Ling Yun smiled wryly to himself, immediately recognizing the famous monster from ancient Greece: Medusa.
Unexpectedly, Ling Yun encountered this infamous monster in the fifth simulation. He didn't know whether he was lucky or unlucky. If he could, he really wanted to jump out of the barrier and ask Yu Xiujie, "Teacher, how do you know what foreign monsters look like? Why didn't you simulate a White Bone Demon?"
Of course, the Duanlie simulation actually has little to do with Yu Xiujie. It's like a massive computer game where the creator only provides the program code and necessary parameters, but the game characters and randomly generated monsters derived from the source code are beyond the creator's understanding. Moreover, the Duanlie simulation has strong creative capabilities. Even if Medusa conforms to all the characteristics of Greek mythology, she will be changed to some extent in the simulated world, but this is beyond Ling Yun's knowledge.
Scattered around the plaza were a few stone statues. Some were human, others were other creatures. But every statue had something in common: they were extremely detailed and lifelike, and their expressions were all the same: terror and fear. Ling Yun could even see in the panoramic image that the hair on one of the human statues was as fine as a needle tip. Even the best stone sculptors couldn't possibly carve hair to be as fine as a hair; firstly, it was unnecessary, and secondly, it wouldn't be possible to do so in such a time-consuming way.
There's only one possibility: these stone statues were once alive, only turning to stone after encountering Medusa. In fact, Medusa wasn't particularly eerie; aside from her hair, which was entirely composed of small snakes, her terror stemmed almost entirely from her petrifying eyes.
Legend has it that anyone who looks into Medusa's eyes will turn into lifeless stone. In ancient Greek mythology, the valiant warrior Perseus knew this secret, so he turned his back and used his shining shield as a mirror to reflect the image, thus finding Medusa and beheading her.
Fortunately, Ling Yun didn't need to go through all that trouble. The panoramic mental field scanning technique he had just learned would come in handy. As long as he didn't look directly into Medusa's eyes, everything should be fine. With that in mind, Ling Yun adjusted the panoramic image, making Medusa's figure clearer and larger in his mental field of vision.
At this moment, he was still several hundred meters away from the Stone Forest's plaza, hidden behind a huge round boulder. No matter how good Medusa's eyesight was, there was absolutely no way she could find him, because Ling Yun could confidently scan this legendary monster.
Even if there was no danger, Ling Yun didn't want to confront this monster head-on. Once the legend became a reality, the fun of the adventure would drop to zero, while the pressure would increase exponentially. If possible, Ling Yun wanted to avoid this small stone forest square. He wanted to avoid conflict as much as possible, since he wasn't here for adventure, but to practice the Holy Healing Technique.
The panoramic scan extends for hundreds of meters on both sides of the Stone Forest Square. Apart from the Stone Forest, there is still an endless wilderness on both sides, seemingly allowing one to bypass it without being discovered by Medusa.
However, Ling Yun's heart skipped a beat. He noticed that if he went around, even in the same direction, the castle at the target location would disappear—not just become invisible, but completely vanish. The target castle would only appear when directly facing the Medusa Stone Forest.
Ling Yun couldn't help but smile wryly. The simulation settings were indeed very strict; taking shortcuts was still not an option.
"The only option left is to confront Medusa head-on," Ling Yun thought. Negotiations seemed unlikely, and he didn't know if Medusa spoke Chinese. Even if she did, Ling Yun didn't have much time. The clock seemed to be ticking faster; it appeared that the fewer seconds left, the faster the numbers on the countdown timer changed.
The panoramic image locked onto Medusa's aura, and an attack could be launched at any time, wherever the mental field could reach. Ling Yun calmly used his telekinesis to condense an invisible blade, aiming it at Medusa's scale-covered vest.
Medusa seemed to sense something and was about to turn her terrifying yet beautiful head away when a soft "pop" sounded in the air, and seven invisible psychic blades, formed from condensed telekinetic energy, pierced straight towards her back.
Ling Yun nodded to himself. His telekinetic manipulation ability was much stronger than after entering the simulation. Just by condensing seven invisible blades, he had already broken through his previous limits. It seemed that cultivating in battle was far more effective than cultivating alone. If he didn't only have one life left, Ling Yun would very much like to skip more levels and enter higher levels of the simulation.
Suddenly, Ling Yun's expression changed, and the invisible telekinetic blade stopped just centimeters from Medusa's vest. An invisible barrier blocked his telekinetic attack.
Medusa turned around in the panoramic image, extending her scale-covered right hand and gently touching the nearest invisible telekinetic blade. An incredibly powerful force immediately transmitted through the mental field, and Ling Yun's body was struck as if by lightning, turning deathly pale in an instant. He coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Medusa's lips curled into a cruel smile. Her ten-centimeter-long fingernails, forged from black iron, flicked across the other six invisible blades. With each flick, Ling Yun's body swayed violently, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood. After six flicks, blood was gushing from Ling Yun's mouth like a spring.
Before he could react, Medusa suddenly smiled slightly at Ling Yun in the panoramic image. Her blood-red, pupil-less eyes suddenly shot out two terrifying beams of red light, which flashed only briefly in Medusa's eyes before disappearing into thin air.
The panoramic image suddenly flashed red, and all the scenery vanished. The telekinetic energy instantly returned to Ling Yun.
Ling Yun had just wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth when a wave of weakness made him almost unable to stand. But then a heavy numbness started to spread upwards from his feet.
Looking down, Ling Yun was utterly shocked. Starting from the soles of his feet, a crimson light was pushing upwards at a visible speed. Wherever the bloodline spread, including his pants, the area turned a dark gray, stone-like color, and in the blink of an eye, it had reached his groin.
Chapter 72, Paragraph 5: Simulation (8)
Completely numb from the waist down, Ling Yun was horrified. He pushed his mental energy field to its limit, channeling all his power downwards. He could feel his life force waning, and all his internal organs cried out in distress. The strange energy was rapidly dissipating, and an unprecedented sense of drowsiness overwhelmed his brain, making Ling Yun feel drowsy.
"Don't fall asleep!" A thunderous voice jolted Ling Yun awake. Countless silver threads of mental energy swiftly coalesced into dazzling silver energies, surging like a torrent within Ling Yun's body and colliding violently with the eerie red light.
The numbness was finally temporarily blocked. The red light was stopped by an even stronger silver light at the base of the thigh. The two lights remained locked in a stalemate for a moment. As the mental field strengthened, the silver light slowly pushed the red light downwards. After the red light receded, the petrified body returned to its original state.
The book revealed that the mental energy field could block petrification, and the numbness gradually subsided, finally calming Ling Yun's terrified heart. The moment he saw himself petrified, his heart even stopped beating.
Ling Yun was shocked to discover that Medusa could unleash a bizarre petrification technique within the panoramic image. A cold sweat broke out on his back. Fortunately, he was quite a distance away from Medusa and hadn't made direct eye contact. He was only indirectly attacked by petrification within the mental field's scan, which gave him enough time to fight back. If he had seen Medusa's eyes directly, he would have been petrified instantly, without even a chance to resist.
In the distance, on the Stone Forest Square, Medusa was hovering in the air, her dark blue palms outstretched towards Lingyun, her slender hands slowly forming a fist.
The boulder blocking Lingyun's path suddenly began to tremble on its own. With several cracking sounds, countless crisscrossing cracks appeared on its surface. Then, with a deafening roar, it exploded into countless tiny fragments of rock.
With the boulder no longer an obstacle, Medusa and Ling Yun faced each other across a distance of several miles. Medusa's snake hair once again swung in the air, and tens of thousands of small, emerald-green snakes hissed with chilling sounds. With a slow flick of Medusa's finger, hundreds of small snakes detached from her head and shot towards Ling Yun like a swarm of locusts.
Ling Yun remained calm and composed, his mind as still as a still lake. In the most critical moment, any panic or anxiety would be futile; maintaining emotional stability was essential for invincibility. His mental energy field was almost entirely focused on suppressing the petrifying red light, meaning he couldn't afford to use his mental energy field to protect himself from the snake's attack. The red light had receded below his ankles, but the numbness hadn't completely dissipated. Ling Yun could only stand still, waiting for the snake's attack. Unless he could sacrifice his legs like a hero cutting off his own arm.
Ling Yun drew several transparent lines on his chest with his left and right hands, which then formed a thick shield that was two meters high and one meter wide, completely covering Ling Yun's entire body.
"Just one minute, just one minute is enough to break the petrification," Ling Yun silently thought. The countdown and the pendulum's chime became synchronized, and a feeling of boundless vastness instantly filled his chest.
With a soft "poof," the leading snake was less than thirty meters away from Ling Yun. Its bright red tongue flicked open, and transparent venom shot out from its mouth at an even faster speed, hitting the black shield.
The shield remained unmoved, but a hole the size of an index finger suddenly appeared where the venom had struck it. Then, countless streams of transparent venom sprayed onto the shield one after another, quickly riddling the once-thick shield with holes.
The crimson light had already circled to Ling Yun's feet, yet it stubbornly and unwillingly put up a final struggle against the mental force field. As long as Ling Yun's mental force field fluctuated or relaxed even slightly, the crimson light could seize the opportunity to counterattack and re-petrify the recovered parts.
Ling Yun didn't know how Medusa's snake hair could fly in the air, because they didn't seem to have the wings of birds. Even though snakes can glide for long distances, the concept of several miles was clearly beyond the gliding ability of any snake in the world.
Several small snakes coiled their bodies and accelerated again as they approached Ling Yun, smashing the sieve-like shield like bullets. Ling Yun's eyes turned cold, and several sharp silver threads flashed out of thin air. The small snakes suddenly broke into several pieces in mid-air, and their lifeless bodies stiffened and fell stiffly from the sky.
Countless incredibly fine silver threads slowly emerged in the air, intersecting to form a dense net. The threads, only tens of micrometers thick, were extremely sharp. The little snake rushed forward at an incredible speed, essentially crashing headfirst into the sharpest blade.
As the chilling cutting sounds continued, countless small snakes became victims of the silver lines, clusters of deep red blood dripping through the air. But clearly, these snakes were not mindless, straight-lined creatures with zero intelligence. Under Medusa's remote command, the remaining snakes began to nimbly change direction in the air, charging towards Lingyun from multiple angles. They moved with such agility in the air, seemingly unaffected by gravity, like fish swimming in water.
The silver threads quickly split apart, attempting to block the small snakes attacking from all directions. However, with the red light locked in a final battle, Ling Yun simply couldn't spare any more attention to control the excess telekinetic silver threads. Soon, several small snakes nimbly dodged the cutting of the silver threads, flying towards the immobile Ling Yun, their mouths opening wide and biting deeply into his skin. Quickly, even more small snakes also dodged the silver threads, swarming towards Ling Yun's face and body like a dense swarm of bees.
Ling Yun simply withdrew all the silver threads, leaving only a sliver of silver light to cover his eyes, nostrils, and mouth. He focused intently on dealing with the red light beneath his feet. The small snake that had bitten Ling Yun was about to inject its venom into its prey's body when suddenly its body stiffened, followed by a violent and painful struggle. A faint smoke and a corrosive acidic smell quickly filled the air, and one after another, visible to the naked eye, pierced the snake's body, which then rapidly became foul-smelling and rotten. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a set of dark black bones, which, before even hitting the ground, had already decayed into a cloud of dust.
Ling Yun suddenly took a step back, the red light flashing briefly beneath his feet before disappearing. The terrifying petrification was finally forcibly expelled. The mental energy field circulated throughout his body with lightning speed, and finding nothing amiss, it slowly returned to his body.
He patted the several badly decayed snake corpses still clinging to his face and body. A flash of silver light from his mental energy field swept across him, and in the blink of an eye, Ling Yun was clean. The ground before him was littered with countless unrecognizable, shattered snake bodies and rotting bones. His replication ability had analyzed the snakes' venom data, and then injected the newly synthesized venom into their bodies through their teeth. Even a tiny drop of venom was clearly unbearable for the snakes.
The hundreds of tiny wounds inflicted by the snake bites all over his body healed instantly thanks to his powerful self-healing ability.
Medusa glared angrily at the boy who had destroyed hundreds of her snake hairs, letting out a terrifying roar that was neither snake nor human. A red light flashed in her eyes again. But this time, the petrification failed, because Ling Yun's eyes remained tightly closed.
Ling Yun was careful not to make eye contact with Medusa. If he could be petrified even in a panoramic view, looking directly into her eyes with the naked eye would probably turn him into a stone statue in an instant.
However, this left Ling Yun completely blind, in a position where he was passively attacked and unable to fight back.