Chapter 1904: Consciousness Assimilation

Chen Ling sneered:

"You seem very eager for me to leave voluntarily?"

"Is it because once my consciousness leaves, only an empty shell will remain... Also, my body is part of the Red Star's power, right? That is why among all the generations of Red Kings, only I could step onto the Red Star with my body..."

"As long as my consciousness leaves, you can naturally reclaim that portion of power without any effort."

"But if my existence is so important to you, why don't you immediately erase my consciousness, forcibly devour my body, and reclaim this power? Why go through all this trouble to induce me to leave?"

"Is there something in my consciousness... that makes you wary?"

Chen Ling’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Chen Ling had no intention of leaving; on the contrary, he had already begun to deduce the weaknesses of the Red Star.

And this attitude of his completely enraged the Red Star consciousness.

"...Self-righteous ant."

The massive crimson figure began to melt, flowing into the earth bit by bit. As it vanished, the corridor outside the door began to churn violently like a living creature!

The entire infinite crimson world seemed to turn into an ocean, and the surging seawater poured directly in from the doorway, submerging Chen Ling along with the four silhouettes around him and the towering Gate of All Wonders!

This world was composed of the Red Star consciousness itself. Previously, when the Red Star consciousness tried to guide Chen Ling to leave, it was naturally calm, but now that Chen Ling refused to leave, the entire world turned into hostility directed at him, sweeping in from all directions.

At this moment, Chen Ling had nowhere to hide.

As his figure was submerged by the crimson ocean,

In the real world, the unconscious actor embedded within the flesh and blood of the Red Star, who was gradually being fused and assimilated, saw his hollow pupils tremble violently.

……

Endless crimson occupied Chen Ling’s mind.

He was like a fallen leaf caught in an ocean current, spinning wildly. Extreme dizziness and a sense of inversion filled his heart and mind; everything blurred and faded in the chaos...

At the same time, a large number of consciousness fragments that did not belong to him surged into his memory!

In a trance, he felt as if he had become a traveling meteor.

He came from a place extremely far away, so far that it exceeded all boundaries of time and space. He saw layers upon layers of worlds, extending infinitely from a faint light source, like the rays of a candle in the dimness, manifesting in the dust.

The candlelight flickered, and the myriad worlds fluctuated between extinction and prosperity. Some were similar, others were completely different—from urban civilizations with towering buildings and hidden superpowers, to the Middle Ages where curses and witchcraft were mainstream, to the pinnacle of technology where super starships roamed the universe, to cultivation legends where immortal sects stood and swordsmen flew... Among them, there were even Q-version worlds composed entirely of lines and color blocks, like cartoons.

At this moment, there were many other meteors around him, moving together toward the edge of the myriad worlds of candlelight.

And their target... was the source of the candlelight that projected these worlds.

They grazed the edges of one world after another, then crashed into a certain world. To them, most worlds were like fragile paper; a light collision was enough to pierce through them...

But there were exceptions.

Chen Ling pierced through seven or eight worlds in one breath. Under his power, the "civilizations" nurtured by those worlds collapsed, eventually becoming food for him to absorb, while the worlds that lost their civilizational foundation were churned into vortices by his wake, completely annihilated into residue.

Until he arrived at a certain world. There seemed to be some powerful beings here. Although he eventually pierced through it, those powerful beings joined forces, not only knocking off many fragments from him but also forcibly severing a corner of his core.

He saw his fragments fall into the ocean, mountains, wilderness, forests, and the depths of the void... but the most core piece fell into a bustling human city.

His power was depleted too much in this world. Although he eventually pierced through it, by the time he reached the next world, he had become slow and fragile.

This world was adjacent to the previous one and did not seem like an easy target either. He sensed an extremely special existence here. He didn't know what method it used, but it had forcibly trapped itself in a bizarre cycle. For a time, he couldn't break through it, nor could he pierce through this world...

He could sense that the remains of the previous world, which still held his core power, were overlapping with this world. The monster carrying his core power seemed to have birthed its own will.

He knew that unless he recovered his lost power and key core, it would be difficult for him to escape this cycle. But every time he was about to destroy the civilization here and recover his power and core, he would fall into that damned cycle again...

But now it seemed that the key to this cycle lay in Wen Ruoshui...

Anger surged uncontrollably in Chen Ling’s heart. He hadn't expected that the source of the cycle trapping him would actually extend from his own power.

So, in the final analysis, as long as he forcibly erased these humans who absorbed his power, recovered this portion of power, and made the remaining power on Earth insufficient to support Wen Ruoshui in completing the restart, he could escape the cycle and completely pierce through this world.

Or, he could simply let Wen Ruoshui die after the next restart and directly recover this portion of power...

Wait!!

Amidst the endless crimson, a trace of clarity rose in Chen Ling’s consciousness.

At this moment, a wave of terror washed over Chen Ling... He suddenly realized that his consciousness seemed to be being assimilated by the Red Star, and all the clues he had mastered regarding the restart were already known to the Red Star... Moreover, the Red Star was using his own line of thinking to find a way to break the cycle!

Without realizing it, had he lost his self and become a part of the Red Star consciousness?!

In the crimson ocean, Chen Ling’s consciousness was like a fragile, tiny fallen leaf. Just as it surfaced for a moment, it was swallowed by another wave.

Confusion and emptiness clung to Chen Ling’s mind again. The Red Star’s consciousness continued to assimilate him, and everything he knew about Earth was turning into a weapon for the Red Star to use against Earth.

Just as the crimson tide was about to submerge Chen Ling,

A touch of apricot red bloomed again from the corner of Chen Ling’s eye.

[Painting the Rouge]!!

With the activation of [Painting the Rouge], Chen Ling’s body, which should have been swallowed by the crimson seawater, finally floated up a little, and his consciousness regained clarity!

Damn it...

This absolutely cannot go on.

The Red Star’s consciousness was simply too vast. Chen Ling knew that even with [Painting the Rouge], he couldn't hold on for long... If his consciousness were completely occupied by the Red Star, his physical body would also be fused by it.

And the Calamity of Mockery itself was formed by that severed corner of the Red Star core. If the Red Star were to truly swallow him and complete this core, then Wen Ruoshui’s restart would likely no longer be effective against the Red Star.