Chapter 836: Chapter 836

Beneath the resounding drone of machinery, at the end of the secluded street, fully armed mercenaries were securing the quarantine tape, sealing off the entire street.

Passengerless buses drove past the street, and the weary people standing inside simultaneously looked up, gazing beyond the quarantine tape set by the mercenaries.

A colossal light shield, extending hundreds of meters high, enveloped an entire city block, its dazzling golden radiance twinkling upon it.

The magnitude of this light shield had already surpassed any building in Wint City, only the towering walls seemed to be able to rival this majestic creation in grandeur.

A power akin to that of Divine Beings had descended from Heaven, closing off this vast district.

Almost everyone who saw this light shield realized this fact.

Behind that hazy golden light, there seemed to be indescribable, twisted masses of flesh undulating within this light shield, like a vast sea of flesh and blood, with faint mechanical shadows floating atop this ocean of flesh.

A spreading murmur echoed in the darkness, resounding in everyone’s ears.

Some people averted their gaze, some closed their eyes, and many more were deep in thought.

What kind of terrifying existence could be worth being ’imprisoned’ by such a gargantuan light shield, fueled by the wrath of Divine Beings?

Beneath the pitch-black night, only the fully armed mercenaries continued to block off the path to the light shield.

Not just the people of Novite District, but also in Aka District, in Storm Zone, in Cloud District, many people looked up towards this immense ’Cage’.

The city’s networks had long been disrupted, and people could only whisper privately amongst themselves.

No one knew what lay inside that light shield.

It could be another Divine Being, or perhaps an entity even the Divine Beings feared.

Mercenaries neatly dressed in uniform and priests in pristine white robes went door to door, wielding guns and instructing those without work to stay inside, and all the homeless to pull their tents up over themselves.

In the sky, the dark clouds cracked open with strange fissures, and the City Defense Soldiers guarding the gates drew their last bolts, sealing the vast and heavy city gates.

The priests carrying explosives destroyed the emergency switches.

The night was so silent, as if only the howling of a blizzard scraping against the buildings could be heard.

A low whisper lingered in this snowy night.

Deep beneath the darkness, there were no loud noises, no busy signals, yet the voices of people never ceased.

As more and more cracks appeared in the sky, the colossal golden light shield suddenly shook violently.

A horrific roar thundered across the whole night sky, as if the entity sealed within the light shield were trying to break free from its containment.

A massive warplane, with the roar of sonic booms, streaked across the sky, its formidable main cannon aimed directly at the trembling light shield.

A brilliant plasma cannon burst forth from the magnificent barrel, like a candle lighting up the night sky, illuminating the entire heavens.

Countless snowflakes melted under its brilliant light, and even the howling wind seemed to fall silent at this moment.

The intense energy collided with the golden light shield, intensifying its trembling.

However, just as the light shield’s flickering frequency surpassed a certain threshold, the twisted beams of light in the sky abruptly expanded dramatically, then contracted again, and a thump, akin to a heartbeat, resonated within the depths of everyone’s minds.

Following this dull sound, the constantly shaking and flickering light shield gradually stabilized, and the roaring inside it started to fade away.

The massive warplane, still firing, sent its tremendous plasma cannons into the light shield, but it was like starlight shining on the surface of water, without any change whatsoever.

It was at this moment that the closed cockpit of the warplane was abruptly torn apart.

Captain Lutz, dressed in a military uniform, staggered to grab hold of the airport door. He seemed somewhat dazed, as the howling wind carried cold rain across his face.

He crushed the holographic projection generator he had torn from his hand, its faint yellow glow dissipating into the black void, "Mere sleeping gas," he muttered.

Then he looked down at the golden light shield beneath him, whose roaring was subsiding, "Still causing so much trouble even while sealed, truly a troublesome fellow."

Just then, a vast radiance flickered in his field of vision.

At that instant, he suddenly realized something and shouted, "Damned fools, cease fire!!!"

The howling wind drowned out his voice.

A radiant beam of light crossed the skies, striking the floating warplane.

Immediately after, several more beams of light emerged, like sharp blades of radiance piercing the warplane from all directions at the same time.

The thunderous explosion, with its fiery flames, lit up the entire night sky.

In the deepest part of the golden light shield, a twisted red radiance slowly lit up, then retracted.

"That’s the direction Yiluo went?!"

The blonde girl had just run out of the Mayor’s Mansion and looked up at the towering golden barrier, which exploded into scattered brilliance in the sky almost as soon as she raised her head.

Lena, standing beside her, was also looking up at the seemingly impenetrable golden barrier, her face slightly pale.

the blonde girl suddenly grabbed her hand, "trust him."

Lena turned her head to look at the eyes of the girl in front of her, where a pair of determined eyes gleamed above tear-stained cheeks.

"We have to make him trust us, too,"

the girl seemed to remember something, shrugged her nose, and continued, "without him, we won’t be easily defeated by ourselves."

Lena watched the girl’s face.

Amid the surrounding gunfire and flames, amid the thunderous explosions and the pure white falling snow, she watched the girl’s tense yet expectant face.

She could clearly feel the strength with which the girl grasped her own hand, feel the palm that was clenched with almost all her might.

Finally, she nodded gently, "Okay."

Her eyes swept over the surrounding battlefield and flames again, "The City Defense Army is no longer reliable; we can’t open the city gates to seek help from other cities anymore, and there’s nowhere to run, and,"

she looked up at the sky, swirling with twisting fissures, "something terrible is being released by Eternal Secret Teachings. It is probably not something we can resist. This city might be counting down to destruction, so,"

she turned back to look at the blonde girl’s cheeks, "where should we go next?"

Hearing Lena’s question, the girl turned her head, her gaze gliding over the golden barrier, past the brightly lit skyscrapers around her, toward the deepest darkness, under the silent veil of night, the direction from which the sea breeze was coming,

Howling winds carried the flashing lightning across the sky, and the rolling waves cradled the narrow vessel, bobbing up and down.

The dim light shone on the pitch-black ocean, like a lonely leaf drifting on the endless black expanse.

The roaring oars stirred the waves, as the ship rode the ups and downs amidst the thunder and storm.

Cold seawater slapped against the glass of the cockpit, sliding down the sleek deck and back into the ocean.

At the helm of the ship, a dark figure was clutching the steering wheel tightly, controlling the vessel’s course ahead.

"We’ve already left the farthest distance explored by the mining ships."

Gazing at the deep seas ahead, the dark figure spoke slowly.

A young, hoarse voice came from behind him.

A slender boy, pale-skinned, with a red scarf wrapped around him, carrying a Knight’s Sword, stepped out from behind him, smiling, and asked.

Blood-colored Paper Butterflies landed on the boy’s shoulder, slowly folding their wings.

"This is truly a great adventure."

The Black Shadow laughed, "Which direction should we head to next?"

the boy closed his eyes for a moment, and the entire world seemed to fall silent. A series of distorted patterns unfolded in his ’field of view,’ with blood flowing from his eyes.

Standing on the border of ’Truth,’ he looked around, his sharp gaze finding some faint glimmers amidst the distortion, then he raised his hand, pointing in one direction, "North by northwest 15 degrees."

The Black Shadow quickly turned the helm, steering the ship in the new direction, moving forward.

The boy opened his eyes, stood in the swaying cabin, picked up a tissue from the side, and wiped the bloody tears from his face.

"Can you see something different in your field of view?"

The curious Black Shadow asked from the side.

"Thanks to them initiating the final ceremony, it has become more obvious, but still, it’s well concealed. I can only catch some faint glimmers of it,"

the boy spoke softly, his face further drained of color, "If it were on land, or near the shore, or in any other direction, it probably wouldn’t be visible. We’re so close now that we can barely catch a glimpse of a shadow,"

then, he smiled, "Of course, if I’m willing to completely fall into the state I was in just now and become a completely insane monster, I should be able to see it even on land."

the Black Shadow shook his head and then paused for a moment, sincerely admiring, "But you were actually able to find the possible direction of that thing’s existence, to reach so close without any guidance. That’s amazing."

"Actually, there is guidance; it’s not hard to find this guide."

The boy responded with a smile.

Just then, with a thought, he slowly opened his palm, a red light surged in his hand, converging into an eye-like crystal hovering in the air.

He shifted his gaze to the corner of his field of view, and a card flickering with faint light emerged within his sight.

The card at the center portrayed a young man whose lower half had transformed into tentacles, with a hollow in his chest.

As He Ao looked at this card, a dialogue box emerged from it.

[A chair towering in the starry sky has been taken by an unexpected master]

[Usable time: 00:00:00]

[Would you like to use one Exchange Star to exchange for 1.5 hours of the "Usurper" skill? (Your current available Exchange Stars: 0)]

After the last system update, there was an option added to exchange abilities of character cards; the required Exchange Stars are four times that of the original character card.

The advantage is that the exchanged abilities can be used directly by the current Copy World character.

"Usurper" was the ability of the [Arrogant Person].

In actual use, this ability was roughly the same as the one currently possessed by [Arrogant Person] Nell, but the actual combat power was slightly weaker.

The core ability of "Usurper" was "Positional Grade," and by using this ability, He Ao could obtain a part of the "War God’s" Positional Grade, similar to how Nell had stolen the Positional Grade of the War God.

However, unlike Nell, "Yiluo" himself had no "connections" with the War God, so "Yiluo" couldn’t effortlessly wield the power of the War God like Nell could.

Although he could rely on this connection to the Positional Grade to "absorb" some power from the War God for support, the amount he could absorb wasn’t much.

When using this ability, He Ao possessed sufficient Positional Grade, but his primary support still came from his own strength.

The power he obtained from the War God only allowed him to exert a portion of B-level strength for a short time.

So he borrowed the ability of a Higher Being to create "descendants," used the "Eye of Annihilation" as the foundation, and integrated it with the War God’s power to create a "descendant" exactly like himself to replace him and walk around in Wint City.

During this process, with Eve’s help, he modified the appearance and the anatomical structure of the organs of this descendant, but no matter what, he couldn’t adjust the skin to resemble that of a normal human.

So he simply kept the skin as abnormal as possible, displaying it as though it had been enhanced by extraordinary power.

The reason he didn’t use Nell’s identity to create a new descendant was because of the distance between Rock City and Wint City; the descendant wouldn’t arrive in time, and the character card’s usage time would run out.

The first-time exchange cost for "Usurper" was 0.5 Exchange Stars for 1.5 hours.

After the descendant lost its power supply, it could still maintain life for another hour.

Thus, the actual existence time of the descendant became two and a half hours.

Since this was a "descendant" created by "Yiluo" using "Usurper," not one of Nell’s, even after the Usurper’s power disappeared, "Yiluo" still had a strong connection with his descendant.

So He Ao, using the identity of Yiluo, could rely on the connection with the descendant to forcefully "descend" some of his power onto the descendant.

This enabled the descendant to acquire some degree of "Divine Sense."

However, this descent was extremely energy-consuming, so He Ao only "descended" for a very short time.

And if it was just about finding energy convergence points, that brief moment was actually enough.

The existence’s outer skeleton itself was a strong defense, so He Ao also directly enhanced parts of the skeleton into bone blades to use as weapons.

Of course, it turned out that this bone sword was somewhat inferior when facing weapons like those of old B-level warriors like Cowen.

But in the end, the outcome did not deviate from He Ao’s plan.

He was quite aware that the [Holy See] very likely had a last-resort method to seal him, and in a certain sense, he voluntarily got "sealed."

Without resolving him, with the [Holy See]’s methods, it was very likely he would not hastily start the ritual, and even if he did begin the ritual, he would focus a lot of attention on He Ao.

In that case, targeting the Eternal Divine Nation and the Eternal Secret Teachings would become exponentially more difficult, and he would lose the initiative in the situation; he might not be able to survive this mission.

With the increase in difficulty of the Copy World, the level of difficulty presented by his enemies was also rising.

So it was appropriate to trade retreat for advantage, to turn the visible into the invisible and regain some initiative.

To turn passivity into activeness.

He Ao glanced at the crystal eyeball in his hand.

The seal was indeed powerful; without power close to the Angelic Tier, it was probably impossible to break, which also showed how much the [Holy See] valued him.

And precisely because the seal was powerful enough, the Holy See would briefly relax his vigilance towards him.

If He Ao wanted to use other methods to retrieve the "descendant" sealed inside, to take back the Eye of Annihilation from within the descendant, it would also be difficult.

But at this time, that was when the descendant’s special ability came into play. Through self-sacrifice, it sent the Extraordinary Items that composed its foundation back to the "originator."

Since this was "Yiluo’s" descendant, the Eye of Annihilation naturally returned to "Yiluo’s" hands.

Although He Ao’s strength was at most B-level, the young version of the "descendant’s" ability came from the War God; this was still a Divine Being’s power.

Such a level of "seal" could not intercept a Divine Being’s "Sacrifice."

Of course, he still made an attempt at the seal before the "Sacrifice," indicating that the person was still inside the seal.

He Ao pushed aside his thoughts for a moment and touched his chest.

When he had used "Usurper," it wasn’t just to create a "descendant."

"How far are we from our target?"

The Black Shadow steering the ship looked towards He Ao.

As the ship continued forward, the waves at sea grew larger.

The entire cockpit began uncontrollably swaying up and down.

This Black Shadow was ’Captain Nisen,’ whom He Ao had rescued from the Eternal Divine Nation, and whom Alice’s power had given a body to so that he could easily control the ship.

For the majority of the trip, with correct sea charts at hand, He Ao and Eve were at the helm.

But for the latter, chartless portion of the journey, the Storm Sea’s waves far exceeded those in the first half, necessitating the skills of an experienced captain.

So, as soon as Alice didn’t need to protect the little boy, he had Alice come to find the original body.

Thanks to her special connection with He Ao, she could easily pinpoint the location of He Ao’s original body and swiftly returned to his side, summoning Captain Nisen to help He Ao navigate the ship.

"It should be soon," he said, gazing at the pitch-black sea ahead and glancing up at the golden pendant hanging overhead. He put away the Eye of Annihilation in his hand and took out a golden brooch in the shape of light, embedded with various colored gems, quickly adding, "Keep going in this direction."

The golden pendant of the Eternal Secret Teachings could repel monsters from the Storm Sea to some extent, which was why they hadn’t been attacked by sea creatures thus far.

Nisen laughed heartily, steering the ship forward.

Just then, a giant, wet tentacle emerged from the dark sea, brushing past the bobbing boat and causing it to shake violently.

A colossal head, like that of a human skull, surfaced from the water, its cold, hollow gaze fixed on the tiny ship ahead.

Countless tentacles stretched out from beneath the small boat, covering everything around it from below, blotting out the sun.

"Did I take the wrong direction?"

Nisen asked, his voice trembling as he stared at the enormous sea creature.

He Ao glanced at the fog behind the creature, then strode out the pilothouse door, leaving the swaying cockpit behind.

Howling winds gathered the dark clouds above, and flashes of lightning illuminated the space between sky and sea.

A massive wave crashed against the bow of the ship, a wild barrier of water threatening to shatter the drifting vessel.

In that instant, a resplendent sword light streaked across the sky, severing the tentacle hidden within the wave. A slender youth burst through the furious wave like a streak of light, facing a torrential downpour as he rushed toward the sky.

Rushing towards the colossal head towering dozens of meters tall, mountainous in size.

The giant head watched the youth approach, opening its mouth to emit a piercing scream as if mocking the boy’s presumption.

The roaring wind chased after the youth, his dancing tentacles obscuring the firmament.

Flashes of lightning played the music of the sky; drifting seawater extended the trajectory of a sword.

Pure white sword light, from above to below, pierced the gargantuan head, splitting the twisted visage.

With layers of thick flesh exposed beneath the sky, the horrific sea monster, retaining its mocking expression, slowly lost its life essence.

One by one, the thrashing tentacles fell from the sky, and the enormous body, like floating foam, undulated in the wild waves.

The thunderous voice of lightning resounded once more, accompanied by the ’Tree of Thunder’ covered in electricity and light overhead as torrential rain suddenly poured down.

The wind slanted the downpour as the misty sea fog emerged from behind the dead monster.

Clad in a red scarf, a diminutive youth stood atop the floating carcass, between the thunder and the storm, raising his left hand high.

Inclined rainfall battered his fair cheeks as the thick fog threatened to engulf his figure.

He clenched the brooch in his hand, its gems set in gold twinkling eerily amidst the dense fog.

He watched the fog ahead and shouted loudly,

The rumble of thunder lit up the sky once again.

From beyond infinite space and time, a vast gaze pierced through time and swept over these seas.

Luminous orange-gold brilliance burst forth from the golden brooch, like a sword slashing across the sky, piercing into the thick clouds above.

Following that, beams of light descended from the dense clouds, piercing the fog over the sea.

After a brief silence,

An even more dazzling light shone from the thick fog, the boundless radiance dispelling it in an instant,

And as the fog cleared, a majestic and towering golden citadel gradually emerged from the endless mist, soaring into the clouds.

Standing inside the heaving ship, Nisen watched in a daze the figure of the youth standing on the mountain of flesh, arm raised high, the light that illuminated the sky, and the boundless, imposing golden citadel that slowly unveiled itself before the youth,

"Eternal Divine Nation..."