The job change is a bizarre and calamity; the nation begs me to tone it down.

It's huge, about the size of a heavy truck.

The entire heart was a deep, dark purple.

The heart was covered with dense, golden lines.

Countless thick blood vessels connect the space in all directions, like some kind of oil pipeline supplying nutrients, continuously conveying that dark red energy, causing this huge heart to beat slowly and powerfully.

Each time it contracts, the golden patterns on it light up, followed by a deafening roar that shakes the space.

What surprised Gu Xu the most was that the heart was not dead.

On its surface grow countless tightly closed eyes, moving in rhythm with its pulse.

The eyeballs under those eyelids seemed to be spinning wildly.

It felt like I was having a bizarre and fantastical dream.

"This is... kind of scary, isn't it?"

Gu Xu swallowed hard, instinctively wanting to make a few sarcastic remarks to ease the shock in his heart.

But my throat was extremely dry.

Just then, the heart seemed to sense the arrival of its kind.

Those tightly closed eyes opened simultaneously without warning!

brush!

Thousands upon thousands of golden pupils looked down at Gu Xu, who stood below.

In that instant, Gu Xu felt as if a high-explosive grenade had been shoved into his head.

Then the string was pulled.

"Ugh—!"

He groaned, clutching his head tightly with both hands, swaying as he nearly collapsed to his knees.

There was no attack as expected, nor any earth-shattering skill effects.

All that remained were fragmented, ancient, and chaotic pieces of memory, forcibly instilled into his mind.

He saw a silent starry sky, where the stars were not luminous spheres.

Rather, they are eyes peering at the earth.

He saw a bottomless black ocean, with enormous tentacles rising from the seabed and dragging the gods in the sky into the abyss.

He witnessed countless civilizations going mad, collapsing, and ultimately killing each other, turning into ruins, all in some indescribable whisper.

And at the very center of these images stands that figure, so imposing it defies description.

Those were the rulers of the past.

That is the source of the calamity.

That is... himself?

[Ding! Core source material detected! Causality match: 100%!]

[Access restrictions have been lifted! Panel generation in progress...]

Lines of blood-red data, visible only to Gu Xu, pulsed wildly above the heart.

The handwriting was distorted, as if some living thing was wriggling.

【Name: Heart of the Past (Fragment/Core)】

[Rank: ??? (Not visible)]

[Status: Awakening/Yearning/Return]

[Introduction: It was once the driving force of that great being, shattered countless ages ago, stolen by a false god, and transformed into the cornerstone of this secret realm's rules. It has been waiting, waiting for someone who can understand its heartbeat. (Note: Don't look anymore, it's you. No one else can contain this thing.)]

Gu Xu was panting heavily, cold sweat sliding down his face.

It dripped onto the fleshy membrane at my feet.

The excruciating pain in my mind was slowly fading, and as time passed, it transformed into an unprecedented... sense of intimacy.

Yes, it's friendly.

The feeling was absurd, like someone encountering a bloodthirsty beast in the wilderness.

Not only was I not scared, but I also felt that it was my own Golden Retriever that had been missing for many years.

Gu Xu slowly straightened up, his gaze returning to the enormous heart.

"So...you've been waiting for me all this time?"

Gu Xu muttered to himself.

He could sense that the heart had no intention of attacking him.

Even the gaze of thousands upon thousands of eyes just now contained not a trace of malice.

It's more like a child showing off their presence to their returning parents.

It is yearning.

Longing to return to one's true self, longing to beat again in a real body.

And that body was Gu Xu.

"Is this what they call... devouring fragments of rules?"

Gu Xu smiled gently and lifted his foot.

Step by step, I walked toward that suspended heart.

"I thought I had to fight this thing and beat it into submission before I could eat it."

"So it turns out it was just a case of returning the jade intact to its rightful owner."

As he drew closer, the heartbeat noticeably quickened.

The gold patterns on it are frighteningly bright.

It even became extremely glaring.

The blood vessels connecting to the space snapped one after another, making a crisp "bang bang bang" sound.

But the heart did not fall; instead, it was like a balloon that had been freed from its restraints.

It drifted slowly toward Gu Xu.

A huge shadow loomed over Gu Xu.

If it were an ordinary person, facing such an unknown creature with a huge difference in size, they would probably be trembling with fear.

But Gu Xu raised his right hand very naturally.

"bring it on."

He said softly, "I'm home."

The moment Gu Xu's palm touched the surface of his heart.

It didn't have that greasy feeling of meat.

It was more like a hand reaching into warm water.

The heart, as big as a truck, began to melt the moment it touched Gu Xu's fingertips.

It was no longer solid flesh and blood, but transformed into streams of extremely concentrated dark purple liquid.

The liquid didn't drip to the ground; instead, it climbed up Gu Xu's arm like living vines, moving so fast that it reached the ground in the blink of an eye!

"Hiss—I'm blanching it!"

Gu Xu gasped.

pain.

That really hurts.

The feeling was like countless red-hot knives drilling into his body along his blood vessels.

Wherever the dark purple liquid passed, the clothes on Gu Xu's arm instantly turned to dust.

His skin began to crack, but no blood flowed out because the purple liquid instantly filled the wound.

It became one with his flesh and blood.

But this is just the beginning.

The energy flowed down his shoulder and rushed all the way to his chest.

"Ughhhhh!!!"

Gu Xu finally couldn't help but let out a low growl.

He leaned back suddenly, his chest rising high.

It looked as if an alien was about to burst out of its body.

The once flat human chest underwent a horrifying transformation at this moment.

All the ribs broke at the same time, then shattered and reformed.

The skin tore open to both sides, revealing a dark purple nebula spinning wildly inside.

That's right, his chest was no longer made of human flesh and blood.

The spot where the heart was originally located has now become a small black hole vortex.

That enormous, ancient heart has completely liquefied.

They all rushed into that palm-sized vortex.

Gu Xu's body floated up.

His limbs hung limply, his head tilted back, his eyes rolled back, and only his chest area was visible.

A terrifying wave is erupting, powerful enough to distort reality.