Nianxi slipped from his arms and sank again, pulled under by her soaked clothes as Lin Fang rose higher and higher into the night sky.

He did not even see her fall.

His back arched violently as black and gold light burst from beneath his skin, tearing through the air in violent waves.

One aura burned like sunlight made solid, the other cracked with dark pressure that swallowed the light around it.

The lake trembled at once.

The Green Anaconda Queen stopped mid-coil. Its massive body froze half-submerged as it lifted its head slowly, eyes reflecting the twin auras rising into the sky.

Ryan lowered his sword without realizing it. Lightning crawled over his blade and then faded as his gaze locked onto the floating figure. His brows drew together. “Legacy…?” he muttered under his breath. “No. This is not normal legacy acceptance.”

Bu Mokong staggered back a step, shielding his eyes from the black-gold glare. “What the hell is happening?”

Li Ying’s expression darkened. Her wyvern shifted nervously beneath her. “Who was he? It’s so intimidating.”

Above the lake, Lin Fang’s scream deepened, growing hoarse and wild like a beast.

*Graaaaa*

The light around him thickened until it formed two overlapping silhouettes behind his floating body.

One vague and radiant.

One vast, metallic, and shadowed. They tore apart from his spine as if being ripped free from his soul.

His mana split.

The pressure detonated outward in a shockwave and blew up the drone, which was flying more than a hundred meters away.

The Anaconda Queen was shoved back violently, its massive body crashing into the far bank with a thunderous impact.

Ryan was forced to dig his blade into the ground to keep from being blown away.

Li Ying’s wyvern let out a frightened screech as it was pushed backward through the air.

High above them, Lin Fang hung suspended between the two auras, his body trembling uncontrollably.

At the same time, far away in the control room, Feng Xiu stared at a rapidly flickering screen. The image shook violently as the drone tried to stabilize itself.

For half a second, the mysterious person’s floating figure filled the frame in blinding black and gold.

Then the feed cut out.

Static filled the screen.

The operator beside him swallowed hard. “Drone… destroyed, sir.”

Feng Xiu slowly set his coffee down. “Sector 77,” he said quietly. “Send the remaining drones. Both of them.”

“Yes, sir.”

As the commands went out, Feng Xiu leaned closer to the darkened screen, his eyes narrowed. “Just what are you, Lin Fang?”

For half a minute, the lake was wrapped in chaos.

Lin Fang’s scream tore through the night without pause, rising and falling like something being torn apart and stitched back together at the same time.

The air twisted around him as two auras clashed violently.

One burned pure and heavy like a descending sun, crushing and absolute.

The other spread like cold fire, sharp and predatory, devouring the light around it instead of pushing it away.

Black and gold crashed into each other over and over again, sending ripples across the water and bending the trees along the shore.

The Green Anaconda Queen did not move.

Its huge body remained coiled at the edge of the lake, head lifted high, eyes fixed on Lin Fang. It did not attack. It did not retreat. It simply watched, uncertain whether it was facing prey… or something far worse.

Then, without warning, the pressure vanished.

The air fell silent.

The light folded inward and disappeared as if it had never existed.

Lin Fang’s body went rigid in the air. His scream cut off mid-note, snapping into nothing. His eyes flew open.

They were pitch black with no visible pupils.

With nothing to say, he simply lifted his hand slowly above his head, fingers closing as if gripping the sky itself. When he spoke, his voice was not fully his own. It was layered, heavy, distorted, as though something else was speaking through him.

“Stormlash… surge.”

Every last drop of active mana in one of his mana cores vanished in the blink of an eye as soon as he spoke.

Then, just as instantly, the deeper reserves surged forward and refilled it, a beam of condensed mana shot straight into the sky.

The clouds above twisted violently, spinning into a massive dark vortex. Thunder rolled low and slow, carrying a weight that pressed against the ground.

The Green Anaconda Queen reacted in fright.

It hissed sharply and plunged its massive body into the lake, churning the water as it tried to dive deep and vanish into the darkness below.

Lin Fang’s head tilted slightly, looking down at the fleeting serpent.

“You can’t escape… Inferior species.”

His hand dropped.

And then five bolts of lightning tore out of the sky one after another, piercing the lake like a divine spear. The water exploded upward in towering pillars as electricity ripped through the depths.

The Anaconda thrashed violently beneath the surface, its massive body flashing in and out of view as the lightning chained through its scales again and again.

And a few seconds later, the lake glowed white for an instant, and then it went dark.

The water stilled.

Lin Fang’s eyes lost their black sheen. As he returned to his normal state, Notifications flooded his vision.

*Ding!

[You killed Green Ananconda. Target is Level 54 and Legendary grade. You received 540,000 coins as a reward.]

A second prompt appeared immediately after.

*Ding!

[Tiamat wishes to swallow the spirit. Loyalty will increase. Do you wish to allow it to absorb the spirit or absorb and store the spirit in Spirit Collection?]

Lin Fang hovered above the lake in silence, eyes fixed on the dark water below where the massive corpse slowly surfaced.

His gaze only left for a few seconds before he murmured. “I give it to Tiamat.”

The five-headed Chaos Dragon accepted it without ceremony.

The Green Anaconda Queen had never been anything more than a wild monster to him, and it was not like he could send its spirit into the Spirit Valley either.

That place was for bonded spirits, ones that had masters and unresolved attachments.

This creature had none of that.

More importantly, he knew exactly how the killing blow had happened.

It wasn’t like Alpha’s possession, where his will was pushed aside, and he became nothing more than a bystander trapped in his own body.

This time was different. When Tiamat moved, he had felt everything. The pressure, the rage, the thrill of absolute dominance.

He had felt the lightning answer his call.

He had felt the moment the king-tier monster broke beneath it.

He felt like he himself did the kill, but at the same time, he didn’t.

Since there is no point in absorbing spirits into himself, as no guardian spirit quests, when Tiamat asked him, Lin Fang didn’t resist its request.

A deep, pleased chuckle rolled through his mind. “Thank you for the meal, my dear host. I know you trust me.”

Alpha’s voice followed immediately after, calm but heavy. “I know you fed the spirit to Tiamat. I’m not against it. I also know its power will tempt you. Just don’t lean on it too much. Every time you do, you shave off a little of your humanity. And it’s not like you lack abilities. You just need to upgrade your system’s level and unlock the abilities waiting for you.”

Lin Fang didn’t argue. He only answered quietly in his head, “We can talk about that later. But the girl comes first.”

Snapping his gaze back to the lake, Lin Fang saw Nianxi was sinking again, for the third time.

He dove back into the dark water without another thought. The lake was still now, eerily calm after all the destruction.

He plunged straight down, eyes locked on the faint silhouette below. Her small body drifted near the lakebed, unmoving, hair swaying gently with the currents like a broken doll abandoned in the deep.

Lin Fang reached her in seconds and wrapped an arm around her waist. She was frighteningly light.

He kicked upward hard, breaking the surface in a surge of water and dragging her with him. The cold night air hit his face as he staggered onto the shore and lowered her onto the wet ground.

Her mask came off first. Her face was pale, lips faintly blue. He pressed a hand against her stomach and chest, trying to force the water out, but only weak spurts came. Her heartbeat was barely there, fragile and fading.

Alpha then said calmly. “She needs external oxygen, kiddo. Feed her Oxygen through your mouth. Now.”

Lin Fang froze for half a second. “CPR?” Then he leaned down without another thought.

Lin Fang raised his mask off in a rush and knelt beside her, fingers trembling as he pinched Nianxi’s nose and tilted her chin up.

He leaned in, breath already drawn, but at the last second, his movement stalled, remembering that Nianxi is a girl and it is improper when there is a girl nearby. He turned his head.

Three figures were standing not far away at the shoreline, half-lit by moonlight and dying sparks of lightning. Li Ying stared at him in shock. “Lin Fang?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep