The portal was condensed by expending all the corruption that was in the Aberrant World.

Rhizen\'s Tower of Purification—Pearl Buck—had the property of shielding whatever world it was planted upon from the senses of Apocalypse, preventing it from interfering with this world.

Moreover, it also prevented the corruption in the world from making a connection with the System World, the place where Systems were birthed.

As all System Skills regarding that were rendered useless, the corruption had only one choice, and that was to consume all the corruption in the Aberrant World to brute force a way through the world.

As the Tower of Purification had multiple abilities, one of which was to act as a beacon for trans-universe travel, by pouring all the corruption plaguing the world through it, Yulna penetrated through the fabric of space of this universe, creating a portal into the adjacent universe.

And using the Tower of Purification, she locked onto the habitable world there, jumping into the portal right after talking smack about Rhizen.

Every System in existence hated Rhizen for what he had done in the past. Therefore, now that Yulna had transformed into a Host to a large enough fragment of the Apocalypse System, she expressed her anger.

But of course, she dared not remain behind, aware that he might interfere and mess up her plans to escape. Yulna had already successfully stolen part of the power in possession of the PADS, not to mention their Tower of Purification.



This was better than taking over the Aberrant World. After all, to the eyes of Apocalypse, the Aberrant World was just one among the thousands of worlds it was in control of.

Losing one didn\'t even matter, especially since in exchange, it had obtained valuable information regarding its enemy.

The moment she entered the portal, it instantly closed up, ensuring none could follow her.

But of course, Rhizen had no intentions of allowing that, churning the last vestiges of his Desperate Luck as he pointed his hand at the portal.

Apocalyptic Arts—Thieving Heaven (VIII)!

Swoosh!

His figure vanished, appearing on the other side of the portal as he crashed into a mountain.

Boom!

The Aberrant World rumbled as things happened too rapidly on it, confusing everyone. But now that all the Aberrants had vanished, things became safer instantly.

The Geological Society Director in Yonka City stared at the receding waters as he pulled out a pocket watch, observing the words flashing on it.



[World Corruption: 0]

"We succeeded." He smiled in response, sighing in relief. But suddenly, he turned around in alarm, watching the Pearl Buck vanish mysteriously.

For a moment, it seemed like their world had been exposed to mysterious powers. But immediately after, the silhouette of the home world of PADS flashed once as a formless power seeped into the Aberrant World, using the various Towers of Purification there as the node, quickly protecting the world once again.

Following that, the silhouette vanished as all the Mystic Humans sighed in relief. With this, the Aberrant World was safe, having avoided all harm from now on.

Even though they had suffered disastrous losses, as long as they worked on rebuilding their strength, the world would get back on track eventually.

The Nacre production in the various Towers of Purification slowed down drastically due to the lack of corruption. They had to slowly extract nutrients from the soil, process it like food and produce a meagre sum of Nacre.

But best of all, there was nothing in this world to hinder the Nacre production. So, given a few decades, enough Nacre would seep into the world before the Aberrant World itself begins to produce Nacre.

Only then could they say that the world didn\'t need protection from the PADS.

"Rhizen, I hope you\'re safe," Shika muttered, gazing at the sky in the direction where the portal had appeared. There was no indication of a portal being there anymore, but it was where Yulna had escaped through while Rhizen followed after her.

Unlike before, Rhizen had treaded onto uncharted lands where the PADS had yet to set up communication. So, until he figures out a means to contact them, there was no way to know about his situation.

All she could do was pray for his wellbeing and hope he could capture and bring back Yulna.

…

Boom!

Watching the portal crumble into nothing behind him, Rhizen panted in exhaustion, sensing the effects of his Desperate Luck dissipate as he crashed into a hill, watching Yulna\'s figure scuttle about from nearby.

Her expression was one of shock, expressing irritation amid mild hopelessness as her wings fluttered in a flurry, carrying her past the hill and far into the horizon.

"D-Dammit!" Rhizen grunted in pain, unable to move as his transformations came undone one after another. He expressed killing intent, acting like he was about to chase after Yulna once again, but he had truly hit his limit.

Immediately, he erected his Pearl Buck, watching its roots dig deep into the hill as it created a small safe zone, one that barely spanned a couple dozen metres in radius, enough for his Whale form to rest at.

The Nacre production was slow as there wasn\'t any corruption in the place. It seeped into his wounds, slowly healing him as Rhizen fell unconscious.

His Whale form had the strongest recovery rate, so remaining as such was better than reverting to his human form.

…

"Shit! Shit! Shit! How the heck did he manage to make it through despite the short window of the portal\'s existence?" Yulna screamed nervously, biting her nails as she continued to fly, able to feel a deep sense of fear root in her heart, as if a terrifying beast was about to swallow her whole any moment now.

She looked around in a hurry, failing to see any traces of Rhizen, but despite that, she was unwilling to remain in this world any longer.

Her first intention was to return to the System World and meet Apocalypse, thereby giving it all the data that she had compiled. After that, they\'ll figure out a way to deal with him.

The only reason Rhizen had yet to truly go all out was due to the fact that his power was too strong, powerful enough to reveal the hidden location of his home world. That was why he only used conservative lucks.

"If he had used Coincidental Luck back then…" At the mere thought of it, Yulna shuddered.

She then hurriedly riled up her power, intending to connect with the Astral Network, a mystical network that all Systems were able to access from any world in any universe, as long as the network had been set up there beforehand.

But a couple of seconds later, she grunted in anger, landing on the ground before stomping in response, "Shit!"

Of course, she was unable to connect with the Astral Network. Even if it had been here, from the moment Rhizen planted his Pearl Buck into the ground, this world was cut off from the Astral Network, stranding Yulna.

This meant that she had to manually search for a way to leave this universe and hope to stumble upon a universe that maintained its connection with the Astral Network. And to do that, she had to repeat the same as what she had done in the Aberrant World.

Moreover, she had to hope that this time, Rhizen wouldn\'t follow her and cut off communications once again.

"I have to accumulate enough energy to pierce through the fabric of reality once again. Thankfully…" She condensed a pearl-like cylinder whose edges were covered by a murky green sludge, "With this Tower of Purification, I can do some interesting things."

She was no longer able to create Aberrants like in the Aberrant World, having lost those powers. But, through the fruits borne by the Tower of Purification, she might be able to give rise to the Aberrant version of the Horned Humans.

It would of course take her longer than in the Aberrant World, but as long as she persisted with it, she would be able to raise a sizeable army, especially since she wasn\'t able to sense any innate energy of this world.

This meant that the people of this world were mortals.

"Thankfully!" Moaning in relief, she flew through the air, quickly spotting a city far away, frowning as her eyes brimmed with power, allowing her to zoom in on her target, seeing that it was a human city.

"Are humans the only sentient species in this world?" She frowned at her appearance, one that was the least humane possible.

Suddenly, her muscles wriggled as the armour coating her began to fall off as pieces, revealing her tanned skin behind. One after another, the various traits that she obtained as a result of her evolution began to revert, shedding off the excess as Yulna began to retract in her power, settling everything in her Origin Space.

Before long, she assumed a human appearance, murky green hair with olive green eyes that accentuated her tanned skin and petite figure that barely reached five feet in height.

The parts of her body that had shattered and piled upon the ground whirled up at her will, melting into a liquid before coiling into threads that transformed into a set of garments that she wore.

With that, her preparations were done as Yulna flew through the region, retracting her wings once she reached the vicinity of the city. Following that, her demeanour changed, making her resemble a commoner girl that had ventured out to collect some herbs.

Grabbing hold of some herbs that she threw in a makeshift basket made out of bamboo, Yulna approached the city, staring at the guards wearing a mix of chainmail and leather armour, letting out an innocent smile, speaking with a chirpy tone akin to a teenager, "Hello, uncles!"