"Whoa, I didn't expect you to have a move like this, apprentice."
Ximi spun in mid-air, marveling as she felt the mana overflowing within her body.
"Hmm... the mana is sufficient now, so what should we do..."
Before Tangerine could finish her sentence, a violent and crimson torrent of mana suddenly erupted from the outside world.
Feeling this massive torrent of mana, everyone panicked for a moment before quickly regaining their composure.
"That monster is starting!" Ximi said solemnly, scanning the turbulent mana torrents around them.
"Detecting a large amount of energy previously accumulated in the deep-level soul power plant; it is now converging into a high-concentration mana core at the city center." At that moment, naike suddenly projected herself and appeared, explaining everything that was happening.
"The soul walls blocking the roads are also being converted into pure mana and drawn away! Regardless of the opponent's objective, such a large-scale ritual is beyond our current ability to interrupt by any means!"
Listening to naike's analysis, Xia Yu did not interject. Although he really wanted to say that it could actually be interrupted—if his other selves came here, they could completely destroy the ritual.
But doing so would mean he couldn't completely eradicate the traces puchui left here, so the ritual couldn't be interrupted yet.
This ritual would form a massive explosion that would completely destroy the Earth; in other words, the explosion would also completely wipe out the C-04 infection left by puchui.
Therefore, if he wanted to expel puchui, he needed to erase every trace He left behind. This massive explosion actually suited Xia Yu's intentions.
As long as he expelled that drop of puchui's soul before the explosion arrived and then took the ark to escape Earth with other uninfected life forms, it would be a perfect ending.
The ark could also sail toward the previously discovered alien colonies to establish a new home.
"Then let's start cooking. What are we waiting for?" Xia Yu suddenly spoke up after naike finished her analysis.
"The apprentice is right, we need to start making the True Ancestor Monster Cuisine now!" Ximi waved her hand and commanded, "Those who can cook, come help us! Those who can't, go to the dungeon to save people. The dungeon has already begun to collapse—save as many as you can!"
After her words fell, everyone moved into action. Because of the massive amount of mana Xia Yu had provided, there was no need to worry about the magic kitchenware running out of energy.
Since it was a Special Grade Legendary Dish, once the cooking ritual began, it could not be stopped.
As one of the chefs, Xia Yu also joined in the cooking. But just as everyone had finished preparing, naike's warning rang out again.
"Warning: A large number of C-04 organisms are gathering here. The success rate of the cooking is extremely low. Immediate retreat is suggested."
"No, it's quite the opposite," Tangerine's serious voice rang out. "Specially sending minions to stop us means that what we're doing is truly a threat to Him! But is there any way for us to fight and cook at the same time?"
"Leave it to me!"
Xia Yu took a step forward, waved his hand at the crowd with his back turned, and walked forward without the slightest hesitation, looking like someone prepared to die.
"Junior truly looks like one of those side characters in manga who voluntarily stays behind to trade his life for his companions," Skeleton Zhiwei suddenly remarked.
"Wrong!" Ximi put on a proud face. "My chef is the protagonist; he will definitely return safely!"
"How did Junior become a chef?"
"He's no longer an apprentice, but a Special Grade Monster Cuisine Chef!"
...After leaving the site where the legendary dish was being made, Xia Yu sent a distress message in the Chat Group. The next moment, three illusory figures emerged from space and then solidified.
Undead Xia Yu, Cultivator Xia Yu, and Energetic Xia Yu appeared from the void. Although all The Xia Yus had identical handsome faces, each person's identity could be distinguished by their clothing.
Although Undead Xia Yu had changed into the armor made by AI Xia Yu, the armor still maintained the general appearance of medieval plate mail, and its surface had been intentionally weathered.
Cultivator Xia Yu's temperament was immediately different from ordinary people. He wore a set of white brocade robes with wide sleeves, his aura ethereal and composed; just standing there, it seemed as if flowing clouds and floating light were faintly shimmering between his clothes.
Energetic Xia Yu was much simpler, dressed as a Nightingale Ranger with a mask on his face and a hooded cloak over his shoulders. However, he held a cross staff, and a string of small skull ornaments hung from the upper-middle section of the staff.
The four of them looked at each other, all feeling a strong urge to complain.
Finally, the three who had just arrived in this world spoke at the same time, asking in unison: "Why are you purple?"
Zombie Xia Yu: "..."
"Is that important? Are you guys discriminating against people of color!"
The other Xia Yus: "..."
Good grief, you're not even human and yet you're talking about discriminating against people of color. Only you could come up with that.
"Alright, alright. If you want to complain, just do it in the group. We're here to help now."
Undead Xia Yu was the one to smooth things over. Although he also had a mountain of complaints, he held them back.
Hearing this, the other Xia Yus also suppressed their desire to complain; they could still distinguish between what was important and what wasn't.
Speaking of complaining, they wondered if there was a Xia Yu who had transmigrated to the world of '100,000 Bad Jokes.' If they could install a 'Roast Energy' cowlick, they felt they could accumulate a massive amount of roast energy at any time.
However, roast energy was clearly a knockoff of the DC Power Rings, since both materialized various props or weapons through energy—it was just that one relied on roasting to accumulate energy, while the other relied on emotions.
"Where are the monsters? My staff is already thirsty!"
Energetic Xia Yu leaned on his staff, a strange green light flashing in his eyes. Green mist also rose from the skulls on his staff, and the faint roar of souls seemed to come from within.
The other Xia Yus: "..."
You look like such a villain. Besides, you're clearly a Necromancer, so why are you using a cross staff? It's too weird.
"Cough..." Zombie Xia Yu coughed lightly, suppressing the awkwardness in his heart. "The C-organisms are already gathering. As long as you see those monsters that look like proliferating flesh tissue, kill them without mercy."
"Those C-organisms are already dead; they don't even have souls!"
Once these words were out, all The Xia Yus nodded in understanding. If they didn't have souls, then they were indeed dead. In that case, they would help them find complete peace.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss..."
Suddenly, sounds like a venomous snake flicking its tongue rang out in the surroundings. Masses of flesh-proliferated creatures appeared; they looked like raw meat turned inside out, forming disordered, growing tumors.
These monsters had no so-called facial features or limbs; they were composed entirely of a mass of flesh tissue, leaving deep blood trails on the ground they crawled over.
In the sky, quite a few monsters had grown thin wings of flesh and were flapping them toward the cooking site.
"Go!"
Zombie Xia Yu shouted, drawing his halberd and swinging it toward the nearest monster.
Undead Xia Yu was not to be outdone. After drawing Quelaag's chaos demon sword, he activated chaos fire, directly swinging out a vast sea of flames to incinerate everything.
Cultivator Xia Yu took out his flying sword. Under his sword incantation, the sword transformed into thousands, easily shredding the monsters on the other side.
Energetic Xia Yu's method was much simpler. He directly expanded his Plague Domain, absorbing the vitality of every monster that stepped into it, then channeled that vitality into the domain to restore the stamina of the other Xia Yus.
Just found out Wo Long is available for pre-order. It's priced at 298, same as Elden Ring. I want to buy it, but I have to wait for this month's manuscript fees to come in to have the money 〒▽〒. The Deluxe Edition is so expensive—it's actually over four hundred. I really can't afford that one.