stjorthotic Chapter 118 [Just Cleaning]
Chapter 118 [Just Cleaning]
Deep within the Crimson Wasteland lies the original site where the Seed of Calamity was dropped.
The ground is like an undulating diaphragm, the walls are like tracheas covered in mucus, and thick, pulsating purplish-black blood vessels hang from the top of the head.
This is the stomach of this region, and also the abode of its heart.
Four figures stopped at the edge of a huge pit of flesh.
At the bottom of the pit, a massive heart repeatedly contracts and relaxes.
It pulsates and sprays out a high concentration of hallucinogenic red mist.
The tremor caused ripples of blood and flesh to spread around it.
"Ugh..." Chen Kai pulled his boots out of the semi-liquid ground, leaving a long trail.
He glanced at the unidentified yellowish-green fluid staining the sole of his shoe and almost donated his midnight dinner from offline. Fortunately, it was just in the game, so it wouldn't really affect his real life.
"Wang Xuan, activate your shield. Don't let this stuff get on my armor." Chen Kai swung his spear to shake off the filth. "I don't want to use this newly made [Breath of the Sky] to stir up trouble."
"Just bear with it." Wang Xuan reached out and pressed down in the void, and golden light patterns spread under his feet, forming a hardened, smooth floor.
"Aijia, analyze the structure; and Li Yao, stop drooling, dinner hasn't started yet."
Ai Jia taps her fingers in the air, linking the equipment with the UI to facilitate her analysis.
[Target: Primal Plague Heart (Evolutionary Form - Juvenile Stage)]
[Structure: High-density biomass polymer]
[Outer defense: Strong acid corrosion layer, stress-reduced bone plate, regenerating flesh wall]
[Weaknesses: None (physical level), energy overload (rule level)]
"This is a bit troublesome." Aijia closed the panel. "It has evolved itself into a solid lump with no vital organs, so the only option is to remove it entirely."
"Excision plan?" Chen Kai slung the spear over his shoulder, awaiting instructions.
"This thing is connected to the earth's veins." Ai Jia pointed to the thickest blood vessels at the bottom of the heart. "Those are oil pipelines. If you forcibly remove them, this area will collapse."
"So we need to do a minimally invasive procedure." Wang Xuan understood the intention. "Isolate, stop the bleeding, remove, and finally recycle."
"Let's get cleaning done." Chen Kai sighed. "Let's get started. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go back. This place smells terrible, it'll make us lose our minds."
Wang Xuan took the initiative, spreading his arms wide, and every plate of the [Mirror of All Laws] heavy armor behind him stood upright.
"Domain expansion".
"Imperial Decree: Clean Room."
hum.
An absolute cubic barrier, perfectly square, enclosed the enormous heart within.
The mist struck the inner wall and evaporated instantly.
The outside air is blocked, forming an independent vacuum closed loop inside.
The heart sensed the threat, and countless mouths filled with sharp teeth cracked open on its surface, emitting a shriek.
"ah--!!!"
"Noisy." Wang Xuan slightly hooked his little finger.
"Decree: Silence."
The heart struggled wildly within the cube, its mouth agape as it roared, yet no sound came out.
"One hundred times gravity," Ai Jia shouted to Li Yao.
Those tentacles that were originally baring their fangs and claws were crushed by their own weight. They broke apart due to the pressure of their own weight and spurted out black juice.
The enormous heart was pressed to the bottom of the pit by a hundred times the force of gravity, unable to move except to pump.
The operating table was set up, and the patient was anesthetized and restrained. The chief surgeon, Chen Kai, stepped forward.
He glanced disdainfully at the still-wriggling mass of flesh, then reversed the [Breath of the Sky], pointing the spear tip downwards.
"Wind pressure blade, maximum power." The spear thrusts downwards.
A highly compressed cyan wind blade, as thick as a hair, extended from the tip of the spear.
Chen Kai's wrist trembled.
puff.
The bony plates on the surface of the heart crumbled in the face of the wind blade.
Layer by layer, muscle fibers snapped, Chen Kai was dismantling this creature.
"The energy is overflowing!" Aija warned. "It's going to explode!"
Because it had been fatally severed, the core of its heart, the [Seed of Calamity] originating from Xu Ye's modifications, began to expand in an extremely unstable, self-destructive manner.
Once it explodes, the area within a ten-mile radius will become a death zone.
"Li Yao," Wang Xuan called out.
Li Yao, who had been waiting impatiently, took a step forward and passed through Wang Xuan's barrier.
The red mist and the pieces of flesh that were not yet completely dead retreated and dissolved on their own after touching the hem of her clothes.
She walked up to the heart, which had been cut open with a huge wound, and reached out her hands to insert them directly. The container of the [Heart of Chaos] in her chest began to spin wildly counterclockwise.
"Slurp." An untimely sound, and the core slid down her arm and into her chest.
The heartbeat stopped abruptly.
A few seconds later, it turned into a large, foul-smelling mass of rotting flesh, and all its byproducts vanished.
Chen Kai sheathed his spear, glanced at the tip—not even a trace of blood remained—and nodded in satisfaction.
"Done." Ai Jia landed.
Wang Xuan removed the barrier; the entire process took less than three minutes.
……
On a remote mountaintop, Kahn, the war leader of the Valley Tribe, held in his hand a bone fragment that had long been crushed and imbued with telescope-like magic.
He watched the whole process through the bone fragments.
The wind blew across the hillside, ruffling his already dwindling amount of white hair.
"This..." Kahn uttered a dry sound from his throat.
A group of players who hadn't left yet gathered around.
"How's it going, old man? Is the fighting intense up front?"
"Did the BOSS transform? Were there any unusual phenomena in the heavens and earth?"
"Were the four deities injured?"
The players were filled with curiosity and excitement. In their minds, a battle of this magnitude must be earth-shattering, with the sun and moon obscured, and it wouldn't be surprising if it lasted for three days and three nights.
Kahn's hands were trembling with fear of that "ease."
He spent his whole life studying how to kill, how to fight, and how to win in the most brutal way.
That scene overturned all his past experiences.
Chen Kai stepped on that heart, which was indescribable to mortals, with that look in his eyes, that disdain and impatience.
That's the most terrifying thing.
"They..." Kahn's voice was now hoarse and aged, "Were they slaughtering pigs?"
"Huh?" The players didn't understand.
Kahn released his grip, and bone fragments scattered in the wind.
He turned and staggered down the mountain.
"No, when slaughtering a pig, you have to hold it down and make it squeal twice."
"They are weeding."
……
New changes are taking place in Wild Boar Forest.
With the removal of the source of pollution, the previously suppressed natural flow returned.
Li Yao "ate up" the most vicious plague, but also left behind the purest vitality.
From the dry, black soil, patches of tender green sprouted.
New buds sprouted from the burned tree trunk.
If players were here right now, they would definitely exclaim that this is a special effect CG of "the revival of all things".
"Pack your things." Ai Jia picked out a crystal fragment that Li Yao hadn't fully digested from the pile of rotten flesh.
[Sealed Fragment of Calamity (Legendary Material)]
[Description: Originating from a corner of an ancient catastrophe, purified and compressed to the extreme, it is the core material for forging mythical-grade equipment.]
"For you?" Chen Kai glanced at it.
"Hmm, the spatial attributes match. I'll have Mason embed it into my gloves when I get back." Aija casually tossed the treasure, which could even trigger a war between two countries, into her backpack.
As they walked out of the edge of the forest.
The sky is breaking into dawn.
The first ray of sunlight pierced the gloom that had shrouded the valley for days.
outside.
It was a dark mass of people.
All the players, all the tribe survivors, even the most aloof lone wolves, were gathered at the forest entrance.
The scene, with thousands of people, was so quiet that only the sound of the morning wind and breathing could be heard.
When the figure carrying a spear, whose armor was spotless, stepped out first.
Everyone's breath caught in their throats for a moment.
In the player's system interface, the deep red "Extremely Deadly" skull icon that had been hanging over the Wild Boar Forest shattered with a snap.
[Area purification complete.]
"Make way." Wang Xuan's opening line was still the same simple one.
The crowd receded to both sides like a tide, and the gazes on both sides, which had previously been filled with prying and curiosity, were now filled with an extreme sense of awe.
That was the speechlessness that followed witnessing a true miracle.
Lightning Blade stood at the front of the crowd, hoping to find an opportunity to get closer to him afterward, even if it was just to say "You're awesome, boss."
The aura emanating from those four people, that calm and serene composure even after having just destroyed a world-class disaster, made him unable to speak.
Thus, the four of them walked through the crowds and through the ruins, under the watchful eyes of thousands.
Until their figures completely disappeared from sight, vanished into the light of the teleportation array.
Zhang Wei opened the guild channel and looked at the hundreds of unsent message drafts. In the end, he only sent one.
"Everyone, listen to my command!"
"Stop all tracking, spying, and analysis of them."
"Classify all information about them as top secret and seal it away."
"From now on..." Zhang Wei paused, looking at the greenery growing wildly deep in the forest, and gave a wry smile.
"Let's play our game and not disturb their 'creation'."
This day was later referred to in the Assam Chronicle as "the beginning of daylight".
From that day on, all players understood a principle.
In this world, some things are not meant to be chased, but to be worshipped.