Deep in the grottoes of the Olympus mountain range, water droplets condensed on stalactites refracted a faint blue light. Li Yu gazed at the passage ahead, swallowed by darkness, where powerful dark divine power surged ceaselessly.
That was the passage to the Tartarus Abyss. Space and time were chaotic here, and whispers echoed in the air, yet it became the perfect spot for Li Yu to escape Athena's sight.
Li Yu had originally planned to modify the Aquarius Cloth after the battle of the Twelve Gold Palaces and bring it into the Reincarnation Space.
However, the Ophiuchus Cloth unexpectedly appeared halfway through.
Li Yu used the last remaining source crystal on the Ophiuchus Cloth.
This meant he now had to find another Reincarnation World to conquer, and it had to be one that offered source crystal rewards.
Li Yu's palm moved slightly, and a chill instantly spread, sealing the Aquarius Cloth, along with its Cloth Box, into a massive ice coffin. Complex diamond patterns emerged on the ice, each pattern imbued with the power of the Eighth Sense Cosmo.
With the ice coffin he could now unleash with full power, even a Gold Saint exerting their full strength wouldn't be able to break it open within three or four days… After completing all this, Li Yu silently thought to himself.
"Proceed to the Reincarnation Space!"
With a flash of golden light, Li Yu disappeared from the Saint Seiya World and reappeared in his exclusive room.
"Main God, list the Reincarnation Worlds most likely to yield source crystals!"
[The more severely a world is eroded, the higher the probability of obtaining source crystals!]
The Main God's mechanical voice echoed in Li Yu's mind, and a blue light screen popped up before his eyes, displaying dozens of worlds in a loop.
Li Yu noticed that one of the worlds was so red it was almost black, making it nearly impossible to discern what was happening there.
He could only vaguely make out several tall humanoid figures slowly moving about.
Could it be the Attack on Titan World?
If it truly was the Titan World, for him, a Gold Saint who had awakened the Eighth Sense, it would be incredibly easy!
Li Yu paused on that Reincarnation World and asked the Main God.
"Main God, what world is this, and is the probability of obtaining source crystals high?"
[Hunter, this Reincarnation World has completely collapsed. If you can restore it, you will definitely obtain a World Crystal!]
The Main God gave an affirmative answer, and then a warning popped up before his eyes.
[Please note, this Reincarnation World is extremely difficult. No Reincarnator who has entered this world has survived. Even if you are a Hunter, you must be fully prepared. If you find the situation unfavorable, call me at any time to help you return to the Reincarnation Space!]
[Even if you can only bring back intelligence about this world, the Hunter will receive a reward of two million credit points!]
It was clear that the difficulty of this world made even the Main God somewhat wary.
Li Yu's lips curved into an indifferent arc.
The more dangerous a place, the more valuable it is!
With his current strength, at worst, he could freeze the entire planet, returning everything to the prehistoric era.
Li Yu no longer hesitated, his figure transforming into a streak of light, breaking through the light screen and entering that unknown world… The scene before his eyes went from blurry to clear. Li Yu floated in mid-air, and the first thing he perceived was a strange scent, a mixture of putrid flesh and cloying sweetness.
He looked down, his pupils contracting slightly. The ground beneath his feet was no longer familiar soil or rock, but a global carpet of red.
Looking closely, it was a living organism formed by the fusion of countless flesh and blood tissues, its surface a translucent dark red. He could even clearly see vein-like structures writhing like rivers beneath the carpet, each contraction emitting a squelching sound, as if countless mouths were breathing in unison.
Green miasma steamed up from the gaps in the tissue, permeating the air and making visibility viscous. In the ground's ravines, blood-like liquid flowed, constantly circulating.
The entire planet seemed like a fallen creature, eerie and decaying!
Li Yu looked up at the sky, which presented an even more bizarre sight.
The usual clear blue was completely obscured by thick purplish-gray clouds. The clouds resembled organs soaking in formaldehyde, covered in irregular folds, with dark green light bands flowing deep within them.
Occasionally, a rift in the clouds would appear, but instead of sunlight, chaotic dark red light leaked through.
What exactly is this place?
Li Yu frowned; no world in his memory corresponded to the scene before him.
Just then, the ground suddenly vibrated violently, and a grating sound, like bone friction, came from afar.
A humanoid creature nearly a hundred meters tall was swaying as it approached. Its red metallic armor was shattered by expanding flesh and blood, and the three pairs of webbed wings on its back were not used for flight but instead opened and closed like claws. Each step caused ripples in the bloody carpet on the ground.
Li Yu's figure shifted slightly, easily dodging the webbed wing swung at him.
As his gaze swept across the creature's chest, his pupils suddenly contracted. The characters "02" were clearly imprinted there. The monster's head was hideous and terrifying, its sharp teeth filled with flesh and blood.
This is… the Neon Genesis Evangelion World?
The moment he saw this monster, a thought flashed like lightning through his mind, and Li Yu instantly understood.
It seems the Human Instrumentality Project… succeeded.
With his divinity, Li Yu's brain worked like a computer. He instantly recalled the world's timeline.
At the beginning of chaos, the Tree of Life gave birth to Adam and Lilith, and simultaneously bore two fruits.
Adam devoured the Fruit of Life, and Lilith obtained the Fruit of Wisdom, becoming the First and Second Angels.
4.6 billion years ago, the First Angel Adam impacted the South Pole, triggering the First Impact. He then fell into slumber, and from his body, the Third to Seventeenth Angels were born.
Their mission was to mature and return to Adam, awakening their slumbering progenitor.
4 billion years ago, the Second Angel Lilith impacted Earth, triggering the True First Impact, causing the other Angels to go into dormancy.
Her bodily fluids permeated the earth, giving birth to humanity, the Eighteenth Angel.
After humans discovered the secrets of Adam and Lilith, they established the NERV organization, intending to prevent Adam's revival.
But human greed made them want to both prevent the destruction caused by the Angels' return and crave to steal the power of gods.
An extremist organization among humans, SEELE, advocated for humanity's return to the Lilith maternal body, implementing the Human Instrumentality Project.
The Second Impact in 2000 AD occurred because a research team made an operational error, extracting the Spear of Longinus from Adam's chest. Adam awoke in the South Pole and went berserk, annihilating half the Earth's population. The surviving Angels gradually awoke and launched attacks against humanity.
To combat the Angels, humans used half of Lilith's body to create EVA Unit-01, but it could not be activated due to a lack of a soul.
It wasn't until Shinji Ikari's mother, Yui Ikari, completely merged her body and soul into Unit-01 during an experiment that this giant truly came to life… Li Yu gazed at this collapsed world before him, feeling the scent of LCL solution permeating the air, his expression gradually becoming serious.
The success of the Instrumentality Project transformed humanity into a part of this flesh and blood earth, and the Unit-02 before him was a monster born from the fusion of an Angel and an EVA!
The NERV organization produced a total of three non-mass-produced EVAs.
Unit-01 was half of Lilith's body and incorporated the soul of Shinji Ikari's mother, Yui Ikari, so Unit-01 only recognized Shinji Ikari as its pilot.
Unit-00 was a replica of Unit-01. To activate Unit-00, Gendo Ikari replicated Yui Ikari's physical body and infused it with part of Lilith's soul, creating a girl named Rei Ayanami.
Only Rei Ayanami could pilot Unit-00.
Subsequent units, Unit-02, Unit-03, and even the mass-produced units, were all created using Adam's body and could be piloted by ordinary humans.
The clearly out-of-control unit before Li Yu was EVA Unit-02, and its pilot should have been Asuka.
The biological carpet covering the ground was likely humanity, transformed into unconscious flesh and blood by SEELE's Instrumentality Project!