Yes, power—at this moment, these were the only two words that Ling Yun felt.
After calming down, Ling Yun was overjoyed as he watched the information modules being processed in an orderly yet rapidly repeating manner, much like an assembly line in an arsenal. This was indeed a completely new way of combining information, similar to the way information is combined in human genes. Although the methods were completely different, they still generated a cyclical pattern. Just watching it, Ling Yun felt his horizons broaden, and all sorts of imaginative and wonderful ideas flowed into his mind like a spring through his microscopic perception.
Ling Yun unceremoniously activated his copying ability, copying all the information one by one. Even a single energy flow information module was rich in a massive amount of energy information. If he were to read and think at the same time, Ling Yun might be immersed in the information flood for his entire life. As the saying goes, "A day in the mountains is like a thousand years in the world." Fortunately, he possessed the copying ability, so Ling Yun could temporarily copy all the information modules and organize them with his copying ability before conducting research and analysis at a later time.
Ling Yun suddenly gave a bitter smile. It was as if he were a treasure trove, constantly copying all the information of great value into his mind. If he could understand any part of it, he could grow his power to an unimaginable level. But since he gained his superpower, he has never had time to study these things. Or, when he finally wanted to study these stored information, he would find that he had unknowingly grown to the point where he no longer needed this information.
The scanning of the replication ability suddenly slowed down, as if some enormous single module required an extremely long scan, making the speed incredibly slow. Ling Yun was momentarily stunned, suddenly realizing something was wrong. He seemed to have made a basic mistake he shouldn't have made. Microscopic perception shouldn't be detected by the information energy flow, so Ling Yun had relaxed his vigilance. However, how could the full-force replication of the ability, producing such a loud noise, go undetected by the information energy flow? It's like an ant entering a house without being noticed, but if a person suddenly materializes on the ant and takes pictures and videos of the house, it will naturally be discovered.
Ling Yun suddenly raised his head and was immediately startled. Directly above him, through his microscopic perception, was a huge eyeball completely devoid of any color or emotion. The white pupil, devoid of any pupil, stared coldly at Ling Yun, clearly having discovered his thieving behavior.
The microscopic perception suddenly tightened, instantly forming all the analytical data from the copied ability into a data packet and transmitting it back. Then, it rapidly departed from the information deluge at rocket speed. This was already the limit of what Ling Yun could do. Now was not the time for regret, but to escape the encirclement of the information energy flow on the microscopic perception as quickly as possible. If things went wrong, even the incomplete information that had already been copied might be forcibly intercepted, and Ling Yun would end up losing more than he gained.
A vast, ocean-like spiritual power surged from behind his senses, crashing into the depths of Ling Yun's consciousness like a tsunami, traveling along the microscopic sensory transmission channel. The immense power at that moment even gave Ling Yun the sensation of being close to the sun.
The boy's face turned ashen in an instant, and his body collapsed limply like a withered leaf in the wind. The moment the torrent of energy struck his consciousness, Ling Yun realized something was wrong. He erected dozens of mental defenses, but they were all easily crushed by the mental torrent. As he fell, Ling Yun involuntarily spat out a mouthful of blood. Fortunately, he managed to clear his mind in time, minimizing the impact of the mental power. Otherwise, this single attack would have completely sealed Ling Yun's consciousness.
"Husband!" Xiaorou exclaimed, rushing forward to support Lingyun. Hua Rong was shocked. She didn't know the whole process of Lingyun using microscopic perception to probe the bronze statue, and mistakenly thought that Lingyun had been attacked by an unknown force. She was extremely anxious, and her psychic power surged into Lingyun's body like a tide. In her haste, the girl had already used the Holy Healing Technique. Countless ultra-miniature barriers were emitted from the silver mental field and entered Lingyun's body like countless joyful elves. However, after discovering that there were no injuries in Lingyun's body that could be repaired, they all silently returned to Xiaorou's hand.
Ling Yun slowly opened his eyes in his girlfriend's arms. The remote attack of the information energy flow had stopped. After Ling Yun's consciousness became clear, the mental attack immediately lost contact and could only retreat helplessly and unwillingly. Fortunately, Ling Yun's telekinetic control was now completely under his control, and he could enter the state of clarity at any time. Otherwise, the mental energy of the bronze statue would have messed up his consciousness.
The healing ability was rapidly healing the psychological trauma. At some point, the self-healing ability could heal the trauma of consciousness, instead of just physical injuries as before. It seemed that as Ling Yun grew, these innate abilities also underwent tremendous changes. As long as the injury was not fatal or particularly serious, the self-healing would take effect immediately. And as the self-healing ability improved, the energy required was significantly reduced.
"I'm alright, Xiaorou." Ling Yun gently comforted the girl whose face had also turned pale. It was clear that her panic was no less than his. When she saw the boy suddenly collapse for no reason, Xiaorou's heart, which had never felt fear before, was filled with immense fear. For some reason, she almost burst into tears again.
"You scared me to death." Xiao Rou bit her lip, looking at Ling Yun with a wronged expression, her eyes filled with worry and affection. Seeing her lover finally recover, her heart finally settled down. Otherwise, Xiao Rou would have been at a loss. Before she grew to this level, Xiao Rou seemed to be a strong person who could stand on her own, decisive and with her own opinions. But since she was with Ling Yun, as her strength increased, Xiao Rou's dependence on him has continued to grow. It seems that without Ling Yun, the girl has become worse than before, and she has become somewhat lost.
Ling Yun gently embraced his girlfriend's slender waist and lightly kissed her cheek. He felt both grateful and sweet, and a sense of gratitude suddenly welled up within him. He wondered if he had been blessed by the heavens, and why they had given him such a wonderful girlfriend. He gently wiped away the tears of worry that hadn't yet fallen from the girl's bright phoenix eyes and softly recounted what had just happened. He didn't need to hide anything from Xiao Rou, and sharing his innermost feelings made Ling Yun feel both sweet and comfortable.
Xiao Rou's expression gradually calmed down. Although she was initially slightly shocked by Ling Yun's microscopic perception, she quickly became relieved. She had seen many unusual things about her boyfriend before, so she was used to it. However, she was still quite surprised by the scene inside the bronze statue. She lowered her head and thought for a moment before asking, "Could it harbor any ill will towards us? If its power is really that strong, then we are no match for it now."
Ling Yun hesitated for a moment before saying, "It shouldn't be. I was the one who deliberately spied on its secrets, which is why it retaliated. If someone else were spying on us, I would retaliate without hesitation. However, I shouldn't have made such a basic mistake. Also, when I reverted to microscopic perception, I discovered that the information energy flow inside the statue could only be distributed inside the statue and couldn't come out for some reason. We don't need to worry about that."
Xiao Rou nodded; Ling Yun's words reassured her considerably. However, standing there blankly like this wasn't a solution. Just as she was about to ask what to do next, her expression suddenly changed.
Ling Yun's expression also changed. The two of them involuntarily turned their heads to look at the square behind them, where a group of black shadows were running towards them at an extremely fast speed.
Chapter 328 The Wolf-like Creature
"What is that?" Xiaorou exclaimed in surprise. She had just scanned the distant area with her senses but found nothing. How could a large group of dark figures suddenly appear out of thin air in the short time it took her to turn around? Judging from the speed at which the figures were approaching, Xiaorou could roughly tell with just a glance that their speed was close to 200 kilometers per hour. This was an unimaginable speed for ordinary people, but for people with superpowers, it was only considered low speed.
"I don't know. If they pose a threat to us, we'll eliminate them," Ling Yun said calmly, his voice devoid of any emotion.
His hand formed a strange gesture, the closing line of the Holy Healing spell. Ling Yun had discovered that if self-healing and the Holy Healing spell were used together, it could accelerate the healing of injuries. After the self-healing ability wore off, there would always be a significant burst of power enhancement. This had already been verified in the previous few near-fatal injuries. However, since then, Ling Yun had not suffered any fatal injuries. Moreover, as his power increased and he broke through bottlenecks, the realms he faced became higher and higher. The power burst after self-healing became less obvious, but one could still feel a rapid breakthrough process, as if he had been reborn and regained abundant physical strength.
Therefore, he was precisely controlling his self-healing, setting the time for the full recovery to end exactly when the shadow rushed in front of the two of them. This way, he could catch up with the moment of power burst. If the other party was hostile, then it would be just right to use it. If the other party was just expressing goodwill... Ling Yun had not thought about this possibility, or rather, in the test, such a thing was almost impossible.
Xiao Rou nodded. She and Ling Yun shared the same thought: they only needed to stand quietly and wait. Although the dark figures were still several kilometers away, their appearance was already clearly reflected in the eyes of the two ability users. Ling Yun could see them clearly even without activating the panoramic view. They were a group of four-legged animals resembling wolves, but each one looked much larger than an ordinary wolfhound, like a herd of black, charging wild bulls.
The wolf-like creature had a ferocious and menacing appearance. Its gaping maw revealed sharp, snow-white teeth, and its bright red tongue constantly flicked between its lips and teeth, dripping a highly acidic liquid from its tip. The liquid fell onto the blue stone bricks, instantly producing a teeth-grinding hissing sound, and a shallow dent immediately appeared in the bricks. Clearly, the wolf-like creature's saliva was extremely corrosive.
Their powerful limbs barely touched the ground as they stomped across the pale blue earth, each step covering a distance of several meters. Ling Yun could even clearly see the sharp claws protruding from their furry limbs, like those of felines, the claws retracting from the gaps in their paw pads, ready to extend automatically at any moment to deliver a fatal attack. Notably, the glossy black claws gleamed with a faint greenish light, indicating potent venom. Judging from the distribution of the venom, it was impossible for someone to painstakingly coat each wolf's claws one by one; clearly, this was the venom naturally present in the wolves. In terms of both strength and speed, the true fighting power of these wolves far surpassed that of a lion.
Each of the hungry wolf creatures had icy yellowish-brown eyes, and one could even see an extremely cruel and bloodthirsty ferocity in their gaze. Clearly, Ling Yun's guess was correct; these beasts were unlikely to express friendly friendship, but would only open their ferocious mouths and tear everything in their sight to shreds.
However, Ling Yun and Xiao Rou both had calm expressions. If it were just about physical attacks like strength and speed, these beasts wouldn't even be as good as the lowest-level berserkers. And even if all the low-level berserkers were combined, Ling Yun and Xiao Rou's current strength would be enough to kill them instantly.
Clearly, this pack of hyenas was merely a dessert served up by the third hall to warm them up, not even a basic warm-up. Ling Yun and Xiao Rou knew very well that behind the wolf creatures, there was definitely another wave of attacks from even more powerful creatures. Only after all the characters had taken the stage could the final boss appear.
However, before the main characters make their appearance, it is still necessary to get rid of these uninvited guests. Ling Yun is not yet clear about what the test in the third hall is, but judging from the current situation, attack is definitely one of the test contents. Although there is no time limit on the square, resolving it as soon as possible is also one of the ways to pass the test. Otherwise, the longer the time drags on, the more disadvantageous it will be for Ling Yun and Xiao Rou.
With a series of thuds, the heart-pounding sound of galloping horses grew louder as they approached. In the blink of an eye, the wolf-like creatures were already in front of Ling Yun and Xiao Rou. The lead wolf-like creature used its two strong hind legs to spring off the bluestone, and suddenly leaped in front of Xiao Rou like a flea, opening its bloody maw and biting fiercely at the girl's throat.
Its entire movement ended there. The previously incredibly fierce momentum was like a head-on collision with an iron wall, producing an extremely chilling bang. This was followed by a series of terrifying cracking sounds, the sounds of the wolf's bones shattering under the immense external force. Its bloody maw was completely deformed, its two rows of sharp teeth clamped together, even piercing through its upper and lower jaws, biting off its barbed tongue at the root. One of its eyes was blinded, and the shattered skull fragments formed countless sharp spikes that pierced deep into its brain, killing the wolf almost instantly.
The wolf crashed into Xiao Rou's mental energy field at incredible speed, akin to a heavy hammer slamming into its head. In reality, even a solid wall of copper and iron might not be able to withstand the wolf's powerful impact. With its super speed and steel-like body, the wolf's impact force was hundreds of kilograms, but it was still incredibly fragile in the face of Xiao Rou's powerful mental energy field.
Xiao Rou suddenly stretched out her slender hand and gently patted the head of another wolf that pounced swiftly. Her movement was not fast; even an ordinary person could see it clearly. The wolf had already become a bluish afterimage, but for some reason, her palm struck the wolf's head precisely at the right moment.
With a whoosh, the wolf-like creature instantly lost all its kinetic energy and speed, plummeting from the sky as if it had braked suddenly. Its thick body had turned into a pile of minced meat. The high-frequency psychic vibrations not only shattered all its internal organs, but also pulverized its flesh and tendons into a mass of minced meat from the inside out.
Xiao Rou's hands appear snow-white and delicate, as if they could be broken with a touch, but in reality, their strength far exceeds that of the hardest substance in the world. Unless the force of the attack exceeds the limits of her body's strength, the girl is immune to all physical attacks.
The two alpha wolves died almost instantly at Xiaorou's hands, their deaths gruesome. The wolves that followed immediately changed their ferocity to fear in their brown eyes. They hadn't expected these two seemingly easy-to-deal-with strange creatures to be so powerful. Although they lacked the intelligence to think, the wolves' instinct for fear still kicked in. The wolves that had already charged ahead didn't want to die, so they desperately tried to stop their charge and turn to escape. However, the enormous momentum still caused them to rush right in front of Xiaorou, exhausting all their kinetic energy.
With a flash of silver light, a light blade nearly two meters long appeared in Xiaorou's hand. The girl raised her arm and waved it lightly, and the heads of several ferocious wolf creatures that rushed close flew into the air, scalding blood splattering everywhere and stirring up a cloud of bloody mist. Seeing that more ferocious wolf creatures were rushing towards her, Xiaorou frowned slightly. She suddenly took a step back and threw the sword-shaped light blade far away.
The moment the light blade left the hand, it suddenly shattered into countless light spots, each only the size of a fist. If you looked closely, you could clearly see that each light spot was actually a high-speed rotating disc, with the edges of the discs shimmering with a chilling light. Clearly, under high-speed rotation, the disc-shaped light blades possessed extremely large group damage capabilities.
A series of sharp, grating sounds, like teeth grinding as blades pierced flesh, rang out as the wolf-like creatures fell one after another. Each disc-shaped blade of light precisely pierced their heads or necks, destroying their brains or central nervous systems before spinning and slicing through their flesh, emerging from another direction. Then it would spiral again, slicing open the vital points of another wolf-like creature.
Under Xiaorou's control, the disc-shaped light blade seemed to possess its own consciousness, able to change its course at will. Each change in course meant the death of a wolf-like creature. In just a moment, more than a hundred wolf-like creatures lay dead on the ground. Some didn't even reach within fifty meters of Xiaorou before becoming souls lost to the light blade.
However, the wolf creatures weren't like berserkers who foolishly charged forward knowing they were going to die. After seeing the strength of their opponent, several rather cunning wolf creatures changed their targets and pounced on Ling Yun, who had been standing still to the side. This guy seemed quite calm, but hadn't shown any movement yet. Maybe he was easy to deal with? The remaining wolf creatures thought to themselves.
But soon, the wolf-like creature realized it had made an even more terrible mistake. Ling Yun gently reached out and grabbed the sharp claws of a wolf that had just pounced on him. The wolf struggled violently, its incredibly sharp and venomous claws digging into Ling Yun's skin with all its might. Even a piece of fine steel would be deeply scratched by its claws, but Ling Yun seemed completely oblivious to the wolf's claws. With a slight twist of his hand, the wolf immediately howled in pain as half of its forelimb was snapped off by Ling Yun.
Before the scalding blood could even splatter, it was forcibly drawn from the severed limb by a ball of silver light, forming a steaming mass of liquid blood in mid-air. However, after the silver light flashed a few times, the bright red blood instantly turned into an inky black liquid, which then splattered outwards in tiny specks.
The screams of the wolves rose and fell, the black blood possessing unimaginable corrosiveness and toxicity. Even a single drop, the size of a ballpoint pen tip, could corrode a large hole in a wolf's body in a very short time, easily piercing through its thick frame. Due to the close proximity and their enormous size, almost all the remaining wolves were sprayed with the black venom, and one black, rotting wound after another appeared on their massive bodies. The excruciating pain from the corroding flesh drove the wolves to near madness, even causing them to tear each other apart in a brutal manner. However, they soon collapsed to the ground as their life force waned, awaiting their final moment of death.
Their powerful vitality has become a source of suffering for them. Some of the wolf creatures have even been corroded into two pieces, with only a few thin muscle fibers connecting their broken bodies. Yet they still stubbornly live on, but the light of life in their yellowish-brown eyes is growing weaker and weaker, showing signs of decay and death.
Ling Yun flicked his fingers. He didn't like using this highly corrosive venom from the fifth-stage simulated nameless creature. Although, thanks to his replication ability, Ling Yun had a thorough understanding of the venom's composition and could switch between his own or others' blood and the venom at any time, the venom's destructive power was too great, and it was also highly contagious. If it weren't for the large number of wolf creatures, Ling Yun wouldn't have thought of using such a vicious attack method. Just like sulfuric acid, although it has strong offensive properties, few people would want to carry sulfuric acid around all the time.
Xiao Rou glanced at the strange state of the wolf-like creature's corpse. She wasn't disgusted by the horrific consequences of the venom. The girl had experienced far more cruelty than Ling Yun. Their experiences were different, so their fighting styles were also different. What Ling Yun considered cruel was just normal to Xiao Rou. If possible, Xiao Rou would never mind using such cruel attacks on her enemies. Years of life on the run had instilled in Xiao Rou a firm belief: mercy to the enemy is cruelty to oneself.
As the black venom gradually corroded all the wolf creatures' corpses into a disgusting pool of pus, Xiao Rou turned to look at the bronze statue. She felt as if the statue's eyes were constantly watching her, which gave her the illusion that the hundreds-of-meters-tall, tens-of-thousands-ton statue might jump off its pedestal at any moment and become a terrifying presence.