Kallen planted one foot on the lump of flesh. She didn't use too much force, nor too little—just enough to keep that heart from breaking free.
"Wait, wait! You damned woman—!"
Shuhu's voice came from beneath Kallen's foot, full of the humiliation of being crushed.
"What is the meaning of this?! Weren't you here to save me?!"
At that, Kallen lowered her head and looked expressionlessly at the frantically beating heart beneath her sole, at the single bulging eye wide with fury.
"Save you?"
"Buddy, are you one of those delusional narcissists? Have they locked you up so long your brain's rotted away too?"
Her foot pressed down a little harder, grinding the heart beneath her shoe like she was crushing out a cigarette.
"When did I ever say I was here to save you?"
Shuhu's pupil constricted violently. "You—!"
"I'm just passing by," Kallen cut him off.
"I thought I'd take a look at the so-called Thousand-Faced Monstrosity Tree, Shuhu—the legendary Emanator of Abundance—and see what was left of him."
Then she ground her heel again.
"So this is all that's left now, huh?"
"Tsk, tsk."
That flat, expressionless face paired with such sneering words created a strangely jarring contrast.
The heart beneath Kallen's foot throbbed wildly, every beat threatening to burst that thin membrane apart.
Shuhu's voice rose again, now sharp with outrage at the insult.
"How dare you treat this divine envoy with such disrespect!"
"Do you even know who I am?!"
"I am Shuhu! Emanator of the Merciful Medicine King! The Thousand-Faced Monstrosity Tree! The one who once made the entire Xianzhou Alliance tremble in fear!"
"And you—a woman of unknown origin—dare to—"
Kallen pressed down harder. "Dare to what?"
Her voice remained light, but the aura of Nihility around her suddenly thickened.
Gray-black mist seeped out from her body and slowly spread over the heart.
Shuhu's voice stopped abruptly.
Because that Nihility was eroding him.
Not suppressing him. Not sealing him. Not anything he had ever experienced before.
It was true erosion.
His life force—his proud, nearly inexhaustible Abundance-fueled vitality—was vanishing at a visible rate.
As if it had never existed in the first place.
Shuhu's pupil shrank to its limit.
"Th-this… what is this?!"
For the first time, fear entered his voice.
Because he could clearly feel it: if this power of Nihility continued to eat away at him, he would really die.
"You possess such powerful Abundance, so why do you also have the power of Nihility?! And why is your Nihility this strong?!"
At that, Kallen crouched down.
"Well then, little Shuhu, are you still so eager to act tough?"
Shuhu: "..."
Truth be told, Shuhu still wanted to keep bluffing.
After all, as an Emanator of Abundance, he liked to think of himself as a being with dignity.
He had once believed he could never die.
He was an Emanator of Abundance, personally blessed by Yaoshi. So long as Yaoshi's Path remained, so long as Abundance remained, he would never truly perish.
Even if his body were destroyed, even if he were sealed away for a thousand or ten thousand years, as long as even a single shred of flesh remained, he could revive.
That was his pride. His trump card. The foundation of his confidence when he challenged the Xianzhou Alliance.
But now—
that trump card had been ripped away.
The Nihility radiating from Kallen told him a cruel truth:
This woman really could kill him.
Not seal him. Not suppress him. Not put him to sleep for millennia.
Kill him. Truly kill him.
At last, the fear in Shuhu's eyes overwhelmed his anger.
And his voice changed.
"W-wait… Miss, perhaps we can talk."
"Talk? So now you know how to behave?"
Kallen tilted her head, expressionless as she stared at the frantically pulsing heart beneath her foot.
"Go on, then. How do you want to talk?"
Shuhu's pupil rolled, clearly thinking at lightning speed.
"You managed to find this place. That means you definitely didn't come all this way just to take a stroll."
"You broke my seal and brought me out. That means you need me."
Kallen's brow twitched faintly, but she said nothing.
Shuhu took her silence as confirmation, and his tone grew more assured.
"I don't know what exactly you want, but if you need the power of Abundance—if you need my power, the power of Shuhu—then we can absolutely cooperate."
"You help me recover, and I'll help you."
"You saw it yourself just now. My Abundance has withered to almost nothing. I can barely maintain even the most basic shape. But if you give me just a little more power…"
His voice suddenly rose, thick with temptation.
"Just a little more Abundance, and I can begin to regenerate myself."
"And once I return to my full strength…"
"There will be nothing in the galaxy I cannot do."
"What do you want? Wealth? Power? The destruction of some faction?"
"Say the word, and I, Shuhu, will make it happen."
He paused, that single eye staring straight at Kallen, its pupil burning with near-manic fervor.
"Well? You don't lose anything from a bargain like that, do you?"
Kallen listened in silence for about two seconds.
Then she lifted her foot—
and stomped down again.
This time harder than before. Her sole ground viciously across the heart.
"Ahhh—!"
Shuhu screamed.
This woman had absolutely no sense of martial honor. Right now he genuinely wanted to curse her out.
But then… he faltered again.
Not because of the pain. As an Emanator of Abundance, his tolerance for pain was absurdly high.
It was because along with that stomp came another surge of the gray-black Nihility mist.
His life force was eroded once more. That heart, which had just recovered slightly from the Abundance Kallen had fed into it earlier, visibly withered again.
"You—!"
Now Shuhu's voice finally held real panic.
"What exactly do you want?!"
"I said we can cooperate! We can negotiate! What more do you want?!"
Clearly, Shuhu had finally learned his lesson.
And seeing his reaction, Kallen nodded with satisfaction.
Then she said, "As long as you behave obediently, I can spare your life."
"I can even help you restore your strength—not just drip-feed you a little Abundance so you can barely keep your heart beating."
"I mean restore you. Return you to your true, complete, prime state."
"To the real Shuhu—the Thousand-Faced Monstrosity Tree that once made the Xianzhou Alliance tremble."
Even hearing that, Shuhu no longer dared to raise his voice.
That single eye stared fixedly at Kallen, emotions flickering through it in rapid succession.
Suspicion. Vigilance. Greed. Fear.
A silent war played out inside that pupil.
Then, at last, his voice came again, unusually calm.
"And the conditions?"
"You've said all this. There's no way there aren't conditions."
"What do you want me to do?"
Kallen's lips twitched faintly.
"The terms are simple."
"I have a scheme underway on the Luofu."
"And I need someone out front to draw the enemy's fire."
She looked him over.
"With your strength, if you recover to your prime… you'll barely qualify."
At that, the room fell silent again.
Shuhu's pupil shrank, then expanded, then shrank again, as if frantically trying to process what he had just heard.
And then—
he broke.
Completely, thoroughly broke.
"You want to attack the Luofu? You want to attack the Xianzhou Luofu?!"
"Then why the hell didn't you say so earlier?!"
"If you'd told me from the start you were planning to hit the Luofu, would we really have wasted all this time?!"
Right now Shuhu wanted to die.
No, really—what the hell? Sister, if you wanted to hit the Luofu, why not just say so?!
If they were both Emanators on the side of Abundance, and both wanted to strike the Xianzhou Alliance, didn't that make them comrades?!
Shuhu paused, the heartbeat settling a little, though the excitement in his voice remained.
"If you'd just said from the start you were here to attack the Luofu, I would've agreed immediately!"
"We're on the same side!"
Kallen listened without expression. When he finished, she replied evenly, "Same side?"
She tilted her head, looking down at the heart inside the box.
"Who exactly is on the same side as you?"
Shuhu's laughter died instantly.
"I only need a disposable pawn to draw fire," Kallen said flatly.
"And you happen to fit the bill. That's all."
The air froze for a moment.
Shuhu's pupil tightened, and the heart's pulsing slowed again.
He could tell she was telling the truth.
This wasn't posturing. Not playing hard to get. She really did see him as nothing more than cannon fodder.
A tool to draw fire. A thing to be discarded after use.
It felt…
bad.
But Shuhu did not lash out.
Because he knew he had no right to.
This woman's Nihility could kill him, and he needed her Abundance to recover.
Whether he liked it or not, for now, he could only bow his head.
So the eye on that heart blinked, and then forced out a sycophantic smile.
Yes—a smile, from an eye growing out of a heart.
The sight was so bizarre that even Kallen frowned slightly.
"Miss, you're absolutely right. Every word you said is right."
"I'm just cannon fodder. Just a tool to draw fire."
"To be chosen by you is my honor."
He paused, the heart giving a few more beats, as though choosing his words carefully.
"So…"
"When do we begin? When will you restore my strength? When are you taking me to attack the Luofu?"
The more he spoke, the more excited he became, the faster the heart thudded.
By then, Kallen had risen to her feet and was looking down coldly at the heart in the box.
"There's no hurry. In your current state, you can't even maintain a humanoid form, and you want to attack the Luofu?"
Shuhu's pupil twitched, and the heartbeat quickened sharply.
But he said nothing.
Because Kallen was right. In this state, he could only go out there and get slaughtered.
At his peak, of course, he had been wildly arrogant.
But now all he had left was a heart. He couldn't maintain even the most basic form, and his Abundance had withered to almost nothing.
In this condition, forget attacking the Luofu—surviving a trip out of the Shackling Prison would already be a miracle.
"So—" Kallen cut through his thoughts.
"First, I'll restore you."
She crouched again, her gaze falling on the heart.
"Once you're back in your prime, then we'll talk about attacking the Luofu."
The eye on the heart lit up instantly.
"Really?"
His voice held disbelieving delight, like a death row prisoner suddenly hearing his sentence had been pardoned.
"You really are willing to restore me?"
"Why would I lie to you?" Kallen asked flatly.
"If I wanted you dead, you'd already be a smear of ash. I'm keeping you alive because you're useful."
"And useful things should be made to give their maximum value."
Hearing that, Shuhu forced out that grotesque smile again.
"Miss, you're right, absolutely right. I'll definitely give my full value. I won't let you down!"
"So shall we start now?"
Kallen did not answer, but she acted immediately.
A strand of gray-black mist spilled from her fingertips and coiled around her hand.
Kallen gave no explanation.
She raised her right hand, palm down, and aimed it at the heart in the box.
Emerald-green light welled out again from her palm—the life force of Abundance, pure and dense, several times stronger than the trickle she had used before.
Shuhu's single eye shone.
He could feel that life force pouring into his heart, nourishing his long-withered flesh.
Kallen listened impassively, not pausing in the slightest.
Green light continued to stream from her hand, flowing into the heart and feeding that mass of flesh.
But just then—
gray-black mist quietly seeped into that green glow.
Abundance and Nihility—two completely opposing powers—intertwined in Kallen's hand and then poured together into the heart.
Shuhu's delight vanished at once.
"Wait—!"
His voice rose sharply, full of sudden terror.
"What is this?!"
"What are you doing?!"
He could feel it clearly—besides the Abundance restoring him, something else was entering his body.
Nihility.
Not the same Nihility from before, the kind that merely eroded his life force. This was deeper. Far more fundamental.
It was burrowing into every inch of his flesh, every vein, every thread of his soul.
At that moment, Shuhu understood with perfect clarity: if this Nihility fully merged with him, he would never be free of this woman's control.
No matter how much power he regained, no matter how strong he became, all it would take was a single thought from her—and the Nihility inside him would erupt, devouring all his life force.
At that point, he would not even have a chance to resist.
Then Kallen shot him a look.
"What? You don't like it?"
"…."
"Sorry. I do like it," Shuhu caved instantly.
…
Not long afterward, Kallen's enslavement of Shuhu was complete.
And with Kallen's help, Shuhu had finally regained a basic humanoid form.
"Boss, is this pressure okay?"
Now appearing as a handsome young man, Shuhu stood behind Kallen with a flattering smile, massaging her shoulders.
Kallen tilted her head slightly, her gaze falling on those long, pale fingers resting on her shoulders. Then she replied indifferently, "It's fine."
Encouraged, Shuhu increased the pressure a little and smiled even more brightly.
"Good, good—so long as Boss is satisfied."
After a while longer, Kallen spoke again.
"You're much easier on the eyes like this. That blob you were before was irritating."
Shuhu's hands paused for just a fraction, then resumed kneading, smile unchanged.
"Boss is absolutely right. Boss is right about everything."
"That blob really was ugly. Even I found it disgusting."
He paused, his tone turning even more obsequious.
"Boss is just too incredible. One move from you, and I'm back like this. If not for Boss, I'd probably have been rotting in that box for another few thousand years."
"Boss's kindness is higher than the heavens, deeper than the sea, greater than—"
"Enough." Kallen cut him off.
Shuhu immediately shut up, though his hands kept moving.
After kneading for a little longer, he tried again.
"Boss, didn't you say you wanted to hit the Luofu?"
Kallen's brow shifted faintly, but she remained silent.
Shuhu took her silence as agreement, and his tone grew more eager.
"Boss, don't worry. At my current strength, I can solo the Luofu by myself. You won't even need to step in."
"Once I flatten the Luofu, you can just sit in the Seat of Divine Foresight and sip tea while watching the show."
"How about it?"
Kallen turned, her gaze settling on the grinning face behind her.
"Do you know what kind of combat power the Luofu currently has?"
The young man's smile stiffened slightly, and the eye in him flickered.
"No."
He paused, then added, "But from what I remember, the Luofu's top combatants are nothing special."
"One Sword Champion. One General. One High Elder."
"Sword Champion Jingliu—her swordsmanship is decent, sure, but she's not even an Emanator. So-so."
"General Teng Xiao—he only knows how to throw Divine General around. I fought him plenty of times. His strength? So-so. I imagine his successor's about the same."
"High Elder Dan Feng—his dragon power is a bit of a nuisance, but nothing more than that. I'm confident I could stomp him to death."
Shuhu said "so-so" three times in a row, as casually as if he were rating side dishes at dinner.
Then his voice dropped, and the light in that eye started to waver.
"Though…"
"That was all a very long time ago."
At that moment, Shuhu felt his mouth had run ahead of his brain.
Right—even setting aside whether the Luofu's strength had improved, if it was still just the old trio from back then, he wasn't actually sure he could take them all.
But by then it was too late. Kallen continued speaking.
"Fine. Since you're so confident, and I happen to have other plans as well, then all the enemies currently on the Luofu are yours to handle."
Having already bragged, Shuhu could only grit his teeth and keep going.
"Then, Boss… could you at least tell me what the Luofu's current situation is?"
Kallen replied evenly, "Relax. It's nothing much."
"There are only four Emanators of the Hunt, two Dragon Sovereigns, and one Emanator of Preservation."
Shuhu: "?????"
Join here to read ahead.
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 180)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter260)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter135)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (This matter is completely finished.)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 240
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 210
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/20
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 280
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 260
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/40
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 130
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 155
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 120
I Can Copy Unique Skills 120
Summoning an Evil God, but the 75
Supernatural Multiverse 135
My Harem Is Indescribable 105
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 110
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 67
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 110
Still playing traditional Honk 91
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 95
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 80
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 90
Checking In in Demon Slayer 95
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 105
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 95
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 80
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 100
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 95
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 85
Why did they assign me to Uma 80
MYGO Beauties 75
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 80
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 90
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 105
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 65
The Uma Musume Who Became 70
I'm Definitely Not the King of 85
After Maxing Out Every Class 85
Naruto: I'm Konoha's Local Men 44
Honkai: World Modulation Mode 70
I, the Elden Sword Saint 60
Dio Brando Is Challenging FGO 60
No One Knows Pokémon Better 55
I, Sakazuki, Won't Go Down Tha 55
From Trilobites to Titans 55
Chainsaw Man: Contracted with 66
DanMachi: My Party Members Are 70
An Anime Heroine Darkened 60
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Links 50
Honkai: The Fire Devil 30
Honkai Transformation Cards 35
Age of Heroes, I'm Just a Back 45
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