The New Image of the Remnant Spirit of Heaven's Way

The main server world of Palworld.

Lu Ze's figure appeared inside the massive World Tree.

By now, the ancient storyline had already been completed, and the flow of time had returned to normal. The interior of the World Tree was shrouded in mist, utterly silent.

Lu Ze made his way with practiced ease to the deepest part of the World Tree.

In the vast sealed space, the Withered Star Dragon lay slumped on the ground without an ounce of energy, clearly having been thoroughly worn out.

The remnant of the Heavenly Dao, however, sat on the Withered Star Dragon's back looking far from satisfied, a faint smile curling at the corner of its lips.

"Mortal, why does your gaze seem so strange?"

Upon seeing Lu Ze's arrival, the remnant of the Heavenly Dao furrowed its brow.

"Uh, nothing."

Lu Ze shook his head with a peculiar expression.

The remnant of the Heavenly Dao always played the role of the final boss in various illusion worlds.

For instance, HIM in Minecraft, Said in Zero Dam, the old woman at the space base, the Architect in the Slaughter Celestial Tower...

This time, it was playing the role of Zenala, a resident of the World Tree from the ancient era.

Looking at that appearance—white hair, impressive figure, cold and aloof mature-woman face—Lu Ze could barely hold back his laughter.

It was packed full of anime clichés.

Come to think of it, the remnant of the Heavenly Dao didn't seem to care much about concepts of gender, or else it would have turned Lu Ze's ashes to the wind long ago.

At this moment, Lu Ze thought to himself—even if it were female, the remnant of the Heavenly Dao seemed better suited to something like a teasing little imp image...

Just as Lu Ze was chuckling to himself, a bolt of purple-black lightning struck down onto the top of his head.

"Ouch, what the hell—why did you electrocute me?!"

Lu Ze, now thoroughly singed and crispy, asked with a look of feigned innocence.

"Because your face is written all over with disrespect..."

The remnant of the Heavenly Dao pouted disapprovingly.

"Aw──"

Just then, the Withered Star Dragon, sitting beneath the remnant of the Heavenly Dao, suddenly let out a satisfied cry.

"What's up with this thing?"

Lu Ze pointed at the Withered Star Dragon curiously.

This was the Corrupted Soul's avatar in the Palworld dimension.

"Hmph, seems it found some amusement from the outside world."

The remnant of the Heavenly Dao snorted disdainfully, glancing at the faint red threads drifting in the air around the Withered Star Dragon.

"Ever since I tamed it, it has been able to use these threads to send avatars down into the worlds below."

In the original setting of Palworld, because the World Tree's energy was absorbed by the Withered Star Dragon and thrown into chaos, many berserk Pals were born.

In order to redirect the Corrupted Soul's resentment, in this world's illusion, the berserk Pals served as vessels for the Withered Star Dragon's grudges.

They polluted Pals and harmed humans alike, perfectly mirroring reality, which undoubtedly accelerated the fusion between the Corrupted Soul and the illusion.

"Just got beaten by you and it's already out killing?"

Lu Ze was instantly amused, curiously pulling up the system backend.

With a series of incantations cast, Lu Ze quickly tracked down the Corrupted Soul's current location and pulled up the feed.

"Damn... damn!!! Is there no end to this?!"

A familiar howl of agony rang out.

Zhou Yue was riding a Blazehowl Noct at full speed, with that wild-eyed berserk Penking hot on his trail.

"Uh, well... I can't say I'm surprised at all..."

Lu Ze laughed and shook his head, then turned to look at the Withered Star Dragon, eyes half-lidded, a smile on its lips.

In the air around it were threads only visible with administrator privileges.

The red ones were its connections to the berserk Pals.

The white ones were its connections to normal Pals.

"Seems this guy has already instinctively linked itself to all the Pals in this world..."

Lu Ze suddenly felt a surge of anticipation.

Just thinking about the fate that awaited the Pals at the hands of the players, he couldn't help but wonder how the Corrupted Soul would feel about it later...

...

...

Zhong Yi's Palworld.

"Heh, if it weren't for me going solo to lure that red-eyed Penking away, this base would've been completely ruined!"

Zhou Yue, shirtless and freshly respawned at the base, took his equipment back from Zhong Yi with the air of a man defeated but honored.

Earlier, the berserk Penking had chased straight into the base and refused to leave. Since no one could kill it, and they didn't want to abandon this prime-location base, the only option was to have Zhou Yue—whom the berserk Penking seemed particularly fond of—use his own body as bait to lure it away.

"This base would definitely fall apart without me!"

In Zhou Yue's own mind, he was a fearless hero who turned the tide against all odds.

"Actually, if it weren't for you, this base wouldn't have had any trouble at all..."

Zhou Qiaoling muttered under her breath.

In her eyes, Zhou Yue was the unlucky oaf who brought disaster to their doorstep and stirred up the storm in the first place.

"...Haha, man, that Blazehowl Noct really can run! I need to catch one too!"

Zhou Yue let out a hollow laugh, changing the subject.

"It really is fast, but unfortunately, only one big beast spawns per day... We can go catch another one once it's light out."

Zhong Yi nodded, continuing his busy construction work.

The stone walls they had painstakingly built earlier hadn't even lasted through a single ultimate move from the berserk Penking.

The base was now a wreck, nothing but rubble and broken walls all around.

It was the third time he was building the estate from scratch, and his movements were now completely smooth and practiced—just like Zhou Yue instantly gearing up after respawning from the terminal.

With the experience from the previous two constructions, the third estate was built much faster than before.

In half a day—that is, two in-game days on the Palworld continent—the mountaintop estate was restored to its former state.

The thought of having gone an entire day without any Pal working stung Zhong Yi. He felt he'd taken a serious loss and was determined to make up for it no matter what.

He immediately set the work atmosphere to “Very Heavy,” fully channeling his inner slave driver as he supervised the Pals with ruthless efficiency.

…

After their base was destroyed by the berserk Peccon, Zhong Yi and the others realized that the Palworld was actually fraught with hidden dangers.

At their current level and with their current resources, they weren't yet safe enough to simply bide their time in Bamboo Creek Valley.

Suddenly, everyone felt a growing sense of urgency.

Zhong Yi and Zhou Qiaoling stayed at the base to keep the Pals working, while Zhou Yue and Mu Yawen handled exploration and capturing new Pals outside.

During this period, there was no shortage of content to work through, and the leveling speed matched the intensity.

In just one day, the four of them shot up like rockets all the way to level 37.

With another round of equipment upgrades, their gear had evolved from the shabby cloth outfits of their early days into refined metal armor sets that looked reassuringly sturdy.

Their weaponry had also grown increasingly powerful.

The Cloudsea Deer had become each person's standard mount.

The first thing the four of them did upon hitting level 37 was to take down the Forest Mammoth that had been lurking at the entrance of the noob village—settling old scores from their younger, weaker days.

“That blasted Peccon… just let me catch it… I’ll break its legs!”

Zhou Yue clenched his fists in frustration.

Over the past few days, he’d been riding his Cloudsea Deer around Bamboo Creek Valley every day, hoping to get revenge on the berserk Peccon, but much to his disappointment, he’d never gotten the chance.

“Senior brother, Senior Sister Li said she wants to join us in catching Pals too!”

Zhou Qiaoling suddenly spoke up.

“What? Junior Sister Li actually finds this kind of illusion interesting???

For Zhong Yi, this news was quite a shock.

An illusion with that kind of adorable art style, built around magical beasts battling for you, felt completely out of character for Li Moran.

“I already gave her the world code,” she said, “but she mentioned she wanted to experience it on her own—didn’t want to trouble us to guide her.”