〖 His personality model also changed 〗
This was Negary's evaluation of Fang Ze during this battle. Compared to his previous self, the current Fang Ze was considerably more careful and mature, and also more fitting of his status as a Disaster King.
〖 That should be enough to stall for time 〗
Negary had just arranged a few more mutated germ creatures to ambush Fang Ze's group on their way forward, and Negary had already expected to not gain anything from the battle tonight.
In the first place, Negary didn't intend to kill those supporting characters, otherwise, as the Protagonist, Fang Ze might have exploded and used the death of a supporting character to once again break through his limits.
It was for this reason that Negary returned the supporting characters to Fang Ze without hesitation. However, while he didn't kill them, he did infect them with some minor diseases through his germs. It would take around 2-3 days of rest for them to return to health, which served to stall for even more time.
During this period, another Spiritual Inception practitioner finally managed to achieve the first stage of release, and this number was rapidly increasing as well.
Furthermore, there was another person who had begun to approach the second stage of release.
〖 He Qiao, was it? 〗
She was the first ever practitioner of Spiritual Inception and officially released her [Origin] for the first time just last week. But now, she was already ready to release it the second time.
〖 This speed, what else can I say, other than 'as expected of the female lead'? 〗
In total, she had only been infected by the [Spiritual Inception] germs for a bit more than a month, if Negary still had the emotion called 'envy', he would surely feel insanely envious right now.
To promote the quality of his soul to the second stage of release, he had to spend untold amounts of effort and wits, while humans that still have their [Origin] could rapidly advance as long as they had the means to.
Initially, remnant souls might have the advantage of being able to grow stronger with any qualms; but once they truly ran into a bottleneck, they would need to spend astronomically more effort compared to humans in order to advance; in fact, there wasn't even a path to advance for them in the first place.
Negary wasn't envious. Envy was easily one of the most useless emotions for a strong entity who wished to become stronger, while he still kept a bit of it to keep himself grounded, it wasn't much.
He continued to control and direct his monsters to various places, attacking those with potential in order to stimulate them into improving themselves more rapidly. At the same time, he gradually started to leak the Biomass Gear forging method around the survivors.
In reality, this was another way for him to stimulate progression, even a perfect Biomass Gear without viral consciousness was still, in essence, germs that were under Negary's control. The longer these people kept their Biomass Gear on, the faster their subconsciousness would be influenced by Negary, they would grow addicted to the feeling of becoming stronger, slowly becoming more ambitious.
On the other hand, the little girl Lan Shan who held the [Super Plague] Authority continued to remain next to the collapsed supermarket. She didn't say anything or do anything at all and simply stood there silently, quite obviously, her mental instability had worsened.
Like a person with an extreme level of autism, she had become fully enclosed within her own reality while ignoring everything else around her.
Since her father brought her to this place, she would naturally need her father to take her away as well, while ignoring the fact that her father was dead, Lan Shan stayed here, waiting for him.
〖 She's completely unfit for combat〗
Negary could already guess the script that would follow: Fang Ze would reach Lan Shan, break through the walls she erected around her heart, then borrow her power through his [Origin] ability [Starforce] to defeat Negary.
〖 With how she currently is, I can risk probing her once 〗Negary made his decision, then rechecked his own soul for influences. After confirming that there weren't any issues, a mass of germs slowly gathered not too far away from where Lan Shan was, eventually forming Negary's body.
Randomly grabbing a set of clothes for himself, Negary started making his way towards Lan Shan. With her [Super Plague] Authority, it was simple for her to take control of Negary's current body with a single thought; she even had a certain level of control over his alternative soul virus form.
If the one who held this ability was the current Fang Ze, Negary would find it incredibly difficult to win against him, in fact, he might be defeated and fall under his complete control instead.
Negary slowly approached Lan Shan, making preparations in case she abruptly controlled him, but Lan Shan remained completely motionless as she sat hugging her knees next to the ruined building, completely ignorant of Negary's presence.
She was simply staring at a small scarlet sage flower that tenaciously grew from the cracks of the collapsed wall.
Soon enough, Negary arrived next to Lan Shan. Having not eaten anything for an entire day, she appeared unbelievably frail, at a glance, no one would believe that this was one of the 10 Disaster Kings.
〖 What do you think is the meaning of life? 〗Negary softly asked with a hint of probing in his voice: 〖 The materials and atoms that make up the body are nothing but the same atoms that exists within every other aspect of human daily life 〗
〖 Other than that, there is only the deeper hidden existence of the Soul 〗Negary said, almost talking to himself: 〖 The combination of a True Spirit as well as the energy derived from it is generally called the Soul, perhaps there are other things that I do not know of as well 〗
〖 Someone once told me, the True Spirit is the connection of a human with the rules and principles of the universe, the origin of all humans, the initial force 〗
〖 Humans are connected to the universe, and life is connected to the universe. You and your father, you and me, what might seem like completely unrelated matters all have a deeper level of unseen connection; like how you saw that flower, and like how I met you 〗
The presence of the Dragon of Eternal Sin completely enveloped this entire area, removing the possibility of interference from 'destiny'. Negary reached his hand out to Lan Shan: 〖 I need your ability. Do you want to come with me? 〗
Finally, Lan Shan reacted, hugging her knees more tightly, she looked up at Negary. From where she sat, the sun had just risen, the gentle warm rays of light peered out from behind Negary and shined on Lan Shan, at the same time making Negary's figure seem extremely great.
Lan Shan looked up at Negary and his outstretched hand, her Authority [Super Plague] allowed her to clearly sense Negary's thoughts at that very moment. Every word he spoke was true, he truly needed her ability, and this thought was clearly displayed for her to see.
Since she was needed, she was entrusted with a meaning, a meaning to continue living.
There was no such thing as a life that truly wanted to die. There were usually two types of people who committed suicide: The first were those whose thoughts were overwhelmed by intense emotions; this could be rage, sorrow, despair, or even glory like 'Allahu Akbar'. The other type were people who lost their meaning in life, since no one needed them and they couldn't find a meaning to their own lives, they naturally chose death.
Lan Shan stared straight at Negary, then slowly reached out her small and weak hand to take Negary's hand. Her vision then became blurred as she fell unconscious, having sat here for an entire day without sustenance, her human body couldn't withstand it.
Catching Lan Shan before she fell, Negary smirked, it was clear at this point that 'destiny' couldn't control everything. The [Origin] of every individual originated from a higher existence, which meant that each individual also had the chance to break free of their worldly 'destiny'. Even if that chance was miniscule, it still existed.
〖 And regardless, since [Super Plague] now follows me, I hold a lot more initiative compared to before 〗
