There are many types of soul essences, each granting different abilities. These allow the beings of the dark world to manipulate wind, fire, thunder, and lightning, alter the laws of physics at will, and produce all sorts of incredible, mysterious powers. For the inhabitants of the dark world, soul essence is the source of all life’s power.

The most powerful beings in the dark world, if they have developed enough soul essences, can fuse them together to form a massive body of pure energy—this energy form is called a phantasm. Developing a single type of soul essence technique is worth much less than a complete set; only a complete soul technique can condense a phantasm.

A phantasm can take the form of a monster, demon, deity, artifact, or any kind of bizarre, unimaginable shape...

The phantasm is the ultimate power in the dark world—a qualitative leap compared to soul essence. Even among the beings of the dark world, only a very small number can possess such formidable power.

When a powerful being from the dark world descends into the main world, it usually consumes an enormous amount of energy, and even if they return to the dark world, this energy cannot be restored. Beings with phantasms cannot even bring their true bodies into the main world; they can only project a shadow with barely one or two percent of their true power, and this shadow cannot be recovered. It takes a very long time to regain the lost power. For this reason, intelligent beings of the dark world who possess mysterious and powerful abilities rarely travel to the main world. When these powerful beings occasionally visit, they are often regarded by humans as gods, buddhas, saints, or even monsters and devils...

For the same reason, the inhabitants of the dark world call the main world “Boluo Duo,” meaning hell, and believe the main world is “the source of all evil.”

The intelligent beings of the dark world see the main world as hell, and view its creatures as little better than pigs or dogs. Even intelligent humans are not regarded highly—if anything, they are viewed with even greater hostility.

To the natives of the dark world, we creatures of the main world are the embodiment of extreme evil born in hell—especially humans, who are the worst of the worst. Every human soul and body is seen as filthy and corrupt, needing to be completely eradicated and utterly destroyed.

The residents of the dark world believe that humans are the worst of the worst, the filthiest life in hell. The main reason why every human soul and body is seen as filthy and in need of total eradication and destruction is—corruption!

Chapter 14: Darkness and Death

Because of the laws of ghosts and gods, when humans from the main world cross the boundary between the two worlds, they undergo “corruption.”

Corruption: This is the process by which a human, upon crossing into the dark world, reconstructs a new body suited to the dark world, with the soul as the core.

A corrupted human, having temporarily freed their soul from the body, releases a small portion of the soul’s power, thus gaining soul force and the ability to cultivate in the dark world. After corruption, if a human’s soul force becomes strong enough, they can develop soul essences just like the intelligent beings of the dark world and master all sorts of mysterious powers.

After corruption, the human body becomes hideous, like a demon or monster. In the early days of contact with the dark world, many humans could not accept their grotesque new forms and committed suicide in despair, not knowing how to regain their human appearance. It was only later, when powerful humans from the main world also acquired phantasms and discovered that condensing a phantasm allowed them to regain their human form in the dark world, that such suicides ceased entirely.

It was precisely because powerful humans with phantasms emerged in the main world—strong enough to rival the natives of the dark world—that humanity was able to gradually gain a foothold there. From being slaughtered, they became the enemies of the dark world’s natives, and even went further, gradually viewing the dark world as a vast source of wealth and power, becoming plunderers of this world.

Whether it’s a being from the dark world descending into the main world, or a human entering the dark world, the weaker side is usually the one slaughtered. There have even been powerful beings from the dark world who actively descended into the main world, attempting to destroy everything and wipe out “the source of all evil.”

If the main world were not unable to fully contain the power of the dark world, our world would have long since been destroyed by all manner of monsters from the dark world.

The residents of the two worlds have never formed any friendship; their relationship is extremely... bad!

With the emergence of phantasm-wielding powerhouses, governments around the world intervened in the development of the dark world in 1953. Later, various corporations and underground forces also joined the scramble for wealth and power.

From that point on, humanity’s influence in the dark world expanded rapidly, and large-scale development of the dark world entered a phase of explosive growth. Today, humans have established fifty-three strongholds of various sizes in the dark world. The six largest strongholds each have populations exceeding ten thousand, and together, these six have a larger population than the other forty-seven small and medium strongholds combined.

From that point on, battles have occurred every day! People have died every day.

From that point on, the death toll in the dark world began to rise sharply.