Spirit Pact Hundred Scenes Record

Chapter 33 Core Pollution Sources

The last fifty meters leading to the platform were eerily quiet.

The crystal fragments on the cave floor were covered by a layer of grayish-white dust—the remnants left after the burrowers were thoroughly purified, containing no psionic energy, just ordinary mineral powder. The powder formed a pale path, shimmering faintly in the soft white light of the seven fragments of the Soul of the Mineral Vein.

Karen carried Xiguang at the front. The cub had fallen into a deep sleep in his arms, its breathing steady but weak, each rise and fall of its chest consuming its dwindling strength. After the life-and-death pact was established, Karen could clearly sense Xiguang's condition: its psionic energy reserves were less than five percent, its vital signs were stable but weak, and it needed at least three days of deep hibernation to recover its basic mobility.

But right now, there aren't three days left.

The platform is almost here.

It was a circular platform about fifteen meters in diameter, entirely composed of pure black crystals, its surface as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the light of the dark red crystal clusters overhead. Six crystal pillars were evenly spaced along the edge of the platform, each extending an energy channel—one of which was broken, its fracture still hissing and spewing out dark red energy mist, the result of the Shadow's earlier destruction.

In the center of the platform, the black meteorite floats.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared even more... eerie than Karen had seen from a distance.

The meteorite was about the size of a carriage wheel, irregularly shaped, and its surface was covered with sharp edges and deep cracks. The dark red light shining through the cracks was not uniform, but pulsed rhythmically like a heartbeat—bright, dim, and bright again, with each pulse interval as precise as a mechanical clock.

Even more unsettling is the surface texture of the meteorite. It doesn't have the texture of natural rock or crystal, but rather resembles some kind of... biological tissue. The black "skin" is covered with fine, raised veins that look like blood vessels or nerves. These veins undulate slightly with the pulse of light, as if breathing. In some areas, you can even see textures resembling muscle fibers, layered and intertwined.

"This damn thing..." Grom lowered his voice, gripping his warhammer tighter, "It doesn't look like stone... more like..."

"Living things," Leah finished his sentence, her face pale. "Or rather, once part of living things."

Karen remained silent. Although his spiritual vision was significantly weakened by the previous exertion, he could still detect the psionic fluctuations emanating from the meteorite. It was a completely unfamiliar frequency he had never encountered before—chaotic, thirsty, and aggressive, yet also carrying an indescribable…sadness?

No, it's not sadness.

It is loneliness.

It's like the loneliness of an existence abandoned in the endless void for billions of years, where even self-awareness has become blurred.

"Spiritual remnants."

A voice suddenly rang out, not from anyone's mouth, but echoed directly in everyone's minds.

A shadow emerged from the shadow of a crystal fragment. The black cat moved with graceful, unhurried steps, its silver eyes fixed on the meteorite on the platform, pupils narrowed to slits. Instead of leaping onto Karen's shoulder as usual, it stopped three meters away, its tail swaying gently, as if assessing something.

"What did you say?" Karen looked at the shadow.

"I said, that's remnants of the spirit world," Shadow repeated, his voice still resounding directly in the mind—a communication method more advanced than spirit language, requiring no translation, reaching directly through thought. "Fragments that fell from the boundary when the two worlds collided. Containing fragments of the rules of both worlds, remnants of psionic energy, and... the obsessions and memories of countless dead beings."

It slowly walked towards the platform, stopped two meters from the edge, and looked up at the meteorite.

"What you are seeing as 'pollution' is essentially the process by which remnants of the spirit world try to 'take root' in this world." The shadow's voice was as calm as if it were telling a story unrelated to itself. "It needs energy to maintain its existence, it needs matter to reshape its form, and it needs souls to fill its inner emptiness. So it erodes mineral veins, devours spiritual objects, and distorts life—all in an attempt to imitate the basic rules of this world and make itself 'rational'."

"Two worlds colliding?" Leah grasped the key phrase. "What do you mean? Besides our world, there's another one?"

"There used to be," Shadow's answer was ambiguous. "Or rather, there always has been, but most of the time we didn't interfere with each other. Like two oceans, sharing the same sky but separated by continents. Until... at some point, the continents collapsed, and the seawater began to mix."

It paused, then its silver eyes turned to Karen: "Your mother didn't tell you these things, did she?"

Karen's heart skipped a beat: "You know my mother?"

"I know her," Shadow replied simply and directly. "Or rather, I know the person who took her away. But that's not the point right now. The point is—"

It looked back at the meteorite.

"—This remnant of the spirit world is multiplying itself."

As if to confirm Shadow's words, the pulsation on the meteorite's surface suddenly intensified. The dark red light accelerated from once per second to three times per second, and the vein-like structures began to writhe violently, emitting a faint, gurgling sound like muscle contractions. The five intact energy channels at the platform's edge simultaneously began to pulsate, pumping more contaminated energy into the meteorite.

The meteorite began to expand.

It wasn't that the whole thing grew larger; rather, the sharp edges on the surface began to extend and branch outwards, like a black crystal tree growing wildly. New cracks appeared on the surface, deeper and more complex, each crack emitting an even more dazzling red light.

"It's absorbing the psionic energy dissipated from the battle just now." For the first time, Shadow's voice carried a sense of urgency. "The death of the burrower released a large amount of energy. Although most of it has been purified, some remains. It's using this energy for its first form evolution."

"Evolve into what?" Grom roared.

"I don't know." The shadow's answer was chilling. "The remnants of the spirit world have no fixed form. They combine to form the most 'suitable' form for survival in this world, depending on the surrounding environment, available energy and matter, and the fragments of memories remaining within. It could be a larger monster, a polluted area, or... something that resembles life but isn't life."

It turned its head and looked at Xiguang in Karen's arms.

"The royal contract of the Lightwing Lion, coupled with the bloodline of the Guardians, makes your psionic frequencies strongly attractive to it. In its eyes, they are pure, high-quality 'nourishment.' It will devour you at all costs."

Before the words were even finished, the meteorite's shape had already changed visible to the naked eye.

The extended black crystalline ridges began to intertwine and merge, forming a limb-like rudimentary shape on the meteorite's surface. Four short, thick "legs," composed of a mixture of crystals and black flesh, extended from below, supporting the entire body. Above, two raised structures began to differentiate, their surfaces cracking to reveal dark red, eye-like crystalline structures within.

It's turning into a... beast?

No, not entirely.

The limbs were asymmetrical; the left foreleg was thicker than the right, and the hind legs were of different lengths. The eyes were positioned at different heights and were different sizes. The entire shape was distorted and deformed, like a rough toy sculpted by a child from clay, yet it was full of an unsettling vitality.

Even more strangely, once the rough shape was initially completed, the cracks on the meteorite's surface began to make sounds.

It wasn't a beast's roar, nor a neigh.

Rather... it's language.

Countless languages.

Human common language, the dwarven Stonethroat language, the elf Leaf Language, the orcish war cries, and dozens of other sounds completely incomprehensible to Karen, their syllables so bizarre they defied any known language structure. These sounds emanated simultaneously from different rifts, overlapping and mingling to create a frenzied symphony:

"pain……"

"Hungry……"

"go home……"

Why...?

"Mother……"

"Kill me..."

"don't want……"

"save……"

The voices included men and women, young and old; some were filled with pain, some with resentment, and some with only empty bewilderment. These were fragments of obsession left behind by the remnants of the spirit world, the last cries of beings who died in the collision of two worlds, forever sealed within this fragment, now being released as their forms evolved.

Leah covered her ears, her face growing even paler. The sounds weren't just auditory stimulation; they were a direct assault on her psychic perception, like countless needles piercing her brain.

Grom spat: "Damn it... this bastard..."

Karen held Xiguang tightly in her arms. The cub squirmed restlessly in its sleep, disturbed by the noises.

Only the shadow remained calm. It watched the grotesque monster gradually taking shape, a complex emotion flashing in its silver eyes—not fear, not disgust, but something akin to…pity?

"Did you hear that?" Shadow whispered, this time the voice came from his throat, not from telepathy. "Those voices. Every single one of them was once a living being. There were parents, children, lovers, and dreams. And then, in a certain instant, everything was torn apart, even fragments of the soul were swept into the vortex of the world's collision, and eventually solidified into part of this rubble."

It paused.

"They are in pain. They are constantly in pain. And that pain transforms into hunger, into hatred for all living beings, for all complete existence. Because, 'Why am I still suffering here while you can live?'"

On the platform, the monster's form was basically complete.

It is about three meters tall, standing on all fours. Its body is composed of a mixture of black crystals and some kind of dark red flesh, and its surface is still covered with cracks and pulsating blood vessels. Its head has no distinct facial features, only two asymmetrical crystalline "eyes" and a huge mouth filled with rotating sharp teeth. A short, thick tail extends from behind, forking into three thinner tentacles at the end, each tipped with a small, constantly rotating eyeball.

The monster slowly turned around—if that twisting motion could be called turning—and set all its "eyes" on Karen and her group.

No, it's mainly aimed at Karen.

Aiming at the sunlight in his arms.

Align it with the gold and silver intertwined contract runes between them.

The thought of hunger surged in like a tangible tide.

This time it wasn't just a feeling, but something that could be "seen"—a dark red psionic wave spread out from the monster, and wherever it passed, the grayish-white dust on the ground began to turn black again, and fine pollution patterns began to appear on the surfaces of the purified crystal fragments.

It is in an area where reverse pollution has already been purified.

"There's no time." Shadow's voice regained its calm and decisive tone. "It must be destroyed before it fully adapts to the rules of this world. Otherwise, it will continue to evolve and eventually become something uncontrollable."

"How do we destroy it?" Karen asked, gently handing the Dawn to Leah. "Take good care of it."

Leah took the cub, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Your injury..."

"It won't affect me for now." Karen flexed his right wrist, the gold and silver intertwined spirit runes glowing slightly. After the contract was established, his self-healing ability was greatly enhanced. Although his spiritual energy was severely depleted, his physical injuries had stabilized.

The shadow walked to Karen's side, looked up at him: "Use your spiritual language. Try to communicate with it."

"Communication?" Grom asked incredulously. "With that thing?"

"At the core of the spirit realm remnants is still a collection of countless soul fragments," Shadow explained. "Although they have been distorted and corrupted, the deepest part still retains the most basic desire of those souls—liberation. If Karen can use spirit language to touch those fragments and awaken their remaining consciousness, it might cause internal chaos and create an opportunity for external attack."

"It's too dangerous," Leah objected. "Those voices... those obsessions... what if Karen's consciousness gets caught up in them?"

"So we need cover." Shadow looked at Grom and Leah. "You two, while Karen and I try to communicate, draw its attention and create chaos. No need to cause any real damage, just distract it."

Grom and Lydia exchanged a glance and nodded simultaneously.

"Let's do it then." The dwarf gripped his warhammer. "We don't have any other choice anyway."

The plan was so simple it bordered on reckless.

But sometimes, the simplest plan is the most effective.

Grom was the first to rush out.

Instead of charging directly at the platform, he ran towards a pile of larger crystal fragments on the left side of the platform. The dwarf leaped onto the top of the fragments, raised his warhammer high, and the runes on the hammerhead lit up again—though the light was faint, it was enough.

"Hey! Ugly freak!" Grom roared, "Look this way!"

The warhammer crashed down.

It didn't smash into the monster, but rather into the crystal fragments beneath its feet. Dark red dwarven psionic energy surged in, instantly destabilizing the internal structure of the fragments, causing them to explode with a deafening roar! Countless crystal shards shot towards the platform like shotgun pellets, clattering and striking the monster.

The monster let out a roar that was a mixture of dozens of sounds. One of its eyes turned to Grom, and a dark red energy blast gathered in its mouth—

"It's not over yet!" Leah's voice came from the right.

She stood behind another pile of debris, her hands forming a hand seal. This time, instead of an offensive wind blade, she manipulated the airflow, whipping up a large amount of grayish-white dust from the ground, creating a swirling dust storm that swept towards the monster.

Dust itself is harmless, but it obstructs vision.

The monster's energy blast missed its target, went astray, and blasted a large crater in the cave wall.

A dust storm enveloped the platform, blurring the monster's form. It angrily waved its forelimbs, trying to disperse the dust, but Leah maintained the airflow, causing the dust storm to continuously rotate and replenish itself.

Right now.

Karen and Shadow charged toward the platform at the same time.

The shadow was faster. It became a black afterimage, silently approaching the monster's side under the cover of the dust storm, then leaped up, its claws drawing three deep black arcs in the air—

It doesn't attack the physical body, but rather the psionic structure.

The shadow's claws pierced a thick energy vein in the monster's body, then ripped it apart! Black cracks spread from the wound, and dark red energy spurted out like blood. The wound did not heal—the shadow's attack contained a special power that could suppress the regeneration of corrupted energy.

The monster writhed in agony, all its attention drawn to the shadows.

Karen seized the opportunity to rush to the center of the platform, stopping only three meters away from the meteorite itself—now the core of the monster's body.

He stretched out his right hand, palm open, and pressed it against the black meteorite that still retained its original form and was embedded in the center of the monster's chest.

Spiritual language, fully activated.

It wasn't a one-way transmission of thoughts, but an open and receptive connection through spiritual language. Karen cast her consciousness out like a net, trying to capture any remaining trace of rationality among the chaotic fragments of souls within the meteorite.

At first, there was only chaos.

Countless sounds, countless memories, and countless fragments of emotion flooded his mind like a tsunami—

He saw the burning city, the sky torn apart, and a huge black shadow falling from the sky.

He saw a crying child, and the mother's body vanished in the light.

He saw the warrior roar as he charged toward the unseen enemy, then turn to ashes in the next second.

He saw lovers embracing, sharing one last kiss before the end of the world.

He saw an old man kneeling and praying, but the gods did not respond.

Pain. Fear. Despair. Resentment. Anger. Love. Hate. Regret. And the deepest, boundless loneliness.

Too much.

too heavy.

Karen felt like a small boat tossed into a stormy sea, constantly threatened by the giant waves. His consciousness began to fade, his self-awareness blurred—Who am I? Am I the soldier in the burning city? Am I the child who lost his mother? Am I the man who died in his lover's arms?

No.

I am Karen.

I am a scribe in Chenguang Town.

I am the contractor of Dawn.

I am……

"Stay calm." The shadowy voice echoed from the depths of his consciousness, like an anchor pulling him back slightly from the chaotic vortex. "Don't be assimilated. Stay true to yourself. Find what they have in common."

Commonalities...

Karen forced herself to calm down and searched for commonalities among countless fragments of memory.

Pain? No, that's the result, not the cause.

Fear? No, that's a reaction, not the essence.

So...

relief.

Yes, liberation.

All the fragments, regardless of their identities or experiences in life, in the very end, yearn for one thing: to end this endless suffering and be freed from this twisted existence.

"I heard you," Karen said in spirit language, not with her voice, but with her purest thoughts. "I know you are in pain. I know you want it to end."

The chaotic torrent paused for a moment.

"I can help you," Karen continued, channeling the light energy of the Dawn—a faint but pure light energy transmitted through the contractual link—into her own mind. "But you must stop. Stop eroding this world, stop harming innocent lives."

Instead of understanding, he was met with an even more frenzied attack.

"fraud……"

"They're all...the same..."

"Eat...it..."

"It hurts...it hurts even more..."

Those fragments didn't believe him. Or rather, they had lost the ability to believe. Billions of years of suffering had completely eroded rationality, leaving only instinct: to devour, to expand, to drag more beings into the same torment.

Karen's consciousness was struck again, this time even more violently. He felt his spiritual meridians beginning to crack, as if they couldn't withstand the influx of so many negative emotions. His nasal cavity burned, and blood flowed out.

But at that moment, the radiance in her arms—though held by Lia, it transmitted a warm power through the contract connection—.

It's not psychic energy, but something deeper.

trust.

Unreserved, pure trust.

Even in his sleep, the cub still believed in him.

This trust was like a ray of light, opening up a small space in Karen's consciousness as she was about to be swallowed by darkness.

He caught the light.

Then, one last attempt was made.

It's not a request, it's not a persuasion.

Rather, it's a promise.

"I swear in the name of the Guardian's bloodline." Karen's will became solemn and firm in the spiritual language, "I will end your suffering. I will give you rest. But not through devouring and destruction, but through purification and liberation."

The gold and silver spirit patterns on his wrist burst forth with dazzling light.

"Now, make your choice."

"Is it to continue suffering eternally in this twisted existence—"

"Or will one find final peace in the light?"

silence.

A long, seemingly eternal second.

Then, a fragment inside the meteorite—perhaps a once-kind soul, or perhaps a will that remained rational until the very end—responded.

A response so faint it was almost imperceptible:

"Please...end...all of this..."

Like the first domino being pushed over.

That faint response triggered a chain reaction. A second fragment responded, a third, a fourth…

More and more fragments began to convey the same message:

"Finish……"

"Please..."

"I'm tired..."

"sleepy……"

The chaotic torrent began to split. Some fragments continued to scream madly, rejecting any form of "end," but another part—about a third—began to turn, yearning for the "peace" Karen had promised.

The energy structure inside the meteorite began to become disordered.

The dark red light pulsed erratically, and the monster's movements became uncoordinated, as if different parts of its body were obeying different commands.

"Now!" Shadow roared. "Attack its core! Those willing fragments have created chaos within, opening a breach in the defenses!"

Grom and Lydia both unleashed their full power at the same time.

The warhammer slammed into the monster's left foreleg joint.

The wind blade cuts into the crystalline structure of the right eye.

The shadow leaped up again, its claws stabbing towards the monster's chest—the location of the primordial meteorite.

Karen moved too.

He pressed his right hand firmly against the meteorite's surface, pouring in all the remaining spiritual energy within his body—including the last reserves of spiritual energy transmitted by Dawn through the contract.

It wasn't for attacking.

Rather, it was to... fulfill a promise.

"Rest in peace," he whispered.

Light energy can bloom inside meteorites.

It was not a violent purification, but a gentle, soothing light. Wherever the light passed, the fragments of souls willing to be liberated began to dissolve, not destroyed, but "dissolved" into the most basic spiritual particles, and then guided back into the world's spiritual energy cycle.

They are finally free.

The monster's body began to disintegrate.

Starting from the inside, it shattered inch by inch, turning to ashes. It let out a final roar, a mixture of dozens of emotions—anger, resentment, but deep down, a trace of…relief?

The black crystalline body turned into powder.

The dark red fleshy structure evaporated into mist.

Finally, only the original black meteorite remained, suspended in the center of the platform, its surface covered with spiderweb-like cracks.

The dark red light had disappeared from the depths of the crack.

There was only a deep, empty darkness.

The shadow fell beside Karen, its silver eyes fixed on the nearly shattered meteorite.

"It's not over yet," it said. "The core part is still there. It's the 'seed' of the remnants of the spirit world. As long as there's a trace of energy left, it will revive again."

"Then destroy it completely," Karen said, panting. His psionic energy was almost depleted, and he could barely stand.

"Conventional methods won't work," Shadow shook his head. "It has already partially merged with the rules of this world. Completely destroying it might trigger a small-scale collapse of the rules, and in the worst case, the spatial structure of this cave—or even the entire Emerald Forest—would become unstable."

"What should we do?" Leah walked over carrying Xiguang, looking worriedly at Karen's swaying body.

The shadow remained silent for a few seconds.

Then, it did something that surprised everyone.

The black cat walked towards the broken meteorite, extended its right front paw, and gently pressed it on the surface.

"I'll handle it," Shadow said. "My way."

Its claws began to glow.

It wasn't silver, nor gold, but a deep black that seemed to absorb all light.

The blackness spread out, seeping into every crack in the meteorite like ink. Wherever it passed, the cracks began to "heal"—not to return to their original state, but to be filled and covered by the black substance, until finally the entire surface of the meteorite was wrapped in a thin black shell.

The meteorite ceased all activity.

It no longer pulsates, no longer radiates energy, and no longer makes a sound.

It turned into an ordinary, black, lifeless stone.

Shadow retracted its claws, swayed, and almost fell. Karen reached out to support it, feeling the black cat's body trembling slightly, its body temperature alarmingly low.

"What did you do?" Karen asked.

"Seal it." The shadow's voice was weary. "I've temporarily sealed it with my remaining power. But this isn't permanent. The seal will last for a maximum of three months. Within three months, we must find a way to completely deal with it, otherwise it will break free, and having experienced failure once, it will become even more cunning and powerful."

It looked up at Karen.

"Do you understand now? Why I've been observing you all along, and why I chose to reveal myself at this moment."

Karen looked at the weakened Shadow in her arms, at Dawn in Leah's arms, at Grom's wounds, and finally at the meteorite on the platform, temporarily still and encased in a black shell.

He got it.

This is just the beginning.

An even bigger storm is yet to come.

"Three months," Karen repeated, her voice soft but full of determination. "Then we'll find a way within three months."

He looked up at the top of the cave—out into the distant surface world they had to return to.

"Now, let's leave here."

"Xi Guang needs treatment."

"We all need to rest."

"Then……"

He clenched his fist.

"Then, prepare for the next battle."