Deep in the Living

With each step, a footprint; with each breath, a mouthful of ash.

For some reason, the journey along this road was incredibly difficult. With every step closer to the kingdom, Luo Di felt the pressure magnify! This pressure weighed down on every corner of his body, especially the spine as the center.

His consciousness was clear, and Luo Di, who had found his target, knew exactly what he was doing and understood his current situation.

This was a "regrowth" following the maturity of a plant, a state where the pituitary ascends to a higher level. Entering this state is extremely difficult.

His plant had just matured, and he wasn't hoping for this state to immediately reach the scale of a garden, only that the mature plant could reach a more perfect state.

At the very least, let him reach a level where he could touch the likes of Lord Jiang, even if there was just a 1% chance of slaughter.

Walking was the thing he was most adept at.

Unlike Wu Wen, who had her parents pick her up all her life,

when Luo Di was in school, while everyone else was taken home by their parents, he trudged home alone with a heavy backpack since both his parents were ordinary laborers always returning home late.

It wasn't until high school that he began taking the bus.

Now,

Luo Di's entire skeleton creaked under the pressure, but he seemed to return to the days he walked home alone, raising his head to look at the kingdom's mirage in the distance, resembling a residential complex at the end of the road.

No money to buy snacks,

No hobbies or interests,

He simply buried his head and walked, thinking of nothing, just walking in a straightforward manner.

Luo Di didn't notice that on this "road," it seemed he was not alone; it seemed there was a crowd of people following him.

Unconsciously,

Luo Di had walked into the residential area, reaching the base of the apartment building.

Now, he only needed to step onto the staircase to get home.

However…

As soon as Luo Di reached the second floor, he stopped. Before him, there was no staircase, the stairs leading upwards nowhere to be found, or perhaps not yet constructed.

Suddenly, a severe pain in his spine caused him to drop to one knee, reaching out to clutch his back.

This wasn't the pleasurable pain from Hell's Torture Room, but a fundamental kind of pain, as if his entire old spine was about to fracture.

This ancient hell-originated old spine showed numerous cracks.

After the pain subsided,

Luo Di was pulled out from his Heart Flow state; what lay before him was no longer the road home, but the path to the kingdom!

He had somehow reached the kingdom's foot, standing on the staircase.

But these steps weren't built of stone, nor were they forged of steel.

They were formed from human bodies.

The victims imprisoned in the Moon Dungeon, those that Luo Di personally executed, followed him to tread upon this path.

Luo Di's hellish kingdom hung above the mist,

Approaching the kingdom was just the first part of the journey,

This latter part wasn't something that could be completed by merely walking, but required constructing the staircase... enough stairs had to be built from victims to reach it.

This was the mutual expression of the Hell System and the Corner System.

Since Luo Di was the Black Door Killer... he needed to achieve a sufficient amount of culling! Although he had attained a state of growth, the foundational accumulation was still insufficient.

Gazing at the kingdom gate amidst the mist, Luo Di made up his mind.

At the same time,

The mature plant placed in the Plant Cultivation Room also changed.

Walking had transformed into a state of climbing stairs,

The head fruit held in his hand seemed to become a lantern,

The slaughter knife blade in his other hand was also sheathed at his waist, no longer focusing on slaughter but wholeheartedly completing the final ascent.

The metal plaque branded at the base of the plant altered, although the name of the plant did not change, the numbers on it did.

§Walking Hell's Road§

Hanging Plant Comprehensive Ranking-NO.33

...

[Human Body Exhibition. West District. Atrium]

Clang!

The steel pipe specially created by Professor Noel was pulled out, tossed to the ground.

Lord Jiang shook his extremely disoriented head, reconnecting it to his body.

This penetration compounded with the interrupted possession inflicted considerable damage upon him, with a strong ringing persisting in his ears, and his vision trembling.

The wounds pierced through were rapidly healed under the influence of sinister energy.

When healing was complete... a piece of flesh fell off, smacking heav-ily onto the floor.

Splat~ another chunk followed suit.

Lord Jiang's flesh was constantly shedding, turning into a state of rotten meat, rapidly bubbling and dissolving into decay.

Even Uncle Bo's body still couldn't withstand such torment.

Especially after the recent penetrating injury, where both the torso and head were simultaneously damaged. A few more of these and this body probably wouldn't hold up anymore.

Even so,

even though Professor Noel had inflicted such serious trauma on him.

Master Jiang's target remained unchanged, without even glancing at the professor, he directly flew up, pursuing the scent of Luo Di.

The neck had been bitten,

Corpse Poison had entered the body,

He only needed to follow the shadowy aura along the wound to quickly find the target's location. Luo Di, in a coma, was in no position to resist, and he would only need to take another bite when the time came.

But just as he hadn't flown very far... buzz! A ringing noise came to his ears, and Master Jiang instantly fell to the ground, coughing up a large amount of black blood and necrotic innards.

He pulled out a specially made elixir from his pocket, swallowed it down, and temporarily stabilized his condition.

His time was short; he had to hurry.

But just as he tried to continue sensing, the aura vanished, as if the other party was no longer here, completely isolated in a separate space or perhaps had already escaped back to Vortex Town.

Seeing this,

Master Jiang flew into a rage!

Having killed the lady, he was nearly in a state of madness, yet he somehow lost the dumpling that had almost reached his mouth! Considering that he had just touched Luo Di's pituitary, he had even started dreaming of the future.

His mood plummeted like a roller coaster plunging into the depths!

"No... there's no way he ran away! He must be hiding somewhere, it must be a secret area of this exhibition!"

Master Jiang concentrated all the shadowy aura at his fingertips, and stuck to the edge of the exhibition building, flying swiftly as he lightly tapped each key pillar with his fingers.

Once he had quickly circled back to the original position,

Master Jiang took a deep breath, then plummeted like a jack, landing as though dragon claws struck the ground.

Boom!

The ground shook.

The structure of the Human Body Exhibition began to collapse; those support pillars that Master Jiang had touched began to break one after another.

The entire roof structure was destroyed, becoming an open-style exhibition structure.

Torrential rain poured in as well.

The raindrops carrying the shadowy aura, wherever they landed, caused sinister wild grass and nameless tombstones to grow.

All affected areas could be perceived by Master Jiang.

Soon, he discovered an unusual area.

A place where, even though the roof was lifted, the rain still could not penetrate.

The area was fully sealed with special metal, completely isolated inside and out. Combined with the direction in which Luo Di's aura disappeared, the likelihood was high that he was there.

"Very good! Very good! As long as he's still here, that's good news!"

Master Jiang was pleased, ignoring the flesh peeling off his body, he flew over quickly.

And during the flight,

he suddenly sensed something and abruptly turned his head!

Sure enough, a special steel pipe flew toward him again, with special runes flowing on its surface, capable of piercing his zombie flesh.

He lifted his arm abruptly, and the surrounding shadowy aura quickly condensed around his arm as if covering it with dragon scales, and grabbed it.

"Do you think the same trick would work on this old man again?"

Master Jiang's eyes widened in rage, and he threw it back in the opposite direction it came from, the unimaginably huge force breaking the sound barrier.

Swish!

It pierced through Professor Noel's body, pinning him to the ground, and for the time being, there was no sound.

Master Jiang quickly turned his head, continuing to search for Luo Di's location.

When confirming the opponent wasn't paying attention, Professor Noel suddenly opened his eyes, supporting his body, and slid out from the steel pipe.

With all his strength, he pulled the steel pipe from the ground.

This time, the steel pipe he threw was different... the runes on it weren't for destruction, but rather for structural absorption.

When Master Jiang touched the steel pipe, a piece of his flesh stuck to it, allowing Professor Noel to conduct a more detailed analysis to find his structural weakness.

"Truly a terrifying old thing, if I don't stop him soon, he might just take apart the entire exhibition."

At this very moment,

Dwarf Kovman ran back.

"Hmm? Why did you come back? Didn't I tell you to stay in there with Luo Di?"

Kovman quickly reported the detailed situation, informing about Mr. Rose's intervention.

"What exactly does that damn Rose want to do?"

While Professor Noel was still puzzled, a loud noise came, and looking up! It seemed like something had been severed...