Unfortunately, Ji Jue didn’t even get the chance to act cool. Before he’d even finished counting to four, a bloodcurdling scream echoed from the far end of the corridor. 

In the middle of his frantic sprint, An Jiexiu suddenly stumbled and crashed to the floor. Dazed and reeling, he tried to push himself back up, only to discover that his left foot had come loose from his leg, dropping away like an overripe piece of rotten fruit.

Then his skin began to split apart. Layer after layer peeled and crumbled from his hands and limbs, as if a powerful acid had been unleashed inside his body, surging through him, eating away at his organs, flesh, and bones from the inside out. By the time his sluggish nerves finally registered the agony, it was far too late.

“What… is… this…”

He stared blankly, eyes wide open. Everything went dark, and his eyeballs cracked apart and slipped from their sockets.  

He never got to see his body twisting into a grotesque, corrupted form. The large amount of bone ash mixed within the shrapnel and mercury had already been activated, and the corruption began to spread. 

In other environments, he could have clung to life for another two or three days before dying slowly in torment and despair. But inside a Time Ruin, a place saturated with corrupted aura, the process accelerated beyond belief. 

His blood became contaminated under the erosion...