Chapter 595 - 592: The Ever-Thirster’s Legacy

The healer murmured mysteriously as he turned and walked toward the massive bookshelves.

As the motes of smoke and dust swirling around him grew denser, the light shining upon them created a dreamlike, fantastical scene.

He walked to one of the bookshelves and touched it lightly. The enormous shelf actually began to rotate with a loud RUMBLE. The spiral staircase inside spun into a blur, and the multicolored books dizzied Mo Ling's eyes.

When the rotating bookshelf finally came to a stop, the healer's hand was already resting gently on one of the books.

"This should be the one." The healer carefully removed the white book and slowly opened it.

Mo Ling could faintly make out a familiar term written on the book's cover: "Root Cause Healing Method."

'This book is called "Root Cause Healing Method"?'

'Is this knowledge about the Root Cause Healing Method?'

Before Mo Ling could ask, the healer in front of the bookshelf suddenly burst into scattered motes of dust. Only the dim light of his head remained, crawling along the dust trail and onto the book titled "Root Cause Healing Method."

A faint voice then suddenly drifted from the dust:

"Avenger, it's time for you to leave. Your mission is complete..."

Before Mo Ling could even react, he was yanked backward by an immense force. The terrifying power pulled him straight out of the library's main entrance.

Mo Ling only had time to see writhing straws crawling all over the gate. Just as he was about to look up to get a full view of the library, a hand grabbed him and pulled him directly into a distorted tunnel.

When he came to his senses again, he was standing on the scalpel. Beside him, Ladi was saying something, but the sound was muffled as if by a membrane, making it very indistinct.

Gradually, the voice grew clearer, and Mo Ling could finally make out what Ladi was saying to him.

"Are you alright?" Ladi seemed concerned about him.

"I'm fine," Mo Ling answered dazedly.

Seeing Mo Ling finally answer him, Ladi's somewhat rigid body relaxed.

"You succeeded. The Ever-Thirster is dead," Ladi said with relief.

"Dead?" Mo Ling still hadn't quite processed it.

Ladi pointed at the scalpel beneath them. "It's starting to break down, which means the cause of the illness has been dealt with. I've been out here the whole time, so it could only have been you who eliminated it."

Hearing this, Mo Ling glanced at the scalpel under his feet.

The Black Calamity it was made of had begun to crumble away like sand. It seemed that after fulfilling its purpose, the scalpel would soon dissipate.

"We need to leave quickly. I don't know exactly where this is. If the scalpel completely disintegrates, we might not be able to get back," Ladi said, his tone urgent.

"Isn't this the Healing Space?"

"No, this is just some place within the reality rift. The scalpel opened a passage, which is how we found it. We have to hurry back to the Healing Space. Only from there can we return to our bodies."

As he spoke, Ladi controlled the scalpel, slicing open a passage ahead.

However, the passage seemed somewhat warped and unstable. The scalpel's power was clearly beginning to fade.

Seeing this, Ladi directly piloted the scalpel toward the tunnel.

Mo Ling quickly steadied himself, crouched down, and rode the scalpel into the rift.

But just then, a sudden feeling made him turn around. Through the distorted entrance of the tunnel, Mo Ling witnessed a scene that shocked him to his core.

In the void where the great battle had taken place, strange spatial ripples suddenly appeared. Then, the giant, spectral image of a library materialized above the ripples.

Afterward, countless straws crawled out of the void, following the library's silhouette. They wriggled and coiled together—some extending into the distance in parallel lines, some linking with each other, and others tying themselves into knots, forming some kind of rigid structure.

More and more straws filled the void, eventually forming a massive fortress over the library's spectral image!

Some straws swelled into enormous black pipes that stretched into the distance, anchoring themselves directly in the void. Others shrank into thin filaments, weaving through the gaps between the other pipes, slowly binding the entire fortress together.

Not only that, but the entire fortress was also constantly expanding, growing until it exceeded Mo Ling's field of vision.

At the same time, Mo Ling noticed that the fortress made of pipes was slowly moving in one direction, as if heading toward some unknown destination.

Before Mo Ling could get a clear look at the fortress's destination, he was pulled out of the tunnel and back onto a land of black earth.

"Was that... the Pipe Fortress?" Mo Ling mumbled belatedly.

"Did you see something?" Ladi asked.

"No..." Mo Ling glanced at the scalpel beneath his feet.

After exiting the tunnel, the scalpel had plunged directly into the Black Calamity Planet. It was crumbling faster and faster, no longer recognizable, looking like a small, collapsing mountain.

"Is the Ever-Thirster... really dead?" Mo Ling asked Ladi doubtfully, thinking of those spreading pipes.

"It's dead. This scalpel only disintegrates when the cause of the illness has been eliminated. That's the parameter I set for it. There's no mistake," Ladi replied with absolute certainty.

'Is that so?' Mo Ling was still filled with worry.

He looked up at the sky and saw that it was no longer the deep void from before, but had returned to a pure white expanse.

'Looks like we're back where we started.'

Mo Ling looked around, trying to find Xi and the other healers.

Sure enough, not far from the scalpel, Mo Ling saw Xi and the other healers. However, they seemed to have shut off their senses, completely unresponsive to their surroundings.

Ladi also noticed the healers.

"Are they the companions who came here with you?"

"Yes."

The scalpel was on the verge of collapsing completely. Mo Ling leaped off, landing directly on the black earth, and walked toward Xi. Seeing this, Ladi immediately followed.

Coincidentally, just as Mo Ling reached Xi, the healers woke up.

They were startled to see Mo Ling and Ladi suddenly appear.

"Senior!"

"Elder Ladi!"

Xi went right up to Mo Ling and asked with concern, "Senior, are you hurt? Did you find Elder Ladi? What about the other Elders? Are these black spheres cured?"

Xi fired off several questions in a row, while the other healers crowded around Ladi, asking him questions nonstop.

It seemed that "Elder" was truly a pillar of support for the healers. The moment they saw Ladi, they became so excited they forgot all about the surrounding Black Calamity.

Ladi, overwhelmed by the questions, had no choice but to explain the whole sequence of events.

"Now that the matter of the Black Calamity and the Ever-Thirster is resolved, we need to leave the Healing Space and clean up the Black Calamity on the island..."

Ladi's voice was heavy with exhaustion. It seemed the recent "surgery" had taken a heavy toll on him.

The other healers, on the other hand, were full of energy and already starting to discuss how to arrange the follow-up work.