Chapter 131: The Primal Specter

Spirits are unlike other living beings; for a spirit, committing suicide is far too easy.

They live for their obsessions.

As long as they voluntarily let go of their obsession and sincerely give it up, the spirit will dissipate between heaven and earth. The scene of their dissolution is extraordinarily magnificent; the spiritual energy, losing its anchor, scatters like dandelions blown by the wind, transforming into streams of burning, glowing fragments that drift upward and wither away.

Ultimately, they vanish beneath the pitch-black dome.

Just like the obsessed ones themselves.

The light they burn with is utterly incapable of illuminating this world; it is merely the struggle of a dying afterglow before the world steps into an even deeper darkness.

Perhaps they, too, had long intended to give up.

To give up that endlessly heavy, overwhelmingly exhausting, and endlessly imposed duty.

Lanyi’s arrival provided them with another path to choose—a path using these broken remains to forge a bridge toward a future that had never existed in countless previous cycles.

Both Bai and Chi silently watched as their comrades willingly let go of their obsessions and burned away into nothingness, as if desperately carving the scene deep into their minds. Ever since they learned of the existence of the loop, they had grown exceptionally cherishful of everything before their eyes; perhaps in the blink of an eye, not even memories would remain...

The dozen or so obsessed ones burned away with astonishing speed.

After so many obsessed individuals perished,

both Emperor Bai and Emperor Chi saw it clearly.

The system—which normally only appeared when issuing tasks to slay ghost entities, manifesting as that eerie, bright yellow text visible only to them—suddenly surged forth. It squirmed and trembled within their field of vision, seemingly agitated by the sudden death of so many obsessed souls.

"Lanyi, it has appeared."

Emperor Chi warned, while Emperor Bai silently drew his sword, preparing to unleash its power.

Lanyi could not see the bright yellow text.

However, as a spiritual energy cultivator, he could clearly sense that the emotional field within the dungeon had fundamentally changed. The spiritual energy environment, which could previously be described as excessively dense, was now being violently drained of massive amounts of spiritual energy, squeezing out all those negative emotions. In their place, a complex structural order—invisible to the naked eye, yet directly blanketing every single inch of space—began to rapidly generate.

"Demon God tier."

A trace of unusual color flickered across Emperor Bai's calm, stern face.

Demon God tier.

Theoretically, this was the ultimate form of a ghost entity within an artificial divine realm environment. It could easily pollute or purify souls below the Demon God tier, and forge its own compatible armaments through the power of its mind and heart. Upon reaching this level, the Demon God tier had initially stepped into the true domains of time, space, and causality, rather than merely relying on the twisted conceptual effects characteristic of obsession-based armaments.

"It hasn't reached that exaggerated extent yet. It should simply be utilizing the time crystals, undergoing extreme specialization to reach the peak of the sixth energy level (the theoretical full-combat strength of the Demon King tier). Without the loop, killing it would actually be quite easy."

Lanyi was searching for the right moment to strike.

This primordial ghost entity, the parasite of the time crystals, could actively control the initiation of the loop; that was the most troublesome part.

Yet a ghost entity remained a ghost entity.

It possessed only processing intelligence, not true wisdom, falling even a notch below artificial intelligence.

Through goodness knows how many cycles, this primordial ghost entity, born from the convergence of extreme emotions, possessed merely a slightly stronger instinct for pursuing benefits and avoiding harm compared to other ghosts. For instance, it knew how to maximize its gains, how to bind itself together with the time crystals, and how to trigger a loop restart the moment it died or when the timing was right.

Consequently,

even endowed with mere instinct, once the Azure Dragon Federal government provided the startup capital, this primordial ghost entity could directly exploit the lives of the entire Artificial Divine Realm 2055 to grow stronger!

Its power

was built upon endless corpses and absolute despair.

Averaging several hundred thousand deaths per person, draining their souls completely dry just to nourish it!!

This primordial ghost entity—

according to the expectations of Emperor Chi and Emperor Bai, it should have been immensely huge and grotesque, just like the ghost entities currently occupying the future and rampaging across the surface: abominations that induced mental pollution at a single glance and caused one to mentally shatter at a second.

Instead, it was beautiful—brimming with the beauty of order, the beauty of coordination, and the beauty of the human form.

When the massive emotional field structure took final form beneath the pitch-black dome of the dungeon, resembling the descent of a goddess amidst the center of the soft, pure white light illuminating the entire underground city, a slender, graceful silhouette opened a pair of dazzling, magnificent eyes. It was deservingly breathtaking, a composite of numerous perfect images.

Filiya’s mature charm, Skuld’s maidenly allure, the tomboy’s ample assets, the gentle motherly aura of the senior schoolmate, Juno’s noble dignity, Jian Ziyue’s sharp and awe-inspiring presence...

Beneath this exquisite beauty

lay indescribable danger.

Its manifested vessel in the future merely smiled gently at Emperor Chi and Emperor Bai.

The two peak True Demon tier obsessed beings, armed with ultra-powerful obsession weapons, instantly fell into a daze. Following that, they collapsed heavily onto their knees in agony, coughing up massive mouthfuls of scattering spiritual energy.

Lanyi cast a sympathetic glance in their direction.

Through so many cycles, as the chosen tools, how could the primordial ghost entity not have hidden backdoors within their bodies? Even without backdoors, relying on the information mastered through the loop, the primordial ghost entity—having eradicated all alternative possibilities—could effortlessly subdue any life form within Artificial Divine Realm 2055.

Except for a spiritual energy cultivator who had crossed realms and existed outside the loop!

"I see. This must be our sixth or seventh meeting, I suppose."

Lanyi did not make a move.

His goal was to lure out the primordial ghost entity, not to kill it.

The very instant it was slain, the loop would restart.

The descending primordial ghost entity offered no conversation; its magically imbued eyes locked onto Lanyi. It was evident that it harbored immense dread toward Old Demon Lan. Even its appearance had been forcefully molded into this form—arguably the optimal visage to please Lanyi, and the primary reason the ghost entity manifested with this appearance was sheer terror.

Terror of the profound lightning mastered by Lanyi, which was specifically designed to slay ghosts.

Otherwise, the primordial ghost entity would certainly not look like this.

With his vast experience, Lanyi instantly deduced the approximate number of encounters and combat exchanges between them.

Another defining trait of ghost entities was bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

Having been killed so many times, it had unconsciously gathered the interactive emotions overflowing from Old Demon Lan, attempting to weaken his combat desire by constructing an exterior that conformed to his aesthetic preferences.

This also demonstrated that

this primordial ghost entity's control over the time crystals was not yet refined enough.

At least, it was not sophisticated enough to execute nested loops within loops, thereby figuring out all of Lanyi's abilities and formulating a foolproof combat strategy. Instead, it could only resort to using beauty in an attempt to seduce Old Demon Lan and dull his urge to strike—which conveniently aligned with the strategy Lanyi had instinctively formulated.

*‘I hope that once they reach the moon, they move quickly. If things drag on for too long, the Conquest Space and the trans-dimensional monsters will become troublesome to handle...’*

Amidst the silent standoff,

Lanyi narrowed his eyes slightly. Having accumulated experiences across multiple cycles, the moment for him to feast heartily was almost at hand! Utilizing this opportunity, he would break through to the Dharma Form stage in one fell swoop!