The shocking scene before his eyes truly dealt a tremendous blow to Chris's entire perception of this older brother. The Chen Luo standing before the children at this moment was completely different: his eyes glowed with a wild scarlet hue, radiating a bloodthirsty aura that sent chills down the spine; waves of Aura intertwined with gloomy purple and brilliant golden light erupted around his body; gray, eerie insectoid armor plates suddenly grew from the joints throughout his body, then rapidly pierced inward and completely fused with his flesh. The sight left all the children behind him deeply shocked and terrified.
After all, this was the first time they had ever seen their usually calm and gentle older brother take on such a hideous and terrifying demonic appearance. As for Chris, the gravity in the wolf boy's eyes became even more pronounced — only at this moment did he truly understand the cruelty hidden behind Chen Luo's earlier words.
At this moment, Chen Luo tightly gripped the Myriad Extremes Divine Sword, which had just been temporarily unsealed and repaired by the system, and his entire body instantly erupted with the maximum extent of its berserk power. The gorgeous and unpredictable techniques of the Myriad Extremes Sword Technique were unleashed one after another without mercy.
-「Second Form - Instant Sword」!
Chen Luo's figure transformed into a streak of purple light and shot forward, tearing through the air. The divine sword's blade carved out deadly arcs, slicing off the heads of numerous zombies around him in a single breath. Immediately afterward, he slammed his heel into the ground, releasing explosive magical power:
-「Fourth Form - Sword Domain」!
A powerful and razor-sharp ring of sword energy expanded outward, instantly shredding dozens of monsters at close range into pieces of flesh. Without giving the Large Zombie a chance to steady itself, Chen Luo stepped on the monster's corpse and leaped upward, bringing his sword straight down toward its nape:
-「Sixth Form - One-Hit Kill」!
Blazing sword light tore through the air and crashed heavily into the giant monster's rock-hard rotten flesh, producing harsh friction and explosive sounds.
-"More... Give me more! Hahahaha..."
Mad and bizarre laughter continuously came from Chen Luo's throat, causing the children to retreat in extreme fear. In their eyes, Chen Luo at this moment was no different from a savage, brutal Mutant Otherworlder who had completely lost his sanity.
Thanks to the Myriad Extremes Divine Sword's cruel passive skill 「Skinning and Dismemberment」, every diagonal slash he made left behind necrotic wounds that could not heal. The enormous HP bar of the Large Zombie began dropping at a speed visible to the naked eye. Chen Luo slaughtered the swarming monsters around him while roaring and charging into close-quarters combat with the giant. Even though he was repeatedly struck by its vicious claws, the effect of the passive skill 「Devour」 continuously restored his HP with the blood sprayed from his enemies.
-"Mana, Celes! Fall back! Retreat farther away immediately!"
Sensing a dangerous and suffocating power accumulating within the monster's body, Chris roared a warning to his companions.
Just as everyone managed to scatter toward the rocky walls on both sides, the Large Zombie suddenly brought down the full weight of its body, let out a savage roar, slammed both hands into the ground, and unleashed its ultimate technique 「Earthquake」!
*RUMBLE—BOOOOM!*
The ground within a radius of more than six meters violently exploded. The shockwave swept outward, sending bricks and stones flying and completely destroying the structure of the surrounding area. Although Chen Luo nimbly used his footwork to evade it, he was still struck hard in the waist by the violent aftershock. His body was thrown into the air, nearly crashing headfirst into the stone ground. Although he managed to flip in midair and land in time, successfully escaping the main damage zone, the mad smile on Chen Luo's lips began to stiffen. His consciousness briefly returned to clarity, while extreme exhaustion rapidly invaded every inch of his flesh. Forcing his body to continuously execute high-level skills while in the burst state was pushing his endurance to its absolute limit.
-"I have to finish this quickly. I can't drag this out any longer..."
Looking at the extremely short remaining duration of the 「Novice Enhancement」 effect on the system interface, Chen Luo gritted his teeth and made a decisive choice. He gathered all the remaining magic power within his body and officially unleashed the Myriad Extremes Divine Sword's special ability 「Sword Split」!
*CLANG CLANG CLANG!*
The divine sword in his hand suddenly vibrated violently before breaking apart into thousands of tiny blades, each as sharp as steel leaves, floating throughout the space surrounding Chen Luo. As he frantically swung his arms, the blade storm transformed into an incredibly sharp vortex and shot straight toward the Large Zombie.
*SWISH SWISH SWISH!*
Thousands of tiny blades continuously tore and sliced through the rotten flesh, piercing through the giant's skull. The explosive rate of damage far exceeded its magical recovery ability, causing the monster's HP bar to plummet at an astonishing speed. After only a few minutes, it had already reached a near-death state. At that critical moment, a strange phenomenon suddenly occurred: time around them seemed to freeze for an instant, and a glowing gray metal leaf-shaped icon suddenly appeared over the monster's chest, as though reminding and urging him to attack there.
Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Luo gathered all his remaining strength and drove the main blade directly into the center of the metal leaf-shaped icon!
*SPLURT!*
The enormous giant was cleaved in half by a single strike and crashed heavily onto the ground, accompanied by a wisp of black smoke slowly dissipating into the air. At the same time, the 「Berserk」 and 「Novice Enhancement」 effects were forcibly canceled. Chen Luo immediately spat out a large mouthful of blood, his body losing all support as he collapsed heavily to the ground. Due to the side effects of extreme weakness, numerous deep, bone-visible holes suddenly erupted across his skin.
The children hurried over. Alice hastily knelt down and concentrated all her magic power to activate 「Healing」. Gentle green light spread outward, rapidly closing the remaining wounds across Chen Luo's skin, but by then he had already fallen completely into a deep coma. The children had no other choice and could only take turns carrying the heavy body of their older brother back to the base.
They traveled onward in silence, Chris's mind filled with a chaotic storm of thoughts. He looked at the unconscious man, his eyes filled with a mixture of deep admiration and awe. Countless guesses continuously surfaced in Chris's mind, yet none of them truly made sense. Especially that strange divine sword — he had never seen Chen Luo carry it before. Recalling the golden beam of light that had pierced through the clouds yesterday, as well as the spine-chilling pressure radiating from the sword just now, Chris could not help but shudder again.
***
At the same time, inside an ancient tower that reached into the heavens in an unknown space — where a gigantic Time Hourglass was silently flowing. Suddenly, the space rippled, and several black figures wearing mysterious robes hurriedly stepped out and headed toward the base of the tower.
-"Do you know what exactly just happened?!" one of them asked in an extremely panicked and bewildered tone.
-"I don't know! But something enormous definitely just disappeared from the flow of time... It was so strange that even my tracking spell was reflected back at me!" another figure hurriedly replied.
When the group approached the location of the gigantic hourglass, everyone suddenly froze in place. On the glass of the hourglass, which had always operated with perfect precision, a gray negative sign had now appeared beneath a series of numbers frantically jumping around.
-"What... It could actually be time deletion?!"
-"Impossible! Have you checked the magical structure carefully enough?!"
-"See for yourself and you'll understand!"
A magical information panel immediately appeared before the group. The recorded value of the skipped time had just jumped to an entirely new number, causing the faces of the black-robed figures to turn deathly pale.
-"The Time Hourglass has never made a single error before! Someone must have interfered and deleted a segment of the world's time! This absolutely cannot be leaked. Report to the White-Robed Lord immediately. We must make plans at once to track down and eliminate that person!" the leader anxiously ordered his subordinate.
-"But what kind of person could possibly possess such a forbidden skill? Even if we find him, do you really think someone capable of manipulating time can be dealt with so easily?!"
-"Silence! Calm down! We need a thorough plan. You, follow me into the secret chamber. The rest of you stay here and guard this place strictly!"
The black figures hurried deeper into the pitch-black interior of the tower and disappeared behind a heavy stone door.
***
Back to Chen Luo. After more than three hours of arduous travel, the children finally carried him safely back to the base. Carrying an adult's body over such a long distance had completely exhausted what little strength the children had left.
-[Ding! Congratulations, Host, on completing your first team battle with outstanding results! All teammates have increased by 4 levels; Host has reached Level 15!]
-[Level-Up Reward: Received 40 Free Attribute Points, +2 AD, +5 AP, +2 Vitality, +4% Critical Hit Rate, +6 Agility, and +1 Physical Armor!]
-[Team Battle Completion Reward Activated: Received 15 Potential Points!]
A warm golden light spread from the system, helping Chen Luo regain consciousness, but the lingering effects of the Weakened state still prevented him from sitting up immediately. By now, the basement had already been bathed in the colors of dusk. Fortunately, Chen Luo had prepared plenty of food that morning, so the children had not gone hungry.
With only two hours remaining before the Debuff ended, Chen Luo struggled for nearly ten minutes on the soft mattress before finally managing to prop himself up and sit.
-"Ah! Big Brother is awake!" Alice exclaimed in surprise. It turned out that ever since they had brought Chen Luo back, she had stayed by his side taking care of him and had unknowingly fallen asleep.
-"Thank you, Alice." Chen Luo smiled gently and reached out to pat the girl's head. Alice was a little embarrassed, but she thoroughly enjoyed being pampered like this.
Hearing the commotion, the children immediately rushed in from outside. Seeing that Chen Luo had safely awakened, everyone showed obvious joy on their faces, especially Aaron. After all, witnessing Chen Luo withstand countless fatal attacks and continue fighting stubbornly had left an extremely deep impression on the bear boy. Only Chris did not share their happiness. He leaned against the doorway and silently gestured for Chen Luo to come outside with him.
Chen Luo did not think too much about it. He nodded and slowly got out of bed. The children seemed to sense the unusual atmosphere as well, so they voluntarily returned to their respective rooms.
Standing beneath the gloomy sunset at the entrance of the basement, Chris turned his back to Chen Luo and spoke in a voice as cold as ice:
-"So... who are you, exactly? Or, to put it more accurately, what exactly are you?"