Chapter 619 - 571: "I Am the Scourge!

"From now on, I am—"

"The Bicolored Celestial Calamity!"

...

Shi Ming clenched his fist, recalling his power.

All the multicolored pollution that had spread throughout the Sea of Chaos rapidly retracted. As if time were reversing, it surged back into his body, forming patterns on the surface of his skin.

After merging with the source of the Colorful Insect, Shi Ming’s appearance, his outward presentation, and his very core became a near-perfect imitation of the aberrant creature. Even the Colorful Insect itself would have mistaken Shi Ming for one of its own.

’This is the first step to infiltrating the enemy’s ranks.’

He released the Source of [Void], which had been stored away and was contaminated by the power of Evil Thought Heaven. At that moment, the power from Evil Thought Heaven within the Source of [Void] felt a reverse summons. It had no self-awareness, but it sensed a kindred power and instinctively tried to attach, approach, and assimilate. However, Shi Ming kept it under firm control, preventing even a sliver of the corrupting power from leaking out.

This power was difficult to control.

But it was perfect for double-checking his current disguise!

This proved that his bootleg Bicolored Celestial Calamity could completely fool the instincts of Evil Thought Heaven, which naturally meant it could fool other aberrations too. With all preparations complete, the next mission was—

Infiltration!

He would travel the Sea of Chaos in the guise of an aberration, find others of its kind he could communicate with, or attract the attention of "The String."

And then, he would stab them viciously in the back!

...

...

...

Compared to the rich and romantic Vast Star Sea, the edge of the Sea of Chaos was extremely barren, and the scenery was mind-numbingly dull. There were no stars here—only an endless expanse of chaos and the erosion of its chaotic mists.

Nirvana-realm beings could resist this erosion.

But unless absolutely necessary, how many normal Nirvana-realm beings would leave the Star Sea to pioneer this godforsaken place?

Almost zero.

The Sun-Piercer was incredibly fast.

For eight consecutive days after obtaining the aberration’s power, Shi Ming found nothing. He encountered no creatures, no aberrations, and sensed no anomalies. But as he zipped along at the Sun-Piercer’s extreme speed, just as the ninth cosmic day was about to end, he finally sensed an unusual, fleeting aura.

The Sun-Piercer’s speed was also a debuff; in a flash, Shi Ming and the aura were already worlds apart.

No matter.

Time, rewind.

His Nirvana skill, [Time], was activated. The concept of time appeared in Shi Ming’s eyes as a "spool of thread" with precise markings, granting him the ability to rewind, pause, and fast-forward. The more proficient he became with the [Time] skill, the greater the range he could manipulate.

He manipulated the timeline, causing the Sun-Piercer and himself to slowly regress bit by bit until he returned to the moment he had encountered that strange aura.

The period he fine-tuned was less than 0.01 seconds.

Stop!

After the Sun-Piercer had reversed to the correct position, Shi Ming allowed the timeline to return to normal. He himself, however, remained as if outside of it, no longer affected by time in any way, staying right where he was.

He heard two voices communicating amidst the chaos:

"CROAK, CROAK CROAK, CROAK CROAK, CROAK CROAK."

"SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK, SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK."

...

’Two aberrations?’

Judging by their auras, they were indeed aberrations, and not particularly strong ones. They were likely third-tier Calamities.

There are five realms for aberrations.

Incarnation, Nightmare, Calamity, Disaster, and Celestial Calamity. A Calamity was equivalent to an elite S-rank expert, and above that were Disaster and Celestial Calamity.

Shi Ming could crush two Calamity-level aberrations with a flip of his hand. As long as they hadn’t evolved into a [Celestial Calamity], they were not unkillable. Back in the ancestral land of the Star Spirit Race, Shi Ming had killed several Calamities and absorbed a portion of their power, gaining an increase in his points.

But he couldn’t kill them now.

’After all the trouble of finding these two little treasures in this godforsaken place, how could I let them die so easily...’

Shi Ming didn’t know the language of these two aberrations, but his Spiritual Power was so immense now that he only needed to hear a small sample to extrapolate its core principles and quickly master it. Of course, there was an even faster method: kill them with the Ten Thousand Forms Sanctuary and seize their destinies, which would eliminate the need to learn at all.

It just wasn’t necessary.

’These two little things have other uses.’

Using the Sun-Piercer’s stellar characteristic, [Traceless Star Dream], Shi Ming hid himself and listened for a while. He soon fully understood the content of the two aberrations’ conversation and translated it into a language he could comprehend. Some details might have been lost in translation, but it was more or less accurate—

"CROAK, the Boss doesn’t seem to be in a good mood lately. Is there any way to cheer him up? If the Boss is happy, he’ll definitely give us more boons. If we can get promoted to the more powerful Disaster realm, we can better serve the Boss..."

"SQUEAK, the Boss is just too bored."

"Bored? What’s that?"

"It’s been many years since any star beasts came here for the Boss to play with. How about we go to the star beasts’ territory and find a few?"

"The star beasts’ territory... That’s too far. What if we leave and the Boss gets other underlings while we’re gone? That would be bad..."

"SIGH... you’re right. Other underlings definitely wouldn’t be as loyal as us. We can’t leave at a time like this and let those with ulterior motives take advantage of the situation. Forget it. Let’s think of another way."

In short, the "Boss" of these two aberrations had been feeling bored lately, so his two loyal subordinates were trying to figure out how to please him. The result of their discussion was... no result. No matter what solution one of them proposed, the other would veto it for some bizarre reason. They didn’t even argue about it; they would just give up on the rejected idea and start thinking of the next one.

’They don’t sound very intelligent.’

Shi Ming picked up on a key element in their conversation.

Star beasts.

The term they used was in the aberration language; "star beast" was just the closest equivalent Shi Ming could find in his own vocabulary, and it wasn’t a perfect match.

’Star beasts...’

’Could they be creatures born in the Star Sea? Their boss enjoys toying with creatures from the Star Sea?’

"Eye of Destiny, acquire intelligence!"

[...]

...

...

...

The Sun-Piercer dropped its traceless state. Shi Ming, in the form of the Bicolored Celestial Calamity, appeared in the distance before the two aberrations, brazenly flaunting his power like a passing transcendent master.

He had already confirmed with the Eye of Destiny that these two aberrations were not very old. They were an artificially accelerated species, not naturally born, and had the intelligence equivalent of a ten-year-old creature from the Star Sea.

’Low intelligence.’

’That means they’ll be easy to fool.’

Furthermore, they were tainted with the aura of a much more powerful aberration—at least at the [Celestial Calamity] level. This indicated that their so-called Boss was at a realm at least comparable to the former Colorful Insect.

’A powerful boss with incompetent underlings.’

’Perfect.’

’An opportunity has arrived.’

...

"???"

"Is that... a powerful senior?"

The croaking aberration’s eyes lit up.

"It doesn’t seem to have noticed us... Who do you think is stronger, it or our Boss?"

"Duh, of course our Boss is stronger! How can you even have such doubts? Disloyal! You’re being disloyal! Watch out, or I’ll tell the Boss!"

The squeaking aberration landed a critical hit on the croaking aberration’s head.

Hmph!

’How dare you question the Boss’s authority?’

’Loyalty that isn’t absolute is absolute disloyalty! Today, you might have the idea to question the Boss’s power. Tomorrow, you might commit an act of betrayal! I will not tolerate such behavior!’