Chapter 239: Too Bad You Can’t Power Up, or You Could Have Lasted Another Minute

’Success.’ A look of joy appeared on Qi Suian’s face.

In his hand, a bizarre ball of flesh periodically expanded and contracted, as if it were breathing.

This was a specialized weapon he had created specifically to deal with localized outbreaks of the Black Crystal Tide.

The reason it was for localized outbreaks was that something of this size was simply not enough to combat the entirety of the vast Black Crystal Tide.

How could a single bowl of water extinguish a forest fire?

Therefore, as long as he could clear a battlefield, halt the spread of the black crystal, and sever Yu Shijin’s control all at once, it wouldn’t be difficult for Qi Suian to kill him.

Especially since Yu Shijin had lost nearly ninety percent of his strength just to find Qi Suian.

Now, he wouldn’t even need to use the Floating Cannons. If he seized the opportunity, he could shove the man directly into the Melting Furnace, and Yu Shijin wouldn’t have the strength to put up much of a fight.

"Analysis of the reconnaissance network’s data has yielded bad news."

"What bad news?" Qi Suian put away the ball of flesh, then glanced at the survivor count.

The good news was that it had dropped to zero.

Not even twenty-four hours had passed—not a full day—and Yu Shijin had already helped him kill all the other survivors.

With such good news, it should be enough to offset the bad news from the AI.

"The Black Crystal Tide is developing a consciousness."

"Based on monitored fluctuations, a basic prototype has already formed. If nothing unexpected happens, the consciousness will fully materialize one hour before the ’Black Crystal Tide’ limited-time event ends."

Hearing this, Qi Suian’s eyes narrowed.

"Unexpected... This is too unexpected."

"Do you think the Era of Lords might have interfered?"

"After all, you know that the predecessor of the Black Crystal Tide was Black Crystal City, the crashed territory of the former lord, Yu Shijin," Qi Suian said suddenly.

"The possibility is high. However, for you, this is good news."

"At least in some respects, you won’t have to worry about the threat from the Era of Lords."

"The Doomsday Game may have reached a cooperation agreement with the Era of Lords based on some level of mutual interest."

"The only sacrificial victim might be Yu Shijin. And, of course, possibly you as well."

"The consciousness of the Black Crystal Tide originates from Yu Shijin. There is a very high probability it will inherit his hatred for you."

The AI said not to worry about the threat from the Era of Lords, but it didn’t say not to worry about the threat from the Doomsday Game.

To put it simply, if the Doomsday Game really did cooperate with the Era of Lords, having the Black Crystal Tide target Qi Suian would be a trivial matter.

The two sides were only in a cold war, not reconciled. The Doomsday Game had a chance to eliminate a violator like Qi Suian; how could it possibly choose to give that up?

"Things aren’t at their worst yet. Yu Shijin isn’t dead."

’Once he’s dead, the rest will be easy to handle.’ Qi Suian had a way to break the deadlock.

The black crystal was indeed Yu Shijin’s foundation, but without him, it was just a rootless plant, adrift.

Of course, that might not be true for the Black Crystal Tide now that it was developing a consciousness. But before that consciousness could fully form, Yu Shijin’s death would be a devastating blow to it.

Needless to say, as long as he could hold out until he left the Wasteland World, he didn’t care what happened afterward.

And this coincided perfectly with Qi Suian’s own plan to kill Yu Shijin.

It was a case of killing two birds with one stone.

"Let’s move out now. We’re going straight for Yu Shijin."

"Every minute we delay, the Black Crystal Tide’s consciousness becomes a little more complete."

At Qi Suian’s command, the AI immediately piloted the Tai Sui God away.

As for where to find Yu Shijin? There was no need to worry about that. As long as they entered the range of the Black Crystal Tide, Yu Shijin would come looking for him.

Nowadays, it was difficult to find a place untouched by the Black Crystal Tide, but entering its range couldn’t be simpler.

Simple as it was, he didn’t just pick a random spot. When facing an enemy, even with an item that countered them, he couldn’t let his guard down.

It was best to choose a location with a tactical advantage that would help him better utilize the counter-item.

Qi Suian certainly wouldn’t mind increasing his advantage and chances of victory even further.

His opponent already had the upper hand. If he didn’t try to secure every possible advantage for himself, he’d just be asking for death.

A location was quickly chosen, and Qi Suian deployed all the Floating Cannons at the same time.

The Floating Cannons were his safety net and guarantee.

In addition to the ball of flesh that could isolate and clear an area for a short time, the Floating Cannons could also help stop the spread of the Black Crystal Tide.

If, due to some unforeseen event, Qi Suian and the Tai Sui God found themselves unable to defeat Yu Shijin, he could also use a direct volley from the Floating Cannons to kill him.

If he couldn’t obtain Yu Shijin as fuel, he would destroy him. If he couldn’t destroy him, he could still escape.

The setup proceeded quickly, clearing out a large radiation-free zone.

Then, Qi Suian dug a pit and buried the ball of flesh inside.

Once in the ground, the ball of flesh rapidly began to vaporize, its essence spreading to fill the radiation-free zone.

The vaporized gas was colorless and odorless, but it could prevent the Black Crystal Tide from approaching. If the tide forced its way closer, it would be dissolved.

"Coward! You coward, you’ve finally shown yourself!!!" Yu Shijin’s voice boomed, growing closer.

Qi Suian looked up, and the corner of his eye couldn’t help but twitch.

Before, Yu Shijin had been the size of a normal human, even with black crystal encasing his skeleton.

But now it was different. He was practically a one-to-one replica of Bruce’s original Black Crystal Giant.

This change had clearly occurred because he had lost his sanity, his mind eroded by the power of the radiation.

The Black Crystal Tide was immense, so it was only natural that the corrupted Yu Shijin’s perspective would also change, making him believe that bigger was better.

Or to put it more bluntly, he felt his own body was too small and needed to be compensated for with a larger form.

’It seems... it’s too small...’ Qi Suian had calculated a thousand possibilities, but he had never anticipated this twist.

His opponent hadn’t just changed in size; he was also being protected by the Black Crystal Tide.

This meant that Yu Shijin’s previous weakness no longer existed.

If Qi Suian wanted to attack him now, he would first have to force Yu Shijin to separate from the massive Black Crystal Giant.

Fortunately, this wasn’t a difficult problem to solve.

"Floating Cannons, attack," Qi Suian commanded.

All ten Floating Cannons swiveled their muzzles in unison and opened fire on the massive Black Crystal Giant.

Being strong was useful, but first, one had to withstand the Dark Energy Beams from the Floating Cannons.

If Qi Suian hadn’t wanted to acquire such a high-quality fuel source in Yu Shijin, he wouldn’t have needed to scheme so much.

Even without hiding in space, he could have constructed a completely safe room using the Floating Cannons.

The Dark Energy Beams pierced straight through the Black Crystal Giant’s body.

This time it was an attack, and the decomposition rate was extremely fast. Enraged, Yu Shijin broke away from the Black Crystal Giant.

Before he could make a move, Qi Suian piloted the Tai Sui God and charged him head-on.

His opponent’s strength had been drastically reduced, now possessing only the power of a standard Fire Seed Awakening-stage Fire Seed Armor. Qi Suian rammed him with a single, powerful tackle, sending him flying into the prepared radiation-free zone.

He landed headfirst, his head plunging straight into the dirt.

But his reflexes weren’t slow at all. He immediately pulled himself free and dodged Qi Suian’s follow-up attack.

"Do you think you’ve already won?" Instead of trying to escape the unfavorable environment, Yu Shijin immediately launched an attack on Qi Suian.

Qi Suian, however, unhurriedly... handed control of the Tai Sui God over to the AI.

Then he injected himself with a death serum, channeling a massive amount of Feast energy into the Tai Sui God.

Under the AI’s control, the Evil Dragon and Evil Tiger, in coordination with its modules, shattered the surface layer of Yu Shijin’s black crystal on the spot.

This left his skeleton exposed to the air.

When the Tai Sui God’s power surpassed its enemy’s, the AI could leverage that to a crushing advantage.

Yu Shijin completely ignored the loss of his protective layer, instead using the close-range opportunity to attack the Tai Sui God.

Unfortunately, the current Yu Shijin was far weaker than before.

Previously, he had been able to crush the Tai Sui God’s shield with his bare hands. Now, he could only deplete half its value before it was replenished by the Supernova Strong Nuclear Reactor.

From this alone, Yu Shijin’s defeat was already certain.

However, Qi Suian was pondering a question: could such a weak Yu Shijin truly provide enough fuel value?

So he asked the AI.

"Combined with the previous fuel, it might not be enough for a fifth evolution, but a fourth is not a problem."

"But no matter. As long as you kill Yu Shijin, the missing fuel can be replenished from the Black Crystal Tide."

"Before its consciousness fully materializes, the Black Crystal Tide without Yu Shijin is like an infant, unable to fully unleash the power of the radiation."

The AI’s answer that it wasn’t enough wasn’t surprising, but the fact that he could make up for it from another source was good news.

His gaze then fell on Yu Shijin, who had now completely lost his mind.

There was no rhyme or reason to his fighting style.

The premise of a master being beaten to death by a flurry of random punches is that the one throwing them is young and strong—after all, fists fear the vigor of youth.

But Yu Shijin wasn’t the vigorous youth; he was the master being beaten to death by Qi Suian’s flurry of punches.

"He’s still a threat. Let’s disable him piece by piece before tossing him into the Melting Furnace." As Qi Suian finished speaking, the Tai Sui God tore off Yu Shijin’s White Bone Right Arm.

Just after tossing it into the Melting Furnace, it swiftly broke off his white bone left leg as well.

In just a few dozen seconds, Yu Shijin had been torn to pieces, leaving only his upper sternum and skull.

"Looks like he won’t be recovering from that."

"And here I thought he might have a final burst of energy before dying."

As Qi Suian spoke, the Tai Sui God acted, ripping off Yu Shijin’s sternum and tossing it and the skull into the Melting Furnace.

With Yu Shijin’s death, the advance of the Black Crystal Tide first faltered, as if its signal had been cut.

But after three seconds, it immediately resumed, becoming even more ferocious.

It surged forward in ever-increasing numbers, pushing through the damage from the Floating Cannons and invading the radiation-free zone.

"The nascent consciousness of the Black Crystal Tide must have taken over, and it’s been influenced by Yu Shijin’s hatred."

"Let’s retreat for now. This isn’t the right time to engage." Qi Suian could sense the rage of the Black Crystal Tide.

He didn’t dare face this head-on. A more roundabout approach was definitely more appropriate.