Standing atop a skyscraper, the Devourer looked down at the raging sea of fire below. Listening to the panicked screams of the fleeing crowds, he genuinely felt the world was an incredibly beautiful place.
"Lu Li... I wonder just how massive of a stat boost your corpse will give me?"
He extended a freakishly long tongue, licking his own cheek with a deeply greedy, predatory expression.
He stared at the lone figure slowly walking through the inferno. In his eyes, this new entity was the absolute, perfect masterpiece of his anomalous ability. The 'Shen Luohan' version of Shen Wulong was essentially his 'ideal type'.
This new Connector was no longer defined by the profound, emotionless apathy and existential boredom of the original Shen Wulong. Instead, Shen Luohan's innate malice, ambition, and boundless worldly desires had been exponentially magnified. He had become a Shen Wulong who was far closer to 'human', yet simultaneously, infinitely more terrifying and dangerous.
The Devourer had successfully fulfilled Shen Luohan's ambition. He had flawlessly integrated three distinct egos. Shen Wulong had been reborn once more.
The current Shen Wulong possessed the absolute, emotionless detachment of the 'Dragon', the apocalyptic, bloodthirsty destructive urge of the 'Tiger', and the cunning, methodical intellect of Shen Luohan. He was, without exaggeration, the absolute ultimate biological organism.
However, because the original Shen Wulong possessed over five millennia of accumulated memories, Shen Luohan's relatively brief lifespan was nothing more than a grain of sand in a vast desert. During the integration process, Shen Luohan naturally became the subordinate ego, completely absorbed by the ancient entity. But he did manage to successfully imprint a significant portion of his thought processes, strategic methodology, and malicious personality onto the final product.
This new Shen Wulong was capable of feeling genuine, burning rage over the death of his friend, Xia Yan. He would actively indulge the 'Tiger's' urge to slaughter and destroy. And crucially, thanks to Shen Luohan's influence, his strategic thinking was far more malevolent, flexible, and pragmatic. He was no longer the straightforward, predictable 'blockhead' he used to be.
The original Shen Wulong, while possessing absolute, peerless strength, was incredibly straightforward and almost naive in his interactions. If someone meticulously planned a highly complex, underhanded trap, there was a genuine chance of assassinating him. But this new Shen Wulong was practically flawless, because he now possessed Shen Luohan's paranoid, calculating 'brain'.
Shen Luohan was notoriously cautious. Even though he was currently driven by the Connector's burning emotional need to exact revenge on Lu Li, he hadn't just walked into the Kure Village blind. He had established multiple, absolute fail-safes.
As the supreme dictator of the world's largest underground military contracting syndicate, the sheer military force at his disposal was enough to conquer a small nation. Even though it was highly improbable, if he somehow began to lose the fight against Lu Li, he had authorized the fleet of stealth submarines lurking off the Japanese coast to launch a massive, coordinated missile strike, systematically carpet-bombing the entire coastal city of the Kure Village into dust.
Furthermore, he had pre-positioned multiple heavily armed stealth helicopters within Japanese airspace, ready to extract him at a microsecond's notice.
"Truly a cautious man. It's just a simple assassination mission to kill Lu Li; I was hoping you'd be a bit more efficient," the Devourer muttered to himself as he watched Shen Wulong below.
However, he genuinely appreciated the Connector's extreme paranoia. Even with absolute, god-like power, fighting brainlessly would eventually lead to a fatal mistake. Shen Wulong's absolute 'stability' made the Devourer feel like victory was already fully guaranteed.
In truth, given his usual modus operandi, the Devourer didn't even need to be physically present today. But he desperately wanted Lu Li's fresh corpse. The fresher the corpse, the greater the harvest.
If he could absorb the corpse of an Adjudicator as monstrously strong as Lu Li immediately after death, he theorized he might gain a permanent +5, or perhaps even a staggering +10 to his core attributes!
He had discovered this miraculous application of his anomalous ability entirely by accident. The raw, systemic resources the Terminus Space injected into an Explorer to permanently increase their attributes weren't instantly, 100% assimilated into the physical vessel. It required a gradual, biological integration period.
Simply put, when an Explorer allocated Free Attribute Points, that pure, unassimilated systemic energy temporarily "lingered" within their physical and spiritual vessel. If he absorbed their corpse fast enough, he could actively extract and devour that raw systemic energy for himself.
Perhaps the Terminus Space actively initiated some sort of automated "resource reclamation" protocol on deceased Explorers. When the Devourer first started actively absorbing Explorer corpses to intercept this energy, the system had violently flagged him with severe 'Violation' warnings.
Hah? Who gives a shit? So what if it was a violation? Was there any faster, more efficient method to attain absolute power in the entire multiverse?!
He was going to keep absorbing corpses. He was going to ascend to become the absolute strongest entity in existence, and he would crush every single Adjudicator the system dared to send after him beneath his heel.
BOOM—!
Amidst a deafening explosion, Shen Wulong casually strolled out of the raging inferno. No one could even process what he had done the exact microsecond the high-explosive grenade detonated. Yet, as he emerged from the flames, his clothes weren't even singed; he was completely unscathed.
The Kure Clan operatives were desperately trying to evacuate the civilian population while simultaneously attempting to stall Shen Wulong's advance. They unloaded a relentless barrage of modern firearms and traditional bladed weapons upon him, but absolutely nothing was capable of inflicting even a microsecond of effective damage.
"Damn you! You came here specifically looking for Mr. Lu! Why are you butchering innocent people?!" a Kure patrol member roared furiously.
Shen Wulong's sudden, explosive invasion had already resulted in numerous civilian casualties.
"The Kure Clan actively participated in the operation that resulted in Xia Yan's death. You are accomplices to his murder. And these civilians live under the protection of accomplices. In my eyes... there are no 'innocents' here," Shen Wulong replied, an incredibly unsettling, malevolent smile stretching across his face.
He casually stepped up onto the roof of a parked car and spread his arms wide.
"Furthermore, I am simply here today to finish the job I started 1,300 years ago. The Wu lineage only needs the Westward Faction that submitted to me. The rest of you are obsolete."
Without even looking, he casually swatted his hand to the side, violently blasting away Raian Kure, who had launched a high-speed ambush while fully submerged in Removal.
"Such exquisite, beautiful power... Why exactly did 'I' ever feel bored or lonely before?"
"Probably because being absolutely invincible is inherently, profoundly boring."
A calm, even voice echoed down the burning street.
Shen Wulong turned his gaze toward the source of the voice.
Walking casually through the panicked crowd, stepping over the burning rubble and shattered concrete, was a handsome young man wearing a black trench coat, a long katana resting at his hip. He walked perfectly down the dead center of the street.
The man paused and gently patted the shoulder of the furious Kure patrolman.
"Evacuate this entire block. Leave this to me."
With that, he turned his full attention to Shen Wulong. His expression was dangerously dark.
"I have to admit, you completely subverted my expectations. I never imagined you would resort to initiating a random, indiscriminate massacre in the middle of a civilian street."
Shen Wulong, his long hair tied back in a simple ponytail, locked eyes with Lu Li. The malevolent smile on his face twisted violently for a fraction of a second before hardening into absolute, burning rage.
"You are the one who murdered my friend, aren't you?"
"It seems you genuinely valued his friendship..." Lu Li nodded slowly. "But have you ever considered the fact that your 'friend' caused unimaginable suffering to countless people? He deserved to die."
The Worm was a massive, global terrorist syndicate. Even if Xia Yan usually acted like a helpless, exhausted nanny, the undeniable reality was that he was the supreme dictator of the most vicious terrorist organization on the planet.
God only knew how many thousands of innocent children the Worm had abducted for their horrific Gu rituals, or how many countless families they had utterly destroyed. Because of that, when Lu Li executed Xia Yan, he hadn't felt a single microsecond of hesitation or guilt.
"What does that have to do with me? The only thing I care about is my friend. Everything else is completely irrelevant," Shen Wulong replied, his expression rapidly smoothing out, his tone returning to a terrifying, absolute apathy.
Lu Li sighed heavily. He could instantly tell that these were Shen Wulong's genuine, unfiltered thoughts. He had lived for far too long; the sheer, crushing weight of millennia had completely eroded his fundamental connection to humanity. He possessed absolutely zero capacity for human empathy.
Shen Wulong fundamentally cared about absolutely nothing. The only thing that anchored him to reality was the handful of individuals he personally acknowledged as 'friends'. Beyond that, his internal world was an absolute, terrifying void of nothingness.
"How truly pathetic..." Lu Li muttered softly.
"...You pathetic weakling."
Shen Wulong, who was just about to initiate his absolute-kill sequence to execute Lu Li, completely froze.
Since the very dawn of human civilization, across over ten thousand years of accumulated, reincarnated memories... he had never, ever heard a single living entity refer to him as a 'weakling'.
"A weakling? Did you just call me a weakling?"
For the very first time in his existence, Shen Wulong's genuine curiosity actually completely overpowered his burning rage and desire for revenge.
Lu Li rested his left hand casually on the hilt of his katana, staring dead into Shen Wulong's eyes.
"You constantly claim you don't possess a superhuman constitution, yet your physical vessel operates on the level of an absolute immortal, vastly exceeding the biological limits of humanity. You possess transcendent, unparalleled combat techniques, which you arrogantly label as 'Principles'. Throughout your endless, wandering existence, no one has ever managed to defeat you..."
Lu Li paused.
Shen Wulong tilted his head, genuinely bewildered.
"Exactly. So why on earth would you call me a weakling?"
"Because you possess absolutely zero conviction. Therefore, your so-called 'Principles' are nothing more than pure, unadulterated, mindless violence. It is absolutely not the ultimate zenith of Martial Arts," Lu Li stated, his voice ringing with absolute, unyielding certainty.
"Because your inner world is an empty, meaningless void. No matter how invincible your physical vessel becomes, it can never mask the profound, pathetic weakness of your soul."
"Are you attempting to utilize psychological warfare to agitate me? It's a pointless endeavor. No matter how eloquently you speak, your words will not diminish my strength by a single fraction, nor will they increase yours," Shen Wulong scoffed, a look of profound mockery flashing across his face. It was the distinct, arrogant influence of the Shen Luohan persona.
Lu Li slowly shook his head.
"Words will not make me stronger. But my Heart makes me stronger. And you... you have no Heart."
As he spoke, he slowly, deliberately drew Qiu Mo from its scabbard. During the smooth draw, deep, blood-red grooves materialized along the pitch-black blade. Dense, purple-black chains manifested like living vines, tightly wrapping around his right arm.
Enveloped in swirling, purple-black mist, Lu Li's apocalyptic aura expanded outward like a shockwave, causing the very flames burning on the street to violently flicker and bow.
He locked eyes with Shen Wulong. His gaze held a profound mixture of genuine pity and deep disappointment.
"You're no immortal. You're just a pathetic, hollow man who lost his soul millennia ago. Allow me to sever it..."
Amidst his final words and the deafening shriek of displaced air, the surrounding inferno violently bent backward. A blinding, purple-black arc of pure kinetic death slashed through the sky, looking exactly as if it had cleaved the setting sun in half.
A shower of pale golden hair drifted through the air like falling snow.
Lu Li executed a flawless, mid-air rotational pivot, landing gracefully on the shattered asphalt.
Only after he was perfectly still did the final echo of his sentence ring out across the silent street.
"...I will sever your endlessly long, utterly hollow life."
__________
PLEASE SUPPORT ME ON PATREON:
Patreon.com/IndifferentVillain
Early Access and + 60 chapter ahead of webnovel monthly, ur support keeps me motivated...thanks and enjoy reading
_______________