Chapter 449: Adam's Declaration

No one sensed it.

Chen Shao didn't, Xu An didn't, and no one in the Spade Group did.

But Zhang Yuanqing's eyes lit up.

The glow wasn't pupil dilation nor light reflection. It was a thick, unmeltable crimson bubbling up from deep within his iris, as if something were seeping out from the marrow gaps.

Chen Shao didn't have time to react.

Because in that instant, the world changed.

It wasn't a change of color or temperature. Above his head, in the void, a massive entity beyond physics collapsed with a Boom— and crashed down.

The naked eye couldn't see it.

Conventional perception couldn't capture it.

Only those who wield authority—or rather, only beings whose resonance frequency matches the Weird Editor—can glimpse its outline.

"Karma".

It appears crimson, in a waterfall shape.

An all‑consuming, irrational, space‑spanning torrent of Karma was precisely poured into Zhang Yuanqing's body. The ribs crushed by telekinetic force repaired, dislocated joints reset, even the half‑frame glasses shards were flung away by crimson ripples.

Zhang Yuanqing's laugh abruptly stopped.

In its place came a hoarse, insanely frantic howl.

"It's coming— it's coming, coming, coming!!"

His veins swelled, red vessels surged beneath his skin, each steaming hot. The Karma infusion was so rapid that his entire skeleton clack clack clacked, each joint forced open and reassembled.

Chen Shao's Demon Eye spun wildly.

He saw nothing.

Telekinesis still pressed on Zhang Yuanqing, but the feedback felt off—like holding a balloon while reinforced steel bar concrete suddenly poured inside; your hand still pushes, yet the sensation in your palm has completely changed.

It was no longer flesh and blood.

It was Rules.

Chen Shao clenched his five fingers and added more.

Telekinetic ripples tore the floor, the basement's load‑bearing wall emitted a sharp metallic screech. Yet Zhang Yuanqing remained motionless. He stood rooted, veins bulging, both hands wildly pulling at something invisible in the void.

The motion of those hands was too Weird.

As if operating a gigantic interface that only he could touch.

"Consume all Karma!"

His voice was no longer human. A hoarse, electric‑sharp screech, each word leapt out like from a flame.

"Generate immediately! Immediately— generate!!"

The members of the Spade Group stared at each other.

All Karma? Generate? Who is this lunatic talking to?

Xu An propped a ruler, half‑kneeling, the black line at his mouth seeping blood, his hollow eyes finally changed—he was looking at Zhang Yuanqing's feet.

That patch of ground was melting.

Not a thermal melt. Reality itself was torn open, a slit exhaling bone‑colored mist.

Chen Shao stepped back half a pace.

He rarely retreats in his life. Yet the Demon Eye's feedback chilled his spine—Zhang Yuanqing's internal energy was surging upward at five to six times per second.

Ten seconds ago it might still have been A Ji.

Five seconds ago it broke through the A Ji ceiling.

Now.

Quasi‑S Ji?

No, it could be higher.

"Boss!" the Spade Group's deputy shouted, voice hoarse, "This is wrong, this damn wrong! Where did he get these—"

He didn't finish the sentence.

In the basement's center, a hand emerged from a crimson fissure.

Bone.

A pure, flesh‑less bone hand. Five slender, delicate finger bones, joints etched with dense, intricate patterns.

The hand grasped a Gavel.

The Gavel's design was absurd—its head composed of countless human faces, each frozen at the instant of a screaming open mouth.

Then a second hand, a third, a fourth.

Four bone arms simultaneously rose from the fissure, bracing the floor, as if something were pulling itself out of the Uterus of Hell.

Then the head.

A skull woven from statutes and verdicts rose from the ground.

It had no eyes. In the hollow sockets burned two clusters of eerie green judgment fire, within the flames reflected spider‑thin Rules chains, densely coiling into a spiral.

The skull's jaw slowly opened and closed.

Silent. Yet the oppressive pressure was overwhelming, crushing every eardrum in the basement to its limit. Xu An covered his ears, more blood seeping from the black‑stitched lips. Two members of the Spade Group instantly went weak‑kneed and knelt, not knocked down but as a bodily instinct of submission.

Corpse Judge.

No gestation period, no brewing process.

It materialized out of thin air. It rose from the ground.

Quasi‑S Ji.

Zhang Yuanqing tilted his head back, blood‑tears streaming from his eyes, yet his expression was not one of pain.

It is ecstasy.

"Power!"

His voice already resonated with the low-frequency of that Corpse Judge, overlapping to create a double‑channel effect that made one's scalp explode.

"This is the supreme might that sets the Rules!!"

He spread his arms.

The Corpse Judge's white bone body began to liquefy, like melting wax, like flowing mercury. Tens of thousands of white bone droplets shot out, attaching precisely to Zhang Yuanqing's skin, spreading, seeping, and fusing along his vascular patterns.

Bone armor sprouted from his ankles.

First the calves, then the thighs, then the hips, spine, ribs, and scapulae. Each piece of bone armor bore twisted law patterns, each line echoing the wails of wronged souls. Finally his right hand—its five fingers were fully encased in white bone, the fingertips forming five blades as fine as hair, the Rule Blades.

Fusion complete.

It took only three seconds.

Zhang Yuanqing—no, he could no longer be called Zhang Yuanqing.

He hovered in midair. No support beneath his feet, purely the Rules lifting him. White bone armor covered his whole body, leaving only his face exposed.

A face twisted to the extreme.

One half of his skin was eroded by the white bone armor, the other half still retained a human appearance. His left eye remained human, filled with madness; his right eye had become the Corpse Judge's hollow socket, with a ghostly green judgment flame flickering within.

Chen Shao's Demon Eye locked onto him.

Psychic Force fully activated.

The strike left no room for hesitation. The entire basement's air was compressed to less than a tenth of its original volume, even the light was twisted and distorted by the psychic field. That was Chen Shao's trump card—an Absolute Force Field built with psychic power, which had once crushed countless foes.

Zhang Yuanqing raised his right fist.

The bone armor knuckles interlocked, and green judgment flame spewed from the white bone gaps.

A very simple punch. No fancy wind‑up, no charging. Just a straight forward smash.

The moment the fist struck the Psychic Force Shield, Chen Shao's pupils shrank to the size of a needle tip.

Because his shield shattered.

It wasn't pierced; it broke.

Like glass, cracks began at the point of contact and spread outward at a visible speed. One layer, two, three—Chen Shao had stacked seven layers of Psychic Force Barrier in front of that punch, all turning to dust within 0.3 seconds.

The shockwave pierced the basement.

Chen Shao's body was hurled backward, his back smashing through two load‑bearing walls before embedding into a third. A line of blood clung to his mouth corner, the Demon Eye's scarlet light flickered violently, and cracks around his right eye socket spread wildly—a sign of overload.

Xu An was flung by the shockwave. His ruler slipped from his hand, and his body rolled twice in the air, smashing through the floor and landing in the First Floor ruins.

The others of the Spade Group fared even worse.

Seven people were swept into a lump of debris and wind, ejected from the basement opening, tracing seven parabolic arcs in the downpour, crashing into various corners of the ruins. Some screamed miserably, some groaned, some could not utter a sound.

The entire abandoned building trembled.

Structural collapse had already begun.

Zhang Yuanqing hovered above the center of the ruins, thick black fog rising from the seams of his bone armor, slowly spreading. The downpour struck the fog's surface, and the droplets evaporated before touching.

He lowered his head.

He looked down at the scattered defeated forces below—the blood‑soaked Chen Shao, Xu An amid the ruins, and the scattered remnants of the Spade Group.

Then he raised his head.

He gazed toward the sky.

To the northwest, three Investigation Bureau high‑speed transport aircraft tore through the rain, heading here. Their signal lights flashed, already in combat formation. They were summoned by Su Ming's distress signal sent through the Communicator—Special Forces Reinforcement.

Zhang Yuanqing watched the three aircraft and smiled.

He spread his arms.

The bone armor glowed a bleak green in the downpour, and the black fog behind him was blown into a shape almost like a deity's halo.

"Mortal beings of old."

His voice spread through the field of Rules, reaching several kilometers. Each word hammered heavily into the ears of everyone present.

"Remember my title—"

A final drop of human blood‑tear fell from his left eye.

The judgment green flame in his right eye surged suddenly, illuminating half the night sky.

"—God of the New World, Adam."

With those words, the black fog contracted.

The void behind him tore open a three‑meter‑wide fissure, its depths an endless darkness with faint white bone stairs. Zhang Yuanqing—Adam—stepped into the fissure without looking back.

The fissure closed.

The black fog dissipated.

The downpour continued.

The ruins lay in wreckage, only the sound of breathing and the sting of rainwater flooding the wounds remaining.

Chen Shao pulled his body out of the wall, shards of stone clattering to the ground. He knelt half in the rain, the water washing the blood from his mouth corner, his hair finally disheveled—his first time since he first wielded the Demon Eye.

Xu An crawled out of the First Floor ruins, retrieving his ruler. His left arm hung limp, clearly dislocated. Blood seeping from his sutured lips was diluted by the rain into a faint pink stream, dripping down his chin.

The two locked eyes across the ruins.

Neither said a word.

Three transport aircraft circled overhead. Spotlights beamed down, slicing the rain into pale columns of light. The communication channel erupted with urgent calls from the Investigation Bureau's Special Forces.

"Ground unknown Weird wave vanished! Target has left detection range!"

"Repeat—target has left all detection ranges!"

Chen Shao looked up at the three aircraft.

Rainwater smeared his face. He wiped it off, the back of his hand all blood and mud.

… got played.

His voice was very soft.

But Xu An heard it.

All the elite of Eden Garden. Chen Shao's Demon Eye. Xu An's Correction Place. The entire Spade Group.

Got totally played.