Chapter Eighteen: The Touch of the Nether Abyss

When Chen Zi'ang returned home, he saw his younger sister Chen Xiaozhu lying in the center of the living room on a rocking chair, her gaze empty as she stared ahead.

He vividly remembered the first few years after his sister lost her sight—every time he witnessed her lifeless expression, it felt as though a knife was carving pain into his heart.

Time passed, and gradually he grew accustomed to the numbness.

Yet the desire to restore his sister's sight remained buried deep within him, never fading with the years.

After escorting his sister back to her bedroom and covering her with a blanket, Chen Zi'ang quietly retreated to his own room.

As always, he brought along the Spiritual Pressure Gauge, Rationality Tablets, and the Mandrake Ritual Sword, then began his journey into the dreamscape.

He delved deeper, reaching the layer of collective unconsciousness, and swiftly envisioned the ancient city of Enlank in his mind.

The scene before him shifted abruptly, and when he came to his senses, he was standing at the very center of Enlank’s plaza.

The Nightmare Clan’s High Priestess, Nico, was descending the steps with her staff. Her figure was slender, and each stride was accompanied by a graceful twist of her waist, giving her the allure of a woman full of charm—if one could ignore her smooth, featureless face and enormous ram horns.

“It’s been less than a day, hasn’t it?” Nico remarked in a tone tinged with surprised admiration. “Mr. Ask, you’ve already gathered enough merit? I can now understand why the Lord of the Deep Sea favors you.”

“It was merely luck,” Chen Zi'ang replied cautiously.

He entered the Temple of Chaos, fixed his gaze on the altar burning with eerie blue flames, and the list of powers available for exchange appeared before his eyes once more.

[Touch of the Abyss], [Profane Sorcery], [Thousand-Faced Avatar]—each required fifty points of Flame Seed.

Additionally, promotion to the next rank demanded one hundred Flame Seed points. Currently, Chen Zi'ang’s rank was—

[Lamb].

The name of this rank was somewhat unsettling. If not for the matter concerning the Witch, Chen Zi'ang might have chosen to save up for a hundred points and advance to the next rank instead.

However, a tremendous threat now loomed over the far northern city; if he did not hurry and exchange for a power, the next crisis could very well cost him his life.

Though the intelligence division had not released official information, rumors among colleagues suggested that nearly two-thirds of star sectors where witches appeared ultimately ended in utter destruction...

All the more reason to prioritize acquiring a power.

“Does High Priestess Nico have any recommendations?” Chen Zi'ang asked, a sudden thought crossing his mind as he glanced at her.

“Hmm, Mr. Ask, which powers are available for exchange on your list?” Nico inquired.

“Is the list of powers different for each person?” Chen Zi'ang wondered silently.

“Yes,” Nico answered. “It’s unique to everyone.”

Seeing that Chen Zi'ang did not respond, she continued leisurely, “There’s not much to hesitate about, really. Generally speaking, summoning-type powers are best suited for combat, though their price tends to be harsh. If you feel unable to handle such dangerous abilities, choosing a power that assists in combat is a safer and steadier option.”

“There are also knowledge-type powers. Upon exchange, you gain an abundance of forbidden knowledge, with your spiritual vision rising swiftly. While it may seem like a loss, if you gather enough knowledge, you might become a divine proxy—a Priest of the Deity—which is another path entirely.”

She extended a slender, bony finger and tapped herself gently.

Suddenly enlightened, Chen Zi'ang looked back at the altar's list, just as Nico spoke again, “Of course, if certain powers appear, they are indeed worth prioritizing—such as [Crawling Chaos], [Shadow Warrior], and [Touch of the Abyss].”

“What’s special about these three powers?” Chen Zi'ang asked thoughtfully.

“That’s for Mr. Ask to discover for himself,” Nico replied with a teasing smile.

Discover for himself… Chen Zi'ang returned his attention to the list of powers.

She had said that summoning-type powers, though powerful, often carried severe consequences. Yet, based on the description of [Touch of the Abyss], it seemed there was no mention of any price to pay.

He continued to meditate before the altar, focusing his mind to inquire: “What is the price of summoning?”

A brief instant later—or perhaps an eternity—when Chen Zi'ang regained his senses, his perception of time was utterly distorted, as if a delicate cake had been tossed into a blender and smashed beyond recognition, losing all order and form.

Something had connected with his consciousness.

It was a vast, ancient, bloated, and terrifying awareness, as if an ant had linked itself to the brainwaves of a human, threatening to overwhelm Chen Zi'ang’s mind in a single instant.

Fortunately, the Shadow Cloak faithfully fulfilled its purpose, forcibly locking his spiritual vision and preventing him from becoming a complete idiot, though his mind was flooded with a demonic voice from the other side:

“Tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle…”

“What is the price for summoning you…” Chen Zi'ang struggled against the piercing headache, forcing himself to ask in a humble tone.

“Summon more tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle tentacle…”

Chen Zi'ang wrenched his head aside, severing the connection with the altar of chaos, and happened to catch Nico’s ambiguous, almost amused expression.

Though her smooth face bore no features, Chen Zi'ang felt a subtle suspicion that she was watching him, entertained by his predicament.

It took him a long while to steady his shaken mind, and then Chen Zi'ang began to seriously ponder.

The tentacle deity on the other side…seemed mad?

No, so-called madness in deities was, for the most part, simply another form of logic that humans could not comprehend. The exchange, though saturated with tentacles, at least revealed the deity’s terms: as long as he could summon more tentacles, the tentacle god would be satisfied.

Given that, then tentacles it would be… Wait.

He spent a little more time purging the word “tentacle” from his thoughts, then drew a deep breath.

A powerful summoning-type ability with no severe drawbacks—this was the one to choose!

Exchange [Touch of the Abyss]!

His fifty Flame Seed points were reduced to zero. Knowledge associated with [Touch of the Abyss] was automatically infused into his mind.

Chen Zi'ang immediately understood that this abyssal deity was called “Suhu,” composed of endless, bloated tentacles.

Each tentacle of Suhu was a fragment of the deity's boundless consciousness, and Suhu desired above all to drag everything touched by his tentacles into his tentacle kingdom.

In fact, Suhu’s tentacles truly possessed the power to tear through space, enabling the summoner to conjure them anywhere and command them to perform any action—entangle, restrain, lash, or even kill enemies.

As a price, every second the tentacles remained in the summoner’s world, the world itself was drawn a little closer to Suhu’s tentacle kingdom.

Considering Chen Zi'ang’s world had a depth of zero, while Suhu, as an abyssal deity, had a depth of at least a million, it would take forty trillion trillion years of continuous summoning to drag this world entirely into the tentacle kingdom…

No wonder Nico said this power was worth prioritizing! For Suhu, forty trillion trillion years might pass in the blink of an eye, easy to wait out.

But for Chen Zi'ang, such a negative consequence was nearly zero—effectively no price at all.

As for the precise effects of [Touch of the Abyss], thorough and meticulous testing would be necessary.

For a Six Division operative, understanding one’s own life-saving arcane methods was as crucial as knowing one’s firearm.

He glanced at the exchange list once more; it now blurred, displaying “Refreshing.”

“High Priestess Nico,” Chen Zi'ang said after a moment of thought, cautiously asking, “Is there a good way to quickly master and familiarize myself with the powers I've exchanged?”

“To practice your powers, the best way is, of course, real combat.” Nico paused subtly, then asked, “Mr. Ask.”

“Have you ever heard…of the Witch?”