At that moment, Wan Qianhong thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.
She struggled to push herself up from the muddy water, but her knees buckled, and she collapsed back down. She was exceedingly weak, no longer looking anything like an Edgerunner should.
“Is that you?” Wan Qianhong muttered, her lips trembling. “You... must win!”
Inside the black cocoon, Xu Mo and Bai Feifei simultaneously gripped the door-sized broadsword as black and white energies frantically intertwined along the blade.
The tip of the sword had already pierced through the cocoon wall, but it was far from enough. This black cocoon was neither physical nor pure energy, yet its durability was incredibly high. Only after directly clashing with it did Xu Mo realize that this was absolutely not something a character at their current stage could break through by sheer brute force.
The only silver lining right now was that the power which should have been resisting Bai Feifei's attack was currently being forcibly dragged into her body by the 【Source of Bloodline】 and absorbed.
However, that power was simply too massive. Relying solely on Bai Feifei's Sanity-locking trait was no longer enough; because it was pure energy, her physical body could not withstand it.
Both of them grit their teeth and endured. Even Xu Mo was in no mood for jokes right now.
Beside them, Liang Shuguang's massive skin still lay quietly on the ground like a carpet, giving off an incredibly eerie feeling.
There was no turning back. They would either successfully absorb the energy and break open the black cocoon, then figure out how to deal with the situation outside, or they would literally explode from the sheer volume of energy. Xu Mo did not want to be forced to rewind just because they blew up.
By a stroke of luck, they had finally gotten the chance to siphon Liang Shuguang and milk him for all he was worth. If they couldn't even swallow it, that would be a real joke.
Finally, just as their body was reaching its physical limit, the broadsword violently pierced all the way through the black cocoon!
At the same time, Xu Mo felt those three oval-shaped objects that had condensed out of thin air deep within his chest finally solidify after absorbing so much of the Old Ones' power.
On the game panel, a notification chime finally rang out.
【Congratulations, player, on obtaining a special unranked item: Soul Seed!】
【Soul Seed: Suspected to be a crystal of Old Ones' energy. Can be used in synergy with special single-character Word Souls.】
【Triggers the absolute limit of a single-character Word Soul's power for an extremely brief moment. The user will enter a weakened state for a period of time after use. Current quantity: 3.】
Xu Mo was momentarily stunned when he saw this description.
A special single-character Word Soul...
He didn't know what on earth these Soul Seeds were, nor did he understand why siphoning Liang Shuguang's Old Ones' power would yield such things.
It was certainly quite unique...
But while others might not know what a single-character Word Soul was, he certainly did.
In the lore of Old Ones' Awakening, Word Souls were incredibly diverse and bizarre, but there was one system of Word Souls that stood completely independent—they consisted of only a single character.
It sounded simple, but these things were exceptionally rare, with a finite number in the entire world—reputedly only twenty-four in existence.
Each single-character Word Soul was unique and could only be learned by one person. Their effects were more bizarre and sinister than the last. In the late game, some single-character Word Souls had effects that completely transcended the very concept of a "Word Soul."
The power of these Word Souls could sometimes even play a decisive role in high-level battles at the Eternal Sleeper rank.
The problem was, where was he supposed to get a single-character Word Soul right now? Were these things just something you could learn on a whim?!
“And they can be used in synergy...” Thoughts flashed through Xu Mo's mind like lightning as he felt the Soul Seeds in his chest.
“Could it be...?”
Xu Mo did not hesitate any longer.
He slapped his chest with one hand, decisively “consumed” a Soul Seed without any hesitation, choosing to use it directly to see its exact effect.
In an instant, black and white light flared brilliantly...
“Get ready, Bai Feifei!”
“It's time for our hero entrance!”
...
Meanwhile, outside in Dawn City, the final despair had arrived.
Under the dual influence of the anomalous energy radiating from the black cocoon and the chaotic battle of aberration transformations, it was nearly impossible for the residents of Dawn City's Inner City to remain sane.
Putting oneself in their shoes, they couldn't really be blamed for being weak. The power levels within Dawn City were severely fragmented, and their original guardians had all run into trouble, one after another.
The few remaining lucid Edgerunners, like Ye Hanshan, were currently running around the city like headless chickens while carrying Ye Yu, utterly powerless to help the situation.
Within the Inner City, even more people had given up. Some knelt on the ground, some clutched their heads, and others muttered incoherently, as if praying to some non-existent entity.
The energy of aberration and madness in the air grew thicker, seeping into lungs and creeping into blood vessels with every breath. More and more people gave up struggling and resisting entirely, mutating directly in their absolute despair.
“It's over... The disaster from thirty years ago is back...”
“The City Lord... Even the City Lord has succumbed. What else can we do...”
“Just now... did someone mention the Evil Gods of the Old Days? How is that possible? It's over, everything is over!”
“Is it all a lie? Hehe... It's a lie, hahahaha!”
Just a few hours ago, the people of this city were still living in a beautiful dream, feeling as though they were in a golden age. Yet, in mere hours, that dream had been shattered in the most brutal manner possible.
Fragmented voices drifted through the cold darkness, carrying the final, despairing wails before total collapse.
Just as the entire city was on the verge of complete aberration and becoming a dead city, a massive boom echoed from the heavens!
Boom! Boom! Boom!!
Everyone instinctively looked up.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the colossal black cocoon in the sky exploded!
There was no energy shockwave as they had imagined. After the explosion, it instantly collapsed inward, as if squeezed and torn apart by an invisible hand.
In the blink of an eye, the black cocoon shrank to a single point and vanished, as if it had never existed.
At that moment, time in Dawn City seemed to freeze. Everyone, whether lucid or not, whether strong or weak, was momentarily stunned.
In the exact same instant, a brilliant white light poured out from the center of the explosion.
It was a holy, pure, and absolutely overbearing light that washed over the world, instantly illuminating the entirety of Dawn City.
The light was so blindingly bright that it instantly tore through all darkness, turning Dawn City's Inner City from pitch-black to radiant in a split second, as if day and night had been reversed.
And right at the center of this light, a pair of illusory, massive wings composed of pure white energy suddenly unfurled across the sky, blanketing the entire Inner City under the trembling gazes of everyone below!
It was as if an angel had descended.
At the same time, a voice pierced through the chaos and panic, forcefully striking deep into the souls of everyone:
【Success and failure are fleeting, never lose your resolve!】
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