311: Chapter 312 Shattering the Divine Seal, Declaring War on Natural Disasters

The sensation of Soul Searching is ten thousand times more painful than any form of torture in the world.

It is an ultimate torment where your Soul is forcibly torn open, and all your memories, thoughts, and secrets are rummaged through and read without any concealment.

Ying Wan felt as if his consciousness had become a library that was being violently broken into.

Lin Qi's Divine Thought was that barbaric intruder.

He kicked the door open, ignored all classifications and indices, pushed over the bookshelves, dumped all the books on the floor, and then flipped through them ten lines at a time in a nearly crude manner.

Ying Wan's childhood, his training, his first kill, his promotion within the Shadow Blade Alliance...

Scene after scene of memory flashed rapidly through Lin Qi's mind like a fast-forwarded movie.

Lin Qi only glanced at these, completely indifferent.

What he was looking for was the source of this assassination mission.

Very quickly.

He found it.

It was a memory stored in the deepest part of Ying Wan's Soul, protected by multiple layers of encrypted Restrictions.

"Oh? There's even a password?"

Lin Qi's Divine Thought transformed into an invisible giant hand and directly seized that layer of Restriction.

"Open for me!"

Boom—

It was as if something had exploded on the Soul level.

That Restriction, set by some high-level expert and sufficient to withstand the spiritual prying of a Rank 5 Expert, didn't even last a second before collapsing in the face of Lin Qi's overbearing Divine Thought.

A clear image unfolded before Lin Qi's "eyes."

It was inside an extremely dark underground secret chamber.

The style of the chamber was very strange; it didn't look like a modern building but rather a medieval cathedral, yet all the divine statues had been replaced by some indescribable, twisted sculptures.

A person completely shrouded in blood-red robes had their back to Ying Wan.

"Mission target: Lin Qi."

The red-robed person's voice had been processed, making it impossible to tell their gender or age, carrying an eerie reverb that sounded as if it were composed of countless overlapping human voices.

"Requirement: Total eradication, leave no trace."

"Reward: One drop of 'God's Blood.'"

Upon hearing the words "God's Blood," the Ying Wan in the memory clearly had a slight hitch in his breathing.

"The mission difficulty is extremely high; the target possesses inconceivable spatial abilities and may have mastered partial authority over world rules," the red-robed person continued. "The Alliance will send 'Karma' and 'Shadow Bind' to assist you this time, and provide the 'Four Directions Prison.'"

"Just one target, and we need to deploy a 'Scourge' Rank squad?" Ying Wan was somewhat puzzled.

Within the Shadow Blade Alliance, assassination missions were divided into four Ranks based on difficulty: Human, Earth, Heaven, and Scourge.

"Scourge" Rank meant the mission target possessed the potential to destroy a city.

"He is more than that."

The red-robed person slowly turned around.

On his face, he also wore a mask—a flat mask made of pure white bone with no facial features.

"He is an 'Anomaly.'"

"A BUG that shouldn't appear in this world."

"An... obstacle... that will threaten the descent of My Lord."

The red-robed person raised his hand, and a pitch-black emblem, seemingly composed of solid shadow, floated before Ying Wan.

Lin Qi was incredibly familiar with the shape of that emblem.

That was the mark of a famous late-game world boss from the martial arts era game—the "Throat of Devouring Heaven"!

"This is a token of the 'Church.'"

"Take it and complete your mission."

"For the glory of Scourge!"

"For the descent of My Lord!"

The image ended there.

...

D-3 Region.

Lin Qi slowly withdrew the hand he had pressed onto Ying Wan's head.

Ying Wan's body collapsed limply.

His Soul had been completely shattered, turning him into a vegetable who could only breathe.

But on Lin Qi's face, no joy of victory could be seen.

His brow was deeply furrowed.

This was the first time since his Transmigration that he felt a trace of true... surprise.

Church of Calamity?

Throat of Devouring Heaven?

These terms from the martial arts era, these settings that only existed in the game's background lore, actually... appeared in the real world?

This was no longer a coincidence.

This indicated that the connection between this world and the martial arts era was far deeper than he had imagined.

He had previously thought this world was just using the "System" framework of the martial arts era, like a clumsy imitator.

It seemed he was wrong.

This wasn't an imitation at all.

This was more like a... delayed "game beta test."

Or rather, a plane invasion that had already quietly begun.

"Church of Calamity... for the descent of My Lord..."

Lin Qi chewed over these words, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

If his guess was correct.

Then the so-called "My Lord" was likely those ultimate bosses from the martial arts era.

And this "Church of Calamity" was the "vanguard" for those bosses to descend into this world.

What did they take him for?

A new version NPC? Or an experience pack that could be harvested at will?

"Interesting."

Lin Qi murmured to himself.

The expression on his face slowly shifted from solemnity to a peculiar look mixed with coldness and excitement.

"No matter who you are, if you want to turn my world into your playground..."

"You'll have to ask me first if I agree."

At this moment, Zhang Wei and Instructor Su Qing walked over cautiously.

The battle had ended too quickly, and they hadn't fully recovered from the shock.

Resolving the Karma sniping in a single encounter.

Trapping a top-tier assassin with a single thought.

Instantly killing the final boss with a raise of his hand.

The entire process was smooth and effortless, as easy as playing through a beginner's tutorial.

Is this the strength of the Tongshen Realm?

Is this... the power of a god?

"Qi... Brother Qi..." Zhang Wei looked at the three men in black on the ground who had already lost all signs of life but whose bodies still held strange poses, and asked stutteringly, "Who... who were these people? They were way too fierce, weren't they? They started with a trump card right away!"

"Just a few flies."

Lin Qi waved his hand, appearing completely unconcerned.

He reached into the bosom of the now-idiotic Ying Wan and fished out a pitch-black emblem.

It was exactly the one the red-robed person had given him in the memory.

The emblem felt ice-cold in his hand, and the "Throat of Devouring Heaven" mark engraved on it seemed like a living thing, emitting a nauseatingly evil aura.

When Instructor Su Qing saw the emblem, her expression changed: "This is... the symbol of the Abyss Cult?"

"No." Lin Qi shook his head. "It's a bit more troublesome than that thing."

He looked at the emblem as if peering through it to see an existence in some distant dimension.

"Fatty, Instructor Su."

Lin Qi's tone became more serious than ever before.

"It looks like we have new neighbors."

"From today onwards, the construction of the laboratory enters the highest priority."

"Our game is about to update its version."

After saying that, he applied pressure with his fingers.

Crack!

That emblem, made of special Materials and incredibly hard, was easily crushed into powder in his hand.

At the instant the emblem shattered.

An invisible intent, carrying extreme malice and rage, flashed through the void and locked onto Lin Qi.

Contained within that intent was a cold message.

[Anomaly... you... have been marked...]

The corners of Lin Qi's mouth slowly curled upward.

"Marked?"

"Good."

"It saves me the trouble of looking for you."