CHAPTER 318: CHAPTER318-THE TROUBLESOME FLESHHEART

After storing away all the materials, Daniel suddenly lifted his head to look at the Emperor of Mind before him and spoke.

"Oh, there’s one more thing."

"That giant treasure chest I attacked earlier—if you used your authority as the Emperor of Mind, could you destroy it completely?"

The moment the question left his lips, the Emperor of Mind’s mouth twitched slightly. Then, with a decisive shake of his head, he replied,

"That I cannot do. I am unable to violate the rules of the Mental Plane."

"For us, the fact that we didn’t punish you for breaking the Mental Plane’s rules is already the limit of what we can allow."

"If you violate the rules again, all we could do is either expel you or execute you. As for actively destroying a particular thought-chest, that’s completely impossible."

Finishing in one breath, the Emperor of Mind let out a helpless sigh.

"For a being from the Origin Land like yourself, it’s difficult to understand the helplessness of being bound by the rules."

"There are things we simply cannot do—no matter how much we want to."

"If you insist on attacking that giant treasure chest again, the most we can do is turn a blind eye for a short time."

"But you must remember—you will only have five seconds. After those five seconds, we will have no choice but to act."

Daniel’s interest was immediately piqued.

"In that case... I won’t hold back."

The moment he said that, he didn’t give the Emperor of Mind any time to respond. His figure vanished from the spot in an instant.

At this moment, Fleshheart had not yet fully recovered his thoughts.

Even for him, restoring a large quantity of fragmented, erased thoughts in a short time was no easy feat. It would take at least several minutes.

Still, by now Fleshheart had realized exactly what was happening.

He knew of the existence of the Mental Plane, so it took him only an instant to understand that his thoughts must have been damaged within that realm.

Immediately, Fleshheart used his skills to reinforce the defenses of his thought-chest.

Even so, there was only so much he could do.

The realm of the mind was not his specialty—being able to add even a small boost to his defenses was already his limit.

Meanwhile, Daniel’s figure reappeared before the giant treasure chest, and without hesitation, he launched his attack.

Almost simultaneously, Fleshheart’s mind went blank once more, crashing like an overloaded system.

This time, Daniel did not hold back in the slightest. He summoned every one of his avatars and unleashed the Spirit of Skills, directing them all against the massive chest before him.

In an instant, the entire Mental Plane erupted with violent flashes of light and countless slashing marks.

At the same time, Daniel used Mind Hunt.

Originally, Mind Hunt could only be triggered with a dagger in close combat—but now, he had adapted it into a ranged attack.

Mind Hunt rained down in torrents, like a storm of blades, saturating the giant chest in an unrelenting barrage.

Almost at that very moment, across the Flesh Continent, a palpable aura of corruption began to spread.

Fleshheart, of course, had no intention of just standing there and taking it. The moment he was attacked, he tried to fight back, his mind instantly erupting with countless thoughts.

But in the Mental Plane, any thought he formed would be instantly erased.

Thus, even while under attack, he had no way to retaliate—only to stand frozen in place and endure the strikes.

The simultaneous assaults from the Mental Plane and the Flesh Continent acted like a paralyzing spell cast directly on him. He could do nothing but stand there and take the punishment.

This relentless attack lasted for the full five seconds.

And just as those five seconds ended, an overwhelming will surged through the Mental Plane.

Enzo appeared once again, immediately launching an attack on Daniel with full force, his voice carrying an unrestrained roar of fury.

"All who break the rules shall be sentenced to death!"

But the very moment Enzo appeared, Daniel vanished from the spot, reappearing at the location of the Mind Core.

Seeing Daniel return, the Emperor of Mind sighed helplessly.

"Ah... now you must leave."

"Mind Expulsion!"

...

Flesh Continent

Fleshheart still stood, his outward appearance seemingly unharmed.

Now that the influence of the Mental Plane was gone, his thoughts could flow again without interruption.

He looked toward Daniel, his eyes gleaming with a faint but unmistakable killing intent.

"Human... it was you, wasn’t it? You’ve been in the Mental Plane, destroying my thoughts."

As he spoke, he assessed the extent of the psychic contamination now tainting him. A deep, unquenchable anger welled up within his heart.

With his level of strength, he could clearly perceive just how dangerous psychic contamination could be.

If he had truly been injured during that attack, the corruption could have harmed him fatally—he might well be dead already.

Daniel’s avatar met Fleshheart’s gaze with a calm, unreadable expression, offering no verbal response.

But at that moment, the avatar’s body was suddenly engulfed in a mass of writhing flesh.

In an instant, the avatar’s health plummeted to a critical state.

However, the writhing mass did not finish him off completely.

Instead, Daniel’s avatar turned his eyes to take in his surroundings—

Everywhere he looked, there was nothing but pulsating, crawling flesh.

"So that’s how it is... looks like Fleshheart really is difficult to kill."

Once a being reached the Fake God level, dealing damage was no longer something simple attacks could achieve.

Here, in the heart of the Flesh Continent, nearly all of Daniel’s summoned avatars had been wrapped up in the encroaching flesh.

None of them had been outright destroyed, but their bodies were undergoing disturbing changes.

Thick, aimless growths of flesh began to sprout uncontrollably from their forms.

In the blink of an eye, all of the avatars had transformed into grotesque monsters, their bodies covered in swollen, tumor-like lumps, their appearance enough to unsettle anyone who looked at them.

And yet, Daniel’s expression remained perfectly calm.

He slowly lifted his head and looked straight at Fleshheart before him.

"It seems that if I want to take you down, this level of attack just isn’t enough."

Fleshheart was nothing like he appeared on the surface.

What Daniel had learned from the recent battle was this—

In truth, the entire Flesh Continent was part of Fleshheart’s body.

If he wanted to kill the Fleshheart’s true form, it seemed that he would have to destroy the entire continent itself.

Although the psychic contamination had indeed spread into the Flesh Continent, the relationship between the continent and Fleshheart was akin to that of a mother body and its avatars.

The contamination could affect the continent, but it had no real impact on the mother body itself.

As for Fleshheart’s core self—he had emerged entirely unscathed.