Chapter 513: A Psychological Shadow
Chapter 513: A Psychological Shadow
The blinding golden light tore through the darkness.
Fang Cheng became a colossal giant over 60 meters tall like a divine being descending, his three heads and six arms now fully physical rather than translucent illusions.
He crashed into the evil god, six arms pressing against its bulk while pushing violently.
Though narrower in build, his towering height surpassed the evil god’s by half.
The evil god’s retreat stopped abruptly under Fang Cheng’s shove, leaving both locked in stalemate.
“Rrroar!”
The evil god emitted a deafening roar as thick tentacles coiled around Fang Cheng’s six arms.
A massive circular maw gaped open, layered with concentric rings of sharp teeth.
Tentacles ensnared Fang Cheng’s limbs and torso, dragging him toward the devouring mouth.
“Begone!”
All three heads scowled in unison. Solar rays blasted from the middle head’s eyes.
The left head spewed searing Pure demon flames while the right unleashed a dragon roar – its shockwave concentrated into a piercing beam.
Three simultaneous attacks struck the evil god. Heavenly Dragon’s Wrath shredded its form while Pure demon flames charred flesh. The solar ray pierced deep into its maw, almost puncturing through entirely.
Ignoring the assault, the evil god kept hauling Fang Cheng toward its jaws. Crimson eyes glowed, attempting to plunge him back into the deep sea.
Danger!
Heart Awareness screamed warnings.
Fang Cheng wavered – dodging would free the evil god, but staying meant death either way.
“My turn!”
Iyaya’s voice cut through. A vast feminine silhouette materialized behind Fang Cheng, dwarfing even his giant frame.
The apparition’s eyes snapped open, their gaze mirroring the starry sky’s unfathomable depths.
When deities’ eyes met, invisible shockwaves erupted. Every creature within ten kilometers – from burrowing rodents to Ark survivors – choked as if drowning. Soul-deep terror gripped all living things.
The evil god’s assault faltered.
“Under thirty seconds left!” Iyaya urgently warned.
The flickering door pulsed erratically like a malfunctioning TV. Below, Tsukimi Narumi trembled while maintaining the portal, sweat drenching her exhausted form.
“Enough!”
Fang Cheng shouted as his 60-meter-tall body abruptly shrank.
Before the evil god could react, a shadow rapidly expanded within the dust clouds.
A colossal spaceship burst through the haze, slamming directly into the deity.
BOOM!
The Ark—nearly matching the evil god’s size—collided with its body, creating a deafening clang. The reinforced prow Fang Cheng had installed shattered instantly.
The ship itself, encased in a turtle shell-like shield, ripped through the evil god’s form with brutal force.
“Agh!”
The deity’s body contorted grotesquely from the impact. Though it strained to resist, the Ark’s overwhelming mass proved unstoppable.
Engines capable of near-light-speed propulsion accelerated the vessel to fighter jet velocity.
Helpless against the momentum, the evil god was driven backward toward the massive door.
In the cockpit, energy reserves plummeted from 70% to under 10%, drained chiefly by the alien-engineered shield that held firm against all damage until power expired.
Fang Cheng’s doppelgangers stood motionless, ignoring the critical energy levels. Even depleted, the Ark’s sheer momentum would finish the job.
Upon contacting the door, the evil god’s body disintegrated. A faint silhouette within was yanked toward the starry void beyond.
“Treacherous oathbreakers!!” it bellowed in a roar decipherable only to gods and proxies. “I curse you!”
As its crumbling form shrank to nothingness, Tsukimi Narumi swiftly withdrew her Giant Sword. The door rippled like disturbed water before vanishing.
The Ark hurtled through empty air as doppelgangers scrambled to decelerate it.
Fang Cheng hovered aloft, staring at where the portal had been.
“What’s behind that door…?” he muttered, not expecting Iyaya to respond.
Yet her voice answered: “A place… even evil gods shun… hell…”
Her tone carried a hint of melancholy, as if answering yet also sighing to herself.
Fang Cheng looked startled. He quickly tested the waters: “So you’ve always wanted to make your arrival in reality?”
Instead of replying, Iyaya countered, “Have you forgotten something?”
“Oh right!”
Fang Cheng nearly forgot the crucial item and hastily dove downward to search. His mother’s left arm had remained inside the evil god’s body, and he feared it might get sent through the door with the deity.
But Iyaya hadn’t lied. When the evil god’s body was destroyed by the door, the left arm immediately separated from it and plummeted groundward.
Tsukimi Narumi caught it before impact.
When Fang Cheng approached, Tsukimi Narumi extended the arm toward him.
He hesitated before taking it. “Wasn’t mother’s body what you wanted? Why give it to me?”
Truthfully he wanted it too – this was essentially a living cheat code. Yet the idea of his mother’s body replacing his own unsettled him. Would he still be himself after full replacement? Could his mother possess him to resurrect?
Having read too many conspiracy theories, Fang Cheng harbored deep-rooted fears about this.
Tsukimi Narumi answered with her usual cold expression: “Our place cannot receive physical items. You’ll keep it for now.”
With no valid reason to refuse, Fang Cheng grasped the left arm.
A familiar warmth immediately flowed through his fingers into his body. He’d experienced this before when obtaining the middle finger, so it didn’t surprise him. Anticipation rose – if one finger gave 114 lives, how many would half an arm provide?
The continuous warmth brought hazy scenes to his mind, clearer now than when he’d touched the middle finger – visions of a starry sky. Something moved through the cosmos, extinguishing starlight wherever it passed, leaving only darkness.
A woman’s sigh echoed faintly in his heart, just like last time.
Could this be…
Goosebumps erupted across Fang Cheng’s skin.
Two lines of text flashing in his vision snapped him back:
[Energy absorption in progress…]
[Life +671]
“Hsss-”
Fang Cheng inhaled sharply. Though prepared, gaining nearly seven hundred lives at once felt like winning the cosmic lottery. His count skyrocketed from 143 to 814 – less than two hundred away from quadruple digits.
When his Life reached 100, the System upgraded, but didn’t upgrade again at 200.
He wondered if it’d only upgrade once more when reaching 1000.
The unprecedented harvest made Fang Cheng push aside lingering shadows in his heart – this wasn’t the time for overthinking.
Looking down, he confirmed mother’s left arm had completely fused with his own.
The once crystal-clear skin resembling delicate artwork gradually darkened to match his flesh tone.
Fang Cheng felt numb to such phenomena now. His reliance on the cheat tool (not the middle finger, he mentally corrected) outweighed his discomfort.
Letting this foreign presence occupy his body seemed inevitable.
A sudden thought struck him – if he used this merged arm for weapon enhancement, would it count as himself touching himself or mother touching him?
While lost in thought, the arm completed its fusion process.
The human diagram in his mind flickered awake.
Since the System’s last upgrade, this spread-eagled anatomical chart had haunted his consciousness, its fractured joints and torso resembling broken pottery hastily glued together.
The diagram remained dormant except during fusions with mother’s body parts.
First the middle finger illuminated, now half the left arm glowed – like slotting the second puzzle piece.
The System clearly connected to mother.
Yet Tsukimi Narumi could read his mind while never acknowledging the System’s existence.
She likely didn’t perceive it at all.
Fang Cheng trusted neither Iyaya nor Tsukimi Narumi, these evil gods’ motives remaining opaque.
He’d initially surrendered to despair, becoming Iyaya’s puppet when resistance seemed impossible.
Today’s events proved otherwise – even evil gods had limits within the real world.
With enough personal strength, breaking free from Iyaya’s control might become possible.
But that future struggle could wait. For now, compliance served him best.
Testing the fully integrated left arm’s movements, he turned to Tsukimi Narumi. “I retrieved your Items. How do we fix Ye Yuqing’s soul problem?”
After prolonged silence, Tsukimi Narumi warned, “Patience. Dangerous company approaches. Stay alert.”