“Goodness, I just lost seven or eight units of standard energy and two portions of personal obsession all at once. It seems I can use it for at most ten seconds; if I go any longer, I’ll immediately dissipate into nothing.” Henry Clark reverted to his original form, immediately squatting down on the spot and entering a meditative state. After a moment, he opened his eyes and murmured.

Because this underworld is truly dangerous everywhere—if you’re not careful, you’ll be devoured and torn apart by those monsters. Just that measly four units of lightning power is basically useless. Henry Clark was a patient person, and he knew that at this moment he was really no different from an ordinary person, completely unable to resist the countless monsters. Since his goal was to return to the world of the living, he needed even more strength to protect himself. So, over these four months, aside from exploring ways to return to the living world and studying the movement patterns of those monsters, what he did most often was find a crevice beneath a giant boulder, seal the entrance, and then sit in deep meditation. After four months of this, his personal obsession had reached a count of one hundred and forty-one. At this point, he could obtain one portion of personal obsession after about ninety-five hours of meditation, which was about five percent faster than four months ago.

But he was still too weak. Even if he unleashed nearly five units of lightning power at once, its power was only equivalent to two grenades. It was simply impossible to kill those monsters. That’s why Henry Clark was desperate to find a trump card to defeat his enemies. This made him suddenly recall that when he killed that nine-clawed, human-faced bird, in his excitement he had unleashed not just four units of lightning power.

So Henry Clark once again secluded himself in meditation, constantly exploring the mysteries within his soul. He finally discovered that those two sets of lightning runes could be overloaded in an emergency, consuming five times the standard energy to trigger one unit of lightning power. However, this unit of lightning power couldn’t be stored in the body, and using it would cause the standard energy within to rapidly expand and deplete. This was just like before: his body would rapidly swell and grow, lightning crackling all over him, making him look like a giant thunder god.

If that were all, it would be a great life-saving move. But this overloading had a major drawback: every second it was active, it consumed one portion of personal obsession to maintain the stability of the lightning runes. This was not like the standard energy that could be absorbed from monsters—this was the most fundamental power that made up the soul. Once consumed, it could only be restored through deep meditation, and it took a great deal of time. In fact, Henry Clark found that as his personal obsession decreased, the closer it got to one hundred, the harder it was for him to enter a meditative state. In other words, once his personal obsession dropped below one hundred, he would never be able to increase it again!

“I’ll call this move Lightning Burn—a trump card that burns life itself.” Henry Clark sat beneath the giant boulder, smiling bitterly.

No matter what, Henry Clark had finally found a life-saving trump card. Next, he planned to meditate for a year or two, occasionally going out to kill a few zombies to replenish his energy. Once his personal obsession reached two hundred, he would follow those human-faced giant wolves to search for the black hole entrance, hoping to return to the world of the living...

Just as Henry Clark was about to return to the crevice to continue his meditation, he suddenly saw a few black dots faintly appear on the distant plain. He immediately lay flat on the rocky ground, not daring to move a muscle. Sure enough, in the far distance, several human-faced giant wolves were running quickly in a certain direction, kicking up dust several meters high, but they didn’t notice Henry Clark hiding in the shadow of a distant boulder, and just ran off into the distance.

Only after those human-faced giant wolves had gone far away did Henry Clark sigh and stand up. He knew that there must be a spatial passage opening up somewhere in the distance, and those wolves would surely devour many human souls... Unfortunately, he was powerless to do anything. At this point, he could barely protect himself—how could he possibly care about others? He might as well continue meditating, improve his strength as soon as possible, and return to the world of the living sooner.

Just as Henry Clark was about to return to the crevice again, a few more black dots appeared in the distance, startling him into lying flat on the ground once more. Sure enough, a moment later, several more human-faced giant wolves ran off into the distance. This time, before he could even get up, three or four groups of wolves ran by in succession, all heading in the same direction.

“Could it be... could it be that a large number of human souls have appeared?” Henry Clark suddenly widened his eyes and looked in that direction, his expression hesitant, unsure whether he should follow those wolves. This was very different from his previous plan of accumulating strength.