Shen Wu did not answer immediately. He raised his head, looking up at the gigantic golden vertical pupil hovering above them. At that moment, the once majestic and indifferent eye flickered with an unstable light.
"We're inside the belly of the Restricted Zone. Or rather, we're all inside its belly."
Shen Wu lowered his head, wiping a trace of blood from the corner of his mouth with his hand.
"It's clever. It knows that if it devours you directly, your ability might trigger an uncontrollable reaction inside its body. So it first strips away your spirit with illusions, leaving your physical body unconscious and unresisting, then slowly digests you."
The thought of lying inside such a disgusting monster's stomach made Jiang Nuan's stomach churn.
"Why doesn't it just kill me?"
"Greed."
Shen Wu let out a cold laugh, laced with mockery.
"Although the SS-level Restricted Zone escaped by feigning death, it lost nearly ninety percent of its energy core. It urgently needs a major boost. And you, a living SSS-level Purifier, are the purest source of energy in this world to it."
Shen Wu paused, his tone turning extremely grave.
"We all underestimated it. It may have lost quantity, but it has made a qualitative leap."
Jiang Nuan looked at him, confused.
"Before, it was vast and bloated, its energy covering the entire C District. Like a lake—wide in area, but its lethality was scattered."
Shen Wu's finger traced an arc in the air.
"But now, it has condensed all its energy into this small base."
"So it lost some energy and then compressed the rest into a single point." Jiang Nuan's face drained of all color.
This apocalypse truly left people no way out.
"Crack—"
A sudden, crisp sound exploded in the absolute silence of the void.
Jiang Nuan's entire body stiffened. The sound was too close—as if someone were crouched by her ear, crunching bones with sharp teeth. Then came a continuous, hair-raising chewing sound.
"Crunch... crunch..."
"What is it doing?" Jiang Nuan instinctively stepped closer to Shen Wu.
"Eating away my mental barrier." Shen Wu's face turned visibly ashen. He let out a muffled groan, his body swaying uncontrollably.
Vivid, bright red blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, dripping down his pale chin.
"Shen Wu!" Jiang Nuan reached out to support him.
"Stay away from me!" Shen Wu shouted harshly, stepping back. "Stand still, don't move."
He raised his right hand, his slender fingers slashing through the air sharply.
The giant golden vertical pupil above them suddenly widened. A solid golden blade of light materialized, slashing fiercely toward some corner deep in the darkness.
"Hiss—!"
An extremely piercing, inhuman shriek cut through the void.
But this suppression lasted less than a second.
The darkness began to boil. The previously flat void suddenly bulged with countless pus-filled blisters, like asphalt coming to a rolling boil.
Then came several muffled "thuds." Over a dozen wrist-thick, black, viscous tentacles tore through the barrier of the mental domain, writhing and stretching in, brandishing wildly.
They twisted frenziedly in midair, lunging straight toward Jiang Nuan.
The monster was trying to forcibly drag her spirit back into the abyss of assimilation.
"Begone." Shen Wu's cold shout rang out.
He clasped his hands together, and the golden pupil erupted with a burst of intense light. Countless fine light-blades rained down like a storm, slicing those black tentacles into countless pieces.
The stinking black sludge splattered everywhere across the mental space, hissing with a corrosive sound as it hit the ground.
But the monster didn't care about the loss. The severed tentacles split and regenerated midair, doubling in number as they struck back with even greater frenzy.
"Ugh..." Shen Wu fell to one knee.
Blood seeped from the corners of his eyes, ears, and mouth all at once.
His cold, handsome face was now covered in terrifying bloody streaks.
"Shen Wu!" Jiang Nuan screamed in horror.
"Shut up! Get back!"
Shen Wu's body swayed. He struggled to maintain the defensive net of light-blades, his face flowing with ever more blood.
Jiang Nuan trembled violently at the sight before her.
But watching Shen Wu attack with his mind-wrought light-blades, a thought struck her.
Shen Wu was using concrete mental attacks from his spiritual domain.
The purification ability also cleansed the spiritual domain. As an SSS-level Purifier, why could she only rely on physical contact?
That night, although her consciousness had been blurred, she clearly remembered that feeling.
Like a transparent river, flowing out of her body and into Lu Shiyan's bones and blood.
That wasn't physical strength.
That was her spirit.
If it was spiritual power, there had to be another way to release it.
That "transparent river."
Jiang Nuan closed her eyes.
The chewing sounds outside, the shrieking of the tentacles, Shen Wu's heavy panting—in that moment, she forcibly shut them out.
She sank all her attention deep into her own body.
Amid the chaotic sensations, she frantically searched for that power.
At first, there was nothing. Only the pounding of her heart from fear.
She forced herself to calm down.
Recall that salty, bitter taste of seawater.
Recall that stream flowing from the depths of her body.
Where was it?
Come out!
Jiang Nuan roared in her heart.
Her extreme mental tension, coupled with the fierce will to survive in a desperate situation, suddenly produced a crisp "ding" in the depths of her consciousness.
It was as if some shackle had been shattered.
She "saw" it.
Deep in her consciousness, a quietly flowing stream lay before her.
Without hesitation, Jiang Nuan thrust her spiritual power into that pool of water.
"Boom—"
A force, pure and icy cold, surged through her entire being along her will.
"Jiang Nuan!"
Shen Wu's hoarse shout exploded in her ears.
Shen Wu's defensive net of light-blades shattered completely.
He was blasted away, crashing heavily onto the void.
Three thick black tentacles, arranged in a triangular formation, slammed down toward Jiang Nuan's head!
There was no time to dodge.
Jiang Nuan didn't dodge.
She would fight it to the end!
Staring intently at the three tentacles, a near-crazed gleam in her eyes, she raised both hands and met the mass of tentacles without flinching.
"Get... lost!"
Jiang Nuan forced out these three words through gritted teeth.
She poured out all the shallow stream from the depths of her consciousness, unleashing it without reserve through her arms!
A miracle happened.
That originally formless, colorless purification power, upon leaving Jiang Nuan's spiritual body, transformed into an intensely dazzling silver light.
The silver light, like liquid mercury become solid, instantly covered her hands and, along the points of contact, crazily spread in reverse across the tentacles!
"Sssss—"
The corrosive sound pierced the eardrums.
It was the sound of the monster's body being purified.
Wherever the silver light touched, the black tentacles instantly vaporized and dissipated.
"Roar—!!!"
An extremely miserable, inhuman scream tore through the mental domain, exploding in Jiang Nuan's mind.
That was the howl of the SS-level Restricted Zone's essence.
It felt extreme agony.
Its contaminating energy had met its absolute natural enemy.
The three tentacles recoiled wildly, as if struck by lightning.
But the silver glimmer locked onto them tightly, following the retreating trajectory of the tentacles as it burned upward, straight toward the monster’s true form beyond the rift!
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Several muffled thuds rang out.
To save itself, the monster actually severed those three tentacles on its own outside the mental realm!
The severed tentacles fell into the void, and before they even hit the ground, the silver glimmer completely dissolved them into nothingness.
Beyond the rift, the suffocating pressure vanished without a trace.
The monster retreated.
It fled.
Jiang Nuan remained in her forward-pushing stance, gasping heavily for air.
She had succeeded.
Her ability wasn’t just a passive contact purification that reduced others’ aberration levels—it could also serve as a terrifying offensive force, dissolving Restricted Zone creatures!
But that last move had nearly drained every bit of her spiritual energy, leaving her head throbbing as if it might split open.
“You…”
A weak voice came from behind.
Jiang Nuan turned around.
Shen Wu was propping himself up, his face covered in blood as he stared at her. Those eyes, usually filled with rationality and cold detachment, were now full of shock.
“You actually… awakened mental attack abilities.”
Shen Wu coughed up a mouthful of blood, but the corner of his mouth twisted into a grim smile.
“What a… monster.”
“It’s backing off.”
The golden vertical pupil above them flickered to life again. The glow was faint but steady.
Shen Wu’s tone shifted slightly.
“Its spirit form is wounded now. It’s changed tactics and is trying to devour you directly. I need to send you back immediately.”
His voice grew weaker and weaker.
“Remember what you just felt.”
“Use it… to survive.”
