For once, Bai Feifei didn't raise any objections to Xu Mo wanting to kill someone.
In her eyes, Tian Guannan's current actions were more than enough to warrant his death.
As the core head of the North District, committing such an act of betrayal was utterly intolerable. There was no telling how many people he had indirectly killed!
“Aren't you going to do it now?” Bai Feifei took the initiative to ask. “He seems to be growing stronger and stronger.”
“No rush,” Xu Mo replied, feeling his heart throb as he stared intently at Tian Guannan in the distance.
Right now, Tian Guannan stood there as his muscles began to swell and bulge.
Beneath his clothes, it looked as if snakes were writhing and pulsing, presenting a terrifying sight.
At the same time, an exceptionally powerful aura emanated from his body.
It was an extremely primitive power, carrying anomalous fluctuations that made everyone instinctively shudder as it swept across the entire field.
Everyone present felt a distinct wave of discomfort.
And the stronger a person was, the more intense the discomfort they felt!
Standing at the front of the crowd, the goat relief on Capricorn Xiao Xinghan's shoulder flashed violently. He took two sharp steps back, pressing one hand against his temple.
He could hear voices.
They weren't heard through his ears, but rather whispered directly inside his head—vague, yet enough to make his skin crawl.
The stronger one's power, the more sensitive they were to this sensation of being tainted by anomalous energy.
This was because acquiring a Word Soul essentially meant absorbing a portion of anomalous power; the more one absorbed, the further they drifted from humanity.
Not to mention, Xiao Xinghan's own Word Soul was related to the mind.
“Damn it... What is this thing?!” Xiao Xinghan gritted his teeth and took another half-step back.
He wasn't the only one; the surrounding Scavengers were all retreating. The Rank 5 Scavengers who had held out until now all looked pale and were breathing heavily.
Wan Qianhong kept her head lowered, looking as if she could collapse at any moment.
No one dared to get close to Tian Guannan.
With him as the center, the surrounding dozens of meters instantly turned into an uninhabited zone.
Even the charging aberrations began to tremble and bow their heads, curling into tight balls as if they had met their master.
It was as if they were bowing down in Tian Guannan's direction.
Outside the red soil region.
Liu Yun stood suspended in mid-air, maintaining the array of heavenly soldiers.
Aside from when Wan Qianhong was injured earlier, her face had remained mostly expressionless.
She needed to stabilize her own power, which required her to keep her emotions in check.
But now, she suddenly felt that something was terribly wrong.
She could feel that even through the wall of wind, there was an aura that made the power inside her throb, to the point where it actually felt like it was enticing her to mutate.
What on earth was that?!
Within the Scavenger system, the stronger one's power, the more careful they had to be about their mind being tainted by anomalous traits, which could trigger self-mutation.
As the strongest Prophet, she naturally knew that certain powers were not to be lightly touched.
Beside her, Xie Xuan stood in front of the control console, his expression equally grim.
He stared at the fragmented images coming through the screen. Watching Tian Guannan's increasingly less human form, he could already make a rough guess.
He suddenly spoke, his muttering filled with shock and unconcealed rage:
“These guys... seem to have actually found a way to use that thing.”
Liu Yun turned her head to look at him.
“Is this the strange Containment Object you mentioned that the traitors took from Turing City?”
“Are you sure it's a Containment Object?”
Xie Xuan didn't explain. He simply stared fixedly at the screen; at this moment, he clearly couldn't be certain either.
...
Inside the windless zone.
The battle fell into a strange, brief lull as everyone watched Tian Guannan with varying expressions.
Tian Guannan's body was still changing.
His face was completely unrecognizable now. His cheekbones protruded outward, his jaw elongated, and his mouth was filled with jagged, uneven fangs.
Only his eyes still retained a trace of human emotion.
It was madness, excitement, and a wild ecstasy born from gaining power.
He had been an Edgerunner for a very long time, and his power had been stuck at this stage for just as long.
For an Edgerunner to advance to a Prophet, they also needed an opportunity—specifically, they had to cross the threshold of extreme, life-or-death danger.
But having become an Edgerunner with an Escape Art that allowed him to flee at any moment, how could he possibly experience extreme, life-or-death danger?
Thus, his strength had long since plateaued. But now, he was once again experiencing the thrill of growing stronger.
He hadn't expected... he hadn't expected to actually get this kind of opportunity this time!
He began to tremble, and then he began to laugh.
The laughter was raspy and grating, sounding like bones grinding against stone, as if dozens of people were laughing simultaneously.
As he laughed, his body continued to expand, and his aura continued to soar.
“Hehe... Hahaha! Hahahahaha!”
Zhulong looked at him, the corners of his mouth curling upward.
He spread his arms as if displaying a perfect work of art.
“Do you see?”
“This is a gift—a gift concerning the very essence of life.”
“Look at his power, look at his transformation, look at what he is now.”
“You will witness a true miracle, true power, a true—”
Mid-sentence, his excited expression froze on his face.
On the open ground with Tian Guannan at the center, a black figure suddenly charged forward.
Before anyone still conscious could react, and while everyone still capable of fighting was retreating, that figure moved without any warning.
It was Bai Feifei!
More precisely, it was Xu Mo.
While everyone else was intimidated by Tian Guannan's imposing aura, and while everyone felt they should distance themselves from the monster, he charged straight in!
A black energy burst from his heart, surging through his meridians into every part of his body, transforming into a violent, heart-stopping power.
He didn't call out a Word Soul. Currently, his only Word Soul was Sinking Black, and it wasn't the right time to use it in public.
He had waited long enough. The Killing Machine Medal and the Heart of the World Medal both told him that the time had come.
Without any flashy moves, he simply arrived behind Tian Guannan like a flash of lightning.
Then, he plunged his blade straight into his back!
Pfft.
Crunch, crunch—
The sound of a sharp blade grinding echoed as it sliced through muscle, pierced through ribs, and emerged from the other man's chest.
Tian Guannan's laughter came to an abrupt halt.
His already mutating eyes widened as he looked down at the blade impaling his chest.
Turning his head with great difficulty, he saw an exceptionally “bright” smiling face and a slender hand gripping the hilt of the blade.
“What are you so happy about?”
Xu Mo grinned, looking at the stiff-faced Tian Guannan before him.
“I'm here to kill you.”
He shoved the blade in a bit deeper, feeling the sensation of the tip shredding flesh.
“I warned you from the very beginning that you might not survive this Graduation Show.”
“Look at that, didn't it come true?”
Rate on N.U.
