Chapter 2843: Transgression

Navigating the jianghu required a knack for exploiting the rules, not just relying on brute force.

Compared to spoken and unspoken rules, these inviolable laws were practically a supreme deluxe edition. It would be a real shame not to exploit them.

Though admittedly, their effectiveness was a little absurd.

Fu Qian's strategy had actually been quite simple: he exploited his opponent's reluctance to think, stealthily sheltering it with an umbrella in the middle of their chaotic brawl.

This served to verify whether the Laboratory's laws were still in effect; if they were, it would provide another layer of power for a dimensional strike.

The results proved that even with the Laboratory reduced to absolute ruin, the codex remained incredibly sensitive and was strictly enforced as always.

Perhaps a bit too strictly. After spending just a few seconds under the umbrella, a Divine Emissary Level entity suffered such brutal torture that it hovered on the brink of total collapse.

Perhaps that was partly because the entity's existence was already a tangled mountain of spaghetti code, but wasn't it still a bit too severe?

Whoosh!

Instead of pressing his advantage, Fu Qian rapidly dispersed the sky-filling canopy of Razor Blade tentacles, allowing that gathering of flowers and brocades to quickly escape its sheltered state.

Honestly, this trick only worked against this kind of opponent. Aside from lacking a working brain and basic vigilance, it wasn't even very agile.

But looking on the bright side, it likely wouldn't have to worry about those problems anymore.

Its fate was truly powerless to turn the heavens. Even as the giant umbrella swiftly vanished, the condition of that gathering of flowers and brocades showed absolutely no improvement.

Flesh and blood sprayed frantically from its open fissures, surging outward like a bursting dam.

The exploding arcs of electricity even sparked violent flames that frantically devoured its own body.

And it wasn't just the flames; the body that had previously struggled to maintain a delicate balance was now cannibalizing itself.

Tearing, enveloping, spewing—various indescribable tissues frantically sought a reason for their own existence, vividly illustrating the true meaning of kin turning against kin.

The only pity was that, despite watching this tragic scene intently from beginning to end, Fu Qian still couldn't find a single new piece of crystallization.

Sure enough, he couldn't always rely on unexpected byproducts to deliver pleasant surprises; he still needed to find a way to master the underlying principles more thoroughly.

Clink. He wasn't too disappointed, though. Fu Qian casually flicked away a segment of almost glass-like bone, drawing the cross-tier duel to a close.

The ending even seemed quite satisfying: his opponent could no longer maintain even the form of a slime monster, having utterly and completely collapsed, while he had merely paid a minor price—such as sprouting.

Looking down at his own body, Fu Qian noted that even the Full Metal Bandage couldn't conceal it; tender tendrils of various colors were already squeezing out through the gaps.

Even with the bandage constantly rotating and its blades harvesting the tendrils row by row, it couldn't stop new ones from continuously sprouting.

[The highest level of corrosive power is always life]

Faced with this endless proliferation, Fu Qian was reminded of the description for his Seed of Writhing ability.

All in all, that gathering of flowers and brocades hadn't fallen without achieving anything.

Right now, his entire body was practically covered in the "poison" of its counterattack.

Unfortunately for his opponent, Fu Qian was something of an expert when it came to detoxification. He only needed to switch his aura to the Decree of Return—though he didn't. He even deactivated the Finger Pulp right then, simply sizing up his surroundings and silently recalling the former layout of the Laboratory.

Had Old Man Lu and the others hidden themselves a bit too well?

The continuous conflicts along the way, coupled with the final annihilation of that gathering of flowers and brocades, had brought absolute devastation to the entire Laboratory.

While it might not have been entirely reduced to ashes, it was already difficult to find even a single intact wall or standing ruin.

As a result, whatever remained in the surroundings was obvious at a single glance.

It wasn't just the area sealed off by Old Man Ibu; even the distant White Tower, the landmark structure of the Archipelago, stood out clearly against the night sky.

Of course, that was theoretically just a background texture. The actual scope of this dream realm should be quite small, restricted solely to the grounds of the Laboratory.

The fact that there hadn't been any movement from the White Tower or its surrounding areas up until now served as proof.

Otherwise, given the sky-filling fireworks from earlier, even if laymen couldn't discern the danger, it would logically have been hard to resist coming out to watch the spectacle.

And yet, here within this stretch of ruins underfoot—a place that couldn't even hide a stray cat—Old Man Lu and the others had vanished without a trace.

They couldn't have just run away, could they?

Although the two-headed human fiend had been extremely decisive when it turned and walked away earlier, would they really just abandon the base they had worked so hard to establish?

To Fu Qian, such a development felt far too abrupt.

Not to mention that he hadn't even had much of an upper hand earlier.

Given the friendship between Old Man Lu's group and himself, could they really resist hiding on the sidelines to watch him take a brutal beating?

In short, although the two-headed human fiend had quickly vanished, Fu Qian was still inclined to believe they had concealed themselves once again, similar to how they had hidden at the very beginning.

Throughout the entire exchange just now, he had remained constantly on guard against a sneak attack.

Yet even as the dust settled, the two old men had surprisingly managed to keep their composure.

Under his current scrutiny, the entire dream realm was so quiet there wasn't a single sound.

It was as if this former secluded haven, having been thoroughly ravaged by a villain, was now losing its vitality and rapidly dying away.

"Heh—they ran pretty fast."

In fact, to better fit the mood of the scene, even though he didn't let out a maniacal laugh, Fu Qian coldly flexed his Left Hand.

He looked exactly like a villain who had just slaughtered an entire clan, having used only two fingers to do it.

The only fly in the ointment, perhaps, was that two small fry had managed to escape.

"What a pity. Did you really think such an insignificant trick could deceive this seat?"

But that was only a "perhaps".

Normally, someone in his position would proudly walk away at this point, finding a quiet place to wait for their foes to master their martial arts and return for revenge. Instead, in the very next moment, Fu Qian displayed the ruthlessness of casting an absolute dragnet.

The mood shifted abruptly. In that moment, the sky-filling canopy of Razor Blade tentacles began to move once again.

Stretching, rotating, and tearing through the night sky—in the blink of an eye, they added a few more shades of hellish horror to this fractured dream.

They didn't weave themselves into another sun or an umbrella, however. Instead, as the tentacles continued to spread, they actually began to slowly hoist Fu Qian's body upward, lifting him like a bizarre elevator.

They lifted him steadily, surpassing the former height of the Laboratory, and continuing all the way until he exceeded even the highest point of the Archipelago—the White Tower...

Swish! As someone who had visited Bai Jinting's office, the moment Fu Qian arrogantly looked down from his high vantage point and confirmed his altitude had officially surpassed that place, a reaction finally occurred.

It was as if an invisible needle had descended from the heavens, skewering his tentacle-wrapped body from head to toe and leaving behind a terrifying wound.

Of course, Fu Qian knew very well that there was no needle, just as he knew this wasn't an ambush by Old Man Lu's group.

The explanation for the sudden change was quite simple: he had once again violated the White Tower Codex.

[Within the Archipelago, no one is permitted to exceed the height of the White Tower.]