Chapter 2162: Summit Battle - Nightmare Artifact 3

「Let... go... of me... 」

「Let... go of me!!! 」

At the end of the fork, the heart with no way to retreat frantically beat the last tentacle.

One after another, male or female, sharp or shrill voices pieced together pleading words, in a pitch-black silent cave, it was as if countless resentful spirits were wailing.

Trapped inside the cave, the cavern the size of a soccer field had already been flooded with blood. At this moment, the nightmare heart was like a struggling octopus in a sea of blood, and the last tentacle severed by Lin An in the middle also withered and turned pale from massive blood loss.

From afar, the heart pressed against the rock wall looked like a pile of rotting flesh, a whitening heart about to rot.

In the sea of blood, each beat of the heart grew weaker than the last, and the blood spattered about was like leftover natto, sticky and dripping from the tentacles before melting.

Its breath weakened to the extreme, the once strong beating heart could only twitch and tremble; after all its tentacles were severed, it was like meat on a chopping block, unable to stop the monster's approach.

「Splash—splash」

Footsteps stirred the blood into waves.

Holding the sword upside down, stepping on the viscous blood, Lin An likewise trudged forward step by step with effort.

The rich, bloody stench rushed straight into his nasal passages; for a moment, Lin An didn't know whether he was breathing air or filthy blood.

Compared to the nightmare heart, his condition was no better. After who knows how many uses of the core switch, he was like a machine overloaded to its limit, both body and mind on the verge of collapse.

Tired, so tired.

He ignored the heart's pleas and couldn't be bothered to wonder what this nightmare heart actually was.

At this very moment, Lin An felt an endless fatigue surge from within, like a hand reaching out from the abyss, trying to drag him into the darkness of eternal sleep.

He could still stand now, purely relying on strong willpower to cling to his last breath.

He could not fall, could not rest, not even waste a single second.

「Splash」

The narrow, scarlet Cain's Blade lifted its tip, sending a spray of blood.

The sharp blade aimed at the heart's vital point, hearing the pleading voice like countless bells chiming together, Lin An's shoulders shuddered and he couldn't help letting out a hoarse laugh.

「So you're afraid too... 」

「Let... go me... let... go... 」

Without waiting for the heart to try to send a mental message, over and over, the mechanical pleas begged Lin An to let it go.

The next second, Lin An drew a deep breath, and the Cain's Blade in his hand instantly turned into a red light that pierced the heart in an instant!

「Pfft! 」

The cavern trembled; this all-out thrust instantly pinned the nightmare heart directly onto the stone wall.

Like a punctured water balloon, in an instant the incessant pleas ceased abruptly; after 0.1 seconds, a surge of scalding, magma-like blood burst forth from the wound!

Like a pierced earth core, as the blood spring gushed out, streams of black, like undigested bodily fluids, also splashed out.

Facing the scalding 'blood' hot enough to melt metal, Lin An didn't even lift his head; he simply twisted the sword in his hand once more, hearing a rip, and tore the wound wider!

「Boom!! 」

The blood sprayed even faster!

The nightmare heart, nearly cut in half, violently trembled now, like a final struggle before death; it desperately contracted its myocardium, but to no avail—instead it sprayed even more blood.

In an extremely short time, it seemed as if endless blood instantly engulfed Lin An from above.

Faced with this astonishing scene, Lin An simply threw down Cain's Blade with a blank expression, his hands like those of a dissector, ruthlessly probing into the wound!

He didn't care how painful the heart's death was; for Lin An, he now only wanted to find that prop!

He had fought his way here through blood and battle, all for that thing!

Soon, nearly Lin An's entire body had plunged into the heart; after smashing apart the internal obstructions with punch after punch, a scorching energy sphere, as if condensed from a star's heat, instantly carbonized his hands.

Lin An's heart jolted; his will, previously exhausted to the extreme, instantly surged.

Ignoring the pain of his carbonized hands, Lin An unhesitatingly yanked it out!

Found it!

At the same time, a familiar, icy system prompt suddenly began to beep intermittently:

「Beep.. 」

「Player Lin An has contacted a special artificial object: Genesis Sound Core (1/2)」

「This prop is a special item that violates the current world system rules; please hand it over immediately! 」

「Warning! You have been locked on as a target! 」

「Warning! This prop cannot be obtained! Immediately abandon contact! Await handover! The system has summoned the current area's Overseer to... 」

「Hum! 」

Before Lin An's face could even change, he felt an independent supreme power suddenly lock onto him; in an instant, a crystal shard from his ring flashed white light, flew out on its own, and transformed into a black barrier that enveloped him.

It was as if the system were being blocked; a signal originally emanating from within him was suddenly locked within the black barrier!

「Kid! Fuse it directly upon obtaining it; don't consider a second use—that's a trap! 」

「Wait? How did you just get it now?! 」

A dignified, familiar voice sounded at the same time, as if retaining a fragment of independent intelligence; the voice clearly noticed that its appearance timing was off.

However, before Lin An could even think to answer...

The next second, with a bang, the crystal shattered suddenly; and as the crystal broke, the voice also disappeared.

At the same time, the crystal vanished at extreme speed as it turned into energy, leaving no trace.

「77?! 」

Three seconds later.

Enveloped in the black barrier, Lin An gritted his teeth, allowing the black-and-white energy ball in his hand to burn through his palm and even melt his hand bones.

He could feel that, within the black barrier, the thing called the Genesis Sound Core was cooling, solidifying into something he could use!

Not only that, an invisible energy was bouncing back and forth within the black barrier; each time it passed through his body, it brought an indescribable chill. It was as if an energy serpent made of absolute cold was violently trying to burst out.

He couldn't move at all; although everything was happening too strangely, relying on his powerful mental faculties, Lin An still figured out in an extremely short time what was going on.

It's a huge eyeball!

The voice just now was Overseer No. 77!

After Overseer No. 77 arranged for him to come in, he not only left the initial message but also hid the power to generate the black barrier within that communication crystal—all to prevent the system from detecting him when he touched the Genesis Sound Core and notifying the Overseer to erase him!

Perhaps because of the black barrier's peculiarity, or perhaps the Star‑Radiant Battlefield itself lacks system oversight, that system alarm that was emitted was actually forcibly intercepted by Overseer No. 77!

Excitement, shock, pain, exhaustion.

Lin An stared fixedly at the energy sphere in his hand that kept merging and deforming, just like a dying person given a shot of adrenaline; at this moment he actually felt a morbid excitement, all he wanted to know was what this Props he had painstakingly obtained actually was!

(How much longer until the condensation is finished!? Mo Ling and the others are still waiting for me..! Faster.. can you be any faster!?)

I have never felt time so drawn out; every second feels like torture.

Fortunately, just as Lin An could no longer restrain himself and attempted to manually merge these two beams of light, in an instant the originally high‑speed twisting black‑white sphere suddenly halted, then, like a cosmic explosion, it burst forth with an ultimate white light beyond perception!

0.01 seconds later.

It seemed like an illusion, as if it had never happened.

Lin An's breath caught; he saw the Genesis Heart, now completely cooled, suddenly turn into a void like a black hole, silently floating before him.

Before he could suppress his excitement and reach out to touch it, a piece of information suddenly appeared in his mind like a revelation.

This is..!?