Chapter 588: Cut Through Everything, Straight to the Root Cause

Ladi took Mo Ling and leaped directly from the silver spaceship, flying toward the black planet.

Dazzling light transformed Ladi into a flying orb of pure energy. His immense power churned the air into scorching currents, tracing a white arc through the pitch-black Rift Void.

Mo Ling had never imagined he would get to see the sights of the Rift this way. This region of completely chaotic synchronization didn’t seem as lifeless as the records described.

It looked pitch-black, but there seemed to be many civilizations here.

‘Haven’t humans discovered these civilizations yet?’

‘Or have they been hidden for some reason?’

As Mo Ling was lost in thought, Ladi had already brought him into the airspace above the black planet.

The enormous Black Scourge tentacle had vanished without a trace, and the pitch-black planet had returned to its former tranquility. Yet, Mo Ling could still faintly sense the planet’s surface squirming slowly.

It hadn’t been long, but his observation was already beginning to affect the Black Scourge on the planet. Perhaps another enormous tentacle would soon burst from the ground.

Ladi took Mo Ling and shot straight down, landing on the squirming surface.

“Can you turn off your perception?” he asked suddenly.

“Yes.”

“Turn it off. Count to five, then turn it back on.”

Without hesitating, Mo Ling retracted his perception back into the Block.

‘One… two… three… four… five…’

When Mo Ling looked at the black ground again, he found himself standing in mid-air. Beside him, Ladi was holding up the fleshy mass formed from the spinal column.

Mo Ling immediately glanced down, only to discover that they had been lifted into the air by a writhing mass of Black Scourge. The transformation hadn’t stopped; the Black Scourge was continuing to shift into a more specific shape.

The transformation was incredibly fast. In just a moment, the writhing Black Scourge beneath their feet had become a gigantic scalpel. They were standing on its handle, and the blade before them was still sharpening.

With a flash of white light along the black blade, the scalpel’s form solidified completely. Then, with a wave of Ladi’s arm, the giant scalpel lifted straight out of the ground and hovered in the air.

Countless particles of Black Scourge cascaded like sand from the scalpel’s edges. Only then did Mo Ling realize that a huge portion of the scalpel had been underground; what he’d seen was merely the tip of the iceberg. Now, floating in the air, the scalpel looked like a slender, black mountain range.

“It’s really a scalpel?” Mo Ling asked in astonishment.

‘I thought when Ladi said “scalpel,” he was speaking metaphorically. I never imagined he’d actually use the Black Scourge to create one—and one as large as a mountain…’

“What else would it be?” Ladi crouched down, gently stroking the handle.

“Now that we have a scalpel, we can begin the operation…”

He straightened up again, looking like a Sword Immortal riding his blade. One hand held the spinal mass, the other pointed forward. The light behind him formed an elegant, arcing ribbon, and his lean body stood steadily upon the “flying sword.”

“Let’s go.”

The words had barely left his lips when the scalpel shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, tearing a channel through the void.

The silent void, like smooth skin, was sliced open by the sharp blade. The spatial turbulence rippled outward like waves on water, gently spreading into the distance.

By the time Mo Ling had steadied himself, he found the scalpel had already sliced through space and entered a warped region.

“What directive did you give it?” Mo Ling asked in surprise.

“A scalpel that can find the cause of the disease…” Ladi explained, standing steadily on the handle. “If we define everything that happened to the Hua Sheng Islands as a disease, then the culprits behind it are the pathogen. As long as I can find them, I can cure it.”

“This is a scalpel that will absolutely find the cause of the disease.”

Hearing Ladi’s explanation, Mo Ling finally understood why the scalpel had suddenly sliced through space.

“You gave it the ability to traverse space?”

“Yes. The scalpel can slice through any obstruction to find the source of the affliction… And that’s not all, of course.” Ladi didn’t elaborate, but Mo Ling could hear the confidence in his voice.

As they spoke, the scalpel cut another fissure in space. The massive blade plunged into the opening, carrying them once more to an unknown location.

“We should be close.”

As a distorted light flashed at the edge of the fissure, the scalpel carried them out, arriving at the source of the affliction.

This was still a deep stretch of the Rift Void, but it didn’t look desolate…

Floating in the void were countless enormous, hollow stone blocks that looked like straws. Some were horizontal, some were vertical, and others were curled into spirals, densely occupying an entire expanse of the void.

The moment the scalpel appeared, the straw-like stone blocks began to turn. Innumerable gazes descended in an instant, a probing stare that seemed to pierce right through Mo Ling and see the very essence of his being.

Mo Ling never imagined he could be frozen in place by something as intangible as a “gaze,” but his senses weren’t mistaken. It was a gaze, and an analytical one at that—a “dissection,” as if it wanted to devour him whole, drilling into every atom of his body to analyze him completely.

“So, it’s you.” Ladi, looking at the stone structures, spoke suddenly. He seemed to recognize them.

The hollow stone blocks didn’t respond, instead continuing to scrutinize the two newcomers with that prying gaze. The stare also fell upon the giant scalpel beneath their feet, as if it were analyzing the blade’s information.

“Welcome to the library.” A voice emanated from the void. It was as if all the hollow stones were vibrating in unison, yet the sound seemed to shift direction, making its source impossible to pinpoint.

Mo Ling, however, recognized the voice instantly. It was the same one he’d heard from the mastermind in the Administrator’s Healing Space—like the sound of tearing paper, chaotic and mad.

‘This voice, full of madness and disorder, and that invasive, prying gaze must come from the same source.’

‘Except now, that voice was actually “welcoming” them…’

“The library?” Ladi clearly didn’t understand what the voice meant either.

The light radiating from his body suddenly flared, engulfing the surrounding void. An arc of light shot out to the scalpel, adding a vicious glint to the tip of its sharp blade.

Ladi could clearly no longer contain his fury. With the culprits finally before him, all the suffering the Hua Sheng Islands had endured coalesced into that surging, fiery light.

“Ever-Thirsters, what in the hell are you doing!” A voice, both ethereal and filled with killing intent, ripped through the void and slammed into the hollow stone structures.