Chapter 685 - Quivering Mass

The Sweeper silently waited in front of the motionless black cube.

She was readying herself.

She closed her eyes, summoned several materials, and readied a couple of Spells.

And ten seconds later, it was finally time.

One of the Magic Circles around the black cube exploded, symbolizing the end of the timer.

The Sweeper immediately cast several Spells to break the other Magic Circles, and she immediately pulled out the door as soon as she was able to.

As the door vanished, a storm of Mana entered the vacuum of the Isolation Chamber while a horrifying stench of blood and guts exited the Isolation Chamber.

Just like the previous times, the inside of the Isolation Chamber was coated with blood.

And just like last time, Shang was in the middle of the room.

He was merely a sack of blood and guts.

His skin, bones, and a majority of his muscles had been turned to Mana.

His organs were dried, and the blood on his body was congealed.

He didn't move.

The Sweeper immediately shot towards him and placed five Mana Crystals filled with Light Mana around his body.

After that, she dumped a bucket of greenish water on his body.

Then, she grabbed the Space Ring Shang had given her before he entered and summoned the Grade Six Mind Flow Pellets.

She forced one of them down Shang's throat before she cast a long Spell.

After some seconds, a grey light appeared on her fingers, and she lightly jabbed her fingers at Shang's skull-less head.

Shang's mind jolted in confusion, and it tried its best to comprehend what was going on.

However, at the same time, the power of the Mind Flow Pellet entered Shang's mind and made it very difficult for the mind to focus again.

Shang's feelings before he had lost consciousness slowly returned, and his confused mind immediately went into survival mode.

The last thing it had felt was approaching death, but now, it was suddenly alive again.

This meant that it had survived!

Under normal circumstances, Shang's bodily functions would return to recovery mode, but with the Mind Flow Pellet, this had become extremely difficult.

Shang's mind was trying to give the order to absorb Mana and convert it to life energy, but the Mind Flow Pellet wouldn't allow that order to go through.

This meant that Shang was still dying.

Shang's subconscious was terrified beyond belief and tried its absolute best to do anything to keep itself and its body alive, but it was so difficult!

It was dying!

It was still dying!

Shang's subconsciousness explored all possible ways to stay alive.

On the outside, Shang still wasn't moving at all.

After activating five more Magic Circles, the Sweeper finally took a deep breath.

Shang would survive.

In silence, she looked at the slightly quivering sack of guts and blood.

She could feel the sheer panic and terror emanating from the sack.

These were the feelings of a being that was dying but didn't want to die.

Silence.

The Sweeper just looked at the sack.

The last moments before she had closed the Isolation Chamber replayed in her mind.

A bit more than one and a half months ago, she had closed the door while Shang calmly sat in the middle of the room.

And the next time she opened it, this picture greeted her.

No matter how many times she witnessed it, it was still a terrifying image.

How much must Shang have suffered to transform into such a quivering mass of organs and blood?

The Sweeper couldn't imagine it.

And even worse, this hadn't even been the first time.

Shang had done that three times already, this being the fourth time!

Doing something like that once, okay, people make mistakes sometimes. Maybe they didn't know what would await them.

But doing it again?

And again?

It made no sense, no matter how many times she thought about it.

She couldn't understand why someone would choose to do something like that to themselves.

Was it worth it?

She couldn't imagine a world where such torture would be worth something.

The Sweeper just silently looked at Shang.

The Mana around him was moving in very abrupt ways, almost like it was uncontrollably seizing.

This was the result of Shang's subconsciousness trying everything it could with the ability of World Connection. The movement of the Mana around Shang essentially represented the uncontrollable spasms of Shang's body.

The Sweeper kept watching and making sure that nothing went wrong.

Shang's mind was still thinking it was dying due to the Mind Flow Pellet's effects, but he was actually not in any danger since the Magic Circles around him fed him just enough life energy to stay alive.

The Sweeper just silently waited as the pile of guts quivered in fear and terror.

In society, being hardworking and dedicated to training was a commendable trait. 

Yet, what Shang was doing was not commendable.

It was not healthy.

Shang didn't behave like a hardworking man but more like a self-destructive machine.

He was like a monster that kept drinking blood constantly because it had a huge hole in its back where blood constantly flowed out.

He was like a fire that reached for anything it could burn in a panic because the things it was currently burning had already turned to ash.

He was a starving person that was eating their own skin to stay alive.

And, worst of all, the very thing that was killing Shang was himself.

He was the thing that desperately tried to end his life while he also desperately tried to survive the things he was doing to himself.

How many more times?

How many more times before Shang slipped up and died?

What then?

Would everything have been worth it?

Why sacrifice so much just to die to yourself?

When Shang finally sacrificed himself, what would be left?

The mass of organs and blood quivered in fear and terror.

The Sweeper silently watched.

She didn't want to see something like this again.