With a deafening roar, the two mental energy fields collided simultaneously where Ling Yun had just stood, producing several cracking sounds as the air contracted. It turned out that Matsumoto Rie and Matsumoto Taro, sensing the danger, had attacked Ling Yun at the same time. Their abilities were even inferior to those of a mere soldier in the Heavenly Eye Society, and their mental energy fields were not particularly strong. Although they had struck first, Ling Yun easily evaded their attacks with a slight forward lunge.
With a thud, the katana easily pierced Matsumoto Chizuru's abdomen, but strangely, no blood flowed out. After passing through Matsumoto Chizuru, the long blade also pierced through Ling Yun behind him.
A hint of surprise appeared on Matsumoto Tomoki's face, but it was quickly replaced by astonishment. This katana was a wind blade he had created using his supernatural powers. He could switch between wind and blade light whenever he wanted. So when it pierced Matsumoto Chizuru's abdomen, it was just a harmless breeze, but when it pierced Lingyun, it became a wind blade comparable to a fine steel blade.
However, Matsumoto Tomoki's touch didn't produce the dull thud of a needle piercing flesh; instead, it felt as if he'd struck empty air, offering no resistance whatsoever. He released his grip and was suddenly shocked to see Matsumoto Chizuru's face contorted in pain and weakness once more. Her two arms, whose bones had been twisted and broken, hung limply at her sides, and a deep, unfathomable wound suddenly appeared on her lower abdomen, from which blood gushed forth like a fountain.
Ling Yun's figure suddenly vanished like smoke, followed by his voice that suddenly rang out behind Matsumoto Tomoki: "Since you're willing to kill your cousin but can't bring yourself to do it, I'll help you out, how about that?" Although Matsumoto Tomoki's wind blade suddenly transformed into a breeze when it touched Matsumoto Chizuru's abdomen, Ling Yun, who was also proficient in the art of ninjutsu, immediately reversed his mental field, turning the breeze back into a wind blade. This was equivalent to a sharp blade suddenly growing inside Matsumoto Chizuru's body, instantly piercing his abdomen.
Poor Matsumoto Chizuru was suddenly imprisoned by him, unable to use any of his superpowers. He had already suffered several inhuman tortures. The bones in his arms and hands were shattered by Ling Yun's mental force field, which was then imprisoned. In addition, the excruciating pain from being pierced in the abdomen by a sharp blade almost made him faint. However, the vitality of superpowered individuals is far stronger than that of ordinary people. What is a fatal attack to an ordinary person is only a minor injury to a superpowered individual. But the pain was even more torturous. Matsumoto Chizuru even had the thought of dying for a moment. But after being imprisoned, he did not have the ability to move at all.
Matsumoto Tomoki took a deep breath, and his entire body vanished into thin air. Ling Yun was even more difficult to deal with than he had imagined. Just the fact that he suddenly and swiftly subdued Matsumoto Chizuru, leaving her with no ability to defend herself, already surpassed Matsumoto Tomoki's own strength. Meanwhile, Matsumoto Taro and Matsumoto Rie, who were constantly scanning Ling Yun with their mental energy fields, couldn't even catch a glimpse of him, let alone assist him in his attack.
Ling Yun's expression changed. Matsumoto Tomoki had clearly used the Wind Concealment Technique, which could transform his body into the wind, but even the aura of Matsumoto Tomoki that he could sense had disappeared! How could this be? Unless Matsumoto Tomoki shielded his mental field, but without a mental field, how could he use ninjutsu?
Ling Yun activated the panoramic view and cautiously surveyed his surroundings. The panoramic view had the function of scanning energy reactions and had no blind spots; even if Matsumoto Tomoki had vanished into the wind, the panoramic view should still be able to see his energy reaction image. However, the surroundings were completely silent. Apart from some extremely faint energy reactions representing insects, grasshoppers, and other small animals, Ling Yun couldn't see Matsumoto Tomoki's whereabouts at all. This was impossible; unless Matsumoto Tomoki had managed to escape in that short time, how could the panoramic view have failed to detect his presence!
Ling Yun's body began to move swiftly and rapidly, to prevent Matsumoto Tomoki from easily pinpointing his location. Remaining still without being able to detect his opponent would undoubtedly put him in a more passive position. The Eye of Illusion would have no effect on the Wind Concealment Technique, because the Wind Concealment Technique's distance wasn't about hiding or concealment, but rather a state of being similar to the unity of wind and movement, although the effect was the same as concealment. However, the unity of wind and movement was clearly more threatening.
The copying ability began to operate intensely, constantly analyzing the data principles of the Wind Concealment Technique while recalling all of Jingu Chiba's information about the Wind Movement Ninjutsu. Perhaps Matsumoto Tomoki's secret was hidden in these long-forgotten memories.
Ling Yun suddenly felt a sense of danger. His forward-moving body abruptly bent, turning sharply to the left as if defying the laws of physics. With a whoosh, he narrowly dodged a wind blade that suddenly appeared from the void. If he had continued forward due to inertia, he would have been pierced through the heart by Matsumoto Tomoki's sword.
Just as the wind blade retracted into the void, three silver rays attacked from the front, back, and center. The wind blade should have been aimed at the spot where Matsumoto Tomoki was quietly lurking, and Ling Yun's reaction was incredibly fast. However, the silver rays still collided without any hindrance, turning into a dazzling firework and dissipating.
Clearly, Tomoki Matsumoto was not there.
Ling Yun's brows furrowed in frustration. He was at a loss for what to do. He hadn't expected Matsumoto Tomoki's Wind Concealment Technique to be so advanced. Neither his perception nor his Eye of Illusion could see through him. How could he possibly fight like this? Was he supposed to keep relying on warning signs to evade his opponent's attacks?
A bright, sharp blade suddenly shot out from the void, grazing Ling Yun's shoulder. With a hiss, it tore through Ling Yun's clothes, leaving a deep bloodstain.
Chapter 243 The Illusory Eye of Evolution
If Ling Yun hadn't suddenly become alert, this strike would have already severed his head. The physical strength of superhumans is only relative; no one is truly indestructible. Especially between two superhumans of similar abilities, any attack can be fatal. Clearly, Matsumoto Tomoki showed no mercy to Ling Yun.
Ling Yun was both shocked and furious. Suddenly, the silver light of his mental energy field burst forth from his body, forming a blazing silver barrier around him. The power of the Eye of Illusion was instantly amplified to its strongest, presenting the origin of the world to him. However, everything around him was empty, with no trace of Matsumoto Tomoki.
This isn't right! Ling Yun frowned. The Eye of Illusion could see through all concealment, pointing directly to the essence of things. There was no reason why it couldn't see Matsumoto Tomoki's Wind Movement Unity. Even if he truly transformed himself into the wind, the trajectory of his movement would still be visible when he drew his sword, just as a normal person, though unable to see the wind blowing, would still have objects and sounds indicating the movement of air. If it couldn't be seen now, it could only prove that Matsumoto Tomoki had other methods, causing both the Eye of Illusion and perception to lose their effectiveness. And judging from the power Matsumoto Tomoki had displayed, he didn't yet possess the ability to completely conceal himself from Ling Yun.
Everything and every movement relies on other things to reflect its existence; there can be no exceptions. This is the essence of the law.
"Ling Yun, I will use this sword, imbued with the spirit of the Yamato warrior, to slice away your flesh piece by piece, and use your life to atone for your recent insult to the ninjas." The icy voice resounded directly in Ling Yun's mind, causing his expression to change once again.
Mental field consciousness communication is not a special ability. Any two ability users can communicate directly in each other's minds as long as the other accepts. This can avoid ambiguity caused by language differences. Mental field consciousness communication is achieved purely through vibration and frequency, which manifests in reality as a double wave. Therefore, it has exclusivity and uniqueness, and is the most direct and effective way for ability users to communicate.
However, most people with superpowers still communicate verbally. This is because conscious communication cannot shield them from other thoughts in their minds. In other words, they cannot lie, and any other thoughts hidden in their minds will be immediately known to their opponent. This is obviously unacceptable to most people with superpowers. Moreover, if a person with superpowers is full of mental energy protection and is on guard, then conscious communication will become very difficult. Trying to communicate by force will only provoke a mental energy counterattack from the other party.
This is somewhat similar to the nature of the Search for Gods technique. In fact, the Search for Gods technique is an extraordinary technique created by further improving upon the foundation of consciousness communication. It possesses extremely domineering abilities and destructive power, and has always been regarded as a forbidden technique by people with supernatural abilities. However, in terms of both the frequency and number of times it is actually used, the Search for Gods technique far surpasses consciousness communication.
Matsumoto Tomoki was likely using mind communication, which isn't inherently wrong. However, Ling Yun had clearly sealed off his mental field, retracting it entirely to form a protective barrier. How could Matsumoto Tomoki's mental field enter his mind without any hindrance? This is almost impossible. If that were the case, it would mean that Ling Yun was completely unguarded in front of Matsumoto Tomoki, exposing his most vulnerable side to him, and could potentially suffer a devastating mental attack at any moment.
Could it be that Matsumoto Tomoki has been hiding his power? Has he already become a powerhouse surpassing the rank of general, approaching the level of Tang Tiejin? No, that's impossible. Ling Yun immediately shook his head inwardly. Not to mention reaching the level of Tang Tiejin, even a colonel wouldn't be so easily affected by his illusion technique. Moreover, Ling Yun had used the consciousness communication method with Xia Zhen before, and it seemed that the way he communicated with Matsumoto Tomoki was somewhat subtly different. If one didn't carefully discern it, one wouldn't be able to detect even the slightest difference.
However, there was no time to investigate the exact differences that caused such a drastic impact. Matsumoto Tomoki's katana continued to strike from the void, sharp as thunder and swift as lightning. The blade of the mental energy field constantly clashed with Ling Yun's protective mental energy barrier, creating sparks and vortexes in the air. Ling Yun's body had already become an invisible afterimage. The rubble and broken tiles within a radius of several hundred meters were swept away by the powerful whirlwind. Only a silver shadow could be vaguely seen spinning rapidly, followed by a silver light like a meteor's tail. Before the silver light and shadow disappeared, they were immediately replaced by a new afterimage.
However, Matsumoto Tomoki's samurai sword blades remained precisely positioned to the left and right of Ling Yun's body, constantly breaking through his mental energy field defenses and carving deep and long wounds on Ling Yun's chest, back, and limbs. However, before the blood could flow, his self-healing ability immediately took effect, and the wounds healed at the fastest speed in the blink of an eye.
A sinister laugh echoed in Ling Yun's mind again: "As expected, you are somewhat special, Ling Yun. I didn't expect you to have vampire genes and be able to heal yourself. I was worried that I wouldn't torture you enough and make you suffer enough pain and humiliation before you died. Now I'm relieved. Since you have self-healing, I will slowly torture you until your mental field is completely exhausted. It would be best if I could use my knife to rip out your heart and then cut off your head, hanging it in front of the Yang Group building so they can see what happens to those who try to stop us Japanese ninjas."
Ling Yun remained silent, continuously using his Eye of Illusion to search for the source of Matsumoto Tomoki's mental energy field. Strangely, while all communication of consciousness is traceable, like how one can always determine the location of a person by their voice, Matsumoto Tomoki's communication of consciousness had no traceable path, nor was it an illusion generated from all directions. Rather, it seemed to have arisen out of thin air, directly within Ling Yun's mind.
This bizarre communication of consciousness was beyond Ling Yun's comprehension. There could not be any communication of consciousness without reason in the world. Ling Yun pondered deeply and was certain that Matsumoto Tomoki's power was not that strong. There must be something that he had not seen through, otherwise, such a strange thing would not have happened that even the Eye of Illusion could not see through.
While healing abilities allow one to recover from injuries in the shortest time, preserving physical strength and abilities, the feeling of being slashed by a blade is unpleasant. Due to the sensitivity of their mental field, ability users perceive pain far more intensely than ordinary people. Furthermore, the pain is accompanied by a strange tingling sensation, which is extremely brief, lasting only about a millisecond. For ability users with lower levels of perception, this sensation would be completely imperceptible.
However, Ling Yun was different. His perception was extremely strong, and he could naturally feel the tingling sensation. Matsumoto Tomoki's attacks were too strange. Even though the tingling sensation was similar to the illusion of severed nerves, Ling Yun dared not be careless in the slightest. He was now taking Matsumoto Tomoki seriously. Clearly, this was a powerful opponent. It seemed he had made the mistake of underestimating his enemy and was paying the price for it. Ling Yun's thoughts suddenly drifted, and he actually reflected on his mistakes amidst the fierce battle.
The clone's ability quickly analyzed what was causing the tingling sensation. Matsumoto Tomoki's samurai sword aura wasn't a simple physical attack; it was infused with a mysterious chemical substance. This substance was extremely faint, colorless, and odorless, but it had already evaporated into the air before being caught by the sword aura and then mixed into Ling Yun's blood. The chemical substance wasn't toxic, but it could coagulate blood cells, slowing blood flow and thus slowing Ling Yun's body down. The entire process was extremely slow, but like a chain reaction, especially in intense combat, even a slight slowdown would result in an attack several times stronger.
Fortunately, the replication ability can decompose this nameless chemical substance and record its data in a permanent storage area for future use, so Ling Yun doesn't need to worry about being poisoned by a slow-acting poison.
The battle between the two powerful superhumans had escalated to the upper middle part of the building's skeleton. The nearly 100-meter-tall unfinished building suffered an undeserved calamity. Every now and then, heavy reinforced concrete beams were struck by powerful silver or blade-like rays, exposing twisted steel sections that fell down and then split into countless pieces of varying sizes of rubble and concrete, crashing onto the next floor or, with a loud bang, flying over a distance of fifty meters and embedding themselves deeply into the soil.
The building's skeleton was no longer visible to the naked eye, shrouded in dark clouds. Smoke and dust filled the air, and the billowing dust was even shot hundreds of meters into the air by the force of the impact, like a volcanic eruption with thick smoke. The entire building was shaking violently, and countless broken bricks and concrete fragments were ejected in arcs. The 50-centimeter-thick, hard cement floor was continuously pierced by cannonballs. Small stones flew through the air like locust bullets, and the powerful sound of them tearing through the air was comparable to the strafing of machine guns from an armed helicopter.
Such a battle was beyond the control of Matsumoto Taro and Matsumoto Rie. The two ninjas, who were under mental control, were unaware of their situation, and Ling Yun had no time to give them any more orders. Therefore, the two ninjas could only pick up the limp Matsumoto Chizuru, use their mental energy field to heal her injuries, and retreat to a distance to watch the battle.
Rie Matsumoto made a simple hand gesture and then set up a simple isolation barrier, covering the abandoned building and the surrounding area. From a distance, all that could be seen was a desolate and quiet place, completely unlike the fierce fighting that was taking place inside the barrier. This was to avoid attracting Hong Kong's attention due to the commotion of the fight. If the police came here again, it would be difficult to explain what had happened.
Matsumoto Tomoki's sword light grew brighter and brighter, and the speed of his strikes increased. A layer of eerie green flames even burned on the sword light. When a drop of flame accidentally came into contact with Ling Yun's mental energy field barrier, it immediately produced a sound like burning pine resin. The mental energy field needed more energy to replenish itself in order to resist the erosion of the green flames.
Ling Yun was moving with all his might. His figure was sometimes near and sometimes far, like a shadow that moved and disappeared in an instant. If it weren't for the strong mental force field that was almost tangible, even ordinary ability users would not be able to track his trajectory with the naked eye. The reason was that Ling Yun was too fast, faster than anyone could imagine.
To avoid being constantly attacked by Matsumoto Tomoki's Wind Concealment Technique, his mental field has been transformed into a structure filled with thrusts and sharp blades. This way, even when Matsumoto Tomoki's samurai sword strikes, Ling Yun can respond to the opponent's attack in the same instant.
However, Matsumoto Tomoki's whereabouts remained unknown. The blade's movements were completely unpredictable, defying even basic motion. One moment it could thrust downwards from above Ling Yun's head, and the next it would suddenly emerge from the ground, slashing at Ling Yun's feet. The speed of this was so fast that Ling Yun almost had the illusion that it wasn't just one Matsumoto Tomoki attacking him, but several, dozens, or even hundreds of Matsumoto Tomokis, hidden in the void, grinning maliciously as they continuously swung their blades at him.
Attacks in the air are one thing, but the fact that blades could emerge from the ground and concrete pillars of buildings is baffling. Wind Concealment Technique only hides the body in the wind, not in the earth. Although Earth Escape Technique can achieve the same effect, given the frequency and speed of the attacks, even a general-level expert couldn't switch between Wind Concealment Technique and Earth Escape Technique perfectly at the right time.
Ling Yun kept his eyes open, with a faint golden light emanating from his pupils—a sign that the Eye of Illusion was about to evolve.
Because this was the first time Ling Yun had used the Eye of Illusion for such a long and intense period of time, even though it was ineffective, he still tried his best to probe everything around him. The overload of the Eye of Illusion had already strained his mental field, forcing Ling Yun to minimize the range of his defenses. As a result, Matsumoto Tomoki's blade light immediately slashed out one terrifying wound after another on his body and limbs. Some wounds had not yet healed before new ones immediately covered them. Every second, hundreds of blade lights suddenly lit up and fell, forming a sea of blades within a radius of several tens of square meters around Ling Yun.
Ling Yun seemed oblivious to the pain, relentlessly searching for Matsumoto Tomoki's trajectory. Since the copying ability couldn't keep up with such a rapid pace of attack, the best approach was to analyze the images transmitted back by the Eye of Illusion. His mind was like a super-fast camera, replaying the scene of the blade's thrust a million times slower.
In the ocean of consciousness, the origin of the blade's light always comes without warning, as if it were born on its own in the void. A point of silvery cold light slowly expands from a small dot, and then becomes a blazing sea of fire, like the fiery clouds under the setting sun. However, while the fiery clouds are red, the blade's light is bright white.
The copying ability can only analyze the attack and speed data of the blade's aura, but it is powerless to determine how the blade's aura originates. From the data, although such an attack and speed are terrifying, they are not enough to drive Ling Yun to the brink of despair. The only problem is how to see through Matsumoto Tomoki's movement trajectory so that he can choose to counter the omnipresent attack.