Lin Qiye stared at the golden-armored monkey before him, overwhelming shock surging in his heart.
He tentatively called up the Asylum's management interface.
A bright red percentage pierced Lin Qiye's vision.
The monkey grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, his smile wild and uninhibited.
"Hehe, I, Old Sun, ran into some trouble before and have been trapped in this place for who knows how long. The little bit of fire in my heart had long since died out."
He paused, a glimmer of light flashing in his Fiery Golden Eyes, as if seeing right through Lin Qiye's origins.
"That is, until that cousin of yours showed up."
"The power that guy possesses could truly flip the heavens upside down. I, Old Sun, suddenly figured it out. What bullshit mental illness? In the end, it's just that my strength isn't great enough! I will personally crush those evil gods to dust!"
"I am the Great Sage Equal to Heaven!"
The monkey's words were filled with the exhilaration of a new lease on life.
"Since I, Old Sun, am being discharged from the hospital, I ought to leave you a little thank-you gift, kid."
He casually waved his hand.
In an instant, golden light erupted in front of Lin Qiye, and a dazzling skill tree materialized out of thin air.
[Fiery Golden Eyes: Sees through all illusions across the Three Realms and Six Paths.]
[Seventy-Two Transformations: Masters the arts of heaven and earth, shaping all things at will.]
[Somersault Cloud: Travels one hundred and eight thousand miles in a single thought, roaming the Nine Heavens.]
Each option was like a blazing sun, exuding a terrifying, heart-palpitating pressure. It felt as though obtaining just one of them would allow a person to dominate the world.
Just as Lin Qiye was overwhelmed with absolute shock by the screen full of golden divine skills, his gaze was drawn to a corner at the very bottom of the skill tree.
There sat an entirely out-of-place block icon.
It was made of rough pixels, lacking any visual effects, and even looked somewhat crude.
On the icon were three words: Black Myth.
Yet, Lin Qiye's heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
This aura, this structural style—it instantly reminded him of Ian, and of his own unbelievable block abilities.
A strong premonition welled up in his heart.
Lin Qiye looked up, meeting the monkey's teasing Fiery Golden Eyes.
"Hehe."
The monkey scratched his cheek, smiling profoundly.
"The 'contraband' that guy secretly slipped in is much more interesting than my outdated tricks."
That single sentence confirmed all of Lin Qiye's suspicions.
He no longer hesitated in the slightest.
Focusing his consciousness into a single point, he unhesitatingly selected the gray pixelated icon.
A cold, mechanical voice rang out in his mind.
The next moment, an endless stream of information surged madly into the depths of Lin Qiye's consciousness like a bursting dam.
Lin Qiye felt as though every bone in his body, every single cell, was being completely reconstructed by a violent yet pure power.
Combat instincts, staff-wielding techniques, spellcasting methods... countless profound pieces of knowledge and enlightenment were directly branded into the deepest parts of his soul, bypassing the need for learning or comprehension.
*Boom—!*
Lin Qiye suddenly opened his eyes.
Two dazzling beams of golden light shot out from his eyes, instantly piercing through the layers of illusion in the spiritual world.
He felt unprecedentedly powerful. This wasn't just an explosive increase in raw strength, but a completely new understanding of "combat" itself.
"Go, kid!"
The Great Sage Equal to Heaven's bold and unbridled laughter echoed in his ears.
"Turn those so-called gods outside completely upside down!"
Amidst the laughter, the entire Water Curtain Cave Realm shattered with a boom, and Lin Qiye's consciousness was violently yanked out by a massive force, returning to reality.
"Awake?"
Ian's voice rang out.
He shook a brand-new glass bottle in his hand, as if showing off a freshly made collectible figurine, his tone full of smugness.
"Here, freshly made. The 'Screaming Agony Edition' limited Whisper figurine. Look at this pose, isn't it full of artistic flair?"
Lin Qiye looked over.
Inside the bottle, the once-arrogant founder of the Old God Church, Whisper, had been shrunk down to the size of a palm. His body was twisted into a bizarre posture, and his face retained the most terrified, despairing expression from right before his soul shattered, looking incredibly lifelike.
Having admired it enough, Ian casually tossed the Whisper figurine to Lin Qiye. After all, he had no hobby of collecting male figurines.
Then, he snapped his fingers.
Space distorted, and the scenery before the three of them instantly shifted. The next second, they had returned to the Night Watchman temporary camp at the foot of Jinnan Mountain.
"Lin Qiye!"
"Captain!"
Baili Pangpang, Shen Qingzhu, and the others were waiting anxiously at the camp entrance. Seeing the three of them appear out of thin air, they immediately erupted into massive cheers.
Confirming that everyone had returned safely, the joy of surviving a disaster washed away the previous gloom and fear.
Hong Ying and the other Night Watchman squad members who had come as reinforcements found a large pot from somewhere, set up a bonfire, and prepared a hearty meal to soothe everyone's nerves.
The steaming camp was filled with cheerful voices and laughter.
During the meal, Baili Pangpang leaned over to grab a piece of meat from afar, accidentally knocking over a pot of boiling hot meat soup on the table.
The iron pot tumbled, spilling toward Wen Qingqing beside him.
"Watch out!"
Everyone cried out in alarm at the same time.
Wen Qingqing paled in fright, freezing in place, completely unable to dodge in time.
Right at this critical moment.
Lin Qiye extended a finger and lightly tapped toward the iron pot in mid-air.
'Freeze.'
A thought flashed through his mind.
The next instant, a bizarre scene occurred.
The iron pot, which was just about to spill all of its boiling broth, abruptly froze dead in mid-air.
The soup was firmly locked inside the pot by an invisible force, not a single drop spilling.
It was as if the pause button had been pressed on time within this small pocket of space.
The surrounding cries of alarm abruptly ceased.
Shen Qingzhu, Baili Pangpang, Hong Ying... everyone's gazes turned sluggish, their mouths slightly agape as they stared fixedly at the iron pot suspended in the air, looking as if they had seen a ghost.
After the warm celebration banquet ended, Cangnan City Squad 136 ushered in a rare period of peace.
That earth-shattering disaster and battle felt like a distant nightmare.
The squad successively handled a few minor "Mystical" incidents.
From clearing out bizarre fungal colonies quietly breeding in the city's sewers, to hunting down a low-level phantom beast that stole children's dreams.
These missions, which might have required careful handling in the past, were no longer any trouble for Lin Qiye's squad today.
They served more as a palate cleanser after their intense battles.
Through these repeated missions, Lin Qiye also gradually familiarized himself with the explosive surge of power within his body.
That was until half a month later, when they received a new mission.
The mission objective was simple: track down an individual who had been highly active recently, specializing in stealing the corpses of "Mysticals."
Following the clues, Lin Qiye arrived alone near an abandoned cold storage facility.
A faint, lingering stench of rot permeated the air.
Just as he grew vigilant and prepared to investigate further, a faint yet extremely bizarre mental fluctuation flashed by.
Lin Qiye paused his steps, his gaze turning sharp.
*This feeling...*
Right at that moment, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a dark shadow poking its head out from behind a nearby shipping container.
It was a gray, ordinary-looking rat.
But it was standing upright, looking at Lin Qiye with its small, black-bean-like eyes. It then raised a front paw, waved at him, and started running forward, as if leading the way.
Lin Qiye's pupils shrank slightly, but he didn't make any rash moves.
Seeing that he wasn't following, the rat waved its paw again, then turned and scurried into a dark sewer entrance.
Lin Qiye remained silent for a moment before ultimately following it.
Proceeding along the damp, foul-smelling sewer and taking numerous twists and turns, a faint glimmer of light appeared ahead.
Lin Qiye lightened his footsteps, quietly approaching.
The source of the light was an excavated underground space.
A figure wearing a white lab coat had his back to him, intently processing something.
In the air, the thick stench of blood mixed with the smell of formalin, creating a nauseating odor.
Under the dim light, the person held a scalpel, deftly slicing open the skin and flesh of the "Mystical" corpse on the ground, wearing an almost obsessive, eerie smile on his face.
*Is this person... An Qingyu?*
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