Only Kashan wasn't too happy, constantly complaining that Rod was too fat and tough. She kept wanting to slip away, but she was only a reserve in the Fire Hall, not yet formally marked by the Fire, and getting lost would be troublesome.

"Don't move, if you run again, I'll send you back!" Rod scolded.

Kashan pouted, her anger growing more intense.

Rod inexplicably felt a sense of danger and quickened his pace.

"Master!"

After walking for a while, Asa suddenly spoke.

"This might be a fragment of an abyssal outer layer derivative."

Rod frowned: "What do you mean? Isn't this the Abyss?"

Asa explained: "The Abyss is an extremely vast, nearly infinite plane with various regions. After the Abyss devours the Material World, it forms a transitional type of derivative that covers the Abyss's outer layer. Only when it is fully digested does it enter the inner layers of the Abyss."

"Here, it's a fragment of an outer layer derivative ejected by the activity of the Abyss, devouring the Ash Lake region. Now, it's sinking back down. Once its position drops to the lowest point, it can link with the Abyss's main body and return to the Abyss."

"When that happens, everything will be over."

There was no urgency or worry in Asa's words, only a faint trace of schadenfreude.

Rod didn't mind, as long as he understood his position, there was no problem.

"I got it, I'll destroy it before it sinks back into the Abyss!"

Asa chuckled: "Of course, the master never fails."

After walking a bit more, Rod encountered the first monster in the Abyss.

A fiend's child infected and eroded by the Abyss, its hunched body burning with black flames, twelve pairs of eyes glowing red, staring intently at him.

"Watch out!"

Rod and the fiend's child saw each other almost simultaneously.

The fiend's child's eyes shone brightly red, took a step back, and disappeared into the darkness.

But in the next instant, a withered hand reached out from the darkness, piercing directly through Rod's heart.

"What..."

Rod couldn't believe it. The immense pain from his heart made him realize that in just a split second, he was killed.

In the moment before death, he set the Resurrection Stone's rebirth point on the spot, while desperately gripping the fiend's child's arm.

"Atta..."

Before finishing the sentence, Rod saw a red storm explode, and Kashan, her eyes blazing red, erupted with rage magnified hundreds of times her size, spiraling around her right hand like a tornado vortex.

"Die!"

Boom!

Her punch directly pierced through the fiend's child's body, the twelve pairs of glowing red eyes immediately extinguishing.

Rod, enduring the excruciating pain of his heart bursting, finished with one more thrust.

[Soul of the Abyss Evildoer]

Then his vision darkened, and he lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, sure enough, he was still in the same spot, with Anna and Mephit gathered around him.

Rod propped himself up, urgently asking: "Where's Kashan? That punch had too much force, she couldn't withstand it."

"Here."

Anna choked for a moment, still not fully recovering from that terrifying state, pointing to the side of the Centaur Armor.

"She overexerted herself, her soul tore, and she fainted."

Rod rushed up in a flash, seeing Kashan lying in the side pocket, eyes tightly closed, expression peaceful. Her soul had suffered some damage but had been treated, no serious harm done.

"Thank goodness."

Rod let out a relieved sigh.

"Who treated it?"

Anna answered hoarsely: "Mephit, she seems capable of manipulating souls... If she hadn't told me you could resurrect, I would have thought you really died; your body gradually turning transparent really scared me."

Rod steadied himself, apologetically: "Sorry, it's my fault, I didn't have time to explain the situation."

He turned his head, looking at Mephit with questioning eyes.

Mephit softly responded: "Cold ice can temporarily freeze her soul, then use the spiritual energy to form a scalpel and threads to mend the soul's tear. It's just a very minor soul technique."

Only then did Rod completely relax.

"Good, good, that's good."

Anna asked with lingering fear: "Why is this fiend's child so fast? I've never seen it before."

Rod answered gravely: "Anna, this is the true face of a monster eroded by the Abyss. The Abyss is their battleground. We have to be careful."

These words were meant for Anna and also for himself.

He was a bit careless just now, wasting a Resurrection Stone for nothing.

The fiend's child in the Abyss turned out to be far tougher than expected. It seemed capable of using the darkness to launch ambushes.

After crafting another Resurrection Stone and setting the rebirth location under his feet, they proceeded.

Soon, they encountered another profanity warrior eroded by the Abyss.

This was not a native Abyss monster. Its massive body, altered by erosion, was covered in twisted darkness, the hollow at its center having turned into a dark void, constantly absorbing dark matter from the Abyss.

The battle was extremely arduous, the profanity warrior in the Abyss had spiritual energy nearly reaching the fourteenth level, thick-skinned and tough. Rod had to use [Truth] repeatedly to finally defeat it.

[Soul of the Profanity Warrior Eroded by the Abyss]

Rod exhaled deeply. Without Kashan as an attack point, the team's destructive power had noticeably decreased.

They couldn't continue like this.

Rod thought for a moment and said: "Mephit, you also join the fight."

Mephit gently nodded, her silver eyes showing no hint of surprise.

This decision saved Rod. In the subsequent battles, they were always able to quickly defeat the monsters. Though occasionally due to the insufficient erosion by the "Dark Devourer," Rod didn't obtain the monster's soul, but that didn't matter.

In the following series of skirmishes, Mephit shone brightly. She consistently used round or long ruler-shaped cold ice in battle, always attacking as the monsters were paralyzed, even persistently freezing her enemies during combat.

Rod, on the other hand, changed his combat state, crafting a suit of armor for himself with Star Line, engaging in close combat with the monsters using his fists.

Fists covered with Star Line glittered under the [Divine Strike], proving exceptionally powerful, even surpassing when he used a sword earlier.

The prowess in close combat was far stronger than imagined; he just had to concentrate and avoid getting ambushed by monsters.

As Rod fought his way through, it struck him that all the Abyss monsters went to great lengths, sparing nothing, to kill him.

At the mere sight of him, they invariably launched their most powerful attacks.

This left Rod with a very bad feeling:

"Asa, what's going on? Does it have something to do with Amon?"

Asa's expression was grave:

"Yes, the master guessed correctly."

"This is a trap set against you. Amon stirred and activated this region, causing the Abyss to surface in the Material World. Once you enter the Abyss, he has numerous ways to harm you."

Rod's heart sank.

"He can disturb the Abyss?"

Asa answered: "Disturbing the Abyss isn't difficult, the Abyss is like a volcanic crater, Amon simply chose the correct position."

"As for the Abyss monsters' hatred towards you... I guess it's possibly one of his malevolent intentions."

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