Chapter 559: Chapter 18: Decay vs. Decay

“Hmph!” Lynch let out a muffled grunt, his eyes suddenly bursting with a sharp light, yet there was not a trace of panic within them, instead, it burned with a cold battle intent and a strong thirst for knowledge!

“You want to use decay to decay me? Then let’s see whose decay is more ’pure’!”

He no longer passively defended, the power of the just ascended Decaying Domain Lv1 was unleashed without reservation!

The icy torrent that invaded his Sea of Consciousness, carrying the intent of demise, collided with the Rule Imprint of the Decaying Domain at Lynch’s Spirit Core, emitting a profound gray-white light!

The imprint shone brightly, its contained rules—about forced state transitions, about the inevitable trajectory of existence sliding into nothingness—instantly transformed into countless equally cold, but more condensed and controlling spiritual spikes, striking back!

Lynch’s spiritual power was no longer merely a defensive shield but transformed into the most precise analytical tool, steadfastly resisting that despairing mental impact, forcibly capturing, disassembling, and analyzing the structure of the invading decay rules!

The stone tablet’s decay intent carried pure destruction and end, while Lynch’s decaying domain bore a will for ’understanding’ and ’control’. Each collision of intent was like glacial blades scraping against each other, sparking rules, and Lynch greedily absorbed the knowledge fragments of the decay runes embedded within these sparks.

He was not merely defending but also attempting to infiltrate the stone tablet runes with his own decay domain power, following the spiritual link backward! His gray-white spiritual power, like a parasite, attempted to pollute and rewrite the structure of the stone tablet runes, forcibly assimilating the knowledge contained within!

The gray-white sand attached to his body was frantically eroding his flesh and energy, the space and time defense teetering. The glow of the gray-white shield on Lynch’s body surged!

He applied the newly comprehended decay rules to the extreme! The shield was no longer static defense but a micro-domain constantly undergoing a ’decay-renewal’ cycle!

The gray-white sand particles adhering to the shield had their ’decay’ state forcibly accelerated by Lynch, pushed towards ’end’, instantly transforming into finer dust and obliterated; at the same time, the eroded parts of the shield were ’refreshed’ back to a stable state by Lynch using his own power of decay.

This formed a bizarre dynamic balance—the stone tablet’s decay was destructive, whereas Lynch’s decay was ’repairing’ itself and accelerating the enemy’s ’death’.

More critically, Lynch began to attempt to directly absorb the decay rules contained within these gray-white sand particles! His domain, like a miniature black hole vortex, forcibly pulled and devoured the nearby sand particles, decomposing and refining them, converting them into ’fuel’ to nourish his own domain! Those sand particles capable of decaying others’ energy and flesh at this moment became nutrients for Lynch’s domain.

Lynch’s gaze locked firmly onto the crazed, writhing runes emanating a dazzling gray-white light on the stone tablet. He no longer attempted to ’interpret’ their meaning, instead directly using the power of his decaying domain to ’perceive’ the rhythmic rules of their operation, the nodes of energy flow, and the ’Dao’ inherent in the rune structure itself!

The two decaying rules, of the same origin but different in nature, clashed fiercely on the stone tablet’s surface. Lynch’s decaying power, like a scalpel, precisely stabbed into critical nodes in the rune energy flow, attempting to disrupt its operation; whereas the stone tablet’s runes unleashed a stronger counterattack, gray-white flames nearly engulfing Lynch.

Every confrontation, every negation of energy and collision of rules, deepened Lynch’s understanding of ’decay’. The complex and twisted yet core-directed structure of the stone tablet’s runes, like the most direct textbook, under the pressure of combat, was forcibly imprinted into his cognition. The puzzle in his mind about the decaying domain was being filled and perfected at an astonishing speed!

“Break for me…!”

After a stalemate for who knows how long, Lynch’s eyes shot out intense light! He captured an extremely subtle, fleeting ’rhythmic fault’ in the operation of the stone tablet’s runes! This was not a weak point of the stone tablet, but an inevitable short ’stagnation’, like a breath, appearing in the rules’ extreme operation. However, this moment, for Lynch, was the opportunity to win!

He gathered all his spiritual power and decaying domain power, transformed into a condensed beam of gray-white light capable of penetrating the end of all things, ignoring physical distance, directly striking at the core rune node corresponding to that rhythmic fault!

Crack—!

A crisp cracking sound resounded, not on a physical level but on the level of rules!

The crazily writhing runes on the stone tablet suddenly halted! The glaring gray-white light, like a flame extinguished, dimmed instantly! The entire stone tablet shook violently, densely packed cracks spread and deepened at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Buzz… Buzz buzz…

The stone tablet let out a low wail, the frenzied and chaotic power of decay within it breached like a flood, starting to uncontrollably leak outward!

Now’s the time!

How could Lynch let this chance slip? Enduring both mental and physical exhaustion, he fully opened his decaying domain, enveloping the crumbling stone tablet like a massive invisible vortex!

Pillage! Absorb!

The uncontrollably leaking, pure decay rule power, along with the structural information of the stone tablet’s runes themselves, the trajectory of energy operation, and the rule imprint embodying the ’end’ concept of the Desert of Decay, were forcibly pulled over by Lynch, undergoing rough yet efficient devouring and analysis through his decaying domain!

A torrent of rune knowledge, far more systematic and profound than what was obtained from defeating monsters before, flooded into Lynch’s Sea of Consciousness.

This knowledge was no longer scattered fragments, but systemic knowledge on how to use decay rules to construct runes, how to solidify and amplify Rule Power with specific structures! It was the concrete application of ’decay’ in the rune alchemy layer!

The stone tablet’s wail grew weaker and weaker until it completely fell silent. The runes on its surface completely lost their luster, becoming like dead things, the entire monument rapidly weathering and cracking, ultimately with a ’crash’, it completely disintegrated into countless ordinary gray-white sand particles with no energy fluctuations, blending into the surrounding desert, leaving no trace of anomaly.

Lynch stood in place, his face pale, his breath somewhat disordered, residual dried erosion marks on his body, yet his eyes shone brilliantly, as if burning with gray-white flames!

The imprint in his Sea of Consciousness representing the decaying domain visibly expanded by a circle, its light more profound and restrained, the rule trajectories flowing within becoming more complex and mysterious. Around the imprint, numerous tiny rune phantoms composed of gray-white light were slowly rotating, rising and falling, resonating with the imprint.

Simultaneously, a cold system prompt sounded clearly in his mind:

Parse and absorb high-level decay rune knowledge… [Decaying Domain (Rune System·Basic)] has been loaded…

[Decaying Domain Lv1: 3/30000]

Watching the progress bar jumping in his consciousness and the experience cap tripling, Lynch slowly exhaled a breath of gray-white mist, a curve of exhaustion yet indescribable excitement forming at the corner of his mouth.

“So that’s it… The way to clear the Desert of Decay is to ’understand’ and ’conquer’ these stone tablets… This is the true ’Domain Inheritance’!” He clenched his fist, feeling the more profound and powerful decaying force within, his gaze cast into the depths of the desert. “Seems like in this Dead Domain, there are quite a few such ’teachers’…”

He did not linger, with the newly acquired knowledge and power, his figure again merged into this gray-white silence, searching for the next ancient stone tablet imbued with decay runes. The trial of the Desert of Decay was only truly beginning now.

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