Through the dense green seaweed forming a wall, the scene before them suddenly opened up. The entire city was enveloped in a layer of gray desolation. A frighteningly large moon hung in the pitch-black sky above, with half of its crescent sinking into the sea, its edges irregular. Despite the brightness of the white moon, visibility here was low. The dim moonlight sprinkled on the ground, making the entire city as silent as if it were in another universe.
Tang Xunan could feel many malevolent gazes upon them from the shadows. Massive balls of flesh fish rolled in mid-air. Occasionally, pollutants would burst out from the darkness, taking a bite from the flesh balls before sinking back down. Tang Xunan heard strange howls of monsters around him.
Human bodies were too frail, appearing as mere dust in the face of evolution. Perhaps because there was still ample food, and the aura emanating from Tang Xunan was not weak, the pollutants temporarily did not target him.
After entering R'lyeh, Lu Yan's mutation level was oddly under control. The detector's reading stuck at 98.8, as if broken, not increasing for a long time. Finally, Lu Yan showed some signs of life. His eyes cracked open slightly, and the golden fish scales on his face slowly retracted as he regained consciousness.
Lu Yan couldn't describe how he felt; he was cold, yet there seemed to be a fire burning inside him, threatening to reduce him to ashes. The system was gone, but his talent for Omniscience partially lingered in his body. His brain felt like an old computer overloaded with cache, running sluggishly.
He reached out, wrapping his arms around Tang Xunan's neck, whispering, "Keep going forward, don't look back." "Okay." Tang Xunan didn't ask why, simply following the order with loyalty.
From Lu Yan's perspective, a rolling black fog followed them. Pairs of crimson eyes locked onto Tang Xunan and him through the mist, their gazes filled with undisguised greed and hunger. This black fog possessed a talent for mental control, its true form obscured by the layers of mist. Meeting its gaze could leave a normal person in a daze for a long time.
Lu Yan's gaze was fearless, even filled with disdain, causing the black fog to timidly step back. Yet, it didn't leave, as other monsters soon joined. Hidden by the fog, several tail-bearing creatures leaped forward, their bodies pitch black, resembling legendary water monkeys, but their mouths resembled the wide beaks of dolphins, capable of biting a person's head off in one bite. If the ghostly fetus in Dragon Maiden Lake were to fully grow, it would probably look similar.
Inappropriately, Lu Yan felt hungry. He clutched his stomach as his blood churned within him. Despite his high tolerance for pain, Lu Yan still hovered between consciousness and delirium due to the intense pain.
The sound of the tide was replaced by distant murmurs in his ears. "Brother, have you come to see me?" His silver pupils dilated, and the whites of his eyes turned as red as blood, gasping heavily as if he were suffocating.
Tang Xunan took out a special medicine he carried and pried open Lu Yan's lips to administer it. While the medicine might not alleviate the high degree of mutation, it had another function: pain relief. In the past, surgeries were performed without anesthesia, using this special medicine as a substitute.
Lu Yan swallowed the medicine with difficulty, his adam's apple bobbing. He pushed Tang Xunan away while suddenly raising his voice, "Let go of me!—Go!" His emotions rarely became so intense, leaving Tang Xunan momentarily stunned.
The next second, Lu Yan arched his back, coughing violently. Despite his efforts to cover his mouth, fresh blood seeped through his fingers, spreading in the seawater.
Lu Yan no longer pushed Tang Xunan away, realizing that once blood flowed from his body, everything became meaningless. Tang Xunan clenched the yellow dust in his hand. His golden eyes turned into a pitch-black dot.
On the ground, on the stone pillars, on the moss, and even on the massive moon in front of them, countless eyes opened, like awakened beasts. Only then did he realize that the moon they saw was not a moon but a huge, living white flesh ball.
Lu Yan whispered in Tang Xunan's ear, "The moon, it's... the mother of all pollutants in R'lyeh, also called 'Mother Worm'... but also, an outsider." A shell-like creature emerged from the ground with a shriek, quickly followed by another. They resembled lice, pitch black with evenly distributed red compound eyes on each segment of their bodies.
The shrieking sounds rose and fell, like a bizarre concerto. The silent city became unusually lively at this moment.
Their mouths agape, cylindrical oral cavities bristled with serrated fangs. A sea worm, unable to restrain itself any longer, coiled its abdomen and catapulted towards Lu Yan. The flash of a blade mingled with moonlight, slicing the approaching sea worm into two, spewing fresh deep-blue blood—an onset of what was to come. Hundreds of pollutants, like locusts, swarmed towards them, darkening the sky. Emerging from all directions, their compound eyes glowed ominously, merely the tip of the iceberg of R'lyeh's pollutants.
From above, the area was nearly submerged in a dark swarm. A nearly invisible light barrier radiated around Tang Xunan as the center, with a radius of a hundred meters, rising from the ground. Sea worms that passed through the barrier swelled rapidly, as if ripened prematurely, then their flesh shriveled like sun-dried sea cucumbers, their shells gradually turning pale. They lost vitality, dropping to the ground, their bodies decomposing at an exceptionally rapid rate. In that brief moment, the monsters experienced their lifespans at an unbelievably accelerated rate.
**Talent: Time** - Irresistible and relentless.
Tang Xunan didn't spare them another glance, moving forward with Lu Yan under the cover of the light barrier. Lu Yan's regenerative talent was completely ineffective, or rather, the injuries were beyond what regeneration could heal, as blood continued to flow incessantly. He felt it shouldn't go to waste, especially since so many pollutants coveted it, unwilling to let outsiders benefit.
Lu Yan smeared his blood on Tang Xunan's pale lips, then suddenly smiled. For a long time, Lu Yan had found life meaningless. But because of Tang Xunan, he began to fear death. Lu Yan swallowed his blood, his dilated pupils refocusing. He pointed in a direction: "Let's head this way," directing them towards the "moon."
However, the barrier of time wasn't always effective, especially against some of the massive pollutants. The monsters from the ocean's depths were more than twice the size of those on land. Tang Xunan's blade ignited with white Dragon's Breath, cleaving through heavy shells and spraying blood. The dragonfire assisted the wounds inflicted on the pollutants, causing them to expand.
A sea snake, covered in protruding scales, split vertically, its massive body rolling on the ground in agony, crashing into stone pillars. The pillars trembled violently, with stones falling from a hundred meters high, kicking up dust.
Humans seemed insignificant, especially when facing these deep-sea pollutants. But Tang Xunan didn't wish to become a black dragon; he wouldn't be able to hold Lu Yan then. After a brief moment of clarity, Lu Yan fell back into unconsciousness, blood streaming from his ears and nose, staining his chest.
Tang Xunan had tried to stop the bleeding, to no avail. From the beginning, Lu Yan had lost enough blood to kill an ordinary person. Fortunately, Lu Yan still had a slow but powerful heartbeat. The scent of his blood was also the relentless pursuit of those pollutants. They wanted to evolve. And this evolution was more convenient than ever; they just needed to consume Lu Yan.
Due to their overwhelming numbers, Tang Xunan didn't even bother to look closely at the monsters. But he always remembered what Lu Yan said: don't look back, keep moving forward. As Tang Xunan drew closer, the moon ahead grew larger. Yet, midway to the moon, Tang Xunan encountered an unexpected acquaintance.
Shen Qingyang stood in the middle of the road, seemingly waiting for some time. Thin tentacles wriggled out of one of his eye sockets, the eyes on the tentacles glaring malevolently. Tang Xunan halted, his gaze wary and fierce. Shen Qingyang didn't look at him; his presence annoyed Shen Qingyang. His gaze fell on Lu Yan. He couldn't see Lu Yan's face, only his weakly dangling arms, the exposed skin covered in golden scales.
Tang Xunan had protected Lu Yan well. Tang Xunan was covered in scars, especially from greedy pollutants tearing at his flesh, his golden blood wetting his clothes, but the person in his arms remained unharmed. Therefore, Shen Qingyang temporarily set aside his prejudice towards Tang Xunan. Since Lu Yan was unconscious, Shen Qingyang pocketed the lifeless red eyeballs.
Shen Qingyang extended his hand, his tone barely calm: "Give him to me. Don't waste time." Outside, the moon should have already started turning red. The god was waking. After swallowing Lu Cheng, Shen Qingyang briefly saw the future world—a world without Lu Yan. Only a new, omniscient and omnipotent "god" born from Lu Yan's body, though they shared the same appearance, He was not Lu Yan.
Shen Qingyang pondered for a long time on what to do, finally devising a not necessarily successful plan. If he was destined to die as a vessel for the divine, why not die by Lu Yan's hand?
Tang Xunan positioned his blade in front of him, his expression uncontrollably fierce: "Dream on. Why should I?"
"Why?" Shen Qingyang bent over, emitting a deeply suppressed, low chuckle. Black tentacles burst forth from his back, advancing to strangle Tang Xunan, their deep-blue eyes filled with blood-red veins, swollen as if about to burst.
Shen Qingyang's laughter turned maniacal, almost piercingly sorrowful—sounding both like laughter and crying.
The tentacles were severed by the yellow dust, their cross-sections spurting blood. Tang Xunan pointed his blade at Shen Qingyang, feeling an instinctive sense of danger from his opponent's state. Moreover, he would not allow the pollutants to get close to Lu Yan.
"Because I'm willing to die for him! Only I can save him now, so tell me, why not?"
He stepped forward, gripping the blade tightly as if to snap it. The yellow dust cut deep into Shen Qingyang's palm, deep-blue blood dripping down the blade.
His gaze fixed on Tang Xunan, he asked through gritted teeth, "Can you do the same?"
The author adds: *Expanded on Shen Qingyang's inner turmoil.
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