Within a dreary looking artificial space surrounded by blood and gore, there stood Shuhang who was nonchalantly holding a bloodied, limbless body, who was barely hanging on to life. There were of course a few glowing runic symbols all around to seal both body and mind of the robed man so that he won't try anything.
"Hm... should I use White's version of mind reading magic? Yeah. Let's go with that."
*DING!*
[C: ] [D: ] [E: ] [F: ]
"As expected... it's really hard to fathom the inner workings of that White fellow's head. How did he even thought to make this magic become something like this.... =.=;; "
As soon as Shuhang had activated the 'Mind Reading Magic - White's Edition', a bunch of computer terms/folders appeared in his vision. There was of course the C: folder which contains the basic functions which makes and defines what kind of being they are. In other words, it contains the Operating Software which controls the Hardware that is the physical body.
Then there was the D: folder which is where all their memories are stored. As for the additional E: and F: folders though... they are more than likely 'plugins' or external power which enable their strangely high powered abilities even though they're not cultivators.
"As expected... it was external power that allowed for his strength to be at the 5th stage. Must be the same with the other mobs as well. Why are there two 'plugins' for this guy though?"
After mumbling to himself a white, Shuhang decided to not do guess work anymore and actually start with reading his memories. C: folder can be left alone so Shuhang moved his figurative 'finger' in his mind and clicked on the D: folder.
*DING!*
[OPEN] [DELETE]
His main objective is to of course 'open' the D: folder. What greeted his eyes after opening the folder were thousands of files which were named/ordered by the 'dates' in which they were created. Scrolling down all the way to bottom, the memories seemed to have stopped at the date about a month before the start of the zombie apocalypse. With that in mind, Shuhang chose a memory that was a couple of days before the latest.
*DING!*
[VIEW] [MODIFY] [DELETE] [RETURN]
And of course Shuhang would choose the 'view' option since the other options were useless for this particular occasion. What he saw only made Shuhang frown as they only contained what one would expect of an ordinary adult male. Deciding to look at a different memory, Shuhang picked the very latest one this time.
Again. It was all just the memories of an ordinary man's point of view doing very ordinary things. Well... if you could call this pervert who likes to put spy cams in girls' changing room 'normal' that is. (The fuck is wrong with this world...?) thought Shuhang morbidly...
When the memories ended, everything just got cut off abruptly. It's almost akin to when one is watching a MyTube video only to get cut off in the middle when their internet connection is lost.
"Hm. 'This'... is the latest memories? Strange. Why did it get cut off in the middle?" mumbled Shuhang with a frown on his face. He had an idea of why this might be so, Shuhang decided to view a few more memories from the middle of his life then a few more at the beginning, which would be the robed man's childhood.
What he saw were as expected, there were only the life of an ordinary mortal. There were nothing at all which suggests that he had any connections to the 'super-natural side of the world'.
"As expected, this guy was just an ordinary person with his body hi-jacked by someone else... My answers lay in the other 2 folders then."
Without wasting any time, Shuhang opened the E: folder and started with the very first 'memory'. Shuhang wasn't disappointed this time as just from the very first memory, he was able to find out what their race looked like. They've got humanoid shape, blood red skin, overly large fangs, protruding horn from their bald head, and eyes that were all black just like that of a 'demon'.
Going further down the memory lane - uh, list... Shuhang was able find out more things. Things like the structure of their civilization, which closely resembles that of Earth's dark age. As for their power source, it seems related to the 'God' that they worship. Apparently, the stronger their 'belief', the more 'power' they receive in turn.
As for the whole invasion thing... there were strangely a lot of missing details. The only thing Shuhang had picked up was their goal of stealing the invaded world's life force and offering it to their 'slumbering God'. As for the 'Awakened'... they seem to be the invaded world's original inhabitant that were given 'Super-natural ability' by their very world itself to resist the invasion. If the invasion fails, even the planet's life force itself would be sucked dry after all. This would naturally lead to the death of the world itself.
"Ah... fuck me side-ways. Siiiigh. A bunch of religious fanatics that spans across their whole species. It's even worse that they can travel to different worlds by proxy via body possessions. =___=. Why the fuck would losing their life force turn them into un-dead though? Wouldn't they normally just die? Also, are the memories spotty because it's only his proxy body and not the real one?"
Unable to get any other clues, Shuhang decided to check out the final F: folder. Although his cultivator's intuition is telling him to stay away, Shuhang decided to push on and open it anyways after putting up some safety measures. Or at least he tried to.
*DING!*
[ACCESS DENIED]
[(#*$_IW#+@$#(()*&)!(@)($]
"FUCK!" yelled 'Shuhang' as he could feel his mind being sucked in by something. Looking at the source, it was actually the blood red sword wielded by the robed man! The worst part, he was actually unable to resist the suction! In just 2 breaths of time, 1/3 of his 'mind' actually was already swallowed by the sword!
"Tch. A fail safe to trace back to whoever foiled their plans?!" cursed Shuhang as he felt that he could no longer resist the suction power. Soon, all of his 'mind' was swallowed and the only thing he could see was a dark tunnel which lead to a very, very far away place.
After an unknown amount of time passed, 'Shuhang' finally exited the tunnel only to be met with a hideous, gaping maw the size of a house which swallowed him whole.
Senior White's version of memory reading magic lel.
Looking on in sheer horror at the fate of the 'Shuhang' who got swallowed whole by an abomination on the other side, the real one was sweating buckets and shitting bricks.
"HOLY FUCK! What the shit was that!? Good thing I made a virtual construct out of sword Qi to open these folders instead of the real me..."
Feeling that the 'tunnel' was still opened, Shuhang quickly acted and operated his energy. Immediately afterward, both soul and the 'living corpse' in his hand exploded into space dust. Just to make doubly sure that the 'tunnel' was shut tight, Shuhang stomped on the ground hard. This in turn kicked the blood red sword high into the air.
Then with a flip of his hand, his 'Severing Heaven Sword' was enveloped in intense pseudo saber Qi which was soon burst into flames. This time, Shuhang doesn't want to just 'sever' the connection, he wanted to completely obliterate the damn thing. This is why he's not using his signature move, but instead is using Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven's signature move, Heaven Scorching Saber.
With another thought, 'Boosted Gear' appeared on his left hand and a series of overlapping [BOOST!] resounded in this god forsaken space.
[BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!]
With every resounding boost, the intensity of the flame grew to an even higher level. Even though Shuhang hadn't released the attack yet, the entire space itself was already starting to catch fire. Even though it shouldn't even be possible. But then again... the 'intent' of this attack was to burn ALL myriad things, heaven itself included. In that way, maybe it's not too big of a surprise considering all the boosts it's receiving.
*!!*
Feeling that it was at the highest strength the attack could reach, Shuhang wasted no time in unleashing this devastating attack.
"HEAVEN SCORCHING SABER!!!...(sword edition)"
*FWOOOSH!*
As soon as the attack was released, tyrannical flames that threatens to burn all the myriad existence, even the heaven itself, fully erupted and enveloped the blood red saber. Not a moment too soon as well since Shuhang could hear a soul stirring roar emitted from the sword. This voice actually sent shivers down his spine and his heart palpate in fear.
*ggggraaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!*
As the flames continued to spread, more of the artificial space cracked and shattered signalling the collapse of this 'world'. The flames were so intense that Shuhang's clothes started to smoke, threatening to burst into flame as well. As if just realizing something, he quickly spread his senses out and discovered that his would be prisoners were indeed affected as well.
"Aah. Yup. Not even ashes remained now... damn. And to think that 'God' of theirs is still in a weakened, slumber state. Were it to wake up..." mumbled Shuhang with narrowed eyes. For whatever reason, Shuhang suddenly recalled the memories to his first meeting with that loli-goddess.
"'Erasing dead worlds'.... was it? Could there be a link...?"
Just the thought that there might be a connection alone made Shuhang's whole body tremble for a good few seconds. Is it possible that someone as powerful as her isn't able to deal with this slumbering 'God'? Was this the thing that she was warning him about whenever he planned to travel to different worlds?
"Shit...! If... if what I think is true... my current strength is still too insignificant. Should I increase the speed of my cultivation? But how? My conjecture that I needed the 'gravity' and yin/moon aspect for my inner-world might be wrong... Ever since I stepped path onto the 5th stage, I have already deviated too far from everyone else. Now that I've reached the 7th stage, even the 'Library of Heaven's Path' is unable to determine my future path. How do I even 'speed' up at this point...?"
Were anyone to see the current Shuhang right now, they would surely think that he's lost his marbles as he kept mumbling to himself while pacing back and forth. Not even the on-going destruction of the 'world' around him wasn't enough to pull Shuhang out of this fear, confusion induced trance. Even the Ghost Spirit of Soft Feather still hiding in his shadow was starting to worry about his mental health.
As he was still in his own trance, Shuhang failed to notice the 'black karma' string slowly coming into being between himself and the 'God' across the void. Most likely, it was due to the Qi that was swallowed by the other party earlier.
Just as it was about to completely form, a ripple in the void appeared and obliterated this would be connection. This in turn instantly destroyed the still burning space and successfully 'waking' Shuhang up as he returned to the 'real world'.
*GASP!*
"Wha-? What... who was that? So powerful...!! Why did it feel so familiar? Was that a warning for me to leave this world..?"
Taking a moment to compose himself, Shuhang finally calmed down and did a light bow towards the owner of that power just now. At his current state, he couldn't afford to offend whoever that was just now after all.
Looking towards the direction of the mansion, Shuhang could see that Saya's parents and the rest of the survivors' resistance was still on-going. With a light step, he appeared within the mansions court yard once more and spread his power.
"Huh!? What's going on!?" "Th-they all stopped moving?"
As none of them had cultivated and opened their heart aperture, they were unable to see the glowing runic symbols covering the 1000+ zombies. This was Shuhang using 'Sealing Arts' in order to get future experimental samples. Within mere seconds, multi-colored light covered all the zombies and condensed them into small beads which were then collected into his inter-spatial ring.
There was no way Shuhang would put these things into his minor world... not with the threat he just witnessed earlier. While he was at it, Shuhang had put all survivors who had taken the 'pellets' before into stasis state and stored them into his inner world.
"Hm. Can't leave without my future servants after all... Explanations can wait. Now then, where is Saeko and the rest of the group?" said Shuhang as he once more spread out his senses. After finding them, he once more disappeared from where he stood and reappeared besides the group. Afterwards, he directly turned all the Zs into space dust.
He didn't even bother questioning why these guys came out of the HMMWV and fought the Zs outside instead of focusing on escaping. The sudden disappearance of the zombies of course made the group gape in shock. Shuhang didn't give them time for any questions however as he fired off a question of his own right away.
"Saeko, Alice, I'm leaving this place for good. Are you willing to come with me?"
Hah! You thought the MC died didn't you?