By this time, nearly half of the pillars had turned deathly gray, most of which were destroyed by Ling Yun. In the instant of colliding with the enormous spiritual consciousness, although he was impacted, Ling Yun did not gain nothing. His copying ability instantly replicated a portion of the existence of the enormous spiritual consciousness. Such a spiritual consciousness could disregard all techniques, because it could launch attacks on all levels with its own power alone. Techniques would become superfluous and a waste of action. Ling Yun copied precisely the most essential part of the spiritual consciousness. With just a moment of enlightenment, his attack power had increased several times over.
Many of the decorative figures that were about to manifest only showed part of their bodies before being permanently nailed to the gray pillars. Not only were their information carriers destroyed, but Ling Yun also knew the way their energy was supported. All Ling Yun needed to do was use his incredibly subtle mental field manipulation to sever all the means of support. Once the support of that immense mental consciousness was lost, all the decorative figures would become paper tigers, as fragile as sword-wielding warriors. Of course, the sword-wielding warriors weren't completely fragile; it's just that in choosing their energy support, the mental consciousness would naturally choose the stronger decorative figures. The sword-wielding warriors' weak attack power and singular attack path meant they posed no threat to Ling Yun and Xiao Rou.
Ling Yun nodded. He saw that all the giant pillars were shimmering and their movement was accelerating. With the naked eye, it was clear that all the pillars were rapidly shifting positions. Obviously, the enormous spiritual consciousness had also realized that something was wrong and wanted to speed up the process of the decorative figures appearing, making the test more difficult for the two of them: "Ignore those decorative figures that are about to appear, and don't worry about attacks. You destroy the information carriers in the pillars first, just do it in your own way. I'll handle everything else."
Xiao Rou nodded obediently. She never liked to talk much. Now that Ling Yun had arranged everything, they could start acting immediately. The telekinetic spear left a bright afterimage in her hand. With an incomparably sharp aura, a deep black aura suddenly occupied a huge fan-shaped space at the tip of the spear. The fan-shaped space was slowly advancing. When a perfectly intact pillar touched the black fan-shaped space, it suddenly and silently turned into dust.
The Extreme Thrust, which had become a desperate, mutually destructive move in the underground bar, had now become a common technique that Xiao Rou could use repeatedly. Xiao Rou suddenly felt a heat rising throughout her body, as if the more she used this energy-consuming move, the stronger and more powerful she became.
Within her body, in the microscopic genetic world invisible to the naked eye, the frequency and speed of bioelectric wave stimulation have increased dozens of times. The muscle fibers are constantly contracting, absorbing the energy contained in the waves at an immeasurable speed. This indicates that Xiaorou is getting stronger every moment.
The girl's figure bounced and refracted between the colossal pillars, each one turning ashen in an instant as she passed. Destruction wasn't always immediately apparent. Often, a mere flick of the telekinetic spear across the pillar's surface was enough to send immense destructive force seeping into its core, utterly shattering its structure. From dispersion to condensation, Xiaorou's telekinetic control was also significantly improving.
Ling Yun followed behind Xiao Rou, seemingly walking slowly, but for some reason, the girl, who moved like the wind, never fell behind him. The distance between them remained about fifty meters, a suitable distance that neither could hinder their strength, yet both could instantly close the distance to each other to guard against any sudden danger.
Lingyun's main task is to find the connection between the visible decorative figures and the enormous spiritual consciousness, and then sever it.
The decorative figures, their energy support severed, posed no threat whatsoever. A dozen or so men in black, cloaks in their robes, fell from the pillars once more, but the moment they hit the ground, Ling Yun severed the energy connection supporting them. The men in black, accustomed to the unearned energy support from behind, were shocked to find that their massive energy weapons, barely unleashed from their pale hands before being thrown to kill their enemies, were no longer sufficient to launch the weapons, or even sustain themselves. Thus, without Ling Yun's intervention, the decorative figures, overwhelmed by the backlash due to insufficient energy, became a bizarre sight in the passageway.
The few decorative figures that successfully materialized became meaningless cannon fodder. After Xiaorou's relentless, machine-gun-like barrage of thrusts, the decorative figures began to disappear.
However, the giant pillar did not sit idly by. After a faint light flashed, a strange creature, no bigger than a human palm, suddenly and swiftly appeared on the pillar's surface. Judging from the decorations displayed on the pillar, it should be a totem creature depicted in an unknown and unfamiliar civilization.
Chapter 303 Artificial Gene Structure
This is a strange creature covered in metallic luster, with a lithe and streamlined body that is held high like human limbs. However, it only has two short, muscular hind limbs. It seems to have no resemblance to any of the creatures that Ling Yun and Xiao Rou currently know. Its flat head looks like a firebird, but its two reddish-brown eyes without eyelids look full of fierce aggression.
Its upper body has two disproportionately long forelimbs, somewhat similar to the forepaws of a Cretaceous Tyrannosaurus Rex, but much longer than those of a dinosaur. At the tips of the forelimbs are three sharp, hook-shaped claws, a bluish-black color. In soft, bright light, the bluish-scale-like sheen on the claws is clearly visible, and the muscles bulge prominently. Clearly, these small claws possess immense power, not merely a fearsome aura.
The totem creatures in the decorative paintings are not as mysterious and glorious as those in the line drawings, and their ugly and short bodies do not look like the creatures to be worshipped. In any case, Ling Yun could not imagine why a powerful civilization would choose such a creature, which looks neither cute nor beautiful, as a symbol of civilization.
Xiao Rou continued to destroy the internal structure of the giant pillars from a distance. Although the giant pillars were constantly moving, as more and more pillars turned deathly gray, the connection between the giant pillars became less and less, and the supporting energy transmitted through the giant pillar formation became thinner and thinner. Therefore, the number of decorative figures that could be made visible also decreased accordingly.
Ling Yun quickly understood why the totem creature was worshipped as a sacred object. When his mental energy field was applied to it, it was suddenly interfered with by an invisible force and lost its effectiveness instantly. Before Ling Yun could even react with shock, the totem creature suddenly sprang up its legs and extended its forelimbs like lightning, viciously grabbing at Ling Yun's face. The immense force created a gust of wind that swept through the air.
Ling Yun was once again taken aback. In that brief instant, he had completely witnessed the totem creature's attack, even though he had severed the connection between the supporting energy and the manifested totem creature beforehand. However, Ling Yun quickly realized that this was entirely unnecessary. The totem creature did not possess any energy or mental attacks, but it was far superior to the sword-wielding warrior in that it was completely immune to all forms of energy attacks or defenses. This meant that although the immense mental consciousness could not provide it with effective energy support, all of Ling Yun's supernatural techniques were almost immune to it, because the mental force field had no effect on it.
Ling Yun was extremely shocked. This was the first time he had ever seen a creature that could be immune to energy attacks. This was beyond the scope of the supernatural arts system, because this immunity was complete immunity, not just a super resistance to attacks that made it ignoring supernatural attacks. The totem creature had no feeling at all from the mental field, and even passed through the silver lines cut by Ling Yun's telekinetic power without being harmed at all.
Thus, Ling Yun could only use the most primitive fighting techniques to fight this tiny but extremely ferocious creature. For some reason, the totem creature's tiny body contained enormous kinetic energy, and almost every movement left afterimages in the air. Since the Eye of Illusion had also lost its effect, Ling Yun could only rely on his naked eyes to observe the totem creature's movements. Even with his enhanced and most developed vision, Ling Yun could only barely keep up with the totem creature's speed. Every attack was as swift as lightning.
After a quick calculation, Ling Yun was horrified. The speed of the totem creature, if combined with kinetic energy, was enough to destroy a steel tank in an instant. Mass and energy are usually proportional, but this clearly didn't apply to the totem creature. Fortunately, Ling Yun's speed was also incredibly fast, so in the lightning-fast chase, he wasn't completely helpless against the totem creature.
The powerful physique of the superhuman seemed to have no effect on the totem creature. Twice in a row, Ling Yun narrowly escaped being grazed by the totem creature's claws, the sharp claws only millimeters from his skin, the force of the slashing wind even slightly stinging Ling Yun's incredibly sensitive pain nerves. Meanwhile, the mental energy field weapons that Ling Yun constantly conjured in his hands failed to inflict any damage on the totem creature.
Of course, Ling Yun's attack was not without its threats. Although the mental field had no effect, the air cannons that the boy flicked with his fingers were able to hit the totem creature's body. Ling Yun's accuracy was quite terrifying. His fingers kept flicking in the air, and one after another, compressed air like bullets flew rapidly toward the totem creature's head. Every creature has its own weakness, and the eyes are one of the weakest points of a creature.
The totem creature had to use its steel-like body to withstand Ling Yun's phantom bullet. Apart from its head and two eyes, its entire body seemed to have no weaknesses. A powerful flick of the finger struck its shell, producing a clear sound like a wooden fish striking a bell. Ling Yun's attack was enough to pierce through steel, but it only caused the totem creature's body to sway slightly before it was unharmed.
Ling Yun couldn't understand how the totem creatures were immune to energy attacks, which rendered most of his attack methods unusable, leaving him only with the weakest and most basic physical attacks. His copying ability was still frantically analyzing the death aura data, only able to allocate a small portion of its functions to detect the totem creatures.
What made Ling Yun slightly relieved was that, despite being a supernatural ability, the copying ability had not lost its effectiveness. However, the copying ability could only analyze the approximate direction and speed of the totem creature's attack, allowing Ling Yun to react and restrain it in advance. It could not analyze what the totem creature was actually composed of. Obviously, the totem creature was not a simple biological system. There must be some imperceptible reason blocking the energy process within its body. Pure biological organisms could not be immune to energy, unless they were gods.
Ling Yun immediately understood why totem creatures were regarded as pilgrimage objects by unfamiliar ancient civilizations. Even the most skilled warrior would likely face a major headache when confronted with strange creatures immune to energy attacks and largely ineffective against physical attacks. Before a totem creature, the powerful man in black was not much stronger than a swordsman, and might even be weaker. In the real world, a totem creature could easily kill a colonel-level superhuman; in its eyes, the superhuman's most threatening energy attacks would be utterly futile.
Ling Yun ceased his attacks on the totem creature, instead dodging its almost ubiquitous attacks with ghostly speed. He would occasionally flick his finger to force the creature back, creating more space for himself. His copying ability allowed him to anticipate the totem creature's next attack, and although he could only barely keep up with its speed, it was enough for him. A thought suddenly struck him, and he used his Illusory Eye again. Since the Illusory Eye could observe movements at the microscopic level, the way the totem creature became immune to energy attacks must also involve a meticulous process.
In the Eye of Illusion, the totem creature's movements were broken down into countless micro-resolution shots, similar to slow motion. The totem creature's trajectory could be clearly seen. What surprised Ling Yun was that although the totem creature was extremely small, every muscle in its body seemed to contain extremely abundant energy. Ling Yun could not even see the process of the muscles exerting force, yet the totem creature could launch extremely fierce attacks and move with incredible speed out of thin air.
The Eye of Illusion rapidly magnified everything it saw countless times. With a flash of golden light, it entered the microscopic world at the genetic level. The totem creatures suddenly appeared differently in Ling Yun's eyes.
To Lingyun's astonishment, the genetic structure of the totem creature was completely different from the genetic sketches he usually saw. The normal double-helix DNA genetic structure of the totem creature was completely transformed. All the DNA genes formed a vertical spiral structure, resembling fish scales forming a tree-like cyclic system.
Unlike the spiral-like structure of genes in normal organisms, the genes of totem creatures have a bright silver main thread in their spindle-shaped core, which seems to act as a nerve center, allocating the uses and functions of all other genes.
To Ling Yun's surprise, the main thread within the totem creature's genes wasn't an informational structure of genetic material, but rather something akin to an intelligent master computer. This meant that all the totem creature's attacks were commanded from the genetic level, with its tiny body merely a tool executing those commands. Genes and the body were more like two unrelated systems. Besides being extremely aggressive and invasive, even if the totem creature's genes were copied and transferred to another organism, it wouldn't change the acquired organism's appearance or physique, but it would significantly increase its physical strength and power.
While dodging the totem creatures' attacks with lightning speed, Ling Yun pondered. Judging from their genes, the totem creatures clearly showed signs of artificial synthesis. Even a tiny amount of naturally formed genetic information wouldn't employ such a highly singular genetic structure. Although the totem creatures' genetic systems could form an automatically operating cycle, preventing collapse due to environmental influences or their own genetic evolution, they lacked a sense of perpetual life. This meant that totem creatures couldn't reproduce, nor did they possess any of the division capabilities of single-celled organisms. The purpose and composition of their genes even determined that they lacked any thought; their minds were only capable of invasion and attack.
For other creatures, totem creatures are the natural enemies of all living beings, with no possibility of cooperation. However, for the totem creature itself, its tragedy was already sealed the moment it was created by some being.
This is an experiment that challenges the authority of nature even more than the Hand of God. The Hand of God only allowed Ling Yun to adjust a portion of genes on a single individual basis, and Ling Yun was still worried about whether it would cause a butterfly effect and bring about disaster. But the totem creatures have far surpassed Ling Yun. They have not only adjusted genes, but even the most basic genetic structure. What would happen if millions of such totem creatures suddenly appeared in the human world? Ling Yun dared not imagine. Perhaps the entire world would become a dead city in a very short time, and the corpses would all become fertilizer for the totem creatures.
Based on the information currently available, the civilization that existed within the ancient barrier should be the creators of totem creatures. This was likely an initial attempt at genetic modification when power had reached its peak. The totem creatures were probably just experimental subjects. Clearly, judging solely from their immunity to energy attacks, the experiments were successful. Other issues, such as reproduction and the lack of thought and consciousness, were likely side effects of incomplete experimentation. However, in terms of offense alone, the totem creatures were already a very successful creation. And once everything has a good start, subsequent perfection will immediately create a complementary effect.
Unfortunately, the ancient civilization was destroyed almost as soon as the totem creatures were created; the City of Death was beyond the power of any force. Ling Yun suddenly had a strange thought: perhaps the City of Death didn't appear out of thin air, and the destruction of the ancient civilization wasn't accidental. When civilization and power develop to their extreme, enough to challenge the very foundations of nature, nature will educate the disobedient child in a compensatory way. If education fails, then nature will destroy it.
The premise of everything is that one must not cross the warning line of nature, that is, the Heavenly Dao. Although Ling Yun cannot yet perceive the precise dimensions of this warning line, after the warning from that nameless consciousness, his vigilance constantly reminds him not to anger the other party.
The totem creature's speed increased rapidly; its unique genetic structure granted it virtually inexhaustible stamina and terrifying physical attack capabilities. Speed and power were perfectly embodied in this palm-sized creature. Its movements became increasingly swift, even spinning hundreds of times in a single second, covering lengths of tens of meters, as it relentlessly attacked Ling Yun.
The two most basic laws of physics, inertia and gravity, seemed to have no effect on it. Its tiny, wingless body could easily hover in mid-air, and it could even turn and stop abruptly while moving at high speed. The totem creature was like a miniature car with wheels all over its body, able to dart left and right at will, ignoring the laws of physics. This gave Ling Yun, who had developed normal fighting habits, a great headache. His naked eye could barely keep up with the speed of a flash of cold light. Ling Yun was already at a complete disadvantage, only able to dodge the totem creature's omnipresent attacks by relying on the data transmitted back by his supernatural ability.
A person and a small beast, within a space of tens of meters, transformed into two afterimages, engaging in a purely physical battle.
Chapter 304 Energy Immunity
A series of deafening booms echoed in the distance, the result of Xiaorou's relentless destruction of the information carriers within the giant pillars. Unable to employ attacks at the microscopic level, Xiaorou consistently resorted to the simplest and most direct method of destruction. Her ultimate thrusting technique had been pushed to its limit, and the information carriers within hundreds more pillars had been completely destroyed. The giant pillars didn't even need to turn gray; they, along with themselves, had already been reduced to fragments scattered across the ground.
Unseen figures continuously materialized on the undamaged pillars, attempting to stop Xiaorou's violent destruction; the pillars continued to shift their positions. Besides the swordsman and the man in black, countless other strange figures descended from the pillars, some not even human-like, but monstrous. In terms of overall strength, the swordsman and the man in black were merely at the bottom. Some of these figures even possessed the ability to manipulate space and teleport, making distance between them and their enemies no longer an obstacle.
If they were given immense spiritual energy support, even a single high-level decorative figure would be beyond the capabilities of Ling Yun and Xiao Rou. Fortunately, Ling Yun was already familiar with the energy support method of that incomprehensible spiritual entity. Despite the totem creatures' relentless attacks, he managed to sever all the energy channels of the decorative figures. Thus, most of the decorative figures, even when they manifested, became nothing more than cannon fodder. Without the immense spiritual energy support, they were even less of a threat than the sword-wielding warriors. The high-level decorative figures barely had time to unleash half of their special techniques before exhausting all their informational energy, turning to ashes without Xiao Rou even lifting a finger.
The totem creature was also somewhat surprised. In its pair of scarlet eyes, Ling Yun was nothing more than a slow-moving, sluggish being. Although it possessed a certain level of physical defense and attack power, it posed absolutely no threat. However, for some reason, in the totem creature's repeated attacks, Ling Yun always managed to dodge its sharp claws at the last second, causing the totem creature's seemingly inevitable attacks to miss their mark. Moreover, it appeared that the creature still had energy to spare. The totem's simple biological brain, formed from its genes, couldn't comprehend why this was happening. It had already pushed its speed and attack to the limit, yet it still couldn't defeat Ling Yun.
For some reason, there were tens of thousands of totem creatures on the giant pillar, each with a different form. However, only the smaller one, the one constantly battling Ling Yun, had materialized. The exact reason couldn't be determined from the information he had gathered. Ling Yun's guess was that each totem might have been an experiment; the ancient civilization must have experimented with tens of thousands of organisms before creating the relatively successful totem creature before him. Of course, "totem creature" was just Ling Yun's own term; what they would be called in that ancient, unfamiliar civilization was anyone's guess.
Gradually, the analysis data of the copying ability gradually formed a data set. Since the totem creatures' movements are not infinite and their small size means they rely more on their indestructible forepaws for attacks, their attack methods are relatively simple. Therefore, after the movements are repeated hundreds of times, the copying ability will quantify most of the attack directions, angles, and forces, including the speed of the totem creatures themselves, into a data matrix. This is one of the basic functions of the copying ability, which Lingyun calls a data set.