Eternal Night

Chapter 503 The Lost Contaminant

Wu Pifu has made a preliminary identification of the soul pollutants that have been transformed from these lost pollutants.

All the soul-corrupted beings are vastly different from the enemies he has fought in the past.

Whether it was the various dream world monsters, nightmares, ascended beings, or even monsters with primal power that he had fought, his battles were all about speed, strength, and destruction. After obtaining his first title, he actually gained a kind of advantage, similar to a cheat code, which was the power of the mechanism brought by the title.

The titles of "Commoner," "Kraith," "Louis XVI," including Chu Minghao's "Red Wolf" and "Seeker of the Sun," or Liang Min's "Ten Points of Mana" title, Hao Cheng's "Zhang Heng" title... all these titles actually carry a certain mandatory mechanism.

Wu Pifu originally thought that this power should be common in the dream world, but in reality, none of the enemies he fought had this power, at least none of them so far!

Perhaps the Root exists, but he has not actually fought against the Root yet. At least none of the enemies above the Root possess a power with the same mechanism.

But now... it should be said that from the very beginning of the battle against the Soul Aberration, he discovered that the Soul Aberration possessed this power, and the Soul Aberration derivatives, these monsters before him, no matter how weak they were, all possessed the same mechanism power!
The twin monsters can swing all their limbs five times, and the next limb attack will definitely hit him. No matter how far away he dodges, the limbs can cross space to attack him. Moreover, each attack will inevitably cause a mutation at the soul level, causing his physical body and mental consciousness to produce a distortion effect.

A beast-like monster covered in human head tumors has a unique mechanic: each time it attacks Wu Pifu, it will damage Wu Pifu if it misses, but will not harm Wu Pifu if it hits.

A monster consisting only of a spine and nerves, connected by some rotting flesh and blood, has a special mechanism that allows you to only look at it for three seconds. After that, you must look away for at least three seconds, otherwise it will instantly move to Wu Pifu's spine and burrow in and devour him...

A suspended human head, its special mechanism is...

All the soul derivatives possess a special mechanism, and perhaps there are other special mechanisms as well, but Wu Pifu has not been able to test them out because he cannot wait to be attacked. These soul derivatives are not powerful. Apart from their special mechanisms, their strength may not even be as great as the three-hundred-year-old wild boar demon in the Song Dynasty dream world.

Besides this special mechanism, its most unique feature is its soul-level pollution characteristic. This pollution characteristic is so powerful that even Wu Pifu cannot be immune to it. Once hit, or even just touched, he himself will be polluted.

Fortunately, although he was not immune, he did have resistance to soul-level pollution, which was the Iron Refining Record that he had never paid much attention to.

This technique came from the Zero Point Seven Dream World, and it wasn't directly instilled by the main brain; it required him to cultivate it slowly on his own. So far, he had only obtained two of the Five Elements of Heaven and Earth. Although these two were very special, allowing him to acquire Copper Skin and Iron Bones ahead of time, their contribution to his strength was actually quite negligible. In terms of physical attributes, they weren't strong, and in terms of improving physical defense, they were not as good as Armament Haki. To be honest, Wu Pifu hadn't considered continuing to cultivate the Iron Refining Record for a long time.

But who knew that this cultivation method was actually a method that directly targeted the cultivation of the soul!?

In short, thanks to the tin lungs and iron liver he had cultivated using the Iron Refining Record, Wu Pifu's soul possessed a certain degree of resistance. Although it would cause him harm, and could only cut off the corroded parts of his body and mind, his body could recover through the negative backflow of his mind, and the corroded parts of his mind... were of no concern at all.

Those parts corrupted by the soul's mutation emerged from the depths of the sea of ​​consciousness, only to be immediately washed away and surged by the endless negativity of the sea of ​​consciousness. Most of them sank directly, not even a bubble remained. A small portion tried to break through the negativity of the sea of ​​consciousness, but was suppressed by the fragments of the world, the powerful angels, and so on.

As long as... as long as the level of contamination hasn't reached the point where it can break through the two innate five metals of heaven and earth, then he can resist and heal. However, he also senses that there is a limit to the resistance at the soul level. Tin lungs and iron liver are not enough to completely protect his soul. If it exceeds this limit... then his soul may be contaminated, and then his physical body and mental consciousness will be distorted and contaminated... an irreversible change. At that time, he will really die.

Wu Pifu flicked the broken half of the Heroic Spirit Blade in his hand, shaking off the still writhing flesh on it. At the same time, without a sound, he tore apart the writhing, active flesh on his body, even pulling out the flesh from a bone that had begun to grow a mouth.

After doing all this, Wu Pifu took a deep breath. His flesh and blood writhed, his bones grew rapidly, and his injuries had mostly healed. Only then did he raise the Broken Spirit Blade and look at the golden skeleton that had emerged from the collapsed church.

A golden skeleton, over two meters tall and wielding a long spear, stood a hundred meters away from Wu Pifu. Just as Wu Pifu was about to step forward, the mainframe's voice suddenly rang out.

"Lost and contaminated entity discovered, target confirmed... A genuine individual from a previous era, whose physical body has been lost and contaminated..."

"Judgment in progress... Judgment complete. Citizen Wu Pifu, defeat the target to complete high-risk exploration mission one."

"Annotation in progress... Annotation complete. Target danger level... Extremely high!"

Then, in Wu Pifu's eyes, a series of characters appeared on the top of the golden skeleton, forming a state similar to when he revealed his title.

"In despair, the last dragon knight, the savior of the world, the last lone hero of civilization, the gatekeeper."

Except for the three words "loss" which were filled with an ominous gray-black, all the other phrases were bright and radiant, just like his three titles, if he hadn't misunderstood...

"So, he has four titles?" Wu Pifu swallowed hard, looking at the silently standing golden skeleton. He took a deep breath, stood still, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and proclaimed loudly, "Wu Pifu..."

"I've seen it before."

The golden skeleton didn't attack immediately. Instead, it raised its spear diagonally, facing Wu Pifu. A second later, the broken sword and the spear clashed with a deafening roar. Wu Pifu staggered back three steps, while the golden skeleton remained completely still.

"wrong!"

When Wu Pifu retreated to his third step, the ground beneath him completely cracked like a spider web. He twisted the broken sword in his hand and charged straight at the golden skeleton at an even faster speed, once again clashing head-on with its spear. He was then knocked back again, this time by five steps.

"...Stay still? Don't let them repel you?"

Wu Pifu took a breath five steps away, and a blast of energy shot out from his mouth and flew dozens of meters away. In just one breath, the shock and backlash injuries on his body had healed. At the same time, he roughly understood the results of the two previous clashes.

In terms of power, the golden skeleton reacted with exactly the same amount of force as he used, no more, no less. At the same time, while he was thrown back, the golden skeleton remained completely still. It wasn't even a matter of controlling the force or maintaining a stable center of gravity; it was simply that it didn't move at all, not even a millimeter trembled beneath its feet.

This is by no means because the golden skeleton is much stronger than him, but rather because of a title-related mechanism at play!
The five words on the top of the golden skeleton, aside from the gray-black sense of loss, the other four are probably titles, and the one most likely to cause the current effect of him being repelled while the golden skeleton remained unmoved is... the gatekeeper!

"Come again!"

Wu Pifu raised his sword and slashed at the golden skeleton again, but the golden skeleton remained standing still, only raising its spear to stab at the broken sword.

Just as the broken sword and the spear were about to collide, Wu Pifu's entire body trembled slightly from his feet to his legs, from his legs to his waist, from his waist to his arms, and from his arms to his hands. His unstoppable force transformed into a soft force. What was originally a fierce and powerful slash was deflected by the slightest difference in the distance and instead slashed diagonally towards the ground. The spear also passed by his side in the same manner.

Then, in the next instant, before Wu Pifu could even step forward to attack the golden skeleton, the golden skeleton was struck as if by lightning, and it was forced back more than ten steps with a series of cracks. Moreover, a few tiny cracks appeared on its skeleton.

"...The negative effects of the title?"

Wu Pifu wasn't sure for a moment, then he saw the words "Gatekeeper" on top of the golden skeleton fade from bright to dim, leaving only the words "The Last Dragon Knight, the Savior of the World, the Last Lone Warrior of Civilization" still shining.

This is completely different from his title.

His three titles have similar effects to the Gatekeeper, but the negative effects are... well, they are quite minor and have a somewhat comical quality. Unlike the Gatekeeper, which can be immune to knockback and counterattacks, the Gatekeeper's titles immediately backfire if they fail, even rendering the titles themselves ineffective. It's unclear whether this ineffectiveness is continuous, permanent, or has a recovery period.

Although Wu Pifu thought this way, his body did not stop. With a stomp of his foot, he arrived close to the golden skeleton, raised his knife, and slashed horizontally down at its neck.

At the same time, the skeleton seemed to awaken only then. Facing Wu Pifu's slash, its body tilted backward at an unbelievable speed and angle. At the same time, its spear twisted and pulled backward, stabbing from behind its waist at a strange angle, forcing Wu Pifu to dodge to the side. But at this moment, while the golden skeleton was still tilting downward, its other bone clenched into a fist and slammed towards where Wu Pifu was dodging.

At the critical moment, Wu Pifu gripped his sword in one hand, and with a lightning-fast movement of his other hand, struck the back of the incoming fist, deflecting it downwards. The punch, originally destined for his chest, was redirected to strike under his armpit. Thus, the golden skeletal spear and fist missed their mark, and Wu Pifu's Shattered Spirit Blade was about to gather its strength again and continue its slash towards the opponent's head…

A tremendous force accompanied by a strong wind struck from behind him. The attack came suddenly, and Wu Pifu's strength had already diminished, so he could not dodge it. He had no choice but to concentrate his strength in his back and at the same time solidify his Armament Haki on his entire back.

The next second, he was blasted dozens of meters away, and a slight sweetness rose in his throat, indicating that he had suffered minor injuries.

When Wu Pifu got up and looked back, he was astonished to see a translucent, three-meter-tall life form standing next to the golden skeleton.

A robust lizardman, three meters tall.

Atop the golden skeleton, the words "Savior of the World" were shining brightly.

(End of this chapter)