Chapter 862

In the dimness of the abyss, the cave faintly shimmered due to Lilly’s talisman.

Lilly stuck a talisman to Ivan’s forehead, and suddenly his face became clear. What was once a fair, handsome visage now bore deep ravines.

His face became so gaunt that it lost its former appearance, but his eyes gleamed brightly, fixated on her for a moment.

Pablo heard the commotion and inquired, “What happened?”

Lilly was startled and replied, “Master, Ivan has withered away!”

“His face looks like it has been sucked dry through a straw… he’s turned into a little old man!”

Had he been eroded by the mist?

Lilly was shocked. Ivan had only been here for a few months before transforming into an old figure…

She hastily touched her own face and pinched it.

Everything was fine. She had not turned into an old lady; she was still a young girl!

Otherwise, her grandmother would be distraught when she returned…

Pablo shrugged.

He’s just wrinkly…

Everything’s fine as long as he doesn’t die.

Whenever Pablo saw this kid, he could not help but feel a sense of unease, as if his fate had been tampered with, destined for his identity to get stolen!

Couldn’t he escape this feeling of melancholy?

Pablo paid little attention to Ivan’s appearance and focused on the surroundings.

Lilly acted swiftly as well, summoning Ivan’s soul so they could return as soon as possible.

They stayed there for too long.

Lilly brought her index finger and middle finger together, raising them to her forehead. Her once soft and cute face took on a more serious expression, her eyes filled with determination.

“The sky is clear and the earth is spiritual… may the soul find peace, unhindered by the body, with the three souls and seven souls…”

This was the second time she summoned Ivan’s soul, and a memory flashed through Lilly’s mind.

When they first met, Ivan had been kidnapped. She found him in the forest, covered in blood and his soul was missing.

A hint of doubt flickered in Lilly’s heart, wondering why Ivan’s soul was so easily lost…

But the thought quickly dissipated as she focused on summoning his soul, her decree spreading through the abyss like an eternal call.

Within the abyss, a human face was veiled by layers of eerie fog. In this chaotic realm, the face appeared blurred and indistinct.

It drifted aimlessly amidst the mist, rising and falling.

Ivan’s soul retained only half of its face, and after three months, it had been consumed by the mist to an even greater extent, on the verge of dissipation.

“Light…”

Where was his light?

Ivan floated numbly, unable to recall anything anymore, only the word “light” echoing in his mind.

What was he searching for?

In the abyss, a pair of scarlet and enormous eyes remained dormant, fixated on Ivan.

It was almost time, almost there!

Suppressed in this abyss for hundreds of years, it was bound tightly by massive chains spanning the void, keeping it firmly beneath the depths of the abyss.

Unbeknownst to Ivan, the clean soul in front of him was of emperor-leveled, yet still dormant and unawakened. Normally, breaking free from the mist under the abyss would require millions of years of practice. But now, the situation was different.

Contrary to appearances, Ivan was not being swallowed by the mist; he was the one devouring it. As an emperor-level clean soul, he had the ability to consume the mist and draw power from it. When the time was right, he would seize the opportunity to engulf it completely.

Once he devoured this emperor-level clean soul, it would greatly restore his own strength, enabling him to break free from suppression, surge with power, and overturn the underworld.

However, there were risks involved. Currently, Ivan was resisting and devouring the strange mist, continuously absorbing its energy into his soul. If he were to awaken at the last moment, completing his transformation, even the anomaly would not dare to touch him.

Thus, the anomaly observed cautiously, fixated on Ivan, and planned to strike the moment he awakened.

It did not pay much attention to Pablo and Lilly, as they were of little concern in comparison.

“Almost there… Hurry up, hehe, hurry up…”

“Aren’t you searching for the light… Hurry, or your light will fade away…”

“Too slow! Faster…”

The whispers of the anomaly resembled chants, capable of unsettling Ivan’s spirit and plunging him deeper into confusion.

With a soft snap, half of Ivan’s face vanished once again, leaving only the upper left portion.

The enormous eyeballs filled with frenzy, and it was almost unable to resist the urge to pounce on them.

Meanwhile, deep within Ivan’s consciousness, he remained in a state of slumber, instinctively devouring the strange mist and extracting the dark energy within. He repeated this process, collecting and condensing it in his spiritual realm.

His method mirrored Lilly’s, with the sole difference being that Lilly practiced within her physical body, gathering the spirit energy in her elixir field.

For Ivan, the “elixir field” of his soul existed within his mental realm, where he gathered the spirit energy.

Despite absorbing spirit energy and struggling within the abyss, Ivan’s soul was still undergoing a complete transformation. However, a lingering anxiety persisted within him, urging him to hasten the process and find the light he sought.

This obsession prevented him from immersing himself in the transformation. He was in a constant rush, eager to finish quickly and discover the elusive light.

As the critical moment approached, the urgency from within intensified, causing Ivan’s state to become increasingly unstable. Anxiously, he piled up the spirit energy without even stripping away the mist, accumulating it deep within the mental realm.

Consequently, the pure and pristine mental realm became tainted by a trace of the eerie fog. And at the most crucial moment, a click resonated through the depths of Ivan’s being.

In an instant, his remaining eye turned a menacing scarlet, filled with hostility.

The anomaly, sensing the shift, was overcome with joy. Now was the moment it had been waiting for. It opened its immense maw, ready to engulf Ivan’s soul in a single gulp.