299: Chapter 300 Stripping Away Your Mask

D-3 Region, Bone Altar.

Lin Qi's hand was fast as lightning.

Before The Black-Robed Figure could react, he had already grabbed the edge of its hood.

The feeling upon contact was very strange.

It wasn't fabric, but rather a sensation... similar to solidified energy: cold, hard, and with a hint of sliminess.

"Get lost!"

The Black-Robed Figure let out a sharp shriek, and a repulsive force violently erupted from its body, attempting to blast Lin Qi away.

However, this force, capable of distorting space, vanished without a trace the moment it touched Lin Qi's palm, like a mud ox entering the sea.

Lin Qi's hand remained as steady as Mount Tai.

His fingers didn't even tremble in the slightest.

"You still want to play these little tricks in front of me?"

Lin Qi sneered and suddenly exerted force with his fingers.

"Get down here!"

Rip—

A harsh, tearing sound, like leather being ripped apart, rang out.

The black robe that enveloped the mysterious figure, seemingly fused with it, along with the hood that concealed its face, was forcibly ripped right off by Lin Qi!

There was no blood, no flesh.

Beneath the black robe, there was nothing.

No, that wasn't quite right.

The moment the black robe was torn away, a "thing" resembling black sludge, composed of countless twisted, wailing, translucent human faces, was exposed to the air!

The thing had no fixed form; it writhed in place like a blob of liquid.

Those faces, some belonging to humans and others to various creatures from the Void Realm, were crammed together, constantly deforming, undergoing Fusion, and emitting silent screams.

An aura of chaotic evil, thick and impossible to dilute, radiated from this mass.

"Holy shit! What the hell is this thing?!"

Zhang Wei, in the distance, saw this scene and vomited on the spot.

This thing was ten thousand times more disgusting than all the monsters in every horror movie he had ever seen in his life combined!

Instructor Su Qing's face turned deathly pale; she instinctively gripped her weapon tighter and stepped in front of Zhang Wei to protect him.

She could sense that the black sludge was a pure aggregate composed of negative emotions and twisted Law.

It wasn't a "living creature" at all!

It was the manifestation of a... "concept"!

"Is this your true form?"

Lin Qi looked at the writhing mass before him, his brows furrowing slightly.

He felt an aura from it that was both familiar and strange.

That aura was very similar to a boss from a final expansion pack he had fought in the martial arts era in his past life.

"Abyssal Aggregate."

A monster born from the corpses of Law, formed by countless world wrecks and Soul fragments devoured by the abyss.

"So that's it..."

Lin Qi instantly understood everything.

No wonder this guy understood the underlying code of the world so well.

No wonder it viewed this world as a "cage."

No wonder it called itself a "patch" and a "container."

This guy wasn't from this world at all!

It was a stowaway from the "abyss"!

Countless years ago, a wisp of its residual Soul or a core fragment must have managed to escape through a rift and into this world.

Then, like a top-tier virus, it had laid dormant.

It had been stealing the Origin energy of this world to repair itself while using the incomplete but higher-dimensional Law knowledge it brought from the abyss to tamper with the world's "firewall."

The D-3 Region was the "safe zone" it had created for itself.

And Lin Qi, a Transmigration traveler with memories of the martial arts era—an "administrator" who also grasped the underlying logic of the world—was, in its eyes, a gift package dropped from the sky!

As long as it devoured Lin Qi, it could complete its library of Law and take the final step to usurp the nest!

"Seen... I've been seen..."

The black sludge emitted a chaotic and shrill screech.

Having lost the disguise of the black robe, it seemed to fall into a state of extreme panic and rage.

"You saw my true form... you... all of you... must die!"

Boom!

The black sludge violently exploded, transforming into overwhelming black tentacles that covered the sky and earth, swarming toward Lin Qi, Instructor Su Qing, and Zhang Wei from all directions!

Every tentacle was covered in wailing human faces and dense clusters of eyeballs; a single glance was enough to cause a normal person to have a mental breakdown.

"Careful!"

Instructor Su Qing cried out, immediately preparing to activate her movement technique to retreat with Zhang Wei.

But it was already too late.

The speed of those tentacles surpassed thought.

It looked as though they were about to be swallowed by that ocean of black, composed of despair and madness.

Yet, Lin Qi didn't even move.

He simply lifted his eyelids, looked at the "abyss" rushing toward him, and said softly.

"Light."

One word.

The simplest, and purest, of words.

The moment the word fell.

A gentle, holy white light, as if from the beginning of creation, erupted from the center of Lin Qi's body!

This light was not blinding, nor was it scorching.

But everywhere it went.

Those hideous and terrifying black tentacles, like ice meeting a scorching sun, emitted a "hissing" sound, as if splashed with sulfuric acid, and rapidly dissolved and evaporated!

Under the radiance of the white light, the expressions of those wailing human faces shifted from twisted pain to peace and tranquility, finally turning into specks of light that dissipated into the air.

In just a single instant.

That ocean of black, capable of swallowing everything, was purified completely.

Only the small blob of black sludge at the very center remained, writhing and shrinking violently under the white light, emitting a scream so shrill it didn't sound human.

"Ahhhhhh—"

"What is this?! What is this power?!"

"Why?! Why does this world have such power to restrain me?!"

"No! I don't believe it!!"

"Shut up."

Lin Qi's voice rang out beside it.

The white light faded, and Lin Qi's figure had already appeared before the shrunken black sludge.

He reached out his hand and pressed it onto the core of the struggling "Abyssal Aggregate."

"I told you, I'm here to fix your bugs."

"Things like you shouldn't exist in this world."

"So..."

Lin Qi's fingers slowly tightened.

"Format."