Not even Zangier had expected anyone to infiltrate his position. So when he discovered a player practically breathing down his neck, he flew into a rage. That was when the furious Grand Scholar sent 0221 the signal to end the experint — and simultaneously launched a kill-pursuit against Hu Wei.
So if you were to say Hu Wei had saved Cheng Shi — yes, technically he did. But rescuing Cheng Shi hadn't been his intention.
This pragmatic big brother had simply realized his own strength couldn't match Zangier's onslaught, so he'd fled in a panic. After countless allegiance shifts, he'd resurfaced in the ground-level experint site — and stumbled upon the besieged Cheng Shi.
The instant he saw his good brother surrounded, the dutiful big brother knew it was ti to act.
Whether it was saving a "comrade" of Chaos or using overwhelming force to rally other players against the experint site's monstrosity, he had to step forward and demonstrate his true capabilities.
And so, War's fla once again stunned Cheng Shi — while the ever-burning "apricot tree" darkened even 0221's expression.
"Hah — I've long suspected the great sword in your hands is the Blood Apricot from the War Nation's royal court, the tree that burned a thousand years and never charred. Now I see I was right.
But Grand Marshal — no matter how stubbornly War's fla refuses to die, this world must eventually fall silent.
If today I could witness this Blood Apricot extinguished... heh heh heh, that would be quite the spectacle.
I know one man's strength is limited, and rallying many is even harder. But before Truth, there's always a solution, isn't there? So allow
to show you... the latest fruit of my research."
With a casual wave from 0221, the previously scattered slices converged once more. But this ti, they didn't attack. Instead, each one gripped a weapon and carved wound after wound into their own flesh. Then...
They stripped bare and, bathed in streaming blood, stitched themselves together!
These slices, grouped by profession and faith, rged into one right before Cheng Shi, Hu Wei, and the doctor's eyes!
Their flesh fused. Their consciousnesses rged. Their power skyrocketed. Their auras twisted.
The scene was so shocking that all three were struck utterly, literally dumbstruck.
Even the burning Blood Apricot overhead swayed for a heartbeat, its flas dimming a fraction.
"You..."
Cheng Shi wanted to swear, but spent a full second and couldn't locate these slices' mother.
Then again — they'd never had one.
So he gave up, turning to his big brother with an expression that clearly read: 'Who's the Chaos follower here — you or 0221?'
Hu Wei's face was grave. He, too, was lost for words. The scene was certainly surreal, but for soone who'd seen it all, it was... manageable. What truly had his nerves taut wasn't 0221 in front of them — it was the far more terrifying thing buried beneath the experint site.
He couldn't figure out how to explain any of that to Cheng Shi and the doctor without looking bad, and the freshly rged slices didn't give them ti to chat. The instant flesh unified and consciousness synchronized, these sa-faith, sa-profession stitched monstrosities launched their most savage assault!
"Don't just watch what's in front of you — watch what's below!" Hu Wei bellowed, pulling his great sword back and whirling into the fray. The doctor, face stern, tangled with twisted assassins in the shadows.
Only Cheng Shi was busiest, because the majority of fused abominations were targeting him. But for a Pointer Warrior carrying divine authority, no matter how many ca, they were nothing but stepping stones.
As long as the enemy count didn't reach a crushing threshold, this caliber of combat couldn't hurt him.
So despite facing the most opponents, Cheng Shi won the fastest.
This stunned both Hu Wei and the doctor. They'd never imagined a priest — no, he definitely wasn't a priest anymore — but how had this transformation happened?
Hu Wei's gaze hardened. He thought of his Benefactor's private audience with Cheng Shi, and his pulse quickened.
The doctor blinked, recalling Cheng Shi's earlier recruitnt pitch.
'The Joker Alliance... was this organization really that miraculous? Could it turn a priest into a warrior more ferocious than the Grand Marshal?'
Just as the three were battling the endless sea of tentacles and slices, the situation shifted again — Big Cat had finally arrived!
The mont she'd felt the tumor vanish, she'd known sothing big was happening. And the only person capable of causing trouble on this scale, aside from herself, was probably that missing Fate Weaver friend of hers.
So she'd imdiately handed Tao Yi off to Mo Li and charged toward the area with the biggest commotion.
When Cheng Shi spotted a bear-shaped shadow smashing into the sky-reaching tentacle trunk, he shouted:
"Big Cat — stop hitting the tree! Below us! There's sothing below! Smash through the ground!"
Hong Lin froze. Her assault stuttered — and then her entire being, no, her entire bear's aura, erupted upward as if ignited by the surrounding inferno.
"CHENG! SHI! What did you just call ?!"
"I said smash below! How do you not understand?!" Cheng Shi was frantic — and also guilty.
'Don't understand?'
'How could she not understand?!'
'Fine, fine — not even pretending anymore, are we?!'
Big Cat snapped. Fueled by the rage of being called "Big Cat" yet again, she roared, clenched her fists overhead, and smashed downward with everything she had.
"BOOM—"
The earth-shaking blow set the entire experint space trembling — but the ground didn't crack.
"Sothing's reinforcing it from below! Can't break through! Help !"
The giant bear pounded several more tis to no avail. Cheng Shi swatted aside the stitched monstrosities in front of him and frowned. "Okay — what if we eat so honey first, then smash?"
"..." That sentence nearly choked Hong Lin to death. In that mont, the giant bear raised her head with murder in her eyes — the sa look she reserved for a certain bald Silence follower.
She launched off the ground like a cannon, rocketed to Cheng Shi's side, wordlessly shredded every surrounding monstrosity with her bare claws, then grabbed Cheng Shi and hurled him like a hamr at the airborne 0221.
'Cut the head off the snake.' In Hong Lin's assessnt, even if danger lurked below, killing 0221 first couldn't possibly be wrong.
Cheng Shi agreed in principle. But in his version, he was the protagonist who killed 0221 — not a weapon being swung by a giant bear.
Still, he knew Big Cat was venting her anger, so pushing back now would be unwise. And so the iron-hard Pointer Warrior played along for a few minutes, quietly guest-starring as a "clock-hand" weapon for Today's Druid.
Unfortunately, neither the earlier tumor nor the current tree was easily destroyed. Under Birth's influence, Hong Lin's fury was once again derailed by her swelling body mass.
The giant bear roared in frustration and retreated. She casually tore open several bulging lumps on her body, crushed the newborns inside, then stabbed Cheng Shi upright into the ground and demanded furiously: "Why aren't you affected?!"
Cheng Shi's head hit dirt first. He blinked, innocent-faced. "Sis — is this any way to talk to a person?"
"..."
Hong Lin irritably flipped Cheng Shi over and swatted the gore from his head — though the swipe was so savage it nearly gave the Clown a concussion.
Rubbing his skull, Cheng Shi pointed at her accusingly: "Equipnt! Do you know what equipnt is?! You charged in so fast at the start I didn't even have ti to slip it to you!"
He produced the Silent Infant Bell from his hand and placed it in the bear's paw.
Yes — it was this artifact from Hu Xuan that had protected Cheng Shi from Birth's hymn the entire way. Before today, even he hadn't known this thing had that effect.
Hong Lin glanced at the bell, frowning. "Only one?"
"What else? You think this is a wholesale market? One not enough for you?"
"What about you?"
"You've got more fighting power. Take it and beat him down!"
"..." Hong Lin's fury stuttered. She shoved the bell back into Cheng Shi's hand, then looked up at 0221 — who was gradually rging with the mother-tree — and roared: "I've got more fighting power! I don't need that thing to beat him!"
With that, she launched skyward again, hurtling toward 0221.
"..."
Cheng Shi paused, staring at the bell in his hand, and shook his head with a quiet laugh.
'That's Big Cat for you. Always, always thinking of her friends.'
But Hu Wei was right. The real danger wasn't above — it was below. So the threat that had the Grand Marshal on high alert, the one he'd explicitly warned about... was it the Zangier who'd escaped from the Land of Hope?
Staring at the ground — soaked in black blood and minced flesh — Cheng Shi's brow furrowed tight.
Until that man showed himself, this battle would never end.
So they needed to... find him.
But if even Big Cat couldn't break through the ground, how was he supposed to?
As he was thinking, an excited shout rang from the distance:
"Brother-in-law?!
Finally found you, brother-in-law! Why are you here alone — where's my sister?"
"???"
Cheng Shi looked up. When a bald head swam into view, his face fell imdiately.
'Seriously — why is he here too?!'
...
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