Qin Ming, whose body had undergone a complete transformation, quickly tested his new abilities.
And through this round of testing, he realized the changes he had gone through this time were nothing short of massive.
His bloodline was impressive enough, but the truly terrifying part was his innate talent—an evolved innate skill!
Originally, he could only fuse items, and even then, they had to be of the same type and same level to work.
But now, it was completely different—he could fuse anything.
Not just items—even people were fair game!
No need to care about item levels, no need to care about item quality. Just pile them on and it would work.
If one item wasn't enough, then fuse ten. As long as he could keep stuffing them into the target's body, eventually it would reach the limit.
He could even stuff a whole person into someone else's body! Just activate the innate skill and refine the person—infuse that energy into another person's body.
The good news? There were no limits to this kind of enhancement. You could strengthen however much you wanted.
The bad news? They would explode.
That's right! Qin Ming had basically turned into a mini version of Nightmare Space! He could freely enhance and build up his underlings—he could even shove skill books straight into their bodies!
But naturally, he also ran into the same problem that Nightmare Space did.
If you enhanced your underlings recklessly, and they couldn't handle it, they'd break apart too.
Luckily, most of his test subjects were his vampire underlings. Ordinary explosions couldn't kill them… unless it was really too much to handle!
But when one of his underlings exploded, Qin Ming couldn't resurrect them the way Nightmare Space could.
Of course, even if resurrection were possible, if it cost him dozens or hundreds of times more resources, he wouldn't bother either.
Now, Qin Ming suddenly seemed to understand why Nightmare Space never stepped in to save those top-tier adventurers who failed during fusion.
If it were him, and he had to burn through a fortune to save some random, disposable underling? He wouldn't do it either!
With that much energy, he could just raise a whole new batch from scratch.
Inside the room, after finishing a thorough round of testing, he pushed an S-rank skill into Mai Shiranui's body and watched as she successfully completed the fusion. Qin Ming didn't dare to try fusing a second one.
Because the last guy he tried that on—the Pitchfork Knight—had already exploded.
Finally putting an end to his experiments, he took a deep breath and pulled out a scroll from his chest.
This scroll was one of the spoils of war he'd gained earlier: Fragment of Killing Intent Wave!
That's right—Qin Ming was about to fuse his third S-rank skill!
The reason he dared to go through with this now was twofold: first, his new bloodline gave him confidence; second, wasn't he now one of Nightmare Space's key focus targets? Even if something went wrong during fusion and the bloodline couldn't hold it, Qin Ming figured the space wouldn't just sit by and let him die.
As the skill fusion completed, Killing Intent Wave replaced the normal Qi Wave and entered his body.
The moment the powerful new energy surged into him, the rest of his internal forces began to stir violently.
But before they could rampage, Qin Ming's body suddenly glowed with golden light.
In the next second, the chaos inside him was quickly calmed, and a line of small text appeared at the bottom of his stats panel.
[Time until new power is fully integrated: 75 days, 16 hours, 42 minutes, 15 seconds]
Seeing the power backlash forcibly suppressed by his bloodline and the forces slowly blending together, Qin Ming couldn't help but break into a brilliant smile.
With an excited shout, he chose to return to the real world.
But just after reappearing and happily stepping out of his room—
Qin Ming suddenly froze.
Because he saw that several people were eating inside his tiny rental apartment.
Hearing the sound from his room, they turned their heads in unison, bowls in hand.
Staring at the tall, muscular man covered in edgy golden markings—Qin Ming—they were all dumbfounded.
They were stunned. Qin Ming was stunned. Everyone stood frozen in place, wide-eyed and unblinking, staring at each other for a long while before finally snapping out of their shock and shouting all at once.
"Who the hell are you?!"
"Who the hell are you?!"
"We're the tenants here!"
"Bullshit! I'm the tenant here! I signed a three-year lease in one go!"
"Two different tenants?!"
Staring at each other in disbelief, one of the men suddenly turned and bolted outside.
Moments later, he came back dragging an old man, pointing at Qin Ming and yelling.
"Hey, old man! That's messed up! How can you rent one place to two different groups?!"
Hearing the accusation, the old man looked completely confused. He lifted his head and glanced at Qin Ming.
"Two groups? No way. I don't even know this guy."
On the other side, Qin Ming, who had been fuming with anger at strangers invading his home, froze the moment he saw the old man.
Because the landlord didn't recognize him—but Qin Ming recognized him.
Wasn't this his landlord? But why did he look so old now? Wasn't he a middle-aged man before? Now his beard was all white, and he needed a cane to walk?
Realizing something was very wrong, Qin Ming's mind buzzed. He suddenly grabbed one of the people beside him, face stern, voice cold.
"Tell me—what year is it right now?!"
The guy he grabbed didn't dare resist, staring nervously at Qin Ming's tall, intimidating figure. He swallowed hard and answered quickly:
"2064!"
"206... Sorry—I must've walked into the wrong place. Here's some compensation. Goodbye."
Qin Ming fumbled in his chest pocket, pulled out some money, and placed it on the table. Eyes wide and unfocused, he stumbled out of the house in a daze.
The others watched him leave in silence. When they finally turned back, one of them picked up the money from the table and looked at it, then suddenly froze.
"Hey! This money's really old! It's from forty years ago! And it's in such perfect condition, it looks like it was just printed!"
"Right? Using old money and asking about the current year… You think he's some kind of time traveler?"
The teasing voices behind him were already out of Qin Ming's range—and even if he had heard them, he wouldn't have cared.
Because he was now standing out on the street, staring blankly at his surroundings in a daze.
After asking several passersby to confirm the current year, he slowly sat down on a stone and muttered to himself.
"Forty years? It's really been forty years? I… I've become a ghost in the system?"
To Qin Ming, the fusion of his bloodline had only taken an instant.
And yet, forty years had passed.
Never mind the real world—he was probably already listed as a missing person. Even his landlord didn't remember him.
Even in the Nightmare Space! The roster of adventurers must've cycled through several generations by now!
All the people he used to know—probably already…
Oh, right. The top-tier adventurers were immortal. They were probably still around.
But to them, Qin Ming, who had suddenly vanished for decades without a trace, was likely long considered dead.
Probably assumed to have died during some mission, completely wiped out.
Hell, they'd probably forgotten him entirely by now.
Mountains eroded, seas turned to mulberry fields; half a lifetime gone in the blink of an eye. All Qin Ming had done was fuse an arm! And when he woke up, he was already in his sixties?
So this is when you start claiming retirement benefits?
Time really flew that fast?
(End of chapter)