novelonline Chapter 4067 The Reversal of Prosperity and Decline
Chapter 4067 The Reversal of Prosperity and Decline
Chapter 4067 The Reversal of Prosperity and Decline
The spiritual weapon thrust forward, and the automatically lengthening staff struck the middle-aged man flying through the air, slamming him against the wall of the room. The staff even pierced through his chest, immobilizing him like a nail.
But the middle-aged man, having made up his mind, realized that he could not break free no matter what, so he deliberately ignited almost all of his life force. In the raging flames, his materialized body completely transformed into flames, and Shad even sensed a "seed of life" within those flames.
This kind of relic, which can directly transform a person into an element, is at least rated as a Keeper of Secrets.
Freed from the constraints of his physical form, the middle-aged man escaped from beneath the long staff. His life force, constantly and permanently depleted, greatly enhanced his speed, strength, and endurance. When he was once again in the air, his speed had surpassed the speed of sound.
The fiery humanoid charged toward the ring warlock on the low bridge, but the eleventh-ring warlock hadn't even summoned his life ring. The staff in his hand returned to its normal size, and after a soft incantation, the runes on the staff lit up, and frost appeared on the spiritual weapon that originally had no energy attributes. When the staff was swung forward again, it had completely transformed into an ice elemental form.
Boom!
Fire and ice collided in mid-air, and with a huge creak, the aerial walkway broke, and the grating panels fell with a thud into the sewage settling tank below.
The eleventh-ring warlock hovered in the air, his spiritual weapon shattered. He rubbed his right hand but was unharmed. As for the middle-aged man, he was sent flying by the blow from the spiritual weapon. By the time he managed to regain control of the flames forming his body in mid-air, the flames had become extremely dim.
He did not attack again. After swaying in the air for a moment, he plunged headfirst into the sewage settling tank below.
The eleventh-ring warlock in the air then landed and reunited with his two companions. He wanted to cast another spell, but was stopped by "Construct Master" Gerald Delon:
"The powerful vitality we were looking for was hidden here."
The liquid in the sewage pool was boiling violently. Beneath the oily and foamy liquid, a dazzling flame could be vaguely seen growing larger and larger until a "giant" with only its upper body made up of countless melted corpses emerged from the sewage pool.
Its highest point had surpassed the broken plank road, and the middle-aged man at its core had transformed into a ball of fire, embedded in the chest of this rotting corpse giant.
"Corpse polymer—no, those corpses still had life force. He deliberately brought the victims with relatively strong life force back here, maintaining their withering state, letting them struggle on the edge of life and death in this sewage pool, using them as backup life energy. How many people did he kill?"
This scene bears some resemblance to the Papacy Wars of the [Creation Church], but the life force supporting these corpses bound together is normal. Their massive size means they are easier to hit, but the middle-aged man clearly didn't intend to win simply through sheer size.
At that moment, he connected all his stored energy to himself, and his waning life force caused the flames on the giant's chest to turn a dim yellow. From the cracks between the giant's corpses, the expanding dim yellow light grew increasingly dazzling, and Shad immediately understood what the other was trying to do.
"He's about to self-destruct? Watch out—Nightfall Seal!"
Boom!
The giant, with its arms outstretched, ignited all its life force, transforming it into the power of "Withering" before exploding. A dim, yellowish flame swept across the entire area, forcing even the "Construct Master" to immediately cast spells to defend itself.
Shad wanted to draw his own life force into the seal, but Vigo held his hand down:
"Chaos wriggling!"
The shadows formed a shield that blocked the three of them. When the dying flames approached, they were directly reversed by the power of chaos and transformed back into a flame full of life force. Then, they were blocked by the night sky summoned by Shad.
The remains of the body flew everywhere with the explosion, but this simple burst of vitality did not have a significant impact on the factory itself.
After the decaying power subsided, when Shad looked around again, the "Construct Master" and his group did not search for the middle-aged man's whereabouts. Instead, they used some small mechanical devices to capture the life force that was about to dissipate from the scattered corpses.
The firelight also appeared from another direction, and the people dressed like the attackers from the charity gala night, disregarding their own safety, also held up a glowing eye to absorb the immense life force released after the corpse giant's self-destruction.
Besides these traitors and the three from the Blood Spirit School, two strangers who had been observing the situation from outside the window high up in the sinking chamber also barged in. Although they had no identification on them, judging from their scholar's robes and demeanor, Shad was inexplicably certain that these two belonged to the Truth Society, and they also took out strange props to attract the life energy that was about to dissipate.
"Did all these people come here for this life energy?"
While the life force contained within the Corpse Giant is not yet comparable to that of the flesh-and-blood mutants that Shad saw in the [Blood Factory], in this era, the life force gathered by the relics is already quite large.
None of them were using a source of fire, because they hadn't been able to convert life energy into a spark; they had only temporarily enriched it. Seeing that all three were busy with their own affairs, Xia De gestured to Wei Ge and the ten-ring girl not to show themselves. He walked alone towards the sewage settling tank, ignoring the others.
The middle-aged watchman was still alive. He hadn't perished in the explosion; his body was charred and covered in burn marks, and he was now floating in the settling pool. The last vestiges of life kept him from dying immediately, but this life force only brought him greater torment before his death.
As Shad approached him, preparing to remove the ring from his finger, the charred humanoid figure actually managed to ask Shad a question:
"If it were you, would you rather live a cold life or die so brilliantly?"
Shad didn't even look at him:
"Dying in a sewage treatment plant doesn't look like a glorious death, so your question is meaningless."
"Yes, life has no meaning."
The middle-aged man's body turned to ashes in the flames, the embers gradually disappearing into the sewage. But before that, Shad picked up the relic ring. The ring appeared to be made of brass, and it felt strangely warm to the touch. The ring face was a piece of yellow amber, while the inner band was engraved with ancient runes—
The reversal of prosperity and decline is the true essence of the cycle of life.
The familiar sentence structure made Shad raise an eyebrow. He touched the yellow amber on the ring, and the incredibly clear power of "decay" astonished him even more. Touching this ring would inevitably cause the user to "decay." Aside from Shad, who possessed the protection of the "Spark" mark, he couldn't imagine anyone else who could safely use this ring directly.
"Is it really just a relic, and not a demon?"
He didn't recognize the ring, so he didn't put it on his finger easily. Turning back to look at the three groups—the "Church Betrayer," the "Truth Society," and the "Blood Spirit School"—they were still collecting the life energy that hadn't completely dissipated.
Shad could actually do the same thing; his own AllSpark was in his pocket. Such unclaimed life force didn't need to be extracted with magic; it could be directly absorbed by the AllSpark. While this meant the AllSpark would become more powerful, it also meant that this normal life energy would be corrupted by the Calamity, indirectly amplifying its power.
Therefore, Shad would not do that.
Watching everyone busy with their own things, Xia De thought back to the fight between the [Magic Eye Club] and the [Holy Son Alliance] last Friday night over the safe assembly, which made Xia De suspect that they all had the same purpose.
"you."
Seeing that everyone was still busy with their own things and no one was paying attention to him, Xia De asked:
"Did you appear here tonight simply to obtain this life energy?"
Still, no one paid any attention to Shad. His life force was dissipating very quickly, and they couldn't waste time. Shad sighed, feeling that these people were like wild animals fighting over food. He didn't say anything more and stood patiently by the settling pool, waiting.
Sure enough, after the three parties had collected most of the remaining life force here, the "Construct Master" said to the members of the [Truth Society] and the [Blood Spirit School]:
“Leave your containers behind, and I can let you go.”
The other two factions clearly had no such intention. The two professors from the [Truth Society] remained silent, as if waiting for something. They had clearly seen the thirteenth ring holder but still chose to show themselves, obviously calculating that there was still a possibility of escape.
As for the three members of the Blood Spirit School, they remained silent and looked toward the entrance to the sinking chamber.
Suddenly, a man in a red suit appeared. Seeing everyone looking at him, he stepped out of the shadows by the doorway and into the factory, illuminated by moonlight streaming through the windows. He looked remarkably young, but his demeanor was anything but. A smile played on his lips; he showed no fear of the thirteenth-ring warlock.
"Master of Construction" Gerald Delon frowned, then calmly asked:
"Helmons the Bloodthirsty, your wounds are completely healed, aren't they?"
The "Bloodthirsty One" that Xia De saw in the snow mountain was a weathered middle-aged man. Now, he clearly appears to be a young man around twenty-five years old, with skin as good as if he were only a teenager, and his eyes are exceptionally bright.
Xia De sensed a tremendous life energy emanating from his body, a vibrant life force that could only exist in the body of a growing teenager.
PS: Bonus chapter for Chinese New Year, 7/10.