Stare.

Stare.

Keep staring.

Chen Xiaolian kept his eyes focused on the pair of wings, doing his best to push away all distractions from his mind.

And yet, the more he wanted to focus, the harder it became to do so. Such was human nature.

Earlier, when he was in Room Zero, he had regained his memories of Zero City’s destruction. He also found out so many shocking secrets from the conversation between Duwei and Shen. How could he remain calm?

Not to mention, Duwei had given him only half an hour for this.

Should he fail to comprehend it in half an hour’s time, Shen would come and snatch away the Oddity, exterminating them all.

This reminded Chen Xiaolian of his time as webnovel author. Seeing the reader messages in the comment section urging him to upload new chapters, he would open up a Word document and try his best to type something. And yet, no matter how hard he tried, he was incapable of typing anything.

Shen had mentioned that religious devotion was not a requirement to obtain the information left within the wings. Still, an extreme level of devotion would make it easier to push one’s concentration to its highest level.

However, distracting thoughts were flying about within Chen Xiaolian’s mind. He could not even clear them away, what else could he do to concentrate?

For an instant, he had even considered that it would have been better if he had been a believer in some religion. Twenty more minutes left.Damn it! What should I do? There was no emotion on Chen Xiaolian’s face and his body was immobile as he sat down cross-legged to stare ahead. However, he was screaming internally non-stop. Concentrate! Concentrate! Concentrate!Wait!How did I forget this? Chen Xiaolian slapped himself on his head furiously before pulling out the Sword in the Stone from his Storage Watch. Sword in the Stone’s auxiliary skill, King’s Eminence, activate! Reading the description of the skill, he could see that it was for removing the negative mental effects caused by enemies.

However, it did not say that it could not work against his own negative mental state.

After the skill was activated, the distracting thoughts within Chen Xiaolian’s mind was instantly cleared away.

This was not to say that the thoughts had vanished. Chen Xiaolian could still remember them. However, they were no longer actively on his mind.

Assuming Chen Xiaolian’s mind was a room, those distracting thoughts were the equivalent of miscellaneous items brought out from the room’s cabinets and littered all over the floor, leaving no gap for him to even walk into the room. At present, those distracting thought had been placed back into the cabinet, leaving the floor clean and clear.

Thanks to the Sword in the Stone’s special skill, which brought clarity to his mind, Chen Xiaolian was finally able to fully concentrate. He stared intently at the pair of wings, not looking away for even a second.

Slowly, a change seemingly came over the pair of wings. It gradually grew in size until it covered everything, transforming into the only thing Chen Xiaolian could see.

For Chen Xiaolian, it felt as though he was falling down from space. The planet beneath him was none other than the pair of wings. His gaze pierced through the feathers on the surface of the wings, the gaps between the feathers, the molecules of the feathers, the atoms…

Finally, his gaze fell upon darkness.

When it finally lit up, the scene greeting him was that of a slaughter.

The boundless lands beneath him had been destroyed into countless fragments while the sky above his head was blood-red in colour.

A group of winged angels were flying through the sky. However, the wings behind them were not flapping. Instead, they were simply spread open. It would appear that flapping their wings was not a requirement for them to fly.

They were surrounding a humanoid figure. The figure’s body was blurry and it was not possible to make out his features. There was also no way to tell if the figure was male or female.

The surrounding angels besieged the figure. Every time one of the angels brandished the weapon in their hands, the surrounding space would tear into fragments.

Within the torn space, minute green-coloured symbols shone.

Chen Xiaolian’s heart gave a thump and he turned his gaze towards the torn space to get a better view of the symbols. However, it would appear that he was incapable of moving his line of vision to his heart’s desire. Despite doing his best, he was only able to view around 10 to 20 % of the torn space.

However, every symbol he saw would suddenly leave its original position to fly towards Chen Xiaolian. Then, they seeped into Chen Xiaolian’s eyes.

Obviously, the blurry humanoid figure was the first GM, Shen’s former self.

He was not wielding any weapons in his hand. It was also impossible to see what kind of skill he was using.

Standing on that same spot, he reached out with his hand and performed a wiping motion.

The body of the nearby angels, affected by his wiping motion, instantly broke apart and disintegrated before turning into minute green-coloured symbols as well.

Chen Xiaolian struggled with everything he had to look at more of the symbols. Every time his gaze locked on to the symbols, they would fly into his eyes. As the number of symbols within his eyes grew, Chen Xiaolian began noticing a change in the way he saw the world.

It was no longer just from the space destroyed by the angels’ weapons and the deaths of the angels. In Chen Xiaolian’s eyes, even the intact parts of them all became something he could analyse.

A portion of the world had transformed into symbols. That portion kept growing in size. Is this… … the world’s source code? The feeling of shock had only just emerged from Chen Xiaolian’s heart when his vision rapidly moved towards the blurry figure. A hand, wielding a sword, appeared in his vision.

Chen Xiaolian was quick to understand that his vision was not that of a bystander. Rather, it came from one of the winged angels.

“The main space has been modified! His authority and powers have been greatly upgraded! We… … we are no match for him!”

A gut-wrenching cry came from a distance. There was fear in the voice.

“Damn him! Does he think he can escape? Once we deal with the main space, he will be next! Even if he escapes into his little world, it will be useless!”

Chen Xiaolian listened to ‘himself’ as he shouted in rage. Next, the sword in his hand slashed forward.

The instant the sword slashed out, Chen Xiaolian saw the first GM raise his hand towards ‘him’. Despite the lengthy distance between them, the first GM made another wiping motion.

Following that, Chen Xiaolian’s ‘body’ began transforming into countless symbols before dispersing.

Utterly shocked, Chen Xiaolian practically jolted up only to find that he was sweating profusely all over. Meanwhile, the scene that was before his eyes earlier had abruptly disappeared.

The vision he received earlier from the pair of wings had come from its previous owner, of the time its owner had battled the first GM.

As for the minute symbols…

Chen Xiaolian raised his head and saw that Tian Lie and the others were looking at him while holding their breaths. They had not uttered a word so as to not disturb him. Even though Chen Xiaolian had already raised his head, they said nothing. All they did was to send questioning looks his way.

Chen Xiaolian focused his gaze upon Tian Lie’s body and discovered that many parts of Tian Lie’s body appear as constructs of green-coloured symbols.

He tried the same with Nicole and Chris. The same outcome.

“It should be… … complete.” Chen Xiaolian smiled. Standing up, he walked towards the railing.

Sure enough, by concentrating, it did not matter what he was looking at, a portion of the things within his sight would appear as source codes.

But it may be that one pair of the angel wings was too little. No matter how he tried, less than 1 % of the items would appear as source codes.

Even so, that was enough.

Chen Xiaolian stood before the railing. Looking at the maelstrom of chaos, he saw that part of them now appear as green-coloured source codes.

Chen Xiaolian extended his right hand into the maelstrom of chaos. When he touched the source codes, a tidal wave-like surge of information flowed into his mind.

It was an indescribable feeling. Rather, he could not even understand what he felt. There were no words to describe it. For Chen Xiaolian however, he felt like someone who had been parched for the longest time suddenly gulping down the sweet waters of spring. It was also similar to a blind man suddenly seeing light.

The maelstrom of chaos then flowed along Chen Xiaolian’s fingertip all the way to his arm. Following that, it condensed itself into a minute clump of light within Chen Xiaolian’s brain. The concept of big or small, heavy or light did not exist for it. As the chaos continued flowing into it, the clump of light gradually grew in size. Is this… … the Oddity? The moment the chaos flowed up Chen Xiaolian’s fingertip, his surroundings began to change.

Due to the refreshes that it’d had to endure, the Longevity Palace had been reduced to a terribly ruined state. The surrounding palace fragments formed a link of sorts as they drifted within the surrounding void. The same was true for the jade white passageway. At that moment, however, all of them were rapidly flying towards the Longevity Palace.

It would be more accurate to say that the entire space was collapsing. The centre of collapse was none other than the location of the Oddity, the centre of the Longevity Hall.

However, the Oddity was still in the process of flowing up Chen Xiaolian’s fingertip. Damn it! Chen Xiaolian swore inwardly.

He had assumed that Zero City would only begin collapsing after the Oddity had fully entered his body. Unexpectedly, Zero City lost its foundation the moment the process began.

Looking at what was transpiring, Chen Xiaolian was uncertain whether he could finish obtaining the Oddity first or if Zero City would collapse and disappear first.

“Chen Xiaolian, are you not done yet? This place is about to die on us!” Tian Lie shouted from behind.

Chen Xiaolian was no longer in the position to reply.

Earlier, when the Oddity began flowing into his body, Chen Xiaolian had felt clarity and comfort, like someone suffering from thirst encountering heavy rain. However, as the Oddity continued the process of entering his body, Chen Xiaolian began feeling overstrained.

No matter how thirsty someone may be, pouring a tonne of water down that person’s throat would kill that person.

Appearance wise, no abnormalities have appeared on his body. However, Chen Xiaolian felt like a water balloon that was growing bigger and bigger. Every single cell in his body was suffering from intense pain.

Chen Xiaolian swore without respite.

Duwei… … had screwed him over.

Chen Xiaolian was presently in possession of the Moonless Fivefold Light Armour and Flash Bow of Ketu-Rahu, given to him by Duwei. He had also comprehended part of the world’s source code from the angel wings. Comprehensively speaking, his level of strength had soared by leaps and bounds. However, that power was external. His true strength had not been enhanced.

Another way of putting it was, although Chen Xiaolian’s combat abilities have greatly improved, his ‘cultivation base’ remained unchanged.

He was different from Duwei and Shen, after all. They were ancient titans that have lived for who knows how many years. The power of the Oddity was too colossal. It was not something that the present Chen Xiaolian could handle. Duwei… … he had forgotten about that.

However, it was too late for Chen Xiaolian to pull back. The maelstrom of chaos had a tight hold on his hand now. He could not even move. All he could do was watch as the chaos rapidly flowed into his body.

“Chen Xiaolian! How much longer do you need? If you don’t hurry it up, we will all die inside this place!”

Chen Xiaolian laboured to turn his head, resisting the pain wracking his entire body as he looked back. He saw Tian Lie and the others hastily making their way to the centre part of the palace as the surrounding palace fragments rushed towards them before striking the Longevity Palace, creating shockwave after shockwave before dispersing into nothingness. The once great palace was now riddled with thousands of holes, teetering upon the brink of destruction. Damn it! Go all out! Chen Xiaolian clenched his teeth and jabbed his left hand into the Oddity as well.

Seeing a new current of chaos flowing through his left arm into his body, Chen Xiaolian felt his mind exploding.

He fainted.

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