After a night, the morning sunlight spilled onto a silver-scaled, plump fish lying on the deck.
Its bulging eyes reflected four figures—Hong Haocheng, Zhang Miao, and two men with wet, disheveled hair.
–Come on. This time it’s two hundred years. Talk it over between yourselves.– Hong Haocheng’s voice was deep.
–……–
Half an hour later, three people with mid-length hairstyles and one bald head finished eating the grilled fish.
Hong Haocheng stood up, repeatedly instructing them not to use leverage, then began swimming toward the shore.
Cui Rong shot a glance at Li Yongqin beside him.
The man shook his head.
Cui Rong grumpily initiated a Syn-Link.
[That kid finally leaves us two on the boat. Should we jump him and take it?]
{I’ve been here over half a year. Aside from those big teams, Hong Haocheng is the first guy I’ve seen who can last several days out here. If you want to go back, swim yourself. I’m not going back.}
These two were the ones who had jumped into the water the night before, trying to call for help. In the end, Hong Haocheng came back, fished them out, and extorted 200N from each.
Cui Rong rubbed the tip of his nose and said to his teammate inside his head:
[Even if we stay ten or twenty days, it’s useless. It’ll be the end of the month again in a few days. And don’t forget—this is our ship!]
{He said the Chronos is enough to keep us going until next month. I’m telling you, this guy might actually get his hands on a Soul-binding Core.}
As he spoke the term, Li Yongqin’s eyes blazed with intense fervor. The Bound Spirit Core was something countless people yearned for, yet it had always been the exclusive possession of top-tier teams like the –Four Phases Team.-
Cui Rong let out a disdainful laugh.
[So naive indeed.]
Suddenly, they felt a soul-shaking mental pressure radiating from the island.
Zhang Miao, who was guarding the engine at the stern, wrapped in a blanket that had been dried overnight, stood up and said, –Someone has encountered an earth-bound spirit.-
–Probably that Serpentine Group that passed by this morning. Let’s move in a little closer.-
The group sailed the boat forward.
–Why doesn’t Brother Hong let us watch his battles?- Li Yongqin sat next to Zhang Miao and asked ingratiatingly.
Zhang Miao glanced at the two figures beside him, both glowing with Moxel auras but remaining silent.
–If you want to watch, you can go with him.-
–…- Li Yongqin shifted his butt.
It was no wonder that in just one night his attitude toward Hong Haocheng had done a complete U-turn. It was because… that morning, when Hong Haocheng went into the lake to catch fish, afraid that Li Yongqin might steal the boat and flee, he forced him to follow into the water to pick up the fish.
The moment he saw that strand of silk thread emerge from Hong Haocheng’s palm, Li Yongqin felt his scalp go numb.
The image of the man scorched in the flames with a broken shoulder instantly overlapped with the bald silhouette beneath the water surface.
From that moment on, any thoughts of –ship, escape, assassination- were extinguished as the big fish flipped belly-up.
As Li Yongqin’s question met with a rebuff, Cui Rong also raised his head and said,
–Yeah, that bald guy doesn’t look like a good person. He’s probably already dead in there. Let’s the three of us head back.-
Zhang Miao strode over and kicked the man square on the thigh.
–I knew you were cooking up some bullshit,- he snarled, wrapped in a blanket. –Now I’ll say this once: take off your pants.-
–Huh?-
–Offer it to the chairman!-
……
Hong Haocheng lurked behind a house, watching.
Two hundred meters ahead, beside a collapsed building, seven or eight people who called themselves the Snake Walk group were battling a monster of modest height.
Zhang Miao explained that the city folk called these monsters –Earthbound Spirits.- Because someone had killed one and obtained an energy core from its body, which Moxel had labeled as [Bound Spirit Core].
–Yang Qi, watch out!-
–Hurry and activate the secret technique—don’t let him catch me!-
–Keep your voices down! If you draw more Earthbound Spirits here, we’re screwed.-
It was only then that Hong Haocheng counted them: eight people on the other side.
But eight people dealing with a low-intelligence earth-bound spirit was still extremely difficult. Their energy bodies made weapons completely useless; only skin contact, like fists, could cause damage.
Suddenly Hong Haocheng turned his head. A burly man carrying a silver longsword on his back was walking toward him from afar.
Discovered. His newly grown eyebrows furrowed slightly.
The newcomer had a broad face with a full beard and a faint smile. –Where are your teammates? Why are you here alone?-
–I like being alone. None of your business, old man.-
The man was taken aback, then let out two soft chuckles.
–Looks like you’re new here. Not afraid of getting stabbed for saying that? Haha, been here a few days? Have the monsters scared you yet?-
–I’ve been at the edge of the island for a few days,- Hong Haocheng answered instinctively, stepping back two paces to prepare for a quick escape.
–I’ve been observing all morning. Those giants can only be defeated in close combat, but if they catch you up close, you’re dead instantly. No amount of Chronos seems to help.-
–You… really figured that out yourself?-
The man studied Hong Haocheng’s build, finally fixing his gaze on the bald head and the sparse eyebrows that hadn’t fully grown back.
Five figures—men and women—emerged from the edge of the ruins. One of them said,
–Captain, that guy seems to be from Red Moxel. Let’s go.-
–Alright.- The man responded, then said to Hong Haocheng, –Leave soon. I heard your plane is gone. No one will target you anymore. Go back to the city—this isn’t a place for you to set foot in.-
He actually guessed my origin? Hong Haocheng called out softly to the departing men, –Hey, who are you guys?-
–Jiang Junyi, captain of the Dragon Soar Team.- He waved his hand. –We have some discarded model devices. You can come and pick some later.-
–But they’re not free,- the others chimed in.
At that moment, one of the Serpent Team members finally killed the over-two-meter-tall –Earthbound Spirit,- which had been restricted by someone’s slipping ability.
The tall, lean, capable captain crouched down and picked up a small object emitting a faint red glow.
–What a pity—another low-level ‘Bound Core.’-
With that, the man stood up, glanced in Hong Haocheng’s direction, and then carefully led his team away along the edge of the island. Their route diverged from the Dragon Soar Team’s, as if they had long since agreed to go separate ways.
After both groups had gone far, Hong Haocheng approached the dead monster. What lay on the ground looked like a large, flattened pile of deep blue sludge.
Faint energy rippled faintly in the air.
–Can this body still be considered human?-
Hong Haocheng felt a bit dazed, as if trapped in a nightmare.
In his pupils, a faint ochre ring naturally emerged.
[I… smell… delicious…]
The bloodline surged on its own.
Inside the expanding energy field, the youth spotted the still-lingering path-drawing lines—grayish-white, flickering and shimmering in the air.
After a brief daze, Hong Haocheng felt he could regain control of his body.
Before acquiring Moxel, he had been devouring souls unconsciously; now, however, he began to yield to the guidance of –instinct.- He raised his hand, and the bloodline energy he could not yet fully command ignited at his will, pinching those wispy lines together just like the path-drawing lines that had devoured those fish.
[Soul traveler, begin grafting new path-drawing lines.]
Hong Haocheng sensed his mind racing across the earth along certain routes—or rather, images of the land being crammed into his brain along those same routes, like the view from an invisible race car. This path had an end, but no way out.
[I feel it—its entire life confined to 8.4 square kilometers of land.]
[I have obtained 3.3 km of path-drawing lines.]
Hong Haocheng opened his eyes.
Lines of various lengths still lingered in the air. He walked toward a strand of grayish track energy floating after its collapse, reached out, and stuffed it into his mouth.
[I have obtained 23 m of path-drawing lines.]
Part of the surrounding terrain naturally surfaced in Hong Haocheng’s somewhat clogged and blocked consciousness, as if he had traversed it hundreds or thousands of times.
Suddenly, a new spiritual pressure surged from afar.
Amid the fading noise of the distant commotion, Hong Haocheng guessed that this time the –Serpent Group- had provoked an invincible giant.
……
–Damn it.-
On the coast, Yang Qi of the Serpent Group finally managed to shake off the massive earthbound spirit that had been chasing him.
One by one, they gathered by the lake. A girl with slightly blue hair emerged, panting, and said to the equally drenched captain:
–Brother Bin, how about we head back for now? Let me synchronize more deeply with the ‘Leveling Contract’ before we come again—I estimate I can reach sixty percent by next month.-
–No,- Captain Chen Bin shook his head. –Although your talent is exceptional, relying on the ‘Frostblade Art’ to restrict their movements is only a secondary measure. The real key is Yang Qi’s close-quarters combat. If you make too much snow, Yang Qi will slip too.-
Yang Qi sighed, –If only we could get that secret technique called ‘Chime Night’—that would be incredible. It could handle even deeper terrain, and our exploration would be a bit safer.-
–Don’t even dream about it. That secret technique is being bid on by tens of thousands of people; it’s not something an ordinary person can obtain. Buying this ‘Frostblade Art’ was already our incredible stroke of luck.-
They all looked at the shattered city and let out a heavy sigh.
–If only we could go deeper… I wonder when we’ll ever be able to safely reach the island’s center and head to ‘City 11’.-
……
The young man’s slender figure moved briskly along the deep corridor, rounding several turns and staircases before Yang Zicang arrived at the door of his apartment-style room.
As the employee card unlocked the lock, the frowning face icon on the doorplate—representing an unoccupied room—switched to a –yellow smiley face- with upturned lips.
Quietly sensing that the state of his mind, which had not diminished over the past day, felt like being alone in a mountain forest listening only to the wind through pines and bamboos, Yang Zicang let his own lips curve into a smile, echoing the doorplate’s emblem.
Only then did he push the door open, and immediately spotted a letter on the floor, written on coarse paper.
His gaze flicked over the slanted mail slot on the door before he bent down to pick up the envelope. The sender’s name was printed on the lower right corner of the cover.
—First Action.
–A letter from the Action Department?-
After a moment’s thought, Yang Zicang tore open the envelope and pulled out the folded letter paper, which still carried a faint scent of ink. This subtle odor would usually go unnoticed by ordinary people, but now his keen sense of smell could naturally detect it.
—If you’re like us and don’t want to endure this damnable mental torment any longer, then join the Cleanup Team of the Action Department.
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