Chapter 342: Burning Pollution, Converting Divinity

Chapter 342: Chapter 342: Burning Pollution, Converting Divinity

High above the Underground City’s Pantheon.

Lance’s concept of self was being rapidly stripped away by the Evil God’s concept.

His world of consciousness, once a riot of color, was now fading before his very eyes, turning to a bleak gray and white.

The chaotic concept belonging to the Evil God Faros was pouring in like a lake of ink, contaminating his world of consciousness without restraint.

Lance felt his soul being submerged, bit by bit, by this lake formed from malevolent thoughts.

He was like a drowning man with a heavy stone tied to his ankle.

He struggled desperately, trying to breathe, but the lakewater seemed to have a mind of its own, pouring madly into his mouth and nose.

’I... I’m still too weak...’

Lance sighed silently in his heart.

The flicker of joy he’d felt from killing the Bronze Dragon Galeos—a being of a higher tier—had long since been extinguished by the Evil God’s Power.

His consciousness was sinking faster and faster.

However, in the final half-second before Lance’s consciousness was about to sink completely into eternal darkness,

in this gray world filled by the black lake,

a faint, golden pinpoint of starlight stubbornly flared to life in the depths of the water.

Immediately after, as if setting off some wondrous chain reaction, a second point of light appeared, then a third...

Thousands of tiny golden sparks emerged without warning within the lake of Lance’s collapsing consciousness.

These dancing sparks were not scorching at all.

They emanated an exceedingly warm and gentle glow, like the lights of a thousand homes lit up in a village on a winter’s night.

Ordinary, yet filled with a reassuring power.

This was the pure gratitude gathered from the tens of thousands of townspeople in Gray Rock Town, far beyond the Underground City.

The sparks rapidly connected in the water, weaving themselves into lines.

They encircled Lance’s fading consciousness, instantly transforming into a brilliant, blazing scroll!

[Exclusive Trait ’Torch Scroll: Human Will Over Heaven’ has been automatically triggered!]

[Humanity’s Tinder is burning! Commencing purification of foreign contamination...]

[Purification successful! A portion of the contamination has been incinerated by the Tinder. Converting its residual concepts into ownerless divine nutrients...]

[Obtained: Tampering (Fragment), Flesh (Fragment). Can be used for subsequent Source Material enhancement.]

[Humanity’s Tinder continues to burn... A miracle is being forged...]

The "black lakewater" that had already seeped into Lance’s soul instantly let out a piercing hiss as it was fiercely burned by the golden, flaming scroll.

The black water was forcibly pushed away, evaporating into nothingness.

In the real world, Lance gasped, sucking in a sharp breath.

His pupils, which had been vacant and unfocused, instantly regained their sharpness.

’Shit! I almost got a game over screen right there!’

Lance cursed inwardly, gritting his teeth. The feeling of his consciousness being erased bit by bit was a hundred times more painful than being cut by a knife.

However, he soon discovered that the danger he faced was far from over!

Although his consciousness had reconsolidated, his body was now completely out of his control.

He looked down and discovered with horror

that at some unknown point, his limbs, torso, and even his neck had become tightly bound by dense, dark-red threads as fine as ox hair.

These threads had dug deep into his flesh, even reaching his bones.

And most fatally, a dark-red Light Wedge had been driven into his right chest.

The end of this Light Wedge was also connected to countless red threads that stretched up into the darkness of the dome.

’Have I become a f*cking marionette?’

Lance immediately understood his situation.

The Faceless Evil God standing outside the rift could not descend into this space in its true form.

It could only use its power to infiltrate and forcibly control his body, intending to use his hands to take the White Bone Longbow from the altar.

Lance frantically tried to activate the Source Melting Furnace within his body.

But to his despair, he found that the Ether Energy, which he could once command as easily as his own limbs, was now as stagnant as dead water.

The Light Wedge embedded in his chest was like a valve, completely shutting off the channel for his energy output.

Not only that, even when he struggled desperately with his raw physical strength, he couldn’t break free from these seemingly delicate red threads.

This was completely different from before, when he could easily tear the bloody threads with just a little effort.

This meant that as time passed, the Faceless God’s Divine Power was infiltrating this space at an accelerated rate, and its control was growing stronger.

’Damn it!’

In the few seconds that Lance spent trying to break free,

the bloody threads wrapped around his body suddenly tightened.

Pulled by that terrifying, bizarre force, Lance could only watch helplessly as his body stumbled toward the altar where the White Bone Longbow rested.

Watching the White Bone Longbow get closer and closer,

a strong sense of unease rose in Lance’s heart.

Ten centimeters.

Five centimeters.

His fingertips finally touched the bone-like bow limb.

[Treasure detected: Piercing Red Heaven Remains and Devouring the Solar Crown Bow]

[Calibrating historical trajectory...]

[Detected that you have previously defeated a descendant of the Pandragon Royal Family in a trial.]

[Hidden condition met! Congratulations, you have automatically obtained ownership of this Treasure!]

The tall, illusory figure of the Faceless One standing outside the rift lowered its head slightly.

It sensed that the Treasure had acknowledged its new master.

Now, things would become very simple.

It only needed to control that body and complete a simple sacrificial ritual to successfully retrieve the Treasure.

And at this moment, on the altar, Lance’s right hand was tightly gripping the longbow.

Through the [Foreigner]’s "Outer World True Vision" ability, a stream of information flooded his mind, allowing him to instantly understand the origin of the longbow.

This was a slaughtering Treasure that the Scarlet Duke of old had forged by slaughtering tens of thousands and forcefully condensing countless fresh spinal columns and souls when he was forcing his ascension to the Legendary Tier.

The sole purpose for which this bow was forged was to incite that rebellion and, on the battlefield, to specifically kill members of the Pandragon Royal Family who possessed the Red Dragon Bloodline!

It was, through and through, a vicious dragon-slaying weapon.

Before Lance could even finish processing this information, his own hands, manipulated by the fine red threads, uncontrollably raised the heavy White Bone Longbow before his terrified eyes.

Then, he aimed the sharp, pointed cervical spine bone at the top of the bow limb directly at the pupil of his own right eye!

His wrist began to exert force, and the sharp point moved closer and closer to his fragile eyeball.

The Faceless Evil God clearly wanted to control him, to make him poke out his own eye to perform some kind of ritual.

’Is this how an Evil God operates?!’

Lance gritted his teeth, veins popping on his forehead.

His hands began to tremble violently under the frantic struggle between the red threads and his own power.

The sharp bone point hovered less than a centimeter from his eyeball.

However, the Faceless One standing outside the rift paid no attention to the expression of this ant struggling in despair.

If it had spared even a sliver of attention to look, it would have been surprised to find that although Lance’s face was covered in cold sweat, a smile was gracing the corners of his lips.

He was not completely powerless to resist!

’Since this thing is mine now...’

’Then you can just shatter for me!’

Lance roared in his heart.

[Soldier Resolution!]