The humanoid creature roared to the sky, as if extremely angry that Ling Yun had harmed it. A flash of red light appeared in its copper bell-like compound eyes, and a strange blood-red ray suddenly shot out from the compound eyes like lightning, instantly forming a sky-covering blood mist that descended upon Ling Yun.
Ling Yun's heart tightened, and he retreated dozens of meters, barely avoiding the envelopment of the blood mist. The blood mist fell to the ground like a cloth, and after being covered by the blood mist, the ground immediately and silently sank several meters deep.
The blood mist formed by the crimson rays possessed extremely strong corrosive properties. It seemed the humanoid creature had unleashed its supernatural abilities. Ling Yun's eyes narrowed slightly, a surge of excitement for battle welling up within him.
The humanoid creature roared to the sky again, and a dazzling light suddenly emanated from between its two compound eyes in the darkness. The light gradually expanded, and in the blink of an eye, it had spread to the entire humanoid creature's body. The entire area within a ten-meter radius of the humanoid creature was illuminated as if it were daytime by the light emanating from its body.
Ling Yun stared in shock at the humanoid creature. In that short time, his mental energy field had sensitively detected an astonishing increase in the creature's power. Perhaps just moments before, the creature was evenly matched with Ling Yun, or even slightly weaker, but now, the humanoid creature's power far surpassed Ling Yun's.
Is this the true power of the creature simulated in the fifth segment? I haven't even reached the target location yet. Ling Yun gave a bitter smile, raised his burning light blade, and with a whoosh, his body transformed into a surging, furious wave, piercing straight towards the humanoid creature that shone as brightly as the sun.
With a deafening roar, Ling Yun was thrown backward at an even faster speed than he had charged forward. The light blade flashed coldly for only a moment before disappearing at his arms. A barely visible line of blood traced a long parabola in the air. Ling Yun stood with difficulty in front of the humanoid creature, his face pale, and gently wiped the bloodstains from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.
But then, as if an invisible hammer had struck his heart, Ling Yun swayed violently, coughed up another mouthful of blood, and finally collapsed to the ground. A series of crackling explosions filled the air as the humanoid creature's tentacles instantly broke free of the telekinetic restraints, and the backlash from the mental field struck Ling Yun heavily.
The humanoid creature suddenly leaped several meters into the air, its blinding light making it look like a moving mini-sun. A dozen steel-cable-like tentacles shot straight down from the air toward Lingyun's body.
The reflection in his pupils was once again broken down into countless combinations of movements, and Ling Yun could even clearly see the subtle, ferocious expression on the terrifying face of the humanoid creature that was getting closer and closer in the light.
Suddenly, Ling Yun's heart stirred slightly. Between the two pairs of dazzling compound eyes of the humanoid creature, there was a vertical, crystal-like third eye. The massive amount of analytical data told Ling Yun that the humanoid creature's sudden surge of power almost entirely originated from this suddenly appearing third eye.
Chapter 68, Paragraph 5: Simulation (4)
Despite being able to predict the humanoid creature's next move, his badly injured body made it difficult to effectively dodge the doubled speed attack. The humanoid creature crashed down in front of Ling Yun, its two sharp tentacles piercing through Ling Yun's chest and abdomen without resistance, and swung them around, pulling the boy, whose head was limp and hanging limply in front of his chest, towards it. Its gaping maw opened, ready to bite down hard on Ling Yun's head.
Suddenly, Ling Yun raised his head and spat out a jet of blood. At such close range, the humanoid creature was caught off guard and was instantly struck in one of its enormous compound eyes by the blood. A hissing sound, like burning, rang out, and the humanoid creature let out a bloodcurdling roar with all its might. Its massive body staggered back a few steps and crashed to the ground. The tentacles that had pierced Ling Yun's body flared wildly, each tremor causing the boy's face to paler further. Although his subtle telekinesis had controlled all his internal organs to avoid the tentacles' damage, the massive bleeding still caused Ling Yun immense pain and weakness.
One of the compound eyes, sprayed by Ling Yun's blood, was completely gone, leaving behind an unfathomable black hole on the humanoid creature's spindle-shaped face. No more blood flowed out; the flesh at the edge of the black hole had turned completely bluish-black, and the decay was spreading to other parts of the face at a visible rate.
The third crystal eye emitted a faint glow, its astonishing energy sustaining the humanoid creature from the deadly attack, preventing it from dying immediately. However, this only intensified its suffering. The toxins contained in Ling Yun's blood were extremely corrosive and acidic, and when sprayed onto such a vulnerable organ as the eyes, the humanoid creature's central nervous system was completely destroyed, and its struggle was merely a death instinct.
A hand gleaming with cold light ripped open the humanoid creature's forehead with a soft "plop," scooping out its entire third eye along with a large chunk of brain tissue, finally ending the creature's agony of wanting to die but being unable to.
Using his telekinesis, Ling Yun slowly pulled the lifeless tentacles out from between his chest and abdomen. Every inch the tentacles moved at the wound site caused him excruciating pain, almost making him faint. Ling Yun gritted his teeth and endured the pain until finally, his entire torso was numb with pain. He pulled out the two tentacles, which were two meters long and had pierced through his body, entirely by sheer willpower and the last bit of perseverance.
With a thud, the tentacles, stained crimson with Ling Yun's blood, fell heavily to the ground. Each tentacle weighed at least several tens of kilograms, and the impact immediately raised a cloud of dust.
Ling Yun sat weakly cross-legged on the ground, his face pale and covered in cold sweat. Two large, bowl-sized, penetrating wounds ran through his chest and abdomen, visible from front to back. At this moment, even a three-year-old child could easily push him over. His internal organs returned to their original positions, and his powerful self-healing ability immediately took effect. First, a thin film of blood formed around the wounds, stopping the bleeding. Then, a flash of silver light appeared—his self-healing ability was using his mental energy field to disinfect and sterilize the wounds, preventing infection. Then, delicate granulation tissue and skin grew at a visible speed at the wound sites, with fine blood vessels weaving through the wound walls, tightly binding the flesh together.
Compared to when he killed the psychic in Tongjiang City, Ling Yun's self-healing ability was almost three times stronger. Back then, he suffered the same injury, but it took him almost a whole day to barely heal.
The peculiar self-healing ability caused both the psychic and the humanoid creature to make the same mistake: they lowered their guard when they thought Ling Yun was fatally injured, resulting in Ling Yun striking them down. Of course, this was on the premise that Ling Yun already possessed self-healing and acquired new abilities.
After being sprayed on the back of his hand by the monster's venom, even a tiny drop was quickly broken down into several basic elements by his new superpower. This data was then transmitted precisely to Ling Yun's mind and permanently stored. With this data, Ling Yun could at any time compel his body to generate the same basic elements and then combine them according to the data to create new, more corrosive venom. Caught off guard, the humanoid creature, before it could even unleash a tenth of the power of its third eye, died from the sudden attack of the venom.
This is undoubtedly an incredibly powerful new superpower. While it lacks any offensive or defensive capabilities, seemingly making it somewhat useless, it can analyze the essence of all things and behaviors, quantify them, and transmit the precise combined data to Ling Yun. Even its most basic function allows Ling Yun to anticipate the opponent's next attack, enabling him to preemptively counter it. At a deeper level, Ling Yun will record all of his opponent's supernatural abilities, break them down into data, and recombine them. This represents a fact that, if it were to spread throughout the world, would cause a sensation: replication.
Starting with venom, the terrifying nature of this new supernatural ability has already been demonstrated. If Ling Yun so desires, he can transform his blood into a deadly poison at any time without suffering any harm himself. The copying function also possesses unlimited derivative capabilities, as Ling Yun can recombine or modify data, thereby making the copied attacks even more powerful.
This is just the initial manifestation of the new supernatural abilities. As is typical, as the abilities of those with supernatural powers strengthen, the powers they wield will continuously evolve and expand. The future holds limitless possibilities.
"Copy." Ling Yun said softly, giving the currently unknown technique a new name.
Suddenly, Ling Yun's vision went black, his body swayed, and he almost fell backward and fainted. He hurriedly looked down and saw that the flesh growth of the two through wounds in his chest and abdomen had reached its limit, and the healing speed had begun to slow down. Due to the lack of nutrition and energy stimulation, the self-healing function began to forcibly draw on the nutrition and energy supplied by other intact organs of the body to accelerate the healing of the wounds. Even the brain was no exception. All the organs emitted a faint sound of contention, and then they all weakened in unison.
A bitter smile appeared on Ling Yun's face. After an exceptionally arduous battle, his supernatural abilities were almost completely depleted, and he was also severely injured. Without external energy and nutrition to replenish his strength, even his self-healing was hindered. It was like a chef with superb culinary skills, but without rice, noodles, vegetables, and various seasonings, no matter how skilled the chef was, he could not create a fragrant dish.
Energy is the nourishment needed for self-healing. Even if a vampire heals itself after suffering severe injuries, its physical abilities will decrease accordingly. Everything in this world follows certain rules; it's impossible for something to be consumed arbitrarily while other parts remain intact.
Ling Yun slowly opened his palm, looking at the crystal-like third eye attached to a large chunk of bloody, mangled brain tissue in his palm. When he saw this eye bloom on the humanoid creature's forehead, Ling Yun suddenly had a strange feeling, an inexplicable urge to pry it off its head. Deep down, Ling Yun seemed to sense that this third eye was definitely not something the humanoid creature possessed.
A thoughtful look appeared in his eyes. Suddenly, a bright flame rose from his clean palm, instantly burning the nauseating remnants of brain tissue and fragments of flesh to ashes. A moment later, only an oval, teardrop-shaped, crystal-clear eye remained quietly in his palm.
Ling Yun's vision went black as his internal organs cried out for help to his brain once again. If his self-healing ability forcibly diverted his nutrients again, Ling Yun would die from organ failure before his wounds could heal.
Without thinking, Ling Yun suddenly opened his mouth and swallowed the crystal eye whole.
Chapter 69, Paragraph 5: Simulation (5)
His stomach suddenly felt like it was burning with hot oil, and the heat instantly turned into wisps of steam that emerged from every pore of Ling Yun's body, making it look like he was taking a sauna. The high-temperature steam met the cool night sky and instantly turned into a thick fog that covered the sky, enveloping Ling Yun within a radius of several meters.
An astonishing heat surged up from his stomach, threatening to burst from Ling Yun's mouth, but he clenched his teeth tightly. The energy from the heat almost loosened his teeth, yet he still couldn't find an outlet and had to reluctantly retreat back into his stomach.
Ling Yun opened his hands with a twitching expression. Faint wisps of blue smoke were visible emanating from his ten fingers. His blood vessels and the veins under his skin gradually became transparent and clearly visible. The flowing blood turned an unusually bright red and glossy color, as if tiny flames were burning on the surface of the boiling blood before emerging from his skin.
Countless data surged into the brain's permanent memory area in an instant. The replication ability was working its best to break down the energy structure of the Crystal Eye, and the energy that had already been broken down was immediately dispatched to the wound by the powerful self-healing regulation ability. Under the enormous stimulation, new granulation tissue grew at a rate that was almost non-stop every second, sealing the wound.
A smell of burning hair filled the air. Smoke rose from Ling Yun's hair, and when his two round eyes closed and opened again, the pupils were gone, replaced by two raging flames.
Ling Yun stretched out his hands in agony, forcibly enduring the excruciating burning sensation. It was real incineration, not a hallucinatory mental reaction. The energy released by the Crystal Eye caused the temperature to rise rapidly; if it weren't for his replication ability providing energy to the wound in time, Ling Yun would have already been burned to ashes.
The unfamiliar environment caused the Crystal Eye to continuously release energy to force the new environment to adapt to it. However, the subtle decomposition of the replication technique also caused the Crystal Eye to gradually integrate with the new environment. After this ebb and flow, the energy released by the Crystal Eye gradually slowed down until it completely stopped.
With a soft boom, at the very moment the final decomposition was completed, the Crystal Eye suddenly broke into countless particles in Ling Yun's stomach, and then disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Ling Yun carefully sensed it, and suddenly felt something appear between his eyes. He couldn't help but touch it; the skin he touched was, of course, still intact. However, new data surfacing in his brain's storage area told him that the thing was real, not just a sensation. Moreover, after the data was re-optimized and recombined, the third eye was now vastly different in shape and function from those on humanoid creatures, granting Ling Yun immense power. However, he was told not to use the third eye unless absolutely necessary. This was the perception that automatically surfaced in Ling Yun's mind.
The burning pain vanished, replaced by an incomparably comfortable coolness. Ling Yun felt his body regain its vibrant strength. He leaped to his feet, a tickling sensation spreading through his chest and abdomen. Looking down, he saw that, thanks to the powerful energy from his third eye, the two terrifying, penetrating wounds had completely healed, the new skin noticeably whiter and smoother than the surrounding skin. Only his clothes remained, leaving two tattered holes in the front and back.
A strange and vague sensation washed over Ling Yun, and his heart skipped a beat. He slowly savored the rapidly increasing power. This was the second reward given by the barrier. After recovering from a severe injury, Ling Yun's ability would experience an explosive growth. It seemed like another useless ability, since no one could be certain that a severe injury wouldn't be life-threatening. However, for Ling Yun, as long as he possessed self-healing, his chances of survival would increase infinitely.
The distant black dot seemed far off. Ling Yun gave a bitter smile. This was only on the journey, and he had almost died from the powerful attack of the humanoid creature. Who knew what even more powerful beings awaited him upon reaching his destination? Was skipping levels to enter the fifth stage of the simulation really that difficult?
Suddenly, a gigantic pendulum appeared on the horizon, its tolling rhythmically. Above the pendulum was a massive countdown timer. The clear electronic display showed ten thousand; after about a minute, the number changed to nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine.
Ling Yun stared at the pendulum in surprise, blinking before finally confirming that he wasn't hallucinating. Clearly, the countdown hadn't appeared out of nowhere, yet the barrier hadn't given any prior warning, nor had it stipulated that the task had to be completed within a limited time. Why had the countdown suddenly started? And what would happen when it ended? A sense of bewilderment washed over Ling Yun, accompanied by a vague feeling of unease.
After a moment's hesitation, Ling Yun began to speed towards the black dot. In this completely unfamiliar and bizarre world, nothing appeared with genuine goodwill. At least, Ling Yun wouldn't challenge the countdown's end out of curiosity. After all, he came here to cultivate the Holy Healing Technique. Everything else was secondary or secondary, like the third eye.