Blood Eyes seemed to be used to his mockery and remained unperturbed. After his laughter subsided, he slowly said, "What's so humiliating about this? When I was at the height of my fame, this brat's father probably hadn't even been born yet. He doesn't know what's so strange about my name. I'm afraid that once he learns of Blood Eyes' reputation, he'll be so scared that he'll wet his pants. On the other hand, you, the former number one ninja clan of Japan, the head of the Chiba clan of Jingu, have been trapped here for fifty years. I'm afraid even your own sons and grandsons don't recognize you, the former supreme ninja."
The old man on the left immediately stopped laughing, his kind face instantly turning ferocious: "Blood Eye, you dare to expose my weakness? Believe me or not, I can extract your soul and make you wish you were dead within the Five Elements!"
Blood Eyes wasn't afraid of his verbal threats. He smiled disdainfully and was about to continue mocking this boastful guy.
"Hahahaha!" A burst of wild laughter immediately drew the attention of the two men. Ling Yun couldn't hold back any longer and bent over laughing so hard he seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world. He pointed at the two men, clearly laughing at Shen Gong Qianye and Xue Tong. This immediately turned their faces ashen. Even the silent black elder looked at Ling Yun with a strange gaze, his lips slightly parted as if he were reciting some strange syllable.
Chapter 169 Dominator
"What are you laughing at!" Having finally managed to stop the laughter, Blood Pupil's single, blood-red eye seemed to spit out flames of rage. Even Elder Qianye of the Divine Palace wore an icy, cold expression, his benevolent demeanor long gone. This young lad is utterly rude, daring to laugh so loudly to our faces. He clearly doesn't take us two seriously. Does he think that just because the three of us are bound here by energy chains, we can't do anything to him?
Ling Yun glanced at the three men indifferently, and in that instant he noticed the old black man muttering something. A disdainful sneer appeared on his lips: "I laugh at your arrogance, your haughtiness and ignorance. I don't know what your reputation was before, nor do I care. But since you're locked up here as prisoners, you should be prepared to be prisoners. While you're prisoners, you're bragging about your reputation from decades ago. Aren't you ashamed? I feel sorry for you for being so disrespectful to your elders."
With a soft hiss, a beam of blood-red light shot out from the single eye of Blood Pupil, hurtling towards Ling Yun's chest. Ling Yun was slightly startled and conjured a cyan shield out of thin air, which clanged as it blocked the attack. However, several cracks immediately appeared on the shield, and a small circular hole appeared where it had been struck, clearly formed by the corrosion of the blood-red light.
"Ignorant brat, if we don't teach you a lesson, you'll really think we're useless old men. We'll show you how a prisoner can make you die a horrible death." Blood Eyes said coldly, his single eye blazing with red light, and a blood-red ray was about to shoot out again in the blink of an eye.
Jingu Chiba sneered, a flash of silver light in his eyes, and dozens of blades formed purely of flame slowly appeared around Ling Yun. However, strangely, the flames were frozen solid, actually sealed by a layer of chilling thin ice, and within the frozen flames, faint flashes of lightning flickered.
Ling Yun could even sense that the lightning was not just an illusionary attack, but genuine lightning power. This simple technique contained the power of four elements: wind, water, fire, and electricity. If it were just these four elements, it wouldn't be anything special. What was most remarkable was that Shen Gong Qianye had effortlessly fused these four completely different elements together. This was truly extraordinary.
Ling Yun's pupils contracted slightly, and he was about to dodge. Suddenly, he felt his feet tighten, but he couldn't move at all. Startled, he looked down and saw a pair of charcoal-black hands that had somehow emerged from under the pure energy barrier and were tightly gripping his ankles. They were the hands of the old black man.
Looking up, the old black man wore a mysterious and eerie smile. His hands were outstretched, reaching through the shackles to the energy barrier and then emerging from the ground where Ling Yun stood, grabbing Ling Yun's ankles. His hands, like shackles made of refined steel, firmly pinned Ling Yun to the ground. No matter how hard Ling Yun tried, he could not break free even an inch.
Ling Yun was both shocked and furious. He saw the fiery blades getting closer and closer to his body. When they suddenly shot out from within a few meters, his blood-red eyes were constantly glowing red as he gathered his strength and finally fired out a blood-red ray as thick as an arm.
Since there was no way to avoid it, the only option was to use a mental energy field to defend against it. Ling Yun's mental energy field protection had just been activated when it came into contact with the fiery blade. The protection collapsed with a deafening roar, and the entire mental energy field rebounded back, striking Ling Yun's chest heavily. Before Ling Yun could even spit out a mouthful of blood, the ray had already silently pierced through his chest. With a whoosh, it struck the energy fountain behind Ling Yun and was instantly absorbed by the energy fountain without a trace.
The fiery blade, possessing four attributes, sliced down without hindrance, cutting Ling Yun's body into countless tiny fragments. However, due to the blade's extreme sharpness and speed, Ling Yun's body did not disintegrate upon separation. Instead, it appeared as if a whole, pieced together from countless fragments, was covered with numerous crisscrossing cracks.
However, each crack was a thin, charred black color because the high temperature of the flame melted the blood flowing from the capillaries the moment the blade made the cut, and then the coldness completely sealed the wound, so no blood spilled out.
After a long while, with a series of soft thuds, Ling Yun finally turned into a pile of minced flesh. Only his severed legs remained, still standing on the ground in the same position. The black hand that had been gripping Ling Yun's ankle suddenly vanished, as if it had never been there at all.
"Sigh, he died so easily. It would have been better to torture this kid a bit more, maybe that would have helped pass the time." Jingu Chiba sighed regretfully, as if killing Ling Yun so easily was not enough.
"Hmph, I don't have the time or inclination to torture people like you Japanese." Blood Eye sneered. "Anyone who dares to offend my authority will be taught a lesson. Actually, I wanted this little guy to tell me about the situation outside, but I didn't expect him to be so blind. He thinks we're trapped here and have no power left. Even if I'm completely trapped, I can still kill this ant-like guy with just a look."
The elderly Black man, who had been silent until now, sighed deeply: "What good is knowing what's going on outside? We have no way to escape from here. In a few decades, we'll all be nothing but piles of bones. Just like this little guy." Although he was Black, he spoke fluent Mandarin, though some of his pronunciations were still a bit strange.
Both Jingu Chiba and Xue Tong fell silent. What the old black man said was true. For decades, the three of them had tried countless methods, but had no hope of escaping from the core space. Their hearts had been filled with utter despair.
“If we’re not in a hurry to kill that kid, perhaps we can interrogate him to find out how he got in. If we have other methods, maybe we can get out.” Kamiya Chiba seemed to remember something and spoke hesitantly, which made Blood Eye and the old black man smile helplessly.
“What’s the point of saying all this now that he’s dead?” Blood Eye said. “But what you said isn’t entirely unreasonable. I also regret it a bit. I shouldn’t have killed him so quickly. Old Black, you were the Great Elder of the Witch Clan back then. Do you have any witchcraft that can absorb this kid’s mental energy field? He just died, so his telekinetic consciousness shouldn’t have dissipated yet.”
“If I weren’t locked in by the core, I could still think of a way.” The old black man frowned. “But now I can only use a very small portion of my abilities, so I’m powerless. Moreover, being trapped here for too long has caused my witchcraft to deteriorate. Unlike you superhumans who have a mental field and can cultivate while standing still, my witchcraft requires movement.”
“We are the same!” Jingu Chiba shook his head and said, “The core can not only bind most of our abilities, but also restrict the mental field of superhumans. My superhuman abilities are also deteriorating very quickly.”
Blood Eyes's chilling, single eye looked at Ling Yun: "I don't know why this kid seems to be unrestricted in the core space. It's a pity he's too weak. Even if I only had one-tenth of my power left, I could easily kill him."
"Want to know why?" Ling Yun's calm voice suddenly rang out from amidst the piles of corpses and mangled flesh. "You self-righteous old fools!"
Blood Eye and the others paled in shock. They never dreamed that Ling Yun was still alive. How could this be? The three of them stared in horror as the pieces of flesh on the ground flew back to where they had fallen and then pieced themselves back together to resemble Ling Yun. It was as if a mirror had been shattered and then glued back together with superglue.
After all the pieces of flesh were pieced together, Ling Yun looked like a rag doll sewn together with countless fine threads, exuding an air of utter eeriness and terror. Even Xue Tong and the others, with their vast experience, had never witnessed such a bizarre technique before, and a chill ran down their spines. A sense of unease was rising within them.
A thin golden light flashed through the countless wounds and cracks on Ling Yun's body. After the light faded, Ling Yun had completely recovered, and even his body was now covered in a layer of clothing formed entirely from telekinesis. This is the wonder of the Eye of Illusion; it can be combined with illusion magic to create an effect equivalent to solid clothing.
The old black man's eyes were practically fixed on the scene. His black pupils possessed a strange, magical ability, capable of seeing through most illusions in the world. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see through how Ling Yun had managed to come back to life. It was absolutely certain that Ling Yun had been pierced through the chest by the blood-red pupil's rays and dismembered by Shen Gong Qianye's fiery blade, but how could the dead be brought back to life? Could he be the reincarnation of a sorcerer god? The more the great sorcerer thought about it, the more likely it seemed, and a hint of fear crept into his gaze as he looked at Ling Yun.
Blood Eyes naturally didn't believe in such unnatural things as resurrection. Even a superhuman couldn't defy the laws of nature. After a slight surprise, he regained his composure and said in a deep voice, "Kid, you really do have some skills. Even I was fooled. How did you do it?"
Jingu Chiba also stared at Ling Yun without saying a word. Ling Yun's resurrection process was too strange, and he couldn't tell the truth either. He was very interested in hearing how this young man would explain it.
Ling Yun smiled faintly, slowly walked up to the three of them, and said softly, "I am the master here, so of course I can do whatever I want. You don't need to ask, and I don't need to explain. Besides, even if I explained, you wouldn't understand. Just understand my will."
"Playing tricks!" Just as Jingu Chiba was about to utter those four words with disdain, Ling Yun's iron fingers, like hooks, grabbed his crown. "I hate Japanese people the most. You've clung to life for so many years, you've had enough. Die!"
Chapter 170 The Art of Searching for Spirits
Jingu Chiba was furious. How could someone he considered an immature brat dare to be so arrogant? It was truly a case of a dragon stranded in shallow waters being mocked by shrimp, a tiger fallen to the plains being bullied by dogs. It seemed that after being trapped for fifty years, the world had changed beyond his comprehension. The days when he could command a hundred followers, those who obeyed lived, and those who defied perished, the days of ruling the entire Japanese family, were gone forever.
Even though Ling Yun was somewhat strange, he still didn't take him seriously by the eyes of this powerful figure who had dominated the world decades ago. Even if Ling Yun were ten or a hundred times more strange, Jingu Chiba wouldn't care. As one of the master-level ninjas, Jingu Chiba wouldn't even flinch at the end of the world. Besides, in his eyes, Ling Yun was just a callow child. Jingu Chiba was filled with rage. Even with most of his power locked by the core, only a small portion remained, enough to tear this arrogant young man to shreds.
Blood Eye and Old Black watched indifferently, indifferent to who tore whom to pieces. Even being locked together for fifty years didn't signify any deep or close bond between the three; being locked together didn't make them fellow inmates. In fact, if they weren't mutually wary and unable to completely eliminate each other, they would have already fought. It was precisely because their strengths were roughly equal and they were all imprisoned here that a balance of power was achieved, not because of any emotional connection.
Strange! Neither of them could understand Ling Yun's hatred for the Japanese. Such nationalistic sentiments were beyond their comprehension. In fact, when power reaches the level of people like Xue Tong, the boundaries of nationality, race, and culture cease to exist. Just like the actual leaders of each country, they consider more the interests and development of power than some seemingly insignificant matters.
"Book!" An incomparably powerful mental field erupted instantly. Kamiya Chiba had neither the time nor the interest to contemplate the various strange techniques to torment this infuriating young man before him. "You think you can bring the dead back to life? Kid, then I'll use my mental field to crush you into dust, into nothingness, and see how you revive then." Kamiya Chiba felt he had never hated anyone so much before, thinking this almost through gritted teeth.
Even the formidable Blood Eye and Old Black had to slightly shift their bodies to avoid the impact. Due to the energy shackles, their range of movement was extremely limited; even a slight turn was their limit. Blood Eye had to activate his mental energy field to withstand the powerful shock, while Old Black suddenly transformed into a cloud of black mist, shrinking to the size of a fist to reduce the area affected by the force. However, as his form changed, the energy shackles binding him also shifted. Even in his fist-sized form, the shackles remained firmly locked around his body. It seemed that whoever had trapped them here had already anticipated each person's changing abilities.
Complete! In an instant, Kamiya Chiba's mental field swept across every part of the core space. The powerful force caused all the energy fountains to emit a dark blue light, and the core energy pillar shone even brighter. The intense light from all the energy fountains instantly formed a blazing net of light, forcibly binding Kamiya Chiba's telekinetic expansion.
"Reasonable!" Ling Yun smiled faintly. Standing amidst the sweeping psychic power of Shen Gong Qianye, he was like a straw in a level twelve gale. And Shen Gong Qianye's mental energy field was now less than one-tenth of his peak strength. One could only imagine how powerful the strongman of that time was.
But no matter how strong the wind was, it couldn't topple the straw in front of him. And that straw, in the blink of an eye, transformed from a thin stalk into a mountain. The flood of telekinetic energy crashed against the mountain, but the mountain remained unmoved, and the flood could only flow past. The spiritual force field, powerful enough to melt gold and corrode iron, couldn't do anything to Ling Yun.
The boy didn't even release his mental energy field for protection. His expression remained calm, as if he were walking in the warm season of spring breeze. Apart from his flowing hair indicating that he was in the mental energy field of Shingu Chiba, it was impossible to tell that Ling Yun was fighting Shingu Chiba with all his might.
Chiba's furious expression froze on his face. He simply couldn't believe that this seemingly weak boy could survive his telekinetic attack unscathed. It was impossible! Even the head instructor of the Supernatural Abilities Headquarters, the former strongest, couldn't possibly remain so calm in the face of his attack. Chiba even wondered if he was dreaming; he simply couldn't believe such a bizarre turn of events unless it was a dream.
The energy net forcibly forced his mental field to contract inch by inch. His core space was like water; no matter how much force you used to attack it, you would feel the same counterforce. The same applied to attacks on the mental field: the stronger the expansion, the stronger the energy net's contraction. Using the same telekinetic expansion as against Ling Yun, the energy net's counterforce would return many times over. In that case, it would be Shen Gong Qianye himself who would suffer; being entangled by the energy net would be extremely unpleasant.
But this time, something unexpected happened. The energy net merely forced his mental field back, without retaliating. Kamiya Chiba's eyes widened in astonishment as he watched the boy use a single finger to swiftly draw a profound and complex three-dimensional pattern in the air. In the blink of an eye, the pattern vanished into the core space.