The Gentleman at the End-Chapter 716 - 714: Non-Real Existence

Under the watchful eyes of all the cultivators at the Stone Temple, the elder they revered as ’Master’ personally led four special visitors towards the city center, to the most dangerous area.

Just as they stepped out of the brass gates of the Stone Temple, Nash hastened back from the mountain base, dropping to his knees and crying out loudly,

"Wow! Boss, I realize my mistake! I can’t believe I doubted you and even thought myself capable of blocking attacks for you... I really won’t dare next time.

If you’re still angry, you can whip and humiliate me right here in front of everyone."

The more Nash spoke, the more agitated he became, even beginning to take off his clothes.

The elder witnessed this scene, couldn’t help but sigh at the openness of the young people from the lower worlds.

"Nash, act normal, remember your role as an actor," the elder said.

"Yes, Boss! *cough*!"

Nash immediately buttoned up and stood next to William, with his wandering eyes the sole irregularity, otherwise looking much like a bodyguard or security personnel.

"You go ahead, I need to speak with Jessica," said William.

"Understood."

William deliberately slowed down to fall back in the group,

No further explanation was needed; the moment his Dead Man Makeup was removed, Jessica’s mouth clamped on to his, her teeth gently nibbling at the flesh, while her tongue’s licking provided swift healing.

"Miss Jessica, this elder’s methods are not pathological... they’re more like a magical tactic, instantly stripping away the air I use to breathe, as well as the oxygen in my blood.

If I weren’t well-versed in death, it would indeed be dangerous."

Jessica, gently nibbling on William’s abdomen, responded, "Indeed dangerous, but seeing it once was enough for me.

I can quickly change my body shape by relying on phages for the transport of various nutrients, thus I don’t need to breathe but only to eat nutrients periodically.

However, this old guy probably has many abilities related to [Qi]. He’s fairly powerful, but no matter what, he’s still just a decaying body.

His most impressive aspect must be his cultivation methods, managing to secretly nurture so many Silver Circle Patients, which would be astonishing even in the Old World.

The outside world is truly fascinating, I’d really like to dissect this old guy."

"Focus on the task at hand, let’s see what could injure an old man to this extent that relocating an entire city was needed to suppress it.

The streams of Qi flowing through the city are also unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and it seems that the entire city’s [Despair] is related to that entity.

When it appeared in this modern city, all humans simultaneously felt the onset of despair, not dying instantly but slowly having their blood and flesh drawn out, watching helpless as themselves and those around them gradually perished."

Jessica, unconcerned about what they would encounter next, put her mask back on after finishing the medical treatment and expressed her thanks, "Thank you, Mr. William, this journey has been really interesting."

"Miss Jessica, if you enjoy exploring new things, you could register at my [Theater]; you’re welcome to join any of our expeditions anytime you’re free," offered William.

"Sure, as long as I make it out of here alive, I’ll register."

At present, the group was only a street away from the city center,

This was also the closest surveillance spot that the Gu Dragon lung bearers could reach. Squatting on the highest points of the surrounding buildings, they nodded to the elder before their gazes turned back to the center of the city, not shifting away for even a moment.

The concentration of the aura permeating here had already reached a very high level,

Whether it was Nash, whose essence was that of a Parasite, walking in front, or Jessica by William’s side, whose essence was that of a tooth, or Lorrian who had a special constitution, all could feel a ’peeling sensation.’

It wasn’t just physical separation, but even their souls seemed to be tearing open from the depths, ebbing away.

Hum!

A ripple spread across William’s clothing, and his originally deep black suit began to show vein-like bulges, turning yellow.

The material of the entire suit also changed, feeling to the touch like aged skin. freewёbnoνel.com

The moment this outfit formed, the peeling sensation instantly disappeared from William.

Dentist Jessica also widened her eyes, "Skin Grafting! That’s a technique only the ’Twelve Disciples’ would know... what exactly is your identity in the Skin Factory, William?"

"Nothing much, I’m just well-acquainted with a big shot at the Skin Factory," replied William casually.

Nash immediately added, "Boss is a real genius! It’s normal for the Source Plague Area to want to associate with him, stop making a fuss."

The cane-bearing elder merely watched William’s skin transformation, nodded slightly, and continued leading the way.

Passing the last street,

The city’s ’Central Park’ suddenly came into view,

At a glance, the park seemed quite normal, but upon closer inspection, many anomalies appeared, such as some trees not planted in the ground but growing on benches or trash bins.

The jogging paths and stony trails crisscrossing the park were disjointed and irregular,

There were even clear instances of penetration, with some tree branches passing through other trees and some trees directly growing on top of other trees.

This was not an Illusion Technique but a genuinely presented scene.

"Spatial distortion?" William, as half a Stargazer, immediately spotted the issue with the park, "And it’s not just the space that’s disordered—many other standard parameters are also off."

While William was pondering, the cane-bearing elder had already walked into the park.

"I’m going in first. If you can’t find the center of the park within five minutes, it means you simply aren’t qualified to handle this matter."

As the elder disappeared, everyone exchanged glances and immediately followed him.

William, once again, grew thorny iron chains from the palm of his hand to connect his team members, "Everyone must maintain the connection; the space here is disordered, and we might get separated if we’re not careful."

Nash and Dentist Jessica cheerfully accepted William’s suggestion, but when the iron chain approached Lorrian... Whoom! The iron chain passed right through him.

Lorrian, who had all this time been following behind the group, was actually an illusion,

or rather, at some point, Lorrian had replaced himself with an illusion.

"That guy Lorrian... never mind, let’s go ahead. I believe he has his reasons," William said.

As the group officially stepped into the park, a strong sense of unease attacked them head-on, feeling like stepping into a game scene filled with errors and nauseating glitches, and as they moved, they would even perform short-distance jumps, even returning to the park entrance.

After walking around the outer perimeter of the park for a minute, William judged that it was impossible to reach the inside by normal walking.

"If it were Principal Desline, she could possibly adjust the space and find a way deeper inside; my abilities aren’t enough; I’ll need to use special methods."

The iron chains tugged,

and directly pulled Nash and Jessica into the abdomen.

「Abyss Parasite」

William himself also followed into the abyss within the abdomen, using the abyss as a conduit to directly head for the ’Deep Space’, Even if the outer space was chaotic, as long as it was deep enough, a stable plane could be found.

Crawling forward in the stable deep space like a parasite, reaching the coordinate point in the middle region of the park, then crawling out again.

Whoom!

A black hole appeared out of nowhere,

and three individuals, coated in slime, crawled out from among the abyss, now located inside the park, facing a verdant lake full of lotus leaves.

Although there appeared to be nothing on the lake, everyone could feel a strong suction force, and ripples began to form on everyone’s skin, as if it was about to be torn off.

Across the lake stood an old man leaning on a walking stick,

and upon seeing William and the others synchronizing their arrival at the center of the park, the head connected to his lungs above also showed great surprise; he quickened his pace with the walking stick, running along the lakeside pathway to meet up with the trio.

"Not bad, it seems you are indeed more capable than I imagined... By the way, it seems like your silver-haired friend is missing?"

"He might have his own ideas, or perhaps he doesn’t want to come in here.

Let’s not worry about him. We should handle the matter at hand. Speaking of which, all the aura is converging on this lake, but I don’t seem to see anything."

William’s eyes could see through the lotus leaves to the depths of the lake, where there was nothing, not even fish or shrimp.

The old man explained, "Ordinary senses can’t see it, what I have sealed with much effort doesn’t exist in reality, nor is it bound by rules.

Whether you can see ’it’ will determine if you can help me.

I created the Lung Temple and taught breathing techniques just to enable the apprentices to capture the ’Concept Existence’ of a non-material plane through a special flow of gases.

I’ll give you five more minutes, if you can see the ’Truth’, we’ll start the operation."

"A Concept Existence that doesn’t exist in reality and is not bound by rules? What exactly is it?"

"I’ll naturally explain it to you afterwards if you’re unable to perceive it... there will be no point in explaining... focus, young man."

Without Little Grape around, William was unable to activate the special vision,

[Eye]This path was denied, thus he chose to close them,

William entered a meditative state, letting his Madness Brain’s spiritual power spread out as much as possible, covering the entire lake surface, trying to capture some invisible essence, but in the end, he still captured nothing.

"Even Madness Brain’s spiritual power can’t capture it?"

William reopened his eyes to look at his teammates; Jessica was grinding her teeth at different frequencies, while Nash was shaking his eyes at an ultra-high frequency, all trying to see something that didn’t exist in reality.

『William, can’t you see it? Should I come out and help?...』 Yi Chen’s voice resounded in his mind.

『No, I’ll do it myself.』

William immediately shifted his thought,

tilted his head to observe the elderly man to his side, carefully observing his lung’s pulsation, and the breath between his nose and throat, and started to capture the subtle changes in the old man’s trachea through physical perception.

Using the physical rhythm learned from Mr. Rabbit combined with his acting skills, he began to learn and mimic.

The elderly man naturally noticed William’s actions and his mimicking of his breathing.

"You want to mimic my breathing directly without accepting the modifications of the lungs, without accepting my teachings? That is rather... Hmm!"

The old man didn’t finish his assessment but noticed that William was exhaling a unique type of air, which could only be breathed out after cultivating the breathing skill to a certain level.

William smiled slightly; he seemed to have found the rhythm of breathing.

As the air that permeated the lake was inhaled into the lungs, William also gradually smelled a type of ’Despair Concept’, and when he opened his eyes again, the scene in front of him had completely changed.

Above the lake, there were no lotus leaves at all, but rather slabs of blood and flesh peeled off from human bodies, assembled together to form meat lotuses.

At the deepest part of the lake, a coffin buried, its surface covered with mysterious symbols used for sealing, the entire lake also permeated with the special aura exhaled by the old man.

Err... Err... Err~ Let me out

A series of blunt bubble sounds were also heard by William, as if a rotting corpse was speaking into his ear.

Visit freewe𝑏n(o)v𝒆l.𝑐𝘰𝑚 for the best novel reading experience