On the map, a green light went out completely.
The system's tone betrayed no emotion: "[Bai Lang is dead.]"
The desire not to become a pollutant had triumphed over Bai Lang's instinct for survival.
"Being turned into a pollutant is indeed a disaster for humanity when it comes to high-level Harbingers like him. But I feel becoming a pollutant is better than death. Faith, I find it perplexing," Lu Yan pondered for a moment. "It's different. For many people, merely existing on animal instinct without consciousness is harder to accept than death."
The atmosphere was particularly heavy when they met due to this accident.
Lu Yan found Bai Lang's body—a massive wolf covered mostly in silver-white fur, with a dagger plunged into its heart.
Bai Lang lay on the ground, staring at the sky above with wide eyes, seemingly wanting to etch this moment into memory.
Beside him lay a pollutant torn in half, with tree-like roots sprouting from the rupture, writhing incessantly in an attempt to piece its fragmented body back together.
Lu Yan dealt two more blows with Hellfire, and the remnants of the pollutant charred as if burned by fire, turning into carbonized black.
Meng Hu took off the special operations uniform from his body and draped it over Bai Lang. It was an old-style uniform from decades ago, once white.
He held back his tears for a while, but couldn't contain them, turning away and covering his face as he squatted on the ground, wailing loudly.
His cries echoed far.
In the distance, some bewildered residents peered out, their expressions akin to startled small animals. They had no idea that a stranger had died in a foreign land trying to save them forever.
Ning Huai's hand trembled as he smoked, taking a deep breath, his eyes slightly red. "Let's come back to deal with this later. There's no time."
This was a mission where success or death was the only outcome.
Unlike other contaminated areas Lu Yan had visited with them, as they approached the central area of the Divine Realm, the overall environment became more magnificent. There was no trace of the stench of blood. It didn't feel like they were heading to eradicate the stronghold of the Divine Realm but rather to attend some evening banquet.
The system introduced: "[The Prime, in his youth, engaged in smuggling and sales, spent a few years in prison, honed excellent eloquence. At the beginning of founding the Blissful Sect, he was still a Harbinger, not yet turned into a pollutant. He truly believed he could become the god of the new world.]"
"[Unfortunately, he didn't realize one thing: it's his mind that became the pollutant, not his body. Feeling useless physically, the Prime abandoned his original body, opting for a more suitable vessel, allowing the Blissful Sect to flourish in Changjia and ultimately infiltrate the lives of most people there.]"
Whether it was Meng Hu or Ning Huai, their speed in advancing on foot was much faster than driving a car. Lu Yan, with only two legs, experienced a moment of care unique to disabled individuals, as Big Tiger carried him on his back.
A thick mist pervaded the Central Divine Court, its decor solemn and dignified, reminiscent of the temples of ancient Rome.
At the gate, in the center of the hollow dome, a marble sculpture of a brain flower was surrounded by stars, placed right at the center.
On twelve white pillars surrounding it, twisted human figures were embedded, male and female, with expressions of pain or sorrow, all gazing at the sky without exception.
"This is the Prime's memorial to the bodies he once used."
Here, they were already close to the Prime's true body.
Lu Yan could even hear faint breathing amidst the white mist, like some slumbering beast.
"The Prime's true body is easily damaged, and spiritual-type pollutants have always been weak in combat. Therefore, it relies on the guardians of the temple to consolidate its rule and doesn't reveal its true form on ordinary days."
Ning Huai pondered in front of the gate for a moment. "Wait, it's too quiet here. Let me send a clone in to check."
Lu Yan had the privilege of witnessing the use of Talent Split.
A bloodline appeared on Ning Huai's back, splitting open a huge mouth. A pair of slender hands emerged, struggling to squeeze out from within in an extremely irregular shape.
Ning Huai No.2 was enveloped in a viscous fluid like amniotic fluid, his shrunken body resembling a weathered mummy. However, after absorbing the fluid, the clone's body became plump, identical to the current Ning Huai, with a spiritual power threshold of 8400 and an initial morbidity of 0.
He had deep purple eyes and a spider-like lower body, but his gaze lacked any vitality, resembling a puppet. His vision would be shared with Ning Huai, and the entire person would be controlled by the main body. But morbidity would not be shared.
Overall, it was a very useful tool.
In a short period, Ning Huai could only split one clone like this. The next time, he wouldn't be able to achieve such a high spiritual power threshold.
Following Ning Huai's instructions, the clone slowly stepped into the core area of the Divine Realm.
Contrary to imagination, it was actually a block of streets here.
No one lived there, yet everything seemed frozen in the moments before disaster struck. The streets were blanketed in ash, but the car headlights still gleamed. In the passenger seat, the desiccated remains of a person clutched a phone.
On the streets, a young woman with expensive jewelry dangling from her wrist held an umbrella, but the dog on the leash was nowhere to be seen, only its collar lying abandoned on the ground.
Glass littered the floor of a broken cabinet, with the grimacing face of a thief clutching several gold necklaces, frozen mid-flight.
This was the moment just before calamity struck.
The white mist emanating from the divine courtyard froze everything in place. The world came to a standstill in an instant. This neighborhood remained untouched by visitors, even decades into the future. The street lamps, untended, cast an unusually dim light.
The mutagens lightly touched the people nearby, causing them to collapse instantly, crumbling into powder.
"Not pollutants," murmured the mutagen to itself.
At this moment, it shared consciousness with Ning Huai's mind; it was Ning Huai.
In the mist, vague outlines of monsters could be discerned.
A massive octopus sprawled atop a skyscraper, its tentacles swaying. It seemed both to ward off and to welcome.
The mutagen's level of corruption slowly rose within the white mist.
As it passed through an alley, the sound of a dog barking suddenly filled its ears.
A pitch-black three-headed dog lunged at him, its bloody fangs exposed. Between its teeth, fragments of flesh glistened. This pollutant stood at a towering three meters, surrounded by a foul stench.
The mutagen dodged its sharp claws and, in a swift motion, thrust its long tentacles into the creature's body.
Ning Huai's spider legs could extend up to seven meters when fully opened.
The tentacles, sharp as blades, pierced the dog's abdomen, cleaving it in half.
The three-headed dog collapsed, bloodlessly, its white brain matter spilling out onto the ground.
The street stretched on endlessly. As Ning Huai entered the next area, warmth enveloped him, and for a moment, his expression faltered. The next moment, he found himself standing at the intersection.
In the distance, an LED screen on a mall displayed an advertisement featuring his favorite actress. But the ad had long ceased to play.
Ning Huai looked down and realized his bodily deformity had vanished, and he even carried a briefcase.
The sunlight was warm on his skin, and the traffic light turned green. People passed by him with smiles on their faces.
It was no different from the scenes of his life for over thirty years.
Ning Huai opened the briefcase to find his students' graduation theses.
Before becoming a harbinger, he was a professor and a doctoral supervisor in the physics department of S University.
His phone rang from his jacket pocket.
Ning Huai answered, hearing the familiar yet distant voice of the dean of the School of Physics: "Professor Ning, the award ceremony is at 9 a.m. in the auditorium. Welcome back from abroad, but this time, you can't be late! In all these years, our country has only one recipient of the Bohr International Gold Award."
Yes, Ning Huai's research field was nuclear physics.
He instinctively replied, "I'm on my way. My car ran out of gas, so I'm taking the bus. Forgot to fill it up yesterday."
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