Chapter 250: Joy

The hymn-embellished Schultz maintained his evil-child height of two hundred meters, yet the Omniscient Crystal embedded in his brow did not grow larger—it was smaller than a normal human's pore, yet everyone who saw Schultz immediately fixated their gaze on the Omniscient Crystal.

At this moment, the Omniscient Crystal was the core of the plane.

Everyone's gaze unconsciously converged upon it; seeing it was like seeing the truth of the world, the truth of the universe.

No one knew what the Omniscient Crystal did, but those who saw it knew its origin was extraordinary—it was undoubtedly a treasure, and they all longed to claim it immediately.

Except Wu Chang.

His gaze was also drawn to the Omniscient Crystal, but the instant he saw it, his eyes burned as if seared by fire—a piercing agony that struck his soul, forcing him to look away.

His intuition and body both resisted the Omniscient Crystal.

You have to understand, his willpower attribute is now over 170 points, so even if Schultz really launched a psychic attack against him, he wouldn't have such a strong reaction.

What surprised him even more was that, through the perspective of his True Self, he discovered that Buck and the others showed no discomfort; they were all greedily staring at the Omniscient Crystal.

Is this thing targeting only him?

Unable to look directly at the Omniscient Crystal, Wu Chang shifted his attention to Schultz.

He could no longer see black and white on Schultz; virtue and sin had merged into one, intertwining perfectly within Schultz's body.

The two forces achieved a 1+1>2 effect within Schultz's body. The current Schultz's power had already surpassed the Evil God remains in the Silent Route and the incomplete divine descent of the Desire Mother Goddess in the underground shelter.

It would not be an exaggeration to call him the most powerful existence Wu Chang had encountered in the Abyss Game.

He could sense Schultz's immense power, and naturally so could Perrin, Mercury, and the others.

The overwhelming pressure came crashing in, causing Perrin, who had been handling things with ease moments ago, to turn cold-faced.

Can we win?

Absolutely doomed.

Perrin sensed the gap between them. If his true body were present, he could crush Schultz with one hand, but fighting in a descended state, he was the challenger.

He knew his chances of winning were slim, but he still prepared to try; he had no habit of retreating before the battle.

Hah!

He swung the reins on his chariot, and two giant rams broke into a stride, charging straight toward Schultz.

Facing Perrin's charge, the Omniscient Crystal on Schultz's brow flickered, condensing star-like points of light around him.

Several of those starlight points flickered, and earthen walls materialized out of thin air before Perrin, while the flickering starlight transformed into meteors that hurtled toward the galloping Perrin.

Earthen walls represent the earth, inherently countering lightning-type abilities. Lightning cannot pierce through earthen walls and can only shatter them by brute force from the chariot.

But every time an earthen wall was shattered, a portion of the chariot's lightning power was drained away. The absorbed lightning power was rapidly digested by Schultz, then released to form even thicker and sturdier earthen walls.

After shattering four earthen walls in succession, the two rams had already separated from their lightning spirit forms, returning to their normal state. Their four hooves wobbled, their speed decreased, and when they looked at the newly formed earthen walls, fear showed in their eyes; even their fierce gazes had become much clearer.

Stop ramming, if you keep going your brains are going to get smashed apart.

Perhaps sensing the rams' fear, Perrin pulled in the reins and stopped charging headlong, attempting to go around the earthen walls.

But even if he was willing, the meteors falling from the sky were not.

Each meteor had tracking enabled; no matter how he changed direction, they pursued relentlessly.

What made him even more uncomfortable was that the aura attached to the meteors was also of the earth attribute, impossible to intercept with lightning power. He could only grip his great axe and smash them apart one strike at a time.

With every collision, he could feel part of his lightning power being absorbed by the meteors through the impact, the same situation as when he drove the chariot to shatter the earthen walls.

Although the absorption speed wasn't as fast as with the earthen walls, each meteor was only about a meter in diameter, and the power drained from him would be converted into new meteors.

At least seventy percent of the energy in every meteor hurled at him was contributed by himself, not even counting his own expenditure when smashing the meteors.

Under layer upon layer of obstruction, let alone defeating Schultz, even getting close enough to touch him was extremely difficult.

Earth power, meteor summoning, energy absorption—Schultz had already deployed three abilities laid out in the open, and had cleverly combined all three.

How is anyone supposed to play this?

Teammates? A little help here!

Perrin, trapped within the meteor shower, called for support. Mercury and Axo weren't idle either, simultaneously launching attacks against Schultz.

But Schultz, transformed by the Hymn, was like a precision instrument, dividing his attention three ways without the slightest disorder.

Against Mercury, who moved swiftly and could unleash sharp slashes, he deployed a Slowing Field and Gravity Well to lock down Mercury's movements, while shrouding Mercury's surroundings in dense toxic fog to seal off his positioning and inflict continuous area-of-effect damage.

Against Axo, he directly used physical means to cut off Axo's connection with the other two, and employed an ability similar to the Glutton Ant's swarm generation, summoning a small insect tide to rush toward Axo.

Axo specialized in support and healing, with most of his damaging skills being single-target burst abilities. Facing the endless swarming insect tide, the great serpent that had come alive on his snake staff had a third of its scales gnawed away by the insects. He could barely protect himself and was unable to put any pressure on Schultz.

One against three, and all three were being chased down by Schultz alone. It wasn't that Perrin and the others didn't know how to play—it was that Schultz was broken.

Within Schultz's divine body were fused the virtues and sins of countless people. According to the Hymn Corporation's modification technology, each virtue and sin corresponded to a different Prototype Weapon and Disqualified Monster—that is, to a different power.

Applied to Schultz, this was equivalent to him possessing tens of thousands of different powers, and whenever he wished, he could combine and arrange them at will.

Moreover, Wu Chang also noticed that the instant Schultz saw the opponent use an ability, he could quickly identify the ability that countered it.

In combat between players, counter relationships are extremely important.

Just like in traditional MMOs: assassins counter mages, mages counter tanks, tanks counter warriors, warriors counter assassins.

No matter how farmed a six-item ADC is, if a top-lane warrior with only three items gets close, they'll still get kicked to death like a stray dog on the roadside.

With attribute counters and having lost the initiative, challenging across tiers is not impossible.

Not to mention Schultz's stats were still above theirs.

With both stats and mechanics, and a countering matchup to boot, if this were a game, it would already be time to pull out your phone and wait for the next match.

After struggling for several minutes, the three realized victory was hopeless.

Mercury gave up on attacking, flashed back to Chiba's side in a few bounds, and snatched the World Tree branch from Chiba's hand.

"Give me another material!"

Facing Mercury's demand, Chiba was somewhat displeased. Just as she was about to say something, she felt her shoulder being held down by Feiguang. She turned her head and saw Feiguang gently shake his head.

At this stage of things, there was no turning back.

If Mercury and the others died, they wouldn't fare well either. Moreover, if Mercury was pushed to the brink, he might even treat the two of them as materials.

Might makes right; with their strength and status, they could only comply—there was no choice.

Qian Ye's gaze at Feiguang was filled with disappointment, but Feiguang stood with Moqili and the others—what could she do?

She plucked the flower bud from her ear, where it served as a hair ornament, and planted it in the ground. Instantly, the bud grew to human size. It bloomed, revealing Youwu, who lay unconscious inside.

Moqili paid no heed to their emotions; he tore open Youwu's chest, used his own blood as ink, a branch of the World Tree as a brush, and Youwu's body as the contract parchment, swiftly inscribing characters upon it.

When the final rune was completed, the World Tree branch in his hand turned into a pool of golden liquid, merging into Youwu's body and gilding all the runes upon him.

Moqili's face showed regret—World Tree branches were A-class consumables in the Realm of Reason; in the Wasteland Realm, their value equaled that of the lowest S-class artifacts. To use one like this, even he felt pained.

But there was no time to care; as long as he obtained the Omniscient Crystal, any cost was worth it.

"Boss, wake up! We can't handle this guy!"

Hearing Moqili's call, Youwu opened his eyes, slowly rising to sit cross-legged within the flower.

Dong~

A grand bell rang. A wind spontaneously arose around Moqili, blowing away Youwu's short hair, revealing a smooth, round bald head.

Dong~

Youwu's body writhed, growing thin and dark, and a bright red cassock appeared upon him.

Dong~

The flower upon which Youwu sat transformed into a lotus pedestal; the lotus seeds it bore became prayer beads, falling into Youwu's hands.

As Youwu began turning the prayer beads, he fully transformed into the leader of the mysterious organization—Huanxi. He slowly opened his eyes and spoke:

!

"You lot never give me a moment's peace."

Moqili immediately said: "Boss, the target has been recognized by the Omniscient Crystal. Our power is still suppressed by the intermediate layer—we can't do anything."

It's not that we're weak—it's that the opponent has a cheat.

Hearing Moqili's words, Huanxi's dissatisfaction turned to delight. "An awakened Omniscient Crystal? Good, good, excellent work!"

Huanxi rose from the lotus pedestal, his gaze fixed on Schulz. Drawn by Huanxi's aura, Schulz also looked down at him.

Huanxi stared at the Omniscient Crystal on Schulz's forehead, his face beaming as if he'd just won the greatest fortune.

Schulz, by contrast, wore a solemn expression, his brow unconsciously furrowed.

From the Monk before him, he saw not a single flaw.

Huanxi stepped down from the lotus pedestal. With each step, his height increased by ten zhang. After a few steps, he stood equal in height to Schulz.

Then he swept his crimson cassock sleeve. The insect swarm surrounding Akso froze in place; the meteor shower hurtling toward Peren was sucked directly into his sleeve; the slow field and gravity field meant to trap Moqili vanished instantly.

All of it was as effortless as brushing dust off a table.

Wu Chang, watching from the hundredth floor of the Hymn Tower, couldn't help cursing: "What the hell, bro—this bald guy's power is off the charts!"

The enlarged Huanxi was coated in gold, like a golden Buddha statue from a temple come to life.

His face radiated solemn majesty as he spoke to Schulz: "Feel the gap now?"

Schulz saw no way to counter Huanxi—he could only charge. He condensed the black and white hues of virtue and sin into a knight's lance and thrust it straight at Huanxi. Huanxi reached out casually and seized the lancehead in his palm.

As Huanxi applied slight pressure, gold spilled from his palm, spreading along the lance toward Schulz.

Schulz hastily dissolved the lance, but the gold clung like a malignant tumor, creeping up his body.

Before Schulz could react further, Huanxi stepped forward and slapped his palm against Schulz's chest.

Huanxi lifted his hand. A golden palm print now marked Schulz's chest. From that print as the boundary, Schulz's body reverted from flesh tone to black and white: above the print, white; below, black—sharply divided.

Huanxi shook his head and said:

"You're too hasty—so hasty you turned yourself into an experiment. Why?"

The separation of virtue and sin within Schulz destabilized his body. His lower half reverted to the dying Sin Child; his upper half flickered, on the verge of dissolving into white mist.

He was already expending all his strength just to maintain stability—unable to resist Huanxi further.

Huanxi knew Schulz's condition. He posed the question not expecting an answer, and immediately extended his hand to pluck the Omniscient Crystal.

If it were anyone else, Wu Chang would have feigned death. But the aggressor was the mysterious organization; the other side was Schulz. From any angle, he had no reason to stand idle.

His True Self had long arrived at the edge of the square, secretly spreading Chaos Power for a long time.

Consuming the Mother Nest's vitality granted him 65 points of Strength, raising his total to 295.

His spread Chaos Power bypassed Schulz, covering only Peren's trio, Feiguang, and Qian Ye.

Only Peren specialized in Strength, granting him another 40 points. After being squeezed through two layers of dimensional barriers, his Strength finally broke 300.

His talent, Body of Strength, allowed his height to equal his Strength value multiplied by two meters. Now, to make an impression and draw fire, he maxed it out—becoming a 600-meter Sea Giant.

Forget the numbers—first, gain height advantage.

True to form, the moment Wu Chang became a Sea Giant, Huanxi's gaze locked onto him.

Here, credit must be given to the "superhero's tight suit"—thanks to this gear, Wu Chang's 600-meter monstrous form still wore clothing. Otherwise, given the height difference between him and Huanxi, Huanxi would have looked up and seen not his body, but a pixelated little Sea Giant.

Moqili flashed to Huanxi's shoulder and began his complaints.

"Boss, it's him who stole the Pillar of the Present World—and even wounded my origin from afar."

Huanxi's eyes lit up. "You're Peace? Only two or three months in the Abyss Game, and you've reached this power? No wonder every faction is fighting over you—a superstar newcomer."

Wu Chang's transformation into the Sea Giant aimed to draw Huanxi's attention, buying time for Schulz while further influencing Moqili and the others with his power.

But Huanxi didn't fall for it. Though he appeared to converse with Wu Chang, he kept tearing away Schulz's upper white mist, searching for the Omniscient Crystal.

Wu Chang stood still; Huanxi moved. Wu Chang's actions were only helping Huanxi buy time.

How could he bear this? Once Huanxi obtained the Omniscient Crystal and killed Schulz, he'd stand no chance.

There was only one path left: go all-in. Must go all-in!

He dropped the pretense. He unleashed his Chaos Power to maximum. The Chaos Runes that had appeared when he fought the Helmet Man and the Goddess of Desire now materialized behind him. His Chaos Power became visible ripples, sweeping toward Huanxi.

Struck by the fully unleashed Chaos Power, Moqili and the others immediately lost control, showing varying degrees of instability. Huanxi ceased his manipulation of Schulz entirely, focusing all his attention on Wu Chang.

Wu Chang had achieved his goal, but he certainly wasn't happy about it either.

Because the purple power ripples swept over Huanxi, the power's effect was entirely blocked by Huanxi's golden body, unable to affect him.

Is it still not too late to reconcile?

(End of chapter)