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Chapter 241 Who merges with whom?

Behind the steel gate is a winding tunnel, seemingly a natural cavity formed by the mountain. The lighting comes from a series of miners' lamps strung together overhead, which can only illuminate a small area around the tunnel.

The heating in the treasure vault didn't reach this area, but the temperature in the cave remained at a relatively comfortable level, a stark contrast to the howling cold wind outside the snow-capped mountains.

You can even see moss and some green plants at your feet.

"How much time do we have left?" Chen Xuan asked.

"3 minutes and 45 seconds," Lin Qing announced.

"That's enough."

The map shows that this area is not large, about half the size of Warehouse No. 1.

Sure enough, they hadn't gone far when the passage suddenly opened up, and a natural cave appeared before them.

"Watch your step," Lin Qing said, pulling Chen Xuan's arm.

The cave was indeed not large in area, but its vertical height was astonishing, almost like a vertical shaft. Below them was a sheer cliff, the bottom of which was pitch black and they could not see anything. If they lost their footing, they would definitely fall to their deaths.

"No way out?" Chen Xuan frowned. This wasn't a warehouse; it was a deep pit. If this were the Temple's treasury's garbage dump, used to dispose of the employees' household waste, he would have thought it more appropriate.

After all, from any perspective, it doesn't look like a normal treasure vault.

"Wait, there's a guillotine here."

Lin Qing pulled down a switch on the wall, and with a series of clanging electrical sounds, high-powered lights lit up one after another, illuminating the cave as if it were daytime.

At that very moment, they saw "the Mother Lucy".

It resembled a gigantic cocoon of flesh and blood, suspended in the center of the cave by blood vessels and veins! The rock walls were also covered by a fleshy membrane, displaying a bright red hue. The cocoon was astonishingly large, at least ten meters in diameter, and its height was immeasurable. The entire cave ceiling was filled with flesh and blood, and tentacles constantly extended and retracted from its body, fully demonstrating that it was a living creature.

Chen Xuan also saw some strange fragments.

They resembled man-made metal objects, most of them very thin, like the outer shell of some kind of container. These fragments were interspersed among the flesh and blood, and since the mother Lucy had not integrated them, they appeared particularly jarring.

At this point, Chen Xuan finally felt relieved, knowing that Elori's wish could no longer be fulfilled.

Even if he and Lin Qing had three heads and six arms, they still wouldn't be able to take such a huge object away.

There's nothing that can be done if the mission fails.

He has tried his best.

Thinking of this, Chen Xuan reached up and pressed his glasses, activating the guest recall function, intending to send Lin Qing away first. Before teleporting, he deliberately turned to look at Lin Qing, only to see her staring wide-eyed at the mother body with a look of shock, as if she had seen a ghost.

The next second, the recall was activated, and Lin Qing disappeared before his eyes.

What's going on? Is a writhing mass of flesh really that scary?
Chen Xuan turned around, puzzled, preparing to teleport himself back to the shop.

Then he found himself face to face with Mother Lucy—sometime during which a huge tentacle had reached out in front of him, as if staring at him. This happened in an instant, so much so that he had no time to react.

Was it my own oversight?
No, he hadn't let his guard down since he stepped into this place, and his Divine Eye Technique was always ready to be activated.

Chen Xuan suddenly realized that it wasn't that the mother Lucy's tentacles suddenly teleported in front of him, but rather that the other party had also used a similar bullet time ability, which gave him the illusion that there was no process.

His fingers rested on the frame of his glasses, the pressure he applied increasing until it soon exceeded the threshold for the confirmation button. What would normally be a blink of an eye now felt incredibly long.

The tentacles twitched, then plunged into his stomach.

In an instant, the entire mother body began to flow—muscles, blood vessels, organs… everything that made up Lucy became like liquid, flowing into his body along the tentacles!

Wait, am I about to be merged into?
Chen Xuan stared in disbelief at everything, not knowing how to stop it! Because his body didn't feel any discomfort, but rather a comfortable warmth!

Without experiencing danger, one cannot naturally arouse instinctive resistance.

Even more incredibly, he watched as all those things poured in, yet his body didn't swell dramatically as a result, as if that huge mass of stuff was just an illusion!
The sensory experience lasted for a full ten minutes before the fusion finally ended. Chen Xuan was astonished as he lifted his clothes and found that his abdomen was still as flat as ever.

Looking up at the top of the cave again, the mother Lucy was no longer there, only a few broken blood vessels hanging in the air, swaying slightly.

Oh, right... bombs!
Chen Xuan, without bothering to conduct further examinations, quickly pressed the button on the glasses frame. The surrounding scenery instantly shifted, transforming into the familiar appearance of a fruit shop.

Fortunately, the recall function remains reliable and has not failed due to the recent incident.

"Are you alright? Why did it take you so long to come back?" Lin Qing's anxious voice rang in my ears.

"How long has it been?" Chen Xuan was also curious about this.

"2 minutes and 21 seconds, there are 9 seconds left on the countdown." She walked over, took his wrist, and performed a basic check. "His vital signs are fine..."

It seems his judgment was correct. Although he activated his Divine Eye technique the moment he turned around and saw the mother's tentacles, the other party was also moving at an extremely high speed, so much so that he still felt as if he had been frozen in place. The short two minutes felt like an eternity.

Only now did Chen Xuan have time to monitor his own situation.

He quickly noticed the anomaly: the "Curse: Thirst for Flesh" was gone. It was nowhere to be found in either his ability panel or his inventory.

At the same time, he gained a gray ability that he had never seen before.

——"Fusion Ascension" LV1.

"Everything exists for the sake of existence, and existence is everything."

Why is this description getting more and more confusing? Chen Xuan thought to himself. It's one thing for the purple ability to turn into a gray ability, but the key is that he can't feel any use for it when he has it on him. The description doesn't seem to help at all. Isn't this just making things more difficult for him?

"Something strange did happen." Looking at Lin Qing's questioning gaze, he gave a wry smile and recounted his experiences after sending her away. "In the end, the mother Lucy wasn't destroyed by the demon, but I was absorbed."

Chen Xuan is now able to confirm this.

He was still himself, but the artifact was no more—it wasn't secretly hidden within him, but had become an integral part of him, in the form of an ability. This process wasn't even something he actively initiated; the enormous mass of flesh seemed to have willingly been devoured.

Lin Qing was also very surprised after hearing this. She looked him up and down several times, and then pinched his body all over. "Why?"

"If only I knew," Chen Xuan sighed. "If I had to guess, it would probably be because my level is higher?"

If the angel is Lucy's favorite child, then he is above Lucy... Although this was just a thought that popped into my head, it is now becoming more and more in line with reality.

"Forget it, as long as you don't turn into a monster, that's fine." Lin Qing finally gave up thinking about it. "No one could have predicted this situation, and Elori definitely won't blame you."

Speaking of angels, Chen Xuan quickly went to the computer to check the client's status. Fortunately... Elori's name was still in the transaction records and hadn't disappeared like Gildre's.

Nine seconds have long since passed, and considering the time difference between the two worlds, the bomb should have detonated long ago. The fact that she's still alive means she successfully avoided the aftershocks of the explosion.

Of course, it's not surprising that Elori was able to escape. She has wings and can use other mountains as cover for shockwaves. Even if a large-scale avalanche occurs in the valley, it won't harm her.

Tomorrow, Chen Xuan will be able to use the customer recall function to bring her to the shop.

However, as a store manager in the service industry, it would be quite disgraceful to ignore the guests after escaping danger himself, so he still took Lin Qing with him and went to Elori's residence through the VIP room.

"Can we contact her using the walkie-talkie?"

“How is that possible?” Lin Qing shrugged. “This thing only has an effective communication range of five kilometers. The only way to contact Elori here is by satellite phone.”

However, they left in a hurry and did not prepare a satellite phone.

"Then we can only try calling her cell phone," Chen Xuan said helplessly.

“I’ll handle this.” Lin Qing walked to the landline on the table and connected the data cable to it. “But don’t get your hopes up too high. She has to find a place with a signal to receive our calls—considering the communication situation near the Himalayas, it will take two or three days to fly there.”

beep……

The phone rang.

"Hello?" In less than a second, Elori's voice came from the other end.

The two looked at each other.

Lin Qing quickly said, "I'm Lin Qing. Where are you now? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine! Everyone's fine! There's even a slide built in this shelter that leads directly to the other side of the mountain. There's a temporary camp here, and I've already met up with the Angel Alliance support troops!"

Through the phone, they could vaguely hear noisy conversations in the background.

No wonder Elori had a signal, now I understand why.

"So what are you planning to do next?" Chen Xuan took the microphone and asked, "Will I summon you back tomorrow, or will you return with the Alliance?"

“No, I can’t go back alone. Could you come and pick me up? There’s someone else here too…” Elori’s voice was broken, clearly the signal wasn’t very good.

Chen Xuan was taken aback. "Who?"

"It's me... Ruri." A playful greeting suddenly came from the other end.

"Huh?" He opened his mouth in surprise. "Weren't you forbidden from leaving the Temple Treasury?"

“Theoretically, that’s how it is… I was prepared to be buried underground along with the treasure vault, but I didn’t expect the restriction to be lifted at the last moment.” Ruri’s tone was tinged with amusement. “I have to admit I underestimated you… You defeated it, didn’t you?”

(End of this chapter)