Chapter 113: Advancement

Factory Area.

A black blur like thunder broke through the factory roof, whistling as it was submerged in the churning thick fog.

Immediately after, a crawling shadow emerged from the hole in the factory roof, twisting and winding around the void, spiraling into the sky in pursuit.

A dark red hole writhed at the centipede's head. The next moment, countless shadows seemed like growing branches emerging from the hole, grabbing at Han Meng's body from all directions!

Han Meng's black trench coat was covered in blood. He frowned as he looked at the giant shadow chasing him at high speed, his right hand gripping his gun and pulling the trigger repeatedly. Deconstruction bullets rained down, destroying the incoming shadows one after another.

Han Meng could feel his mental energy being consumed frantically. At the same time, the [Tribunal] was expanded to its limit.

This wasn't Han Meng's first time challenging a higher rank. Compared to the last battle against the red-paper monster, dealing with this shadow centipede was clearly not as strenuous. This wasn't to say the shadow centipede's combat power was weak, but Han Meng felt the red-paper monster was more insidious...

The power of judgment kept tearing apart the shadows in mid-air. Han Meng's figure moved through them dangerously, constantly gaining altitude.

However, when his height exceeded a certain threshold, the giant black shadow gave up the chase and turned back, shrinking into the devastated steel factory.

"So you refuse to leave the steel factory no matter what..."

Han Meng stopped in mid-air, lost in thought.

The continuous fighting had almost leveled the entire steel factory. As the Third District Enforcer, Han Meng naturally didn't want to see such losses, so from the beginning, he had been trying to lure this mother body away from the factory area.

But no matter which direction he lured it from, as long as it went beyond a certain range of the steel factory, the mother body would automatically give up the chase and return to the factory... as if it had completely accepted this place as its nest.

The more this was the case, the harder it was for Han Meng. To resolve the trouble in the Third District, he had to kill this mother body...

But with so many centipedes gathered in the factory and the terrain being so narrow, killing a Rank 5 as a Rank 4 was almost impossible. This was why the two had been entangled in battle for so long.

Just as Han Meng was pondering a way to break the deadlock, a sudden change occurred!

The hundreds of shadow centipedes writhing in the factory area shuddered simultaneously, their heads turning toward a direction in the thick fog. The dark red holes contracted violently—were they afraid, or excited?

Han Meng looked in the direction they were watching, but apart from thick fog, he could see nothing.

Han Meng's brow furrowed. Just as he was feeling confused, the mother body entrenched inside the factory acted as if it had gone mad, diving into the deepest part of the factory, its figure gradually disappearing into the ground.

The other shadow centipedes gathered rapidly, following it toward the giant pit like a black tide caught in a whirlpool.

Seeing this, Han Meng immediately turned into a blur and chased after them.

He broke into the factory. The centipedes that had been full of murderous intent toward him now acted as if they couldn't see him, all of them diving into the ground.

Han Meng followed their trail and stopped in a corner of the workshop. In front of him was a giant pit several meters in radius. The edge of the pit was ground that looked like ash, as if it had been stained by something.

"A gap where the Gray Realm intersects?" Han Meng's brow furrowed even tighter.

As far as he knew, even if the Aurora Domain encountered a Gray Realm intersection, the intersection point would last at most half an hour before healing automatically... But it had already been several hours, and this intersection point was still here?

With the disappearance of the numerous centipedes, Han Meng's heart didn't relax; instead, he became even more vigilant.

As long as this intersection point existed, those Calamities could still appear. Even if it wasn't centipedes, there would likely be other Calamities from the Gray Realm. Moreover, Han Meng clearly felt that this Gray Realm intersection was not right.

He stood at the edge of the hole, hesitating for a moment, but a flash of determination crossed his eyes. He leaped lightly and disappeared into the gray at the bottom of the pit along with the black tide.

……

"So fragrant... so... fragrant..."

The warehouse under the raging fire was like a scorching alchemical furnace. Countless curled shadows were burning quietly within. A figure, charred black all over, with limbs like burnt-out matches, was lying on a shadow, frantically tearing at its flesh.

[Audience Expectation +1]

[Audience Expectation +1]

【……】

As Chen Ling ate one shadow after another, the scarlet in those eyes in the void became increasingly vivid.

Dozens of shadow centipedes were burned to death in the raging fire. Their flesh became Chen Ling's meal, and their spirits were swallowed into the void, leaving behind only puppet-like corpses, respectfully curled on the ground.

I don't know how much time passed, but Chen Ling's eyes had been burned blind.

His hands clawed at the charred roasted chicken for a moment, but he couldn't grab a piece of meat. He could only feel his way through the darkness, stumbling as he walked to the side.

However, the moment he took a step, his left leg shattered into carbon, and he fell to the ground.

This fall shattered his right hand, chest, and shoulder. He fell stiffly into the flames, like a mummy about to meet death.

"Am... I... going to die..."

Even [Blood Robe] couldn't sustain Chen Ling's survival in the raging fire for long. His vitality, along with most of the shadow centipedes, was nearing its end.

The oxygen in the warehouse was consumed rapidly. An unprecedented sense of suffocation surged into Chen Ling's heart. He still tried to crawl up to grab the roasted chickens around him, but after struggling for a long time, he could only sway slightly in place.

Finally, he lay there motionless, as if he had completely accepted his fate.

Those pairs of scarlet eyes peered silently at all of this in the raging fire. The flames completely exhausted the last of the air and gradually extinguished in the warehouse, leaving only a few wisps of firelight dancing silently near the door cracks.

[Actor connection lost, performance interrupted]

[Audience Expectation -50]

[Current Expectation: 28%]

A few lines of charred characters flashed across the corpses on the floor. A moment later, an eerie red light extended from beneath Chen Ling, as if weaving into stairs, extending all the way to the end of the void.

Above the firmament outside the warehouse, a vermilion star flickered slightly, and surging mental energy poured out of Chen Ling's corpse!

He seemed to have broken through a certain barrier, his aura climbing step by step, finally settling at the second rank of that twisted divine path, and then slowly disappearing into the void...

In the darkness, that charred, human-shaped corpse suddenly regained vitality rapidly. Flesh and blood regenerated on the pitch-black charcoal, and the burnt-out eyeballs regained their luster, as if something were about to break out of this withered corpse!

His fingers curled slightly, and as his eyelids opened, a pair of hollow, eerie pupils were exposed to the air!

He climbed up slowly, his bright red opera robe spotless.

The next moment, eerie and chilling laughter echoed in the deathly silent warehouse.

……

……

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