The monster's mind, which was teetering on the edge of losing all reason, couldn't comprehend what was happening. Anger surged within it, and it swung the tentacles in its hands.

"You're no longer yourself. The decisions you make, and even your consciousness. They aren't only influenced by others, but also rejected by this world. When you left your body, didn't you feel the suppression from this world?" Ruan Xing dodged the flailing tentacles, trying to get closer to his own body.

The monster suddenly roared, but part of its tentacles swung fiercely at itself.

The first areas it attacked were the most deformed and terrifying. Parts that could no longer be considered living. They were like aggregations of some dark matter, covered in grape-like tumors growing on its body.

As the monster lashed at them, those parts let out shrill screams. A mouth grew out of one of the tumors.

It wasn't Will's mouth, but the mouth of someone he had swallowed. From it came a scream: "Stop! Are you trying to kill yourself?!"

Was that… really himself?

Sure enough, Ruan Xing was right. This thing wasn't him at all!

Shocked and enraged, the monster struck at itself even harder.

Fu Gui was almost hit by one of the invisible tentacles and shrieked as he floated farther away.

Ruan Xing was close now. He neared the glass dome, trying to send his soul back into his body. But his control over his soul was clumsy, and in a moment of carelessness, he was nearly struck by a tentacle. He looked up at the monster, which was growing more furious and agitated with every surge of emotion.

Ruan Xing smiled.

【Spirit Speaker】

An innate ability that could be used even without a body.

It was the very first ability he used in this world, and in his current state, the only one he could still use.

In truth, his words earlier weren't wrong.

It was like taking apart a chicken and having each part evolve into a complete chicken. Now these "chickens" thought they were independent beings and wanted to merge into a super battle chicken. However, the final outcome was a monster made of countless merged wills.

Will's soul had long been polluted. Not by some external force, but by the influence of other souls.

Could a fragment of a soul, even with the help of the world's power, truly devour an entire person's mind and soul?

Ruan Xing had studied this before, and the answer was no. No matter how powerful that fragment is, once it's mixed with something else, it is already tainted.

Will was like a diligent student, but the notes he got from the teacher were incomplete. Wanting to score well was difficult.

The mouth was smashed apart by the monster's own strike, but a new one quickly formed.

"Stop! We face a common enemy right now! Anyway, you're no longer Will, so just swallow him! After that, no one in this world will ever be able to threaten you again!"

The monster's clouded mind wavered.

All it would take was one swipe of its hand, or opening its mouth, and the other could be destroyed or devoured. Why waste time listening to him talk? As long as it swallowed him, everything would be fine, right?

The monster looked at Ruan Xing, then suddenly spun around and opened its mouth like a black hole.

Ruan Xing's startled expression seemed to please the monster.

Whatever the problem was, becoming part of it would solve it. First, deal with the outsider, then clean up the inside.

The monster swung its tentacles again, this time wrapping toward Ruan Xing.

Now that it had made up its mind, it moved even faster than before.

Ruan Xing had no way to dodge.

The sticky, clammy sensation passed through his soul, almost completely wrapping him up.

This time, he didn't even have the time to use 【Spirit Speaker】.

The feeling of suffocation closed in.

Fu Zhi was also trapped, wrapped up just like him. Ruan Xing held the glowing orb in both hands, desperately searching for a way to throw it out.

He stretched his hands upward, forcing the orb through above his head.

But Fu Zhi didn't leave. It seemed as though a flash of crimson had passed through that orb.

Once he threw the orb away, Ruan Xing was completely engulfed. The soft tentacles squeezed him from all directions, giving him the feeling of being back in the temple's dark room. Back then, because he had to deal with the Holy Son's demands at night, he lacked sleep during the day. When he fell asleep in class, the teacher sent him to the dark room.

After three days without food or water, Ruan Xing felt so close to death.

But somehow, the news reached the knight's ears.

That third night, a food box bearing a family crest was shoved inside.

Ruan Xing could still remember the taste of that meal.

His vision darkened, and he even felt the urge to devour the soul before him.

If there had been a mirror at that moment, he would have seen that his eyes were blood-red.

He was inevitably being affected by the monster's soul.

But then, before his eyes, crimson flames ignited.

The monster screamed in pain. "What is this?! I clearly pulled your soul out! How can you still use your ability?"

In soul form, even Ruan Xing could only use 【Spirit Speaker】, so how could Fu Zhi use his abilities?

Ruan Xing opened his eyes to see the magnified shape of the glowing orb. But the red flames were not coming from it.

They came from… the mycelium.

Fu Gui, bare and covering his crotch, shouted, "What the hell, running off without a word!"

It turned out that Fu Gui, worried about their bodies, had ordered the mycelium to hack the puppet to pieces and move all three of their bodies to safety, at least to leave whole corpses if they died.

And when he had left, Ruan Xing had still been talking.

But the situation was flipped in an instant. One moment, the advantage was theirs, the next, Ruan Xing and Fu Zhi were already trapped.

In his panic, Fu Gui had told the mycelium to hurry over.

Unexpectedly, it didn't avoid the fight, instead, it had rushed straight at the glowing orb.

It had wrapped the orb up, given it a fierce toss, and flung the soul out of the battlefield.

Then crimson light had flared over its body.

This was an ability Fu Gui had only ever seen on Fu Zhi.

In fact, no one present had expected it.

The bright red flames burned over the monster's body. Like solid alcohol catching fire, it successfully ignited a huge part of it.

Even Fu Zhi's own soul-light was stunned, watching the mycelium tear through the monster's body.

In mere minutes, it had burned a chunk of the monster to ashes, which was precisely the part that had been holding Ruan Xing.

The monster let out a pained howl. Pain in the soul was ten or a hundred times worse than in the body.

Freed, Ruan Xing was immediately covered by Fu Zhi's soul-light, which had grown much larger, and carried him far from the battle.

"I… I remember now." Having burned away enough of the external minds, Will's self-awareness took over again. His face squeezed out from the lump of flesh.

"When I brought you back, you were only a few months old. The split experiment failed, and you awakened such a troublesome ability."

His words were jumbled, but Fu Zhi understood.

He remembered arriving at the base when he was five years old.

It seems that Will had already tried once, and perhaps, unwilling to directly harm him (FZ), he decided to split off part of his soul.

And the fragment that was cut away… was the mycelium?

Or rather, a shard of soul clinging to the mycelium?

But how could a soul attach to something that's not alive?

Ruan Xing knew it was possible. The Tower Spirit's soul had been specially processed to inhabit non-living forms, and fungi, strictly speaking, didn't count as living beings.

Thinking back to the strange closeness at their first meeting, and all the times the mycelium had shielded him… the images flashed through Ruan Xing's mind.

No wonder. That was why the bond had felt so sudden and so natural.

The little ball of mycelium before him didn't have high intelligence. As a shard of soul, it wasn't even at the level of a five-year-old child. But purely out of instinctive fondness, it had stepped in to protect him countless times.

Becoming Ruan Xing's sword. Becoming Ruan Xing's shield. Becoming his protector at his weakest moments.

This was also Fu Zhi.

Which meant that, shortly after he had arrived in this world, Fu Zhi had already been by his side. Just in another form.

"Chirp chirp!" The mycelium darted back to him, circling around as if seeking encouragement.

It reminded him of the child Fu Zhi had once been, constantly seeking his attention and revealing his most genuine feelings.

The grown Fu Zhi, however, kept more to himself.

Ruan Xing noticed Fu Zhi's soul-light seemed to be tinged with pink, as if he realized his own boldness.

"Heh heh." Will's voice echoed eerily in the vast space of the top floor.

"Ruan Xing, I admit your luck is a bit better than mine."

It used all its strength to try to squeeze the mycelium's soul out, but the mycelium was prepared. It may be soft and limp in body, but its soul was unshakable as it refused to leave.

Ruan Xing laughed aloud.

If Will were a human now, his expression would be priceless.

Unfortunately, he was only a transparent soul.

The mycelium chirped twice and charged at the monster again, this time wreathed entirely in red flame.

Will darted through the air in a frenzy, trying to escape the range of attack while also attempting to influence it.

Ruan Xing turned his gaze to Fu Zhi.

"I'll send you back to your body…"

At last, he passed through the glass dome, reaching their bodies.

The mycelium had arranged them well. Ruan Xing was even sitting against the wall, with Fu Zhi lying at his side.

Just as he was about to send the soul-light into Fu Zhi's body so they could return, Ruan Xing began to relax.

But suddenly, a sharp sense of danger struck.

He twisted aside just in time to see the monster, now much smaller, skirting around the mycelium and lunging at him. The human face that had been Will's was clear in the mass of flesh, grinning manically.

"Ruan Xing, let's die together!"

Ruan Xing's pupils contracted.

It wasn't the flames he feared, but the growing energy gathering around them.

Above, the cloud darkened, and its pillar-like column almost touched the Tower's top.

He glanced toward Will's discarded human body. The gathered power was filling it, feeding back into the soul through the link between body and spirit.

If that power exploded…

It wouldn't just be their souls, but the whole base could be wiped off the map.

The instant he realized this, a huge force slammed into him, ramming him back into his body.

The lightness vanished, replaced by the solid weight and heaviness of flesh.

He quickly looked toward Fu Zhi. After knocking him back, Fu Zhi tried to return to his body, but he was too late.

Tentacles wrapped around the soul-light, just as they had once trapped Ruan Xing, layering over it and blocking his return.

The mycelium squeaked in panic.

Ruan Xing immediately began to cast a spell.

He knew many incantations targeting souls, but right now, with the light almost completely wrapped, none could be used without harming Fu Zhi.

No choice!

He raised his hand and chanted. The strain of soul magic was too great. It caused blood to leak from his mouth and nose as he spoke.

Low on magic, he pulled magic crystals from his pocket, absorbing them while reciting the long spell. The floor was soon littered with shattered stones. The rapid in-and-out flow of magic wracked his body with pain, causing cold sweat mixed with blood.

Then, just as he prepared to finish, the mycelium suddenly darted toward him, trying to stop his chanting.

Its connection to its main body had returned, and the main body's command matched its own intent.

The situation was dire, but Ruan Xing's safety came first.

With grim resolve, the mycelium wrapped around his mouth, even sending a small part into it to block the chant.

"What are you doing?!"

Ruan Xing was shocked and angry, but couldn't fight it off.

No time left!

The command from its true body arrived!

In an instant, the mycelium swelled, wrapping up Ruan Xing entirely, along with Fu Gui, who had just woken up in the crow's body.

Boom!

Ruan Xing had been through many explosions, but this one was the first to make him feel such pain. Amid the roaring blast, his hearing vanished.

Silence fell.

It was like everything moved in slow motion.

He saw the mycelium's body torn to pieces, saw the crow flying toward him. Everything moved in surreal, dreamlike motion.

It was as if an invisible ripple spread from the Tower's center, slamming into the base's energy shield and stirring a huge reaction.

After that sharp, deafening boom, the top floor of the Tower began to collapse.

Walls and floors cracked in countless lines, like ruins turning to sand.

The cracks widened until the whole structure could no longer bear its weight, and pieces began to tumble down.

The top layer's energy shield had limited the blast's range, so the force didn't spread outward. It drove downward instead, splitting the Tower in half as the fracture ran through the entire white structure.

What began as a few falling chunks grew into a rain of rubble, until the whole building slowly caved in.

Countless people, just waking from dreams, heard the massive noise from the base's center.

Then, their windows shattered, and many had their eardrums ruptured.

They stared blankly at the white building.

It was as if the birth of something new was destined to bring about the death of the old...

Under the newborn sunlight, the Tower fell.

Beneath the rays of the newborn sun, the Tower crumbled.