Darkness. It was all Zoran could see. Pain. It was all Zoran could feel.
The rotting of his flesh and bones gave him an immense sensation comparable to having all the Laws of the Supreme Beings tearing his whole existence apart.
Even though his nerves had rotted and turned into a black mush, the torment and agony persisted.
It reached down to his very soul and burned his existence.
But despite losing all his limbs, despite his internal organs decaying, despite his bones turning into ashes, his determination persisted.
In voluntate mea ad verum aquillonem intellectus procedet.
He kept repeating those words, even though it was now mumbled into incoherent noises. His rationality was gone, just pure instinct as he repeated the mantra.
All that's left of his mouth was his upper jaw tucked firmly on his skull. The lower jaw had long fallen off.
Somehow, his skull resisted the disintegration caused by the threads of Miasma. It was highly unusual as the Miasma rotted every living being with an impartial treatment.
But the skull persisted, as if it knew that it protected the most important organ of Zoran, the last vestiges of his humanity, the brain.
The stronger the existence of the living being, the faster the Miasma consumed them.
The mythical dragon had now long decomposed. Even its prided black scales comparable only to Silverune, had now disintegrated.
Its body made out of pure Yi energy tried to protect its inner organs to no avail. The magic in its body tried to regenerate the body, but it could not keep up with the decay. After all, Yi energy was the Miasma's favorite food.
A mythical being that nobody had ever seen before, was killed by a mere mortal. Its intelligence was its own downfall.
If it had acted only on instinct, it would have killed Zoran without as much as a thought. But it was haughty. It wanted to play with its food and ended up being fed to the Miasma.
The only thing left of the mythical dragon was its cultivation core. This was an SSS-class cultivation core, the top-most quality core that even Supreme Beings would be envious of.
It was golden in color, with black smoke swirling around. It was only the size of a grape, yet this core would send the whole world into a war of disastrous proportions.
In the weightless void of the Miasma, the golden cultivation core moved. It crawled slowly into an unknown direction.
It accelerated with intention, as if it was influenced by some sort of force. That was supposed to be impossible as no living being could elicit forces like that in the Miasma.
It sped up, as if time was running out.
It hastened and hastened until it finally reached its goal. Up in front was Zoran's decaying body.
It was the Law of Attraction. Either through luck, through instinct, or through meditated intention, the Law of Attraction drew the only thing that could save Zoran in this situation.
It didn't slow down once it arrived at its destination. It pierced through Zoran's skull, fracturing it into millions of pieces.
As if it finally had done its job, the skull finally gave in to the intense decaying of the Miasma.
Right at that moment, the cultivation core supplied Zoran with a tremendous amount of Yi energy.
This was no mere Yi energy. This was Yi energy at its purest form, with an intensity unlike any other. A mythical quality was infused into it, influenced by the dragon's very existence and soul.
It awoke Zoran from his slumber. His consciousness regained the ability to think and reason, but he was still in a state of instinctual activity.
He felt the Yi energy penetrate down through his very DNA, altering the strands into something that transcends the natural law of humans.
The next step was to recreate his body, but the Miasma still rotted everything in its path. Regenerating his physical form would be futile and even waste the precious energy from the cultivation core.
He didn't think. Instincts took over as he took a small amount of Miasma and poured it on his brain.
This move was beyond dangerous and risky. His brain was the only reason he was alive, and if it decayed, then he would truly succumb to death.
But Zoran injected it anyway. It was the only way he could survive.
The Miasma immediately consumed parts of his brain, rotting the outside matter and burrowing into the neurons.
He recited the mantra. It was his only saving grace.
In voluntate mea ad verum aquilonem intellectus procedet.
The Yi energy fought against the Miasma, clashing for the purpose of territorial dispute. The result ended in a standstill, with the Miasma decaying a small part of his brain. But this wasn't the end.
He proceeded to add more Miasma, accelerating the rate of decay and consequently speeding up his death.
In voluntate mea ad verum aquilonem intellectus procedet.
The Yi energy and the Miasma fought once again, each trying to overwhelm the other.
He felt his consciousness fading. He could feel his reasoning turn more and more barbaric like that of an animal.
In voluntate mea ad verum aquilonem intellectus procedet.
This time, the forces of Miasma overwhelmed the Yi energy with both quality and quantity. Zoran pushed his limits too far as even the Yi energy couldn't overpower the disintegration caused by the tyrannical Miasma.
Just as all hope seemed lost, everything turned around like a switch.
The mythical Yi energy and the tyrannous Miasma clashed for a final time. The two swirled against each other, refusing to mix.
But the Miasma was no longer hostile. It coordinated with the Yi energy as they both worked together and rebuilt the broken connections in the neurons.
Unity was achieved. Zoran's brain regenerated at its full capacity.
What's more, the Miasma around him no longer decayed him. It was the opposite. It protected him and even nourished his form.
It's time.
The brain coordinated with the cultivation core, guiding the Yi energy through its channels.
First, the brain used the Yi energy to regenerate the nervous system, with the nerves spreading out like roots and the spinal cord acting like the trunk.
Next was the bones, reinforcing it to be even stronger than steel. His bones turned black with the Miasma weaving through the porous structure of the bones.
Then came the internal organs, then the muscles, and finally the skin. Every part of his body was infused with mythical Yi energy and Miasma.
The healing nature of Yi energy and the destructive force of the Miasma could never co-exist in nature. Yet it did.
It allowed Zoran to achieve a physique with tremendous regenerative abilities while also exerting an explosion of force that decayed anything and everything it touched.
Zoran finally rested. Reconstituting his entire body took a tremendous amount of energy and concentration, something he was completely devoid of after everything that happened.
He stayed in a fetal position, floating deeper down into the abyss, inching closer and closer to the bottom of the underworld.
As he slept, he heard these words.
Miasma Physique Cultivation Acquired.