Holy Spirit Cult · Leng Yulai! Shadow Brake Descends

"Alright, I'll have the items sent over to you later."

Lin An nodded, his tone as casual as if he were commenting on the quality of the cafeteria food.

Tang Wulin snapped his head up, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"And you don't need to pay me back for the money, either."

Lin An waved his hand, his expression suddenly turning serious as he locked his gaze onto Tang Wulin. "But I have only one condition."

"These two items have opposing effects and might cause a backlash to your body. If you intend to consume them, I must stay by your side to watch over you."

Tang Wulin froze.

He looked into Lin An's clear eyes, observing the rare gravity on that refined face.

A surge of warmth welled up from the bottom of his heart, lodging in his throat and leaving him unable to speak.

"Why... why are you being so good to me?"

His voice trembled.

Lin An didn't answer, simply picking up his juice to take a sip.

He couldn't exactly say it was because the Golden Dragon King bloodline within him could make him stronger.

But seeing Tang Wulin's eyes turn red, looking as if he were about to cry at any moment, he still sighed inwardly.

Level twelve.

He had originally assumed Tang Wulin wouldn't need to unseal the seal until level twenty; he hadn't expected the bloodline riot to arrive so quickly.

If something went wrong, the Golden Dragon King bloodline he had been longing for would be gone.

He also knew that Tang San's divine consciousness lay dormant within Tang Wulin.

Although that God King was no longer in the God Realm, no one knew how deep the contingency plans he had left behind truly went.

Lin An glanced at Gu Yue.

Gu Yue was pouting in dissatisfaction, though she remained silent.

She stabbed at the steak in her bowl with her chopsticks, turning the Red Flame Python meat into a sieve.

"Hmph."

She let out a cold sound through her nose.

Buying him things, refusing his repayment, and insisting on staying by his side to watch him.

She didn't even receive that kind of treatment.

The Dragon Queen was being far too good to this mortal who had stolen the Golden Dragon King bloodline.

East Sea Academy, a dim office.

Chen Mo sat behind his desk in silence.

The eye sockets beneath his gold-rimmed glasses were deeply sunken, his complexion as gray and withered as a piece of paper that had been crumpled and then smoothed out.

He began to cough violently.

He covered his mouth with a handkerchief, his shoulders trembling.

When he pulled it away, a dark red stain had bloomed across the white fabric.

Ever since his mental intrusion failed yesterday, it was as if he had been cursed.

When his soul power circulated through his meridians, it felt sluggish and strained.

It was as if something were crawling inside his blood.

Small, hard lumps bulged beneath his skin, feeling like they were burning whenever he pressed on them.

Moreover, something was always watching him.

It wasn't an illusion.

High above in the sky, that cold gaze had never shifted.

Like a sword hanging over his head, it neither fell nor left, quietly locking down the entire city.

Chen Mo coughed up another mouthful of blood.

With trembling hands, he fished a specialized communicator from the depths of his drawer.

He pressed it.

The connection went through.

A projection appeared.

It was the figure of a woman, her features blurred and indistinct.

Her voice was hoarse and cold, like broken glass scraping against stone.

"Chen Mo... you failed."

There was no anger in that voice.

Yet, it was more chilling than any rage.

"Do you have any idea how much the Holy Cult has suffered because of you?"

"Lady Leng!"

Chen Mo spoke urgently, his voice sharp with terror.

"The target's mental defenses far exceeded our expectations!"

"And someone is protecting him—that silver-haired girl is definitely not simple!"

"She is at least a Title Douluo, no, even stronger!"

He recalled Gu Yue's purple eyes, which had suddenly transformed into vertical pupils.

He remembered the arm that had pierced through his projection in the dream.

That will, which crushed everything in its path, was certainly not something an ordinary Title Douluo could possess.

"This subordinate suspects... she is not human."

Leng Yulai fell silent for a moment.

Chen Mo seized the opportunity, speaking at a rapid-fire pace as if grasping for a final lifeline.

"And the boy himself... his luck is abnormally strong!"

"It is as if fate itself is shielding him!"

"The sudden rise of the Universal Group over these years, expanding from a small firm into a behemoth, is, in my opinion, entirely due to his birth!"

He gasped for air, and new bloodstains appeared on his handkerchief.

"Those technologies... soul-guided forging machine tools, nuclear fusion power, soul spirit artificial intelligence... they simply do not belong to this era!"

"If we can control him, the great cause of the Holy Cult—"

"Enough."

Leng Yulai's voice severed his words.

In the projection, those blurred eyes seemed to turn toward something.

She spoke again, her voice carrying a trace of an almost imperceptible sigh.

"You alerted that mecha."

Chen Mo's body stiffened.

"From the moment you were exposed, there was no way for you to escape."

Leng Yulai's voice was as calm as a mathematical theorem.

"It hasn't acted yet because it is waiting—waiting for you to draw out more."

A chill shot up his spine, numbing his limbs.

"M-my Lady! Save me!"

Chen Mo's voice was sharp and shattered.

He stood up abruptly, his hands pressing against the desk, veins bulging on the backs of his hands.

"I have contracted a severe illness!"

"These tumors... they are devouring my soul power!"

"I beg you, get me out of East Sea City! I can still serve the Holy Cult—"

His words came to an abrupt halt.

It was as if he had been throttled.

Chen Mo's body began to tremble violently.

The tumors beneath his skin writhed and expanded like living creatures.

Veins bulged one by one, spreading from his neck to his cheeks like countless twisted earthworms burrowing under his skin.

He opened his mouth wide, but could not make a sound.

Then—

He vomited blood in great mouthfuls.

Dark red blood gushed from his mouth, nose, and eyes.

Mixed with shattered visceral tissue, it splattered across the desk, soaking the stack of unapproved purchase orders.

At the same time, an indescribable, terrifying will descended suddenly through the communication link.

The space began to distort.

The water glass on the desk shattered silently.

The shards hovered in mid-air, ground into fine powder by an invisible force.

Light bent as well, casting eerie, distorted shadows.

A blurred female figure slowly coalesced from the twisted space.

A platinum-white gown.

Pinkish-purple hair cascaded down like a waterfall.

Her blood-colored pupils reflected the wailing and struggling of countless departed souls.

It was merely a projection.

Yet, it exuded a pressure that made the soul tremble.

The walls cracked, the fissures spreading like a spiderweb.

A cold, eerie light seeped from every crevice.

The silent body collapsed without a sound.

Like a skin bag drained of all support, it slid limply to the floor with a dull thud.

The eyes remained open, but the pupils had dilated, reflecting the pale light of the ceiling.

The soul had been completely erased.

Not even a single scrap remained.

Shadow Brake slowly shifted his gaze, landing on the specialized communicator.

On the other end of the communicator, Leng Yulai's projection remained, though it was now flickering violently, like a candle in the wind.

"Your codename is... Shadow Brake, isn't it?"

Leng Yulai's voice sounded once more, but it was no longer condescending.

"Do you wish to find the memories of your past?"

Shadow Brake did not answer.

Those blood-colored pupils stared quietly at the projection, while streams of data poured through them like a waterfall.

"You were originally an ancient deity worshipped by my Holy Spirit Cult."

Leng Yulai's voice took on a seductive tone.

"Yet you were brainwashed by the Universal Group and used as a tool."

"To think you have now fallen to the point of protecting a mere brat... how pathetic, how lamentable!"