Jun Wu and Mei Ling listened attentively. They knew this was an important moment, and they couldn't let their thoughts wander.

"In ancient times, our world prospered, and there was abundant spiritual energy. Many powerful people rose and fell."

"Empires rise like weeds under the sky. Everyone was competing for world hegemony. When it seemed, everything was on the right path…"

"Disaster struck!" The old woman's voice dropped into a deep sigh.

Jun Wu and Mei Ling waited for the woman to recover from her grief.

After waiting a couple of seconds, she continued her narration. "No one knew when it began or how it began."

"People and everything were turning into corpses. The spread was swift and deadly. Cities were turned into dead zones in days."

"The world was plunged into full war against the living dead. But it was futile. Without finding the root cause, fighting the symptoms would not solve it."

"With the world turning into undead ground with each passing day, all the powerful forces began to race against time for a solution."

"I've never seen such darkness in my life…" She sighed. "It was during this dark period that many cults began to sprout."

"Cult?"

Mei Ling furrowed her brow. Why would there be cults during such a perilous time?

"Yes, cult." The old woman nodded. "It was a desperate time; no one cared about the cult or not. Everyone was just trying to protect themselves."

She paused as if trying to arrange her thoughts. "At the beginning, the cults looked promising. Under their so-called sacrifices, the plague avoided them. Can you believe it?"

"Many people called me a prophet because I could divine the future. But during this dark time, everything seemed to be cut off."

"Every seer could not use their abilities any longer. But I was unwilling to give up. Many people depended on us during the perilous times."

"Sighed!"

She shook her head for the umpteenth time. "When I learned of the cults that could fend off the living dead, I was both confused and happy at the same time. I thought heaven had forsaken us."

"Also, during this period, the abundance of spiritual energy was vanishing at an alarming speed. It was as if it had been sucked away by a powerful beast."

"No matter what we did, it didn't work. Holy ground for cultivation turned into barren land overnight. Rivers dried up, forests turned into deserts."

"It was simply chaos."

"Then the deadly farming struck us."

Merely listening to her made Jun Wu and Mei Ling tremble with fear. Their palms were sweaty. They couldn't imagine the horror of those times.

As if sensing their emotion, the old woman chuckled. "If you think that is bad, children, you're wrong. It is just the beginning."

Beginning!

Jun Wu and Mei Ling widened their eyes in disbelief. The world was already thrown into such chaos, and it was merely the beginning.

"You should know our world is bigger than you can imagine. Even during our golden time, I never left the continent. I heard there are other continents that are more prosperous than us."

"Even so, our continent alone was too big to be explored in a hundred years. As you can imagine, during the chaos, many areas were still much better off than others."

"Although the plague was spreading rapidly, the world was too big to be covered all at once. So those who heard of the incoming plague began to join the spreading cults just to save their cities and empires."

"Our empire joined the cults. In less than five years, hundreds of different cults appeared, and many were devoted. Many did not even seek the path of cultivation any longer."

"Everyone just wanted to survive the plague and the incoming calamity. I, along with another curious friend, went to inquire of the cultists about their so-called deity."

"It was then we learned another shocking truth." She paused, and the room descended into a pin silence.

Jun Wu and Mei Ling felt their hearts pounding heavily against their chests, like war drums.

"To summon their deity for protection, thousands of people must be sacrificed. Also, the city must abandon its path of cultivation."

Hiss!

"This is insane!" Jun Wu muttered.

"You're right; it is crazy, but the world is already crazy, and no one thinks too much about it. In a matter of a few years, humans became rare, like animals, just for the Deity to devour."

"I tried to fight against this evil practice, but you can see the result. Some people who realized the deity was even more evil than the plague banded together to fight the evil…"

"They were hunted down like animals. They were labeled heretics."

"With my sect destroyed, I roamed the world alone, but I did not give up on finding the root of everything. This is the only thing that kept me going."

"As more cults appeared, more innocent people were sacrificed. The darkness grew at a visible speed. Our world was devoid of sun any longer. The brightness was snuffed out."

"You could feel the evil deep in your bones. Ghosts, ghouls, and evil spirits became numb."

"However, it was during my quest for an answer that I discovered one deep secret…" She paused for a moment.

Yet Jun Wu and Mei Ling couldn't wait to hear the secret.

"I learned this was the first time our world was facing such existential crises. It has happened in the past, but this time we failed to handle it properly."

"I don't know the deep details, but from one of the Deity Bishops I captured, I learned our world was special, which drew the so-called deities to take an interest."

"Don't ask me; I don't know what made our world special." She spoke before Mei Ling could open her mouth.

"With this secret, I returned here to perform the last divination. Fortune smiled on me, or perhaps misfortune."

"From the divination, I learned the cults were corrupting the world's consciousness, and heaven would not protect us any longer."

"With the overflowing corruption, the world consciousness made a final decision to preserve itself. It began to seal itself…."

"Empires vanished. Cities slowly disappeared; seas and mountains vanished with each passing day. The world got smaller."

Jun Wu and Mei Ling stood in stunned silence, absorbing the weight of every word.

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