Thunderclap's ragged breaths sawed through his gas mask like a broken bellows. Each inhale was fire in his lungs. The corpse-miasma, thick as congealed blood, pressed in from all sides, crushing against the faint silver glow of his spirit-warding underarmor. The light flickered, a dying candle clinging to his skin, the only barrier against the soul-rotting fog. His three remaining Dragon Tooth commandos fared worse, stumbling, each step dragging through quicksand of despair. Behind them, the final commando's voice cracked, raw with terror. "Boss… it's… catching up!" He fumbled the last crackling cylinder of Lightning Bolt Talisman Shell into his grenade launcher.
WOOOOO—!!!
The deep, savage hunting call tore through the fog again, so close it vibrated in their bones. The mountain itself shuddered, rocks cascading. A wave of primal fear, colder than Antarctic ice, slammed into them, seizing their hearts.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
High above, the last few Lightning Shells screamed into the churning miasma erupting from the Corpse Cave. Blinding arcs of blue-white power detonated, ripping the thick fog apart with agonized sizzles. For a split second, the gap revealed the cave's maw – sickly green, rotting rock.
In that flash of light, Thunderclap's eyes widened in horror. A colossal claw, armored in decaying black chitin like a tank's tread, slammed onto the electrified rock!
CRUNCH!
Stone exploded like shrapnel! The claw was monstrous, the size of a truck tire, tipped with scythe-like bone talons dripping viscous black ichor and clumps of rotting flesh. Just the shockwave of its impact rocked the entire ledge!
ROOOOOAAAAARRRR—!!!!
A roar of pure, bottomless hunger followed, a hurricane from hell itself. It blasted forth a tidal wave of miasma ten times thicker, vomited from the cave's depths! The grey-green deluge swallowed the ledge and the men firing from it whole. Only choked, dying screams were lost in the fog's hiss and the beast's fury.
"Fire Team!!" Thunderclap howled, the sound raw and animal. They were gone. His brothers. Sacrificed.
Run! Get out! Get the tags… get that damned rusted scrap the Chief wanted!
"MOVE!!" he roared, not looking back, a cornered tiger exploding with desperate fury. He hauled a stumbling commando upright, his spirit-steel combat knife hacking through venomous thorns as he scrambled up the treacherous slope. The last two men, eyes wild with survival instinct, clawed their way up.
Behind them, the miasma surged like a living tide. The earth-shaking THUD-THUD-THUD of pursuit grew louder. The stench of decay washed over them, threatening to seep into their bones.
"Faster! NOW!!" Thunderclap bellowed, lungs burning. The last Purge Miasma Talisman on his chest sputtered, its light nearly gone. Against his skin, beneath the armor, the cold, rusted metal scrap he'd taken pulsed with a faint, almost impossible clarity amidst the suffocating death.
Suddenly!
KRA-KOOM!!!
The rock face beneath them erupted! Stone and torrents of black, tarry sludge geysered upwards! A massive arm, corded with decaying muscle over black bone-armor, wreathed in pestilential wind, punched through the explosion like a battering ram from the abyss – aimed straight at the trailing commando!
"DOWN!!" Thunderclap screamed, helpless.
The man only managed a choked gasp before the impact hit. The spirit-warding underarmor shrieked, silver sigils flaring then shattering. He flew like a ragdoll, smashing into the rock face above with a sickening CRUNCH! Blood and pulped organs sprayed from his shattered mask. His broken body slid down the wet stone, painting a crimson trail before vanishing into the churning black maw below.
"STRONGHAND!!!" The survivors' shrieks were pure agony.
From the fog and spewing sludge, a nightmare emerged. Lower body like a colossal, decaying lizard, armored in dripping black chitin plates and rotting scales, its tail smashing rock to powder. Upper body a grotesque, towering mockery of a man, muscle like rotting cables over a massive skeleton frame. Its head was a horror – no eyes, only a maw that split its face to the ears, lined with spiraling rows of bone-crusher teeth. Black drool sizzled where it fell, eating stone. The Corpse-Devil King! It hadn't chased them out; it had tunneled under them!
Its gaping maw turned towards Thunderclap's fleeing form. An invisible psychic hammer smashed into their minds!
THUMP!
Thunderclap's vision swam, head pounding like a drum, nausea and vertigo overwhelming him. The others grunted, movements locking up, almost sliding off the cliff face.
The King's armored legs coiled. It launched, a juggernaut of decay, crushing the distance. That meat-grinder mouth opened wide, the stench of a slaughterhouse hitting Thunderclap first. It aimed to swallow him whole!
Death's chill breath washed over him.
Mount Kunlun Base, Life Support Chamber
Screaming alarms tore through the sterile room. Inside the regeneration pod, pale green nutrient fluid churned violently. Chu Xuan's body convulsed as if gripped by an invisible giant. Monitors screamed red, heart rate spiking into the danger zone. The creeping grey-white stone venom on his chest spread like spilled ink, voracious, clawing towards his heart and his untainted left side.
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE: Host Neural Link Under Extreme Psychic Assault!]
[WARNING: Stone Venom Metastasis Accelerated! Rate: +300%!]
[CRITICAL: Myocardial Stone Contamination Deepening! Pericardial Effusion Detected! Cardiac Arrest Risk: EXTREME!]
[WARNING: Meridian Petrification/Obstruction >60%! Qi Flow Stalling!]
[VITAL SIGNS: CRASHING! Estimated Total Petrification/Organ Failure: 3 HOURS 27 MINUTES!]
"Chief Engineer Chu!!" Elder Qin's face was ashen, aged hands pressed against the pod's cold viewport, voice cracking. "Stabilizers! Cardiac support! Max energy infusion! NOW!!"
The medical team became a swarm. Injections, stimulants, concentrated energy fluids flooded Chu Xuan's veins via life support lines. The pod whined, pushed beyond safe limits.
"Guh… ahhh…!" Chu Xuan's eyes snapped open, pupils dilated with agony and shock. Dark blood foamed under his breathing mask. He felt shredded, body crushed and rebuilt with cold stone. Consciousness teetered on the edge of a void of pain and numbness. The psychic backlash from Qinling – the King's monstrous form, the torn bodies, Stronghand's bloody spray, Thunderclap locked in death's jaws – threatened to drown his mind.
Can't die! Thunderclap can't die! That Ascension Token scrap… must be retrieved!
A will forged in countless deaths, desperate and feral, snarled from the abyss.
"Sys…tem…" His mental voice was a guttering flame. "Scan… Corpse-Devil King… Weak… points… Transmit… Thunderclap…"
[Command Received… Energy Insufficient… Forcing Deep Scan…]
[WARNING: Host Spirit Force Critical! Forced Scan Risks Irreversible Soul Fracture!]
[WARNING: Meridian Overload Imminent! Stone Venom Sync Acceleration!]
[Executing… Deep Scan Initiated… Target: Qinling Corpse Cave… High-Energy Lifeform (Corpse-Devil King)…]
VWORRRM—!
Agony, a thousand times worse than mapping the cave, exploded in Chu Xuan's skull – white-hot needles spearing through his brain. The pod's fluid bloomed crimson from his nose, ears, eyes. The monitors flatlined with a final, shrieking whine.
[Scan Feedback: Target: Corpse-Devil King (Mortal Realm Suppression Limit / Peak Qi Refining Stage)…]
[Core Weak Points: 1. Rotten Marrow Gland – Palate/Cranial Junction (Energy Core / Extreme Fragility)… 2. Third Vertebral Fissure – Neck Base (Neural Nexus)… 3. Tail-Body Junction (Structural Weak Point)…]
[Energy Signature Mapping… Transmitting…]
The information, paid for with Chu Xuan's burning life force, tore through the neural link, flooding Thunderclap's awareness.
THUD!
Chu Xuan's body arched violently. A torrent of black blood, thick with tissue fragments, vomited into the mask. The light in his eyes guttered out. The heart monitor screamed one long, continuous note of death.
"Chief Engineer Chu!!!" Elder Qin's wail was pure despair. He swayed, darkness claiming him.
"Defibrillate! MAXIMUM!" the lead medic shrieked. Joules of raw electricity slammed into Chu Xuan's stony chest.
Qinling Mountains, Death Ledge
Death's rancid breath washed over Thunderclap. The Corpse-Devil King's grinding maw was meters away. He saw the chunks of flesh caught in its spiral teeth, the sizzling black drool.
Then—
VWORRRM!
A tsunami of data, carrying a will that screamed sacrifice, hammered into Thunderclap's mind. Agony! But with it, the King's colossal form lit up internally – three glaring, fatal red points! A pulsing green gland deep in the roof of its mouth! A tiny neural knot at the base of its neck! A hairline fracture where tail met body!
Weak points! Crystal clear!
And with it, a fragment of consciousness – burning, desperate, trusting… dying.
"Chief!!" Thunderclap understood. Fury, grief, and raw, explosive power detonated within him. The Iron Body Refinement technique, pushed to its absolute limit by desperation and rage, ignited! His muscles swelled like forged steel, skin glowing like heated bronze beneath the grime. Veins stood out like cables.
"DIE, YOU BASTARD!!!"
Thunderclap's roar was inhuman. Instead of retreating from the closing maw, he kicked off the slippery rock with every ounce of strength! He shot forward, not into the teeth, but in a desperate, physics-defying arc, grazing the King's descending claw. Every shred of speed, power, and the newly ignited spark of Blood Qi flooded his spirit-steel combat knife!
Target – the pulsing green gland exposed by the King's gaping roar!
The blade struck like lightning, guided by Chu Xuan's dying beacon and Thunderclap's suicidal resolve, piercing the fetid darkness of the beast's gullet.
SCHLLLK-THUNK!
A sickening, wet pop echoed.
"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—!!!!!!"
The King froze. Its earth-shaking roar cut off into an ear-splitting shriek of agony, shock, and disbelief – like rusted metal tearing. The green gland burst like an overripe fruit! A fountain of phosphorescent pus and black blood erupted from its maw under pressure!
Core destroyed! Energy source annihilated!
The colossal body went limp. Momentum carried it crashing forward into the rock face! KRA-BOOM!!! Stone shattered. Dust and miasma plumed. The beast lay half-buried in rubble, twitching, gurgling its death rattle. Crippled, not dead.
"GO!!" Thunderclap roared, landing in a roll. He grabbed the two stunned survivors, dragging them up the remaining path, scrambling over fresh rubble. Behind, the King thrashed in its rocky tomb, its pain-filled roars shaking the mountain.
They stumbled from the death-fog's edge, collapsing onto relatively clear ground, vomiting, gasping, bleeding. Three survivors from hell.
Thunderclap raised his head, gaze locking onto the distant shape of Mount Kunlun Base. Fear, deeper than any he'd known, chilled his warrior's heart.
Chief… are you… alive?
Mount Kunlun Base, Life Support Chamber
Time froze. Inside the pod, Chu Xuan floated, still as carved stone in the pink-tinged fluid. The grey venom now encased his entire left chest, crawling up his neck towards his jaw and brain. The monitor's flatline was a silent scream.
Elder Qin slumped by the viewport, aged decades in minutes, tears tracking through the dust on his cheeks. The medics stood silent, the air thick with defeat. They'd thrown everything at him. The line stayed flat.
Hope was a guttering candle.
Then—
[Beep…]
A single, weak, yet shattering electronic tone pierced the silence.
The monitor's death-line… flickered. A tiny, impossible blip.
Then another. Weak. Tenacious.
A seed cracking permafrost.
"Heartbeat!!" The lead medic shrieked, jolting upright, eyes bloodshot and wild. "Sustain infusion! Neural repair boosters! GO!!"
The team snapped back to life, a well-oiled machine of desperation. Drugs, energy, anti-petrification agents flowed anew.
Inside the pod, Chu Xuan's stone-like eyelid twitched. A thread of warmth, impossibly thin, seeped from the shattered core of the system in his mind, painstakingly stitching his fractured spirit and ravaged meridials.
[Core Log (Deep Scan Residual)… Parsing…]
[…Detected Anomalous Timeline Disturbance Source… Host Soul Wave Signature… 99.998% Match…]
[…Triggering Base Protocol: 'Temporal Compensation Mechanism'…]
[…Protocol Summary: Upon detection of non-standard temporal regression (suspected 'Reincarnator' phenomenon) causing deviation from established historical progression, to maintain 'Screening' process stability, automatic compensation procedures engage… Accelerate relevant 'Screening' milestones…]
[…Current Disturbance Magnitude: EXTREME… Compensation Coefficient: +300%…]
[…Effective Scope: Global Spatial Stability… Cross-Dimensional Energy Permeation Rate… Native Seal Degradation Rate… Critical Node Activation (e.g., Temporary Dungeon Spawns, Extradimensional Awakening)…]
[…Protocol Signatory: Primordial Arbiter (Sigil Obscured)…]
Fragments of cold, brutal truth, revealing the gears of a cosmic machine, surfaced in Chu Xuan's barely revived, chaotic awareness.
Accelerated… Threefold…
So… that's why…
The instability, the early dungeons, the waking monsters… even my return… triggered… a damned… compensation…
Icy understanding merged with bone-deep exhaustion and the venom's gnawing pain, dragging him back towards darkness. But before oblivion took him, his fading consciousness locked onto the cold title in the log – Primordial Arbiter.
Global Strategic Command Center
The massive ring-screen's 3D model of Earth's spatial stability plunged from safe blue into catastrophic crimson. Red dots symbolizing spatial weak points erupted across the global map like a virulent plague.
[Global Spatial Stability Index: CRITICAL DROP! Below Historical Minimum!]
[New High-Risk Spatial Weak Points (Last 60 Minutes): +187%!]
[Temporary Dungeon Spawn Rate Projection: Revised +300%!]
[Law Suppression Field (Primordial Seal) Degradation Rate: +250%! Strength Below 47% Threshold!]
[WARNING! Planetary Defense Barrier Approaching Failure! Extradimensional Energy (Spirit Qi / Death Qi) Permeation Rate Skyrocketing!]
The AI's emotionless voice recited doom. Every face in the room was bloodless. The split-screen feeds painted a mosaic of apocalypse:
Qinling Corpse Cave: Above the collapsed mountain, the corpse-miasma didn't dissipate. It churned violently, forming a kilometers-wide vortex. Spectral imaging revealed more colossal, twisted shadows writhing within the cave's depths. Further out, new, smaller plumes of sickly green fog rose from other Qinling peaks.
Antarctic Abyssal Zone: Satellite images showed the ice fractures widening like festering wounds. The central crystalline space beacon pulsed, encased in flowing armor of blue ice. The small points of light – the Frost Prison younglings – blazed brighter around it. At the beacon's base, the ice imprisoning the ancient warrior melted rapidly. A massive hand, sheathed in blue ice-armor, was now free, its fingers slowly… flexing.
Pacific Abyss: Hydrophone arrays captured deep, rhythmic THUD-THUD-THUDs, growing stronger, faster, syncing with the world's unraveling.
Africa: Ancient tribal totems pulsed with malevolent crimson light without cause, carvings seeming to writhe like waking serpents.
Arctic: Groans like dying giants echoed under the ice cap, cracks spiderwebbing across its surface.
North America: "Yellowstone Caldera: 'Magma Heart' – Geothermal readings off the charts! Volcanic vents detect… unknown biological heat signatures! Energy levels… spiking towards Mortal Realm Suppression Limit!"
Siberia: "Permafrost Zone 'Silent Valley' – Massive methane bursts! Ground cracking! Something… large… moving below!"
Amazon: "Core 'Lost City' Ruins – Abnormal gravity distortion detected! Space-time curvature anomaly! Probable… LARGE-SCALE TEMPORARY DUNGEON FORMATION IMMINENT!"
Disaster reports hailed down like ice. The air thickened with despair. Chu Xuan's missile-defying miracle, the brief shield it provided, had been obliterated. Not just leveled, but the countdown to oblivion had been brutally, mechanically tripled.
[System Log Fragment: Temporal Compensation Mechanism Engaged. Disturbance Source: Reincarnator (Designation: Chu Xuan). Compensation Coefficient: +300%. Protocol Enforcer: Primordial Arbiter.]
In the Life Support Chamber, barely sustained by chemicals and will, Chu Xuan's fractured consciousness circled the icy, brutal truth revealed in the system's dying gasp.
Three hundred percent… Primordial Arbiter…
A fine… screening… a fine… compensation…
His awareness strained, piercing the pod's viewport, seeing the command center's screens – the blue planet devoured by flashing crimson warnings.
Time… truly… was out.
Faster… so much faster… than imagined…
Icy despair, entwined with the venom's creeping numbness, froze the last embers of his thought.
The countdown to Earth's integration into the brutal Mortal Realm… had just been tripled.