This time I chose Paladin.

Chapter 320 A Cruel Choice
Nie Weiyang remained calm, simply raising a finger to hook the broken bone and tossing it aside.

He held the boy in his arms and gently patted his thin back.

“It’s alright now,” Nie Weiyang’s voice was deep and gentle, carrying a reassuring strength. “I’ll take you away from here.”

In any case, this child cannot remain here. Even if he is cannibalistic and has a murderous instinct... even if he is to die, he should die outside.

No one should stay in this godforsaken place.

Nie Weiyang leaped lightly out of the stinking circular cave. He placed the boy behind a relatively clean rock, away from the pile of corpses and the golden tree. After thinking for a moment, he put a small piece of candy in the boy's mouth.

The boy tasted the sweetness, and he paused for a moment, curled up, and stared blankly at Nie Weiyang with his big blue eyes. He seemed to understand what Nie Weiyang meant, or perhaps he was just too afraid to move.

Nie Weiyang turned around and clapped his hands.

Bai Yu emerged silently from the shadows.

“Keep an eye on him,” Nie Weiyang said. “Don’t let him get out.”

"Understood." Bai Yu nodded slightly, walked to the boy's side, and stared into the boy's empty blue eyes. For a moment, they complemented each other perfectly.

The golden leaves still swayed gently without wind, exuding a contradictory fluctuation of tranquility and pain.

Nie Weiyang strode towards the small room on the side of the sacred tree. Inside the room, the corpse of the leader he had casually killed earlier was still in a forward-leaning position, lying on the edge of the control panel.

Nie Weiyang expressionlessly pushed the corpse aside, casually grabbed the amulet around the person's neck and ripped it off, his gaze falling on the rough control panel that was flashing with various colors of light.

The craftsmanship is so rough, it definitely wasn't done by a previous civilization... Well, if it were a previous civilization, there should be a research institute here.

Moreover, the console's operating language is actually Earth language.

These guys hate Earth civilization, yet they still can't let go of their mother tongue. It's ridiculous.

Recalling the fragments of cult members' thoughts he had overheard, Nie Weiyang quickly identified several key operation interfaces. He swiftly manipulated the slider for 'Resonance Depth' from the dangerous middle position all the way to the bottom, found the option marked 'External Link', and decisively selected 'Force Disconnect'.

A low humming sound came from the direction of the sacred tree, and the swaying of the golden branches and leaves noticeably weakened. The mental pressure emanating from them, as well as the hidden pain fluctuations, also decreased significantly, becoming almost inert.

After confirming that the sacred tree was temporarily stable, he immediately began data collection. He quickly browsed the experimental logs and data records stored in the console and directly disassembled and collected several storage modules that seemed to be the most important.

At the same time, he did not forget to search the bodies of the leaders of the death cult, and found several documents with map markings, some amulets, and their identification marks.

[System: Item Found [Level 1 Kaligan Crystal Amulet (Refined)] x7]

[System: Item discovered: "Experiment Log - Pain Resonance Project - Third Node"]

[System: Item discovered [Kaligan Crystal Specimen] x4]

The gains were few, but they were useful.

Nie Weiyang glanced at the surrounding Kaligan crystals, then told Bai Yu to take the child away and tentatively gave the Holy Tree a sword strike.

The light from the Holy Radiance Blade shot towards a branch of the Holy Tree. The light made a soft 'hiss' sound when it came into contact with the gold, but it only left a shallow white mark on the surface and could not cause any effective damage.

"As expected..."

After all, this is a golden angel, and it would be difficult to completely destroy it without using strong acid to corrode it or using targeted weapons to damage it.

Wait... targeting weapons?
Nie Weiyang raised an eyebrow. He pulled a golden spear from his backpack and gave it a gentle shake—the white crystal spearhead of [Golden Grace] gleamed.

【[Wonderful Item·Golden Gift]-
A sharp golden spear, the tip of which has the ability to destroy the gene chain of a specific carbon-based organism.
Spear
Energy weapons
Current designated destruction target: Homo sapiens
-
Echoes of the Golden Night. -】

Nie Weiyang stared thoughtfully at the words "[Homo sapiens]", then smiled and modified them.

[Currently designated target for destruction: Radiant Core/Golden Angel]!
Fifteen minutes later, Bai Yu led the boy to a tree on the cliff.

A sudden, sharp pain shot through their heads. The boy seemed very familiar with this sensation; he screamed and clung tightly to Bai Yu, trembling all over, instinctively reaching out to bite Bai Yu's neck. Bai Yu, however, remained expressionless, gripping his chin.

'Click.' He dislocated the child's temporomandibular joint.

"Be good," Bai Yu said.

As he spoke, he seemed to realize he might have been a bit too frightening, so he let out a soft breath—he coughed lightly, mimicking Nie Weiyang's usual gentle tone: "Listen, we won't hurt you."

The child clutched his aching temporomandibular joint: "………………"

"Oh." Bai Yu snapped it back into place with a "click!"

Ten minutes later, a beam of light burst forth from the dense forest. Nie Weiyang, with a slight smile on his face, leaped onto the rock face and ran and jumped all the way up, kicking up a shower of flying stones.

He approached the two of them, and instead of climbing the tree, he squatted down on the rock and asked the boy in a calm voice, "What's your name?"

The boy simply shrank back in fear, his eyes darting away, and he didn't answer.

Nie Weiyang reached out and gently pressed his hand on the boy's forehead, a gentle holy light seeping in to check his physical condition.

Apart from extreme malnutrition, dehydration, and some minor skin injuries, the boy did not show any physical abnormalities.

but……

"...26% purity of human bloodline?!" Nie Weiyang exclaimed in surprise.

This child appears completely human, yet his bloodline purity is shockingly low! How is this possible? He's not even old enough to choose a career!
Moreover, when Nie Weiyang carefully probed with his mental power, he discovered that the boy's mental sea was in chaos, filled with the emptiness of trauma and the shadow of fear. Furthermore, deep in his consciousness, there seemed to be an extremely subtle, almost instinctive affinity for the energy of the Caligan crystal.

Or rather, his mental barrier has been assimilated by the environment inside the cave, eroding a crack in it.

This is not a good sign.

Humans with low blood purity, whose minds are assimilated by external factors, exhibit cannibalistic behaviors...

Nie Weiyang frowned. His gaze gradually turned cold, which made Bai Yu, who had been silent, also frown, but she did not ask any questions.

Taking such a child with you to continue venturing into dangerous territory to track down the messenger and head towards the Mount of the Returnist sect would undoubtedly be extremely unwise.

This would not only greatly slow down the process, but also put each of them in greater danger.

He has to make a decision.

At that moment, looking into the boy's pure blue eyes, Nie Weiyang fell silent.

The long-awaited... cruel choice has finally come before him once again.

(End of this chapter)