Operator #18 · [Tranquility · Serenity]

There are a few procedures to go through before the harvest season ceremony begins.

First, all bystanders were dismissed to provide a warm and comfortable environment for the Taowu beast to rest in peace.

Apart from a few key representatives from the Philosopher Foundation and the main managers of the major sites, the other members of the morpho butterfly group who came to witness the birth of the champion left the stage and returned to the international Dadu of Hong Kong to patiently await the final results of the harvest season ceremony.

If ordinary people were to transform into Chang Ghost, modern firearms could still deal with them.

If a Morpho butterfly were to transform into Chang Ghost during the harvest season, it would be a terrible disaster.

They possess supersonic mobility, powerful bodies infused with the blood of the Taowu Beast, and bizarre, mutated soul power like [Fragrant Dream].

Xiao Qi and Liu Xing left the place of trouble early on, returning to the Bu Family with Bailu and everyone from [JoeStar]. The construction team's bricklayers had also long since returned to the underground trading hub to be with their wives and children.

The terrace plaza in front of the VIP teahouse fortress began final preparations for arming. A defensive line was set up on site, with temporary blast walls and warning lines marked with psionic contamination symbols standing tall. Soldiers from Guangling Zhixi walked through a train carriage and called to the engineers to start work together.

"The concentration of the Spirit Calamity is 17%. Our safety measures are being deployed and are expected to take 14 minutes to complete."

The commander of the armed train was a key member of the Guangling Zhixi Rapid Reaction Force. After exchanging firepower deployments with the other four transportation units—

-- Further along the mountain road from the observatory, three helicopters rose up, their bright lights shining on the wishing well.

The radio was busy with communications, and the information was chaotic.

"Are the tracers ready?"

"What kind of ammunition? Rubber bullets?"

".50 BMG, live ammunition."

"When the target appears and the concentration of Spirit Calamity exceeds 80%, the insurance will be unlocked. Heed my command."

"What if it escapes? Should we take Plan B or Plan C?"

"Plan B: prioritize rescuing the ceremony personnel, prioritize rescuing high-value targets, and prioritize the personnel of the research institute and the Philosopher Foundation among the high-value targets. The other targets are passengers or waiters, each with their own unique abilities."

When will Plan C be implemented?

"Once the Taowu beast escapes the station area and the tracer becomes completely ineffective and cannot be tracked, we will detonate the mini nuclear bomb inside its body."

"Understood, sir."

"Stay alert! What's the situation with the special operations team at Guangling Zhixi?"

Soldiers mingled among the engineering team announced the progress of the ceremony.

" --Ming De is attempting to use David Victor's divine power to transmit information to an unfamiliar entity. I don't know what it intends to do; is it some new ritual method?"

"Is the BOSS planning to pull off some kind of fancy trick?"

"We can't let this gamble with human lives. We should consult with the people in the Arcane Library's Information Section."

"I'm back, team leader. Ming De wants to choose another sacrifice, to have Jiang Xueming and that mysterious target participate in the ritual."

"Confirm the source of the information."

"It's the ACE of Group 13—this melon is guaranteed to be ripe."

"What about the risks?"

"The risks are unknown, but multiple VIPs mean multiple helpers and an extra layer of insurance."

"Ming De wouldn't misjudge people. If this is its choice, our rapid reaction force will fully cooperate."

"The task force is fine."

"The special operations team is fine."

"New instructions have been received. The engineering team is preparing to open the coffin, in accordance with Ming De's new ritual procedures—waiting for its signal flare."

"I need you to awaken him— Jiang Xueming." The BOSS gently patted Sixty-Three's cheek and Xue Ming, "The moment you awaken him, I will pull the trigger of the signal flare, and at the same time, the harvest season ceremony will officially begin."

Jiang Xueming didn't ask any further questions. The BOSS was already a mature big cat, and it had experienced this kind of situation many times before. All he had to do was follow Ming De's instructions.

Only one last question--

"--How can I wake up Sixty-Three?" Jiang Xueming mustered her courage, like a kindergarten student asking her teacher where to go on the spring outing the next day, with an inexplicable sense of absurdity.

After all, he had only just spread his wings and begun to wield his soul power.

He had absolutely no idea how to control [Fragrant Dream].

The boss was still discussing with Teacher Victor how to use the signal flare, and at which angle to fire it so that all the armed employees and soldiers present could see the striking red meteor.

The Little Kitty took a moment to reply, "Call out its real name! Let the spirit leave your body! Manipulate it, command it—control it the same way you control the spirit!"

Xue Ming, this simple-minded and honest man, while the uncles and aunts in various departments were busy with their work, ran to the wishing well and took Sixty-Three from the old man at the Research Station, wanting to rehearse Soul Might.

"Fragrant Dream," Xue Ming murmured softly.

--A crisp, bell-like sound suddenly rang out from the surface of the body! It was like the whistling and clanging of metal joints sliding and rubbing together!

The alloy cat burst forth from the body, hovering beside Xue Ming, its bright yellow eyes wide as it curiously observed its master's appearance.

It tilted its head, seemingly not understanding what was happening; it was its first time in the human world.

Xue Ming then began to wait--

--Perhaps in this way, Sixty-Three will wake up.

After waiting for more than a minute, Jiang Xueming saw that Sixty-Three showed no sign of waking up and began to worry.

Although its importance wasn't explicitly stated, the task assigned by the boss at this juncture must be extremely important and crucial.

"Hey," Xue Ming gently patted Sixty-Three's face, "Wake up!"

It's no use, still nothing.

Even if you grab him by the shoulders, shake him high, and let him fall Sixty-Three before catching him, it won't help.

Cold sweat dripped from his forehead. Xue Ming's expression was grave as he repeatedly slapped Sixty-Three's face.

"Wake up! Wake up! It's time to wake up from this dream!"

"I said," Fragrant Dream gently poked Xue Ming's shoulder, "Do you want to wake him up?"

Xue Ming didn't turn around, completely ignoring the issue of Soul Power, and focused on using physical means to awaken Sixty-Three.

Fragrant Dream: "(#`O′) Hey! Look at me! Look at me once!"

Jiang Xueming was finally drawn away by the noisy noise, and turned to look at Fragrant Dream. "Holy crap?!"

Fragrant Dream squinted, put her hands on her hips, and looked sulky.

"Hey, are you trying to wake this guy up?"

Jiang Xueming: "Can you speak?"

Fragrant Dream: "Yes, I can."

Jiang Xueming pulled out a hand to touch the face of the giant steel cat. "You... you have self-awareness?"

Fragrant Dream raised its paw and slapped its master's hand open. "Yes, I do."

Jiang Xueming became even more anxious.

Why is this happening?

Like Professor Victor's "Hell Highway" Wen Bucai's "Drunken Ecstasy," they are like puppets on strings, tools that wholeheartedly obey their master's commands.

But [Fragrant Dream] acted too slowly, too unfamiliarly! If he encounters a similar situation in the future, will Jiang Xueming be unable to utter a single word and unable to control his soul power?

"Do you want him to wake up?" Fragrant Dream smirked, fiddling with her paws, her face full of curiosity. "This guy is super~~~~~ dangerous! I can feel a powerful spiritual energy within him; you could kill him at any moment—but if you let him out, I don't know what might happen."

"Brother, let's make a deal." Jiang Xueming immediately began to lecture Hunwei: "In case I become mute one day, or my mind goes blank, we can coordinate using special hand gestures or codes, okay?"

Fragrant Dream immediately refused. "No way! I hate studying! It's so troublesome!"

Jiang Xueming sighed and decided to get down to business.

"Wake him up."

"Call my name!" Fragrant Dream perked up. "Shout it out loud!"

Jiang Xueming clenched his fists, controlling the spirit.

"[Sweet Fragrant Dream]! Awaken him!"

The steel cat immediately bared its teeth and began to act on its master's command. Its pupils dilated, no longer as sharp as before.

At Sixty-Three, his body began to exhibit irregular finger and eye movements, and the skin around his eyelids trembled slightly, as if he might wake up at any moment.

Just then, a sharp, piercing siren blared from the engineering team's observation station.

"The concentration of Spirit Calamity is skyrocketing! What's going on?! What's going on?! We haven't even opened the coffin yet!"

Ming De, along with Teacher Victor and others, glanced at Jiang Xueming and Sixty-Three.

"--What are you doing?"

Xue Ming his fist, as big as a clay pot, and combined it with Fragrant Dream's attack, gently sending Sixty-Three back into the dream world with a single punch.

"It's nothing, it's nothing."

Fragrant Dream also looked shaken.

"Hey, what are you trying to do? First you woke him up, then you knocked him out. You've confused me so much!"

Xue Ming said in a serious tone, "In order to cooperate with Ming De's ceremony, I need to wake him up at the right time."

Fragrant Dream suddenly realized. "Oh! Do you understand now?"

Xue Ming rolled up his sleeves and asked one of the staff members next to him for a bottle of Universal Elixir.

"I'll try a few more times."

One minute passed --

Sixty-Three was beaten black and blue by Jiang Xueming, leaving him with only his last two teeth.

Xue Ming finally calmed down and carefully considered the feeling of throwing a punch.

When it throws a punch, Soul Might will also launch a secondary attack along this attack path. However, without its own guidance, relying solely on verbal commands to instruct Fragrant Dream, it has no idea how to hit anyone.

It absorbed a portion of the BOSS's spiritual essence and gained independent consciousness, but this was not a good thing. Jiang Xueming almost argued with his own soul power over the matter of commanding this lazy creature to fight.

It dislikes using guns and has many bad habits when handling them, yet it refuses to learn.

It licks its paws like a cat, sits cross-legged, and when angry, it crouches low and arches its back like a wild beast to intimidate its enemies.

To be honest, this feeling is very strange.

It's like having disappointing children before you've even gotten married and registered your marriage.

Xue Ming frowned in thought, scanning Fragrant Dream with a suspicious gaze. Should he use this thing as a readily available weapon to protect his superpowers?

That's impossible; at least at this stage, its combat capabilities are not up to par.

"(#`O′) Hey! Were you just looking down on me?!" Fragrant Dream was Xue Ming's spirit form, so she could naturally sense Xue Ming's emotions. "Are you looking down on me?"

"Even though I can't be sure of your feelings, can you vaguely sense my emotions?" Xue Ming murmured to herself, rubbing her chin as she pondered.

"Damn it! At least look at me properly!" Before Fragrant Dream could finish speaking...

Xue Ming reached out, grasped the spirit's arm, and immediately pulled the spirit back into his body.

It's so noisy!

--This guy is too noisy, I'll study him more slowly when I have a chance.

He used the Universal Elixir to repair Sixty-Three's facial damage, then shouted to the BOSS, "I'm ready!"

"The whole process will be very quick! Jiang Xueming! Look at the signal flare in my hand. When it rises, you must awaken Sixty-Three." The BOSS took a set of spirit clothes from the Spirit Elder and handed it to Xue Ming: "You must suppress your curiosity and, under no circumstances, open your eyes. Do whatever Sixty-Three tells you to do."

Jiang Xueming didn't hesitate at all, putting on the thick spiritual robe. "Okay."

The boss was deeply surprised by Xue Ming's decisiveness. "I am truly moved by your trust in me."

"My Soul Power's range is supposed to be sixteen meters, but it's not very obedient," Jiang Xueming explained the spirit's stats to the BOSS. "It might not be able to respond to my commands immediately."

The BOSS raised the flare gun and pulled the trigger with its tiny claws.

"It's okay, we have more than one chance, everything can be taken slowly."

As the effects of [Fragrant Dream] wore off, Sixty-Three awoke from his sleep.

Under the light of the signal flare, the hunting dogs in the entourage began to become restless and agitated, barking menacingly as the concentration of Spirit Calamity suddenly increased.

The fifty metal carriages began to emit an incomparably strong pheromone. Their bodies cracked inch by inch, gushing out thick blood. After losing their restraints, the Taowu's body was about to re-merge into one.

The drones in mid-air crashed down like birds hit by bullets, the intense energy radiation instantly stopping them from working.

Helicopters that were a little further away could not receive any radio signals and were in a state of complete silence.

Further away, on the armed train at Guangling Zhixi, the assault team's turrets stood in rows, aiming at the roof of the parliament building 500 meters away on the road to the Lava Lake, ready to fire and escape at any moment.

When the engineering team members used ratchet and winch to pull open the last major lock on the train, they quickly escaped through the emergency evacuation passage.

Xue Ming immediately closed his eyes--

In that instant, he felt surrounded by people.

Teacher Victor's intense spiritual pressure, almost like a blazing red flame, protected Ming De in the center of the wishing well.

Wen Bucai's dark spirit was like a magnet. Even when Xue Ming closed his eyes, he could still see streams of energy flowing towards him, most of which were absorbed by this strange black stone figure.

A heavy heartbeat sounded—

In the pitch-black darkness, the distant carriages resembled coffins from which indescribable, chaotic flesh crawled out. A strong, sweet, and pungent odor filled the air, like wine fermented for decades by mixing rust and blood.

Do not open your eyes! You absolutely must not open your eyes!

Xue Ming repeatedly warned himself, almost wanting to gouge his eyes out—

He could no longer tell whether his eyes were open or closed.

These strange spiritual pressures left colorful patches on his retina, almost driving him insane.

Is that the physical body of the Taowu?

Rising from piles of bones, a tower forged of flesh and blood stood tall toward the sky, then its massive head hunched down. It writhed like a maggot, its empty cavities gurgling with water after losing its limbs.

The liquid flowed forward and into the wishing well.

Ling Weng immediately sent the BOSS into the pool.

The moment the spiritual essence and the physical essence came into contact, the BOSS was almost torn in two by this powerful attraction. Its suddenly elongated body seemed to be to prove the physical phenomenon that "cats are liquid".

In the dark world, Xue Ming could only faintly hear the BOSS's fierce roar.

"Listen to me! Listen to me!! You have to listen to me!"

The mournful cry emitted by the Taowu when it is in pain is very peculiar, much like a sonar signal from the deep sea, containing many high-frequency ultrasonic waves that are inaudible to humans, as if a segment of the audio spectrum has been lost, which is very strange.

The BOSS's flesh and blood colossal statue rose up, at least forty meters tall. It lay half-lying on the rooftop terrace of the Council of Five Kings. After releasing all the fluid from its body, it finally lost all its strength and, under Ming De's control, seemed to be falling asleep.

The boss barked, "Set the bone! Prepare for surgery!"

Ling Weng carried the BOSS's body forward, appearing in Xue Ming's tightly closed eyes like a radiant, multicolored spirit about to walk towards that indescribable tower of flesh and blood. Behind him followed five spirits of different colors, about to crash into the terrifying darkness.

As Xue Ming left Professor Victor's protective zone, she felt a sudden weight on her body and a burning pain in the soles of her feet!

When my legs were soaked in the fluid inside the Taowu's cavity and stained with its strong pheromones, it was as painful as being soaked in aqua regia!

Xue Ming involuntarily looked down, his eyes wide open. The sudden hallucination almost took him to hell. He saw a withered skeleton immersed in a thick, pinkish-white liquid, and following it upwards—the hip bones, thigh bones, spine, and chest cavity were all empty.

He stared in horror at his hands. Unbeknownst to him, it seemed that all the vital energy in his body had been devoured by the Taowu, leaving only a few strips of bright red, rotten flesh and tendons hanging on the soft bones!

Look ahead!

The ferocious Taowu stood there, motionless.

It has no hair, or rather, the hair has long since fallen out. The skin on its surface has just healed, still bearing the marks of the engineering anti-corrosion fabric binding it. There are charred scars from laser scanning on the large pores, as if the hair removal treatment was done to preserve its fresh essence for a long time.

When its flesh and blood, sealed within the railway train, were released, they burst forth with a thick mass of flesh, making it appear somewhat slender, like a stick, yet its body was covered with deformed tumors. In its length of over a hundred meters, it looked like a string of Buddhist prayer beads.

These raised tumors must be White Lady's insect nest.

The four large limb joints are irregular indentations, just like its bones, presenting multifaceted, prismatic interfaces. It's hard to imagine in what form it cut its own bones. Perhaps it wasn't so huge at that time.

Finally, it's its brain.

--It was a huge face that resembled a human face, yet also looked like a glaring, ugly, and ferocious tiger.

Its eyes had become two bloody craters, seemingly just as the BOSS had said. The eyes had become raw material for Polarized Sextant, becoming part of the industrial facility.

The mouth is split in half, the bridge of the nose is sunken, and the Barry, which is cleft to the ear roots, contains countless interlocking canine teeth.

Only a small amount of cartilage that hadn't yet rotted away remained of the two large, round ears.

--Just after White Lady finished eating it, many adorable insects fell from the sky and landed in the thick syrup, trying to swim back into the tender and delicious Taowu flesh.

Xue Ming's eyes began to bleed; he simply couldn't escape this scene! He couldn't tear his gaze away!

He could hardly imagine how those near-kings approached this incredible behemoth, or how they resisted such terrifying spiritual pressure.

Just standing dozens of meters away was enough to drive him completely insane.

I must close my eyes again.

He pulled a pen from his notebook, intending to stab himself blind.

Sixty-Three grasped Xue Ming's arm—

--I closed the boy's eyelids.