Lights flickered ceaselessly overhead. A roar like thunder echoed in his ears. His limbs felt heavy and weak, and waves of piercing pain surged through his brain.
He was still alive.
Li Ang looked down at his chest. The skin there had been completely obliterated by the light spheres from the Radiant Crossbow. The manubrium and body of his sternum were gone, and eighteen of his twenty-four ribs were broken. Even more terrifying, his lungs, hidden beneath the ribs, were mostly charred and carbonized. Along with his heart, they emitted scorching steam.
With such injuries, an ordinary person would have died seven or eight tis over; if not dead, they would have fainted from the sheer pain. Only soone like Li Ang, long parasitized by Mo Si and who could barely be considered human anymore, could still possess a conscious mind.
"COUGH, COUGH—"
Li Ang coughed. Instead of blood, he astonishingly expelled black powder.
Hit at close range by a blast from the Radiant Crossbow with no defenses up, Mo Si was also suffering. It had previously been restless, trying to seize control of his body after consuming a large amount of Fine Gold.
The web-like silk structures that had densely filled Li Ang’s thoracic and abdominal cavities were torn apart, forced to retract into his spine. Like a wounded viper, they returned to their nest to rest and recover. All signs of restlessness vanished.
It truly was a case of mutual destruction.
Li Ang managed a reluctant, bitter smile. He used Telekinesis to lift himself, forming a telekinetic barrier across his chest to prevent dust from entering and blood from seeping out.
He tentatively released his Spiritual Power.
BUZZ—
A black silk thread erged from his spine and pierced into his severely damaged lungs, beginning to repair his heart and lungs.
Then ca a second thread, and a third.
Li Ang sighed in relief. The movent inadvertently pulled at his wounds, and he coughed out a large amount of black powder again, yet his eyes held an unprecedented calmness.
Countless threads erged from his spine, deftly repairing the injuries all over his body. They even had enough spare capacity for a few strands to pick up the shattered bricks, stones, and glass fragnts from the floor, repairing the wrecked laboratory.
Li Ang hovered in midair, quietly observing the scene before him.
He had succeeded. Again.
Through near self-mutilation and self-destruction, he had damaged both himself and Mo Si, thereby suppressing the Mutated Objects that were attempting to usurp control of his body. Afterward, he used Mo Si to nd his wounds.
This thod had worked during the Qixi Incident, and it worked this ti as well.
His Qi Sea still surged powerfully, and his Spirit Vein continued to transport Spiritual Power, even more smoothly than before.
But the cost...
Li Ang raised his palm. Black silk threads flickered in and out of existence within it, like sinister, terrifying parasites weaving and moving about.
Not just his palm; his heart, lungs, and even the arteries and veins in his head, neck, shoulders, and armpits had been infiltrated by Mo Si. Li Ang could feel countless threads traversing his body, gradually eroding his humanity.
Previously, in Chang’an, he had flown to the Gang Wind Layer to suppress Mo Si. He had succeeded in subduing it, but this had also allowed Mo Si to erode into his abdominal cavity.
This ti, it had reached his thoracic cavity.
One more ti, and it would probably reach my head, my brain. If my brain were also eroded and replaced by Mo Si, would I still be myself?
Li Ang silently stared at his palm until the threads within it stopped pulsating and rged with his blood vessels. Then, he suddenly clenched his fist, released his Telekinesis, and let himself drop back onto the laboratory floor.
Regardless of the future, at this mont, he was still the one in control of Mo Si, commanding and manipulating all the threads more thoroughly than ever before.
This also ant...
Li Ang closed his eyes. Instantly, he saw every Ink Silk Clone he had hidden throughout the world.
In total... there were thirteen.
Let’s begin.
He lowered his hand. Instantly, every Ink Silk Clone drilled deep into the earth, absorbing Mortal Iron like iron, copper, and silver from the soil. Their volu expanded continuously, each transforming into an octopus-like shape, recklessly digging and drilling deep underground.
Each Ink Silk Clone carved out rectangular subterranean caverns. Then, under Li Ang’s ntal command, they reshaped the Mortal Iron into various forms within these caverns: lab benches, workstations, and even finer apparatus like microscopes and oscillators.
This was a new ability Mo Si’s main body had gained after evolving: each Ink Silk Clone could absorb roughly one hundred tis its volu in Mortal Iron and convert it into any desired physical form.
It’s similar to... a 3D printer or a material gun.
Thirteen Ink Silk Clones ant thirteen laboratories and pharmaceutical factories.
Li Ang, with his eyes closed, focused his entire mind on controlling the Ink Silk Clones as they constructed the underground workshops.
Soon, the workshops were complete and fully equipped. Li Ang even had the Ink Silk Clones drill down to the nearest subterranean Dark River, where each constructed a hydroelectric power station to provide power and light for its workshop.
Next, he had to find the Streptomycetes.
Li Ang took a deep breath and extended more of his ntal focus, forcing the scattered Ink Silk Clones to split, one by one. The thirteen isolated masses of Mo Si, like primitive cells, struggled to divide. Countless interconnected threads stretched between the separating halves, which parted reluctantly.
They turned into twenty-six pieces.
Again!
Cold sweat beaded on Li Ang’s forehead. His recently repaired heart pounded intensely as he forced his mind to continue the splitting process.
SSSSSS—
The twenty-six Ink Silk Clones continued to split, transforming into fifty-two entities. Each one was directly connected to Li Ang’s mind without any obstruction. This resulted in the instant appearance of fifty-two new perspectives in his consciousness, in addition to his own.
It’s like... having the compound eyes of a fly.
The thought surfaced almost instantly. Li Ang smacked his lips. No, perhaps it’s even stranger than a fly. At least a fly’s compound eyes perceive overlapping, repetitive scenes, whereas my new perspectives are all unique.
Thankfully, I chose the Telekinesis Master Path and adapted to multi-tasking early on. I’m used to diverting my ntal focus to other things; otherwise, I’d probably be going insane right now...
Li Ang thought to himself, slowly exhaling. He lifted his hands, each finger seeming to hook onto so invisible thread, then tugged sharply.
In that sa instant, the fifty-two Ink Silk Clones began to act.
Like sli mold, they spread out deep underground with all their might, advancing upwards along the walls of the subterranean laboratories they had just created, drilling towards the surface in search of Streptomycetes.
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