As for Liu Xiaofei and Li Yifeng, they unsurprisingly fainted the moment the fifteen screams rang out.
Fortunately, the fifteen bats intentionally linked their soul roars together to attack Zhou Ziwei alone, so they only felt a slight aftershock.
Otherwise, given their ordinary human souls, this would likely have either completely destroyed them or turned them into idiots.
While Zhou Ziwei suffered an unprecedented soul injury, his mind was clear. He finally understood the secret of soul attacks at this critical moment of life and death, and even had a rough guess about how other souls possess living beings.
Because fifteen voices simultaneously reached Zhou Ziwei's soul, he clearly felt a strange soul force suddenly burrowing into his sea of souls at that moment.
In fact, each sound doesn't carry much soul power; otherwise, Zhou Ziwei would have sensed it when the bat cried like a baby earlier.
However, once this faint wisp of soul power invades another's soul, the damage it can cause is still almost devastating.
The fact that someone else's soul power could penetrate into his soul means that Zhou Ziwei's current body could be possessed by the evil souls hidden among these bats at any time.
This initially surprised Zhou Ziwei, but he quickly realized what was happening.
Since the calls of those bats were not ordinary sound waves, but a roar from the soul, their sound could not possibly travel through the air. It makes sense, as a roar from the soul can only be transmitted through the power of the soul.
If this roar hadn't penetrated his soul, how could it have caused him any damage to his soul?
As for why these roars of the souls were formed, Zhou Ziwei had already determined from the different tones but the consistent frequency of the roars that the souls' roars were obviously not much different from the mystery of ordinary sound transmission; they were clearly transmitted through vibration.
The only difference is that ordinary sound is mainly transmitted through air and water, which are solid substances.
This roar of the soul can only be transmitted through the vibration of soul power.
As for why the soul power of these bats can penetrate into the souls of others, it may also be related to the vibration of soul power. Although the roars of the fifteen souls were different, the frequency of their roars was almost exactly the same.
This led Zhou Ziwei to boldly speculate that perhaps only when soul power vibrates at a specific frequency can it successfully bypass the innate repulsion between two souls and enter each other's territory...
Of course... if a pure soul wants to invade another life form's body, it probably can't directly invade by shouting like that. It should be done in a gentle way, maintaining the same frequency, slowly permeating its soul power into the other's body little by little, until the soul is completely broken down into soul power and enters the other's body. Only then can it suppress the original soul in the body and seize control of the body in one fell swoop.
In the past, when Zhou Ziwei used his soul power to touch other beings with souls, he only controlled a wisp of soul power directly, but he never tried to make his own soul power tremble.
Now he is almost certain that if he masters the frequency of the bat's soul howl, he might not only be able to use the same soul howl, but also have the ability to create independent soul entities inside living beings.
The roars of those fifteen bats were fleeting. By the time Zhou Ziwei realized what had happened, the soul power that had invaded his soul had already been overwhelmed by a massive surge of soul power from his sea of souls, and was completely submerged at a great cost.
In that brief moment, he didn't even have time to record the frequency of those calls in detail.
Zhou Ziwei believed that if these bats used their soul roars on him one or two more times, he would definitely be able to find some kind of pattern in them.
However, the simultaneous roar of the fifteen bats had already severely damaged Zhou Ziwei's soul and consumed most of his soul power, which was why he barely managed to survive.
If those fifteen bats were to launch another soul-screaming attack of the same magnitude, he would most likely not be able to hold out!
At this moment, Zhou Ziwei was in an unprecedented dilemma. He hoped that the bats would launch another terrifying soul attack on him so that he could find the frequency of that soul power vibration. At the same time, he was afraid that if these strange creatures really did that again, it would directly kill him, and he would probably only end up with his soul scattered!
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 108: The Critical Point
Although Zhou Ziwei was conflicted, the choice was not actually in his hands. Just as he was there, filled with both anticipation and fear, the bats in mid-air suddenly changed their formation. The fifteen bats split into five groups of three, like rows of bombers, and took turns swooping down on Zhou Ziwei.
Each time, only one group of bats launched a feint attack on Zhou Ziwei, while the other four groups surrounded him, watching him intently and looking for an opportunity to launch a sneak attack.
The bats that swooped down were quite cunning. They could clearly sense the force field that Zhou Ziwei had set up around him. Each time they only swooped down to the edge of the force field, they would suddenly flap their wings and fly away to the side, refusing to fall for the trap.
As for that strange yet powerful soul roar attack, they seemed to have no intention of using it again after casting it once, which made Zhou Ziwei feel so frustrated that he wanted to vomit blood.
Although his force field can play a very effective defensive role, this method is too energy-consuming, and each force field can only exist for a very short time.
If Zhou Ziwei wanted to maintain an effective defensive network, he would have to use the endless palm strikes of Cloud Hands to keep these force fields running.
At this rate of consumption, Zhou Ziwei estimated that he could only hold on for about half a minute before he would be completely exhausted... As for the Six-Syllable Mantra that Zhou Ziwei was most confident in using to directly eliminate these strange creatures, he dared not use it recklessly because there were too many of them, fearing that the soul power he absorbed would directly burst him apart...
Left with no other choice, Zhou Ziwei had to give up on continuously setting up force fields around himself and prepared to fight these disgusting creatures head-on with his own strength. Even if he could only protect the front and not the back, and suffer some flesh wounds, he would kill a few of them first.
After all, Zhou Ziwei possesses a soul power with excellent healing effects. It is estimated that as long as he does not die on the spot, even if a leg is bitten off, it may be able to regrow under the stimulation of the soul power.
But who knew that these bats would be so suspicious that it was both funny and exasperating. While Zhou Ziwei was constantly setting up a defensive force field around himself, they were still systematically taking turns to surround and feign an attack. But now that Zhou Ziwei had completely stopped setting up the defensive force field, these guys seemed to have smelled a conspiracy. They suddenly scattered and retreated to the air more than ten meters away. They only vaguely surrounded Zhou Ziwei, but refused to get close and attack again.
Although the bats have now spread out slightly, they are still mostly within the effective attack range of Zhou Ziwei's Six-Syllable Mantra. He originally wanted to move his position slightly so that two or three of them could fall into the attack range of his Six-Syllable Mantra.
Unfortunately, these bats were exceptionally united. As soon as Zhou Ziwei moved, they immediately followed suit, maintaining their original positions and formations, subtly surrounding him in mid-air. They neither gave up nor made any rash moves, seemingly intending to simply wear him down.
Zhou Ziwei smiled bitterly to himself, thinking that since they wanted to drag this out, then let's just play along! Bats are creatures born in darkness, and now these bats have some souls of unknown origin attached to their bodies. Sunlight is the natural enemy of souls, so he figured that as long as he could hold out until dawn, these ugly and disgusting creatures would no longer be a threat.
After making up his mind, Zhou Ziwei naturally saw no need to run around the mountain anymore. He worried that if he got too far away, Liu Xiaofei and Li Yifeng might be harmed by the bats again, so he simply returned to the original spot, sat down casually against the dilapidated car body, looked up at the fifteen bats circling in mid-air, and confronted them.
However, Zhou Ziwei's wishful thinking didn't last long. Suddenly, he heard the sound of wings flapping again from below the cliff, and then he saw nine more bats of similarly large size slowly flying up from below the cliff.
At the same time, the fifteen bats that had been hovering in the air once again formed a strange spindle-shaped formation and slowly approached Zhou Ziwei from three directions.
The other nine bats that had just flown up from the cliff also followed closely behind, forming two spindle-shaped formations in the air. However, one of the spindle-shaped formations was missing a bat, leaving an extra gap.
A chill ran through Zhou Ziwei’s heart. Seeing the strange formation of the bats, he could guess that they would once again unleash their terrifying soul-screaming killing move!
Last time, Zhou Ziwei managed to withstand the attack thanks to his powerful soul force, but he lost more than half of it. This time, the number of bats has increased by nine, while his strength has decreased by more than half. With one gaining and the other losing, the outcome is obvious. When the twenty-four bats simultaneously let out their death-slaying roars, it will be the time when Zhou Ziwei's soul is scattered...
Damn it... you forced me to do this!
At this critical moment of life and death, Zhou Ziwei had nothing left to hesitate about; waiting any longer would only lead to his death.
Moreover, death might be a better outcome. If his soul were to dissipate but not completely disappear, the ghosts inside those bats might take a liking to his body and possess him, turning his soul into someone else's puppet... In that case, he might as well just die!
Zhou Ziwei was initially worried that while using the Six-Syllable Mantra could purify and absorb the souls residing in the bats' bodies, he feared his stomach wasn't big enough, and he might be able to eat them but not digest them, which would be disastrous.
But at this point, death is inevitable either way, so what does Zhou Ziwei have to fear? At worst, they can all perish together...
Zhou Ziwei steeled his resolve, stood up abruptly, stared at the giant bats in the air, silently calculating the distance between each bat and himself. He planned to wait until the nine bats that came up later were all within the effective range of his Six-Syllable Mantra before purifying all twenty-four bats into pure soul energy.
In this way, even if Zhou Ziwei perishes along with these bats, at least Liu Xiaofei and Li Yifeng will have a chance to survive.
Originally, Zhou Ziwei was never a selfless person, especially after his rebirth, he became much more realistic.
But now that he's going to die either way, why not save Li Yifeng and Liu Xiaofei along the way?
But before the nine bats that came after them could get within thirty meters of Zhou Ziwei, the fifteen bats in front had already stretched their necks and opened their mouths again... and the nine bats behind them, though far away, followed suit and did the same thing.
Therefore, it seems that the range of these bats' soul roars is much farther than his six-syllable mantra; otherwise, given the bats' cunning, they would never have wasted their efforts.
Damn it, couldn't you guys have waited a little longer and gathered together before shouting?
Zhou Ziwei was filled with hatred and anger, but he knew that once the bats' souls uttered their roars, it would be too late. Left with no other choice, he frantically began chanting the strange six-syllable mantra deep within his soul at top speed, before the bats' souls could even utter their roars.
"Om Mani Padme Hum—"
One by one, obscure and strange characters transformed into sacred white halos in mid-air as Zhou Ziwei chanted them with his soul, instantly enveloping the fifteen giant bats that were less than ten meters away from him.
The aperture rapidly contracted, instantly resembling an invisible fishing net, scooping out fifteen faint, illusory figures from the bodies of the fifteen giant bats.
Then... the second, the third... all the way to the sixth halo, almost in a continuous series, contracted incessantly, instantly decomposing and restoring the fifteen illusory figures into the purest soul energy. Then, as the halo contracted, all of them were drawn into Zhou Ziwei's sea of souls...
Zhou Ziwei felt a sudden surge of immense and surging energy within his soul, like a balloon being rapidly inflated.
A balloon can inflate to dozens of times its original volume, but there is a limit to this expansion. Once this limit is exceeded, it will burst into pieces with a "bang"!
At this moment, Zhou Ziwei felt that his soul was a balloon that was constantly inflating. After being impacted by the roar of his soul, his balloon had deflated by more than half, but in that instant, the balloon quickly recovered to its original size, and then expanded to two or three times its original size...
Zhou Ziwei felt that the capacity of his soul sea was now about three times its original size. Within this limit, he could barely bear it, but if it exceeded it by even a little bit, he could hardly guarantee that his soul sea would not explode.
When Zhou Ziwei last devoured the old ghost that was attached to Gu Xiaoli, he felt that the soul energy that the old ghost had transformed into was just slightly greater than the capacity of his sea of souls. At that time, he was very careful and even gave up control of his physical body. That's how he managed to survive and prevent his sea of souls from exploding. In addition, he gained a huge amount of soul power for nothing.
Will Zhou Ziwei be so lucky this time? Even if he is fortunate enough not to be overwhelmed by the souls attached to these fifteen bats, what about the other nine bats that will pounce on him next... How will he continue to fight?
In fact, in just a moment, the soul power forcibly poured into the sea of souls had already rapidly increased, exceeding the critical point that Zhou Ziwei could withstand, and was still climbing upwards.
Although the soul power only increased to about three times its original value before completely stopping, this value still far exceeded the tolerance limit of Zhou Ziwei's soul sea. The excess soul power, which Zhou Ziwei could not digest at all, immediately began to transform into remnant soul energy, carrying the soul memories that had not completely disappeared, and began to violently collide in Zhou Ziwei's soul sea...
The fact that the ghosts inside these fifteen bats only released such a small amount of soul power was quite surprising to Zhou Ziwei. He had originally thought that the ghosts parasitizing these bats would at least have the same strength as the old ghost he had devoured last time, so the soul power released by these fifteen ghosts should have been more than ten times his.
If Zhou Ziwei had known that the soul power of these ghosts was so weak, he could have easily swallowed the remaining dozen or so by simply sending out three or four bats at a time!
Unfortunately, there's no going back in this world. Last time, the old ghost's soul only had a trace of malevolent energy left that wasn't digested, and it almost killed Zhou Ziwei. This time, however, there are at least six or seven traces of malevolent energy left in the remnant soul.
If nothing unexpected happens, even if Zhou Ziwei chooses to give up control of his body and immerse himself completely in the sea of souls at this point, it will be of no use. His sea of souls will soon be completely disrupted by those six or seven remnant souls and violent energy, and then explode with a "boom".
Zhou Ziwei sighed inwardly. Just as he was about to recklessly recite the Six-Syllable Mantra one more time before his sea of souls exploded, hoping to purify all the ghostly creatures among the nine bats that followed, he suddenly heard strange cries resounding from the depths of his soul...
A roar of the soul!
Although the first fifteen bats were purified by Zhou Ziwei before they could unleash their ultimate moves, the last nine, being farther away, escaped by chance. However, just after Zhou Ziwei swallowed the energy transformed from the ghosts within the first fifteen bats, they immediately let out nine synchronized soul roars.
As a result... this soul roar attack, which could cause great damage to the soul, instantly reduced the soul power in Zhou Ziwei's soul sea by about 30% of its original value, thus just enough to bring the total amount of soul power, which had exceeded the limit, down to just below the critical point.
Of the six or seven remnant souls and their malevolent energy, three were directly shattered by this barrage of soul roars. The remaining three or four were quickly absorbed by Zhou Ziwei, immediately merging with the other soul power in his sea of souls, becoming indistinguishable from one another...
Wow! Seriously?! My buddy actually had a stroke of good luck, managing to turn the situation around! That's even harder than winning the lottery!
Zhou Ziwei discovered that not only was he not going to die, but the soul power in his sea of souls had also been replenished to its fullest state. This unexpected joy almost made him go crazy with happiness.
He quickly stopped reciting the six-syllable mantra again... Just kidding, if he could stay alive, who would want to die with someone else?
At this moment, Zhou Ziwei's soul power had just stabilized within the critical point. Only after a period of consolidation and use, allowing his soul sea to adapt to this level of overflowing soul power and to expand again, could he absorb more soul power once more.
If he were to absorb even more soul power again after only just stabilizing his sea of souls, the result would only be another collapse. Zhou Ziwei would certainly not do something so foolish.
What Zhou Ziwei desires most now is for the nine giant bats to launch another round or two of soul roar attacks on him. In his view, the only way to consolidate his sea of souls as quickly as possible and expand and increase its capacity is to constantly train and use his soul power.
After the Sea of Souls is subjected to a strong attack, its volume may also increase significantly.
This means that if Zhou Ziwei hadn't been attacked by the fifteen bats with a soul roar that directly caused him to lose more than half of his soul power, his sea of souls might not have been able to hold three times the original amount of soul power later on.
If the remaining nine giant bats could cooperate with him and unleash a couple more soul roar attacks, they might be able to expand Zhou Ziwei's sea of souls once again! At that time, the soul power in Zhou Ziwei's sea of souls would also be further reduced due to these one or two attacks, and there would naturally be enough room to purify and devour these nine giant bats hiding ghosts!
Another important reason is that through the soul roar attack of the nine giant bats, Zhou Ziwei has vaguely grasped the vibration frequency of this soul power. However, the impression is still relatively faint, and it is undoubtedly impossible for him to accurately grasp the vibration frequency immediately.
However, if those giant bats launch the same attack once or twice more, Zhou Ziwei will be more than 70% certain that he can accurately pinpoint the vibration frequency of the soul power.
Unfortunately, this wish was destined to be in vain. After the remaining nine giant bats finished their soul roars, they immediately saw their fifteen companions suddenly close their blood-red eyes at the same time and fall from mid-air one by one.
As soon as the fifteen giant bats landed, they quickly flapped their wings and took flight again, then began to fly off in all directions in a chaotic and disorganized manner.
If you observe closely, you'll notice that these bats suddenly become somewhat dull and clumsy, their movements stiff and awkward, and they no longer possess their original neat and unified coordination and strict discipline.
Most noticeably, the eyes of these bats are no longer as bright red as blood. Although they still look red, they appear much dimmer and no longer have that bloody and eerie aura.
Upon seeing this, the nine giant bats that arrived later paused briefly in mid-air before turning around in unison and fleeing desperately, quickly disappearing on the other side of the cliff and never to be seen again…
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 109: Capturing a Ladybug