Yun Yi was surprised…
Not too many of Noah's experimental subjects had managed to survive, after all, the term 'experiment' naturally carried the meaning of uncertainty and instability.
Po Nan had let Noah implant a mutated branch of the World Tree inside his body, and since Noah inherited Negary's personality, he would definitely not grant others any safe powers that could be used right now.
He only ever granted items or knowledge that required adaptation and modification by the individual to be usable, or the power had flaws that put the user into a dangerous situation; only by surpassing one's limit would they be able to truly obtain that power.
Additionally, since the Celestials already had a natural path of growth, choosing to ask Noah for power was actually a shortcut, so the limit they had to surpass was greater than normal.
Observing the bloody mist in the sky, Yun Yi quickly stopped worrying about Po Nan. This was because they were all walking the path of eternal peace, and the most basic quality of any traveler on this path was the willingness to pay for their own choices.
Po Nan understood the consequences of his actions but he still fearlessly decided to make that decision, this meant that Po Nan had the courage to shoulder the consequences, and the only thing Yun Yi could do for him was to respect it.
His duty right now was to search for the serpent and settle their debt.
Regarding the serpent's background, Yun Yi and the Celestials had done plenty of research and arrived at the conclusion that no matter the scenario, it was definitely related to Meng Luo the individual.
Even in the final moments, a confrontation was inevitable.
Badum!
Badum!
Badum!
As this rhythmic beating reverberated, Yun Yi also saw his target: a crescent-shaped blob of flesh. The blob of flesh had numerous eyes all over it that contained thick black venom, which looked almost like a beating heart.
And Po Nan also appeared in front of this blob of flesh, as he clenched his fist, the air around him almost seemed to shatter. The shattered air created friction that caused an arc of lightning to move around Po Nan's deity statue.
"YARH!" following Po Nan's swung fist, all the supernatural phenomena vanished, the entire force had been concentrated into his fist and transferred into the blob of flesh.
The part of the blob that was struck simply sunk inward, showing that this thing wasn't nearly as fragile as the snakes from before. At the same time, the blob of flesh also retaliated as an immense force shot back from where it was struck, causing the deity statue's fist to shatter, spreading the impact up its entire body.
At this very moment, Po Nan looked like a cracked porcelain doll as he was sent flying backwards. Yun Yi shot out a machine that gently attached itself to Po Nan's back and produced thrust to push him away.
The part of the blob that was sunken in did not recover, and the frequency of the rhythmic beating became more rapid, accompanied by numerous voices from inside.
「 IT HURTS! 」
「 IT HURTS!! 」
「 IT HURTS!!!!! 」
It was as if millions of people were shouting directly into his ears, although the shouting wasn't very loud, although it wasn't in unison, and although it was a very weak shout, each of them made him feel both their helplessness and suffering.
Their voices had already gotten so weak that they didn't even have the strength to shout anymore.
But when numerous voices reverberated this way in one's ear, one would only feel that internal horror and even personally feel that soul-aching pain.
This sense of pain was growing increasingly greater. While Yun Yi had originally been able to endure it, the suffering instantly shot up so much that he almost wanted to scream as well.
Every last bit of his body felt like it was being permeated by the pain, and the same was happening to his mind as well; every single unspeakable act that had ever occurred in the past appeared in his mind at the same time, directly striking his very core, stimulating old wounds of both kinds, causing him even more pain.
The blob of flesh's beating grew increasingly greater, the sound it gave off also became increasingly rapid until it turned into static noise similar to old TVs, which was simply unbearable.
Yun Yi uttered a curt groan and clutched his forehead, countless wounds appeared all over his body, blood was flowing from his eyes, mouth, and nose.
At this level, pain wasn't just a sensation anymore, as it had affected his body in return.
The beating blob of flesh began to distort and shapeshift, eventually becoming a formless mass of broken pieces that somehow still remained attached to one another.
「 Join us, feel the pain, get accustomed to the pain, enjoy the pain… and finally, become pain! 」the mass of broken pieces uttered in a heavy mix of many voices, the clearest of which belonged to Meng Luo.
Barely enduring the pain to stand back up, Yun Yi looked at the figure of broken pieces. He seemed to be able to see Meng Luo's form in there, of course, together with many other Desolates as well.
Perhaps, this thing could be called the Desolate Corpse, as it was more or less something created from the pain and suffering of all the Desolates as they died.
「 You are also a Desolate, you should also become a part of us. Not only that, not just the Desolates, I want to pull even more beings into this pain as well 」Meng Luo seemed to be trying to persuade Yun Yi.
At least, that was what Yun Yi had heard from his sense of hearing that was nearly collapsing from the pain; it could, of course, just be his own hallucination under the extreme pain.
"I can feel it… I feel your heart that is filled with fear, a heart that had never been at peace!"
Regardless of whether or not it was a hallucination, Yun Yi pushed a button on his equipment to take out an injection pen and injected himself with some fluid. This alleviated Yun Yi's pain somewhat and made it possible for him to make that statement.
Meng Luo was born and raised as an inferior Desolate, which left him with an immense feeling of inferiority, especially after coming into contact with the beast tooth.
The feeling of carrying an important treasure had only made his sense of inferiority grow even stronger. Everything he had ever done up to this point was for the sake of feeling safe and at peace.
Meng Luo originally had an opportunity to walk the path of eternal peace, but he gave up on it, so his path of pursuing inner peace became warped.
Power and authority could give him a sense of safety, but it was only a means to an end, and he was unable to look into himself and achieve that end. Entrusting his entire feeling of safety in power and authority could only be described as mixing up the means and the end. While this might seem like the pursuit of peace, the further one proceeded down this path, the less peaceful they'd feel.
In the serpent's weakest state, its everything seemed to have opened up for all to see, and since Meng Luo was originally the center of the serpent, his everything went on full display for Yun Yi to see.
「 Become one with pain! 」
The broken Desolate Corpse gradually approached him. If Meng Luo was in a normal state, he might have reacted to Yun Yi's words with anger or insanity, but he was now connected to the souls of too many Desolates.
If it wasn't for the beast tooth, he wouldn't have been able to maintain even this little bit of consciousness left. His individuality had faded to a terrible degree, his mind filled with fear and unease, thus having no room to think about Yun Yi's words.
"Then let's die together!"
Yun Yi had implanted a countermeasure in his body that would activate as soon as his consciousness faded over a certain degree.
God's Guidance – Modified Edition. Yun Yi had included his own understanding into Lan Shan's product, making his own creation which he put into his body.
As the Desolate Corpse embraced and pulled him into the mass of pain, his consciousness quickly became overwhelmed by pain and suffering. He could feel the countermeasure device activating, but he discovered that he wasn't feeling fearful at all.
His consciousness surpassed what remained of the Desolates', progressing one step further due to surpassing his limit. This consciousness phenomenon sparkled around his body briefly before the corresponding factors poured towards the cycle of reincarnation within the Ancestral Wild.
The glorious golden mass of light twitched briefly as if the universal String of Truth had just been stimulated.
