Chapter 216: Farewell, My Foolish Brother

The crimson giant eye that filled the whole sky did not wait long; it was greedy and impatient.

Countless thick, blood‑vessel‑like Tentacles hung down from the clouds, like a swarm of eels in the deep sea that had smelled blood, emitting a nauseating slick sound as they rushed to pierce the blood‑stained figure.

"Don't go! I beg you... come back!"

Little Chen Shao sprinted through the ruins, the rubble cutting his ankle, yet he felt no pain. He only wanted to grab the madman's hem, even if it meant tearing off a scrap of cloth.

The figure did not stop.

The madman walked calmly, almost as if he were heading to a long‑awaited date.

Facing those snarling Tentacles that lunged at him, he instead spread his arms, opening his scar‑filled chest.

Pfft!

The first Tentacle pierced the madman's shoulder.

No blood spilled; only swaths of dark‑red light particles shattered. They were fragments of the soul, dust of memories.

Immediately followed by the second, which lodged in the thigh; the third, which pierced the abdomen.

The madman's body was hoisted rigidly into mid‑air.

Ah—!!!

Little Chen Shao knelt on the ground, letting out a harrowing scream, as if those tubes were inserted into his body.

Pain.

That pain was not physical but an illusion of the soul being torn apart. They had always been one; even after ten years apart, the Umbilical Cord deep within the soul had never been severed.

The madman hanging in mid‑air still laughed.

His body was becoming transparent at a visible speed, while the Tentacles frantically extracted emotional nourishment belonging to 'brutality', 'slaughter', and 'madness'.

For this Weird Dominating Demon Eye, it was sheer delicacy.

—Weird revival will devour its host, so it suffices to make the Weird believe it has already devoured the host.

Currently, the Weird's backlash targets the brain, while Chen Shao's inner personality and outer personality each occupy different regions of the brain.

Even if the inner personality dies, the brain region of the outer personality will not be eroded, and the flesh will remain unaffected.

This is the inner personality Chen Shao's plan.

A perfect deception.

"Listen..."

The madman's voice became choppy; his lower half had turned entirely into light points, being drawn by the Tentacles into the giant eye in the sky.

"This eye... is a fool."

"When it consumes me... it will think it already controls the body... it will cease attacking your brain region... and even treat your will... as its own..."

"You need... to use this..."

Little Chen Shao had been sobbing to the point of breathlessness, his face smeared with snot and tears. He stretched his hand desperately, trying to reach the vanishing Shadow.

"I don't want... I don't want any power... come back, you bastard!"

"Heh... still so spineless."

The madman's remaining upper body drooped, and Du Yan looked at the little boy below, crying into tears.

In the past ten years, he had called this kid countless times a waste, a softie, a coward.

He had seized control of the body, fought, hurt people, and did the things this kid wanted to do but dared not.

But he never truly hated this weak self.

It was precisely because this weak guy, who could be cheered for half a day by a sister's smile, existed that this monster built from negative emotions did not become a mere killing machine.

He is the blade. This kid is the sheath.

Now the blade is broken, to preserve the sheath.

"Chen Shao."

The madman's face began to crumble, like weathered rock.

Before the last eye vanished, he turned his head, no longer with a contemptuous gaze but with an unprecedented seriousness.

"Take good care of our sister."

"And... farewell, my foolish brother."

Boom!

The final speck of light exploded.

The giant eye in the sky emitted a satisfied low hum, like a beast after a feast. It slowly closed its malicious pupil, and the once raging, chaotic Spiritual Storm ceased in an instant.

The blood vessels rooted deep in the brain stopped expanding, no longer trying to crush every nerve.

On the contrary, they began to contract, becoming docile, even actively connecting with the remaining brain portion—the 'Guardian' area belonging to Little Chen Shao.

The Demon Eye felt it had won. It thought it had devoured the host, and now it was the master of this body.

And the sole remaining thought in this body—'protect sister'—naturally became the Demon Eye's own thought.

It did not resist; instead, it continuously pumped its massive Anomalous Power into that thought.

Thus, it resonated in sync with Chen Shao, who shared the same goal, allowing Chen Shao to coexist with and command it.

Above the ruins, Little Chen Shao knelt dumbfounded.

The wind stopped.

The madman's volatile yet oddly comforting aura vanished completely.

He slowly lowered his head, looking at his palm.

The hand that had trembled was now frighteningly steady.

A cold, powerful, fully controlled force coursed through his veins, the gift the madman traded his life for, and now the Demon Eye's 'sync'.

Little Chen Shao—no.

Chen Shao slowly stood up.

He reached up and wiped his face, drying his tears. Those eyes, which had always been full of timidity and evasion, now held only a deep, bottomless cold pool.

His glasses were broken, and there was no need to wear them anymore.

From today on, no one will stand in front of him to kill for him anymore.

So he must pick up the knife himself.

In his silhouette, his body visibly grew.

The real world.

Rainwater slid down Ouyang Feng's blade, gathering at the tip, dripping drop by drop.

He is now on the verge of breaking through that mental barrier.

The saber named Death Dragon was less than three centimeters from Chen Shao's nape.

As long as Ouyang Feng's wrist trembled slightly, that head would roll off like a ripe watermelon.

But he stopped.

It was not out of mercy, nor hesitation.

But because that monster—the one that had been hysterical a second ago, its mental radiation strong enough to make an ordinary person's brains boil—had suddenly gone quiet.

That kind of quiet was too weird.

It was as if an erupting volcano had been suddenly pressed back by an invisible giant hand, lava flowing backward, black smoke dissipating.

Chen Shao, who had been twitching madly with bursting blood vessels, suddenly stiffened.

The purplish-red blood vessels, which had burst out like parasites and ravaged his face, stopped pulsing. They receded like a tide, quickly sinking back beneath the skin.

Even that nauseating smell of blood faded away.

Ouyang Feng narrowed his eyes, the blade in his hand not lowered, his whole body's muscles tensing even further.

As one of the Federal Weird Investigation Bureau's top agents, his intuition far surpassed any instrument.

The situation before him was not only not safe, it made the hairs on his back stand on end.

The Chen Shao who had just gone mad was like a time bomb that could explode at any moment—dangerous, but chaotic.

And now...

The figure kneeling on the ground moved.

Chen Shao slowly lifted his head.

The concrete slab pressing on his back, weighing several hundred kilograms, emitted a grating screech as he moved.

He did not roar, did not bellow, and even his breathing became extremely steady.

"Crack."

A crisp sound.

Chen Shao's hand reached back and grabbed the reinforced steel bar behind him; even as his palm was sliced open and bled, his motion did not pause in the slightest.

His arm muscles bulged—not the misshapen swelling after mutation, but filled with streamlined explosive power.

Boom!

That massive stone was actually overturned by him with one hand, smashing into the muddy water beside him and kicking up a sheet of murky spray.

Chen Shao slowly straightened his waist.

Rainwater washed over his blood‑stained face.

He opened his eyes.

His right eye remained its original black, clear, yet cold as ice.

His left eye...

Ouyang Feng's pupils contracted slightly.

That left eye, which had originally been chaotic and murky, filled with frenzied killing intent, now became utterly pure.

The crimson iris spun slowly, the pupil deep as a vortex leading to hell. But this vortex was no longer violent; it turned according to some precise rhythm, quiet and deadly.

This was not a beast's eye.

It was a hunter's eye.

"You......"

Ouyang Feng had just uttered a word when Chen Shao turned around.

He did not look at Ouyang Feng, nor at the knife within arm's reach.

He bent down, his motion impossibly gentle, and with the very hand that had just overturned the boulder, he lightly patted Chen Yao, who was curled up in the corner.

"Yao Yao."

His voice was hoarse, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together, yet his tone was calmly terrifying.

"Cover your ears."

Chen Yao had already been frightened stupid; she stared blankly at this brother who was both familiar and strange, instinctively obeyed the command, and clapped her hands tightly over her ears.

After confirming his sister had done so, Chen Shao then turned his head to look at Ouyang Feng.

Or rather, he looked at the knife in Ouyang Feng's hand.

"That's a weird object, right?"

Chen Shao spoke. His tone was not a question, but a statement.

Ouyang Feng's brows were locked tight.

"You can call it Death Dragon." Ouyang Feng turned his wrist slightly, the blade humming, "It seems you've regained your sanity? Or... who are you?"

He could not believe that a person's mind could be corrupted to that extent and still recover.

Unless, the core inside had been replaced.

Chen Shao did not answer.

He simply lifted his left hand, his slender fingers lightly grasping at the void.

Zzz—!

A sharp, explosive crack suddenly rang through the air.

Ouyang Feng's complexion changed abruptly, and his body instinctively lunged three meters backward.

Right where he had just stood, the ground collapsed without warning, forming a perfect circular pit whose edges were smooth as a mirror.

An invisible attack.

No, it wasn't an attack. It was domination.

In that instant, the gravity, air, even the molecular structure of the soil in that area were forcibly dominated, the Rules altered.

The fully restored Demon Eye could not only dominate the mind, but also interfere with the physical.

"I am Chen Shao."

Chen Shao withdrew his hand, nudged the pair of glasses that no longer sat on his nose—a subconscious habit—but it made him appear even more Weird.

He stared at Ouyang Feng, a faint red glint flickering in his left eye, his mouth pulling into a curve devoid of any warmth.

"But from this moment on, I am no longer just Chen Shao."

Ouyang Feng tightened his grip on the knife, his knuckles turning white.

He understood.

The madman vanished. In his place stood an even more terrifying presence.

The former Chen Shao was two personalities battling for the body, with severe internal conflict. The madman was strong, but it was an uncontrolled strength, riddled with flaws.

And now……

All the cowardice, fear, and hesitation in this body have vanished. All that remains is absolute reason and madness, and the perfectly mastered Demon Eye.

He sacrificed that mad soul to the Weird, gaining absolute control.

This is not merely an elevation of power level.

It is a leap in the tier of existence.