Chapter 173
Chapter 173
The moment Qin Lan’s Curse Core touched [Dread Heart], the cursed artifact transformed into a twisted mass of flesh and merged into his body.
An icy sensation appeared, like a venomous snake burrowing into his veins and slithering through him.
“What a strange feeling…”
Qin Lan frowned. Rather than resist, he guided the cold energy slowly toward his heart.
The instant they touched, his face turned deathly pale.
He felt the thing burrow into his heart and fuse with it in an incomprehensible way.
Thump-thump…
Thump-thump…
Qin Lan’s heartbeat stopped for a moment, then resumed.
Previously, every beat merely pumped blood through his body.
Now his heart resembled a bottomless pit, greedily devouring the curse energy around him.
“So fast!”
The absorption speed shocked Qin Lan.
Even replenishing himself with a Curse Crystal had imposed a limit on how quickly his Core recovered. Now his heart operated like a pump at full power, faintly forming a small vortex around him.
A vortex of curse energy.
Wave after wave of warm life force emerged, repairing Qin Lan’s injuries.
The body Xu Min had severely damaged recovered at a visible speed. Even the internal organs that were hardest to heal began rapidly restoring themselves.
After only a few minutes, Qin Lan’s body had returned to peak condition!
“This… This is terrifying!”
Qin Lan was stunned by [Dread Heart’s] power.
Recovering from his previous injuries on his own would have taken days, even if he continuously absorbed Curse Crystals.
Now the process was more than a hundred times faster!
[That is the power of parasitic cursed artifacts.]
Yin Manqing chuckled.
[They don’t need to be taken out. Their effects remain active at all times, and the enhancement is extremely powerful.]
[That is why they are often worth several times more than other cursed artifacts.]
Qin Lan marveled and clenched his fist. Vigorous life force surged through him, his body once again at its peak.
Who would dare challenge him to a battle of attrition now?
Even if both sides suffered equally devastating injuries, he needed only a few minutes to recover completely…
Terrifying was no longer strong enough to describe the effect.
Horrifying was more appropriate.
Imagine exhausting every method to reduce an enemy to a sliver of health, only to watch him duck into the bushes. By the time you caught up, his health bar was full again.
So was his mana bar.
What was the point of fighting? Just vote to surrender and start the next match.
“Why didn’t Xu Min use something this valuable himself? He simply left it inside the bracelet, and now I’ve profited…”
Amid his ecstasy, Qin Lan could not understand that point.
How could he know that [Dread Heart] had been an expensive gift Xu Min prepared for Elder Zhai to improve their relationship?
Xu Min had barely acquired it before Qin Lan tricked him and took everything.
[The entire Central Safe Zone should be under lockdown by now.]
Yin Manqing warned him.
[You are at least a full day’s travel from the nearest entrance to the Fallen Zone.]
[Unless something unexpected happens, the Anomaly Hunter Bureau has received orders to hunt you down as well.]
Her tone was grave. [That stone is valuable enough for senior United Government officials to pressure the Anomaly Hunter Bureau.]
Qin Lan finally understood the severity of the situation.
“No wonder you told me to destroy my communicator… Even the Anomaly Hunter Bureau will help them?”
Qin Lan sucked in a cold breath.
The Anomaly Hunter Bureau should have been his strongest support. Now it had become an enemy hunting him.
As an Anomaly Hunter himself, Qin Lan naturally understood how terrifying the Bureau’s power was.
It did not need to mobilize everyone.
One notice would be enough. Even if only a small portion of Anomaly Hunters received the message, they would form an inescapable net.
Qin Lan had become a turtle trapped in a jar.
[Still, escape isn’t impossible.]
Yin Manqing changed direction.
[Reaching the Fallen Zone is simple… You merely need to make a small ‘sacrifice.’]
She deliberately stressed the word “sacrifice.”
Qin Lan froze, then widened his eyes.
“Sacrifice my body? That… doesn’t seem appropriate.”
“I’ve guarded my purity all these years. I’m still a genuine vir–”
[Who the fuck asked you to sacrifice your body?]
Yin Manqing cursed irritably. [Do you remember the gray-market recycling business the clothing-shop owner mentioned when you questioned him?]
Qin Lan paused and nodded. “I remember. He said those people entered the Fallen Zone to collect remains scattered everywhere, then gathered them together–”
Suddenly, Qin Lan jolted.
“Wait!”
“You were still just a piece of clothing then. How do you know about that?!”
[Hmph. Although I was nearly exhausted at the time, I could still sense my surroundings.]
[I simply couldn’t respond to the outside world.]
“Oh, that’s fine…” Qin Lan sighed in relief. “I thought you read my memories while I wasn’t paying attention.”
[Who would be interested in your chaotic memories?]
[I certainly can’t be bothered to look at all those sticky, stringy kissing sessions with your little girlfriend.]
“…?”
“So you did read them…”
Qin Lan felt powerless.
Admittedly, he had managed to abduct the original author of the Soul Tower, gaining a free knowledge base and mental cultivation instructor. But having someone read his thoughts and memories remained difficult to accept.
[What?]
[Afraid I’ll plot against you?]
Yin Manqing sounded disdainful. [Reading memories is troublesome. I can only see a few recent fragments that you leave completely undefended.]
[To read anything more private or distant, I would need your full cooperation. You would detect the slightest disturbance during the process.]
Qin Lan remained skeptical.
Yin Manqing was an expert specializing in mental power. He could not trust everything she said. Even if she concealed something, Qin Lan had no way to distinguish it.
[Still worried?]
Yin Manqing sensed his concern. After some hesitation, she sighed. [I suppose that’s understandable…]
[Then how about this?]
As Yin Manqing spoke, a cool current of energy separated from the combat uniform and landed in Qin Lan’s palm.
[I will place half my soul essence in your hands.]
[If you sense anything wrong, you can destroy this portion at any time and erase me from existence.]
Yin Manqing spoke as calmly as though explaining how to operate a blender.
[Will that put you more at ease?]
Qin Lan froze.
He had never expected Yin Manqing to go this far.
The Soul Tower also described the concept of soul essence.
It was the origin condensed after mental power became tangible, similar to a Curse Core but even more important.
Destroying a Curse Core merely erased someone’s cultivation, turning them into an ordinary person incapable of using a Talent.
Destroying their soul essence directly annihilated the entire soul.
The cool soul essence floated in Qin Lan’s hand, fragile as a candle flame in the wind. It seemed one thought from him could crush it.
“Sister Yin…” Qin Lan slowly said. “That isn’t what I meant.”
Yin Manqing laughed bitterly. [Enough. You’re worried I’ll control you, aren’t you? Handing you my soul essence proves my sincerity. Doesn’t it?]
The student she had once taken greatest pride in had betrayed her and nearly condemned her beyond redemption.
Now she had met Qin Lan, the only opportunity she had found in more than a decade.
He was, quite literally, her final lifeline.
Handing over her soul essence posed enormous danger, but she had no road left.
Even if Qin Lan stabbed her in the back too…
She would have nothing to say. She could only accept her fate.
“Uh, what I meant was, you saw my memories, but I can’t see yours. That seems unfair…”
Qin Lan spoke timidly and tested the waters.
“You can keep your soul essence. But if you have any particularly indecent, embarrassing memories, you could let me see those. Then we’d be even…”
“Something involving Pink Mo–”
[Where’s the stone?!]
[I’m going to kill you!]