Chapter 96: Puzzle and Correction -6

“We can’t let him leave, or many people will die.”
The air behind Yang Zicang began to vibrate, and a translucent gray wraith shot forward, stirring the air as it rushed into the distance.
The fleeing monster suddenly stopped atop the highest hill, its gaze fixed on the boundless, desolate black soil stretching endlessly into the distance.
“New World…”
Lifeless and barren.
The Corrector sighed.
“I almost forgot—I’m already dead.”
The Corrector looked up at the sky; clusters of light floated around and above its head.
“But if my life can erupt one more flash of brilliance, history will surely remember me, just like them.”
In its mind, many figures flashed by.
There was an Asura who plunged into the earth with a small stele; there was a Moon Angel who disguised as a human and walked the earth for a thousand years, collecting bloodlines for the shadowed land; there was a half-human monster who ignited himself and offered his soul to charge into the void; there was a Covenant Moon Envoy who led his “other half of life” to walk to the end of the world; and there were countless Silver and Gold Advisors striving for humanity’s future.
“The protagonist needs an antagonist, justice requires evil… As a former mailman, this is also an opportunity to make a final contribution to the Royal Court.”
The Corrector slightly turned his head to look at the White Shadow Thought-Dragon charging towards him.
[My name is Amu. My father was a blacksmith in Mixed-Tower Village in the Old Mountain Domain. I was the mailman there.]
He had a chance to deploy his field, and he even had a chance to instantly leave under the gaze of the distant creature, but suddenly he felt weary.
Suddenly, a voice appeared within the monster’s mind.
{Your duty remains unfulfilled.}
Inside his body, the Ring of Bloodline that had always been suspended beside his heart was pushed by an invisible force, forcibly embedded into the illusory gem within his fused heart.
On the gem, there was a curled figure.
[Third Ring of the Bloodline…]
The Corrector’s expression instantly contorted, and he winced in pain, clenching his fists as his body was staggered. A pure force rapidly began to emanate from his body.
“Why… must I… like this…”
Whoosh! The White Shadow Thought-Dragon struck him from a distance not by impact, but like moving through and emerging from within, creating a resounding hum that cut through. The phantom of the opposing figure took shape, vanishing as it swept back skyward, leaving an imprint that seemed but the outer fabric billowing empty of a carrier.
The illusory humanoid phantom was bitten out and carried into the distortion of the sky.
However, this telekinetic humanoid figure instantly shattered into countless fragments.
The larger portion was gradually devoured by the White Shadow Thought-Dragon, while the other illusory figures of various appearances and builds scattered around, standing or lying still and dazed in place. These were several distinct silhouettes, and only the one consumed by the White Shadow Thought-Dragon bore a five or six out of ten resemblance to the Corrector’s appearance.
Among the remaining broken figures, a small part quickly reintegrated into the Corrector’s body. As a result, the monster’s form did not fall; it roared at the sky, and a spreading radiance emerged from its chest.
An unparalleled momentum continuously surged, as if a mountain was about to be born from within his body, while his muscles burst forth with profound strength.
The Corrector, now reanimated with vitality, looked up at the distance with emotionless eyes. The moment YangZicang noticed it, the figure abruptly appeared before him!
Boom!
An arm struck with indescribably profound energy, the fist surrounded by countless blooming mosses, vines, and floral explosions subtly appearing and vanishing.
An immense sense of crisis filled YangZicang’s heart.
Such a display of power, YangZicang had seen before, but those who once possessed it were the Defender and Zhao Anlong!
Boom! Boom!
With a sonic boom in the air, the two standing together were instantly sent flying, a vast splatter of flesh and blood shooting from beneath YangZicang’s chest.
{Third Ring: Rampant Vine.}
Shwoosh! The monster’s figure flickered in all directions, like a wildly growing vine.
Countless afterimages continuously appeared around Yang Zicang, punching his body away repeatedly, leaving him unable to utilize even his model ability to adjust his trajectory and dodge.
Within a mere two seconds, Morrie broke into a fine sweat from tension, while his Time-Sequence rapidly drained in torrents.
“Brother Yang!” Qin Meng, who had fallen in the distance, screamed in agony.
Too weak—he was still too weak, everyone was too weak. Even gathering their power together, these feeble few could barely add much strength to Brother Yang.
Qin Meng looked at the monster that had grown even stronger while feeling the model within his heart.
The White Shadow Thought-Dragon tore through the monster’s psi entity.
The final roar from Correction Officer A Mu’s psi entity vanished completely from everyone’s minds, yet his body continued its wild and unyielding battle.
“No, no… the place he should be heading to is much farther away.”
Qin Meng’s eyes nearly split as he watched the figure sent flying by those colossal punches.
This was all his fault, but he was no longer the same as before.
The model emerged on his chest as a patch of ground manifested beneath his feet.
“Idiot, get over here!”
Qin Meng hurled the stone he had picked up toward the monster in the distance.
The soulless monster’s figure flickered before him, vanishing along with him and the piece of ground just as the fist was about to land.
But the next second, Qin Meng let out a grunt and screamed, collapsing to his knees.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
He heard countless consecutive muffled roars erupting within his body.
Possessing a three-circle bloodline and undergoing a qualitative change in power, Moon Shadow was no longer something he could contain.
Within his body, energy continuously emerged, threatening to destroy his form, as if it was about to break through his shell, tearing and burning Qin Meng’s body.
Thorns grew from cracks in his skin, and a scorching mist appeared on his face, resembling a burned devil.
“Qin Meng!”
The others ran over in this direction, while Yang Zicang scrambled up from the ground, furious. “Let it out—I can handle it!”
“No… Zi… brother… it’s different now… it’s been born… a stronger… power.”
Yang Zicang could sense the terrifying, qualitatively transformed power from him, and even though it was just newly born, it was indeed beyond what his current self could withstand.
He truly had no certainty of defeating it, unable even to fight back; his speed, strength, and reactions had all reached a realm beyond human capability.
Yang Zicang rushed to his side.
Qin Meng struggled to raise his hand and grabbed the young man’s arm in front of him.
“I can… kill it now… the current me… don’t leave.”
Qin Meng’s pained face was cupped by a pair of hands.
“I won’t leave!”
“I… have a wish… I, want… to join… the convoy team…”
The blood-drenched Yang Zicang in front of him tremblingly pulled a translucent order form from his trouser pocket.
A broken line shot toward the young man kneeling before him, whose skin continuously burst forth thorny vines; the fine thread connected directly to both of their chests.
Qin Meng’s pained eyes flickered briefly, as if he hadn’t expected Yang Zicang to possess such a fine item; he must have seen the order form before.
[Yang Zicang invites me to join the cargo team.]
Qin Meng let out two hoarse whimpers from his throat, his expression one of relief.
[Stripping of complete fragment: No. 8.]
Snap! Yang Zicang felt something snap between them.
[Recounting complete fragments: No. 1.]
[Re-assigning complete fragment: No. 2.]
He had marked the infested monster, and the mindless creature instantly completed the puzzle piece with Qin Meng.
The golden light on Qin Meng shattered; the triangle in front of him spun continuously, trembling unstably as if on the verge of collapse.
“How is this possible.”
Yang Zicang stared blankly at his model.
Suddenly, he found himself drifting away; the scene terrain emerged again beneath Qin Meng, but this time much of it had withered.
Qin Meng, borrowing the Calibrator’s power, felt his agony ease.
“So this is the kind of power it is.”
Gazing at the phantom plants and seas of flowers on his arms—appearing, vanishing, then reappearing—Qin Meng felt his muscles and spirit continuously transform into the energy source sustaining them.
Originally, another energy had supported them, but he did not possess that.
Thus, his body rapidly depleted, and even the authority of time could not intervene.
“So this is the power of another world… so formidable.”
His thoughts began to drift, and Qin Meng, at the end of his life, revealed a smile.
His triangular model began to spiral out of control.
One by one, extra rings emerged within it, as if trying to shatter it apart.
Those who had been running toward him were repeatedly sent farther away.
Yet in their eyes, Qin Meng’s figure remained unmistakably clear, as if he were right before them.
They witnessed the triangular model on the young man’s chest evolving into a quadrilateral!
But this evolution was doomed to fail. The infusion of overwhelming power caused its erratic flickering to widen, now dissolving into the void, now pulled back.
The emaciated Qin Meng stretched out his arm, watching the color-shifting energies swirling around his withered limb.
The monster’s roar echoed through the void, until finally the unstable quadrilateral exploded, dissipating completely into nothingness.
The oppressive aura vanished.
{Mengmeng, your renown has exceeded 100.}
In the sky, several orbs of light drifted down, whispering into the ear of the man who knelt on the ground, his body covered in thorn-laden vines that spread over the earth.
{Good boy, Mengmeng. You defeated the big villain. We will always remember you.}
The model’s luster completely faded; Qin Meng’s head drooped low, no longer moving.
{We have also gathered many precious references.}
A small, floating orb of light took shape into a spirit, who kissed his cracked, weathered face.
Yang Zicang clutched his wound and limped over. He stepped through the area covered by thorns and vines, arriving beside Qin Meng, who had become a sculpture of tangled vegetation.
Qin Meng had borrowed the monster’s power, causing the monster to collapse along with the model’s destruction and to perish with his own death.
The others finally ran up to them. Everyone’s expression was sorrowful; this usually introverted guy could unleash such energy.
“He…” Lyu Zhi felt deeply distressed. Among the group, he was the one who often cared about this young man and occasionally talked to him.
“If this guy had discussed things with us, how could this have happened?” Qian Zhongsheng sighed.
“Who would have known that he had a monster sealed inside him, one that grows stronger based on the strongest person among us?”
“He must have been afraid—afraid that everyone else would be afraid of him.”
Fan Xiuyun wiped his eyes with his dirty sleeve. “This guy was supposed to be my apprentice, but he ended up just leaving so arrogantly.”
Xu Xiuchuan forced a smile: “Well, I guess this is the sorrow of the elder mourning the younger.”
Lyu Zhi punched Xu Xiuchuan’s arm, glaring at him with annoyance.
“Qin Meng said he really wanted to return to Earth. He said there was a girl he liked, and he wanted to confess to her. This guy told me that many times, sigh…”
Everyone fell silent.
“He was strong.”
After more than ten seconds, Yang Zicang touched Qin Meng’s rough, cracked face with his bloodstained hand.
“Originally, he could have become one of the top existences on this land, as long as he found trustworthy companions.”
The group looked around at the scattered patches of different scenes, which were densely laid out like small fields across two or three kilometers of terrain.