The sound wave disappeared behind the pillar, but Ling Yun clearly heard a barely audible splattering sound and a faint scream. Ling Yun smiled coldly, then suddenly reached out and slammed his hand on the pillar. He didn't seem to use any strength or his mental energy field, but the giant pillar suddenly began to tremble unnaturally, as if an incredibly powerful auger was deeply churning beneath its base.
As the giant pillar trembled, the countless decorative patterns on its surface, like extinguished light bulbs, slowly turned a deathly gray color, one after another, until they became exactly like the deathly gray image of the sword-wielding samurai. The deathly gray color continued to spread, slowly but unstoppably, turning every place it passed into a lifeless and empty dead ground.
In an instant, the decorative patterns on the column seemed to come alive, as if a bizarre cartoon was playing out on a curved screen. All the figures and totems on the column began to move, desperately circling the column in terror and fear, hoping to escape the encroaching gray color. But this was all in vain. Although the column was vast, its area was still extremely limited, and it was only on a plane. No matter how the figures escaped and struggled, they could not escape the pursuit of the gray color. Once covered by the gray color, the figures' movements immediately stopped and froze, and they watched helplessly as the gray color spread over their bodies little by little, turning the moving images into true decorative patterns.
Lingyun and Xiaorou stared at the eerie changes on the pillar. Although it was just a collection of simple lines depicting figures, they still felt a chill run down their spines when they saw the figures being swallowed by a deathly gray. Although they couldn't see the expressions on the figures' faces, a deep sense of tragedy and terror emanated from the pillar—a desperate longing for life coupled with the relentless march of death. Even though the figures were merely lines, they possessed an extremely powerful visual impact and a strong emotional resonance.
It was just a chance test, but unexpectedly it caused such a big change to this strange giant pillar. Ling Yun was also shocked. Just now, when the Eye of Illusion was running at its limit, the mysterious power finally could not stop the Eye of Illusion from spying. And when he probed the deathly gray lines of the sword-wielding warrior decoration for the 1,556th time, Ling Yun finally discovered that something was different.
A line measuring only one micrometer square, after being scanned by the Eye of Illusion, reflected as a blank space. This meant that this microscopic line plane possessed reflective detection capabilities. Apart from this, all other lines were merely decorative, lacking consciousness and any vitality. If Ling Yun hadn't entered the microscopic world to cultivate while probing Xiao Rou's internal condition, even with the Eye of Illusion, he wouldn't have been able to scan such a tiny area. Fortunately, the Eye of Illusion had evolved to the point where it could observe both macroscopic and microscopic levels; otherwise, Ling Yun would still have gained nothing.
Ling Yun's mental energy field rapidly condensed into dozens of ultra-miniature barriers, hundreds of times smaller than a micrometer. Unexpectedly, he had once again employed the techniques of Holy Healing, making one marvel at the profound depth of supernatural arts. Under Ling Yun's mental command, the ultra-miniature barriers possessed only two characteristics: concealment and detection.
Like tiny insects, the ultra-microscopic barrier penetrated the pillar through the narrow shielding area. In this contest at a more microscopic level, the ultra-microscopic barrier clearly had the upper hand. The tiny shield could block Lingyun's detection, but it could not block the detection of even smaller barriers, or even sense them. This is like bacteria constantly multiplying and dividing in the human body, but the person has no reaction or knowledge of it. That is because the nervous system is not sensitive enough to the microscopic level. In a sense, the ultra-microscopic barrier is like bacteria in a tiny shield.
The ultra-miniature barrier quickly reached the depths of the pillar. The data transmitted back generated images in Ling Yun's mind indicating that an unknown entity was hidden inside the giant pillar. All the decorative patterns had a microscopic connection with this unknown entity. When this connection was severed, the decorative patterns would truly turn into a deathly gray color, becoming real decorative patterns.
To Ling Yun's surprise, this unknown entity was neither a living being nor an intelligent being. It possessed a certain level of consciousness, but lacked sufficient intelligence. To put it more accurately, it resembled a memory storage device containing a vast amount of information, maintained by the energy of the barrier. The ultra-miniature barrier quickly penetrated deep into the storage device, whereupon Ling Yun discovered that the information within was related to the patterns on the pillar surface, and each piece of information contained a different energy aura. All these energy auras combined to form a unique consciousness.
Since the ultra-microscopic barrier is not offensive, and other attacks cannot effectively threaten the storage medium at the microscopic level, Ling Yun used sound waves and vibrations—two attacks purely based on frequency. This type of information storage medium often has an extremely fragile surface; the only vulnerable part is the massive amount of information it contains. Once its internal structure is disrupted, causing the information to become chaotic, the decorative image will be destroyed without a fight.
As Ling Yun slowly processed the information copied from the information storage, he watched the figures being swallowed by the deathly gray. Suddenly, his vision shifted, and all the scenes changed, transforming into another magnificent and vast landscape.
This is a completely different civilization: warriors wielding swords and clad in full armor, mysterious figures with cloaks covering their faces, girls and boys dressed in all sorts of strange and unusual costumes, and noble figures carried in palanquins by a group of strong, dark-skinned slaves. Their figures are similar to humans, but much taller. Even the shortest girl is as tall as a modern man. Their hair is in various vibrant colors, as bright as if dyed. All sorts of strange and bizarre beasts, whose names cannot be called, walk slowly behind the strangely dressed people. Their huge bodies and explosive power do not possess any wildness, but are as docile as kittens, becoming pets held by humans.
The scene appears to be in a huge metropolis, with towering palace-like buildings representing a civilization that is no less advanced than modern technology and may even surpass it. Countless people shuttle back and forth in the sky. What amazes Ling Yun is that whether walking on the ground or flying in the sky, everyone possesses strength no less than that of superhumans. This civilization, which is almost a community of superhumans, seems to be commonplace.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
A tremendous tremor suddenly came from the huge blue brick pavement of the city. People walking on the street immediately moved aside, as if they were avoiding some powerful being. From the end of the road, below the horizon, came a thunderous sound and huge footsteps.
At the end of the street, a huge boulder with a diameter of tens of meters suddenly appeared. The boulder, weighing thousands of tons, was still rolling forward rapidly, raising clouds of dust and making a rumbling sound wherever it went.
Chapter 297 City of Death
Ling Yun noticed that after the huge boulder rolled down the street, although the surrounding crowd was quickly dodging, no one showed any fear on their faces, nor did they scatter and flee. It was as if this was a perfectly normal occurrence in this bustling city. Moreover, the blue bricks on the street, made of some unknown material, did not break under the urgent pressure of thousands of tons of weight. The boulder and the ground constantly rubbed together, generating intense sparks, as if they were two incredibly hard composite steels.
It wasn't until the boulder reached Ling Yun that he realized it hadn't rolled there on its own. Instead, a giant was pushing it from behind. This giant was as tall as the boulder, shirtless, wearing only light-colored shorts. His exposed, muscular skin resembled steel ingots, radiating explosive power. His two disproportionately thick arms, reaching all the way to his knees, were forcefully tumbling the boulder forward. With each step his feet, which were several meters long, took, the ground and nearby buildings trembled slightly.
Ling Yun stared in astonishment at this giant, who was almost like an ancient god. The fact that it could move such a huge and heavy round stone was beyond his imagination. What kind of being was this giant? And what kind of ancient civilization was this?
The giant pushed the rolling stone toward the end of the street, where a vast plaza stretched as far as the eye could see. In the center of the plaza, tens of thousands of stones the same size as the rolling stone were piled up, and countless giants pushing equally enormous stones were slowly approaching from all directions.
Ling Yun changed his perspective. From a height of several hundred meters, the city and the plaza appeared as insignificant compared to the surrounding area. The plaza was a vast flat surface. In addition to the boulders piled in the center, there were hundreds of buildings, each hundreds of meters tall. The buildings were single-story and completely hollow inside. Apart from the four giant pillars supporting the buildings, there were no doors in the four cardinal directions. Strangely, on the four sides of the buildings, there were sloping staircases extending down from the top. At the bottom of the staircases was an enormous iron ladle, resembling a catapult, though its purpose was unknown.
Beside each building stood a creature even larger than the one that pushed the rolling stone. The creature had a human body, a diamond-shaped head with four ferocious compound eyes, a pair of long wings made of only periosteum on its back, and a huge tentacle-like claws covering its massive body. It also had a huge tail.
The creature picked up the rolling stones pushed by the giant one by one and carefully placed them inside the building. After a faint green light flashed, the massive stones, weighing thousands of tons, seemed to be sucked up by an inexplicable and powerful suction force, rising into the air and disappearing from the top of the building in the blink of an eye. Then the creature brought in another rolling stone and repeated the previous action.
Ling Yun was quite surprised because he couldn't see what was on the top of the building. In just a short time, dozens of boulders had been sucked to the top of the building by the suction force, but there was nothing unusual about the top. In real time, any building would collapse immediately if just one boulder was placed on it.
Suddenly, a tremendous bell tolled throughout the vast and deep space, urgent and awe-inspiring. Even without understanding its meaning, after seeing the crowds on the street suddenly scatter and flee, and the giant pushing the rolling stone, startled, suddenly releasing it and running away in panic, Ling Yun understood the meaning of the bell tolling. It had the same meaning as an air raid siren, indicating that an enemy had begun to invade.
Suddenly, the tops of all the towering buildings began to gleam, flashing with dazzling light. In the blink of an eye, they merged into a vast expanse of transparent blue, forming a barrier hundreds of meters thick that enveloped the entire city. The invisible barrier revealed an indistinct transparent color, with thick blue electric currents flashing across it from time to time. Clearly, this barrier was not merely for defense.
The enormous creatures seemed oblivious to the alarm, simply increasing their speed. They used all their giant claws at once, carrying several rolling stones into the building at once. They were panting heavily, clearly indicating that the weight of nearly ten thousand tons pressing down on them was a tremendous burden.
The buildings standing in the square also emitted a blazing light. A fiery red color flowed slowly down from the top of the buildings like lava, instantly rising into a huge sea of fire. Then, a burning boulder suddenly rose from the top of the buildings, rolling down the steps to the bottom of the iron ladle, instantly forming a blazing fireball.
Suddenly, a dense swarm of people flew out of the city, like locusts, and landed above the square. Ling Yun sensed that each of them possessed immense power. Seeing this astonishing aura, Ling Yun couldn't fathom what they were so wary of, acting as if facing a formidable enemy. Up until now, the opposing force seemed to have appeared without any warning.
The entire sky suddenly darkened, and the bright light gradually dimmed. This was not due to the setting sun, but rather because a gigantic shadow that suddenly appeared in space blocked the sun. The shadow moved slowly across the sky, resembling a black mountain range flying at an altitude of tens of thousands of meters. It was cone-shaped, entirely monolithic, and its surface was an unreflective, deathly gray. A tremendous, chilling aura emanated from the shadow, and in the blink of an eye, the aura of death in the air rose wildly. All birds and insects had no time to avoid the instantaneous arrival of death; they struggled for only a moment before being transformed into withered, lifeless statues in the endless aura of death.
City of Death!
Upon seeing this colossal entity that suddenly appeared in the sky, a term flashed into Ling Yun's mind: this city of death gave him an extremely uncomfortable feeling. Even just a glance at it seemed to draw his soul out of his body, possessing an incredibly powerful mental attack. This was a world entirely composed of death, devoid of any trace of life. Death itself formed a strange negative energy that sustained the entire city's activities, leaving the places it passed through with the same indelible mark.
The City of Death is like a city of plague, emanating an aura of fear, disease, destruction, and other negative influences. Ordinary people would go mad and die at the mere sight of it.
Regardless of the civilization, the continuation of life is a spontaneous instinct, and naturally, they would not willingly be swallowed up by the city of death. Thus, resistance becomes the most natural reaction. Ling Yun suddenly understood the role of the rolling stones and the houses. The houses themselves, supported by the power of the barrier, actually served as a kind of catapult.
Countless iron spoons suddenly sprang into the air with tremendous force, and thousands of tons of rolling fireballs were thrown into the sky. It was unknown what kind of power the building had, but it was able to launch rolling fireballs like cannonballs. The rolling fireballs roared and instantly traveled tens of thousands of meters, crashing heavily into the mountain-like city of death.
The City of Death trembled slightly under the relentless onslaught of thousands of colossal fireballs. Each fireball was equivalent to the explosion of thousands of tons of gunpowder, and the simultaneous bombardment of thousands of fireballs was no less powerful than the full-force detonation of a medium-sized nuclear bomb. Thick smoke and clouds slowly rose above the City of Death, forming a massive mushroom cloud. The intense light released in that instant was enough to blind any creature that relied on light to perceive the world.
A deafening sound reverberated across the land. After the extreme noise subsided, a profound silence followed. Flying fragments of rubble fell like raindrops, crashing onto the square's surface, while some flew far away, landing in the dense protective barrier above the city.
Whether it was the crowds in the city watching this massive war or the warriors in the sky, they couldn't help but cheer wildly. It was a great victory of life over death. No one could survive such an overwhelming attack. Faced with rolling stones and flames, even the city of death could not absorb the energy of the attack.
The City of Death trembled slightly, its aura of death suppressed to the extreme, seemingly on the verge of collapsing and disintegrating in mid-air. The sea of fire burned across the City of Death, turning a dark green color, with countless ghosts and vengeful spirits howling within the core of the flames.
The powerful warriors roared as if tearing the sky apart, and from each of their hands emerged a dazzling beam of light that converged before them, instantly forming a vast river of light that stretched across the heavens and earth. It pierced through the entire City of Death from bottom to top, and the dark gray City of Death was ripped open by this powerful light. Countless tiny cracks appeared in the city, each crack shimmering with golden light. The negative aura that made up the City of Death melted away as quickly as spring snow under the blazing sun.
The warriors roared once more, their deafening shouts echoing through the air. The dazzling beams of light converged again into an incredibly powerful river of light, poised to utterly obliterate the City of Death. Suddenly, the river of light shifted shape, transforming in the air into a colossal golden dragon. It bared its fangs and claws, its golden maw snapping open at the City of Death, possessing a ferocious, tiger-like power, as if it intended to swallow the city whole.
Ling Yun silently observed all of this, a strange feeling suddenly rising within him. Despite the heavy and powerful blows from civilization, the City of Death had not suffered devastating damage; at least, the aura of death in the air had not diminished. After the climax of the attack, it was undoubtedly time for the City of Death to launch a full-scale counterattack.
A faint sigh suddenly rose from the city of death, as if it were the sigh of the Grim Reaper. With the arrival of the sigh, the rain of fire in the sky suddenly went out, leaving not even a trace of smoke. The ashes that filled the sky turned into wisps of smoke and dust, falling heavily to the ground and turning into ashes.
Suddenly, an enormous gray arm emerged from the City of Death, resembling the arm of a mountain-sized giant. Each of its six massive claws was hundreds of meters long and tens of meters thick. To everyone's astonishment, this gray hand grabbed the giant dragon formed from the River of Light in mid-air and squeezed it forcefully.
This pinch seemed to extinguish all thoughts in their hearts. The combined attack of tens of thousands of warriors was abruptly cut off by the gray hand. The golden dragon didn't even have time to roar before it turned into countless golden stars and dissipated into the air. A crisp, loud sound rang out in the air, and the entire space seemed to tremble. The two powerful auras collided and dissipated, turning into huge shockwaves in countless directions, sweeping across the locust-like horde of warriors like hurricanes.
Dozens of weaker warriors were blasted far away by the shockwave, and before they could even let out a scream of terror, they were torn to pieces by the immense force.
The deathly howl suddenly pierced the entire world once more. The deathly aura, which had just been suppressed to the extreme, surged up again with a vengeance. The fireball that flew into the air suddenly extinguished in the unparalleled deathly aura. Then, the iron-black rolling stone gradually turned into the color of deathly ash, and then froze in the air. It then fell heavily into free fall, crashing down on the tall building that had launched the fireball, destroying and collapsing it.
The enormous gray arm swept through the tens of thousands of warriors with unparalleled ease. No further attacks were needed; the gray arm itself was invincible. Countless golden starlight flickered across its surface—explosions and lightning formed from the bodies of dying warriors—continuously composing one tragic epic of blood and fire after another. But the power of death was too overwhelming; any attack or defense was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, utterly futile.