Chapter 522: The Gaze Descends

Xu Chen's skin split open.

Gray markings crawled from his neck to his jaw, then from the corner of his eye into the pupil, and the blood hue dyed the whole eyeball.

He opened his mouth, and a low-frequency tremor not of human kind rolled from his throat.

At the end of the Corridor, the security squad members' gun‑holding hands all trembled.

It wasn't fear of firing.

It was the body's instinct sounding the alarm.

That wasn't an ordinary aberrant.

Qin Zhixia stood in place, the barrel unshifted.

The hydraulic tubes of her mechanical left arm extended segment by segment, the silvery Exoskeleton clinging to her scapulae spread outward, and thin wisps of heat vapor spurted from the joints.

She watched Xu Chen's face gradually collapse.

"You've said too much."

Xu Chen lifted his head.

Gray markings crawled across his face into a weird smiling pattern.

"Agent Qin......"

He raised his hand to press his chest; the broken ribs re‑aligned beneath skin and flesh on their own, and black blood flowed backward from the wound.

"I admit, your ambush was splendid. The surveillance jamming, the thermal imaging countermeasure, and the mechanical prosthetic's charge selection were all well done."

He moved his neck, the vertebrae cracking with a ka‑ka sound.

"What a pity."

"You're missing the most crucial thing."

Qin Zhixia pulled the trigger.

Xu Chen twisted his mouth open.

"Power."

"Without Quasi S‑rank suppression, without Rules‑level lockdown, you can't kill me."

He spread his hands, his tone suddenly exaggerated, even with a Sai Men‑style absurdity.

"A former police officer who lost an arm and got a mechanical one, a half‑dead Taotie Container lying on a bed, plus over twenty security guards whose pollution resistance hasn't even been maxed out."

"With this lineup, no one would pick it even in a game."

"Honestly, isn't Wei Gong being too stingy?"

The security Captain shouted angrily, "Fire!"

A dense hail of bullets pressed down.

Special Ammo pierced Xu Chen's chest and abdomen, drawing out a large spray of black blood.

But the black blood, after hitting the ground, didn't spread; it turned into a swarm of tiny insects that burrowed back into his Shadow.

Xu Chen stood amid the barrage, his body rocked back and forth from the hits, yet he kept laughing.

His shoulders trembled with laughter.

"It hurts, really hurts."

"What a pity, it's useless."

He lifted his hand, seized a projectile heading for his brow, and with a light press of his fingertip, the projectile turned into metal powder.

"Qin Zhixia, the lone‑hero trope has been outdated for twenty years."

"You can't save Lu Yu."

"Nor can you protect Qiu Ce Yuan."

"And you can't stop the hand of God."

He bent over, the flesh on his back bulging, several gray‑white tendrils sprouting from his spine, their tips unfolding into fine mouthparts.

Qin Zhixia had just been about to fire.

In the ward, the monitor on the bed suddenly flashed a string of red alarms.

Drip.

Drip drip.

Lu Yu, who had been lying on the sickbed, opened his eyes.

Those eyes were too calm.

No weakness, no panic, and no sluggishness of someone just waking from a coma.

Only the cold a hunter feels when prey steps into a trap.

Xu Chen's movement halted for half a beat.

"You......"

Lu Yu lowered his head to glance at the top‑grade restraints on his limbs.

Alloy ring buckles clamped his wrist bones, and inside were three Rule chains to restrict the flow of the Taotie Core.

He tried to move his fingers.

The next second.

Click.

The right‑hand restraint snapped in half.

Fragments flew up, embedding into the ceiling.

The S Ji restriction device the Medical Team spent three years developing was torn apart by him with one hand.

Lu Yu sat up, his shoulders and back thin, the Patient Gown hanging loosely, and thick bandages wrapped around his chest.

But when he raised his right arm, a jet‑black vortex appeared in his palm.

The vortex turned silently, and the surrounding light tubes dimmed as if forcibly pulled into darkness.

Xu Chen's expression finally changed.

Lu Yu tilted his head and looked at him.

"You just said, who is half‑dead?"

Xu Chen retreated violently.

But Qin Zhixia was even faster.

His mechanical left arm shot out a folding guard blade, a silvery afterimage slashing across the Corridor.

Just as Xu Chen moved his foot, the area ahead was already sealed by Qin Zhixia.

At the shattered glass of the ward behind, Lu Yu stepped out barefoot.

He stepped over the broken glass with his soles, without looking down.

The shards were drawn up by the palm vortex and turned into powder mid‑air.

Xu Chen's facial muscles twitched.

"Interesting. Lord Wei using you as bait?"

Lu Yu walked toward him, his tone very light.

"No."

"I woke up on my own."

He raised his hand and pressed his chest.

That spot, which should have housed a Crystal Stone parasite, now held only a sealed wound.

"Being used as a container feels terrible."

"So I'm not in a good mood right now."

A thin, strange laugh emitted from Xu Chen's throat.

"Lu Yu, you really think you're on the human side? Stop kidding yourself; you're the same kind of thing as us."

Lu Yu halted.

"Do you deserve it?"

When the words ended, he moved.

The Patient Gown was lifted by the wind pressure.

Lu Yu vanished from his spot, and when he reappeared he was already pressed up against Xu Chen's front.

His right fist smashed forward.

It wasn't a simple punch.

At the tip of the fist, a devouring vortex surfaced, pulling the space into fine black streaks, even the Corridor lights being drawn into the fist's core.

Xu Chen raised his arm to block.

Crack!

Half a shoulder, along with gray‑white flesh cords, was sucked into the vortex; bones shattered, and flesh compressed into a fist‑sized black meat lump.

Xu Chen let out a scream.

This time it wasn't acting.

It was real pain.

He staggered backward, the broken wound writhing wildly as it tried to heal.

But the gluttonous vortex lingered at the wound's edge, gnawing at every inch of regenerating tissue.

A little would grow, and a little would be devoured.

The frenzy in Xu Chen's eyes was scattered by the pain.

Qin Zhixia was already closing in.

Her mechanical left arm swept horizontally, pinning down Xu Chen's remaining right arm.

Her right hand, Tail-Head Snake, pressed near the abdomen and fired.

Bang.

The Special Ammo pierced Xu Chen's body, its projectile unfolding into a ring‑shaped lock that released a micro restriction field within the flesh.

Xu Chen's body stalled.

Lu Yu cut in from the side, his knee strike hitting beneath the ribs; the palm vortex adhered to Xu Chen's waist side, instantly devouring a large chunk of flesh.

The two exchanged no words.

Yet their coordination was chilling.

Qin Zhixia handled the frontal pressure, each landing of her mechanical arm catching Xu Chen's power joints.

Lu Yu was in charge of blocking the path.

He didn't care about elegance; as long as Xu Chen retreated, the devouring vortex would follow, like the mouth of the most greedy beast, gnawing away the escape.

Xu Chen tried to climb toward the ceiling.

Qin Zhixia's left arm reversed its grip; five mechanical fingers seized his ankle, pulling him harshly back to the ground.

Lu Yu followed with a punch.

Xu Chen's right leg vanished below the knee.

He tried to turn into mist.

Qin Zhixia raised her gun and fired three rapid shots; the projectiles unfolded three silver rings in the air, trapping the Gray Mist back into humanoid form.

Lu Yu pressed his palm on the edge of the silver ring, the gluttonous vortex contracting.

Xu Chen's chest was opened with a translucent hole.

Black blood sprayed onto the wall, and the wall surface was corroded into large charred scars.

Xu Chen finally panicked.

"Qin Zhixia!"

They roared.

"Do you really think Lu Yu is on your side? He will eventually devour everyone here! By helping him now, you're opening the door for a monster!"

Qin Zhixia's knee struck his chin.

"Cut the nonsense."

Xu Chen's lower jaw was dislocated, half his face tilted to the side.

Lu Yu seized his neck from behind, his palm's black vortex pressed against the back of his head.

Xu Chen convulsed all over.

A mass of gray patterns was pulled from his skin into Lu Yu's palm.

It wasn't flesh and blood.

It was conceptual contamination of the Gospel Seed.

Xu Chen's eyes rolled, and the darkness in his mouth began to collapse.

The regenerative ability he boasted about became a delivery service at the monster's doorstep.

The kind that waives delivery fees.

Lu Yu lowered his gaze at him.

"You charlatans share a common flaw."

"Always treating others as containers."

He clenched his five fingers.

"When it's their turn to be eaten, they scream louder than anyone."

Xu Chen forced out a broken hoho sound from his throat.

Qin Zhixia added a mechanical elbow strike.

Xu Chen was flung sideways, crashing through the side wall of the Corridor and rolling into the adjacent medicine storage room.

The medicine cabinet tipped over, and glass bottles shattered across the floor.

He lay amid the wreckage, his body seeming dismantled and haphazardly reassembled.

His left shoulder was gone.

His right leg was missing.

The edge of the chest hole was still being gnawed by black vortex scars.

Qin Zhixia entered the medicine storage room, lowering and then raising the gun barrel.

Lu Yu stood at the doorway, barefoot on the edge of the blood pool, the lower hem of his Patient Gown stained dirty with black blood.

Security personnel followed, but no one dared to cross the space between the two.

Xu Chen lifted his head.

The gray markings on his face dimmed.

He looked defeated.

Defeated thoroughly.

But a second later, he smiled.

It wasn't a gentle façade, nor a manic performance.

It was a delight rotten to the bone.

"Impressive."

"Qin Zhixia, Lu Yu."

"You two... really give people a surprise."

Qin Zhixia pressed down on the wrist.

"It's over."

Xu Chen propped his upper body with his remaining hand, black blood dripping from the severed wound.

"Over?"

"Why do you always like to write endings for others?"

Lu Yu squinted.

"He wants to self-destruct."

Qin Zhixia pulled the trigger.

Xu Chen's mutilated lower half swelled ahead.

Gray-white flesh buds exploded outward from his waist, covering the walls, floor, and medicine cabinet.

Qin Zhixia's mechanical arm blocked in front of them, forcibly bearing the impact.

Lu Yu's palm vortex expanded, swallowing most of the incoming flesh buds.

Yet some flesh still broke through the seal, forcing the two out of the medicine storage room.

The next moment, Xu Chen's lower half shattered completely.

Blood and flesh smeared all around, emitting a pungent putrid odor.

Only his upper body left, Xu Chen knelt on the ground, pressing his hands together above his head.

His posture was bizarre.

The desecration makes one's stomach tighten.

They didn't look at Qin Zhixia again, nor at Lu Yu.

They tilted their head back, blood‑red eyes gazing at the empty ceiling.

"Great observer."

"High‑dimensional scribe."

"Please have mercy on your humble beacon."

Qin Zhixia rushed forward.

Lu Yu also moved.

But Xu Chen's chant had already begun.

Each word Exit, the room's lights dim by a notch.

"I use my ruined body as a gate."

"With pollution as the path."

"In Lu Yu's name, I offer the coordinates."

"Please you......"

"Descend your gaze."

The ceiling emitted a pressure sound that made teeth ache.

The sturdy alloy plates were pressed downward by an invisible crushing force, light tubes burst one after another, and the white wall revealed a dense pattern of eye‑shaped markings.

Lu Yu's facial lines tightened.

Deep in his chest, at the spot where the extracted Crystal Stone had been, a lingering resonance unexpectedly emanated.

Qin Zhixia's mechanical arm emitted an overload alarm.

She still took a step forward.

Xu Chen knelt on the blood‑smeared ground, laughing so hard his entire upper body trembled.

"It has come."

"Divine......"

"I have seen you."

The words fell.

The space above the room seemed wrinkled by countless invisible hands.

A dim gaze not belonging to reality crossed logic, pierced the Reinforced Steel Bar concrete, and fell upon Lu Yu.

At that moment, all monitoring instruments reset to zero simultaneously.

Only the frantic alarms of Qin Zhixia's mechanical prosthetic remained at her ears.

Lu Yu lifted his head.

Deep within his pupil, the Taotie Core sank into an even darker place.

And that grand gaze was drawing near.