She racked her brains for a solution, but the situation was so urgent that she had no way to escape in time. Xia Lan felt a chill in her heart, thinking that she might perish in this nameless barrier today. She never expected that the enemy leading to this strange barrier would be so powerful. She gritted her teeth and made up her mind that even if she was no match for the two berserkers, she would still use self-destruction to take them down with her. Even if Ivanov and Leonid touched a little finger, it was not something that the strong-willed Xia Lan could accept.
A resolute thought suddenly resounded in her mind; it was Xiao Rou's communication, consisting of only four words: Fight to the death! Xia Lan couldn't help but turn around and glance at the place where she had set up the barrier, and nodded vigorously.
Leonid had already seen through Xia Lan's bluff, and couldn't help but grin maliciously, clasping his hands together as he said, "Woman, since you have helpers, let them in. Let me see what kind of people your helpers are, whether they're a bunch of lowlifes!"
“And…” he said, narrowing his brownish-yellow eyes, “Don’t think I can’t see you just because you sealed your companions in a barrier. I’ve said it before, as long as the earth is with me, you can’t hide from my intuition. The Heavenly Eye isn’t on you, it’s on your companions. You killed my brother Maxima, and I will make you pay a price to regret what you’ve done, and even regret why you were ever born a woman!”
Xia Lan's expression changed. Her words had already frozen in place, and there was no point in saying anything more. Her mental energy field suddenly surged out from her body, forming a bright silver light sword. She was about to launch a lightning-fast attack, but one of her long legs, which had already taken half a step, suddenly stopped in mid-air.
Something seemed to have happened to the barrier again; it began to pulsate restlessly, and the frequency of several spatial points accelerated as they adjusted their structure—a sign that someone was entering from the outside.
Ivanov and Leonid seemed to sense something as well, turning around in unison. A black ripple appeared silently in another part of the bar. As a bright light shone in, the barrier opened another exit, and a deep, magnetic, pleasant male voice rang out, like a television presenter, but filled with unbridled arrogance and force: "Damn trashy barbarians! How come I see your bear-like bodies all over the place? You're as hateful as werewolves! Almighty Satan, please spread your divine grace and wipe these beastly bastards from the world!"
Chapter 249 Blood Sacrifice Magic
Upon hearing this enchanting and soul-stirring demonic sound, which seemed to emanate from a demonic realm, Ling Yun's senses suddenly became dulled. Ripples automatically emanated from the calm silver light of his mental field. If magnified countless times, it could be seen that this was a peculiar phenomenon caused by a strange and invisible force slowing down the operation of his mental field.
Ling Yun suddenly felt his consciousness becoming somewhat blurred, like an extremely tired ordinary person who inexplicably felt sleepy, as if he had stepped into a dream while in a half-dream state. This was impossible, as a superhuman with a mental field would not feel sleepy. It could only be that the illusion technique had affected his mental state. However, as he used the Eye of Illusion, all the blurry and unreal feelings immediately disappeared completely.
The pink mist suddenly expanded, instantly enveloping Ling Yun and Mochizuki Nami. Then the mist began to thicken, like a giant stomach writhing. After a moment, the mist began to shrink, rapidly shrinking from a size of tens of feet to the size of a fist. But strangely, Ling Yun and Mochizuki Nami, who were enveloped in the mist, seemed to have disappeared.
The light and mist flashed by, then vanished into thin air as if they had never existed. A chilly winter wind blew by, stirring up clouds of dust that swirled and disappeared into the distance.
Lingyun seemed to be standing in another world.
He floated in the air, thousands of meters above him, where endless gales raged. Even just looking at them, one could feel the fierceness of the gales. Ling Yun had just sensed them with his mental energy field and then smiled bitterly. With the strength of the gales, even a piece of solid steel would be torn to shreds in a short time. It seemed that the area above was a forbidden zone. Even if one could float and endure in the gales, the consumption of one's mental energy field would be quite astonishing.
Thousands of meters below his feet lay a sea of lava, a fiery red expanse that stretched as far as the eye could see, seemingly boundless, reaching all the way to the horizon, forming a fiery red halo. Within this halo, countless indistinct, enormous shadows moved slowly, seemingly strange creatures, but even with Ling Yun's keen eyesight, he could not discern what they were.
The sea of lava boiled and roared violently, with countless bubbles and waves rolling on the surface one after another, emitting terrifying hissing sounds. Every now and then, fire waves thousands of meters high and tens of meters thick would rise from the lava ocean, slowly receding after a long time, forming strange fountains of fire.
Ling Yun had no doubt that even with his physical strength, falling into the sea of lava would instantly reduce him to ashes. The intense heat, felt even thousands of meters away, was comparable to the surface temperature of the sun. When heat reaches a certain level, no substance can rival it; the only opponent of temperature is temperature itself.
This world seemed to consist of only lava and gales. Apart from that, the space stretching ten thousand meters across the front, back, left, right, and center was an endless gray void. The void was not empty; rather, it was a gray background with countless abstract ripples, much like the graffiti left by an Impressionist painter. However, apart from the founder, no one could understand the meaning of these ripples.
Ling Yun walked a few steps in the void. He felt neither ground beneath his feet nor the weightlessness of high altitude; he was simply stepping on empty air. Normal laws of physics seemed to have no effect here. It seemed that the Blood Sacrifice Realm constructed by Mochizuki Nami had its own unique rules, but so far, Ling Yun couldn't figure out her purpose in trapping him here. Was it merely to let him experience the terrifying sensations of gales and lava? Surely she wasn't that bored.
If it were merely a form of deception, then the gale and lava would certainly be illusions; the intense heat and the tearing force of the gale would simply amplify the real fear in one's heart. But the essence of deception lies here: even if you know it's an illusion, you wouldn't dare to touch it easily. However, once you have even the slightest bit of belief in your heart, then the gale and lava will become real. Here, perception and all sensory organs will have the opposite effect of deceiving and misleading; a normal person is no better than a blind person with all six senses shut down.
Ling Yun dared not try it. At least, the lava and gale seemed very terrifying. He didn't have the daring to plunge into the gale or lava to see if it was real. After all, he only had one life. Moreover, he didn't know the difference between the Blood Sacrifice Delusion Technique and ordinary delusion techniques. What if the Blood Sacrifice Delusion Technique would produce a real sense of immersion?
Another point worth noting is that Ling Yun entered Mochizuki Nami's Blood Sacrifice Delusional Technique this time while maintaining a clear consciousness and complete memories, indicating that he was fully aware he was trapped in a delusional state. This is clearly very different from the delusional techniques he had experienced before.
The greatest threat of deception lies in its ability to deceive the victim, much like blindfolding someone and making them much easier to deal with. Both Matsumoto Rie's erotic deception and Matsumoto Tomoki's spatial deception possess this quality; in essence, they are still deceptions, luring the victim into a trap without their knowledge. The essence of deception is a trap, only this trap is set in a very ingenious way. If you don't see it and step on it, you might just find yourself blown to bits.
Now, Mochizuki Nami's Blood Sacrifice Illusionary Realm simply encircles him, without blurring his memories and consciousness. Of course, it's also possible that the Eye of Illusion cancels out this blurring, but the former is more likely. This means that the Blood Sacrifice Illusionary Art may have a strong unknown nature, unlike any other illusionary art that Ling Yun has encountered before. And the unknown represents inexplicable danger.
What chilled Ling Yun even more was that he had used the Eye of Illusion from the very beginning of entering the Illusionary Realm, but even the evolved Eye of Illusion could not see through the essence of the Blood Sacrifice Illusionary Realm. Behind the ripples of the void was endless darkness. The Eye of Illusion could see that there seemed to be countless trajectories moving irregularly in the darkness, but the Eye of Illusion could not provide the source or answer of the trajectories. Everything was still unknown.
The experience of breaking through the illusion of Mochizuki Nami was still vivid in my mind. At that time, the illusion that Mochizuki Nami used was entirely based on his personality weaknesses and deep-seated memories. The most unique thing was that Ling Yun himself did not know that he was in the illusion. Therefore, he could only break the puzzle by overcoming his own greed and weaknesses. Once he overcame his weaknesses, the illusion would naturally be broken.
While this kind of illusion technique is exceptionally sophisticated, its biggest drawback is that it can only be used on the same person once; it loses its effect the second time. If Mochizuki Nami were to use the same illusion technique again, using Ling Yun's state of mind, not only would she fail to trap Ling Yun, but he would also find her weakness within the illusion, trapping her there instead. Illusion against illusion, seemingly just a clash of illusions without direct confrontation or contact, is actually far more dangerous than ordinary physical attacks.
Ling Yun wondered to what extent she had improved her skills through diligent training during this time, as he walked forward. Mochizuki Nami was the most talented ability user he had ever seen; given time, she would become a powerful figure at least at the rank of general.
A silvery spiritual energy field surged from his body, and Ling Yun felt a weight lifted from his heart. At least, his power still existed. It seemed the illusion technique hadn't had a significant impact on him. As long as his power remained, Ling Yun had complete confidence.
He appeared to be walking slowly, but in reality, each step covered a distance of thousands of meters. A bright flash came from the horizon, as if a dazzling star had fallen to earth. Perhaps that was the strangeness of the Blood Sacrifice Technique. However, simply waiting would not yield any results. In an instant, Ling Yun's body transformed into an extremely bright silver light, whistling through the almost endless void.
The flash grew brighter and brighter, as if something glittering was waiting for Ling Yun ahead. As Ling Yun sped through a certain spot above the sea of lava, the sea of lava suddenly roared and, without any warning, shot out a fire dragon thousands of meters high and tens of meters thick. The ferocious and enormous fire dragon's head suddenly opened its huge mouth and bit down hard on Ling Yun.
Ling Yun was taken aback, but fortunately, he had maintained an extremely high speed, so he didn't panic. After turning his body sideways, a spherical silver ball of light was generated under his feet, and a huge propulsive force was suddenly activated, propelling him far away like a meteor. At the critical moment, he flew out of the fire dragon's closed mouth.
With a whoosh, the fire dragon's huge mouth closed too abruptly, causing its upper and lower jaws to merge together. The dragon's head, formed of flames, instantly turned into a murky mass of fire, which slowly sank into the sea of lava, accompanied by countless splashes of molten lava.
Seemingly taking the lead, the whooshing sound was incessant, and the sea of lava continued to rise with increasingly ferocious and thick fire dragons, like dozens or even hundreds of cannons sitting in the sea, constantly spewing out intense fire. Lingyun dodged left and right among the many fire dragons like a small, invisible bee, and also had to carefully avoid the lava droplets shooting out everywhere.
A fiery rain fell from the void, with streaks of fire shooting everywhere against the gray backdrop. Fire dragons, like ancient Cretaceous Diplodocus, stretched their long necks from the sea, hissing and roaring as they searched for prey. Ling Yun's body was so small compared to them that the fire dragons, unable to find a common enemy and driven by their fiery tempers, began to tear and fight each other. The lava sea boiled fiercely because of the churning of these behemoths, like a tsunami with a hurricane. Every moment, towering waves of lava hundreds of meters high roared and surged past.
Ling Yun concentrated his mind and streaked across most of the sky like a bolt of lightning. He had used all his strength. Anyway, this so-called illusionary realm didn't require him to fight against gravity. Compared to reality, his speed was more than ten times faster. In the blink of an eye, he had already crossed from one side of the sky to the other.
He couldn't afford to mess with these terrifying behemoths. Even without touching their deep red, fiery bodies, just being within a few dozen meters of the fire dragon was like being in a furnace. Ling Yun had no doubt that if he were hit head-on by the fire dragon, he would be reduced to ashes without a doubt, which would be a very unjust death.
Countless magma droplets shot towards him, but were deflected one by one by the protection of his mental field. There was no way to avoid the rain of fire, so Ling Yun had no choice but to endure it. Fortunately, the tiny magma droplets could not cause him any real damage. However, judging from the seemingly endless rain of fire ahead, he didn't know how much longer he would have to hold on. If the fire dragons were endless, then Ling Yun wouldn't need to fly at all; he could just jump into the sea of lava, which would be much easier.
Fortunately, such worries did not last long. The light ahead suddenly intensified, like an enormous searchlight, illuminating the sky with its concentrated beam. Against the backdrop of the void, it appeared as a grayish-white expanse. The rain of fire vanished completely after the beam appeared, and all the fire dragons quietly retreated into the sea of lava, as if they had never existed. The ocean, which had been boiling and constantly churning with fire waves, suddenly transformed into a calm lake emitting wisps of smoke, like a fiery red mirror. Viewed from high above, it possessed a breathtaking beauty, but beneath this beautiful exterior lay an abyss-like crisis.
His lightning-fast movement abruptly stopped, without any buffer from inertia. Ling Yun stood suspended in mid-air, looking ahead in shock.
A mirror hundreds of meters high stood in the air before Ling Yun. From its smooth, calm surface, beams of extremely bright light shot out continuously. Each beam was nearly a hundred meters thick and as bright as the most dazzling star in the night sky. The light that Ling Yun saw in the far distance was actually coming from this long mirror.
Ling Yun suppressed his shock. What surprised him was not the mirror's size and brilliance, but the strange feeling he had the moment he saw it. A hollow voice was calling to him from within the mirror. The voice was so familiar, yet so unfamiliar. Ling Yun could assure himself that he had never heard this voice before, but for some reason, he felt that it was enough to shake his soul and enter the deepest and most hidden part of his heart.
Ling Yun slowly flew to the mirror. Compared to the mirror, which was hundreds of meters high, he was just a tiny ant in front of the clean, shiny mirror that was constantly shooting beams of light.
The mirror did not reflect Ling Yun's face. Ling Yun strangely stretched out a finger and pressed it against the cool, smooth mirror surface. A strange feeling rang in his mind again. The hollow sound suddenly became louder, and there were also different resonant sounds, which made Ling Yun's eardrums buzz, as if it were the harmony of millions of people.
"Ling Yun, come in!"
Chapter 250 I Am Not Dust
A powerful aura, so strong it filled the entire world, suddenly emanated from the mirror. In that instant, Ling Yun tightly closed his eyes and shut down all his mental energy fields. This wasn't a conscious choice; it was a purely instinctive one. Only when faced with an invincible force or the might of nature would his true instinctive power of avoidance be unleashed.
If he didn't shut down his mental field and simply faced the aura head-on, Ling Yun would be instantly broken down into the most basic particles. He had a strange feeling that as long as he submitted to this power, he would remain safe even within its embrace. This aura was incredibly powerful, yet it also felt strangely familiar and comforting, as if his own power had been infinitely amplified.
The void emitted a cracking sound, barely audible yet distinctly perceptible, as if it were breaking apart from some nameless entity. It wasn't the sound of some unseen force breaking or anything else, but rather the actual collapse of a point within the spatial structure itself under the immense pressure of a powerful force. Once space shattered, everything would be reduced to an infinitely smaller point.
The sweltering heat of the lava sea suddenly vanished, the bright crimson color dimmed instantly, and a blast of cold air blew out from the mirror-like surface. The temperature began to drop at a free-fall speed, and in the blink of an eye, the lava sea solidified. The dark red magma rapidly deepened and then lightened, exposing chunks of black rock. Large swathes of lava began to slowly recede, gradually separating like a drop of water evaporating in the summer sun, then shrinking until they disappeared completely.