CHAPTER 829: 827: THE BIRTH OF A MONSTER

Zede’s physical development path, was not initially "corpse."

His physical level of talent is quite high in Zion, but not to a particularly exaggerated extent.

The young Zede, seeking Open Source "Relic," was first spotted by the monastery upon stepping onto the Old World land. Though Asimov was similarly noticed, his worldview was completely different.

During the forced modification time back at the monastery,

Asimov, as a Doctor, realized an important point: ’simply studying medicine cannot save Zion,’ relying on the Source Epidemic Area of the Old World is a very good choice to truly extend the human Flame.

In his view, once the World Infection is completed, organizations like Zion will hardly maintain independence, and only by establishing relations with the Source Epidemic Area, as he did ahead, mixing out some titles can truly rely on it as the background to safely guard Zion and the organization.

Thus, Asimov was very cooperative even after being forced into the monastery, showing remarkable Talent and quickly passing the Monk’s test.

He even proactively applied to use his own body as a Cultivation Plate for the Iron Chains, attempting to cultivate the most suitable Special Iron Chains for himself, successfully hatching a surgical knife chain that accommodates both surgical operations and executions.

This paved the way for his future rise, laying the base to become an Executioner.

Zede, on the other hand, was uncharacteristically "stubborn,"

he scorned these Old World monks who forcibly seized people without seeking independent opinions, even dismissing Asimov’s advice.

In his eyes, the monastery was entirely like a human trafficking organization, not worth trusting at all.

The most crucial point was that, even if he complied with the monastery’s demands to ultimately become a monk, it would completely sever relations with Zion, the organization, and humanity, which was absolutely unacceptable to Zede.

Therefore, he was not compliant with the monks and would attempt to escape whenever there was an opportunity;

though escaping was impossible, once captured, he would suffer tragic Torture.

The amount Torture Zede regularly suffered was tripled, even more than what Asimov endured.

This "overdose" Torture could not bring equivalent physical growth feedback, instead, it would destroy the body, crush the consciousness, possibly letting the physical completely collapse unable to feel Pain, ultimately degrading into a sensationless, non-growth-moving corpse.

But Zede held on, relying solely on the pure obsession of wanting to return to the organization, to meet friends.

In overdosed Torture, to prevent consciousness from collapsing, he found an absolutely quiet gray Sanctuary deep in consciousness, as long as the consciousness is placed there, no Pain would be felt, everything would become indifferent.

That was Zede’s first touch with the Concept of "null," the tortured inhuman physical also embraced this Concept.

Afterwards, regardless of the Torture that arrived, Zede would enter this realm without any expression.

Pain didn’t abandon him, he abandoned Pain, and all he saw was gray.

Zede’s uniqueness soon attracted attention from the monastery’s high-ups,

The attention toward this special human increased, even without participating monastery-related assessments, sparing him through and arranging for the Plantation to attempt accepting the Iron Chains.

Because of Zede’s uncooperativeness, it was impossible to let him bury himself in the Plantation’s soil, using his own flesh to cultivate Iron Chains.

So only by utilizing planted Iron Chains, or Iron Chains inherited from deceased monks, to graft onto the flesh was viable.

Eventually, three special Iron Chains were selected based on Zede’s physique:

1. An excellent rating, purity S standard Iron Chain derived from regular Plantation.

2. A pillar-type Iron Chain acquired from Death Row Plantation, missing the common circular structure, connected via long column, purity A+ carrying prisoner’s will.

3. "Du Sang’s Chain" passed down from the Executioner Du Sang Soriano from centuries ago, a peculiar lock chain with a ’Swiss Army knife’ sense.

Seemingly plain, resembling an ordinary lock chain. Once it touches the target, it self-adapts to the most suitable handling of the target’s specific structure.

Zede still didn’t cooperate, did not make a choice,

Thus the monastery attempted all three chain types on his body and surprisingly, Du Sang’s Chain integrated seamlessly unlike anyone who had maneuvered it.

The reason was simple,

Du Sang’s Chain can self-adapt to different physiques, any monk wishing to accept it, once touched, the chain evolves for the current monk’s structure leading to endless Pain, or even Executionful death, unable to accept it.

However, the Concept of "null" understood by Zede made him not express any Trait, and Du Sang’s Chain caused no change entering his physical.

As the embedding of the chain completed, Zede uses the Iron Chain as Relic, publicly opens the Source amidst witnesses within the monastery, even stirring strong chain resonance, attracting even the Prison Director’s attention.

Post-Open Source, he acquired a rare syndrome, named "Fibromyalgia Syndrome."

However,

Post-Open Source Zede fell like a corpse in the Plantation unmoving, breathing extremely shallow.

Through detailed detection, Zede was identified in a rare semi-Death state, possibly related to his illness, marking Zede’s first display of "corpse" status, an exclusive manifestation of "null."

After comprehensive discussion within the monastery, it was finally resolved to cater to Zede’s demands dumping into the Plantation’s corpse storing area.

Thousands of corpses piled here, some were Prisoners from the Sin Step, others complete corpses from various Old World regions vetted by corpse traders sold to the monastery, used as Cultivation Base for iron chain planting.

Time elapsed day by day,

Zede’s state showed no recovery indication, leaning closer to "null," even his originally shallow breathing vanished.

This way, buried within the corpse pile for three entire years,

Initially, the Gardener checked Zede’s state atop the corpse pile every day, gradually reduced to checking once every three days, occasionally even neglecting the matter.

Until prompted by the higher-ups about Zede’s condition, the Gardener, having missed inspections for about ten days, discovered Zede’s corpse supposedly atop the pile was missing, and there was no Sensing with the chain detector amid the corpse pile.

Alarm blared,

The entire monastery began searching Zede’s whereabouts, but failed to locate Zede regardless of the region, not even traces left.

Due to the Gardener’s omission, it was possible Zede had already escaped the monastery, monks expanded the search area and arranged personnel to approach the nearest World passage.

As the monastery launched external searching operations,

Deep within the corpse pile, buried at the very bottom, Zede suddenly opened his Eyes,

He deliberately erased his Aura blending with other corpses, his inner "Du Sang’s Chain" also responded to master’s request concealing fully, nullifying any chain resonance, making all assume he had left.

Taking advantage of the monastery’s daily monk excursions for external searches and gate opening moments, Zede escaped! Becoming the first in modern history to flee the monastery.

But all "Passages" were monitored by monks, he couldn’t return smoothly.

Desperately wanting to go home and having immense hatred for the monastery, he found a concealed spot, aiming to pull out the embedded "Du Sang’s Chain" entirely severing ties with the monastery.

Leaving the extracted "Du Sang’s Chain" here, nearby passage monitoring monks would get chain Sensing rushing over, allowing him to escape back.

However,

The usually "obedient" Du Sang’s Chain became extraordinarily difficult during extraction,

It unbearably reluctant to leave its "new master," wielding its Swiss Army knife-like functions frantically destroying Zede’s physical, especially brain structure.

Attempting comprehensive brain destruction, transitioning Zede into its enslaved corpse.

Yet Zede’s resilience was beyond imagination,

At the cost of eyes Concept Deprivation, nerve disorder, entire body Skin cracking, forcibly extracted the chain.

Due to consuming considerable time, monastery pursuers arrived.

These monks were astounded by the scene, even felt inner reverence for Zede but promptly suppressed him.

But as they approached the supposedly immobile Zede, the scenes turned gray, life felt meaningless.

When they next looked at Zede, they saw him morph into a fierce monster, tearing apart fellow monks’ flesh, ripping off their chains,

Nonetheless, in the gray vision realm, it was all meaningless.