Chapter Forty-Four: Escape (Part One)

The dark green moss glistened vividly, its emerald hue sparkling like countless stars, spreading in an instant into a vast expanse. Deep-rooted, it clung tightly to the cold, shadowy earth below, thriving with exuberant vitality even in a shallow puddle no bigger than a palm.

The darkness was as deep as midnight, perhaps even more so.

Yet time, for the darkness, seemed as silent and intangible as air, flowing unhindered, leaving traces of ages in its centuries and millennia of sediment.

Life is indeed the greatest miracle in the world. One cannot help but marvel—no matter how close to extinction, it still blossoms anew.

Gu Qian’s pale eyes shone bright, fixated on the scene before him, the moss so astonishing it could shake anyone. He vaguely sensed the essence of life drifting and surging before him.

The darkness seemed like a colossal black curtain, blocking all senses and sight. Yet at this moment, Gu Qian was unraveling its deepest mysteries with his pale eyes. That immense ‘curtain’ was gradually lifted before him, revealing countless tiny pale green particles, illuminating the entire subterranean corridor like fireflies. Their presence perfectly matched the area where the moss appeared.

These pale green grains floated and sank, moving slowly and irregularly in the moss’s habitat, as if clinging to the air itself, drifting like dust in the breeze.

Unlike dust, however, their existence was governed by the moss’s influence. Once they drifted beyond its domain, the particles would dim and dissolve, vanishing completely into the air without a ripple.

Here, this place formed its own system, utterly incompatible with any external factors. The surging vitality was so dense that it overwhelmed the senses.

Gu Qian suddenly realized that the moss before him contained boundless life potential, and those particles floating in the air, visible only through his pale eyes, were a unique manifestation of nature’s power.

They carried the origins of vitality and all its abundance. Though they emerged and condensed in dependence on the moss, their existence was still astonishingly incredible.

“This is truly unbelievable!” Gu Qian whispered, his face full of wonder.

“The breath of life is so dense that it’s actually formed into particles in the air, invisible to ordinary people,” Gu Qian affirmed, stepping closer to the moss-covered area.

Instantly, he felt his whole body relax. The superficial wounds from his earlier battle with the vengeful spirit began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye. Even his skin felt a rare clarity, and his muscles and bones seemed to brim with untapped strength.

A crisp crackling sound echoed from his joints—the third phase of his gene lock had reached its peak. Previously, caught up in the chaos caused by Tang Ruyan’s accident, Gu Qian had no time to appreciate the power of his gene lock’s third stage. Now, he grasped every nuance of his muscles and even the changes within each cell. Beyond the secret abilities this phase brought, he felt that even a ‘superhuman’ might be no more than this.

If a dinosaur appeared now, Gu Qian was certain he could throw it single-handedly. The surge of confidence made him eager to test his strength, but before him, in the empty darkness, not even a tiny ant could be found, let alone a creature as massive as a mountain. He could only sigh inwardly.

His pale eyes flickered, radiant as daylight, dazzling and extraordinary.

In the darkness, Gu Qian lingered within the moss zone, growing ever more convinced he was being blessed. His vitality slowly increased, and his spirit grew fuller, as if his entire body and soul were steeped in a hot spring, intoxicating him to the point of near self-forgetfulness.

Suddenly, Gu Qian’s expression froze, a cold sweat pouring from his heart. The white glow in his eyes flared, casting two beams into the dark tunnel, piercing through the wear of ages. The temperature around him dropped sharply.

In a blink, Gu Qian appeared at the edge of the moss-covered area.

“Damn it, I nearly got assimilated!” He gasped, staring at the moss, his voice trembling.

The moss-covered region remained silent, the dark green moss shrouding the entire passage, its vast vitality flooding the area like an ocean.

Yet this immense vitality, inherently opposed to death, would also strip away all external life force.

Lingering too long in this space, one would be nourished by nature’s power, reaching a perfect state of vitality. But the ceaseless influx of energy would push one’s life force to the brink of collapse, ultimately assimilating them soundlessly, turning them into part of the moss, forever strengthening this domain.

Gu Qian’s heart still raced; thankfully, his perceptive intuition had alerted him to the hidden danger in time—otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

This place was as perilous as any he had ever faced, perhaps even more so due to its insidious nature. A single lapse could plunge one into a crisis beyond imagination, even costing their life.

He steadied his turbulent thoughts, silently weighing his options. Tang Ruyan’s predicament demanded attention, and perhaps this moss-covered area held the key to rescuing her—dangerous as it was, Gu Qian knew he had to risk it.

Against the cunning, ferocious vengeful spirit, Gu Qian had to first force it out of Tang Ruyan’s body before he could kill it without reservation.

Suddenly, a piercing scream shattered the silence of the underground corridor, abrupt and suffocating, echoing through the darkness after it ceased.

“Tang Ruyan!” Gu Qian’s heart leapt—the scream was unmistakably hers. The terror and agony soon faded into silence, but a mounting sense of crisis seized him.

Was the vengeful spirit now devouring Tang Ruyan’s consciousness to seize control? Or was she struggling desperately to resist its domination?

Gu Qian had no time to ponder. He vanished from the spot, his pale eyes flashing through the darkness like twin lanterns, rushing forth in an eerie, uncanny blur.