The mont 0221 finished speaking, countless living tentacles surged from before him, intertwining into two colossal hands. One reached for Cheng Shi; the other pulled 0221 slowly toward the mother-tree's trunk. It seed that before "stitching" with Cheng Shi, he intended to rge with the mother-tree first.
Cheng Shi's expression darkened. Facing the giant hand that had sealed off practically every forward direction, he snapped his fingers — retreating three steps in the blink of an eye. He dodged the hand's leading edge, then planted a foot on one of its tentacle-ford fingers, stomping through countless tentacles at once. Using the recoil, he rocketed toward the airborne 0221.
In that instant, he was a hunting falcon — eyes locked on 0221 as his sole prey.
Simultaneously, Wang Mou moved. Shaken into action by Cheng Shi's relentless offensive, the Truth assassin finally snapped to, his expression hardening as he matched the rhythm of Cheng Shi's assault. He shadow-leaped through the omnipresent darkness, vaulting skyward, and in the blink of an eye arrived at 0221's position.
A Likeness Dagger — a short blade — sliced out of the shadow plane, aid straight for his original body's throat.
The doctor's assassination angle was expertly chosen. He'd deliberately avoided targeting the bloated, obese half of the body, fearing the abnormal fat deposits might throw off his judgnt of human weak points. But he'd underestimated his original body.
0221's other half looked like skin and bone, but its hardness was virtually identical to a mummy blessed by Decay. The doctor's blade tip struck 0221's desiccated neck and sparked violently — and in that instant of contact, a thick wave of Decay power began creeping along the dagger, corroding up toward the doctor's arm.
Wang Mou's face changed. He spun to flee. But then — Cheng Shi arrived.
The Pointer Warrior did nothing to 0221. He didn't even acknowledge the seemingly victorious Chosen. Instead, he grabbed the doctor's leg right as Wang Mou was about to dive into the shadows — and bodily hauled him out!
"???"
'He's attacking his own teammate now?'
Wang Mou was dumbstruck. But what shocked him more was what followed!
Without explanation, Cheng Shi simply smirked, flung the doctor backward by his leg, then lurched forward himself — letting the contaminated blade-tip graze his own arm. The instant that Decay-laced edge broke his skin, a more vigorous, purer Decay power detonated outward, transforming Cheng Shi's left arm into a withered, desiccated "Decay hand" — identical to 0221's!
The Faded One's authority blazed to life once more!
Both scholars on the scene were stunned. 0221's pupils contracted — then he burst into delighted laughter.
"Heh heh heh!
Good, good, good! No wonder he chose you — so you've also stitched Decay into yourself!
Cheng Shi, you are magnificent. Now show
where your stitched Prosperity is hiding!"
The words had barely left his mouth when the giant tentacle-hand beneath 0221 split open a fissure. From it, countless figures burst forth.
They were "players" — all wearing murderous expressions, apparently brainwashed by 0221. Cheng Shi initially assud this was another inhumane Truth experint, but when he spotted familiar faces in the charging army — Li Zhi, Wang Weijin, Yan Chun — he realized these weren't players at all. They were...
0221's slice army!
He'd unleashed every last one of his slices.
In that instant, a deluge of talent-based attacks swept toward the near-point-blank Cheng Shi. Truth-walls sealed his retreat; shadow-locks froze the surrounding space-ti; blades and pikes harmonized with tentacles; longbows rained arrows like falling forests; every conceivable debuff stacked wildly atop his body. Against such ferocity, even the Hero of Today — brave as he was — had to take a hit.
Indeed, if Cheng Shi were only a Hero of Today, he might have stumbled. But don't forget — he wasn't blessed by Fate alone. Ti had equally shown its favor. So he felt no panic whatsoever. The Pointer Knight's abilities had already identified the optimal mont to break through. He just had to weather the initial suppressive fire with Vitality, and soon he'd sweep these garbage slices away.
But then — sothing neither side expected happened!
A great sword wreathed in blood and fire suddenly flew out from within the slice formation, plunging into the air before Cheng Shi ahead of every other attack. Then — click — sothing like a seal released, and a cataclysmic blaze erupted before Cheng Shi's eyes.
Searing flas detonated across the sky. Terrifying tongues of fire branched outward like limbs, growing wildly in every direction. In an instant, the earlier spectacle of tentacles forming a world-tree repeated — only this ti, the tree wasn't made of Birth's newborn flesh. It was War's fire!
In a flash, an "apricot tree" engulfed in world-ending flas "blood" beside Cheng Shi, incinerating every incoming attack to nothing.
Cheng Shi was "saved" — rescued by a wall of fire.
His eyelid twitched. He knew who'd co, but hadn't expected them to erge from inside 0221's slice army!
'Wait — Hu-bro, what were you doing in there?!'
'Actually... that's exactly where he should be.'
Because Hu Wei wasn't War's Chosen Grand Marshal. He was Chaos's Chosen — an Alien Blood Compatriot whose allegiance could never be pinned down!
And as the player who'd walked farthest down the Chaos path, where else would he appear but in the most chaotic place imaginable?
The sword's owner was, of course, Hu Wei.
Ever since shattering the experint site's tanks and driving the mother-tree into total frenzy, the Grand Marshal had been far from idle. While Big Cat and Mo Li confronted the tumor, while Cheng Shi and Wang Mou "negotiated" with 0221, Hu Wei had relied on talents that made him completely undetectable, weaving left and right through the tentacle sea until he'd lted into it entirely. Then, riding against the tentacle current, he'd pushed toward the experint's most critical, most vital nexus.
As the saying goes: a master of defense hides beneath the earth. Since chaos was everywhere in this experint site, this Chaos follower followed his gut straight to the one place that wasn't chaotic — and there, he believed, would be the experint's core.
Credit where it was due: he succeeded. But what Hu Wei hadn't expected was that the "core area" he'd found wasn't the control center at all. It was... the temporary anchor point where Zangier had been residing since leaving the Stars Dagger!
In other words — while everyone else fought until their heads cracked open, the Grand Marshal had used his talents to silently infiltrate the experint's true heart: right in front of Zangier!
...
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