Chapter 348: Beneath the Abyss, A 'Different' World

“Tell me, are you saying you only rummaged through my collection to learn these things?”

Malfurion’s tone carried a hint of skepticism and a strange edge, clearly unimpressed by Wang Yu’s desire to understand.

“In a way, yes, but not entirely. Still, these are indeed the things I most wanted to know.”

Wang Yu nodded. So far, what he most hoped to clarify was information regarding the starry sky and the Abyss—one to help him understand if the world beyond the earth was an infinite universe, and the other to confirm certain conjectures.

“To be so uninterested in the things I’ve painstakingly researched, yet so fascinated by the knowledge taught directly by the mentors... if that is truly how you feel, then a chat is fine.”

Words laden with an inexplicable meaning reached Wang Yu’s ears. His extremely keen perception as a Grand Knight allowed him to capture subtle details.

At this moment, Malfurion was slightly different from before—his tone, as well as the micro-expressions rendered on his magical projection, had become deeper and more solemn.

“Dual personality?”

Wang Yu did not know if machine spirits could suffer from split personality disorder, but it was not something he cared about.

The machine spirit’s projection walked to the wooden table, sat on a chair like a normal person, and gestured for Wang Yu to sit opposite. Wang Yu did not hesitate and sat down across from him.

“Let’s talk about the Abyss first. Never mind, since I’m the one telling you, don’t be picky.”

The sentence was framed as a question, but it lacked an interrogative tone. It was unclear if the other party truly intended to ask Wang Yu anything, and in the end, he simply continued on his own, giving him no chance to speak.

“Abyssal creatures come from the starry sky; there is no doubt about that. The earliest records of these creatures appearing on the continent describe them being observed by ancient scholars as falling with meteorites.”

“At the beginning, the power they possessed was not much different from the incomplete Abyssal creatures of today—weak and feeble. I am not entirely sure of the specifics, but the records state that in both appearance and strength, those Abyssal creatures were much like slimes.”

“So, do you think they were weak?”

Malfurion’s magical projection abruptly placed both hands on the tabletop, leaning toward Wang Yu. His eyes, possessing a luster no normal human had, stared at him with a mix of inquiry and mockery.

“Not at all.”

Having learned of the later Abyssal campaigns, how could Wang Yu underestimate these creatures from the stars?

“That’s right. The Abyssal creatures that first arrived in our world were extremely weak. The scholars who discovered them only made basic records, and finding they lacked the utility of the precious materials sometimes carried by falling stars, they left them alone to fend for themselves.”

Malfurion’s magical projection returned to its original position and continued. Wang Yu knew exactly what was coming next.

“This was, of course, a grave mistake. Otherwise, the Sky Mechanical City would not have made it a practice to sweep and inspect every meteorite they encountered, a habit most theocracies and kingdoms likely adopted as well.”

“These creatures from the stars are inherently formless. While weak, they are also capable of rapidly adapting to this world, learning powers they did not previously possess—magic, battle qi, and even divine power.”

“Without interference from intelligent races, these Abyssal creatures began to adapt to the world. They soon evolved into the first generation of native Abyssal creatures, shedding their initial, incredibly weak state and beginning to grow and develop.”

“If these beings had simply grown and reproduced on their own, it might have been fine—at most, the continent would have gained a new species of magical beast or intelligent race. But these Abyssal creatures were not so content. Beyond adapting to the environment, they could grow through predation.”

“They killed the creatures they encountered, devoured them, and gained some of their characteristics. By killing a knight, they might obtain a stronger battle qi seed and physique; by killing a mage, they might gain the ability to cast spells.”

“Just like that, these first-generation Abyssal creatures began to pose a threat to the living beings of this continent. Swarms of Abyssal creatures that had devoured magical beasts surged out from lakes, forests, and other places lacking intelligent races, beginning to attack the more powerful and tempting intelligent civilizations.”

“These creatures, which could have been easily killed, possessed enough power to threaten intelligent races after a cycle of adaptation and growth. They weren’t powerful enough yet, but some towns lacking sufficient defenses were caught off guard and breached during that time.”

“Inflow, devouring, and the slaughter of countless intelligent beings—in the process, they became stronger.”

“The now-strengthened Abyssal creatures began to form something akin to beast tides, sweeping through everything in their path, attacking every settlement of intelligent beings they could see, and consuming them.”

Malfurion stared at Wang Yu, recounting the tale with a grim tone, seemingly eager to see what the boy would think. But Wang Yu only listened intently, even taking out his Endless Pages to jot down notes.

“At that time, the intelligent races still hadn’t realized the threat these Abyssal creatures posed. After all, similar things had appeared before; large-scale magical beast tides or terrestrial upheavals caused far more casualties than the Abyssal creatures at this stage.”

“The major intelligent races purged the Abyssal creatures within their own territories. Under the suppression of their armies, these underdeveloped Abyssal creatures were quickly cleared out and temporarily vanished from the sight of the intelligent races.”

Wang Yu interjected when the other party reached a certain point, as he had stopped and was staring at him in silence.

“It wasn’t that simple, was it? The Five Races never truly united before the Battle of the Abyssal Depths. Even the Common Tongue was something the five major races of that era created together.”

“Given this, the five races, unable to share information, must have left survivors behind during the purge. And judging by the characteristics of these Abyssal creatures, giving them time to grow and develop was hardly a good choice.”

Combining what he knew of history, Wang Yu voiced his analysis and conjectures.

“More or less. The Five Races did not exchange information regarding these Abyssal creatures. If they had discovered more of their traits back then, perhaps the later wars would not have been so tragic.”

“Some remnants of the Abyssal creatures, armed with the new powers they had learned, slipped underground. There, they silently grew, reproduced, and grew stronger. The powers they ultimately mastered were the key to changing the subsequent trajectory.”

“Except for not attacking their own kind, they would attack everything else without distinction. Ordinary people without extraordinary powers, mages with destructive force, warriors with astonishing physiques—in their eyes, they were all the same.”

“Naturally, this included the followers of some gods—true gods or evil gods, it matters not. Before the intelligent races were killed, their desperate counterattacks must have involved divine arts, a power we still do not fully understand. The Abyssal creatures learned this power.”

“According to later speculations, we suspect that in some battle, an evil god who was worshipped was, quite unfortunately, killed by these Abyssal creatures in an unknown manner. This laid the groundwork for these creatures to later encounter their most important power: the Void.”

“After decades deep underground, these Abyssal creatures suddenly surged to the surface with their brand-new powers—divine arts and the power of the Void—attacking the major intelligent races of the world.”

“The name ‘Abyssal Creature’ was determined at that time. The ‘Abyss’ refers to the super-massive underground spaces those creatures from the stars had excavated over those decades—the bottomless giant pit later buried by the ‘Morning Star’.”

Malfurion recounted what happened next, pausing here to ask Wang Yu.

“Do you know what the most unique point of these Abyssal creatures is?”

“That bizarre learning ability?”

“That is only part of it.”

“Then what is it?”

“The soul. The soul form of these creatures from the stars is fundamentally different from ours. Just like the indefinite form of their own shells, their souls are incredibly chaotic and twisted.”

“Their souls share some properties with the Void. Perhaps it is precisely because of this nature that, upon coming into contact with the Void, they gained astonishing enhancements.”

“This enhancement is not the same as the power obtained by wizards. The Void’s boost to Abyssal creatures manifests directly on their shells: terrifying self-healing abilities and strange domains that pollute the souls and bodies of intelligent races.”

“With these powers, the Abyssal creatures returning to the surface began to threaten the existence of the entire continent. The kingdoms surrounding the places they surged out from were destroyed almost within a day, and all life was slaughtered.”

“Heh, if not for the existence of that thing, I fear the Five Races, lacking time to react, would have fared even worse.”

Malfurion chuckled here, and the thing he mentioned truly piqued Wang Yu’s curiosity.

“What is that thing?”

He asked quite naturally.

“The Ossuary.”

Malfurion spoke of an existence Wang Yu had not seen for a long time but still remembered vividly—the massive structure made of white bones that passed through the plains outside the cabin in the woods. It was one of the strongest beings he had ever witnessed in this world.

“Massive amounts of death attracted that existence. The first wave of the Abyssal creatures was crushed by the Ossuary, which gave the Five Races a chance to react.”

“Armies from the Five Races began to converge from all directions. This included intelligent races outside the Five, such as the dragons that later disappeared from the continent, and the extremely rare mountain giants.”

“But even so, the Void creatures, possessing both Void enhancements and divine arts, showed the beings of the continent what a desperate situation meant time and time again. Gods fell under the surging tide of Abyssal creatures, and the century-long accumulation of an intelligent kingdom was worth nothing before them.”

“The dwarves were forced to detonate the underground fire veins, and their underground cities were swallowed by erupting volcanoes, drowning large numbers of Abyssal creatures in the process. The World Tree had to be split into three to prevent its destruction by the Abyssal creatures, while providing help from the Tree of Life to other races.”

“The gates of the old capital of the Feathered Race were used as weapons and smashed into the Abyssal army, so much so that after the war, the Feathered Race could barely find their way home. There were many such events. In this protracted war against the Abyssal creatures, the intelligent races of the continent sacrificed too much.”

“But it was this shared threat that brought all races together. The union of the Five Races allowed their separated knowledge, power, and resources to converge. It was under this premise that a group of brilliant talents was born: Roland, Sula, Rhine...”

It is a curious irony that among the myriad races, the humans—who in every measurable aspect seem inferior to their peers—have produced the greatest abundance of peerless prodigies.

The war dragged on for an age, and the sentient races displayed a resilience beyond all imagining; no matter how they surged, the creatures of the abyss could never truly shatter the five-fold line of defense, until that star bloomed.

Morning Star: a weapon of such magnitude that it defies your wildest imaginings, the fruit of collective research by countless mages, the epoch-defining visions of brilliant minds, and the material resources of an entire continent; it was smaller than the Sky City, yet in its presence, that floating metropolis seemed pathetically insignificant.

Its raw power was only a fraction of why the war ended; the true conclusion came because it rendered the world fundamentally inhospitable to those abyssal beings—yes, it altered the very fabric of existence.

The detonation tore through the planes, forcibly shattering the unified elemental realms into distinct, separate spheres, and as the blast punched into the void, the architects of Morning Star harnessed that emptiness to reshape the world entire.

It may be difficult to perceive, but the world that exists in the wake of Morning Star is, in truth, a different world than the one that existed before.