[Name: Heart of Ambition (Corruption, Pride, Domination)]
[Appearance: A heart that continues to beat eternally even after being removed from the body. Approaching it recklessly will let you hear the whispers of demons, arrogantly demanding you to reveal your own ambitions.
And the stronger the ambition hidden within a person, the deeper the roots of pride in their heart, making them more easily attract its attention and temptation.]
[Ability: Demon's Heart, self-abnormality amplification, Sovereign Domination]
[Cost: Open your heart, inviting it to witness your ambition and pride.]
[File: The heart of a Near-God Level Great Demon, once heavily damaged and plunged into a long-term slumber. During this time, it was sent as a rare exhibit to an underground auction due to its trait of continuing to beat even after leaving the body.
It was auctioned off by a member of the Lionheart Family and nourished by the deep ambition within his younger brother, causing it to awaken once more. It devoured the brother's heart, replacing it, and has continued to this day.]
[Evaluation: An Anomalous Object with virtually no combat capability. But the nobler the user's status and the greater the power they hold, the more terrifying its effects become.
A mere member of the Old Nobility, soon to be abandoned by time, cannot manifest its strength. If it falls into the hands of a true power figure, or even a King from The Twelve Kingdoms, it will make this world feel fear.]
[Contamination Value: 11 (3.3 – Bobby Layne) (2.3 – Leon Laine)]
[Your Contamination Value has increased.]
[Current Contamination Value: 2.3]
To make this world feel fear...
Looking at the undoubtedly highest evaluation among the Anomalous Objects he had encountered so far, Leon finally had some concept of the Black Goat's level during its heyday.
Although the Black Goat's heart was also severely damaged, it always remained in a "wild" state, unlike the Yang Jiao, which fell into the hands of the director and had even its authority destroyed in the past. It still basically maintained its original hierarchy, and its powers were quite frightening.
For those "dominated" targets, it possessed near-absolute control over life and death...
"What are you doing?!"
Still not shaken off the shock from being "used," he once again felt the "activation" from the other party, even stronger than imagined, and couldn't help but panic. The young man reached out desperately to grab Leon's arm, struggling with all his might while shouting desperately,
"What are you doing! What exactly are you doing?!"
Without answering his question, Leon, his clothes soaked with blood, his body bearing pain like being cut by a thousand knives, slowly closed his eyes. Using the strengthening effect of "I Am the Demon," he pushed the Heart of Ambition to its current limit.
An invisible wave of souls rapidly spread with the two as the center, and the entire Ryan Manor instantly "quieted" down.
Nobles, officials, servants, butlers, gardeners... Everyone within the manipulation range of the Heart of Ambition was dragged into that invisible pyramid.
"Standing" on the second layer of the pyramid, Leon looked at the hundreds of thousands of purple-black souls around him and felt the decay far worse than mud around him. He finally made up his mind.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
With a series of collisions between flesh and hard objects from his sequential "naming," fireworks of flesh and ironstone bloomed within Ryan Manor.
Climbing tall buildings and leaping off, sprinting to collide with rocks, diving into the nearest scenic lake... A multitude of rotten souls full of greed and political plotting were extinguishing at an average rate of two per second.
Watching Leon's rampant slaughter, the soul of Bobby Layne, tossed outside the pyramid, couldn't help but roar in fury,
"Do you not know what you are doing? You and the Purification Bureau have agreements with the kingdoms; random killing of ordinary people is absolutely forbidden! Do you know what will happen to you if you do this?"
"Hmm? What did I do?"
Carefully identifying the evil-flooded souls below and extinguishing those utterly decayed flames one by one, Leon tilted his head slightly, delivering his slightly surprised response.
"Wasn't this all your doing?"
Having obliterated yet another rotted soul, in this "pyramid" without any other spectators, Leon, having shaken free of all restraints, turned to calmly narrate,
"During this investigation mission, I unexpectedly suffered an ambush from you and was trapped in this manor.
To pry into the secrets of the Purification Bureau, you threatened me with the lives of the Layne family members. If I didn't reveal the Bureau's secrets, you'd kill one person every second.
Unfortunately, I'm just a freshly promoted small employee and know very little about the Bureau's intelligence, with no way to answer. So these people could only die in vain..."
"You're talking nonsense!"
Unexpectedly, this bucket of water splashed back on his own head, and Bobby Layne's soul was instantly filled with rage as he shouted at Leon,
"You can't cover this up! So many people died suddenly, the Purification Bureau will definitely investigate you! By then..."
Leon continued his "work" calmly as he responded with utter serenity,
"Did you get something wrong? The one who merged with the Anomalous Object is you, not me. Could I have used your Anomalous Object to kill your clansmen?"
"As for other more special investigation methods...
I only acted within this pyramid, and you seem to be the sole witness, right? And once everything is over, I won't waste your filthy soul either—it's prepared to be fully digested by the Black Goat.
So how are they going to investigate? Investigate you, who will have even your soul decomposed? Or investigate these people who were entirely controlled by you and know nothing at all?"
"Hmm... actually, it's not entirely secure."
After some frowning thought, Leon's soul calmly stated,
"If the Bureau truly values this greatly, willing to use objects involving causality, or mighty Anomalous Objects that reverse time, they might indeed reveal what I did, but... are you worth it?"
"You... you... damn it!"
Realizing he truly couldn't do anything to Leon and forced to watch helplessly as everything he had got destroyed bit by bit, Bobby Layne's soul couldn't help but howl in resentment,
"You madman! You damn madman!"
Upon hearing his words, Leon's movements paused for a moment as he recalled himself prior to joining the Purification Bureau, ready to charge into the Department of Road Administration with a knife.
"Seems like I might be a bit."
After forcefully extinguishing the last irredeemable flame, observing the other souls with somewhat warm colors, Leon stopped his hand and exited the pyramid, reaching out to seize Bobby Layne's throat with seriousness,
"If I were indeed crazy, it must have just occurred on the 28th of last month... Do you have any other last words?"