Looking at the twisted creature before him, like a skinned rat.

The only thing about the disgusting twisted body that catches Kane’s attention is the gray-green line stretching from the spine to the brain on its grayish skin.

Exposed blood vessels and pus-filled lumps scattered across the skin make the line less noticeable.

Yet Kane senses a very distinct aura of rules from it.

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

The enormous twisted rat trapped by gray stone fragments continues to scream relentlessly.

Kane waved his hand, sealing its mouth fully with fragments and firmly restraining its limbs, turning it into a fixture, showcasing its twisted giant rat body clearly before Kane.

This allows Kane to study the line embedded with rules on its body more closely.

Kane squints slightly, golden light flashing from his eyes.

"Highly infectious, twisted, evil, shifting towards chaos."

Though uncertain of the precise nature of the rules on the line, Kane, through Divine Gaze, perceives some radiated aura from it.

It doesn’t seem like anything good, no matter how you look at it.

A long thin dagger appears, engraved with dense patterns, controlled by Kane to penetrate from the rat’s spine.

The rat struggles violently, and the resistance gradually diminishes, until it completely ceases.

Dark blood tinged with a hue of green drips from the wound, falling onto the soil below, emitting sizzling white smoke and releasing a foul odor.

"The soul vanished upon death," Kane squints his eyes toward the distance, where the soul resembling an evil spirit disappears after death.

The rat’s soul is very small, yet its transformation is so significant.

Though Kane managed only a glance, the changes already informed Kane that this rat was artificially altered.

Subsequently, Kane controls the scalpel-like blade, commencing dissection along the spine line of the rat.

As the dissection proceeds, indeed, all issues originate from this dark green nearly black line along the spine.

"Seems like the problems in this world aren’t minor."

Kane states while spreading his palm, magic power surging forth, small arrays appearing in his palm encircled by gathering white mist.

Kane also intonates secret spells.

Another fog ball condenses in his hand, white mist spawning a strand of red mist which gradually enlarges and deepens until entirely engulfing the fog ball.

Observing the changes within the fog ball in his hand, Kane clenches his palm, crushing it.

"Indeed, seems like the problems in this world are substantial."

Nevertheless, Kane’s expression is somewhat excited; after all, this signifies a world fragment harboring life.

Though this living fragment is problematic.

And the fragment may not harbor significant value, yet it undoubtedly serves as a promising beginning.

With this in mind, Kane smiles, then retrieves his beeper from his waist, sending messages to Kreya and Longbei, informing them of his current situation.

As the red light flashes on the beeper.

The message is dispatched.

"First, let’s find the gathering place of intelligent life, examine the intelligent life within this world fragment and then prepare the next step."

Kane speaks, beginning to move forward.

His body gradually turns transparent, eventually vanishing into the air.

...

"Oh dear, another ruined world fragment. Hopefully, there’s something of value."

Longbei marches in the gray world, carrying his warhammer, a brand-new shield dangling from his left hand, walking on cracked, lifeless ground.

Regarding Longbei’s complaints, Meizike silently remains aside, without any intent to engage, quietly following Longbei forward.

With only two individuals, Longbei continuously generates various topics, speaking incessantly, while Meizike occasionally picks a few interesting ones to respond.

Yet Longbei doesn’t mind the silence one bit.

Beep Beep!

In the quiet environment, the beep sound is remarkably clear.

This sound, however, doesn’t originate externally nor communicates outward, occurring directly within their minds.

Both individuals instinctively lower their heads, gazing at the machine on their waist.

"Who would send a message at this time?" Longbei queries in confusion.

Beside him, Meizike has already opened the machine: "Kane."

"A message from Kane?" Longbei remarks, confused about what information could be sent.

"Haha, surely he didn’t just discover a world fragment now." Longbei speculates, facial expression turning excitedly before promptly activating his handheld machine to view Kane’s message.

Having finished reading the message, Meizike regards Longbei beside him with calm eyes, eager to observe his facial expression changes closely.

Longbei exceeds Meizike’s expectations, his expression shifting from joyful to astonished, followed by dismay.

The entire expression change lasts under a second.

Witnessing such transformation, Meizike nods satisfactorily before redirecting his gaze.

Longbei remarks with disbelief, "How could this be? The first world fragment entered already harbors life?"

"Kane is special," Meizike responds beside him.

He recalls the prescience brought forth by Kane’s Divine Gaze, perhaps playing a larger role in varying circumstances.

Longbei stows away the machine, continuing forward, remarking, "Indeed, when alone, he doesn’t pretend, undoubtedly the Mist’s illegitimate offspring."

Despite revisiting past topics, Meizike merely shrugs and follows suit.

...

Various kinds of skulls, and parts of bodies, with bones of unknown races, large and small, either broken or intact, scattered randomly on the ground.

These skulls are grayish-white and yellowed, with various defects and damages.

In the distance, there is even a mountain formed by a pile of various bones.

On the mountain, black and white flames can be seen burning fiercely.

Zooming in closer.

They are Ghost Knights, whose bodies are burning with black and white flames, forming a tight array, wielding the weapons in their hands.

Their enemies are hounds, each as large as a human.

These hounds are wrapped in black mist as they move, appearing like dried corpses.

The number of hounds is dense like a tide, rushing towards the top of the mountain.

And these knights form a tight array, wielding their weapons, and with the attack, splashing out black and white flames, easily extinguishing a large number of hounds in one strike.

At the top of the mountain, Kreya stands on it, occasionally throwing a large mass of flames towards some surrounding areas.

Judging by her leisurely actions, one can tell that the situation is completely under her control at this moment.

Lilu sits on Kreya’s shoulder, swinging her little legs.

"Sister Kreya, do you really not need to take action, just let them continue attacking like this?"

Hearing Lilu’s words, Kreya shook her head with a smile.

"I can sense something hiding, let’s see how long this cowardly thing can stay hidden."

Something more advanced might be manipulating these hounds to attack them, possibly being the culprit of this world’s destruction.

Kreya never hesitates against such existences and intends to wipe them out completely, even though this world is already useless for the mist.

At this time, a beeping sound echoed in both of their minds.

Simultaneously, they looked at the machine at their waists.

"Has Kane sent a message?"

Kreya had been concerned about why she hadn’t received a reply from Kane regarding his discovery of new world fragments for exploration.

Looking at the machine, she couldn’t help but smile.

"Ah~ Kane is so lucky, the first fragment he discovers contains life."

Lilu looked at the information on the machine, somewhat enviously.

Kreya smiled, placed the machine back, and then said, "It might be because without our fate interference, Kane saw some probabilities."

This is just a guess by Kreya, as she is relatively familiar with some of Kane’s skill effects.

Upon hearing Kreya’s words, Lilu flew down from her shoulder, clenched her fist, and said, "Then Lilu will also work hard and not be outdone by Kane."

Saying this, her figure disappeared into a peculiar space, leaving only a faint voice carried to Kreya’s mind.

"I’m going to find this rotten egg and pull it out."

To this, Kreya just smiled and did not stop her.

...

The view shifts back.

Kane is still walking in the wilderness.

The ground beneath his feet has not cracked, nor has it dimmed to a lifeless hue.

Orange-yellow gravel is swept by the breeze, swirling around his feet.

Though the sky is dim and sepia-toned, the air carries a peculiar stuffy heat, along with a strange scent.

But fortunately, the ground below occasionally has some traces of greenery.

Though it’s just tenacious weeds, at least there’s life hanging on.

After an hour of travel, through the sky’s reconnaissance device, Kane discovers some life forms around, but none of them are intelligent beings—just various infected animals.

Without exception, they all look incredibly misshapen, their bodies rife with mutations and distortions.

Some have even lost their original shape from when alive.

Their skin is covered with foul-smelling pustules and boils.

Essentially, all these animals have an ink-green, nearly black stripe across their spine.

Kane looks at the transparent orb in his hand.

Inside are soul light balls tainted with ink-green.

The soul balls drift and hover in disorder within.

All of these are the souls extracted from infected, twisted creatures that Kane has killed.

With these extracted souls, Kane feels he can uncover some of this world’s issues, even if they are just the souls of infected animals.

Observing these souls.

He realizes the rules of infection are extremely domineering, enough to twist even their souls.

Of course, it might be because they are just ordinary animals, and both their bodies and souls struggle to resist the changes brought by this infection.

Perhaps the capable or intelligent beings in this world can resist more effectively, Kane doesn’t know, but he’s making some simple guesses based on the current situation.

Unknown whether the distortion started when they were first infected, or if prolonged twisting caused the soul to mutate alongside the body.

Any living being with a soul.

The soul’s mutations will reflect in the physical form, and any physical changes will feed back into the soul.

For example, a normal human who has been disabled for decades will have corresponding traits in their soul upon death.

"Master, a life form with magic power reaction has been detected."

Kane’s companion, Yu, says at this moment.