Chapter 787: The Weakest Display—Destroying a City?

The weakest display—destroying a city?

Listening to Doctor An’s rapid introduction, Lu Xin suddenly felt an oddly bizarre sensation.

In truth, he was somewhat curious about the little girl named Sissi. Although her appearance didn’t quite match the notion of a ‘bodyguard,’ in an era where mental power mutations are rampant, danger can no longer be judged by surface looks.

Take, for instance, the Queen of Happy Town not far from Qinggang; she looks adorably innocent but is, in reality, a high-level queen…

Yet even with his mental preparation, after hearing Chen Jing introduce her, Lu Xin couldn’t help but be unexpectedly surprised.

It was like expecting someone to introduce a devastating handgun…

Only to have her caution that it was actually a super missile disguised as a handgun…

“Surprised?”

Even in such tense moments, Doctor An quickly shot Lu Xin a glance and said, “Back when we were searching for a fast and stable power to reach the Fourth Step, we tried nearly every conceivable method. We attempted upgrades with parasitic items, high-risk enhancement surgeries for ability users, and even treatment plans involving half-uncontrolled organisms.”

“This was just one attempt—a semi-failed type.”

“Sigh…”

As she spoke, she quickly glanced at Lu Xin and whispered, “What a pity…”

……

……

Before Lu Xin could ask what she meant by ‘pity,’ the little girl Sissi had already made her move.

“Sssss…”

As the metal ring on her right arm detached, her right limb—barely qualifying as an arm—suddenly shattered into rapidly writhing strands of flesh and blood.

It was as if one arm split instantly into two, then those two split into four.

In the end, the entire arm transformed into delicate, worm-like filaments, almost as if they had a life of their own.

Strand by strand, they lengthened without end, instantly covering the surrounding four to five meters.

“Whoosh…”

The first to react were the silent, chilling black shadows circling Lu Xin and his companions.

Just as Dr. Zhang had mentioned, their actions were rigid, driven by an inherent will and the nature of their pollution, giving those present a vital opening.

However, the fluctuating mental energy in the area still set off their alerts.

Within those seemingly dull, silent shadows, an explosion of mental power—like piercing gazes—erupted in an instant.

In a flash, invisible strands intertwined with Sissi from every direction.

“Thump, thump, thump”

Suddenly, intense heartbeats resonated from within the black forms.

Their synchronized pulsations carried a strange, almost magical force…

Anyone who heard or felt the rhythm would find their own heart beating in time.

Combined with their Pollution Logic, it appeared to be a method of enforced contamination.

“Swish, swish, swish…”

Yet Sissi paid no mind to these, as red blood threads danced swiftly in the air, seemingly capturing the frequency.

Faintly, one could see intermittent blood clots forming along the threads, apparently triggered by the vibrations.

“Why isn’t she attacking?”

Lu Xin felt puzzled, and in the very next moment, the truth dawned on him.

Sissi couldn’t see the pollutants directly, so she was sensing their presence through this method.

Sure enough.

Just as the heartbeats peaked, the red blood threads from Sissi’s right hand suddenly fanned out like a gigantic red net, with visible bloody marks intertwining in mid-air.

These strands punctured various spots on the black shadows with uncanny precision, accompanied by sounds of flesh being impaled.

“Gurgle, gurgle…”

A disturbingly clear sound emerged—one that was deeply unsettling to the ear.

Lu Xin watched as the black shadows suddenly deflated one by one.

They resembled water-filled balloons punctured with a straw and instantly drained.

“This…”

The swift, brutal spectacle was shockingly horrifying to behold.

“Ugh…”

Suddenly, the dense forest erupted with wild mental energy, generating a fierce gust of wind.

From behind rows of trees, a chorus of hiccup-like sounds emerged—but these weren’t ordinary hiccups.

They resembled the eerie noises of residual gas escaping from a corpse, triggering bizarre sounds from the throat.

Most troubling was that these strange noises came in an endless succession.

In an instant, they converged into a sea of bizarre sounds.

As these sounds echoed from all directions, more black shadows emerged from behind the trees.

It was as if every dark tree trunk in the dense forest had transformed into a black shadow. They stood silently, overtaking the entire forest, and then quickly converged on Lu Xin and his group.

Rustle, rustle, rustle.

The maddening crunch of leaves underfoot was enough to drive anyone insane.

The chaotic, eerie vortex of mental energy swirling about seemed to form a gigantic maelstrom that enveloped Sissi.

Yet, facing this seemingly endless horde, the little girl Sissi remained expressionless.

After a brief assessment, she silently disengaged the ring on her left arm.

“Clatter…”

The moment the metal ring hit the ground, her left arm too dissolved into countless blood threads that darted outward.

“Swish, swish, swish…”

Once more, a dense, sharp sound cut through the air.

The red silk threads from Sissi’s arms spread out, forming two enormous fans that extended horizontally, each thread puncturing the black shadows with precision before rapidly drawing sustenance.

“Gurgle, gurgle…”

Amid the chaotic clamor, the sound of swallowing was the clearest.

Astonishingly, her seemingly indiscriminate attack skillfully bypassed Doctor An and the others.

They appeared as solitary islands amid the bizarre chaos, their minds filled with dissonant clamor.

“Hehehe…”

“Hahahaha…”

“Coo coo coo…”

“…”

In that instant, the oppressive, lifeless forest seemed to come alive.

With countless shadows closing in yet being suppressed by Sissi’s arms, everything in the forest roared in unison.

Hanging from the trees were fruit-like figures resembling human forms, slowly turning to face Lu Xin’s group with grinning faces and emitting eerie laughter—it wasn’t a hallucination, but genuine laughter.

Beneath the forest floor, amid decaying leaves and tangled vines, enormous objects began rolling, stirring up waves of earth.

Bizarre owls fluttered in from afar, landing on nearby branches.

The surreal chaos was like dumping countless pigments into a glass of water and stirring them into the most complex hue.

“Cluck, cluck…”

Amid such maddening pressure, Sissi suddenly let out a suppressed sound from her throat.

It sounded almost like laughter.

Facing the relentless polluted forces, she seemed strangely amused.

In the next moment, several strands of blood spun around her, swiftly unlocking a few more rings on her body.

Clack, clack, clack…

Rings or semicircular bands from her left shoulder, right shoulder, neck, and left rib flashed with streaks of blue electric arcs as they fell to the ground.

Then, as if swept by a fierce wind, the ground was filled with dandelion-like fluff.

In an instant, endless blood threads emanated from her.

Some curled outwards, some flew into mid-air, and some burrowed into the ground.

The sound of these thin, resilient strands slicing through the air, drilling into the soil, and impaling thick, fleshy matter echoed from every corner, weaving an eerie symphony.

At that moment, Lu Xin even faintly saw the entire dense forest violently swaying.

He even heard the forest’s agonized cries—as if the forest were alive and struggling…

……

……

“This dense forest is a vast field—a chaotic, polluted life form…”

Doctor An furrowed his brows and quickly explained to Lu Xin, “Otherwise, how can we explain the convergence of so many types of Pollution Sources and Mental Monsters in one area? Normally, when Pollution Sources make contact, they only desperately contaminate each other; likewise, Mental Monsters only viciously attack one another. The only way they can all gather is if some force is controlling them.”

“The forest…”

Lu Xin found it hard to comprehend, “The forest can be polluted too?”

“Any entity with a spirit can be polluted.”

Doctor An murmured, “Whether it’s humans, animals, even insects or plants—they all fall under the realm of spiritual beings. They differ only in the strength of their mental power and the completeness of their consciousness, yet the essence of mental power remains the same…”

“Once, during our discussions at the Research Institute, someone made a joke about this topic…”

She paused briefly and whispered, “Buddha said: All beings are equal. In our chaotic era, those words have never rung truer.”

“This…”

Lu Xin found it impossible to digest her bizarre commentary.

But Doctor An had no further intent to discuss and quietly said, “Prepare yourselves…”

“Hmm?”

In response to Lu Xin’s puzzled look, Doctor An snapped, “Did you really think we brought Sissi here because we valued her above all else?”

“You are the strongest among us.”

“Sissi is merely our countermeasure to force out the most taboo Pollution hidden here…”

“If it appears, you’ll be the one to handle it…”

“…”

“Huh?”

Lu Xin felt a twinge of dejection, “So, you brought me here to be your enforcer?”

“What else?”

Doctor An abruptly turned and exclaimed, “You don’t really think we invited you for your expertise, do you?”