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Chapter 504: Chapter 504: The Lightless Passage

...

When the final store manager collapsed, Chen Xuan was so exhausted that he could barely lift his hands.

The Spiritual Qi within him seemed completely drained, and no matter how wildly his Heart Method circulated, it was futile. He breathed heavily, sitting down slowly, his blood and sweat mixing together, feeling so sticky it made him want to vomit.

But in fact, he had already vomited several times, and his stomach had long been empty. Even if he vomited again, only some acidic water would come out.

This was the aftermath of overusing Spiritual Qi.

According to Liu Shuyue, he would soon experience fever, chills, and would need to rest in bed for about three to five days to recover, with his lifespan shortened by several years as a result. Thus, cultivators rarely pushed themselves to this extent unless absolutely necessary.

Fortunately, he indeed was in a situation of necessity now.

"I didn’t expect you to kill them all." Star God slowly walked out from the shade of a nearby tree, observing him with some surprise, "It seems I need to reevaluate your value."

Chen Xuan did not respond. He felt as if his lungs were on fire.

"You’re severely injured."

No kidding, he rolled his eyes. Combat was not his forte, and being able to still breathe was already incredibly lucky. To achieve victory, he had paid a heavy price—his left hand was missing, his right eye had become a bloody cavity; countless wounds were deep enough to expose bone, with the most frightening one on his chest where fractured ribs could be seen beneath the overturned flesh.

An average person with such severe injuries would have been in shock from the pain or died from excessive blood loss.

His endurance till now was probably thanks to the Living Dead.

"I’m afraid you have to hold on a bit longer." Star God continued.

Chen Xuan spat out a clump of blood, speaking weakly, "Even if ’a few minutes’ means nineteen minutes, it should’ve been long enough by now, right?"

"I expected it wouldn’t be more than a quarter of an hour, but the opponent’s resistance was stronger than I imagined." Star God shook his head regretfully, "Though I will undoubtedly be the final victor, the process will be slightly more convoluted."

"You can’t handle a bunch of lab-coated scientists sitting in a lab all day?"

"My adversaries are not ordinary mortals, but entities akin to myself." Star God responded indifferently, "Haven’t you realized yet that what imprisoned you has awakened?"

Is he referring to the Computation Well?

Chen Xuan stared at him for a moment, then suddenly chuckled.

Even Star God hadn’t anticipated such a response from him, curiously asking, "What are you laughing at?"

The thought that he would pin his hope of leaving on the back of an erratic enemy like Star God made Chen Xuan laugh involuntarily. If Star God were to deceive him now, it would be a truly lethal blow.

"Nothing, just thought your face is ugly." He licked the blood on his lips, "And it looks uglier paired with that suit."

At times like this, openly mocking the opponent was better than concealing one’s true thoughts.

Chen Xuan knew Star God didn’t care.

Because once a soul fell into his grasp, he had ten thousand ways to amend this "etiquette issue."

"Human standards have no meaning to me." Sure enough, Star God’s voice remained unwavering, "But for you, the rest period should be over."

Chen Xuan wrinkled the remaining half of his brow, "Here we go again?"

"Indeed," Star God looked towards the direction of the hill, "This time, there are more."

...

In the hall, researchers’ frantic reports echoed continuously.

"Report, Computation Wells number 7 and 16 have initiated the unsealing process!"

"Bottom-level data of Well 56 is lost, database is destroyed! Storage of Well 29 is unresponsive!"

"Is there a loss of ability information?"

"Currently, 1479 pieces of information are detected as inaccessible!"

"Professor Liang... if this continues, the ability database we painstakingly built will be wiped out!" Zhao Qian stared anxiously at the screen, already losing her composure.

The old man remained silent with a solemn expression. He was the only one on-site who managed to keep his cool.

Most people did not understand what kind of crisis befell the Salvation Ark, but he did. For the newly born god, this scenario resembled a harsh trial. If it could overcome by its own power, all current losses could be acceptable.

And it was indeed doing so — mobilizing all available forces to extinguish the enemy’s invasive fire. Once an unsealed Ability User died, their soul would completely dissipate, along with any unresolved ability information. Even though this looked like a self-damaging approach, there wasn’t a better choice to be made.

At present, the situation was akin to a human caught in a terminal illness.

The immune system is both a weapon against bacteria and a Sharp Sword hanging over the patient’s head. It continues to intensify its efforts, either achieving absolute victory or killing the patient alongside the illness.

The same applies to the Computation Well, with the souls of the candidates sealed within forming part of its structure, and ability information serving as its skeleton; as each part disappears, it weakens its own existence.

Liang Mingzhe’s most crucial mission now is to determine when to hit the brakes.

Victory is undoubtedly the most ideal outcome, but gambles mustn’t be made recklessly for victory alone.

"What’s the situation at Well 42?" he asked.

"Engineers have entered the well; the situation inside is terrible, with smoke and insects everywhere!"

"Bring the live feed over here."

"Yes!"

Quickly, the helmet camera signal of a maintenance engineer connected to the main screen. Everyone watched as the fully armed team struggled to navigate the cramped computer room, with insects occasionally falling from above, and countless pests wriggling inside adjacent cabinets.

The deeper they went, the more insects could be seen in the feed. As they approached the control room, piles of insect corpses stacked up, and stepping on them could audibly hear the crushing sounds.

This is certainly not due to maintenance negligence — not even a sewage well that hasn’t been serviced could nurture such a massive insect swarm.

The hatch to the control room was completely covered by those black insects, resembling not a steel barrier but more like an entrance to a nest for bugs to reside.

Everyone saw that below the overlapping bodies of pests were countless densely packed holes!

"Damn, can these things chew through steel?" someone asked incredulously, with their voice sounding muffled due to wearing space suits.

"Never mind that, just open the door." another person urged.

One person reached out attempting to sweep away the insects near the door handle, only for his entire hand to sink directly into the door panel as if there was nothing there.

He was stunned, hastily pulling back his hand, but it was too late — the protective gloves made of flexible composite fiber became riddled with holes, each a perfect hexagon, resembling a... honeycomb. Blood flowed from the holes, along with some fragments of white bone.

"My hand————!"

Only then did he let out a belated but horrible scream!

Two other engineers immediately raised their Gauss guns, firing fiercely at the door! The electromagnetic rounds blasted the bugs into pieces but didn’t physically impact the iron door at all, the bullets disappearing as if into the void without even a spark.

No... those aren’t holes in the door! Liang Mingzhe suddenly felt a chill rise from his feet, traveling along his spine all the way to his brain.

They’re intrusion points!

Insects continue pouring out of the holes, displacing their deceased peers, continuing to gnaw at the edges until they connect with each other.

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