356: Chapter 357 The Purple Dog Awakens and Recognizes Its Master; Bald Head Turns into a Hard-Boiled Egg; Zhang Wei Breaks Down.

In the afternoon.

On the west side of the D-3 core area, there was an empty room.

This was the temporary dormitory for Shi Gu and Annihilation.

Shi Gu took the largest room.

Inside the room, there was only a steel-frame bed and a chair.

He personally didn't have high requirements for living conditions.

When he was in the Church Mining Area, he lived in a stone cave.

Having a roof to block the wind was considered a luxury.

Now, having four walls and a door made him feel like he was living the good life.

The only thing that made him somewhat dissatisfied was next door.

Annihilation lived next door, and her room was equally simple.

However, she kept it very clean, with her quilt folded into perfect right angles.

The pillow was placed exactly in the center of the headboard, with a deviation of no more than one centimeter.

There wasn't a single wrinkle on the bedsheets, as if they had been measured with a ruler.

Shi Gu caught a glimpse as he walked by.

He thought to himself that if this woman went to the military to fold 'Tofu Blocks,' she would be a model soldier.

Then he felt that the quilt crumpled into a ball on his own bed looked like a shriveled rag.

He silently closed his door a bit tighter.

Rift, that mass of dark purple sludge.

It had been arranged in the room at the very end.

Calling it an 'arrangement' was a stretch; in reality, Zhang Wei had just used a shovel to scoop it in there.

According to Zhang Wei's description, it was the most disgusting thing he had ever shoveled.

Even more disgusting than cleaning pig manure in the backyard of Huichun Hall when he was a kid.

"At least pig manure has a fixed shape," were Zhang Wei's original words at the time. "With this thing, one scoop and it sticks to the shovel, and you can't even shake it off. I almost threw up my breakfast."

At this moment, Rift's state was undergoing a change.

Annihilation was the first to notice the abnormality.

She walked out of her room and knocked on Shi Gu's door.

"Come out and take a look."

Shi Gu opened the door and walked with Annihilation to the entrance of Rift's room.

The corridor was filled with a faint smell of ozone.

This was a scent unique to when space cracks were active.

It was similar to the pungent scent left behind after lightning tears through the air on a stormy day, only colder—so cold it made one's nasal passages itch.

That mass of sludge was writhing.

This time, the writhing was no longer meaningless.

Its contractions and expansions were full of rhythm and direction.

The dark purple matter gathered from the floor, gradually forming a silhouette.

"It's about to wake up," Shi Gu said.

He took half a step back, shielding Annihilation behind him.

Annihilation glanced at him.

That gaze was cold and precise, like she was examining a piece of furniture that was in the way.

She slipped from under his arm and went back to the front.

"Mm."

Shi Gu's hand froze in mid-air before he awkwardly pulled it back.

The two stood at the door watching.

The sludge spent about ten minutes completing its reshaping.

The final form was not humanoid.

Rift's true form was a four-legged creature.

It was about 1.2 meters long and half a meter tall.

It looked like a large, hairless dog.

Its skin was a translucent dark purple.

One could vaguely see space cracks flowing inside its body.

Those cracks were like living blood vessels, expanding and contracting with its breathing.

Its head had no eyes.

There were only a few slender space Rifts.

Inside the Rifts, a faint light occasionally flickered.

Shi Gu stared at it for a few seconds and whispered a murmur.

"It really looks like that hairless mutt from the mountain behind my hometown... just the color is a bit off."

He thought back carefully.

That hairless mutt had later stolen cured meat from the village chief's house and was chased through three streets.

The first thing Rift did after waking up was shake its body.

It shook off the remaining sludge-like material from its body.

It shook it all over Shi Gu's face.

"Fuck," Shi Gu wiped his face.

The slimy dark purple substance flowed down his bald head.

That shiny bald head now looked like a marinated egg drenched in purple syrup.

"You really hold a grudge?"

Annihilation quietly took two steps back.

She was perfectly clean; not a single drop had splashed on her.

Her choice of positioning was as precise as a calculation.

Rift tilted its head.

It had no eyes; it just flashed its space Rifts at Shi Gu.

This was its way of seeing things.

It squeezed past Shi Gu's leg and ran into the corridor.

Its four legs ran with a pitter-patter sound.

Its claws tapped against the dark gold floor.

The sound was crisp and urgent, with a chaotic rhythm.

It was similar to a child who didn't know how to play the piano banging on the keys.

"Come back!"

Shi Gu chased after it.

A two-meter-tall bald hunk chasing a half-meter-tall hairless purple dog.

The scene was utterly absurd.

Rift ignored him and headed straight for the core area.

It ran to the entrance of the command department and stopped.

It sat on its four legs, tilting its head.

Facing the tightly closed door, it let out a gurgle.

The door opened.

Lin Qi stood at the door, looking down at it.

Rift's space Rifts were all aimed at Lin Qi.

It sat in place.

The mass of dark purple matter at its tail end swept left and right on the floor.

It swept out several shallow scratches.

Lin Qi crouched down to examine it.

"Annihilation said you're like raising a dog, and it really is true."

Rift let out another gurgle.

Its head leaned forward, nearly nuzzling Lin Qi's knee.

Shi Gu arrived, panting heavily.

Wet purple mud stains still hung on his bald head.

He leaned his hands on his knees, panting as if he had just run three thousand meters.

"This thing just runs around as soon as it recovers... wait, is it recognizing its master?"

"It doesn't recognize a master, it only recognizes the strong."

Annihilation had followed them at some point.

Her breathing was steady, with no sign of exertion.

"Rift has no intelligence, only instinct," she explained.

"Its instinct is to follow the strongest person it can perceive."

"Before it was the High Priest, now..."

She looked at Lin Qi.

"Now it's someone else."

Lin Qi reached out and touched Rift's head.

When his fingertips touched the space Rifts, a faint stinging pain came through.

The spatial cutting force was still there, but it had weakened after being sealed by the Dao Source.

Rift's head rubbed against his palm.

The light from those Rifts flickered on and off.

It was like a neon tube with a bad signal, flashing intermittently.

Lin Qi spoke to Rift, not caring if it could understand.

"I can lift part of your Seal."

"But if you go around cutting things in D-3, I'll turn you back into sludge."

The frequency of Rift's tail sweeping increased.

Lin Qi pressed his right hand onto Rift's back.

The Dao Source seeped in, selectively lifting the closure of some spatial cracks.

The Rifts on Rift's body lit up again.

But only about thirty percent were restored.

This was enough for its daily activities and spatial perception.

But not enough to launch spatial cutting attacks.

Rift rolled twice on the ground.

On its dark purple skin, the cracks flickered alternately.

That light illuminated its entire body, making it translucent.

It ran to the corner where Zhang Wei stored supplies.

Facing a box of military rations, it let out a longing gurgle.

"You're even eating the packaging?" Zhang Wei shouted from afar. "That box is made of iron!"

Rift bit the corner of the box.

With a flash of a spatial Rift, the corner of the box disappeared.

The cut was clean and incredibly smooth.

It was cleaner than the cutting of the Federation's most precise machine tools.

"My supplies!"

Zhang Wei let out a heartbroken wail.

He rushed over and picked up the box with the missing corner.

He checked the rations inside with distress to see if they were intact.

His face was almost crumpled into a ball.

His expression was as if he had personally watched someone take a bite out of his bank balance.

"Prepare a food bowl for it," Lin Qi said.

"Use cheap Materials—metal, stone, wood, anything will do. It's not picky."

"But the iron boxes in my inventory are the cheapest—Brother Qi, it bit it again!"

Rift ran off with a second box corner in its mouth.

It looked back and flashed its Rifts at Zhang Wei.

Then it swallowed the thing in its mouth and let out a satisfied gurgle.

Zhang Wei crouched in place, holding the damaged box with both hands, his eyes slightly red.

He now deeply understood a truth: the biggest expense of keeping a pet is never within the budget.

Shi Gu watched this scene, his lips curling into a grin.

This place was much livelier than the Church Mining Area.