Chapter 47: A Thought of Compassion
Chu Yun used his willpower to build a solid defense, buying his companions a precious opportunity to counterattack. The tide of battle began to quietly turn in their favor. "Eureka!" Mo Li's voice was the first to echo through the "Bridge of Heart," his voice tinged with unconcealed excitement. "I've analyzed it! Its energy composition isn't a stable whole! It has a 'core'! Right in the center of that black fog, there's a point where the energy fluctuations have a completely different frequency than elsewhere! That's its 'heart'!" "I felt it too!" Li Ge's voice followed. "Although that 'core' is surrounded by a sea of negative emotions, its essence is incredibly fragile and unstable! Like... a wound that never heals!" "Zhilan?" Chu Yun, fighting back the excruciating pain of his consciousness threatening to rip him apart, asked Zhilan. "I... I saw it." Zhilan's voice trembled slightly, but it was filled with deep sympathy. "In that darkest place, I saw a child. He sat alone, hugging his knees. He wasn't crying or making a fuss, just... trembling." A child? This answer was so unexpected that Chu Yun and the other two were stunned. "He's cold and scared," Zhilan continued. "He wants someone to hug him, but everyone avoids him. He says he doesn't want to hurt anyone, he's just... so lonely." Loneliness. So, at its core, this horrific monster that devoured an entire village and wreaked endless nightmares was, at its core, a child consumed by extreme loneliness. "I understand." A flash of understanding flashed in Chu Yun's eyes. "Mo Li!" he shouted. "Use your strongest, most penetrating mechanical arts to open a path to that 'core' for us!" "Li Ge!" he called again. "Use your ghost medical skills to disrupt the negative emotions surrounding it, creating an opening for Mo Li's attack!" "Zhi Lan!" His final voice became incredibly gentle. "When that path appears, don't be afraid. Tell that child what's in your heart, what you most want to say to him." "I... understand!" Zhilan nodded firmly. "Now! Attack!" With Chu Yun's command, the team's joint attack officially began. "Tian Shu Armor-Breaking Cone!" Mo Li shouted delicately. She concentrated all her willpower into a high-speed spiral drill bit that flashed a dazzling cold light. The tip of the drill bit was also covered with a layer of Li Ge's cold aura, specifically for...
Chu Yun used his will to build a solid line of defense, winning a precious counterattack opportunity for his companions, and the battle situation began to quietly develop in their favor.
"Found it!" Mo Li's voice was the first to ring out from the "Bridge of Heart," his voice filled with a hint of unconcealable excitement. "I've figured it out! Its energy composition isn't a stable whole! It has a 'core'! Right in the center of that black mist, there's a point where the energy fluctuation frequency is completely different from everywhere else! That's its 'heart'!"
"I felt it too!" Li Ge's voice followed, "Although that 'core' is surrounded by a vast amount of negative emotions, its essence is extremely fragile and unstable! It's like... a wound that never heals!"
"Zhilan?" Chu Yun asked Zhilan, suppressing the severe pain of his consciousness being torn apart.
"I... I saw it." Zhilan's voice was trembling, but it was filled with deep sympathy. "In that darkest place, I saw a little child. He was sitting there alone, hugging his knees. He didn't cry or make a fuss, but... he was shaking the whole time."
A child? This answer was beyond everyone's expectations, leaving Chu Yun and the other two stunned.
"He was cold and scared," Zhilan continued. "He wanted someone to hug him, but everyone stayed away from him. He said he didn't want to hurt anyone, he was just... too lonely."
Loneliness. It turns out that this terrifying monster that devoured the entire village and created endless nightmares was, at its core, just a child who was extremely lonely.
"I understand." A hint of understanding flashed in Chu Yun's eyes.
"Mo Li!" he shouted, "Use your strongest and most penetrating mechanical arts to open a path for us to that 'core'!"
"Li Ge!" he shouted again, "Use your ghost doctor skills to disrupt the negative emotions around it and create an opportunity for Mo Li to attack!"
"Zhilan!" His final voice became incredibly gentle. "When that path appears, don't be afraid. Tell that child what's in your heart, what you most want to say to him."
"I... understand!" Zhilan nodded heavily.
"Now! Do it!"
With Chu Yun's order, the team's joint attack officially began.
"Tianshu Armor-Breaking Cone!" Mo Li shouted. She concentrated all her willpower into a high-speed spiral drill bit that flashed a dazzling cold light. A layer of Li Ge's cold aura clung to the tip of the drill bit, specifically designed to break down mental defenses.
"Go!" The spiral drill head flew out of his hand without making any sound, but with a determination to tear everything apart, it shot fiercely towards the rolling black fog!
"Boom--" The seemingly indestructible nightmare body was truly penetrated from the outside to the inside for the first time under this blow, leaving a small but clearly visible straight passage!
"Now! Zhilan!" Chu Yun shouted.
Zhilan, who had been protected by the three men, unreservedly sent her purest thoughts to the passage the moment it appeared. It wasn't an attack, nor was it a comfort, but simply a simple, well-intentioned thought: "Don't be afraid, I'm here."
This pure thought followed the channel opened by Mo Li and Li Ge, and accurately touched the loneliest "core" hidden in endless darkness and despair.
"Buzz—" The entire nightmare body froze the moment it was touched. The massive amount of negative emotions that were frantically attacking Chu Yun's mental barriers also paused for a second at this moment.
This very second was enough for Chu Yun!
"This is it!" He seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He stopped passively defending and instead concentrated the pure life force within him, which he had been using to build his "protective barrier," into a needle-tip-sized point. Then, it transformed into a soft, warm golden light, which he injected into the closing passage.
He didn't try to "purify" that core, nor did he want to "destroy" it. He simply channeled his understanding of life, his belief in protection, his longing for hope, and all the warmth he felt from his companions into this ray of light. Then, with this ray of light, he gently embraced that... trembling, lonely "child."
"Who... are you?" A faint thought, full of confusion and incomprehension, came from the core of the nightmare.
"My name is Chu Yun." Chu Yun's will responded gently, "I'm not here to hurt you. I just... want to tell you that you don't have to be alone anymore."
The golden light slowly began to merge into the fragile "core." It was like a drop of water falling into cracked earth, like a ray of sunlight shining into a cellar sealed for a thousand years. The core, composed of pure loneliness and fear, felt for the first time... "warmth" the moment it came into contact with this warmth.
"Warm..." the faint thought murmured to itself.
Then, a long, mournful wail came from the nightmare's body, as if it contained hundreds of years of suppressed pain, but with a hint of relief: "Ah——" The sound was no longer angry, no longer a roar, but a kind of... relief.
Following this mournful cry, the huge black energy body composed of endless negative emotions began to tremble and fluctuate violently, and then it began to... collapse.
"Success..." Mo Li said softly as he watched the incredible scene unfold before him. The massive black fog didn't explode or dissipate. Like a piece of solid ice bathed in sunlight, it began to melt and disintegrate bit by bit from its core.
The pure fear and despair that made up its body, tempered by Chu Yun's ray of "life," unexpectedly began to transform into a new, neutral, and emotionless spiritual energy. The huge energy body eventually completely disintegrated, transforming into countless tiny firefly-like points of light flying across the sky.
Those points of light scattered to every corner of this broken world.
"Look!" Zhilan's voice was filled with a hint of surprise. Chu Yun and the other two followed her gaze.
The "heart prisons" that had been repeating scenes of despair began to slowly stop after coming into contact with these points of light. The women pursued by the flames stopped, the men falling into the abyss stopped falling, and the fear on the faces of the villagers who had been pounced upon by the monsters gradually faded.
The suffocating atmosphere of despair that permeated the entire world was rapidly dissipating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At this moment, something new happened. The gray sky that had been covering them, shattered like a spider web, suddenly made a crisp sound like shattering glass: "Crack—"
A crack appeared at the very top of the sky, followed by a second, a third... countless cracks spread across the sky. Finally, with a loud "bang", the entire gray sky completely shattered.
In its place was a blue, clear sky unlike anything they had ever seen. A ray of golden, incomparably warm, real sunlight pierced through the numerous barriers, illuminating for the first time this dream world that had been imprisoned for countless years.
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