This time I chose Paladin.

Chapter 144 The Butterfly Effect
Amid exclamations from all directions, eight corpse dogs emerged from the shadows and surrounded the three people!

A huge corpse dog emerged from the darkness and walked around the periphery. It seemed that its size was not so big from the beginning. There were dense strips of tear marks on its rotten skin and flesh, but the tears were filled with purple light, so its movement was not affected.

The strange thing is, this isn't a boss, or even an elite unit...

There was actually a thoughtful look on its face!

Nie Weiyang locked eyes with the giant dog, his heart instantly ablaze with alarm. He instinctively shielded Yi Han and the other two behind him, closely watching the giant corpse dog's movement, always ensuring he was between the most dangerous enemy and his teammates. His 1.9-meter-tall frame blocked the view, almost making the two behind him think it was dark.

He simply stared intently at the giant corpse dog, and the corpse dog stared back at him. In the silence, both sides took up their positions, their vigilance heightened to the maximum. Nie Weiyang, reviewing the information from his previous life, concluded: this dog was a brand-new enemy. The Lost Soul Puppet Master in his previous life had never had such a combat unit around him!
No, is this really a puppet? The Soulless Puppet Master's Soulless Puppet, as the name suggests, has lost its soul. Those puppets have no souls at all, so how could they have such a ferocious yet anthropomorphic look?
This reminded Nie Weiyang of an ability of the Lost Soul Puppet Master...

[[Switch Body for Life]: One life for another. After death, the soul leaves the body and erodes the killer's body, initiating a mental judgment on the target. If successful, it will take over the target's body and merge with the target's soul.]

……

...Could it be that in this life, the Lost Soul Puppet Master was bitten to death by a dog before he even grew up... ?
It doesn’t seem impossible…

Nie Weiyang stared at the corpse dog, lost in thought. After a moment, he suddenly asked, "Do you want to become human again?"

The corpse dog's focus was diverted for a moment.

It's now!

Nie Weiyang thrust his spear forward, and the corpse dogs, unable to dodge, roared. Eight corpse dogs lunged forward, but were held back for a moment by the sudden appearance of the ice shield, and then—

'Om—'

[Flash]!

The round shield shone with a sudden burst of light, and Nie Weiyang passed through the frost, shaking off a corpse dog that had blocked the spear. In this instant, he had already reached the giant dog!
"Crack!!!"

When a dog bit Nie Weiyang, the light bullets pierced through the heads of several other dogs, and the golden spear pierced through the giant dog's neck without any hindrance!

This was like a hot knife cutting through butter; it was incredibly easy, so easy that Nie Weiyang hadn't expected it. Beside him, the shield easily deflected the dog away. The level number of 27, which was a bit too high for such a level in the early stages, was simply too high. It was a simple numerical extreme. If he could be penetrated by such a small monster, he would lose.

Nie Weiyang twisted the spear hard, feeling like stirring yogurt.

He frowned slightly, but found that the crystal on the spear head was emitting a ray of light, and a halo was formed where it joined the spear shaft.

—Genetic disintegration is taking effect.

...No, isn't its genetic collapse targeted at Homo sapiens?!

Even Nie Weiyang was baffled by such abstract ideas. The giant dog roared wildly, its body twisting and deforming, its tail transformed into a thick, long bone whip, lashing at Nie Weiyang. He drew his sword with his backhand and slashed down!
"Holy Blade!"

Eat my invincible Holy Blade of the Purifying Spirit!

The whip tail was cut off, but the giant dog roared and tried to tear itself off the golden spear. It seemed to feel no pain at all - how could a corpse feel pain? All this happened in the blink of an eye. It still had a chance -

"Crack!"

The long sword pierced the giant dog's eyes and pierced its head from top to bottom, nailing it to the ground. Then the spear was pulled out and pierced through the giant dog's heart, making it like a giant specimen, fixed to the pages of the earth by two nails.

Between the houses on all sides, countless puppets and zombies were restless and wanted to rush into the houses, but suddenly hundreds of professionals rushed out from the shadows, most of them were assassins, thieves and other professions, and a small number were other professions with stealth abilities. They were well-trained and rushed towards the enemy amid the cheers coming from the houses, and even pulled out the puppets hidden in the house!
How could it be possible that the city of Gushi hadn't sent anyone in after so long?

A lot of people were sent in from Gushi, but before Nie Weiyang’s three-person team, they had no option that could guarantee to attract all the enemy’s attention!

Over four thousand cloak-able classes charged at the enemy, including several spellcasters whose magical abilities allowed them to remain invisible for extended periods. Yi Han and the others then realized that the target they were covering had actually been nearby the entire time, simply remaining hidden and practically blending in with the enemy.

Beneath the light of purification and destruction, the giant hound struggled frantically, but this only hastened its death. After a while, Nie Weiyang released his longsword, placed one hand on its head, and channeled his spiritual power deep into its mind. Sure enough, his consciousness came into contact with another consciousness, a frenzied and restless human consciousness.

This dog is indeed a person.

Nie Weiyang closed his eyes, seizing the opportunity to search the other person's memory in a destructive way.

After a moment, he opened his eyes and his expression became complicated.

This was indeed the soul-destroying puppeteer he was familiar with, but this time, before he could develop, he entered a biological research institute of a former civilization while being hunted.

What exactly happened in that underground research institute? Nie Weiyang didn't know, because it was obviously beyond his mental endurance. He couldn't find any relevant information in those chaotic memories.

However, he knew very well who was chasing the other party—

——Li Duo, the red bird in Lianhe.

In this guy's memory, he was passing by the Lianhe No. 1 High School training ground near Langcheng. He saw a little girl among the group with a promising future, and he wanted to lure her out. But just as he started talking to the six or seven-year-old girl, Li Duo rushed out from nowhere, holding a wooden lollipop in her mouth, and a huge fireball hit him in the face...

Considering that for a mythical creature like Danque, which is related to fire and phoenix, sensing evil is a basic operation, Li Duo must have rushed over before he approached the little girl.

What followed was a pursuit that lasted for a full ten days. This guy didn't know where Li Duo got so much energy. He climbed over mountains and ridges and dismantled his puppets. The two of them even ran into a cordon on the way. Soon, he was chased into a valley where there was a former civilization city. He didn't dare to enter the city, so he could only run in any direction. As a result, he soon found a former civilization research institute and dove in.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself transformed into a dog, but a dead dog that had signed a contract with him. Li Duo, however, was missing. Perhaps she had been out for too long and couldn't stay near the former civilized city, so she gave up the chase and returned to Lang City.

From then on, the soulless puppeteer, his mind completely confused between human and animal, wandered the mountains. His self-awareness could only reach less than an hour a day, and the rest of the time he acted completely on instinct. Gradually, he approached several settlements and instinctively transformed the people inside into puppets. During this time, he devoured the souls of more than one person, replenishing his soul and gradually extending his lucidity by a few minutes. But the feeling of devouring souls also became addictive. He needed more—more—more souls. He had to obtain more souls... and nearby, the human gathering place with the most souls was the ancient city!

Nie Weiyang frowned and fell silent.

Reality is always more absurd and terrifying than fiction. At least he did not expect that the enemy would appear in front of him in the form of a dog and kill 80,000 people out of instinct in order to devour their souls.

But the number of souls this guy devours every day is limited. In its mind, killing 80,000 people is just a "helpless act influenced by instinct." It can be seen that from its thinking to its consciousness, it is no longer a human being.

No wonder Nie Weiyang asked Gu Shi to guard against special humanoid creatures, but Gu Shi still failed to defend against them... This time, the Lost Soul Puppet Master was not a human being at all, and his actions were not human!
Nie Weiyang let out a slow breath, stood up from the giant dog's corpse, and drew his spear and sword. He muttered something, and the crossed weapons shone with a gentle light, which fell down and began to purify the corpse.

Level 19 skill [Purity Sanctification] - Adds a holy effect to Order creatures and objects, exorcising and purifying Dark creatures and objects. Of course, as always, Nie Weiyang should avoid letting it touch him while using it.

A star-like white light showered down, and Nie Weiyang's expression regained its composure. At the edge of his vision, a message indicating a successful mental confrontation and failed possession of the target slowly faded away.

The world today has changed so much... In this foggy and chaotic world, he cannot assume that everything will proceed according to his ideas. After all, even twenty years after the previous life, people have not been able to fully uncover every truth of the new world, let alone completely control the situation.

Only now, new problems arise:

What went wrong in that biological research institute of the previous civilization that turned humans into animals with human genomes?!
The transformed bloodline of the Lost Soul Puppet Master is some kind of dog. Is there any connection between his transformation into a giant dog and this incident?

By the time the purification was complete, the giant dog's corpse had lost its permeating terror, and the remaining purple glow had vanished. Nie Weiyang sheathed his golden spear and turned to rejoin his two teammates. There were few casualties here. The stalkers hiding in the area had worked together to effectively protect nearly everyone. The army had arrived and was working alongside the stalkers to clear the zombies. The puppets with purple eyes had lost control and reverted to their normal zombie forms, some falling to the ground, some struggling, and some attempting to attack...

They were all residents of the old city, with their own lives, work, loves and hates.

The three of them walked back, their expressions not looking very good. But soon, they passed a mud house. The straw covering the windows was pulled aside, and the heads of a family of three popped out from inside, smiling excitedly and extending their hands to greet them.

"Thank you, boss!" "Thank you, brother and sister!" "Thank you, brother and sister!" They shouted in a disjointed manner.

The three of them were stunned for a moment, and then they saw people emerging from the houses and huts on both sides of the road. Several stalkers and soldiers gently stopped them, fearing that they would be harmed by the hidden dangers nearby. But they still smiled at the soldiers, the stalkers, and Nie Weiyang and the other two, as if all the gratitude in their lives emerged from their hearts, bathing in the sunset at this moment.

(End of this chapter)