Chapter 651: Fusion and Blood Web

When Gao Jie Ming collected the last floating step, the fluctuations of battle had become so clear they required no spiritual sense to perceive.

Explosions, the shrill shriek of energy impacts, and a sound like a giant beast panting poured endlessly from the depths of the space.

He slowed his pace, the Grand Void Step suppressing his presence to zero.

Like a weightless shadow, he glided soundlessly along the gray ground toward the edge of the battlefield.

The core of this space was larger than he had imagined.

It was a circular hall over five hundred meters in diameter, its interior an open expanse of gray-white ground.

At the center of the hall floated a massive light cluster, its color between pale gold and milky white, pulsing unstably like a burning heart.

Its surface bore countless intricate patterns that constantly shifted; each pulse sent out a ring of energy ripples.

Professor Victor Lei En stood directly beneath the light cluster.

His silver-rimmed glasses reflected the light cluster's hue; his white shirt sleeves were rolled to his elbows, revealing his forearms densely covered in talismans.

The talismans appeared to glow from beneath his skin, flashing in sync with his heartbeat.

His hands pressed against a floating array suspended midair, his ten fingers constantly moving across its symbols, as if playing an invisible piano.

Each time he pressed a symbol, the light cluster's pulse shifted subtly, its form continuously fine-tuned by his precise fingertips.

Three Ascended Spirits Association elites stood less than fifty meters from the light cluster.

The Chairman stood at the front, his Storm Weirdness fully unleashed.

But his attacks were not aimed at the professor—they targeted the monster blocking the professor's front.

It was a humanoid entity stitched together from flesh, metal, and strange fragments, about three meters tall, its body covered in shell-like armor resembling bone.

Its arms were not normal limbs, but two thick fleshy columns ending in hammer-like heads; each swing unleashed howling gales.

The Chairman's lightning struck its body, exploding into blue arcs across the armor, yet it only retreated a few steps, the cracks sealing completely within seconds.

The female support's sonic blast struck it, shaking its body violently, yet its feet remained rooted to the ground, not an inch backward.

The male support launched a flanking strike; his Weirdness became a black shadow, attempting to bypass the monster and attack the professor directly, but the seemingly sluggish monster moved with impossible speed.

At the instant the shadow neared the professor, its body spun violently, the thick fleshy column sweeping sideways and smashing the shadow back.

The three took turns attacking, their strange powers exploding throughout the hall.

But the monster always stood between the professor and the light cluster, like a self-repairing wall.

Though the monster showed no offensive intent, its defensive capability was absurd.

Its body grew coarser with every wound and healing; its armor's color shifted from gray-white to deep gray, its surface patterns denser with each cycle.

Its resistance to their attacks increased steadily, until the three could no longer penetrate its defense.

The Chairman's face darkened—he recognized the monster.

"Collins!" His voice cut through the explosions and thunder, tinged with near-pleading urgency, "Do you remember who you are? You're from the Ascended Spirits Association! You guarded this city for over twenty years! Don't let a madman erase your last shred of consciousness!"

The monster's body froze for a moment.

The fleshy column poised to strike the female support halted mid-air; its head slowly turned toward the Chairman.

Its face, twisted beyond recognition, opened its mouth and emitted a sound as if its throat were choked.

Though quiet, the Chairman heard it.

Seeing his reaction, the Chairman's eyes brightened slightly, his voice louder.

"Yes, it's you! Collins! You're still there! You can hear me! You can still control yourself! You don't need to shield him—we can help you peel that Weirdness out of your body. The Association's technology can do it—"

The monster's body jolted violently.

Its mouth opened again; this time the sound was clearer, though still indistinct.

The Chairman couldn't make out the words, but Gao Jie Ming's spiritual sense caught them.

Gao Jie Ming's expression grew intrigued—the syllable wasn't meant for the Chairman, but for the Hybrid Weirdness itself.

"Cannot—retreat—"

Then the expression vanished from its face, as if an eraser had wiped away every human trait.

Eyes, mouth, eyebrows—all emotional features became smooth, textureless surfaces.

The monster straightened again; the halted fleshy column swung down with greater force toward the female support.

A flicker of grief crossed the Chairman's face.

He knew Collins was nearly gone.

Each wound, each healing, deepened the fusion between the Weirdness and his self.

When he lost all self-awareness, he would no longer be Collins—he would become the monster itself.

Gao Jie Ming stood behind a stone pillar rising from the gray ground at the hall's edge; his gaze shifted from the monster to the professor.

Victor's expression was calm.

He watched the three Ascended Spirits elites bombard the monster, his face utterly expressionless.

His fingers continued moving rapidly across the array, the talismans on his fingertips glowing with steady blue light.

Occasionally, his eyes left the array and fell upon Collins.

He was assessing how long Collins's body could hold out, the progress of the Weirdness-host fusion, and how much time he could still buy.

The three's assault grew faster.

The Chairman's Storm Weirdness had reached its limit; lightning illuminated the entire hall like daylight.

The female support's sonic blast shifted from single-direction to omnidirectional; each shockwave caused the monster's body to stiffen briefly.

The male support's black shadow attacks grew more cunning, targeting only the newly healed cracks in the monster's armor—each strike inflicted fresh wounds.

The Hybrid Monster was beginning to falter.

Its armor cracked under relentless bombardment, the healing speed visibly slowing.

The cracks spread from the surface inward, from localized areas to the entire body.

Its movements grew distorted; the fleshy column's swings lost power, its steps became unsteady.

Seeing this, the three intensified their assault.

The Chairman's lightning coalesced into a thick blue column, striking straight down from the ceiling.

The female support's sonic blast wrapped around the thunder, precisely targeting the monster's chest.

The male support's black shadow split into dozens of spikes, encircling the lightning and piercing the monster's body from all sides.

Facing the trio's combined strike, the monster's body froze, then convulsed violently.

Countless fissures tore across its armor; dark fluid gushed from the cracks, pooling on the ground.

It still stood, blocking the professor and the light cluster.

But its body was collapsing.

The professor's lips twitched slightly, revealing an expression like a sigh.

"Pity," he murmured, as if speaking to himself, "Still not enough. My technique… still incomplete."

His fingers withdrew from the array.

Then he reached up and grasped the light cluster above him.

The light cluster exploded the instant his fingers touched it, like petals blooming.

Its surface split into countless fissures; milky-white light poured out, drowning the professor's silhouette in blinding radiance.

The talismans spread from his forearms, climbing up his shoulders, then his chest and back, then his entire body.

His skin turned translucent under the talismans' glow; the blood vessels and muscles beneath were visibly being rearranged and restructured by some force.

The professor's body began to warp within the light, as if sprouting countless tendrils.

He lifted his head, his gaze piercing through the glow toward the already collapsing monster.

"Thank you."

His voice was soft, yet echoed clearly throughout the hall, each word distinct.

The monster's body shuddered violently.

Its face, stripped of all expression, opened its mouth once more.

This time, the sound was clearer than ever before.

It was a human voice—old, hoarse, tinged with near-relief: "—Professor—"

The monster's words were cut short; its body shattered completely.

Its armor fractured into countless shards; dark fluid erupted from the gaps, exploding into a massive black splash on the ground.

At the center of the splash, a frail, hunched body in a hospital gown collapsed.

It was an old man.

His hair was white, his face lined with wrinkles, his lips blue, his eyes closed.

His body held no trace of life.

It was Collins.

The Chairman took one step forward, then stopped.

He stared at the small corpse on the ground, his lips moved, but no sound emerged.

Then he raised his head, his gaze piercing through the light, fixed on the professor.

"Victor Lei En," his voice was low, as if squeezed from deep within his chest, "Do you know how many lives you've destroyed?"

The professor did not answer.

He simply stood quietly at the center of the light, watching his own body change, like an observer.

The three Association elites gave him no more time.

The Chairman had no interest in his reply—he slammed his hand down, condensing his Weirdness into a thick bolt of lightning aimed straight at the professor's skull.

The female support's sonic waves and the male support's shadow followed closely behind, three distinct forces intertwining in midair to form an unavoidable attack.

Then, a red net blocked their path.

It was a barrier between solid and liquid, as if woven from countless tiny droplets of blood.

The net's patterns were exquisitely fine and dense; each filament was so thin the naked eye could barely discern it.

Yet their number was overwhelming, spreading outward from the professor's body and covering hundreds of meters around him in milliseconds.

The chairman's lightning struck the net; blue arcs scattered along the filaments like water flowing into countless tributaries, the energy diluted, dispersed, and finally vanishing.

The female support's sonic waves struck the net's surface without even ruffling it.

The male support's shadow tried to slip through the gaps in the net, but the gaps shrank the instant the shadow approached, forcibly blocking it outside.

"Blood Net!" The chairman's voice rose sharply, trembling with fury, "The disaster-level anomaly that destroyed half of Middleton City—you have it?!"

The male support's expression changed.

He had seen disaster-level anomalies before—he himself was a medium for one.

But the Blood Net's aura was utterly different.

Both were disaster-level, yet this Blood Net pressed upon him as if they were not even the same tier.

"How can something disaster-level be this strong?!" His voice carried disbelief.

No one could answer him.

After blocking the three attacks, the Blood Net began to contract and reshape.

The fine filaments gathered toward the center as if alive, weaving into a human form.

First a skeleton, then muscles, then skin—

Within seconds, a humanoid figure composed of crimson material stood before them.

That face was Victor Lei En's face.

If the professor's earlier expression had been "calm,"

then this crimson face bore an expression of cold emptiness, as if some entity beyond human emotion gazed down upon a swarm of ants.

The professor, now restored to human form, did not look at the three mediums.

He did not even glance in their direction.

His gaze passed over the chairman's head, over the shoulders of the male and female supports, landing behind a stone pillar at the edge of the hall.

Gao Jie Ming sighed inwardly.

He knew he had been found.

Not because he had revealed any flaw, but because of the Blood Net.

The moment the anomaly appeared, Gao Jie Ming's All-Purpose Eye had detected the truth.

Beyond the visible red filaments, countless invisible threads radiated outward from the Blood Net's core, covering every corner of the hall.

It was a rare, physical-layer full-spectrum scan.

Each transparent thread was an extension of the Blood Net's perception system; anything it touched—whether tangible or intangible—would be detected.

Grand Void Step could blend into the environment, erase energy fluctuations, and render one invisible.

But it could not make Gao Jie Ming "nonexistent."

Of course, Gao Jie Ming had ways to evade these sensors.

But—there was no need.

The professor's gaze paused for an instant in the direction where Gao Jie Ming hid.

Then his eyes blinked.

The three powerful mediums of the Mediums Association vanished simultaneously, teleported away by some force directly from their positions.

Gao Jie Ming's spiritual force imprint showed they had been sent to another region of this extradimensional space, at least several kilometers away.

For a moment, only two people remained in the hall.

(Bonus chapter—one more to come.)

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