Chen Xiyi hurled another triple-enchanted TNT. It struck true, shearing off another 17% of the First Immortal’s Health Points.

Another wave of Spirit World pollution rolled out… and was bounced back by Thorns. This time, however, the Spirit World’s Health Points didn’t decrease.

“I get it! When the First Immortal suffers heavy damage, it instinctually siphons power from the Spirit World to heal itself!” Chen Xiyi analyzed aloud. “The siphon process leaks Spirit World pollution!”

Lin Feng heard him clearly. But this insight didn’t magically solve the problem.

“The Spirit World and the First Immortal share life force! I can reflect its pollution back to hurt the Spirit World! We cut off its roots!” Chen Xiyi emphasized.

It wasn’t that hurling TNT automatically triggered a Spirit World drain. Their coordinated attacks were needed. Lin Feng, wielding his formidable Wandering Light Sword, landed critical hits with doubled damage. This accumulated sufficient trauma to force the First Immortal to siphon world energy once enough damage piled up. Chen Xiyi’s TNT barrage had landed at precisely one such forced healing point.

Chen Xiyi now felt certain the Spirit World itself now had 98% Health Points. That fissure hadn’t sealed. The Spirit World possessed no natural means of recovery. Any healing likely required the conscious effort of its creator, the First Immortal. Yet, drowned in Spirituality Collapse madness, the Immortal only siphoned power away for its own repair, further degrading its only life-support system.

“Understood. Protect yourself. Leave the rest to me!”

Lin Feng accelerated his assault. Before, Chen Xiyi could catch glimpses of their flailing forms. Now, it blurred into nothingness. He controlled the Eighty-Four Thousand Buddha Primordial Spirits to form a protective perimeter, clearing fog and smaller monstrosities preventing interference with Lin Feng.

His Force-Devouring Gu died by the hundreds, then thousands. Every death shrunk the giant Buddha Primordial Spirit manifestation. The entire Buddha Land dwindled as its sustaining Gu fuel was consumed. This power was always intended as expendable.