2435 Person in the Stone

Around the same time as the girl broke out of the egg, the human stone in the camp melted like ice. But instead of water, a substance that looked like blood emerged from the melting stone.

The two guinea pigs inside the warehouse witnessed this happen, and they backed away from the stone with wide eyes. They screamed and turned to run, but when their mouths opened, they stopped mid-stride. Their eyes turned red, and a scary presence came out of them.

More of that red blood oozed from the stone. It began to rise from the ground as a vapor, spreading to fill the surrounding air.

All the members of Spring Rain and the workers that were nearby fell under the influence of that invisible power. They all leveled up, their power increasing so quickly that it almost seemed like they were cheating. They increased one level, and their genes grew stronger.

All of the nearby Kings became half-deified, and the half-deifieds actually downgraded to become measly Dukes.

The creatures that had already been affected by the stone didn’t change again, but other than those few who had already been altered, there was only one anomaly: Ning Yue. He hadn’t been affected in any capacity.

His little green sword groaned, then flew up and landed in Ning Yue’s hand. It shone green, bathing him in a protective light.

In Han Sen’s room, Bao’er was still playing games with Falling Leaf. She looked up suddenly, and her face grew worried. She raised her hand and summoned a little gourd. The little gourd shone with a weird light of its own, covering herself, Falling Leaf, and the little red bird.

“What are you doing?” Falling Leaf asked, having no idea what Bao’er was actually doing. She saw the shining little gourd, but she didn’t notice any of the other powers that were at play.

“Nothing. Let’s continue our card game,” Bao’er said with a blink.

Falling Leaf made no comment, and they resumed their game. Meanwhile, in the warehouse, the stone had completely melted. A white-haired man with white clothing had been revealed, sitting exactly where the stone had been. He looked pale, and he smelled musty and ancient. It was as if he had been sitting there forever, watching the days and the moons go by, and the stars themselves fall to darkness. Time must have moved like a river for him. It was like nothing in the world could leave a mark on him. The rise and fall of empires were mere moments to a man like this.

He let out a sigh. The man opened his eyes, and then he spoke to himself, “After all these lifetimes, I just want to get drunk with you. Is there any point living in this world without you?”

The white-haired man stood up and exited the warehouse.

The infected creatures of the base, meanwhile, were in the midst of fighting each other. Their levels had increased or decreased, and their eyes had turned red. They became insane and bloodthirsty, trying to kill anyone they could reach.

All kinds of powers were being used across the base. If the base hadn’t been built out of the sturdy black rock, it would have been reduced to a ruin by now.

The white-haired man walked through the various pitched battles, but none of the crazed people attacked him. No power dared to land on him. He slid through the base like a ghost, immaterial and untouchable.

The man walked out of the base camp and turned his grey eyes up to look at the stars above.

The buildings behind him began to collapse under the ferocity of the fights, and explosions of power bloomed like fireworks. But the man was wholly uninterested, and he continued talking to himself. “This world is so boring without you.”

The white-haired man looked at the base, and his eyes drifted toward Bao’er’s room. Then, his calm eyes suddenly looked shocked.

Pang!

Falling Leaf and Bao’er were in the middle of playing card games. Suddenly, a booming noise shook the room, and the walls collapsed like the petals of a flower. But not a single piece of debris came near them.

When Falling Leaf looked outside, her eyes opened wide. The entire base was little more than a ruin. Spring Rain members and workers were all mixed together, fighting and killing each other like they’d been possessed. Dead bodies and torn flesh were strewn about in pools of blood.

“Are you guys crazy?” Falling Leaf shouted. But the crazed fighters paid no heed to her cry. They continued butchering each other in a frenzy.

Amidst the killing, the white-haired man walked gracefully toward them. He moved effortlessly through the destruction, and the violence fell away from him like oil over water.

Falling Leaf’s heart leaped inside her chest. She flipped her hand and quickly brought out a dagger. She looked at the white-haired man and said firmly, “Stop! If you step closer, I’ll kill you.”

The white-haired man behaved as if he hadn’t heard her. He kept walking toward the room, peering at Bao’er, who was atop the sofa.

She gave three warnings, but the white-haired man didn’t seem to hear her. Falling Leaf had no idea what was going on, but Miss Mirror had commanded that she look after Bao’er and keep the girl safe, and that was exactly what Falling Leaf would do.

She thrust her dagger at the white-haired man. Falling Leaf’s entire person seemed to connect with the universe. For a moment she was extending her dagger in an attack, and that moment froze, hovering like an afterimage. Then the afterimage vanished, and the only thing left behind was the sinking feeling of watching yellow leaves fall in late autumn, withered and dying.

That feeling of death flashed by the white-haired man, harmless. Falling Leaf was back where she had started as if nothing had happened. But Falling Leaf’s pupils grew smaller. Her assassination skills were top-notch, and her full power attacks were a threat to even deified elites. But this man had simply ignored her attack, and he was still headed for Bao’er as if nothing had happened.

“How is that possible?” Falling Leaf couldn’t believe her eyes as she stared at the white-haired man. Her chest constricted with sudden fear.

She had no idea how the white-haired man might have broken her strongest attack. Although he didn’t look strong, there was a cold feeling in her stomach. Merely looking at the man gave Falling Leaf the creeps.

The man never looked at Falling Leaf, though. His attention was focused on Bao’er.

Bao’er grabbed her little gourd. Her face looked very dire, and she stared at the man as if he was an enemy.

Boom!

The little red bird on Bao’er’s shoulder seemed to feel that it needed to intervene as well. It flew off of Bao’er’s shoulder, becoming a scary fire phoenix that hovered right beside the girl. It cried at the white-haired man in warning, but it didn’t attack. It actually looked quite afraid of the white-haired man.

“Interesting. Is this a combination of a phoenix and a fish bird? To be able to do this… This is quite interesting.” The white-haired man finally averted his gaze from Bao’er to look at the little red bird, intrigued.

Falling Leaf was frozen. She had thought the little red bird on Bao’er’s shoulder was a useless pet. But the scary presence it now exuded told her that it was actually a deified xenogeneic.

The next second, an even scarier thing happened. The white-haired man simply reached out and grabbed the fire phoenix out of the air. The bird’s fire vanished, and it didn’t even have a chance to resist. It returned to being that little red bird in his hands, and it couldn’t fly away.