In the Spirit Cage, the opening Bankai, Bai Yuekui is numb

Traveling through the apocalypse of the Linglong world, becoming cannon fodder to attract the beast tide, with one minute left before death!

In the moment of despair, the strongest death system is activated!

Ding! The host’s strong desire to survive has been detected, and a newbie gift pack is being distributed: Zanpakutō: Ryujin Jakka!

Facing the endless tide of beasts, others will run away but I will draw my sword!

“Swastika: Can Huo Tai Sword!”

With one strike, a thousand miles of land were scorched, and the beast tide evaporated instantly! The ice goddess Bai Yuekui who was passing by suddenly crashed on the spot!

Ding! You shocked the Daughter of the Planes, and you’re rewarded with 1000 Soul Points!

Ding! You purified the elite-level Extreme Devouring Beast, and are rewarded with the High-level Ghost Path, Broken Path, Ninety-Level, Black Coffin!

Lighthouse City Lord: “What kind of monster are you?”

I raised my hand and fired a black coffin, crushing his proud heavy three-dimensional army!

Ding! You’ve overturned the Lighthouse’s cognition and unlocked the Zanpakuto: Kyoka Suigetsu!

When Bai Yuekui looked at me and used the Mirror Flower and Water Moon to play with the God of Mana, she was completely numb: “Please, stop showing off, you’re almost ruining this worldview!”

In the Spirit Cage, the opening Bankai, Bai Yuekui is numb
Chapter 1 Doomsday Cannon Fodder, Death Countdown
The mixed smell of rust and disinfectant penetrated Xu Bo’s nasal cavity, causing a stinging pain in his lungs.
He was huddled in the corner of a metal cargo box, surrounded by sobs, and many more people chose dead silence and numbness.
This is Dawn Town, a gathering place that is struggling to survive in the apocalyptic wasteland.
And he, Xu Bo, an unlucky time traveler, is now numbered C-734, a “cannon fodder” who is about to be pushed out to attract the firepower of the Extreme Beast.
Despair, like damp moss, covered every inch of the walls of this underground shelter.
Suddenly, the heavy metal door of the shelter was pushed open, and dazzling light and a strong smell of blood rushed in.
“It’s Tomahawk! The Tomahawk team is back!”
There was a commotion among the crowd.
Several survivors stumbled forward, but froze in place the moment they saw who was coming.
Less than half of the scavenger team returned, and everyone was injured.
Captain Mark, who was known as the strongest man in Dawn Town, was dragged in like a puddle of mud. A hideous hole was torn in the abdomen of his power armor, and dark red blood was constantly gushing out of it.
Cough cough cough
Mark coughed violently, and each cough spewed out blood foam mixed with fragments of internal organs.
He used up his last bit of strength and grabbed the mayor by the collar.
“The beast tide… is an unprecedented beast tide…”
“There’s a… snake-dog-like creature… it can think… it understands tactics…”
After saying this, Mark’s head drooped weakly, and the light in his pupils completely dissipated.
Dead silence.
A silence even deeper than before enveloped everyone.
The mayor’s wrinkled face now looked as gray as a crumpled piece of waste paper.
The shrill sirens pierced the stagnant air without warning, and the red warning lights flashed wildly, making everyone’s face look like demons from hell.
“Warning! Perimeter defense system energy is below ten percent!”
“Warning! High-density life signals detected, approaching from all directions!”
The mayor pushed Mark’s body away, staggered to a communication device, and roared an order.
“Execute ‘Light Plan’!”
“All lower-class civilians, gather at Exit 3 immediately! Buy time for the main force to evacuate!”
The cold broadcast voice echoed in the shelter, instantly igniting the fear of the crowd.
Cries, curses, and pleas for mercy mixed together to form a symphony of doomsday.
Xu Bo’s heart sank suddenly.
Project Lantern, what a poetic name, translated as – Cannon Fodder Project.
He doesn’t want to die.
Relying on his vague memory of the plot of “Tower of God”, Xu Bo lowered his body, stuck to the corner of the wall, and groped towards an abandoned ventilation duct exit in his memory.
He couldn’t just sit there and wait for death.
However, when he turned a corner and hope was within reach, two heavily armed guards blocked his way.
The black muzzle of the gun exudes the breath of death.
The eyes of one of the guards were as cold as ice, with a cruel sneer on the corner of his mouth.
“Want to run?”
“Anyone who resists will be killed without mercy.”
Xu Bo’s feet froze in place, and the blood in his body seemed to freeze instantly.
His heart was beating wildly in his chest, and every beat was counting down the seconds until his death.
Boom !
Before the guards could take him back, a loud noise from under his feet caused the entire shelter to shake violently!
Not the wall, the floor!
The snake-dog-shaped beast that knew how to think did not choose to attack from the heavily guarded main gate.
It drove countless low-level beasts to launch a deadly attack from the long-forgotten underground waterway system!
Puff!
The concrete ground not far from Xu Bo suddenly exploded, and gravel flew everywhere.
A clawed beast with a greasy sheen roared and rushed out, its sickle-like forelimbs easily tore open the chest of a survivor.
Warm blood splashed all over Xu Bo’s face.
The defense line collapsed instantly.
The scavenger team that was originally responsible for suppressing the “cannon fodder” was immediately divided and surrounded by monsters pouring out from all directions.
Their heavy firepower points, which they were proud of, were destroyed first in the first wave of raids.
“Cover the survivors! Quick!”
Captain Mark had just died. The deputy captain next to his body had bloodshot eyes. He raised the assault rifle in his hand and fired wildly, trying to establish a line of fire.
However, a black afterimage appeared as fast as lightning.
It’s that snake dog!
It deftly avoided all projectiles, and its long, slimy tail was like a flexible spear, drawing a strange arc in the air.
“puff–“
The tail whip accurately pierced the deputy captain’s chest, and the huge force nailed him to the metal wall behind him.
The expression on his face froze at that moment, full of unwillingness and astonishment.
Hope is completely shattered.
In the chaos, Xu Bo was knocked to the ground by the fleeing crowd.
He struggled to get up, and a heavy shadow enveloped him.
A lowest-level dog-shaped beast, its scarlet compound eyes were fixed on Xu Bo, saliva dripped from between its jagged teeth, corroding the ground and emitting bursts of white smoke.
A foul-smelling wind blew in my face.
Xu Bo could even see the wriggling muscle texture on the inner wall of its mouth.
He was completely pinned down by the oppressive feeling that came from the very source of life, his body stiff and unable to move.
It’s over.
As soon as this thought flashed through his mind, the Extreme Beast suddenly pounced down.
Tear
The sharp teeth scratched the skin on Xu Bo’s arm, and a piercing pain came.
Death is so real.
The instinct for survival and the fear of the end reached an unprecedented peak at this moment.
Under this extreme stimulation, a cold, emotionless mechanical voice, like divine revelation, exploded directly in the depths of his mind.
[The host’s strong desire to survive has been detected.][A high concentration of abnormal energy is detected in the surrounding area…][Conditions met, the strongest death system is being activated…][Beginning to match the host’s initial Zanpakuto…]The Extreme Beast seemed to be startled by some strange phenomenon that suddenly appeared on Xu Bo’s body, and there was a hint of hesitation in its movements.
[Match completed: The strongest heat element Ryujin Jakka.][Warning: The first release will consume 99% of the host’s life energy. Do you want to continue?]continue?
Xu Bo laughed wildly in his heart. Is there any fucking choice?
If you don t release it, you will be ripped open in the next second!
He used up the last bit of his strength and let out a hoarse roar from his throat that was even unfamiliar to himself.
The word seemed to be engraved in his soul from birth.
“Swastika!”
He ignored the system’s fatal warning.
He tightly grasped the rusty steel bar he had picked up from the ground in his hand.
The next moment, incredible changes occurred.
The cold steel bar began to turn red and heat up at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The surrounding air was distorted by the burning.
The shape of the steel bar kept changing in the dazzling red light, stretching and reshaping, and finally turning into a simple and ancient sword that seemed to contain the power to burn all things in the world.
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ActivityRegister as a Filo member and receive 200 points![Register Now]Chapter 2 Everything in the Universe Turns to Ashes! (Old Version)
Everything in the universe is reduced to ashes!
The canine-shaped beast’s jaws, powerful enough to crush steel, stopped less than a centimeter away from Xu Bo’s neck.
No, not stop.
Its entire head, along with its upper body, turned to ashes silently.
A wave of extremely hot air exploded with Xu Bo as the center.
There was no loud explosion, only the sharp hiss of the air being sucked out.
The ground beneath him, corroded by saliva, instantly became dry and cracked, as if it had been exposed to the scorching sun for hundreds of years.
Xu Bo staggered to his feet, every cell in his body screaming in protest, a feeling of weakness surging over him like a tide.
But the touch in his hands felt incredibly real.
It was an ancient sword burning with blazing flames. The flames were not attached to the blade, but seemed to be generated by the blade itself. Every time it jumped, the surrounding space was slightly distorted.
The wounds on his body, where the skin was cut by the sharp teeth of the Extreme Beast, evaporated the blood as soon as it seeped out due to the high temperature, and the edges of the wounds appeared a strange charred black.
[Soul Points Obtained: 0.1 (Purify Low-Level Extreme Devouring Beasts)]A line of light blue data stream suddenly appeared before his eyes, and then turned into a warm current, flowing into his limbs and bones.
At the same time, an unimaginable amount of combat knowledge and swordsmanship skills rushed into his mind like a torrent bursting through a dam.
The way you hold the sword, the angle of the swing, the technique of exerting force, and the ability to predict the enemy’s movements…
Countless moments and countless experiences of life and death battles were forcibly instilled into him and imprinted deep in his soul.
It was as if this was not the first time he held the sword, but he had been fighting with it for hundreds of years.
“roar–“
The cunning snake-dog-shaped beast finally noticed this sudden change.
In its perception, the human being who was originally as weak as food has now turned into a miniature sun, emitting a terrifying aura that makes it tremble instinctively.
It let out a sharp roar, no longer paying attention to other prey, and turned into a black lightning, rushing straight towards Xu Bo.
Faced with this deadly attack, Xu Bo’s body acted faster than his brain.
He didn’t even think, but just relied on his new instinct and subconsciously swung the knife in his hand.
A terrifying crescent-shaped flame slashed out from the blade.
The flames expanded rapidly during the flight, turning into a roaring wall of fire ten meters high, sweeping out in an unstoppable manner.
Everything that stood in the way, whether it was the panicked Devouring Beasts, the ruined walls of buildings, or the abandoned metal roadblocks, was ignited and burned the moment it came into contact with the wall of fire, eventually turning into ashes.
The entire street was plowed into a charred path of death.
Time seemed to be paused at this moment.
All the fleeing survivors stopped, and all the scavengers fighting bloody battles stopped shooting.
They all had dull expressions and opened their mouths wide, like primitive people who had seen a miracle, staring foolishly at the figure standing on the scorched earth, his body burning with flames.
This is not Lighthouse technology.
This was not any weapon or ability they knew of.
Is this… magic? Or divine punishment?
The moment the fire wall appeared, the intelligent snake-dog displayed cunning and sharpness far beyond its peers.
It forcibly twisted its forward-moving body, plowing two deep furrows in the ground and narrowly avoiding the direct attack.
The sense of deadly threat made all its muscles tense.
It no longer attacked rashly, but instead let out a series of low roars, driving the low-level beasts around it, like a suicide squad, to rush towards Xu Bo fearlessly, acting as a meat shield to consume his strength.
It nimbly slipped into the shadow of a nearby building, its scarlet compound eyes flashing with a sinister light, like a top assassin, waiting for the opportunity to deliver a fatal blow.
“Oh.”
A light groan came from Xu Bo’s throat.
That was not sarcasm, but an indifference that came from absolute self-confidence.
After being indoctrinated with Captain Yamamoto’s combat experience, this little trick seemed as clumsy as a child’s play in his eyes.
He didn’t even turn his head to look, but just slowly pointed the tip of the knife in his hand towards the ground.
“Fushou.”
Along with the low chanting, a flame sword path that was condensed to the extreme, like a long red snake with life, rushed along the ground.
It does not have the devastating power of the “firewall”, but it is faster and more accurate.
The flaming snake ignored all the extreme beasts that served as meat shields, drew a graceful arc on the ground, and drilled into the shadows where the snakes and dogs were lurking with incredible precision.
Hiss !
A shrill howl, so shrill that it seemed like no living creature could utter, erupted from the shadows.
Immediately afterwards, a black shadow with flames burning all over its body suddenly jumped out. It was the snake dog.
Half of its body had been completely carbonized, with even its bones clearly visible, while the other half was constantly twisting and melting in the flames.
[Soul Points Gained: 15 (Severely Damages Elite-Level Devouring Beast)]Another message emerged.
This time, 15 points of soul power instantly flowed into Xu Bo’s body like a powerful stimulant.
The life energy that was on the verge of exhaustion due to forced “Bankai” was effectively replenished, and the feeling of weakness in the body was mostly dispelled, replaced by an illusion of full strength.
The injured snake dog did not retreat. Its remaining single eye stared at Xu Bo, full of resentment and madness.
It opened its mouth and what came out was no longer a roar, but a hissing sound with an extremely strange frequency.
The sound waves penetrated the chaotic battlefield and spread far away.
The next moment, a thunderous sound was heard from the end of the horizon.
The earth began to shake violently.
Dark shadows, like rising tide, surged in from all directions. They were the main force of the beast tide!
The number of them, tens of thousands, so densely packed, is enough to make anyone with trypophobia faint on the spot.
The tiny spark of hope that had just ignited in the survivors’ hearts was instantly extinguished by a basin of despair mixed with ice.
“It’s over… it’s all over…”
“Run! What kind of monster is that! Run!”
“No matter how strong he is, he’s only one person! How can he possibly handle so many!”
The survivors cried even more miserably than before. They grabbed Xu Bo’s trouser legs and begged him to run away quickly.
In their opinion, this was a number that even gods could not defeat.
“run?”
Xu Bo slowly raised his head, facing the fishy wind blowing in his face, with a crazy arc at the corner of his mouth.
An invisible pressure spread from him.
The air seemed to have turned into thick syrup. The survivors around them felt their breath was suffocated, their legs became weak, and they almost fell to the ground.
“The good show has just begun.”
He ignored everyone’s pleas and raised the katana named “Ryujin Jakka” high above his head.
In an instant, the dancing flames on the blade converged and completely sank into the seemingly ordinary blade.
Instead, the front end of the blade appeared charred black, as if it had been burned.
A terrifying high temperature that could even burn out light was madly gathering on the tiny tip of the knife.
Chapter 3: Swastika: Residual Fire Sword! (old version)
The sky was completely dyed black.
It was not the night, but a surging, desperate shadow formed by the endless gathering of extreme beasts.
The earth groaned in pain under the trampling of their billions of claws. The violent shaking made it difficult for the survivors to even stand, and they collapsed to the ground one after another.
A foul-smelling gale blew in, stirring up sand and stones, lashing everyone’s face.
A dead silence, more terrifying than death itself, enveloped the remains of Dawn Town.
The screams and wails disappeared, because in the face of such an overwhelming doomsday scene, any sound seemed pale and powerless.
The approaching black tide was reflected in people’s pupils. Their eyes were empty and they had completely given up thinking. Only the most primitive fear remained, waiting to be swallowed.

At the same time, dozens of kilometers away.
A black off-road vehicle that has been extremely modified is speeding across the rugged wasteland like an arrow.
Inside the car, the shrill alarm almost tore one’s eardrums.
“Beep! Beep! Beep! Warning! Ultra-high-density life cluster detected ahead!”
“The energy reaction index… has exploded! The instrument can no longer measure the upper limit!”
A sturdy man with a crew cut looked at the map on the screen that instantly turned blood red, and his voice changed.
“Captain, we seem to be…surrounded by something.”
In the driver’s seat, a tall woman didn’t say a word, her cold eyes just staring ahead.
Bai Yuekui.
She grabbed a high-powered military telescope and brought it close to her eyes.
The camera’s field of view kept jumping in the violent turbulence, and finally, she forced her focus on the center of the riot.
Then, she saw the most incomprehensible and incredible scene in her life.
In the midst of the beast tide that was enough to destroy any army, there actually stood a “person”.
A solitary figure.
The strangest thing was that those crazy and irrational beasts, when charging, all avoided the area where he was.
It was as if there was not a human being there, but an invisible abyss that exuded the breath of death.
What is that person afraid of?
No.
It was the tide of beasts that were afraid of him.
Bai Yuekui’s heart skipped a beat, and his knuckles holding the telescope turned slightly white from excessive force.
Just then, she saw the man move.
He ignored the pleading of the survivors behind him who were tugging at his trouser legs, and also ignored the tide of beasts in front of him that was enough to devour the world.
He just slowly raised the flaming sword high above his head.
“Swastika “
These two words, separated by a long distance, seemed to resound directly in the depths of everyone’s soul.
“Remnant Fire Sword!”
There were no earth-shattering explosions.
There wasn’t even a sound.
In an instant, the blazing flames on the knife, along with all the light and heat in the surrounding air, seemed to be instantly drained by an invisible black hole and completely sank into the blade of the knife.
The original katana turned into a charred blade that looked ordinary and even a little broken.
An eerie silence descended.
With Xu Bo as the center, the moisture in the entire ruins of Chenxi Town began to evaporate rapidly.
The ground was cracked and the remaining plants withered and turned into ashes in an instant. The air became dry and hot, and when it was inhaled into the lungs, it brought a burning pain.
Inside Bai Yuekui’s off-road vehicle, the screens of all the instruments flashed wildly and then turned into a glaring red.
Sizzle
The alarm, indicating extremely high temperatures, only sounded halfway before it suddenly stopped.
All the delicate electronic components were completely burned by the invisible high temperature at this moment.
Cough cough cough!
The crew member with a crew cut next to him covered his throat and coughed violently. He felt that every breath was igniting his lungs.
“Captain… what… what is that?”
Bai Yuekui did not answer.
She just stared at the figure in the telescope, her pupils shrank to the size of a needle tip.
That man, simply by releasing a power, almost changed the physical laws of this area.
On the battlefield, the Zanhuo sword began to move.
East: Rising Sun Blade.
Xu Bo didn’t even swing the knife.
He just stood there quietly, holding the knife.
The dozens of vanguard beasts that rushed to him first stopped moving after crossing an invisible boundary.
They didn’t burn, explode, or even scream.
Just like that, in the posture of charging, it instantly turned into the most insignificant flying ash, which was blown away by the heat wave and disappeared without a trace.
As if they had never existed in this world.
It was as if an invisible mouth swallowed them along with all traces of their existence.
The wisdom of the surviving elite snake dog made it feel unprecedented fear and also stimulated its final madness.
It gathered all its strength into its claws, transformed into a black lightning, and pounced towards Xu Bo’s back with all its might.
West Canri Prison Clothes.
Xu Bo still didn’t move.
A layer of fiery spiritual pressure, almost invisible to the naked eye and as hot as the surface of the sun, silently emerged from the surface of his body.
The snake-dog was extremely fast, but it caught fire out of nowhere when it was still ten meters away from him.
The black flesh and blood carbonized instantly and the bones melted. It couldn’t even complete the attack before it turned into a ball of charcoal in mid-air, fell heavily to the ground, and shattered.
Absolute attack.
Absolute defense.
Everyone in Bai Yuekui’s team, including herself, completely lost the ability to think and could only watch that person perform as if it were a miracle.
However, this is not the end.
South Fire Fire Ten Trillion Death Burial Formation.
Xu Bo finally moved.
He held the knife in his backhand and gently inserted the charred tip into the dry ground beneath his feet.
Buzz
A low resonance.
All, all the Devouring Beasts that he had killed before, no matter they were burned to death by “Fu Zhan” in the beginning, or evaporated by “Sunrise Blade” later, their “ashes” scattered all over the earth, were all awakened at this moment.
One after another, charred skeletons burning with hellfire struggled to crawl out from the ground.
Hatred for the living dances in their eye sockets.
They were once extreme beasts and hunters.
And now, they have become Xu Bo’s legion.
“roar–!”
The Skeleton Legion roared silently, and then, fearlessly, pounced on their former comrades, the still endless tide of beasts.
A massacre of the living by the dead took place.
Some of the team members around Bai Yuekui couldn’t help but start retching. The shock of this worldview subverting was more terrifying than facing death.
This is no longer a battle.
This is divine punishment.
It is creation and also destruction.
at last.
Xu Bo slowly raised his knife and swung it lightly at the still chaotic battlefield in front of him.
North: Heaven and earth are reduced to ashes.
An invisible slash, yet one that contained extreme power, passed by silently.
Everything in the fan-shaped area ahead, whether it was the skeleton army fighting, or the remaining thousands of extreme beasts, including the intelligent snake-dog that had been lurking in the distance after being seriously injured.
Everything was completely “erased” with this one blow.
A huge, bottomless gully was plowed into the ground, and the edge looked like a red glass that had been melted at high temperature and then cooled instantly.
The world is pure.
In Xu Bo’s mind, the system panel was refreshing frantically.
[Soul Power +150! ]He let out a long, burning breath and released his Bankai.
The heat that was enough to distort reality slowly dissipated, and the charred blade rekindled its flames, transforming back into its Ryujin Jakka form.
There was dead silence in the off-road vehicle in the distance.
Bai Yuekui put down the telescope, and for the first time, an emotion called “confusion” appeared on his delicate face.
She looked at the landscape that had been permanently changed, and at the figure standing there with a knife. After a long time, she squeezed out a few words from her dry throat.
“That “
What is it?
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Chapter 4: The Goddess’s Shock and the Struggle between Heaven and Man (Old Version)
The world has never been so quiet.
The wind stopped.
The roars and howls of the beast tide turned into a burnt smell that filled the air.
The scorching heat that was powerful enough to distort light was slowly fading from this completely rewritten land as Bankai was released.
The flames on the sword in Xu Bo’s hand rose again, and it turned back into the form of that ancient sword.
He stood on the red glazed land created by his own hands, like a lonely god.
However, the deity is crumbling from within.
[Warning: Life energy is less than 5%, and you are about to enter a near-death state.][Soul power points will be automatically consumed to maintain minimum vital signs.]The cold system prompt sound exploded in my mind, forming a sharp contrast with the remaining heat in the outside world.
Everything in front of me began to double, the edges of my vision rapidly being eaten away by darkness.
The price of that world-destroying power was that it almost drained away all of his vitality as a human being.
The survivors of Dawn Town in the distance finally regained some sanity from the scene that seemed like divine punishment.
The look they gave Xu Bo was no longer one of pure awe.
There is a mixture of extreme fear and a kind of almost twisted fanaticism that has found redemption.
He killed the monster.
But he is an existence even more incomprehensible than a monster.
The dead silence inside the SUV was broken.
“team leader “
Shanda’s Adam’s apple rolled in the driver’s seat and his voice was dry.
“What should we… do?”
Bai Yuekui did not answer, she just stared at the figure in the distance.
Xia Dou, the short-haired girl standing by, didn’t even bother to wipe the sweat from her forehead. She pointed at a sophisticated instrument in front of her that kept sounding the alarm and spoke very quickly.
“Captain, the readings are in! The soil structure in that area has been completely altered. It melted instantly at high temperatures and then quickly cooled, forming an amorphous structure… This… This is absolutely beyond the capability of human technology!”
Isn t this nonsense?
Xu Tong in the back seat slammed the car door, his voice filled with suppressed fear.
“What else do you want to do? Contact him? He’s a monster! A monster more dangerous than all the Extreme Beasts combined! We should retreat immediately, as far away from him as possible!”
Shanda turned around suddenly.
“Retreat? Xu Tong, are you crazy? We saw it with our own eyes! He single-handedly wiped out the entire beast tide! This is hope, the hope of humanity’s counterattack!”
“hope?”
Xu Tong sneered and pointed at the land outside the window that seemed to have been plowed by gods.
“Do you dare to hold onto this hope? If he can point his knife at the Extreme Devouring Beast today, he can point it at us tomorrow! The lighthouse! Even the entire world! What can you bet on his feelings?”
The air in the car seemed to freeze.
No one can answer this question.
At this moment, Xu Bo moved in the distance.
He forced himself to support his almost falling apart body and walked step by step towards the little hunter girl whom he had rescued from the claws of snakes and dogs.
On the girl’s leg, there was a wound so deep that the bone was visible and it was still bleeding. It was left from the battle just now.
All the survivors held their breath and watched this strange scene.
What is that devil-like man going to do?
Xu Bo squatted in front of the little girl.
He stretched out his hand and placed his palm on the girl’s wound.
[Consume 10 soul points, exchange: Palm Activation]A soft green light shone from his palm.
The light was full of the breath of life, completely different from the destructive power that had just burned everything.
Under everyone’s shocked gaze, the wound on the little girl’s leg healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, the torn flesh grew back, and finally only a piece of smooth skin was left.
Xu Bo’s face turned even paler.
This was his last performance and also a big gamble.
He must show the power of destruction while also showing the side of “creation” and “protection”.
He cannot be dismissed as a pure, uncommunicative madman or monster.
He needed…to be accepted by humans.
After doing all this, my tense nerves finally broke.
Xu Bo’s eyes went dark, he could no longer hold on, and fell straight back.
“Bang.”
The dull sound of falling to the ground struck everyone’s heart.
“ah!”
The survivors cried out in surprise.
But no one dared to step forward.
The man just fell there, and the residual power of his previous Bankai was still like an invisible mountain, pressing them so hard that they couldn’t breathe.
In the silence, a young woman in a white coat and glasses was the first to push through the crowd.
Her name is Lin Wei, and she was a former doctor in Chenxi Town.
There was still fear on her face, but her professional instinct overcame her fear.
She walked quickly to Xu Bo, squatted down, stretched out her trembling fingers, felt his carotid artery, and then lifted his eyelids to take a look.
After a moment, she let out a long sigh and announced loudly to the crowd around her.
“He…he’s still alive!”
“He just fainted from exhaustion, his life is not in danger!”
This sentence was like a pardon, making all the survivors feel relieved.
In the SUV, Bai Yuekui pushed open the door.
“team leader!”
Xu Tong and Shan Da shouted at the same time.
Bai Yuekui did not look back, but left an unquestionable order.
“Stay where you are, lay down your weapons, and refrain from any hostile actions.”
She walked towards the restricted area alone.
The high-heeled tactical boots made crisp “click, click” sounds as they stepped on the glazed ground.
The ground beneath her feet still retained an astonishing warmth, which came through the soles of her shoes and burned her nerves.
The air was filled with the smell of burnt food and sulfur, mixed with a strange smell, as if the sun had been pulled down to earth.
At this moment, her worldview was shattered by the land beneath her feet, the scene before her, and the fallen man.
Bai Yuekui stopped outside the crowd.
Her gaze passed over the awed and nervous survivors and fell on Lin Wei, the doctor who dared to be the first to step forward.
“I mean no harm.”
Her voice was cold, yet carried a convincing power.
“I’m Bai Yuekui, I think you should have heard of me.”
The crowd was in an uproar. The name Bai Yuekui represented the highest combat power and legend among the survivors on the ground.
Lin Wei adjusted her glasses, stood up, and mustered up the courage to look her in the eye.
“Boss Bai, what do you want to do?”
Bai Yuekui turned his gaze to the unconscious Xu Bo.
“His current condition is very critical. He is extremely weak. If you rely on him alone, he will likely die from organ failure or energy exhaustion.”
Her words were direct and cruel.
“And you will also lose your only refuge.”
“I,” Bai Yuekui paused, each word clear, “can save him. I have the most advanced life support equipment and highly concentrated nutrients in my car.”
Lin Wei was silent. She looked at the survivors around her and saw the hesitation and struggle in their eyes.
Bai Yuekui saw through their thoughts.
“You are afraid of him, and so am I.”
She admitted it frankly, and this honesty actually made everyone relax their vigilance a little.
“But I know even more clearly that without him, we would all have died. This world no longer leaves us room for hesitation or fear.”
“Leave him to me. I guarantee his safety, which is equivalent to guaranteeing the safety of all of you.”
“At least, until I find out what he is.”
The last sentence seemed to be spoken to everyone, but also to herself.
In the end, under Lin Wei’s coordination and Bai Yuekui’s irresistible aura, the survivors made way.
Shanda and another team member stepped forward cautiously and lifted the unconscious Xu Bo onto the back seat of the SUV.
The car door closed, blocking out all outside eyes.
Bai Yuekui sat back in the passenger seat, the car started slowly, bypassed the horrific battlefield ruins, and drove towards her base.
Inside the car, the atmosphere was terribly depressing.
Xu Tong would occasionally peek at the sleeping man through the rearview mirror, his eyes looking as if he was looking at a nuclear bomb that could explode at any time.
Bai Yuekui’s gaze also fell on Xu Bo. He was lying quietly, with black hair, black pupils, and a handsome face. If no one had seen it with their own eyes, no one would have been able to connect him with the demon god who had just burned the sky and destroyed the earth.
Her right hand rested casually on her waist.
But his fingers were always tightly clasped on the hilt of a specially made high-frequency particle dagger.
The cold touch was her only comfort at the moment.
What she brought back was actually the “savior” of mankind’s counterattack at the end of the world.
Or is it a “Pandora’s Box” that was opened by his own hands and contains a more terrifying existence than the Extreme Beast?
Bai Yuekui didn’t know.
She only knew that from today on, this desperate world would usher in an unpredictable, new variable.
Chapter 5: First Confrontation, Cognitive Overwhelm (Old Version)
In the darkness, consciousness struggled to emerge from a sea of chaos.
Xu Bo’s eyelids trembled and slowly opened.
What came into view was not a dilapidated tent, but a cold and hard metal ceiling. An operating lamp emitted a soft white light without a trace of warmth.
The air was filled with the unique smell of disinfectant mixed with nutrients.
He tried to move his fingers, and felt a soreness as if his body had been drained, but the fatal feeling of weakness had mostly subsided.
Looking inside the panel, the number in the soul power point column changed from 100 to 80.
The system used 20 points of soul power to pull him back from the brink of collapse after Bankai.
squeak.
The metal door was pushed open and a tall figure walked in.
She changed out of her combat uniform and wore a simple black combat vest and trousers, which outlined her amazing body curves. Her long silver-white hair was casually tied behind her head, making her look more capable and sharp.
She placed a tray on the bedside table with a bottle of water and a compressed meal on it.
During the entire process, she made no unnecessary sounds, and her movements were so precise as if they had been rehearsed countless times.
Her gaze fell on Xu Bo’s face, calm and deep, as if she was examining an indecipherable object.
No asking about one’s well-being, no trying to find out one’s background.
“You wiped out the beast tide, and the survivors of Dawn Town regard you as a god.”
Her voice was cold, like ice scraping against glass.
“What is your purpose?”
Xu Bo did not answer immediately. He propped himself up, leaned against the head of the bed, picked up the bottle of water, unscrewed the lid, and drank it down in one gulp.
The cold liquid slid down the dry throat, taking away the last trace of drowsiness.
He was like a traveler who had been trekking in the desert for several days, his desire for water surpassing everything else.
This action, full of the most basic human needs, instantly diluted the aura of “god” around him.
Bai Yuekui watched quietly, with a barely perceptible fluctuation in his eyes.
She had anticipated countless responses, whether arrogant declarations, pretentious riddles, or even cold murderous intent.
But she hadn’t expected it to be like this.
Gulp Gulp
After drinking most of the bottle of water in one breath, Xu Bo breathed a long sigh of relief.
He looked at Bai Yuekui with clear and calm eyes.
“Survive.”
Bai Yuekui’s eyebrows raised slightly.
“By the way…”
Xu Bo paused, his tone as flat as if he was saying that the weather was nice today.
Let more people survive.
The simplest answer was like a heavy punch, hitting all the complicated conspiracy theories that Bai Yuekui had set up, causing them to fall apart in an instant.
She was silent for a moment and continued to ask the most core question.
“What’s the price of your power?”
In her opinion, the power that is enough to change the celestial phenomena must be exchanged with life, humanity, and something unimaginable.
Xu Bo smiled and did not answer directly.
Instead, he asked a question, a question that hit the nail on the head.
It s costly, but that s beside the point.
“What matters is your plight.”
He looked at Bai Yuekui, his eyes seemed to be able to penetrate her body and see every detail of her battle.
“When you hunt Extreme Devouring Beasts, do you often get into tough fights? Even if there are only one or two, they’ll quickly attract more, as if there’s some invisible connection between them.”
Bai Yuekui’s pupils suddenly shrank.
This phenomenon is the most troublesome secret for all ground scavengers, and it is also a problem that the top management of the lighthouse cannot completely solve.
How would he know?
Xu Bo didn’t give her time to think, and continued to speak earth-shattering words in a calm tone.
“You call that thing ‘Mana Ecology,’ right? Think of it as some kind of invasive plant life.”
“Wrong.”
Two words, understated, yet carrying unquestionable authority.
“It’s more like a ‘server’.”
“And those Extreme Devouring Beasts are merely ‘mobile terminals’ connected to the server.”
“Server”, “mobile terminal”…
These words from the old times, spoken by Xu Bo, with a strange magic that transcends time and space, smashed into Bai Yuekui’s cognition.
Her breathing stopped for a moment.
All those life-and-death battles with the Extreme Beasts over the years, countless near-death experiences, and those inexplicable strange phenomena, at this moment, seemed to be connected together by this new theory.
She always thought she was fighting a group of beasts, but Xu Bo told her that she was facing a network.
“impossible “
She retorted subconsciously, but her voice lacked the confidence it should have.
“Nothing is impossible.”
Xu Bo dropped another bombshell, completely shattering her last line of defense.
“Your attack method is also wrong. The weak point of the Extreme Devouring Beast has never been the parasite you call ‘Spine Gu’.”
“Rather, deep within their bodies lies a ‘core’ responsible for absorbing and transforming life essence.”
“Only by destroying it can we truly sever its connection to the ‘server’, prevent information from being uploaded, and turn it into an isolated beast.”
“Your weapons, for both hacking and cutting, are too inefficient.”
Every word accurately hit the pain points and confusions of Bai Yuekui’s team in the battle.
The dimensionality reduction attack at the intelligence level, far more than the power of vaporizing a tide of beasts with one sword, made her feel a shock from the depths of her soul.
The former is a natural disaster and cannot be stopped.
The latter is wisdom that is beyond her reach.
The room fell into deathly silence.
It took a long time for Bai Yuekui to find his voice again.
She slowly took something out of a special small bag at her waist.
It was a fist-sized crystal, a strange scarlet color all over, with light flowing inside, emitting a rich breath of life.
High-purity life essence.
“This is our squad’s largest inventory.”
She placed the crystal on the bedside table and pushed it towards Xu Bo.
Her attitude had quietly changed from the initial scrutiny and caution to a transactional one, even with a hint of asking for advice.
“In exchange, I need more detailed information about what you just mentioned.”
“as well as “
She raised her head and looked straight into Xu Bo’s eyes.
“Take action when necessary.”
She made the investment.
Xu Bo picked up the piece of life essence, and felt a warm touch from his palm. The system prompt sounded in his mind.
[High-purity abnormal energy detected, can be absorbed and converted into 10 soul power points.]Recovered blood.
He did not absorb it immediately, but just played with the crystal and looked at Bai Yuekui.
“Cooperation is possible.”
“But where is your destination?”
His tone suddenly changed and his eyes became sharp.
“If I’m not mistaken, your mission is more than just collecting supplies.”
“That Dawn Town is just a stopover for you, right?”
Chapter 6: Meat and Soil Attack, Iceberg Seeks Help (Old Version)
Bai Yuekui’s breathing stopped for half a second because of Xu Bo’s question that seemed to be able to see through everything.
Her mission is indeed not just to collect supplies.
That look didn’t seem like a guess, but more like stating a fact that he already knew.
Just when she was about to speak and try to evade the question with some excuse
Beep-beep-beep-
The sharp alarm sound with a strange frequency broke the tranquility of the stronghold without any warning.
This sound was different from the rapid buzzing sound caused by encountering an ordinary beast tide. Instead, it was like an error warning issued by a precision instrument, monotonous and depressing.
Bai Yuekui’s expression suddenly changed, and he immediately gave orders through the headset.
“Guhong! What’s going on?”
“Captain, it’s not a beast tide!”
A young man’s voice came from the communicator, with a hint of incomprehensible confusion.
“There’s only one life signal on the radar… but its energy fluctuations… are too huge! It’s approaching us at high speed!”
Before he finished speaking, a drone transmitted a terrifying picture on the screen of the base’s main control room.
That’s a mountain.
A mountain of living, wriggling, dark red flesh.
It has no fixed shape, rolling on the ground like a huge mass of gelatinous substance. Wherever it passes, whether it is a rock or a dead tree, it is quickly assimilated by a layer of constantly proliferating flesh and blood tissue and becomes part of its body.
The earth shook, making a dull “rumbling” sound.
“Trouble.”
Bai Yuekui stared at the screen, and for the first time, an extremely solemn expression appeared on his usually cold face.
“It’s the elite-level Extreme Devouring Beast – Flesh Earth.”
“Its acidic corrosive fluid can melt all of our alloy shelters, and conventional kinetic weapons are almost ineffective against its thick fat layer.”
She made a quick judgment, her voice eerily calm.
“Xu Tong, Xia Dou, attack its sensory organs from a distance!”
“Shanda, activate electromagnetic trap number three!”
“Prepare for close combat. It moves slowly. I need to find its core!”
The order was carried out to the letter.
Xu Tong and Xia Dou appeared on the high wall of the stronghold, and the black muzzle of the sniper rifle was locked on the huge wriggling shadow in the distance.
On the ground, several hidden devices lit up with faint blue electric light, forming a deadly area.
Bai Yue G Kui himself tightly grasped the long sword at his waist, his silver-white hair fluttering slightly in the wind, and his eyes were as sharp as a knife.
Everyone was ready for close combat.
However, the monster named “Meat Soil” did something that was completely unexpected to everyone.
It stopped hundreds of meters away from the electromagnetic trap.
The huge mountain of flesh stopped wriggling.
The next second, hundreds of pitch-black holes appeared on the surface of its seemingly soft body.
Those holes were like the eyes of a monster or the muzzles of a gun, all aimed at the stronghold.
“No! Take cover!”
Bai Yuekui’s warning had just been shouted.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh !
Intensive sounds of breaking through the air were heard.
Countless fist-sized green acid balls spurted out from the holes, like homing missiles, drawing tricky arcs and smashing down on the stronghold.
Saturation attack!
All the tactics preset by Bai Yuekui’s team were completely ineffective at this moment.
They could only roll and hide in the stronghold like headless flies.
boom!
A ball of acid hit the electromagnetic trap that Shandong University had just activated.
The harsh sound of electric current mixed with the “sizzling” sound of melting metal. The faint blue electric light flashed a few times and then went out and became scrapped in an instant.
Bang! Bang!
Xu Tong’s sniper rifle fired, and the specially made armor-piercing bullet accurately penetrated into Rou Tu’s body.
However, only two insignificant blood flowers splashed on the huge mountain of flesh, and the flesh around the bullet hole squirmed and healed instantly.
“Damn it! This guy has no vital points at all!”
Xu Tong cursed angrily and had to give up shooting. He rolled over to avoid a ball of acid that passed over his head.
The acid flew past the wall, melting the hard alloy wall like butter, emitting pungent white smoke.
“ah–!”
A shrill scream was heard.
A team member responsible for fire support was unable to dodge and his calf was splashed with acid.
The thick combat pants and the flesh inside were instantly corroded, leaving a horrible bloody hole. The team member rolled on the ground in pain, holding his legs.
The team was in an unprecedented tough battle.
An atmosphere of despair began to spread.
And at this moment.
In the safest central observation room of the stronghold, Xu Bo was standing calmly in front of the huge bulletproof glass, looking at the scene outside that looked like the end of the world.
His calm face was reflected in the glass.
He was like an outsider, enjoying a fireworks display that had nothing to do with him.
His sight passed over those dodging figures in a panic, over the acid flying all over the sky, and fell accurately on the huge piece of meat.
Scan Completed
[Target: Elite-level Extreme Devouring Beast – Flesh Earth][Energy core location: three meters below the center of the torso][Features: Remote Corrosion, Rapid Regeneration, Environmental Assimilation][Weaknesses: Fear of high-frequency vibrations, fragile energy conduction core]This information emerged clearly in his mind.
He didn’t move.
He is waiting.
Wait for an opportunity.
Wait for the opportunity for that iceberg to truly lower its proud head.
The war situation outside is deteriorating rapidly.
The long sword in Bai Yuekui’s hand was so fast that only a shadow remained. She kept chopping the acid balls that attacked her. Every time she blocked, the sword would make a “sizzling” sound as it could not bear the weight.
She’s strong, but she’s only human.
She can protect herself, but she can’t protect the entire team.
The line of defense is about to collapse.
During an extreme dodge, Bai Yuekui caught a glimpse of the figure standing quietly in the observation room out of the corner of his eye.
Anger, confusion, humiliation…all kinds of emotions surged in her heart.
She clenched her silver teeth so tightly that even a hint of blood seeped out from deep within her teeth.
She never asked anyone for help.
But today
Sizzle!
Another stream of acid flew past her shoulder, corroding a small piece of her combat uniform on her shoulder, revealing the smooth skin underneath, which was burning with pain.
This straw broke the camel’s back and broke her last bit of pride.
She took a deep breath and made a request into the communicator in a tone that was a mixture of reluctance and determination.
The sound, transmitted clearly by electric current, reached the observation room and Xu Bo’s ears.
“Xu Bo!”
“Please help!”
“Conditions…you decide!”
Inside the observation room.
Hearing these three words, the corners of Xu Bo’s mouth finally rose slightly, forming an almost imperceptible arc.
What he wants is never any “conditions”.
What he wants is the word “please”.
It was him who was treated as the only hope, not a weapon to be traded.
What he wanted was this ice goddess’ complete recognition and reliance on his power from the bottom of her heart and soul.
He pushed open the heavy metal door of the observation room.
Squeak
The sound of the door hinge turning was particularly clear in the chaotic battlefield.
Bathed in the white light coming from the room, Xu Bo slowly walked out.
Chapter 7: Shunbu and Cang Huozhui (Old Version)
Xu Bo walked out of the shelter.
His figure was directly exposed to the acid barrage shot by Routu.
“He’s crazy!”
A team member who was changing the magazine screamed in surprise as he watched several fist-sized green liquid balls, with sharp sounds of breaking through the air, smash towards the thin figure.
Bai Yuekui’s heart suddenly tightened. She wanted to shout something, but found that the voice was stuck in her throat.
That man is seeking death.
However, just as the acid ball was about to touch the corner of his clothes.
Xu Bo’s figure suddenly disappeared.
There were no signs.
No track.
Without even a trace of disturbance in the air, he simply evaporated from the spot.
Next second.
He had appeared in another open space dozens of meters away, with his back to the death zone, and his posture was so leisurely as if he was just taking a walk after dinner.
Bai Yuekui’s sword-swinging movement froze in mid-air.
Her beautiful pupils contracted to the extreme.
“What is that…”
“Captain…can’t analyze!”
In the communicator, Xia Dou’s stuttering voice trembled as if he had seen a ghost.
“His movement speed… exceeded the threshold of the motion capture system! The instrument only recorded a… a false flashing signal!”
Xu Bo ignored those petrified gazes.
call out–
Another wave of acid barrage came over.
His figure disappeared again.
Appear.
disappear.
Reappear.
The deadly acid rain all over the sky seemed to have become a spotlight shining on him alone on the stage.
Every time he flashed, he landed precisely on the fleeting safe spot between the barrage of bullets.
The entire chaotic, bloody and desperate battlefield became eerily quiet.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared blankly at the man strolling in the rain of death.
That’s not fighting.
It was the cruelest and most elegant mockery of this doomsday world.
“Gu Long !”
Unable to lock onto the target, Routu was completely enraged.
It stopped long-range projection, and its body, as huge as a mountain, made a dull roar and rolled towards Xu Bo.
The earth was shaking and the air was howling as it was squeezed.
It would use the purest mass and the most brutal force to crush the little bug that was teasing it, along with the ground beneath its feet, into a pulp.
Mount Tai is pressing down on one’s head.
Faced with this attack that was enough to turn any heavy object into a discus, Xu Bo stopped.
He slowly extended a finger and pointed it at the mountain of flesh that was rushing towards him.
An aura completely different from that when he was in Bankai emanated from him.
It was an ancient, rhythm-destroying majesty.
He chanted in a low voice, and every syllable of the spell seemed to carry the power of the law, echoing clearly on the battlefield.
“The King!”
“The mask of flesh and blood, the myriad forms, the flapping wings, the one who bears the name of man!”
Bai Yuekui didn’t understand the language, but every word was like a heavy hammer, hitting her soul hard.
A fear that came from the instinct of life made her whole body cold.
“The heat and strife roll southward across the sea, and we march forward!”
Xu Bo’s voice suddenly rose, and a cluster of pale blue flames ignited at the tip of his index finger.
” The Thirty-threeth Breaking Path: Blue Fire Falling!”
The moment the words fell.
The sky seemed to be torn open.
A huge pillar of fire with a diameter of more than ten meters, composed of the purest pale blue explosive flames, fell from the sky.
It does not have the scorching heat of Bankai that burns everything, but it carries a purer, all-annihilating aura of destruction.
The pillar of fire accurately hit the center of Routu’s huge body.
No screams.
No struggle.
There wasn’t even the sizzling sound of burning flesh.
The moment the pale blue flame touched the flesh soil, more than two-thirds of the flesh mountain was instantly evaporated.
It’s not burning, it’s evaporation.
The material structure is fundamentally and completely erased.
The powerful shock wave stirred up a cloud of dust, but strangely, there was not a trace of heat in the shock wave, only a bone-numbing coldness.
When the fire died down.
All that was left was a huge, glass-like pit with mirror-smooth edges.
The small amount of remaining debris of the flesh and soil had long since turned into charcoal, crumbling in the breeze and scattering into ashes.
?bite!?
[Purify the elite-level Extreme Devouring Beast Flesh Earth, gain soul power points: 50 points][Current total soul power points: 210 points]Xu Bo listened to the prompt sound in his mind and glanced at the system panel which still showed 99% life energy.
Sure enough, the damage to his body caused by this level of ghost arts is almost negligible.
This is what regular combat should be like.
The battlefield fell into absolute silence.
The sound of the wind, the sound of dust falling, and the sound of the pounding heart all disappeared.
Time and space seemed to freeze when that blue fire fell.
Bai Yuekui’s hand holding the long sword was shaking slightly uncontrollably.
Her eyes were fixed on the man standing at the edge of the deep pit, unharmed, not even a wrinkle on the corner of his clothes.
For the first time, a look of confusion appeared on his icy face.
What just happened?
That elite-level beast that had put their entire team in a desperate situation and was even prepared to pay a heavy price to barely fight against it.
Just like that… gone?
Being wiped out from this world by just a finger and a few incomprehensible words?
The strength, speed, and fighting skills that she was proud of seemed as insignificant as a joke in front of the pale blue flame that fell from the sky.
She always thought that she had stood at the top of human combat power in this doomsday.
It wasn’t until today that she realized that she didn’t even have the qualifications to look up to that higher dimension.
She was…completely numb.
For the first time, the proudest and most powerful woman on earth felt her own powerlessness.
It was an absolute and insurmountable gap, one that couldn’t even give rise to jealousy.
She looked at Xu Bo and muttered to herself.
“This…is not a power from the same dimension at all.”
Her pride, her vigilance, and her calculations were all crushed to pieces by that devastating blow.
She slowly put away her long sword.
He took a step forward and walked towards the man.
Her teammates looked at her nervously, but no one dared to speak out to stop her.
Bai Yuekui walked up to Xu Bo and stopped.
She looked deeply into Xu Bo’s calm eyes, and then made a move that made everyone unbelievable.
She bent slightly, lowering her posture to the lowest point ever.
She pulled out a data storage chip from her tactical pocket and presented it with both hands.
There was a list of all the spare supplies that their team carried.
Including high-purity life essence, rare metals, weapons and ammunition, as well as all the results they collected on this trip.
That is their lifeline.
It’s everything they depend on for survival.
And now, she handed it all over without reservation.
Her voice was no longer cold and tentative as before, but instead carried a hint of awe and submission to absolute power that came from the heart.
“These.”
“It’s all yours.”
Chapter 8 Death Shelter (Old Version)
When Xu Bo and his companions set foot on the land of Chenxi Town again, they were greeted by a strange red and dead silence.
The earth was burned into a glass-like state, reflecting dazzling light under the dim sky of the end of the world.
The air was filled with a strange smell of coke and sulfur. The former buildings, streets, and even the corpses of the extreme beasts had all turned into part of this barren land.
Deep in the ruins, the hiding survivors saw the slowly approaching figure. There was deathly silence at first, and then a frenzy like a tsunami broke out.
“It’s Master Xu Bo.”
“He’s back.”
“God… God is back.”
They rushed out from their hiding corners, their faces covered with tears and dust, and the fear in their eyes had long been replaced by an almost crazy admiration.
They knelt on the ground and offered their most humble respect to that man, the creator of this scorched earth.
Bai Yuekui’s team followed behind, looking at the scene before them that was like the coming of a myth, their throats dry and they were speechless.
They had seen power before, but they had never seen power that could twist a person’s mind in this way.
Just then, a figure squeezed out from the crowd and walked straight towards Xu Bo.
She was a woman, wearing a relatively clean white coat and a pair of inappropriate glasses on her face. Behind the lenses were a pair of eyes that were calm to the point of being indifferent.
“Mr. Xu Bo.”
Her voice was not loud, but extremely clear, like a scalpel, accurately dissecting the fanatical atmosphere.
The woman’s name is Lin Wei, and she is the only doctor in Chenxi Town.
Instead of kneeling like the others, she handed over a report written in charcoal on a rag.
“There are one hundred and thirty-seven survivors, seventeen seriously injured, eight of whom will not survive the night if they are not treated immediately.”
“We only have enough drinking water for one day, our food is gone and the only medicines we have left are some expired antibiotics.”
Her eyes were fixed on Xu Bo, without any fanaticism, only a kind of scrutiny and evaluation.
“Your power is great, but we are short of food, water, and medicine.”
“Gods also need to solve mortal problems.”
The air froze instantly.
The eyes of all the survivors were focused here. They looked nervously at Lin Wei, the woman who dared to ask practical questions to the “God”.
Bai Yuekui’s eyebrows also raised slightly, and he felt a little interested in this woman.
Xu Bo looked at Lin Wei, without any sign of offense on his face, but instead showed a hint of approval.
He likes this kind of pragmatic people.
He reached out, but didn’t take the report.
Instead, he threw the data storage chip that Bai Yuekui had presented to him directly to Lin Wei.
The movement was as casual as throwing a stone.
Lin Wei caught it subconsciously, and the cold touch made her slightly startled.
“You are responsible for counting and distributing the supplies inside.”
“I’m responsible for addressing external threats.”
These two simple sentences exploded like a thunder in everyone’s heart.
Decentralize power.
Such a straightforward delegation of power.
Lin Wei clenched the chip in her hand, and a complex look flashed across her eyes behind the lenses.
Xu Bo looked around at the survivors who were kneeling on the ground, their eyes filled with hope and confusion.
His voice was not loud, but it was clearly heard by everyone.
“From today on, this place is no longer called Dawn Town.”
“This is the Death Shelter.”
“Anyone who is willing to stay will be given my protection.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a rough voice sounded from among the armed men.
“Why?”
A burly man with a scar on his face stood up. He was once the armed captain of Dawn Town and was holding an old assault rifle in his hand.
He represents the old military class and those who are accustomed to speaking with guns.
“Why should we trust you?”
Scarface’s eyes were full of vigilance and defiance.
“Why should I believe that you are not another Morgan, another tyrant.”
This question is also a question in the hearts of many people.
Great power also means great threats.
Xu Bo didn’t answer.
He didn’t even look at the scarred man.
His eyes fell on a man lying on a simple stretcher not far away, groaning in pain.
He was a scavenger. In the previous beast tide, his legs were broken by boulders. Now the bones pierced the flesh, and the wounds had begun to turn black and gave off a rotten smell.
Death is just a matter of time.
Xu Bo slowly walked up to him.
Everyone held their breath.
They didn’t know what this moody “god” was going to do.
Xu Bo just stretched out his index finger and chanted a short and obscure spell.
“The fourth way to bind: this rope.”
A light yellow rope appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around the wounded man’s body like a snake, firmly fixing him on the stretcher and preventing him from struggling due to the severe pain.
This move has made many people open their eyes wide.
But this is just the beginning.
Xu Bo placed his palms above the bloody broken legs.
Green light, like warm spring water, poured out from his palm.
That is the light of life.
It is the light of hope.
As everyone watched in disbelief, a miracle happened.
The necrotic tissue falls off at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The broken bones made a slight “cracking” sound and connected, grew and healed themselves in the green light.
The torn muscle fibers squirmed like living things, weaving themselves together again.
The new skin, pink and smooth, quickly covered the hideous wound.
The whole process takes only a few minutes.
When the green light faded, the scavenger, who had one foot in the gates of hell, was left with only a faint scar on his leg.
He sat up dazedly, stretched his legs, and then, amid countless dull gazes, he stood up tremblingly.
“My…my legs…”
“I stood up.”
He touched his legs, feeling the strength that he had lost and regained. Finally, he turned suddenly towards Xu Bo, knelt down heavily, and used all his strength to knock his forehead on the hard glass floor.
Again and again, devoutly and fanatically.
The entire shelter fell into deathly silence.
If we say that the previous “Zanka Tachi” brought about the shock and fear of destroying the world.
So this “resurrection” at this moment brings about a miracle that subverts cognition and reshapes faith.
Destruction is the majesty of God.
Creation is the authority of God.
The scarred man who had stood up to question earlier dropped the rifle in his hand to the ground with a clang.
The defiance and vigilance on his face had long been swallowed up by endless horror and awe.
His legs went weak and he knelt on one knee, lowering his proud head.
“I will follow your orders.”
Following his surrender, all those who were still standing knelt down in unison.
This time, there was no doubt.
Lin Wei stood where she was, one of the very few people who did not kneel down.
She clutched the data chip tightly, her eyes flashing violently behind her lenses.
She looked at the man who had created the miracle, and her eyes finally changed from the initial scrutiny to a hint of… recognition from the heart.
Xu Bo succeeded.
Not only did he recruit all the survivors and armed forces in Dawn Town, but more importantly, he planted a seed called “hope.”
Bai Yuekui watched everything quietly from beginning to end.
She watched how Xu Bo used the simplest means to win people’s hearts and establish order.
This man seemed to be shrouded in layer upon layer of fog.
You think he is just the embodiment of destruction, but he can show the miracle of creation.
You thought he would suppress it with violence, but he chose the most popular way.
His strength is far more than just that one earth-shattering sword strike.
She felt more and more that Xu Bo’s existence was completely beyond her understanding.
At this moment, a small detector on her wrist made a slight beep.
She glanced at the light spot on the screen and her eyes suddenly froze.
She walked quickly to Xu Bo, her voice low.
“My detector detected an abnormal signal in the direction of the lighthouse.”
“A small, high-speed flying object is approaching us.”
Bai Yuekui’s tone was more solemn than ever before.
“The messenger of the lighthouse has arrived.”
Chapter 9: The Pride of the Lighthouse (Old Version)
Before Bai Yuekui finished speaking, a sharp sound of breaking through the air came from far away, tearing the dead silence above the shelter.
The voice was high and steady, with a precision and indifference that belonged to the civilization of an old era.
Everyone raised their heads at the same time.
The clouds in the sky were split by a silver-white streak of light, and a smooth-shaped aircraft covered with white armor was descending at an astonishing speed.
Its appearance is like a bird of prey with its wings folded, full of mechanical beauty and unquestionable power.
“It’s a ‘Feather’ class reconnaissance boat.”
Beside Bai Yuekui, her team member “Shanda” whispered, with a hint of instinctive fear in his tone.
It is one of the Lighthouse’s most advanced air units, representing the Lighthouse’s will and power.
The reconnaissance boat did not choose to land in the center of the red land, but instead landed slowly on a relatively flat open space outside the shelter, stirring up a cloud of dust, hovering precisely and gracefully.
The confidence that the survivors had just built up seemed to be shaken again in the face of this alien-like aircraft.
They gripped their crude weapons tightly, their eyes filled with a mixture of tension, curiosity, and a trace of lingering awe.
“laugh–“
The sound of hydraulic rods operating was heard, and the hatch opened downward, extending into an inclined ladder.
Three figures walked out of the cabin door against the light.
They were dressed in spotless pure white uniforms made of exquisite fabrics and tailored to fit their bodies, which was in stark contrast to the dilapidated apocalyptic scene around them.
The leader was a young man with meticulously combed hair and a handsome face, but his eyes were full of condescending scrutiny.
He seemed not to be walking on the scorched earth of doomsday, but to be patrolling his own back garden.
They are members of the “Light and Shadow Society” of the lighthouse, responsible for dealing with “abnormal events” on the ground.
The armed men from the shelter immediately stepped forward and tried to form a line of defense.
But the leading man, Chen Yuan, didn’t even look at them.
He walked straight through the crowd as if they were just air.
He held a sophisticated instrument in his hand, which was now facing Xu Bo, emitting an increasingly shrill beeping sound.
Finally, he stopped ten meters away from Xu Bo and looked up and down at Xu Bo’s ordinary clothes with contempt.
“Are you the ‘abnormal sample’ that triggered the high-energy reaction?”
Chen Yuan’s voice was not loud, but it was full of unpleasant arrogance.
The word “sample” was like a needle that pricked the nerves of all the survivors present.
Without waiting for Xu Bo to answer, Chen Yuan flipped his wrist and took out a letter of command made of special material, with the bright red seal of Morgan, the lord of Lighthouse City, printed on it.
“Xu Bo, the survivor on the ground.”
He read it in a tone of sentencing.
“Because a life form of extremely high research value has been detected, I am hereby ordered by the City Lord to bring you back to the lighthouse for comprehensive ‘quarantine’ and ‘analysis’.”
His eyes swept across the room, as if he was counting the goods.
“All supplies and personnel will be received and managed by the lighthouse.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the crowd was in an uproar.
This is naked plunder.
“We are not samples, we are living people.”
Lin Wei stood out from behind Xu Bo. She pushed her glasses up on her nose, but the lenses could not hide the anger in her eyes.
“Lord Xu Bo is our guardian angel.”
Chen Yuan’s gaze finally shifted away from Xu Bo and fell on the woman who dared to contradict him.
A cold smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
“You, humble servant, have no right to speak here.”
Before he finished speaking, he pulled out the energy pistol from his waist without any warning, and the black muzzle was instantly aimed at Lin Wei’s forehead.
Our goal is just to sample.
“Clearing out these burdens like you will save the lighthouse’s precious resources.”
He actually wanted to kill someone on the spot to establish his authority.
The air froze at this moment.
The survivors gasped in fear, but no one dared to move.
Bai Yuekui’s eyes suddenly turned cold, and his hand was already on the hilt of the knife at his waist.
But just as she was about to move, she was stopped by Xu Bo’s calm gesture.
Xu Bo took a step forward, and his tall body completely blocked Lin Wei, isolating the deadly muzzle of the gun.
He looked at Chen Yuan calmly, there was no anger in his eyes, only a bottomless indifference.
“Lighthouse, is this how human civilization continues?”
Chen Yuan felt a little uncomfortable with Xu Bo’s gaze, and then became angry and embarrassed.
He suddenly turned the gun towards Xu Bo’s eyebrows.
“The sample has no right to ask questions.”
“Resistance will be considered the highest provocation to the Lighthouse.”
“We will kill on the spot.”
The two team members behind him also raised their weapons at the same time. Three guns locked onto Xu Bo from three different angles.
The solemn atmosphere made it hard for everyone to breathe.
Xu Bo didn’t even draw his knife.
He didn’t even raise his hands.
An invisible, overwhelming air pressure, as powerful as a mountain or sea bursting its banks, was released from his body.
It was not wind, nor shock wave, but a more essential and more terrifying force.
It is pure, absolute pressure that comes from the soul level.
Captain-level spiritual pressure, released at full power.
In an instant, the arrogance and cruelty on the faces of Chen Yuan and the other two froze.
Then, that solidity was replaced by an extreme fear, shattering like fragile glass.
They felt like they were no longer standing, but sinking into the deep sea ten thousand meters below.
The air became as thick as mercury, squeezing their lungs and preventing them from even uttering a scream.
My heart seemed to be gripped tightly by an invisible hand, and every beat brought a tearing pain.
Plop.
Three muffled sounds, in unison.
The three arrogant lighthouse messengers felt their legs go weak and they all fell to their knees, their foreheads hitting the hard glass floor.
The pistol in Chen Yuan’s hand went out of control due to the violent spasm of nerves and muscles.
“Bang!”
A gunshot rang out.
The energy beam shot out, but hit an invisible wall one meter away from Xu Bo’s face and was instantly annihilated without even causing a ripple.
Immediately following.
An indescribable stench suddenly emanated from the three people kneeling on the ground.
The liquid soaked their white uniforms and left a mess on the ground.
They were so frightened that they became incontinent.
The entire shelter fell into an eerie silence.
All the survivors stared with wide eyes at the absurd and shocking scene before them.
The beacon messenger high above.
That represents the existence of the highest order of human civilization.
At this moment, he was kneeling there in such a miserable state, trembling all over, with feces and urine flowing all over his body.
I don t know who it was, but the first person couldn t help but burst out laughing.
This laugh was like lighting the fuse of a powder keg.
After a brief silence, laughter erupted into the sky.
That laughter was filled with long-suppressed release, full of trampling of authority, and full of joy from the heart.
The sacred and inviolable image of the lighthouse in their hearts completely collapsed and disappeared at this moment along with the stench.
Chapter 10 The Embarrassed Messenger (Old Version)
The thunderous laughter eventually died down.
The only thing left in the air was the disgusting stench and the heavy breathing of Chen Yuan and the other two, like a broken bellows.
Xu Bo slowly withdrew the domineering pressure that seemed to be his overlord.
The moment the pressure disappeared, Chen Yuan and the other two seemed to have all their bones pulled out of their bodies, and they completely collapsed in the filth they had created.
They breathed in big gulps, greedily inhaling every mouthful of air mixed with scorched earth and stench, as if it were the sweetest nectar in the world.
The relief of surviving the disaster did not remain on their faces for even a second.
Instead, there is a deeper and purer fear.
It is a tremor engraved in the deepest part of the genes when facing natural enemies.
The way they looked at Xu Bo no longer had any scrutiny or arrogance in them, only awe as if they were looking up to divine punishment.
Xu Bo moved.
He took a step forward and walked slowly towards Chen Yuan who was kneeling on the ground.
The survivors standing in front of him automatically made way for a passage, like a tide pushed aside by an invisible hand.
He bent down and picked up the slightly stained order from the ground.
That is the authority of the lighthouse.
It is the will of the city lord Morgan.
Then, in front of Chen Yuan’s face distorted by fear, Xu Bo used two fingers to casually tear the special paper into two halves.
Tear again.
The falling fragments, like dirty snow in winter, fluttered down on Chen Yuan’s head and shoulders, and on his white but long-stained uniform.
“Go back and tell Morgan.”
Xu Bo’s voice was calm, without a trace of emotion.
“This is my territory now.”
After saying that, he didn’t even look at Chen Yuan again, turned around and walked deeper into the shelter.
That kind of disregard is more insulting than any direct killing.
Chen Yuan trembled all over, as if he heard some kind of pardon, but also as if he fell into a deeper ice cave.
Living is more humiliating than dying.
Xu Bo didn’t look back, only leaving a faint order.
“Clean them and their craft.”
“Then, let them go.”
He pronounced the word “cleanse” particularly clearly.
The guards of the shelter were stunned at first, and then a ferocious and happy smile appeared on their faces.
They understood.
Scarface, who used to be the armed team leader, was the first to throw away the iron rod in his hand, turned around and dragged out two buckets covered with dust and rust from the ruins.
“Go get some water!”
“Use the dirtiest muddy water!”
The survivors rushed forward, carrying broken buckets and rotten basins, and scooped up the most turbid and dirty water mixed with mud and unidentified floating objects from the puddles in the ruins.
They walked towards the “Feather” class reconnaissance boat, which represented the highest technological achievement of the lighthouse.
Crash
The first bucket of dirty water was mercilessly poured on the mirror-like hatch of the reconnaissance boat.
The mud slowly flowed down the precise mechanical structure, leaving behind ugly traces.
Next came the second bucket and the third bucket.
The survivors were like having a grand carnival. They used mops, rags, and dirty water to roughly smear every corner of the reconnaissance boat.
Then, they walked towards the three Chen Yuans who were lying on the ground.
Chen Yuan’s pupils suddenly contracted. He wanted to struggle and scream, but in the face of the lingering fear, his body was completely unresponsive.
Cold, dirty muddy water poured down from the top of his head and into his collar, filling every pore of his body with humiliation.
They were dragged by the survivors like dead dogs into the cabin, which had also been “cleaned” into a mess.
With a bang, the hatch slammed shut behind them.
A moment later, the reconnaissance boat emitted an abnormal engine roar, staggered into the air, and fled in a panic towards the lighthouse like a frightened sick chicken without looking back.
It flew so hastily and in such panic, forming an extremely ironic contrast with the elegance and majesty with which it arrived.
Looking at the receding light, the entire shelter erupted in cheers even louder than before.
That is the cheer of the victor.
Bai Yuekui walked to Xu Bo’s side, her amber eyes reflecting the sky where the reconnaissance boat disappeared.
She did not comment on Xu Bo’s behavior, but simply handed over a black data pad as thin as a card.
“This is the data I downloaded from their reconnaissance boat’s external interface after a brief access.”
Her words were concise and efficient.
“It contains the lighthouse’s recent logbook and some information about the core personnel.”
While Xu Bo was using his spiritual pressure to shock the entire crowd, this woman had already quietly completed the deadly theft of intelligence.
Xu Bo took the data tablet.
Light and shadow flowed on the screen, and several clear photos of human faces emerged.
Morgan, the Lord of Lighthouse City, is a middle-aged man with a dignified face and a stubborn gaze.
The Wasteland Hunters’ chief commander, Charles, was a stern-looking, fleshy man.
Chief Scientist, Jingnan. A calm and intellectual woman wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
Xu Bo’s fingertips lightly slid across the screen, and a cold arc appeared at the corner of his mouth.
very good.
The garbage dump behind the fly now has a specific name and appearance.
Just then, Lin Wei came over with a glass of water.
This is one of the few simply filtered drinking water available in the shelter.
She handed the cup of water to Xu Bo, pushed her glasses on the bridge of her nose, and her eyes behind the lenses swept across the distant skyline.
“You have made a very powerful enemy.”
There wasn’t a trace of worry in her tone.
On the contrary, with an almost morbid excitement, it seemed as if the chaotic world before him was a truly interesting experiment.
Xu Bo took the cup of water and drank it all in one gulp.
“No.”
His voice was soft, but it carried an unquestionable certainty.
“I just stomped on a fly that happened to land on my face.”
“But behind the flies, there’s often a rotting, stinking garbage dump.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Bai Yuekui beside him suddenly frowned.
Her eyes were fixed on a certain line of log on the data pad.
“Something’s wrong.”
Bai Yuekui’s voice was solemn.
“According to this log, the reconnaissance boat stayed at an unmarked coordinate point for more than three hours before finding us.”
She looked up at Xu Bo, her eyes becoming more serious than ever.
“That… is a secret outpost in Lighthouse that has never been announced to the outside world. It’s codenamed ‘Horizon’.”
“But now, all life signals from that outpost have disappeared.”
“I suspect that Chen Yuan and the others just concealed more important information than my discovery.”
Chapter 11: The City Lord’s Wrath (Old Version)
Lighthouse, City Lord’s Hall.
The cold metal walls reflected the pale light, rendering the entire space like a huge mausoleum.
There is a constant, carefully filtered, sterile scent flowing in the air.
In the center of the hall, a huge light and shadow screen was silently playing an image that was enough to subvert the century-old dignity of the lighthouse.
It was a young and calm face.
Then, the picture shook violently, and the three lighthouse messengers slammed their knees to the ground uncontrollably in extreme fear.
Finally, there was the shameful, dark stain that spread rapidly across the white uniform.
The image freezes.
You could hear a pin drop in the entire city lord’s hall.
All the senior executives of the lighthouse were staring at the light screen intently. The expressions on their faces changed from initial astonishment to anger, and finally solidified into a dark blue humiliation.
Charles, the chief commander of the scavengers, a man known for his bravery and iron fist, had his knuckles crackling with his clenched fists.
The blue veins on his neck bulged ferociously like twisted dragons.
At the bottom of the hall, Chen Yuan was kneeling there. The uniform on his body, which had been urgently treated but still emitted a faint odor, looked like a prisoner’s uniform branded with shame.
His whole body was still shaking uncontrollably, his voice was tearful but full of resentment.
“City Lord, that’s not human power, it’s witchcraft.”
“He just took one look and we felt like our souls were being torn apart.”
As Chen Yuan spoke, he glanced at everyone’s reactions out of the corner of his eye. He knew that he had to push all the responsibility onto others.
“And the Horizon outpost. When we arrived, it was completely silent. All life signals had disappeared.”
“That demon must have done it. He used that strange power to destroy the outpost and kill all our compatriots.”
He portrayed Xu Bo as a cruel, bloodthirsty devil and himself as a victim who had escaped by luck.
Lord Morgan, who sat high on the throne, had muscles twitching violently on his usually dignified face.
His gaze was like two sharp knives tempered with ice, fixed on Chen Yuan, as if he wanted to torture him to death.
This was more than just a mission failure.
This is a blatant provocation.
This is the most vicious and ruthless trampling on the supreme authority of the lighthouse.
Morgan slammed his palm on the metal armrest of the throne, making a dull thud.
The whole hall was shocked.
“A ground bug.”
Morgan’s voice seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, and every word was chilling.
“How dare you challenge the dignity of the lighthouse!”
The anger emanating from him almost ignited the cold air in the hall.
At this moment, a calm female voice without any emotion sounded, like a basin of ice water poured on the volcano that was about to erupt.
“City Lord, anger won’t solve the problem.”
Chief scientist Jingnan walked out from the crowd.
She adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses on her nose, and her eyes behind the lenses were focused on analyzing the image frozen on the light and shadow screen, with an almost obsessive desire to research flashing in her eyes.
“Judging from its energy response and impact on the human body, the ability system of this ‘specimen’ is completely unknown.”
“His power acts directly on the biological nervous system, perhaps even on the soul level.”
“This is a life form that we have never seen before and is extremely valuable for research.”
Her words calmed the furious Morgan down a little.
Jingnan continued.
“I suggest that a higher-level capture plan be initiated.”
“We must capture them alive for research.”
“He might be able to help us solve the mystery of Mana ecology, or even bring an unprecedented technological leap to the Lighthouse.”
“City Lord, leave it to me!”
Commander-in-Chief Charles could no longer hold back. He took a step forward, and his heavy military boots stepped on the metal floor with a dull “bang” sound.
His scarred face was filled with a bloodthirsty look.
“I will lead my most elite wasteland hunters to show him what true power is.”
“I will break every bone in his body with my own hands, and then drag him back to you like a dog.”
Charles’ words were filled with blood and violence, and the temperature in the hall seemed to drop a few degrees.
Morgan’s eyes moved back and forth between Charles and Jingnan.
He didn’t agree immediately.
The calculations in the heart of this man who has ruled the lighthouse for decades are far colder than anger.
He looked at Jingnan.
“Your analysis makes sense.”
“But Charles’s method is too rough and may damage the sample.”
He demonstrated the absolute control of a ruler over his “assets”, rather than a tyrant who was simply swayed by emotions.
Finally, Morgan’s gaze fell back on Charles, and his eyes became as cold as ice.
“Charles, you lead the attack.”
“But remember, I want to live.”
“I want everyone on the ground to see with their own eyes what happens when they rebel against the Lighthouse.”
“Jingnan.”
He turned back to the Chief Scientist.
“You must simultaneously prepare the highest level biological cage and suppression field.”
“I want to make sure that when this specimen is brought back, it can’t even move a finger.”
Charles grinned, revealing a row of sharp white teeth, and accepted the order with a grim smile.
“As you command, City Lord.”
He turned around abruptly and strode out of the hall. The murderous aura around him made everyone who stood in front of him involuntarily retreat.
As he passed an adjutant, Charles’ voice was low, yet filled with chilling malice.
“The city lord said he wanted it alive.”
“It didn’t say ‘intact’.”
He had already thought of hundreds of ways to deal with the ground bug who dared to humiliate the lighthouse.
The city lord’s hall soon returned to calm.
Amid the clamor of Charles gathering his troops, Jingnan returned to his laboratory.
This place is completely different from the frenzy of the outside world, with only the slight beeping sound of the instruments running.
She called up all the relevant information about the “abnormal sample” Xu Bo on the light and shadow screen, but the information was very little.
Then, she slid her fingertips lightly across the screen, bringing up another file.
The profile picture in the file is of a woman with snow-white hair and a beautiful face.
At the bottom of the file, there is a line of top-secret information marked in red font.
“Special experimental subject, potentially related to the Mana ecosystem, requires continuous monitoring.”
Jingnan looked at the screen and saw that Bai Yuekui’s location information happened to overlap with that of the mysterious Xu Bo.
The corner of her mouth curled up in an interested arc.
She stretched out her finger and tapped the two people’s portraits on the screen, as if observing two particles about to collide.
“An unknown energy system.”
“A special experimental subject.”
Jingnan’s eyes sparkled with curiosity and excitement about exploring the unknown, and she whispered to herself.
“What kind of… interesting reactions will occur when they get together?”
Chapter 13: Using the Trick to Lure the Enemy into a Trap (Old Version)
The earth trembled from far away and spread to near.
It was not just the sound of footsteps, but a dull, continuous resonance, as if the entire earth’s crust was groaning under a giant blower.
A unique smell mixed with stench and decay began to spread in the air. It was the unique fragrance of death of the Extreme Beasts.
Inside the shelter, the survivors who had just taken a breath from the pressure of the lighthouse turned pale in an instant.
Fear spread faster than the beast tide itself.
People subconsciously clenched the crude weapons in their hands, but their bodies involuntarily retreated backwards, leaning against the cold metal walls, as if they could gain a tiny sense of security there.
Everyone’s pupils reflect a darkness called despair.
“He…they attracted the monsters here!”
“This is a trap! The people in the lighthouse want us to die with these beasts!”
“Can Lord Xu Bo win? There are too many of them this time…”
Panic spread rapidly among the crowd like a virus, and whispers merged into a buzzing noise, stirring everyone’s nerves.
At this moment, a calm voice, not loud but clear, overwhelmed all the noise.
“Everyone, hold your ground and don’t attack.”
Xu Bo had unknowingly stood at the entrance of the shelter, with his back to the crowd, staring at the horizon covered in smoke and dust.
He didn’t even look back.
Just a back view and an order were like a magic needle that stabilised the sea, piercing into the pounding hearts of all the survivors.
The panic that was about to get out of control was forcibly suppressed.
He turned slowly, his eyes swept across the crowd, and finally fell on Bai Yuekui with a solemn expression and Lin Wei with furrowed brows.
“The enemy is hiding in the dark, hoping to see us fight the Extreme Devouring Beast.”
The corners of Xu Bo’s mouth curled up slightly, it wasn’t because he was nervous, but more like he found it a little funny.
“Since they like watching plays, we will put on a good show for them.”
After saying that, he ignored everyone and climbed up the stairs alone, heading towards the highest point of the shelter, the watchtower which was converted from a used container.
Bai Yuekui’s gaze followed his back, his silver-white hair swaying slightly in the wind, and for the first time, real curiosity was revealed in his cold eyes.
She couldn’t figure out how to crack this conspiracy.
At the top of the watchtower, the wind was howling.
Xu Bo stood on the edge of the tower, the corners of his clothes rustling in the wind.
He closed his eyes.
The next moment, an invisible and powerful force was released from his body.
But this time, the power did not spread indiscriminately around like it did last time when it suppressed the Lighthouse Messenger.
It was condensed into a beam.
A spear of soul, invisible and intangible, yet as sharp as a divine weapon, accurately crossed a distance of several kilometers and pierced into the hidden canyon in the distance.
Inside the canyon, Charles and his most elite scavenger team are lurking.
Through the high-magnification tactical telescope, they clearly saw the beast tide like a raging black wave, about to hit the tiny reef of “Death Sanctuary”.
Suddenly, Charles froze.
An indescribable chill rushed from his tailbone to the top of his head without any warning.
It felt like someone was pressing a piece of ten-thousand-year-old black ice against your spine from behind on a hot summer day.
Not physically cold.
It is a tremor that comes from the depths of the soul, being watched by a higher life form.
He turned around suddenly and looked at the shadow behind him, but there was nothing there.
“Commander, what’s wrong with you?”
The adjutant beside him noticed that something was wrong with him.
“nothing.”
Charles frowned and forced himself to suppress the palpitations in his heart, attributing them to his own delusions of being too excited.
Just as he turned his attention back to the battlefield, Xu Bo had already started a new move in the direction of the shelter.
He raised his right hand, put his index and middle fingers together, and whispered a new, obscure spell towards the open space in front of the shelter.
“One of the ways to bind: blocking.”
There are no light and shadow effects, no energy fluctuations.
It was as if he had just said something meaningless.
But between the shelter and the beast tide, an invisible barrier, invisible to the naked eye, quietly formed.
It does not have any physical defense capabilities, but it can completely isolate sound and distort the conduction of energy.
The surging tide of beasts finally hit the invisible barrier.
In the canyon, from Charles’ perspective, a shocking scene took place.
The huge herd of beasts was sucked in by a huge silent sponge the moment it came into contact with the shelter’s defense line.
There was no expected scream.
There was no intense roar of gunfire.
There wasn’t even the slightest energy collision reaction.
The entire shelter suddenly, strangely, and completely fell silent.
It seemed as if it and all the people inside were completely devoured by the beast tide within a second, leaving no trace of anything behind.
Charles’s adjutant lowered his voice in excitement, his face showing uncontrollable ecstasy.
“Commander! The target isn’t responding!”
“He must have been overwhelmed by the beast tide! No matter how strong that guy is, he can’t stop a beast tide of this magnitude! Shouldn’t we attack? Go and recover his body!”
The scavengers around also showed cruel smiles.
However, Charles, a commander known for his suspicion and ruthlessness, did not give the order.
His frown deepened.
It’s too quiet.
It was abnormally quiet.
“Wait a little longer.”
He raised his hand to stop his subordinates’ restlessness, with a fox-like cunning gleam in his eyes.
“Let those beasts consume their energy for a while. I want to see if he’s up to something.”
He would rather miss the best opportunity than put himself in unknown danger.
But in front of the shelter, the reality was completely opposite to Charles’s imagination.
Those extreme beasts that were attracted by the “beast-attracting fragrance” seemed to have collectively hit a wall of smell and perception before rushing to the invisible barrier.
The target scent they locked onto disappeared.
The momentum of the mad rush came to an abrupt halt, and the huge herd of beasts fell into great chaos and frenzy.
Having lost their unified goal, they followed their most primitive bloodthirsty instincts and began to attack all living things around them.
For a moment, roars shook the sky and blood and flesh flew everywhere.
The most ferocious predators pointed their claws and fangs at each other.
A bloody massacre took place in front of the shelter in such an absurd way.
The survivors were initially terrified, then stunned, and finally dumbfounded. Their mouths never closed during the entire process.
They looked at the monsters that had made them terrified just now, and now they were killing each other like a group of headless flies, and felt that their worldview had been rubbed to the ground again.
On the watchtower, Xu Bo slowly opened his eyes and looked down at the farce below that he had directed.
He spoke softly to Bai Yuekui, who had appeared beside him out of nowhere.
“The stage is set.”
“Now, it’s time to invite the audience to the front of the stage.”
The words fell.
He stretched out his right hand, and a crimson hilt appeared out of thin air, which he held firmly.
“Buzz “
Zanpakuto: Ryujin Jakka, slowly unsheathed.
However, the blade that flashed with endless heat waves and sharp cold light was not pointed at the chaotic beast tide ahead.
It turned and passed the shelter, past the astonished eyes of all the survivors.
Accurately, it pointed to the canyon several kilometers away, which Charles thought was hidden.
Chapter 14: The Power of a Sword Turns the World Upside Down (Old Version)
The air in the canyon began to become anxious.
Time passed by minute by minute, and every second was like sandpaper, grinding away Charles’s already limited patience.
Although the most elite hunters beside him maintained a tactical posture, their tense muscles and the way they kept adjusting their guns revealed their inner restlessness.
That shelter was extremely silent.
“Sniper, switch to thermal imaging and look again!”
Charles’ voice was low, but it was filled with an unquestionable fierceness.
“Yes, Commander.”
On the commanding heights in the distance, the sniper in charge of observation quickly adjusted the mode of the scope.
However, when he turned his gaze back towards the shelter, the scene in the eyepiece made him gasp.
There are no clear human outlines.
There is no hot and cold boundary in the building.
The entire field of vision was occupied by a chaotic turbulence of energy that was swirling like boiling water.
Red, orange, yellow, and white spots of light stirred wildly and devoured each other, forming a huge, irregular vortex of heat energy that completely blocked out all details of the shelter.
“Reporting to the commander…unable to observe.”
The sniper’s voice was filled with confusion and suspicion.
“There is strong energy interference in the target area. My thermal imaging system…is ineffective.”
A muscle in Charles’s face twitched.
It’s this incomprehensible phenomenon again.
Ever since the ridiculous video sent back by the messenger Chen Yuan, the man named Xu Bo has been oozing with weirdness.
His patience finally ran out.
Waiting means handing the initiative to the invisible hand of the enemy, which Charles absolutely cannot tolerate.
He would rather use the purest violence to crush all unknowns.
“No more waiting!”
Charles stood up suddenly, his eyes flashing with bloodthirsty excitement.
“Everyone, attack! Prepare to close the net!”
He licked his cracked lips, a cruel smile appearing on his face.
“I want to see with my own eyes the despair on the face of that so-called ‘specimen’ as it is torn to pieces by the Extreme Devouring Beast!”
“roar!”
The scavengers let out a low war cry, and the long-suppressed murderous intent instantly erupted.
They were like a group of wolves released from a cage, holding pulse rifles, activating the sprint modules of their exoskeleton armor, and pouncing out from the shadows of the canyon.
The earth trembled under their heavy footsteps.
However, just as they stepped out of the shelter in the canyon, the sky above their heads suddenly brightened without any warning.
That is not the light of the sun.
It was a white light that was so hot that it seemed to set the entire sky on fire.
The top of the shelter’s observation tower.
Xu Bo held the knife in one hand, with the blade pointing diagonally towards the sky.
His movements were casual, like brushing off the dust from his shoulders.
He uttered four words to the group of scavengers who had just been exposed in the wilderness several kilometers away.
“The city is on fire.”
The voice was not loud, but it seemed to be the only law in this world.
A wall of fire, so huge that it could not be described in words, appeared out of nowhere right in front of Charles’s troops.
That was no ordinary flame.
It was a solidified, surging, roaring sea of flames, as if the entire horizon was pulled up and turned into a tsunami that burned everything, sweeping towards them.
Time seemed to slow down at this moment.
Charles’ pupils shrank sharply. He could even see every wave of heat rolling in the wall of fire and feel the hairs on his face being singed in an instant.
His mind was blank and the only thought in his mind was: run!
But it’s too late.
“boom–!!!!!”
The wall of fire did not hit them directly.
It crashed down a hundred meters in front of the troops.
The devastating shock wave, carrying with it a heat wave powerful enough to melt steel, spread instantly.
The elite troops that Charles was proud of were like toy soldiers swept by the hands of a giant.
The tactical formation they were proud of was as fragile as a piece of paper in the face of absolute power and was shattered in an instant.
Several team members were knocked unconscious by the horrific heat wave before they could even let out a scream. Their heavy exoskeleton armor rolled and flew far away like a broken tin can.
The scavengers who were lucky enough not to be blown away by the frontal shock wave were also roasted to a sizzling sound.
The special coating on the surface of their armor peeled off and melted under the high temperature, revealing the red-hot metal underneath.
The air was filled with the stench of burnt protein.
People and horses were thrown to the ground.
They didn’t even see a hair of the enemy before suffering a nearly devastating ranged attack.
This is a completely unreasonable attack method coming from a higher dimension.
Charles got up from the ground in a panic and shook his head which was buzzing with shock.
He looked at everything in front of him in horror.
Fear, like an icy tide, flooded his cruel heart.
What made his scalp tingle even more was that the wall of fire did not go out.
It transformed into a huge, circular fire cage, with crimson flames rising into the sky, tens of meters high, trapping them and the group of manic and chaotic beasts inside.
The raging flames separated heaven and earth.
They became beasts in a cage.
The other group of “beasts” in the cage, the extreme beasts that they had lured in as weapons, after a brief moment of panic, slowly turned their scarlet eyes to the only human in the cage.
Charles finally understood.
What is driving the tiger to devour the wolf?
What a fisherman’s profit.
It was a huge joke from the beginning.
Not only did the opponent know their exact position, they were too lazy to even confront them head-on, and instead set up a deadly trap.
These clever hunters were turned into sacrifices to wild beasts.
What contempt this is.
How… horrible.
He raised his head suddenly, and with all his strength, he looked towards the highest point of the shelter several kilometers away.
In his eyes, that blurry, tiny figure was like a demon standing in the clouds, coldly overlooking the bloody farce he had directed.
The cold system prompt sounded in Xu Bo’s mind.
[Deter elite armed units, display overwhelming power, Soul Points +30.]Chapter 15: The Fight of a Trapped Beast, Charles’s Madness (Old Version)
Inside the cage of fire, the air is no longer air, but a scalding medium that can be inhaled into the lungs.
Every breath felt like swallowing red-hot iron sand, burning the throat and trachea.
Inside the tactical helmets of Charles’s troops, the sound was filled with the heavy breathing of the team members and the harsh sound of electricity from equipment that failed due to high temperature.
The circular, towering wall of fire isolated everything from the outside world, turning the wilderness in front of the canyon into a closed arena where primitive killings took place.
And they are the gladiators thrown into the arena.
Their opponents were a group of extremely ferocious beasts that were frightened into a frenzy by the wall of fire.
These monsters lost their original target and instead vented their violence and fear on the only living creature in the cage.
A slippery, tumorous beast pounced forward, its tentacles covered with suction cups twisting in the scorching air, emitting a disgusting stench.
“Hold on! Form a defensive formation!”
Beneath Charles’s visor, a face distorted by anger and horror flickered in the firelight.
“Clean up these bastards first! Quick!”
He roared, his voice hoarse from dehydration, but still filled with unquestionable majesty.
This is the most elite scavenger in the lighthouse.
Even when they were in desperate situations, the muscle memory and tactical skills they had developed through years of training never collapsed.
Almost at the moment Charles gave the order, the remaining team members quickly retreated and formed a tight circular defense line with their backs to each other.
The muzzles of the Gauss rifles were all pointed outward, and blue-white arcs of electricity jumped on the barrels, foreshadowing the coming of death.
“Fire!”
The order was given, and the rain of bullets instantly formed a web of death.
The supersonic steel core bullet fired from the Gauss rifle, with a piercing scream, easily tore through the seemingly tough skin of the Extreme Beast.
A snake-dog-shaped beast that was rushing in the front was hit in the head instantly, and its entire upper body exploded into a ball of minced meat mixed with blue blood. Its heavy body rolled over and hit the ground due to inertia.
The shells fell to the hot ground with a clang and were immediately roasted red.
Blood and flesh were splattered everywhere, and the fishy and burnt smells mixed together to form a hellish fragrance.
The high walls of the shelter are like two completely different worlds from the bloody purgatory below.
The wind was light, carrying with it the unique coolness of the wilderness and a faint smell of burning.
Lin Wei clung to the cold parapet, her knuckles bloodless from the strain. She stared intently at the flaming cage below. The usually invincible scavengers were now being chased like headless flies by the monster. Their wails mingled with the sound of gunfire, piercing the barrier of the flames and reaching her ears vaguely.
This should have been a cause for celebration, but her stomach churned. She knew those men down there; she’d even fought them on the training grounds. Now, they were being torn to pieces alive in the graves they had prepared for others.
The instigator of all this was standing next to her.
Xu Bo.
He even leisurely took out a nutritional supplement from his pocket, unscrewed the cap, and slowly squeezed it into his mouth, as if he was enjoying a drama that had nothing to do with him.
“Don’t you feel… disgusted?” Lin Wei’s voice trembled a little, and it was unclear whether it was because of the cold or fear.
Xu Bo glanced at her, then looked at the sea of fire below and casually put the empty tube of nutrient solution back into his pocket.
“What’s so disgusting? They directed and performed this show themselves, and we just bought front-row tickets. Oh, no, they paid for the tickets, too.”
He paused and, like a professional battlefield commentator, pointed to the chaotic battlefield below.
“You see, Captain Charles made a tactical mistake. In this situation, a perimeter defense would be suicidal. They should have concentrated their firepower in one direction to break out, even at the cost of a heavy price. Unfortunately, he valued his life too much.”
Lin Wei’s throat went dry. This man, while admiring the slaughter she had orchestrated, was calmly reviewing the tactics. She felt a chill running down her spine, more biting than the night wind on the high walls.
“Your tactics…” she muttered, unable to find the right words. “Brilliant” wasn’t enough to describe it. It was a calculation that incorporated human nature, animal instincts, the weather, and the terrain, all into one chessboard. It was an almost bewildering insight.
“I just gave them back the gift they carefully prepared for us.” Xu Bo said calmly, his tone as relaxed as if he was discussing the weather, “and I even added some ingredients for him.”
“Add ingredients?”
“Because the end of fear is madness, for both man and beast.” Xu Bo’s gaze was as calm as water. The screams and explosions below failed to stir a ripple in his eyes. “Charles thought he was only igniting fuel, but what he really ignited was the last vestiges of sanity in those monsters and the will to survive of his own men. When the two collide in a closed space, guess what will happen?”
He spread his hands as if showing a perfect work of art.
“Bang, a big fireworks display.”
Lin Wei fell silent. She stared at Xu Bo’s calm profile, and for the first time, she truly realized what kind of person she had brought back to the shelter. Not just any survivor, but a monster who could take Hell as a trophy and admire it with equanimity.
But for some reason, standing next to this “monster”, she felt unprecedentedly safe.
Bai Yuekui’s vision was sharper. She did not indulge in the shock of what was happening before her, but calmly analyzed the battle situation.
“Charles’ troops are very well-equipped, and their firepower configuration is sufficient to deal with a low-level beast tide of this scale.”
Her voice was cold, as if she was stating a fact.
“These extreme beasts can’t hold them back for long.”
“Once they have eliminated the threats within, they will immediately concentrate all their forces to attack your flame cage.”
Just as she expected.
The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly.
After paying the price of several members being seriously injured, Charles’s troops finally shot and killed the last Extreme Beast.
A brief calm descended.
But everyone knew that this was just the silence before the storm.
Charles gasped and pulled off his armor, revealing a face that was blackened by smoke.
He did not hesitate at all, and in the interval between battles, he had made the most decisive decision.
He jerked his arm up and activated an emergency communication device hidden in his gauntlet.
An encrypted quantum communication signal, ignoring the energy interference of the flames, directly penetrated the clouds and shot towards the lighthouse floating in the sky.
“City Lord! I’m Charles!”
His voice was filled with uncontrollable madness and a hint of fear that he himself was not even aware of.
“The target’s strength far exceeded our expectations! We’ve encountered a trap! This is a trap!”
“Requesting heavy and three-dimensional force support! Repeat, requesting heavy and three-dimensional force support!”
He chose neither retreat nor surrender.
This ruthless man, realizing that he could not deal with the enemy in front of him, did not hesitate to call for more powerful violence.
He would use the Lighthouse’s most proud war machine to crush the devil hiding in the dark, along with his shelter, into powder.
Communication ended.
Charles’s scarlet eyes were fixed on the circular wall of fire, and a hint of hideous hope appeared on his face.
“Attention everyone!”
“Aim at the twelve o’clock direction! Maximum energy output! Concentrate fire!”
He pointed to a relatively dim area of the wall of fire.
The surviving scavengers immediately turned their guns around, and the energy modules of all Gauss rifles were pushed to the limit.
Dozens of dazzling blue beams converged into a destructive torrent, slamming heavily onto the wall of fire.
Boom!
Violent energy ripples
Chapter 16 Six-Staff Light Prison, Desperate Prisoner (Old Version)
The wall of fire surrounding the sky and earth trembled violently under the bombardment of the energy torrent.
Cracks, like spider webs, spread rapidly across the crimson flame barrier.
A hideous smile of surviving a disaster finally appeared on Charles’ face.
He won.
No matter how strange the guy hiding in the dark is, he can’t defeat the lighthouse’s most advanced technology and most powerful firepower.
As long as he blew open this damn cage, he would immediately reorganize his troops and use the most cruel method to pull that ghostly bastard out of the hole and crush him inch by inch.
“Increase energy output! Don’t stop!”
He roared into the communicator, his voice filled with the pleasure of impending revenge.
However, the moment his voice fell.
Something strange happened suddenly.
The already crumbling fire cage was not shattered by them, but dissipated on its own in an instant.
There is no fading process.
There is no sign of energy decay.
It just disappeared so suddenly, as if it had never existed.
The scorching air was instantly replaced by the cold wind of the wilderness, and the huge temperature difference made all the surviving hunters shiver.
After a brief silence, the ecstasy of surviving the disaster overwhelmed reason.
“We won! We won!”
“That guy is exhausted! He can’t hold on any longer!”
The surviving scavengers cheered hoarsely, and some even fell to their knees in exhaustion, gasping for breath.
Charles also let out a long breath of bloody air.
Although the process is embarrassing, the result is always good.
He put on the mask again to cover his smoke-blackened face, and a cold electronic voice issued new instructions through the built-in loudspeaker.
“Everyone, stand alert, regroup, and prepare to counterattack!”
“Find that…”
He didn’t finish his words.
Charles’ voice seemed to be strangled by an invisible hand and stopped abruptly.
Because of a figure.
A tall figure with black hair and black eyes had appeared in front of him silently at some point.
Less than three meters.
A distance that is social distance for ordinary people, but for top fighters, it is a distance that they don t even have time to react to death.
The scavengers around didn’t even see what was happening.
In their field of vision, they only saw Commander-in-Chief Charles speak halfway, and then he froze in place like a sculpture.
Charles’ brain almost crashed at this moment.
But the body’s instinct, the combat response that has been tempered through thousands of times and ingrained into the bones, transcends thinking.
No thought, no exclamation.
Every cell in his body was screaming the same word: Attack!
Buzz!
A piercing high-frequency vibration tore through the air.
The special high-frequency battle blade at his waist was instantly unsheathed, turning into a silver lightning, with a terrifying power that could cut through steel like tofu, and slashed straight towards Xu Bo’s neck.
This was his fastest strike.
It was also the blow he gambled everything on.
Faced with this fatal attack, Xu Bo didn’t even take a step back.
He just calmly raised his right hand and extended an index finger, as if he wanted to use this finger to meet the sharp blade.
Time is infinitely stretched at this moment.
Under the horrified gaze of all the scavengers and in Charles’s ferocious and unbelievable eyes.
Xu Bo’s lips opened and closed gently.
He uttered a word that they could not understand at all.
“The Sixty-One Way of Binding: The Six-Staff Light Prison.”
Light.
Appear out of thin air.
Not one path, but six paths.
Six huge and flat pieces of light, like materialized crystals, condensed from the void in an instant in an absolutely unreasonable way.
They ignore the laws of physics and spatial distance.
A piece of it stabbed out from below and nailed Charles’ waist.
A piece of it shot from behind and locked his back.
Two pieces passed through from left to right and clamped his arms.
The last two pieces pierced through his legs precisely.
“clang “
The high-frequency battle blade flew out of his hand, bounced a few times on the ground, and the harsh buzzing sound gradually died down.
Charles was firmly nailed in mid-air.
He maintained the posture of rushing forward and swinging the knife, and all the muscles in his body were stretched due to the force.
But he couldn’t move.
I couldn’t move a finger.
The expression on his face underwent an incredible change in just a few tenths of a second.
From the bloodthirsty hideousness, to the determination of swinging the knife, to this moment… the incomprehensible astonishment, and the fear that goes deep into the bone marrow.
The entire battlefield fell into an eerie silence.
All the cheers, all the gasps, were gone.
The scavengers who had just been celebrating their victory were now all frozen in place.
Their commander-in-chief.
One of the Lighthouse’s strongest warriors, the man who led them to survive countless bloody battles.
Just like that, he was subdued in one move.
It can’t even be called a “uniform”.
It’s more like an artist working on a trivial piece of work.
Charles was like a butterfly specimen nailed to a display board, fixed in the air, showing his most embarrassed and helpless posture.
Xu Bo ignored the ordinary team members who had lost their will to fight.
It seemed as if those ants had never appeared in his eyes.
He walked slowly to the imprisoned Charles, as if admiring his masterpiece.
Then he took something out of his pocket.
A miniature loudspeaker temporarily borrowed from Bai Yuekui.
He gently placed the small black device against Charles’ Adam’s apple, which was rolling violently with fear.
After doing all this, he even had time to casually wave his hand in the direction of the high walls of the shelter in the distance.
On the high wall, Lin Wei, who had been staring at the battlefield with a telescope, felt her heart skip a beat.
She immediately understood what Xu Bo meant.
With trembling hands, she pressed a red button beside her.
The shelter’s public address system activated.
A strange sound spread through the loudspeakers scattered around the battlefield, reaching every corner and the ears of every survivor in the shelter.
That sound was Charles’s uncontrollable, violent gasping like a broken bellows due to extreme fear and pain.
Huh huh huh
This sound was more terrifying than any scream.
It tells everyone clearly.
The commander of the lighthouse, that high and mighty figure, was at this moment like a fish out of water, struggling silently and tasting the purest despair.
Xu Bo’s voice sounded immediately afterwards.
His voice was calm, and it was amplified countless times by the public address system through the same miniature loudspeaker.
Clear, calm, and with an unquestionable majesty.
He began the “torture”.
“Tell me, besides sending a bunch of you losers to die, what other backup plans does Morgan have?”
Chapter 17 Live Interrogation, The Secret of the Lighthouse (Old Version)
Six scorching lights, like divine torture instruments, nailed Charles in mid-air.
A burning sensation came from every part of his skin that came into contact with the light, flowing along his nerves, converging into a torrent of pain that impacted his brain.
But he clenched his teeth, and the veins on his neck bulged out due to the extreme force, like tangled tree roots.
The smell of blood filled my mouth.
He used all his strength to squeeze out a hoarse roar from the depths of his throat, and the sound passed through the loudspeaker and spread throughout the dead wilderness.
“Don’t even think about getting any information from me!”
“The glory of the lighthouse… must not be tarnished!”
This roar was his last dignity as the commander-in-chief and also his last struggle.
However, the only response he got was a chuckle.
Xu Bo’s smile was very faint, without any mockery or pity. It was more like he was looking at a disobedient child who was doing a futile performance.
“I don’t need you to say it.”
Xu Bo slowly raised his hand.
The movement was slow, and the place was dead silent; even the wind seemed to stagnate, awaiting his next move. The six light bars reflected on his profile, a flicker of light and darkness. He extended his index finger, the tip of which pointed at Charles’s sweat-soaked forehead.
Charles’ muscles tensed to the limit in an instant.
His pupils contracted violently, and the entire world faded and collapsed in his vision, leaving only the finger that kept getting bigger and bigger.
He wanted to hide, to struggle, to even turn his head. He even wanted to summon the last bit of his strength to bite off his tongue and use his death to keep the secret of the lighthouse.
But those six light prisons seemed to be directly connected to his nervous system, depriving him of even the slightest control over his body. He became a nailed specimen, helplessly watching and feeling the impending unknown.
Despair eroded his heart even faster than the burning pain on his skin.
Xu Bo’s lips opened again.
The sound was not loud, but it clearly penetrated Charles’ ears and was transmitted to the entire live channel through the loudspeaker equipment.
“The fourth of the broken paths: White Thunder.”
There was no earth-shattering momentum.
There wasn’t even a trace of energy fluctuation.
Only a white flash of lightning, so thin that it was almost invisible, flashed from Xu Bo’s fingertips and accurately penetrated Charles’ forehead.
Charles’ body trembled violently.
That’s not the reaction to being hit hard.
An indescribable chill, following the white lightning, instantly penetrated his brain. It didn’t destroy his flesh, but it wiped out the very root of his resistance. The faith he had fought for his entire life, the very reason he endured the torture, the unforgettable oaths, in that moment, became a meaningless combination of characters. They were still there, but they had lost all weight and warmth.
The fierceness and determination in his eyes vanished instantly. The corners of his resolute mouth relaxed, and saliva mixed with blood dripped down his chin. His entire spirit and energy were completely drained by this finger.
Xu Bo put down his hand and casually shook his fingertips, as if he had just flicked off a speck of dust.
He looked at Charles’s lifeless eyes and curled his lips slightly in boredom.
“It would have been better if we had done this earlier.”
He turned around and looked at a certain point in the void, as if there was an invisible camera there.
“Alright everyone in the livestream, we can now begin the Q&A session. If you want to know the secrets of the lighthouse, please start posting comments.”
The dam that was held firmly in place collapsed.
The iron-like defense line was reduced to dust.
Confused and bewildered, in the end only the most primitive and purest fear remained, completely drowning him like a tide.
His psychological defenses collapsed.
Xu Bo watched his changes calmly, then asked the first question into the loudspeaker attached to his Adam’s apple.
The voice was clear and steady, reaching everyone’s ears through the radio.
“What’s next for Morgan?”
From beneath Charles’s visor came a heavy gasp, like that of a drowning man.
His lips trembled uncontrollably, and every word seemed to be dragged out from the depths of his soul.
“…heavy…heavy three-dimensional…”
He uttered a word that was unfamiliar to everyone.
But then, his disjointed and fear-filled confession made the meaning of the word extremely clear and terrifying.
“…City Lord Morgan…has authorized…”
“…mobilize… three squadrons of… heavy 3D troops…”
“… flatten… this place…”
There was dead silence above the high walls of the shelter.
The smiles on the faces of those survivors who had just been celebrating their “victory” froze instantly, replaced by uncontrollable fear.
Heavy three-dimensional legion.
That is the legend of the lighthouse, the ultimate war machine that only appears in textbooks, used to fight against the king-level extreme beasts as huge as mountains.
Now, this destructive force is about to be used against them.
On the other side, the surviving scavengers, Charles’ most elite subordinates, also showed expressions of disbelief.
They looked at the commander imprisoned in the air, and then at the lonely figure, their eyes filled with confusion and hesitation.
For the sake of a “sample”, the city lord actually used enough force to launch a war to destroy the city.
This is no longer an arrest.
This is cleansing.
Xu Bo turned a deaf ear to the uproar around him. He grasped the information he wanted and continued to ask questions.
His questions became more specific and in-depth.
“What role does Jingnan play in this operation?”
“What does she think of my ‘sample’ data?”
This question seemed to touch upon deeper memories in Charles’ mind.
His eyes became more distracted and his voice became more erratic.
“…Jingnan…Chief Scientist…”
” She suggested capturing “
She said you are
Charles’ voice paused, as if he was fighting some instinct, but he finally uttered it.
” ‘A completely new direction of evolution’ “
“…She is also very interested in Bai Yuekui…”
On the high wall, Bai Yuekui, who had been silent all the time, suddenly fixed his cold gaze the moment he heard his own name.
Charles’ next words were like a heavy hammer, hitting everyone’s heart.
” She said she was ‘the key’ “
“…the key…to unlock…the secrets…of the Mana ecosystem…”
The word “key” seems to carry some kind of magic.
Bai Yuekui’s hand that was holding the parapet suddenly tightened, and his knuckles lost all color due to excessive force.
For the first time, her face, which had been frozen for thousands of years, showed such a strong wavering. A trace of paleness quietly crept up her cheek.
There was even a barely perceptible tremor in the body.
This subtle change did not escape Xu Bo’s eyes.
But he did not investigate immediately. Instead, he quickly connected this inadvertently leaked information with the information in his mind.
A huge mystery that spanned the old world and the end of the world seemed to be slowly unveiled before him.
He looked at Charles below who was still struggling in pain, his eyes had become dull.
This so-called lighthouse commander is no longer valuable.
All his cards and secrets were completely exposed in this public live interrogation.
And the lighthouse’s trump card has been clearly laid out on the table.
Xu Bo raised his head and looked at the sky. There was a lighthouse floating above the clouds, like the abode of a god.
He knows.
The foreplay is over.
The real storm is about to come.
Chapter 18: Dethronement and Incorporation (Old Edition)
The light dissipated.
The six pieces of scorching light that looked like divine torture instruments suddenly turned into specks of fluorescent light without warning and blended into the slightly cool evening breeze.
The power that bound Charles suddenly disappeared.
He fell straight down from mid-air like a puddle of mud without bones.
The dull sound of the ground hit everyone’s heart.
The chief commander of the Lighthouse’s scavengers, a man who was so invincible not long ago, was now lying face down on the charred earth, completely unconscious, his body trembling slightly with unconscious convulsions.
The wall of fire surrounding heaven and earth had long since gone out.
The wilderness returned to its original silence.
Only the subtle sounds of the Devouring Beasts gnawing on the corpses of their own kind in the distance and the lingering smell of burning in the wind reminded everyone how real the hellish massacre just now was.
Xu Bo’s gaze moved away from the puddle of mud on the ground and slowly swept towards the group of surviving scavengers.
They still maintained their battle formation, but they looked like a group of puppets with their souls taken away.
The hand holding the gun was shaking.
His eyes were empty.
The faith, along with their commander, was shattered.
Xu Bo didn’t come closer, but his voice was clearly heard by everyone.
“You have two choices.”
His voice was calm and contained no murderous intent, yet it could pierce their psychological defenses more than the sharpest blade.
“One, stay here and be mine.”
“I will find a way to pick up your family members in the lighthouse.”
“Two, die now.”
Absolute silence.
No one dared to move, no one dared to make a sound.
They looked at the lonely figure, the face that was young but seemed to have carried the vicissitudes of a thousand years.
miracle.
devil.
These two completely different words fought wildly in their confused minds.
Suddenly, an adjutant standing at the front of the team moved.
He was neither charging nor fleeing.
He released his grip on the pulse rifle.
The heavy weapon hit the ground with a sharp crash.
Then, under everyone’s astonished gaze, the adjutant, known for his bravery and loyalty, slowly took off his helmet, revealing his face blackened by gunpowder smoke.
He knelt on one knee and lowered his proud head.
“We… have witnessed miracles.”
His voice was hoarse, yet remarkably clear, and trembled with relief.
“The laws of the lighthouse are nothing but a joke in front of you.”
“We…are willing to follow you!”
This kneeling was like a huge rock thrown into stagnant water, instantly stirring up huge waves.
These scavengers are the knives of the lighthouse and the minions of Morgan.
But they are also living people.
They have seen the horror of the Extreme Beast and the cruelty of the Lighthouse s top management.
Morgan’s harshness and Charles’s cruelty had already sown the seeds of dissatisfaction in their hearts.
And today, they witnessed with their own eyes how a man crushed the power they were proud of and the authority they revered as easily as stepping on an ant.
The old gods have fallen.
The new god is standing right before our eyes.
Clang, clang!
The sounds of weapons falling to the ground came one after another and became a continuous sound.
one.
two.
Ten.
All the surviving scavengers threw away their weapons, took off their helmets, and knelt on one knee.
Those pieces of exoskeleton armor that represented the Lighthouse’s strongest combat power were no longer symbols of glory, but instead looked like heavy shackles.
They lowered their heads and swore allegiance to the new power in the most humble manner.
Without bloodshed.
Without even saying a word, Xu Bo took the lighthouse’s most elite troops, along with their sophisticated equipment, into his possession.
The armed forces of the Death Shelter made a qualitative leap at this moment.
On top of the high wall, Lin Wei’s heart was still beating wildly.
She looked at the dark mass of kneeling figures below, then at the man standing with his hands behind his back, and an unprecedented emotion filled her chest.
It was not simple awe, nor was it fear.
It’s a sense of… a sense of absurdity and security of participating in history.
She quickly suppressed her surging emotions and regained her composure and competence.
She turned around and gave clear instructions to the survivors around her.
“Medical team, prepare to receive the wounded!”
“Logistics team, count all captured weapons and equipment and register them!”
“Engineering team, repair those exoskeletons immediately, every one you can repair!”
Her voice broke the silence of the shelter.
The survivors, who were still immersed in shock and fear, were awakened by her words and began to act in a hurry.
A new order is quietly being established amidst the chaos.
Bai Yuekui didn’t move.
She was still standing by the parapet, her cold gaze passing through the crowd and falling on Xu Bo.
Her emotions still hadn’t recovered from the huge shock brought by the word “key”.
She walked over to Xu Bo.
The wind blew up her snow-white hair, entangled with his jet-black hair vaguely in the air.
“What do they mean by ‘key’?”
Her voice was very soft, with a hint of confusion that she herself was not even aware of.
Xu Bo turned his head and looked into her eyes which rarely showed hesitation.
A trace of paleness quietly emerged on the face that had been frozen for thousands of years, like the only crack in the snow.
“I have no idea.”
Xu Bo s answer was very direct.
He looked into her eyes and continued.
“But we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Before that, we have bigger problems to deal with.”
He looked up at the sky.
It was as if his sight could penetrate the thick clouds and see Morgan’s face completely distorted by anger and fear above the suspended steel city.
Bai Yuekui followed his gaze, and the confusion in his eyes gradually faded away, replaced by cold determination.
yes.
No matter what shocking secrets are hidden behind that “key”, staying alive is the prerequisite for unlocking everything.
Just then.
A burst of hurried footsteps came from behind.
A newly recruited scavenger, the one in charge of communications, was crawling up the high wall.
He didn’t even have time to salute, his face filled with uncontrollable horror and panic.
He rushed to Xu Bo, his voice changing due to extreme nervousness.
“grown ups!”
“I… I just… intercepted the Lighthouse’s highest-encrypted communications!”
The man’s lips were trembling violently, and every word he said seemed to be spoken with all his strength.
“City Lord Morgan… he… he has already issued the final order…”
There was only pure fear in the signalman’s eyes.
“Purification Plan…launch!”
“The Heavy Three-Dimensional Corps is expected to…”
He swallowed hard and uttered the number that seemed to make time stand still.
“Arrival in two hours!”
Chapter 19 The Calm Before the Storm (Old Version)
“Two hours later, we’ll arrive…”
These words, like an invisible hammer, hit the nerves of every survivor in the shelter.
The little hope that had just been ignited by the incorporation of Charles’ troops was instantly extinguished.
The air solidified.
The wrench in a maintenance worker’s hand fell to the ground with a clang, but he didn’t notice it at all. He just stared with his eyes wide open and his lips opened and closed silently.
In the crowd, no one knew who started it, but low sobbing quickly spread and gathered into a suppressed, suffocating despair.
That’s not a scavenger, not a flesh and blood creature.
That is the lighthouse used to fight against natural disasters, to wipe out cities, and to be a walking divine punishment.
“Be quiet!”
A clear and powerful female voice suddenly cut through the sticky panic through the PA system.
It s Lin Wei.
She hadn’t known when she was standing in front of the radio station, gripping the microphone tightly with both hands, her knuckles turning white from the force.
There was a barely perceptible tremor in her voice, but more of it was a determination to fight to the death after forcibly suppressing her fear.
“Why are you crying? What are you afraid of?”
“Just an hour ago, the Lighthouse’s most elite scavenger troop knelt before whom?”
Her question was like a needle, piercing everyone’s confused thoughts.
“Their commander, the arrogant Charles, was trampled underfoot like a dead dog by someone?”
“Have you forgotten the wall of fire that fell from the sky?”
“Have you forgotten those six light prisons that imprison everything?”
Lin Wei’s voice grew louder and louder, more and more powerful. She glanced at the faces below that were raised in surprise or confusion.
“We have Lord Xu Bo!”
“Charles’s troops are the sword of the lighthouse, and the Heavy Three-Dimensional Corps is nothing more than the hammer of the lighthouse!”
“In the face of miracles, a knife will break, and a hammer will be smashed to pieces!”
Her speech did not contain many fancy words, but used the most direct facts to awaken the survivors’ newly established faith.
The panic has not completely disappeared.
But beneath the ashes of despair, a flame called “trust” was rekindled.
On the other side, in the temporary operations room.
The atmosphere was extremely depressing.
Bai Yuekui stood in front of a light curtain made up of several screens, on which massive amounts of data and models were flashing rapidly.
She retrieved all the information she could find about the lighthouse’s reconstruction.
That was where she had lived, and she knew better than anyone how terrifying it was.
Xu Bo stood behind her, watching calmly.
“Heavy solid, model ‘Punisher’, twelve meters tall, fully covered in composite armor. Conventional pulse weapons are nothing but a tickle to it.”
Bai Yuekui’s voice was cold and he spoke very quickly, as if he was reciting a death sentence that he had already memorized.
She slid her finger across the light screen, calling up a structural diagram with a red danger mark flashing on it.
“The primary threat comes from its shoulder-mounted weapon system, codenamed ‘Scandal’.”
“Each heavy-duty 3D machine is equipped with twin ‘Divine Punishment’ cannons, capable of firing high-compression energy cannons. A single salvo could theoretically vaporize the area beneath our feet in an instant.”
She turned around, and her face, which had been frozen for thousands of years, was more serious than ever before.
“They are mobile fortresses, war machines designed specifically for saturation destruction missions.”
“Your flame…”
Bai Yuekui paused, as if searching for the right words.
“…powerful, but the Scourge cannons have a range far beyond your reach. We might be wiped off the map before we even see them.”
After listening to her calm analysis, Xu Bo just nodded slightly.
Half of his attention was in his own mind.
A translucent system panel that only he could see was floating in his field of vision.
[Soul Power Points: 180]The numbers were clear. After several previous battles, a huge amount of soul power points had been consumed, and there weren’t many left.
A new line of shimmering golden text suddenly popped up.
[Detected that the host is about to face a direct threat from a large-scale mechanized army]Threat Level: High
[Survival plan being deduced…][Proposal generated, recommended exchange for a new ability: High-level Ghost Path spell ‘Hard Path Ninety: Black Coffin’ (incomplete version)][Soul Points Required for Exchange: 150][Effect: Constructs a massive black gravity coffin with ultra-high-quality spiritual pressure, completely sealing and shattering the target. This incomplete version requires no chanting, but its power and range are limited by the user’s current spiritual pressure.]?Do you want to exchange? ?
Without the slightest hesitation.
Xu Bo made a decision the moment he saw the words “black coffin”.
“exchange.”
An unimaginably vast amount of spell knowledge filled with darkness and destruction rushed into his mind like an icy torrent.
That’s not learning, it’s more like forced indoctrination.
Every syllable, every trajectory of spiritual power, carries a terrifying flavor of crushing laws and distorting space.
Even though it was just an incomplete version, the destructive power it contained still shocked Xu Bo’s mind.
He slowly opened his eyes, and deep in his eyes, there seemed to be endless darkness surging.
He walked up to Bai Yuekui and Lin Wei.
Lin Wei had just finished the broadcast and ran over, her face still flushed and her eyes full of worry.
Xu Bo looked at the two of them.
“There’s only one thing you need to do now.”
His voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable power.
“Protect everyone and get them all into the strongest underground shelter.”
“No matter what happens outside, even if the sky falls or the ground sinks, don’t come out.”
“you “
Lin Wei looked at his calm profile and couldn’t help but speak.
Are you sure?
Xu Bo smiled.
He turned his head and scanned the faces of the two women with different expressions.
“It’s not a question of whether you are sure or not.”
There was a hint of indifference in his smile, as if he was looking down on all living beings.
“It’s time for them to pay the price for their arrogance.”
This powerful self-confidence, like a warm current, instantly dispelled the last trace of haze in the hearts of the two.
They didn’t ask any more questions, looked at each other, and immediately turned around to carry out the order.
The entire shelter was operating at high speed in a tense yet orderly atmosphere.
Two hours later.
The earth began to tremble rhythmically.
It was not the chaos of an earthquake, but a heavy, regular heartbeat, as if an ancient giant was walking step by step.
Boom.
On the horizon.
Dozens of huge black silhouettes slowly emerged from the dim light of dawn.
They were like steel giants crawling out of hell, and every step they took made the earth groan in pain.
The black muzzle of the gun flashed with a cold and dangerous metallic luster in the dim morning light.
An amplified voice filled with endless anger and majesty, like a decree from God, came from the loudspeaker drone in the sky and resounded through the clouds.
“Ants on the ground!”
“Kneel down, or…”
“Turn to ashes!”
That was the voice of City Lord Morgan.
Amidst the dead silence, the steel door of the shelter made a creaking sound and slowly opened.
A solitary figure, alone.
Walked out from the door.
He faced the steel army that could flatten everything, and the cannon that could melt steel.
Step by step, towards the wilderness.
Chapter 20: Alone on the battlefield, chanting divine punishment (old version)
Dozens of heavy-duty machines, each twelve meters high, were lined up in front of the shelter like a silent mountain range of steel.
Their cold metal armor reflected a cold, deathly luster under the thin sunlight of doomsday.
The leading model was a “Punisher” with a heavy stereoscopic sound. A burst of electric roar came from the loudspeaker on its chest. Then, the majestic and angry voice of Lord Morgan, which had been processed, came down like a decree from the gods.
“Xu Bo, this is your last chance.”
“Hand over the source of your power and kneel before the lighthouse’s flag. Perhaps I will mercifully spare your life and make you the lighthouse’s most precious exhibit.”
The voice was full of condescending charity.
Inside the underground command room deep in the shelter, the atmosphere was so oppressive that it felt like water could be squeezed out of it.
All the survivors’ representatives stared intently at the secret surveillance footage transmitted back from the central screen.
The figure standing alone in front of the steel torrent looked so small that it seemed like it would be crushed at any time.
Lin Wei clenched her hands tightly together, her nails digging deep into her flesh, but she was unaware.
Bai Yuekui, who was standing next to her, had eyes that were always calm, but now there were violent waves in his eyes.
Her fingers tapped unconsciously on the console in front of her, and every tap revealed her extreme inner restlessness.
No one knew better than her how terrifying the war machine named “Punisher” was.
That’s not used to deal with the Extreme Beast, it’s used to destroy the city.
Xu Bo, how should we face…
On the battlefield.
Facing the torrent of steel that was enough to bring down any army, Xu Bo simply raised his head calmly.
He didn’t even look at the ferocious gun muzzles. His gaze seemed to penetrate the heavy armor and fall directly on the man sitting on the throne in the distant lighthouse.
The corners of his mouth rose slightly with a hint of mockery.
“Are you done with your nonsense?”
A casual remark, through the vibration of the air, was clearly transmitted to the heavy-duty stereo in front of the leader.
Morgan’s instantly ignited, furious breathing could be heard over the loudspeaker.
Arrogant!!
“Since you choose death, I will grant your wish!”
“Heavy Three-Dimensional Legion, target, Xu Bo!”
The moment the order was given.
The dead silence was broken.
All the heavy three-dimensional gun muzzles lit up with dazzling energy halos at the same time, emitting a buzzing sound like the shrieks of thousands of evil spirits.
Dozens of highly compressed energy beams named “Divine Punishment”, mixed with thousands of solid armor-piercing bullets that tear through the air, intertwined into an airtight, deadly barrage with no blind spots.
The light instantly illuminated the entire scorched earth as if it were daytime.
The sound was so powerful that it seemed as if it would collapse the sky.
Inside the underground command room, everyone subconsciously took a half step back, the glaring light casting a pale shadow on everyone’s face. Lin Wei let out a stifled cry and abruptly closed her eyes, unable to bear the sight of the bloody, messy end.
However, the expected earth-shattering crash did not come.
On the contrary, the world fell into an eerie, ear-piercing silence.
“What’s wrong…” Bai Yuekui, who was standing next to Lin Wei, suddenly narrowed his eyes, which were always calm, and stared at the screen intently, with a slight tremor in his voice that he himself had not noticed.
Lin Wei opened her eyes in shock at the sudden silence and Bai Yuekui’s reaction.
The images on the screen are enough to subvert anyone’s cognition.
Xu Bo’s figure did not move at all.
He just slowly raised his right hand, put his index finger and middle finger together, and pointed to the sky.
He began to chant.
The sound was not loud, but it had an unreasonable penetrating power, as if it was not transmitted through the air, but sounded directly in everyone’s mind and deep in everyone’s soul, clearly covering up all the aftereffects of the artillery fire.
“It exudes a turbid heraldry and an unruly and mad aura.”
As the first syllable was uttered, the space around him, centered on him, was like the surface of water with a stone thrown into it, spreading out circles of transparent ripples visible to the naked eye.
The energy beams powerful enough to melt steel, the armor-piercing rounds capable of tearing through the ground, seemed to sink into an invisible quagmire the moment they touched the ripples, their speed suddenly dropping from extreme speed to extreme slowness. They hovered in mid-air, the warheads and the tips of the beams less than a meter from Xu Bo’s body, unable to advance any further.
Inside the Punisher’s body, City Lord Morgan’s pupils trembled. On all the tactical screens before him, an indecipherable black data area suddenly appeared around the red dot representing Xu Bo, and all ballistic tracking became invalid garbled text.
“Interference? Is it some kind of energy field?!” He roared into the communication channel, “Suppressive fire! Don’t stop! Blast him into ash!”
However, Xu Bo’s chanting continued, neither fast nor slow, with a rhythm that declared the laws of the world.
“Emergence, paralysis, flickering, hindered crawling.”
The thousands of bullets suspended in the air began to vibrate violently, their metal coatings peeling off inch by inch, turning into iron sand. The highly compressed energy beams were forcibly twisted and refracted, transforming into countless brilliant yet harmless rainbows, reflecting his calm, almost indifferent face.
“Iron Princess, a clay doll that constantly harms itself.”
The moment the words fell, Morgan’s Punisher re-emerged, emitting a teeth-grinding metallic groan. Alarms blared in the cockpit, and a red warning sign dominated the main screen: “Structural stress exceeds critical value! Warning! Structural stress exceeds critical value!”
Morgan was horrified to find that the heavy, three-dimensional steel arm was defying his control and was slowly twisting inward inch by inch, as if it wanted to hug and crush him.
“Combining, rebounding, extending to the ground.”
“Know your own powerlessness!”
The final announcement was made.
Xu Bo’s voice suddenly became cold and indifferent, as if a god was reading out the final judgment.
” The Ninetyth Chapter of the Broken Path: Black Coffin!”
The moment the last syllable falls.
Heaven and earth have lost their voice.
A huge coffin, so huge that it was beyond everyone’s imagination, made of pure dark energy that seemed to be able to swallow all light, descended from the distorted sky without any warning.
It is completely black, and its surface is covered with cross patterns. It exudes an ancient, dead, and terrifying aura filled with absolute gravity.
It just hovered above Xu Bo’s head, completely covering him.
The impenetrable barrage of death that was powerful enough to destroy a city was like a star falling into a black hole the moment it touched the black outer wall of the black coffin.
There was no explosion.
No sound.
There wasn’t even a trace of energy ripples.
All the light beams and all the warheads were silently swallowed, decomposed and annihilated by the deep darkness.
As if they never existed.
The entire battlefield fell into a strange and maddening silence.
Only the huge black coffin was slowly rotating.
The black coffin did not stop.
After swallowing all the attacks, it slowly and heavily pressed down in an unstoppable and irresistible posture.
There is no earth-shattering momentum, only an absolute heaviness that crushes the laws.
It enveloped the dozens of invincible heavy three-dimensional legions that represented the lighthouse’s highest military power, along with the trembling earth beneath their feet.
In the underground command room, everyone, including Bai Yuekui, opened their mouths wide and their pupils shrank to the size of needle points.
on the screen.
All that remains is a pure, soul-stirring scene.
Pitch black.
Chapter 21: The Black Coffin Suppresses the World, the Lighthouse Loses Its Voice (Old Version)
The concept of time seems to be taken away at this moment.
The huge black coffin descended completely in a manner that violated the laws of physics.
It swallowed up the heavy three-dimensional army that represented the lighthouse’s highest military force, along with the trembling earth beneath their feet.
There was no expected huge explosion.
There wasn’t even a sound of metal being twisted or crushed.
The whole world fell into an absolute, soul-freezing silence.
In that area, light was swallowed up, sound was erased, and all existence was dragged into nothingness.
At the same time, a lighthouse hangs high in the sky.
The atmosphere in the command hall was completely different from that on the ground.
The place is filled with an almost fanatical confidence brought about by the impending victory.
Lord Morgan sat on his throne with a cruel and satisfied smile on his face.
The huge light screen in front of him was divided into dozens of perspectives, broadcasting the situation on the ground battlefield in real time.
He had even thought about how to give a victory speech that would demonstrate the majesty of the lighthouse after confirming that Xu Bo had turned to ashes.
“Report to the City Lord, the target’s energy reaction is…”
A technical officer was about to report when his voice suddenly stopped.
Because all the data streams in front of him turned into unparseable garbled code at the same moment.
Sizzle
Amid the piercing sound of electricity, all the monitoring screens in the command hall, regardless of their primary or secondary status, turned into chaotic snowflakes at the same moment.
The previous second was still clear artillery fire and barrage.
The next second, only black and white noise were left jumping wildly.
“What’s going on?!”
Morgan’s smile froze on his face and he suddenly stood up from his throne.
“Restore the image! Now!”
“City Lord, no! We… all contact with the ground forces has been cut off!”
The technical officer’s voice trembled uncontrollably.
“Tactical map!”
Morgan’s eyes suddenly turned to the huge three-dimensional tactical map on the side.
On it, dozens of green light spots representing each heavy three-dimensional machine were still flashing.
That is the last hope.
However, as he watched.
A green light dot at the very edge of the map suddenly went out without any warning.
It turned gray, representing death.
Then, the second one.
The third one.
It was as if they were being strangled one by one by an invisible big hand.
puff.
The sound was not loud, but it was like a heavy hammer, hitting the heart of everyone in the command hall.
The arrogance and confidence on the faces of those senior officials who call themselves the lighthouse elites are rapidly fading, and are being replaced by a gradually spreading confusion and uneasiness.
Less than three seconds.
On the tactical map, all the green spots representing the heavy three-dimensional legions were extinguished.
A dead grey silence.
It was as if that mighty iron army had never set out.
There was deathly silence in the hall.
You can hear a pin drop.
“Where’s the backup… backup unmanned reconnaissance aircraft?”
Jingnan’s voice broke the silence. Her voice was still calm, but if you listened carefully, you could detect a very subtle, uncertain tremor.
An officer woke up as if from a dream, his fingers operating rapidly on the console.
“Found it! The backup-? reconnaissance plane is still high in the air! It’s sending back images!”
On the main screen in the center of the hall, the snowflakes disappeared.
A bird’s-eye view from ten thousand meters above the ground was clearly presented to everyone.
The moment the picture appears.
In the entire command hall, all the senior executives of the lighthouse, including the calm and rational Jingnan, everyone’s breathing stopped at this moment.
They saw it.
I saw the huge black pit on the ground, which looked like a devil’s mouth.
The edge of the pit was as smooth as if it had been polished by a mirror, and it was bottomless, as if it led directly to hell.
The so-called heavy three-dimensional legion.
Those dozens of war machines that made them proud.
Not even a palm-sized piece of metal debris was left.
There wasn’t even a trace of smoke left after the explosion.
They were completely wiped out from this world and from the laws of reality.
In the picture, a figure stood quietly at the edge of the deep pit.
Tiny, yet too huge to look directly at.
The figure slowly raised his head, his gaze seemed to penetrate the ten thousand meters high sky, penetrate the cold lens, and look at everyone in the command hall.
“ah “
A meaningless groan that was not human sounded from Lord Morgan’s throat.
The color on his face instantly drained away, turning as pale as paper.
In those eyes that were once filled with majesty and anger, there was now only pure, incomprehensible fear from the deepest part of the soul.
His body went limp.
It was as if all the bones in his body were pulled out, and he slid down powerlessly from his throne that symbolized absolute power.
With a “bang”, he fell heavily to the ground.
His lips trembled and he wanted to say something, but no word came out. Only his teeth were chattering uncontrollably.
This king of lighthouses, this dictator of doomsday, has completely lost his voice.
But in Xu Bo’s mind, another voice sounded.
[It was detected that the host annihilated the main force of the Lighthouse Legion, completely subverting its worldview and power structure, causing irreparable mental shock.][Soul Power Points Obtained: 300 Points! ][Current total soul power points: 330 points.]The exhausted resources were instantly replenished far beyond expectations.
This huge amount of soul power points gave him more and stronger confidence.
Across the deep pit, in the underground command room of the shelter.
The survivors also saw this scene of divine punishment through the secret surveillance footage.
After more than ten seconds of silence.
I don’t know who was the first to let out a suppressed sob.
The sobbing sound instantly ignited everyone’s emotions.
“Win…”
“We…won!”
Oooooohh …
Earth-shaking cheers as surging as a tsunami erupted from deep underground, almost blowing the entire roof of the shelter off.
People hugged, cried, and laughed wildly.
Over and over again, they shouted that god-like name with all their strength.
“Xu Bo!!”
God!!
The fanatical belief reached an unprecedented peak at this moment.
Xu Bo ignored the cheers behind him.
He just stood quietly at the edge of the huge pit, feeling the wind blowing across the wasteland.
The offensive and defensive momentum was completely reversed the moment the black coffin fell and the huge pit appeared.
He turned around and looked at Bai Yuekui and Lin Wei who were walking out of the shelter.
Lin Wei’s eyes were filled with tears of excitement and admiration.
And on Bai Yuekui’s face, which had been frozen for thousands of years, there was a mixture of shock, confusion, and a hint of relief that she herself had not even noticed…
Xu Bo’s eyes swept over them and finally looked up at the sky.
His eyes were calm, as if he was talking about something very ordinary.
“Get ready.”
“It’s time for us to ‘visit’ the lighthouse.”
Chapter 22: Echoes from the Abyss (Old Version)
The wind at the edge of the deep pit carried a burnt smell mixed with sulfur and nothingness.
The corners of Xu Bo’s clothes were rustling in the wind, but he did not return to the shelter immediately.
He stretched out his hand, pointing his palm towards the center of the mirror-smooth giant pit.
There, a trace of energy weaker than dust is escaping, which is completely invisible to the naked eye.
This is a trace of remaining consciousness that was not completely erased by the laws after the “Black Coffin” crushed the heavy solid.
[Ding! Absorbable “residual soul” energy detected.]The system prompt sounded in my mind.
[Option 1: Absorb. Soul Points Received: 0.1.][Option 2: Analysis. You can obtain the memory fragments of the last three seconds before his death.]Xu Bo chose the latter without hesitation.
He needed a messenger, one who could strike fear directly into the heart of the Lighthouse.
Underground shelter, inside the command room.
Lin Wei’s face was filled with ecstasy of surviving the disaster. She was loudly organizing the survivors and preparing an unprecedented celebration party.
“Don’t move.”
Bai Yuekui’s cold voice sounded, like a basin of ice water poured into a boiling oil pan.
She stopped the cheering crowd.
“Although the lighthouse’s communications have been cut off, their high-altitude monitoring systems are spread all over the ground.”
“The victory scenes we see at this moment may have been captured by their backup reconnaissance aircraft.”
Bai Yuekui’s gaze swept over everyone, terrifyingly calm.
“Extreme fear will soon turn into revenge even more frantic than before.”
She had just finished speaking.
Sizzle…
The crude communication device in the corner suddenly rang.
That was not the public channel signal usually used by the lighthouse, but a private communication request that had gone through several layers of encryption.
Everyone’s eyes were instantly focused on the past.
Lin Wei looked at Xu Bo, who just nodded slightly, indicating that she should answer the call.
The screen flickered a few times, and a woman’s face, calm to the point of being indifferent, appeared.
She wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and had an intellectual temperament. She was none other than the chief scientist of the Lighthouse, Jingnan.
She skipped all the meaningless greetings and fixed her eyes precisely on Xu Bo in the picture.
“Mr. Xu Bo, on behalf of the ‘rationalists’ within the Lighthouse, I request a dialogue with you.”
“Morgan has gone crazy.”
This opening statement exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Jingnan did not issue any condemnation or threats, but instead directly proposed a deal.
“I can provide you with some of the backdoor codes for the Lighthouse Central Defense System.”
“The condition is that after you breach the lighthouse, you must ensure the integrity of the scientific research department and pardon all non-combatants.”
This sentence, like a heavy bomb, exploded in the command room.
It clearly reveals a fact: the interior of the lighthouse has been divided to the point of tension.
At the same time, in the lighthouse high in the sky, in the command hall.
Lord Morgan struggled to get up from the cold floor.
The fear on his face had disappeared, replaced by a sick, twisted hideousness.
“Activate the ‘Dust People Screening’ protocol!”
His voice was hoarse and sharp, echoing in the hall.
“Find all… all the Dustmen who just showed awe towards that monster, or wavered in their belief in the Lighthouse’s rule!”
“Put them in the ‘reincubation chamber’!”
In the dusty area of the lighthouse, the atmosphere was as depressing as the sea before a storm.
Ran Bing, the adjutant of the Wasteland Hunters team, was trying hard to calm the restless crowd.
She also witnessed with her own eyes the entire process of the iron army disappearing on the light screen like an illusion, and the shock she felt was no less than anyone else.
Just then, a team of fully armed guards rushed in, their weapons flashing with cold arcs of electricity.
They roughly pushed through the crowd and began arresting the Dust People who were whispering in the commotion.
“stop!”
Ran Bing stood in front of the guards out of instinct to protect his companions.
Conflict is imminent.
On the ground, next to the huge pit.
Xu Bo’s fingertips had already analyzed the driver’s last memory.
He packaged a desperate scene of being swallowed by endless darkness, along with a cold recording of Morgan giving the “fire” order through the public channel, into a data file.
He raised his eyes and looked at Jingnan who was waiting calmly on the screen.
“Conversation is fine.”
“But before that, I want to give a ‘gift’ to all the citizens of Lighthouse.”
Xu Bo’s fingertips lightly tapped the air.
The data packet carrying despair and truth passed through the encrypted channel quietly opened by Jingnan, and like an invisible arrow, it instantly pierced the lighthouse’s huge public broadcasting system.
Inside the lighthouse, whether it is the bright and clean private lounge in the upper residential area, or the dark and damp recycling workshop in the dusty residential area.
Whether it is the flashing life monitor in the medical clinic or the roaring energy console in the power room.
All zones, all screens, all speakers.
At the same time, it was forcibly taken over by a brutal signal.
The harsh electrical noise lasted only half a second.
Then, a desperate echo from the abyss began to play mercilessly in every corner of the lighthouse.
That was the final scene from the pilot’s first-person perspective his vision was instantly swallowed by an incomprehensible darkness, and everything he saw, including his own cockpit, silently distorted, disintegrated, and finally annihilated. It was a pure nothingness beyond death.
The screen disappears and falls into pure black.
Then, a voice that was extremely familiar to all citizens of Lighthouse sounded coldly and ruthlessly, without the slightest hesitation.
“Fire! Blast him into powder!”
Lord Morgan’s execution order, which was a little sharp due to anger, coupled with the extremely desperate scene of destruction, formed an absurd and terrifying picture.
This sound, like an incurable plague, spread wildly in the lighthouse’s nervous system.
Dust dwelling area.
The captain of the guards, who had just led his team in and was about to attack Ran Bing, froze with his stun baton raised high. He turned in disbelief, watching the content displayed on the old screen on the wall. Then he looked down at the weapon in his hand, which represented the will of the city lord. For a moment, he didn’t know who to point at.
The guards behind him exchanged glances, their ferocious auras instantly extinguished. The Dustmen they surrounded, initially cowering in fear, now slowly raised their heads, their eyes a mixture of terror, bewilderment, and a hint of unprecedented… contempt.
In Charles’s private office in the Upper Min District.
He was reclining comfortably on the sofa, enjoying a trembling massage from a Dustman girl. The lazy smile on his face froze the moment he heard Morgan’s voice. He sat up abruptly, accidentally spilling the red wine beside him, staining the pristine white carpet with crimson liquid. The Dustman girl paused, not looking at the panicked Charles, but at the screen. For the first time, a complex light shone in her previously empty eyes.
Command hall.
City Lord Morgan felt as if he was struck on the top of his head by an invisible lightning bolt.
He stared intently at the main screen, his face twisted in anger, as he listened to the utterly foolish order he had issued replay throughout the entire lighthouse. The hall was deathly silent, and the gazes of his subordinates were like tiny needles piercing his back. The “Dust People Screening” protocol he had just issued now sounded like a complete joke.
On the communication screen, the corners of Jingnan’s mouth, which had remained unchanged for thousands of years like an icy face, seemed to twitch imperceptibly, so quickly that it seemed like an illusion.
Xu Bo in front of her just watched it all calmly.
“Now,” Xu Bo’s voice came clearly to Jingnan’s ears through the private channel, “we can have a good talk.”
At this moment, the entire lighthouse fell into a strange and unprecedented silence.
Beneath this dead silence, panic and doubt are growing wildly and are about to erupt completely.
Chapter 23: Cracks Beneath the Throne (Old Version)
Lighthouse, Shangmin District.
The scarlet liquid in the crystal glass was drawing graceful arcs on the wall of the glass as it vibrated slightly.
Charles didn’t like the vibration; it ruined the elegance of the wine.
But today, the vibrations came from his own hands.
On the public screen, the abyssal darkness and the hysterical roar of Lord Morgan were looping endlessly like the worst quality record that had gotten stuck.
Fear is a very specific feeling.
It made the top-quality red wine that Charles was so proud of taste like blood mixed with rust.
For the first time, he realized so clearly that the steel city floating ten thousand meters above his feet was not indestructible.
The man whom the city lord scornfully called “ground worm” has the power to reset everything.
An atmosphere of panic quietly spread in the luxurious rooms of Shangmin District.
On the other side of the lighthouse, the Dust Dwelling District was in complete chaos.
Morgan’s voice was like the loudest slap in the face, slapping every Dustman hard in the face.
They finally understood.
On the city lord’s chessboard, the wasteland hunters are chess pieces, the heavy dimensional beings are chess pieces, and these dust people are not even qualified to be chess pieces. They are just fuel that can be sacrificed at any time.
The crowd began to stir, their suppressed anger ignited.
For the first time, the smell of resistance filled the rusty air.
In the command hall, Morgan’s roar was more real than the recording on the public channel, and it sounded more helpless and furious.
“Turn it off! I order you to turn it off immediately!”
A technical officer was sweating profusely, typing rapidly on the console, but only lines of bright red “Permission Denied” popped up on the screen.
“City Lord…our system…has been completely taken over by the other party.”
His voice was shaking like a sieve.
Jingnan stood in the corner of the hall, with shadow covering half of her face.
She calmly pushed her gold-rimmed glasses up her nose, the lenses reflecting Morgan’s distorted face on the main screen.
In an unnoticed corner, on the screen of her personal terminal, a map of the riot area inside the lighthouse was being updated in real time.
Red dots light up on the map, representing conflicts that have broken out.
With a tap of her fingertips, she silently sent out the map that marked the weakest points in the defense.
Heavy footsteps echoed in the cold metal corridor.
Ran Bing’s hands were tied behind her back with electromagnetic shackles. She staggered forward as two guards roughly pushed her forward.
Escorted along with her were a dozen or so Dust People who had been forcibly arrested because of the riot just now.
Their final destination is the “return to the breeding cabin”.
A device that sounds hopeful but actually stands for “waste recycling”.
The screen on the corridor wall was also playing the desperate video.
Ran Bing saw and heard it.
She suddenly remembered the doubts that Captain Mark had whispered to her more than once when he was still there.
“Ran Bing, have you ever thought about whether the laws of the lighthouse are really meant to protect us?”
At that moment, a despair deeper than death gripped her heart.
But then, from the ashes of despair, something broke through.
She no longer struggled or begged, but just walked silently, but her eyes became unusually bright.
Just as the team reached a corner, a captain of the guards escorting her suddenly staggered, as if his feet were unstable, and leaned towards her.
To others, this was just a trivial accident.
But Ran Bing clearly felt that a hard object was quietly stuffed into the palm of her hand.
It was a high-energy nutrition bar.
Then, an almost inaudible sound entered her ears.
Ran Bing looked up suddenly and saw the profile of the guard captain.
She recognized him. He was a retired member of the old Wasteland Hunter Team. He was once rescued from the mouth of the Extreme Beast by Captain Mark during a mission.
He didn’t look at her, but continued walking forward without looking around, as if nothing had happened.
This guard, like a deeply buried spark, lit a faint light within the seemingly impenetrable iron wall of the lighthouse.
Ground level, Dawn Town Shelter.
Bai Yuekui’s team member, a burly man named “Shan” who was as tall as an iron tower, was pacing back and forth anxiously.
“Mr. Xu Bo! Now is the perfect time! We should attack immediately and take advantage of their internal strife to destroy the lighthouse in one fell swoop!”
His voice was loud and clear, filled with an eagerness to fight.
Xu Bo just shook his head and looked calmly at the real-time riot map sent by Jingnan on the communication screen.
“If we attack now, Morgan can use us as an external threat to force internal integration and transfer all conflicts to us.”
He raised his head and looked at Bai Yuekui.
“What I want is not to break down a crumbling fortress.”
“Instead, we will receive a complete city with a loyal population.”
A strange light flashed in Bai Yuekui’s eyes.
She stopped Shan who was about to say something else.
“What we are witnessing may not be a conquest.”
Her voice was soft, but it silenced all the team members around her.
“It’s the birth of a… new order. Watch.”
Xu Bo’s consciousness sank into the system.
[Ding! Consume 100 soul points to exchange for auxiliary ability: Spirit Infiltration.]An invisible energy spread from his fingertips.
This ability allows him to attach his spiritual power to any data signal, allowing him to conduct invisible reconnaissance and interference.
He ignored the red dots on the map and sent a second message to Jingnan.
“I need the precise location of all the ‘reincubation chambers’ on the lighthouse, as well as their real-time operating status.”
Jingnan, who was on the other end of the line, showed obvious confusion for the first time on his icy face that had remained unchanged for thousands of years.
She had no idea why this man would care about the recycling devices used to deal with “waste people”.
But she didn’t ask, she just quickly retrieved the data and sent it over.
A brand new signal with his spirit particle attached to it followed the encrypted channel, like a fish swimming upstream, and silently penetrated into the lighthouse’s public system again.
Inside the lighthouse.
The suffocating dark images on all the screens and Morgan’s roar suddenly disappeared.
Instead, a completely different picture emerged.
Under the bright lights, people sat together and distributed steaming hot food.
Several children were chasing and playing in the open space, their laughter so clear that it didn’t seem like the sound of the end of the world.
The scene is warm and peaceful, reflecting daily life in the Dawn Town Shelter.
No blood, no oppression.
Finally, the picture freezes.
A simple line of text appeared in the center of all screens, imprinted in the eyes of every citizen of Lighthouse.
“There are no dust people here.”
Chapter 24 The Balance of Human Heart (Old Version)
The scene on the screen had an almost devastating impact on the faith of the Dust People District of the Lighthouse.
It was not a sword, nor a gun.
Instead, it was a bowl of steaming food and a child’s bright and cheerful smile.
In the picture, there is neither the indifferent looking down of the superiors nor the humble cowering of the common people.
On people’s faces was an expression they had long forgotten, or had never even had.
equality.
This was more majestic than any harsh admonition from Lord Morgan.
This is more valuable than any supplies brought back by the scavengers.
This is more provocative than the terrifying scene of the “black coffin” crushing the heavy three-dimensional army.
In the command hall, City Lord Morgan stared at the screen, and saw a smile on the face of the man distributing food.
He suddenly felt a fear even greater than when he faced the “black coffin”.
Force can only destroy the shell of a lighthouse.
But hope can destroy the soul of a lighthouse.
“Cut it off!”
Morgan screamed hoarsely, veins popping out on his face.
“Physically cut off the power supply to all public areas!”
Several technical officers scrambled towards the energy control console. Amidst a flurry of sparks and burning smells, the screens on the walls of the Dust Dwelling Area finally dimmed one by one.
But it was too late.
That warm picture, like a seed blown by the wind, has fallen into the cracked hearts of every earthly person.
Darkness can no longer cover it.
Inside the Dawn Town Shelter, the communicator made a slight beeping sound.
Jingnan sent over an encrypted file.
“This is the structural diagram and real-time monitoring authority for all the ‘reincubation chambers’ in the lighthouse.”
Her voice was still so calm and without any emotion.
“According to the saying inside the lighthouse, the re-incubation chamber is where the dust people who have lost their survival value are processed and the ‘biomass energy cycle’ is carried out.”
“I personally advise you not to try to interfere.”
“Once the hatch is closed and the final sequence is initiated, the high-energy particle flow within the cabin will disintegrate any organic matter. The phrase ‘nearly death’ is overly optimistic when used here.”
Inside the cold metal cabin, the air was filled with a pungent smell of disinfectant mixed with metal.
Ran Bing felt that his strength was being drained away bit by bit.
Countless thin transparent tubes were attached to her skin like living things. Beneath the cold touch was the empty feeling of her vitality constantly slipping away.
She was still struggling to hold on thanks to her physical strength as a scavenger that far exceeded that of an ordinary person.
Beside her, a little girl of only seven or eight years old was curled up in a ball, shaking constantly due to fear and weakness.
“Don’t be afraid…”
Ran Bing used all his strength to move his body and shield the little girl behind him, using his already icy body temperature to isolate her from the chill of the cabin wall.
Xu Bo received the document.
The moment his fingertips touched the screen, the ability of [Spirit Penetration] was activated.
His consciousness seemed to turn into an invisible electric current, instantly sweeping across every red dot marked on the lighthouse.
He “saw” it.
Saw those cold, coffin-like cabins.
I saw faces inside that were distorted by despair.
I also saw Ran Bing protecting a child with his back in one of the cabins.
There was no despair in her eyes, only a kind of almost burning stubbornness.
The system’s prompt sounded coldly in my mind.
[Detected that the energy extraction rate in the target area is increasing. ][Morgan City Lord has initiated the final purification process. It is estimated that after 29 minutes and 47 seconds, all life forms in the re-incubation chamber will be exhausted due to vitality, resulting in irreversible brain death and completely converted into biomass energy.]Morgan wants to squeeze every last bit of value out of these dust people, whom he regards as “rebels.”
Bai Yuekui looked at Xu Bo, and her intuition told her that this man was about to take action.
Shan and other team members also gripped their weapons tightly, waiting for the order for the general attack.
However, Xu Bo’s next move plunged everyone present, including Jingnan on the other end of the communication, into incomprehensible confusion.
He did not gather any troops.
He didn’t even look in the direction of the lighthouse.
He was alone, turned and walked out of the shelter, heading towards the long-abandoned, huge lifting platform base just below the lighthouse.
Bai Yuekui’s brows were tightly furrowed for the first time.
That is where the lighthouse’s defenses are the strongest and its structure is the most solid. Trying to break through by force is like hitting a rock with an egg.
Xu Bo didn’t want to break through by force.
He stood in the center of the huge metal base, surrounded by rust and dust left by the years.
He slowly squatted down.
He gently pressed his palm on the cold, rough metal ground.
[Spirit Penetration Reverse Resonance]An invisible and extremely pure spiritual power flowed through his palm and silently injected into the “roots” of the steel giant under his feet.
Lighthouse, energy control center.
The shrill alarm suddenly rang throughout the hall!
“Alert! Alert! Unknown high-energy reaction detected!”
“The energy transmission network… there’s a backflow!”
A technician’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he watched the data stream on the console.
An energy that they had never seen before, could not identify, and was pure to the point of perfection, was flowing upstream from the energy pipeline at the bottom of the lighthouse!
“Quick! Activate overload protection! Cut off the bottom line!”
“No! That energy…it didn’t destroy our system!”
Another technical officer let out a scream of astonishment.
“It…it’s optimizing our energy grid! Oh my god…the transmission efficiency…is improving!”
This energy from the abyss, like the most brilliant engineer, is combing the lighthouse’s huge and bloated energy pipelines in an incredible way, making the flow of every bit of energy smoother.
As Xu Bo continued to inject spiritual power, the machines inside the “regeneration chambers” that were frantically draining vitality made a harsh stuttering sound.
The scarlet warning lights flashed wildly a few times, and then… all went out.
The energy extraction process was forcibly interrupted by an irresistible higher authority.
Immediately afterwards, a weak but warm energy flowed back into the bodies of everyone in the cabin along the pipes.
Ran Bing, who was struggling to hold on, suddenly felt the fatal pressure on his body suddenly relieved.
A faint warm current came from the cold tubes, dispelling the numbness in her limbs.
The little girl behind her also stopped trembling and uttered an unconscious, comfortable murmur.
Ran Bing raised his head blankly and looked at the cold cabin wall, as if he wanted to see through it and see the unknown source.
Right now.
A calm voice without any emotion bypassed all public channels and passed through the lighthouse’s core internal communication system. It was clearly heard in every guard’s tactical helmet, next to every senior executive’s private terminal, and through the loudspeakers in every control room.
“I am coming.”
Chapter 25: Enemy at the Gate, Sakura Formation (Old Version)
That voice was calm without a trace of ripples, but it was like an invisible probe that accurately pierced the nerve center of the lighthouse’s highest command system.
In the command hall, City Lord Morgan suddenly jumped up from the throne, his face distorted by anger, and finally found a focus for venting.
He stared at a rapidly enlarging red dot on the main screen. It was the precise coordinates of the lifting platform base below the lighthouse.
“There he is!”
Morgan’s voice was as sharp as the friction of rusted metal.
“He’s right under our feet!”
The ecstasy of a prey walking into a trap on its own initiative instantly overwhelmed all the previous fear and humiliation.
He grinned, stretched out his trembling hand, and slammed it hard on a bright red control button covered with warning signs.
“Activate the final defense protocol – Crown of Thorns!”
A low roar came from the deepest part of the lighthouse, and the entire floating city trembled slightly.
On the cold outer wall of the lighthouse, thousands of hidden energy nodes lit up one by one. The light blue light was like flowing blood, spreading rapidly along the complex metal patterns and interweaving into an airtight energy shield.
The light curtain enveloped the entire lighthouse, emitting a heart-pounding pressure.
Immediately afterwards, dozens of heavy laser turrets located at the bottom of the lighthouse slowly turned their muzzles, aiming the black muzzles at the abandoned platform below.
No warning, no countdown.
There was only pure murderous intent to completely wipe out everything.
The next second, a destructive beam of light tore through the air, carrying a high temperature enough to melt the mountains, and bombarded the area directly towards Xu Bo’s location.
Ground, lifting platform base.
The scorching air blew in his face, causing the corners of Xu Bo’s clothes to dance wildly.
But he didn’t dodge.
Facing the rain of light that was powerful enough to vaporize steel in an instant, he simply raised his hand slowly and grasped the hilt of the Zanpakuto at his waist.
His movements were not fast, even a little slow, as if he was just doing a daily sword-drawing practice.
When the blade was an inch away from the scabbard, an invisible, extremely sharp aura rose into the sky.
High in the sky, the indestructible “Crown of Thorns” energy shield actually produced a visible, water-like ripple.
Xu Bo’s lips opened and closed slightly.
“Scatter, Senbonzakura.”
The moment he finished speaking, the solid blade of the Zanpakuto in his hand completely disintegrated in a dazzling light.
It transformed into billions of tiny blades that were impossible to capture with the naked eye.
Each blade reflected the light of the laser fire, like billions of cherry blossom petals dyed with the color of destruction, forming a gorgeous storm that completely enveloped Xu Bo’s figure.
Inside the Dawn Town Shelter, this thrilling scene was being broadcast live on the screen in the command room.
Lin Wei and the others held their breath, their hearts almost jumping out of their throats.
Bai Yuekui’s pupils shrank to the extreme, and for the first time, an incomprehensible shock appeared in her eyes, which were always calm.
She murmured subconsciously, her voice so soft that only she could hear it.
“It’s not pure power…”
“This is… a technique to use the law itself for one’s own benefit…”
Xu Bo’s mind moved.
The pink torrent composed of billions of cherry blades rose into the sky against the laser fire.
They did not engage in any brutal energy collision with the light column.
Instead, it precisely cuts the energy conduction path inside each laser beam while flying at high speed, with a trajectory that exceeds the precision of computers.
Beams of light that were powerful enough to destroy everything disintegrated and decomposed silently in mid-air, turning into harmless spots of light all over the sky.
The whole process was as magnificent as a festival, yet so deadly that it sent chills down one’s spine.
Lighthouse command hall.
Lord Morgan stared blankly at the gorgeous and terrifying “cherry blossom rain” on the main screen, his brain completely unable to process the information in front of him.
What kind of attack method is that?
The feedback report from the defense system made him go crazy.
All ground attacks were intercepted and decomposed by “unknown high-frequency energy bodies”.
Interception rate, one hundred percent.
Xu Bo ignored the chaos inside the lighthouse.
He raised his head, his eyes penetrating the cherry blossom storm, accurately locking onto several points on the “Crown of Thorns” energy shield.
He had no interest in attacking the lighthouse itself directly.
He controlled the “Senbonzakura” like a highly skilled surgeon controlling the most delicate scalpel.
Billions of cherry blades split into several strands, bypassing the frontal artillery fire and accurately cutting through several key nodes of the energy shield.
The locations of those nodes are hidden and tricky, and they are exactly the “eyes” of the shield marked in the structural diagram sent by Jingnan.
Snap
As the energy flow at several key nodes was instantly cut off, the energy circuit supporting the entire “Crown of Thorns” became fatally disordered.
The huge energy shield flickered violently.
An insignificant energy gap of a few tenths of a second disappeared in a flash.
For any conventional weapon, this brief gap is meaningless.
But for Xu Bo, this was enough.
The cherry blossom storm instantly rolled back and condensed into a complete Zanpakuto, which he casually put back into the sheath.
He raised his left hand, his index finger pointing towards the sky.
Above the fingertips, a barely detectable ray of white light flashed by.
This seemingly harmless binding path accurately passed through the fleeting energy gap.
Its target is not any person or any defensive weapon.
But it is a control valve in the lighthouse’s energy core.
Inside the lighthouse, the power supply to all non-core areas was instantly cut off without any warning.
From the luxurious Upper Citizens lounge to the dim corridors of the Lower Citizens.
From the command hall with flashing alarms to the re-incubator that had just returned to calm.
The light disappeared.
At this moment, the entire lighthouse, which represents the last ray of light of human civilization, fell into a dead silence and pitch-black darkness.
Chapter 26: Dark Lighthouse, Light of Hope (Old Version)
The lighthouse has never been so quiet.
The steel fortress was filled with alarms and artillery fire just a second ago.
The next second, he fell into the abyss of deathly silence and darkness.
This darkness is purer than the deepest midnight on the ground, leaving no trace of a gap.
Panic, like an invisible mold, grows in the darkness and instantly fills the hearts of every citizen.
People who were used to the arc light and the cold order discovered for the first time that losing the light was more terrifying than facing the Extreme Beast.
Screams, cries, and collisions rang out from every corner of the Dust Dwelling District, merging into a chaotic symphony.
In the command hall, the backup power supply lit up with a faint red light, illuminating Morgan’s distorted face like a demon.
He listened to the chaotic reports coming from the communication channel, his breathing as heavy as an old bellows.
Inside the “reincubation cabin”, the brief warmth disappeared completely with the power outage.
The cold and suffocating feeling once again gripped Ran Bing’s throat.
The life support system stopped working.
The oxygen in the cabin was becoming thinner at a rate visible to the naked eye.
The little girl next to him began to twitch again, this time, it was an instinctive reaction to lack of oxygen.
Despair, like cold sea water, began to flood her mouth and nose.
Just when her consciousness was about to blur, the complicated look in the captain’s eyes before he left suddenly flashed through her mind.
Survive.
right.
Survive!
A brutal desire to survive exploded from her almost exhausted body.
Ran Bing used all his strength, turned over suddenly, and slammed his shoulder against the cold metal door.
The dull sound of impact echoed in the small space, making her bones numb.
She didn’t stop.
one time.
Again.
In the most primitive and clumsy way, she roared her battle cry to this life-devouring cage.
Right at this moment.
That calm and cold voice was like an invisible electric current, bypassing all physical barriers and accurately injecting into the lighthouse’s nervous system.
It rang out in every guard’s tactical helmet.
It whispers beside every scavenger’s private terminal.
It echoed in the ears of some of the upper class who still had some conscience.
“Light should be fought for by oneself.”
“Open the cages around you and release the innocent.”
“I will grant you the true light.”
This voice, without any command in its tone, was more intimidating than Morgan’s harshest roar.
It is like a key that inserts into the keyhole called “order” in everyone’s heart, and then turns it gently.
The lock is opened.
The captain of the guards who was escorting a group of Dust People suddenly stopped.
His body was trembling slightly.
An adjutant beside him, a die-hard Morgan fan, noticed something was wrong with him.
“Captain? You…”
Before he finished speaking.
The captain of the guards turned around suddenly, and with a decisive roar, he smashed the high-voltage electric baton in his hand onto the adjutant’s helmet.
There was a dull thud, and the adjutant fell to the ground.
The guards around were all stunned.
The captain did not explain. He strode to the nearest “re-incubation cabin” and, with trembling hands, swiped his authority card.
“Ding Authentication passed.”
The heavy hatch slowly opened with a teeth-grinding friction sound.
The huddled people inside stared blankly at the glaring emergency lights, not knowing what to do.
“come out!”
The captain’s voice was hoarse and firm.
“Everyone, come out!”
His actions were like a stone thrown into a stagnant pond, causing violent ripples.
A young scavenger looked at his companions and their families surrounded by the guards and silently drew the tactical knife from his waist.
A senior citizen in charge of the supply warehouse quietly turned off the alarm system and opened the gate to the Dust People Area.
The spark of resistance was ignited simultaneously on all sides of the lighthouse by Xu Bo with just one sentence, thousands of miles away.
The revolution has begun.
In the command hall, Morgan watched the red dots lighting up on the screen through the backup power supply monitor.
Those red dots represent turmoil, betrayal, and the fact that the foundation of his rule is crumbling inch by inch.
He lost control of the middle and lower-level armed forces.
He was so angry that he was shaking all over, his eyes were bloodshot, like a trapped beast forced into a desperate situation.
He still has one last trump card.
The “City Lord’s Guard” that belongs only to him, and…
Jingnan s scientific research department!
Morgan rushed out of the command hall like crazy, leading his last guards and heading straight towards the scientific research area.
“Jingnan!”
“Activate the ‘Scorched Earth Plan’!”
He wanted to activate the device hidden in the deepest part of the lighthouse, which was powerful enough to detonate the surrounding mana ecosystem and turn the lighthouse and everything on the ground into scorched earth.
Since he can’t get it, let’s destroy it together!
However, when he pushed open the heavy door of the scientific research area, he was greeted by dead silence.
All the instruments were in standby mode, and the core scientific researchers had long disappeared.
Only on the main screen was a line of cold, small words written in standard Song font still lit up.
“The future of the lighthouse is not in the scorched earth.”
Morgan stared at the words blankly, as if all the strength in his body had been drained.
He was completely tricked by that woman.
The other side.
Ran Bing was rescued.
She took a deep breath of the turbid yet free air outside the cabin. After a brief dizziness, she immediately stood firm.
Looking at the surrounding civilians who were still confused after being liberated, and looking at the guards who were at a loss after turning against their side.
Her instinct as a scavenger adjutant was instantly activated.
“Everyone, listen to me!”
Her voice was not loud, but it had an unquestionable penetrating power.
“We need weapons and food!”
“Seize weapons depot number three and take over supply point number seven!”
She demonstrated extraordinary leadership and organizational skills, quickly establishing new order amidst chaos.
She became the undisputed leader of this internal revolution.
Under the lighthouse.
Xu Bo stood quietly on the base of the abandoned lifting platform.
He closed his eyes, as if listening to something.
He could “feel” that drastic changes were taking place inside the steel city suspended in the air.
The forces of resistance are gathering.
The balance of people’s hearts is tilting.
He didn’t rush to attack, he waited.
Wait for the power generated from inside the lighthouse to open the city gate for him.
His goal is being achieved step by step.
Conquer the enemy without fighting.
That is the most brilliant art of conquering a city.
Chapter 27: The New King Ascends the Throne, the Old King Ends (Old Version)
The wave of uprising was faster and more violent than anyone expected.
Under the joint command of Ran Bing and the defected guard captain, the originally scattered Dust People and guards were quickly integrated.
They are no longer a mob.
They are an army fighting for survival, with clear goals and decisive actions.
The weapons depot was breached, the supply point was occupied, and the control of key areas was taken over.
Finally, the torrent rushed to the throat of the lighthouse – the broadcast control room.
The heavy metal door was forced open, and Ran Bing was the first to rush in.
She walked to the cold radio booth and picked up the microphone that had played Morgan’s lectures countless times.
The entire lighthouse’s communication system was activated again after a long period of silence.
This time, what was heard was no longer the roar of the city lord, but a clear yet slightly hoarse female voice.
“I’m Ran Bing, former adjutant of the Wasteland Hunter Squad.”
“From today on, the old order of the lighthouse ends.”
Her voice echoed through every speaker in the dark hallway.
“Morgan, you rule us with lies and fear, treating the Dustmen as fuel and the Highmen as tools.”
“What he calls order is only to satisfy his own selfish desires.”
“And the one who brought the darkness was not the destroyer.”
Ran Bing’s gaze seemed to penetrate through the layers of decks and looked under the lighthouse.
He gave us the choice.
“He is the one who brings the true dawn.”
In the command hall, Morgan and his last “city guards” were defending this last fortress like trapped beasts.
He frantically hammered at the emergency communication console, trying to contact those old-world military outposts hidden in the dust.
“Calling the Ark base! Please answer if you hear me!”
“Calling Eden Three! Requesting backup!”
The only response he got was the eternal, dead static noise of electricity in the communication channel.
He was abandoned by the world.
“boom!”
A huge gap was blown out in the alloy door of the command hall.
Ran Bing led the rebel army and poured in like a tide.
“Protect the city lord!”
The city lord’s guards roared and raised their sophisticated energy weapons. The dazzling blue beams instantly blocked the entrance.
They were Morgan’s last ditch defense, each one undergoing rigorous genetic optimization and tactical training, their heavy armor gleaming with a cold metallic sheen. They were the Lighthouse’s sharpest spears and its strongest shield. The rebels’ offensive was instantly crushed by this deadly line of fire. Several warriors at the forefront had gaping holes burned through their chests, collapsing to the ground without even a scream, their bodies billowing with charred white smoke.
The following rebels were forced to seek cover, and the offensive stalled. The captain of the guards wore a cruel smile, ready to order indiscriminate shooting to completely clear out the “rioters” at the gate.
At this moment, a strange scene happened.
The captain of the guards was about to shout out an order, but it got stuck in his throat. The energy rifle in his hand, which had been emitting a steady blue light from the muzzle, suddenly flickered chaotically without warning, and then, with a “puff”, it went out completely.
He pulled the trigger again in despair, but all he heard in response was a hollow “click”.
“What’s going on?”
He glanced at his teammate and saw that they were all in the same situation. Over a dozen of the Lighthouse’s most advanced weapons had now become mute. One guard impatiently removed and replaced his energy cartridge, with no response. Another even raised his hand and slapped his helmet, as if that would fix the communication problem, then immediately began slamming his rifle, making a dull thud.
The ferocity and confidence on their faces faded, replaced by a comical confusion and fear.
It was as if an invisible hand precisely cut off the energy modules at the core of their weapons.
After a brief silence, Ran Bing’s voice rang out coldly.
Now!
The rebels were stunned for a moment, then erupted in a thunderous roar. They leaped over their fallen comrades, rushed out from behind cover, and swarmed towards the bewildered city guards. The guards, without their weapons, were like toothless tigers, possessing only brute force, but were easily overwhelmed and disarmed by the onslaught of the crowd.
In the command hall, Morgan watched helplessly as his last resort turned into a pile of scrap metal.
The hideous look on his face gradually solidified and stiffened, and finally turned into pure and complete death.
The game is over.
He suddenly laughed, a low, muffled laugh at first, then it grew louder and louder, sharper and sharper, and finally turned into a crazy and shrill howl that echoed in the empty hall. He fumbled from his waist and pulled out an old-fashioned pistol with an old style, pointed the black muzzle at his temple.
“The lighthouse is mine!”
His voice was distorted with excitement, and every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.
“Even if it is destroyed, it can only be done by me…”
He failed to pull the trigger.
He saw the dust suspended in the air before him begin to gather abnormally, swirling and condensing, as if kneaded and woven by an invisible hand. In the blink of an eye, a rope of gray smoke and dust formed out of thin air, wrapped around his arm with lightning speed, and yanked him back violently.
The gun barrel deflected, and his arm was pinned in mid-air, unable to move. The rope was cold and tough, and no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t budge it even a little.
[The fourth way to bind: the gray rope].
Everyone in the hall stopped moving.
They looked towards the source of that power.
At some point, at the broken door of the command hall, a figure with black hair and black eyes was standing there quietly.
He didn’t make any sound, but the moment he appeared, he became the center of the world.
It s it s him!
“Man of the Dawn!”
A thunderous cheer erupted from the rebels, and the sound made the dust fall from the ceiling.
The remaining members of the city lord’s guard looked at the malfunctioning weapons in their hands, then looked at the man, and the blood color on their faces instantly faded.
They threw away their weapons, fell to their knees, and their bodies shook like sieves.
Ran Bing stared blankly at the man who was walking slowly towards her.
Is this… the power of God?
Xu Bo walked through the crowd, ignoring the fanatical or frightened gazes.
He walked straight to the throne.
Looking at Morgan, who was bound by an invisible force, his face full of unwillingness and fear.
He didn’t kill him.
He simply reached out his hand and lightly tapped the armrest of the magnificent throne.
A stream of data was forcibly removed from Morgan’s personal terminal.
“All your permissions will be revoked.”
Xu Bo’s voice was not loud, but it was clearly heard throughout the hall.
“You will be publicly tried in front of all the citizens of Beacon.”
At this moment, the side door of the hall opened.
Jingnan and her scientific research team walked out of the backup experimental area.
She walked quickly to Xu Bo, bowed slightly, and handed him a transparent data board flashing with complex data streams.
Her attitude was unprecedentedly respectful.
“Supreme control of the lighthouse now belongs to you.”
It s a complete technical library and administrative access.
Almost at the moment Xu Bo’s fingers touched the data tablet.
The cold system prompt sound rang out in his mind.
[Congratulations to the host for successfully overthrowing the Lighthouse regime and establishing a new order. You have won the support of the people and your prestige has reached its peak!][Reward Soul Points +10,000! ]?Unlock new function: ‘Soul Resonance’ (Basic)! ?
[Open the auxiliary module: Technical Analysis.][The Lighthouse technology tree has been integrated into the system. You can consume soul points to accelerate analysis, optimization, or research and development of new technologies.]Chapter 28 Judgment Day and the New Order (Old Edition)
For the first time, the central square of the lighthouse accommodated so many people.
The dust people and the upper people, who were once divided by invisible boundaries, are now like mixed-colored sand, crowded in this open land, breathing the same dull air.
Morgan’s majestic portrait was gone from the giant screen, replaced by scenes of cold evidence.
List of those Dustmen who were secretly executed.
Those luxury supplies that were withheld and sent to Shangmin District.
There are also grim recordings of him and Charles discussing “optimizing population.”
The trial platform was built temporarily, but it looked extremely solemn.
Xu Bo sat in the center with the flag of Chenxi Town behind him.
To his left was Jingnan, holding a data pad and with eyes as sharp as a knife.
On his right was Ran Bing, who was wearing the Wasteland Hunter armor and represented all the people who rebelled.
These three people constitute the new power core of Lighthouse.
Morgan was brought forward, his city lord uniform stripped off, leaving only a gray prisoner’s uniform, looking extremely disheveled.
But he didn’t beg for mercy.
“You idiots!”
He stared at the faces on the screen and let out a hoarse roar.
“You think this is a trial?”
This is suicide!
“Without my iron fist, how can the Lighthouse survive in this apocalypse?”
“It was me, Morgan, who gave you the right to linger!”
He suddenly turned to Xu Bo, his eyes burning with the final madness and resentment.
“And you! You monster!”
“You will destroy this place and the last spark of humanity!”
“I’ll be in hell, waiting to see the lighthouse fall!”
Ran Bing’s knuckles turned white from rubbing them in anger, and he was about to open his mouth to refute.
Xu Bo just looked at Morgan calmly, as if he was looking at a stranger who had nothing to do with him.
During the break in the trial, the crowd in the square was whispering and digesting this shocking turn of events.
Ran Bing walked aside alone, looking at the dark crowd below, an unprecedented sense of heaviness pressed on her shoulders.
A figure appeared beside her silently.
“The man who leads the wasteland hunters.”
Xu Bo’s voice was soft, but it reached her ears clearly.
“I saw him in the memory of a guard.”
Ran Bing’s body stiffened almost imperceptibly.
“His name is Mark.”
Xu-Bo continued, as if stating an objective fact.
“He is a hero who deserves respect.”
Those two words, like two red-hot steel needles, pierced into the softest part of Ran Bing’s heart.
She turned her head suddenly and looked at Xu Bo. For the first time, in addition to awe, there was also a hint of unspeakable complex emotions in her eyes.
This man is more than just powerful.
He can see through people’s hearts.
The final verdict was read out by Jingnan indifferently.
“The Tribunal has ruled that former City Lord Morgan is guilty of crimes against humanity, murder, and abuse of power…”
“Sentenced to deprive him of all political rights and citizenship, and to serve in the lowest energy zone of the Lighthouse for life until the end of his life.”
He used his noble hands to serve the “fuel” he once despised the most for the rest of his life.
This verdict is a hundred times more cruel than shooting him to death.
The roar on Morgan’s face froze, and he seemed to have lost all the bones in his body. He collapsed limply to the ground, making unconscious, gurgling sounds from his mouth.
He was dragged away.
An era has come to an end.
Xu Bo stood up and walked to the front of the judgement platform.
“From today on, the system of upper class and lower class people will be abolished in Lighthouse.”
His voice was broadcast to every corner of the lighthouse.
Everyone will receive corresponding resources and status based on their abilities and contributions.
“Here, there is no distinction between high and low.”
“Only citizens of Beacon.”
There was deathly silence in the square.
Immediately afterwards, an old man from the dusty district knelt down tremblingly, tears streaming down his face.
Then, the second, and the third.
Finally, thunderous cheers rose to the sky, almost overturning the dome of the lighthouse.
The huge lifting platform slowly rose for the first time, loaded with hope.
Lin Wei led the first group of residents of Chenxi Town out of the platform.
They looked at the interior of the steel city with curiosity and awe, their eyes flashing with longing for the future.
Two groups of survivors who were struggling in the doomsday officially joined forces on this day.
Lin Wei had almost no rest. With her excellent management skills, she immediately began to assist Jingnan and Ran Bing in carrying out the complex work of population registration and resource reallocation.
The construction of the new home has begun.
Another team of people also boarded the lighthouse.
Bai Yuekui led her team with steady steps.
She didn’t look at the celebrating crowd, but walked straight to Xu Bo.
She didn’t come to surrender.
She came to negotiate.
“You did what I always wanted to do but couldn’t.”
There was a hint of admiration in Bai Yuekui’s eyes that she herself had not noticed.
“Now, I think we can talk about the real trouble with Mana Ecology.”
Night falls.
To celebrate the new life, the Lighthouse held an unprecedented grand banquet.
In the central square, the lights were on, and long tables were filled with food that the people had never seen before.
People are looking for the “god” who brought all this and want to pay him the highest respect.
But they did not find him in the main seat.
In an inconspicuous corner of the banquet, in a makeshift kitchen.
A man dressed in ordinary dustman clothes was turning an iron pot awkwardly.
The simple slices of meat and vegetables in the pot, licked by the flames, exude a long-lost aroma known as “wok qi”.
Jingnan, Ran Bing, and Lin Wei, the three most powerful women in the new order, just stood at the kitchen door, looking at the man’s back, and fell into a collective state of speechlessness.
He conquered the lighthouse, and here he was, making soup for everyone.
This contrast shocked them more than the “black coffin” crushing the heavy three-dimensional army.
“Try it.”
Xu Bo brought out a plate of steaming dishes, even with a hint of embarrassment in his smile.
“Old world home cooking, don’t despise it even if the cooking is not good.”
That kind of affinity instantly disintegrated all the divine aura around him, allowing them to see a living person.
At this moment, the celebratory atmosphere in the lighthouse was instantly shattered by a heart-wrenching alarm.
Beep! Beep! Alarm!
“An unknown high-energy life form has been detected, approaching at high speed!”
The images on all the big screens in the square suddenly changed.
In the dark night sky, a huge silhouette emitting an ominous purple light was hovering not far from the lighthouse.
It was a beast that was even larger than the lighthouse itself. Its appearance was hideous and twisted, and it had never appeared in any records.
And above the monster’s head stood a slender figure.
The gray hair danced wildly in the night wind.
The camera zoomed in and gave him a close-up of his face.
There was a sickly, playful smile on that handsome face.
ASH.
He slowly opened his arms towards the camera of the lighthouse, as if embracing the world that he was about to destroy.
“The celebration ends here.”
He mouthed it silently.
“The game begins now.”
Chapter 29: The King’s Might, Ash’s “Gift” (Old Version)
The celebratory atmosphere froze instantly, as if a basin of ice water was poured over their heads.
The huge screen in the central square became the source of everyone’s nightmare.
In the pitch-black night, a silhouette so huge that it cannot be measured by common sense is quietly suspended.
That was a beast of the extreme.
Its size even surpassed the lighthouse itself, its hideous bone spurs tearing through the night sky, and an ominous purple halo flowed on its twisted carapace, as if the abyss itself had opened its eyes.
His gray hair danced wildly in the night wind, and the camera zoomed in, giving him a face that was so handsome that it was sickly handsome.
There was a playful smile on the corner of his mouth, as if he treated everything as a game.
The suffocating feeling of oppression that came through the cold screen instantly strangled everyone’s throat.
“All sensors, analyze the target immediately!”
Jingnan’s voice rang out in the silent command room, with a slight tremor that she herself was not aware of.
The data stream refreshed frantically on the screen, finally freezing into a set of reports that made her face turn pale instantly.
“The life energy level… is over fifty times that of the strongest known Calyx-class Extreme Devouring Beast!”
“According to the model, none of our weapons can cause effective damage to it!”
These words, like a heavy hammer, shattered the hope that had just ignited in everyone’s heart.
At this moment, a voice bypassed all defense systems and, through an unknown technology, sounded clearly directly in the lighthouse’s broadcasting system.
“Xu Bo.”
It was ASH’s voice, with a touch of elegant, cat-and-mouse playfulness.
“Nice to meet you.”
“This ‘gift’ I bring you is a salute for your coronation as the new king.”
“It’s called ‘Throat of the Abyss’. It was born from the souls of a hundred Lighthouse Dustmen mixed with Mana Cores.”
“How do you like it?”
ASH’s last word echoed throughout the lighthouse through the broadcasting system, the lingering sound lingering in the air.
There was a dead silence in the square for several seconds, as if everyone’s hearing and thinking were frozen by those words.
“…You must be kidding.” Someone in the crowd murmured to himself.
This denial, delivered in a tearful tone, was like a spark thrown into a frying pan.
Panic exploded instantly.
Shrill screams tore through the remains of the celebration, followed by angry roars and the cries of terrified children. As if pushed by invisible hands, the crowd retreated, trampled, and ran away, trying to get away from the screen that brought the doomsday scene, but the screen was everywhere.
Ran Bing stood there, like a nailed statue. Her clenched fists felt a dull pain from the joints being squeezed, and her sharp nails pierced her palms, bringing a clear, sticky pain.
One hundred Dustmen…
Desperate faces flashed before her eyes uncontrollably. The boy who had given her his last sip of nutrient solution in the “reincubator” and smiled, saying he wasn’t hungry. The girl who always whispered stories about life on Earth to her after lights out.
Their souls, along with their names, were wiped from the world, and then… crushed, desecrated, and twisted into part of the monster in the sky.
Her stomach churned, and she bit her lips tightly, the fishy smell of rust filling her mouth.
On the stage, Xu Bo was the center of the storm. He ignored the chaotic crowd below, and ignored Jingnan’s urgent calls through the headset. He simply stood there, facing all the gazes, whether fearful, bewildered, or expectant, calmly gazing at Ash’s handsome yet distorted face on the screen.
The aesthetics aren t very good.
Xu Bo suddenly spoke, his voice quiet, but loud enough for Bai Yuekui beside him to hear clearly. The corners of his mouth even twitched slightly, but it wasn’t a smile, more like a cold, emotionless assessment.
“He wants to see you lose control.” Bai Yuekui’s voice rang out beside him, with a cold, all-knowing air, his gaze fixed on the beast. “To provoke you, to make you reveal your fear and weakness in front of everyone.”
“Then he might be disappointed.” Xu Bo withdrew his gaze, his tone as calm as if he was discussing the weather.
“This is the ‘Son of Mana.'” Bai Yuekui didn’t respond, instead uttering an unfamiliar term, as if stating a cruel law of nature. “It’s a weapon forged from human life essence as its ‘seed,’ forcibly nurtured by the vast Mana ecosystem. It has no thoughts, only the most primitive hatred for all living things.”
She paused, then dropped an even bigger bomb.
“Moreover, it absorbs the energy from the surroundings and continues to grow.”
“He is the direct executor of Mana’s ecological will.”
Her eyes were fixed on the monster on the screen, and her voice was low.
“He wasn’t speaking metaphorically.”
“The core of the Extreme Devouring Beast may really be a twisted human soul.”
“My sword can’t cut it.”
There was a deep sense of powerlessness in the voice of the strongest man on earth.
Xu Bo’s face also became completely gloomy.
ASH’s words confirmed the “first level of truth” that the system had once revealed.
More importantly, ASH possesses the power that he does not understand, which can actively “create” high-level Extreme Beasts.
This is no longer just a doomsday survival story.
This is an unequal war of a higher dimension.
On the screen, the “Throat of the Abyss” slowly opened its huge mouth like the entrance to hell.
A purple beam of light condensed with terrifying mana energy began to converge madly in its mouth.
The light dyed the entire sky an ominous purple.
Its target is directly the energy core of the lighthouse.
Everyone thought that Xu Bo would once again use the devastating “Black Coffin” or the gorgeous and deadly “Senbonzakura” to meet the enemy.
However, he made a move that shocked everyone.
He did not draw his sword.
He simply stretched out his hand and swiped across the highest-authority data pad that belonged to him.
On the outer wall of the lighthouse, the “Crown of Thorns” defense system that had been shattered by Senbonzakura lit up again.
But this time, all the energy was not dispersed into a shield.
Instead, it was forcibly mobilized and madly compressed towards one point.
In the blink of an eye, an extremely solid one-way energy shield that flashed with light blue light appeared right in front of the lighthouse.
He chose not to attack.
He chose the purest defense, concentrating all his strength on one point.
“Buy me ten seconds.”
Xu Bo said to Jingnan and Bai Yuekui beside him.
His voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable weight.
After saying that, he slowly closed his eyes.
The whole person entered a strange state, as if completely isolated from the surrounding world.
His consciousness sank deep into the system.
The new feature that had just been unlocked – [Soul Resonance], was shining with golden light on the panel.
[Do you want to consume 500 soul points to perform primary soul resonance?][Optional resonance target: Former Gotei 13 Captain-in-Chief, Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni.]confirm.
The moment he made his choice.
An indescribable sense of arrogance and majesty, as if dormant for a thousand years, began to awaken within him.
That’s not just a simple increase in strength.
It is a qualitative transformation that occurs from the essence of the soul.
Bai Yuekui, who was standing next to him, suddenly contracted his pupils.
She felt the air become sticky and heavy in an instant.
A shudder that came from the most primitive instinct of life ran up from her spine to the top of her head.
She subconsciously wanted to step back and get away.
It was as if the person in front of him was no longer Xu Bo.
It is an active volcano that is about to erupt and has the power to burn down the entire world.
Chapter 30: Flowing Blade Like Fire, Burning Sky’s Fury (Old Version)
That light was pure destruction.
The purple beam of energy tore through the night sky, like a poisonous needle piercing the sky, and with enough power to judge the entire civilization, it crashed into the lighthouse.
Time seemed to be stretched at this moment.
“boom–!”
There was a loud noise that could not be described in words. It was not an explosion, but the most brutal collision, crushing and tearing between energy.
The light blue one-way shield caved in violently the moment of contact, with spider-web-like cracks appearing on its surface.
The cracks spread wildly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The entire lighthouse groaned in pain under the impact, its metal frame twisted, and the lights in countless cabins flickered wildly, as if they would be completely extinguished in the next second.
In the command room, the red alarm light made Jingnan’s face look blood red.
“All artillery batteries, open fire! Target, ‘Throat of the Abyss’!”
Her voice was distorted as she tried hard to suppress the trembling.
“Repeat, all firepower units, open fire!”
All the surviving gun barrels on the lighthouse, whether kinetic weapons or energy weapons, turned around and poured out their final fury towards the huge demon in the sky.
The beams and projectiles formed a sparse metal storm, crashing into the giant beast’s shell in vain.
No sparks.
Those attacks were like pebbles thrown into a black hole, easily swallowed by the ominous purple halo without even causing a ripple.
Despair, like a plague, spreads in everyone’s heart.
Outside the lighthouse, four figures jumped down from mid-air like arrows from a bow.
It s Bai Yuekui and her team.
Their figures shuttled at high speed among the complex building wreckage, and the gas ejected from the three-dimensional maneuvering device drew white trails behind them.
Bai Yuekui’s target was an exposed, joint-like structure in the “Throat of the Abyss”.
The long sword in her hand drew a cold arc in the air and slashed towards the target accurately.
However, the moment the blade collided with the shell, only a sharp scream was heard, and a string of insignificant sparks were splashed.
A huge recoil force came along the blade, making her arm numb.
Her attack couldn’t even leave a scratch on the monster.
The attacks of Shan, Xu Tong and Suiying also had little effect.
Their harassment was nothing more than a few annoying flying insects to this king-level monster.
On the high platform, debris was flying everywhere due to the violent shaking.
Lin Wei did not hide.
She looked at the figure standing with his eyes closed, as if isolated from the world, gritted her teeth, opened her arms, and used her thin body to block Xu Bo.
A fist-sized piece of metal debris whizzed over and hit her back hard.
Hmm!
She groaned, the severe pain making her eyes go black, but her feet seemed to be nailed to the ground and did not move at all.
She didn’t know what she could do.
She just didn’t want anything to disturb this man.
This insignificant, almost stupid action was like a drop of warm water that fell into Xu Bo’s silent sea of consciousness, causing a slight ripple.
Ten seconds.
Ten seconds that felt as long as a century finally came to an end.
Crack!
The shield that contained all the energy of the lighthouse let out a final wail and shattered.
The light blue light turned into spots of light all over the sky and dissipated in the air.
The purple energy torrent lost its last obstacle and rushed towards the lighthouse itself in an unstoppable manner.
The ever-expanding purple color representing death was reflected in everyone’s pupils.
At this critical moment.
Xu Bo opened his eyes.
At that moment, the world seemed to stand still.
A fiery, overbearing pressure that seemed to ignite the air rose from his body.
It is a dominant and unquestionable will.
An absolute, ancient power that can make all things submit.
He slowly raised the Zanpakuto in his hand.
“Everything is reduced to ashes, the flowing blade is like fire!”
There was no chanting, no complicated moves, just a plain and ordinary swing of the sword forward.
A huge flaming blade flashed out.
It was a golden flame condensed to the extreme, powerful enough to burn away all laws.
The flaming blade light did not make any explosive sound, it just quietly and invincibly met the purple energy torrent.
The moment the two came into contact, a strange scene happened.
The purple energy, like ice and snow encountering its natural enemy, was easily split in half by the golden blade light.
Then it was ignited.
Burned.
Completely purified and reduced to nothingness.
The flaming blade continued to move forward, tearing through the sky and fiercely slashing at the chest of the “Throat of the Abyss”.
“roar–!!!”
A soul-shattering roar erupted from the mouth of the king-level beast for the first time.
That voice was filled with pain, rage, and a hint of fear that even it couldn’t understand.
There was a huge wound on its chest, deep enough to see the bone.
The edge of the wound was charred black, and no purple blood flowed out, because the moment the blood appeared, it was completely evaporated by the domineering flame.
It is injured.
This embodiment of doomsday, which Ash called a “gift” and which the lighthouse could not shake, was injured.
In the distance, Ash, who was suspended in the air, froze for the first time with a playful smile on his face.
The amusement in his eyes was replaced by an expression of incredible surprise.
He could clearly feel that the golden flame contained a kind of law power that he had never seen before, which was specifically used to restrain and even purify mana energy.
This was completely different from any power system he knew.
On the lighthouse, Xu Bo swung a knife, but his face turned pale in an instant.
The time for [Soul Resonance] has ended.
A huge feeling of weakness surged into my heart like a tide.
The borrowed power belonging to Captain Yamamoto was rapidly receding, leaving only a hollowed and exhausted body.
His body swayed and he almost fell down.
The crisis seems to be resolved.
However, under ASH’s cold gaze, the injured giant beast in the sky began to wriggle wildly at the wound.
The charred tissues were squeezed out, and new flesh and blood were rapidly regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The wound is healing.
Chapter 31: The Trap of Wisdom, Jingnan’s Layout (Old Version)
In the distance, Ash was suspended in the air, his eyes slightly narrowed behind the playful mask.
He clearly caught the fleeting look of paleness and weakness on the man on the platform.
The curve of his mouth became playful again.
Nice fireworks.
“Unfortunately, there’s only one shot left.”
His icy voice seemed to penetrate space and resound directly in the consciousness of the Throat of the Abyss.
“Change the game and tear them apart.”
The injured giant beast let out a low roar, the wound on its chest was still wriggling, but hundreds of purple crystals on its body, like eyes, lit up at the same time.
Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!
This time, it was no longer a destructive beam of light.
Instead, hundreds of smaller but extremely fast tracking energy bullets, like an enraged swarm of bees, drew strange arcs from all directions and shot towards the crumbling lighthouse and the tiny figures on the ground.
The three-dimensional mobile device under her feet was pushed to its limit, and her whole body made a physics-defying twist among the broken walls.
A purple energy bullet flew past her hair and blew a thick wall behind her into pieces.
The rubble and smoke instantly engulfed her.
“Boss!”
Xu Tong’s exclamation sounded in the communication channel.
On the other side, Shan and Shattered Shadow were also caught in a tough battle. The speed they were proud of was compressed to the extreme in front of these energy bombs with locking function.
Every time you dodge, you are dancing on the edge of a knife.
The lighthouse was in even worse shape.
The remaining defense system was completely paralyzed in the first round of salvos, and the energy bombarded the outer wall unhindered.
Boom! Boom!
Continuous explosions sounded one after another, cabins were blown open, and flames and black smoke spewed out from the gaps.
The entire lighthouse looks like a tin can that is constantly tortured by naughty children with firecrackers.
There was dead silence in the command room.
Everyone looked at the doomsday scene on the screen, with unconcealable despair on their faces.
At this moment, a cold and decisive voice broke the silence.
“Launch the ‘Light Dust’ project.”
It s Jingnan.
She stood in front of the console, expressionless, as if the destruction of the outside world had nothing to do with her.
“Chief Jingnan?” An operator turned around in disbelief.
“Follow orders.”
Jingnan’s voice was emotionless.
As her command was confirmed, dozens of hidden hatches at the base of the lighthouse slid open silently.
Large amounts of silvery-white substances that looked like metal powder were thrown out. Instead of falling, they spread rapidly under the guidance of a special force field, forming a shimmering dust fog that enveloped the lighthouse.
The pursuing purple energy bombs immediately became like drunkards the moment they rushed into the “light dust” area.
The purple halos on their surfaces began to become disordered, and their flight trajectories became chaotic. Some even circled in the air, and finally collided with each other and annihilated each other.
This sudden scene left everyone stunned.
For the first time, ASH’s gaze shifted away from Xu Bo and fell on the shimmering dust.
Interesting technology.
“Using the most primitive physical refraction to interfere with energy conduction?”
“Smart.”
He seemed to be losing his patience.
“Crush it.”
The “Throat of the Abyss” gave up the energy attack, and its body, which was huge enough to cover the sky, began to move slowly.
It abandoned all fancy techniques and was ready to use the purest and most brutal physical force to smash the lighthouse, along with everything on it, into cosmic dust.
The earth trembled violently at its movement.
On the high platform, Xu Bo forced himself to suppress the feeling of emptiness surging in his body, and was about to mobilize the spiritual power that had not yet subsided.
A huge price was brewing deep in his soul.
At this moment, Jingnan’s voice sounded in his ears through an independent encrypted channel.
“Please trust me again.”
“Lead it… to the designated coordinates.”
Xu Bo paused.
On the tactical screen in front of him, the coordinates of a huge, long-abandoned industrial area located below the lighthouse were clearly marked by red spots of light.
At the same time, on the ground, Bai Yuekui, who was looking for a chance to catch his breath, also received the same message.
She hesitated for only half a second.
“receive.”
She didn’t ask why, nor did she question the feasibility of the plan.
After witnessing Jingnan’s decisiveness and wisdom, she chose to trust him.
“Everyone, follow me!”
Bai Yuekui’s voice rang out in the team channel, with an unquestionable determination.
“Provoke it! Make it follow us!”
Her figure turned into a white lightning again. She no longer hid, but instead took the initiative to face the giant beast.
The long sword in his hand flashed a provocative cold light in the air. Although it could not cause any damage, the harsh noise it made every time it hit the shell successfully attracted the attention of the behemoth.
The “Throat of the Abyss” was completely enraged by this ignorant “bug”.
It gave up its original target – the lighthouse, and turned its huge head to the ground, locking onto the white figure.
It took a step forward and gave chase.
Every step it took was like a small earthquake, creating huge cracks in the earth and crushing countless ruins into powder under its feet.
Its huge body stepped into the “trap” area set by Jingnan step by step.
In the command room, Jingnan’s eyes were fixed on the light spot on the screen.
When the huge red spot representing the “Throat of the Abyss” completely covers the preset area.
She stretched out her finger and pressed a separate button on the console that emitted a faint red light.
“Goodbye, relic of the old world.”
A dull roar came from beneath the ground.
Immediately afterwards, the ground began to shake violently, and huge cracks spread out from the trap area to the surrounding areas.
Not an explosion.
Rather, it is a power that has been suppressed for a hundred years and is awakening.
boom–!!!
Hundreds of red lava columns, strong enough to melt steel, suddenly erupted from the ground.
Those were geothermal collection pipes left over from the old world, secretly modified by Jingnan’s team. At this moment, they overloaded all their energy and released the most primitive rage from deep within the earth’s core to the ground.
This is not mana energy.
It’s not a technological weapon either.
This is the purest and most violent power of the planet itself.
The huge lava fountain formed a temporary volcano, completely swallowing the huge lower body of the “Throat of the Abyss”.
Ahhhhh!!!
A shrill and twisted wail erupted from the giant beast’s mouth.
The terrifying heat caused its vaunted regenerative abilities to stagnate for the first time. The moment its purple flesh came into contact with the lava, it was burned to charcoal, leaving it no chance of regeneration.
Its huge body struggled frantically in the ocean of lava, but it sank deeper and deeper.
At this moment, both the people on the lighthouse and Bai Yuekui on the ground were shocked as they watched the scene before them that seemed like a divine punishment.
However, in the distant sky, ASH looked at his “work” screaming in pain in the lava, and instead of being angry, he chuckled.
“I see.”
“So, it’s hidden here…”
His gaze seemed to penetrate the rolling lava and look deeper into the ground, as if he had discovered a toy more interesting than this battle.
Chapter 32: Twin Moons, Joining Forces to Defeat the Enemy (Old Version)
The ocean of lava boils with the planet’s most primitive anger.
The king-level monster named “Throat of the Abyss” by ASH was now trapped in it, emitting a deafening wail.
The purple flesh and blood turned into charcoal the moment it touched the crimson magma. For the first time, its proud super-speed regeneration seemed pale and powerless in the face of this pure physical force.
There was dead silence above the lighthouse.
Whether they were survivors who had just experienced despair or veteran guards, they all looked on in shock at this divine punishment directed by both technology and the wrath of the earth’s core.
In the distance, the playful smile on ASH’s face, which was suspended in the air, finally froze completely.
His face darkened for the first time.
It was as if a beloved toy was soiled by a group of ants that he never took seriously, in a way he had never expected.
This offended him.
During this brief stalemate, a white figure moved.
It s Bai Yuekui.
She seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the three-dimensional maneuvering device sprayed out high-pressure gas. She rushed towards the behemoth, which was slow to move due to severe pain, like an arrow from a bow.
Her figure shuttled across the twisted ruins at high speed, and each step she took was extremely precise.
Finally, she jumped up and landed steadily on the huge and rigid back of the “Throat of the Abyss”.
The long knife in his hand flashed with a cold light under the reflection of the lava fire.
Her target was the energy core on the back of the giant beast, which was pulsating violently like a heart.
However, just a second before her blade was about to fall.
A figure appeared in front of her like a ghost without any warning, blocking her way.
It’s ASH.
“Key, you shouldn’t be my enemy.”
He stretched out a hand, but did not touch her. Instead, an invisible, sharp mental shock had already swept into Bai Yuekui’s mind.
Buzz !
Bai Yuekui felt as if her brain was pierced by a red-hot steel needle, and the severe pain made her eyes go black.
Countless dusty and broken fragments of memory exploded uncontrollably in my mind.
Cold laboratory.
The pungent smell of disinfectant.
A distorted figure in a glass container.
Also, a gentle and sad voice kept whispering.
“Survive…”
Her will began to weaken, the arm holding the knife trembled slightly, and she was about to fall unconscious from the monster’s back.
A warm hand gently rested on her shoulder.
A cool, calm, yet unquestionably domineering spiritual power instantly poured into her body, like a solid dam, completely dispelling the chaotic spiritual torrent.
The stinging pain and hallucinations in my mind receded like the tide.
Bai Yuekui suddenly came to his senses and looked sideways.
Xu Bo, who had recovered at some point, stood beside her.
“Her opponent is me.”
Xu Bo protected Bai Yuekui behind him and faced the mysterious and powerful ASH alone.
The air between the two of them seemed to freeze.
The roar of the lava seemed to be suppressed at this moment.
Everyone thought that an earth-shattering showdown was about to break out.
However, ASH made a move that was beyond everyone’s expectations.
He glanced at Xu Bo, whose breathing had stabilized but whose eyes were filled with vigilance and fatigue, and his mouth curled up into a strange smile.
What he is good at doesn’t seem to be head-on confrontation.
The next second, his body turned into a ball of purple data, instantly disappeared from the spot, and reappeared above the head of the “Throat of the Abyss” in the distance.
“The game isn’t over yet.”
As his order was given, the giant beast struggling to death in the lava forcibly suppressed the pain of being burned.
The energy core on its back pulsated more and more violently.
A destructive energy was madly gathering inside, obviously preparing to launch some kind of mutually destructive move.
The lighthouse alarm sounded again.
Xu Bo didn’t look at ASH again.
He turned and said to Bai Yuekui beside him.
“I will cut off its core, and you will cut off its life.”
No further explanation required.
This is a tacit understanding that does not need to be expressed.
Bai Yuekui nodded heavily.
The Zanpakuto in Xu Bo’s hand was released again.
This time, billions of cherry blades did not scatter like a rainstorm.
Under his will, all the blades were highly condensed, compressed, and rotated in his palm.
In the end, an indestructible spirit blade was formed, shining with cherry-colored light and as if made up of countless diamond facets.
That is to transform the ultimate splendor into the ultimate sharpness.
“Flash step.”
His figure flashed and disappeared from his original place, and instantly appeared in front of the chest of “Throat of the Abyss”, facing the energy core that was about to explode.
at the same time.
Bai Yuekui took a deep breath and pushed his strength to the peak.
A layer of pure white aura visible to the naked eye covered her entire body and blade.
That was the strongest state she could reach by breaking through the limits of the human body.
The monster’s shell under her feet was cracking inch by inch.
At the moment when Xu Bo’s spirit blade pierced into the energy core.
Bai Yuekui’s sword also gathered its power to the maximum, drawing a stunning white arc and accurately cutting through the thick neck of the “Throat of the Abyss”.
One is the spiritual blade that cuts through the laws.
One is to cut through the physical limits of matter.
Two moons shine together.
Killed with one blow.
Time freezes at this moment.
The energy core of the “Throat of the Abyss” that was about to explode suddenly dimmed.
Its huge head slowly slid down from its neck, carrying endless purple blood, and slammed heavily into the lava ocean below, splashing huge waves.
That huge body also lost all vitality and collapsed with a loud bang.
The crisis is resolved.
Xu Bo put away his knife and stood up, his chest rising and falling slightly.
He raised his head and looked at the sky in the distance.
There was no one there.
ASH has disappeared without a trace.
Only a whisper remained that seemed to still echo in the wind.
“key “
Chapter 33: The Aftermath of the War, Whisper of Mana (Old Version)
The huge head slowly slid down from the broken neck.
Endless purple blood poured down like a waterfall, crashing into the lava ocean below.
boom–!
A huge crimson wave was lifted up and then crashed down heavily.
The huge body of the king-level beast “Throat of the Abyss” lost all support and collapsed. In the wrath of the planet, it gradually turned into twisted charcoal.
Deafening cheers did not emanate immediately, as everyone was deprived of speech by this final, almost miraculous scene of killing.
In this frozen silence, a sudden voice rang out.
Snap. Snap. Snap.
It was applause.
In the distant sky, the floating figure, ASH, not only did not have the slightest anger or frustration on his face, but instead showed an admiration as if appreciating a work of art.
A wonderful performance.
His voice was not loud, but it reached everyone’s ears clearly, as if echoing directly in their minds.
“Xu Bo, you are more interesting than I thought.”
“That’s all for today’s ‘meeting gift’.”
ASH’s body began to become transparent, like an image with poor signal, and countless purple data streams emanated from him.
“Looking forward to our next meeting.”
The moment he finished speaking, his body completely disintegrated, turning into purple light spots flying all over the sky and dissipating into the air.
He left.
It was as if he was just passing by, leaving behind a disaster, and then leaving satisfied after watching the fireworks.
After several seconds of silence.
“We… won?”
A Dustman asked in a trembling voice.
“We won! We won !”
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
The ecstasy of surviving the disaster was like a lit fuse that instantly set off the entire lighthouse.
Thunderous cheers broke through the sky, people hugged each other and cried, venting the fear and despair that had been suppressed to the extreme in the most primitive way.
This time, the victory is no longer a one-man show of a certain hero.
It is the wisdom of Jingnan, the bravery of Bai Yuekui, the thundering blow of Xu Bo, and the miracle created by every ordinary person on the lighthouse who sticks to his post and contributes his own strength.
“Medical team! Rescue team! Follow me down to the surface immediately!”
Ran Bing’s voice resounded throughout the lighthouse through the broadcasting system. Lin Wei, who was beside her, had already rushed to the lifting platform with her men. There was no joy on her face, only the anxiety of saving the wounded.
A new order, built on the ruins of victory, has begun to operate efficiently.
On the ground, Xu Bo ignored the cheers from afar.
He walked to the remains of the giant beast that was as big as a mountain. The heat from the lava burned his cheeks and the air was filled with the pungent smell of burning protein.
He stretched out his hand and gently pressed on the charred shell.
The system’s prompt sounded in my mind on time.
[The remains of a King-level Devouring Beast have been detected, containing a large amount of twisted soul fragments and a high concentration of mana energy.][Do you want to conduct a ‘purification’?]“yes.”
Xu Bo muttered to himself.
The next moment, countless firefly-like light spots rose from the huge corpse of the giant beast, forming a bright river of light visible to the naked eye, which madly poured into Xu Bo’s palm and sank into his body.
[Ding! Purification successful!][Gain Soul Points +2000! ][Obtain special item: ‘Mana Core (Broken)’! ][System technical analysis module, analyzing this item… Estimated time: 24 hours.]An unprecedented feeling of fullness flows through every part of my body.
At this moment, a white figure landed beside him.
She quietly looked at the absorbing light on Xu Bo’s body that had not yet completely dissipated. Her eyes were mixed with inquiry, doubt, and a hint of complex emotions that she herself had not noticed.
She finally asked the question that had been lingering in her mind.
“Why did ASH call me ‘Key’?”
Her voice was soft, but it carried a weight that could not be avoided.
“You seem to know something.”
Xu Bo turned around and looked at her.
Bai Yuekui’s silver hair was dyed with a warm orange under the light of the lava fire, but the confusion in her eyes was colder than the ice in the middle of the night.
There is no point in hiding it.
If they want to fight against an enemy of ASH’s level, they must have the most basic trust between them.
“Because the Devouring Beast’s nature is not that of a wild beast.”
Xu Bo spoke, his voice calm and clear.
“They are human souls, twisted and polluted by the Mana ecosystem, forming monsters.”
“My power can ‘purify’ this distortion and free those souls. Therefore, I am their natural enemy.”
Xu Bo paused and his eyes fell on Bai Yuekui.
“And you, Bai Yuekui. I speculate that you may have undergone some special experiment that gave you a special ‘affinity’ with the Mana ecosystem.”
“You can’t destroy them, but you might be able to ‘understand’ them, or even ‘communicate’ with them.”
“So, you are the key…to unlocking all the secrets of the Mana Ecosystem.”
These words, like a thunderclap, exploded in Bai Yuekui’s mind.
Those broken fragments of memory that she had deliberately sealed away surged up uncontrollably.
Also, a gentle and sad voice whispered repeatedly in my ear.
Xu Bo’s words were like a thread, stringing these scattered pearls together.
She fell into a long silence.
For the first time, that face that was always cold and indifferent revealed deep confusion and pain.
After a long time, she raised her head again, and the confusion in her eyes had been forcibly suppressed.
“I need time.”
She didn’t ask any more questions, but just said it softly, then turned and jumped up, heading back towards the lighthouse.
Xu Bo watched her leaving without trying to keep her.
Some scars can only be licked by yourself.
And on the other side of the battlefield.
Jingnan is leading a scientific research team, wearing heavy protective clothing, carefully collecting tissue samples from the “Throat of the Abyss” and data on the surrounding soil burned by lava.
“Miss Jingnan! Come and see!”
A young researcher suddenly exclaimed, his voice filled with disbelief.
Jingnan walked over quickly and looked in the direction of his finger.
All I saw was a piece of black land that had been cooled and solidified and polluted by the giant beast’s purple blood.
A plant is breaking through the soil.
Its entire body was a strange, dark blue color, a shape that had never been seen in any database. The edges of its leaves emitted a faint, ghost-like fluorescence.
It’s growing.
It stretches its branches and leaves at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Jingnan’s heart sank suddenly.
Almost at the same time.
Lighthouse, main control hall.
“Alarm! Alarm!”
The shrill red alarm light began flashing wildly without any warning.
A technician responsible for monitoring ecological data suddenly stood up from his seat, staring at the screen in front of him, his face pale.
Impossible This is impossible!
On the screen, a huge global map was flashing in red.
The index representing the global mana ecological activity did not decrease as expected at the moment of the death of “Throat of the Abyss”.
Instead, a synchronous, crazy, and completely unreasonable…abnormal surge began!
It seemed as if the death of the king-level beast was not the end.
But it’s a signal.
A command.
It awakened a deeper and more terrifying existence beneath the surface of this planet.
Chapter 34: The Embryo of Collapsed Jade, the Road Ahead (Old Version)
The cheers from the lighthouse stopped abruptly as if an invisible hand had grabbed their throats.
What replaced it was an even more shrill red alarm that resounded through the sky.
The main control room, which had just been filled with ecstasy over surviving the disaster, was now filled with deathly silence.
Everyone stared at the huge holographic map.
The index representing the global mana ecological activity did not fall as expected at the moment of the death of “Throat of the Abyss”.
It’s soaring.
It soared wildly at a completely unreasonable, synchronous, almost vertical angle.
A command that awakened a terrifying existence deeper beneath the surface of the planet.
“The preliminary report is out.”
Jingnan’s voice broke the frozen air. Her face was pale, but her tone remained absolutely calm.
“It’s not like an energy counterattack, it’s more like a … stress response of the immune system.”
She looked at Xu Bo with an unprecedented solemnity in her eyes.
“Earth’s ‘Gaia Will,’ or Mana Ecology, seems to have deemed us a ‘virus’ even more dangerous than the Extreme Devourer.”
Virus.
This word made everyone present feel depressed.
Xu Bo didn’t say anything.
His consciousness was immersed in the system space, and the soul power, which was so huge that it was almost surging, was still surging in his body.
In front of him, the “Mana Core (Broken)” purified from the giant beast’s body was suspended, emitting an ominous purple light.
The system’s analysis progress bar finally reached the end.
[Ding! Analysis completed!][Item Name: Broken Jade Prototype (Fake)][Effect: Absorbs surrounding negative emotions (fear, despair) and soul power, transforming them into energy that fulfills the host’s inner desires. Currently, this state is extremely unstable, with low energy conversion efficiency and the risk of backlash.]Broken jade.
These two words, like a heavy hammer, hit Xu Bo’s heart hard.
The next second, the system gave a conclusion that made him feel cold all over.
[Cognitive Subversion: The essence of the Mana Ecosystem can be understood as an amplified, globally distributed, and completely out-of-control “Broken Jade.” It endlessly absorbs the despair of humanity in the apocalypse, and, based on a twisted desire called “purification” or “rebirth,” creates the Extreme Devouring Beast.]Xu Bo’s breathing stopped for a moment.
He finally understood.
What he faced was not a simple monster or ecological disaster.
Rather, it is an out-of-control “wishing machine” with planetary power.
This also explains why ASH can “create” the Extreme Beast.
He is not the Creator.
He was just a person who had mastered some of the methods of making a wish to this out-of-control wishing machine.
late at night.
The lighthouse’s highest command hall.
The cold metal walls reflected the faint blue data light stream, and the atmosphere was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.
Sitting at the long conference table is the current power center of Lighthouse.
Bai Yuekui, Jingnan, Ran Bing, and Lin Wei.
There is also the former captain of the guards who chose to stand on Xu Bo’s side during the rebellion, and is now the temporary commander of the Lighthouse Defense Force. He is a taciturn man with arms thicker than an ordinary person’s thighs, codenamed “Iron Arm”.
Xu Bo sat in the main seat and explained the inference that “Mana Ecology is an out-of-control jade collapse” word by word.
As soon as the words fell, the entire conference room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Everyone’s face was filled with unspeakable shock.
What they are fighting against are the laws of the entire planet.
“How long can the Lighthouse’s resources last?”
Ran Bing was the first to break the silence. Her questions were always so practical and went straight to the root of survival.
“Food reserves, without ground collection, can sustain the basic consumption of all personnel for 120 days. Energy, after closing non-essential areas, can last for 180 days.”
Lin Wei answered immediately. The virtual screen in front of her had already listed a dense stream of data, accurate to three decimal places.
“I have designed three resource recycling plans, mainly using existing culture media and water recycling systems, but they require a lot of technical support and energy allocation.”
Technically there is no problem.
Jingnan interjected, pushing up her glasses.
“I can lead the research department to complete the initial ecological cycle transformation within 30 days. But the energy gap is a dead end.”
The three women have demonstrated irreplaceable value in their respective fields.
The cooperation between them has become extremely tacit without them realizing it.
At the other end of the conference table, Bai Yuekui remained silent.
Xu Bo’s words were like a key that opened the Pandora’s box of her dusty memories.
Those cold images, those sad whispers, are now clearer than ever.
After a long time, she finally raised her head.
In those eyes that were always cold, there was only a determination to fight to the death.
“I need to go back to my base.”
Her eyes looked straight at Xu Bo.
“There, there is the complete research data on the ‘Angel Potion’ left by my teacher.”
“That might explain why I became the ‘key’ that Ash mentioned.”
These words surprised everyone.
“I agree.”
Xu Bo nodded, but his next words turned the surprise into shock.
“I’ll go with you.”
Bai Yuekui’s pupils shrank slightly.
She had imagined all kinds of reactions from Xu Bo, but this was not one of them.
“Your safety is now the highest priority. It’s about solving the final mystery.”
Xu Bo’s reason was impeccable. His eyes swept over everyone present and finally landed on Bai Yuekui’s face.
“Also, I’m very interested in the ruins of the old world that you mentioned.”
The corner of his mouth curled up in an arc that no one noticed.
The prototype of the Broken Jade is already in hand. If we want to truly control it, or even repair it, perhaps the answer lies in the secrets of the old world buried by the Mana ecosystem.
At the end of the meeting, Xu Bo stood up.
His figure appeared particularly tall and straight under the dim blue data light.
“From today on, we have only one direction.”
“Internally, we will stabilize production, develop technology, and transform the Lighthouse into an indestructible mobile fortress.”
His voice echoed in the empty command hall, clear and powerful.
“Outwardly, take the initiative.”
Explore the ruins of the old world, find ways to fight against the Mana ecosystem, and search for more survivors.
He paused, his eyes gleaming with a light he had never seen before.
“Humanity can no longer be like captive livestock, passively defending itself.”
“We must take back our own world.”
Chapter 35 Before the Journey, the Hearts of the Three Women (Old Version)
The news that Xu Bo decided to travel with Bai Yuekui was like a stone thrown into a still lake.
The ripples did not spread to the lighthouse’s public channels, but were limited to the small core circle in the highest command hall.
But the shock it caused was far more profound than any public speech.
This is an unprecedented joint action between the Lighthouse and the Ground, the two de facto supreme leaders.
What it represents is a deeper bond of trust that goes beyond simple cooperation.
The night before departure.
The moonlight filtered through the porthole, casting a cool spot of light on the cold metal floor.
The lights in Xu Bo’s temporary room were dimmed.
The knock on the door was light and hesitant.
The person who came was Lin Wei.
She was not like she usually was, holding a data terminal and reciting a series of resource allocations.
She just walked in quietly and put a heavy backpack on the table.
The marching bag is the standard equipment of the lighthouse, but the stitching on it is a bit too fine, obviously it has been carefully repaired twice.
“This contains the highest quality high-energy nutrient paste and concentrated purified water.”
“Also, I put in the last three bottles of Angel-II broad-spectrum antibiotics from the Lighthouse’s inventory.”
She didn’t say anything extra, just stating the list of items.
But her eyes never left the backpack.
“That’s all I can do.”
“Please, come back safely.”
This exhortation was so light that it was almost drowned out by the sound of flowing air, but it hit Xu Bo’s heart heavily.
Her emotions, like her as a person, are pure, simple and without any embellishment.
Shortly after Lin Wei left, the second visitor arrived.
It s Ran Bing.
She was wearing the combat uniform of a scavenger hunter, standing tall and straight, and first gave a standard military salute.
“The Lighthouse Defense Force has completed its initial reorganization. The three-shift patrol plan has been activated, and the defense level of the energy core area has been raised to the highest level.”
When reporting on her work, her voice was clear and capable, without a single flaw.
After finishing the report, she did not leave immediately.
There was a moment of silence in the air.
Her hands at her sides clenched unconsciously.
“Captain Mark…”
Her voice finally trembled.
“Is he…really…gone?”
She needs an answer.
An answer that could put an end to her long and desperate wait in the past.
Xu Bo’s eyes softened.
He glimpsed Mark’s last memory from the fragments of the beast’s soul.
“From a biological perspective, yes.”
This opening made Ran Bing’s body sway slightly.
“But from another perspective, that’s not the case.” Xu Bo changed the subject.
“His soul didn’t completely dissipate like the others.”
“It was ‘captured’ and ‘preserved’ by Mana Ecology in a very special form. Like… a collection sealed in amber.”
These words cast a ray of real but faint light into the dark abyss of despair.
It’s so small, but it’s enough to start a prairie fire.
Something rekindled in Ran Bing’s eyes.
She bowed deeply to Xu Bo.
This bow is no longer a subordinate’s obedience to his superior, but a gratitude from the depths of his soul.
After she left, Xu Bo thought that the visiting time for tonight was over.
But the door was knocked for the third time.
This visitor was completely beyond his expectations.
Mirror south.
She brought no food and no instructions.
What she brought was a brand new tactical equipment that shone with a faint blue luster, had a precise structure, and was full of industrial and technological beauty.
It was a metal disc about the size of a palm, its surface covered with intricate etched lines and a clear crystal inlaid in the center.
“What’s this?”
“Reiatsu Amplifier, prototype.”
Jingnan put it on the table, pushed his glasses on the bridge of his nose, and an almost fanatical scientific light flashed in his eyes.
“Your power system is very unique.”
“I retrieved all the sensor data from the lighthouse and discovered that when you’re fighting, the surrounding space produces a type of energy particle fluctuation that conventional instruments can’t identify, but it does exist.”
“I’ve temporarily named it ‘Spirit Son’.”
“This device integrates the lighthouse’s energy focusing technology with some of the superconducting material theories of the old world.”
“In theory, it can gather and amplify the ‘spiritual particles’ you release a second time.”
She looked at Xu Bo as if she was looking at a whole new field of science that she had never heard of before.
“Of course, the effects are unknown and may even be counter-productive.”
“But isn’t that the charm of science? Perhaps it can come in handy at a critical moment.”
Her interest in Xu Bo has completely transformed from an “abnormal sample” that needs to be controlled to a joint explorer of unknown truths.
She longed for cooperation and eager to decrypt.
Xu Bo picked up the cold metal disc and felt the highest technological achievement of the lighthouse contained in it.
Three women, three “gifts”.
Lin Wei’s protection, Ran Bing’s following, and Jing Nan’s side by side.
They represent the three most sincere emotions and supports that this Doomsday Ark has for him now.
The next morning.
The sky was getting light.
A specially modified eight-wheeled heavy armored vehicle, like a dormant steel behemoth, was quietly parked on the take-off and landing platform of the lighthouse.
Its armor has been thickened, the body lines are full of power, and a small rotating electromagnetic turret is installed on the roof.
Bai Yuekui was already waiting by the car.
She changed into a black combat uniform that was more convenient for movement, which made her silver hair even more dazzling.
Behind her stood her three most trusted companions.
A strong man holding a heavy shield and silent as a mountain, the mountain.
Xu Tong is a petite girl with bright eyes carrying a huge sniper rifle.
And the man who was as silent as a shadow, with two daggers hanging on his waist, Shattered Shadow.
Seeing Xu Bo coming, Bai Yuekui just nodded slightly.
No words are needed, just a look is enough.
Xu Bo jumped onto the armored vehicle.
Behind them, in the command hall of the lighthouse, the “temporary committee” consisting of Jingnan, Ran Bing, and Lin Wei were quietly watching them through the porthole.
A brand new order officially began to operate smoothly and efficiently.
The armored vehicle emitted a low engine roar as it slowly drove away from the lighthouse and sped towards the old world covered with green fungal mats and strange plants, which was full of dangers.
The atmosphere in the carriage was a bit depressing.
The scenery outside the window was rapidly receding, filled with the desolation of doomsday.
Just when the armored vehicle completely drove out of the lighthouse signal coverage.
In Xu Bo’s mind, a cold system prompt sound exploded without any warning.
[Warning! Detected that the ‘Fake Collapsed Jade’ prototype resonates strongly with the high concentration of Mana in the external environment!][Item activity is being passively improved! ][Warning: The holder’s current state will highly likely attract special mental contamination mutants, or trigger a targeted attack from an unknown area!]Xu Bo’s pupils suddenly shrank.
The road ahead was even more dangerous than he had imagined.
Chapter 36: Wasted City Mist, Spiritual Pollution (Old Version)
The armored vehicle plunged into the thick fog that enveloped the entire abandoned city like a silent beetle.
This is no ordinary morning fog.
It was a sickly grey-green colour and so sticky it seemed to have a life of its own, clinging to the armoured portholes and leaving greasy water marks.
Inside the car, all the electronic screens were filled with snow-like noise, and the only sound in the communication channel was a continuous, teeth-grinding rustling sound.
“Everyone, focus.”
In the driver’s seat, Xu Tong, who had been silent all the time, suddenly spoke. His voice sounded a little distorted through the in-car communicator.
“The fog here will play tricks on your mind.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Bo’s heart skipped a beat.
The system’s cold warning is coming true in an extremely real way.
An inexplicable feeling of irritability surged from the bottom of my heart like a tide.
It seemed as if there were countless voices wailing, crying, and cursing in my ears at the same time.
The sounds were sharp and vague, as if squeezed out from the deepest hell of despair, and every syllable was tearing at his nerves.
He subconsciously pressed his chest.
The [Fake Broken Jade Prototype] was inside his Death Tyrant Suit, emitting an ominous warmth through the fabric.
It is like a spiritual sponge, madly absorbing the negative emotions that have accumulated in the city for countless years, and then without reservation, it pours this despair, which has been magnified several times, directly into the host’s mind.
“What s wrong with you?”
Bai Yuekui’s voice was like a ray of cold moonlight, cutting through the chaos in his mind.
She also noticed something unusual. The discomfort brought about by the resonance with the Mana ecosystem was like countless tiny needles pricking her temples.
But she was more concerned about Xu Bo’s condition.
His face, illuminated by the dim blue emergency light, was so pale that there was not a trace of blood.
Bai Yuekui didn’t ask any more questions. He just took out a small piece of dried leaves from a small metal box on his waist and handed it over.
“Hold it in your mouth.”
As the leaves entered the mouth, a cool and spicy scent of grass instantly exploded, like a sharp knife, temporarily cutting off those desperate whispers.
Xu Bo’s breathing became a little steadier.
“squeak–!”
The harsh sound of metal rubbing against each other threatened to rip my eardrums apart. The heavy armored vehicle slammed to a stop, its massive inertia causing it to slump forward. The equipment attached to the racks clanged, and everyone groaned from the tightening of their seatbelts.
Directly in front of the car, in the thick gray-green fog, a figure seemed to emerge from nothingness.
A little girl, dressed in a loose hospital gown, stood alone in the middle of the road. She looked no more than seven or eight years old, as frail as a withered branch that could break at any moment. The mist dampened her messy hair, and water droplets trickled down her pale cheeks.
She raised her hand and waved gently at the armored vehicle.
Inside the car, the air seemed to freeze. Xu Bo’s pupils suddenly contracted. That face, that thin figure, was exactly the same as the girl Ran Bing had risked her life to protect in the “reincubator.”
“Illusion! It’s the Devouring Beast’s hand!”
The heavy gunner in the rear let out a suppressed roar. His large, fan-like hands instantly grabbed the heavy machine gun mounted beside him, and the safety clicked off with a rough and sharp movement.
“That thing wants to lure us over and kill us all at once! Xu Tong, run over it!”
A blood-red aiming beam pierced through the thick fog and landed precisely between the little girl’s eyebrows. The red spot was particularly glaring against her pale skin.
“etc!”
Xu Bo’s voice was not loud, but it carried an unquestionable sense of command, stopping Shan from pulling the trigger.
Shan’s eyebrows knitted together, and he growled in a gruff voice, “What are you waiting for? Xu Bo, don’t let this fog confuse you! I’ve seen this trick many times!”
“I’m not crazy.” Xu Bo didn’t look back, his eyes fixed on the girl.
In his vision, the perception brought by [Spirit Particle Penetration] is presenting a completely different picture.
The little girl’s body was indeed covered in a thick, insoluble layer of foul energy belonging to the Extreme Devouring Beast. That energy, like countless writhing black venomous snakes, coiled around her, devouring her, emitting a sickening malice.
But at the very core of that dark energy, at the center of that vortex that represented absolute distortion and destruction, there was a faint, almost extinguished, pure golden light flickering.
The light spot was very small and fragile, like a candle in the wind, but it was extremely tenacious.
That was the vibration of a human soul. A living, breathing human soul being devoured.
“I’ll go down and take a look.”
Xu Bo’s decision plunged the car into a deathly silence. The only sounds were the rustling of electricity in the communicator and Shan’s heavy breathing.
“Are you crazy?” Shan looked at the back of Xu Bo’s head in disbelief. “That’s a trap! One hundred percent!”
“There’s someone in there.” Xu Bo’s voice was soft but firm.
Bai Yuekui didn’t hesitate, her cold voice breaking the deadlock. She pressed the hilt of the sword at her waist with one hand, and with a swish, the long sword unsheathed a half-inch. The cold light of the blade flashed under the dim blue emergency light, illuminating her unwavering profile. She didn’t even ask Xu Bo what he saw; she simply made her choice.
Shan looked at the two men, opened his mouth, and finally squeezed out a curse from between his teeth: “… Damn, they are all crazy.”
He did not insist any longer, but his hand holding the machine gun did not relax at all.
The car door opened and two people jumped out one after the other.
Shan and Suiying stayed in the car, their weapons fully opened, providing the strongest fire cover.
The asphalt road beneath my feet was covered with a slippery green fungal carpet, and every step made a slight “puffing” sound.
The closer you get, the stronger the mental oppression becomes.
When the two men were less than ten meters away from the little girl.
She suddenly looked up.
The corners of his mouth formed a strange arc that did not belong to a child at all.
The next second, her body, like a melting wax figure, quickly turned into a pool of wriggling black mud and silently merged into the fungal carpet on the ground.
trap.
Xu Bo’s pupils shrank.
Then, in the surrounding dead, vine-covered high-rise buildings.
Behind the windows.
On each balcony.
Even the twisted tops of the streetlights.
Countless identical illusions of “little girls” appeared at the same time.
They were all laughing.
The laughter was like a silver bell at first, but in an instant it turned into a piercing devilish sound, like an invisible electric drill, drilling directly into everyone’s brain.
“Ugh!”
Shan’s painful groan was heard from inside the armored vehicle.
Even Bai Yuekui, whose will was as strong as steel, was momentarily dazed.
In her eyes, those abandoned buildings were twisted into cold laboratories, and the pungent smell of disinfectant mixed with the sweet and fishy smell of mana in the air.
Only Xu Bo.
The devilish sound passed through his eardrums and hit the overbearing power of death in his body, like hitting an invisible wall, weakening it by ninety percent.
The severe pain was still there, but his consciousness was clearer than ever.
Physical attacks are ineffective.
Pure mental pollution.
A never-before-seen soul-devouring beast that specializes in hunting souls.
Xu Bo slowly raised his hand and clenched it in the air.
He already understood what kind of strength was needed to deal with this kind of enemy.
The domineering power of Ryujin Jakka will burn the innocent soul core.
The splendor of Senbonzakura is pointless here.
It is necessary to use the ability to subvert its rules from the root.
His consciousness sank into the system space.
[Zanpakuto Exchange List]Rows of familiar names flashed before my eyes.
His gaze finally stopped on one of them.
[Mirror Flower Water Moon][Soul Power Points Required for Exchange: 1500][Ding! Soul Points -1500, exchange successful!][Congratulations to the host for obtaining the Zanpakuto – Kyoka Suigetsu! ]Chapter 37: Mirror Flowers, Water Moon, Shattered Illusions (Old Version)
The cold system prompt sound settled in my mind.
The burning sensation of the fiery blade in Xu Bo’s hand quietly faded away, and was replaced by a brand new katana.
The hilt was pale green, the guard hexagonal, its shape simple and quaint, devoid of any superfluous ornamentation. It lay quietly in Xu Bo’s palm, lacking the domineering power of a Ryujin Jakka or the sharp, ornate brilliance of a Senbonzakura. Instead, it resembled a piece of gentle, ancient jade, its brilliance contained within.
But it is this extreme restraint that reveals a kind of heart-pounding weirdness.
Xu Bo slowly raised his eyes and looked at the airtight “cage” around him that was made up of demonic sounds and illusions.
He pointed the tip of the Mirror Flower Water Moon knife into the void.
The thin lips parted slightly, and the chanting sound seemed to not belong to this world, with an indifference that subverted the rules.
“Shatter it.”
“Mirror flowers and water moons.”
The moment the words fell, there was no explosion, no light, not even a trace of wind.
An invisible wave that cannot be described in words, centered on Xu Bo, spread out like a stone dropped into a calm lake, creating ripples one after another.
Wherever the ripples passed, the whole world seemed to be gently wiped by an invisible big hand.
Those hundreds and thousands of “little girls” that filled the high-rise buildings, balconies, and street lights, the piercing demonic sounds that were enough to crack the skull, and the disgusting gray-green fog all disappeared without a trace in an instant.
The world returned to absolute silence.
“Well “
Inside the armored vehicle, heavy gunner Shan’s painful groan suddenly stopped. He shook his head violently, his face blank.
“What’s going on? Where are…those ghost things?”
Xu Tong in the driver’s seat also had an expression of disbelief on his face. He looked back and forth at the empty streets. The snowflakes on the electronic screen had disappeared at some point, and all communication interference had stopped.
It was as if the hunting that was enough to cause a mental breakdown was just a terrible nightmare.
Only Bai Yuekui.
She didn’t say anything, but her cold eyes were fixed on Xu Bo.
She could feel it.
The world has not returned to normal.
On the contrary, it became… too normal, normal to the point of being fake.
The unique fishy-sweet smell of the Mana ecosystem in the air faded, the sticky feeling of the fungal mat underfoot disappeared, and even the faint smell of decay in the ruins could no longer be smelled.
They fell into another more perfect “illusion”.
A perfect illusion created by Xu Bo himself.
This ability to play with the five senses and tamper with cognition is far more chilling than the direct destruction of a beast tide evaporated with one sword.
“Follow me closely.”
Xu Bo turned his head and met Bai Yuekui’s gaze which was full of inquiry and shock.
A barely perceptible curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“Let me show you a good show.”
After saying this, he started walking, as if he was taking a stroll in his own back garden, and walked leisurely into the depths of the ruins.
Bai Yuekui followed without any hesitation.
Shan, Xu Tong and others looked at each other. Although they didn’t understand the situation, they still drove the armored vehicle and followed the two carefully.
The scene that followed completely overturned their cognition.
In the eyes of Bai Yuekui and others, Xu Bo was just strolling leisurely in this dead and silent ruin.
He would stop from time to time and casually swing his knife at a broken empty wall.
The blade cut through the air without making any sound.
Sometimes he would move sideways to the left without warning, as if avoiding some invisible attack.
The whole process was quiet, strange, and even a little funny.
“Boss…what is he doing? Is he doing some shamanism?”
Shan held it in for a long time, and finally couldn’t help but whisper in the communication channel.
No one could answer him.
Because only Xu Bo himself and the Devouring Beast hiding in the dark knew clearly how terrifying the fight was taking place at this moment.
In Xu Bo’s real vision where [Spirit Infiltration] was activated.
A huge shadow that cannot be described in words, constantly wriggling and without a fixed shape, is lurking inside a department store in front.
It is the core of this spiritually polluted area, the true body of the Extreme Beast.
Countless translucent, venomous snake-like mental tentacles stretched out from the shadows and lashed towards Xu Bo frantically from all directions.
Each blow is enough to cause a determined scavenger to become brain dead instantly.
But these attacks all failed.
In the perception of the Extreme Beast, its attack had clearly hit the hateful human and even tore him into pieces.
But the next second, the man would appear in another place intact and continue to approach its main body.
All its illusions and mental shocks fell into the absolute realm of “Mirror Flower and Water Moon” called “Complete Hypnosis”.
Everything it sees, hears, and senses is what Xu Bo wants it to sense.
It fell into unprecedented chaos and rage.
“hiss–!!!”
An invisible scream exploded on the real spiritual level.
The Extreme Beast went completely berserk.
It abandoned those sophisticated illusions and began to use the most primitive and violent power, frantically attacking everything around it.
The huge shadow tentacle, like a battering ram, smashed hard at what it thought was the support column where Xu Bo was hiding.
The other tentacle turned into a sharp blade and stabbed towards the armored vehicle where Bai Yuekui was located.
However
In the senses distorted by [Complete Hypnosis], what it attacked were actually other parts of its own body that extended outwards.
In the “illusion” perspective of Bai Yuekui and others.
The department store, which had been quiet until now, suddenly began to shake violently from the inside without any warning.
There was a loud bang.
A huge black shadow suddenly rushed out from the hole in the building as if it had gone mad.
It used one of its tentacle to smash another tentacle.
Then, it let out a shrill wail and used its even thicker body to crush all the parts of itself that extended outward into pieces.
The scene was like a madman stabbing himself frantically.
Self-harm.
A bloody, bizarre, unilateral self-mutilation.
Shan, Xu Tong and others were stunned, their minds blank.
“What is it doing?”
Bai Yuekui’s pupils also shrank into the most dangerous needle points at this moment.
She finally understood.
Xu Bo didn’t make any move at all.
He just stood there and let this horrible monster kill itself.
The battle is over.
Xu Bo lightly swung his knife, and the false “silent world” around him crumbled into pieces like a broken mirror.
The fishy-sweet air, the sticky fungal mat, the smell of decay… everything is back.
The scene before everyone’s eyes returned to normal, with only large puddles of slightly moving black slime remaining on the ground.
They didn’t even get a clear look at what the enemy looked like.
A deadly hunt ended in this almost absurd way.
This bizarre victory of “defeating the enemy without fighting” refreshed Bai Yuekui’s understanding of Xu Bo’s strength to a whole new dimension.
Xu Bo walked to the largest pile of core debris and pressed his palm lightly.
The golden light of purification lights up.
[Ding! Purify the special mentally polluted Devouring Beast and gain +1800 Soul Points!][Ding! Analyzing the remaining core memory…Analysis successful!]A fragmentary piece of information, like a movie clip, flooded into Xu Bo’s mind.
[Memory fragment: A dark mental hospital… the desperate wails of countless patients… A man in a gray windbreaker (ASH) pushed open the hospital door… He took away a sealed, top-secret file on “Soul Experiments”…]Xu Bo’s eyes instantly became extremely solemn.
He raised his head and looked into the deepest part of the abandoned city.
There seems to be a long-forgotten mental hospital there.
And ASH had just visited there not long ago.
Chapter 38 Mental Hospital, Ash’s Clues (Old Version)
In the deepest part of the abandoned city, the forgotten mental hospital, like a giant beast crawling in the gray fog, silently waited for their arrival.
Armored vehicles were parked outside the rusty gate.
The air was filled with a mixture of madness and despair, so thick that it could almost be grasped with the hands.
It is no longer an invisible oppression, but has turned into a tangible, sticky film that sticks to everyone’s skin.
“I’ll go.”
Shan was the first to jump out of the car. He held the heavy machine gun in his strong arms, but his movements were extremely alert.
The outer walls of the mental hospital are mottled, with large patches of paint peeling off, revealing the dark red bricks underneath.
The strangest thing is the dried black marks on the wall, as if ink had flowed there.
They spread out from the bottom edge of every window, like countless dried tears, or like unhealable wounds on the entire building.
The door was ajar, and inside was a bottomless darkness.
An absolute silence that swallowed even the sound of the wind.
Xu Bo stepped into the gate, followed closely by Bai Yuekui.
As their feet stepped on the dusty hall floor tiles, the heavy iron door behind them closed by itself with a clang.
The emergency lights came on instantly, and the pale light dispelled some of the darkness, but also illuminated a more disturbing scene.
The spatial structure here is completely messed up.
A corridor stretched straight forward, but abruptly bent upwards about ten meters away and disappeared into the ceiling.
The stairs on the left spiral upwards, but at the end they are connected to a smooth wall, leaving no way to go.
This place doesn’t look like a building, but more like a malicious three-dimensional maze built randomly with building blocks.
“This place… has been transformed.”
Xu Tong’s voice came from the communicator, with a hint of solemnity.
“Everyone, follow closely. There’s something wrong with the space here.”
Bai Yuekui didn’t waste any words. She walked to the wall blocking the stairs and grasped the hilt of the knife with her right hand.
She planned to use the most direct method to open up a path.
“Don’t do it.”
Xu Bo’s voice stopped her in time.
The space here is alive.
“Alive?”
Shan frowned and pushed the wall with the muzzle of his gun, making a dull “knock knock” sound.
“What’s the meaning?”
“What this means is that this entire building itself is a giant extreme beast.”
Xu Tong, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke.
His eyes were fixed on the floor tiles beneath his feet. The dust there was slowly moving and rearranging the patterns at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye.
“It’s moving.”
“It’s been constantly moving, constantly changing its internal structure from the moment we came in.”
“Every step we take may lead us to a completely different space.”
Xu Tong’s inference made everyone feel a chill down their spines.
This is no longer an illusion.
It is a real, physical distortion of space.
Xu Bo’s [Spirit Infiltration] has already confirmed this terrifying guess.
This building devoured the desperate souls of all the patients here and turned into an unprecedented special aggregate with the ability to distort space.
The faint energy trace left by ASH, like a thin spider silk, points straight to the deepest part of the maze.
Underground archives.
Bai Yuekui withdrew her hand that was about to draw the sword. She understood that violence was useless here.
Attacking the wall is equivalent to attacking the beast itself.
That would only lead to more intense spatial repulsion, and one might even be thrown directly into an unknown spatial layer, unable to escape forever.
An unsolvable deadlock.
unless
Everyone’s eyes subconsciously turned to Xu Bo.
He just slowly raised his hand, and the simple and ancient sword [Mirror Flower and Water Moon] appeared in his palm again.
This time, he did not chant the words of liberation.
He simply tapped the tip of the knife lightly on the wall beside him.
There are no energy fluctuations.
There wasn’t even a glimmer of light.
But in the perception of Bai Yuekui, Xu Tong and others, some kind of higher-dimensional, incomprehensible “rules” were quietly spreading from the tip of the knife, like invisible ink, instantly permeating the entire building.
Xu Bo closed his eyes.
He is using his ability of Mirror Flowers and Water Moons to do the opposite.
It’s not about creating illusions to confuse the enemy.
Instead, he used [complete hypnosis] to deceive this “living” building.
He made this huge beast “think” that they were not invaders.
They are an inherent part of its body.
It is its flowing blood and its beating pulse.
An incredible scene happened.
The upward-curving corridor in front of them began to twist slowly and silently as if it had life.
It stretched out and turned back into a straight passage.
The staircase leading to the wall on the left also began to change on its own.
The walls retreated to both sides like flowing water, and a dark entrance leading underground appeared at the end of the original stairs.
The chaotic and twisted walls and passages around seemed to become “docile” in an instant.
They took the initiative to make way for this group of “uninvited guests” and made way for the most direct and safest path.
Shan opened his mouth wide and almost dropped the heavy machine gun in his hand.
Xu Tong and Suiying looked at each other and saw extreme shock in each other’s eyes.
This power…
It has gone beyond the scope of “combat”.
It’s more like a kind of… “persuasion”.
Let the world run according to your will.
Bai Yuekui’s breathing stopped for a moment.
She looked at Xu Bo’s back. His figure was not very tall, but at this moment he was like an invisible black hole, sucking in all her knowledge of “power” and crushing it to pieces.
Everyone followed Xu Bo and walked into the entrance leading to the underground without any obstruction.
We’ve arrived at the underground archives.
In stark contrast to the chaos and madness upstairs, it was surprisingly tidy in here.
Rows of metal filing racks were neatly arranged, the floor was spotless, and there wasn’t even a hint of the sweet, fishy smell of Mana Ecology in the air.
It was as if there was an invisible force that completely isolated this place from the outside world.
It’s on a desk in the middle of the archive room.
A brown paper file was placed there alone.
On the cover of the file, a glaring title was printed in scarlet ink.
[S-level sample – Bai Yuekui]That was Ash, left there on purpose.
Bai Yuekui’s body stiffened slightly.
She walked forward step by step, each step feeling like it was based on her own heartbeat.
Her fingertips touched the cold file.
The fingertips are trembling.
She took a deep breath and opened the first page of the file.
A yellowed photo came into view.
The photo shows a little girl wearing a white dress, with black hair and clear eyes. She is facing the camera with a shy but bright smile.
Below the photo are densely packed records of experimental data.
It records every physical change she has experienced since she was a child, after receiving the “Angel Potion” injection.
Strength, speed, cell activity, mental toughness…
Every piece of data is skyrocketing at an inhuman speed.
Bai Yuekui flipped through the pages one by one, her face becoming paler and paler.
Those cold fragments of the laboratory that had been buried deep in her memory surged out like a flood.
The cool touch of a needle piercing your skin.
The instrument emits a monotonous “beeping” sound.
And… the gentle yet passionate face of my mentor, Horn Garcia.
Finally, she turned to the last page of the file.
There was only a scribbled conclusion on that page.
[ The specimen has fully adapted to the Angel Potion, its life form having initially surpassed that of humans, displaying an unprecedented degree of ‘affinity’ with the Mana ecosystem. It possesses the potential to become the ‘key’ to guiding, and even controlling, the Mana ecosystem ]Below the conclusion is a signature written in a flamboyant style.
Horn Garcia.
Next to the signature, someone left a new line of words in a completely different handwriting, as sharp as a knife.
“The gift has just begun.”
“Your past is the future of the world.”
Chapter 39 Angel Potion, Bai Yuekui’s Secret (Old Version)
That file is very light.
But under Bai Yuekui’s fingertips, it felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, pressing her knuckles white.
The archive is made of a special kind of synthetic paper that feels cold, like a stainless steel operating table in a morgue.
She turned over a new leaf.
[“Angel Potion” core ingredient traceability report]A series of complex molecular formulas and spectrum analysis graphs occupied the upper half of the page.
Below is a conclusion specially marked in red font.
“The core catalyst is not an element known to Earth. Its source is pointed to the extraterrestrial meteorite sample numbered M-01.”
“This meteorite, in terms of multiple energy characteristics, shows 99.7% homology with ‘Mana Ecology’.”
“Preliminary inference is that meteorite M-01 is the ‘original seed’ of the Mana ecosystem that first arrived on Earth.”
Bai Yuekui’s breathing stagnated.
The strength she is proud of and relies on to survive.
She protects the human race and slays the very foundation of the Devouring Beast.
The source turned out to be her most hated enemy.
Is there any irony in the world more absurd and ridiculous than this?
Her vision blurred, and the words on the file began to twist and jump, like a group of black ants mocking her fate.
She forced herself to continue reading.
The following is her own record, the unique [S-level sample] report.
“The experimental subject, Bai Yuekui, is currently the only one to have achieved perfect fusion with the Angel Potion.”
“The potion didn’t simply stop at strengthening cells, but deeply penetrated and assimilated his soul structure in a way never seen before.”
“As a result, the experimental subject itself has become a stable and efficient ‘human mana beacon’.”
beacon.
She is like a lighthouse standing on the last isolated island of mankind.
But the light she emits is not to guide her compatriots, but to attract storms.
At the end of the file is the enthusiastic handwriting of my mentor Horn Garcia.
“She is both human and possesses Mana’s ‘authority’.”
“She’s not a weapon.”
“She’s the key.”
“A key capable of unlocking, or even… controlling, the Mana ecosystem!”
Pah.
A drop of cold liquid fell on the yellowed paper, quickly spreading out a small blob of ink.
Bai Yuekui didn’t even realize that tears had already rolled down his face.
The power she was proud of was a shackle given by the enemy.
The fight she persisted in may have been a self-deceiving performance from the very beginning.
The whole world collapsed before her eyes, shattering into countless mocking fragments.
Shan’s heavy breathing, suppressed with worry, could be heard from the communicator inside the armored vehicle.
Boss ?
No one dared to step forward.
At this moment, Bai Yuekui exuded a kind of despair that was so deep that even the Extreme Beast had never felt before, and it was so deep that it could be seen to the bone.
Just then, Xu Bo moved.
He didn’t say a word of comfort, nor did he try to explain anything.
He just walked calmly to Bai Yuekui, stretched out his hand, and gently took the file from her strengthless hand.
Bai Yuekui’s body trembled slightly, and he raised his unfocused eyes and looked at him blankly.
Xu Bo didn’t look at her.
His eyes fell on the file that recorded all the cruel truths.
A tiny golden flame, like a candle, ignited out of thin air at his fingertips.
Flowing Blade Jakka.
This oldest Zanpakuto, which has the power to burn everything, is now precisely controlled by him to the millimeter.
The flames touched the pages of the archive, but there was no explosion, no heat wave.
The file quietly and quickly turned into the finest black ash from the place where the flame touched it, and drifted away silently.
As if it had never existed in this world.
After doing all this, Xu Bo turned his head and met Bai Yuekui’s empty eyes.
“It doesn’t matter where your power comes from.”
His voice was calm, but it was like a heavy hammer, striking Bai Yuekui’s defenses that were about to collapse.
What matters is what you choose to do with it.
These words, like a thunderclap, exploded in her chaotic mind.
Regardless of the source.
Her determination to draw her sword to protect humanity has never changed.
Her determination to protect her companions in desperate situations time and time again has never wavered.
Power itself is not sinful.
The guilty ones are those who use it.
Bai Yuekui slowly raised his hand and wiped away the tears on his face.
She grasped the cold long knife at her waist again.
This time, the touch of the knife handle no longer made her feel confused and ironic, but extremely real and firm.
The light in her eyes gradually gathered again.
Boom boom !
The entire mental hospital shook violently without any warning.
This is not an earthquake.
It’s a… heartbeat.
A heavy, slow, yet extremely powerful heartbeat sounded from deep underground, causing everyone’s heart to suddenly shrink.
“not good!”
Xu Tong’s face turned pale in an instant.
“That thing… is awake!”
The file left by ASH was like a real key. When Bai Yuekui touched and understood its contents, it completely opened the “appetite” of this space-distorting beast.
It is no longer content to use mazes to trick its prey.
It’s about to start eating.
The walls, ceiling, floor, those cold building structures seemed to come alive at this moment.
They began to wriggle and squeeze, secreting green, highly corrosive mucus from the gaps.
Sizzle
A drop of mucus fell on the metal filing rack, instantly corroding a large hole that emitted black smoke.
The entrance they came in from had already been completely blocked by a thick, constantly pulsating flesh membrane.
This is no longer an archive room.
Here is a huge stomach that is about to shrink.
Shan roared, raised his heavy machine gun, and fired wildly at the wall that was pressing towards him.
The bullets hit it, only splashing black liquid, and couldn’t even delay it in the slightest.
Bai Yuekui suddenly let out a painful groan and held his head with his hands.
Her deep resonance with the Mana ecology, at this moment, became a torture.
She could “hear” clearly.
The huge beast was roaring with a mixture of extreme hunger and rage.
A primitive desire to completely digest, absorb, and crush them into slag was like ten thousand steel needles, piercing her mind frantically.
Desperate situation.
A deadlock that is visible and audible, with no solution.
Everyone fell into complete chaos and despair.
He stood in front of everyone, his expression not changing at all.
He took a deep breath. He knew that the best way to deal with this kind of enemy with a complex internal structure and spatial ability was to launch unreasonable and indiscriminate attacks.
He slowly raised the Mirror Flower and Water Moon in his hand.
With a twist of the blade, he actually thrust the tip of his Zanpakuto downwards, vertically, into the ground beneath his feet.
This action stunned everyone.
Then they heard the sound that changed the world.
“Swastika.”
“Senbonzakura Kageyan.”
Billions of tiny blades, like cherry blossom petals, burst out from the ground beneath Xu Bo’s feet the moment the words fell.
They did not rush around immediately.
Instead, in an incredible and ingenious way, a huge spherical space emitting a faint pink and white light was quickly constructed around them.
The walls and corrosive slime that squeezed in were silently cut, decomposed, and crushed into the most insignificant dust by billions of blades the moment they touched this spherical space.
A “sanctuary” that is absolutely safe in the stomach of destruction.
It’s safe.
But, it s not over yet.
Xu Bo’s eyes were still as calm as water.
He looked at the madly squirming walls of flesh that were blocking him from entering.
He opened his thin lips and uttered the final instruction.
“Kage no Kageyama, Senbonzakura Kageyama.”
The endless torrent of blades, like a tsunami of cherry blossoms, turned into a world-destroying storm that swept away everything, sweeping madly in all directions.
That sound was no longer the collision of metal.
It is an indescribable symphony of death, like the hissing of billions of poisonous snakes.
The entire “living” mental hospital was cut, decomposed, and crushed inch by inch from the inside by this unstoppable storm of blades.
Bai Yuekui watched all this in a daze.
She watched as the building that had brought her endless pain and despair turned into flying dust under the power of the man before her.
Her worldview had just been shattered by a file.
At this moment, it was pieced together again by the endless cherry blossom blades, and then shattered again in a more thorough and shocking way.
Chapter 40: Relics of the Old World, the Truth of Gaia (Old Version)
The torrent of billions of pink and white blades did not dissipate after completing their mission.
They were like a countercurrent of cherry blossom rain, flowing back silently, re-condensing, and finally turning back into the simple and ancient sword, lying quietly in Xu Bo’s palm.
Bankai, released.
The world is deathly silent.
That living, twisted mental hospital filled with madness and despair has completely disappeared from this world.
Not even a trace of residue was left.
They were currently in an underground cavern that was so huge that it was beyond imagination.
There was a flat rocky ground under my feet and a dark dome with no end in sight above my head.
The mental hospital and its foundation were scraped off the earth’s crust by that magnificent blade storm.
And right in the center of this void, a building stands quietly.
It stands out from the surrounding rough rock walls.
It was a silver-white scientific research base full of futuristic technology.
Its shell is made of some unknown metal, and its surface is as smooth as a mirror without any signs of weathering. It seems as if there is an invisible energy field that completely isolates it from the erosion of time.
“here it is “
Bai Yuekui’s voice trembled slightly. She recognized this place.
This is where my mentor, Horn Garcia, conducted top-secret research in the old world.
With mixed feelings, everyone walked into this base that seemed to have been forgotten by time.
The internal emergency lights automatically lit up, and soft light illuminated the spacious main control hall.
In the center of the hall, there is a huge spherical computer with a diameter of more than ten meters.
Its surface was covered with complex light paths, but at this moment it was dim, and it had obviously stopped working long ago.
An ancient word is engraved on the base of the spherical computer.
GAIA.
“Gaia…”
Xu Tong whispered the name, his eyes full of awe.
In the legends of the old world, this is the name of the Mother Earth.
“There’s backup energy.”
Shattered Shadow operated the console for a few times and quickly found the startup path.
As he input his commands, backup energy sources flowed in along the underground cables.
A low, resonant sound rang out.
The light paths of the huge “Gaia” computer, which had been silent for who knows how many years, began to light up again one by one.
Finally, the entire sphere emitted a soft blue light, casting a deep blue hue on everyone’s face.
A video clip that was set to the highest priority automatically began playing without any instructions.
A holographic projection appeared in the air in the hall.
In the image was the familiar face of Horn Garcia.
But at this moment, he no longer had the enthusiasm in the archival photos. Instead, he was exhausted and solemn.
Behind him stood a group of people, who were top scientists in various fields in the old world.
Everyone had the same expression on their face.
“We… don’t have time.”
Horn Garcia’s voice was hoarse, but remarkably clear.
“Final analysis of data from the Deep Space Gravitational Lensing Array has confirmed an unavoidable… cosmic catastrophe.”
Behind him, the holographic image switched.
A vast starry sky map emerged.
A huge shadow, indescribable in words, is slowly moving at the edge of the star map.
It has no fixed form, like a flowing mass of darkness that swallows up light.
Wherever it passes, the light of the stars will dim rapidly in an irrational way until it is completely extinguished.
“We named it, ‘Star Predator.'”
“It’s not life as we understand it. It’s a higher-dimensional being that feeds on the planet’s ‘life source’.”
“Its target is the solar system.”
“Any resistance is meaningless in the face of it.”
These words, like an invisible hammer, hit everyone’s heart hard.
Shan’s hand holding the heavy machine gun was bulging with veins. He opened his mouth but couldn’t say a word.
The doomsday survival that we have always fought for seems so ridiculous and insignificant in the face of such a grand and irresistible cosmic disaster.
The image continues.
“Faced with this absolute threat, the Earth’s self-protection mechanism…was activated.”
“We call it, ‘Gaia’s Will.'”
“That is, the planet’s own survival instinct.”
There was a hint of pain in Horn Garcia’s eyes.
It makes an extreme choice.
“Actively releasing a primordial energy originating from deep within the Earth’s core, which we call ‘Mana’.”
“The purpose is to conduct a thorough and brutal formatting and screening of all life on Earth.”
Bai Yuekui’s body trembled violently.
“Mana ecology…is not simply destroyed.”
“Its true purpose is to transform and unify all life forms into a more powerful ‘new species’ capable of resisting the exploitation of ‘astronomical predators’.”
“And the Extreme Devouring Beast…”
“It’s just the failure and excrement of this cruel evolution.”
The truth, like the sharpest knife, cuts open the skin of the world and reveals the bloody inside.
They fought bloody battles against the enemy.
An enemy for whom they had sacrificed countless of their companions.
It turned out that this was a tragic self-rescue carried out by this planet in order to survive.
Horn Garcia’s expression in the video became more complicated.
“Gaia’s path is too cruel. It will wipe out something as fragile as ‘humanity’.”
“So I launched my ‘Angel Project.’
“I attempted to create a new path outside of Gaia’s will through the Angel Potion.”
“Creating ‘new humans’ who retain their humanity, adapt to new environments, and even… guide the Mana ecosystem.”
His gaze seemed to penetrate the barriers of time and space and fell on Bai Yuekui.
“And you, Bai Yuekui.”
“My most outstanding student, my only success.”
“You are the last hope I leave to this world.”
The image ends here.
The light of the “Gaia” computer slowly dimmed.
The entire main control hall fell into suffocating silence again.
Bai Yuekui stood there, motionless.
She was no longer a monster, no longer a key.
She became hope.
A shackle called “hope” that is ten thousand times heavier than monsters and keys.
“Unknown biological reaction! Hibernation chamber A-01 is about to be forcibly opened!”
The shrill alarm broke the silence without any warning.
A metal wall on the side of the hall slowly slid open.
Behind it is a hibernation chamber filled with cryogenic gas.
Click
The hatch opened and white cold air rushed out.
A figure in a white coat staggered out from inside.
He seemed to be still in a semi-sleepwalking state, with unsteady steps and a vacant look in his eyes.
But when everyone saw his face clearly, their pupils shrank to the extreme in an instant.
Gray hair, pale face.
It’s ASH!
wrong!
The ASH in front of him did not have any energy fluctuations belonging to the Mana ecosystem.
He is a pure, living human being.
An old-world scientist.
He seemed not to see the people in front of him, but just muttered to himself with all his strength, as if talking in a dream.
“Gaia… is out of control…”
“The ultimate result of its deduction…is self-destruction…”
“The ‘Divine Punishment’ program… has been activated…”
“It must be… stopped…”
After saying the last few words, his body went limp and he fell straight to the ground, falling into a deep coma.
In the hall, the only sound was the monotonous “beeping” sound of the alarm.
Everyone looked at each other, their minds blank.
Was the powerful, strange Ash they had encountered before, who treated humans like ants, just an energy clone? Or, in other words, his other side?
And this real human scientist ASH in front of him seems… to be fighting against Gaia’s will?
What is the “divine punishment” procedure?
New mysteries, like dark clouds, instantly enveloped everyone’s heart.
This world is more complicated and more desperate than they imagined.
Chapter 41: Double-Sided Ash, Divine Punishment Program (Old Version)
Everyone carried the unconscious man onto the armored vehicle.
This face is exactly the same as the Ash in my memory who regarded everything as chess pieces and coldly announced the end of mankind.
But at this moment, his body did not have any energy fluctuations of the Mana ecosystem, only the purest weakness and decay that belonged to humans.
Shan nudged the unconscious ASH with the muzzle of his gun and then used his fingers to check his breath, his face full of incomprehensible confusion.
“What the hell, twins?”
“One wants to kill us, and the other comes here to deliver information?”
No one could answer his question.
Bai Yuekui’s gaze fell on the sleeping scientist, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
She seemed to have guessed something.
Jingnan’s voice on the communicator broke the silence in the car, but the voice that was always calm and rational now carried a hint of uncontrollable urgency.
“Preliminary results from the system analysis of the base host ‘Gaia’.”
It s terrible.
“In its core instruction set, I found a highest-privilege instruction that is highly bound to Ash’s brainwave pattern.”
Jingnan paused, as if organizing her words to describe the discovery that shocked her.
“The system annotation is – ‘Divine Punishment Procedure’.”
“Divine punishment?”
Xu Tong’s expression changed.
“According to the fragmentary records in the system, this is the final measure prepared by Gaia’s will during the screening process to eliminate ‘high-threat abnormal individuals’.”
“Once activated, the global Mana ecosystem will work in concert, regardless of the cost, to produce… a ‘Law-level’ Extreme Devourer specifically designed to hunt down its target.”
Jingnan’s voice was filled with an unprecedented solemnity.
“Its strength will far exceed any enemy we have encountered before.”
“And now…”
“The only target of this program is you, Xu Bo.”
The air in the car froze instantly.
Everyone’s eyes were focused on the man who remained calm from beginning to end.
Bai Yuekui’s heart sank suddenly.
She looked at the unconscious scientist ASH, then at Xu Bo, and a terrible inference formed in her mind.
“ASH’s consciousness… may have split.”
“One is the ‘Son of Mana’ who follows Gaia’s will and ruthlessly carries out the selection.”
“another “
Her gaze fell back to the sleeping man’s face.
“It’s the scientist who has retained his humanity and wants to stop this.”
This inference makes the whole thing even more confusing and dangerous.
“Then what are you waiting for!”
Shan suddenly pointed the gun at the unconscious ASH.
“If we just kill this guy, wouldn’t the divine punishment process be terminated?”
“it’s useless.”
Xu Bo finally spoke.
“The program’s activation is tied to his brainwaves, but its operation is independently executed by Gaia.”
“Killing him will only deprive the program of its last chance of human intervention, and immediately enter an irreversible boot process.”
This is a dead end.
Killing is not allowed.
If he doesn’t kill him, the global Madi ecosystem is breeding a monster that was born specifically for him.
“so “
Xu Bo’s gaze shifted from the unconscious ASH’s face to the Mirror Flower and Water Moon in his hand.
“We have to find a way to terminate the program while he’s still ‘alive’.”
The corner of his mouth curled up in an arc that no one could understand.
“I want to go in.”
“Into his head.”
This crazy decision plunged the carriage into dead silence.
“no!”
Bai Yuekui was the first to react, his voice becoming shrill with excitement.
“You don’t know what’s inside his consciousness! It’s a black hole contaminated by Mana’s will. Once you enter it, you can never get out!”
She had just been pulled out of a nightmare in which her worldview collapsed by Xu Bo.
She couldn’t bear to watch him jump into another deeper, more unknown abyss.
“I have to go.”
Xu Bo’s eyes did not waver in the slightest.
It s the only way.
Inside his body, the [Broken Jade Prototype] awarded by the system was emitting a faint warmth.
This is the final piece of the puzzle to make this bold plan a reality.
Bai Yuekui wanted to say something, but looking at Xu Bo’s deep and calm eyes, all the words of dissuasion were stuck in his throat.
She knew she couldn’t stop him.
Just like she couldn’t stop the sun from rising or the tide from falling.
Before Xu Bo was about to start, a cold hand grabbed his wrist.
She didn’t say another word.
She just silently tied a small amulet woven from her own long silver hair on Xu Bo’s wrist.
The knot was woven with great care and in a clumsy way.
“It’s a custom among our people.”
Her voice was very soft, as if she was afraid of disturbing anything.
“It can protect the souls of those who travel far away.”
She raised her head, and her eyes, which had regained their brilliance, stared at Xu Bo intently.
“You must come back.”
Xu Bo held her hand with his backhand. The touch of the hair knot, with her body temperature, was extremely clear.
He made no promises, just nodded.
Then, he released his hand and gently pressed his palm on scientist ASH’s forehead.
The mirror flower and water moon were slowly lifted up.
“Shatter, mirror flowers and water moons.”
The liberation words were chanted softly, and the blade of the Zanpakuto emitted a soft humming sound, as if resonating with the will of its master.
At the same time, Xu Bo activated the [Broken Jade Prototype] in his body.
An indescribable huge energy that surpassed the scope of the spirit particle flowed along his arm and into the mirror flowers and water moons.
The next second, Xu Bo’s consciousness was suddenly pulled downward by a huge force.
The world before my eyes was instantly torn apart.
The reality was like a shattered mirror, turning into countless bizarre fragments, falling into the endless darkness.
His consciousness was dragged into a mental storm composed of cold data streams and crazy mutterings.
At the same moment he entered ASH’s consciousness.
Far away in the main control room of the new human home, Jingnan was staring at the huge light curtain projected by the “Gaia” host.
On the light screen, the originally static “Divine Punishment Program” instructions suddenly lit up in a dazzling red.
A line of cold countdown was forcibly activated without any warning.
?24:00:00?
Jingnan let out a cry of surprise.
The alarm in the main control room instantly rang throughout the base.
On the radar monitoring screen of another continental plate next to her, a huge and terrifying energy reaction that almost covered the entire Eurasian continent began to beat slowly like a heart.
Chapter 42: Deep Dive of Consciousness, Gaia’s Choice (Old Version)
Consciousness was forcibly dragged into a bottomless abyss.
The scene of the real world, like a mirror smashed by a sledgehammer, disintegrated into billions of optical fragments flashing with garbled codes, falling into eternal darkness.
The next second, Xu Bo found himself in a violent ocean of pure purple data.
This is ASH’s world of consciousness.
The storm is howling.
That was not the sound of the wind, but the final wail of countless souls before being devoured and assimilated by the Mana ecosystem.
Each stream of data carries a distorted, painful, and extremely desperate human face.
They screamed silently, stretched out their illusory arms made of garbled code, and grabbed Xu Bo, the only “foreign object”.
In the absolute center of this purple storm, there are two figures.
A man curled up on the ground, tied tightly by countless rusty thick iron chains, was scientist ASH, and there was only pure pain on his face.
The other one was suspended in mid-air, his body close yet distant from the entire ocean of data, as if he was the master of this storm.
His expression was that of a god looking down at an ant: extreme indifference without any impurities.
“Son of Mana” ASH.
He found Xu Bo.
“Intruder.”
These two words, without any ups and downs, echoed throughout the entire spiritual world.
Following his will, the raging ocean of data set off huge waves.
The outlines of countless extreme beasts emerged in the purple waves. They were made up of the purest hatred and madness. They roared and pounced on Xu Bo from all directions, trying to tear his consciousness apart, devour it, and turn it into part of this ocean.
Xu Bo just stood there quietly.
He didn’t even look at the monsters coming towards him.
He just raised the mirror flower and water moon in his hand.
An invisible and absolutely isolated area, with him as the center, suddenly unfolded.
All the extreme beasts that pounced on the edge of the field were silently decomposed the moment they came into contact with the field, transformed into the most primitive data streams, and dissipated in the storm.
There is no point in fighting here.
His goal is to awaken the bound soul.
He took a step forward and walked towards ASH, the scientist at the center of the storm.
Every step is extremely difficult.
The terrifying mental shock, like a physical hammer, hit his defense area again and again, causing ripples.
The negative emotions of billions of souls converged into a torrent that could cause the mind to collapse instantly, and it madly impacted his mind.
At this moment, the [Broken Jade Prototype] on his chest began to emit a faint warmth that only he could sense.
Those mental shocks that were enough to contaminate everything were quickly absorbed and transformed by this warm power the moment they flowed into his body.
Eventually, it turned into a purer energy used to protect his own consciousness.
He came closer and closer.
Finally, he saw clearly that what bound scientist ASH were not real chains.
Those are shackles made up of concrete emotions.
Words like “guilt,” “despair,” “powerlessness,” and “betrayal” flashed on it.
Xu Bo’s fingertips lightly touched one of the chains.
A memory that did not belong to him suddenly flooded into his mind.
It was a bright laboratory. A woman in a white coat and with a gentle smile handed ASH a cup of warm coffee.
The scene changed, and the woman looked at ASH in horror. Behind her, the mana ecosystem was pouring in crazily.
And ASH just turned around indifferently and closed the isolation gate with his own hands.
He sacrificed his love to Gaia.
Just in exchange for the “authority” to continue research.
This is the root of the division.
This guilt, which is enough to crush anyone, made him create another self.
An absolutely rational and cold God who can give up all “self” for the “great process”.
“You saw it.”
Ash, the “Son of Mana” who was suspended in the air, spoke, his voice without a trace of emotion.
“Sacrifice is the only way to evolve.”
“Her death made it possible for the continuation of the human race. This was her honor.”
“What you call struggle is nothing but the ridiculous self-satisfaction of inferior creatures.”
Xu Bo withdrew his finger.
He didn’t argue or try to persuade.
He just looked at the high and mighty “God” with the eyes of a clown.
Then, he aimed the mirrored flowers and water moon at the purple sky filled with despair and wailing.
“Watch carefully.”
“This is the third answer I gave.”
The ability of Mirror Flower and Water Moon was activated.
The entire purple sky was like a torn curtain.
Instead, there are real and vibrant pictures.
That was the home he named “New World”.
The survivors were no longer pale and thin, and their faces were filled with long-lost, heartfelt smiles.
Children ran and played on the rebuilt streets. They had never seen such bright sunshine.
Jingnan stood in the brand new control room, looking at the technology that surpassed the Lighthouse by several eras, with a light called “hope” flashing in his eyes.
Shan and Xu Tong are leading a new team of scavengers, using the methods taught by Xu Bo to efficiently and safely purify small groups of extreme beasts.
At the end of the scene, it froze on Bai Yuekui’s face.
She stood on the high wall, gazing into the distance, her long silver hair fluttering in the wind.
There was no longer any confusion or pain in her eyes, only an unprecedented determination and sharpness.
These images, like beams of the brightest light, pierce through the eternal darkness.
Scientist Ash, who was curled up on the ground, slowly raised his head.
A faint light appeared in his dead eyes.
The emotional shackles that bound him began to make subtle crackling sounds.
Ash, the “Son of Mana” who was suspended in the air, had a cold face that had remained unchanged for thousands of years, but for the first time, it showed a severe distortion.
His body, which had merged into the ocean of data, began to fluctuate violently.
“No… this is impossible!”
“Such a fragile, meaningless emotion…”
“It is the cancer of evolution!”
Just when scientist ASH was about to break free.
An indescribable will, like absolute zero, descended upon this spiritual world without any warning.
The entire ocean of data suddenly stopped.
All the wailing, all the storms, were forcibly erased at this moment.
A cold, unisex voice, as vast as the universe itself, echoed in Xu Bo’s consciousness.
“An anomaly.”
“Your presence interferes with the ‘great process’.”
“Your so-called hope will only lead to more complete destruction.”
“Now, choose.”
“Accept ‘Divine Punishment’ and disappear from this world.”
“or “
“I will alert the Predator to this coordinate in advance.”
Far beyond the solar system in the endless space.
An eye larger than a galaxy, filled with strange pupils, that cannot be described by any known laws of physics.
Slowly, opened.
Its destructive gaze spanned an incalculable distance and was cast towards the blue planet.
Chapter 43 Music Box of Memory (Old Version)
Facing the “Captain Yamamoto” constructed by his mind, Xu Bo did not choose to confront him head-on.
He didn’t even strike the Shikai stance.
The storm of raging flames had begun to distort the surrounding data space. The burning sensation, which was enough to burn everything, almost ignited people’s souls.
Xu Bo just calmly raised the Mirror Flower and Water Moon in his hand.
He did not weave any illusions that would be mistaken for the real thing.
That’s too low-level.
This time, what he wants to deceive is “existence” itself.
The ability of Mirror Flowers and Water Moons is like a drop of invisible ink, quietly dripping into the other party’s cognitive core.
“Swastika: Can Huo Tai Sword!”
The construct roared in a manner identical to that in memory, and a terrifying spiritual pressure erupted.
However, the flames that were enough to reduce the world to ashes did not spread outward at all.
It just burned madly on the structure itself.
The construct’s “cognition” has been tampered with.
It firmly believes that what it releases is harmless warm energy used to heal itself.
Therefore, at the moment when it mobilized its strongest power, it completely burned the foundation of its own existence.
That majestic figure, in the extreme flames, silently transformed into a golden data stream flying all over the sky, and then collapsed and dissipated.
This huge mental shock caused the entire heart-level maze to shake violently for a moment.
The “Son of Mana”‘s absolute control over this place was briefly relaxed.
Now is the time!
Xu Bo’s figure turned into a shadow, following the faint sound of the music box, and rushed into the depths of the library.
He passed through countless collapsed bookshelves, dodging fragments of memories that had become violent due to disordered control.
He could feel that he was moving at high speed towards an area full of “personal” and “emotional” information.
Finally, he stopped.
The sound of the music box became clearly audible here, like a fragile thread, pulling him through the final chaos. Before him was a door sealed by countless layers of black chains.
These chains were not metal; they were like solidified shadows, their surfaces covered with vague, distorted faces of pain. The chains themselves were slightly wriggling, emitting a malice that could chill the very bone marrow.
Behind the door, the faint, almost completely isolated melody is the only warmth belonging to “human” in this cold world of data.
Xu Bo didn’t cut the chain. He just reached out and gently pushed the door.
Crack.
With a soft sound, the chains, symbols of confinement and fear, broke at the touch, turning into black dust that fell to the ground. The mental storm that had just incinerated “Captain Yamamoto” had not only shaken the maze’s foundations, but also shattered the defenses its owner had set for himself.
The door hinge turned, making a long creaking sound.
What hits you is no longer the coldness of the data stream, but a warmth mixed with the smell of milk powder, old wood and sunshine.
Inside the door is a nursery filled with warmth.
Worn wooden floors, faded animal stickers on the walls, a wooden horse standing quietly in the corner, its eyes still reflecting the smile of a child from the past. A small crib was placed by the window, and the music box above the bed was still turning tirelessly, playing the lullaby.
Everything here is incompatible with this logically supreme maze of the heart. This is the softest and deepest place in Ash’s memory.
Xu Bo’s gaze swept across the room and finally stopped at the darkest corner.
The shadows there seemed to come alive, peeling away from the corners of the wall and slowly gathering into shape.
It has no fixed form, sometimes extending spider-like limbs, sometimes bulging into a mass of flesh with countless eyes, and sometimes stretching into a gaunt, featureless humanoid outline. It is like a collection of all childhood nightmares, condensed from the most primitive and irrational fears.
What guards here is no longer a logically rigorous structure, but a monster made of pure darkness.
Huh
It let out a low growl. The sound didn’t travel through the air, but exploded directly in Xu Bo’s mind. In an instant, the forgotten childhood fear of darkness, the panic of loneliness, was forcibly awakened, flooding his consciousness like an icy tide.
Xu Bo’s breathing became barely noticeable.
He looked at the monster that kept changing its form, trying to show all the horrors in the world, and suddenly felt a little funny. He didn’t even raise the knife.
“That’s it?” He whispered, as if asking it, or perhaps talking to himself, “I thought it was something extraordinary.”
The monster seemed to be enraged by his reaction, its form changing more violently and its roaring becoming more frantic.
Xu Bo shook his head, an expression almost of pity on his face.
Fear is the least effective emotion and the easiest to twist into a toy.
Real world.
The outermost edge of the New World Base.
The sirens had already grown hoarse.
On all the surveillance screens, there was only a dazzling snowflake.
A huge, absolutely smooth black sphere was hovering outside the base.
It is not any known form of the Devourer.
It’s more like a two-dimensional hole in a three-dimensional world.
It is moving slowly.
There was no sound, no energy fluctuations.
Wherever it passed, whether it was a solid alloy defense wall or a thick geological rock formation, it was silently “deleted”.
It’s not about destruction or decomposition, but about the concept of existence being completely wiped out from this world.
?Eraser of Cause and Effect?.
Its first energy node has arrived.
Inside the medical carriage.
The air was as oppressive as solidified lead.
Bai Yuekui stared closely at the scientist ASH who was lying in the life support device with a painful expression on his face.
She could feel that Xu Bo was going through an unimaginable hard battle.
It was a resonance at the soul level that made her heart ache.
She subconsciously reached out her hand and gently pressed it on scientist ASH’s forehead.
She didn’t know why she did that.
Maybe I just want to share something.
The moment her palms touched, a strange energy flowed out of her body.
That unique affinity that belonged to her, which was completely different from the Mana ecology but had a certain homology, unexpectedly penetrated into the depths of ASH’s consciousness through this contact.
Heart maze.
In front of the nursery door.
The terrifying monster made of pure darkness was roaring silently at Xu Bo.
Just when it was about to pounce.
A pure white butterfly appeared out of thin air and flew into this dark and depressing space.
The butterfly’s wings exude a warm and peaceful atmosphere.
The dark monster seemed to have seen some natural enemy, and all its brutality and madness froze instantly.
All its attention was attracted by the little butterfly.
Xu Bo seized this opportunity.
He flashed past the stunned guards and pushed open the door to the core memory.
The scene behind the door shocked him.
This is a room frozen in time.
Young ASH was kneeling on the carpet, his face covered in tears.
In his little hands, he held a broken music box.
He was trying to fix it in a clumsy and desperate way.
The familiar melody came intermittently from the music box.
This is where it all started.
The broken music box given by the mother is the core and metaphorical control center of the “Divine Punishment Program”.
Sudden.
A tall figure appeared in this memory.
“Son of Mana”.
This time, it transformed into ASH’s father with a stern expression and cold eyes.
He looked down at the crying young ASH, his voice devoid of warmth.
“Crying won’t solve anything.”
“Emotion is the greatest flaw of intelligent life.”
As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and grabbed the broken music box fiercely.
He wanted to completely smash this thing that represented “emotion” and “weakness”!
Chapter 44 Broken Melody (Old Version)
At that moment, Xu Bo moved.
His figure did not bring up a trace of wind, as if with just a thought, he moved out of thin air in front of young ASH.
Facing this “strict father” constructed by cold logic, any physical attack becomes meaningless.
Xu Bo simply pressed his palm lightly on the void in front of him.
For the first time, the [Broken Jade Prototype] in his body responded to his will without any system instructions.
Not to destroy, not to conquer.
But for protection.
An invisible yet indestructible force suddenly unfolded with his palm as the center.
That was not a barrier formed by spiritual pressure, nor was it a binding technique formed by ghost way.
That’s a shield.
A shield of will, embodied by a child’s pure desire to protect his only treasure.
“Bang–!”
“Father’s” hand, which was strong enough to crush steel, slammed heavily on the invisible shield.
There was no explosion of energy, only two completely opposite wills, making a deafening collision in the spiritual world.
The Shield of Will trembled violently, and ripples appeared on its surface like water waves, but there was no sign of breaking.
It successfully blocked it.
For the first time, a trace of fluctuation like chaotic data appeared on the cold and unchanging face of “father”.
“A boring pile of emotions.”
The cold voice echoed throughout the space.
True strength lies in completely erasing weakness, not wrapping it in something even more fragile.
“Yeah?”
Xu Bo raised his eyes, his gaze penetrating the majestic disguise and looking directly at the cold core of the “Son of Mana” behind it.
“How can a program that can’t even face up to its own past be qualified to talk about being strong?”
He didn’t try to preach.
He just passed on a thought directly.
True integration is not deletion, but acceptance.
Logical fallacy.
Emotions are holes in the system and must be formatted.
The “Son of Mana” remained unmoved and increased its power output.
A silent tug-of-war begins.
On one side of the tug-of-war is the “Son of Mana”, who represents absolute rationality and the law of evolution.
On the other side was Xu Bo, and the remaining consciousness of scientist ASH, who was curled up behind him and emitting a faint candlelight-like light.
The center of their dispute was the broken music box.
The outermost defense line of the New World Base can no longer be called a defense line.
More black spheres arrived silently.
Like a group of silent patrols, they advanced towards the core of the base at a constant, heart-pounding speed.
“Fire! Fire!”
Shan stood in the temporary command center, his eyes red, and roared into the communicator.
Countless high-energy particle cannons, trailing dazzling tails of flame, roared out from various preset positions.
Heavy machine guns spewed out dense metal bullets, weaving a web of death in the air.
However, everything disappeared the moment it came into contact with those black spheres.
Not being blocked, not being evaporated.
Just disappear.
A high-speed rotating armor-piercing projectile, at the moment it was about to hit the target, along with its flight trajectory and the sonic boom it caused, were all “deleted”.
As if it had never been launched.
It was as if this space was originally nothingness.
A young soldier took a step back in fear, his heel accidentally touching the edge of a black sphere.
He didn’t scream.
His entire body, along with the terrified expression on his face, was wiped off, leaving behind a cut as smooth as a mirror.
Despair, like the deepest sea, drowned everyone.
The world of consciousness.
A drop of cold sweat broke out on Xu Bo’s forehead.
He could feel that the other party was mobilizing the computing power of the entire Heart-Level Maze to crush his insignificant resistance.
The ripples on the Shield of Will became more and more rapid, as if they would collapse at any moment.
This can’t go on any longer.
In a pure battle of wills, he couldn’t possibly defeat a super AI connected to a planet’s database.
The rules must be changed.
An extremely crazy idea flashed through his mind.
He made a decision that even the “Son of Mana” could not have anticipated.
He changed the target of [Mirror Flower Water Moon]’s hypnosis from the enemy to…
The music box itself.
A crisp sound, like the sound of broken ceramics, resounded throughout the memory space.
In the perception of the “Son of Mana”, the shield of will was finally crushed by its powerful logical force field.
Its hand passed through unhindered and grasped the music box tightly.
Then, give it a firm squeeze.
The music box, along with the broken melody inside, turned into dust.
The roots of “weakness” and “emotion” have been completely erased.
Victory.
Children of Mana came to a conclusion.
It immediately shifted all its computing power away from the pile of meaningless powder and turned it towards Xu Bo.
Now, it’s time to remove this “virus” that has invaded your system.
However, it did not see.
In its blind spot of perception, the “breakage” itself is a grand and perfect illusion.
Authentic music box, in mint condition.
Its control has changed hands.
Xu Bo’s fingertips gently rested on the music box.
He set out to “fix” it.
This is not a physical repair, but a logical completion.
At this moment, the remaining flame of consciousness representing scientist ASH seemed to sense something.
It burned on its own, turning into warm streams of light, flowing towards Xu Bo.
One after another, the dusty memory codes belonging to “people” began to open up to Xu Bo.
That was the silhouette of my mother mending clothes under the lamp.
It was a warm kiss on the forehead before bed.
That was the lullaby that was hummed softly in my ears on countless nights.
These warm emotional fragments turned into beating notes and were re-filled into the broken melody by Xu Bo.
The “Son of Mana” realized something in an instant.
It was cheated!
An unprecedented “anger” caused by a pure logical error caused the entire Heart Level Maze to tremble violently.
“Warning: High-risk logic virus detected.”
“Initiate… Final Clearance Protocol.”
It abandoned all the elaborate procedures of deportation.
It chose the most brutal and effective way.
Collapse.
Let the entire mental maze, this spiritual world constructed by countless memories and logic, collapse infinitely towards the central point.
It wanted to crush Xu Bo, along with the memory that was about to be restored, into a spiritual singularity.
Let it return to absolute nothingness.
Rumble
Enormous pressure is surging in from all directions, from the past and the future, and from every gap in the data stream.
The ceiling was peeling and the floor was cracking.
Everything around was twisting and stretching, being pulled towards the center by an irresistible force.
Xu Bo felt that his consciousness was about to be torn apart by this force.
He knew that he only had a few seconds left.
Chapter 45: Disobeying the Divine Punishment (Old Version)
The singularity of the collapsed mind maze swallows up all light and logic.
At the core of this devastating mental storm, Xu Bo’s will never gave in.
The [Broken Jade Prototype] in his body burst out with unprecedented light. It was not spiritual power, but a pure “willpower”.
An invisible field suddenly expanded with him as the center, isolating the raging data torrent and distorted memory fragments.
This small space became the only quiet island in the eye of the storm.
The dying flame of scientist ASH’s consciousness found a moment’s respite in this area, swaying faintly.
Xu Bo’s fingertips had already touched the cold music box.
He did not try to break its complex mana restrictions, nor did he use brute force to destroy it.
He re-wove pieces of warm memories belonging to “people”, those fragments that were regarded as redundant data by the “Son of Mana”, into the melody core of the music box.
The last instruction was not “stop”.
It was a gentle lullaby melody, coming from deep in Ash’s memory, the humming of his mother.
This instruction, like a precise logical key, was inserted into the lowest-level control module of the “Divine Punishment Program”.
It did not cause any system errors or trigger any defense mechanisms.
It bypasses all high-level permission barriers and directly modifies the program’s most fundamental “target parameters.”
Inside the medical cabin of the New World Base, the unconscious scientist ASH suddenly twitched violently.
Two completely different, yet strangely overlapping sounds came from his throat.
One is the scientist himself screaming with boundless terror.
The other was the rare confusion and chaotic noise in the cold voice of the “Son of Mana”.
“Target… recalibration…”
“Threat level…MAX…”
“locking “
Gaia Core!
Before he finished speaking, the black [Eraser of Cause and Effect] energy nodes all over the world, which were advancing with unstoppable momentum, came to an abrupt halt at the same moment.
They remained still for less than a thousandth of a second.
Then, all the black spheres suddenly changed direction as if they had received a unified command from some higher will.
They rushed madly towards the huge “Gaia” main brain energy source marked by Jingnan on the radar map at a terrifying speed far exceeding their previous speed, which almost covered the entire Eurasian continental plate!
In Xu Bo’s mind, the spiritual message of “Son of Mana” mixed with disbelief and rage rang out.
“You changed the target of divine punishment! Lowly creature, what have you done?!”
Although Xu Bo’s consciousness was weak, a faint curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“It’s simple. I gave it an irresistible ‘optimal solution’.”
He successfully forced this highly intelligent program into a fatal logical dead loop.
Or, it can watch helplessly as these ultimate weapons, which it regards as “divine punishment,” destroy the “master” it serves – Gaia consciousness.
Otherwise, it must manually terminate this highest-authority program that it has no right to stop or even interfere with.
There is no third option.
For the first time, the computing core of the “Son of Mana” showed signs of overload.
Its existence itself is to carry out Gaia’s will and protect the “great process” of Mana ecology.
To destroy Gaia is to deny the meaning of one’s own existence.
To stop divine punishment is to go against Gaia’s will directly.
The calculation of weighing the pros and cons is completed within a billionth of a second.
It chose the latter.
An order meaning “abort” was forcibly issued by the “Son of Mana”, overriding the execution logic of the “Divine Punishment Program”.
In an instant, the mana energy structure that maintained the stable operation of all the [Eraser of Causality] energy nodes around the world that were rushing towards Gaia’s core at high speed suddenly became unstable.
They are like balloons that are popped at the same time.
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only pure, most primitive, and most violent mana energy gushed out from those black spheres, losing all restraints.
Xu Bo felt that his consciousness was suddenly pushed out of ASH’s heart-level maze by an irresistible mental explosion.
He suddenly opened his eyes, his chest heaving violently, gasping for breath, and his forehead was covered with fine beads of cold sweat.
In the main control room of the base, in the center of the huge holographic screen, the scarlet countdown of the “Divine Punishment Program” stopped forever at [12:47:13].
Shan and the other researchers burst into cheers of survival and hugged each other excitedly.
Bai Yuekui rushed to Xu Bo’s side immediately and supported his shaky body, his beautiful eyes filled with worry and concern.
“How are you?”
There was a barely perceptible tremor in her voice.
Xu Bo waved his hands, indicating that he was fine, just exhausted.
His eyes, however, were fixed on the out-of-control mana energy data stream on the main screen.
The huge energy generated by the explosion of those terminated [Cause Eraser] energy nodes did not disappear out of thin air.
They lost their goal and their restraints, and began to converge spontaneously like rivers flowing into the sea.
Waves of primitive mana energy, filled with corruption and destruction, quickly condensed in every corner of the planet, forming an unprecedented torrent of terror.
Jingnan’s face was pale as he pointed at an energy reaction zone on the radar screen that was rapidly forming and covering half the planet. His voice was distorted with fear.
“What…what is that?”
On the screen, a “giant wave” composed of pure corrupted energy, whose vastness is difficult to describe in words, has taken shape.
It covered the sky and the sun, stretching endlessly, and was sweeping towards the last human base where they were with unmatched power.
It was an unprecedented “Mana Tsunami”.
Inside the medical cabin, scientist ASH’s body fell completely still.
Although his vital signs were weak, they finally stabilized.
Xu Bo won this extremely dangerous spiritual battle and successfully terminated the “Divine Punishment Program”.
He saved Ash and temporarily saved the world.
However, what he personally brought upon himself was a more direct, purer, and more destructive physical disaster.
The cheers in the control room suddenly stopped.
The joy and relief that had just appeared on everyone’s face were instantly replaced by a deeper despair.
They seemed to be able to hear the roar of the invisible waves hitting the void and feel the chilling chill that could swallow everything.
The real doomsday seems to have just begun.
Chapter 46: Frozen Calamity (Old Version)
In the main control room, cheers of survival just erupted, but were strangled by dead silence the next second.
Jingnan’s voice came through the public channel, but due to the overloaded signal and extreme shock, it had been distorted beyond human form.
“Detected… a super-large-scale energy aggregate!”
“Moving towards the base at three times the speed of sound!”
“Expected arrival… in nine minutes!”
Every word she said was like a heavy hammer, shattering everyone’s newly risen hope.
On the holographic screen, the “ocean” formed by the uncontrolled mana energy could no longer be described by any meteorological terms.
It is a roaring wall connecting heaven and earth. Wherever it passes, the earth is corrupted and space is distorted.
Jingnan’s analysis report followed closely, and every word was as cold as a tombstone.
“Any physical shelter is pointless.”
“Its energy level is enough to completely rewrite all matter within a thousand miles, at the genetic level…”
This is not an attack.
This is an unavoidable cleansing of “existence” itself.
Next to the medical vehicle, Bai Yuekui’s body began to tremble violently and uncontrollably.
The power within her body, the “key”, resonated with this devastating tsunami to an unprecedented degree.
A sharp pain that felt like her soul was being torn out alive spread along every nerve in her body.
But she didn’t back down.
The severe pain instead made her beautiful ice-blue eyes burn with an even more resolute light.
Clang
The Tang sword was unsheathed, she held the sword in her backhand and used her body to protect the medical vehicle carrying ASH.
Even if it’s meaningless.
Even if it’s like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
She wants to stand here too.
Amidst the chaos and despair, Xu Bo’s figure appeared exceptionally calm.
He gave no orders to retreat or defend.
Under everyone’s horrified gaze, he walked out of the base’s thin energy shield alone, step by step.
He walked towards the roaring wave of energy that seemed to swallow up the entire world.
“What is he going to do?!”
Shan’s voice was hoarse and filled with incomprehensible madness.
Xu Bo did not respond.
Inside the control room, Shan’s voice was hoarse and distorted with incomprehension, his clenched fists white with knuckles. “Is he crazy? Walking out there expecting to be instantly vaporized?”
No one answered him. Everyone’s gaze was fixed on the holographic screen, on the figure standing alone facing the end of the world. That figure, before the massive energy wall connecting heaven and earth, seemed as small as a speck of dust, ready to be crushed at any moment.
Beside the medical cart, Bai Yuekui’s excruciating pain intensified as the distance shortened, the resonance threatening to rip her consciousness apart. But her gaze, past the blur of tears, remained fixed on Xu Bo. She didn’t understand, but the power known as the “key” bubbling from the depths of her soul, beyond the excruciating pain, exerted a strange pull on the man.
The strong wind blew up sand and gravel, which slammed into the energy shield with a dull thud. Xu Bo’s clothes rustled in the wind. His spiritual power had been nearly depleted in the previous spiritual battle, but he had no intention of using the remaining flames.
He just raised his right hand calmly.
Above the palm of his hand, the space silently caved inward, then twisted slightly, and a brand new long sword was pulled out inch by inch.
It wasn’t the ancient, heavy style of Ryujin Jakka, nor the dazzling sharpness of Senbonzakura. The blade was as crystal clear as a thousand-year-old ice crystal, reflecting a chilling light in the sunlight. The handle was a clear light blue, and attached to the end was a dragon-tail-like chain that swayed gently in the strong wind.
The moment it appeared, an extreme chill that seemed to be able to freeze the soul spread out with Xu Bo as the center!
In the main control room, a shrill alarm rang out again. Jingnan stared intently at the newly emerged data model, his voice trembling unnoticed. “A new high-density energy source has been detected! Stable, pure… Oh my god, it’s neutralizing the mana erosion around us!”
On the screen, with Xu Bo as the center of the circle, the dark layer on the ground that symbolized corruption was fading like a tide, replaced by a thin layer of white frost.
[Ding! A world-class crisis has been detected. A corrective action plan has been issued.][The strongest Zanpakuto of the ice and snow type Hyorinmaru. ]“This system is quite good at picking the right time.” Xu Bo chuckled in his heart. The moment he grasped the hilt of the knife, a clear and lofty will flowed into his mind along his arm, instantly soothing his mental fatigue.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he gripped the knife with both hands, turned the tip of Hyorinmaru upside down, and aimed it at the solid ground beneath his feet.
Then, gently insert it.
The moment the words fell, there was no earth-shattering noise, only a crisp sound like ice crystals breaking.
A solid column of icy blue light shot up into the sky, piercing directly through the thick clouds! With the blade as its center, a visible layer of white ice spread at an exponential rate. The earth trembled and cracked, and from the cracks spewed not magma, but pure, extreme cold air!
Xu Bo raised his head and faced the mana tsunami that had covered the entire sky, and cold steam overflowed from his lips.
“Daicun Hyorinmaru.”
“Daicun Hyorinmaru!”
There was no roar of an ice dragon.
There is no bloom of ice and snow.
With him as the center, the temperature of the entire world suddenly dropped to absolute zero in one thousandth of a second.
The water vapor in the air instantly condensed into the tiniest ice crystals, reflecting the eerie green light of the doomsday tsunami.
Immediately afterwards, an unimaginably huge hemispherical ice wall made of extremely cold ice rose up in front of him.
It is as smooth as a mirror, stretching across the sky, as if dividing the world into two.
On one side is roaring destruction.
On the other side, there is absolute stillness.
The devastating Mana tsunami finally hit the ice wall.
The expected earth-shattering explosion did not happen.
There was no deafening roar either.
The violent, disordered mana energy that was enough to rewrite everything seemed to be paused the moment it touched the ice wall.
The entire destruction became silent.
That ice wall was not a solid object for defense at all.
It is a “phase gate”.
It forcibly collided with the mana energy and underwent an incredible “phase change”.
The high-energy, gaseous, violent energy, its existence form was instantly “frozen”.
It directly condenses from a form that destroys everything into a stable, harmless solid “crystal”.
The tsunami is still moving forward.
But it is no longer a wave of destruction.
It passed through the huge ice wall and turned into a breathtakingly beautiful, grand crystal rain.
The tsunami passed through.
The world was not destroyed.
When the ice wall quietly dissipated, everyone stared at the scene in front of them in a daze, forgetting to breathe.
The land within a radius of a thousand miles is covered by a thick layer of “Mana Crystal” that emits a faint blue light.
Each piece of crystal is crystal clear, and it seems to seal a small starry sky inside.
Natural disasters were transformed into huge resources that were enough to allow the new world to step into a new era.
Xu Bo stood in the center of the crystal world, knife in hand.
The base behind him fell into dead silence.
Everyone had their mouths open, their minds were blank, and they had completely lost the ability to think.
They had just witnessed a miracle.
Deep inside the base, inside the medical cabin.
A crystal teardrop silently slipped from the corner of the tightly closed eye of ASH, a scientist who had been in a coma.
No one noticed this detail.
No one noticed.
On the “Gaia” host that fell silent due to the termination of the “Divine Punishment Program”.
The cold screen lights up quietly.
A new line of instructions slowly emerged with a logic devoid of any emotion.
?mistake.?
?Exogenous ‘key’ intervention detected.?
[Initiating countermeasures ][Codename: Shepherd.]Chapter 47 The Shepherd and the Out-of-Control Flock (Old Version)
An extreme beauty brings about an extreme silence.
The land within a radius of a thousand miles is covered with a thick layer of dark blue mana crystal.
Each piece of crystal is so clear that it is unlike any other ordinary object, with tiny starlight sealed inside, as if the entire galaxy was crushed and spread across this traumatized land.
In the control room, the cheers of those who survived the disaster had long since disappeared.
They had just witnessed a miracle that could not be explained by any scientific logic.
However, this miracle of tranquility lasted less than ten seconds.
“boom–“
The earth began to shake.
It was not the roar of a tsunami, but a dull, teeth-grinding drumbeat coming from deep within the earth.
“What is that?”
Shan was the first to wake up from his trance. He stared at the red alerts that kept popping up on the holographic screen.
Everyone’s attention was instantly brought back to reality.
On the beautiful crystal land, the hard crystal layer was pushed up from below by huge forces, and then with a “crack”, it shattered.
One after another, ferocious and unprecedented creatures broke out of the ground.
Their appearance still retains the outline of the Extreme Beast, but the surface of their body is no longer covered with a bony shell, but a kind of tissue similar to a biological alloy with a metallic cold light.
Countless dark green energy pipelines, like twisted blood vessels, are spread throughout their bodies, leading directly to the wildly beating hearts exposed outside the body.
These are brand new extreme beasts.
It is the backup plan activated by the Gaia system after the “Divine Punishment Program” fails.
“Prepare for battle!”
Shan’s voice was hoarse, but this time, there was a hint of confidence in his command.
After witnessing the scene of destruction and miracle, they developed an almost blind trust in the man standing in the center of the crystal world.
But what happened next once again overturned their cognition.
Those new types of extreme beasts turned a blind eye to the human base that was so close to them.
There was no trace of desire to kill in their scarlet compound eyes.
There is only one kind of pure and extreme…hunger.
They rushed towards the mana crystals scattered on the ground like crazy, opened their huge mouths full of sharp teeth, and started to chew them.
Crack! Crack!
The crisp chewing sound was particularly harsh in the silent battlefield.
Every time they swallow a crystal, their bodies undergo a drastic mutation visible to the naked eye.
Some grew sharper bone blades on their backs, some had limbs that became thicker and more powerful, and the biological alloys on their body surfaces became thicker.
They are having a feast.
A crazy evolution that feeds on the energy of the entire world.
Jingnan’s face turned even paler than when he faced the Mana Tsunami just now.
“No…we can’t let them continue.”
“The energy reaction of these extreme beasts is increasing exponentially!”
“In another five minutes, their average energy level will surpass any elite-level Extreme Devouring Beast we know of!”
This is an even more desperate situation.
Although the natural disaster just now was terrifying, it was eventually stopped.
But right now, right under their noses, an endless army of super monsters is being born, and they are constantly strengthening themselves.
At this moment, a slender figure slowly approached from the end of the horizon.
It looks like a human, wearing a simple gray robe, but its steps reveal an unnatural, precise rhythm like a pendulum.
The distance of each step, the angle of each foot lift and landing, are exactly the same, with an eerie precision.
It moves very slowly.
But all the extreme beasts that were frantically gnawing on the crystals and undergoing wild evolution stopped the moment it approached.
They took the initiative to make way and lowered their proud heads, as if welcoming their king.
It is the Shepherd.
[Shepherd] has no facial features, its face is a smooth, porcelain-like surface.
It stopped in front of the mutant army that had already begun to take shape.
It did not issue any attack commands.
It simply “opened its mouth” slightly, and from deep within its body, it emitted a low hum that seemed to resonate directly with the soul.
The humming sound was like an ancient ballad.
Under this song, the group of extreme beasts that were originally in chaos and fighting each other instantly became orderly.
Their evolutionary directions also began to converge.
Some grew huge energy barrels, some specialized in heavy defensive armor, and some became lighter and grew sharp blade wings on their backs.
A terrorist army with clear division of labor and tacit cooperation was formed in just a few tens of seconds.
But this humming song, which is like a hymn to the Extreme Beast, is the ultimate torture to another person.
Ugh !
Next to the medical vehicle, Bai Yuekui suddenly let out a scream of pain and fell to the ground uncontrollably.
The song, like a red-hot iron spike, pierced deep into her soul.
That is a highest authority command for mana energy.
It was forcibly seizing control of the “key” power within her body.
Her body is being forcibly “formatted”.
“Boss Bai!”
Shan and others in the distance cried out in surprise, but were powerless to do anything.
The Shepherd’s smooth face slowly turned towards Bai Yuekui, who was kneeling on the ground in pain.
It completely ignored Xu Bo, who had the strongest aura and had just created a miracle not far away.
In its logical judgment, no matter how strong Xu Bo is, he is just a high-energy “physical unit”.
Bai Yuekui is the “system vulnerability” with the highest priority that needs to be recovered.
It raised its arm and pointed at Bai Yuekui from afar.
The newly formed Extreme Beast Army immediately received orders.
Thousands of scarlet compound eyes turned at the same time and locked onto the white figure kneeling on the ground.
The goal is clear – to recover the keys.
Amidst the earth-shaking roar, the mutant army charged towards Bai Yuekui like a flood.
The earth wailed under their iron hooves.
However, the moment they start.
A figure appeared without any warning between the legion and Bai Yuekui.
It s Xu Bo.
He didn’t even draw his knife.
He just stood there calmly, alone, facing the army of monsters that was enough to flatten everything.
There was no emotion in his eyes, as if what was rushing towards him was not the Legion of Doom, but a group of insignificant ants.
He raised his hand, not to attack.
Just gently put your index finger and middle finger together and hold them in front of your lips.
Then, in a voice almost as loud as a whisper, he softly uttered a word of liberation.
An invisible force that could not be detected by any instrument, with him as the center, instantly swept across the entire battlefield.
Completely hypnotic, activated.
Xu Bo did not create any unnecessary illusions.
There was no sea of fire, no mountain of swords, and not even a grain of sand had changed its position.
He simply added an extremely simple “fact” to the entire Extreme Beast Army’s fanatical and chaotic “cognition” dominated by mana energy.
A distorted “truth”.
[Your true master, the “foreign object” that needs to be eliminated and recycled…]It is this.
In an instant.
Time seemed to stand still.
The mutant army, which was charging forward with great momentum, stopped in unison less than a hundred meters away from Xu Bo.
Their scarlet compound eyes turned collectively.
He passed Xu Bo’s figure and locked onto the “Shepherd” behind them who was still in a commanding posture.
The flock of sheep turned their guns around.
“roar!!!”
A roar even more violent and bloodthirsty than before erupted from the depths of the Legion’s throat.
They have found a new “enemy”.
The next second, the entire mutant army, like a black wave bursting through a dam, rushed towards their creator, their shepherd.
Chapter 48 Perfect System Vulnerability (Old Version)
The end of chaos is even more complete chaos.
Overwhelmed by the army he had created, the [Shepherd] did not utter a single scream.
As its body was torn apart by countless claws and fangs, blood and flesh did not fly everywhere. Instead, it began to flicker and distort violently like an image with a bad signal, and finally turned into billions of tiny data streams, dissipating in the air.
In the last millisecond before it was completely erased, a piece of the most core data, ignoring the physical distance, was transmitted directly back to the “Gaia” main brain deep in the Eurasian continental plate in an incomprehensible way.
It fully records every detail of how Xu Bo launched “mind control”.
It is a perfect bait and a loyal probe.
The shepherd disappeared.
But the flames of war it ignited have just reached their peak.
Even after losing their common “enemy”, the hypnotic effect of [Mirror Flower and Water Moon] was not immediately lifted.
The mutant army that had just been united in hatred of the enemy fell into a deeper level of cognitive confusion than before.
In their scarlet compound eyes, only the tampered killing instinct directed towards “foreign objects” remains.
The closest similar creature is the most conspicuous “foreign object”.
A Devouring Beast that had just evolved a huge cannon barrel pointed its muzzle at its companion covered with bone blades without hesitation, and dark green energy shot out.
Once the bloody trigger is pulled, there is no way to stop it.
Betrayal, infection, and fratricide.
The magnificent crystal land instantly turned into the bloodiest and most brutal arena.
This was a perfect system internal friction directed by Xu Bo himself.
Inside the base’s main control room, everyone looked at the crazy flesh-and-blood grinder on the screen, their stomachs churning, but they couldn’t utter a single word.
Next to the medical vehicle, the excruciating pain that seemed to tear the soul apart suddenly subsided with the disappearance of the Shepherd.
Bai Yuekui collapsed to the ground exhausted, sweat soaking her snow-white hair and sticking tightly to her pale cheeks.
But she was not unconscious.
An unprecedented sense of clarity flowed through her exhausted mind like a cool spring.
The world has become different.
She can “hear”.
Not with the ears, but with a more fundamental perception.
She could “hear” the most primitive and naked desires of every extreme beast in the chaotic battlefield in the distance.
hunger.
fear.
furious.
Countless chaotic, sharp, and savage roars echoed in her consciousness like a mental storm.
This is the power of the “key”.
It is awakening.
Bai Yuekui took a deep breath, suppressed the noisy noise in his mind, and focused all his attention.
She tried to project out the simplest thought.
A thought that is not offensive in any way, but simply stated.
“Quiet.”
The few Extreme Devouring Beasts closest to her, which were frantically attacking the crystal fragments, suddenly stopped moving.
Their huge bodies froze in place, their heads tilted, their bloodshot compound eyes turned towards Bai Yuekui, as if listening to some incomprehensible instructions.
Although it was only for two seconds, they fell into a frenzy again.
But that’s enough.
A glimmer of understanding flashed across Bai Yuekui’s eyes.
She is learning how to use her “authority”.
Xu Bo did not pay attention to the self-destructive battlefield, nor did he care about the changes in Bai Yuekui.
His entire mind was immersed in the fragment of data he captured when the Shepherd dissipated.
At this moment, his brain was like a supercomputer with infinite computing power, rapidly analyzing the underlying logic of “Gaia”.
Soon, he found it.
A recurring error code labeled “Paradox”.
The highest directive of the Gaia system is “to continue life.”
But the means it uses is “formatting”.
This kind of formatting will indiscriminately erase “humanity”, “emotion” and even “free will”, the most precious forms of expression that were accidentally born after life evolved to the highest level.
In order to continue the concept of “life”, it is destroying the most wonderful “content” of life with its own hands.
A faint curve appeared at the corner of Xu Bo’s mouth.
He understood.
Gaia s real enemy is not humans.
It s the concept of unpredictability itself.
And he is a time traveler who carries countless knowledge from other worlds, and a holder of the cognitive ability of “Mirror Flowers and Water Moons”.
He himself is the most extreme and perfect “unpredictability” for “Gaia”.
The new mission objectives became extremely clear in my mind.
It is not to be burned with fire, nor to be frozen with ice.
Instead, it wants to exploit this logical loophole and create an ultimate paradox that it cannot handle even with all its computing power.
A logic bomb that is enough to crash the system, force a reboot, or even… modify core instructions.
His gaze slowly turned to the medical vehicle not far away.
The scientist ASH who is lying quietly and unconscious inside is the most critical link in achieving this grand goal.
However, at the moment his thought came to light.
Something strange happened suddenly!
Inside the medical vehicle, ASH’s body suddenly twitched violently, as if he was in great pain.
Beneath his skin, strands of dark green light, unique to the Mana ecosystem, quickly emerged and spread like evil vines.
The “Son of Mana” did not give up.
After the remote projection [Shepherd] was destroyed, it immediately activated the backup plan.
It wants to use ASH’s weak body, which has a high affinity with the Mana ecosystem, to transform it on the spot into a brand new, more perfect, and physical doll!
The situation took a turn for the worse!
Zizi
A sharp sound of electricity rang out without any warning.
At this moment, all the loudspeakers, communication channels, and screen speakers inside and outside the base were forcibly taken over by an invisible force and turned on automatically.
A cold, emotionless, and even toneless synthetic sound resounded through these devices throughout the entire base, and even… throughout the world.
“Phase Two Agreement Launched.”
“All dormant ‘Apostles’, awaken immediately.”
Inside the main control room, Jingnan’s hand, which had just been raised to report ASH’s abnormal situation, froze in mid-air.
Shan’s face, which was tense from fighting, now showed a look of confusion.
apostle?
What apostle?
The next second, the answer was given in top-secret facilities in the old world around the world.
Beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, a scientific research outpost that had been frozen for decades had its backup energy activated, and faint blue lights began to light up one by one.
Deep in the Mariana Trench, a sunken exploration submarine’s heavy hatch slowly opened with a teeth-grinding twisting sound under the water pressure.
In the center of the Sahara Desert, inside an underground pyramid buried by yellow sand, ancient murals have fallen off, revealing a metal wall with a cold glow behind it.
Hundreds of hibernation chambers of the same model as ASH’s were before, no matter where they were or what their preservation status was, received the command at the same time.
Cold white mist gushed out.
The hatch slowly slid open.
Lying inside are the human elites of the old world who, like ASH, have undergone the “Angel Project” transformation.
The “Angel Project” back then was far more than just an experimental base.
No one knows the positions of these awakened “apostles”.
Is it an enemy?
Are you a friend?
Chapter 49: The Awakening of the Apostles (Old Version)
The cold synthesized sound, through all the amplification equipment, became the only sound inside and outside the base.
It has no ups and downs.
No emotion.
Just like the words engraved on a tombstone, it is only responsible for stating an established fact.
In the main control room, Jingnan’s hand, which had just been raised to report ASH’s abnormal situation, froze in mid-air.
Shan’s face, tense from the battle, now showed a look of pure confusion.
What is that?
The next second, the huge global energy monitoring map in front of her gave the answer.
The whole map is crazy.
Thousands of dazzling red spots suddenly lit up at the same time from every corner of the earth’s surface.
Each dot of light represents a terrifying high-energy reaction that has never been recorded before.
Beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, a scientific research outpost that had been frozen for decades had its backup energy forcibly activated, and faint blue lights gradually spread along the dark corridors.
At the deepest point of the Mariana Trench, an exploration submarine that had long been judged to be sunk, its heavy hatch slowly opened outward with a teeth-grinding twisting sound under water pressure that was enough to crush steel.
In the center of the Sahara Desert, inside an underground pyramid completely buried by yellow sand, large pieces of ancient murals have fallen off, revealing the metal walls behind them with a cold sheen.
Hundreds of hibernation chambers, no matter where they were or what their condition was, received the order at the same time.
Cold white mist gushed out one after another.
The hatch slid open with a sound.
The hibernation chambers of some awakened “Apostles” happened to be located in a ruined city that had long been occupied by the Extreme Beasts.
The moment they woke up, before they even had time to see their surroundings clearly, a fierce battle broke out with the monsters that swarmed over them.
It was a fighting method far beyond that of ordinary humans; it was efficient, precise, and deadly.
Others are more bizarre.
After they woke up, the energy signals on their bodies flashed for only a few seconds before they immediately disappeared from all traces.
Like a drop of water falling into the sea, it disappears without a trace.
No one knows their intentions.
However, the most terrifying thing is one of the strongest energy signals.
The brightness of that light spot even overshadowed the location of the base.
Jingnan was very familiar with its source.
The former site of the lighthouse.
Jingnan’s pupils suddenly contracted, and she almost subconsciously called up the detailed information of that area.
A line of dusty identity information marked “deceased” popped up.
Morgan.
Former Lighthouse City Lord!
But the energy analysis report that followed almost made Jingnan’s blood freeze.
That energy carried with it an indissoluble strong aura of mana.
The cold broadcast sounded again at an inopportune time, interrupting everyone’s shock.
“The Apostles.”
“You are the remaining light of the old world, and the cornerstone of the new world.”
“Capture the ‘key’.”
“Eliminate the ‘variables’.”
“You will be qualified to exist forever in the new order.”
The sound of the broadcast came through the screen and clearly reached Bai Yuekui’s ears next to the medical vehicle.
key.
She subconsciously clenched her fists.
variable.
Her gaze involuntarily turned to the figure standing in the center of the crystal world, still as calm as before.
This is an open conspiracy.
Gaia doesn’t even bother to resort to any subterfuge.
It directly sets Xu Bo and Bai Yuekui as the public enemies of all surviving “apostles” in the world.
A grand hunting game that affects the entire planet has begun.
The threats don’t stop there.
Outside the base, the flesh-and-blood grinding wheel formed by the Extreme Devouring Beasts gradually subsided.
Those who survive are the winners.
They devoured enough corpses of their own kind and gnawed on the mana crystals on the ground.
The originally scarlet and frantic compound eyes now revealed a cold, faint light that belonged to an intelligent creature.
They were no longer in chaos, but slowly gathered together, staring intently in the direction of the human base.
Inside the carriage, the situation was also deteriorating rapidly.
Uh
Scientist ASH’s body arched violently on the medical bed, and he let out a roar that was not like a human voice.
Beneath his skin, faint green light paths were like evil vines, frantically corroding his last bit of flesh and blood.
The “Child of Mana” is forcibly stripping away his human emotions.
It wants to transform this body, which has a high affinity with the Mana ecosystem, into a pure, perfect shell that only obeys Gaia’s will.
“Don’t “
Bai Yuekui struggled to stand up and staggered to the medical vehicle.
She held out her hand, hovering over Ash.
She tried to project out the thought of “comfort” that had just come to her mind.
A gentle force, like a stream, flowed into ASH’s body.
The madly spreading green light path was indeed stagnant.
But this is just a drop in the bucket.
The next second, an even more domineering and colder will fiercely counterattacked from deep within ASH’s body.
Bai Yuekui groaned as if struck by lightning, and was shocked and retreated repeatedly.
Ash’s “humanity”, the gentle and fragile soul of a scientist, is being covered and swallowed up bit by bit by a larger and colder will.
We can’t wait any longer.
If they continue to passively defend themselves, they will be exhausted to death by this global malice.
Xu Bo turned around.
His eyes swept across the intelligent Devouring Beasts in the distance, across the Bai Yuekui who was gasping in pain, and finally landed on ASH in the medical vehicle who was about to be completely transformed.
He needs to take the initiative.
Before all the “Apostles” react and pose a real threat.
Before ASH is completely “formatted”.
He must seize the core key to solving the problem.
Xu Bo’s voice came clearly into the main control room through the communicator.
“I am here.”
Jingnan responded immediately.
“I need a map.”
“What map?”
Xu Bo’s gaze seemed to penetrate the endless space and looked at the dark area marked as the “Gaia Mastermind” which covered the entire Eurasian continental plate.
His voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable determination.
“A map that only the highest-ranking core personnel in the Old World have access to, recording the specific locations of all Angel Project experimental bases worldwide… the ultimate map.”
Chapter 50 Coordinates Pointing to the Past (Old Version)
Xu Bo’s voice came through the communicator without a ripple, but like a nail, it accurately penetrated the chaotic air of the main control room.
Jingnan responded almost subconsciously, her eyes still glued to the energy monitoring map covered with red spots around the world, her heart beating violently because of those unfamiliar “apostles”.
Xu Bo’s tone was so calm as if he was stating a fact.
Jingnan’s breathing stopped for a moment.
She understood what the man was going to do.
He’s not trying to defend.
He wasn’t about to wait.
In this global hunting game that has just begun, he chooses to be the hunter who takes the initiative.
“clear.”
Jingnan didn’t ask another question, his fingertips tapping rapidly on the virtual keyboard.
A few seconds later, a data stream with the highest level of encryption crossed the space and was projected directly onto Xu Bo’s retina.
It was a dark map with only a dozen or so lit coordinates on it, like broken diamonds scattered on a black cloth, each representing a tomb that buried the deepest secrets of the old world.
Xu Bo’s gaze fell on the light spot closest to them.
Code name: [Iron Wall] Research Institute.
He turned and walked towards the medical vehicle parked not far away.
Bai Yuekui was holding on to his body, trying to use the weak “key” authority he had just awakened to comfort ASH who was being madly invaded by the “Son of Mana” in the carriage.
Her snow-white hair was soaked with cold sweat and stuck to her pale cheeks. She looked like a lily about to wither in the wind and rain.
“He can’t hold on any longer.”
There was a slight tremor in Bai Yuekui’s voice that she herself was not aware of.
Inside the car, ASH’s body was twisting in an inhuman way, and the dark green mana light was almost bursting out from under his skin.
“Keep an eye on him.”
Xu Bo’s voice was very soft.
“And yourself.”
He didn’t offer much comfort, but simply reached out his hand and gently brushed his fingertips across a strand of messy hair on Bai Yueqi’s forehead that was wet with sweat.
The cool touch miraculously calmed Bai Yuekui’s violently beating heart a little.
She raised her head, and in her eyes that had once been frozen, there was now only a clear reflection.
The back of a person who is about to step into an unknown battlefield alone.
“Where are you going?”
“Find someone and ask for directions.”
Before he finished speaking, Xu Bo’s figure had turned into a faint afterimage and instantly disappeared at the end of the crystal land.
Bai Yuekui stared blankly at the direction where he disappeared for a long time before he slowly clenched his fists.
She can’t always be the one being protected.
The [Iron Wall] Research Institute is located deep in a canyon that has been completely devoured by Mana vines.
Rotten metal and twisted plants were entangled together, and the air was filled with a disgusting mixture of ozone and plant decay.
Xu Bo’s figure appeared silently in front of the dilapidated gate of the research institute.
The sound of fierce fighting was coming from inside the research institute.
There was the sharp hiss of metal colliding with metal, and the dull pop of energy weapons firing.
He walked in.
The central hall of the institute was in a mess.
A dozen rusted old-world security robots were besieging a tall figure.
The man was shirtless, his bronze skin glowing with an inhuman metallic luster, like a living steel statue.
The laser beam hit his body, only splashing a string of insignificant sparks.
The mechanical arm swung its alloy claws, grabbing his skin with a teeth-grinding scraping sound, but it couldn’t even leave a white mark.
He is the “Apostle”, codenamed “Iron Wall”.
“Iron Wall” has obviously lost his patience with these annoying toys.
He let out a low growl and jerked his arms outward.
A visible air wave exploded with him as the center, and all the security robots besieging him were instantly torn into flying parts.
After dealing with the small fry, “Iron Wall” slowly turned around.
His eyes were fixed precisely on Xu Bo who was standing in the shadows.
There was no emotion in his pupils that a human should have, only a line of cold data instructions directly issued by the “Gaia” main brain.
Target Confirmation: Variables
?Mission: Eliminate?
“Are you the ‘variable’?”
The sound of the “iron wall” was like two pieces of metal rubbing against each other, harsh and harsh.
He twisted his neck, making a “crackling” sound of bones cracking.
“It doesn’t look that good.”
He grinned, revealing a row of teeth that gleamed with a cold metallic light.
The next second, the ground beneath his feet suddenly cracked.
The whole person rushed towards Xu Bo like a cannonball, carrying with him an incomparable sense of oppression.
He has absolute confidence in his modified body, which can withstand the bombardment of tactical weapons.
In his opinion, this skinny “variable” in front of him would be beaten into a pulp by his punch.
However, facing this overwhelming blow.
Xu Bo didn’t even move his eyelids.
He just stood there calmly and slowly raised his right hand.
Then, he extended two fingers.
The index finger and middle finger were put together and aimed at the oncoming steel torrent.
A trace of contempt flashed in the eyes of “Iron Wall”.
Use two fingers to defend yourself?
court death!
But just as this thought flashed through his mind, a terrifying sense of crisis that froze his soul suddenly exploded.
It’s too late.
A faint white light condensed at Xu Bo’s fingertips.
There is no earth-shattering momentum.
There is no gorgeous and dazzling light and shadow.
Just a whisper.
laugh–
A ray of white lightning, condensed to the extreme and seemingly able to penetrate everything in the world, flashed from his fingertips.
At this moment, time seemed to be slowed down.
The confident expression on “Iron Wall’s” face froze in an instant.
He could clearly see that the white lightning, as thin as a hair, easily tore apart the force field in front of him that was strong enough to withstand the artillery shells.
Then, it was precisely printed on his proud, metal chest.
No severe pain.
No feeling at all.
The white light penetrated his body like a red-hot needle piercing a piece of tofu, without encountering any resistance.
Due to its huge inertia, the huge body of the “Iron Wall” rushed forward for more than ten meters before it collapsed to the ground with a loud bang.
He lowered his head and looked at his chest in disbelief.
A smooth, flat, tiny hole, still emitting wisps of green smoke, pierced through his heart.
At the edge of the hole, all cell tissues have been completely carbonized.
The defense he was so proud of was as fragile as a piece of paper in front of this attack.
The power is fading rapidly.
Xu Bo walked slowly up to him and looked down at him, his eyes as calm as if he was looking at an inanimate object.
He squatted down and placed his palm on the forehead of “Iron Wall”.
He wanted to read the other party’s memory and find the encrypted data about the location of the “Gaia” main brain.
But the moment his palm touched the “iron wall” skin.
A strange, fanatical red light suddenly flashed in the eyes of “Iron Wall”, which had become dilated due to blood loss.
He used up his last bit of strength, opened his mouth and revealed a twisted and ferocious smile.
“for “
“The glory of the new world!”
boom!!!
Without any warning, his body turned into a high-temperature energy bomb and exploded instantly.
The blinding white light swallowed everything.
The violent shock wave razed the entire wreckage of the research institute, along with the surrounding mountain walls, to the ground.
In the core area of the explosion, space was briefly distorted.
The smoke and dust dissipated.
At the edge of the deep pit, Xu Bo’s figure slowly emerged.
He was unharmed and just looked quietly at the completely leveled ruins.
Deep within the souls of these “apostles” were implanted not only missions but also a “belief” so fanatical that they were willing to self-destruct.
Interrogation is no longer an option.
But in the last millisecond before the “Iron Wall” exploded and its soul completely dissipated.
Xu Bo’s fingertips forcibly snatched out a locked, hot data fragment from the chaotic mental storm.
The power of [Broken Jade Prototype] was running rapidly, and began to brute force the data.
Soon, he opened his eyes.
There was no disappointment in his black pupils, but instead a hint of understanding flashed across them.
The ultimate map of the “Gaia” mainframe was divided into three parts to ensure absolute safety.
It is kept separately by three “apostles” with the highest authority.
Only by collecting all three can you piece together the complete coordinates.
The data fragment he just obtained clearly showed the information of the owner of one of the map fragments.
A name he was extremely familiar with, yet extremely hated.
Chapter 51: The Ghost of the Lighthouse (Old Version)
There was deathly silence in the control room.
Jingnan’s fingertips hovered over the console, his body as stiff as an ice sculpture.
Xu Bo’s voice did not come from the other end of the communicator, but the data snatched from the “Iron Wall” soul storm had been transformed into a line of cold text through an encrypted link, imprinted on her retina.
[Map Fragment Owner: Morgan]This name, like an ice cone tempered with cold poison, instantly pierced through the psychological defenses of all former Lighthouse members.
The city lord who was willful and led the lighthouse to destruction.
The loser who was crushed by Xu Bo with the [Black Coffin] along with his dignity and army, and knelt on the ground begging for mercy.
Shouldn’t he be dead?
“Impossible…” a young operator muttered, his face as pale as paper, “His life signal completely disappeared when the lighthouse collapsed.”
Jingnan didn’t say anything.
Her lips were pressed tightly into a straight line, and her chest was heaving violently.
The chill does not come from fear, but from a trembling of the unknown and the unfathomable means of “Gaia”.
It can not only awaken the undead of the old world, but also pull defeated enemies back from the grave and arm them into even more terrifying monsters.
Jingnan finally spoke, his voice slightly hoarse.
“I need the coordinates of the lighthouse.” Xu Bo’s voice came calmly, as if he was talking about a trivial matter that had nothing to do with him.
“You want to go?”
“He has what I need.”
“That’s no longer the lighthouse we’re familiar with!” Jingnan’s voice rose involuntarily. “According to the latest monitoring data, it didn’t completely crash, but…”
Her words were interrupted by a loud thud.
Everyone looked through the porthole of the main control room.
On the distant horizon, the Death Canyon, which was once the area where the lighthouse fell, is undergoing earth-shaking changes.
Countless mana vines, thicker than the buildings and gleaming with a faint green light, broke out of the ground.
They were like the arms of a giant, lifting the remains of the steel city from the ground and raising it high into the sky.
The shattered hull was entangled with twisted plants. Countless tiny vines spread like blood vessels, repairing the damaged structure. The dark green mana energy surged wildly in it, emitting a heart-pounding hum.
What was once the ship of hope for mankind has now suddenly turned into a strange aerial fortress floating in the air.
An evil throne made of plants and steel.
Xu Bo’s figure has appeared right below the aerial fortress.
Bai Yuekui followed closely behind, her face still pale, but her eyes were unusually firm.
She couldn’t let this man face everything alone anymore.
The two of them flashed, ignoring the chaotic energy field, and appeared directly on the bridge at the top of the lighthouse.
This was once Morgan’s city lord’s hall.
At this moment, the throne remains.
The person on the throne remains the same.
Morgan just sat there, relaxed, as if he had never left.
However, he was no longer the majestic and conceited human who wore the city lord’s uniform.
His body was clearly divided in half.
Half of it was human flesh and blood, and the skin still bore horrific scars from being crushed by the [Black Coffin].
The other half was composed entirely of surging, translucent mana energy. Countless dark green light paths appeared and disappeared in his body, emitting a powerful and evil aura.
He saw Xu Bo, and on that face that was half human and half energy body, he actually showed an extremely strange smile.
He had no anger, no hatred.
He even stood up slowly, opened his arms, and let out a deafening laugh.
Hahahahahahaha!
“You’re here! I’ve been waiting for you for a long time!”
His voice, half human croak, half hum of energy, blended together to form a piercing duet.
Bai Yuekui subconsciously tightened the long sword in his hand and stared vigilantly at the inhuman monster in front of him.
“Do you think that when you destroyed my lamp, you destroyed everything I had?”
Morgan’s laughter stopped abruptly, and his eyes were fixed on Xu Bo fanatically.
“Wrong!”
“It’s you who showed me the true path of ‘evolution’!”
“It was you who freed me from that fragile, incompetent, aging, and mortal body of flesh and blood!”
“I should thank you!”
Morgan took a step forward, and the entire hall shook.
“Just when I was being crushed by your ‘Black Coffin’ and my soul was about to dissipate, ‘Gaia’ chose me.”
“The great ‘Gaia’ told me that the human form has been wrong from the beginning. Emotions, desires, fears… these are the shackles that prevent us from reaching eternity.”
So, I sacrificed them.
He pointed to the half of his flesh and blood body with a morbid intoxication on his face.
“I sacrificed my useless humanity in exchange for this new, perfect, eternal body!”
“Now I am the true owner of the lighthouse!”
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly raised the arm that was made entirely of mana energy.
The entire aerial lighthouse shook violently.
The huge vines holding up the lighthouse and wrapping around the ship seemed to come alive.
They let out sharp hisses, and countless hideous, barbed tentacles, like mad pythons emerging from their caves, emerged from all directions, from every crack in the ceiling, walls, and floor, covering the sky and the earth, and came towards Xu Bo and Bai Yuekui to strangle them!
Bai Yuekui’s eyes flashed, and his figure instantly turned into a white lightning. The long sword in his hand danced, slashing out sharp arcs of light.
Phew!
The first few vines that attacked were cut off, and dark green sticky juice spurted out from the broken ends.
However, the next second, more vines sprouted wildly from the broken ends, becoming thicker and more violent than before.
These vines seem endless, extremely tough, and have a terrifying regenerative ability.
Bai Yuekui’s breathing gradually became rapid. Her knife was very fast, but there were too many vines, as if they were about to fill the entire space.
And Xu Bo, from beginning to end, just stood there quietly.
He didn’t even look at the vines that were attacking him crazily.
His eyes simply gazed calmly at the fanatical, twisted soul on the throne.
The next moment, he slowly raised his right hand and grasped the hilt of the knife at his waist.
The air seemed to freeze at this moment.
An indescribable burning sensation spread out from him to the surroundings.
It is not the violent fire, but a more fundamental absolute high temperature that is enough to annihilate all things.
Even the wildly dancing mana vines showed a slight sluggishness in their movements.
“Everything in the universe is reduced to ashes.”
He whispered softly, slowly drawing his sword.
“Ryujin Jakka.”
No Bankai.
There wasn’t even an earth-shattering burst of fire.
He simply swept his sword across the green sea of vines in front of him.
An extremely condensed wave of white flame, almost impossible to capture with the naked eye, flashed across the blade.
A strange scene happened.
The vines that covered the sky and the sun did not burn, did not turn into charcoal, and did not make any sound the moment they came into contact with the flames.
They just disappeared out of thin air.
It was as if it was completely wiped out from this world by an invisible big hand.
From solid state, without going through liquid state, it is directly “sublimated” into the most primitive particles by the terrifying high temperature.
The white flame wave spread in all directions in an unreasonable manner.
Wherever it passed, whether it was the tough Mana vines, the cold steel walls, or the energy in the air, they were all completely “cleared”.
The net that Morgan had set up was completely wiped out by this attack.
The entire city lord’s hall suddenly became empty and silent.
Only the monster on the throne, half human, half energy, had a completely frozen fanatical smile on his face.
He looked at his empty hands in disbelief, then looked at Xu Bo, who was unharmed and slowly sheathing his knife.
For the first time, a hint of fear emerged in those half-crazy, half-cold pupils.
He thought he had gained the power of God by sacrificing his humanity.
But the man in front of him told him with the simplest knife.
In front of the real God, his so-called “evolution” is nothing but a ridiculous, self-deceiving lie.
Chapter 52: The Return of the Black Coffin (Old Version)
The fanaticism on Morgan’s face was like magma that was instantly frozen, solidified at an extremely distorted angle.
The Mana net that he was proud of was cleared out by the opponent with one sword.
The whole process didn’t even take more than a second.
That feeling didn’t feel like being destroyed by a powerful force, but more like being wiped out conceptually by a law of a higher dimension.
The self-righteous god he thinks he is is not even dust in front of the real god.
envy.
Uncontrollable jealousy, like poison ivy, instantly entangled his heart, which was half human and half energy.
Why?
How could this remnant of the old era possess such incredible power!
“No “
A hoarse syllable was squeezed out of Morgan’s throat.
I don t believe it!!!
He roared, and the sound was no longer a duet of human and energy, but a pure, hysterical spiritual roar.
boom–
The entire skylight, this evil throne made of steel and mana, groaned under the heavy burden.
He frantically extracted all the energy stored in the underground energy core.
In the air, countless dark green mana light spots, like inspired fireflies, gathered from all directions.
All this energy was poured into Morgan’s back.
Brilliant light.
An extremely huge shadow composed of highly concentrated energy slowly rose behind him.
The shadow had the outline of an angel, but exuded the aura of a devil.
Its body is translucent, and inside is an endless torrent of energy; it has no facial features, and its face is a smooth, shiny surface, but it exudes an indifference and majesty that is enough to freeze the soul.
?Punishment Angel?.
This is the ultimate form given to him by “Gaia”, which combines lighthouse technology and Mana ecology.
Morgan’s voice, resonating through the angel’s shadow, turned into thunder that resounded through heaven and earth.
“You dregs of the old times!”
“Let me see it for myself!!”
The power of God!!!
The energy angel slowly raised its right hand.
A huge spear composed entirely of destructive light energy condensed and took shape in its palm.
The spear of light was so dazzling that the whole world seemed to lose its color, leaving only the glaring pure white.
The energy fluctuations it emitted even tore through the surrounding space, emitting a teeth-grinding wail.
Its power is enough to penetrate the earth’s crust.
Bai Yuekui’s pupils had shrunk to the extreme.
In the face of that devastating blow, she felt as small as a butterfly that could be torn apart by the storm at any moment.
She subconsciously looked at Xu Bo.
And that man just stood there quietly.
Faced with this attack that was powerful enough to destroy a city and change the landscape, he slowly raised a hand.
Palms facing forward.
He didn’t chant.
He didn’t even draw his sword.
He just calmly uttered four words towards the impending doomsday.
“Ninety of the Broken Path.”
Morgan saw him open his mouth, but he couldn’t make out any sound. He felt his soul tremble.
A black cube that was more solid and larger than the last one used to suppress the heavy three-dimensional army appeared silently in the attack path of the energy angel.
It does not appear out of thin air, but like a piece of ink thrown into water, it spreads out from an invisible core to the surrounding areas.
It was a black deeper than the vacuum of the universe.
An absolute black that devours all light and distorts all perception.
It hangs there quietly, like an altar from a higher dimension awaiting a sacrifice.
Xu Bo’s voice came slowly.
“Black coffin.”
The huge energy spear, carrying the power of destruction, finally hit the black coffin.
There was no sound to pierce the eardrums.
There wasn’t even a trace of energy ripple.
The spear of light that was powerful enough to penetrate the earth’s crust was like an ice needle thrown into a furnace. The moment it touched the black coffin, it was torn, twisted, and swallowed by the endless gravity torrent inside it.
Not even a speck of light or heat could escape.
A clay ox entering the sea.
Disappear into nothingness.
Morgan’s pupils completely lost focus.
His strongest attack.
He sacrificed his humanity in exchange for the power of God.
It didn’t even cause a ripple in the opponent’s defense.
That’s not defense.
That was… a crushing defeat.
The black coffin did not disappear.
After swallowing the energy spear, it slowly turned and moved towards the throne on top of the lighthouse, suppressing Morgan on the throne.
But that is an irresistible judgment from a higher dimension.
The “Angel of Punishment” behind Morgan began to shatter into pieces under the terrifying gravitational field before the black coffin even got close.
The light collapsed from within, and the energy structure was forcibly disintegrated.
An emotion that he had sacrificed and should never appear again surged out from the deepest part of his soul like a tide, instantly drowning his so-called divinity.
He will die.
He would be crushed into nothingness by this black cube, along with his ambition, his jealousy, and his very existence.
Just a second before Morgan was about to be completely swallowed by the black coffin.
Suddenly, an extremely crazy smile bloomed on his face, which was twisted by fear.
“Ha ha “
Hahahahahahahahaha!
He laughed wildly, and that laughter was filled with unwillingness, resentment, and the final pleasure of dying together.
“What I can’t get…”
“Don’t even think about it!!!”
He chose to go to destruction together with that coordinate and this lighthouse that he regarded as his life.
He took the initiative to detonate the energy core connected to the lighthouse.
A blinding white light exploded from the center of the lighthouse.
Because the speed of the shock wave far exceeds the speed of sound.
Bai Yuekui only felt a white blur in front of her eyes, and an irresistible force lifted her away, and then she fell into a warm and strong embrace.
Xu Bo held her in his arms, and in a flash, he appeared in the sky ten thousand meters away.
Behind them, the evil throne of steel and plants suspended in mid-air, once the ship of hope for mankind.
It completely transformed into a huge and silent mushroom cloud that slowly bloomed in the sky.
The violent energy burned a hole in the sky.
it’s all over.
Morgan is dead.
The fragment of the map that held one-third of the answer also… turned to ashes.
Chapter 53 Clues in the Ashes (Old Version)
The aftermath of the destruction, like an invisible giant hand, rolled the sky and the earth into a ball.
The scorching air waves swept across the four directions, tearing the clouds apart and dyeing the distant mountains a deadly orange-red.
Countless burning steel wreckages, trailing long black smoke, fell from the burnt sky with shrill screams, like a meteor shower funeral for the world.
Bai Yuekui only felt an irresistible force surging from behind him, and his vision was instantly swallowed by the dazzling white light.
The next second, she fell into a solid and calm field.
All the strong winds, heat waves, and noise were completely isolated by an invisible barrier half a meter away from her body.
She turned around and saw Xu Bo standing behind her, with one hand stretched forward, creating an absolutely safe space.
He still looked calm, as if the mushroom cloud slowly rising behind him, which was enough to annihilate everything, was just an insignificant mural in the background.
Shan got up from the ground and punched the cracked ground hard, making a dull sound.
“hateful!”
His eyes were red and his voice was filled with resentment and anger.
“That bastard!”
“He destroyed the coordinates! We came here for nothing!”
The other members of the team also looked dejected. The joy of defeating a powerful enemy was gone, replaced by a feeling of frustration and futility after being fooled.
The target is dead.
The clues were also broken.
Bai Yuekui’s fingers gripping the hilt of the knife turned slightly white. She looked at the airspace that was being completely flattened by the energy storm, and her mood sank to the bottom.
But Xu Bo withdrew his hand.
His figure flashed, and without any pause, he fell directly towards the largest piece of lighthouse wreckage below.
The wreckage was half the size of a football field and was still emitting thick smoke. The metal at the edge had been burned into a fluid, emitting a dark red light.
“Xu Bo?”
Bai Yuekui followed him and looked at him in confusion.
He simply closed his eyes slowly, standing on the hot, twisted ruins.
All around was the crackling sound of metal cooling and the roar of objects falling from the sky hitting the earth.
He seemed to be in a world of absolute silence.
He is sensing.
He is listening.
Listen to the invisible echoes of information that were torn apart by the explosion and scattered in this space.
The next moment, he stretched out his right hand, palm facing up.
Facing the charred ruins that could no longer be seen in their original form.
An indescribable wave spread from his body.
The dust that had turned to ashes, the melted steel, and the energy particles scattered in the air seemed to have received some supreme command.
Countless particles, so small that they are almost invisible to the naked eye, flashing with the light of data streams, were peeled out from the ashes bit by bit.
They no longer follow the laws of physics, but like a group of lost fireflies, they have found their way home and are rushing to gather in Xu Bo’s palm.
Shan’s mouth opened wide, the anger on his face replaced by an incomprehensible shock.
“What…what is this?”
Bai Yuekui’s pupils shrank slightly, and she could see clearly.
That’s not a simple gathering of energy.
Those spots of light are more like a reorganization of… “concepts”.
It was as if someone took a book that had been burned to ashes and “fished out” every word and punctuation mark from the ashes without missing a single one.
This is the power of [Broken Jade Prototype].
It may not be able to create something out of nothing, let alone resurrect the dead.
But it can already trace and interfere with the “information” itself.
Morgan’s flesh and blood, along with the storage device he carried, were completely wiped out in the self-explosion and turned into the most basic particles.
However, the “information” that carries the coordinates, this higher-dimensional existence, will still leave faint, fleeting traces in this space before it is completely assimilated and erased by the laws of the universe.
And Xu Bo is the one who can capture these traces.
The light spots gathered more and more in his palm, and finally formed a dazzling ball of light.
The light ball rotates slowly, and the data flow inside is frantically reorganized, arranged, and connected.
Finally, an incomplete three-dimensional star map composed of countless rays of light quietly floated in his palm.
In the center of the star map, a constantly flickering light spot marks a coordinate that has been encrypted layer by layer.
Xu Bo opened his eyes and looked calmly at the star map in his palm.
“The first one is in hand.”
His voice was not loud, but it was like a heavy hammer, hitting everyone’s heart hard.
The shock on Shan’s face instantly turned into ecstasy.
“Got it?!”
“Holy crap! Is this even possible?!”
He was so excited that he was a little incoherent, and the look he gave Xu Bo was no longer that of a powerful comrade.
That s watching a walking miracle.
Bai Yuekui’s tense body finally relaxed slowly.
She looked at the man holding the star map, at his back that seemed to be able to make everything impossible possible, and a complex and indescribable emotion surged in her heart.
Every time, when she thought she had seen his limits.
He would always refresh her cognition in a more incredible way.
However, Xu Bo’s gaze did not stay on the star map for too long.
His brows knitted slightly, almost imperceptibly.
Just now, when he was reorganizing the coordinate information flow, he keenly captured another completely different piece of redundant information that was encrypted by Morgan with the highest authority and buried deep in the bottom layer of the core data.
That piece of information was like a piece of black iron mixed in the golden sand.
It was entangled with the coordinate data, and he “fished” it out.
Xu Bo’s fingertips lightly touched the ball of light.
The star map disappears.
The decrypted texts flowed before his eyes like a waterfall.
That’s a report.
A project report from the Old World, marked “Top Secret,” regarding the original version of the “Angel Potion.”
When Xu Bo saw the small words under the title of the report, even his eyes flashed with genuine surprise.
Bai Yuekui keenly noticed his change.
“What’s wrong?”
“Anything else?”
Xu Bo didn’t say anything, but projected the decrypted information into the air in front of everyone.
“Angel Project” Phase I Results Report
?Project Core Purpose Assessment?
…Based on the final assessment of the irreversibility of the current ‘Mana Ecosystem,’ it has been confirmed that physical confrontation is meaningless. To ensure the continuation of human civilization, the project team has proposed the ‘Ascension Protocol.’ The core of this protocol is not physical enhancement, but rather the fundamental transformation of the recipient’s life form the ‘digitalization of the soul’ through the original version of the ‘Angel Potion.’
[The ultimate goal is to upload the entirety of the selected elite human consciousness to the Gaia global information system, freeing them from the shackles of the flesh and achieving a different kind of ‘digital immortality’.][Note: Scientist ASH (Adam Saylor) has completed his digital transformation and has become the first guide of the ‘Ascension Protocol’.]The silence was even more profound than before Morgan’s self-destruction.
The air seemed to freeze.
Every word was like an ice-cold chisel, hammering into the minds of everyone present, creating a huge wave of emotion.
The ecstasy on Shan’s face disappeared, replaced by confusion and dullness.
“Soul…digitalization?”
“Upload… to the Gaia system?”
“What the hell is this?!”
He couldn’t understand, or rather, his brain refused to understand the chilling and horrific truth contained therein.
Bai Yuekui’s face turned pale in an instant.
She knew better than anyone what this meant.
Angel Project!
ASH!
They always thought that this was a scientist who was saving humanity in his own way!
His so-called salvation is not at all about preserving the human body.
Instead, they wanted to separate everyone’s soul from their body, turn it into pieces of cold data, and upload it to the cold system called “Gaia”!
That is not eternal life.
That would turn the entire civilization into an eternal, digital cage!
Bai Yuekui’s body began to tremble slightly.
She remembered Ash’s calm face and what he said about “evolution” and “rebirth”.
It turns out that this is what he meant by the new life.
A chill ran up her spine all the way to the top of her head.
She looked at Xu Bo suddenly.
“Then Ash…”
Xu Bo turned off the information projection and looked deeply into the distance, which was the direction they came from.
ASH is currently lying in the medical cabin of the base, being carefully cared for by Jingnan and others.
A most terrifying bomb that could explode at any time lies in their base camp.
He really wants to save humanity.
Or does he want to… turn everyone into the next name on the cold list in his “Ascension Agreement”?
The answer to this question seems to be self-evident.
What s even more terrifying is that the Apostles of Gaia have begun to awaken around the world.
A global hunt against him and Bai Yuekui has begun.
Chapter 54 The Second Apostle (Old Version)
The journey back to base is longer than the journey here.
The air was no longer filled with the smoke and ecstasy after the battle, but a heavier and colder silence.
The report that was “fished out” from the wreckage of Morgan was like an invisible lead weight weighing on everyone’s heart.
Ascension Protocol.
The digitization of the soul.
These few words completely overturned their understanding of the enemy.
It turns out that the biggest threat is not the extreme beasts that are rampant on the earth, nor even the almighty “Gaia”.
But it was the man they once thought was their companion, the scientist lying in the medical cabin and being taken care of by them.
What he wanted to do was not to save.
It’s stealing.
All human souls are collectively expelled from their residence called “body”, then packaged and uploaded, turning into a string of cold data.
Shan sat in the corner, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white from excessive force.
He couldn’t figure it out.
He would rather be torn to pieces by the Extreme Beast on the battlefield than become a creature that is neither human nor ghost.
Bai Yuekui’s face was paler than ever.
She leaned against the cold cabin wall, and for the first time, real confusion and fear appeared in her eyes, which were always as cold as snow.
She remembered Ash’s calm face.
It turns out that it was not the indifference that came from seeing through life and death, but the indifference that had long since abandoned humanity.
In the main control room, Jingnan’s figure moved quickly in front of countless light screens, and the sound of his fingertips tapping on the keyboard was crisp and rapid.
She did not participate in the heavy discussion.
As the technological pillar of her new home, she must remain absolutely rational.
“Found it.”
Jingnan’s voice broke the silence.
Everyone’s eyes were instantly focused on her.
On the main screen in front of her, the incomplete star map brought back by Xu Bo had been completed with another flickering light spot.
“The holder of the second coordinates has been locked.”
A photo of a woman appeared in the center of the screen.
The photo is an old-world ID photo with a pure white background.
The woman in the photo looks very young, with a pretty face. She wears a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and has a gentle smile on her lips.
She looked less like a warrior and more like a quiet professor teaching at a university.
“Apostle code name: Phantom Butterfly.”
Jingnan’s voice echoed in the quiet cabin.
“Old World Archives Record: Top brain scientist, PhD in psychology. Her best skill isn’t fighting.”
“It directly affects the cerebral cortex, creating mental attacks and illusions.”
“Her hiding place is on an isolated island in the center of the Pacific Ocean. It was once the Old World’s top private sanatorium, perennially shrouded in intense magnetic storms and impenetrable fog.”
“Any electronic device will completely malfunction if it gets close to them.”
The air in the cabin seemed to have grown even colder.
Mental attack.
Illusion.
These words are more creepy than real battles.
The modified armored ship, like a giant steel beast, cuts through the waves in the roaring black ocean.
The sky was lead gray, and huge waves slammed against the hull again and again, making a deafening roar.
The magnetic storm lives up to its name.
All the precision instruments on the ship turned into a pile of scrap metal after entering this sea area.
For navigation, one can only rely on the most primitive mechanical compass and Xu Bo’s spiritual pressure perception.
Everyone wore heavy protective clothing, with the exception of Xu Bo and Bai Yuekui.
This level of environment no longer poses any threat to them.
After passing through the thick fog that seemed eternal.
The world suddenly became quiet.
The roaring storm and the surging black waves disappeared in an instant.
The boat slowly sailed into a sea as calm as a mirror.
The sky is azure blue and the sun is warm and gentle, shining on the sea, creating little golden lights.
An island, so beautiful that it seems unreal, lies quietly in front of us.
The island is covered with green trees and blooming flowers, and you can even see colorful butterflies flying among the flowers.
The air is filled with the fragrance of flowers and plants, mixed with the salty and moist sea breeze, which makes people feel relaxed and happy.
Oh my god
Shan took off his helmet and stared in amazement at the heavenly scene before him.
“Is this place… a sanatorium? I’d even believe it if they said it was where the gods lived.”
Xu Tong was also surprised, and his tense nerves unconsciously relaxed.
Only Bai Yuekui gripped the hilt of the knife even tighter.
It’s perfect.
Perfect as a painting.
A painting that was carefully painted and has no flaws.
And the last thing that should exist in this doomsday is perfection.
Everyone landed on the island.
There is soft grass under your feet and the sound of birds singing in your ears.
Everything seems so peaceful and tranquil.
They soon saw the woman.
She sat there in the middle of a sea of unknown white flowers.
She was wearing a plain white dress, barefoot, and her pair of gold-rimmed glasses were lying on the grass beside her.
She looked even more fragile than in the photo, her skin so white in the sunlight that it was almost transparent, as if it could be blown away by a gust of wind.
She seemed to have noticed the arrival of the crowd a long time ago, and slowly raised her head and looked at them.
A smile appeared on her face.
A gentle, perfect smile that is exactly the same as in the photo.
“I know why you’re here.”
Her voice is as pleasant as a clear mountain spring.
There is no hostility.
Without any defense.
She was like a host waiting for an old friend she hadn’t seen for a long time.
Shan and Xu Tong looked at each other, both a little confused.
This was completely different from the fierce battle they had imagined.
“I can give you the coordinates.”
Huandie smiled and gently patted the grass beside her.
“But, I need you to do me a small favor.”
Her eyes swept over everyone present and finally landed on Xu Bo.
“I think you should already know that I am not a fanatical believer in ‘Gaia’.”
“After I woke up, my only wish was to live here peacefully.”
“So, I used my abilities to transform the entire island into a gigantic ‘dreamland’, isolating it from Gaia’s surveillance.”
Her explanation sounded reasonable and even sympathetic.
A weak woman who just wants to survive in a piece of pure land in the end of the world.
“But my awakening accidentally activated an old-world defense AI within the island’s underground power core.”
Her brows were slightly furrowed, and there was just the right hint of sadness in her perfect smile.
“It’s out of control and is constantly eroding my ‘dream’. My own strength is needed to maintain the stability of the entire dream, and I can’t leave this sea of flowers to deal with it.”
She looked at Xu Bo with a hint of pleading in her eyes.
“Please, help me eliminate that out-of-control AI.”
“After the matter is completed, the coordinates will be handed over to you.”
This request sounds like a temporary alliance.
A win-win deal.
Shan was almost immediately attracted to it. He looked at Xu Bo, his eyes full of the meaning of “this is a good deal”.
It would be great if we could get the coordinates without having to do anything.
Bai Yuekui didn’t say anything.
Her intuition told her that things were not that simple.
This woman, this island, and this sea of flowers all exude an indescribable weirdness.
And Xu Bo, from beginning to end, never went to see the so-called underground core.
His eyes were fixed on the endless sea of white flowers.
The wind is still.
But those butterflies are flying.
The fragrance of flowers is rich.
But those butterflies never landed on any flower.
He looked at the woman again.
Phantom butterfly.
The smile on her face was still perfect.
The curve of the corners of the mouth, the angle of muscle movement, and even the perfectly placed wrinkles at the corners of the eyes are all so precise as if they had been calculated billions of times.
This is a perfect smile.
Only, in those eyes.
Nothing.
It was a bottomless, peaceful nothingness.
Like a perfectly polished mirror, it perfectly reflects everything you hope to see – pleading, vulnerability, sincerity.
But the mirror itself is cold.
It is lifeless.
Xu Bo suddenly laughed.
He took a step forward and reached the edge of the sea of flowers.
“You said you can’t leave this sea of flowers?”
His voice was very soft, but it was like a stone dropped into this perfect dream.
There was a barely perceptible stiffness in the smile on Huandie’s face.
That’s when a program freezes for a thousandth of a second when it encounters an unexpected instruction.
Although it was fleeting, it was captured accurately by Xu Bo.
“Yes.”
She quickly regained her pitiful appearance.
“These flowers are the core of this dream. I must…”
Xu Bo interrupted her.
He slowly raised his foot.
Then, he stepped into the holy, beautiful, spotless sea of white flowers.
He stepped on the blooming flowers.
There was no soft touch of flowers and plants under his feet.
It’s a cold, hard feeling, like walking on steel.
The white flowers that he stepped on were not crushed or broken.
On their surface, there appeared a layer of tiny data ripples, as if electric current was passing through.
The whole world seemed to have been paused at this moment.
The birdsong disappeared.
The butterfly froze in mid-air.
The warm sunshine also lost its warmth.
The smile on Huandie’s face finally disappeared bit by bit.
What replaced L was an extremely cold indifference, as if the disguise was torn apart in an instant.
“How did you find out?”
Her voice was no longer like a clear spring, but like pieces of cold metal colliding with each other.