The icy lake water swallowed his consciousness. Jiang Qi thought he was dead.
But the next second, he jerked upright and found himself lying on Rust Lake.
He had lost.
“Fourth District Second-in-Command...”
Dark red beams had pierced through most of his blue-gray armor. Its repairs were nowhere near fast enough to keep up with the destruction caused by the explosions.
His desperate struggle had paid off.
At the final moment, the Azure Mist in his Left Eye whirled wildly, and the entire Azure Silhouette crumbled into dust like rust.
He had teleported back to Rust Lake.
The Notebook appeared in his hand again, new writing on its first page.
“Heh...”
Jiang Qi couldn’t help letting out a low laugh.
Losing to Wang Huan hadn’t humiliated him. Instead, a bestial excitement stirred in his heart.
He could clearly sense a brand-new power growing in the depths of his soul.
It was the Authority he had seized by devouring the mechanical disc!
The Notebook silently appeared in his hand.
On its blank page, Rust swiftly traced out a line of cold text.
【Corrosion Leap】
One: Touch an object for ten seconds to leave a Corrosion Mark. Activate the ability to switch places with the marked object within 20 meters.
Two: Can only switch places with inanimate objects.
Three: The Mark disappears after Translocation.
“Devour, then plunder.”
Jiang Qi murmured to himself. He had finally glimpsed a corner of the Rust-Character Path of Ascension.
He picked up a clod of earth and focused his Spirit. A peculiar sensation of erosion arose.
After ten seconds, he could feel that an “Anchor Point” had been set.
“What a strange feeling. Like there’s a thread.”
Jiang Qi put the earth back down, moved ten meters away, and closed his eyes.
In the dark Space, only two points of light remained: himself and the Mark.
“Bzz!”
A faint tremor rippled through Space.
The scene before Jiang Qi’s eyes instantly warped and folded!
The next moment, he was already ten meters away.
Jiang Qi and the clod of earth bearing the Anchor Point had switched places.
“Pfft!”
But multiple lacerations appeared across his body, and a powerful wave of dizziness struck him.
Jiang Qi’s vision went black. He braced himself against the ground with both hands, barely keeping himself from falling.
“It puts a huge strain on the body... But this is a Space ability!”
Far from being afraid, Jiang Qi’s eyes blazed with fervor.
“Spatial travel right after Ascension... The Rust Character Ascension Path...”
Jiang Qi felt both delight and apprehension toward the Rust-Character Path of Ascension.
After recovering in Rust Lake, he tried it many more times and gradually grew accustomed to the process of Translocation.
Jiang Qi also tried leaving multiple Anchor Points at once, but ultimately failed.
At his current stage, he could only place a Corrosion Mark on one object.
He greedily savored this newborn power until the ripple of teleportation enveloped him once more.
“Time to go back.”
He spoke calmly to this Forbidden Zone.
“Please, don’t let anything go wrong this time.”
...
Fourth District Inspectorate.
“Ah! Doctor Chi, it hurts, it hurts!”
Wang Huan lay on the hospital bed, shouting nonstop.
His right arm hung limp, and his shoulder was charred black, covered in dark red patterns.
“Be quiet.”
Chi Yanqiu’s voice was as clear and cold as ice.
“Make another sound and I’ll cut out all your muscles and replace them with a Mechanical Arm.”
Wang Huan immediately shut his mouth.
I’ll endure it.
Dark Green Starlight appeared at Chi Yanqiu’s fingertips, racing along the dark red patterns.
The Starlight touched his wounds, stitching together his bones, muscles, and blood vessels layer by layer.
She was tall and slender, with naturally graceful lines from her shoulders to her neck.
Her ten fingers moved like exquisite works of sculpture, and paired with her alluring eyes, she was a true beauty.
“What a shame she has a mouth.”
Wang Huan grumbled to himself.
“What kind of World-Devouring Species could do this to you?”
Chi Yanqiu asked without looking up.
“A Humanoid Species wearing a Bronze Mask.”
Wang Huan’s tone abruptly turned serious.
“It was the strangest World-Devouring Species I’ve ever encountered.”
Knock, knock!
Shen Yun knocked twice on the open door.
“Boss!”
Wang Huan tried to get up, but Shen Yun pressed a hand down in the air, and he lay back down.
Shen Yun and Chen Ren came in together.
Shen Yun looked at Wang Huan’s rapidly healing right arm, his gaze deep.
“Doctor Chi, I hope we’re not interrupting.”
“Not at all.”
Chi Yanqiu flicked her fingers. Energy gathered in the air, forming two chairs out of nothing.
Chen Ren thanked her and sat down.
According to Chen Ren, all the surveillance cameras across a wide area around the battle had been reduced to noisy static.
The affected area was much larger than the blast radius.
With all information lost, they could only learn what happened from Wang Huan, the person involved.
Wang Huan recounted the events, while Chen Ren quickly took notes.
“So it didn’t actually attack you first?”
Chen Ren sensed something strange.
Wang Huan thought back carefully.
Although he had suppressed the Bronze Man right away, it had never shown him any offensive abilities, not even at the end.
“That’s right.”
Then, when he heard about the Corrosion and reconstruction, he pushed up his glasses.
“The ability to extinguish flames, corrode all things, and repair itself... I have a theory.”
“The Forbidden Zone.”
Those two words landed in the hospital room like a bomb.
“The Forbidden Zone has never interfered with the outside world of its own accord.”
Chi Yanqiu kept moving her fingers as she spoke, but her tone had grown colder.
“That’s true, so far.”
Chen Ren lowered his head to look at the floor, blue light glinting off his glasses.
“But that doesn’t mean the Forbidden Zone will remain peaceful forever.”
“Kindred devouring Kindred...”
His gaze swept over everyone.
“Not only humans—even other World-Devouring Species can’t leave alive. Doesn’t that fit the Forbidden Zone’s nature of devouring everything?”
For a moment, the only sound in the hospital room was Wang Huan’s arm being repaired.
“What a shame. I was this close to killing it.”
Wang Huan tapped the hospital bed with his left hand in frustration.
“It has a teleportation ability that’s almost impossible to interrupt. I’m just not good at chasing.”
“You’ll break it. That’s 900.”
Doctor Chi withdrew the Starlight from her fingertips. Wang Huan’s arm had already visibly recovered quite a bit.
“Stop thinking about killing it. What we need to know is why it came.”
Chi Yanqiu’s gaze swept over everyone in the room, finally coming to rest on Wang Huan.
“Is it a World-Devouring Species?”
“It devoured other World-Devouring Species right in front of you, yet showed no interest in you as a human.”
“Fighting isn’t the only way to solve a problem. After all, no one knows what’s really inside the Forbidden Zone.”
“That’s true.”
For once, Wang Huan could understand and agree with someone.
“Also, don’t use an ability that dangerous unless you have to.”
Wang Huan nodded.
Shen Yun hadn’t said a word from beginning to end. No one knew what he was thinking.
Only now did he speak.
“Create a new file and upload it to Headquarters.”
Codename: 【Bronze Man】
Species: Humanoid Species.
Ability One: Passive Corrosion.
Extremely resistant to physical attacks, with astonishing self-healing abilities.
Ability Two: Devouring and Conversion.
Highly effective against Elementalization abilities; presumed to possess formidable close-quarters physical attack methods.
Ability Three: Spatial Teleportation.
Possesses a teleportation ability that is difficult to disrupt or interrupt, used for hunting and escape.
Behavioral pattern: Hunts other World-Devouring Species. Has not yet shown clear hostility toward humans.
Presumed weakness: Mental Attack.
Estimated Ascension stage: Stage Five.
Threat level: A
After saying this, even Shen Yun fell silent.
“The Forbidden Zone’s power is indeed terrifying, but next time I’ll definitely kill it!”
Wang Huan’s fighting spirit flared anew as he promised.
“Jiang Qi is back.”
Dawn was just breaking.
Dormitory 802.
This Forbidden Zone ability isn’t much use after all!
Jiang Qi, who had teleported back to his dorm room, swung his fists and kicked.
At present, apart from the Translocation ability gained through devouring, the Rust-Character Path of Ascension he had chosen during the Ascension Ritual manifested in him in only two ways.
One: His Left Eye could predict attacks.
Two: His physical attributes were enhanced.
To what degree?
About as much as choosing a talent focused on Strength, without any additional effects.
In short, it was far from the “forbidden power” he had expected.
He had already realized that the Bronze Man was some kind of reflection of Rust Lake. This power did not yet belong to him.
Jiang Qi had been completely clueless about physical combat arts in both his past and present lives.
As a result, he currently had no direct means of physical attack.
“I have to find a way to fight at close range that’s truly my own.”
Alarm bells rang in Jiang Qi’s mind.
In the battle with the mechanical-disc World-Devouring Species, the distance had been too great and the enemy too powerful.
He hadn’t had any chance to use his abilities.
He also didn’t know how powerful the Psychic Shock from his “Mad Laughter” really was.
Besides that, there was also a strange Notebook.
Jiang Qi was about to take out the Notebook.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
“Coming.”
Chen Ren stood at the door.
“Welcome back, Jiang Qi.”