Absolute Cheater-Chapter 562: Anomaly XVI

Asher didn’t move from the breach point.

He memorized it.

Absolute Appraisal locked onto the pattern—how the space folded, how the poison origin thinned just before extraction, how the breach avoided damaging the domain’s structure. It was efficient and practiced.

"They come on a schedule," Asher said. "Not random."

The Ivy Queen stood behind him, silent but focused.

"How long?" she asked.

"Short cycles," Asher answered. "They don’t stay more than a few breaths. Long enough to harvest. Not long enough to be traced normally."

He placed his palm against the ground again. This time, he didn’t just observe.

He adjusted the domain’s response.

Not enough to alert the intruders.

Not enough to cause resistance.

Just enough to mark the flow.

A subtle change. Invisible to most.

"They won’t notice," Asher said. "But when they open the breach again, it will carry a signature."

The Ivy Queen nodded once. "Then we wait."

They didn’t wait long.

Less than an hour later, the poison flow shifted.

Asher felt it instantly.

"The breach is opening," he said.

Space twisted silently a few meters ahead. No explosion. No distortion visible to the eye. Just a clean cut in the world.

Something reached through.

Not a person at first—an apparatus.

A dark metallic structure slid out of the breach, covered in layered seals and thin channels designed to absorb poison origin directly. It locked onto the root beneath the soil and began draining.

Asher watched carefully.

"This confirms it," he said quietly. "They’re not cultivators alone. They’re using tools."

Then the operators followed.

Three figures stepped through.

Humanoid. Armored. Their bodies were protected by adaptive seals that rejected poison completely. Their presence was calm, practiced, and unemotional.

They didn’t look around.

They went straight to work.

Asher stepped forward.

The ground shifted as the domain reacted to his presence, but he held up a hand to calm it.

"Stop," he said.

The three figures froze.

One turned its head toward him slowly.

"You are not part of the extraction parameters," the figure said. Its voice was flat, filtered. "Withdraw."

Asher didn’t raise his voice. "You are harvesting poison origin from a sovereign domain."

"That is correct," the figure replied. "This domain is listed as non-hostile and non-resistant. Extraction is permitted."

The Ivy Queen’s aura surged.

"Permitted by whom?" she demanded.

The figure paused, then answered. "By those who can do so."

That told Asher enough.

He took one more step forward.

"This ends now," he said.

The figure raised one arm. The apparatus began retracting, poison origin already condensed inside its core.

They intended to leave immediately.

Asher activated his control.

The space breach locked.

Not collapsed.

Not destroyed.

Frozen.

The three figures reacted instantly, weapons unfolding from their arms. But they didn’t attack wildly. They assessed.

"You have interfered with an authorized operation," the lead figure said. "Identify yourself."

"Asher," he replied. "And you’re not leaving."

The Ivy Queen’s domain finally recognized the situation as hostile.

The roots trembled.

The poison flow surged.

For the first time in months, the domain pushed back.

The figures shifted into combat stance.

"This was never meant to be a fight," the lead figure said.

Asher met its gaze.

"Then you chose the wrong domain," he said.

The poison harvesters had been found.

And now, they were trapped.

Asher moved first.

He didn’t rush.

He stepped forward, and the ground beneath him hardened as the domain responded to his presence. Poison energy thickened in the air, no longer suppressed. The Ivy Queen didn’t attack yet—but she allowed the domain to obey Asher.

The three harvesters split instantly.

One leapt backward toward the breach.

Two spread left and right, weapons unfolding fully.

Their armor opened in layered segments, revealing weapon systems built into their limbs—blades edged with null fields, needles filled with compressed toxin-resistant energy, and compact launchers along their forearms.

They were prepared to fight high-tier domains.

The left harvester attacked first.

A blur of motion. Its arm snapped forward, launching a cluster of thin darts. They cut through the air faster than sound, each one wrapped in a field that rejected poison and elemental laws.

Asher didn’t dodge.

He raised one hand.

The darts slowed mid-air, not frozen—but denied function. Their driving force collapsed, and they fell to the ground uselessly.

The harvester reacted immediately, closing distance instead.

Its blade extended—flat, dark, and unreal, designed to sever laws rather than flesh. It aimed straight for Asher’s neck.

Asher turned his body slightly and caught the blade with two fingers.

The weapon screamed as pressure built along its edge.

Then it snapped.

The harvester recoiled instantly, twisting away as Asher stepped in and drove his palm into its chest.

There was no explosion.

Just impact.

The armor dented inward, layers compressing beyond tolerance. The harvester was thrown backward, slamming into a root wall hard enough to crack it.

Before it could recover, the second harvester attacked from behind.

A heavy strike aimed at Asher’s spine, reinforced with spatial distortion to bypass defenses.

Asher twisted, letting the attack skim past him, then grabbed the attacker’s arm mid-swing.

He pulled.

The harvester stumbled forward, and Asher drove his knee into its torso. The armor absorbed part of it—but not enough. Internal systems ruptured, and warning lights flashed across the suit.

The third harvester finally acted.

It raised both arms, and the apparatus behind them activated defensively. Poison origin inside the core surged, forcibly stabilized and weaponized.

A beam of compressed poison law fired straight at Asher.

Not toxic gas.

Not venom.

Pure poison origin, stripped of life and intent.

Asher took it head-on.

The beam struck his chest and dispersed uselessly, stripped of authority the moment it touched him.

The harvester froze.

"That shouldn’t be possible," it said.

Asher stepped through the fading energy and reached the apparatus.

He placed one hand on it.

Absolute Appraisal flared.

The device screamed as its internal balance collapsed. The siphoning seals unraveled, poison origin destabilizing violently.

Asher tore the core free and crushed it in his grip.

The poison origin didn’t explode.

It returned.

The domain inhaled.

All across the Blooming Death Domain, poison surged back into dormant roots, dead plants stirred, and toxin glands refilled. The Ivy Queen gasped as her domain’s strength began recovering instantly.

The harvesters panicked.

The first one—the one Asher had slammed into the wall—forced itself upright and triggered an emergency protocol.

The breach shuddered.

They tried to reopen it.

Asher turned.

"No," he said.

He extended his hand toward the frozen breach and closed his fingers.

Space cracked.

The breach shattered like glass and collapsed inward, sealing completely.

The harvesters were cut off.

They understood then.

This wasn’t a misunderstanding.

This wasn’t a neutral interference.

They had challenged something beyond their calculations.

The lead harvester raised both hands slowly.

"This operation was sanctioned by a higher authority," it said. "Killing us will cause retaliation."

Asher walked toward it, calm and steady.