Cthulhu America, I can see the kill line.

"I want to go home!"

Kong Jiu let out a roar from deep in his throat and charged forward, recklessly crashing into the fleeting gap.

Consciousness was instantly withdrawn, and everything before my eyes was once again replaced by boundless pure white.

It was still that pale, suffocating world. There was that illusory, hazy figure with indistinct outlines, and that little girl standing quietly to the side, gently fiddling with a willow twig in her hand.

The ferocious expression on Kong Jiu's face, a mixture of rage and determination, froze the moment he saw the two.

"So fast?"

A phantom voice rang out, its tone tinged with surprise and even a hint of playful mockery.

The transparent "face" scrutinized Kong Jiu with great interest: "I thought you would linger a little longer, lost in the dream of being an 'emperor'."

Kong Jiu ignored the obvious sarcasm in the figure's words and asked instead, "What was that just now?"

"I suppose it's a necessary 'test' for completing the loop."

The figure symbolically touched its equally illusory chin, its tone seemingly nonchalant, "Although I suspect you probably never truly realized how 'rudimentary' and 'incomplete' your previous path was."

As he spoke, the figure casually flicked his fingertip, and the spatial rift, its edges shimmering with faint light, tore open once more in this pale expanse.

"You've finished your business, now you can leave."

The figure's voice returned to its usual calm, even carrying a hint of urging, "Don't forget, the 'me' in reality is still getting soaked in the cold night rain right now."

Under the pure and curious gaze of the little girl Abina, and urged silently by the figure, Kong Jiu, filled with doubt and the unfamiliarity of having just gained power, hesitated and reluctantly stepped into the rift.

The instant his figure disappeared, the entire pale world seemed to lose its support, and began to silently collapse and wither, turning into countless shattered pure white light spots.

"The future Brother Kong,"

Abby tilted her head, her clear eyes gazing in the direction the figure had disappeared, her voice tinged with doubt, "You... seemed to be in a hurry to get Brother Kong out of here? Why?"

Why?

The figure did not answer immediately; his "gaze" seemed to pierce through the dissipating paleness and cast into some unknowable depth.

After a moment of silence, a voice with a hint of worry finally rang out:

"The power that 'I' possess... has begun to transcend the realm that ordinary humans can comprehend."

"Hopefully, when 'I' witness the 'truth' of this world with my own eyes..."

The voice grew fainter and fainter, almost inaudible, "That rationality, can it be maintained even a little longer..."

……

The pattering sound of rain returned to my ears.

"Achoo!"

A sneeze erupted uncontrollably, sending a shiver down Kong Jiu's spine; the biting cold made his teeth chatter slightly. "So cold!"

"This is a ghost..."

He muttered to himself, raised his hand and rubbed his eyes, which were blurred by the rain, with an incredulous look on his face. "Did I... fall asleep in the rain just now?"

His consciousness had indeed left his body, leaving the body standing motionless in the night rain.

His gaze unconsciously shifted downwards, and a corpse with dissipated pupils came into view.

At his feet lay Farah, his pupils dilated and his skin pale. This cult leader, who had suddenly transferred all his spiritual energy to himself, was dead beyond any doubt.

He subconsciously reached out and examined his body with a serious look.

The simple spiritual energy circulation on his arm was gone, replaced by dense, complex, and dazzlingly dark blue patterns.

These pathways are no longer limited to the arms, but extend to the neck, chest, back and even the legs, forming a network of energy vessels that cover the whole body and flow with a faint light, like a living second circulatory system.

He closed his eyes and clearly sensed the surge of spiritual energy within his body, nearly doubling in total amount, an unprecedented abundance and power filling his limbs and bones.

Deeper still, a long-standing sense of emptiness and incompleteness seems to be quietly filled and healed by this new path.

If the old loop was a narrow path in the countryside only passable by donkey carts, it has now been widened and reinforced into a four-lane thoroughfare that can accommodate even the largest vehicles.

However, the 'ownership' of the two subspace nodes was also inscribed within those loop bodies.

Looking at the cult leader who had once wanted him dead, Kong Jiu glanced at Farah with a complicated expression.

Farah's death made him, the successor of the loop, the only one who could open those two "doors".

Kong Jiu could sense that the cost of maintaining these two nodes was not borne by him.

It is estimated that the Purple Light Cult is still using some method to barely maintain its operation.

But without Farah as the core, it's only a matter of time before the two vulnerable nodes, as well as the entire Purple Light Cult itself, completely collapse and dissipate.

He sighed softly, his breath turning into a cloud of white mist in the icy rain.

It doesn't matter if that 'hell' is left to perish.

But what about those souls in "heaven" who are blinded and kept in captivity?

Before he died, Farah vaguely mentioned that there seemed to be an "organization" willing to take care of them.

"If...if there really were such an organization, that could arrive and take over before the two nodes completely fail,"

Kong Jiu thought to himself, a sliver of hope in his heart, 'Then, handing over the access to these two nodes might not be such a bad idea.'

However, a more realistic premonition permeated his thoughts like the icy rain.

He had a vague feeling that no one would come. No "organization" would appear at the last moment to clean up this hopeless mess.

He also knew very well that he couldn't save everyone, especially those "lambs" who were already mired in the mire and whose fates were predetermined like a dead end.

Kong Jiu shifted his gaze from Farah's shriveled pupils, as if trying to shake off the heaviness, and opened the system panel.

[Investigator System]

[Strength: 10, a strong and powerful mortal]

Agility: 9, Swift Mortal

[Intelligence: 43, C-rank psionicist]

[Overall Level: 62, Anointed One.]

As expected, Farah's intelligence stat was drastically increased on herself.

Kong Jiu looked at his intelligence value of 43 points and was somewhat troubled.

C-level psychic?

In a world where psionicists are already extremely rare, this level would definitely be considered mid-tier or even elite.

Many psychics who spend decades in arduous training may not even be able to reach this level.

However, despite his vast reserves of spiritual energy, his actual mastery of spiritual techniques was limited to a few rudimentary blood arts he had learned from Mina during their flirting.

It's like having a treasure trove but only using gold to pelt people – clumsy and inefficient.

Li Yingying once warned him: If you really want to find your way home, the essential key is to study and master the ability to travel through subspace.

But how deep should we go?

The system coldly displayed that he was a C-level psionicist, but did not point him in even the slightest possible direction or clue.

Frustrated, Kong Jiu swiped his finger across the blank panel and continued browsing.

[Additional Attributes]

[Insight: 10, Face the Truth of the World.]

The instant his gaze fell upon the words "spiritual vision"—

Click! Click-click! Squeak squeak squeak!

The [Spiritual Vision] attribute bar trembled violently without warning!

An extremely ominous premonition pierced Kong Jiu's heart like an ice pick.

His expression changed drastically, and almost instinctively he reached out to grab his chest.

Click~

The jade pendant around his neck shattered with a crisp sound, turning into several dull fragments that fell into his soaked clothes.

The system began to shake violently.

A chilling malice suddenly descended. It didn't come from outside the door, nor from the shadows, but seeped from the depths of nothingness, from the cracks in the world.

Kong Jiu's face darkened.

This strange phenomenon in the system, coupled with the unprecedented and terrifying malice, was the first bizarre situation he had encountered since acquiring the system!

Alarm bells rang in his mind, and he instinctively tried to shut down the suddenly out-of-control panel with his mind.

However, the system panel was not closed.

The font on it suddenly swelled up and enlarged!

And that malice, which is far beyond comprehension, formless, nameless, and shapeless, yet carries the power to crush reason, has also been amplified.

No...that's not right!

It's not about enlarging the font size.

It seems that these information panels have acquired their own life and will, and are gradually approaching the eyes as if they have grown legs.

Click.

A chill seeped into my bones, my thoughts felt like they were being gripped by giant claws, and my consciousness trembled on the verge of madness and collapse.

Kong Jiu then realized in despair that he couldn't shut down the system!

The information bar moved a few steps closer.

Now, he was completely overwhelmed by that chilling malice.

His face turned extremely pale. He clutched his chest, which was suddenly throbbing with extreme fear, and slowly knelt down in the rain.

The air suddenly froze. He could not see any form, but he could clearly sense that something was watching him.

He is watching.

That gaze was ancient, cold, and utterly merciless, as if staring at an ant.

My mind is screaming, my reason is crumbling! All common sense and logic are shattering!

Fear does not come from danger, but from the desecration of cognition itself.

As the system grew larger and larger in his eyes, Kong Jiu wanted nothing more than to curl up, forget, and disappear, but he couldn't even close his eyes.

They could only let that indescribable terror drag their minds little by little into eternal chaos and madness.

Dig it out?

Dig it out!

Two trembling fingers slowly approached his eyes.

In my eyes, the system frame is not only getting closer, but also slowly sliding down.

[Sanity value: -8.]

The number "8," which represents the beginning of madness, slowly "approached" and "tilted" under his gaze.

[Sanity value: -∞.]

"ah!!!!!!!"

A heart-wrenching scream, filled with ultimate despair and fear, pierced through the frozen throat, echoing mournfully across the empty dock.