In a pitch-black world, Liu Zhiyuan opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. "Where is this? Am I dead?"
He clearly remembered merging at the last moment; in the past that should have made him stronger, not left him here.
"Why did you kill me? Give me back my life!" A hollow, emotionless voice sounded behind him, cutting off his thoughts.
Liu Zhiyuan turned and saw a thug-like man standing behind him.
"Why did you kill me, why!" The thug shuffled toward him with a twisted face.
Seeing the thug, Liu Zhiyuan recalled he was one of the first hoodlums he'd ever killed.
"I'm in agony." Another voice came from the left. A man with only half a skull appeared, the cavity empty, and walked toward Liu Zhiyuan.
Before Liu Zhiyuan could make sense of it, countless people materialized—some missing limbs, some cut in half—all shambling toward him.
Smack! At that moment a hand slapped his shoulder and an angry voice cried, "Why did you kill me? I hadn't revived my family—my daughter!"
He Xuelin had appeared beside him at some point, hands around Liu Zhiyuan's throat, roaring.
More familiar figures emerged nearby—villains he'd slain, Flesh-and-Blood Beings.
"Why did you kill me!"
They clawed at Liu Zhiyuan, shrieking, trying to tear him apart.
A pain from the depths of his soul struck; he felt his very spirit being shredded.
"Why?" rang out endlessly, hammering his heart as the crowd clawed him to pieces.
"Why?" he asked himself, his gaze turning vacant.
"Liu Zhiyuan, aren't you doing this for justice?" A different voice suddenly answered.
The words sparked light in his fading eyes; he followed the sound.
Among the clawing "people," a figure in a black-red opera robe and a mask painted white-red watched him.
"Justice… for justice…" Liu Zhiyuan's voice rose, his mind clearing.
The masked man said gravely, "Do you still want to carry out the justice in your heart and wipe out all evil in the world?"
Tears blurred Liu Zhiyuan's vision; everything around him vanished.
He was nine again, on a summer night, on a village road lit only by moonlight.
Two thugs were accosting a lame middle-aged woman with a child.
"You crippled hag, your husband ran off—why keep the kid? Hand her over; once we sell her you'll get your cut," one older thug snarled.
The woman gripped a rusty hatchet. "Get lost! Don't touch my child!"
"Since you won't listen, don't blame us," the younger thug growled, drawing a dagger.
A skinny, malnourished little girl stood behind her, face pale, clutching her mother's hem, trembling.
"Stop this, the lot of you!"
"Knock it off, punks!"
Two shouts rang from afar—one old but vigorous, one young and excited.
The thugs spun toward the sound, furious.
There stood two figures in white-red masks and black-red opera robes, one tall, one small.
The older thug laughed at their midnight getup. "Nutjobs—scram!"
The taller robe-wearer merely told the smaller, "Xiao Yuan, watch how Grandpa deals with these bastards!"
"Go, Grandpa! When I grow up I'll be just like you!" Little Liu Zhiyuan gazed in worship.
"See me dispense justice!" the elder declared, pulling a half-meter club from his robe and charging the thugs.
Liu Zhiyuan cheered as his Grandpa fought the two ruffians and finally drove them off with the wooden stick.
The grateful woman thanked the old man; in her eyes Liu Zhiyuan saw light, in the girl's eyes, hope.
After seeing them off, the elder turned to little Liu Zhiyuan. "Zhiyuan, there will always be pitiable people who need saving. Without us tonight, she might have been stabbed, her daughter sold. Though I'm old, I'll still stand up and carry out the justice in my heart!"
"I understand, Grandpa! I'll follow your example and wipe out evil!" Liu Zhiyuan shouted, the seed of protecting the weak planted young.
"Enforce justice, wipe out evil!" Liu Zhiyuan roared, the memory fading as he stood amid the clawing "people."
His gaze turned steel-hard; black matter began stitching his torn body back together.
He looked toward the masked figure standing within the "crowd."
The masked man removed his mask, revealing the youthful face of nine-year-old Liu Zhiyuan.
Little Liu Zhiyuan declared, "Let's carry out justice!"
"Destroy the fountainhead of evil—the Xuanjian Division!" Liu Zhiyuan bellowed.
The two Liu Zhiyuans fused into twin black beams of light.
Radiance flooded the space, melting and absorbing every "person."
Outside.
The black light that had blanketed half the city suddenly contracted under Bai Wenliang's grim stare.
A 3.5-meter-tall, muscular, pitch-black humanoid appeared.
Purple lines ran across its limbs; its mouth gaped like a void, eyes violet, a single curved black horn on the right of its forehead. Arms, thighs, and horn blazed with black flame.
The ambient temperature plunged more than ten degrees.
"So this is your final form? After slaughtering so many you merge into a Level Six—the Monster Association's methods grow ever more terrifying." Energy rippled around Bai Wenliang.
His awakened ability was simple energy manipulation—he could control a single type of energy.
"To eradicate evil like you, some sacrifices are necessary," the Monster intoned in a chorus of countless voices.