Chapter 50: We're Family, No Need to Be So Petty!

The moment the phantom of the giant hand appeared, Lin Zhao froze instantly.

Yet, his reaction was exceptionally swift. Almost in a flash, he tore off the hand gripping his ankle, and then reduced the remaining withered bones on his hand to ashes, severing his contact with the Origin.

Following that, the phantom stopped solidifying and instead slowly grew illusory, as if it might depart at any moment.

"It works!" Lin Zhao was overjoyed. He glanced at the youth, whose face was already nearly submerged in the giant corpse's remains, and fell into deep thought.

Ji Yaoguang felt his scalp tingle: "A-Zhao, don't..."

"This doesn't concern you!" Lin Zhao dismissed him with a disgusted wave of his hand. After pondering for a few breaths, he decisively reached out, plunged into the flesh and blood, and forcefully pulled the youth's head upward.

Substantial black smoke attempted to crawl upward along his arm, but the moment it made contact, it transformed into a continuous source of surging flames that poured torrentially into the totem on his chest, accumulating energy for his growth.

Almost instantaneously, the phantom of the giant hand in the sky began to solidify once more.

"My guess was right; this hand has no intelligence!" Even more excited, Lin Zhao looked at Ji Yaoguang, who wore a worried expression, and raised an eyebrow. "Have you seen enough?"

Ji Yaoguang let out a helpless sigh, walked behind A-Zhao, reached out to grip his arm, and helped him pull the head upward together.

The youth also seemed to realize something. His body and bones buried within the flesh and blood suddenly gained self-awareness, beginning to repel the skeletal remains that sought to absorb him, and he struggled desperately to drag himself out of this flesh-and-blood quagmire.

Meanwhile, the giant hand phantom in the sky grew increasingly solid.

Before it could be fully described, right at the moment when the giant hand's shadow was about to substantially obscure the sky, Lin Zhao released his grip and simultaneously extinguished the flames connecting him to the youth.

Almost simultaneously, the giant hand phantom seemed to have lost its target. It halted its descent, began to rise, and a purple scorching sun slipped from between its fingers as the phantom slowly dissipated.

As for the youth, he struggled frantically. His body had already lost its skin, and the limbs he dragged out were grotesque and horrifying, resembling an articulated mannequin taken apart and tossed into a pile of random pieces. Even so, he kept struggling; from his brow to the corners of his eyes, every single hair resisted being dragged back into the flesh-and-blood quagmire.

Before long, the greater part of his body was about to be pulled back in.

Fortunately, at this moment, Lin Zhao reached out again, grabbed his chin, and pulled upward with all his might.

The phantom began to solidify once again, and the fire on Lin Zhao's hand burned more fiercely. However, when more than half of the youth was pulled out, the giant hand phantom was close to solidifying, so Lin Zhao let go once more.

After repeating this several times, Lin Zhao felt that his chest was already full; eating any more might cause him to choke. Rolling his eyes and too lazy to look at the phantom in the sky, he let out a deliberate sigh and began to lecture the youth beside him: "Weisheng Wu, can't you last a little longer?"

Lin Zhao's tone was rather helpless: "There's something up there that won't let me save you. After all, I am an external force; you have to save yourself. If you give up, no one will be able to save you. Of course, if you can't hold on, I can bring your last words back for you."

"L-Last words?" This repeated burning of the head had allowed the youth to recover a shred of consciousness.

"That's right, last words. Do you have any final words you want to leave for your parents?" As Lin Zhao spoke, he tugged at Ji Yaoguang's necklace.

Cyan light sprouted from Ji Yaoguang's fingertips, and he immediately handed over a makeshift pen and paper crafted on the spot.

"Come on, speak. What do you want to say to your father?" Lin Zhao readied his pen to record.

"F-Father?" Weisheng Wu first murmured those two words, and then his expression twisted ferociously. "No, there are no last words! I won't die. I'm going back to expose him! Neither I nor my younger brothers and sisters are Origin Ghosts; we are Wu, Great Wu!"

His bones exerted a frantic, immense force, and his entire body seemed to burst forth from his muscles.

A violent roar escaped the youth's eerie throat, and his eyeballs bulged outward almost like those of a goldfish. At that exact moment, something fell within his pitch-black pupils, transforming the circular pupils into long, black rectangular blocks. Stared at by those eerie eyeballs, Lin Zhao felt his heart skip a beat and instinctively ducked behind the old tree, peering around cautiously from behind it.

Yet, the moment those pupils shifted, the youth within the flesh and blood seemed to possess infinite strength, standing straight up from the quagmire. The chaotic, flying blood vessels on his body also seemed to acquire a sense of order, rapidly converging and splicing with other severed blood vessels. Muscles covered his bones anew, and even the hand bones previously torn apart by Lin Zhao grew back. Finally, from his spine, a layer of human skin crawled out, completely enveloping his body and severing the connection between the soles of his feet and the mountains and rivers of flesh and blood.

When all this was done, the youth looked blankly at his own hands and feet, breaking into a delighted smile. Then, as if he had exhausted every ounce of his strength, he collapsed backward with a thud, his eyes staring blankly and listlessly at the sky. The surrounding flesh and blood attempted to drag him down once more, but failed to pierce his skin.

"I told you, the potential of a passionate youth is infinite." Lin Zhao squatted down beside the youth in amazement and reached out to touch his chest.

The continuous corrosion was still surging, but the phantom in the sky did not appear again.

"He has sealed the Origin." Ji Yaoguang also reached out and touched the youth's collarbone, prompting a garment to automatically clothe the youth's body. "However, this seal is not stable. It's akin to an ordinary person leading a python with a rope woven from grass. Whether this counts as a seal is hard to say."

"So?" Lin Zhao smiled as he looked at him, as if saying, *Could I possibly not know you by now?* "You still want to take out his heart and seal it?"

"That won't be necessary," Ji Yaoguang smiled gently. "Look, right now, the Origin is not resisting him, but rather submissively serving him, even though the power he can wield is minimal. Such a situation is unprecedented. We can completely let him go to Mount Dacha; the Heavenly Wu there can study it thoroughly. If they can invent a new spell to seal Origin artifacts, A-Zhao, you will never be hungry again."

"Ah, aren't you worried that once any mishap occurs, the Wu State will also be contaminated?" Lin Zhao asked curiously.

"The Wu State is the Father God's 'Domain'; a few Origin artifacts are still within the Father God's capacity to suppress," Ji Yaoguang replied calmly. "It's just that previously, if anyone brought tainted Origin into the Wu State, it was a grave crime that brought trouble to the Father God. But now it's different. With you around, not only will the Father God not assign blame, but he will even help you collect these Origin artifacts to raise you well."

"Very well, these ideas are all fine. The problem is," Lin Zhao looked at the ten purple crow corpses in the sky that were staring fixedly at him, "how do we get out? If we die to get out, surely we can't come back, right? That would mean a corrupted save file."

Although he did not understand what a corrupted save file was, Ji Yaoguang remained quite composed. He drew close to A-Zhao, embraced him in his arms, and calmly explained in response to A-Zhao's puzzled gaze: "The Father God is the God of Space and Time. No matter which void fault I am in, as long as I can provide him with a waypoint, he can send us back."

"That's wonderful. Can you give me such a waypoint?" Lin Zhao marveled. This was essentially a town portal scroll! As the sole player, how could he not have one?

Ji Yaoguang stammered, "Well... places that are too far away or corrupted by the purple sun have a limited sensing range for the Father God's waypoints. However, I am of the Father God's bloodline, and I can use my bloodline as a waypoint, which is why he can sense me..."

"Oh." Lin Zhao was somewhat disappointed. This was still a sorcerer's bloodline skill—passed down to sons but not daughters-in-law—bah, what on earth had been running through his mind lately?

Ji Yaoguang immediately said tenderly, "It doesn't matter, A-Zhao. With me by your side, I am your waypoint."

Lin Zhao was instantly immensely satisfied, and in return, pressed his cheek against Ji Yaoguang's in a gesture of affection: "Brother Yaoguang is the best."

Ji Yaoguang blushed slightly. "This isn't even really my own ability... I didn't master those techniques very thoroughly back then."

"Well, specialization is key," Lin Zhao patted the old tree. "Look at how amazing you are at supporting! Learning a little bit of everything means you don't master anything. We won't be like those greedy people who try to learn too much."

"A-Zhao, it's truly wonderful to have met you."

"It's wonderful to have met you too~"

Lying nearby, the youth continued to stare blankly at the sky with lifeless eyes, his forehead drenched in sweat. He couldn't fathom what sins he had committed in his past life to encounter such events.

Are you two seriously not going back?

Could you please send me back first?

In this ghostly place, he was running out of air...

Finally, after the two of them finished whispering sweet nothings, Ji Yaoguang, blushing, raised the necklace and devoutly prayed to his aged father: "Father God above, I humbly beseech you to listen to my meager prayer. Now, Golden Crow A-Zhao and I are trapped in the Land of Bones with no way out. I beg for your mercy, and that you direct the waypoints of time and void back to the path by which we came. The situation is critical and the future uncertain; I earnestly beg the Father God to respond swiftly!"

As he spoke, he pulled A-Zhao's hand and placed it over the raised gem of the necklace.

The gem remained silent for a few breaths before finally beginning to pulse with light.

"Why is your old man's light blinking as if he's doing it against his will?" Lin Zhao asked Ji Yaoguang quietly, sensing the faint, flickering Wu power vibrating beneath his hand.

"Because summoning us back from the void like this consumes a tiny bit of the Father God's 'Origin'," Ji Yaoguang whispered. "Don't underestimate this bit of Origin; it is untainted, and it's enough to serve as the foundation for the starting point of a minor state. If you weren't here, the Father God definitely wouldn't have bothered with me."

"So that's how it is. Don't worry," Lin Zhao patted the gem. "Uncle, don't be angry with Brother Yaoguang. Once I purify a few more Origins, I'll definitely give you all the surplus."

The gem flickered and went dark for a moment, as if shocked by the form of address, before glowing brilliantly the very next second.

Within the void, a slender, giant hand violently ripped open the curtain of light in the sky. A massive black shadow condensed in the clouds, only to be forcefully torn in half by that hand.

Amidst the violent tremor, a gaping hole abruptly formed in the flesh-and-blood earth. Through that opening, the cosmic void below could be seen.

Ji Yaoguang immediately embraced A-Zhao to shield him from the violent spatial turbulence.

Weisheng Wu, lying beneath their feet, was not nearly as fortunate. Bound into a cocoon by countless tree roots and hanging from the fingertips, he was dragged across countless worlds by a terrifying force capable of tearing the void apart. His newly recovered consciousness rattled about within the numerous boundary walls like a woodpecker's beak, leaving him utterly dazed.

What kind of sins did I commit in my past life—

Not knowing how long had passed, the shaking and twisting finally subsided. Amidst the spinning of heaven and earth, the two of them cleared their vision and took in their surroundings.

It was still the same grand hall, and the song and dance were still the same song and dance.

People were discussing how to acquire the most sacrificial crystals while evading the laws of the Wu Clan.

Bairang was stealthily eating roasted meat in a corner. Seeing them suddenly appear, the meat in his mouth was neither swallowed nor spit out.

"Who are you people... I, wait, Weisheng Wu, why did I suddenly forget about you, and why am I eating here?" He blinked in bewilderment. "You—why are you suddenly tying up Weisheng Wu? Did he commit some crime?"