MCL CH76

Chapter 76: Nice to meet you, human…

[Yes, yes, yes, that’s him! It’s that guy Abyss—!]
Along with this voice, an emotionally charged roar erupted in Lin Xi’s mind. Although it originated from the depths of his mind, it still made him instinctively scratch behind his ear with his fingertips.

Then, he heard Samuel exclaim in amazement, “It’s here!”

Yan Xingzhou looked over. “You’ve been here before?”

Samuel frowned and replied, “No, but I’m sure I’ve seen this palace from a distance before. It’s just that when I tried to find it…”

Yan Xingzhou understood. “You found you couldn’t get close to it no matter what?”

The corners of Samuel’s mouth turned down slightly. Unconvinced but helpless, he let out a “tsk.”

As one of the world’s top space evolvers, to be unable to reach a destination he had already locked onto was, without a doubt, an utterly humiliating matter to be made public. Yet, that was exactly what had happened in this inner world. No matter how he tried to approach this strange castle, he could never get closer through continuous spatial folding. In fact, he even got farther and farther away, until at some point he hadn’t even noticed, he had completely lost track of the destination. And when he decided to make a temporary retreat due to a bad premonition, he could no longer find the location of the rift entrance he had come through, like a traveler lost in the desert without a sense of direction, able to do nothing but watch his evolver abilities continuously drain away with frequent use to no avail.

Thinking back on it carefully now, all of this was probably the S-rank contaminant’s playful teasing. Throughout the whole process, He was likely hiding somewhere silently, watching the humans’ devolverate struggles with amusement and mockery.

Samuel said sincerely, “Guests? This infuriating tone really makes one want to completely kill Him.”

“It sounds like this should be the contaminant’s nest.” Su Qiuyin was clearly not very interested in Samuel’s inner journey. As he spoke, his peripheral vision remained fixed on Joseph. “Looks like it’s time to speed up the resolution.”

Lin Xi instantly understood and glanced at Yan Xingzhou. “Boss Yan, Director Su and I came here for you, after all. How about you lend a hand?”

Joseph didn’t make a sound, but the aura around him could be felt distinctly coalescing.

It was obvious that although the contaminant was their common enemy here, the relationship between their two sides was also truly tense. Once a battle truly began, if one side took the opportunity to make a covert killing blow, it would be extremely fatal. In this state where they wouldn’t trust each other even with a verbal agreement to team up, the best solution was undoubtedly to eliminate any potential unstable factors first.

That is, to first solve the biggest problem that existed between them at the moment.

Without waiting for Yan Xingzhou to react, Joseph had already made the first move.

An immense pressure from above suddenly bore down on Su Qiuyin, completely halting all his movements without giving him any chance to react.

The next second, Joseph’s offensive was aimed directly at Yan Xingzhou.

Yan Xingzhou was not at all surprised that Joseph would attack him first. After all, compared to Su Qiuyin, his existence was the biggest interference to Joseph’s abilities.

But even so, this massive, almost unrestrained rampage forced him to continuously erect barriers around himself, only for them to be crushed one after another. The intense suppression, leaving almost no room to breathe, forced him to fight and retreat in a short period of time.

In the process, he almost hit Samuel who was nearby, but the latter unhesitatingly dodged backwards.

Watching his savior Yan Xingzhou being relentlessly pursued, Samuel, on the contrary, seemed to relax. He didn’t forget to chat with Lin Xi beside him. “Yan, you’re still not fighting back? If it were me, I definitely couldn’t tolerate this. Right, Mr. Lin?”

Lin Xi smiled. “Boss Yan has always been more of a gentleman.”

Just as he was speaking, he looked up and saw Joseph looking over. It was unclear whether he had remembered a certain old acquaintance upon hearing the surname “Lin,” or if he had suddenly thought of the information-packed, intimate conversation with Yan Xingzhou earlier. Seeing that he still couldn’t gain an advantage after a rampage, his momentum suddenly shifted.

Lin Xi’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Playing dirty when you can’t win? That’s not appropriate, is it?”

However, as he spoke, the air pressure above his head had already condensed abruptly.

A gravitational pressure nearly dozens of times greater was more than enough to crush an ordinary human’s skull. A sharp glint flashed in Lin Xi’s eyes, and the aura around him turned cold.

Faintly, black vines began to extend from his neck, only to pause silently as a sudden force descended, and a tall figure came into view.

As the warmth instantly returned to his異-pupils, Lin Xi fell silent for a moment.

Boom boom boom—!

The impact of the blast shattered all the floor tiles outside the castle.

This time, there wasn’t even a single crack on the tight protective shield. Yan Xingzhou turned and scanned Lin Xi from head to toe. Only after confirming there were no injuries did he say slowly, “I’m here. You don’t need to fight him.”

To others, these words might sound like a reminder for Lin Xi not to provoke a troublemaker like Joseph. But Lin Xi knew very well that Yan Xingzhou was reminding him not to expose his special identity.

Smiling lightly, he replied, “Then I’ll have to trouble Boss Yan to protect me.”

Joseph had previously broken several of Yan Xingzhou’s protections to no avail and had wanted to use Lin Xi to distract him. He hadn’t expected that this all-out strike wouldn’t even be able to make a single crack in Yan Xingzhou’s protective shield this time.

He silently bit his lip. Just as he was about to act again, his body suddenly shook. He clutched his ears in pain as intense sound waves continuously drilled into his eardrums. “Su… Su Qiuyin! Damn it, I still… fell for your trick!”

What answered him was the sharp whistling of wind flashing past his ears.

Dense wounds bloomed all over his black leather suit, and blood seeped from the mangled flesh. And the perpetrator of all this was none other than Su Qiuyin, who had just broken free from the immense pressure.

The next second, before Joseph could counterattack, the ringing that almost completely filled his mind made it impossible for him to concentrate. He clutched his head fiercely, his chest heaving a few times as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Su Qiuyin didn’t look at Joseph again, but at Yan Xingzhou, his brow furrowing silently. “Deliberately toying with him without making a move… you were waiting for me.”

Although it was a question, it was stated as a fact.

Yan Xingzhou was noncommittal. “With my current identity, it probably isn’t appropriate for me to get involved with someone like Joseph.”

Is he worried about bringing trouble to the United Administration?

Su Qiuyin almost blurted this out, but after looking at Yan Xingzhou, and then at Lin Xi being protected behind him, he ultimately said nothing.

Glancing at Joseph, who was vomiting blood in pain, he said, “He probably won’t be able to use his abilities for a while. Let’s just leave him here for now. We’ll figure out how to deal with him after we’ve dealt with the contaminant inside.”

Lin Xi caught Su Qiuyin’s expression and instantly understood. “They all say Director Su kills without shedding blood, but compared to this, you’re clearly a bodhisattva at heart.”

Su Qiuyin: “Taking his life here will only bring more trouble to the United Administration in the end. Taking him to the International Evolver Tribunal is the best choice.”

Yan Xingzhou reminded him in a timely manner, “But you also made a move on him.”

“I am willing to take responsibility for all my violations.” Su Qiuyin sneered, then turned and asked, “Mr. Samuel, you shouldn’t have any objections to this, right?”

“None, of course not.” Samuel shrugged innocently. “After all, in front of all of you, I am just a weak and wounded person awaiting rescue.”

Su Qiuyin: “…………”

Clearly realizing there was no need to pay too much attention to Samuel, he walked up to Joseph. Just as he was about to knock him completely unconscious, his expression suddenly froze.

At the same instant, the others present had also sensed that something was wrong.

The moment Lin Xi’s smile vanished, he was about to reach out and grab Yan Xingzhou. However, before he could touch the corner of his clothes, the figure before him flashed and completely disappeared from his vision.

When he looked up, whether it was Samuel not far away, or Su Qiuyin and the half-dead Joseph—everyone had vanished into thin air.

What followed was a complete change in the scenery before him.

It was as if his vision was completely obscured by a fallen curtain, with countless mottled, flowing lights constantly changing. This was followed by a dizzying sensation as if the entire world was being turned upside down again and again.

Everything happened too quickly. A complete sense of weightlessness enveloped him. Only then did Lin Xi realize that the ground beneath his feet no longer existed, followed by an endless, continuous fall.

Until the moment he hit the ground again, the huge impact made Lin Xi’s chest heave violently, and he couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of blood.

The speed of his landing was almost comparable to falling from a height of several tens of meters. If not for the fact that his body had already recovered at the fastest speed, even an ordinary evolver would have at least suffered ruptured internal organs, let alone any other ordinary human.

Playing rough, huh.

Lin Xi silently wiped the remaining blood from the corner of his mouth. His first instinct was to look around for any trace of Yan Xingzhou, but he found nothing.

What came into his view was a completely different architectural structure from outside the castle gate, as well as a huge throne, ancient and majestic, standing tall on a high platform, and a huge figure on the throne.

Although it was humanoid, it was clear that such a physique could absolutely no longer be human.

Lin Xi endured the drilling pain welling up from his internal organs and steadied his breathing. His whole body felt like it was about to fall apart, so he didn’t bother to stand up. He simply sat cross-legged on the spot. After failing to find Yan Xingzhou, he turned his gaze back to the throne. “If I’m not mistaken, you should be ‘Abyss’, right? Bringing me here alone, is it because you don’t want others to disturb our conversation? How considerate of you.”

“I indeed do not wish for others to disturb us.”

As the contaminant on the throne began to laugh, the entire ancient castle seemed to tremble faintly with it. “How should I address you, human Executive Officer, or, Calamity’s host?”

Lin Xi thought for a moment and corrected, “Either is fine, but to be precise, I’m already a former Executive Officer.”

“…”

“Alright, nice to meet you, Mr. Former Human Executive Officer.”

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