Chapter 86

Chapter 86

When the ability users looked at "Holy Snake Mountain" again, their gazes were filled with extreme vigilance.

"Holy Snake Mountain" did not take them seriously at all. Apart from Sheng Tianzong, who had just advanced to S-Class and posed a slight threat, the others were nothing more than prey that could be easily dealt with.

If not for Lin Juan's presence.

Its scrutinizing gaze swept over them like a scanner, seemingly subtle but impossible to ignore.

Lin Juan frowned faintly.

"Mr. Lin," Holy Snake Mountain slowly shifted its massive form, its voice booming, "I could open the domain immediately and let you all leave. I can also promise never to appear wherever you are..."

"What about Lu Yanzhou?" Lin Juan interrupted before it could finish.

With his memories restored, Lin Juan knew that in the world constructed by the domain, the first king of this land was none other than Lu Yanzhou.

Lu Yanzhou, who, like him, had lost all memories of the outside world.

"Huh?" Holy Snake Mountain paused. "I don't know."

It wasn't lying. To Holy Snake Mountain, every human who entered its domain was merely food on the table. There was no reason to care about the whereabouts of any particular piece of prey—after all, within the domain, no prey could escape.

The reason it paid attention to Lin Juan was because it knew of his terrifying power. If not for its fear of Lin Juan, it wouldn't have tried to reduce his size from the start, nor would it have seized the moment of his entry into the domain to seal his memories.

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They knew not to trust the words of an Anomaly. They had to remain vigilant against Lin Juan being deceived by Holy Snake Mountain. If Lin Juan actually believed what it said...

The consequences would be unthinkable. Even if it meant angering Mr. Lin, they had to nip any possibility of that in the bud!

A young and impulsive ability user mustered his courage and spoke up, "Mr. Lin, you can't trust what it says."

"I know," Lin Juan replied, glancing down at the tense ability user. After a moment of thought, he asked, "Do any of you know how to break an Anomaly's domain?"

Sheng Tianzong exchanged a look with his teammates and said, "There are a few methods. One is to find the weakest point of the domain and force a breakthrough, or..."

Before he could finish, Lin Juan interjected, "Kill the domain's owner?"

"Uh..." Sheng Tianzong hesitated, uncertain. "Well... probably, yes?"

Even though humans had never encountered an S-Class Anomaly before today, Zhuang Yufeng, who had been reborn from the future, knew that humanity would eventually face such a powerful enemy. To increase humanity's chances of survival, he used his "precognitive dream" ability as a pretext to inform the upper echelons of the Paranormal Special Affairs Office about the horrors of S-Class Anomalies and the methods humans could use to counter them.

Given the overpowering strength of S-Class Anomalies, Zhuang Yufeng emphasized strategies to overcome stronger opponents through subterfuge rather than brute force.

After all, in his previous life, there was no absolute powerhouse like Lin Juan.

Most methods for dealing with S-Class Anomalies relied on clever tactics.

Considering humanity's overall strength, Zhuang Yufeng did not elaborate much on the straightforward approach of directly eliminating the S-Class Anomaly itself.

However, it was undeniable that this method was the simplest and most efficient.

"ROAR—"

Seeing that its weak prey dared to ignore it and chat among themselves, Holy Snake Mountain let out a furious roar.

Quicker than thought, its powerful tail swept down, aiming directly at the ability users below.

What was merely a casual tail swipe to Holy Snake Mountain was a disaster for the ability users.

Before the tail even landed, a wave of pollution surged forth. Within the black mist, countless tiny snakes faintly emerged.

"Ah—"

An ability user cried out in pain as the black mist touched his arm. The swarm of tiny snakes that appeared with the mist seized the opportunity to burrow into his body, causing signs of corruption to instantly manifest on him.

The attacked ability user quickly activated his ability to resist.

Caught off guard by Holy Snake Mountain's sudden attack, Lin Juan gave an angry laugh. "Since you have no sense of honor, don't blame me for what comes next."

To defeat the leader first, you must capture the king.

Lin Juan leaped from the tentacle, descending from above and crashing onto Holy Snake Mountain's body. The tremendous impact sent Holy Snake Mountain plummeting to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

Without pause, Lin Juan continued his assault.

Fist after fist rained down, leaving Holy Snake Mountain stunned.

Since gaining sentience, Holy Snake Mountain had never encountered a worthy opponent. Wherever it went, whether it encountered pollutants or humans, all ended up in its stomach.

To it, the entire world was its food.

As its power grew, while devouring a Class A Anomaly, Holy Snake Mountain learned of Lin Juan's existence from the anomaly's memories.

Later, it frequently extracted information related to Lin Juan from the memories of its prey.

In the eyes of Class A Anomalies, Lin Juan was far too powerful, an unshakable existence. Holy Snake Mountain dismissed it until it accidentally encountered Lin Juan, who was on a business trip to Rongcheng with Lu Yanzhou. Upon learning that Lin Juan's strength remained unaffected despite his reduced size, Holy Snake Mountain began to take this human seriously for the first time.

The more powerful an entity, the sharper its perception of danger. In Lin Juan, Holy Snake Mountain sensed extreme peril.

But correspondingly, it also sensed the vast and profound pure power within Lin Juan.

A power so primordial and pure that it made Holy Snake Mountain salivate with desire.

At that moment, Holy Snake Mountain conceived the idea of making that power its own.

It dragged Lin Juan into its domain and, taking advantage of his unpreparedness, attempted to replace his memories. Unfortunately, while it succeeded in sealing Lin Juan's memories, it failed to substitute the false ones.

According to its plan, Lin Juan would have been gradually brainwashed and controlled by the Holy Snake Cult, eventually becoming its vessel during the grand sacrificial ceremony.

It knew that facing Lin Juan head-on might not guarantee victory, but its previous success in sealing Lin Juan's memories led it to believe that Lin Juan's true power had been exaggerated. Thus, when Lin Juan began pummeling it, the serpent was utterly stunned.

With each punch Lin Juan landed, a portion of the pollution dissipated from Holy Snake Mountain's body.

If Holy Snake Mountain had a health bar, each punch would have drained ten percent of it.

Holy Snake Mountain's body was too massive for Lin Juan to cover every area at once. Fortunately, the thrashing tentacles came to his aid. Dozens of tentacles swarmed around, tightly coiling around Holy Snake Mountain.

The tentacles writhed, their ventral suckers opening to reveal sharp teeth that sank deep into Holy Snake Mountain's flesh.

Flesh, blood, and corrupting energy were all devoured.

A piercing shriek of agony echoed across the land.

In excruciating pain, Holy Snake Mountain thrashed wildly. The now-faded swarm of tiny snakes desperately burrowed into the ability users, trying to absorb more power to fight against this invincible foe.

The familiar sensation of having its power stolen flooded Holy Snake Mountain's mind. Amid the searing pain, it laughed maniacally, "So it was you—the thing that's been secretly stealing my power all along!"

"Bwahahaha!"

"Lin Juan, you're so heartless to me! But did you know that the creature you've been raising is, at its core, the same kind of monster as me?!"

Sacred Serpent Mountain was fuming.

Inside its domain, it had always remained hidden in the shadows, spending most of its time asleep underground. The domain automatically absorbed nutrients from its food, continuously supplying it without requiring any effort on its part.

That is, until recently, when it sensed that the energy being transmitted to it by the domain was being intercepted. But then things got worse when that unknown entity not only intercepted the energy but also began devouring and even stealing power right from its body.

Due to a moment of distraction, it had nearly thirty percent of its power stolen.

Several of its incarnations had been consumed by that thing.

If not for that, why else would it have changed its plans just to get its power back?

Truly, one wrong move had started a chain reaction.

Sacred Serpent Mountain hated the entity that had stolen its power with a passion. It was determined to take back what belonged to it!

No, more than that—it would make the thing that dared steal its power within its own domain pay dearly.

It had searched for that entity for a long time with no success. To its surprise, the culprit had come to it of its own accord.

And it turned out to be in cahoots with Lin Juan.

Wasn't Lin Juan said to be the most powerful ability-user in China?

Why was he associating with a pollutant?

It could clearly sense the intense pollution coming from the tentacles.

This level of pollution was undoubtedly on par with its own, surpassing even the S-class threshold.

Perhaps even stronger than itself.

When did it piss off something so powerful?

S-class pollutants are highly territorial. Its domain would never allow another entity of the same level to enter so easily, especially one it had never detected before—a threat on its level, or even higher.

That left only one possibility.

This pollutant had entered the domain before it was strong enough to be a threat. It had grown stronger within the domain.

Its domain, including itself, had become food for that thing!

Realizing this, Sacred Serpent Mountain was so enraged it felt like spitting nails.

Blinded by hatred, it ignored the agony of its body being ripped apart and broke free from the grip of the human and the tentacles.

Its massive serpent head detached from its neck, soaring into the sky as the entire domain answered its call and converged.

The domain began to collapse.

Sheng Tianzong and the others felt their power being continuously drained. Sheng Tianzong, being an S-class ability-user, could resist for a while, but those below A-class had no chance; they quickly mutated into polluted creatures.

Outside, the ground quaked and the mountains shook.

A billowing black mist seeped from the ground.

China's top forces had gathered here. The highest-level pollution shielding devices were already in place, with countless ability-users on high alert, prepared to risk their lives at any moment.

"The pollution levels are still rising!"

"They've exceeded the threshold! The equipment can only hold for fifteen more minutes at most!"

Fifteen minutes.

Faced with the rapidly escalating pollution, the high-ranking officials of the Paranormal Special Affairs Office looked grim. "No matter what, we must find a way to hold this line!"

"What about the new pollution shielding devices? Hurry and deploy them! We can't hold on much longer here!"

"The civilians have been evacuated!"

The sounds of footsteps, voices, and machinery blended together in a chaotic yet orderly scene.

The skyrocketing pollution levels had blown past all initial estimates. If the S-class pollution were to fully erupt, much of China, including Rongcheng, would likely fall.

No one could bear such an outcome.

Yet, everyone was prepared for the worst.

In the face of this immense crisis, the country's defense machinery kicked into high gear. Air raid sirens blared intermittently as the public evacuated under military escort.

Black mist rose into the sky, blotting out the sunlight and darkening the heavens.

The black mist, now almost solid, burst through the ground as if a powerful earthquake had struck, cracking the earth with massive fissures.

A colossal head, composed of rock and flesh, emerged from the cracks.

The appearance of this behemoth signaled that the domain had been shattered.