Life Game In Other World
Chapter 520: The Heartbeat of the Advent (Super-sized - , Seeking Monthly Pass)

Chapter 520: Chapter 520: The Heartbeat of the Advent (Super-sized Chapter, Seeking Monthly Pass)

Drip-drip—

Twisted, viscous shadows fell like liquid from the ceiling, splashing beside He Ao.

The pitch-black shadow engulfed everything, obscuring He Ao’s vision in the process.

He mobilized his Divine Sense to look around, only to see the flowing energy in the entire hall. Within this vast space, apart from him, there was not another human-shaped object.

The staff members who had been walking around had now melted into the floor like liquid, twisted and entangled together.

These shadows, existing between reality and illusion, seemed to form a whole, yet their energy flows had no clear core. They were merely vague nodes entwining among each other, resembling a dense three-dimensional net.

He Ao briefly activated Super Memory to scan his surroundings. In the vision of Super Memory, the area remained a silent pitch-black void, devoid of any pulsating souls.

For a moment, He Ao felt as though he wasn’t in a grand hall but standing within a deep, dark abyss that was filled with distortion and strangeness and which hadn’t been visited by anyone for thousands of years.

Mystery and the unknown filled the place.

A creeping fear began to climb into He Ao’s heart as the twisted power, like water seeping into a sponge, penetrated his soul, trembling at its deepest core.

He Ao hadn’t seen anything terrifying, nor had any horrific memories been evoked.

Yet inexplicably, a sudden fear spread throughout his heart.

He Ao stood there, standing blankly, seemingly a bit lost in thought.

The shadows at his feet wriggled, split apart like ripples in water, and a pitch-black arm slowly stretched out from the wavy shadows, then grabbed He Ao’s ankle.

Then, one by one, more arms emerged from the shadows, grasping his foot, his calf.

The shadowy arms arranged themselves in sequence, grabbing He Ao’s thigh, his upper body, until they reached his arms, his neck, his head.

Like a cocoon wrapping a butterfly larva, these arms made of shadows overlapped layer upon layer, completely covering He Ao’s body, then bit by bit dragged him into the shadows.

Soft ripples stirred in the surrounding shadows as the arms gradually disappeared, melting into the shadows like ice dissolving in water, bit by bit returning to the shadows.

And He Ao’s body, wrapped in them, also gradually vanished into the shadows.

Drip-drip—

Liquid formed of shadows fell from the ceiling onto the undulating ground, making a crisp sound.

That last arm also completely disappeared into the pitch-black silence.

It was as if the whole world had fallen into absolute silence at that moment.

He Ao felt as though he had fallen into a space that was continuously descending, a downward pull dragging him, pulling him down endlessly.

This seemed to be a bottomless abyss, in which even souls would perish silently during the eternal fall,

Endless murmurs echoed in his ears, as if the despair of those who had died in vain throughout the years in this abyss was permeating the air.

And in that instant, He Ao activated Super Memory and opened his eyes to look at the pervasive pitch darkness around him.

A faint, dim light flickered at the end of this endless abyss.

There it was!

He marked that glimmer of light before raising the Shadowless Sword in his hand. Divine Sense spread from his fingertips to the blade, and he sliced down fiercely towards the endless abyss in front of him.

Zzzt, like the sound of a curtain tearing.

...

The clouds in the sky had cleared a bit, and some moonlight filtered through a window not yet covered by shadows.

In the bright moonlight, an invisible blade emerged from the shadows, slowly sliding downward.

The moonlight reflected off this blade, leaving specks of traces, as if the cold light had forged the edge.

A light, invisible color flickered on the blade; then, as it slid down, it parted the pitch-black shadow like a curtain.

A vast crack extended from within the shadows, and He Ao pushed the crack aside, jumping out of the shadows.

The light of the bright moon fell on the side of his face.

Indeed, the ’abyss’ he had sensed just now was actually inside the body of the shadow, a boundless space that was a misalignment and distortion of perception.

And the Shadowless Sword, imbued with Divine Sense, had the power to harm these shadows that existed between the intangible and the tangible.

Endless fear still spread in He Ao’s heart, yet it actually did not affect his ability to act.

His momentary stupor was actually him waiting for the shadow to engulf him.

In some sense, this hall completely covered by shadow could be regarded as an entity of life, and its life intensity had already reached B-level.

Standing outside this entity, He Ao was unable to find the soul of this shadowy lifeform, nor could he locate its energy core.

But there was active energy flowing within it, a phenomenon that neither the strange nor transcendent objects possess, so He Ao was certain it was a living being.

This was the first time He Ao had seen a living being that did not have a soul, either this shadowy life was just a puppet, without life of its own, manipulated by someone in the background.

Or the shadow possessed some kind of ability to shield soul fluctuations and to conceal its own soul’s existence.

And He Ao leaned towards the latter speculation, because a very realistic problem was that although the Mysterious Shadow was powerful, the strength it projected was limited.

Like those good friends who like to descend at great personal cost, they are ultimately in the minority, usually, divine beings need enough sacrifices in order to transmit their powers.

And the strength of the vessel itself also determined the difficulty and limit of enhancement, the stronger the vessel, the greater the degree and limit of enhancement, and the less the amount of sacrifices required.

To elevate an ordinary person to a B-level of rationality, the energy consumed would be far greater than elevating a C-level transcendent, requiring large-scale sacrifices.

Because the souls of ordinary people simply cannot withstand the immense power of B-level, while strengthening the body, it is also necessary to fortify the soul, otherwise it is very possible to become a monstrosity that has lost reason.

Therefore, the predecessors of this shadow life were most likely C-level powerhouses.

According to Rhodes’ usual habits, whether it was Rose or the Puppeteer, these servants who had been enhanced to possess B-level strength, their souls were only maintained at C-level. Thus, the soul of this shadow monster should also be maintained at C-level.

This was also why it wanted to conceal its own soul, for its soul was its weakness.

But just because it can’t be seen from the outside, doesn’t mean it can’t be seen from the inside.

So He Ao simply changed his approach. When he perceived that the shadow wanted to engulf him, he let the shadow do so, and then within the body of the shadow, he indeed found that hidden soul.

And as he expected, this soul was much weaker than its gargantuan body and did not match a B-level size.

Of course, this maneuver could only be done by He Ao. He had divine sense, which could slice through shadows, and he was also unaffected by those twisted murmurs.

An ordinary B-level with slightly weaker mental resistance, or without the means to deal with shadows, would have been gone by now.

Taking into account the degree of strangeness and inherent corruption, the comprehensive strength of this shadow was even stronger than the Puppeteer, and among the B-level, it was probably not weak.

But as a result, this shadow’s level of rationality was far lower than that of the Puppeteer.

At this moment, He Ao’s Super Memory was activated, allowing him to sense the thoughts of the shadow.

Most of these thoughts were terrifying murderous intents and chaotic, twisted murmurs, which would probably cause an ordinary person just hearing them to transform into a twisted monster.

Of course, amidst these chaotic thoughts, He Ao could also feel the shadow life’s surprise at He Ao’s escape from its body just moments ago.

It seemed incapable of comprehending He Ao’s abilities to an unfathomable extent.

But incomprehensible as it may be, its movements were not slow. Almost simultaneously as He Ao emerged, the shadow under his feet began to wriggle violently.

The shadows that were originally flat and solid, much like the ground itself, now twisted like sludge, and almost instantly engulfed He Ao’s feet.

At the same time, those wriggling shadows transformed into numerous fine, sharp needles, attempting to pierce He Ao’s skin and enter his veins.

He Ao’s clone was only C-level and could not resist the attack of these sharp needles.

But he was not in a hurry. First, he mobilized the power within his body, concentrating it as much as possible in his feet, then he let a stream of divine sense disperse and resist the invading shadows. With a stomp of his feet and a gentle force, he broke free from the control of the shadow.

His force was not strong, because he found that the harder he exerted himself, the tighter the shadow entwined, but a gentle lift met with no resistance from the shadow.

Immediately after, he stepped on these wriggling shadows and moved forward rapidly.

At first, his soles would press into the shadows, but he would soon sink in, then he concentrated the force on his toes, reducing the contact area and walked as if on flat ground.

The nature of these shadows did not quite conform to common sense.

And the shadow lifeform quickly realized that He Ao had figured out the state of its shadows, and it rapidly changed its state, but its thoughts inadvertently guided He Ao to the right path.

So while these wriggling, twisting shadows did not stop, He Ao’s steps were as smooth as if he were on level ground.

But at the same time, those fine needles continued to surge out of the surrounding shadows from all directions, piercing He Ao’s clothes and entering his skin.

Though most of these shadow spikes were promptly expelled by the wandering divine sense, a small part still managed to enter He Ao’s body.

The moment they entered, they transformed into corrosive little bugs, beginning to probe He Ao’s body structure, eroding the energy within him.

The Shadow creature had clearly realized that it couldn’t directly devour and kill He Ao, so it chose to destroy He Ao’s body from the inside.

As time passed, more and more of these invasive shadow bugs entered his body, and He Ao had no choice but to divide his focus to combat these sharp needles, leaving him with less and less power to summon.

These shadows would eventually rob him of the ability to resist and then engulf him once more.

The darkness without a single gleam of brightness still surrounded him. After He Ao emerged from the body of the Shadow creature, he could no longer see the location of its soul.

But this didn’t affect He Ao’s actions.

He directly targeted the energy nodes where the Shadow creature’s energy was most concentrated and slashed down with his sword.

Now, it was a struggle for time.

Would the Shadow creature devour He Ao first, or would He Ao kill it first?

The shadows enveloping the energy nodes were split by a single sword strike and quickly closed again.

Of course, these were not the core of the Shadow creature, but these convergence points of energy had their significance, to some extent; attacking them would cause the Shadow creature anxiety.

And at this time, the irrational being would subconsciously protect its true core.

He Ao, by constantly shifting his position and sensing the change in the Shadow creature’s mindset, could ascertain the relative position of its core from his own.

In this manner, amidst the constant changes, even though he was surrounded by pitch-black darkness and even lost some of his spatial perception, He Ao drew ever closer to the core of the Shadow creature.

Between the flickers of his form, he found himself at the very heart of the shadows.

Here!

The invisible sword light cut through the pitch-black space, tearing open the twisted shadows.

In this moment, the dim soul finally appeared in He Ao’s view.

And along with the presence of this soul were endless energy circuits converging at this point.

The body was too colossal. To prevent a situation like Rose’s, where the soul couldn’t fully integrate with the body, creating a fatal flaw, the Shadow creature abandoned the distributed energy core approach and instead bound its energy core to its soul, thus being able to tightly control its massive body.

In fact, its method was perfect, as it had almost impeccably concealed the energy core, with only the soul potentially being exposed to some extent.

But would someone who can find the soul not also be able to see the energy core?

These were nearly two completely different forms of power, beyond its world view, beyond the fundamental knowledge given to it by the Mysterious Shadow along with its powers.

This couldn’t be possible, absolutely impossible.

Yet He Ao had already directed his sword towards its energy core.

In shock and fear, the creature did not forget to counterattack; the space’s shadows contracted, and the ones He Ao had slashed condensed again, rapidly forming a thick wall composed entirely of pitch-black shadows.

However, just as the defense was about to solidify, He Ao’s eyes fixated on the soul about to be covered again.

Mental Disturbance!

The soul of this Shadow creature was still at C-level.

Under the influence of Super Memory’s vast mental power, all the Shadow creature’s actions paused for an instant.

In that moment, the invisible sword light, enshrouded in a faint glow, pierced the not-yet-formed shadow wall and the twisted-together energy core.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment, and the shadows enveloping the whole space suddenly boiled up, with pieces breaking off from above He Ao’s head in a sound of tearing flesh, shattering on the ground.

A hazy light passed through the gaps torn between the shadows, finally bringing a hint of brightness to this dark world.

Soon, the entire pitch-black space completely collapsed, with countless fragments of shadow falling down like torrential rain.

The shadow bugs wandering inside He Ao’s body also lost control, driven out by the power of the Divine Sense.

He Ao’s gaze swept across the whole hall, finding the stairway in the corner.

Then he sheathed his sword and weaved through the falling shadow fragments, not looking back as he hurried into the stairwell.

As if the collapsing world had nothing to do with him.

The Shadow Monster was a C-level Transcendent who had mutated.

And among Moonlight Rodan’s headquarters C-levels, there was actually only one, which was one of the two C-levels sent over by Moonlight.

He was also likely the strongest combatant in the headquarters, aside from Rhodes.

That is to say, after dealing with this fellow, the only strong enemy He Ao needed to face next was Rhodes.

He swiftly ascended the staircase.

The spiral staircase of the tower seemed to lead all the way to the top of the building.

But He Ao had only taken a few steps when a twisted Shadow Monster burst out from the stairwell and lunged at He Ao.

The invisible sword light slashed the creature in two, He Ao’s pace didn’t falter for a second, and as he continued forward, a shadow now stood on the landing above.

It was a youth with a gentle smile on his face, watching He Ao, his tone calm and natural, "Mr. Hao Yi, you still have the chance to become one of us. Don’t delude yourself into thinking you can stop my master, that’s nothing but a fool’s dream.

"The end of the world is upon us, and all those who do not believe in my master will perish under His terrifying power. Only by becoming a servant of my master can you evolve and live forever in this apocalypse."

He Ao stopped in his tracks, eyeing him with confusion.

"It seems you are stubborn and unwilling to heed good advice."

The youth reached out his hand and drew a pistol made of dark shadows, aiming it at He Ao.

Bang—

The dark shadow bullet streaked through the void towards He Ao’s forehead. He Ao’s body shifted slightly to the right, dodging the shadow bullet, then leaped forward one step, instantly reaching the youth and swung his sword diagonally upwards.

Before the youth could react, the sharp blade had already slashed across his body.

The youth’s body swayed slightly, his eyes widened, filled with disbelief.

Then his body tumbled forward, rolling down the stairs, with blood glowing with pale green luminescence flowing down the steps.

He Ao sheathed the Shadowless Sword, his gaze withdrawing from the youth.

A pseudo C-level, and not even a strong one among them, he must have just obtained this great power and became a little inflated.

His steps did not stop, he continued forward.

As he got closer to the top floor, the number of twisted Shadow Monsters appearing before him increased.

Eventually, the Shadowless Sword, a Transcendent item that grew sharper and more invisible with each kill, even lost its ability to become invisible due to the blood that never ceased to flow from it.

Finally, treading a path paved with twisted flesh, He Ao stepped onto the top floor.

This was a conical space, with the ground under his feet and the rest of the space built from completely transparent glass, he could look up and see the bright moon and stars, half-covered by clouds, overhead.

"I didn’t expect you to really be able to kill Locke."

Rhodes, standing in the center of the room, gazing out at the entire city, turned around and smiled at He Ao.

He had white hair and a gentle face, appearing like a kind old man.

"There are always some things in this world that are unpredictable."

He Ao’s gaze shifted past Rhodes, where between the dazzling lights, an invisible force was already connected.

For a moment, He Ao seemed to hear the slow and heavy beating of a heart.

It was the effect of the massive ritual that enveloped all of South City pulsating at a frequency that seemed like a mumble.

Just hearing this pulsation filled He Ao with twisted, mad emotions.

From beyond the vastness of time and space, it felt as if a vast gaze was descending.

It was an unseeable Great Being, a reflected image of endless mystery, the bringer of destruction’s end.

Tick-tock—

The last drop of blood dripped from the Shadowless Sword, its sharp edge disappearing into the invisible void.

He Ao lifted his head, gazing at Rhodes,

"It seems you’re unwilling to stop this ritual."

"And it looks like you’re also unwilling to willingly return to the embrace of my master."

Rhodes watched him with a smile.

Both their figures vanished at the same time.