Greatest Legacy of the Magus Universe

Adam's frail body had turned pale, a layer of sweat sticking to his skin.

The corruption crept outward from the wounds with alarming speed. Black veins spread beneath his skin, branching down his arm towards his fingers and crawling up his neck like living rot.

Wherever they passed, sensation dulled, replaced by a deep, gnawing ache that slowly drained his strength away. His grip weakened, and his breathing grew uneven. Yet still, he continued to fly further and further away from the unholy tree.

He needed to find a safe place to heal his arm—if such a thing was even possible.

No, there was a chance. And now, he had to try it.

Dragonshit!

He cursed inwardly as he infused mana into the Stealth Cloak, trying to keep its enchantment constantly active. But the artifact was slowly failing him.

Thankfully, the damned snake wasn't following him.

As he sensed the wounds to his shoulder, his heart sank.

The flesh around the wounds had darkened further in just a span of minutes.

No, more than just a few minutes must have passed, he thought.

Judging by the flow of time in this forsaken place, days must have passed already!

Each heartbeat pushed the corruption further, flooding his body with heaviness and pain. His body shuddered from time to time.

If he delayed any longer, if he failed to act now, the corruption would reach his heart, and there would probably be no recovery from that.

Now, one might wonder, why did Adam have to engage with the serpent in the first place? Knowing how dangerous the creature was, couldn't he have just… flown over the unholy tree?

Well, the answer was simple.

Greed.

A man's nature was not something easily cast aside. Greed did not arrive suddenly, nor did it fade with reason or regret.

It lay dormant. Patient. Waiting for the moment weakness revealed itself. Even when warned, even when aware of the cost, the greedy hand still reached out.

Desire whispered promises louder than fear, and once stirred, it was nearly impossible to silence.

And then there was another factor…

When Adam had approached the unholy tree earlier, he had felt an overwhelming desire to consume the fruits that grew on it. Something about the tree strengthened those feelings of yearning deep within him.

He continued to fly, not daring to land on the ground, fearing that he would be besieged by more creatures. Due to his already deteriorating health and the growing corruption, he doubted that he'd be able to fight multiple enemies.

A long time passed, and he suddenly sensed a vast, oppressive presence looming in the distance. As he flew closer, the outline gradually took shape against the warped horizon.

It wasn't a structure built by hand, but something far older and monstrous.

What stood before him was the carcass of a long-dead beast. More precisely, its rib cage.

Colossal bones arched upward from the ground, each rib thicker than a fortress wall, curving inward to form a massive dom-like structure.

The ribs interlocked naturally, creating a hollow interior large enough to house an entire town!

Dark residue clung to the bone, and cracks ran along the surface where time and corruption had eaten away at it. The ground beneath was littered with smaller fragments like shattered vertebrae and splintered spines.

This was no ordinary corpse.

It was a grave large enough to become a landmark!

Adam hesitated for a moment before choosing to descend upon the massive ribcage. His boots crunched against layers of ash and dust that had accumulated over countless millennia.

He extended the Sphere of Resonance outward, looking for any potential threats and also for a place to rest. As he moved along the curve of the ribcage, he noticed deep shadows pooling between the overlapping bones.

In one such crevice, partially hidden from above, the structure dipped inward. A narrow opening revealed itself. Adam heaved a sigh of relief. It was a naturally formed cave carved into one of the ribs by time and decay.

The entrance was jagged and uneven, just wide enough for him to slip through. The moment he entered, he began carving runes all around the cave, using his blood as ink. It was the same concealment runic formation he had used in the cave where he had advanced.

Finally, after all of that was done, he collapsed to the ground.

He weakly removed his clothes, his emaciated body now fully visible. Black veins crawled across his skin from the wounds, pulsing faintly as the corruption spread. His ribs stood out sharply, every breath shallow and uneven.

His face was little more than bone and skin. The cheeks had sunken inward, hollowed out until the sharp lines of his skull were clearly visible. His hair was long and tangled, and his beard had grown wild and untrimmed. Once raven-black, they had now lost all their luster.

Adam forced himself to sit down, bracing his back against the curved wall.

"How did things come to this?" He muttered under his breath, his lips curling into a faint, bitter smile.

Despite being corrupted by the serpent, his spirit sea remained holy and pristine. Thanks to the lotus, his mind and soul were unharmed.

However, the same couldn't be said for his body.

He inhaled deeply, then murmured, "It's time to test out my theory. Now, I have no other options left…"

Suddenly, he thought of something and couldn't help but let out a light chuckle.

Only a while back—the exact time unknown—he was thinking about how to battle the corruption to his physical body. Back then, he was still a bit hesitant as he found it too risky. But now that he was out of options, he had no other choice but to test it out.

It was as if these seemingly random encounters were not random at all, but the result of something quietly guiding him towards this place.

But Adam knew better.

This was the flow of fate around him, subtly twisted and redirected by the lotus. Ever since he acquired this divine artifact, Adam had been constantly tested. It was the reason why he faced one calamity after another, each one meant to temper him, to see if he was worthy.

And after calamity came reward.

The laws of the universe were fair.

Adam steeled his heart, and the next moment, he retrieved an item from his ring.

The fruit of the unholy tree!

He paused for a moment, and then…

He bit into it.